...it felt like a good idea at the time... I read some chaos and pain posts from 2009 at lunch time and it made me want to go lift, so I did Tue 22.7.14 Walk/jog/sprint/walk to gym (about 6 short sprints) Stupid conditioning. About 1 minute rest between all exercises today, done in about 45 minutes Bear Complex (power clean, front squat, push press, high bar back squat, btn push press) - 1x20, 1x25, 1x30, 1x35, 1x40, 1x45, 1x50, 1x55, 1x60 Power clean + push press - 1x65, 10x1x70, 5x1x60 (technique is pretty poor so got some more work in after the 70s) Power clean - 1x75, 1x80 (baaaaaad catch) Quarter squats + iso hold just below lockout: Front - 5x90 +10s, 5x110 + 10s, 5x130 + 5s (chest+lungs crushed) Low bar - 5x130 +20s, 5x140 +20s, 5x150 +20s (face beetroot, limbs shaking, but didn't die, another successful day as a human) Jog/sprint home, about 8 short sprints, get home, eat all the burgers and drink all the milk
Wed 23.7.14 Traps are a bit sore after yesterday, but still, I took my stopwatch today Walk to gym (don't like sprints in the heat) Warm up Zercher squat - 5x20, 4x40, 2x50, 1x60, 1x70, 1x80 a few pull ups and dips 9 minutes Tri - set thingy, minimum rest, do it for 10 minutes, max rounds Zercher - 1x90 Pull ups - 4 with 5kg added Dips - 4 with 10kg added Did 7 rounds, heart rate high all way through More zerchers, EMOM- 1x95, 1x100, 1x105, 5x1x110 Another 8 minutes One armed KB rack carry/suitcase carry w/24kg, do 40m on each before swapping hands or carry types, for another 8 minutes, abs complaining Go home when the clock reached 35 min total, read more Jamie Lewis, happy days
Thu 24.7.14 4 mile walk +20kg Took about an hour and I listened to Meshuggah (Catch 33) and Scott Walker (The Drift). Proper hallucinogenic
Fri 25.7.14 Press - 5x20, 3x30, 2x40, 8x3x50 (about 45s rest between sets, all power cleaned) Deadlift - 3x70, 3x90, 2x110, 1x130 (DOH, chalk), 10x1x150 (45-60s rest between reps, mixed grip) Squat - 5x60, 3x80, 1x100, 3x3x110 (GM'd last rep, unloaded a bit), 7x3x100 (45s rest between) Zercher lock outs (5th pin, top 4in or so) - 3x60, 3x100, 3x120, 3x130, 3x140, 3x3x150 (same rest) Jog/sprint home, did about 6x 20m sprints over a 10 min journey. Steak and beer time
Saturday 26.7.14 Rest and try not to let my adductors and lumbar erectors cramp up too much more than they have already. Heavy singles are fun but have their price... Sunday 27.7.14 The bear - 3x20, 3x30, 3x40, 2x50 Front squat - 1x60, 1x70, 1x80, 10x1x90 1/4 front squat from pins (Anderson style) - 1x90, 1x100, 1x110, 10x1x120 (last rep with a 15s hold) Abs - 3x (5 kneeling ab wheel, 5 hanging knee raises, 30s hard plank) The roll outs done to the point just before lumbar hyperextension, which is not very far :cry: All done in about 37 minutes including a quick chat with the gym owner (talking about partials)
Mon 28.7.14 KB warm up (swings/goblet/rack carry) Jump squat (high bar) - 5x20, 5x30, 5x40, 5x50, 5x60 (good depth, about 2in height, min rest) Power clean - 3x40, 3x50, 3x60 Power clean + push press - 3x60, 7x1x70, 7x1x60 (7th rep at 70 was messy, so unloaded a bit, all done in 10 minutes) Front squat - 8 rounds of 20s on/10s rest (as I'm not measuring my VO2 I can't verify it's at 170%, so can't call this "Tabata" apparently), min of 6 reps per set, first set had 11, last had 8, can't remember the others apart from pain. All done in 35 minutes including warm up
Tue 29.7.14 Some minor quad doms from jump squats yesterday, nothing too serious though! Had 13 minutes in the weight room before KB class, so thought I'd cram in some squatting, as yer do! Zercher squat - 5x20, 5x40, 3x50, 2x60, 1x70, 1x80, 1x90, 1x100, 1x110, 6x1x120, 1x125 D) Followed immediately by: 1.5hr KB class! I was 'under belled' last time, so went with a 20kg bell. Nothing like pushing a bit beyond your comfort zone... It was essentially 2 circuits with about 5 rounds of 10 exercisers in each, the first had set reps in a certain time with any remaining time being your rest, the second was a continuous countdown (10,8,6,4,2) where you had to plank at the end until the last person finished... I haven't sweated that much for a while! And that's coming from a sweaty guy! I hope it means I've earned the 4 burgers (no buns or chips) I'm about to eat... Also, why oh why did I get unflavoured whey? Tastes like cooking butter is stuck to the roof of your mouth! :cry: Enough moaning for now
