All-Purpose Health and Fitness Thread

[Shartnado]

Another jog/walk/run this afternoon when I woke up. Same route, same 35 minutes and a few minutes of walking inside that 35. The stairs that I use are (surprise!) at a side of a small hill. Yesterday as well as today I went all Kate Bush and was "Running up that Hill" for the first climb, then 3 times up and down the stairs, then slowly jogging down the hill (yes, also a lesser known Kate Bush track, you can imagine why that one never charted) and then back home. 

Whether it's smart or not, I think I'll try to keep the intensity up at first and then add more time to the jogs once it starts feeling easier. The only problem is how in teh fukk am I going have any decent leg days in the forseeable future on top of this? I need to go do some stretching now, as I should be heading for the gym in a little more than hour.

The synth-wave gym playlist is working like a mofo for these jogs as well, as I mentioned before.

I guess I'll just edit these in...

This week's bench was a sets of 3 one and a half reps starting from 132 adding 22lbs each set until at 264 then several normal sets of 3 reps with that then one straight set each with 22 lbs off each set.

The sleep and recovery before this week's trapbar was atrocious so I wasn't expecting much, and boy did I get it! Well, no, but I kept everything after 416 just straight up heavy singles and nothing more. Got 526 up and then failed three straight attempts at 579 and 568. I used 11 lb plates under the weight (later measured to be under one inch of thickness) to use as a platform and got 515 up, so I tried 568 again and got it up. I figured I'll give that one a go once more off the floor, but no, not moving. It is really weird how much that one extra inch seems to help! It can't be JUST psychological, either! At that point I was running out of time so I just switched to shrugs with 416, 306, 196, 75 and sets of 110 with each pair of 55's taken off the bar.

This afternoon, after waking up I went for another jog/run to the stairs and was sprinting up that hill. That fucked me up, but I did the stairs 3 times and jogged down the hill like last time. Jogging felt fine, so I kept going about 42 minutes with probably 2-3 minutes of walking during that time.

I am planning to go to the gym before work tonight as well, but I have no idea what I'm going to do there?

The weight is down a couple of pounds, but the wonderful Scottish cuisine combined with dark rum and white wine sure did a number on me. Well, that's my choice and now it's time to get ripped and jacked again.

Edited May 5, 2022 by Shartnado
I'll just edit this in...

[Shartnado]

Yesterday evening's workout was just pretty intense arm and shoulder pump, nothing special. The work week had many challenges despite being only 4 days, but the bike rides have been a breeze now, despite taking the longer route most of the time.

Today, I woke up a little earlier than usual and caught a part of this week's Dynamite before going for the jog. Jogging 36 minutes straight (including the hill climb and stairs as usual) then walked another 10 for recovery.

Just now, I got the needed ingredients for my super oatmeal that has been my not so secret weapon during the diet for several years now. Just finished my first bowl of the stuff and yeah, this is what I needed. Some stretching, sauna and massage hammer should also be on tonight's agenda, but I think I'll finish the Dynamite before any of that.

Yeah, this week could have gone better, but it definitely was a start, no doubt about it!

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

I got my 155kg back squat today, two weeks earlier than planned!

To be honest, 140kg went up so easy and I didn't fancy doing the back off work so I was just like 'f**k it, I'll do the target single and be done with it'.

Quads didn't feel a thing, weight felt heavy off the rack but area of weakness is almost entirely upper back. Though doing banded bicep curls last night did not help. I was in full Peter Griffin knee meme mode for 5 minutes afterwards, though not because of my knees.

I will do SSB for next two sessions, and I am tentatively targetting 160kg with it but we'll see.

Bench could be 'interesting' tomorrow, but I'm not too bothered. (Edit: Bench was indeed trash, and I think Deadlifts will be replace by Good Mornings on Tuesday).

Pretty confident I can hit a 180kg fully raw squat by the end of the year.

