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Message
"Wrestling With Vosud" - Dr. Denim's Training Log (Will End on 03/31/24)
Posted on 2/21/24 at 6:29 am
Posted on 2/21/24 at 6:29 am
02/19/24 - Week 8, Day 1 - "Training Sessions Are Like Farts, Not Children"
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 2
Work Sets:
317.5 x 5
317.5 x 5
317.5 x 10 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!) (This was the second BP session in a row at 317.5lb where I achieved 5 reps(or more) on the
AMRAP set, I hit 9 reps last time, 10 tonight, so I'm adding 2.5lb for next session = 320lb. I'm slowing down the progression because I'm
collecting new aches and pains in my arms/shoulders at a faster rate than I'm resolving my existing upper body aches and pains)
2. SQUAT! (speed squats, quickly down, quickly up, execute reps as seamlessly as possible with no pauses at top or bottom....focus in on smooth movement & fast bar speed, this weight is 85% of my current top work sets at 420lb so I should be able to move it fast, if not, something aint right. I'll explain later what I'm doing here.)
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 2
Work Sets:
355 x 5
355 x 5
355 x 12 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!) (Top work set for squat will go up by 5lb to 425lb for next session)
3. SuperSet palms-facing pulldowns & neck extensions
palms-facing pulldowns: warm-up singles - 50 x 1, 75 x 1, 100 x 1 followed by 3 work sets @ 135 x 12 x 3
neck extensions: 15lb x 25 x 4 sets
4. Nordic Curls - 3 sets of 6 with a double band assistance (70lbs), most reps were done with full ROM (chest/face all the way down to floor) and no further assistance, but I had to cut back the ROM and give myself a little push back up with my fingertips on a few reps towards the end. This was my first session doing 3 x 6 as I've been doing 3 x 5 previously. This is only session #5 of Nordic curls, but I've improved something every time, either more ROM, less assistance, or more reps.
Notes:
I'm doing a Greyskull LP that is slightly modified. I've been doing GSLP for a while now, this is the 24th or 25th straight week I think, as mentioned in the title this will end on 03/31/24, the goal is for me by that time is to be stronger but at about 245lbs of BW and a 42-ish inch navel measurement. I will do more strength testing the last week of March and then take a barbell break. As I approach the threshold where I would most likely be having to do a reset with several, if not all, of the lifts I'm modifying the traditional linear progression to slow this approach and work on some rehab/pre-hab stuff and clean up technique issues with my lifts. On press and bench press I am now seeking 2 consecutive sessions where a minimum of 3 sets of 5 full reps before weight will be added to the bar. This is instead of the usual scenario where you would add weight to the bar following any session where you got 3 sets of 5 reps.
With squat I'm being far fancier. I will be doing a mini-cycle where I will use 3 sessions to focus on different methods of squatting before adding weight to the bar. What I call "Top" work sets are sets where I'm putting as much weight on the bar as I can and shooting for a minimum of those 3 sets of 5 reps. "Top" refers to "top weight" I guess.
Session #1 is the top weight session, followed by session #2, which is the tempo/pause squat session. Session #2 will be at 75% of the weight of session #1, and will obviously be tempo/pause squatting, I like to do 3-3-0. Set/rep scheme is the same, 2 sets of 5 and a final AMRAP set(but I'm not really worried about total reps here, the tempo/pause reps are hard enough work without truly going AMRAP on it and getting hurt possibly), but I think 6-8 reps is a good range to shoot for here.
Session #3 is the speed squat session (that was this session), and it will be at 85% of the weight from session #1. Same set/rep scheme, 2 x 5 followed by an AMRAP set. Here I do care about the total number of reps and like I described above I am looking for high bar speed and high technical proficiency. That means no issues with balance, no grinding and struggling due to getting in a bad position and having to fight back into the proper position, and no long, luxurious pauses to catch my breath in the middle of sets. Smooth, fast, "unbroken" reps as Aaron Ausmus (PPSA) refers to them.
If I can perform sessions #2 and #3 satisfactorily(No less than 5 reps on any sets, perfect control on the tempo/pause segments during session #2 and high bar speed with no form breakdowns on session #3) then I will add 5lb to the weight from session #1 and repeat all of this. As I said, this session above was a speed squat session (#3), my weight for session #1 was 420lbs and it didn't feel great or move well. Hence the need for this modification, in my opinion. In session #1 with 420lb, I got only 6 reps on my AMRAP set and it was sloppy and "grindy" due to poor technique, so I'm doing all of this to work on technique and really nail it down before adding more weight to the bar.
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 2
Work Sets:
317.5 x 5
317.5 x 5
317.5 x 10 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!) (This was the second BP session in a row at 317.5lb where I achieved 5 reps(or more) on the
AMRAP set, I hit 9 reps last time, 10 tonight, so I'm adding 2.5lb for next session = 320lb. I'm slowing down the progression because I'm
collecting new aches and pains in my arms/shoulders at a faster rate than I'm resolving my existing upper body aches and pains)
2. SQUAT! (speed squats, quickly down, quickly up, execute reps as seamlessly as possible with no pauses at top or bottom....focus in on smooth movement & fast bar speed, this weight is 85% of my current top work sets at 420lb so I should be able to move it fast, if not, something aint right. I'll explain later what I'm doing here.)
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 2
Work Sets:
355 x 5
355 x 5
355 x 12 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!) (Top work set for squat will go up by 5lb to 425lb for next session)
3. SuperSet palms-facing pulldowns & neck extensions
palms-facing pulldowns: warm-up singles - 50 x 1, 75 x 1, 100 x 1 followed by 3 work sets @ 135 x 12 x 3
neck extensions: 15lb x 25 x 4 sets
4. Nordic Curls - 3 sets of 6 with a double band assistance (70lbs), most reps were done with full ROM (chest/face all the way down to floor) and no further assistance, but I had to cut back the ROM and give myself a little push back up with my fingertips on a few reps towards the end. This was my first session doing 3 x 6 as I've been doing 3 x 5 previously. This is only session #5 of Nordic curls, but I've improved something every time, either more ROM, less assistance, or more reps.
Notes:
I'm doing a Greyskull LP that is slightly modified. I've been doing GSLP for a while now, this is the 24th or 25th straight week I think, as mentioned in the title this will end on 03/31/24, the goal is for me by that time is to be stronger but at about 245lbs of BW and a 42-ish inch navel measurement. I will do more strength testing the last week of March and then take a barbell break. As I approach the threshold where I would most likely be having to do a reset with several, if not all, of the lifts I'm modifying the traditional linear progression to slow this approach and work on some rehab/pre-hab stuff and clean up technique issues with my lifts. On press and bench press I am now seeking 2 consecutive sessions where a minimum of 3 sets of 5 full reps before weight will be added to the bar. This is instead of the usual scenario where you would add weight to the bar following any session where you got 3 sets of 5 reps.
With squat I'm being far fancier. I will be doing a mini-cycle where I will use 3 sessions to focus on different methods of squatting before adding weight to the bar. What I call "Top" work sets are sets where I'm putting as much weight on the bar as I can and shooting for a minimum of those 3 sets of 5 reps. "Top" refers to "top weight" I guess.
Session #1 is the top weight session, followed by session #2, which is the tempo/pause squat session. Session #2 will be at 75% of the weight of session #1, and will obviously be tempo/pause squatting, I like to do 3-3-0. Set/rep scheme is the same, 2 sets of 5 and a final AMRAP set(but I'm not really worried about total reps here, the tempo/pause reps are hard enough work without truly going AMRAP on it and getting hurt possibly), but I think 6-8 reps is a good range to shoot for here.
Session #3 is the speed squat session (that was this session), and it will be at 85% of the weight from session #1. Same set/rep scheme, 2 x 5 followed by an AMRAP set. Here I do care about the total number of reps and like I described above I am looking for high bar speed and high technical proficiency. That means no issues with balance, no grinding and struggling due to getting in a bad position and having to fight back into the proper position, and no long, luxurious pauses to catch my breath in the middle of sets. Smooth, fast, "unbroken" reps as Aaron Ausmus (PPSA) refers to them.
If I can perform sessions #2 and #3 satisfactorily(No less than 5 reps on any sets, perfect control on the tempo/pause segments during session #2 and high bar speed with no form breakdowns on session #3) then I will add 5lb to the weight from session #1 and repeat all of this. As I said, this session above was a speed squat session (#3), my weight for session #1 was 420lbs and it didn't feel great or move well. Hence the need for this modification, in my opinion. In session #1 with 420lb, I got only 6 reps on my AMRAP set and it was sloppy and "grindy" due to poor technique, so I'm doing all of this to work on technique and really nail it down before adding more weight to the bar.
