Walked to the pull-up bars on my lunch break yesterday and did a 60-second dead hang.

Upon coming home from work:

20 ABCs with 50 lb kettlebells

27 decline push-ups

17 pull-ups

90-second intensity round on the heavy bag

Was gasping for air by the end. No elbow or shoulder pain, they’re holding up.

Later at night, ran 2 miles. Time for the first mile was 9:18, although I walked at the start because it was dark and my elderly neighbors sometimes go down the narrow trail to our neighborhood.

2-board press

315 x 3

Close-grip 2-board press

275 x 7

Skullcrushers

50s x 5 -> drop-set to 35s x 6

50s x 7 -> drop-set to 35s x 4

50s x 4 -> drop-set to 35s x 5

Dumbbell rows

115 x 4 x 8

200 lb sandbag carries

Doing what doesn't hurt the shoulders. Happy to report that the left feels fine now and it's just the right one. Although pain was minimal (just a little bit at the bottom of the first rep and it went away), it felt like I couldn't fire at full power under the bar and the reps of 315 were slow as a result. Still very good to be pressing something heavy.

A strongman competition in May has caught my eye. Would interfere minimally with boxing, as I would simply steer the lifting I'm currently doing toward training for the events. What has me really excited is a car deadlift AND a truck pull, the latter which I've never done before. Will start doing more heavy push pressing and monitor how my shoulder feels.

I read a training approach from one boxer that involved pre-exhausting the arms via landmine presses, battle ropes, and other exercises before doing non-stop rounds on the heavy bag to build-up stamina for his fight. I would love to try that with strongman training like RE clean and press instead of the typical boxing gym lifts. I think they would compliment each other well. 

 Left shoulder is feeling much better and no longer aches when at rest.

Boxing yesterday went great. Ended up being my first lady coach ever, for any martial art, and it was the perfect class to attend with a healing shoulder. Intensity was low and technique was the focus. Very similar to Tuesdays, except combos were simpler and we didn't continue to build on and add to the same string. Informed my partner that I'd be throwing light with my left hand, but was still able to put out a pretty snappy jab. Left hooks on the shield were definitely light, but it was an opportune moment to focus on putting my whole body behind the strike and whittle down any habit of arm striking. 

 SSB box squats

330 x 5

350 x 5

380 x 5

Dips: 8

Log press

140 x 8

90 x 20

Chin-ups: 20

Dumbbell skullcrushers

35s x 10

50s x 10, 7

35s x 10, 10

Hammer curls

35s x 10

50s x 10, 10

35s x 10, 10

Experimenting with different upper-body movements to see what hurts. Basically, everything. Log press with 150 felt fine until rep 6. Settled on skullcrushers and got a satisfying arm pump super-setting them with curls.

Feels like hitting the bag hard after sparring worsened my left shoulder, particularly left hooks. 

I decided not to cancel boxing and will go today. Never worked with this coach before. Will make sure to take it easy and not throw anything hard except right straights and uppercuts. 

Quads still hurt a bit, too. Made the right call to do punch-the-clock box squats instead of that 20-rep squat/deadlift hell super-set. Will squat heavy again on the weekend.

Unrelated, but I finally got to watch Pitch Black on Wednesday night with Eli, roughly 20 years after seeing Riddick in theaters (which I aim to rewatch soon). Was really good.

Got totally schooled in sparring yesterday. I was paired up with coach Gabriel again, probably because we're both similar weights, and just before starting, his cornerman coach (who's cornered me before) called me over to explain that this isn't an intro to sparring class anymore so Gabriel is going to go harder on me. The most frenetic sparring session I've ever been in ensued. The hits were hard, but it was the pace that threw me off my game. I've sparred hard in Muay Thai before, but  they could always be interrupted by my own hard shots. Gabriel kept surging forward and I couldn't really find my rhythm. It was my first time going against someone that high level who's also a pressure striker.

Ate some big shots as a result, but defended decently against the majority of them. The problem was just how much on defense I was across the 3 rounds. I also started to tense up more than previous spars, which made me tired but not gassed. There were moments when he eased up so I could get some offense going, and I noticed just how much my arms felt like lead in those windows despite training for much longer rounds.

Afterwards my cornerman gave me tips about movement and defending, and then Gabe worked with me on the ground floor to polish up my guard. People started leaving early, but my hour of sparring class wasn't up so I smashed the heavy bag for the remaining 20 minutes with short breaks. It was a very good learning experience and right now I just want to spar and train more.

Also of note is that I went into the gym with both my shoulders now in pain, not just the right, and I suspect it had an effect on my aggression and arm fatigue during sparring. Will keep up the rehab and rotate out painful pressing movements. I'm thinking today will be a light axle press medley followed by either dips or skullcrushers, depending on dips feeling good or not.

 Yesterday was another rest day. Left shoulder was achy from the combination of intense heavy bag training + push-ups on Friday and grinding out bench press reps Sunday, even with the Swiss bar. During my lunch break I walked to the pull-up bars on the nearby trail and did a 60 second dead-hang.

Also caught up on UFC 312 from last Saturday. Zhang Weilei was as impressive as ever, but Dricus Du Plessis also put on a savage performance. Such a wild striker.

Shoulder is feeling a little better. Ready for sparring.

 Friday night boxing was a grueling workout, like usual. Mixed in push-ups, squats, and high knees during rounds on the heavy bag. This coach also had us practice hooks with the palm facing down, which he explained can sometimes slip over the opponent's guard better. It's something I've experimented with before and never stuck to, but that's an interesting point.

Throwing right hooks is a little painful on my shoulder and it's hard to generate power. Will up the shoulder rehab this week: band pull-aparts, dead hangs, and Turkish get-ups. Thankful that it's my right, though, and that I can throw hard straights with my right just fine. 

Saturday was a rest day. Did some stretching, foam rolling, and went on a 10-minute post-lunch walk. Went to George's for a game night to play Mansions of Madness with Atlas and Azzy, which was a blast. Really brings me back to playing Arkham Horror 10 years ago. In the midst of having some drinks I remembered to sign-up for boxing. To my surprise, a lot of classes were already full, but member sparring (my main target) was available and a Thursday evening class with 2 coaches I've never trained under was also open. After I registered, I felt distracted the rest of the night and kept thinking about sparring. It was an exciting feeling.

