Training Log: Entry 1931

Weighted chins 55lbs
23 reps

Notes: Felt light and easy today. Just sticking with the plan of gradual progression, but I had some more in me.


Swiss bar floor press 275
10 reps

Notes: Hate unracking the swiss bar, wish they built it with rotating sleeves. Elbows pretty pissed off. Still, this was a heavier effort than last week, coming back into full form with this routine. Paused every rep at the bottom.


Shoulder circuit
3 rounds


Close grip swiss bar bench 245
12 reps

Notes: This felt a little easier on the elbows. It's "tricep" work, but it hammered the chest pretty decent, which was my intention.


DB rows
Sets in between everything x 3
1x28


General notes: Woke up at 191.4. Didn't have a huge rebound from my cheat meal, which is nice. Feeling a little beat up from all the non-lifting work I've been doing (cleaning garage, modifying lat pulldown, went to the beach yesterday and ran around a bunch). Not logging all the warm-ups I'm performing for my main work, but it's how I'm trying to get in a little more volume.

Non training log entry:

Did a really cool DIY project on my lat pulldown to make it more viable and wanted to share.

Previous issues with lat pulldown:

-Too low.  Even at only 5'9, with my long arms, I wasn't getting a decent stretch of my lats at the top of the rep.  I'd have to start each lat pulldown with a bent arm.

-No leg catch.  This was one of those "all in one" type of machines, so it was meant for pulldowns and rows, along with curls and other stuff.  This meant that I couldn't really use any heavy weight for pulldowns.

Solutions to problems:

Put the lat pulldown up on cement blocks.  Doing this easily solved the "too low" problem, as now I could get a good stretch.  This had an added bonus of allowing me to use the "foot plates" that were intended as a place to put my feet for rows as a leg catch.

However, as you can tell in the above photo, there was now a hitch running into a sensitive part of my anatomy.  That was originally designed to hook a bench into the machine, but I uninstalled the bench previously and was instead sitting on my Ironmind 5 star bench.  This wasn't an issue before when the pulldown was low, but now that it was elevated, it needed fixing.  Enter: the hacksaw.

Yes, I used a hacksaw.  I am cheap and crazy.  

And dedicated.

Now that this was sawned off, I wanted to really go the full 9 with this thing.  I could use the feet plates as is, but I wanted to make this a bad ass lat pulldown, so I decided to pad the feet using a pool noodle.  Pretty much my go to for cheap padding.

And then, of course, gorilla tape.

Just like with my log, wanted to seal the foam from the elements/sweat/wear and tear.  

Above you can see the finished product.  Up on blocks, sawn off, and feet plates padded/taped.  You'll also note that there are some 25lb plates weighing the apparatus down, keeping it on the blocks and preventing it from moving around in use.

And in use.  You can see my legs trapped under the padded feet plates.  

Here's to more fun in the future.

Training Log: Entry 1930

(4) Mat Pulls 600+chains
13 reps total

(4) 495+chains
1x3 deadstop


Notes: Wasn't really firing on all cylinders today. Left 2 reps on the 600lb set. Could've had them if I fought for it, but a voice in my head told me it was a bad idea. Managed this with 3 pick ups. 7,3,3. Still, progress from last week in terms of reps. If I can hold 7 strong, I'll be happy.


Rolling thunder 90lbs
80 seconds

Notes: Figured I might as well break this thing out since I got it. It's a nice change of pace for grip training. Probably keep it in the rotation. Will go heavier next time, just wanted to see what it was like.


Squats 410
1x8
1x4
1x2
1x1

stripset 320
1x8


Notes: 15 breaths between all sets, to include strip set. Intended to chase this further, but I was done at this.


General notes: Woke up at 190.8. I'm reaching my limit for sure, every session is a fight, I'm in zombie mode, and all I can think about is food. After I get my bodyfat measured, I'm going to have to soul search a bit to see how I want to handle my future nutrition. I do know that, if I choose to put on weight, I'm not going to go batshit crazy and will instead take it gradual, applying the lessons I learned from this experience.

Cheat meal today was 2 BBQ beef ribs and the biggest baked potato I have ever seen in my life with full on butter, sour cream and chives. Also finished off my wife's cobb salad on top of that. Wanted a "cleaner" cheat, getting burnt out eating junk.

Training Log: Entry 1929

Finished the day with

Pull ups
1x30

Dips
1x68

Band pull aparts
1x136


Notes: Haven't been logging it, but everyday I've been hitting 100 chin ups in some variety, a max set of dips, and double the amount of reps for band pull aparts.  This is what this week finished out at.

