Pushed and pulled the sled last night with two 45 plates and two 50 lb kettlebells stacked on. About 5 minutes of total work. Then went on a 10 minute jog and practiced a shadowboxing footwork drill (lateral step jab + right cross as the back foot follows suit and lands, step opposite direction and repeat the strikes in reverse order, then transition into pivot hooks for all 4 angles).

This morning was awesome. Woke up 15 minutes before my alarm so after downing a protein shake I played a round of Street Fighter Alpha 3 as Akuma, then did 8 of Dan John’s ABCs with 50 lb kettlebells, and then had time to make 3 eggs with my usual morning weightgainer before heading to work.

Easing into ABCs very gradually due to my pissy elbow, but just being able to do a single rep is a huge improvement from earlier this year. There was a little pain today but as long as I didn’t rotate my wrists and kept the press portion with my palms facing each other, I could do them.

Block press (equivalent to 2-board press)

375 x 1

Bench press

275 x 8

Kroc rows

150 dumbbell x 20

Incline close-grip bench press

195 x 9, 8, 6 + drop-down to 135x8

Super-set with bilateral dumbbell rows

115s x 10, 10, 10

Chest flyes

35s x 3 x 10

Rear delt flyes 

15s x 30 for different angles every 10 reps (tip from Jon Andersen)

I'll try not to get ahead of myself, but if I can work up to a 390 block press soon that would be SO dandy. I've been building a base of patient 8+ reps for awhile so now it's time to push the engine a little and go for singles PRs.

Squats

420 x 10

350 x 17, 18

Leg extensions

10 plates x 25

- 

Super-set with leg curls

10 plates x 50

Backwards run up Heart Attack Hill:

Hanging leg raises x 20

Felt awful and nauseous from random anxiety and too much coffee in an effort to counter said anxiety and get me ready to train, which made me feel even worse. I took that personally and made it a competition to see which could inflict more misery on myself: life or me. I won. Now I feel even worse, which feels fantastic.

Axle clean once and press: 110 lbs x 5

5 pull-ups

11 rounds in 8:30

20 total kettlebell strict presses

Dips

Bw x 10

50 x 10, 10

Biceps:

10 Carter curls 

52-second chin-up

30 bar curls

Felt that familiar sternum strain from going so deep on the dips, but I'm towing the line just right by not hammering them session after session and letting my chest recover. Never forgot that one time circa 2007 that excess dips made me unable to sneeze for a week (it kept catching in my chest so I'd gasp and then nothing would come out).

Squats

500 x 3

340 x 21

250 x 30

2-board press

315 x 2

335 x 1

355 x 1

370 x 1

Dumbbell rows

115s x 8

Bench press

275 x 7

-

Super-set with dumbbell rows

115s x 12

Incline bench press

185 x 10, 10, 9 + immediately finish with 10 reps of incline dumbbell press with the 50s

-

Super-set with dumbbell rows

115s x 12

125s x 10, 10

A medley of light skullcrushers, decline chest flyes, and curls

370 press was a grind, glad I got the lockout. Eyeing a powerlifting meet in November so getting my body used to heavy singles.

5ish sets of high pulls with 215 axle

Clean once and strict press

215 x 1

180 x 7, 5+1 push-press

160 x 8 + 10 overhead shrugs

Kroc rows

125 dumbbell x 25

Kettlebell high pulls

50s x 20

Many failed attempts at getting 215 secure on my chest. Kept getting it pulled high but couldn't quite shelf it until one successful set, and by that time my pressing power was impacted. All good though, got a lot of high pulls done in that case! There may come a point eventually when I want to separate racked strict pressing and sets of cleans to maximize my 1rm press but just wrangling the weight around is going to build brute strength and right now I just like the idea of starting everything from the floor.

Made up for the lack of pressing by going heavy in my assistant work.

Ending with Kroc rows after all that would been nasty enough but the kettlebell set was just plain rude.

Squats

450 x 8

330 x 21

250 x 30

Leg extensions

10 plates x 30

Leg curls

10 plates x 30, 30

Kettlebell swings

50 lbs x 100

Almost back to my pre-COVID number of 450x10. I'm very chill about comparing past accomplishments. If I'm on the cusp of surpassing a PR, I'll take note of it but otherwise I have no anxiety about not being near historical peaks (for example, my strict press is far from my old max of 250). It's a necessary attitude for longevity and I thank my injuries and illnesses for coming to that mindset. There's literally no choice in present form to chase old numbers when you just got out of surgery so you have to channel strength into other avenues: bodyweight exercises, reading, etc. Hell, go set PRs in wrist curls, as long you're excelling in SOMETHING.

