Yer man they were all damn fine looking squats.
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Boom! Nice work man! Awesome reps! Gains coming
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That looks so much better. Excellent work.
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Woke at 84 kg - 185,2 lbs
Thanks a lot guys, Iām still a bit struck by a wow factor here.
Now the bloody work has to be done, to make it a natural thing.
Badminton today, Iāve been f*cking absent the last couple of weeks and my buddy has beaten the shit out of me.
Iāll try to bounce back today.
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Show your buddy whoās boss 
The videos look like youāre doing really well. Iām not as knowledgeable as Iād like to be with form, but your lifting is looking very good to me
strong squat work Mort, keep it up. Badminton for cardio is a nice touch 
This sucks big time, I got beaten well and truly once again.
I wake up, feeling good and athletic full of energy.
Warmup is good.
Then the game begins and I lose willpower and just walks around like a slug. Iām almost depressed as if Iāve lost testosterone.
I just donāt get it, Iām very moody the rest of the day, Itās been like this every sunday since new year.
Wtf is going on. Maybe my program is to hard, I was beaten up about two weeks ago, but then it just disappeared and Iām feeling good in the gym, but not when playing badminton. Weird.
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Sorry to hear that, Mort. Mind over matter (or in this case, the body). I have the same experience during basketball. If I push myself to run even when I donāt have to then the whole game goes better. If I walk down the court then I have a hard time putting forth any effort even when itās necessary. The end result is that I donāt get a good workout, we lose, and I leave irritated.
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Whatās your diet like at the moment? Are you in a deficit ? Low carbs or fats ?? What are you eating on the days you play and when? Sounds to me either mental or you are depleted hence the heavy legs and no energy. Itās the same feeling I would get when I used to run. Any runs longer that 2.5 hrs and the body becomes depleted and legs become very heavy and it takes a lot of willpower to keep moving. But keep hydrated and add some some
Sugars before that happen (just a couple of jelly beans would do it) and I was always good to go longer.
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Could be a number of things mate, food, sleep, balls not working as well as they should, work capacity problem.
Youāve got an active and stressful job, on your feet all day from what youāve said? Being a cop would be a tough gig I think. Maybe the extra weights, plus work etc is overcooking you on a restricted cal diet.
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Hey mortdk, just watched your videos, good work. Great choice of training music. I love queen and other bands from that era. That is what I call proper music. Talented musicians, not like today. Music died when Rock vanished. Greta Van Fleet are a good wee band, Pretty recent and probably the closest to legendary bands of old like Led Zeppelin.
Have you ever had a blood test to confirm your testosterone levels ? The symptoms you describe are very much like that of low Testosterone. The moody feeling could be high estrogen. When test is low and estrogen is high - exactly what you describe. Might be worth having that checked out just in case. Could be diet or stress related, especially if food is restricted. Good luck mate.
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Thanks for the words.
@Frank_C Iāll try to keep the heart rate up next week, may be a game changer.
@simo74 Yeah in a deficit, not tracking but eating healthy. I ate oatmeal for breakfast, had a lot of water before and a banana, hell I even took a couple of jelly beans, courtesy of Mr. Maier.
@I_Luc could be a bit of each maybe, but Iāve been doing this for a long time now. Maybe the restricted diet. Maybe my balls arenāt working ā¦ wtf.
@Rizla81 never had a blood test, maybe I should get one, I had the same thoughts myself. And yeah just watched the movie about Queen and Freddie the day before, awesome movie. So I was inspired.
Iāll move my saturday deadlift day to friday next week, taking the saturday off. Maybe Iām just under recovered from saturdays DL.
No matter what Iām pretty pissed about not being able to give my buddy a bit of a beating.
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Sorry to hear about the struggles on the court.
Iāve had somewhat similar experiences trying to translate gym success to the jiu-jitsu mats - especially when weightlifting is going really well.
One thing that helped me was logging my jiu-jitsu training so that I can track more accurately when Iām getting good hard training and when I go and essentially donāt do much more than teach.
Donāt know if any of that would help in your case. But it reminds me that often (but not always) there are very specific reasons for performance setbacks. My jiu-jitsu training log has helped sober me out of many a post-training depression.
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That sucks and it happens to not just you. I play tennis, and I can tell you that success in a skill game like badminton is a lot different than success under the bar. Maybe your friend has a better strategy, or he feels more relaxed and his nervous system isnāt as tested every week. Lots of possibilities, but I would just try to have fun and make it less about who wins if you can. Thatās what I try to do, depending on who Iām playing.
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Whoa! Squats improved bigtime man. Awesome work and youāre not only hitting depth, youāre going wayy below parallel! Crazy improvement compared to last month.
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Great job on the squat depth and form, Mort! I think youāre going to have fresh gains and strength development again.
