Squats: 300 x 20

Super-set with deadlifts: 300 x 20

https://youtu.be/dAfsPeDhqKU

Took frequent rest-pauses for my back during the deadlifts, but it's been awhile since I've had a pain episode (regular foam rolling has seemed to do wonders for it). I feel good enough to try and push it more next time. 

After this, I went out to visit my aunt who just returned from a long stay in Iran and ate homemade lamb and eggplant stew at her house. After returning, I went on a 2-mile run that included a sprint up a hill.

 Today was interesting.

Bench press
275 x 1
320 x 1
340 x 1
350 x 0

Went into this workout hungry and having drank too much coffee, which made me depleted and shaky. 350 was still close and I knew I could get it if I had a little more fuel in me.

I left the barbell on the floor and went upstairs to eat, then headed out for a Costco trip only to find out they had absolutely no eggs. It was just a big, empty section. Bulk eggs were the main reason I went here instead of Trader Joe's. Still made off with some items that made it a worthwhile visit: liquid egg whites, new running shoes, plenty of meat, and cat food.

Ate again when I got home and started a revenge workout at 9pm:

Bench press
275 x 1
315 x 1
335 x 1
350 x 1

Incline Swiss bar bench
180 x 10
190 x 8
200 x 6
165 x 12 -> dropdown to 135 x 3
Super-set with lying dumbbell rows
115s x 4 x 10

Lying lateral flyes
15s x 3 x 15
Alternating lateral curls
50s x 20, 20
35s x 16

After having done so many singles in a few hours, 350 didn't come easy, but I physically just felt rock solid this time despite some shoulder fatigue.

I lowered the normal 170 on the last set of incline bench down to 165 to try and ensure I got 15 reps but at that point, I was understandably spent. When I unracked 165 I couldn't believe how heavy it felt.

 Christmas Eve:

Overhead press

185x5

Super-set with pull-ups: 15

Overhead press against bands

107.5 x 4 x 10

Super-set with pull-ups: 4 x 12

Barbell skullcrushers

120 x 2 x 10

Hammer curls

50s x 3 x 10

Fought very hard to get the 5th rep, but that's an improvement. Shoulders felt sore in warm-ups from low bar squats 2 days prior.

Christmas day: went on a 3.25 mile run.

I'm taking it upon myself to do more road work for boxing. Downloaded a couple of running apps to track my progress on that.

Even though I didn't go out for any events on Christmas, it was a very welcome rest day. Along with that run, I played a lot of Soul Reaver Remastered and watched part of a decently funny movie, Bad Santa.

 Brutal Friday night at the boxing gym. Lots of calisthenics mixed with hard rounds on the bag. Left shoulder was feeling serious fatigue from ending with rounds of jabbing our partner while moving backwards, but unlike my partner, I didn't need to take rest periods.

It's interesting how my mindset has changed. Before I used to hate any kind of exercising at a martial arts class because I could just do that at home and it would interfere with my weightlifting. Now, I appreciate it. Every bit helps with being a better fighter and a coach will prescribe things I wouldn't normally do on my own.

Saturday was a rest day, but got a lot of walking done at the Dickens Fair with Eli. Only stayed for a couple of hours, as her mom wasn't feeling well. 

Got to spend time with Farah and Eghbal yesterday , who came over before we went out to Stone Stew for lunch and Eghbal's apartment afterwards for some tea and coffee, where I helped him set-up a little espresso machine. I vowed to come see both of them more often now that they are back in the US. Very nourishing day for the soul.

Sunday evening:

Squats

445 x 4

Drop-down to 405x5, 315x8, 225x8, 135x8, 45x8

Reverse hyper single leg curls

200 x 2 x 20

Weighted decline crunches

50 x 20

Hanging leg raises: x 15

Going to be replacing some of my standard powerlifting-style strength training with more strongman-centric workouts due to having my eye on a strongman contest next month. With boxing as my focus now, though, I don't feel excited about spending the money and energy toward it unless I'm strong enough to feel competitive, so I'll run this training block and see how I feel. Back health is a major factor, too.