Sunday was a helluva training day:

Swiss bar bench press: 260 x 5 x 5

Super-set with lying dumbbell rows: 115s x 5 x 8

Incline Swiss bar bench press

175 x 9, 7

Lateral raises

15s x 10

35s x 2 x 10

Deadlifts

455 x 5

8 shrugs at the top

Alternating dumbbell curls

50s x 2 x 16

Nighttime:

2.5 mile run to the bank and back

Shadowboxing with headgear, mouthguard, and 16 oz gloves: 3 rounds, 4 minutes each

Despite it being in the 30s outside, I was drenched in sweat after taking my headgear off. My fingers were cold when starting the run and became warm at the halfway point.

As for the lifting, I had in my mind to do at least 2 deadlifts, wanting to go easy on myself after last week's failed reps, but 455 ended up feeling like air. Good weight to build confidence up again.

Yukon bar squats

430 x 7

Drop-down to 365 x 7, 315 x 8, 225 x 8, 135 x 8

I did not take into account that I may want to squat heavy later when I did kettlebell goblet squats in the morning. And we did kettlebell squats and dynamic jumps in boxing the day before. Still crushed this. Didn't feel particularly heavy, but my quads felt like they lacked a little pop when at the bottom so I screamed on the last few reps.

There was heavy rain so I squatted in the garage, but was a bit wary about the smooth concrete and wet shoes from going outside to fetch plates (first time barbell squatting inside). 

Afterwards, I ate dinner and purchased Street Fighter 6, which downloaded in time on my Steam Deck to go a few rounds as Ryu and Zangief. It plays marvelously. Can't wait to unlock Akuma. Hajito Shirei!

Boxing was a good workout yesterday. Ran through 8 different stations: sledgehammer hits on a tire, tire flips, push-ups, landmine presses, kettlebell squats, battle ropes, step-ups, and sit-ups. Switched to 2 rounds of freestyle heavy bag work and 2 rounds of partner drills where the striker would call out a combo and the opponent has to defend, switching every 3 combos. Ended with ab work and then stretches.

Between the 100 push-ups in the morning and the additional workout at boxing, my upper-body got good training for the work week. May do heavy but low-rep benching this afternoon along with squats, or just squats by themselves since I'm signed-up for Friday boxing which is the most calisthenic-intensive day of the week.

This morning: 30 goblet squats with the 50 lb kettlebell followed by 30 kettlebell swings.

Good sparring day yesterday. Sparred coach Gabriel again, as the only sparring day available this week was coach sparring. Slipped way more punches than previous sessions and didn't keep my head on the centerline. I also used my strength to push him around as he came forward, moving him into position for my punches and throwing him off-balance, which I'm now reminded that George Foreman used to do. I also threw rapid double left hooks, which landed every time. People just don't think another hook is coming after the first. My corner coach complimented me after each round and said I look much better than last time.

My biggest regret was looking at the clock at the end of round 2, trying to time when I should start throwing more flurries in an effort to pace myself. During this pause, I heard my cornerman yell out that my opponent was open and to capitalize. I consider this action personally disgraceful and mentally reprimanded myself to not check the clock again. Coach Gabe was doing rounds with almost everyone while I only had 3 rounds with him to contend with, there should be no worry about cardio.

After 3 rounds were over, instead of watching the rest of the matches like most people I went to work on the heavy bag for the remainder of the time I had. I ran into another coach of mine on the ground floor who fist bumped me and he also said I've improved.

Ate a big steak with a small salad for dinner, followed by cottage cheese before bed, and slept like a baby after nighttime stretches and foam rolling.

This morning before work I did 100 total push-ups, broken up in sets of 52, 30, and 18, followed by 50 band pull-aparts.

Came home from work yesterday and wasted no time getting to shadowboxing:

1 round with breath restriction mask
3 rounds with headgear, mouthguard, and 16 oz gloves on

4 minutes each.

Looking forward to sparring today.

Yesterday I couldn't deadlift 530. Brain just kept shutting the attempt down and I didn't get a chance to strain. It surprised me to check and see that it's been 2 months since I've deadlifted heavy. That's not a bad thing with boxing being my focus, but I can start getting back into heavy deadlifts with either mat pulls or going lighter than I want to next time. The 470 I lifted during my work-up set ended up being my top set for today.

Romanian deadlifts

365 x 3 x 8

Walking dumbbell lunges

80s x 3 x 12

Another week of Costco not having eggs. This time, they were out of the liquid egg whites I buy, too. But bought a LOT of red meat and have a fridge full of prepped meal containers for the week.

Axle press
130 x 3
160 x 3
195 x 3
10 pull-ups

Arnold press
80s x 3 x 8
Super-set with 3 x 12 pull-ups

Incline dumbbell press
80s x 10, 6

Dumbbell palm curls
50 x 8
35 x 8, 8

Dumbbell hammer curls
50s x 8, 8
35s x 8

Lying lat flyes
15s x 3 x 10

Some right shoulder pain on the axle press, but glad I got 3. I think switching to log press is a great idea next week. Not really feeling much stimulus with the palm curls, so going to ditch them.

Tuesday boxing was a good endurance workout. After skipping rope and shadowboxing, someone approached me to be his partner. He wasn't very good at holding pads as he seemed like he was still learning basics, so I was basically doing power shadowboxing from a lack of impact due to him holding them so limply. Because my shoulders were getting a little tired, though, I embraced the suck when I should really offer him pointers next time.

Been watching Roy Jones Jr. more lately, someone whose style I've always admired, but I noticed that I was working angles and standing wider a lot more in shadowboxing this time from bingeing his fights before class. I really like his rapid same-side hooks, too; he threw 4 or 5 rapid left hooks at one point. Insanity.

Was dead tired on Wednesday. Culprit is most likely waking up too much during the night to pee. I've been taking Biotest P-Well and drink cran + pomegranate juice with creatine as well, but I should make a point to get extra hydration during the early evening to avoid suddenly feeling as thirsty as I do after 8pm. Went to bed an hour early and felt better the next day.

Loaded up the bar with 310 to do the 20 rep squat + deadlift super-set, but my quads had that familiar glass feeling I've felt before when I squat heavy too frequently. I could have handily done the 20+20, but I decided to stop the squats at 10 and consider it a deload, as they don't feel recovered from my last squat workout and I'd like to nip this in the bud while I can. Followed-up with 10 deadlifts, with a plan to deadlift or mat pull heavy over the weekend, something I haven't done in a minute.