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by RunningFromAmerica

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

I've hit on a pretty good pattern for my workouts recently where I alternate a squat/pull/push + accessory work day with a "simple and sinister" day of get-ups and swings + snatches and sandbag work. Full day or two off between workouts (with long walks). Three or four training days per week. Seems to be just the right balance. Have lots of energy to attack every training day.

Thursday I did four cycles of squats, Australian (fat boy) pull-ups, and incline push-ups. Then three straight sets of hanging knee raises and a two rounds of mechanical drop set dumbbell curls.

Saturday was five sets each of Hindu push-ups, sandbag get-ups, hand to hand kettlebell swings, sandbag shoulder-to-shoulder presses, and kettlebell snatches. 

Then Monday was a repeat of Thursday but with one less set in each round because I was really pressed for time.

Generally, workouts take about 35-45 minutes.

I'm down to 92.5 kilos after hitting a high of 119 last year, and starting my diet at 112 kilos in October. After a three-day fast over the (Japanese) holiday weekend I got down to 91.8 kilos, which I think is the lowest I have been since the 1990s. Bodyfat currently around 12 or 13%. (Based on caliper measurements).

Calories are up to 24-2800 per day and I am still slowly losing fat. Generally, I'll have one day every week or two where I drop down to 1600 calories. 

Food still mostly soups, salads, chicken, eggs, seafood, fruits, veggies, oatmeal, nuts, fermented foods like miso and umeboshi. I'll enjoy curry or ramen or karaage or popcorn and/or beer or something "fun" like that once or twice, most weeks. 

It's fully a habit now. Don't even have to really think about it any more.

Supplements are whey, greens powder, creatine, fish oil, curcumin.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Gordlow

[Shartnado]

@Gordlow Damn, it seems to be working! Pointing out the obvious, but once you get into the positive habit of doing things, they indeed start getting easier as they become routine and part of your life without thinking about it too much! Great job!

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

8 hours ago, Shartnado said:

@Gordlow Damn, it seems to be working! Pointing out the obvious, but once you get into the positive habit of doing things, they indeed start getting easier as they become routine and part of your life without thinking about it too much! Great job!

It's so true! Making one or two simple positive changes at a time, then sticking with those changes until they become habit... That really seems to be a good way to make big changes over time. 

[Shartnado]

There will be more detailed edits tomorrow, but today I lifted 568 off the floor on trapbar. Also, two singles with 590, using one inch planks as elevation. I also failed two attempts at 601. I guess that's for next time? New records, yay!

[Shartnado]

Right, so this week's workouts are now done, as I returned from a run before breakfast. I won't be going to work this evening and the weekend will be some light walking at very best, if that.

So three workouts and four jogs/runs. Monday was the usual upper body giant set and the resistance band work, Tuesday was bench with a bunch of short sets within 253-275 range and longer sets within 198-242. Monday took it out of me again, but also my weight is down some 8 lbs since last week (183 at the moment). I took the Wednesday off in order to recover for the trapbar and that seemed to work. I wish I could have cleared the 600 lb mark now, as the odds are not in its favor as my weight keeps (most likely) going down in the upcoming weeks. But I'll keep the trapbar as heavy as possible throughout this diet, everything else can go lighter if it must.

The cardio part of things is coming along nicely. I have not reached the point where I was last summer, but I'm definitely moving towards that direction. One run up the hill and three times the stairs is enough of that at this point, but I still have plenty of gas left in the tank to keep running and jogging after that for longer and longer, so I'll probably add the reps to the stairs soon enough.

This was a good week. At work, there seems to be a need for me and others to work some weekends before the summer holidays. I'll do my share, that's for sure, but it will be a challenge as far as recovery goes.

Anyway, I'm more hopeful about this than I was 10 days ago, but last year set the fucking bar really damn high. You know I'll give all I have to it, anyway!

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

No major sexy lifts of the week to report to be honest, I actually was very happy with the planned 90kg x 5 on bench today that became 95 kg x 8 and could probably have been more, but I didn't want to wreck my backoff work and recovery. Not that these are particularly good numbers, but my bench has been dogshit for weeks and I feel like I am turning a corner.

