Mattjp's Training Log

Wednesday, 15 August

Down to 206.9 today. Calories haven’t been much different but I’ve upped fat and that seems to be helping in terms of recovery/rundownness.

Semi-rest day today and only legs tomorrow so it’s time for some grip training. Gotta get them Stallone forearms.

Workout

Warmup
None

Grip
4x plate pinch hold for time (each hand)
5x15 finger curls
5x15 wrist curls
5x15 reverse wrist curls

Cardio/Recovery
Easy run approx. 1 mile. Think I’ll actually measure what is a mile and try and do it for time going forward.

Diet

AM snack
Protein bar & nuts

Lunch
Chicken, salad & egg

PM snack
Steak & veg

Dinner
Cod fillet w/chorizo and veg

Evening
2 scoops Gold Standard

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Thursday, 16 August

Weighed in at 206.3.

Penultimate day of Wave 1 today. Overall this hasn’t been quite as terrible as I thought (I’ve only been utterly broken by a couple of the sessions as opposed to every last one) but nine weeks of this is going to really crush me.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Flexible Five
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
10 squats @ 65kg
10 med ball squat jumps
30s side plank each side

8 squats @ 80kg
10 med ball squat jumps
30s side plank each side

7 squats @ 90kg
10 med ball squat jumps
30s side plank each side

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds of:
5x front squats
8x DB step-ups
10x hanging knee crunch things

Conditioning
Bring Sally Up Squats @ 30kg
Awful. Made it about 90s in. No human can do this. All videos of it are faked.

Diet

Pre-workout
Porridge, 3 eggs

Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken, egg, salad

PM snack
Steak & sprouts

Dinner
Pork chops & veg

Friday, 17 August

Up to 207.0 today after a quasi-cheat yesterday. Had a bit of a dinner disaster and forced to get chips. Wasn’t the worst outcome tbh.

Wave 1 completed now. Didn’t die.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Flexible Five

Main Giant Set
Experimenting with bench grip width at the moment. Almost took my right pinky off reracking! Tweaked my back a bit on the second set of rows but no biggie.
8x Yates rows @ 50kg
8x bench @ 50kg
30s flutter kicks

6x Yates rows @ 57.5kg
6x bench @ 57.5kg
30s flutter kicks

4x Yates rows @ 65kg
5x bench @ 65kg
30s flutter kicks

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds of:
5x chest-supported rows
20 pullovers
5x incline DB bench

Metcon
400m bike sprint, 20 lat pulldowns, 400m bike sprint, 20 chest presses
400m bike sprint, 15 lat pulldowns, 400m bike sprint, 15 chest presses
400m bike sprint, 10 lat pulldowns, 400m bike sprint, 10 chest presses
Quads were raging after this especially given a squatty day yesterday.

Saturday, 18 August

Said YOLO and had a full-on cheat yesterday with a Thai takeaway and some ice-cream. Surprised to see I’m only 207.8 today.

Workout

Did some grip stuff then some bro stuff because I had time.
Four rounds of:
Weight plate pinch holds (each hand)
15x finger curls
15x wrist curls
15x reverse wrist curls

2x25 lat raise machine
2x15 butterfly machine
2x20 curl machine

Monday, 20 August

No weigh-in this morning.

Flying home this evening and then to Vegas on Thursday morning. Had to be in work early to sort life out so didn’t train today. I woke up at 7.45 and had a leisurely shower and left for work. As always I am taunted by the fact that this is how mornings would be if I didn’t care about my strength.

I’ll be hitting the gym tomorrow, probably doing deadlifts and pulling three-plate rep topsets because I’ll be training with my brother and he can’t lift that much so I need to assert my dominance.

I’m staying at the Bellagio, which has a fitness centre, so I’ll probably get a couple of quick top-up sessions in over the course of the weekend but it’s not going to be a healthy time.

Once I get back it’s a serious restart of @Alpha’s program. I know now which sorts of weights I’m using on assistance and I have some conditioning goals to beat for the first wave.

Think I’ll add a few calories to my daily intake though as I’ve been pretty run-down these past few weeks. Half an avocado with lunch and an extra egg before the gym will do to start with; that should still have me dropping some blubber but hopefully the extra fat will help recovery.

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Tuesday, 21 August

No weigh-in today since my parents’ scale is super different anyway.

