Bench press

265 x 5

300 x 3

335 x 1

* Trying out a slightly wider grip and foot positioning ala Louie's advice in Iron Samurai. I like it! I'll have to tread carefully given my history of pec tendon pain when horizontal pressing too much but otherwise I feel more stable. Legs are out in front rather than behind my knees. 

Close-grip bench press

245 x 8, 8

-

Super-set with axle rows

180 x 8

230 x 8

Incline skullscrushers

50s x 8, 7

35s x 8

-

Super-set with axle rows

230 x 9, 9

Curls

Finished in about 75 minutes. 

Added another exercise for my APT yesterday, monster walks. 

Did several sets of these back and forth across the yard.

Then came up with a makeshift sled using my iron mind loading pin.

Also dragged this across the yard several times.

Right after, did a round uphill of jogging backyards, followed a 10-min jog.

Finally, in the evening I did some shadow kickboxing. 

 There have been some things I've neglected to record, like my nightly pre-bedtime stretches and doing burpees in the morning.

Today I got to work and busted out 30 burpees in the storage room, went to use the restroom, came back and knocked out another 20. Not feeling hungry so breakfast is some whey protein and black coffee.

It feels SO nice not having to eat like it's my job. 

 Yesterday:

Squats
355x3
405x3
455x3
Drop-down to 405x5, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

Good mornings
150 x 10, 12, 12

Abs

Pleased with this. Felt rough coming in and everything felt heavy, but when it came to the money sets I crushed.

I've lost roughly 3 lbs. Down to 209 with clothes in the evening.

Mat pulled 550x4 and then a couple singles, then some belt squats. Back was hurting again but if I pull it together I'm confident I can get at least 600. Will do yoga and the pelvis stretches before bed.

RIP Louie Simmons. That's a big name to me to see go, hard to believe I'm even at the point in my log where I have to type that. Hope he's still coming up with some crazy new methods wherever he is now. 

Squats

330 x 5

380 x 5

430 x 5

Drop-sets of 365x5, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

Standing ab wheel paused rollouts

5, 5

First time in awhile squatting with a regular barbell. Some wrist discomfort but the Yukon bar otherwise prepared me very well. Bar felt like a toy. Should be good for at least 500 on meet day. 

Press

160 x 3

185 x 3

205 x 3

155 x 8, 8

Incline bench press

185 x 9, 8

155 x 9

All non-workup sets strict super-set with pull-ups x 10

Swiss bar curls

Bar x 25

Supposed to be going to San Francisco today to celebrate Persian New Year with friends but woke up at 6:00 a.m. due to internal clock and feeling a little sleepy running on 6 hours of sleep. Going to try to catch a nap if I can before leaving.

Happened to notice while randomly checking NorCal Powerlifting's Facebook page that my competition from over 2 years ago has been scheduled this May. Been receiving email notifications about every cancellation but nothing about this update. If I want to make 198 I have less than a month and a half to lose roughly 10 lbs.

With a combination of a more aggressive dietary transition than normal, the fact that I've been holding water weight, and yeah doing the shitty dehydration methods if need be the day of the weigh-in, I think I can make this work, challenging as it may be. If it's not ideal, oh well. 

 Yesterday in the few minutes I had before work I busted out 10 burpees immediately after waking up. Felt stiff as a board. Today, feeling better, I hit 25 burpees and some shadow kickboxing in the 3 minutes I had.

 I'm a man of my word and followed through on finding another way forward with healing my back. After some research, I suspect that I've been going at it wrong by just doing stretches and movements that acutely feel good on my lower back (reverse crunches, reverse-hypers, and anything that has me rounding it) and ignoring things that target the pelvis. I followed a simple routine last night before bed from someone else with anterior pelvic tilt that consisted of:

4 lunge stretches, 15 seconds (2 sets on each leg)

30 second butterfly stretch

30 second squat hold

20 second plank, making sure to squeeze the glutes

Woke up with my back feeling much better. Definitely not placebo, this is a big difference. Will keep at it and increase the times, which I kept short last night due to thinking I may have hurt my back from deadlifting (I didn't, it's fine today, I stopped the set at the right time).

Deadlifts

505 x 5

405 x 8, 2

Plan was to deadlift 405 for 30 reps total and record the time, then improve that time next week. On the second set I felt something in my back that warned me I better shut it down. It's been feeling really crummy so I'm glad I got this done.

My back is an eternal battle. I wonder if I need a harder mattress. My previous one was a hard spring one but my back wasn't doing good on that. That one was really old, though. The new memory foam one isn't making a difference. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if I got checked out by a professional and was found to have some kind of chronic injury that I've just been training through, either.

The uplifting news is that I have good days, it just takes a lot of concerted effort to get there. I'll keep at it with different ideas, though. 

Going to hold off on ab work until tomorrow after waking up and seeing how my back feels, don't want to worsen anything that's going to show up later by grinding out some standing ab wheel rollouts

Bench press

230 x 5

265 x 5

300 x 5

245 x 8, 8, 10, 8, 8

-

Super-set with dumbbell rows

115 x 8

125 x 8, 9, 10, 9, 10

Curls

Woke up a couple days ago with a seriously hurt back. Not sure what caused it. Maybe from deadlifting the dumbbells up for dumbbell press but I didn't feel anything at the time.

Been doing some light jogs and shadowboxing, and yesterday I did 100 bodyweight squats. Started to feel discomfort in my legs around rep 17 and then I was able to just keep going.

Bench press

230 x 5

265 x 5

300 x 4

245 x 8, 8, 8

-

Last 4 bench sets super-set with pull-ups x 10, 10

45 x 8, 8

Dumbbell press

100s x 8

-

Super-set with pull-ups

45 x 8

 Camping trip was a blast. Not nearly long enough due to work but made the most of Friday through Sunday. Ate incredibly well, actually bought too much food beforehand and I hope the salmon steaks we didn't get to are still good enough to eat today after work.

Full-body workout before weekend camping trip:

Yukon squats

405 x 5, 5, 5

Clean once and axle press

180 x 5, 4, 5
-
Super-set with chins
10, 12, 12

Done while very hungry and with short rest times. Happy with this, the discomfort made me stronger. 

Woke-up before my alarm at 6:30 today and got in a nice little day-starter workout of 30 burpees and some shadow kickboxing before heading to work. My cat was batting at me and playing during the burpees so I finished off by playing chase, where we take turns chasing each other back and forth. He's very puppy like and even plays fetch with his mouse toys.

Breakfast is some pomegranate white tea, salmon and lox bagel, and milk with whey protein.

Yesterday after work:

TNG deadlift strip-sets

500 x 6

405 x 10

315 x 10
* Improving by a rep every week. Tried to rest-pause but felt like I didn't have another rep in me. Next time I'll try harder, I think it might be psychosomatic. Also might try to not do TNG next time.

SSB lunges

150 x 16

Backwards run uphill

Gotta catch up here. Day before yesterday I did another bench press workout comprised of 250x5x8, super-set with dumbbell rows. Yesterday I did some shadow kickboxing rounds.

Haven't been doing as much cardio lately. That comes with the territory for gaining weight but increased work hours don't help. Probably averaging 2-3 times a week now. I'd like to do something 4-5 days a week. Eating, meal prep, and dishwashing all combine to take up a lot of time, but I can still make it work if I'm driven to.