Nordic Blood: Climbing And Lifting / Lifting And Climbing

Training Logs
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623

Good, I’m glad to hear that. Finding the right people really changes everything.

Interesting news! If I may, Precision Nutrition puts out several articles dedicated at coaches and trainers with an emphasis towards doing those things sustainably, as a business. You might want to check that out, at least the free content.

Why 2023? To put some money aside first? Again, if I may, I’d like to offer up the suggestion that achieving profitability sometimes takes time and figuring out a new business certainly takes time. If you can progress in this regard in anyway during the interim then do that. Maybe your station could pay you to write meal plans or something. Anything you can monetize on today, and any connections you can do today, will have time to grow into more by 2023. The money you make can either be invested into something like an ETF or reinvested directly into your business.

624

I’m not looking to start my own business. I live in a place that doesn’t seem to care about health much so the personal training approach is tough. It’s a small, saturated market.

I’m thinking more along the lines of getting into a management position at the YMCA. Our Ys are multi million dollar facilities. They’re awesome and offer a lot of services to the community. I’m still in the research phase. They have several “Director” positions at each facility - Personal Training, Wellness, Group Exercise, etc. The big one is Branch Director. That’s the top spot.

I’m currently not qualified for the top spot but I think I’m capable of being the Personal Training Director. I’ve read the resumes of the current Directors and none of them have more education than me. It appears that they like to promote from within, too.

I’m not sure how much money the PT Directors make. I think it starts around $35k. That’s the big part for me - I need to figure out if it’s financially possible for me to make the switch.

The Y’s website doesn’t list the salaries and benefits with their job openings, but I found a job search website that says the Branch Director spot can make $60-110k. I’m making about $50k now so that’s the salary range I’ll need to find if I switch.

The biggest thing about 2023 is that I’ll be able to retire with 10 years at my job which will get me a 25% retirement. I won’t get any money until I’m 55 but it’d be about $15k a year. I’ll take every bit I can get for that time of my life. If I leave now then I get nothing.

There’s also a chance that I find a new spot within the Department that I actually enjoy. If that’s the case then I’ll stay longer.

I’m waiting to meet with the Branch Director at my gym. I’m hoping to figure out the pay and benefits to see what’s an option for me. I also want to learn how to make myself a top candidate for them between now and 2023.

625

I see, best of luck with it all. I guess, since this is 21 days later, that maybe you’ve met with the branch director?

626

May 22, 2019

Still on point with my training, getting to the point where I’ve started looking at other programs as I’m craving some variety even though there is a tremendous amount of autonomy to be had within the scope of 5’s PRO + FSL I just tend to miss whatever it is that I’m not doing at the moment. So right now, bodybuilding style training is something that I miss. I try to offset this by doing higher rep ranges for my assistance work.

However, my performance is consistently and measurably improving and I don’t seem to end up crashing every few weeks. So, rather I think I’ll just tweak what I’m doing until it works a bit better. First I’ll look at exchanging the supplemental lift with another variation. So, for an example, rather than do 8 sets of back squats I’ll do three sets of back squats, followed by 5 sets of front squats (I did this during my last squat workout and I enjoyed it plenty).

I’m in my third cycle and it looks like this,

“Week” 1
SQ: 72.5,82.5,92.5
DL: 82.5,95,107.5
OHP: 30,35,40
BP: 42.5,47.5,55
“Week” 2
SQ: 77.5,87.5,97.5
DL: 87.5,100,112.5
OHP: 32.5,37.5,42.5
BP: 45,50,57.5
“Week” 3
SQ: 82.5,92.5,105
DL: 95,107.5,120
OHP: 35,40,45
BP: 47.5,55,60

and I’m back at hitting the gym 4 days a week. Had a minor hand injury that kept me from climbing for 3 weeks, I’m back in the climbing hall now but still haven’t healed fully so I’m trying to play it safe.

The creatinine came back in an okay range this time so I’m allowed to go back on creatine. Started TRT, but am allergic to the gel. Trying to get a hold of my doctor to get on shots instead, but you are not allowed to self-administer in Sweden so I reckon they’ll push for Nebido which I’m not too keen on since you get locked in to those hormonal levels for such a long duration. I’ll push back for weekly shots.

What else is new? Starting a new job in August. Since I update this log so infrequently now I don’t know if I mentioned that and I can’t be bothered to read up on my own log to be honest.

Here’s a question, why does eating trigger hunger? Why can you skip breakfast just fine, but after having had it then lunch will inevitably be on your mind shortly thereafter?

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627

My guess is that your digestive system kind of shuts down overnight. Once your wake it up, it’s running at full speed. It also probably breaks down breakfast very quickly since the stomach is empty when you eat.

Oh, and I haven’t officially met with the Branch Director. I see him every week. He told me the Fitness Director is who has the answers to my questions. I just haven’t bugged him yet.