When you were running Dark Horse last summer, did you hit a wall where you were regularly fatigued and unmotivated? It seems like you did (or Iām confusing your experience with @losthogās.) Your new program is very high volume and high frequency while also incorporating high intensity, too.
Getting a blood test to check you hormone levels is always a good idea, but I wouldnāt be surprised if the combination of your program, stressful job, and active life are draining you more than you realize. That may also be why @simo74ās twice-weekly lifting appeals to you right now. My training preference is similar to yours - lots of giant sets, a mix of weights and calisthenics, cardio, and athletic activities, all while leading a busy life and trying to eat healthy! Itās possible to juggle it all, bit Iāve found that lifting volume is the surest way to burn myself out. Dialing back that one factor (or frequency) can be a game-changer.
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Woke at 83,7 kg - 184,5 lbs
Yup weight is dropping fast right now, Iām still having a god damn belly, I donāt get it. 5 month ago I weighed about the same and feel I was much leaner around my belly. Argh everything is against me, even my body. Well Itāll be better I know.
Todays training
Viking Power Builder protocol
C2W3D1 OHP 80%
.
Warmup: kneeling bottom up kb press, bpa, Yoga flow + fluff
OHP warm up giant set
Pull up 4 x 5 BW
OHP 8 x 20, 30, 37,5 kg, 6 x 42,5 kg
Dynamic sideplank 4 x 6 each side
.
OHP main lift
Pull up
6 x 2 @ 5 kg
Supersetted with
OHP
6 x 2 @ 48,5 kg
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Assistance giant set
BB row underhand grip 9 x 20, 40, 50, 60, 70 kg
CGPB 8 x 20, 42, 52, 62, 72,5 kg
Bicycle crunch 5 x 10 each side
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Finisher WOD
DB press 15 kg x 12, 10, 8, 8, 8
Band face pulls 5 x 12
Rope skipping single leg 5 x 20 skips each leg
about 15 seconds rest between sets (misloaded)
.
3 headed monster 12 x 2,5 kg db.
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55 minutes + 10 minutes warm up.
A good day, BB press was feeling strong.
Pull ups with 5 kg strong as well.
The finisher DB press should have been 12 kg, loaded 15. After set 2 I thought WTF is going on here, then I realized it and everything was good.
I am still annoyed about yesterday.
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@burien_top_team We only play once a week, so I canāt really compare anything, I could of course write in the log how it felt, kind of a RPE factor. Iāll do that from next week.
@trimtabber79 Oh no he has not, weāre about just as good or bad depending on how you look at it. We usually alternating winning and do have very close sets. This year Iāve lost 15-0 on a couple of sets, 15 - 1 to 6 on several occasions and only managed to get past 10 points one or two times. I might have to much fun and relax to much 
@idontbrag123 Thanks man Iām very happy.
@TriednTrue Thanks I was about to hit a wall, but took a deload about midway. By the end I was worn out totally.
I know and it might be likely, but Iāve been doing this for a long time.
Iām tweaking things at the moment, so weāll see.
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Woke at 84,1 kg - 185,4 lbs
Tracking food today 2500 148P, 218C, 109F
Went way over with fat todayā¦ Had some nice sausages from the grill and a salmon pie for lunch, they were quite fatty but good.
Viking Power Builder protocol
C2W3D2 Squat 90%
Warm up: Ergorower, BW squats, BPA, lazy lifter and some fluff.
Squat warm up giant set
Jump 5 x 3
Squat 5 x 20, 40, 60, 80 kg, 1 x 100 kg
Hanging leg raise 5 x 6
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squat main lift
3 x 1 @ 110 kg (90%)
Backoff sets
11 x 97,5 kg PR
11 x 85 kg RPE 9
11 x 72,5 kg rpe 7,5
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Assistance giant set
KB swing 4 x 3 @ 24 kg
Power clean: 5 x 40, 45, 50, 55 kg
Plank 5 x 15 seconds
.
Finisher
Incline DB bench 5 x 12 @ 15 kg
Lat pull down 5 x 10 @ 55 kg
Bulgarian split squat 5 x 10 @ BW
About 15 seconds rest between rounds.
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1 hour 5 minutes + 10 minutes warm up.
Squats were good, hit proper depth on the warm-ups until 100 kg.
I think the 110 kg and backoff were likely like my old squat form which Iām happy with at the moment.
Theyāll improve over time.
Power cleans were well, reverse curl muscle up, not pretty.
Finisher left me sweating again.
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I wouldnāt expect you to be doing max effort squats with your new depth yet. Youāre probably in survival mode so you go back to your usual form. Itāll take awhile to get used to the new form. Youāll be fine as long as you keep getting reps with it on your lighter sets.
Nice workout!
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