Training Log: Entry 3839

AM WORKOUT (0200 wake up via dog, then 0300 by thunder, then 0400 by alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO (Strength): Cycle 2, Week 1, Workout 2| New Window

18 chins
18 dips
30x90 reverse hypers

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
3x5x155

SSB Front Squat
3x5x220

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

(3) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
10x425+chains

ASSISTANCE

Axle curls
3x5x98

3 Giant set of 15x90 reverse hyper, 10 hanging leg raises and 25 band pull aparts

Lateral raise dropset

Notes:

• Day off work, but got up early anyway, with a pretty rough night of sleep to start. Heavy thunderstorms, crazy lightning flashes, real Ragnarok kinda stuff. Great setting for deads.

• Felt great coming into this workout despite all that. Back and hips have been in a good way. Now that the workout is done, my left hip is pissed at me, but no worse than usual post deads. I actually focused on bending my knees a little on the deadlift, which seemed to help. I’ll have to be more open to that in the future.

• Presses felt strong, and been focusing on cleaning from the stomach instead of the chest, which seems to be helping.

• This was a 1 rep improvement from last week on the pulls, which in itself was a 1 rep improvement from the week before. I think getting healthier is helping manifest strength.

• Weighed in at 81.0kg: same as yesterday. Been 3 consistent days in a row here. Tang Soo Do last night was pretty low energy last night, but still had physical testing requirements, so I’m getting in extra push ups and sit ups these days.

 Training Log: Entry 3838

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

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

18 Chins
18 Dips

"FOBBITS" on rower w/Niahanchi Cho Don

• 2 minutes on rower

• 1 Hyung

• Repeat for 20 minutes total time

Notes:

• Despite the tournament being over, I'm sticking with this workout for the sake of consistency through the cycle. Still just a solid 20 minutes of conditioning on a day where I get to sleep in and prep me for deads the next day. Which, on that note, I've made sure that, on the days I get more sleep, I take LONGER to get out of bed, given the past few times I ended up slipping a disk moving too quickly. In turn, my back is feeling awesome these days: would hardly believe how crippled I was last week.

• I was being more deliberate during the Hyungs, trying to take some feedback from my instructor and implement it. In turn, I had 1 minute less on the rower than usual as far as total time goes, but still made up the distance by increasing the intensity of the rowing.

• Been meaning to comment about this: this is the longest I've ever run daily chins AND strongman loading work without having my elbows feel like they're going to explode. Now, I'm not doing any squats with a bar on my back, which helps, but I think I've finally figured out the combo I need by increasing reps by just 1 per week, along with the fact I'm switching my grips on the chins. And I've achieved the goal I've been looking for of returning back to an "everyday" ability to hit 20 chins. Success there.

• On the topic of success: weighed 81.0kg this morning. I anticipated a slight increase, as last night's meal of very salty pork was a wonderful way to get some sodium and water in my body. On that note, my vascularity absolutely exploded at the end of the night with a combination of the carbs on Sunday and the sodium load for Monday. Looking over my notes, I started this training cycle at 85.0kg, and I'm in the 10th week now, so 4kg dropped over 9.5 weeks, no counting/tracking cals/macros, eating ribs, cookies and pizza on weekends, never being hungry and still getting stronger. Definitely found what works for me.

• Valkyrie and I got in a 3 mile walk last night after dinner, and tonight is Tang Soo Do. It's 1-step week, which tends to be lower energy, but we're still doing physical testing requirements. I also am taking tomorrow off, so I'll still get in my morning workout, but then the kiddo and I are doing our favorite Brazilian steakhouse for lunch, and then the next day is my penultimate fitness test.

 Training Log: Entry 3837

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

19 chins (1 too many)
18 dips
20x90 reverse hypers

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

SSB Front Squat
2xBar
1x135
1x185
1x225
1x275
2x325

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
5x5x155

Loads to platform: 1 min on/2 min rest

• Rounds 1 and 3: 7/8x135 Stone of Steel

• Rounds 2 and 4: 3x250lb Power Keg

• Round 5: 2x200lb sandbag

ASSISTANCE Giant Set

3 rounds of 30 second SSB front rack hold w/325lb, 10 hanging leg raises and 25 band pull aparts

Notes:

• Knowing I had a great family meal to fuel me through this was the sort of motivation I needed to get up and train this morning, as otherwise I was pretty ambivalent. I DID have a goal to finally get that third rep on the front squat, but on rep 2 I felt the world stop and heard my music skipping despite being an MP3, so I knew I was on borrowed consciousness and racked it. I'm STILL setting PRs because my bodyweight keeps dropped (more to follow on that).

