Training Log: Entry 3678

AM WORKOUT (0500 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 2

“RESET 020s” (rower)

5 rounds of 20 seconds max effort and 2 minute rest

Notes:

• Back on the schedule, with conditioning day today. Definitely needed this, because I woke up sore as hell from yesterday. Great bit of recovery.

• Wasn’t able to push as hard as I did on Sunday, but it makes sense given the early morning vs later in the day.

• Weighed in at 86.0kg. Trying to finish out strong, although I’m sure a lot of salty pork last night is also a contributor.

• Knee is really doing awesome these days. Focusing on fixing my walking pattern has reduced a lot of residual knee pain.

• Props to the Valkyrie: she’s still doing awesome on the ABF, and in the past 2 days did 22 rounds EMOM of ABCs and 90 reps of the DKB clean and press.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s “Wildcard Cardio” week, so hopefully a decent workout.

 Training Log: Entry 3677

AM WORKOUT (0345 wake up via dog, snooze until 0355)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 2, Workout 1

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x10x270

Lever belt squat
4x10x205

Axle strict press from rack
2x10x128
9x128
8+3x128

(3) DB Incline bench
4x10x70s

Dips
3x17
13+4

ASSISTANCE

Standing ab wheel
3x10

Notes:

* Kiddo knocked on the door early this morning with the dog.  Contemplated shutting off the alarm so I could assist, but the Valkyrie insisted she had the situation, so I got up and got in the training.  Glad I did, because as much as it sucked, it would have sucked more to try to repeat last week.

* Squats felt the best they had in a LONG time.  Felt just like squats: no knee pain to work around.  It was still present, but it wasn't the sole focus, and I felt myself easily moving through the reps.  Lever belt squats to follow were great too.  It gave me time to focus on just how much the 1 minute rest times REALLY sucked.

* Pec still has some moments of tenderness, so I'm keeping away from weights on the dips and just getting a good pump with the reps.

* Did a 1:30 timed hold yesterday with the fat gripz.  Really coming along. 

* Weighed in at 85.3kg this morning.  Wonderful carbby meal last night of baked spaghetti and 5 of the Valkyrie's cookies with some raw honey.  With Christmas coming, she's in full bake mode, so I had 2 Halfling oatmeal sweet nibblers (from the DnD cookbook: they're amazing), a snickerdoodle, a sugar cookie and a peanut butter blossom (we make them with peanut butter cups instead of kissses and they're incredible).

 Training Log: Entry 3676

PM WORKOUT (1400)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 5

Reset 20s: Rower

5 rounds of max effort 20 seconds w/2 min rest

Notes:

• Didn’t know if I’d get this training in, but found time today. I was actually pretty delighted with my effort on this: made it through all 5 rounds with a hard effort.

• Followed it up with a 3 mile walk with the dog while wearing a 20.4lb tac carrier in 25 degree weather wearing a t-shirt. Was good to get some cold exposure.

• I noticed I was still limping the other day, and that my knee hurt. And I realized I wasn’t limping because my knee hurt: my knee hurt because I was limping. By all accounts, I’ve turned a corner, but I’ve been walking with a limp so long that I forgot my normal walking pattern. So I’ve been forcefully correcting my gait, and I focused on that specifically during the walk. Knee felt great as a result.

• Knee also managed to endure sitting for 2.5 hours yesterday watching a stage production. The physical therapy is really paying off, along with focusing on where I can reduce pain in my life (flat shoes in training, knee sleeve, in Tang Soo Do, etc).

 Training Log: Entry 3675

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 4

Chins (various grips)
4x12

DB rows
5x12x120

Axle curls
4x12x68

GHRs
4x12x50

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit ups
3x10

Reverse hyper/band pull apart superset circuit
3x15x360/3x50

Notes:

• I am sore as hell. First week of specificity does that. Training motivation was low, as a result, but knowing this was going to be an easier workout and that getting it done bought me a ticket to my weekend got me through.

• Chins felt great. No pec pain, major upper body pump. I really need to train them like this more often, vs just sneaking in volume through the workout.

• Went with an extra set of rows because I used the wrong weight last session and this would have been a repeat otherwise.

• Tang Soo Do had us doing a lot of breakfalls last night. Fairly active.

• Weighed in at 84.4kg this morning. Doing a date night with the Valkyrie: got a 16oz ribeye in my future. Need to finish out this year eating big.

 Training Log: Entry 3674

AM WORKOUT (0525 wake up, 0700 workout)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 3

SSB Squats
4x12x245

Lever belt squats
4x12x195

Notes:

• We got to bed late last night, and my plan was to take up with the Valkyrie’s alarm went off. She ended up not setting it, so we naturally got up at 0525. Chaos is, of course, the plan, and it worked out that my kiddo had a late start with school, so I did the usual breakfast routine and had a little extra time before I had to leave, so I squeezed in the hardest part of the workout, with a plan to follow up the rest when I get home from work.

