SSB good mornings

200 x 10, 10, 8

Swiss bar incline bench against bands

185 x 8, 6, 6

Super-set with lying dumbbell rows

125s x 3 x 8

Weighted dips

50 x 2 x 10

Super-set with side curls

50s x 2 x 20

Russian twists

45 x 30

Weighted decline crunches

50 x 20

Quads got a lot of work over the weekend between high bar squats and 3 days of uphill hiking, and I've been wanting to bring good mornings back for some time now. I'm also rereading Pavel's Beyond Bodybuilding at work and the anecdote about good mornings increasing squat numbers got me even more anticipatory about them. While a lot has not aged well ("never go over 5 reps"), there are still a lot of useful nuggets in there.

The good mornings sucked far less than I thought they would/than I remember them. I'm actually conscious of what a hip hinge is now and I'm consciously sticking my butt out at the bottom, then per Pavel's cue, driving my feet hard into the floor. Wasn't miserable at all, but I stopped at rep 8 on the final set just because injury has completely snuck up on me the next day when doing these and I wanted to leave plenty left in the tank. Back feels great the next day, thankfully.

Benching against the bands was killer. Ton of tension on the chest. Using medium black bands from Dave Draper's brand. Dismayed to find that the pair have different levels of tension and thickness, so the quality control isn't there. One side was a little lighter than the other. Oh well, imbalances are good for strongman.

Quick little workout this morning before work just to get some movement in and stoke hunger:

50 band pull-aparts

10 ABCS with 15lb kettlebells (what happened to be sitting in my living room)

 Camping trip was amazing and also quite brutal. It was a hike-in spot and while it wasn't terribly far from the parking space, it was completely uphill and there was a lot of gear to haul via the supplied wheel barrels at the foot of the trail. I got in hours of "sled" work that way on top of a 3 1/2 leisure hike up the mountain on Saturday. Legs were tired but didn't cramp once. Ate lots of high calorie, high protein food via a portable propane stovetop. Also saw deer every day. I wanted to eat them but was also just appreciating their majesty at the same time. They're particularly cool to come across at night.

I recently nabbed a Dakine hydro pack and it's been a game-changer. Sipping on water without needing to slow down and reach for a water bottle is so great.

When I got home, I was quite worn and left my laptop open with my boxing registration pending to muse about how many days this week I wanted to sign up for. Probably 1 to give my mind and body a break after how rundown I felt this past weekend. Came back later and signed up for my standard 3. Started thinking about how much better my days are with class at the end.

Squats (high bar, narrow stance)

405 x 5, 5, 4

Bench press 

275 x 3 x 5

Super-set with unilateral reverse hyper rows

200 x 3 x 10

Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts 

125s x 2 x 10

Super-set with alt side curls

50s x 2 x 20

I was DRAGGING today. Felt like my body just wanted to do nothing. Happy with the numbers but I was definitely not pushing the rest times.

The squats were a real quad killer. Alternating the bar placement really shows me how different both of these squat styles feel. 

I'm leaving for a weekend camping trip this afternoon, hence the full-body workout. We'll see how I feel upon returning, but I may schedule a week deload. I honestly never regret doing that, as boring as it is.

After shadowboxing rounds at the gym Tuesday, coach asked if I could partner up with him during partner drills.

First drill was one person throwing two jabs while moving backwards, a left upper-cut, and then a 2-3-2. Idea is to lure the opponent in and then deliver the upper-cut as they’re coming forward. Really appreciated the 1-on-1 attention. As usual, he enforced me using the full range of my jab and stopped me from coming forward a few times. Very happy to report I had 0 shoulder OR elbow pain from whipping my jab out. Shoulder seems completely healed. Elbow pain is still present if I exert pressure at an odd angle or when straining with pull-ups, but less often when boxing.

Sinuses were an annoyance again. Had to breathe through my mouth frequently when I wasn’t tired and blow my nose every break. Zyrtec seems to make my symptoms worse if taken in the morning, but SLIGHTLY better if taken the night before. I’ve tried the advice about ingesting local honey but have never noticed a difference. Yesterday I ordered a saline rinse bottle off Amazon per @simo74’s suggestion.

Speaking of Amazon, I scored big on some Prime sales. Ordered a new pair of Ringside 16 oz sparring gloves to replace my old cracked Muay Thai Fairtechs, a bag of Metabolic Drive, another exercise band, some soup mugs for my egg and bone broth “shakes”, and a Ninja air fryer. Never had an air fryer before, although I’ve used one at the office.

