Press

150 x 5

170 x 3

190 x 6
* 2-rep improvement from the last month.

Axle clean every rep and press

160 x 8, 8, 8

-

Super-set with neutral grip chin-ups

10, 10, 17

Squats

365 x 5

415 x 3

465 x 3

315 x 21

Good mornings against mini bands

150 x 10, 10, 10

-

Unilateral dumbbell lunges

50s x 10

Bench press

250 x 5

280 x 3

315 x 3

250 x 11

Close-grip bench

225 x 10, 10, 10

-

Last 2 bench sets and Close-grip bench super-set with dumbbell rows

115 x 8

125 x 10, 10, 10, 10

A reminder to proverbially eat my vegetables and do the deload weeks again, something I've confirmed to myself plenty of times before. Came back after the light week and felt physically and mentally refreshed. Had in my mind to just get a single with 315 since it's been a while that I've hit that and that I need to get accustomed to heavy weight again but after a heavy 280, 315 felt great in my hands.

Got some new equipment on the way. Getting into the sled game way too late but better late than never. The Blokz will be an interesting return to board pressing.

 Deload

Axle clean every rep and press
140 x 3 x 8
-
Super-set with NG chin-ups
3 x 10

Dips
20

IW tricep pressdowns
15

Barbell curls
45 x 30

Reverse-hypers
135 x 10, 12

Nothing major but tendonitis still persists near right elbow. That and my back are the only things that aren't feeling great right now. Not a bad state to be in. Hip is feeling better lately.

Doing the McGill 3 helps my back feel better. Combined with the hypers and lower-body yoga (for lack of a better word, it's really just practicing slow-motion high kicks and high leg rotations to loosen that area up), I have a good plan of attack.

Did two deload workouts for bench and squat. Used the Swiss bar and the Yukon bar, respectively.

Weighed-in this morning at 216.6 in the morning pre-breakfast. The weight gain is coming along better than I expected. 

With eggs being out-of-stock at the stores I most frequently shop at, now is the perfect time to change up breakfast. I don't even like eggs, I just eat them ritualistically so I don't have to think about breakfast and can knock a meal out. Anyway, today was bison burger patties on the George Foreman.

Some very good Muay Thai living room practice yesterday and a 30 minute jog.

Deload

Deadlift
Up to 515x1

RDLs
315 x 3 x 10

Also loaded up the farmer's handles with about 160 each to take for a spin tonight. 

My last bench and dead session have felt like I'm lifting through mud, so it's time to impose a deload week. I've experimented in doing away with those, but after every deload I have, I come back feeling and performing stronger.

 Power came back on at about 3:30p yesterday. That evening, did 23 ABCs in 9 minutes. Definitely feeling those floorcrushers, my triceps are absolutely destroyed.

Woke-up and while fasted did 50 push-ups and 30 kb high-pulls with both 50s. What a killer pump in just 2 minutes.

Power went out at about 2:15am. I'd already woken up to use the restroom and then the lights and electronics flickering and shutting-off got me awake just as I was starting to doze back off. I have all my battery packs pre-charged and I invested in a very good camping lantern a few months ago. Probably the most amount of rainy days I've ever seen in my life, including my time in Portland.

Power is fine at work so if it comes down to it I can store food here or at a friend's house so nothing goes bad. Current power company estimations are it will take 2 days to restore, although those are usually wrong and much longer than it turns out to be.

Squats

315 x 5

365 x 5

415 x 11

315 x 20, 20

SSB squats

15 + 20 Hise shrugs

SSB good mornings

150 x 13, 15

Doing 315x20 for my work-sets is just awesome. Will go for 3 sets next time.

 Bench pressed 295x4 while feeling sore and run-down, then 225x11, then decided to shift attention away from my sore shoulders and destroy my triceps. Brought back an ooooold favorite: floorcrushers. Was still able to bang out reps with 135x7. Then paired these with another ancient staple I used to do, Tate press, with the 50s until failure.

Picked up a Kindle copy of Dan John's Never Let Go and it's fantastic so far. First heard about this book about 12 years ago on Iron Radio when he was a guest but already had too many books to read at the time and then just never got to it.

 Axle clean and press every rep
160 x 10, 10+5 press-away reps
130 x 10+10 overhead shrugs
-
Super-set with NG chin-ups
12, 12, 12

20 dips

Shoulders are still sore from the 23 ABCs and a set of 30 dips I did yesterday. Have a strongman contest I'm eyeing in March and one of the events is a last-man-standing axle clean and press with 225. Lighter than the 250 I usually expect for my weight class, but I'm not going to underestimate it. Also not going to make the mistake of cutting down for a weight class like with my powerlifting meet. This year, I'm gonna grow.

Went to a 24 Hour Fitness yesterday to train my client due to the storm, first time I've been in one for a few years. Pretty crowded. The whole atmosphere was more annoying than I remember, probably because when I used to go to commercial gyms it would be late at night to avoid people.

Woke up and did 23 ABCs while fasted in 8 minutes. Noticed some difference in energy doing this with no food but it's something I can definitely get used to.

Due to the rain, I'll be meeting my client at 24 Hour Fitness this afternoon. It'll be kind of fun to be in a commercial gym again and have access to machines.

Mat pulled 6 reps off 4 mats yesterday in this record storm. Felt strong on all reps but by rep 6 my hand finally slipped from the pouring rain. A rest pause yielded no reps. I'm so bad at rest pausing the deadlift lately which tells me I need to try to do it more.

Gutted out 405x16 after that.

On Friday I hit 20 ABCs in 6.5 minutes, then 20 devil presses that I didn't time. 

Took it relatively easy over the new year's weekend. Felt sick and developed a cough but got in a ton of sleep with this being my first full weekend off in two months. Had a quaint little 2-person party Saturday night but then had to pass out at midnight. For drinks I made one of my OJ and frozen fruit smoothies to use as a vodka mixer and I was downing immunity juice shots from Costco so I was getting a ton of vitamin C.

Bench press
205 x 5
245 x 5
285 x 6

Kroc rows
125 x 35

Pause bench with 4-sec eccentric
205 x 3 x 8
-
Super-set with dumbbell rows
125s x 3 x 10

After training my client I came back in the PM to do eccentric bench pressing with an 8-second descent using 135 lbs on the Swiss bar for sets of 8 and 3 sets of 95 lb skullcrushers super-set with keg curls.