Took advantage of the day off and had a huge bro workout of chest and arms. Like a caricature of how guys train.

Tomorrow I’ll do deadlifts then a bunch of back and leg stuff to set me up for the holiday.

Workout

Bench Press
10x20kg
8x40kg
5x50kg
10x3 @ 60kg

Incline DB bench
12x16kg
10x20kg
8x22kg
4x26kg
3x26kg

Misc
Chest press 2x15
Cable flies 2x20
Preacher curls 2x12
Overhead tricep extensions 2x15
Concentration curls 2x15
Skullcrushers 2x20

Wednesday, 29 August

Back from Vegas. Didn’t die. Weighed in at 205.8 this morning which is cool; I wasn’t eating a lot over there so I guess constant streams of vodka and Red Bull are a legit weight loss program.

Wound up only losing something in the region of $300, but kind of annoying given that a) I finished 4th in a poker tournament with a first prize of $1.5K and b) I was up $700 until the final day. I brought $500 to lose though so anything less than that is a plus.

I won’t have the time for a full workout today but I’m going to pop to the gym and move some stuff around. I’ll pick up Brian’s program with W1D2 because that makes scheduling easier. Since I did a deadlift workout last week and have done W1D1 twice now I think I can probably get away with this without losing the gainz.

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Thursday, 30 August

First day back at work after some time off is always fucking awful.

Weighed in at 206.2 today. Decent session, feel like my arms might fall off, but then a shite morning with some car issues after.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Main Giant Set
8x chinups
8x kneeling press @ 32.5kg
8x wipers

6x chinups @ 2.5kg
6x kneeling press @ 37.5kg
8x wipers

4x chinups @ 5kg
8x kneeling press @ 42.5kg
8x wipers

Strongman
AMRAP in 60s: 20kg DB clean and press (one per hand)

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds AMRAP:
30s Z press
30s lat raises
30s facepulls
30s rest

Metcon
AMRAP press empty bar
50ft gator walk
AMRAP press empty bar
50ft bear walk
AMRAP press empty bar
50ft crab walk

Diet

Preworkout
3 eggs, porridge

Postworkout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken, salad, egg

PM snack
Hungarian beef thingy

Dinner
Gammon, corn cobs, chimichurri

Totals
Approx. 2100kcal
Approx. 217g protein

Friday, 31 August

Back down to 205.7 today. Poor sleep; had one of those “maybe I can just train tomorrow” mornings.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills
KB squats

Main Giant Set
12x squats @ 60kg
12x standing crunches
6x burpees

10x squats @ 72.5kg
12x standing crunches
6x burpees

7x squats @ 85kg
12x standing crunches
6x burpees
Was very disappointed to not match the 8x I did last time, until I realised I’d misloaded the bar and this was 90kg.

Assistance Giant Set
Three rounds of:
12x good mornings
12x leg curls
10x DB lunges

Metcon
Deck of cards workout for 10 minutes
Ran pretty well here and only got a couple of cards above a 9.

Diet

Preworkout
Porridge, 3 eggs

Postworkout
2 scoops Gold Standard, 50g peanuts

Lunch
Chicken, salad & egg

PM snack
Hungarian beef shit

Dinner
Lamb steaks, mixed veg

Totals
2,305kcal
220g protein

2 Likes

Saturday, 1 September

206.1 today. Poor sleep but trudged through training.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Main Giant Set
10x Yates rows @ 45kg
10x bench @ 45kg
10x leg raises
8x plate halos

8x Yates rows @ 50kg
8x bench @ 50kg
10x leg raises
8x plate halos

6x Yates rows @ 60kg
8x bench @ 60kg (sad)
10x leg raises
8x plate halos

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds:
15x neutral grip DB bench
15x bench dips
20x tri ext.

Metcon
None today. Tris literally wouldn’t work after the AGS.

Monday, 3 September

Ground control, I’ve major DOMS.

No weigh-in today.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Flexible Five
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
12x deadlifts @ 85kg
10x situps w/5kg plate
AMRAP 30s KB swings

10x deadlifts @ 100kg
10x situps w/5kg plate
AMRAP 30s KB swings

10x deadlifts @ 115kg
10x situps w/5kg plate
AMRAP 30s KB swings
These deads were rest-paused to hell and each rep felt like it was going to tear my glutes in half, not to mention my still-sore-from-squats quads hating it. Really wanted the eleventh but it wasn’t happening. Bit sad.