This post was edited on 3/6/24 at 9:32 am
3
Posted on 2/21/24 at 10:38 am to DrDenim
02/20/24 - Cardiovascular Intervals & Walking
The plan for today's workout was to do 800 meters of 100 meter intervals of what is called "shuffling" or "ruck shuffling" or the "Airborne Shuffle"...it's basically speed walking. If yer interested in seeing a video explaining and modeling what I'm talking about, here is my favorite example from Mountain Tactical Institute, shuffle video. I'll shuffle for 100 meters, rest for 60 seconds, shuffle for 100 meters, rest for 60 seconds, etc...for a total of 800 meters, then I'll do 2 x 200 meter shuffles with 2 minutes rest in between.
I've already done some testing to see what my baseline is in terms of speed and times. I can cover 100 meters in 40-44 seconds in a shuffle, so that's what I'm hoping to replicate. My original plan was to shuffle for 100 meters, then walk normally for 100 meters to recover, but I can cover 100 meters at a slow walking pace in about 80-90 seconds and that was too much rest so I'm limiting the rest intervals to 60 seconds. I'll do my 100 meters shuffle, and then just pace around in a circle for 60 seconds before taking off again.
I had no problems completing the intervals in the expected times and then just continued to walk normally until I hit my 10,000 steps a day target. My fastest one was 40 seconds and my slowest was 44 seconds, but most of them were 42 seconds, and I was pleased to see that I could do 200 meters in 1:30 and then 1:26. The best time I've done for a whole 400 meter shuffle was 3:18. So I'm getting faster over short distances, but I also need to work at sticking to a moderate pace for longer distances.
Last time I did this on 02/09 I woke up the next day with a foot so sore I had to take several days off. I was wearing an old pair of Nike Metcon 4's that have zero padding and I paid for that mistake. I wore boots today so I hope to avoid the foot trouble. Max HR hit low 160's, overall my HR is recovering faster and faster as I do more of this kind of work.
I have a challenge workout I'm doing and for February the challenge is to run 400 meters, do 20 burpees, run 400 meters, do 19 burpees, run 400 meters, do 18 burpees, etc. In the end it adds up to an 8K run and 220 burpees. Well, I don't do "run" mode. I can sprint short distances, or I can power walk, or I can shuffle. So I'm doing this challenge by shuffling, not running, but I'll do all the damn burpees dammit. Based off what I've learned about my capabilities so far, I imagine I can do the 400 meters in about 4 minutes on average over the course of 20 x 400 meter laps without taxing myself too much. The longer sets of burpees will be more taxing than the shuffling, but I can do 10 burpees in 30 seconds so I can probably do 20 in about 75 seconds. This will be tough but I'm gonna give it hell and I'll be in better condition at the end of it no matter what.
The plan for today's workout was to do 800 meters of 100 meter intervals of what is called "shuffling" or "ruck shuffling" or the "Airborne Shuffle"...it's basically speed walking. If yer interested in seeing a video explaining and modeling what I'm talking about, here is my favorite example from Mountain Tactical Institute, shuffle video. I'll shuffle for 100 meters, rest for 60 seconds, shuffle for 100 meters, rest for 60 seconds, etc...for a total of 800 meters, then I'll do 2 x 200 meter shuffles with 2 minutes rest in between.
I've already done some testing to see what my baseline is in terms of speed and times. I can cover 100 meters in 40-44 seconds in a shuffle, so that's what I'm hoping to replicate. My original plan was to shuffle for 100 meters, then walk normally for 100 meters to recover, but I can cover 100 meters at a slow walking pace in about 80-90 seconds and that was too much rest so I'm limiting the rest intervals to 60 seconds. I'll do my 100 meters shuffle, and then just pace around in a circle for 60 seconds before taking off again.
I had no problems completing the intervals in the expected times and then just continued to walk normally until I hit my 10,000 steps a day target. My fastest one was 40 seconds and my slowest was 44 seconds, but most of them were 42 seconds, and I was pleased to see that I could do 200 meters in 1:30 and then 1:26. The best time I've done for a whole 400 meter shuffle was 3:18. So I'm getting faster over short distances, but I also need to work at sticking to a moderate pace for longer distances.
Last time I did this on 02/09 I woke up the next day with a foot so sore I had to take several days off. I was wearing an old pair of Nike Metcon 4's that have zero padding and I paid for that mistake. I wore boots today so I hope to avoid the foot trouble. Max HR hit low 160's, overall my HR is recovering faster and faster as I do more of this kind of work.
I have a challenge workout I'm doing and for February the challenge is to run 400 meters, do 20 burpees, run 400 meters, do 19 burpees, run 400 meters, do 18 burpees, etc. In the end it adds up to an 8K run and 220 burpees. Well, I don't do "run" mode. I can sprint short distances, or I can power walk, or I can shuffle. So I'm doing this challenge by shuffling, not running, but I'll do all the damn burpees dammit. Based off what I've learned about my capabilities so far, I imagine I can do the 400 meters in about 4 minutes on average over the course of 20 x 400 meter laps without taxing myself too much. The longer sets of burpees will be more taxing than the shuffling, but I can do 10 burpees in 30 seconds so I can probably do 20 in about 75 seconds. This will be tough but I'm gonna give it hell and I'll be in better condition at the end of it no matter what.
Posted on 2/24/24 at 8:05 am to DrDenim
02/22/24 - Week 8, Day 2 - "I Am the Sandman."
I'm a procrastinatin', poor time managin', evasive, handsome, wheelin', dealin', sunshine stealin' sonofabitch! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!
(Emphasis on procrastinating and poor time managing, the handsome part is just pure bullshite)
I've yet to have a full week where I complete the planned training sessions on the days I had intended, at least once I will push something a day late (today) and that usually throws everything after that off. You get it. Well this week has been no different, and I've discovered something special about me in the past few weeks too. If I want to send myself into a deep, deep coma-like sleep, all I need to do is combine a heavy session of squats or deads with a moderate length and moderate intensity cardio session, back to back on the same day. After this I will wrap myself in denim and sleep like a dead man for way too many hours. Hole-ey sheeeit did I go down for deep sleep, felt good kinda, until I saw how many hours it ate up. Yikes! What happened to Friday? Anyway, this was the planned Wednesday Day B deadlift session that got pushed to Thursday and stacked next to a 30lb ruck. The combination of the 2 activities on the same day knocked me down into a deep denim hole of strange dreams, and I don't think my face will ever recover from these deep impressions dug into my face by my CPAP mask straps. Oh well. Such is life.
1. Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
Work Sets:
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 12 - AMRAP (This beat the previously established rep record) (I'm going to fight the urge to jump up 5lbs, just adding 2.5lb and I'll press 190 for the next session.)
2. Deadlift
Warm-Up Sets:
RDL's
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
Deadlift
225 x 2
Work Set
320 x 10 - AMRAP (Again, not sure what I'll do next session, I think I will do a double jump and go up by 10lb to 330 but we'll see)
3. SuperSet
EZ-Bar curls - 42lb x 15 x 4 sets
Neck curls - 15lb x 25 x 4 sets
Done lifting, now onto the scheduled ruck for 02/22, 30lbs for 3-ish miles, shooting for an hour total.
Ended up only doing 2.5 miles, 57 minutes total, but I was pleased with the pace (average moving pace was 20:13/mile). Carrying 30lbs is still fairly new to me. Most of my rucks have been with 15lbs and I don't normally focus too intently on the pace, I just walk at whatever pace while carrying weight. Well, I'm leveling up and trying to focus on pace now (and obviously I'm carrying more weight too), so I'll be pushing for more progression in my pace, load, time, distance, etc. Not all at one time of course. I tend to not focus in on any more than 2 variables at a time. The addition of any weight can be felt pretty quickly in my knees first, and back/shoulders next. The tricky thing about rucking, and really all of the cardio training I've been doing lately, is that I cannot know for sure how I've responded to it until the next day, so it's a little hard for me to know the answer to the question "Am I pushing myself hard enough?"
