Woke-up and hit 50 burpees and 50 kettlebell swings before breakfast. Whenever I feel like not training before breakfast because I'm nauseous from how much food I've eaten the night before, I remind myself that forcing through it will make me hungrier and breakfast much more pleasant.

Speaking of last night, ended up doing a living room workout several hours after bench pressing of kettlebell high pulls, which I found work my biceps as well as the traps marvelously, super-set with band-resisted decline push-ups. The push-ups hit my chest hard enough that one pec actually locked up for a second after finishing a set. Tremendously sore today. 

Going to head into the office later to do some management and then prepare for a brunch cruise around the San Francisco Bay early tomorrow for a belated birthday celebration. I definitely did not intend to drag out my birthday this long, but it happened to be when tickets were next available. Gonna eat a lot of good food at the buffet so gotta show up hungry.

Bench press

235 x 3

265 x 3

305 x 4

* Came into this apprehensive and ready to switch to Swiss bar training, but I was able to handle it. Some shoulder discomfort but much better than last Saturday. Healing is going well.

Block press

325 x 1

345 x 1

Bench press

245 x 10, 10, 9

-

Super-set with dumbbell rows

115s x 3 x 10

Close-grip block press drop-set

225, 185 x 7

135 x 12

* Total triceps exhaustion. I really want to do floor crushers again but heavy extensions are out of the question while my elbows heal, so this was a terrific movement.

Training my client soon and then planning to hit some chest and biceps hypertrophy afterwards, or maybe I'll see if ABCs don't bother the shoulders and elbows.

Yukon squats

320 x 20

-

Super-set with deadlifts

320 x 12+5+3 (rest-pauses)

Got this idea from Emevas awhile back and it's stuck with me. Previously attempted it with 225, but now 320 (3 plates on the Yukon bar) is a perfect challenge for where I'm at. Getting reminded of how this bar is quite a bit harder than a straight bar, but it's a necessary switch to save my shoulders and elbows. If I had to give this a personal name for use in my log, I'd call this workout the dirty double. 

Woke-up, took a work call, and then hit 50 burpees and 50 kettlebell swings before breakfast.

Squatted 445x10 and 315x23 the other day, a highlight of the week.

When trying to bench press, I realize that not only are both my elbows now feeling crummy, my shoulders hurt pretty bad under the bar with only 135. I realized then that it's the high rep low bar squats that are killing my elbows and shoulders, not the ABCs. Going to train lights but intense at the beginning of this week and will swap out the straight bar with the Yukon bar for squats.

That's why I realized the straight bar was causing me too much hurt, switch to the Swiss bar and benched 205x17, 12, 8.

Press

175 x 8

-

Super-set with neutral grip chin-ups

12

Axle press (clean once)

150 x 9, 9, 8

-

Super-set with ng chin-ups

3 x 12

Chest and bicep work

Deadlifts

405, 455, 505 x 3

Followed by 5 shrugs with 505

No more missed deadlift reps. Sticking with triples at a weight I can work up from after hearing Phil Stevens mentioned that his deadlift gets the strongest when he works with triples. 

After feeling sluggish all day and coming back from a back injury, this was another win. 

Rdls

315 x 20, 15, 12

 Woke-up to 40 fasted burpees and then after breakfast, 3 rounds on the heavy bag. Filmed the footage and I've tightened a lot of things up. I'm picking shots, upping my activity in bursts but still keeping busy in other moments, feinting, moving my head, and rolling my shoulders more. Slipped a few times on the mud but that can't be helped.

Bench press

225 x 5

255 x 5

285 x 7

Medium board press

275 x 1

295 x 1

315 x 1

335 x 1

345 x 1

355 x 1

Close-grip bench

245 x 9, 8, 7

-

Super-set with dumbbell rows

115s x 12, 10, 10

Happy to get 7 with 285, a 1-rep improvement from last month, but I had the advantage this time of elbow sleeves since my right elbow is still bothering me.

Once I hit that, I had a strong urge to try out the bench block. No regrets. Went much higher than I expected to and it was REALLY fun to board press again (still calling it board pressing for now in the interest of familiarity even though there are no boards). 

Squats

420 x 10

315 x 21

Back was hurting bad yesterday and still on the mend today. Had a minimum of 5 as my goal because of that but with my belt 420 felt good, lighter than my workup sets even. Still left a couple more reps in the tank to be safe. This is a win.

All those axle cleans are to blame for my back right now. The main thing I need to stop doing is controlling the bar drop. That's caused back pain in my distant past and I did a lot of that on Monday. Just drop the damn thing, and get bumper plates too.

Yesterday I hit some good mornings, working up to 190 against bands for 5 sets altogether. Finished with the ab wheel.

Tonight, got in 20 ABCs in 6:10. Inside of my right elbow has been hurting which is definitely from the ABCs so I used elbow sleeves tonight. Even with that advantage, I'm happy with the progress I'm making on these. Left hamstring also started getting tight on me doing these after the good mornings yesterday, but I don't think it's pain that will remain for more than a few hours. We will see if I eat my words on that. I've never had a lasting hamstring injury before so maybe it's time I earn my stripes.

Right after that I did alternating sets of push-ups and upright rows. 

Squats

405 x 13 (PR)

315 x 20, 15, 13

Couldn't remember if I got 13 or 14 so I'll go with the lower number. Still an awesome session. I have to really kick my own ass to get out of my warm room and go out in the cold night to squat, so once I'm done squeezing into knee wraps, multiple layers, and my lifting shoes that fight me to get on my feet everytime, I'm pissed off enough that I take it out on the bar.

Weighing 220 in the morning before breakfast.

Bench press

270 x 8

225 x 14

-

Super-set with barbell rows

225 x 8, 275 x 10

Swiss bar (4-second eccentric)

205 x 9, 8, 8

-

Super-set with barbell rows

275 x 10, 10, 10

Bar curls

60