Training Log: Entry 3164

AM WORKOUT (0423 wake up via alarm)

**5/3/1 BUILDING THE MONOLITH** Week 1, Workout 3 

SUPERSET (pull-bench)

Trap bar lift (low handle)

5x135

5x295

5x345

3x5x385

Axle bench press

5xAxle

5x176

5x206

5x5x226

KB rows (1 min rests)

15x40kg

12x40kg

3x10x40kg

Poundstone curls

100xAxle

OFF CAMERA

10,8 Standing ab wheel

40x180 Reverse hyper

BREAKFAST

Very short walk on the ice (lots of slipping)

Notes:

* It is amazing how awful I am at low handle trap bar pulls (which are really just REAL trap bar pulls compared to high handle).  Built to hinge, not to squat, and this height is like a dead squat from the floor, with zero flex in the bar.  This was definitely the right call for this program, especially with me tacking on my mat pulls at the end of the week to re-groove my barbell pulls.

* Axle bench press wasn’t quite as smooth as what I hoped for on 3s week, but I’m sure a part of that is being pretty detrained from benching.  

* Remembered something Dan John said about rows: “try to pause with your thumb against your pec”.  It’s a good guideline for making sure you’re actually getting the benefit of the row.  Really tried to go VERY bodybuilder on these, because I’ve been slacking on rows and they build big backs.

* Pleased with myself for prioritizing abs and lower back with the little bit of freetime I had.  Got the whole required workout done in under an hour again, and this was one of the better ways I’ve gone about this one.  Still getting the main work done in one chunk and the assistance in another.

* It was too hazardous to do much walking today.  Tomorrow’s plan is a weighted vest walk, which may become a treadmill walk in turn.

* I continue to get leaner with the more fattier meat I eat as part of this feast.  At first, I considered it simply the magic of the famine and feast at work, but while listening to a Podcast this morning (The Road to Carnivore) I heard about a study that observed that, even in individuals that consumed carbohydrates, shifting their fat intake primarily to animal fats resulted in increased leanness.  It operated under a premise that having one’s own bodyfat in a heavily saturated state would result in less bodyfat total.  I’ll need to re-listen to that podcast so I can track down the study itself and see the exact wording/findings, but it was crazy for me to sit there and think “holy crap: THAT’S what is happening”.  It really seems to track with my experience.  I tend to LOSE leanness during the famine, and then, once I introduce the feast, the first few weeks are me getting leaner.  Also seems to make Jamie’s “Apex Predator Diet” make even more sense as well.

* I lost my Dojang Sparring champion title yesterday to my wife.  Wouldn’t have it any other way.  And at least I tooled the senior student prior to that moment.  I channeled my inner Andy Hug and nailed them with an axe-kick.

* It ended up being a good thing I had such a gigantic lunch yesterday, because I worked through dinner.  In truth, I really dig the approach of protein sparing modified fast through the day and one big meal.  Kinda a meathead approach to intermittent fasting.