Anything that is more intense than casual, brisk walking usually ends up causing me more recovery time than I intended originally. Maybe it's my bodyweight, maybe it's just a lack of more intense cardiovascular conditioning training, but I too often find myself needing more recovery time than I had planned for because I pushed myself too hard. I didn't push myself to do what I had originally planned to do today because I didn't plan to do a lift session and a ruck back to back, and I want to be able to do my third and final lift session as well as hit my daily/weekly step goals. I can't do that by being dumb and pushing myself too hard so that I continue to end up having to take unplanned time off. This is a literal "Walk before you run," type of situation.
I'm a procrastinatin', poor time managin', evasive, handsome, wheelin', dealin', sunshine stealin' sonofabitch! WHOOOOOOOO!!!!
(Emphasis on procrastinating and poor time managing, the handsome part is just pure bullshite)
I've yet to have a full week where I complete the planned training sessions on the days I had intended, at least once I will push something a day late (today) and that usually throws everything after that off. You get it. Well this week has been no different, and I've discovered something special about me in the past few weeks too. If I want to send myself into a deep, deep coma-like sleep, all I need to do is combine a heavy session of squats or deads with a moderate length and moderate intensity cardio session, back to back on the same day. After this I will wrap myself in denim and sleep like a dead man for way too many hours. Hole-ey sheeeit did I go down for deep sleep, felt good kinda, until I saw how many hours it ate up. Yikes! What happened to Friday? Anyway, this was the planned Wednesday Day B deadlift session that got pushed to Thursday and stacked next to a 30lb ruck. The combination of the 2 activities on the same day knocked me down into a deep denim hole of strange dreams, and I don't think my face will ever recover from these deep impressions dug into my face by my CPAP mask straps. Oh well. Such is life.
1. Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
Work Sets:
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 12 - AMRAP (This beat the previously established rep record) (I'm going to fight the urge to jump up 5lbs, just adding 2.5lb and I'll press 190 for the next session.)
2. Deadlift
Warm-Up Sets:
RDL's
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
Deadlift
225 x 2
Work Set
320 x 10 - AMRAP (Again, not sure what I'll do next session, I think I will do a double jump and go up by 10lb to 330 but we'll see)
3. SuperSet
EZ-Bar curls - 42lb x 15 x 4 sets
Neck curls - 15lb x 25 x 4 sets
Done lifting, now onto the scheduled ruck for 02/22, 30lbs for 3-ish miles, shooting for an hour total.
Ended up only doing 2.5 miles, 57 minutes total, but I was pleased with the pace (average moving pace was 20:13/mile). Carrying 30lbs is still fairly new to me. Most of my rucks have been with 15lbs and I don't normally focus too intently on the pace, I just walk at whatever pace while carrying weight. Well, I'm leveling up and trying to focus on pace now (and obviously I'm carrying more weight too), so I'll be pushing for more progression in my pace, load, time, distance, etc. Not all at one time of course. I tend to not focus in on any more than 2 variables at a time. The addition of any weight can be felt pretty quickly in my knees first, and back/shoulders next. The tricky thing about rucking, and really all of the cardio training I've been doing lately, is that I cannot know for sure how I've responded to it until the next day, so it's a little hard for me to know the answer to the question "Am I pushing myself hard enough?"
Anything that is more intense than casual, brisk walking usually ends up causing me more recovery time than I intended originally. Maybe it's my bodyweight, maybe it's just a lack of more intense cardiovascular conditioning training, but I too often find myself needing more recovery time than I had planned for because I pushed myself too hard. I didn't push myself to do what I had originally planned to do today because I didn't plan to do a lift session and a ruck back to back, and I want to be able to do my third and final lift session as well as hit my daily/weekly step goals. I can't do that by being dumb and pushing myself too hard so that I continue to end up having to take unplanned time off. This is a literal "Walk before you run," type of situation.
This post was edited on 3/6/24 at 9:33 am
Posted on 2/24/24 at 11:31 am to DrDenim
Glad you’re logging all of this. I can definitely learn a lot from reading your approach. Will be following along.
Posted on 2/24/24 at 10:00 pm to HVAU
That's the idea. I just wanted to consolidate all the info about what I'm doing in one place. Lifting, cardio, mobility/stretching/recovery, nutrition, all of it in one thread instead of spread around. I've got nothing against the community threads on various topics, but I prefer to read personal training logs. I suppose that's why I prefer to create and maintain my own training log. Hopefully people join me. I like reading about what people are doing, and I don't mind lots of detail either.
Finally, posting about a lift session on the day I did it, although I'm pretty obliterated right now. But for the first time in a very long time, I feel kinda like me again, after six or seven years of bullshite. I had a tough, heavy squat session tonight, and I threw all I had at it, and I did great. My body says "No More, a-hole" but that's what it's supposed to say after a hard session, and every session should be hard. Anyway...
02/24/24: Week 8, Day 3 - "What Was That Boom Sound?"
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 2
(Need to add another warm up set in here, 95lbs is a big jump from last warm-up to first work set. In the past I've added a single at 275lb in here, will do that next session.)
Work Sets:
320 x 5
320 x 5
320 x 9 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
2. SQUAT!
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 1
Work Sets:
425 x 5
425 x 5
425 x 9 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
3. Superset: Palms-facing pull-downs & neck extensions
Palm-facing pull-downs:
Warm-Ups: 50 x 1, 75 x 1, 100 x 1
Work Sets: 135 x 15 x 4 sets
Neck extensions:
20 x 25 x 4 sets
4. Nordic Curls
3 sets of 6 with 70ish pounds of band assistance (90% ROM)
Notes:
Like I said, feel like me again, I had the desire and physical ability to turn it up and go all out on SQUAT! for the first time in a while. Accessory work is going well, I enjoy doing it and it seems to be doing what it's supposed to do. I fricking love Nordic curls. This was the first workout where I wore a belt for squat. I've only been putting in on for strength testing 1RMs, but I always told myself I'd start wearing it when it was time. I'm not sure what poundage I thought that was, but 425 is plenty. Belt isn't necessary, but there's nothing wrong with wearing it either. Left patellar region was killing me once I finished, but in my experience that is typical for me in heavy squat sessions. It comes and goes. Right elbow decided to remind me that I'm not out of the woods yet with it, but it was only 1 time. Left wrist is still "Hey, I'm sore, does anyone care?" and I'm like, "No, shut up." I'm ready for food and sleep. Oh yeah, I finally realized what I'm forgetting to include in all this shite. Diet. I'll cover that tomorrow in detail, but it's a 12 week cut, 20lb goal, fully "coached" program through the mobile app Macrofactor. Just a caloric deficit. Nothing special. No keto, low carb, carnivore, IF, nada. Just a standard meathead diet of 1g protein per ideal body weight, fairly balanced macros, looking at 2lbs fat loss a week for the first month or so. Buenos noches, amigos.
Finally, posting about a lift session on the day I did it, although I'm pretty obliterated right now. But for the first time in a very long time, I feel kinda like me again, after six or seven years of bullshite. I had a tough, heavy squat session tonight, and I threw all I had at it, and I did great. My body says "No More, a-hole" but that's what it's supposed to say after a hard session, and every session should be hard. Anyway...
02/24/24: Week 8, Day 3 - "What Was That Boom Sound?"
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 2
(Need to add another warm up set in here, 95lbs is a big jump from last warm-up to first work set. In the past I've added a single at 275lb in here, will do that next session.)
Work Sets:
320 x 5
320 x 5
320 x 9 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
2. SQUAT!
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 1
Work Sets:
425 x 5
425 x 5
425 x 9 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
3. Superset: Palms-facing pull-downs & neck extensions
Palm-facing pull-downs:
Warm-Ups: 50 x 1, 75 x 1, 100 x 1
Work Sets: 135 x 15 x 4 sets
Neck extensions:
20 x 25 x 4 sets
4. Nordic Curls
3 sets of 6 with 70ish pounds of band assistance (90% ROM)
Notes:
Like I said, feel like me again, I had the desire and physical ability to turn it up and go all out on SQUAT! for the first time in a while. Accessory work is going well, I enjoy doing it and it seems to be doing what it's supposed to do. I fricking love Nordic curls. This was the first workout where I wore a belt for squat. I've only been putting in on for strength testing 1RMs, but I always told myself I'd start wearing it when it was time. I'm not sure what poundage I thought that was, but 425 is plenty. Belt isn't necessary, but there's nothing wrong with wearing it either. Left patellar region was killing me once I finished, but in my experience that is typical for me in heavy squat sessions. It comes and goes. Right elbow decided to remind me that I'm not out of the woods yet with it, but it was only 1 time. Left wrist is still "Hey, I'm sore, does anyone care?" and I'm like, "No, shut up." I'm ready for food and sleep. Oh yeah, I finally realized what I'm forgetting to include in all this shite. Diet. I'll cover that tomorrow in detail, but it's a 12 week cut, 20lb goal, fully "coached" program through the mobile app Macrofactor. Just a caloric deficit. Nothing special. No keto, low carb, carnivore, IF, nada. Just a standard meathead diet of 1g protein per ideal body weight, fairly balanced macros, looking at 2lbs fat loss a week for the first month or so. Buenos noches, amigos.