Ending this post with something ridiculous: my new Rumble Roller got torn-up by my cat. I was using it when I noticed pin pricks and some torn rubber when looked at up-close. It's not totaled, but I'm storing it in my closet from now on. I'm more amused than anything picturing him mauling it. I also have to say that while the Rumble Roller gives a better massage almost everywhere else, my low back feels better after using my regular foam roller, which was my main incentive for getting so into foam rolling on the regular. The Rumble Roller doesn't hurt it or anything, but I notice it doesn't make back pain disappear 1 or 2 days out from using it like the regular. Makes sense that the low back doesn't have as much tissue to dig into so there's no need for those spikes. So I'm using the flat roller more again, but will still use the Rumble for other areas.

Bench press

275 x 5

Close-grip bench press

225 x 3 x 8

Super-set with dumbbell rows

115 x 3 x 8

Keg curls

150 x 2 x 12

Haven't straight bar benched in awhile due to shoulder pain exclusively with this bar and movement. Still felt discomfort, but it's getting much better. Felt like I didn't have any pop compared to the Swiss bar, though, and 275 was moving VERY slow, so I made a wise call going in with reasonable expectations and settling at that weight. Even on 225, it felt like I was lifting through quicksand.

Lifted without elbow sleeves for the first time since I can remember because I have no elbow pain anymore. Will cautiously test doing kettlebell ABCs soon, as I miss having those as a workout option.

 Spent most of Saturday sick. Had it in my mind to do squats, but decided to give myself a rest day instead. Ate an extra large Round Table pizza throughout the evening.

Congestion and cough were better on Sunday. Still felt low energy and under the weather, but went ahead with the plan:

Yukon bar squats

470 x 2

Drop-down to 410 x 7, 320 x 8

Lying leg curls

290 x 3 x 10

During the work-up sets I put 410 on my back and did what felt like a max effort rep. Just felt heavy as hell. I walked away at first, figuring I'd better call it there and get some lighter work in, but then tried 405 again with a belt and it felt much better, and then I ended up surprised at how light walking out with 470 felt.

Still, left a reserve rep or two in the tank to promote recovery and cut-out all the drop-down sets below 320.

Then went on a 4.64 mile run in the evening, broken up with a little walking to use a store restroom, for 55 minutes.

Picked up a Rumble Roller. It doesn't feel difficult or extreme at all, just like a nicer massage than my standard roller, but my girlfriend reported that it felt like a torture device on her frame. 

Went to boxing on Wednesday for a standard partner drill and bag work day. There was sparring going on in the ring behind us and one young teen walked away with a bloody nose. Also watched 2 of my coaches spar pretty hard, the twins. Afterwards they both happened to be adjacent to me when my class was using the heavy bags and the 3 of us were by far making the most noise in the gym with power shots. 

Did a light mid-week maintenance workout yesterday after work:

SSB box squats

Worked-up to 330 x 5, 350 x 5

Giant sets:

Weighted decline push-ups: 105 lbs x 3 x 7

Lying dumbbell rows: 80s x 15, 12, 12

Dumbbell palm curls: 80 x 8, 8; 50 x 8

I'll find out if there's a name for those curls, but I took them from Paul Carter: you simply take a single dumbbell and support it vertically on your palms. Makes light weight feel incredibly heavy. Noticed I started gripping the 80 pounder like it was a grenade ball curl so knocked it down lighter.

Left IT band is still a bother sometimes. It was better the last time I did heavy squats, thankfully, but the other night I noticed it hurting from falling asleep on my left side and I also feel it if I sit down too long. Felt it ever so slightly on box squats, but it barely registered.

Did about 30 minutes of walking on Monday, along with stretching and foam rolling. Body felt beat from weekend training. Besides soreness, neck is tweaked from pressing overhead.

Yesterday was sparring. BIg focus going in was to relax my shoulders and take deep breaths between rounds. I sparred coach Gabriel again. Technically these are intro to sparring classes, hence why I've only gone against coaches. Now that I've completed 3 of these sessions, I can do member sparring from now on, which I'm highly anticipating. 

Round 1

Felt my jab falling short right away because I'm so used to light partner drills. Quickly course corrected and within seconds I was landing to his face at will. Popped him with jabs, crosses, left hooks, and upper-cuts; this was my most effective round at this gym yet when it came to displaying an offensive variety. My cornerman coach commented that I was looking "very technical" as he gave me water. My guard was a little too low though and I could still get more reach from extending my shoulder more.

Round 2

Right away I started throwing longer jabs with my shoulder rolling into my cheek and I heard my corner coach yell out "That's it!" One right hand that caught my headgear twisted it, obstructing my vision, and I had to adjust. From then on, strikes kept shifting my headgear and I was fighting it for much of the round; it kept blocking my vision and breathing. Although my technical gameplan went out the window from here, my conditioning prep at home and emphasis on staying loose had worked and I was feeling good between rounds unlike last time. 

Round 3

I couldn't see where his punches were coming from well because of my loose headgear but I could see his head so we both landed good shots. We were both all offense here. He started going lower to the ground and I was hitting the top of his head, so I shifted to uppercuts more, which he did a good job blocking. Was surprised when the round was over because I'm used to 4-minute rounds at home. Hopefully with member sparring I'll get a chance to do a lot more than 3 rounds.

Watched some other gymgoers spar and then went over to the heavy bags to get a round in.

Came home and immediately went out to Heart Attack Hill, sprinting up for 3 rounds and doing a shadowboxing round near the top at a steep incline after each sprint. 

I also resized my headgear so it's much tighter. There was a lot I didn't utilize because I was so distracted by it. Can't wait until next time. 

Axle clean once and press away

110 x 5

130 x 3

160 x 8

185 x 5

Last set followed by 12 pull-ups 

Axle clean and press every rep

140 x 3 x 8

Super-set with pull-ups x 3 x 10

Incline dumbbell press 

80s x 12, 10

Dumbbell curls

35s x 4 x 10

Reverse hyper 

200 x 3 x 10

Overhead band pull-aparts 

2 x 20

Haven't pressed the axle in a while and totally forgot it's 25 lbs lighter than the barbell. Got to 160 lbs and thought things felt abnormally light before I realized it wasn't 185. 

Made bicep curls harder via a tip from John Meadows about not hammer curling the weight partially up, but supinating the wrists at the very beginning of the movement. 

Signed up for sparring on Tuesday. Brought back cleans to add a conditioning element to press day. Also happy to report that my shoulders have improved enough to press with a straight bar again. A little discomfort in the right still, but big difference from before.

Eggs are still out at Costco. I don't want them bad enough to go hunting for them at other stores even though I probably could get them if I tried hard enough. Bought plenty of steak at Costco yesterday to make up the difference. 