Wed 30.7.14 Pretty serious doms from KB class (soooo many single KB burpee/clean + presses), so limited to about an hours walk and an hours yoga, both with The Better Half (I do spend time with her, honest). Thu 31.7.14 Gripper: warm ups with the 100 and 150, 2 solid RH reps with the 200 (about 2x £1 coin thicknesses away with the LH), a bunch of assist/static holds with the 200, then several 45s holds with the 150 Expander: A bunch of front pulls and back presses, I get a massive upper body pump from expander work, might do it more often Fri 1.8.14 Quick gym session, about 25 minutes in total Jump squat (high bar) - 5x20, 5x40, 5x50, 5x60, 5x70, 3x80, 3x90 (starting to slow), 3x100 (slower through sticking point, quick in top 1/4 to accelerate to the jump) Squat (low bar) - 1x100, 1x110, 1x120, 5x1x130 (no good mornings today thank you!) Squat lock outs, top 3 inches of ROM from pins, all with 10s hold on last rep - 3x150, 3x160, 3x170, 3x180, 3x190, 3x200, 3x210 (eyes about to pop out of head) In almost exactly 24 hours I commemorate the completion of 31 years of unassisted respiration by going to a friend of mine's birthday party (it's his birthday next week, but I don't mind letting him have the lime light tomorrow ) I always get a bit nostalgic around this time of year, but honestly this is the best I've felt since I can remember, both physically and mentally. Improving my posture, strength, eating habits, activity levels, success rate (linked to previous on list), volume of sleep, and (presumably) balance of hormones D) seems to have been a very productive investment of some of my leisure time this year. There have been a fair number of challenges, but all have been met with significantly renewed vim and vigour, especially when compared to my lacking energy levels of preceeding years. 30 turned out to be chuffin' great, so roll on next year and all that it brings :woo:
Well, where did I get to? Hmm, here goes: Tue 5th - Mon 11th Aug Kali Sikaran International summer camp in Stromstad, Sweden. 5 days of training, about 5 hours per day (plus evening practice for gradings), passed my Phase 3 in KSI in a physically tough, technically challenging, 3 hour grading during which I lost about 1.5kg sweat (weighed myself before and after), and about 20ml of blood (thanks to the Oaf I was trying to help pass his grading), after that, I just almost hit him when he messed up. Bah, lesson learned! The whole camp followed the formula of: wake up early, run, eat, train, eat, train, eat, party until late, sleep a tiny amount, repeat. It was pretty epic to train with some world class instructors (including two Kombatan Grand Masters), then get to drink with them and exchange stories until the wee hours! Some great memories (and hopefully friendships) formed during the week; definitely going next year :woo: Back to reality has been accompanied by a 3 day hangover (being old doesn't help), and some reality checks about my ability to train barefoot on gravel for 5 days :thinking: Back to gym today for a light easy workout: Thu 14.8.14 Front squat - 10x20, 8x40, 6x50, 5x60, 4x70, 2x80 Deadlift - 2x70p, 2x90p, 2x110p, 2x120, 2x130, 2x140 * p = slow off the floor to below the knees and paused for 2s, lowered to just off the ground and paused there, then quickly up to lockout ** all sets done DOH with my new straps - I bought some seatbelt webbing and it works pretty well, with no 'forever tightening' on the wrists. Bit fiddly to get used to though chins/dips/straight arm dips superduperset - 4x5/4x5/4x10 ***10s hold on last SA dip Press / single arm DB row superset - 5x3x40 / 5x5x32 Easy peasy, done in 40 minutes. Hopefully back to jump squats and partials over the weekend
Sun 17.8.14 My feet still aren't quite recovered enough for jump squats (deep blister under the thick skin on the ball of my right foot), so: Warm up Zercher squats (all from the floor/sumo dl for laughs) - 15x20, 10x40, 8x50, 6x60, 5x70, 4x80 Circuit Zercher lift - 5x2x100 Chins - 5x3 Dips - 5x6 Straight arm dips - 5x10 +10s static /circuit 20 minutes so far Partial Zercher from pins (just below belt line), all with 5s hold at the top - 1x120, 1x130, 1x140, 1x150, 1x160, 1x170, 1x180, 1x190, 1x200 The more I can get used to holding 200kg the easier (in theory!) a 200kg deadlift will be. Right? Right?? All done in 30 minutes
Mon 18.8.14 Bit of a longer session today, but only because one of the guys at the gym is going on holiday for 3 weeks, so I worked squats with him and did a little bit of chatting, 10 mins total, tops. Anyhoo: Jump squat (high bar) - 5x20, 5x40, 5x60, 3x80, 3x90, 3x100, 3x110 (bit slow through sticking point), 2x3x100 Single DB Snatch (LH first, then RH) - 3x16, 3x24, 3x28, 5x3x32 (only a few press outs) Farmers walk - 5x40m w/ 32s (about 30s rest between each) cheat curls - 20x20, 10x30, 20x20 Band pulls - 50 total 50 minutes then walk home. I'm going to a kung fu (essentially WC plus circuits, but the guy moves really smoothly) class tomorrow night to chat with the instructor afterwards, I'm going to look into setting up my own kali class, either at his current place, or maybe his old place... Only I'm not sure how to pitch it - 'pure' kali/filipino martial arts, or 'self defence', or 'weapons self defence', or 'self defence martial arts', 'close quarter self defence', 'cerebral martial arts', 'practical self defence', 'martial self defence'... Dunno. My aim is to incorporate all the cerebral/pre-physical aspects (avoid/evade/escape/defuse/defend), but not loose the core of physicality which attracts most people (I think, and certainly interests me) to the martial art side. Pfft, we'll see.
