Training Log: Entry 3652

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL GREY MAN Week 3, Workout …3?

MAIN CLUSTER

Axle bench press
5x3x246

(4) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
8+4+3x470

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

Lever belt squat
5x8x225

Dips/axle curl superset
4x8x80/81

ASSISTANCE

Reverse hyper/standing ab wheel superset
3x15x360/3x10

Chins between sets

Notes:

• Situation: Good night of sleep (we’ve finally figured out the puppy: we’re letting it share a crate with the other puppy, and that has pacified it significantly. No more 0200 wake ups) HOWEVER still spent the first part of the night with a stomach quite full of Brazilian BBQ. I was not quite “uncomfortably full”, but still very much “heavy digestion” mode, and, in turn, I’m feeling a little fatigued today. Alongside that, yesterday my hips were really aching when I stood for prolonged periods of time: the kind of pain I used to feel before I started Tactical Barbell. I’m feeling it a bit again post training, and I’m wearing compression shorts to help, but that is one of those signs of the beginning of the end. My elbows are also starting to ache again. The hips, I’m curious if sleeping on the floor for a few nights is the issue, or the sandbag workout, OR all the hip flexor stretching I’m doing as part of my PT. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. The elbows are a combination of low bar squats and sandbag work: I’m always stupid and do BOTH of those things at the same time. Need to get a little smarter.

• So all this said, my belt fit exceptionally tight today and I thought my deadlifts were going to be pretty awesome, but holy f*ck did they take a lot out of me. You can see the exhaustion and pain in the video. Once again: working miracles in that garage every single time I break it off the mats. I’m thinking next cycle will be time to reset the weight and try to beat some previous PRs. But I still got it done somehow someway. I do wonder if it would have been better without the aching hips. I still contemplate using my Spud break-in briefs, because they’re honestly pretty awesome. Biggest issue is the bar catches on them, which is why I wear the sweat pants to bypass my Cerberus shorts.

• Felt the elbows in the curls and the ab wheel, but the dips felt awesome, and I’m pleased with how I’m progressing on that.

• Carried a 213.5lb keg yesterday. Weighed 84.4kg this morning. I’m fasting through breakfast. Not out of martyrdom, not to punish myself for overeating at dinner yesterday: because I’m flat out not hungry. I’m still burping Brazilian BBQ, and it tastes more of blood than of meat due to what I imagine is an incredibly heavy iron content. I genuinely don’t want to think about food, and making my kid’s breakfast this morning made me slightly nauseous. Which I’d say, all-in-all, means I’m doing this whole “eat to gain” thing right. I’ve really been digging all the experiments with eating schedules, and, in truth, were it not for the family time aspect of it, I’d skip either breakfast or dinner and just do 1 meal a day. The trick is: you have to be capable of really putting it away at that one meal to pull it off. Which, as the Valkyrie remarked last night “I genuinely don’t know where you put that much food”

• We have Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s our 1 class of the week, due to schedule nuttiness. It’s Wildcard cardio night, so should get some manner of activity.

• Got the results of my X-ray back. Minor signs of arthritis in the knee, but nothing warranting PRP. I SHOULD be happy that I’m not as broken as I thought, but I liked the idea of some extra treatment. Next step would be to get an MRI to confirm a torn meniscus, but that’ll take some doing. In the interim, the PT is giving me relief. I’ll look into the celebrex I was prescribed, or the tumeric I was recommended, but I’d prefer neither.

• The numbering of the workouts is off for this week, as I’m not really sure what to consider yesterday to be.