Staggered around for a few seconds after the 250 struggling to keep lucid. Felt like I needed to lie down and die for awhile so I immediately went to the Thai bag and did a round of punches and kicks. Have to seize on the opportunity and take advantage of this level of fatigue when possible because I remember the feeling of sweltering suffocation in the middle of hard sparring rounds. I wasn't alone there like I am here to have the luxury of catching my breath; it was either ignore the panic and fight or succumb to the quit and drown in the Deep Water.

Swiss bar bench press

225 x 3 x 10

205 x 2 x 10

-

Super-set with pull-ups

4 x 10

1 x 15

Poundstone curls x 100

Back from a hectic travel period that saw me in Denver for work. Nothing of note report there, was working indoors mostly. Essentially two days of rest from training. One funny highlight was TSA taking my burrito out from my bag and holding it up to the light like it was a counterfeit bill for careful inspection. 

Shoulder medley

Arnold press: 50s x 12, 12

Behind-the-neck press: 80 x 8, 6+3 after rest-pausing

Lateral raises: 15s x 10, 10

Band pull-aparts x 12, 20

48-second chin-up

Carter curls

35s x 9, 8, 8

That chin-up always wrecks my biceps; the 35 dumbbells were the right call instead of the 50s. I always keep my SBD elbow sleeves on to make curls a little harder.

I learned about both the 1-minute chin-up and those curls on T-Nation. I'm naming them after Paul Carter, whose the first known inspiration for them as far as I can tell. The difference comes from retracting back the scapulae, like a powerlifting bench press, and continuing to curl up into the shoulders, an often-neglected function of the biceps. Doing these against bands would be brutal.

https://youtu.be/T_1eOJr04FE

Clean once and strict press

110 x 5

160 x 3

200 x 5

150 x 10, 10, 11

Neutral-grip chin-ups

12

100 lbs x 8 + drop-down to bodyweight x 8

Bodyweight again x 15, 20

Gonna do a second light workout later involving a shoulder medley, curls, and the ab wheel. Just all the odds and ends I didnt manage to fit during the heavy sessions.

 

 

Squats

430 x 8

325 x 20 + 20 pullovers with 25lbs

250 x 26

Leg extensions

10 plates x 8 until the end plates fell off due to no space for clips, continued on with 8 plates x 20

Leg curls

8 plates x 30, 20

Felt like I was going to die. Just barely resisted the urge to collapse and lie down after the set of 250. 

Bench press

225 x 3

275 x 2

315 x 1

335 x 1

350 x 1

245 x 10, 10, 8

Wide pull-ups

20, 20

Haven't benched 350 in a looong time. Had a crazy busy day and ended the session at just before 9pm, so I called it here to get ready for work tomorrow.

Power cleans

135, 185, 205 x 3

Sumo deadlifts

295 x 3

385 x 3

475 x 2 + 10 shrugs

525 x 1 + 10 shrugs

525 x 3

Immediately after deadlifts:

50 goblet squats with 50 lb kettlebell

30 stiff-legged deadlifts with two 50 lb kettlebells, shrugging with each rep

Farmer's walk with said kettlebells around the yard

That's plenty for this evening. Of any day, this is the most I back-off and leave extra fuel in the tank for the sake of my back. As I mentioned in my last entry, it felt horrible for most of this week, showed signs of improving yesterday, and was a little better yet today. It's possible I'll wake up with pain from the session tomorrow so I'll have to see if this was a handable amount of work for me or not, but as of right now I'm very pleased.

Sumo deadlifts are such a hack for pulling heavy with a pissy back. I only started doing them a few months ago. I'm not saying bye to conventional pulling but I'm over forcing them when my body just won't have it.

Smashed the Thai bag yesterday evening. 3 3-minute rounds.. Only reason I called it there was because I got hungry and I'm trying to gain weight.

Really making an effort to polish up my hooks lately and to keep my elbow more level. Everything was beginning to turn into a shovel hook before this correction.

This morning before work I hit 40 burpees.

My back has been KILLING me this week. Yesterday, however, was a good day for reversing some of the damage. Ample hip stretches, a set on the reverse-hyper, and did the McGill 3 before bed. Gotta do the McGill 3 every evening, it helps quite a bit. Going to replace my mattress soon, too. Memory foam just isn't for my body.

 Last night I filmed some shadowboxing to polish up my form, then went on a 30-minute jog. This morning before work was more shadowboxing.

Legs and thighs are still wrecked.