And that's been the learning really for me recently. Should I have done that 155kg squat recently? There's no real answer to that, but it probably wasn't strictly optimal in terms of my longer term development and recovery - but one probably should have goal and occasionally swing for the fences....but not all the time. I went for some neutral pull-ups that I probably shouldn't have gone for and I have some strain in my left upper back that is going to have to be worked around for a bit.

My point is...I'm not too worried about hitting a 140kg bench any time soon. A better goal, for now, is to get 5 clean, fast reps at 80-85% of that i.e. about 115kg.

My on-off bicep tendonitis seems to have gone away thanks to swapping out deads for SSB GMs, and using rope curls (twisting neutral to supine) to rehab - I really like this movement, I haven't actually been doing it quite like the below - but Israetel is probably right to get the shoulder movement in to get the full use of the bicep so I will switch to this. I'd love do get more barbell curling in but I train with my gf and she doesn't need it, and tbh this probably carries over better to the bench eccentric, with better stimulus to fatigue.

There's no doubt that low-bar squat is not that good for my bench, but it's not necessarily great for my SSB Squat either it seems - I did a top-set of 100kg x 6 yesterday and it was way more challenging than I expected and I called it despite having the intention of doing 110kg x 6. It's fine, I'll get it back up and my hurt upper back may have been in play. Lots of good mornings and step-ups is my new gameplan for long-term squat growth anyway, though I may consider messing with some high-bar and a somewhat narrower stance for a while anyway.

My current 30 day membership runs out next Sunday. Normally I take a few days off and restart the next Saturday, but I may actually take a slightly extended break from my standard training and visit an actual powerlifting gym in a couple of Saturdays - they have some speciality bench bars, a belt squat machine, deadlift platforms with band pegs...and CHALK!!! It's a bit far to make my regular haunt but might be somewhere I visit from time to time.

 

 

 

 

[Shartnado]

Wow, it's certainly been a week. Three workouts, three jogs/runs and seven workdays (two of which were nights) so far.

All workouts were intended to be mostly heavy stuff, but I gave the trapbar a miss this week and opted for squat machine instead, going as far as doing a few sad partial reps with something like 400lbs (using the chains as an extra weight) but doing better stuff with 345 and 320.

Early in the week I did 2 rounds of pull-up, dip reverse shrugs with 88lbs of extra weight (but being like 11lbs lighter myself now, that's only 77lbs of actual EXTRA weight) but changed that into the more usual 66lbs after that. Everything else was the usual stuff.

Bench was nothing special at all. Seems like anything from 275 and up is not really happening for the time being, but I try to keep it around there for as long as I can.

The week has been a disaster workwise, and working the weekend left me with very little progress to show for it, but these were mostly things beyond my control, so I'm just happy with the extra pay. That also means some 25 or so miles of extra biking I did to get there and back, this week.

Yesterday morning, after only few hours of sleep, I did start to see the results of the pretty extreme version of the diet this year, so that was fun.

In the early hours of this morning I went to the town on the complimentary pizza my employer kindly provided for the weekend workers, so that should take care of that shredded look, but it should also jump-start my metabolism, which I could already feel slowing down only after two weeks into the diet.

I should go for a walk now or a bit later, but coffee and Rampage sounds better. The sleep I got after getting home this morning was decent, though! Finally!

Tonight, the new work week starts and I'm already spent! This should be fun!

 

[Shartnado]

The week has continued non stop and I'm three runs and two workouts in as we speak. Leaving for the gym once I finish my coffee and this post.

Monday I had to consolidate due to time constraints and did sort of a triathlon. A 30 minute run forgoing the stairs altogether, picked up my backbag and jumped on the bike to ride straight to the gym. Did the first two rounds of pull-up, dip, reverse shrug with 88lbs again, the first round went well and the second, not so much. Then one round with 66, 44, 22 and bodyweight. Bunch of resistance band and ab work afterwards. The shredded look has come back in just a few days. This is good.