Last night was focused on circus dumbbell training. The dumbbell in the contest is 110 for open and 100 for masters. The last time I trained for this event, I didn't have fixed dumbbells and my Fat Gripz didn't fit my adjustable dumbbell handles. That's all changed now.

However, I couldn't get the 115 bell up with Fat Gripz. The dumbbell handle is already thicker than a barbell so the Fat Gripz didn't close all the way around, making it even bigger than normal. I think that's even better, but it was too much for my current level so after a few failed reps I took it off for the topset.

Dumbbell push press (all with Fat Gripz except 115)

50 x 2

80 x 2

115 x 1

Landmine press

115 x 3 x 10

Pull-ups

15, 12, 10, 10

Barbell shrugs

300 x 10 

Several missed attempts at 115 before I locked out. The landmine press was easy on the joints and something I've been meaning to bring back for boxing. I made this lift a lot harder by really letting the bar sink down at the bottom to the point where I had to twist my torso to accommodate it, which added some ab work in and somewhat mimics throwing a cross in boxing.

This was an idea I got from Emevas several years ago, who got the idea from Jon Andersen.

Squat

300 x 20

Upon which I walked off the patio with the bar on my back and onto the dirt, dropped the bar behind me, and then:

Deadlifts

300 x 20

Ab wheel: 10 standing reps

Some disclaimers:

The bar had trouble clearing one side of the squat stands so I reracked, took a few breaths, got it on my back again, shrugged high, and made it.

Left the bar on the ground and took a standing rest-pause after rep 10 of the deadlifts before cranking out another 10.

Had some hesitation about even continuing that latter 10 reps due to concern for how my back was feeling (not painful, but a similar sensation to when pain crops up later), but took the calculated risk and went for it.

All that said, this was brutal. The squats were the easy part, since I've been running heavier weight for 20 lately; it was following them up with the deadlifts that wrecked me afterwards and gave me a headache.

My back is completely fine the next morning. I'm glad I've been able to push it further and further. There have been countless times when I take some new measure for it that works in the short term only for pain to resurface, but so far, the daily foam rolling has been doing wonders. I'm also opting for my ergonomic Herman Miller chair 100% when I do sit at home and absolutely zero couch time. Good move, because yesterday I was gifted the new Soul Reaver remaster for Steam and stayed up later than expected getting lost in the world of Nosgoth and reliving that game. 

Had a super fun sparring day yesterday. Second time at this gym when not counting informal spars on the ground floor in the middle of drills. It definitely feels different stepping into the ring with gear, a cornerman, and the gym gathered to watch. The only downside was how short it was: just 3 rounds for 2 minutes.

I went up against a shorter stocky guy who I only learned afterwards is one of the coaches. I've seen his name on the weekly class sign-ups as Coach Gabriel but his class conflicts with my work so I've never trained with him. Coach Eric was my cornerman this time (he was my sparring partner last time).

Of note is that I way hyped this session up in my mind, partially by design. I was thinking about it the whole weekend and as a result, my head was bursting with ideas and things to tweak from last time. 

As a result, the biggest change in round 1 was not being overly nice and actually hitting with an appropriate amount of power. Coach Eric advised me to use my reach and spar on the outside, and sure enough, his swings often fell short while my jab and cross landed over and over again. A real success was a jab followed by a lightning left hook. I don't see a lot of guys in the intermediate classes throwing this, or many combos from the same arm in  general, but I've been working on this for some time now and my hook comes really fast after jabbing from the same arm. I also landed a lot of jabs and crosses to the body, but next time I'd like to practice body hooks more.

When he'd rush in, I would meet him with an uppercut while circling out. He didn't land anything significant until the end of the round when he caught me with a big left hook that adjusted my headgear. Didn't hurt, but it was a great shot.

After round 1, Coach Eric told me he likes the punches I'm choosing and my jab is landing, but I can get even more reach from it because he sees my arm not fully extending. Very old issue of mine.

Round 2 went much the same: I landed clean the vast majority while almost all of his smaller strikes were falling short, but that leaping Frazier-style hook got me one more time again. 