Assistance Giant Set
AMRAP in 12m:
10x deficit deadlifts
10x weighted hyperextensions
10x Yates rows

Metcon
Mile-long odd object carry pencilled in for today, but I had to switch my driving lessons and didn’t have time. Can’t say I’m upset about that since I wanted to puke after the AGS. I can do this on Wednesday morning instead.

Diet

Preworkout
3 eggs, porridge

Postworkout
2x Grenade bars

Lunch
Chicken, salad, egg

PM snack
Steak & 50g peanuts

Dinner
TBD

Tuesday, 4 September

205.9 today. Small PR vs last time on the seated press and some major improvement on the bodyweight movements/conditioning compared to the last time I did this day.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Main Giant Set
10x chinups*
10x seated press @ 30kg
6x BW halos (each way)
5x Turkish getups (each side)**

8x chinups
8x seated press @ 35kg
6x BW halos (each way)
5x Turkish getups (each side)

6x chinups
10x seated press @ 40kg
6x BW halos (each way)
5x Turkish getups (each side)

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds of:
100ft waiter walk (left)
10 pushups
100ft waiter walk (right)
10 chest press

Conditioning
10/8/6/4/2 rounds of:
KB swings (each hand)
BW manmakers (more like boymakers at this point)
KB snatches (each hand)
Jumps

Diet

Pre-workout
Eggs and porridge

Post-workout
2 scoops Gold Standard

Lunch
Chicken, egg and salad

PM snack
Beef chilli w/cheese & 50g peanuts

Dinner
Meatballs and stuff

Totals
TBD

1 Like

Thursday, 6 September

Slept in yesterday and barely had time for anything. Pushed my grip training/cardio back to today which means I’ll train Fri/Sat this week.

Was 206.9 both today and yesterday.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates

Grip training
3x25s 10kg weight plate hold each hand
5x15 40-50kg finger curls
75 total wrist curls @ 20kg
75 total reverse wrist curls @ 15kg

Cardio
20m elliptical easy pace

Friday, 7 September

Weighed in at 206.5. Weight has been pretty static but my average calories have been up around 2750 so it’s to be expected. Going forward I can reduce them a bit; I’ve been consistently losing a little over .5lbs a week for a while now although it doesn’t feel consistent!

Anyway, onto the workout…

The first time I did this day I said it was the worst one yet. It still is, but this edition was notably improved from the last time I did it four weeks ago today.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills

Main Giant Set
8x burpees
8x squats @ 70kg
30s hollow rocks

8x burpees
6x squats @ 82.5kg
30s hollow rocks

8x burpees
6x squats @ 95kg
30s hollow rocks
+1 from the last time. Was sucking a lot less wind from the burpees today.
Hollow rocks are still awful.

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds of:
8x Bulgarian split squats (each leg)
16x DB lunges
8x DB romanian deadlifts
Last time I got through almost three rounds; today I did all four - and with heavier weight on the lunges.

Conditioning
Still think that the AGS is conditioning enough. Goal for Wave 2 is to actually have the energy to do conditioning after the main work! I just had to lie down for a little bit instead today.

1 Like

Saturday, 8 September

Down to 205.5 today.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Lat activation stuff (new! fun!)

Main Giant Set
12x landmine rows
12x bench @ 42.5kg
10x Russian twists
30s manmakers

10x landmine rows
10x bench @ 50kg
10x Russian twists
30s manmakers

8x landmine rows
10x bench @ 57.5kg
10x Russian twists
30s manmakers

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds:
12x DB rows
10x CGBP
10x floor press

Metcon
Put away all the plates (so many, seriously, what is wrong with the Saturday AM crowd) as fast as possible.

Monday, 10 September

Poor start to the week as it seems that work has blocked the Spotify web player. Pretty pathetic to even have a web filter in that sense (obviously blocking dangerous sites is sensible) when you employ adults but whatever.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills
KB swings

Main Giant Set
8x good mornings @ 40kg
8x deadlifts @ 100kg (did 10 by mistake)
15x V sit-ups

8x good mornings @ 50kg
6x deadlifts @ 115kg
15x V sit-ups

8x good mornings @ 55kg
5x deadlifts @ 130kg
15x V sit-ups
Needed 6 for a rep PR and didn’t get it because I’m a little bitch. Did match last time after heavier good mornings, though, so I’ll take what I can get.