628

Nice, can you elaborate on that?

629

I’m thinking about it more from a hormonal standpoint. Like, what drives up the hunger regulating hormones after a meal?

630

Sure, there is a part of the local university here called HUMlab that describes itself as follows,

Humlab is a unit and a research infrastructure at the Faculty of Arts. Our mission is to initiate, inspire and develop the interaction between traditional humanities, culture and information technology in research, postgraduate education and teaching.

This is a place that I’ve had lofty dreams of working at, but never considered it a possibility since I never finished my degree. However, a friend of mine saw that they had a job posting out and he was kind enough to let me know even though he applied for the same job. A couple of interviews later, we both got the job! Really looking forward to it.

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631

That’s really cool, I’m happy for you man!

It’s also nice to see both of you got the job, seems kind of unlikely

632

We are both awesome!

1 Like
633

Got a different gel, no allergies there. Weekly shots is not available in Sweden, it’s either Nebido or gel. Not sure what I want to do next, to be frank. Be the patient that changes the system?

634

If you’re not happy with the treatment as it is, why not? You could be the spokesman for a lot of guys with these issues

635

First I need to find a doctor that knows where to even start such a process

636

I’ve been musing about sustainability recently, as I’ve been watching too many — or just enough — documentaries lately. One thing I see, time and time again, is the need for variety to have balance and if you do not have variety you might be able to strive for a goal short-term but usually see long-term consequences. So, for instance, in agriculture you’d be able to grow a few crop cycles at a higher yield but eventually ruin the soil unless you rotate crops intelligently. You can optimize for dairy production, at the detriment of other qualities. Or you can establish a symbiotic system that feeds into itself.

And you see this in training to, I think. In more aspects than one. You need training stress. You need recovery. Both equate to growth. You need strength, and you need mobility. With just one, and not the other, you are placing your body at increased risk for injury. And then there is conditioning.

And I’ve noticed that you see this in many different approaches that the coaches on T-nation share.

It’s prevalent in training methodologies (push/pull/legs) which is kind of on the micro-level. And again at a macro level.

Take Wendler for instance, if you follow his writing you’d work towards all of these facets at any point but you have leaders and anchors as a means to systemise pushing different qualities. You have Carter, who believes that powerlifters should occasionally train like bodybuilder (and I’d suppose vice versa). You see balance across seasons in one of Thib’s writings elsewhere.

It would be interesting to take this idea to the extreme, where training and diet simultaneously is very varied and see how that works.

Like, overlaying Primer 5/2 (varied macros and fasting which I’ve linked in an earlier post Nordic Blood: Climbing And Lifting / Lifting And Climbing - #462 by Voxel) with a nuanced training program that combines every conceivably quality from heavy lifting to steady-state work. Maybe something like what is posted at the end here: Destroying Fat

Day 1: Heavy lifting chest/back + alactic work
Day 2: Lactate-inducing workout 1 + 20-30 minutes of steady-state aerobic work
Day 3: OFF
Day 4: Heavy lifting quads/hams
Day 5: OFF
Day 6: Lactate-inducing workout 2 + 20-30 minutes of steady-state aerobic work
Day 7: OFF

but the two don’t overlay perfectly. And for me, well, I have climbing too. So it’s not something for me. Right now. But it’s fun to philosophise.

637

June 3, 2019

Squat workout today. Start of my 4th 531 cycle.

Here are my numbers (mostly a back-up for myself),

Training maxes:
SQ: 112.63277109999999
DL: 129.1941711
OHP: 47.597085549999996
BP: 64.59708555

Estimated 1RMs:
SQ: 132.50914247058822
DL: 151.99314247058825
OHP: 55.99657123529411
BP: 75.99657123529413

“Week” 1
SQ: 75,85,97.5
DL: 85,97.5,110
OHP: 32.5,37.5,42.5
BP: 42.5,50,55
“Week” 2
SQ: 80,92.5,102.5
DL: 92.5,105,117.5
OHP: 35,40,45
BP: 47.5,52.5,60
“Week” 3
SQ: 85,97.5,107.5
DL: 97.5,110,125
OHP: 37.5,42.5,47.5
BP: 50,55,62.5

I used to run 5’s PRO and FSL with the main lift of the day. I’ve changed that now, instead I do 5’s PRO still but I pair squat with deadlift supplemental (and vice versa) and similarly for bench/press.

I’ve opted for the snatch grip deadlift as my deadlift supplemental and front squat as my squat supplemental.

For the snatch grip I calculated my weight as 90% of my first set of squats and then I did that for three sets of eight. Next week, I’ll keep the weight from this week but do 10 reps, and then 12 on the final week.

Did pull ups between my squat sets, 5kg, 8 reps. Again, will progress 8/10/12 and then add weight next cycle.

