Mattjp's Training Log

Training Logs
1

History [updated 29/06/20]

  • Ran 5/3/1 for Beginners and lost a bit of weight. Then ran Full Body, Full Boring and put it back on.
  • Did a few more basic 5/3/1 templates and dropped from ~220lbs to 205ish.
  • Ran a Brian Alsruhe Powerbuilder and put on some weight. Conditioning improved.
  • Trained for and competed in a strongman show. Got stronger, but went up to 240lbs.
  • Began a “get rugby ready” program in January 2020. Then all the rugby got cancelled because of Coronavirus.
  • Completed Dan John’s 10,000 kettlebell swings challenge.
  • Lockdown gave me no choice but to start doing more cardio. Ran Tactical Barbell Base Building, got some (still slow) 5K PBs and some distance PBs including a first 10K.
  • Lost about 18lbs (8kg) during lockdown.
  • Old shoulder injury came back to haunt me and I tore up some ligaments a few weeks before gyms reopened. Writing this update as I’m about to head to the gym for the first time in months and see how much weaker I’ve gotten…

Start-of-Log PRs
3x50kg (110lb) OHP
1x70kg (154lb) bench
2x90kg (198lb) squat
1x130kg (286lb) deadlift

Current PRs (February 2020):
1x65kg (143lb) OHP
1x85kg (187lb) bench
1x160kg (353lb) squat
1x202.5kg (446lb) deadlift

Original post

In 686 days I will be 30. At this point I would not like to be my current fat, weak and small self. The goal, therefore, is to be Batman By 30.

The main differences between myself and Batman

  1. My parents are both alive and well
  2. My super-intelligence pretty debatable
  3. My net worth is approx. 0.000004% that of Bruce Wayne
  4. My body fat is approx. 15 percentage points higher
  5. My combat abilities are non-existent
  6. My strength and conditioning levels also may as well be non-existent

I could change #1, but I’m not particularly willing to do so (even if it would help ever-so-slightly with #3). I think I smoked too much weed in my early twenties for #2, but I can at least work on points #4 through #6.

About me

Height: 6’3"/190cm
Weight: 214lbs/97kg
BF: 23-27% (looking to halve that)
Est. Powerlifting Total: 285kg/630lbs (looking to 2.5x that)

At the age of 28, with approx 25% bodyfat and an inability to run 5k I am in the best shape of my life.

I’ve never been anything close to fit. I didn’t really play sports as a kid and none of my friends did either. Well, one or two of them played cricket but that hardly counts.

The first time I picked up a barbell was 2014, when I did Stronglifts 5x5 for a few months before moving on to Ice Cream Fitness. I didn’t make much progress and gave up the whole endeavour for a while when things didn’t change overnight.

In late 2015 I started again, getting on a PPL routine with no conditioning work and a lot of fuckarounditis. I managed to put on some modicum of lean mass (not that you’d know if you’d not met me before; if you had met me before you’d probably know I’d looked a dumbbell once or twice) but remained fat and weak.

In September I moved to a new place (and country, actually) and for the past six weeks have been doing a conditioning-focused routine of lifting heavy things in supersets and sometimes running up a hill. Actually you know what, maybe I could run a 5k now…

My workout schedule

I’m running a Full Body 5/3/1 as follows:

Monday
Squats 5/3/1 + 3x5 FSL
Superset w/planks and rows
Bench 3x5
Superset w/chins and curls

Tuesday
Some form of hard conditioning work

Wednesday
Deadlift 5/3/1 w/3x5 FSL
Superset w/planks and curls
Press 5/3/1 w/FSL widowmaker
Superset w/chins and cable crunches

Thursday
Some form of hard conditioning

Friday
Bench 5/3/1 w/3x5 FSL
Superset w/chins and hyperextensions
Squat 3x5
Superset w/planks and rows

Saturday
30-45m easy cardio

Diet

Lots of meat, lots of whey, lots of vegetables, relatively few carbs, lots of water. I’m British, so probably lots of beer too on occasion but we’ll try to keep that to a minimum.

Future plans

I’m very keen to get into boxing or some other form of combat. A friend of mine has been doing boxing and BJJ for a while now and very much sold it to me.

My goal is general GPP, with the Batman thing being kind of tongue-in-cheek, but adding some solid sparring skills to a strength and conditioning base certainly won’t hurt. Plus, as mentioned, I’ve just moved to a new country so some kind of social outlet would be nice!

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Let the accountability begin!