 This week has been hectic at work. We suddenly ended up shorted a delivery driver so I went from my office desk to taking over driving the truck and unloading pallets. By sheer coincidence, I brought a homemade weightgainer shake (milk, chocolate whey protein, almond butter, a banana, and pre-cooked oatmeal) in a thermos the first day, which was indispensable during my time out in the afternoon. Repeated that the next day, this time knowing I'd be out on the road for much of the day.

On the second day, I had a driver I was training and we were delivering to Gold's Gym locations all day. They are pretty nice gyms inside compared to 24 Hour Fitness. He used to be a gym rat before falling off the train, but we had plenty of meathead talk to trade, which was a fun change of atmosphere from my very non-meathead office colleagues. He also used to box as a teenager,

My back was a little sore from lifting and carrying cases of protein shakes and Gatorade while bent-over, but nothing too drastic. 

Went to boxing on Tuesday and Wednesday - very standard sessions doing partner combos. Hoping next Tuesday is a sparring day I can sign-up for.

The combination of manual labor at work and boxing back-to-back, combined with poor sleep on Wednesday night, had me feeling beat yesterday, but I still got something done despite the temptation to skip it and rest.

Swiss bar bench press

245 x 8, 8, 7

Super-set with dumbbell rows

125 x 3 x 8

Incline dumbbell press

80s x 8, 10

Dumbbell hammer curls

50s x 8, 10

Had a headache by the end and felt like I needed to go lie down, so called it here. Happy with the workout.

Went to boxing on Tuesday and Wednesday. After skipping rope and 3 rounds of shadowboxing, we did simple partner combos. When we ended with heavy bag work, I couldn't help but blast the power shots despite my sore shoulders.

On Wednesday, I was doing awful when skipping rope. Kept messing up every 20 or so seconds. Shoulders also got tired, so likely a recovery thing. Unfortunately, we started shadowboxing rounds with dumbbells, and by the time I got to pick, only the 5 pounders were available, which is heavy for shadowboxing. Made it work fine, but my coach went to another room and got out 2 pounders to use mid-round. Also did front and lateral raises. I'm not going to brag about beasting 2 lb front raises, but while other people looked like they were dying and had to take breaks, they felt very nice as relaxed active recovery for my shoulders.

Alternated rounds between partner combos and heavy bag work. Ended with abs, which wasn't hard until my abs suddenly cramped and I had to hold my hand against my stomach in order to keep moving. Ended with stretches.

 Deload

Squats: 225 x 20

Super-set with deadlifts: 225 x 20

Standing ab wheel: 8 reps

Just squatting with 135 during warm-ups made me feel soreness in my quads from Friday that I wasn't aware was there, as I've been walking and running fine. 225 was uncomfortable as a result, but just the right weight for a deload. Used a mixed-grip with deadlifts, no straps for this.

Because I hit this soon after I got home from work, rather than eating first and then waiting, I had more time than usual the rest of the evening. Definitely going to make eating BEFORE I leave the office more of a habit. I was able to easily do that this time by making twice the amount of ground bison that I usually do, giving me extra meal prep bowls.

Aside from chores, I spent the rest of the evening doing stretching and soft-tissue work via my massage gun, foam roller, and Rolflex (compression device for elbow pain). Just cycled between them all to treat my shoulders, IT band, lower back, and left elbow while I watched TV. Also stretched out my hamstrings on the kitchen counter and the floor. About 2 hours before bed, I also went on a 30-minute night walk while listening to a Dan John podcast.

I mentioned my IT band: the upper area of that is what's been bothering me when I squat and sit for extended periods of time, rather than my "hip". It's been an on-and-off annoyance for the past few years.

Finally, this morning I did a 30-second dead hang and then foam rolled my lower back some more.

I feel INCREDIBLE today as a result of all that, like the feeling right after a big stretch in the morning but extended. I think putting all that together in a written list with timed intervals as a routine will make sure I cover everything on a regular basis without having to think about it, especially on busier nights.

Got boxing on the agenda today but my shoulders feel up for it.

Bench press
Work-up to 225 x 3

2-board press

315 x 1
370 x 0

335 x 2

345 x 2

Incline Swiss bar bench press

165 x 10

185 x 8

205 x 6

165 x 13

Kroc rows

125 x 30

Lying rear-delt flyes

15s x 20, 20, 15

Super-set with dumbbell curls

50s x 8, 8

35s x 10

Hammer curls

35s x 3 x 10

Switched to board pressing because my shoulders still feel fried from that max effort bench press workout last weekend. Got up to 225 on the bench press before I switched. 

Just barely missed pressing 370. Bar got stuck for a few seconds just before lockout before it came back down. I would have had it if my shoulders felt fresher.

With that said, there has been a lot of max effort grinding the past few weeks during these feast-heavy holidays. It's been fun and I've gotten stronger, but I'll be scaling that back. Returning to the boxing gym this week. Speaking of boxing, I missed recording a couple of home training sessions, but one involved 4-minute rounds of shadowboxing with 3 lb weights when I should have been giving my shoulders a break, haha.

This week will be a deload. Body needs it.

Yukon bar squats 

460 x 3

Drop-sets of 410x5, 320x10, 230x10, 140x10, 50x10

Reverse hyper single leg curls

200 x 20

 

Good mornings
140 x 10
190 x 8

Crushed this and only stopped at 3 reps because of my hip. That was feeling better this session than last, by the way. I brought my massage gun down to the gym and used it on my hip between sets.

Done at 10pm, felt tired and hungry, and actually walked away at 405 because I figured I should come back the next day when I was well-rested and with more food, but then turned back around because I'd already come this far. Was pretty surprised at how light everything felt.

Back has been feeling fantastic, by the way. Foam rolling regularly has made a world of difference.

 New Year's was fun. Went to a gaming party at Cayce's house. Mostly played F-Zero and Shenmue 2 on my Steam Deck that I was hoping to hook-up to the TV that was being occupied by Mario Party, but alas, it never happened. Someone noticed F-Zero GX though and invited me into the garage where a Gamecube with a boot disc was running and I got to play it with a GC controller. It controlled SO well that way.

I fretted over what plans to pull the trigger on for New Year's, but this was the right call. Super fun yet close to home so I could leave at 1:30 and be home in 20 minutes with no long-distance travel hassle. And it was just so fun to get drunk and geek out over videogames.