This post was edited on 3/6/24 at 9:35 am
Posted on 2/24/24 at 11:30 pm to DrDenim
Do you think all the warmup sets are necessary? My philosophy is energy expended on warmups is energy not available for work sets. I warm up a set or two and that's it. Granted I'm working with less weight than you.
Posted on 2/25/24 at 4:46 am to Jim Rockford
quote:
My philosophy is energy expended on warmups is energy not available for work sets.
That's absolutely how you should think, in my opinion, but this is my bare minimum that I feel comfortable about doing to get ready.
I've always been willing to adjust and try different things with my warm-ups and I've never felt ready for my work sets nor performed well in them when I didn't do a longer warm-up like these here. Just until 3 weeks ago I had a set of 5 with 95lbs in my bench press warm-up, but I decided to drop it because it didn't feel necessary anymore. In the past I've also tried to just do doubles or triples with the 135 & 185 sets instead of 5 reps, I'll probably try that again sometime soon.
Always looking to trim the fat from the warm-up. Like you said, I don't want the warm-up to tax me, it's not the "work out" after all. With squat especially, (maybe it's age), I absolutely feel all of that is needed or my joints just don't feel smooth and warmed up. Not included in this write up is all the air squats I do in between warm-up and work sets just to stay loose, probably do 50 total sprinkled in there amongst the loaded work. With weight on the bar for warm-ups I feel that lots of sets (singles, doubles, triples) at different levels is good, but I have to watch the reps because there's no reason to add volume "just 'cause"....it's gotta have a reason to be there.
Posted on 2/26/24 at 9:17 pm to DrDenim
Week #8 Recap for BW Homework and Steps/Walking
Dead Hangs: I did a total of 5:30, the weekly goal is 8 minutes, so once again I'm 2:30 short. I do 30 second long sets, I should do 3 a day for a total of 90 seconds a day. But I have been failing at doing this because I'm a ding-dong.
Air Squats: I did 300 reps this week, which was the goal, so maybe I'm not a ding-dong.
Push-Ups: I completed 195 reps, goal was 300, ooof, 105 push-ups short, 1 more vote for ding-dong.
Dislocates: Not really an official "Goal" BW movement yet, but JP suggested adding 50/day for general shoulder/elbow health so I'm working them in. I did 200 over the course of 4 days this week.
Get Down & Get Up: (Also not yet an official BW movement goal.) I did this 3 days this week.
This one is simple, get down on the ground and then get up again, one time a day. Sounds dumb. It kinda is. To make it less dumb I get down on the ground and stretch stuff out and just generally kinda "waller" about like a toddler or something, trying to see if anything feels funny or hurts or won't move the way it's supposed to move. Then I get up.
Joe Defranco has a list of longevity tests that he uses to assess himself on once a year, and one of them is to be able to get down on the ground without the use of your hands/arms and get up off the floor without the use of your hands/arms. I'm not there yet but it's a deceptively simple task that is fun to work towards.
Maybe it's the old wrestler in me, but I just feel a human should be able to get down on the ground and sit in various styles and be comfortable and then easily pop up again. It's a good feedback mechanism. Adults sit on chairs too much and often lose the ability to do simple things such as this. It's helping me with improving ankle mobility and it gives me the opportunity to do different stretches on my hams and quads and it just generally makes me feel more athletic. I get on the ground and do push-ups every day so it should be easy to just end a set of push-ups and stay on the ground for a while.
Walking/Steps & "Intensity Minutes"
My daily step goal is 10,000, and I'd magically like to get 90,000 steps for an entire week because maybe I live in a realm where math works different. You don't know. I used to open for Insane Clown Posse, you don't know me!
Monday - 16,314
Tuesday - 13,223
Wednesday - 11,590
Thursday - 10,251
Friday - 2,707
Saturday - 14,260
Sunday - 4,441
Weekly Total - 72,786, well under my goal, had some good walking days, fricked off on a couple, much better than last week.
Daily Average - 10,398, decent daily average.
I also got 568 "Intensity Minutes" this week. If yer familiar with this then you know what intensity minutes are, if not, it's just something else to track. The current consensus is that adults need at least 150 intensity minutes a week for optimal heart health, my personal goal is to get 60 a day or 420 a week. I usually get over 500. Most of it is fasted walking, but anything counts, really intense activity counts for double minutes. Yeay!!!! Anyway, it was a good walking week. I got my one planned ruck in and I did 1 out of 2 planned speed interval sessions. I failed to do any burpee practice. Next week is gonna hurt for the "Burpee Ladder of Regret"... Got all 3 lift sessions done, adding weight or planning to add weight to the bar for next week's planned sessions. Adios.
Dead Hangs: I did a total of 5:30, the weekly goal is 8 minutes, so once again I'm 2:30 short. I do 30 second long sets, I should do 3 a day for a total of 90 seconds a day. But I have been failing at doing this because I'm a ding-dong.
Air Squats: I did 300 reps this week, which was the goal, so maybe I'm not a ding-dong.
Push-Ups: I completed 195 reps, goal was 300, ooof, 105 push-ups short, 1 more vote for ding-dong.
Dislocates: Not really an official "Goal" BW movement yet, but JP suggested adding 50/day for general shoulder/elbow health so I'm working them in. I did 200 over the course of 4 days this week.
Get Down & Get Up: (Also not yet an official BW movement goal.) I did this 3 days this week.
This one is simple, get down on the ground and then get up again, one time a day. Sounds dumb. It kinda is. To make it less dumb I get down on the ground and stretch stuff out and just generally kinda "waller" about like a toddler or something, trying to see if anything feels funny or hurts or won't move the way it's supposed to move. Then I get up.
Joe Defranco has a list of longevity tests that he uses to assess himself on once a year, and one of them is to be able to get down on the ground without the use of your hands/arms and get up off the floor without the use of your hands/arms. I'm not there yet but it's a deceptively simple task that is fun to work towards.
Maybe it's the old wrestler in me, but I just feel a human should be able to get down on the ground and sit in various styles and be comfortable and then easily pop up again. It's a good feedback mechanism. Adults sit on chairs too much and often lose the ability to do simple things such as this. It's helping me with improving ankle mobility and it gives me the opportunity to do different stretches on my hams and quads and it just generally makes me feel more athletic. I get on the ground and do push-ups every day so it should be easy to just end a set of push-ups and stay on the ground for a while.
Walking/Steps & "Intensity Minutes"
My daily step goal is 10,000, and I'd magically like to get 90,000 steps for an entire week because maybe I live in a realm where math works different. You don't know. I used to open for Insane Clown Posse, you don't know me!
Monday - 16,314
Tuesday - 13,223
Wednesday - 11,590
Thursday - 10,251
Friday - 2,707
Saturday - 14,260
Sunday - 4,441
Weekly Total - 72,786, well under my goal, had some good walking days, fricked off on a couple, much better than last week.
Daily Average - 10,398, decent daily average.
I also got 568 "Intensity Minutes" this week. If yer familiar with this then you know what intensity minutes are, if not, it's just something else to track. The current consensus is that adults need at least 150 intensity minutes a week for optimal heart health, my personal goal is to get 60 a day or 420 a week. I usually get over 500. Most of it is fasted walking, but anything counts, really intense activity counts for double minutes. Yeay!!!! Anyway, it was a good walking week. I got my one planned ruck in and I did 1 out of 2 planned speed interval sessions. I failed to do any burpee practice. Next week is gonna hurt for the "Burpee Ladder of Regret"... Got all 3 lift sessions done, adding weight or planning to add weight to the bar for next week's planned sessions. Adios.
Posted on 2/27/24 at 2:07 pm to DrDenim
02/26/24: Week 9, Day 1 - "On Time, On Time"
1. Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
Work Sets:
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 12 - AMRAP
2. SQUAT!
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 1
Work Sets:
430 x 5
430 x 5
430 x 8 - AMRAP
Notes:
That's all for tonight. My time management is improving but I still procrastinated too long and by the time I finished I was very tired and hungry and I was out of day, so I'll do my assistance work tomorrow. I need to eat now.
