Training Log: Entry 3818

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

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

17 chins
17 dips

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
3x6x175

SSB front squat
3x6x245

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

Deadlift

12x405+chains

ASSISTANCE

Axle curls
3x6x108

Circuit
Bodyweight Reverse hyper-Hanging Leg Raise-Band pull apart
3x12/10/25

Lateral raise dropset

Notes:

• The big goal for today was to not blow up my hip/SI joint, and I succeeded. Cutting out reverse hypers at the end may have helped, and I discovered that wearing my strongman shorts to Tang Soo Do may have actually been making things worse, as they were restricting my movement and forcing me to move in planes that were causing hip pain. Yesterday I went without and my hips felt awesome.

• Missed the very first log clean: caught the lever of the belt. After that, felt strong, and front squats were good.

• Too much low back in the start of the pull today, which I imagine was me trying to protect the hip. I don't have a baseline to compare against with this pull against chains, but the effort was solid, and bodyweight keeps dropping as I do that.

• Was totally gassed at the end of this: seriously debated how much I wanted to do lateral raises.

• TSD was pretty low energy last night as far as class itself went, but we got a decent workout prior to start drilling Hyungs. Tonight is the 90 minute class, so may have some more intensity.

• Weighed in at 81.8kg this morning. Continuing my trend of being up .2 from last week.

Training Log: Entry 3817

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

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

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

17 chins
17 dips

FOBBITS on rower w/Naihanchi Chodon

• 2 minutes on rower

• 1 Niahanchi Chodon

• 20 minutes total

Notes:

• Each week I don't want to do this, and each week I'm glad I did. Feet are a little tender from walking so much yesterday in my broken down Bearfeet shoes. My skin is DARK too from all time out in the sun.

• Really focused on deep stances and getting my hips into the Hyung.

• Ended up at over 21k steps yesterday.

• Weighed in at 83.2kg. A .1kg drop from yesterday, and about .2kg over where I was last week (for both days). With the wonderful holiday weekend I had: I'm good with that.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. It's one-step week, which tends to be low energy, but if we get there on time we'll have 15 minutes to drill some hyungs.

Training Log: Entry 3816

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

OPERATION CORNHISTERKUR

TACTICAL BARBELL OPERATOR PRO Cycle 2, Week 3, Workout 1

PRIMARY MOVEMENT

SSB Front squat
3xBar
1x135
1x185
1x225
1x275
3x320 (+1 rep PR)

SECONDARY MOVEMENTS

Log clean and strict press away
5x6x175

Power Keg to platform
5x6x175

ASSISTANCE (circuit)

SSB front rack hold
3x30 seconds x 320

Hanging leg raise
3x10

Band pull apart
3x25

LUNCHTIME WORKOUT

12k step walk outside in the sun/nature

Notes:

• Day off work, but still got up early so I could see of the Valkyrie and get the kiddo ready for summer camp. Plus, I genuinely just hate training and want to get it done and over with. That having been said, I came into this feeling strong, and minus my left SI joint still being pissy, had a solid training session.

• Fought for that front squat. Happy I did. Press felt strong and I had some good cleans on it.

• Transitioning to the keg is the right move with the environment I'm working in, and given I'll be using more natural style stones for the competition, it might have better carryover anyway. Might even bring the sandbag in for a few reps, but the keg is easy to load up. Focused on getting the hips to pop.

• SI joint felt better on the hanging leg raises than usual. Good sign.

• Got in that walk around noontime. I have "lunchtime" there, but I'm fasting till my end of day meal today. Yesterday was the family meal: classic spaghetti with meat sauce with some sourdough rolls, and the Valkyrie experimented with some sourdough oatmeal cream pies for the 4th that were absolutely divine so much so that I had another one yesterday along with a slice of homemade cheesecake and some raw local honey.

• Which, despite a weekend of celebrating and that fantastic meal, I woke up at 83.3kg and am looking leaner than I have for a while. Things are moving in the right direction and the plan keeps working.

• Got in all 4 sets of 16 chins and dips last week. Started off this morning with 17 for chins and dips, and will finish out 3x16 for the rest of the day.

 

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.