Anyway, back to motherfucking bizness:

Seated Arnold press

80 lb dumbbells x 10, 9, 9, 8

Super-set with pull-ups: 15, 12, 12, 12

Dumbbell skullcrushers

50s x 10, 8, 8

Super-set with hammer curls

50s x 10, 10, 8

Tate press

50s x 8, 8

Super-set with concentration curls

50s x 10, 10

First I tried to barbell overhead press and my shoulders felt painful once I worked-up to 95 lbs. I really ran them through the ringer on Saturday with that max bench press workout. It wasn't that bad and I could have worked through it, but when I tried dumbbells and found them more comfortable, I opted for the Arnold press, which I've made good gains on since the last time I hit that.

My shoulders were done after the 4th set so I went pretty tricep-intensive after that. I had also just read an early arm workout that Bruce Randall did in his heyday with multiple sets of extensions and curls and I was in a bodybuilding mood afterwards.

Since I'm on my second week of no boxing gym (they were closed last week and are on a reduced schedule this week), yesterday I donned my breath restriction mask, a wool beanie, and two layers of sweaters to shadowbox in my living room with 3 lb weights. 2 round for 4 minutes. Went outside afterwards and hit the heavy bag also for 2 rounds, 4 minutes, then went on a 1.8 mile jog afterwards.

I'm making my minimum round time at home 4 minutes, so 3 minutes for drills in the gym and 2 minutes for sparring feel easy.

Squats: 300 x 20

Super-set with deadlifts: 300 x 20

https://youtu.be/dAfsPeDhqKU

Took frequent rest-pauses for my back during the deadlifts, but it's been awhile since I've had a pain episode (regular foam rolling has seemed to do wonders for it). I feel good enough to try and push it more next time. 

After this, I went out to visit my aunt who just returned from a long stay in Iran and ate homemade lamb and eggplant stew at her house. After returning, I went on a 2-mile run that included a sprint up a hill.

 Today was interesting.

Bench press
275 x 1
320 x 1
340 x 1
350 x 0

Went into this workout hungry and having drank too much coffee, which made me depleted and shaky. 350 was still close and I knew I could get it if I had a little more fuel in me.

I left the barbell on the floor and went upstairs to eat, then headed out for a Costco trip only to find out they had absolutely no eggs. It was just a big, empty section. Bulk eggs were the main reason I went here instead of Trader Joe's. Still made off with some items that made it a worthwhile visit: liquid egg whites, new running shoes, plenty of meat, and cat food.

Ate again when I got home and started a revenge workout at 9pm:

Bench press
275 x 1
315 x 1
335 x 1
350 x 1

Incline Swiss bar bench
180 x 10
190 x 8
200 x 6
165 x 12 -> dropdown to 135 x 3
Super-set with lying dumbbell rows
115s x 4 x 10

Lying lateral flyes
15s x 3 x 15
Alternating lateral curls
50s x 20, 20
35s x 16

After having done so many singles in a few hours, 350 didn't come easy, but I physically just felt rock solid this time despite some shoulder fatigue.

I lowered the normal 170 on the last set of incline bench down to 165 to try and ensure I got 15 reps but at that point, I was understandably spent. When I unracked 165 I couldn't believe how heavy it felt.

 Christmas Eve:

Overhead press

185x5

Super-set with pull-ups: 15

Overhead press against bands

107.5 x 4 x 10

Super-set with pull-ups: 4 x 12

Barbell skullcrushers

120 x 2 x 10

Hammer curls

50s x 3 x 10

Fought very hard to get the 5th rep, but that's an improvement. Shoulders felt sore in warm-ups from low bar squats 2 days prior.

Christmas day: went on a 3.25 mile run.

I'm taking it upon myself to do more road work for boxing. Downloaded a couple of running apps to track my progress on that.

Even though I didn't go out for any events on Christmas, it was a very welcome rest day. Along with that run, I played a lot of Soul Reaver Remastered and watched part of a decently funny movie, Bad Santa.

 Brutal Friday night at the boxing gym. Lots of calisthenics mixed with hard rounds on the bag. Left shoulder was feeling serious fatigue from ending with rounds of jabbing our partner while moving backwards, but unlike my partner, I didn't need to take rest periods.

It's interesting how my mindset has changed. Before I used to hate any kind of exercising at a martial arts class because I could just do that at home and it would interfere with my weightlifting. Now, I appreciate it. Every bit helps with being a better fighter and a coach will prescribe things I wouldn't normally do on my own.

Saturday was a rest day, but got a lot of walking done at the Dickens Fair with Eli. Only stayed for a couple of hours, as her mom wasn't feeling well. 

Got to spend time with Farah and Eghbal yesterday , who came over before we went out to Stone Stew for lunch and Eghbal's apartment afterwards for some tea and coffee, where I helped him set-up a little espresso machine. I vowed to come see both of them more often now that they are back in the US. Very nourishing day for the soul.

Sunday evening:

Squats

445 x 4

Drop-down to 405x5, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

Reverse hyper single leg curls

200 x 2 x 20

Weighted decline crunches

50 x 20

Hanging leg raises: x 15

Going to be replacing some of my standard powerlifting-style strength training with more strongman-centric workouts due to having my eye on a strongman contest next month. With boxing as my focus now, though, I don't feel excited about spending the money and energy toward it unless I'm strong enough to feel competitive, so I'll run this training block and see how I feel. Back health is a major factor, too.

Last night was focused on circus dumbbell training. The dumbbell in the contest is 110 for open and 100 for masters. The last time I trained for this event, I didn't have fixed dumbbells and my Fat Gripz didn't fit my adjustable dumbbell handles. That's all changed now.

However, I couldn't get the 115 bell up with Fat Gripz. The dumbbell handle is already thicker than a barbell so the Fat Gripz didn't close all the way around, making it even bigger than normal. I think that's even better, but it was too much for my current level so after a few failed reps I took it off for the topset.

Dumbbell push press (all with Fat Gripz except 115)

50 x 2

80 x 2

115 x 1

Landmine press

115 x 3 x 10

Pull-ups

15, 12, 10, 10

Barbell shrugs

300 x 10 

Several missed attempts at 115 before I locked out. The landmine press was easy on the joints and something I've been meaning to bring back for boxing. I made this lift a lot harder by really letting the bar sink down at the bottom to the point where I had to twist my torso to accommodate it, which added some ab work in and somewhat mimics throwing a cross in boxing.

This was an idea I got from Emevas several years ago, who got the idea from Jon Andersen.

