Pano's Peepshow

Training Logs
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Hey everybody,

I have been a long time lurker member of this forum and I decided to start logging my training.
I am a Dutch student (25y/o) finishing my master’s in the Netherlands. I really started training regularly since august last year, but had a few breaks of a few weeks (5 weeks this winter during lockdown was the longest).

My background: I always was very unathletic growing up: very fat, and I grew insanely fast. I surpassed 6 feet at 10 y/o and my growth plates were removed when I was eleven. With X-rays, they made estimations of my height without surgery and it came out to 7’5-7’6. Glad that didn’t happen, so I am now a soaking wet 6’8-6’9 and 285 lbs.
Because I grew very fast my motor skills had a hard time catching up to my limb length and I despised sports. The first sport I liked was horseback riding when I was 15 and I picked up Kyokushin karate close after. Since then I moved to a student room and did kickboxing on-off for a few years, but had large breaks because I was too busy doing shit/drinking beer at my student association. Always struggled with weight, and always gain easily.
In January 2020 I decided I had enough of being fat (especially the summers suck) and started a fat loss journey which took me 6 months. I dropped from 265 to 220 by walking at least 10.000 steps every day in a morning hike, doing daily pushups, burpees and air squats and a strict vegetarian low carb-low fat diet-low everything diet. I ended up feeling way better: very springy with insane cardio compared to my past self. In September 2020 my life took a drastic change: funds were gonna dry out, so I had to work like a madman to earn enough savings to finish my masters, worked hard to finish 2 bachelor’s and my brand new relationship took a really bad turn because of a drug-related incident. I went into survival mode for almost a year and ate all my lost weight back. During that summer I decided to make the next college year the most productive of my life and started hitting the gym as well as I can.

I ran Brian alsruhe’s linear program for 6 weeks but took a break because my knees were killing me. Then I took up 5/3/1 for hardgainers, ran a few cycles with giant sets ala Brian Alruhe where my rep maxes increased nicely. Because of the hype @T3hPwnisher gives to 5/3/1 BBB I decided to run the BBB challenge and run 2 cycles of Beefcake after that. I repeated my 50% cycle because it was cut short, and just finished my 60% cycle. To be honest, I pretty much increase the weight on the BBB sets weekly because it feels more natural, but I try to hit the allotted % in the first or second week of the block.

All sets are run in giant set format which usually is core-lift-explosive movement for lower body and core-lift-row-pull apart for upper body. Rest times are minimal. The BBB sets I try to run in 20 minutes or less which is quite challenging with all the other work on top.

I will use this log to keep myself accountable for my training. I hope you enjoy it! Tips, advice and anything else is welcome!

Sincerely yours,

Pano

3 Likes
2

training may 9th 2022

Deadlift: 1x285 lbs, every 30 secondes for 10:00 minutes (21 reps total)
242x15

Bent over row drop set (no rest, just changing weights)
200x5, 155x10, 145x10, 132x10, 66x25

Front squat (no rest)
110x5, 121x4, 132x3, 143x2, 165x1

Notes:
Just having fun for a week and a half. No giant sets or rhyme or reason in general, just some time doing hard work a trying rep ranges I normally don’t use. I weighed myself before training and decided to play with roughly that weight for something that seemed hard on the deadlift. The singles were nice and don’t really make me sore but very doable and felt a bit too easy. My TM for 5/3/1 is 320 for deadlift, which seems to be about right given my performance. The set directly after blew me away: 15 reps was pretty easy and I stopped because I was done with it, but there where at least 5 more reps in reserve. Training is serving me well.
Did some bent over rows because I barely use them and like the dropset with it. Front squats was more for mobility and becoming familiar than anything else.

