The Danish Viking: back to 531: Road to 2-3-4 Plates

Something about walking slowly around the mall (or any clothing store really) sucks the life from me in about 20 minutes.

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My bar has very little knurling, too. Do you own any work or duty gloves with a leather or rough-grip palm? Those should help your grip during snatch grip deadlifts. I love how that exercise works the upper back!

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Hey TT thanks for the adwise will try that next time.

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woke at 81,6 kg - 179,9 lbs


Todays training

The Danish Vikings Darkhorse
W5D1: OHP variation 5RM

Warmup: rope skipping, yoga stuff, stretches

Dynamic warmup:

  • SGHP 8 x 40, 40, 45, 50, 45 kg
  • kneeling bottom up KB press 2 x 10
  • BPA 5 x 12
  • rope skipping 5 x 20 seconds

Complex: 2 rounds of

  • bar x 6: DL, row, Hang clean, fr Squat, press, squat, GM, push press

Main Giant set:

  • pull up 2 x 7, 7 x 6
  • Z press 5 x 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 kg PR (neural adaption)
    Volume
  • 35 kg x 13, 10, 8 + 2 rest pause.
  • Deadbug 9 x 12
  • Zercher hold 9 x 15 seconds @ 65 kg

Speed bench emom

  • 10 x 3 @ 75 kg.

Assistance Giant set:

  • straight arm pull down band 3 x 12
  • DB press 3 x 12 @ 12 kg
  • EZ bar curl 3 x 12 @ 27 kg
  • sit up 3 x 14

Done in 1 hour 10 minutes
Z press still feeling as a good exercise, managed 5 reps with 45 kg RPE no more than 9 absolute had another rep there. Didnā€™t attempt more :slight_smile:
Bench emom 75 kg, reset next time.
Good day today. Off to Copenhagen to Jazz festival, gonna see a couple of bands have a beer or two, chilling.

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Nice work and enjoy the festival mate.

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No prob, Mort. When I started doing towel pullups, I quickly realized Iā€™d need a way to improve my grip or miss out on lots of lats.

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Woke at 81,5 kg - 179,7 lbs


Todays training

The Danish Vikings Darkhorse

W4D2 Squat variation 1RM

Warmup: Jump rope, yoga stuff, stretches.

Dynamic warmup:

  • Zercher squat 5 x 30 kg
  • BPA 5 x 12
  • bear crawl 5 x 25 seconds
  • ring dip 5 x 3

Complex:

  • 10 @ bar: DL, row, Hang clean, fr Squat, press, squat, GM, push press

Main giant set:

  • box jump 8 x 3
    Front squat 5 x 40, 3 x 50, 60,65, 70(B) kg rep PR
    Volume
  • 55 kg x 9 52,5 x 8, 8 (form was breaking badly with 55 kg)
  • hanging leg raise 1 x 8, 4 x 7, 3 x 6
  • Push press wide almost snatch grip to overhead hold 8 x 15ish seconds

Speed DL AEMOM (Almost Every Minute On the Minute) :slight_smile:

  • 10 x 3 @ 115 kg all double overhand

Assistance

  • Farmers walks on stairs 3 minutes up and down for 3 minutes 20 kg plate each hand

Done in just under an hour.
Front squat is improving, but form is still a bit meh, bad, bad posture.
3 reps with 70 kg was almost good. Legs could easily have done 75 kg, but not upper back
DL emom absolutely spot on, I thought last week was the heaviest I could do. But no.
All in all a great day, going in I was thinking not to day, going out Yeah!!

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Those are some good looking workouts, Mort. Keep it up!

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I took this time with the front squat to really work in two things the rack position and keeping the core tight and upright. It did wonders for my numbers.

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@Frank_C Thanks Big J.
I do like the DH a lot, itā€™s really hard work, and I probably wonā€™t do it back to back.
What I do like is the 10 minutes dynamic warm up, it really is good, so that is definitely something Iā€™ll keep.

@losthog Thatā€™s what Iā€™m working on too. And Iā€™m hoping it will bring up my numbers as well.
Iā€™m warming up with some light Zercher squats, those feel really good. Might do them as assistance on the last 3 weeks.

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Woke at 81,3 kg - 179,2 lbs


Todays training

The Danish Vikings Darkhorse
W5D3: Bench variation 1RM

Warmup: Jump rope, stretches, BPA.

Dynamic warmup: EMOM alternating

  • SGHP 5 x 40, 50, 55, 60, 65 kg
  • kneeling buttom up KB press each arm x 5
    With
  • Rope skipping 30 seconds

Complex: 2 rounds

  • BB x 6, DL, row, hang clean, front squat, strict press, back squat, GM, push press

Main Giant set:

  • BB row: 10 x 40, 50, 60, 6 x 5 65 kg
  • floor press 5 x 65, 3 x 70, 1 x 75, 80, 85, 90 kg
    Volume
  • 70 kg x 8, 5, 5.
  • Russian twist 5 kg medball 9 x 20
  • goblet squat 9 x 5 kg

OHP emom

  • 10 x 3 @ 45 kg

Assistance Giant set:

  • SG deadlift 3 x 8 @ 85 kg
  • Push up 3 x 16
  • Plank 3 x 15 seconds

Done in 1 hour.
EDIT: That is timed from when I start the main giant set. Add in 20 - 25 minutes of warmup, dynamic and complex.

Floor press was great today 90 kg x 1 and I believe there where more, but called it.
Unracking from pallets is not the best.
SG DL for assistance!! But why? I have a week off, lots of beers and junk food. Going to be fun.
Hoping Iā€™ll be back for a light session Wednesday or Thursday next week, before SGDL next Saturday.

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The few times Iā€™ve done floor press I just rolled the bar over my head and into position. I always started from a dead stop in the bottom position.

Iā€™ve also seen or read about doing a glute bridge on the floor to get the bar up. Go to the 2 minute mark of this video.

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when i did floor press i did it from the safeties of the squat rack. (half rack)
Worked great

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I donā€™t have a rack, yetā€¦ Might by one at some point.
My squat and bench rack has the lowest point at about 1 m height.

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I must try that the next time :slight_smile: only one floor press session to go.

Nice work mort! I canā€™t wait to see your testing numbers. I wish you had a spotter to assist you

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Me too Hog, me too.
Sometimes the Missus do the spotting. Other times I workout with a couple of buddies at work.

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Dang, this is what I get for being off the wagon for almost 7 months, I missed a good log by someone my age, and close to my size! Your new program looks interesting, Iā€™m going to have to do some reading up on it. Anything by Alpha has to be worth checking outā€¦ Iā€™ll probably stick with my 5/3/1 variation for now, though, just because Iā€™ve had nothing but success with it. I guess the trick is to actually stick with it long enough to stall, then switch things up. Looking good with your progress, and I look forward to seeing you succeed on your goals.

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Hey Steve
Welcome to my humble log. Hope youā€™ll enjoy it.

If I donā€™t progress on this DarkHorse program, Iā€™ve learned a ton from it.
But I really think I will progress at least on the lower body lifts and perhaps OHP which is going well. My Bench has stalled bigtime, and I donā€™t think thatā€™ll go up.
Do you have a log? and 5/3/1 is a good solid way to go, have done it myself for more than a year.

Woke at 82,1 kg - 181 lbs
Off to 4 days of music, beer, junk food, great companion, after that a couple of days at a cottage by the sea with some friends.
See you on the other side. And if I have a spare minute while listening to some music I might even see how you guys are doing.

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