Squat

300 x 20

Upon which I walked off the patio with the bar on my back and onto the dirt, dropped the bar behind me, and then:

Deadlifts

300 x 20

Ab wheel: 10 standing reps

Some disclaimers:

The bar had trouble clearing one side of the squat stands so I reracked, took a few breaths, got it on my back again, shrugged high, and made it.

Left the bar on the ground and took a standing rest-pause after rep 10 of the deadlifts before cranking out another 10.

Had some hesitation about even continuing that latter 10 reps due to concern for how my back was feeling (not painful, but a similar sensation to when pain crops up later), but took the calculated risk and went for it.

All that said, this was brutal. The squats were the easy part, since I've been running heavier weight for 20 lately; it was following them up with the deadlifts that wrecked me afterwards and gave me a headache.

My back is completely fine the next morning. I'm glad I've been able to push it further and further. There have been countless times when I take some new measure for it that works in the short term only for pain to resurface, but so far, the daily foam rolling has been doing wonders. I'm also opting for my ergonomic Herman Miller chair 100% when I do sit at home and absolutely zero couch time. Good move, because yesterday I was gifted the new Soul Reaver remaster for Steam and stayed up later than expected getting lost in the world of Nosgoth and reliving that game. 

Had a super fun sparring day yesterday. Second time at this gym when not counting informal spars on the ground floor in the middle of drills. It definitely feels different stepping into the ring with gear, a cornerman, and the gym gathered to watch. The only downside was how short it was: just 3 rounds for 2 minutes.

I went up against a shorter stocky guy who I only learned afterwards is one of the coaches. I've seen his name on the weekly class sign-ups as Coach Gabriel but his class conflicts with my work so I've never trained with him. Coach Eric was my cornerman this time (he was my sparring partner last time).

Of note is that I way hyped this session up in my mind, partially by design. I was thinking about it the whole weekend and as a result, my head was bursting with ideas and things to tweak from last time. 

As a result, the biggest change in round 1 was not being overly nice and actually hitting with an appropriate amount of power. Coach Eric advised me to use my reach and spar on the outside, and sure enough, his swings often fell short while my jab and cross landed over and over again. A real success was a jab followed by a lightning left hook. I don't see a lot of guys in the intermediate classes throwing this, or many combos from the same arm in  general, but I've been working on this for some time now and my hook comes really fast after jabbing from the same arm. I also landed a lot of jabs and crosses to the body, but next time I'd like to practice body hooks more.

When he'd rush in, I would meet him with an uppercut while circling out. He didn't land anything significant until the end of the round when he caught me with a big left hook that adjusted my headgear. Didn't hurt, but it was a great shot.

After round 1, Coach Eric told me he likes the punches I'm choosing and my jab is landing, but I can get even more reach from it because he sees my arm not fully extending. Very old issue of mine.

Round 2 went much the same: I landed clean the vast majority while almost all of his smaller strikes were falling short, but that leaping Frazier-style hook got me one more time again. 

After round 2, I felt that same feeling of a panic attack that occurred last session, which was also after round 2. It felt like I couldn't get enough air through my mouthpiece while I was resting and that was causing my heart to race, but I ignored it. I probably need to do a better job of taking full breaths as the action progresses, but in truth, I was 100% fine and I knew that. The breath restriction mask helped a lot with mentally managing this feeling. Funnily enough, same with 20-rep squats.

As soon as round 3 started, I felt fine again, as I expected. This time, he ended up standing in one spot and telling me to hit him harder, which I did but not enough to rock him. In the moment I thought he might have been having an ego trip to show-off and didn't know he was a coach. Round 3 ended up being slower as a result of his relative inactivity.

I was a little bummed round 3 was the end. I watched the rest of the spars where the same coach went at it with two other trainees, which made sense why he had periods of energy composure with me and probably why he got hit more than I expected since he was going way more rounds. When everyone was done I did a 4-minute sesh on the heavy bag.

Hopefully I get more rounds in next time. Even though I wasn't going against a fresh combatant, I'm stoked at the changes I made with regards to aggression and landing uppercuts.

Bench press 

315 x 3

Swiss bar incline bench 

177.5 x 10

192.8 x 8

207.5 x 6

170 x 14

Lying dumbbell rows 

115s x 3 x 8

Hammer curls

50s x 10, 10

35s x 12

Super-set with banded tricep press downs

3 x 10

Made gains on bench despite shoulders and traps feeling sore. Will use the foam roller and massage gun tonight. Over the weekend I'd been using the foam roller exclusively on my back.

I'm signed up for sparring tomorrow. At the forefront of my mind will be to relax, pick quality shots vs overdoing the volume, and sink in good body shots. My sinuses have been clearer lately; hopefully I don't have trouble breathing through my nose this time.

Went to a work event Friday night bocce ball at a place 5 minutes from my house with tons of food. Feasted on smoked sausage, prawns wrapped in bacon, meatballs, and pizza. Rather than stay at the office after work until it was time to go to the event, I went home to feed my animals, drink some protein, and relax before heading out again, which was absolutely the right move. Before, waiting around for the group to leave at work just meant doing extra email requests past 5pm, turning down drinks from the people not driving, and generally waiting around being bored and wondering why I'm still at work.

Saturday was stormy. There was a TORNADO 25 minutes away in Santa Cruz, which is insane. Lifted indoors:

 

Deadlifts
525 x 0, 1

RDLs
300 x 2 x 8

Barbell shrugs
300 x 2 x 10

I wanted 525x3, but was too gunshy and had difficulty mustering up the neurological confidence to blast the weight up due to recently recovering from a back tweak. When I did move the weight it shot up quick, but a second rep was definitely not happening. I'm still happy I moved it for a fast single. Back to more reps and building before going heavy again.

And the liberating thing is building my deadlift is a side quest to boxing, so I didn't feel any frustration with missing that first rep like I would have before.

 

Have been using my foam roller more and it's been feeling awesome on my back and shoulders. It's a 1st gen Viper vibrating roller that I paid way too much for only to have the vibration break down, but still functions as a firm regular roller. I should get a lacrosse ball too.

Later that evening, I did 3 rounds of 4 minutes shadowboxing with several layers on, hoodie up, and the breath restriction mask indoors to simulate the heat from sparring in the gym. Went out to the store and when I got back home, went to Heart Attack Hill and did 3 hill sprints followed by a 30 minute jog. Awesome all-day mix of training and relaxation, which is my ideal weekend if I'm not going out anywhere.