Monday, 9 October

Warmup
Agile 8 (more like Flexible 5 as I forgot my foam roller and lacrosse ball)
3 rounds superset 8x 16kg kettlebell swings / 8x squat jumps

Squat/Plank/DB Row
Squat: 5x65kg
Plank: 45s
Row: 15x20kg

Squat: 5x67.5kg
Plank: 45s
Row: 12x20kg

Squat: 7x72.5kg
Plank: 45s
Row: 12x20kg

Three sets of:
Squat: 5x65kg
Plank: 45s
Row: 12x20kg

Bench/Chins/Curl
Three rounds of:
Bench: 5x50kg
Lat Pulldown: 15x50kg (chin bar was upstairs and I got lazy)
Curl: 10x15kg

Misc
Did some exercises for my left glute, which is not activating properly and caused me some knee pain earlier this year. Stretched off and went home, total gym time ~90m.

Woke up at 214.3lbs/97.2kg, about 7lbs more than my last weigh-in on Wednesday, which is not surprising as I spent Thursday through Sunday in London eating out and boozing every night.

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Tuesday, 10 October

Woke up feeling oddly sore from yesterday’s squats, which is weird because weight and volume is actually cut back from last week. Doing them after the swings and jumps may be the culprit.

This, coupled with the weather, meant that I decided to forgo the hill sprints and instead went to the gym to jump on the treadmill for about half an hour. Nothing too exciting!

Woke up at 211.2lbs/95.7kg. Expect to drop fairly significant water weight this week.

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Wednesday, 11 October

Woke up at 212.4, I imagine largely because I had some popcorn last night. I was shattered when my alarm went off at 6am but had a pretty good session. I may start adding carbs to my evening meals as standard; the few times I’ve done so the weights have flown up the next morning. Pretty sure Lyle McDonald or one of the many other people smarter and stronger than me does that sort of CKD.

Warmup
Agile 8 (whole thing this time)
Superset squat jumps & 16kg kettlebell swings

Deadlift/Plank/Curl
Deadlift: 5x85kg
Plank: 45s
Curl: 20x15kg

Deadlift: 5x90kg
Plank: 45s
Curl: 20x15kg

Deadlift: 7x100kg (grip went first here; GGG [Gains Goblin Girlfriend] had hidden my chalk somewhere)
Plank: 45s
Curl: 20x15kg

Three rounds of:
Deadlift: 5x85kg
Plank: 45s
Curl: 20x15kg

Press/Lat Pulldown/Situp
First time ever doing barbell OHP seated (I’m 6’3" and my gym’s ceilings are too low to do it standing). Situps done on some kind of Roman Chair-esque contraption

Press: 5x32.5kg
LPD: 25x40kg
Situps: 15xBW

Press: 5x35kg
LPD: 25x40kg
Situps: 15xBW

Press: 9x37.5kg
LPD: 25x40kg
Situps: 15xBW

Press: 11x32.5kg
LPD: 25x40kg
Situps: 15xBW

Misc
Glute stuff again, though it’s definitely improving as I could actually feel it contributing to today’s deads. I forwent the stretching today because I am lazy and terrible and was running a bit late. Total gym time ~95m.

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Thursday, 12 October

Woke up (late) at 211.0. That meant I had to rush today’s workout, which was a simple one I could do without leaving the house:

Warmup
Agile 8

Conditioning
Burpee-into-pullup triples, EMOM for 10 mins

Nothing makes 10 minutes fly by faster than EMOM work.

Shoulder hurts a fair bit today. I dislocated it in a motorbike crash in 2009 and subluxated it dozens of times since. I’m pretty sure it’s just a big mess of scar tissue up in that bitch, and I’ve not been doing facepulls/pullaparts for a couple of weeks so I should throw those in with my warmup between Agile 8 work and/or the jumps/swings.

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Friday, 13 October

Woke up at 209.2. Last night I saw Blade Runner 2049 and smashed a 150g/950cal bag of sweet chilli peanuts. It baffles me when people claim they can’t eat enough to gain weight. Of course, I’m trying to lose it*, but…

Warmup
Agile 8
Squat jumps/kettlebell swing superset

Squat/Plank/Row
Three rounds of:
Squat 65kgx5
Plank 45s
DB row 20kgx15

Bench/Lat Pulldown/Hyper
Bench 50kgx5
LPD 45kgx15
Hyper BWx20

Bench 52.5kgx5
LPD 45kgx15
Hyper BWx20

Bench 55kgx8
LPD 45kgx15
Hyper BWx20

Three rounds of:
Bench 50kgx5
LPD 45kgx15
Hyper BWx20

Misc
Glute stuff, bit of stretching. Should probably stretch more since I can’t touch my toes or anything but it’s just not as fun.

NB: bench is my most flummoxingly inconsistent lift. The 50x5 felt tough and the 55x8 felt easy. A few weeks ago I did 60x8 and then the next week barely got 65x2. I assume my setup is sometimes good and sometimes poor so I should work on that.

*Still only a 2600cal day so I’ll live with myself.

