Training Log: Entry 3815

AM WORKOUT (0630 natural wake up)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 5

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

Log clean and press away
2xLog
1x150
1x170
1x190
2x215

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

SSB front squat
5x8x225

Stone of Steel to platform
3x170

Power keg to platform
4x5x150

Notes:

• Day off work, so slept in and got this done first thing. Wasn't feeling as strong as I expected, but I've discovered my bodyweight is really trending down, and with the heat of this week beating me to hell (my RHR is staying in a consistently elevated state), I believe I'm seeing the effects of accumulated fatigue.

• In that regard, despite log feeling very explosive this week for rep work, it biffed on today's max, but I matched last week's effort. Strength not regressing while bodyweight drops is an interesting form of progress.

• Front squats were beating the hell out of me, but I'm hitting depth very smoothly, which I'm happy with.

• Thought the stones had a chance today, but by rep 2 it was getting slippery, and rep 3 failed due to that. Called in my audible with the keg, which is much easier to manage, and honestly should have some decent carryover to natural stones. I believe I will be using it on the way forward. Only real issue is that the powder coating on it tears the hell out of my skin. I may bring back the sweat pants. I ran into similar issues last summer with my Milo of Croton experiment.

• Tang Soo Do was a decent workout last night. Doing some tournament prep for worlds.

• Weighed in at 81.5kg. Absolutely lightest I've been on a Friday this whole training cycle. A half kilo difference from last week, and 1.7 kilo difference from the start of the cycle. I do have some intention of making up for this over this long holiday weekend, but in general I'm seeing positive indications of leaning out and feel like I'm putting myself in an excellent position to gain during the fall.

 Training Log: Entry 3814

AM WORKOUT (0430 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 4

16 chins
16 dips

"Prowler Sprints"

5 sprints with 90lbs loaded on high handles

16 chins
16 dips

Notes:

• Wasn't quite as on fire as last week. Went 38, 42, 40, 52, 60 seconds for respective sprints, with about 5 minutes rest between. Last 2 were far more endurance events than sprint efforts, but I never stopped moving, which was the primary goal.

• It's funny I did better last week, because my SI joint was in agony at this point, whereas presently it's just minorly annoying. Think I got ahead of it yesterday.

• Tang Soo Do last night was moderately active. We have a young student in the class that takes up a disproportionate amount of attention from our instructor, so we weren't able to really drill down, but we moved quite a bit for the 90 minutes.

• Weighed in at 81.9kg, which is the lightest I've weighed on a Thursday for the entire cycle, and by a significant margin. It's also the smallest increase I've seen on a 2 meal day after 2 1 meal days, also by a significant margin. Also noticed signs of leaning out yesterday. I feel like my body has "activated fat loss mode". But this could also be why the prowler was a struggle: less bodyweight to put behind it. But from the photos, it's clear I didn't restrict yesterday.

• 2 Jul is always a significant date for me. 26 years ago, at the age of 14, on this day, I made the decision to "turn the ship around" and change myself physically. I was 5'9, 176lbs, and wore a size 36 pants, with no appreciable strength or muscular development. Having very little to guide me, I just started eating 1/3 of what I was eating at the time and just full sending it with whatever exercises I knew. Since that time, I got as heavy as 217lbs and as light as 146lbs, and this morning I'm practically right back to where I started at 180lbs, yet completely differently physically transformed. At 14, I had been studying Tae Kwon Do for 5 years, working toward a black belt and funny enough I'm about 5 years deep into Tang Soo Do right now, doing the exact same thing. I've been "stronger" compared to where I am now, but I also made sacrifices to get there that I no longer feel the need to make. And these days I eat the way that 14 year old me always wanted to and never knew that I could. As I was walking between sets of prowler sprints today, I reflected on how 14 year old me would think that 40 year old me is pretty awesome, and that's really all I could have asked for at that age.

Training Log: Entry 3813

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 3

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press
3x8x160

SSB front squat
3x8x225

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

(2) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pull
14x405+chains

ASSISTANCE

Axle curls
2x8x101
6+2x101

Circuit (RH-HLR-BPA)

Reverse hyper
3x12x180

Hanging leg raise
3x10

Band pull aparts
3x25

Notes:

• I'm always able to talk myself into this day because it's just 3 sets of the secondary work, and just 1 big set of the main work. The little things.

• Log clean felt very powerful today. Really focusing on deadlifting the log, rather than rowing it, and then getting it high on the chest.

• Squats felt smooth after a few reps.

• I didn't push the deadlifts too hard. My SI joint on my LEFT side (atypical) was acting up all week after this workout last week, and was FINALLY feeling better for today. I felt find after the pulls, but then the reverse hypers seems to aggravate it. I cut out the ab wheel for similar reasons: I may need to rest the hypers for now. I don't think they're a bad movement, but I'm at an age where I'm noticing the impact of sticking with 1 movement for too long, and I'm wondering if I'm running into that here.

• The heat is absolutely slaughtering me. You can hear my heavy breathing through the workout, and I was checking my watch and my heart rate was consistently above 100 bpm, sometimes at 110, which doesn't seem too significant until you factor in my RHR is 42. We're supposed to get some relief. I'll see how stones are looking on Friday. We have the day off, so I may break up my training a bit that day.