After round 2, I felt that same feeling of a panic attack that occurred last session, which was also after round 2. It felt like I couldn't get enough air through my mouthpiece while I was resting and that was causing my heart to race, but I ignored it. I probably need to do a better job of taking full breaths as the action progresses, but in truth, I was 100% fine and I knew that. The breath restriction mask helped a lot with mentally managing this feeling. Funnily enough, same with 20-rep squats.

As soon as round 3 started, I felt fine again, as I expected. This time, he ended up standing in one spot and telling me to hit him harder, which I did but not enough to rock him. In the moment I thought he might have been having an ego trip to show-off and didn't know he was a coach. Round 3 ended up being slower as a result of his relative inactivity.

I was a little bummed round 3 was the end. I watched the rest of the spars where the same coach went at it with two other trainees, which made sense why he had periods of energy composure with me and probably why he got hit more than I expected since he was going way more rounds. When everyone was done I did a 4-minute sesh on the heavy bag.

Hopefully I get more rounds in next time. Even though I wasn't going against a fresh combatant, I'm stoked at the changes I made with regards to aggression and landing uppercuts.

Bench press 

315 x 3

Swiss bar incline bench 

177.5 x 10

192.8 x 8

207.5 x 6

170 x 14

Lying dumbbell rows 

115s x 3 x 8

Hammer curls

50s x 10, 10

35s x 12

Super-set with banded tricep press downs

3 x 10

Made gains on bench despite shoulders and traps feeling sore. Will use the foam roller and massage gun tonight. Over the weekend I'd been using the foam roller exclusively on my back.

I'm signed up for sparring tomorrow. At the forefront of my mind will be to relax, pick quality shots vs overdoing the volume, and sink in good body shots. My sinuses have been clearer lately; hopefully I don't have trouble breathing through my nose this time.

Went to a work event Friday night bocce ball at a place 5 minutes from my house with tons of food. Feasted on smoked sausage, prawns wrapped in bacon, meatballs, and pizza. Rather than stay at the office after work until it was time to go to the event, I went home to feed my animals, drink some protein, and relax before heading out again, which was absolutely the right move. Before, waiting around for the group to leave at work just meant doing extra email requests past 5pm, turning down drinks from the people not driving, and generally waiting around being bored and wondering why I'm still at work.

Saturday was stormy. There was a TORNADO 25 minutes away in Santa Cruz, which is insane. Lifted indoors:

 

Deadlifts
525 x 0, 1

RDLs
300 x 2 x 8

Barbell shrugs
300 x 2 x 10

I wanted 525x3, but was too gunshy and had difficulty mustering up the neurological confidence to blast the weight up due to recently recovering from a back tweak. When I did move the weight it shot up quick, but a second rep was definitely not happening. I'm still happy I moved it for a fast single. Back to more reps and building before going heavy again.

And the liberating thing is building my deadlift is a side quest to boxing, so I didn't feel any frustration with missing that first rep like I would have before.

 

Have been using my foam roller more and it's been feeling awesome on my back and shoulders. It's a 1st gen Viper vibrating roller that I paid way too much for only to have the vibration break down, but still functions as a firm regular roller. I should get a lacrosse ball too.

Later that evening, I did 3 rounds of 4 minutes shadowboxing with several layers on, hoodie up, and the breath restriction mask indoors to simulate the heat from sparring in the gym. Went out to the store and when I got back home, went to Heart Attack Hill and did 3 hill sprints followed by a 30 minute jog. Awesome all-day mix of training and relaxation, which is my ideal weekend if I'm not going out anywhere.

Axle clean once and press: 110 x 5

Close-grip neutral grip chin-ups: 5

8 rounds in 6:58

Dips

50 x 12, 12

75 x 10

-

Super-set with Pendlay rows

160 x 12, 12, 12

Sandbag squats

200 x 12, 12

50-second chin-up

I wasn't looking forward to this because training without some kind of heavy top set bores the powerlifter in me, but I always end up feeling really good once I'm running the workout. Got a good upper-body pump and walk out of the gym feeling better and more energized than when I walked in.

No elbow pain on the 50-sec chin-up this time, but I'm keeping the dropdown faster than the ascension in order not to push that.