Yesterday was trapbar. The meaningful stuff was 3x471, 2x515, 2x548 and 7x438. I failed the third rep on 548 and failed to get it off the ground at all on the next attempt, but I'm at 175 lbs right now, so that was still pretty brutal lift for such a low bodyweight. Only a small amount of shrugs and abs, as I rushed through before the shift started.

Today should be bench. I slept really well today, but the run lasted more than an hour, so that must have taken something out of me already.

Looking forward to the re-feeding on the weekend, as the weight has come down much faster than anticipated. I'll edit rest of the stuff in later, if there is anything worthwhile to mention.

...Ok, bench wasn't anything special. Only went up to 264 with 3 sets of 3. Rep-wise, Only 10x220 was anything decent, but the pump was impressive, especially since I did curls, side delts and lat pull-downs between sets. I don't know if I will do a workout tomorrow (well this evening, since it's soon 4:20 over here), but if I do, then it's probably squat machine-time.

Edited May 26, 2022 by Shartnado
today's workout

[Shartnado]

Yup, one more 1 hour walk/run and pretty heavy squat-machine workout yesterday and now I feel exhausted, even after sleeping. Now it will be about recovery and refill, as I've obviously spent whatever I had to give these past 10 or so days. I guess I should start preparing for a new profile pic soon?

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Lifts of the week:

Bench Press: 100kg x 9 (Rep PR!, RPE 9.5)

Frog (Semi-Sumo) Deadlift, Fo8 straps, no belt - 180kg (PR for Semi-Sumo, or anything without a belt. Have only pulled 180kg once before on any deadlift except high-handle TB)

Double Overhand Frog Deadlift - 140kg (Double Overhand PR for any deadlift)

 

So.....gotta be honest, I'm a bit hurt.

Left side of upper back has a strain that's taking its time in going away - from a pull-up I shouldn't have tried I think. Right hip....I think I have trochanteric bursitis, but then I have also read that what appears to be trochanteric bursitis often isn't that. I think the cause is deep ROM leg press - it's ok for some people but I don't think it's for me.

I was planning a deload anyway, but that was due to end today and I had been planning to go to this 'proper powerlifting gym' for while. And I decided...fuck it, I'm going...because that's the dumb powerlifting thing to do obviously. It worked out ok, I think.

Finding the bloody gym was hilarious, it's in the back of this warehouse at the edge of town. I should have rewatched the YouTube video tbf: 

It was quite quiet when I got there, but there were later some powerlifters doing powerlifting things and it was hilarious....nose salts, the boss-lady doing her mega-arch 'zero bench' (ok not quite but y'know what I mean. Good guys though, and friendly. It's also bloody nice having a couch to sit on between sets....this is a seriously underrated thing.

So I got to bench with a Rogue Ohio Power Bar, which was nice - plus yes I could use chalk. Though I wasn't used to the bench set-up, and my back got slippy wearing a vest - I didn't really find my groove. The truth is I watched a lot of hardcore benchers today, and they do things I have to copy. I am working on my arch, but my unracking still needs a lot of work. If I get the set-up right, my bench is going to go up. Anyway, I had the safetys today (I don't usually) so I decided I would see how many reps I could get at 100kg as I have a definite target of 10 here.  And the truth is, I actually think I may well have got the 10th rep.....but I had traveled a long way and was beat-up enough to not fancy it. We'll get it. It's there. Now tbf, I took my time here and I was using a nice bar..so it's not necessarily my best bench session ever but I will take it given my current condition.

I got to use a cambered football bar for my backoff work. It cramped my hands something awful, but it did what I needed it to do - make 50kg x 12 feel challenging, so I had some energy for deadlifting. Also did some JM Presses for the first time in a while.

After some snackage and a rest, got to use a deadlift bar - https://www.strengthshop.co.uk/bastard-deadlift-bar.html . The band pegs were removed from the platforms sadly, not sure why - but having a deadlift jack was all kinds of lovely. Platform was good too. Not going to lie, took a lot of time before the 180kg pull and hyped up a bit..but I haven't pulled anything over 140kg in a good few months, and nothing over 165kg since the Winter lockdown. Tbh I don't think the deadlift bar whip makes *that* much difference at this weight level. The figure of 8 straps arguably do cut the ROM slightly, but this was a decent enough pull - I suspect my last 180kg pull was a bit of hitch, not today! Very pleased because I wasn't remotely convinced that was in me.