This went great and I am back on track with the lifting schedule I'd like to keep (M-W-F) so this was with only 1 full day's rest from the last heavy squat session. I feel awesome. Next time I will be doing a double jump with press, so 5lbs, up to 192.5lb. SQUAT! will go up the normal 5lbs to 435lb for Friday. All the lifts are jumping up really fast despite me trying to control this and slow it down.
Also, I've started off the week on better footing by getting my BW homework done for the day, push-ups, air squats, dislocates, etc. it all got done, the steps got done. Good day.
1. Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
Work Sets:
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 5
187.5 x 12 - AMRAP
2. SQUAT!
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3
405 x 1
Work Sets:
430 x 5
430 x 5
430 x 8 - AMRAP
Notes:
That's all for tonight. My time management is improving but I still procrastinated too long and by the time I finished I was very tired and hungry and I was out of day, so I'll do my assistance work tomorrow. I need to eat now.
This went great and I am back on track with the lifting schedule I'd like to keep (M-W-F) so this was with only 1 full day's rest from the last heavy squat session. I feel awesome. Next time I will be doing a double jump with press, so 5lbs, up to 192.5lb. SQUAT! will go up the normal 5lbs to 435lb for Friday. All the lifts are jumping up really fast despite me trying to control this and slow it down.
Also, I've started off the week on better footing by getting my BW homework done for the day, push-ups, air squats, dislocates, etc. it all got done, the steps got done. Good day.
This post was edited on 3/6/24 at 9:36 am
Posted on 2/29/24 at 1:54 pm to DrDenim
Can you link what ruck setup you have? I’m finally in a spot where I have a good place to walk while at home. It’s nice to not have to plan a damn walk and go somewhere
Posted on 2/29/24 at 1:58 pm to DrDenim
You appear to be in the midst of what I call "Beast mode"
Posted on 2/29/24 at 3:25 pm to DrDenim
quote:
355 x 12
Dayum
Posted on 3/1/24 at 6:34 pm to bamaguy17
I started out just using an old backpack I originally bought to use as my book bag in college. It's a Northface Recon. I used these Marcy brand weight plates with hand holes in them as my ruck weights and a short piece of dock rope that I tied in a loop to carry my fractional plates with me in my gym bag for when I'm going to train in commercial gyms that don't have such things, I'd just use a carabiner to clip the weight to the top handle of the bag and off I'd go.
That worked fine up to 25lbs. But the weight swings around in the bag as I walk because there's no weight pocket in that Northface bag, so I decided to upgrade to a Goruck 33L Long-Range Rucker. I still used my Marcy plates for weight until very recently when I bought these ruck plates through Amazon, sounds like nobody buys the goruck brand plates it's just weight so who cares what the brand is....Yes4All is very popular for ruck plates and that's what I bought. I can't provide a link for my particular bag because they don't carry it anymore I guess, but the Long Range Rucker, or you may see it by the abbreviation 33LRR is gone for now. The Long Range rucker is the same bag as the Rucker 4.0, (which comes in 15L, 20L, or 25L sizes) in 33L or 39L sizes.
Rucker 4.0
Yes4All cast iron ruck plates
The goruck is very stiff, it's probably still needing to break in, but I also think it's just THAT heavily over-built. It's 5.2lbs empty and it can carry 40lbs with the same stability and position as 10lbs. It's hard to adjust strap length on the fly, hopefully those loosen up to where I can do that because it's irritating to have to take it off. With my stiff shoulders it's kinda a pain in the arse to put this pack on and take it off. I hope after it breaks in that gets easier as well. I do love that it has very heavy duty handles on the sides, top, and bottom, so you can use it similar to a sandbag and do PT work with it, throw it around, swings, cleans, etc.
That worked fine up to 25lbs. But the weight swings around in the bag as I walk because there's no weight pocket in that Northface bag, so I decided to upgrade to a Goruck 33L Long-Range Rucker. I still used my Marcy plates for weight until very recently when I bought these ruck plates through Amazon, sounds like nobody buys the goruck brand plates it's just weight so who cares what the brand is....Yes4All is very popular for ruck plates and that's what I bought. I can't provide a link for my particular bag because they don't carry it anymore I guess, but the Long Range Rucker, or you may see it by the abbreviation 33LRR is gone for now. The Long Range rucker is the same bag as the Rucker 4.0, (which comes in 15L, 20L, or 25L sizes) in 33L or 39L sizes.
Rucker 4.0
Yes4All cast iron ruck plates
The goruck is very stiff, it's probably still needing to break in, but I also think it's just THAT heavily over-built. It's 5.2lbs empty and it can carry 40lbs with the same stability and position as 10lbs. It's hard to adjust strap length on the fly, hopefully those loosen up to where I can do that because it's irritating to have to take it off. With my stiff shoulders it's kinda a pain in the arse to put this pack on and take it off. I hope after it breaks in that gets easier as well. I do love that it has very heavy duty handles on the sides, top, and bottom, so you can use it similar to a sandbag and do PT work with it, throw it around, swings, cleans, etc.
Posted on 3/6/24 at 3:48 am to DrDenim
(catch-up post #1)
I need to catch up on this training log. I kicked my own arse a little too hard with a conditioning workout and as a result have had to take it easier on myself for several days as I recover. I think it was a "MetCon", but honestly, I"m not completely sure I know what a "MetCon" is. Up to this point in my life, I've always applied this simple question to myself to figure out if I'm doing Metabolic Conditioning...."Would you rather be dead than continue doing this?" If the answer is YES, then it's MetCon, if the answer is NO then it's some other kind of conditioning workout.
No matter, I'm dishonoring the intent of my training log by not staying current. Part 1 is the training, Part 2 is the logging of the training. It's not acceptable to do neither Part 1 or Part 2, and it's not acceptable to do one of the two but not the other. Obviously I'm not going to write out a training log for a training session that I didn't do(what kind of sicko do you think I am?) So it's always gonna come down to me NOT logging a training session after completing that training session. So I'm gonna try to be brief and catch up this log and then stay on my arse better in the future.
On 02/28 I finally got around to doing the assistance work that I skipped out on from 02/26.
Palm-facing pull-downs:
50lb x 1,
75lb x 1,
100lb x 1,
then 120lb x 6 x 4 sets.
Extreme emphasis on the "weak" points of the pull-down movement, so I'm holding the bar at my sternum for as long as I can manage and then I'm controlling a very slow (5 second) eccentric as I let the bar return to it's high point. Full Stretch of the lats and arms, then pull hard to the bottom....hold.....slow eccentric. That's how it has to be done. It hurts damn good.
Neck Extensions:
25 x 4 with 20lbs
I need to start being more mindful about doing these slower and under more control. 25 is a lot of reps, I can't imagine adding reps to a 25 rep set, and I don't want to recklessly add weight at too fast a pace so I'm gonna work on slowing these down and pulling 100% out of myself for these sets.
Nordic Curls:
4 x 6 (-70lbs banded assistance)
I'm still using same amount of band assistance, 70lbs, but I've added a set so now I'm up to 4 sets of 6. Once I get up to 5 sets of 10, I'll start pulling band assistance off.
Notes:
I can definitely feel the effects of this assistance work, my back and neck and hamstrings are always a little tender, but nothing like I was fearing. I was worried about being so sore it would have a negative impact on my training but it's no problem at all. But who gives a shite about soreness, what does that mean? Nada. Is this assistance work doing it's job? Well, I definitely feel my hamstrings being stronger is helping more than anything. It helps me with my deadlift, it helps me with my rucking and walking. I can feel my pace increasing during my walks/rucks and my deadlift progression is going better than ever, so Nordic curls are definitely a huge helper. I live on top of a hill and therefore my daily walking/rucking includes me going up and down a fairly steep hill several times a day, and with greater hamstring strength I feel myself having greater hill climbing ability.
The pull-downs are progressing and that has to be beneficial for getting me back into being able to do chin-ups and pull-ups again. The neck extensions are the only mystery, but I can tell that I have a larger ROM in my neck. I can turn my head side to side more and it feels easier, so that's something, and my traps look beefy as all hell. Maybe that's just an aesthetic thing but I'm not opposed to having a big neck and traps. Similar to the curls I'm doing, I can see and feel that my biceps are bigger, and while I don't particularly care to focus on hypertrophy training, I am not opposed to having bigger muscles either. Curls will also help with chin-ups/pull-ups so it's a win-win.