3

may 10th 2022

EMOM
OHP: 88 lbsx3 reps
Goblet squat 52 lbsx 5 reps

ohp 88, x10, x 10, x5 (max like 3 minutes rest in between sets)

Than I set the clock on 15 minutes and bust ass wenning warmup style:
30 lbs DB incline bench x 25 reps
30 lbs DB lying row x 25 reps
bench leg raise x 25 reps
→ dit that for 4 rounds

Rope extentions for tri’s: idk, went to failure a bunch of times, I guess 70 reps total

Notes: not that taxing of a day, OHP never seems to be. Did goblet squats and rolled legs to gain back mobility. My hips and knees always thank me when I do daily airsquats, so I need to bring that in practice. Got quite a bit of pretty heavy volume in, the wenning warmup was hard both on the muscles as the lungs. I really like this unscripted training for a while: I push hard and can try some rep ranges I barely use.

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Training May 12th

Group session:
Bench: 132x8, 176x9, 192x4

Then: you-go-I-go with 3 guys:
1 station is bench, 1 is 10 lying db rows with 30 lbs.

For the bench:
88x 8 reps. Did that 6 rounds, felt like nothing, exploded so hard with it back left the bench
88x10 reps for 4 rounds
110x10 reps, and a final set to 20 reps

Finished with BB row drop set: 176x10, 154x10, 110x10, 88x10

Notes: I had a rough week. I went drinking on the 10th which totally escalated and was home by 4:30 in the morning. Almost overslept, went to my college, and was still drunk. I Felt fucked up, got a lot of stress for sleeping through an important task in the morning and felt very stressed all day.
Then I had so much stress for sleeping through a meeting the next day that I barely slept. Woke up tomorrow with pretty bad palpitations that I usually get when I had a rough night.
I did NOT feel like training, but my old roommate invited me to dinner and we went with another friend. I am pretty happy I went! Not that hard of a workout for me, but my old roommate was done hahaha. I think the giant set-BBB stuff build me some work capacity.

next to that: my right knee, and since today left knee are bothering me. I guess some goblet squats got too bouncy. I will pick those up next time because air squats didn’t really hurt, just a very deep knee bent.

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Training may 13th

Warmup sets till 213x3
Then: you go I go with 1 partner
213x5 reps for 14 sets.
Repped out with 213x10 reps

30 lbs dumbbells clean and press, 10 reps for 5 sets. (rest instinctively, but pretty short

Notes:
Fine workout, not an extreme ballbuster. My left inner thigh was bothering me for most of the workout. That really took out my explosiveness, especially in combination with the slightly wonky right knee. Still did a ton of work: I foresee some bad DOMS. I will try to pump some blood into the legs the coming days.

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Training may 14th

21-15-9 with a superset of
Clean and squat with a slulshy water bag filled with 25 lbs (I guess)
Burpees with pushups

Time used: 13:40

Notes:

Decided to steal a page out of @T3hPwnishers book again and did a short conditioning session with squats to get blood into my legs. DOMS haven’t really set in, and I hope this will keep them off. Pain in the inner thigh and knee seem mostly gone directly after this mini-workout. Hope it stays that way!

As usual: gassing big time for the first 5-minutes. After that my second lung kicks in and it is way more doable. At my Muay Thai class, I used to be pretty good at burpees, especially for my size. I missed some of that explosiveness, but I blame that mostly on being carefull training in my crammed room and adding a push up in each rep.

Sweating like an otter. Heart rate is down fast. Need to implement these things way more often!

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Training May 15th

Interval: 6 rounds, 40 sec on/ 40 sec of
Slushy waterbag swings

Notes:
Decided to keep the conditioning going
Hit around 20 reps each round, gotta count them. Tried planking in rest, but 1) I suck at that, 2) a caluse from my big toe ripped due to burpees so plank position hurt and 3) my feet kept slipping on the carpet. So I managed that for 2 rounds, and then I stopped.

40/40 with low sets isn’t really that hard on the lungs. Waterbag has some problems. I am afraid it will rip in my room. Next to that: it’s way bigger than a kettlebell, so I have to do a small front raise before my hip snap, or it will get almost stuck between my legs.
Since I have to fold the waterbag to vaguely resemble a kettlebell, I have to grip 2 pretty thick nylon handles that are trying to move apart from each other. So this felt more like a grip workout, my forearms are fried! Will keep playing with this to get rit of those stick figure forearms.

