Training Log: Entry 3040

AM WORKOUT (0405 wake up via alarm)

**JAMIE LEWIS’/PLAGUE OF STRENGTH’S “JUGGERYOKE” PROGRAM** Week 1, Day 1: Press and Front Squat

Log clean and push press away (2 min rest max)

9x3x150
1x5x150

BETWEEN SETS

Weighted chins/band pull aparts (odd sets chins, even sets pull aparts)

2x3x45
3x3x40

5x20 pulll aparts

Front squats to straps (2 min rest max)

9x3x185
6x185

20 band pull aparts between sets

Weighted dips/hanging leg raise superset

5x3x105
5xAMRAP w/10 lat shrugs at end of set

100 bodyweight squats off camera

Breakfast

Walk w/dog

Notes:

* I’ve officially ended Easy Strength early, so ya’ll can throw me in Dan John jail for failing to stick with the plan…except Chaos is the plan, so I win again!  That said, I really appreciated Easy Strength for what it was, and in today’s workout I was already seeing the benefit of my time with it.  My body was 100% recharged, ready to fire, feeling primed and strong AND I had a fairly good understanding of my abilities coming into this program.  I started this one on the lighter side, ala Jim Wendler’s constant recommendations for his own programs, and will have some room to grow into it (hey, Stuart McRobert has said that too…and John McCallum…and Randall Strossen).

* Zero blackout issues on the log.  Wonder if I had the right combination of carbs and food in my weekly carb-up leading up to this.  In that regard, I woke up looking like I was carved out of marble this morning.  “Trust the process” is SO hard, but it works, because all day yesterday I was absolutely completely and totally flat.  I was as far removed from carbs as I get AND dealing with that minor stomach bug through the week, and it showed.  But that’s what’s pretty cool about being this lean AND having such a limited diet: I’m super in-tune with my body now, and I can visible observe the effects of decisions and internal processes.  This is the third time I’ve noted that, when I’m experiencing some sort of illness, my body holds onto water/fluid.  My abs become bleary and my vascularity reduces.  A sign of health, in turn, is when these things return.  I have to caution myself, in turn, not to read incorrectly into these signs and instead continue to learn FURTHER into the plan.  If I decide to panic and start slashing calories and dietary fat to “course correct”, I’ll deprive myself of the very nutrition I need to recover.  If I decide to skip the carb-up because I’m “getting soft”, I won’t be able to actually make use of the metabolic reset or ketogentic cycling that has been so successful.   Trust the plan.

* In THAT regard, I am happy I threw out my artificial flavors.  I was going right down a bad path again.  Bought a Walden’s Farm Peanut Butter spread and Maple Walnut syrup, and was using them to add a flavor/texture to my egg whites, since I was rationing my protein powder.  The ingredients reads like science fiction, and I was moving away from one of the core things I’ve been saying this whole time: meat and eggs are delicious.  And they really are.   They need no apology.  Meanwhile, putting that junk in my guts and body wasn’t going to do me any favors.

* Ok, back to the training: getting this knocked out in an hour is solid.  I’m happy I was able to carry the lessons I’ve learned from Feast and Famine into this.  Unique to this one is Jamie explicitly says a belt will NOT be worn through this training…so I won’t.  No, the strongman belt doesn’t count: don’t be stupid.  That simply keeps the log from slipping on my stomach during the clean.  I also took my front squat stance in compared to previous iterations. On final sets I pushed max reps to give me an idea of how much room I had to grow over the course of the program.  The band pull aparts are NOT a part of the program, but I’m doing them because I can’t just rest for 2 minutes AND I haven’t done a fair volume of them in a while, so it’s time to bring them back.  They should totally fit within the realm of “Juggeryoke”, and continue to build up the base of my yoke.

* Love that this program includes lat shrugs.  I gotta crack open my shrug book again and see what Paul had to say about them while hanging from a bar.

* I’m excited to train.  That’s a good thing.  Going to keep up the 300 push ups and squats, and Jamie prescribes more mandatory walking with this program like previous ones, so that’s going to stay as well.  I’ll be deviating by using the trap bar a fair amount here, since I have a max trap bar pull coming up and it’d be good to get familiar with that implement.  I’ll make a few other changes as well, but ultimately I picked this program because it was very different from Easy Strength and will force me to do things I won’t normally do, which is how we grow.  It also times well with my current nutrition being “feast”, of which I plan to take full advantage.