• Because of the tight timeline, rests were kept to a strict 1 minute, which made this fantastically ridiculous. I DID take video, which I’ll cluge together when I do the rest of the workout, but sets of 12 with the SSB with 1 minute rest is just never a good time, especially when it’s 20lbs heavier than the last time. My belt was wondrously tight from eating before training, but let’s also applaud my ability to eat over 1lb of meat and 8 eggs with butter and liver and then go smash a bunch of squats.

• Knee is feeling good, given the circumstances. Wore the sleeve again at TSD and it’s a real gamechanger. On that note, final class of the week tonight. Still not very active, but getting some technique work in.

• Woke up at 84.3kg. Been a consistent decline all week. Also got in a 1:20 deadhang off the fat gripz. Been seeing my trend on this ticking up.

PM WORKOUT (1520)

Axle strict press
3x12x118
1x11+1x118

(3) Incline DB bench
4x12x65s

Dips
4x15

Notes:

• Finished up the rest of it.

• Everything felt strong. I’m sure a combination of having that meal in me and 2 cups of coffee through the day helped, but was really driving hard on the press.

• Felt my pecs in the incline, to include the buggy one, and got a real solid pump as well.

 Training Log: Entry 3673

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, rough night of sleep due to windstorms)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 2

(6) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
17+6+5x425

DB rows
4x12x120

Axle curls
4x12x66

GHR
4x12x45

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit ups
3x10

Reverse hyper
3x15x360

Band pull aparts
2x50

Notes:

• We had something like 50mph wind gusts all night. Shook the entire house. Made it hard to sleep. Second rough night of sleep in a row: I was nodding off at my kid’s choir performance last night. I legit tried to Tetris my schedule as hard as I could to NOT do this workout, but couldn’t figure out a way, so just sucked it up.

• It’s not on camera, but I actually tried to do a set of the mat pulls at work weight and couldn’t break the plates off the mats. Just bent the bar. Wondering if I have a small injury, as usually that will limit my power off the floor. I took a minute rest, sacked up and made it happen, and hit a ridiculous rep PR compared to the previous cycle, so I still got some good in me. 17 reps was a lot, but not my absolute limit: I’m trying to stop shy of failure to allow for some growth.

• 1 minute rest for the rows, GHRs and abs. Curls went 60-90-90.

• Wore a knee sleeve to Tang Soo Do last night and it was an absolute and total game changer. Zero knee pain, far more mobility and flexibility, to the point that my head instructor called me out at how much better my kicks were looking that day. He had no idea I had the support on: just thought I had turned a corner. Definitely making this a way forward. We also earned another set of stripes on our belt, so that was cool. Class tonight and tomorrow.

• Pec is a little tender after those dips and push ups in class. I may 86 the dips and stick with band pushdowns for the remainder of Specificity, or do some slingshot push ups.

• Despite that ridiculous feast last night, I was .1kg lighter today, at 84.7. On the subject of food, I’m kicking around an idea for my January phase of training where, on non-lifting days, I fast through breakfast, having either coffee or coffee mixed with protein powder and just settle on the evening meal. This would shake out to 2 days a week, minimum, with possibly a third on weekends. The Valkyrie likes to make us breakfast on weekend mornings, and I’m not one to turn that down, but she enjoys a break every once in a while, so there’s room for a third there. Considering my breakfast tends to be about 1400 calories, this would mean eliminating 2800 calories in the span of a week, assuming I don’t try to overcompensate on the evening meal. Biggest concern would be inadequate protein intake for the day, but given how much I eat in general I feel like that’s really a non-issue. Food for thought, pun deliciously intended.

 Training Log: Entry 3672

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, rough night of sleep)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 1

SSB Squat
4x12x225

Lever belt squat
4x12x180

Axle strict press from rack
3x12x108
1x11+1x108

(3) Incline DB bench
4x12x60s

Dips
1x8x55, +4BW
3x12xBW

ASSISTANCE

Standing ab wheel
3x10

Lateral raise dropset
35x10, 35x5, 35x2.5, 35xEmpty Hands

Notes:

• Finally back to the program. Hand was healed up enough.

• 1 minute rests on SSB squats for sets of 12 continues to just absolutely suck. Following it up with lever belt squats also sucks. For the press, I took 1 minute rest until the final set, which was 2 minutes. DB incline was 60-90-90 for rest, and dips was 1 minute.

• Knee felt ok. First set of squats sucked, but after that it got with the program.

• I didn’t even think about my pec on the first set of incline bench, and then thought “oh hey, I guess it’s healed”, but the dips showed me that it still isn’t 100%. No pain: just pulling. Playing it safe, but still getting in some solid training. In general, this was a solid workout. Specificity is marketed as pump and fluff, but when you cram it with compound lifts, it’s brutal.

• Weighed in at 85.8 yesterday and 84.8 this morning. Yesterday, it was like my body was shedding all of it’s water all day: weird post competition effect. Also got a 1:28 hang: new PR.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s one steps, so low activity. On that note, my general activity has dropped, since I no longer get in my lunch time walk. I have to get home and let the puppy out during that time, as the Valkyrie is no longer in a WFH situation. Just lends to this being a good time for gaining.