Wednesday boxing was half conditioning exercises and half partner drills yesterday. For the first half we went outside and went through the circuit: vertical jumps, med ball slams (I almost wrote "slaps" which would have been a pretty funny exercise), 1-2s on the bag, push-ups, and a few others. Going back in, I got asked by one of the beginners who I'm friendly with if I'd partner up with him. In full transparency, I was sort-of hoping he wouldn't so I could pair with one of the bigger and more skilled trainees, but I pushed back on that thought and the urge to physically avoid him because it felt like such a bitch move and sure enough, he asked. I'm happy to give back after I got such good 1-on-1 coaching the day before. We took turns slipping 1-2s, eventually adding a 3 to roll under. He started developing a big grin on his face as we took turns slipping and I thought it was so cool to see how happy boxing made him, but I kept my glare unchanged so he'd feel a little intensity while under fire before the break.

Incline bench press

205 x 8, 7, 7

Super-set with weighted pull-ups

50 x 3 x 8

Dumbbell shrugs

80s x 2 x 20

Spider curls

50s x 10

35s x 2 x 12

I'm looking bigger from doing shorter workouts more frequently compared to 2 long workouts on the weekend followed by a longer break from the iron. Likely just glycogen retention, but it feels good and I'm less rundown. STILL sore from Saturday's squats, but it's relegated to muscle soreness and not mental fatigue and malaise like last week.

Squats

330 x 16 + 4

* Took about a minute of rest-pausing before knocking out 4 more.

Weighted dips 

100 x 3 x 10

Super-set with seated unilateral reverse hyper rows

200 x 3 x 10

Alternating dumbbell side curls

50s x 3 x 20

Resisted the urge to do more upper-bod sets and exercises. I just pressed yesterday, I want to train boxing and conditioning at home tomorrow, and I want to go to boxing at least three times next week so I don't want to feel run down for days on end like last week. 

Woke-up early to lift before work yesterday. Breakfast was 2 mini hummus cups with a few nuts on top, leftover protein shake, and coffee before training 20 minutes later.

Press
135 x 5
175 x 3
205 x 0, 0

Push press
205 x 1

Seated Arnold press
80s x 7, 8

Chin-ups
10, 15

Wow, 205 wasn’t even close! Could be the time of day and/or being in need of a deload. The real win was how much stronger that second set of overhead pressing the 80 lb dumbbells felt compared to the first.

A reminder that I need to do more 60-min-and-under workouts. The weekend was a great 2 days of hard, extended training, but I felt destroyed in the days following. A day of rest in-between would have made a difference, too.

Later in the evening, I resisted the urge to do more lifting and opted for home boxing training instead. Did 3 rounds of 4 minutes shadowboxing:

1st round: breath restriction mask, 3 lb weights
2nd round: 3 lb weights
3rd round: no equipment

Went on a 25-minute run with the mask on for half of it afterwards.

 Woke-up early to lift before work today. Breakfast was 2 mini hummus cups with a few nuts on top, leftover protein shake, and coffee before training 20 minutes later.

Press

135 x 5

175 x 3

205 x 0, 0

Push press

205 x 1

Seated Arnold press

80s x 7, 8

Chin-ups

10, 15

Wow, 205 wasn't even close! Could be the time of day and/or being in need of a deload. The real win was how much stronger that second set of overhead pressing the 80 lb dumbbells felt compared to the first.

A reminder that I need to do more 60-min-and-under workouts. The weekend was a great 2 days of hard, extended training, but I felt destroyed in the days following. A day of rest in-between would have made a difference, too.

Still, went to work in an elevated mood from lifting. I think I'm going to come home and do weighted dips to finish this day off. They don't hurt my elbow or shoulder and I haven't dipped in a good while.

I came into the weekend sick, trained hard on both days when I felt rested enough, and then felt wrecked again. Was going to go on an easy jog Monday after work, but decided to just get ready for bed extra early instead. Only did about 5 minutes of stretching at night, including some band-resistance seated pulls for my back. Got a long night of sleep.

Felt better Tuesday just in time to contend with boxing in this heatwave. Normally I start my boxing recap with something like "Boxing went great", but I definitely felt off. Got more tired than usual just from trading combos, and I realized during a rest period that I wasn't taking full breaths. Loosened up the rest of the session and felt much better despite throwing harder shots on the shield. We're in a crazy heatwave with 105+ weather; hottest week of the year by far.