8

Training may 18th

Deadlift:
some sets of 5, some of 3
Worked up to a max with new belt and chalk:
323x1
367x1
411x nope and one more try but nope

Volume:
286x15, 10, 10 (little rest in between sets, guess 3 minutes max)

Bent over rows: 132x10, x10

Some rope jumping

Notes: A bit low volume for my taste, but I really pushed weights I have never tried before with a fuck ton of control and speed. I guess 290-295 was the heaviest I pulled since I seriously started lifting 5/3/1 style, so 367 was a huge PR. I liked the back offsets: my buddies who were cheering me on noted I can just keep repping with consistent form. I attribute that to the 5/3/1 BBB in giant sets.
Because I could destroy the volume sets, I have a feeling I can push up my max quite a bit. I think I will try some 5x5 double progression for deadlifts for a while to get volume in at a way higher intensity to get acclimated with heavier work. I hope 200 kg (440 lbs) will be in the books somewhere the next few months.

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Training 20th May 2022

OHP (supersetted with 10 band pull aparts)
44x10
66x5
88x5
110x3
121x3
132x1
132x2

In 10 minutes (started as EMOM but things went different…) (supersetted with 10 band pull aparts)
110x 5,5,5,5,3,3,3,2 (31 reps total)

A few minutes rest, then a OHP dropsset with:
110x7
99x6
88x7
77x7
66x10
25x10
20x10

Than, trying to push the wenning warmup-esque shit harder:
Circuit of
4x25 30 lbs incline db bench
4x25 30 lbs db row lying bench row
4x25 bench leg raise
time: 19 minutes

10 minutes, every minute alternating arm:
52 lbs kettlebell farmers walk
(so in total 5 minutes farmers per arm, no rest)

Notes:
Good workout, had a good pump. I think pushing all the sets in the emom set to 5x110 would be a good battle. If I can push the wenning style circuit to 15 minutes, I would like to go up, because there was ample resting in these sets. Farmers were cool, but more a grip than a core/conditioning. Keeping that in more to build thicker forearms would be cool.

My right trap froze up a bit, hope that evens out

10

Training may 22nd 2022

Trying out my new belt and knee sleeves

Squat
44x5
110x5
176x5
220x5
265x4
286x3
308x2 (PR)
330x1 (PR)
341x1 (PR)

volume
Squats: 286x10, x10, x8

Notes: had to hurry because the gym was almost closing. The fact that the high rep sets were there tells me I can push this peak way higher. The belt and sleeves help, especially the belt but I can get way more out of it. I felt I didn’t brace optimally.
I like pushing up the weights for a while now but I miss a lot of volume the last weeks because I Superset way less than usual. I will try to get some more supersets and timed rest so I don’t lose my base of conditioning.

Edit: I will be pushing the sets of 220, you-go-I-go-style with my partner again I guess. Next to that: I hope I can build up to 286 for 5 sets of 10 in a circuit the next few months on both deadlifts and squats. I really like the idea of being able to ragdoll my own bodyweight for 50 reps while sucking air.

1 Like
11

Training may 23th

Since I am pretty sure nobody is reading my log at this point, I am gonna switch to KG’s instead of translating all my lifts in lbs.

DB flat bench: 14kg x 10, 22kg x 10
Db single arm row: 14 kg x 10, 22kg x10

Then a (no surprise at this point) circuit. 9 rounds of:
22kg x 10 db flat bench
22 kg x 10 db single arm row
time: 17:54 minutes

Superset:
Bend over row for 1 minute straight: 56 kg, got 31 reps in in the first minute. Got 26 reps in, in the second minute
DB flat bench: 18 kg for 1 minute: got 22 reps in the first minute, and 18 with slow eccentric in the second minute

Giant set/mechanical drop set for 2 rounds:
meadows row: with 35 kg added to the bar–> 15 reps per arm
t-bar row with 35 kg on the bar → 25 reps
DB y-raise: 6 kg dumbbells for 25

tricep push down:
32 kgx7, than 17kg for 50 reps

Notes:
Today was a real: when live gives you lemons day. And it will be that the rest of the day. Pretty chaotic, new job as a exam trainer, got screwed over here and there on different spots, but I am keeping it togheter and am soldiering thru.