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This, so much this.

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Great Introduction :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

I will follow your log.

cheers,

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@ARTMYD thanks!

@BOTSLAYER I suppose skellies would say that they can’t understand how people can’t just eat less, but we’re clearly on the right side of history here. Actually I’d ideally like to be heavier than I am now but just, y’know, composed differently.

Saturday, October 14

Woke up totally knackered at 209.0. Today’s cardio was a quick jog to the shop and then a walk back carrying like 6lbs of meat. Jamie Lewis would probably write some psuedo-scientific stuff about how carrying meat increases testosterone or some shit.

I’ll swing by the gym tomorrow to do some LISS but today I shall be super lazy, except for some stretching and whatnot.

5/3/1 for a Beginner: Week 1
I found this really fun, simple and just the right amount of challenging. Anyone who thinks 5/3/1 isn’t enough volume isn’t doing it properly; actually everyone skips the jumps/throws and conditioning. I didn’t exactly go hard on the conditioning work this week myself, admittedly.

Going forward I really must not use time as an excuse to not do the boring stuff like stretching and my glute work.

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Monday, October 16

Woke up at an unknown weight, but I was out for dinner last night and had a calzone, two beers and a packet of McCoys so I would imagine that it’s heavier than yesterday. Yay sodium. I try to give myself just one window a week to be a greedy fat bastard, and that day was yesterday.

Warmup
Flexible Five (I don’t think foam rolling/lacrosse balling really does anything for me so I’m skipping them)
Three rounds of: superset 16kg kettlebell swings/squat jumps

Squat/Plank/Row
Squat: 3x67.5kg
Plank: 50s
Row: 15x20kg

Squat: 3x72.5kg
Plank: 50s
Row: 15x20kg

Squat: 5x77.5kg
Plank: 50s
Row: 15x20kg
Little disappointed in this one as I could have definitely got one more, perhaps even two, but I psyched myself out.

Three rounds of:
Squat: 3x67.5kg
Plank: 50s
Row: 15x20kg

Bench/Lat Pulldown/Curls
Three rounds of:
Bench: 5x52.5kg
Lat Pulldown: 15x50kg
Curls: 10x20kg

Misc
Glute circuit again, then off home. Annoyingly I got a taxi into work today. I have a pedometer on my phone and I tend to average around 11-13k steps a day between the gym and my 30m walk each way to work. However, we have hurricane warnings and shit so I thought “I won’t walk to work along the seafront” but as it turns out it would have been fine. Turns out, however, it might be kinda shit this evening which may mean another taxi and ~8k fewer steps than usual today. I’ll be making my coffees at the far side of the office in a weak bid to make up for this.

EDIT: tried to walk home but it was impossible and verging on dangerous. Still managed 8.5k steps today somehow.

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Tuesday, 17 October

Woke up at 210.0 having survived the remnants of the hurricane. I did see that a branch had fallen off a tree on my way to the gym. The devastation knows no bounds.

Warmup
Flexible Five
Quick jog to the gym

Conditioning
3x power bag clean and presses EMOM

This wound up being kind of (in retrospect, unsurprisingly) easy so I upped it to 5x halfway through. The heaviest bag was 30kg. Having never cleaned even a barbell I had no idea about what I’d find heavy and hoped the awkwardness of the bag would make up for the lighter weight. It did not.

I liked doing this one, though (throwing odd stuff around is fun) so next time I’ll either double it with something like burpees or bring in a couple of belts and strap a pair of bags together.

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Wednesday, 18 October

Woke up at 210.2, which considering I had ~3,100cal yesterday rather than the usual ~2,500 isn’t bad going. I have a flight to our Ireland office this morning, so today was a real “I’m Not Doing Jack Shit” day - just as well, since my head wasn’t really in the game.

Warmup
Flexible Five
Just standard warmup reps - the area in which I do jumps/swings was rammed anyway.

Deadlift/Leg Raise/Curl
NB: I wasn’t planning on changing things up until after this cycle but I’m going to end up replacing planks with leg raises just to save time. Today time was short so I did it anyway.

Deadlift: 3x90kg
Leg Raise: lying, 10 reps straight leg*
Curl: 15x20kg

Deadlift: 3x100kg
Leg Raise: lying, 10 reps straight leg*
Curl: 15x20kg

Deadlift: 5x105kg
Leg Raise: lying, 10 reps straight leg*
Curl: 15x20kg

Once again, grip went first on deads. I’ll have chalk again next week and it might be worth doing direct grip training at some point too.

*I just did these as high as I could with a straight leg without my arse coming up off the floor. That turns out to be not very high. I really need to stop neglecting mobility/flexibility work.