I did RDLs without straps and they were good but brutal on the hands so I could only do 3 x 6. I put on straps and did 10; the knurling is savage. Did some Pendlays as well, but strapping was very necessary.

They had a belt squat machine. BUT. It was rigged up with a resistance band that you couldn't really remove, plus 2 x 20kg plates you couldn't really remove either. Yeah, this was challenging. I managed sets of 12 but I suspect I am going to feel those.

I actually did some lat pulldowns for a pump. I couldn't really face anything else. They have a GHR machine and even a pole to assist you if you're a bit lame...but lol, yeah no, not today.

Btw I was there over 4 hours lol.

I should go eat. Everything.

 

[Contentious C]

Pretty sure I managed to either dislocate or crack a rib and/or give myself a pneumothorax from my expected bench press progressions some time in the last couple of weeks.  Fuck my life, and fuck my overly mobile joints in particular.

Edited May 29, 2022 by Contentious C

[Shartnado]

One month to the day of the diet. I weighed 173 this morning. I've done runs or walks since Sunday and had two workouts so far. Monday's usual extra weight session went 3 sets with 88lbs, 1 with 66, 2 with 44, then one with 22 and bodyweight. Tuesday's bench was centered around 6 sets of 4 with 253 and a couple of sets with 242 and 220, then finishing with 132.

I added a few pull-ups into the jogs, as there is a pull-up bar along my route and then one set of power wheel straight after the jog, as I have one at home. Today, I'll take a little walk before leaving for the gym and it's time for a trapbar again. I'll edit that in later. Haven't got around to the profile pics yet, perhaps over the weekend?

...Ok, so the trapbar! Firstly, the "little walk" I mentioned turned out to be an hour of walking and running, including the stairs. I jumped straight onto the bike again, trying to recover during the ride by using lighter gear when needed. I was thinking "maybe tomorrow is the trapbar day", but once I got there, I was like "fuck it, it's trapbar!"

Started out with 220 or so, then 5x339, 3x392, 3x449, 1x502. I actually fell on my ass after this one, I felt so light-headed. Ok, so I figured I need to use the platforms after that and added some extra padding behind me on the floor, should I pass out for reals. I lifted 548, spent some time on my knees but no passing out. Then, I failed 601. I rested a bit, took my shoes off, tried again and fucking lifted it! 601, new record at 173lbs! Yeah! Then I put my shoes back on and did 3 singles with 548, only resting some 20 seconds or so between each rep. Then some shrugs. Didn't think that was going to happen today, but I'll take it!

Edited June 2, 2022 by Shartnado
601 off the platforms

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

On 5/29/2022 at 11:34 PM, Contentious C said:

Pretty sure I managed to either dislocate or crack a rib and/or give myself a pneumothorax from my expected bench press progressions some time in the last couple of weeks.  Fuck my life, and fuck my overly mobile joints in particular.

Hope you're able to somehow get that checked out, and/or that it's improving.

My injuries are feeling better - both are still there but they feel like they are recovering. Squatted today - it was light; I put 80kg on the bar and did 3 sets of 6 on pause SSB squats. Not going to lie, they were challenging - and I'm completely ok with that. 

My first bench day of the new mesocycle went superbly. Have started lifting my butt of the bench to unrack the bar, having seen it at the powerlifting gym....and the difference it made was *incredible*. My top set was programmed at 100kg for 5 reps only, and it felt nice and easy - I realised afterwards that I might have been able to do it for 10 reps but sometimes you gotta follow the process. 

With my backoff work, instead of doing a 5 x 10 I decided to just do the 50 reps in as few sets as possible. So with 60kg that was 17, 20 and then I went to close grip and used slow eccentrics and a fuller pause to knock out the final 13. The 20 was actually not that challenging - I had hit 20 before but not like that. Now I think of it, I should probably of hit 21 for a rep PR but doesn't really matter I guess. Bench is feeling nice and strong - I am targetting 5 reps on either 107.5 or 110 kg in 2 weeks, and from there we'll probably try for the 10 reps at 100kg and/or try to break the 120kg barrier.