 When I arrived at boxing on Tuesday I found my Cerberus belt waiting for me in the exact same spot that I'd left it. Thankfully I didn't need it this time, but after skipping rope I lent it to someone who was telling the coach he threw out his back bending down to his gym bag just then. He said it helped immediately.

For shadowboxing rounds, we used a plastic ring to throw a 1-2 in front of, then dip to either the left and throw a right uppercut or to the right and throw a left uppercut.

Partnered up afterwards with a fairly big guy who was dressed in pink pants, a Mike Tyson tank, and a comb embedded in his hair. I dug it, haha. Despite the loud look, he was quiet and all business, which was fine by me. Took turns throwing 1-2s, then 1-2-3s, and then did various combos on mitts and finished up with the heavy bag.

Wednesday was a total rest day because I was feeling rundown. The timing worked out because my girlfriend invited me to a holiday event at the PayPal Arena that her work got her tickets for. It dawned on me later that I've seen the event from the outside in years past because it's by the Costco I used to go to and I always thought it looked neat. We walked around and looked at the decorations, which were incredibly extravagant, and I got several comments from strangers on my Abdominal Swoleman sweater. 

Not super exciting but got a lot of walking in while taking in the eye candy. I'd had a huge meal just before leaving so I wasn't hungry enough to buy any food and I abstained from alcohol even though the drinks in a lit light bulb looked cool.

Squats

410 x 7

315 x 20

Reverse-hyper single leg curls

200 x 20

On Friday, I got set-up for belt squats a bit too deep in the hole and with my foot placement off. Straining to break the weight off the ground made my left hip angry. I was able to belt squat fine after an adjustment, but I've been feeling the hip pain a little since then. Squatting was a little uncomfortable so I stood a little more narrow than normal and kept a couple of reps left in the tank. Very happy my back is feeling better from last week and that it held out fine. 

 Stayed up very late on Saturday from hanging out with George until 3am watching Tomorrow Never Dies, Blood Omen 2 cutscenes, and playing Drakengard 3 (or what little of it we could until his controller issues became untenable). Didn't end up going to bed until 6am. Haven't done that in a very long time and it was a lot of fun. Blood Omen 2 had me dying, almost literally because laughing at it brought out the worst of my cough. I need to beat that one of these days; it's been 20 years since I played it on Gamecube.

Got set-up to squat the next day, not knowing if I was going to go through with it or not, and ended up cleaning the gym and garage. Practiced boxing instead: 1 round, 4 minutes of shadowboxing with 3 lb hand weights and 1 round, 4 minutes of heavy bag work. Went on a 45-minute walk afterwards.  

Bench press 

225 x 5

275 x 3

310 x 3

Incline Swiss bar bench press

175 x 10

190 x 8

205 x 6

175 x 11 -> Drop-down to 155 x 5

Super-set with lying dumbbell rows 

115s x 4 x 8

Banded tricep pressdowns 

10, 12

Super-set with seated hammer curls

50s x 8

35s x 10, 10

Feeling more recovered. Just have lingering congestion and the cough. The bench press top set came very smooth. Intentionally shorted myself of 315 by going with 310 to ensure success, but turns out I had more in me.

The rep scheme for the incline bench is a suggestion from Eric Bach: 10, 8, 6, and ending with 15 using the weight that was done with 10. 175 was too heavy for 15 reps at that point in the workout, but that's a cool sub quest to try and reach. The rep variety was very fun after doing 4 and 5 straight sets of 10 lately, which can get very boring (boring but big ala Wendler).

No training yesterday. Made myself rest. Will do belt squats today and possibly repetition effort goblet squats with the 50 lb kettlebell if my back agrees with that. 

Back is the same: injured, but not too bad. Can do life stuff fine, just can't load the spine too much right now. Sleeping doesn't hurt like with some nastier back injuries.

Not feeling too bad from illness anymore but cough has become quite bad, especially at night. Have been going to bed early to account for coughing time. Last night I'd find myself drifting off to sleep only to wake myself back up with a cough. Eventually fell asleep right at the mark where I'd get 8 hours, so I timed that well.

