Training Log: Entry 3174

AM WORKOUT (0505 wake up via alarm, kid didn’t need to get dropped off today so I slept in)

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

SUPERSET (Press-squat)

Axle clean and strict press away

5x128

5x148

5x163 (continental)

13x128

Buffalo Bar Squat

5xBar

5x135

5x245

5x275

SUPERSET (Squat-BPA)

Buffalo bar Squat

5x5x305

BPA

5x20

Chins and Dips

100/200 total, started w/10 and 20, then did rounds of 2-3-5/4-6-10 until I got to 50, then rounds of 2-3/4-6 until 100/200

End of required work: in 48 minutes

EXTRA WORK

3x10 Standing ab wheel

55x180 reverse hyper

2 minutes of lateral raises w/2.5lb plates (60 reps total)

Notes:

* I re-pinched that nerve in my chest on Saturday morning, and was in a decent amount of agony through the week.  Putting on a shirt required some thinking.  I came into this workout curious about my abilities, but found my strength was REALLY present and ready to go.  I attribute this to a few factors.  One being that Jim is much smarter than me, and putting that lighter week between week 1 and 3 is a great way to ramp me up for this heavy work.  The other being that I had a fantastic carb up meal the night before of a pasta casserole dish with some homemade sourdough and chocolate chip cookies with some local honey.  I managed to not eat like a total a-hole in the presence of such delicious and soul enriching food, but definitely ate the amount I needed based on the intense carb sweats I had within the hour.  Yet again, I will pay myself on the back for the choices being made here: eating what we make in the home instead of grabbing some garbage from outside.  We found this baller single ingredient pasta as the base, use a sauce with no sugar added, some great cheese from Trader Joes (I get grassfed whenever possible), grasssfed sour cream and low ingredient sweet Italian pork sausage.  When the meal is done, despite being so alien to me, I feel fantastic, because I’m not trying to digest a bunch of science experiments on top of a bunch of carbs.

* Ok, enough about food, let’s actually talk training: I am delighted at how the squats went.  275 felt heavy last week, yet on the first set of 305 I knew I had this in the bag.  I even kept rests to about a minute.  

* Great pump from the dips and chins.

* Proud of what I am prioritizing on that extra work.  That reverse hyper has a conditioning element to it when the reps get high enough.

* Mrs commented on how big I’m looking these days.  I’m noticing it too.  I’m filling out t-shirts that were hanging loose on me.  Starting to take on my old form.  My abs are getting blurry, but still present, and I do imagine a fair amount of that is just holding onto some more fluid/food mass, but also an element of “softening up” ala John McCallum.  Reducing my lifting down to 3x a week has been the absolute right move.  It’s so funny how this cyclical stuff can be so organic.  When time allows, we train more often, push very hard, and come to a point of breaking.  Then we ease off the throttle, make use of all that built up volume, coast and GROW.  This was how Stuart McRobert was able to make a name with abbreviated training after people had been riding the volume train for so long.  Mark Rippetoe pulled the same trick.  And I suppose, really, Arthur Jones with HIT.  

* Had to cut out the walk this morning because of some work demands.  Also why I like my current approach: I have the dedicated conditioning days.  I’m contemplating breaking out the prowler or sled tomorrow, since our weather is getting better.