Finally, for today, I did some horizontal rows in a machine for sets of 12 and 50% of my TM for 20 reps on the back squat for conditioning. I did pulldown abs as part of my warm-up.

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638

After this cycle I’ll retest my maxes with a belt on deads and squats. I think my lower back will be quite happy about the change up.

639

June 12, 2019

Missed reps on my final set of overhead presses today.

Why?

  1. My sleep has not been on point for weeks
  2. I’ve been doing additional handstand work
  3. I didn’t include any intra-workout nutrition yesterday when climbing
  4. My weight has been fluctuating up and down, but not really a positive weight trend
  5. Weights were just heavy today

Not too worried about it to be honest. I believe it’s primarily reason number two that is the culprit but my shoulder hasn’t been agonizing me too much.

I believe that most of my maxes, when I went for them before starting 5/3/1 were on the low-end, and as I’ve said before, next deload week (not next week but the week thereafter) I’m going to retest my maxes to figure out what they are when using a belt on deadlift and squat.

I don’t think I’ll do anything with regards to my bench weight, it’s progressing even though it might be on the low end. My OHP weight should maybe be downregulated a smidge and then I could do every rep from a dead start.

640

Status update:
TRT is weird. Hormonal roller-coasters, yay. Been hitting the gym consistently since I last wrote, with occasional bouts of being ill. Usually, just a throat thing.

Overdid squats for a while, so I aggravated my hip-flexor again. I seem to be able to back squat twice a week without this becoming an issue. Should probably err on the side of caution here and just do it once.

Recently, I’ve been doing full-body workouts 3x a week while continuing to climb three times a week but I’ve been exploring them and working around issues so they haven’t been to systematic. I’ve given myself some rep-ranges to guide my weight increments on a few recurring exercises and I’ve kind of enjoyed this approach.

Today’s workout was,
A1. Leg Press 3x15: machine + 190kg 17,16,15, about 1 minute rest
A2. Dips 3x AMRAP
B1. Wide-grip BP 3x8-10 (@50 was my previous best for 10 reps): got 3x10@52.5
B2. Chin-up 3xAMRAP
B3. Cable pull-through 3x6-8, 8@28, 8@35, 8@45. The machine doesn’t go higher
C1. Behind-the-neck OHP 3x8-10@30:?, 8, 8
C2. Barbell curl 3x10@30
C3. Bent-knee situp: 3xAMRAP
C4. Hip-thrust 3x6-8:?@80,10@80, 8@100

I’m soon going abroad for a few days, for vacation. When I get back, it is my intention to continue with three workouts a week, an A workout and a B workout, which is inspired by the beginner prep-school from 5/3/1 Forever, but I don’t use 5/3/1-percentages or supplemental work but I’m keeping with different set/rep-ranges to hit before incrementing my weights.

The A-workout:
Warm-up: good mornings / glute activation / explosive movements (jumps, snatch)
A. Deadlift 4-5x6-8 reps, handstands between sets
B1. Deadlift supplemental (possibly another variation like snatch-grip or deficit) 3-4x9-12 reps
B2. Overhead press 3x8-10 reps
Assistance

The B-workout
Warm-up: ab-wheel roll-outs / hanging leg raises / glute activation / explosive movements (jumps, clean)
A. Squat 4-5x6-8 reps, push-ups and band pull-aparts between sets [0]
B1. Squat supplemental 3-4x9-12 reps [1]
B2. Bench press 3x8-10 reps
Assistance

Assistance is 5 rounds of,
KB swing 10-15
Dips 8-10 reps (A)/Push-up 10-15 reps (B)
Horizontal row (inverted, chest-supported, …) 10-15
Ab-wheel roll-out 10 / Hanging Leg Raises AMRAP

[0]: To reduce the risk of aggravating my hip flexor again I’m considering alternating back squat and front squat between sessions.
[1]: Maybe Zercher. Front squat is a bad fit as I’m unable to keep my elbows up for that many reps. Or, Zercher for one of the sessions and lunges for the other. I should lunge more, as I hate it.

Originally, I had another idea which was posted here: Natty on Pennies - #1831 by Voxel but that has since transmorphed into the above. Again, as that posts mentions, with all the climbing I need very little direct vertical pulling and biceps work.

641

@isdatnutty 's program A Simple Program gave me the idea that I might run pause squats as assistance on one of my squat days. So, something like

Squat workout 1:
Main lift: Back squat
Supplemental: Pause Squat

Squat workout 2:
Main lift: Front squat
Supplemental: Zercher Squat

Designing programs is fun.

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642

Looks good man! If I were you I would rather do this :smile:

Squat Workout 1:
Main Lift: Back Squat
Supplemental: Pause Squat

Squat Workout 2:
Main Lift: Front Squat
Supplemental: 20 Rep Front Squats