I need to catch up on this training log. I kicked my own arse a little too hard with a conditioning workout and as a result have had to take it easier on myself for several days as I recover. I think it was a "MetCon", but honestly, I"m not completely sure I know what a "MetCon" is. Up to this point in my life, I've always applied this simple question to myself to figure out if I'm doing Metabolic Conditioning...."Would you rather be dead than continue doing this?" If the answer is YES, then it's MetCon, if the answer is NO then it's some other kind of conditioning workout.
No matter, I'm dishonoring the intent of my training log by not staying current. Part 1 is the training, Part 2 is the logging of the training. It's not acceptable to do neither Part 1 or Part 2, and it's not acceptable to do one of the two but not the other. Obviously I'm not going to write out a training log for a training session that I didn't do(what kind of sicko do you think I am?) So it's always gonna come down to me NOT logging a training session after completing that training session. So I'm gonna try to be brief and catch up this log and then stay on my arse better in the future.
On 02/28 I finally got around to doing the assistance work that I skipped out on from 02/26.
Palm-facing pull-downs:
50lb x 1,
75lb x 1,
100lb x 1,
then 120lb x 6 x 4 sets.
Extreme emphasis on the "weak" points of the pull-down movement, so I'm holding the bar at my sternum for as long as I can manage and then I'm controlling a very slow (5 second) eccentric as I let the bar return to it's high point. Full Stretch of the lats and arms, then pull hard to the bottom....hold.....slow eccentric. That's how it has to be done. It hurts damn good.
Neck Extensions:
25 x 4 with 20lbs
I need to start being more mindful about doing these slower and under more control. 25 is a lot of reps, I can't imagine adding reps to a 25 rep set, and I don't want to recklessly add weight at too fast a pace so I'm gonna work on slowing these down and pulling 100% out of myself for these sets.
Nordic Curls:
4 x 6 (-70lbs banded assistance)
I'm still using same amount of band assistance, 70lbs, but I've added a set so now I'm up to 4 sets of 6. Once I get up to 5 sets of 10, I'll start pulling band assistance off.
Notes:
I can definitely feel the effects of this assistance work, my back and neck and hamstrings are always a little tender, but nothing like I was fearing. I was worried about being so sore it would have a negative impact on my training but it's no problem at all. But who gives a shite about soreness, what does that mean? Nada. Is this assistance work doing it's job? Well, I definitely feel my hamstrings being stronger is helping more than anything. It helps me with my deadlift, it helps me with my rucking and walking. I can feel my pace increasing during my walks/rucks and my deadlift progression is going better than ever, so Nordic curls are definitely a huge helper. I live on top of a hill and therefore my daily walking/rucking includes me going up and down a fairly steep hill several times a day, and with greater hamstring strength I feel myself having greater hill climbing ability.
The pull-downs are progressing and that has to be beneficial for getting me back into being able to do chin-ups and pull-ups again. The neck extensions are the only mystery, but I can tell that I have a larger ROM in my neck. I can turn my head side to side more and it feels easier, so that's something, and my traps look beefy as all hell. Maybe that's just an aesthetic thing but I'm not opposed to having a big neck and traps. Similar to the curls I'm doing, I can see and feel that my biceps are bigger, and while I don't particularly care to focus on hypertrophy training, I am not opposed to having bigger muscles either. Curls will also help with chin-ups/pull-ups so it's a win-win.
This post was edited on 3/6/24 at 4:30 am
Posted on 3/6/24 at 4:26 am to DrDenim
(Catch-Up post #2)
02/29/2024: Week 9, Day 2
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
Work Sets:
320 x 5
320 x 5
320 x 11 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
2. Deadlift
Warm-Up Sets:
Romanian DL's
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
Conventional DL's
225 x 5
265 x 5
295 x 3
Work Set:
330 x 9 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
3. SuperSet EZ Bar Curls & Neck Curls
EZ Bar Curls - 15 x 4 with 47lbs
Neck Curls - 25 x 4 with 15lbs
Notes:
Great session. Deadlifting is feeling better and better. The best thing about deadlift now is that it has become a training session I look forward to doing instead of dreading it and finding ways to avoid it. I modified my warm-up sets with both BP and DL and it went smoothly. Too soon to say if I like it this way and if my new way "works," for lack of a better term. I like getting more low intensity volume on the deadlift because I still feel as if I need to practice my deadlift technique and this is a way to do that. My left wrist is improving. Or maybe it's the new wrist wraps I bought, but I didn't notice any pain. I'm no longer doing any pressing movements of any kind without wrist wraps. I'm not even going to do push-ups without wrist support anymore.
02/29/2024: Week 9, Day 2
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
Work Sets:
320 x 5
320 x 5
320 x 11 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
2. Deadlift
Warm-Up Sets:
Romanian DL's
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
Conventional DL's
225 x 5
265 x 5
295 x 3
Work Set:
330 x 9 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
3. SuperSet EZ Bar Curls & Neck Curls
EZ Bar Curls - 15 x 4 with 47lbs
Neck Curls - 25 x 4 with 15lbs
Notes:
Great session. Deadlifting is feeling better and better. The best thing about deadlift now is that it has become a training session I look forward to doing instead of dreading it and finding ways to avoid it. I modified my warm-up sets with both BP and DL and it went smoothly. Too soon to say if I like it this way and if my new way "works," for lack of a better term. I like getting more low intensity volume on the deadlift because I still feel as if I need to practice my deadlift technique and this is a way to do that. My left wrist is improving. Or maybe it's the new wrist wraps I bought, but I didn't notice any pain. I'm no longer doing any pressing movements of any kind without wrist wraps. I'm not even going to do push-ups without wrist support anymore.
This post was edited on 3/6/24 at 5:41 am
Posted on 3/6/24 at 5:24 am to DrDenim
(catch-up post #3, this was also on 02/29, after the Day B session posted above, oh boy what a day! This was the 'dumb' thing I did that put me on unexpected "light duty" for the entire weekend)
"The Burpee Ladder of Regret" courtesy of the GORUCK corporation's Tribe 'n' Training subscription training program.
Each month has a theme, January was "Create" and February is "Regret" and the challenge for February is "The Burpee Ladder of Regret" wherein trainees will alternate between a 400 meter run and a set of burpees, beginning at 20 burpees. Each round will decrease the set of burpees by 1 rep, so it goes like this: 400 meter run, 20 burpees, 400 meter run, 19 burpees, etc. All the way down to 1 burpee and then it's over.
(BEFORE: My thoughts going into this challenge)
I already mentioned that I do not run. Not these kinds of distances. I would get shin splints so bad during the first 400 I'd essentially be done for the night. This will be a total of 8000 meters and 210 burpees. I will walk my 400 meters. I'll try to do a ruck shuffle to keep the pace up, if I can, but I don't know if I'll be able to do even that. I've never done this many burpees before. I've done a set of 10 here and there, so I know they gas me as good as anything does, so I don't know how I'll do anything other than walk my 400s to recover from the burpees. That is until the sets of burpees get under 10, then it'll be possible to crank up the pace on the walk because I won't be winded from the burpees as bad.
(DURING: How it went)
It took me a total of 2 hours 51 minutes and 17 seconds to complete this challenge. My original goal was to finish in under 2 hours, but this was way over my head. If the point of the challenge was to encourage me to ponder the concept of regret, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. However, as the GORUCK corporation suggested, this was not merely a mental challenge wherein I "regretted" undertaking the challenge because it was so daunting. I regretted ever buying one of their overpriced backpacks to begin with. I regretted wasting money on yet another shitty training program that in no way fit me or my goals or took into account my current abilities. I only have myself to blame. Yes, it was hard, and I pushed my limits, and I got frustrated and discouraged and angry and wanted to throw all my weightlifting equipment into a deep, dark chasm and burn it. I suppose this challenge was probably worth it because it caused me to grow. I cancelled my subscription to this dog shite training service and I learned my lesson. GORUCK, they can make a hell of a tough backpack, but they don't deserve a dollar of mine for anything else they want to try to sell. They can stick their shoes and their fricking pants and their goddamn sandbags up their fricking asses. The body held together pretty decent. Fronts of shoulders would get a dull, throbbing pain after the burpees that would slowly subside while I walked the 400m. The walking was no challenge, I tried to push it as fast as I could, but the burpees had me breathing so hard and my HR so high I couldn't do much more than I did. I went back and forth on the burpees. I tried them fast. I tried them slow. I got incredibly sloppy at times. I would pause when needed and focus on trying to do them in a technically correct manner. I think it paid off. By the end, I was displaying vastly improved form. I will definitely keep working at burpees. I've long wanted to finish the Greyskull Villain Challenge #1, and I need to get better at burpee form first, before getting better at doing burpees fast.