I wanted to push my bench a bit heavier to start aiming for the 500 kg SBD total in a few months. Came in the gym, all bars were being used, so I tried to use the way to light dumbbells (22kg is the heaviest) to just do something hard. I am pretty happy about how everything shook out to be honest! I have been complaining about too low volume, and boy did I get some volume in today!

I did a total of total in of 150 DB presses, and most of them were hard in one way or another so that was pretty anabolic. I got a total in of 227 rows of different sorts per arm AND I spend 100+ reps on things that I find important: rear delts and tri’s. Really like that this is a different kind of stimulus, and I feel some more DB pressing will give me way more stability in the bench.

All in all a pretty good workout, pretty happy with it. What I like about more intuitive training is that I can make up on the go when my small gym is crowded, I can train with friends and come up with some challenges and I can undulate the kind of stimuli, which I hope will give some good results.

12

Training may 24th

Deadlift
60kgx10
90kgx3
120x3
140x3
150x1
160x1
170x1 (PR)

Volume
130kg x 15
with straps and short rest: x10, x6, x3, x2. x1
120x1 (…done…)

lying DB row:
22kgx8
dropset: 22kg x 8 +16kg x 16
drop set: 22kg x 13, 16kg x 12

Single arm pull down:
28kg x 15 reps x 2 sets (left is way weaker, gotta work on that)

Pallof press
1 set of 3 presses (keeping breath for the most time while pressing out)
1 set of 5 presses

Notes: Felt pretty sore tomorrow but shook it off. I had a 3kg PR on the deadlift: I hope 200kg will be there in a few months. Even when being pretty shot, I pulled 130kgx15 and did a bit of volume after that. Did 37 reps with 130 kg for the volume which is nice. I want to push the pace a bit more for conditioning purposes, but I am pretty content with how everything is moving.
Taking some well needed rest tomorrow because my schedule is packed.
130kg for 5 sets of 10 in a circuit will be in the books somewhere the next months if I focused a bit more on it. I would really like to hit 200kg x 1 with that after. I hope that will happen in 3 months.

13

Training may 30th

Squat
I warmed up to:
17 kg x 10
37x5
57x5
77x5
97x5
117x3
137x3

Then my friend finally came. I decided to drop back and do the same weights with him, but to focus on speed since I already touched a heavy weight
57x5 (fast)
77x5 (fast)
97x5 (fast)
117x5
127x5

Volume
117x5
117x5
117x12
97x15

Bulgarian Split squat while holding myself (both for balance, but also really for support)
2x25 reps unweighted per leg
2x25 24 kg kb side bend per side

Notes:
Had a really busy time and will be insanely busy the next few weeks. I will hopefully be finishing my masters, so I have to haul ass on my last exam. Had 2 days of pretty hard drinking last week. Had way longer off from the gym than I hoped, but regretting that won’t help anyone.

I felt really weird when I worked up the first time. Had very weird proprioception, and felt like I was either sitting way to far back because of the knee sleeves or not enough at all.
I was happy to hit a 143 kg squat for 3 which wasn’t that bad, plus I workout up to that in 15-18 minutes! Dropping back to work up with my friend was an interesting choice. I felt really explosive for a few sets because I already handeld a heavier weight. I notice with squats that I can’t really fire my cns fast + my long legs need to cover a lot of ROM. That means my squats barely feel explosive. After the heavier weight, the bar had a snap at the last past of the ascent, but the bottom still feels slow and a bit grindy.
I keep noticing that my top-end strentgh is really low compared to my rep strength: I can rep pretty high percentages of my 1RM for a lot of volume.

All in all, I had a decend day wit a shit ton of squat volume. My abs feel weak so I hit the again. Bulgairan Split squats are a bitch, but the conditioning the hell out of you, and I just feel like the make the legs strong. I really want to push them up harder.