I am actually planning a cut to begin the next mesocycle, as the hip has been a reminder that I should drop some weight and realistically my bf is high enough that I can still probably make gains if I'm smart about it. To that end, this cycle cardio and conditioning work needs to be introduced. I'm also boiling eggs and keeping them in the fridge for snacks, along with carrot sticks..I'm also cooking and eating a lot of lentils...building a foundation so I can then cut the treats out in a few weeks and create a deficit pretty easily.

That being said, my gym is actually selling homemade Parenica cheese now. True story!

[Shartnado]

The workout week took a bit to start, as I did a double shift from Sunday night to Monday afternoon. I did go for a one hour jog/run before that, but obviously, no gym on Monday. Well, no gym on Tuesday either, but I did do a 45 min home workout in the evening after sleeping for a bit after a rather good-sized meal. Good pump, but not worthy of taking pics, let alone new profile pic.

Today, I needed to get my shit it, so I went for circuit of four moves: Bench, Trapbar (using the padded platforms from the get-go), lat pull down (to the front) with shovel handle bar (?) and standing EZ bar bicep curl.

I loaded the EZ bar with 64, lat pulldown machine with 88 + 2 resistance bands that should theoretically increase the load at the bottom of the move to 242, bench with 132 and trapbar with 185 for warm-up round and moved from one move to the next with as little rest as possible, but adding weights after each round (for the first few rounds anyway) did make the action stop for a bit in between.

I tried to get 10 reps on the lat pull down, 12-15 with the EZ Bar, 5 on the bench and from 5 downwards to 1 on the trapbar.

I ended up adding 22lbs on the lat pulldown machine, but that was definitely plenty, as I couldn't pull it anywhere near my chest (felt it on my lats, though), 22lbs at 11lbs intervals (so, two rounds) to the EZ Bar, up to 253 on bench (220, 231 and 242 prior to that) and 295, 405, 458, 515, and 568 on the trapbar.

I did maybe 5 sets of lat pulldowns and dropped that off first, I'm guessing 6 or 7 sets with the EZ bar with going back down to 64 for the last couple of sets, then dropped that. Last two were dueling bench sets and heavy singles on the trapbar. Did 4 with 458, 2 with 515, then two singles with 568 then four more singles with 515. Bench, I did 3 sets of 5 with 253 (after a set of 5 with 220 and 231 each), then a set of 5 with 231, then sets of 7 and 9 with 220 and 3 sets of 26, 7, and 13 with 132. After this, it was shrugs with all the unloading plates as well as with 405 (just a few reps, though), 295 and 185. Then a bit of abs to finish off the damn 90 minute onslaught in an increasingly hot gym. Followed by a bike ride home, of course. Yeah, that was a good one.

The weight is around 170-171 at the moment, probably not expecting it to go a whole lot lower, but I will push myself for a few more weeks. The cardio part has gone well, but my bike needs fixing, once again. I'll write more, if there is anything worth writing about.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Quick note: I actually got my short-term target 107.5kg for 5 on bench today, in an unscheduled workout on an off day, on not my favourite bench with the rack a little too high - having actually done speed bench, dips and ohp the day before. Crazy!

[Shartnado]

Deciding to use a similar 4 (or so) move circuit like yesterday, I did calf raises on the machine (with around 220 lbs), one arm dumbell rows (using 70 lb kettlebell), chest flies with resistance bands and lat pull downs with the same bands. This was after 3 rounds of pull-ups, dips and reverse shrugs with 66lbs. 

After I had enough of those, I did bicep curls with the plates I unloaded from the calf/squat machine, did push downs with the resistance band and used the rack of the calf machine (plus 44 lbs) for two sets of overhead presses and two more with just the rack. This was punctuated with light weight burning sets of side delt raises and the ab work came at the very end as usual.

