Did a minimal full body workout yesterday just for maintenance and a deload, then have spent the rest of my time eating and drinking very minimally. Not being a monk about it but still closer to that approach and I have ever undergone before. Aiming for low sodium foods but not perfect about that, and generally dehydrating myself while taking sips of water here and there.

It's working and I've lost 5 lb in the past few days. Just today I've lost two and I'm down to 201.8. I should be able to nail the weigh-in tomorrow but I won't rest on my laurels until I've got it. 

Press

Up to 205x1

* My press is bad right now, somewhat predictably as I've been focusing on my bench. Once this meet is over I'd love to bring it back up for strongman. Resisted the urge to grind out another rep or keep going higher with singles since it's meet week, although I had some more in me. 

Incline bench with Fat Gripz

135x5, switch immediately to 155x8

185x8, 8, 

Squats

Up to 435x5

Drop sets of 405x3, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

Took a rest period of rest here deciding what I wanted to do. Ate a mini RX bar inside, came back out, and hit:

Deadlifts

408x8

SLDLs

225 x 12

245 x 12

That's the final deadlift and squat workout I'll be doing until meet day. Good session. Everything felt pretty light, despite fatiguing early on deadlifts from squats. 

 On average I've been training 3 times a day lately. Today I ended up having to go into work to cover two peoples' shifts but I still managed to get 120 total burpees and plenty of shadow kickboxing done.

I'm down to 204.8. I've lost about 8 lbs in a month.

Squats

355 x 3

410 x 3

460 x 3

Drop sets of 405x5, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

SSB good mornings

150 x 10

200 x 9, 9

Standing paused ab wheel rollouts
6, 6, 5

410 felt heavy. My answer to this was to roleplay in my head. "Impressive...but let's see how you fare against my full power." Whatever keeps the mind amped and violent. 460 felt light, which was the only set I belted up.

Had a fantastic Easter by going on a 3-hour hike at Russian Ridge and having dinner afterwards.  Good to confirm that a hike isn't going to stop me from doing my squats.

 Woke up at 5:50 and hit this.

5 minutes bike
50 burpees
100 jumping-jacks
2 minutes shadowkickboxing

Total time was about 12 minutes. 

Then I made 2 eggs mixed with some egg whites and kimchi to take to work. Already had a Taijin and buffalo lime chicken thigh with green beans ready for lunch. I resist coffee at the office in favour of green tea, since I drink coffee when I get home. I intended to only have it on lifting days but I make it so damn good and a cup a day seems fine, I don't have any trouble falling asleep.

My cat is my training buddy. He sleeps with me, usually the whole night, we wake-up together, get some protein in, and then he runs around and gently bats at me while I do the burpees. He likes to charge at me through his cat tunnel and then bop my arms before running away. Lone Wolf and Cub.

 Deload

Sumo deadlifts up to 385x1, RDLs of 315x2x6, and SSS box squats of 250x5,8,8, super-setted with hanging leg raises of 10.

First time ever doing sumo. Got the idea from Louie Simmons advising lifters not to deadlift too much. Take a break, let the movement pattern refresh, and hit some other variants. They felt interesting. Harder for me not being used to them but I can tell the muscles are doing less work, if that makes sense. My impression is they're easier overall but have a lower ceiling and you're probably not going to be as big a deadlifter as you can be if you primarily do them over regular.

Oh yeah, did 10 burpees and the exercise bike in the morning before work just to wake me up, total of 4 minutes.

At around 8:30pm I hit 3 hill sprints, 1 round of backwards jogging up said hill, and about a 15 min jog afterwards. Came back at 9.

Have also been doing bodyweight reverse hypers off a counter at work randomly, and I use a band to do them from my couch at home, usually close to bedtime.

 I've been having a good week. Been logging my deloads and then when the assistance work starts moving too fast I don't finish and it stays in draft format. This year has been when I finally start pushing the pace of my workouts and get them done in an hour; I'm going to need to do a better job adapting and getting sessions logged.

I'm training all damn day, starting from morning Tabata workouts to 8pm runs. Yesterday on my break I even did some shadowkickboxing in my work's courtyard. 

I've mapped it out and am going to deload on Monday. It actually fits quite nicely with my 5/3/1 cycle. By the time my meet comes around, that would be the week I'd normally hit singles. 

Training conjugated is also an option but I can't be sure that'll freshen me up the way I need in time because right now I feel run down. Resisting the urge to overhaul everything right before a meet.

I lost track of how many mat pull sets I did but after failing to break 550 off 6 pavers I did sets of 2 and 3 with 500. Totally reps in 10 minutes was 9-11. The later sets came much easier. That's a good sign. Next time, I might do repeated attempts with 450-500 before attempting heavier to prime my back. A final attempt to move 550 after all this failed.

I need to deload. Everything has felt heavy lately. The other day when I didn't even lift I felt like a zombie walking around after cardio. 

I'm in a crunch-mode mindset but it'll probably do me more good than anything. This period is more about maintaining the strength I've already built up while making the weight. 

Benched 305 x 3, 3, 1 pause rep, then 275 x 5 and 225 x 11. Finished up with skullscrushers, barbell rows, and curls. 

Down to 205 lbs, which marks about 7 lbs lost since March 18. I've always tried to lose a lb a week so this is the fastest I've lost weight in my life. I've got until May 1 to lose the other 7.

Squats
380 x 5
420 x 3
480 x 1
Drop-down sets of 405x5, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

SSB good mornings
150 x 10
200 x 8, 10

Abs

Everything felt heavy, which I'm not surprised by. Been using my legs a lot, including sled drags and hill sprints the day before. Still, good place to be.

Will do a better job of recording all the cardio I'm doing.

Swiss bar incline bench

185 x 8, 9, 8

-

Super-set with wide pull-ups

10, 10, 10

* This is surprisingly challenging for such light weight. Good reason to keep doing it.

Axle clean once and press

150 x 8, 8

130 x 10

-

Super-set with wide pull-ups

45 x 8, 8, 8

Swiss bar tricep extensions

95 x 8, 8

-

Super-set with lateral raises

35s x 10, 15

Worked up to mat pulling 545 and on the third rep I cut it short due to my back. I'll see how I feel in the morning but I think I escaped tweaking anything, there was a sharp sensation of discomfort that dissipated once I dropped the weight.

Aiming to order my reverse hyper next week and will keep up the sled drags and pelvis stretches. 

 Did about 80 total burpees yesterday, dragged the "sled", and went on two separate jogs in the afternoon and evening. Also practiced some boxing.

Woke-up this morning and did 30 burpees, 5 minutes on the bike, and 100 jumping-jacks before taking my cat to the vet to get fixed and then going off to work. 

 I was a little overenthusiastic about reporting my back pain improvements before. The new stretching regiment I'm on really felt like an overnight gamechanger the first time, but it's been hurting off and on since. Small improvement overall.

The sled drags have been feeling really good. Again, I'm not magically healed for long after a session of that; nothing is going to have that effect. I think a repeated, concerted effort of the combined practices will do it good.

And I'm finally aiming to buy a reverse hyper after all these years. The foldable Scout model is what I'm eying, but if I can get a higher end one and pay extra attention to keeping it protected from the outside elements with a mat base and tarp, that could be really nice.