14

Fell of the wagon pretty hard because of my last exam. I am back on track since this week.
My goal is to keep getting stronger and a bit bigger, but primarily losing weight, getting in better shape and get into the habit of training muay thai/kickboxing again.

kcal: 3000

Monday june 13th:
Deadlift (in kg) (double overhand, chalk)
60xidk
90x5
120x5 (belt goes on)
150x5 reps x 4 sets (Very much a PR at that weight)
120x20 (also a PR for that weight)

Zercher holds of pins:
90 kg for 10 sec
120 kg for 10 sec
140 kg for 10 sec
150 for 20 sec
150 for 10 sec

DB Shrugs and hammer curls: no idea, but hard work for sure around

Notes:
Happy with the deadlift PR’s. I really hope it won’t be to affected by my weightloss. I would love to hit bodyweight for a set of 20 somewhere the next to months. Also 150 for 5x5 seems reasonable in a few weeks, but this was a grind.
Not sure about the zercher holds. Christian Thibaudeau recommends them for upperback and core. I guess I have to load up way more (which is hard at my uni gym) for a better training effect.

15

Training june 14th

kcal: 3000
Kickboxing in for 2 hours.

Notes: I really liked getting back into the training. Still some of the same partners as a while back. I was lucky we didn’t have a lot of sparring because I was gassing out bad and afraid of taking a bad shot.
I stopped kickboxing a few times, and every time I restart I notice the same things: conditioning, pain threshold and timing are gone. Technique never suffers that much. Nice thing is: most things I love quickly, I usually regain quickly. Also: usually there is a summer reccess, but this year we will keep 2x a week 1 hour of training, which is awesome

16

Training wednesday 15th of june:

Bodyweight: 130.1 kg
kcal: 3000

seated row: 25x idk what weight
Strict OHP in kg:
41.5x5
50x5
55x5
60x4 (PR!)
60x2 (little rest between all sets, but especially the top sets)

Then, EMOM for 10 minutes
50 kg x 5, 5, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1.5, 1, 1, 1 (for a total of 21.5 reps. That was HARD work)

Dips/chin station which I set so it takes 68 kg of bodyweight (so 62 kg I guess)
Supersetted pull ups and dips or these reps: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5

Seated row: 52 kg: 2x10 with vertical handle, 2x10 with horizontal handles

Notes: That was hard but condesed work. Happy with the OHP PR, but hoped to also set a volume PR which I undershoot with 5 reps. To be fair, I did strict EMOM this time, where last time I rested a bit more and did fewer rounds in the alotted 10 minutes.

I feel the pull-ups at the station very well in my lats. It’s a shame they only have this machine at my least favourite uni gym building, but well, I need to go there more often this summer because my favourite spot is closed at 14:00 for the summer. The grips are also fat as hell (even for my ginormous hands (no idea how smaller people don’t slip away) so they give me a huge pump in my forearms.

17

Training thursday 16th of june:

Weight: 129.5 kg
kcal: 3350

Started to feel sick as hell

18

Friday 17th of juni:

weight: 129.6 (I drank 0.2 Liters of water before to wash away the painkillers, so probably 129.4/129.5)
kcals: 2550

Feel sick as hell. Slightly got the idea this happened because I cut my kcal pretty drastically and I trained hard for 3 days in a row, combined with a weekend of hard drinking and a lot of stress relief (I usually get sick after that).

Taking some rest, maybe just some walking. Let’s see what happens

19

June 18th 2022

Weight: 129.4

Notes: Still sick as shit. I am woken up by pain every night at least twice to take painkillers. Trying to sleep it off I went to bed at 22 and woke up at 08:30 (but I got up 2 times to take painkillers)

I only got around 5000 steps yesterday. Had the same today untill I decided to go for a walk before sleep. Set 4000 steps for total of 9000. I hope I will get below 129 kg by Monday.

20

June 19th 2022

Weight: 129.3 (even got measured 128.9kg, the scale is really inaccurate depending on how I keep my posture, but I got slightly more weigh ins on 129.3 than 128.9)

Notes: still sick as shit. I felt better last night, but I wake up ill. It’s a bit better and I am using less painkillers, so I hope I will be done with the worst of it by tomorrow. Everyday I still have to write my thesis, and tomorrow I have a important assesment for a job interview, so I really hope this will go over.

Weight loss is going slowly but steady. I hope it speeds up a bit when I can start weight training again.