Last November I watched a documentary that basically said taking cold showers was good for getting sick less. So since then, I’ve cold showered every day. Well, today I’m starting to think I’m sick for the first time since then. I’ve had some congestion/headaches the past couple days, & my resting heart rate has been up a bit, but today I actually feel a bit of fatigue. I know I could absolutely ruin myself with todays workout, so I just hit the squats then some easy back work & called it. Today wasn’t the biggest day because of that, but it’s better than one huge day then being sick all week, especially on the heavy week of my program. & even with all of this, 10x285 after 3x6 at that weight is really solid. We will see what tomorrow brings, but the plan is to hit the heavy press workout at 150
Press 3x6, 1x9x150
Incline bench 5x12x135
Hammer curls w 2 sec pause 4x15x20
Skullcrushers w 2 sec pause4x15x45
Band pull aparts 4x25
Really happy with the press. Maybe coulda grinded out a 10th, probably 50/50 shot. Then an absolute massive pump. I’m only halfway through week 3, but this program has been awesome so far. BBB has been my go-to hypertrophy program, but so far this is shaping up to potentially take that place
20 min airdyne- 7.46 miles
50 concentration curls per side w/20 lb db
I missed some of the assistance on Monday from sickness, so I tacked on some curls today. I don’t plan on that being a regular feature, but it was good for today. Airdyne was solid as well, I felt pretty tired for the first half, but then was kind of got going & increased my pace significantly for the second half. I felt better after finishing than I did halfway through as well
Power clean singles to 265
Front squat 5x12x155
Pull ups 4x12
Plank 4x1:00
Back extension 4x15
I think I could have went maybe 10 lbs heavier on the clean, but this was a good single for today. Front squats weren’t heavy, but man all that volume wore me out. Really felt the fatigue set in when I supersetted the pull-ups, planks, & back extensions. Was just dragging at the end honestly, but we made it through
Went at a cruising pace for the first 20 mins, then picked it up for the last 5. Wouldn’t say I dropped the hammer at the end, but I went at a pretty tough pace. Still feel like I had more to give, which shows my conditioning is really coming along, especially having just gotten back into it about 3 weeks ago. Overall I’m just really happy with how training has been going. One of my most successful blocks of training that I did about 5 years ago was lifting 3x a week full body, & airdyne 3x a week on the other days. These last 3 weeks have been reminiscent of that time, & things are coming along well, just like I remember
The Alabama heat is back. Today was brutal. Happy with the work for today though. The squats moved fine, but I definitely felt a decent bit of fatigue going into the amrap. It’s probably just from the heat though. But, I’m happy with hitting 15x250 with some fatigue going into it
Press 4x5, 1x15x135
Paused bench 3x10x155
Hammer curls w/2 sec pause at top 2x18x20
Skullcrushers w/2 sec pause at bottom 2x18x45
Band pull aparts 2x30
Dang that is an insane top set of press. 15 reps with one plate is awesome. I’m fired up about that. The paused bench was really good after that as well. I think it’ll help keep moving my bench along, so that’s good. Loving how Tuesday & Friday always provides a massive pump as well
Longest I’ve went on the bike in quite some time. Good work today. Plan for tomorrow is to hit full cleans for my primary movement, then paused back squats for secondary. Probably normal weighted pull-ups-planks-back extension giant set after that
Vertical jump 6 total jumps (did these on a jump mat in our school’s weight room, best was 30.6 inches)
Full cleans 3 singles at 245, 3 singles at 255
20 min airdyne- 7.37 miles
Kind of a weird day, did a little bit of training at school since the students are done for the year, then got home & hit the airdyne. Going to do the rest of the lifting for this day tomorrow, then push bench back to Saturday. So I’ll get all the same workouts in this week, just a different ordwr
This was my first time doing paused squats in like…maybe 6 years? They honestly didn’t feel too bad though. May be able to go up in weight the next week or two. with that said, doing cleans before would have probably made them more difficult, so I’ll just see how next week goes
Bench 4x5, 1x15x190
Press w/ pause at chin 3x10x105
Barbel curls 2x10x75
Band push downs 2x30
Band pull aparts 2x30
Pretty sure I’ve done 15x195 on bench before, so this wasn’t a pr, but hitting it after 4 other sets of 5 is pretty huge. Feeing strong. Can tell I’ve accumulated a bit of extra fluff these past 4 weeks, but progress is happening so I’ll take it. Not sure if I’ll continue trying to gain size after week 6, or if I’ll pivot to lower volume & maybe lose some fat. We’ll see, I have a few weeks to think about it & decide
Easy pace today, but still inching a bit farther in 20 mins than I have been on an average day. I think I’ll be doing some hiking later today as well. My body weight was a bit over 196 this morning, but I think I have some bloat from eating some extra baked goods the past two days. Was hovering around 193-194 just a few days ago. With that said, weight gain is the goal right now, so I’ll take it as long as my lifts are going up as well. I have 5x5’s on squat at 285 then press at 150 this week. I did amraps on both of those weights two weeks ago, hitting 10 on squats & 9 on press, so hopefully I can add to both of those over the next couple days, then dig in for a real heavy 5x5 on the last week of this cycle
Went with 7 chins between each set of planks or back extensions. No weight this week, but the extra volume was still good. Not the hardest thing ever, but a solid scheme for today. Top set of squats felt really strong. Only took one breath between each rep, & may have been able to push for even more reps if I tried. The Alabama heat was definitely present today, so that’s fun
Press 4x5, 1x10x150
Paused bench 4x10x155
Hammer curls w/2 sec pause at top 3x18x20
Skullcrushers w/2 sec pause at bottom 3x18x45
Band pull aparts 3x30
Another strong top set on press today. Paused bench really lit up my chest afterwards as well. On the curls/Skullcrushers I focused on lowering the weights a lot slower today, so those hammered my arms as well. Overall just a really good day. After the 10x150 this week, I’ll end up with my final 5x5 at 160 next week. Looking forward to that
School is out for the summer, so year 1 of teaching middle school is done. I actually got a full time job as a strength & conditioning coach at the school as well, so I’ll be out of the classroom anyways. “1 and done” I guess haha. Anyways, today the other strength coach & I tested out one of the summer workouts for some of the sports teams that’ll be training. It had cleans & back squats, so I’ll count those as the work I’d normally do on Thursday, even though the cleans were lighter & the squats heavier than what I’d of done otherwise. My tentative plan for tomorrow is to hit some pull-ups, maybe the rest of the assistance I’d normally do on Thursday, then throw on the weight vest & mow our lawn for conditioning
Finished this in about ten minutes this morning, going back & forth between chins & the other movements. Then got about 90 minutes of lawn mowing/other outside work in
Bench 4x5, 1x9x215
Press w/pause at chin 4x10x105
Barbell curls 3x10x75
Band push downs 3x30
Band pull aparts 3x30
Another good day & end to the week. Looking to next week, I got 310 on squat, 160 on press, & 225 on bench coming up. Fired up for it. Probably not much real training this weekend as my family is out of town, but will be pretty active being outside & playing games most of the time