Press/Lat Pulldown/Situp
Press: 3x35kg
Lat Pulldown: 25x45kg
Situp: 15xBW

Press: 3x37.5kg
Lat Pulldown: 25x45kg
Situp: 15xBW

Press: 6x40kg
Press: 12x30kg*

*Here’s how out of it I was today: I loaded up my 40kg set and the weight started flying up. I thought “wow I knew 5/3/1 was good but this PR is ridiculous over last week!”

I hit 12 easy reps then realised that I was pressing 30kg instead of 40kg. So, I actually did that widowmaker set up there practically immediately before my top set, which means that I’m actually reasonably pleased with “only” 6 reps on the AMRAP.

Overall, not the best workout but they happen and I got it done at least. Tomorrow will be an improvised conditioning session in a hotel “gym” which should be fun.

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Mixed grip or double overhand?

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Double overhand. It’s such a pansy deadlift I don’t think there’s any need for different grip; I just need better grip strength.

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Tall, weak, with excess body fat. You look just like me 3 years ago, when I started lifting… I really like your log and your dedication :+1:. I have some tips for you;

  1. Be consistent! (but I bet you already are)
  2. Focus on squats and Chins.
  3. Don’t neglect a little arm isolation, if you are 6’3 (I’m 6’2) you absolutely need some of it. (long limbs)
  4. Most important: stop worrying and take your time. Enjoy your life and every minute of training, if you are consistent with training and diet the results will be shocking.

Take a look to my log if you wanna see my before/after photos.

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One easy way to do this without re programming is to hold your last Deadlift of the day for as long as possible. Do this for chin-ups as well. Remember Batman needs big grip to hold on to his grappling gun :wink:

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Thursday, 19 October

Warmup
Flexible Five

Conditioning
EMOM Burpees for too few minutes

I’m in Ireland for an offsite team meeting and we went out for dinner/drinks last night. I don’t think I disgraced myself diet-wise, but I did have six or seven pints.

I then went to the casino and won a bit at poker. I don’t post on poker forums often anymore so you guys get to hear the story of the biggest pot I won.

Warning: poker jargon incoming
We were playing €1/€2 with a €5 button straddle. I was on the button and a reasonably solid-seeming lad from Cork raised to €15 middle position. CO called and I called with 7c-7s.

Flop was Ah-6h-6d and it goes check/check/check. Turn is 2c and the raiser checks, the CO bets €24 and I call - importantly, I went to call with five red chips, then decided last-second to call with four reds and five whites. Basically, I had a ton of white chips getting in my way but I think that looks kind of weak, like I’m calling not expecting to get the whites back.

The young guy then makes it €77 and the CO folds. With two black sevens in my hand and two red sixes on the board it’s impossible for this guy to have 76s, I don’t think he opens 64s often from MP and I doubt he takes this line with A6 or AA, though the latter is certainly possible as I can have a huge number of 6x combos.

All in all he pretty much has two combos each of 65s and 86s and three combos of AA for value at most. If he has 22 then lol fuck him. He can have a ton of hands like KQhh and random air, so this plus my perceived weakness thanks to the chip choice means I call. I plan to call most low rivers if he ships it, and might bluff myself if it’s a high card and he checks.

River is an offsuit 8 and he starts thinking - thinking for long enough that the dealer says “you know it’s on you, right?” He eventually moves in for €144, I think a little and call, he instantly folds and leaves the table.

Anyway the long and short of it is that I was at the casino until about 3am and up at 7.30 so this morning was awful. Today is still a bit awful. I’m that kind of tired where your eyes hurt.

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Thanks mate, much appreciated. I’ll definitely check out your log.

I think that sounds sexier than you wanted it to, but it’s still good advice nonetheless! Go raibh maith agat.

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Friday, 20 October

Woke up at 210.2. Awful night’s sleep for whatever reason.

Warmup
Flexible Five
Kettlebell swings/Squat Jumps

Squat/Situp/Row
Squat: 5x67.5kg
Situp: 10xBW (on floor)
Row: 20x20kg

Squat: 5x67.5kg
Situp: 10xBW (on floor)
Row: 16x20kg

Squat: 5x67.5kg
Situp: 10xBW (on floor)
Row: 12x20kg

Bench/Pulldown/Hyper
Bench: 3x52.5kg
LPD: 15x55kg
Hyper: 15xBW

Bench: 3x55kg
LPD: 15x55kg
Hyper: 15xBW

Bench: 6x57.5kg
LPD: 15x55kg
Hyper: 15xBW

Three rounds of:
Bench: 5x52.5kg
LPD: 15x55kg
Hyper: 15xBW

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I’m in for this batman. Also tall - 6’2" - and second earlier advice to hit arms. I got reasonably strong 3-4-5 and weigh 225 and still have pencil arms despite.