• Log felt crisp today.

• I'm really digging what I've come up with for the loading event. Making the most of my garage set up. This definitely needs to get carried into the future.

• Body is feeling pretty solid. Get some twinges up and down the back here and there, but no longer in the "maybe I need to retire from the sport" zone.

• Weighed 80.7kg this morning. I am going to call this the lightest Monday weigh in, because though I DID weigh 80.0 2 weeks ago, that was post travel day weight. This was post family meal weigh in, which was spaghetti with meat sauce, 1.5 sourdough rolls, and 3 cookies/1 sourdough oatmeal cream pie, all with raw local honey. I'm going to do a more fleshed out write-up of the Roulette Diet, but I'm realizing that these green/0s days are honestly a crucial part of it.

• I am feeling that urge to "build" again. This time with fasting and leaning out has been good for that. The idea of eating well and recovering from hard training so I can grow is very appealing.

• Got all 7 days of 4x17 chins/dips last week.  This is the start of 18/3x17

Training Log: Entry 3836

AM WORKOUT (0620 natural wake up, 0930 workout)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 3, Week 3, Workout 5

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

Log clean and press
2xLog
1x150
1x170
1x200
1x220

SECONDARY MOVEMENT

SSB front squat
5x5x250

ASSISTANCE

2 Giant sets of 30 seconds 355 SSB front rack, 10 hanging leg raises and 25 band pull aparts

LUNCHTIME WORKOUT

1 hour Tang Soo Do Class

PM WORKOUT

5 rounds of 1 minute loads to platform

• Rounds 1 and 3: 7x135lb Stone of Steel

• Rounds 2 and 4: 3x245lb keg

• Round 5: 3x200lb sandbag

Notes:

• Full day today. I pushed my workout to Sat due to this week's schedule and decided to make it "progressive" by doing some of it in the AM and some in the PM. In between we had a make up TSD class which was a fairly solid workout.

• I'm not progressing on that log clean and press, but I AM maintaining on it, and with my bodyweight continuing to drop, that's a positive. The SSB front squats are feeling strong still.

• I REALLY like what I came up with for the loading, and think that can be a more permanent fixture. I get less beat up by varying the implement. OF course, it's also dependent on the garage not being too hot so that I CAN use the stone and not worry about it slipping, but at least I know the sandbag is viable as well. And I have a 150lber in my basement I can bring up sometime to really get in some variety.

• Being a masters athlete is waking up on Wed and thinking you may have to retire from the sport because your back hurts so much and then feeling awesome on Saturday. Can't explain it, but I'll take it. Pain is gone.

• No weigh in, since it's the weekend.

Training Log: Entry 3835

AM WORKOUT (0450 wake up via Valkyrie's alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 3, Week 3, Workout 4

17 chins
17 dips
30x90 reverse hyper

"ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT"

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• Leaning into the "easy conditioning week" finally, in no small part to that back tweak. Was able to sleep in WITHOUT crippling myself, so that's a big win. Still making sure to slowly exit the bed and just take my time when I get up. On that note, I felt a little electric jolt in my back once during the row and a few times just walking around the house, so I'm still not fully Humpty Dumptied together again, but in better shape than before.

• Got 4150m done in the 20 minutes, which is a good showing on this day.

• I'm still getting those daily chins and dips. The chins aren't really getting easier as I'd hoped, but I'm still able to do them, and the accumulation of volume is paying off. If I were to stop now at 4x17 daily, that is 68 per day, 476 per week, and 24,752 per year. But, since I'm increasing by 1 weekly, that number changes in a way that I'm sure there IS a method to calculate it, but I took stats rather than calculus in my undergrad, and I'm glad I did.

• Weighed 81.9kg this morning, which is stupid light for a Friday weigh in without a big workout. And given that all the coffee I am drinking this morning is rushing out of me, it looks like any weight I DID "gain" yesterday is water looking to exit. My kiddo is in their last week of summer next week and I took of Wed to take them out to Toy Story 5 followed by lunch at our favorite Brazilian steakhouse, so I've got some big eating in my future. And the next day I take a physical fitness test...so I'll have some good fuel for that too.