(FALLOUT: My thoughts afterwards)
Once again I'm humbled because my conditioning is so poor I can't even come close to completing these kinds of things in any reasonable fashion. It's very embarrassing to me, and supremely frustrating. The entire endeavor makes me want to quit everything I do and just eat myself to death. But. That's not my style. After pouting for a bit I decided to move on and do what I have to do, which is build my own customized training program for MetCon, or whatever the frick it's called, and build myself up from where I am now.....towards where I want to be. If I can do it with strength training, then it can be done with conditioning. I'm sick and fricking tired of leaving this up to the crossfit bullshitters and these special forces jackoffs selling me on their overpriced bullshite. frick them. I'm not a goddamn Navy SEAL or a green beret professional crossfit games athlete who works as a smokejumper in his free time just for laughs, ya know, cuz I'm such a fricking madman I can just crank this shite out non-stop like a methed out chimp. I have no problem admitting who I am. I'm a very fat guy with very poor conditioning who just needs an intelligent way to get started at a beginner level. But I don't see anyone selling that shite, it's not badass enough sounding I guess. I have respect for people that can do this kind of shite, but it's not for me, not who I am now. It's too far over my current level. Where is the middle fricking ground? It seems like with this kind of conditioning work, there is only one end of the pool, the frickING DEEP END!, but that's bullshite. I'll make what I need myself.
"The Burpee Ladder of Regret" courtesy of the GORUCK corporation's Tribe 'n' Training subscription training program.
Each month has a theme, January was "Create" and February is "Regret" and the challenge for February is "The Burpee Ladder of Regret" wherein trainees will alternate between a 400 meter run and a set of burpees, beginning at 20 burpees. Each round will decrease the set of burpees by 1 rep, so it goes like this: 400 meter run, 20 burpees, 400 meter run, 19 burpees, etc. All the way down to 1 burpee and then it's over.
(BEFORE: My thoughts going into this challenge)
I already mentioned that I do not run. Not these kinds of distances. I would get shin splints so bad during the first 400 I'd essentially be done for the night. This will be a total of 8000 meters and 210 burpees. I will walk my 400 meters. I'll try to do a ruck shuffle to keep the pace up, if I can, but I don't know if I'll be able to do even that. I've never done this many burpees before. I've done a set of 10 here and there, so I know they gas me as good as anything does, so I don't know how I'll do anything other than walk my 400s to recover from the burpees. That is until the sets of burpees get under 10, then it'll be possible to crank up the pace on the walk because I won't be winded from the burpees as bad.
(DURING: How it went)
It took me a total of 2 hours 51 minutes and 17 seconds to complete this challenge. My original goal was to finish in under 2 hours, but this was way over my head. If the point of the challenge was to encourage me to ponder the concept of regret, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. However, as the GORUCK corporation suggested, this was not merely a mental challenge wherein I "regretted" undertaking the challenge because it was so daunting. I regretted ever buying one of their overpriced backpacks to begin with. I regretted wasting money on yet another shitty training program that in no way fit me or my goals or took into account my current abilities. I only have myself to blame. Yes, it was hard, and I pushed my limits, and I got frustrated and discouraged and angry and wanted to throw all my weightlifting equipment into a deep, dark chasm and burn it. I suppose this challenge was probably worth it because it caused me to grow. I cancelled my subscription to this dog shite training service and I learned my lesson. GORUCK, they can make a hell of a tough backpack, but they don't deserve a dollar of mine for anything else they want to try to sell. They can stick their shoes and their fricking pants and their goddamn sandbags up their fricking asses. The body held together pretty decent. Fronts of shoulders would get a dull, throbbing pain after the burpees that would slowly subside while I walked the 400m. The walking was no challenge, I tried to push it as fast as I could, but the burpees had me breathing so hard and my HR so high I couldn't do much more than I did. I went back and forth on the burpees. I tried them fast. I tried them slow. I got incredibly sloppy at times. I would pause when needed and focus on trying to do them in a technically correct manner. I think it paid off. By the end, I was displaying vastly improved form. I will definitely keep working at burpees. I've long wanted to finish the Greyskull Villain Challenge #1, and I need to get better at burpee form first, before getting better at doing burpees fast.
(FALLOUT: My thoughts afterwards)
Once again I'm humbled because my conditioning is so poor I can't even come close to completing these kinds of things in any reasonable fashion. It's very embarrassing to me, and supremely frustrating. The entire endeavor makes me want to quit everything I do and just eat myself to death. But. That's not my style. After pouting for a bit I decided to move on and do what I have to do, which is build my own customized training program for MetCon, or whatever the frick it's called, and build myself up from where I am now.....towards where I want to be. If I can do it with strength training, then it can be done with conditioning. I'm sick and fricking tired of leaving this up to the crossfit bullshitters and these special forces jackoffs selling me on their overpriced bullshite. frick them. I'm not a goddamn Navy SEAL or a green beret professional crossfit games athlete who works as a smokejumper in his free time just for laughs, ya know, cuz I'm such a fricking madman I can just crank this shite out non-stop like a methed out chimp. I have no problem admitting who I am. I'm a very fat guy with very poor conditioning who just needs an intelligent way to get started at a beginner level. But I don't see anyone selling that shite, it's not badass enough sounding I guess. I have respect for people that can do this kind of shite, but it's not for me, not who I am now. It's too far over my current level. Where is the middle fricking ground? It seems like with this kind of conditioning work, there is only one end of the pool, the frickING DEEP END!, but that's bullshite. I'll make what I need myself.
Posted on 3/6/24 at 11:34 am to DrDenim
(catch-up post #4, LAST ONE!)
After not doing shite for 3 days due to being so sore and stiff all over my body that slow walking and gentle stretching felt to be the most I could safely manage to accomplish, I rose yet again to give "this shite" another shot.
03/04/24: Week 10, Day 1 - "Just Enjoy the Ozzy"
1. Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
Work Sets:
155 x 5
155 x 5
155 x 12
2. Squat
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
Work Sets:
225 x 5
225 x 5
225 x 5
Notes:
Entire body is still stiff and tender. No matter what I do I can't seem to get my body to move the way I want it to so I'm not going to load the bar up and try to do anything resembling an actual workout. (Today should have been 192.5lb on press and 435lb on SQUAT!, but my body needs more recovery before I attempt that, hopefully Friday) I have to less of a ding-dong in the future. I often let my frustrations get the best of me and I do stupid shite like the mega-burpee workout from last Thursday that has left me in my current trashed state. I'll be okay in a few more days, but shite's gonna have to change with my conditioning work. Work smarter, not harder.
On the nutrition front I'm doing horrible. I'm not even trying to follow my plan. I have to figure out a better way. Every week follows a similar pattern; a positive amount of work is completed BUT then an equal and negative amount of work is completed that cancels out the positive completely and sometimes even more. Sometimes I'll finish a week feeling like I regressed! This is bad. It's this feeling that all my efforts will be wasted if I don't get my shite together that makes me want to just say "frick It" and quit, but I'm trying to transform that negative shite into fuel to just do better by being smarter. I'm not an idiot or a frickup, but something is not working. I'm afraid I'm trying to do too much. If I can manage to simply stop sabotaging myself I'll be in a much improved state.
After not doing shite for 3 days due to being so sore and stiff all over my body that slow walking and gentle stretching felt to be the most I could safely manage to accomplish, I rose yet again to give "this shite" another shot.
03/04/24: Week 10, Day 1 - "Just Enjoy the Ozzy"
1. Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
Work Sets:
155 x 5
155 x 5
155 x 12
2. Squat
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
Work Sets:
225 x 5
225 x 5
225 x 5
Notes:
Entire body is still stiff and tender. No matter what I do I can't seem to get my body to move the way I want it to so I'm not going to load the bar up and try to do anything resembling an actual workout. (Today should have been 192.5lb on press and 435lb on SQUAT!, but my body needs more recovery before I attempt that, hopefully Friday) I have to less of a ding-dong in the future. I often let my frustrations get the best of me and I do stupid shite like the mega-burpee workout from last Thursday that has left me in my current trashed state. I'll be okay in a few more days, but shite's gonna have to change with my conditioning work. Work smarter, not harder.