Axle clean once and press: 110 x 5

Close-grip neutral grip chin-ups: 5

8 rounds in 6:58

Dips

50 x 12, 12

75 x 10

-

Super-set with Pendlay rows

160 x 12, 12, 12

Sandbag squats

200 x 12, 12

50-second chin-up

I wasn't looking forward to this because training without some kind of heavy top set bores the powerlifter in me, but I always end up feeling really good once I'm running the workout. Got a good upper-body pump and walk out of the gym feeling better and more energized than when I walked in.

No elbow pain on the 50-sec chin-up this time, but I'm keeping the dropdown faster than the ascension in order not to push that.

 When I arrived at boxing on Tuesday I found my Cerberus belt waiting for me in the exact same spot that I'd left it. Thankfully I didn't need it this time, but after skipping rope I lent it to someone who was telling the coach he threw out his back bending down to his gym bag just then. He said it helped immediately.

For shadowboxing rounds, we used a plastic ring to throw a 1-2 in front of, then dip to either the left and throw a right uppercut or to the right and throw a left uppercut.

Partnered up afterwards with a fairly big guy who was dressed in pink pants, a Mike Tyson tank, and a comb embedded in his hair. I dug it, haha. Despite the loud look, he was quiet and all business, which was fine by me. Took turns throwing 1-2s, then 1-2-3s, and then did various combos on mitts and finished up with the heavy bag.

Wednesday was a total rest day because I was feeling rundown. The timing worked out because my girlfriend invited me to a holiday event at the PayPal Arena that her work got her tickets for. It dawned on me later that I've seen the event from the outside in years past because it's by the Costco I used to go to and I always thought it looked neat. We walked around and looked at the decorations, which were incredibly extravagant, and I got several comments from strangers on my Abdominal Swoleman sweater. 

Not super exciting but got a lot of walking in while taking in the eye candy. I'd had a huge meal just before leaving so I wasn't hungry enough to buy any food and I abstained from alcohol even though the drinks in a lit light bulb looked cool.

Squats

410 x 7

315 x 20

Reverse-hyper single leg curls

200 x 20

On Friday, I got set-up for belt squats a bit too deep in the hole and with my foot placement off. Straining to break the weight off the ground made my left hip angry. I was able to belt squat fine after an adjustment, but I've been feeling the hip pain a little since then. Squatting was a little uncomfortable so I stood a little more narrow than normal and kept a couple of reps left in the tank. Very happy my back is feeling better from last week and that it held out fine. 

 Stayed up very late on Saturday from hanging out with George until 3am watching Tomorrow Never Dies, Blood Omen 2 cutscenes, and playing Drakengard 3 (or what little of it we could until his controller issues became untenable). Didn't end up going to bed until 6am. Haven't done that in a very long time and it was a lot of fun. Blood Omen 2 had me dying, almost literally because laughing at it brought out the worst of my cough. I need to beat that one of these days; it's been 20 years since I played it on Gamecube.

Got set-up to squat the next day, not knowing if I was going to go through with it or not, and ended up cleaning the gym and garage. Practiced boxing instead: 1 round, 4 minutes of shadowboxing with 3 lb hand weights and 1 round, 4 minutes of heavy bag work. Went on a 45-minute walk afterwards.  

Bench press 

225 x 5

275 x 3

310 x 3

Incline Swiss bar bench press

175 x 10

190 x 8

205 x 6

175 x 11 -> Drop-down to 155 x 5

Super-set with lying dumbbell rows 

115s x 4 x 8

Banded tricep pressdowns 

10, 12

Super-set with seated hammer curls

50s x 8

35s x 10, 10

Feeling more recovered. Just have lingering congestion and the cough. The bench press top set came very smooth. Intentionally shorted myself of 315 by going with 310 to ensure success, but turns out I had more in me.

The rep scheme for the incline bench is a suggestion from Eric Bach: 10, 8, 6, and ending with 15 using the weight that was done with 10. 175 was too heavy for 15 reps at that point in the workout, but that's a cool sub quest to try and reach. The rep variety was very fun after doing 4 and 5 straight sets of 10 lately, which can get very boring (boring but big ala Wendler).

No training yesterday. Made myself rest. Will do belt squats today and possibly repetition effort goblet squats with the 50 lb kettlebell if my back agrees with that. 

Back is the same: injured, but not too bad. Can do life stuff fine, just can't load the spine too much right now. Sleeping doesn't hurt like with some nastier back injuries.

Not feeling too bad from illness anymore but cough has become quite bad, especially at night. Have been going to bed early to account for coughing time. Last night I'd find myself drifting off to sleep only to wake myself back up with a cough. Eventually fell asleep right at the mark where I'd get 8 hours, so I timed that well.

Being cozy makes me want to train. I'll be chilling in bed feeling sick with tea and the cat on me before my intrusive thoughts instruct me to ruin the moment and go sprint some hills. I'm glad I have that fire and it served me well on Tuesday when I didn't want to go to boxing at first.

 Swiss bar bench press

225 x 10, 10, 8, 8

Super-set with pull-ups

4 x 12

37-second chin-up

Wanted something dead simple and fast I could hit while sick. Was surprised at how light 225 was given that I got under 135 and noted that it felt oddly heavy.

Wanted to do a 1-min chin-up, but I was feeling pretty weak at this point - and I HAVE gained almost 10 pounds in total during this mass gain phase. Settled on 40, but my elbow started to hurt on the eccentric phase so I let myself drop down. Going up didn't produce any pain, though. 

Back is still in pain with limited function, but not nearly as bad as previous injuries. I can put on socks, get in and out of bed, and was able to load work equipment this morning without trouble. 

Very glad I ended up going to boxing yesterday. Usually I get home from work, spend 10 minutes lying down watching boxing videos on YouTube, and then I get up to prepare and leave. I started thinking about not going as I lay down in pain yesterday, comfortable with the cat sitting on my chest while watching a video about Sugar Ray Leonard, so I gave myself a minute of feeling like I didn't want to get up before I stopped thinking and simply did it. Made sure to grab my Cerberus soft belt on the way out.

Skipping rope was the hardest part, but not too bad. I made a point to raise my legs more gingerly and land a little more softly than usual so I felt slightly more tired than normal.

After 3 rounds of shadowboxing, we partnered up to trade various combos that we had to parry and block, eventually moving on to one of us getting mitts. Partner understood my back woes so I bobbed and ducked slower than normal. Finished with bagwork. Unfortunately I left my Cerberus belt there.

I did cancel today's class in advance, which typically has more ballistic conditioning workouts and ab exercises. 

