Yukon squats up to 435 x 1
* Hit a deep 435 and it felt like a ton. I was both really hungry and also don't feel recovered enough. I'm learning that these deep squats are requiring more rest days so my hips get back up to speed. Called it here and am treating it as a deload.

Yukon squat pyramid
315 x 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
* Left knee feeling a little raw. Different sensation from when it outright aches, this feels like something abrasive is rubbing inside.

Despite what I noted, I walked away feeling fresh. I'm REALLY looking forward to next week with my new training approach. I'm at a stage in my training where I'm hungry to try all kinds of new things, really.

Did my circuit cardio session yesterday of the bike, 50 burpees, shadowkickboxing, and the bike again.

 Landmine press

Worked-up to 3 plates x 10, 9, 8(7 on right side)

-

Super-set with pull-ups x 10, 10, 11

* PR on the sets of 10 and 9, to my surprise. Right arm was tiring quicker than left. Interesting to note that before bicep surgery this was my stronger arm.

Dips
15
10 lbs x 10
-
Super-set with pull-ups x 10, 10

Facepulls

Keg curls
160 x 8

40 second chinup x 2

This workout had me feeling excellent afterwards and I got a decent pump. It was a good choice to switch things up.

Woke up after 2.5 hours of sleep and felt wide awake so made breakfast and lifted early in the morning.

Mat pulls (5)

570 x 0

500 x 8 (TnG)

* Moving 570 just wasn't happening.

Belt squats

6 plates x 8

8 plates x 8, 9

Split-squats (bodyweight), exercise ball plank

Between my clicks shoulder and my right forearm pain flaring up again, my body isn't too happy right now. I'm going to be modifying my training to put more emphasis on recovery. Training to max effort four times a week on top of Muay Thai training while maintaining or losing weight just ain't feeling good. I'm looking forward to change. 

Bench press
255 x 5
285 x 3
320 x 1
-
Last set super-set with unilateral dumbbell rows
100 x 8

Decline bench press
235 x 8, 8, 8
-
Super-set with unilateral dumbbell rows
115 x 8
120 x 8, 10

Band pressdowns, curls

Left shoulder is pissy from one of the bench sets. Felt pain when I tried to do banded chest press and it's clicking a little now. Should be fine in a day or two.

I feel like I'm doing a lot for a gain of little to none under my current weight status, basically hovering around 194 consistently. Too often I extend the length of my workout to squeeze in yet another "thing", but I'm just not seeing the benefits play out if I'm not gaining weight it seems. As far as recovery goes, I also need to consider how much shadowboxing I'm doing between lifting sessions, some of it very intense, and this is only going to increase when I go back to the studio.

I also think I'd benefit from being in my workouts a shorter period of time but this is tough with work interrupting me. My answer to that is get to it earlier and hit it hard and fast.

Mat pulls (6)
470 x 5
* Focused on powering through with my legs. Probably had more reps in me.

Belt squats
Up to 8 plates x 10, 10

Alternating SSB lunges 
150 x 16

Planks

Have been on creatine for a little less than a week now. Not loading, just taking it with my protein shake.

The pumpkin patch weekend ended up being a lot of fun. Had an annoying start when I found out they had no food there except gas station-type snacks, with no protein except for nuts. Did not plan for that. My friend was gracious enough to be cool about turning back and going to a nearby diner so I could load up on calories. It worked out because this restaurant is themed and a visiting point all on its own, so I'm actually glad it ended up happening this way. Ordered a massive burger that I didn't think I'd finish but did very easily.

Also had a sushi feast on Sunday to end things on.

Bench press
235 x 3
275 x 3
305 x 3
235 x 9, 9, 9
-
Super-set with dumbbell rows
50s x 8, 8
100 x 8
125 x 9, 9, 9

Arnold press against bands
50s x 8
-
Dips
10
-
Wide-grip pull-ups
10

Incline skullcrushers
35s x 7
-
Curls

Yukon squats
315 x 5
365 x 5
415 x 5
* Going as deep as I am actually makes this pretty damn challenging. This was just the right amount of weight for 5. Or maybe I'm just weak. It'd be interesting to go back to parallel-depth squats and see how I measure up to before.

315 x 7, 10

SSB lunges
150 x 10 (alternating)
-
Good mornings
150 x 5 
-
Banded leg curls
15, 15

Hanging leg raises, ab wheel

Going to visit a pumpkin patch tomorrow. Besides just liking to mention life stuff that I come back to read later, it's relevant because I'll probably be eating a lot while out and about. For Halloween I'm leaning toward doing an updated Ash from the Evil Dead series. I was him a few years ago but I look very different now at 25 lbs lighter a bodyweight and I want my get-up to be more battle-worn and tattered.