Tue 19.8.14 Very quick session, only had a few minutes so I didn't even get changed out of my civvies... Superbear - 6x20, 4x30 Quads and hammies are suffering a bit from poor sleep. Press (from crappy power clean) - 3x40, 3x45, 3x3x50 (last set grind, but not uneven) Push press (from crappy power clean) - 5x2x60 (all pretty easy) Supersetted with chins - 5x3 Done in 17 minutes, off to WC class, which was pretty cool (sensitivity, balance and adhesion, whilst cycling a pak sau da type flow drill), had a good chat with the instructor in the pub afterwards too, which was also pretty cool. Plans are afoot.
Wed 20.8.14 Rest (ish) Usual daily calf raises and gripper stuff Hour walk with the Better Half DB clean, squat + press, 10x20, 45s rest, sweatathon Thu 21.8.14 Had 7 minutes before pad/circuits class, time for a deadlift crapfest - 4x70, 3x90, 3x110, 5x130, 3x150 (bit of back rounding, not excessive), 1x160 (terrible form, did a video, watched it, deleted it immediately, it never happened, my form was fine. That's the story) 1.5 hour circuits and punch/kick/knee pad class. Fine for raising the heart rate, but still not enough technical combos for me. Meh, make do with what's available and all that!
Fri 22.8.14 Press, from power clean - 10x20, 8x25, 6x30, 5x35, 4x42.5, 2x50, 1x55 7.5 minutes Superset (16.5 minutes) Press - 5x2x50, 7,6,4,3,5 x 40 DB row - 9x5x40 es Farmers walk - 100m w/ 40s (2.5 minutes) Off to WC class now!
Tue 26.8.14 Front squat - 10x20, 8x40, 6x50, 5x60, 4x70, 3x80, (8.5 min) 10x2x85 (in 10 min, bit of a sweat on after this) Deadlift - 5x70, 5x90, 5x5x112.5 Press - 5x20, 5x30, 5x5x40 Chin ups (neutral grip) - 5x5 Blah, not enough sleep or water today, more sugar and less caffeine than (current) optimum levels meant squats were ok but the rest of the workout was a real grind... Blegh, sleep more and try again tomorrow! I'm going to try out a deadlift programme I read somewhere that goes: 5x5x70% 5x3x75% 5x1x80% Chill 5x5x75% 5x3x80% 5x1x85% Chill 4x5x80% 4x3x85% 4x1x90% Chill 3x5x85% 3x3x90% 3x1x95% Chill Retest max I read it as being a 'deadlift once per week' type deal, buuuut I'm going to play it by ear - maybe once every 4 or 5 days. My vague idea is to programme as follows, over 5 (or so) days: 1. Deads/front squat/press/chin 2. Jump squat/squat/BB row/dips 3. Power clean/push press/Zercher +partials With the goals of a 2xBW+ deadlift, and press 60kg for reps. Plus lots of squatting of course
Wed 27.8.14 Day 2 of the plan. Seem to be sticking to it so far... Jump squat - 3x20, 3x40, 3x60, 3x70, 3x80, 2x90, 15x1x105 (done in 20 mins, strewth!) Barbell row - 4x40, 4x50, 4x60, 7x4x70 Dips +10kg - 11x4 All done in 40 mins. Helped a guy with his front squat (moar thoracic extension!) then staggered home. Time for food and to work on my kali class promotional plan