And now a photo that, unlike those last ones, is sure to appeal to my female viewers: a clean garage.  Had the day off work and decided to do some re-organizing.  Had a lot of wasted space in the old set-up and my wife's car door kept hitting the reverse hyper since it was in the middle of the floor.  If I could get some small enough hitch pins I could actually break down the yoke and store it in a corner to take up even less space, but I'm still really pleased with the footprint left behind now.  Room for more toys.

As a result of spending the afternoon moving all this equipment around, my back is pretty fried, so I called the pull ups at one set.

Training Log: Entry 1928

And now a very special update.

Early AM training

Death medley
400' total

Notes: Just going to explain this.

-Start with a 100lb keg and 205lb sandbag at starting line.
-Run keg 50'
-Run back to sandbag, clean from floor 3 times
-Run back to keg
-Run keg back to start, clean and press keg twice
-Run keg 50'
-Run back to sandbag, clean from floor once
-Run back to keg
-Run keg back to start
-Dry heave


Only took one of those to fry me out. Did an abbreviated one afterwards, where I ran the keg, ran back to sandbag, cleaned it once, ran back to keg, ran keg back to start. After that, I was done.


LATER AM TRAINING

Yoke 500lbs
2x100' (50' with turn)
2x50'


Notes: Hit this about 3.5 hours later. Don't think it was enough time to rest. Only thing moving fast was my heart. Might still keep this 2 a day events thing going, but think I gotta start eating more.



General notes: Woke up at 191.0, so clearly my prediction on weight was wrong. Feeling good, although my right lat is a little pissed off. Had some time to shoot some photos. I don't have any magical lights in my house, so shadows are non-existant and my camera is blurry, so these are outstanding baseline shots with no trick photography. That said, soon as I can find some magic lights, I'm going to myspace angle the crap out of myself.


Getting bodyfat% measured on Wed, so I can attach a number to the image, and then after that I'm thinking of changing things up nutritionally now that I'll have some numbers to play with.

Training Log: Entry 1927


Axle Clean and Press (clean once)
7x223
4x223
6x148 (strict)

Notes: Regressed slightly. Blame it on being sick. Couldn't keep my breath at the top. Leg drive was better than last week, much less locking out required. Might drop the weight 5lbs next time around, as I'm not really hitting the reps I'd like for a "rep day".


DB incline press 105
(5)1x7
(4)1x8
(3)1x7
(2)1x7
(1)1x7


superset w/

D-ring lat pulldown/kelso shrug combo 90lbs
5x10/10


Notes: Some progress on the DB press from last week at least. Still liking this approach. Was able to keep a greater degree of incline on the first set by jacking the seat up one more notch.


DB curl dropset
1x25x25lbs hammer curl
1x15x20lbs curl
1x10x15lbs hammer curl
1x10x10lbs curl


Notes: Short on time, so did this with the power blocks. Amazing pump, might keep this rotating with the axle.


General Notes: Woke up at 193.6. Think weight is screwy from being sick, not going to get too spun up about it. Starting to think diet is affecting my training too significantly, not really seeing the progress I'd like. Getting my bodyfat measured next week, and after that I may start slowly introducing more protein back into my diet to see if I can put on some quality weight and get my strength moving up again. On the mend with my cold, still dealing with some symptoms, but not needing as much medication.

Training Log: Entry 1926



(13) Chain Suspended SSB Squats
4x425+chains
6x365+chains


Notes: Had some more in me for that first set, but misgroved the concentric on the 5th rep and dumped the bar forward.  Cold is sapping my cardio a touch, think I'll see some more reps when I'm healthy.  Took the belt in a notch and it worked better.  It's not sitting where I like on my hips, but it's much tighter on my core, giving me a stronger brace.



GHR sit ups w/25lbs
3x8



Car deadlift simulator 8 plates
1x12


Notes: Very pleased.  2 rep PR, and considering last week I could only hit 2 reps, this is a great comeback.  Might be a sign it's time to swap movements, or maybe it's because I finally got the belt tight enough.  If my life had depended on it, I could've gotten a few more reps, but this took a lot out of me, so now back off set.



Reverse hyper 50lbs
3 minutes

Notes: Decided to sack up and try again.  Still can't get the full 3 minutes without rest pausing, but this was better than last time.  Think I'll go with the alternating approach, as going heavy definitely seems to improve my static strength, but I think this timed work will carry over into some endurance and pain tolerance.  X-factor honestly seems to be being able to hold myself up on the bench for this long.  Upper body fatiguing quite a bit.





General notes: Work up at 192.4.  Been drinking tons of fluids due to a scratchy throat, but nothing caloric.