• Valkyrie and I were commenting on how physically exhausted we felt at Tang Soo Do last night. 3 nights in a row of slamming hyungs and physical testing requirements is starting to manifest. However, we also got our second stripe on our belt for our weapons form, we we're delighted for that.

Training Log: Entry 3834

AM WORKOUT (0300 Wake Up Via dog, then 0400 wake up via Alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

17 chins
17 dips
30x90 reverse hyper

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
3x5x175

SSB front squat
3x5x250

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

(4) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
9x425+chains

ASSISTANCE

Axle curls
3x5x116

Reverse hyper
15x90

Hanging leg raise
1x10

Band pull apart
1x25

Notes:

• Kiddo knocked on the door at 0300 because the puppy was having a bad night. I got up EXTREMELY slowly and purposefully to answer the door, and then did the same thing when my alarm went off this morning. Moved slowly through the morning, spent some extra time rolling out my glutes/lower back, and a slow war up (this is still my favorite thing to write. I think I'm going to make a blog post about it). At the start of the morning, I still wasn't excited about bending at the trunk, but by the end of the workout I was moving and feeling pain free again. It's like I knocked the disk back into place and compressed it to where it needed to be. Sometimes rest is the answer, and sometimes it's Steve Pulcinella's "Paleo rehab".

• Very first set of presses felt like Bambi on ice, but after that I was feeling secure and able to give it some output. Front squats are heavy enough to suck, but I can get through them.

• The mat pulls were the real W for today. Last week, I was so thrashed I had to pscyhe myself up for the war up with 335, and I ended up scrapping the topset. Today, I came in with no expectations: didn't even know if I COULD pull. All my sets leading up to the topset felt great, and when I got to the topset, it was my LEFT hip that was upset vs my right side, which in itself is a victory. I also got 1 rep more than I did at the start of the cycle, and absolutely COULD have done more: it just would have been really stupid given how I almost couldn't walk yesterday Took the reps, took the W, shut it down and moved on.

• The curls are high school levels of cheating. It's good to do that every once in a while.

• Tang Soo Do last night was a good workout. We got there early and drilled hyungs for about 20 solid minutes, did the physical testing requirements of 50 push ups, sit ups and jumping jacks, then drilled hyungs for the 90 minutes of class. Lots of movement.

• Which is probably why I weighed 80.3kg this morning. Won't lie: the scale flashed "79" before it settled at 80kg and I had a slight panic moment. In turn, the original plan was to fast again today, but decided I'm light and lean enough that I should have some breakfast after deadlifts.

Training Log: Entry 3833

AM WORKOUT (0510 Wake Up Via Valkyrie's Alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR Phase 2

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

17 chins
17 dips

Various reverse hypers, and work, twists and turns

17 chins
17 dips

Notes:

• This was SUPPOSED to be a 20 minute recovery row. I woke up, got out of bed, went to go pick up my socks off the floor, felt a slight twinge in my back, and then it was like someone shot me with a tranq dart, because I fell back on the bed in agony and couldn't figure up how to get back up. Once again: getting out of bed is a hazard. I'm actually noticing it's the days I sleep in that this keeps happening.

• Thankfully, one of the "nice" things about recurring injuries is you get good at figuring out how to treat them. This is a nerve issue: something is slipping out of place and pressing on it. So I hung from a chinning bar a lot and did a lot of twists and turns to knock whatever it is back into place, and once I was able to load the reverse hyper with some weight, that traction helped get things back into alignment as well. I went from thinking I needed to go to a hospital this morning to now just getting a little wincing pain if I bend over wrong: I'll take it. Sucks I missed out on rowing, but I decided this was going to be a light conditioning week AND that I was going to slide my schedule to the right, so I think Friday will be a rower workout.

• Another contributing factor: weighed in at 81.1kg this morning. Down a kilo from yesterday, second lightest Wed weigh in of the training block, and that's WITHOUT an hour workout ahead of time to generate more sweat. All of my worse injuries have happened when I was my leannest (ruptured ACL, torn bicep, and whatever the hell this is). It makes sense: less fluff to keep the body safe. I need to have some awareness here.

• Tang Soo Do was a decent workout last night. Got in some good hyung practice, and my back was able to move fine then. We have the 90 minute class tonight: I'll see how things go.