On the nutrition front I'm doing horrible. I'm not even trying to follow my plan. I have to figure out a better way. Every week follows a similar pattern; a positive amount of work is completed BUT then an equal and negative amount of work is completed that cancels out the positive completely and sometimes even more. Sometimes I'll finish a week feeling like I regressed! This is bad. It's this feeling that all my efforts will be wasted if I don't get my shite together that makes me want to just say "frick It" and quit, but I'm trying to transform that negative shite into fuel to just do better by being smarter. I'm not an idiot or a frickup, but something is not working. I'm afraid I'm trying to do too much. If I can manage to simply stop sabotaging myself I'll be in a much improved state.
Posted on 3/8/24 at 7:13 pm to DrDenim
quote:
This is bad. It's this feeling that all my efforts will be wasted if I don't get my shite together that makes me want to just say "frick It" and quit, but I'm trying to transform that negative shite into fuel to just do better by being smarter. I'm not an idiot or a frickup, but something is not working. I'm afraid I'm trying to do too much. If I can manage to simply stop sabotaging myself I'll be in a much improved state.
I can’t recall if you indicated it, but do you have a clear and simple set of goals. You’re a frick ton stronger than me and much more experienced at lifting, so I hesitate to even offer any advise. But…and this comes from the classical music world not the lifting world, when I have a simple set of goals that is achievable with a reasonable amount of work I’m better able to plan. When my goals aren’t clearly defined and simple I end of throwing shite at the wall, spinning my wheels without much to show for it.
For example, last spring I was serving as principal for the bass section of a regional orchestra, and we were doing Mozart’s Requiem. Overall it’s not that hard of a piece of music, but there is one very fast section that is a bit unpredictable from a fingering standpoint. My simple goal was to get that passage clean at a tempo higher than performance. I still had to run through the other movements and pieces, but everyday I would spend a good half hour just on that passage, and I’d do it in a very methodical way (some of the concepts I learned from lifting actually came in handy).
All that said, the simple and defined goal is usually the one you’re going to be able to achieve. The broad, nebulous goals are the ones that end in frustration.
Posted on 3/9/24 at 12:41 am to HVAU
That's great advice, and it's pretty close to what I'm struggling with. I do have a clear goal(it was posted on here in the past, different thread, don't remember what I titled it), but I'm beating around the bush with it by distracting myself because I'm scared to tackle it head on. I keep adding new things to my already full schedule of tasks, because I feel comfortable with DOING things like working out, calisthenics, step goals, cardio sessions, etc. I'm less comfortable with eating less because it doesn't feel much like I'm DOING anything, it just seems all about denial and discipline and NOT DOING something I'm very habitual about - eating large amounts of shitty food - , but I am getting better bit by bit.
For me, I have to really dig down deep and work on modifying my mindset about eating, food selection, hunger, really anything food/nutrition related. I have the wrong mindset, I look at food/eating in a very unhealthy way, that's the problem, not fixing that and just expecting myself to magically find the willpower to eat better won't work. There is progress, but it's slow, and in the meantime I deal with the anxiety over all of that by adding more work to DO by pushing harder with weights or rucking or steps or whatever. I should just take it easier on myself and realize that my missed workouts, not doing enough push-ups, or missing daily step goals by some trivial amount, those aren't the thing that's hanging me.
So I'm gonna try to relax my inner "Old-School Football Coach" that forever lives in my head and yells at me constantly to DO MORE, YOU'RE HOLDING BACK ON ME! and I'm gonna try to focus on a more important thing TO DO, and that is adhere to a fairly strict(but flexible) set of guidelines for when to eat and what to eat, and I'll try to rest easy knowing that I've got the "Working Out" part whipped. I just need to learn how to put together the fat cutting diet habits in a way that works for me.
For me, I have to really dig down deep and work on modifying my mindset about eating, food selection, hunger, really anything food/nutrition related. I have the wrong mindset, I look at food/eating in a very unhealthy way, that's the problem, not fixing that and just expecting myself to magically find the willpower to eat better won't work. There is progress, but it's slow, and in the meantime I deal with the anxiety over all of that by adding more work to DO by pushing harder with weights or rucking or steps or whatever. I should just take it easier on myself and realize that my missed workouts, not doing enough push-ups, or missing daily step goals by some trivial amount, those aren't the thing that's hanging me.
So I'm gonna try to relax my inner "Old-School Football Coach" that forever lives in my head and yells at me constantly to DO MORE, YOU'RE HOLDING BACK ON ME! and I'm gonna try to focus on a more important thing TO DO, and that is adhere to a fairly strict(but flexible) set of guidelines for when to eat and what to eat, and I'll try to rest easy knowing that I've got the "Working Out" part whipped. I just need to learn how to put together the fat cutting diet habits in a way that works for me.
Posted on 3/9/24 at 1:51 am to DrDenim
03/08/24 - Week 10, Day 2
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
Work Sets:
325 x 5
325 x 5
325 x 8 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
2. Deadlift
Warm-Up Sets:
RDL's
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
Conventional DL
225 x 5
255 x 4
285 x 3
Work Set:
335 x 10 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
3. SuperSet EZ Bar Curls & Neck Curls
EZ Bar Curls - 47lb x 15 x 4
Neck Curls - 15lb x 25 x 4
4. Nordic Curls
4 sets of 7 using 70lbs band assistance at 85%ROM
5. Palms-facing pull-downs
100lb x 1(3 second hold at sternum)
120lb x 6 x 2 (slow controlled 5 second eccentric)
Cardio - Tabata Intervals
Cycles 1 - 4 were DB thrusters with 10lbs in each hand
Cycles 5 - 6 were 25lb two handed plate swings
Cycles 7 - 8 were jumping jacks
Max HR was 161, average HR was 152, all together my HR was at or above threshold for 3 minutes 30 seconds out of the 4 minutes. Not bad for the first time doing this in years.
Notes:
Felt great, deadlift is just getting better and better. I can't believe I'm capable of pulling whatever weight I put on the bar for 9 or 10 reps like I have been doing. No back rounding, smooth, no hitching, my technique feels really solid and I feel confident and strong with this lift, which is rare for me. Bench press is just cruising along, my carpal tunnel tenderness on the left wrist continues to be just a minor issue. I can feel all this power coming from my hamstrings now. I love doing the Nordic Curls and every time I do them I feel so much stronger than the last time. I'm getting those beginner gains with 'em I guess.
Got all my steps in and I'm getting my BW homework done too. This week is holding together pretty damn good, not perfect, but it's progress.
1. Bench Press
Warm-Up Sets:
45 x 5 x 2
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 2
275 x 1
Work Sets:
325 x 5
325 x 5
325 x 8 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
2. Deadlift
Warm-Up Sets:
RDL's
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
Conventional DL
225 x 5
255 x 4
285 x 3
Work Set:
335 x 10 - AMRAP (New Rep Record!)
3. SuperSet EZ Bar Curls & Neck Curls
EZ Bar Curls - 47lb x 15 x 4
Neck Curls - 15lb x 25 x 4
4. Nordic Curls
4 sets of 7 using 70lbs band assistance at 85%ROM
5. Palms-facing pull-downs
100lb x 1(3 second hold at sternum)
120lb x 6 x 2 (slow controlled 5 second eccentric)
Cardio - Tabata Intervals
Cycles 1 - 4 were DB thrusters with 10lbs in each hand
Cycles 5 - 6 were 25lb two handed plate swings
Cycles 7 - 8 were jumping jacks
Max HR was 161, average HR was 152, all together my HR was at or above threshold for 3 minutes 30 seconds out of the 4 minutes. Not bad for the first time doing this in years.
Notes:
Felt great, deadlift is just getting better and better. I can't believe I'm capable of pulling whatever weight I put on the bar for 9 or 10 reps like I have been doing. No back rounding, smooth, no hitching, my technique feels really solid and I feel confident and strong with this lift, which is rare for me. Bench press is just cruising along, my carpal tunnel tenderness on the left wrist continues to be just a minor issue. I can feel all this power coming from my hamstrings now. I love doing the Nordic Curls and every time I do them I feel so much stronger than the last time. I'm getting those beginner gains with 'em I guess.
Got all my steps in and I'm getting my BW homework done too. This week is holding together pretty damn good, not perfect, but it's progress.
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