Traditional Elk’s training log

AM workout

3 rounds of 4 minutes each movement/station (24 minutes total)

3 ABC’s + 5 burpee chins
Airdyne

So the way this went was-in 4 minutes I did 2 full rounds of 3 ABC’s + 5 burpee chins, then 3 more ABC’s & 3 more bc’s
Then 4 minute airdyne
Then 2 more burpee chins, 2 rounds of 3+5, 3 more ABC’s, & 1 more bc
4 minute airdyne
4 bc’s, 2 full rounds, 2 more ABC’s
4 minute airdyne

So each set went 9+13, 9+13, & 8+14 for a total of 26 ABC’s & 40 burpee chins in those 12 minutes, as well as a total of 12 minutes on the airdyne

After that I did 75 dumbbell curls & 75 band pushdowns. Good workout today & a good last workout with no barbell before I return to it next week. It’s been effective to bring the kettlebells back into play, & need to find a way to make room for them more regularly even though most of my conditioning is running at the moment

AM workout

3.01 mile run (31:33)

In 8 minutes complete
Dips 4x13
Chins 4x13
Band pull aparts 4x15

Happy with being able to knock out 4 sets of 13 chins & dips in under 8 minutes. Run felt very solid as well, it seemed like I could have held that pace (albeit an easy one) for so long. I’m just pleased with how it’s been coming along recently, as I know two months ago I couldn’t imagine NOT being pretty tired after a three mile run, regardless of the pace

PM workout

Press 5x110, 130, 145, 16+4x110
Superset w/ a total of 50 band pull aparts

50 dips
50 kb rows
50 barbell curls
50 banded pushdowns
15 Ab wheel

2.04 mile run (17:53)

Decided to start 5/3/1 with minimum reps + a FSL widowmaker. It’ll keep a little bit of higher percentage touches, though I don’t want much more than that right now. Then it’ll keep volume relatively low on the barbell, but with 1 extremely high intensity set. I think I’ll go for broke on the widowmaker, then make up whatever reps I fall short of 20 as quickly as possible. Also going to add kb press & rows into the assistance rotation, just for variety while keeping it as movements with no set up time. I haven’t done this variation of 5/3/1 before, but it seems exciting for now so I’m gonna scratch that itch.

Running honestly felt much harder than I thought it would. But I guess doing it immediately after lifting at a pretty high pace made it tougher. Got a longer run planned for tomorrow, as well as continuing mostly daily dips & chins.

Watched Alan Thrall’s video of him deadlifting 545 & running a 5:37 mile, makes me want to try something similar. Might go for a something like a 315 bench & 5:15 mile…not sure exactly but I’m starting to scheme numbers to train for something similar. Challenges like that still get me excited

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5.02 mile run (44:24)

Probably all I’m doing for working out today. 8:51 pace for five mile, pumped about this.

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AM workout

2.07 mile run (22:34)

50 kb press 45 lb kbs
50 chins

Kb presses were extremely difficult. Excited for the effect these will have as I phase them back in.

Short, easy run today. Shook out some stiffness from yesterday & checked off another day of widening the aerobic base

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AM workout

Squat 5x195,225,255, 20x195

50 dips
50 kb rows

50 dumbbell curls
50 band pushdowns
15 Ab wheel

Even with a light weight, sets of 20 make the entire rest of the workout way tougher. Glad I pulled the trigger on the widowmaker template for 5/3/1 as these first two lifting days have been so different from what I’ve been doing. Definitely having a really awesome training effect from it

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AM workout

3.11 mile run (34:18)

100 barbell curls
100 band pushdowns

Also forgot to log that I got an easy 1.4 mile run in after work yesterday. Legs are sore from squats yesterday as well, so these two runs have been good to move them around and get some blood flow

AM workout

5 mile airdyne

75 banded curls
75 banded pushdowns

Started feeling pretty congested yesterday & have had on & off headaches, so last night I decided to push the alarm back & just get something short in this morning. Seems like it has to be allergies since I was just sick about a month ago, but either way I need to be better about washing/sanitizing my hands more. Working with middle schoolers all day makes it tough but also even more essential. Either way, bench day is tomorrow & today was good to still salvage some work

AM workout

Bench 5x155,175,200, 20x155
Superset w/50 band pull aparts

50 kb press
50 chins

50 barbell curls 65 lbs
50 heavy band pushdowns
30 Lu raises 10 lb plates

Bench moved way slower than usual, but I’m sure it will bounce back by next week as I feel better. Got a good pump from the accessory, but was breathing much harder than usual on the kb press/chin superset. Solid work today

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AM workout

6.04 mile run (57:26)

25 chins
50 banded curls

25 dips
50 band pushdowns

15 Ab wheel

Run felt really solid. Started off a bit under a 10 minute/mile pace, & started picking it up around halfway through. Ran the last mile in 8:50 & felt like I could have went significantly faster if I really opened it up there. Average HR was mid 150’s which is super sustainable. Accessory work gave a solid pump, going straight from a big set of dips/chins into high rep band work

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AM workout

Press 3x120,135,155, 14+4+2x120
50 band pull aparts

Chins 2x13,2x12
Dips 2x13,2x12

50 barbell curls 65lbs
50 band pushdowns

Just staying consistent, not much else. Hip flexors are a bit sore after the run yesterday. In a few weeks, school will be out for Christmas break, so I’ll have a three week break from work. I’m thinking about pushing lifting extra hard for those three weeks, as I’ll have more time to cook/eat/recover. Not 100% on if I’ll end up doing that or not, but if any of y’all have input on ideas for that time I’d love to hear them. I’m thinking about doing one cycle of Building the Monolith or beefcake.

