The Little Lifter Who Could

Today was press day, here’s how it went.

40kgX3
45kgX3
50kgX3
45kgX3
40kgX3

Managed to hit all prescribed reps, but only just. However, I was feeling weak today, coz I then went on to hit:

Pull-ups: 5kg added for 4X3 full, one hal and one quarter. So, in total, 5 “reps”, but only 3 full ones each time.

Dips then became 3X5, 1X3, with 5kg added. Annoyed as last time I managed all 4 sets with 6reps. So, yeah, strength was off today, no idea why. Or maybe I’ve just gotten fatter?

Changed jobs now, so I won’t be cycling as much. Hoping this will help with quad DOMS and overall recovery. Been trying to stretch my glutes a lot, specifically my left one as it’s ridiculously tight, which is giving me bad pain in my hamstring. Not sure if my left glute being tight is a symptom or a cause though. Need to finish reading “Neanderthal No More”.

Deadlifts today.

115kgX3
135kgX3
150kgX2.25
135kgX3
115kgX6

Not too bad, but missed a rep, so might have to reset for the next cycle.

GH Raises, 4X8 Still not getting full ones, but I no longer get cramps, and I think I’m getting a better ROM on them.

Farmer’s walks. Did less weight this time, but went for a longer distance. Mostly my food intake has been liquid today, and now I feel all bloaty and uncomfortable. Ugh. Also, instead of a pre and a post-WO shake, I had half before, half during, and one after. Not sure it made much of a difference to be honest. Didn’t feel any better either way.

So, been away for a while, started training again. Not gonna post numbers and shit, coz who can be bothered reading that? I have changed my assistance work around, a new template is as good for motivation as anything, and besides that, I’ve been doing the other one for a few cycles now. This time I’ve tried to keep like for like muscles together, not trained like this before, so it’ll be interesting.

Squat:
531
Step-ups
box jumps

Press:
531
lateral raises
pull ups

Deadlift:
531
snatch grip
glute raises (that one where the bar goes accross your groin and you hump the sky)

Bench:
531
dips
rows

So far I’ve noticed this: Snatch grips ruin my grip, may consider getting straps, and glute bridge thingies make it impossible to walk. I’m hitting 2 great areas in that one training session though - glute and traps. Soon, I’ll be fighting the ladies off! Mwahahaha!

But I’ve also started to really notice that my hips, glutes, lower back and all that general area are really stiffening up, which is not good. Gonna add in this warm-up

and see if that helps before I start getting lower back pain. I’ve also been looking at that mobilityWOD guy, and wanna buy his book when it comes out here in the UK. I’e never been flexible, but it’s getting SO much worse at the moment. I really find that static stretching does little for me, but I’ve been doing it and foam rolling most days.

Squatted yesterday, after using the above warm up. Normally my hips feel tight during the first few warm-up sets, and loosen up after that. Yesterday, my hips felt nice and “springy”, if that makes sense, and I had no trouble reaching depth or having my feet a little wider. Felt great. Most importantly though, my left-side glute felt a lot better, more relaxed and less tightness in my left leg.

Squat:
70kgX3
80kgX3
90kgX3
80kgX3
70kgX6

Step-ups: 4X8 with 12kg. This weight was probably too light, but in my head I thought - “I can front squat 60kg, so with one-leg I should be able to do 30kg, so that’s roughly 15kg in each hand. I’ll go slightly lighter to make up for it being a new exercise etc. etc.” But it was too light. The most difficult part was trying to keep my stabiliser leg from pushing off when stepping.

My gym seems to have gotten rid of all the boxes and stuff, so I couldn’t do any box jumps, and there wasn’t really the room to do long jumps. Next time, hopefully.

Interesting fact - bench before dips means I’m better warmed up for dips. At the moment, dips are too difficult for me to just warm up using bodyweight, but after I’ve benched my chest, tris and shoulders are all warmed up and ready to go, so I managed to get a set of 10 done, which was good, as I’ve basically been bombing out at 5/6. And I’ve definitely gotten stronger in my back too, as I rowed 24kg X8 and that wasn’t too difficult, could maybe have gotten 10 so I’m gonna up the weight there too. All progress.

Squatted today, which felt good, got 95kg X3, which is still 25kg from my old 1RM, but I think I’m getting stronger in my legs too, as well as better at actually squatting. I’ll make another video soon hopefully. I upped the weight on my step-ups too, to 18kg which was probably still a little too light for my legs, but just about right for my grip. Might try cleaning the weight up next time, and using a front squat type thing for doing it, that way I can use more weight. Seems simple enough in theory…