• Tang Soo Do was moderately active last night, and I got some great one on one instruction on our new hyung. We arrived "late", which is to say, on time, so we didn't have as much extra time to drill hyungs like normal. With the heat, we still broke a big sweat.

• Weighed in at 81.6kg this morning: the lightest of the cycle so far. By .1kg compared to last week, but take all Ws: the system is working, and it's painless.

Training Log: Entry 3812

AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie's alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 2

16 chins
16 dips

"FOBBITS" on rower

• 2 minutes on rower

• 1 Naihanchi Cho Don

• Repeat for 20 minutes total

Notes:

• Slept incredibly well, didn't want to wake up, didn't care to do this workout, and walked away glad I did, which is how every Tuesday goes. Was really feeling gassed during the training, which I imagine is the heat coming into play.

• Focused on getting my stances deep and my hips turned during the hyung.

• Weighed in at 83.0kg. Only a .1kg drop from yesterday, but considering yesterday was post training where I could wring out my shirt and today there was minimal sweat because I was training in the AC, I'd say that bodes well. That's still a .8kg drop from last week's weigh in.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. With the heat wave, I imagine we're going to keep it a little light.

Training Log: Entry 3811

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 1

16 chins
16 dips

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

SSB Front Squat
2xBar
1x135
1x185
1x225
1x275
2x320

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
5x8x160

Stone of Steel to Platform
2x4x160
3x160

ASSISTANCE

Giant Set (SSB front rack hold, hanging leg raise, band pull apart)

SSB front rack hold
3x30 seconds x 320

Hanging leg raise
3x10

Band pull apart
3x25

Lateral raise dropset
30x10, 30x5, 30x2.5, 30xEmpty Hands

Notes:

• Slept really well last night, and, in turn, didn't want to get up. Funny enough, when it's hot out, I sleep better, because I have a small fan next to my bed on my nightstand that generates a wonderful white noise and cooling effect.

• On the topic of heat, it was the biggest variable to overcome today. Aside from the impact of accumulating fatigue, my Stone of Steel appeared to be sweating irrespective of it having even come in contact with me. Very first rep was slippery, and it went downhill from there. All plans of getting in sets of 8 went out the window, and it was soon becoming a safety risk. Made it for it with a bit more assistance work on the back end.

• Got a little chipshot PR on the front squat. Biggest variable is not blacking out.

• Log felt strong. Focused on not wasting energy on the clean.

• Got in all my sets of chins/dips last week at 3x16, 1x15. This is the start of the 4x16 week.

• Weighed 83.1kg this morning. I'm leaving my sweat in the weightroom, so there's a variable at play, but in general I seem to be trending down. With all the holidays and feasting opportunities, I've gone to 4 fasting days per week vs the originally intended 3, but it's painless fasting, so I'm ok with it.

Training Log: Entry 3810

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 1, Workout 5

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

Log clean and press away
2xLog
1x150
1x170
1x190
2x215 (hard fought failure on 3rd rep)

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

SSB front squat
5x10x210

Stone of steel to platform
5x5x160

Notes:

• Cut out the assistance work for the sake of time. Needed to get some errands done this morning.

• Wasted energy on the log clean. I was taking it slow due to my SI joint. A little more pop may have put me in a better place for that third rep, but progress has been VERY fast on the log, so I'm happy to take an extra week to really own 3 reps at 215.

• SSB front squats felt better than I deserved. Really appreciating finding depth on these.

• I was curious how the stone was going to go, but no significant issues there. These technique days are helpful. Still getting some slips with sweat, so I'm being diligent there.

• Weighed in at 82.0kg dead on. The extra fasting days are working their magic: I'm leaning out, seeing bodyweight drop, and not really feeling any significant fatigue or decline in performance. Biggest thing is staying on top of electrolytes.

Training Log: Entry 3809

AM WORKOUT (0430 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 1, Workout 4

"Prowler Sprints"

16 chins
16 dips

5 high handle prowler sprints w/90lbs loaded

16 chins
16 dips

Notes:

• Fantastic showing today. 2 38 second runs, 2 45 second runs and finished out at 54 seconds with some prowler flu: seems to be the benchmark of when to end the workout. I am seeing significant improvements on this session to session, and I'm also observing my conditioning improving in general. I'm back to being "tireless" in sparring at Tang Soo Do, whereas recently I was starting to feel myself fatigue in later rounds.

• I was incredibly pleased with this because I went to bed with my SI joint in a bad way. Just getting up from a seated position was agonizing. Sleep was restorative, and I could perform well. I'm still feeling some pain, but it's manageable. The stone work is what is aggravating it, so if need be I'll eliminate that tomorrow.

• Sparring was solid last night. Once again squared off against the Valkyrie in the final and then again after winning the redemption bracket. Really focusing on getting in movement.

• Weighed in at 82.4kg this morning. Past 2 days have been trending my lowest weigh ins so far: the extra fasting days seems to be having their intended impact. Nutrition is going to be a little "celebratory" these next few days/weeks with family and Independence day on the horizon.