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AM workout

3.20 mile run (33:43)

90 assorted curls
90 assorted tricep extensions
50 band pull aparts
10 Ab wheel

It was 30 degrees on the run this morning, & I don’t have gloves, so my felt like ice blocks for the first 15 minutes or so. However, by the end I had worked up a little bit of a sweat & the sun was just starting to peek through, so that felt good. Have a four day week at work this week, then off until after Thanksgiving-pumped for that. Gotta power through just a couple days

AM workout

Squat 3x210,240,270, 20x210

50 kb press
50 chins

50 band pull aparts
50 pushdowns
50 banded curls

Today’s widowmaker was way harder than last weeks. Not sure if part of it is getting over the congestion I had, but weights have just felt heavier for my last 3 lifts. Whatever it is, I’ll just keep pushing hard. The widowmakers have had a really good effect so far, especially on squat. I’m thinking this widowmaker template might become the default I use for squatting, with BBB for the upper body lifts. I definitely tend towards the higher volume, higher rep, lower percentage work, & widowmakers on squat help me still push really hard while not always being sore.

Something I have thought a bit about recently- on January 2 earlier this year, I finished SuperSquats with a set of 20 at 300. Now, 285x5 is pretty much a max effort set for me. I guess I’ve lost so much strength since then, but also my goals have changed a lot. Funnily enough, my upper body is probably similar strength to what it was then, but all the running recently, a lighter bodyweight, & needing to take a little bit of time away from the barbell earlier this year took its toll on squat strength. Not sure It’ll ever be a high enough priority to get back to where I was then, but it’s just interesting to think about

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It’s worth considering that you FINISHED the program at that point, which is to say, when you knuckled down and dedicated yourself to that 1 goal for 6 weeks, that was the outcome. I managed 5x10x405 with BBB Beefcake on the squat, and 2 weeks later a set of 405 for 8 was a struggle. In between I had done the 10k swing challenge in a week, dropped bodyweight, and changed goals.

But the big thing to take away is you know what your POTENTIAL is. All you need is the time to sit down and dedicate yourself toward pursuing that. In the interim, you’re raising your floor rather than your ceiling such that, the next time you go and find your potential, it’ll be even crazier.

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That’s a really good point. Appreciate you pointing that out man! Yeah I guess it wouldn’t make sense to compare my squatting in a normal training phase to the end of SS.

AM workout

3.61 mile run (38:10)

100 barbell curls
100 band pushdowns

I keep thinking that at least a couple days a week, I’ll come back from running & do either dips or kb press & chins or rows, but I just always end up being a total bro & hitting bi’s & tri’s. Gonna try to do proper assistance after running at least once a week, but other than that I guess I might as well just lean into it completely

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AM workout

Bench 3x165,190,210, 16+4x165
50 band pull aparts

50 dips
50 kb rows

50 light kb rows
50 barbell curls
50 band pushdowns

Working out was about as low as possible on the list of things I wanted to do when my alarm went off. But it was still a good session. Today is the last day of school until the Monday after thanksgiving, so that’s awesome. Ready for a nice little break. I’m thinking I’ll do a two mile time trial sometime soon. Looking back, the last time I did one was around 6 weeks ago & I got 15:28

AM workout

3.33 mile run (32:31)

50 barbell curls
50 band pushdowns
60 band pull aparts

AM workout

1 mile run (6:51)

100 band pull aparts

Went out way too fast on the mile & ended up in survival mode before halfway. Splits for each half were ~3:05-3:10 & ~3:40-3:45. So probably not the best time I was capable of, but I went full send & didn’t leave out any bit of effort. Decided on 1 mile instead of 2 this morning for no particular reason. I wanted to get one good test of my running in after a couple months of work, but I’m planning to pivot a bit & start a 6 week gaining block. School is out for this next week, then after 2 weeks back there is a 3 week Christmas break, so I only work 2 of the next 6 weeks. Perfect timing to gain, & honestly I’m pretty fired up to do it. The last couple days I’ve realized just maintaining lifting has gotten stale. My goal for the next 6 weeks is to gain a bunch of size, while still running a few days a week. For the lifting, I’ll be doing 70’s power lifter from base strength. I’ll do press on Monday, squat on Wednesday, & bench Friday. I’m gonna change a little bit of the accessory movements, but keep the first two assistance movements the same/as similar as I can. My plan for running is an easy 2-3 miles on Tuesday, 2-3 miles easy but with some strides on Thursday, long run (probably staying at 5 miles the whole time) on Saturday, then some speed work Sunday. I could tell today that I’m just not used to running fast, so even though I bring down the mileage I have hopes that I could get faster here. I’ll be trying to figure out the food situation this weekend, as I’m not sure my wife & I can budget a bunch more for groceries, but I’m sure there are tricks I can do to get the calories in on a budget. Wow that was a lot of words with no organization…might need to go back and add things I’m forgetting later

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PM workout

4.52 mile run (46:25)

100 banded curls
100 band pushdowns
100 band pull aparts

Hamstrings are real toasty from yesterday, so this run was much harder than planned. But I’m pumped for press day tomorrow. 70’s PL was the most bro-split, high volume plan I’ve ever seen, & with how little lifting I’ve done + all the running, I feel like I’m primed to pack on some size. Let’s go

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