As luck would have it, that's it for my workouts this week, as I said yes to a weekend of overtime. I'll be doing two extra night shifts before the actual night shift week, plus there would be a first aid course on Tuesday afternoon I'm supposed to attend. That won't be ideal, but I guess I'll get a workout in while I'm in the building and go for a walk instead of gym before leaving for work in the evening? Well, there will be some extra bike rides and walking during work, so the weekend should be relatively active, even if there won't be any actual jogs or workouts for a few days.

[Shartnado]

Yeah, I know I said there won't be any real workouts for a few days, but I did go for a nearly 1 hour run on Saturday before work and Sunday, before night shift, I got in a 45 minute pump workout at the gym. Nothing heavy, but all of the main upper body stuff taken care of.

Weekend shifts were fine and I certainly wasn't lacking calories either, so I should not be too beat up going into next week. I do have to hurry up with the new pics though, but it feels like anything less than the last year's ones is not worth taking so I guess I'm procrastinating on that one!

[Shartnado]

Not the greatest sleep today, as there are people working on our roof for a week or so. Got up late in the afternoon and did a short run to the store and back, as I needed some ingredients for meat loaf. Making that and baked potatoes took the next couple of hours but left home in time for a decent workout.

Since the "run" was pretty much nonexistent, I decided to do both bench and trapbar this evening. I used the same platforms as last week.

Bench went like this: 10x132, 5×220, 4x5x242, 7x242, 7x220, 23x132.

Trapbar went: 8x196, 6x306, 5x416, 3x515, 3x526, (failed an attempt at 579) then 1x526. After that it was shrugs with 416, 306, 295, 196 and 185.

As it seems that I have gotten some big moves out of the way already this week, I may need to have a squat day on Wednesday, maybe.

[Shartnado]

Running, squat day on Wednesday as promised, more running today, a one hour home workout before this BRAND NEW PROFILE PIC! I think it is going pretty good right now!

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

I got my 110kg x 5 - I just realised that is indeed 242lb. I think I'm a little bit off doing 5 sets of 5 with a couple of extra reps at the end - but it wasn't a complete struggle either. I got 20 reps at 62.5kg last week and would have tried it at 65kg this week but....

I actually appear to have restrained the left side of my upper back. It just appeared out of nowhere this lunchtime. I foam rolled the shit out of it and had my gf take the massage gun to it....and yeah I was able to successfully bench heavy ok. 70kg x 12 x 3 and then 70kg x 15 was plenty of backoff work. Actually my right shoulder was feeling a bit fatigued....and this reminded me of @Control's post some weeks back; the problem is not my right shoulder, the problem (probably) is my right shoulder overworking to compensate from a weaker left side due to my ongoing back issues. The shoulder is fine now, but I don't think I'll be pulling anything heavier than that 110kg in this mesocycle. I may try to get that 10 reps at 100kg next week though.

I'm just doing RDLs instead of deadlifts right now, and the pause SSB squats. Tomorrow is ostensibly squat day, but it might have to be tweaked a little bit. Ho hum.

My work contract is ending, which is irksome in some ways, but I am looking forward to having more time for cardio. I'll be honest, it's been tough to get a lot in as I usually train with my gf and well.....don't want to get too tired. Her bench is coming along too, she got 30kg x 3 and 32.5kg for a single today. She didn't used to be that into bench, but she noticed her breasts look bigger and now she quite likes it lol.

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

Just to update on above: I did pause SSB squats 100kg x 6 and I was pretty happy with that, but I think doing DB RDLs and some core movements caused me to strain my neck a bit and.....let's just say I am happy I own a massage gun.

Will probably do deadlifts today instead of RDLs because not sure the weighted stretch is what I need right now.

I'm probably going to go for the 100kg for 10 reps on Saturday but we'll see because I think there will be drinks the night before.

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

10 months later. 20 kilos lighter. Back up to triples on the 28 kg kettlebell snatch. Pretty happy.

Also: check out my snazzy shorts.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Gordlow