Practiced some Muay Thai shadowkickboxing rounds yesterday alongside a couple Shane Fazen YouTube videos. I like to have him on in the background, working alongside me. Sometimes I get ideas seeing his combos out of the corner of my eye.

I think my uppercuts have traditionally looked awful when not on the heavy bag and watching him has taught me to telegraph them less. I was really exaggerating the dip-down.

 Axle push-press
160 x 5
185 x 5
210 x 4, 5
-
Super-set with wide-grip pull-ups
8, 10, 16

Got called into second job early so left it at here. Happy I was able to get that second attempt of 210x5.

Something to note, the last 2 weeks I've cut the nightly frequency of my edible usage significantly down and I've noticed my sleep quality has risen because of it. Seems like the regularity of doing it makes the difference, not an amount on any one night. In other words, taking the amount I did (usually half a pomegranate juice gummy) on a regular basis causes the fatiguing effect, but taking a full gummy or two once or twice a week does not.

Unrelated but my finances are in a healthy-enough spot that I can sign-up for Muay Thai again. That free session at AKA was a good one, and it's the only place I've found that has a Muay Thai technique class that late so I can hit it up after work (only other option is a kickboxing cardio class at a gym closer to my place, which isn't what I'm looking for).

Yesterday

Mat pulls (6)

570 x 0, 2

500 x 8

* My second attempt was too wide a stance despite being able to eke out a couple of reps compared to the first try. I also feel like there's a wide disparity by dropping down to 405 and repping that, it'd be good to stay in the 500 range sometimes and make that a win.

SSB box squats
Work up to 290 x 5, 330 x 5

SSB walkouts and quarter squats
420 x 15

Came back in the evening and did two backwards hill sprints, some split-squats for knee health, and reverse crunches and planks

Benched 285x5 on Saturday and did my usual fasted workout in the morning Sunday. Got up to 60 burpees with one short 10ish second rest at the 50 mark. Lots of stretching on both days as well.

Practiced some shadow kickboxing today going along with a YouTube video in the background. 

 I'm falling behind on this due to my work schedule. I recently became manager at my first job again and coincidentally my work-from-home job has gotten much busier. The last two days I've trained while working on my phone, which is annoying as holy fuck but necessary.

Today especially was looking bad. I woke up 2 hours early and thought I'd have an excellent chance at knocking my squat session out and then clocking in for work. Nope, it was phone meetings practically non-stop until the afternoon. I managed to work-up to squatting 275 over a period of 2 hours doing this, eventually putting the boss on mute to get my sets in (he takes long pauses while he looks over things). By the time that mercifully ended I was hungry and cooled down, so I just went up to eat. Then I discovered that Amazon had dropped-off my groceries out on the street 5 minutes away so I walked over and picked them up pissed-off (they refunded my order so at least it was free food and all my bags were untouched). 

Reprepped for my workout and this time managed it undisturbed, although it sucked that I woke up early and ended up getting to it at 3pm.

Yukon bar squats
Up to 455x1
Strip-sets of 405x3, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

During this I fielded calls from my second boss asking when I could be at the office. I intentionally rested just a little longer because he was annoying me.

Finished it there and went to the office for a meeting, and will do hamstrings and abs at night when I have a friend over. My friends are all used to me doing shit like that lol.

That was quite a mishmash of thoughts and reflections, I'm feeling like lightning after that second cup of coffee despite not enough sleep.

Mat pulls (7)

570 x 0, 5

* Couldn't fire on first attempt, came back a minute later and focused on leg drive. Solid comeback. Trained hungry again, looking forward to dropping the mat count by one next week and seeing what I can do on a full stomach. 

Deadlifts
405 x 13
* I'm standing on a decline so there's an extra factor of trying not to fall forward, which is murder on my calves. I think it's a good challenge but it might also be teaching me to deadlift too carefully instead of concentrating on ripping the bar.

Had a pressure headache after the mat pulls but now I feel extremely high energy and hyper. I'll be back in the evening to do box squats and abs.

Before breakfast today I did my usual fasted workout routine. 50 burpees, total time for everything was 18 minutes.

Had a near total rest day yesterday and feeling very refreshed. Still got in some stretches and a few minutes of shadowboxing. 

Yukon squatted 435x3 and benched 315x1. For my horizontal pressing I'm simply bringing in more bench pressing for the assistance work, nothing works better than that. Hit sets of 225-235 for 6-8 reps. 

Recently reviewed my squat videos from a year ago when I was repping 500 and I'm not sure some of those would have passed depth in a meet. I'm sinking in deep now.

That has been higher in carbs lately, I've been so rocked from soreness that my body just wants to eat. I weighed 194 yesterday in the morning. Basically zigzag dieting, sometimes I'm lowering carbs and then when my body is feeling rocked I eat more.