 Suddenly tweaked my back twice today at the office! The first time was at my desk when I leaned forward and felt a small twinge. The second was at lunch when I bent further down, clearly not having learnt my lesson the first time, and felt a sharper pain that's now lingering with me. I went for a slow incline walk on the warehouse treadmill afterwards and lay down for 15 minutes for the remainder of my break, dozing off slightly. 

Not sure about boxing today. My instinct is to call it off, but it's a technical day and the easiest day of the week. Might be able to pull it off with my Cerberus soft belt for support. Will evaluate how I'm moving the remainder of my work day and go from there. It costs $15 to cancel a class if it's less than 24 hour notice, which is my only annoyance about this gym. Will definitely cancel tomorrow's class, though, which typically has a lot of conditioning.

 Felt sick and rundown, so last night I worked up to squatting 405x5 with the Yukon bar and called it there. Every rep felt awful, but equally so - the 5th was just as hard as the 1st and I could have kept cranking out reps, but knowing I haven't been sleeping great and with 2 days of boxing ahead of me, 5 was just the right amount.

Why back to the curved bar? Low bar squatting has been starting to hurt. My elbows are no longer feeling the strain, but lately I've been feeling discomfort on pressing exercises that feel like accumulative punishment from squats. Rotating different bars and bar placements is needed.

I am also going to bring back scheduled deloads. There have been countless times running 5/3/1 where I came back after a deload and marveled at how much better and stronger I felt.

 Neglected to mention that I got sick the day after Thanksgiving, and trained through that on Saturday for the press workout. Got set-up to do squats yesterday, went up to 290, and called it off based on how rundown I felt. Practiced some boxing in the living room instead.

Will see how I feel today after work. Throat is no longer sore, but am still sniffly. If heavy barbell squats still feel crummy, I'm thinking belt squats as the main work again.

Boxing will be only two days this week again. Class slots fill up incredibly fast. I need to register as soon as class selection becomes available (Saturdays at 4pm) so I can get in more days. I actually did so this weekend but hesitated because I felt sick and wasn't sure if I wanted to register for Monday. By the time I came back, a bunch of classes were full, including sparring. 

I'll be well prepared for sparring next time, though. For Black Friday, I bought new headgear and a groin guard from Phenom. I originally had my sights set on headgear from Winning, but what was around $350 in 2019 (when I logged about it) is now well over $600.

Overhead press

155 x 3

175 x 3

200 x 1

Against bands:

115 x 10

105 x 10, 10, 10, 10

Super-set with pull-ups: 5 x 10

Barbell skullcrushers

105 x 10, 10

115 x 10

Super-set with upright rows + shrugs

105 x 10

115 x 10

Axle curls

40 x 50

The rep of 200 was the closest I've ever come to passing out on this life. Could feel consciousness rapidly slipping away as I locked out, but somehow still felt confident enough that I could hold on. 

I recently watched a Brian Alsruhe vid about keeping your breath in the belly the entire walkout for the press. I used to do this intuitively and for some reason started breathing out and then taking another breath before pressing the first rep. I can definitely lift more weight holding my breath before the first rep.

I've had great results pressing against bands in the past so I was excited to bring these back in. I could tell I wouldn't be able to get 115 for 5 sets; going to 105 was the right move. 

The bar skullcrushers were fun. I'm at the age where I legitimately get nostalgic for certain exercises; used to do these a lot in 2008. I definitely had 135 x 10 in me like the old days.

Thanksgiving workout:

Landmine RDLs

5 plates x 10

6 plates x 10, 10

Super-set with reverse hypers: 200 x 3 x 10

Belt squats 

9 plates x 3 x 10

Standing ab wheel: 5 slow reps

Had a massive feast at my sister's. As siblings we've never gotten together like this for Thanksgiving by ourselves. The last time we did something like this was 2008 at my aunt's house, and my brother wasn't there. So definitely a special night.

Trained my coworker again yesterday. Because I was still eating when he arrived, I had him watch World's Strongest Man with me to pregame. Once we were done with his session, I did my own work.

Incline dumbbell press

80s x 10, 12, 10, 12

Super-set with lying dumbbell rows

80s x 12, 12, 12, 12

Lateral raises

35s x 10, 10

Super-set with Kelso shrugs

80s x 10, 10

Alternating side curls

50s x 20, 20

35s x 20, 20

On the dumbbell press, I intended to use a high incline to make the 80 pounders more challenging, but on the second set, I had lowered the angle for the rows and forgot to set it back. Ended up alternating the angle for the next 2 sets to be consistent.

Low back was feeling very fatigued so I did several feel-good yoga poses before bed. One came from Dr. Stuart McGill while another came from my cat. I noticed after his play session that he was laying on his belly with his lower body on the couch and upper body hanging off, arms stretched out in front of him, so I went next to him and did the same, which felt awesome and decompressive. 

 The shrimp I ate from Google upset my guts. Starting to wonder if I'm developing a shrimp intolerance, as I recall feeling bloated after eating shrimp from Trader Joe's recently, or it's this particular batch. Nothing debilitating, just bloat and stomach gurgles. Haven't noticed any issues from crab and lobster so it's not shellfish in general.

 After squats yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon cleaning the kitchen and throwing out old pots and appliances. Took a break to go on a 45-minute walk, then hit this at night:

Reverse hyper single leg curls

200 x 2 x 20

Weighted decline crunches

50 x 20

Hanging leg raises

15

Hips were sore after squats so the walk did a lot of good. They feel better this morning. Experienced some wrist pain again in the morning, but not as bad as a few weeks ago. Going to look into non-lifting wrist support wraps for sleep. 

Visited one of the Google campuses today at work and made off with a good haul from the cafeteria. Spicy shrimp, garbanzo beans, salad, and pumpkin cheesecake. Paired this with lamb vindaloo from Trader Joe's and ate everything as one huge lunch, followed my the usual 10-minute walk and 10-minute nap before returning to my desk.

Squats 

465 x 2

315 x 20, 13

Had a another rep of 465 in me, but this time I really did feel satisfied with leaving it at 2. My back wasn't feeling too good this morning (identified the culprit being my couch that has no lumbar support) so I was cautious. The weight felt extraordinarily heavy going down, but when I squatted out of the hole it felt light. While my waist has gotten a little thicker during this bulk period, I'm still walking around at under 200 lbs and am still lighter and slimmer than before, which makes a big difference in how stable the walkout and eccentric phase feel.

Finally back to 315x20. It wasn't too hard until the 20th, which was the rep that felt like my back was about to fold over (previously, that was rep 17).

Will do hamstrings and abs either later tonight or sometime tomorrow.