Being cozy makes me want to train. I'll be chilling in bed feeling sick with tea and the cat on me before my intrusive thoughts instruct me to ruin the moment and go sprint some hills. I'm glad I have that fire and it served me well on Tuesday when I didn't want to go to boxing at first.

 Swiss bar bench press

225 x 10, 10, 8, 8

Super-set with pull-ups

4 x 12

37-second chin-up

Wanted something dead simple and fast I could hit while sick. Was surprised at how light 225 was given that I got under 135 and noted that it felt oddly heavy.

Wanted to do a 1-min chin-up, but I was feeling pretty weak at this point - and I HAVE gained almost 10 pounds in total during this mass gain phase. Settled on 40, but my elbow started to hurt on the eccentric phase so I let myself drop down. Going up didn't produce any pain, though. 

Back is still in pain with limited function, but not nearly as bad as previous injuries. I can put on socks, get in and out of bed, and was able to load work equipment this morning without trouble. 

Very glad I ended up going to boxing yesterday. Usually I get home from work, spend 10 minutes lying down watching boxing videos on YouTube, and then I get up to prepare and leave. I started thinking about not going as I lay down in pain yesterday, comfortable with the cat sitting on my chest while watching a video about Sugar Ray Leonard, so I gave myself a minute of feeling like I didn't want to get up before I stopped thinking and simply did it. Made sure to grab my Cerberus soft belt on the way out.

Skipping rope was the hardest part, but not too bad. I made a point to raise my legs more gingerly and land a little more softly than usual so I felt slightly more tired than normal.

After 3 rounds of shadowboxing, we partnered up to trade various combos that we had to parry and block, eventually moving on to one of us getting mitts. Partner understood my back woes so I bobbed and ducked slower than normal. Finished with bagwork. Unfortunately I left my Cerberus belt there.

I did cancel today's class in advance, which typically has more ballistic conditioning workouts and ab exercises. 

 Suddenly tweaked my back twice today at the office! The first time was at my desk when I leaned forward and felt a small twinge. The second was at lunch when I bent further down, clearly not having learnt my lesson the first time, and felt a sharper pain that's now lingering with me. I went for a slow incline walk on the warehouse treadmill afterwards and lay down for 15 minutes for the remainder of my break, dozing off slightly. 

Not sure about boxing today. My instinct is to call it off, but it's a technical day and the easiest day of the week. Might be able to pull it off with my Cerberus soft belt for support. Will evaluate how I'm moving the remainder of my work day and go from there. It costs $15 to cancel a class if it's less than 24 hour notice, which is my only annoyance about this gym. Will definitely cancel tomorrow's class, though, which typically has a lot of conditioning.

 Felt sick and rundown, so last night I worked up to squatting 405x5 with the Yukon bar and called it there. Every rep felt awful, but equally so - the 5th was just as hard as the 1st and I could have kept cranking out reps, but knowing I haven't been sleeping great and with 2 days of boxing ahead of me, 5 was just the right amount.

Why back to the curved bar? Low bar squatting has been starting to hurt. My elbows are no longer feeling the strain, but lately I've been feeling discomfort on pressing exercises that feel like accumulative punishment from squats. Rotating different bars and bar placements is needed.

I am also going to bring back scheduled deloads. There have been countless times running 5/3/1 where I came back after a deload and marveled at how much better and stronger I felt.

 Neglected to mention that I got sick the day after Thanksgiving, and trained through that on Saturday for the press workout. Got set-up to do squats yesterday, went up to 290, and called it off based on how rundown I felt. Practiced some boxing in the living room instead.

Will see how I feel today after work. Throat is no longer sore, but am still sniffly. If heavy barbell squats still feel crummy, I'm thinking belt squats as the main work again.

Boxing will be only two days this week again. Class slots fill up incredibly fast. I need to register as soon as class selection becomes available (Saturdays at 4pm) so I can get in more days. I actually did so this weekend but hesitated because I felt sick and wasn't sure if I wanted to register for Monday. By the time I came back, a bunch of classes were full, including sparring. 

I'll be well prepared for sparring next time, though. For Black Friday, I bought new headgear and a groin guard from Phenom. I originally had my sights set on headgear from Winning, but what was around $350 in 2019 (when I logged about it) is now well over $600.