Strongman Conditioning
60ft loaded carry w/40kg power bag

Assistance Giant Set
8x Romanian deadlifts @ 80kg
30s back extension holds w/10kg plate
8x good mornings to pins @ 40kg

8x Romanian deadlifts @ 85kg
30s back extension holds w/10kg plate
8x good mornings to pins @ 50kg

8x Romanian deadlifts @ 90kg
30s back extension holds w/10kg plate
8x good mornings to pins @ 60kg

Conditioning
Tabata rowing machine (2 rounds)

1 Like

You got a ton of posterior chain work there your hamstrings may be lucky to recover before the next session

@losthog yeah they’re on the sore side; two days between lower-body-focused sessions though so shouldn’t be too bad.

Didn’t PR main lift today (equalled it, though) but conditioning was once again substantially and noticeably better than the first time I did this day.

Tuesday, 11 September

Up to 207.1 today. I’m going to assume that I’m rapidly building muscle at a higher rate than I’m burning fat because I’m a special snowflake.

Workout

Warmup
Skipped. Awful night’s sleep meant I was running late and first giant set wasn’t super-taxing so thought this could be left out.

Main Giant Set
12x inverted rows
12x Z press @ 27.5kg
45s weighted plank
10x med ball throws

10x inverted rows
10x Z press @ 32.5kg
45s weighted plank
10x med ball throws

8x inverted rows
8x Z press @ 37.5kg
45s weighted plank
10x med ball throws

Assistance Giant Set
Four rounds:
60s Z press @ 3kg each hand
10x bottom-up KB presses
15x rotator cuff stuff

Conditioning
AMRAP burpees/thrusters in 3m/90s/45s

1 Like

Wednesday, 12 September

Still plateauing weight-wise, 207.4 today.

Workout

Warmup
Flexible Five

Recovery/Conditioning
Skipped the grip and just did a 1.5m run at a woeful pace of around 10:34.

Potentially stupid idea

All my friends back home have signed up for a trail run 10K in 9 weeks.

I hate running and I’m very bad at it, as evidenced by the 10:34 time above. However, I am considering this for four reasons:

  1. All my friends are doing it and it would be cool to do it with them
  2. It would be nice to have something to train for, even if it’s something (distance running) that I don’t really care about
  3. I am very bad at running, so I should probably get better at it for the sake of being an overall well-rounded athlete
  4. I am still fat and if I move more I will be less fat #science

However, there are four equally valid reasons to not do it:

  1. I’m still very honed in on completing this 12-week program from Brian and would rather focus on that
  2. I have never run more than 5K in my life and would probably struggle to do so now
  3. I hate running
  4. No seriously I really hate running it’s so boring why would you do this to yourself

So I’m in a quandary here.

I’m going to add in some evening runs, see how it goes and then depending on whether or not I die/I am too far gone to even begin thinking about a 10k I’ll determine whether or not I’m going to do this stupid fucking thing.

2 Likes

Thursday, 13 September

Down to 205.1 today. Horrible night of sleep again. Went to the gym a little later because I desperately needed an extra 30m snoozing.

Workout

Warmup
200 pullaparts
100 dislocates
Glute drills
Goblet squats

Main Giant Set
10x squats @ 65kg
10x med ball squat jumps
30s side plank each side

8x squats @ 77.5kg
10x med ball squat jumps
30s side plank each side

7x squats @ 90kg
10x med ball squat jumps
30s side plank each side
Barely made it through these. Gave me a revelation. See below.

Assistance Giant Set
Three rounds:
5x front squats @ 45kg (clean grip; tough but better)
8x DB step-ups each leg
8x crunches

Metcon
Skipped for time.

Future training

Snapped some progress pics last week:

I’m still in the 18-22% BF range but I don’t have much to cut down to. What am I going to do, lose 20lbs and be a 185lb skeleton at 6’3"?

This, coupled with the 10k plans and my desire to get stronger (haven’t PR’d anything in ages) means that I’m just going to start eating. Fuck it, it’s winter. Let’s just get big.