Training Log: Entry 3673

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, rough night of sleep due to windstorms)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 2

(6) Texas Deadlift Bar Mat Pulls
17+6+5x425

DB rows
4x12x120

Axle curls
4x12x66

GHR
4x12x45

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit ups
3x10

Reverse hyper
3x15x360

Band pull aparts
2x50

Notes:

• We had something like 50mph wind gusts all night. Shook the entire house. Made it hard to sleep. Second rough night of sleep in a row: I was nodding off at my kid’s choir performance last night. I legit tried to Tetris my schedule as hard as I could to NOT do this workout, but couldn’t figure out a way, so just sucked it up.

• It’s not on camera, but I actually tried to do a set of the mat pulls at work weight and couldn’t break the plates off the mats. Just bent the bar. Wondering if I have a small injury, as usually that will limit my power off the floor. I took a minute rest, sacked up and made it happen, and hit a ridiculous rep PR compared to the previous cycle, so I still got some good in me. 17 reps was a lot, but not my absolute limit: I’m trying to stop shy of failure to allow for some growth.

• 1 minute rest for the rows, GHRs and abs. Curls went 60-90-90.

• Wore a knee sleeve to Tang Soo Do last night and it was an absolute and total game changer. Zero knee pain, far more mobility and flexibility, to the point that my head instructor called me out at how much better my kicks were looking that day. He had no idea I had the support on: just thought I had turned a corner. Definitely making this a way forward. We also earned another set of stripes on our belt, so that was cool. Class tonight and tomorrow.

• Pec is a little tender after those dips and push ups in class. I may 86 the dips and stick with band pushdowns for the remainder of Specificity, or do some slingshot push ups.

• Despite that ridiculous feast last night, I was .1kg lighter today, at 84.7. On the subject of food, I’m kicking around an idea for my January phase of training where, on non-lifting days, I fast through breakfast, having either coffee or coffee mixed with protein powder and just settle on the evening meal. This would shake out to 2 days a week, minimum, with possibly a third on weekends. The Valkyrie likes to make us breakfast on weekend mornings, and I’m not one to turn that down, but she enjoys a break every once in a while, so there’s room for a third there. Considering my breakfast tends to be about 1400 calories, this would mean eliminating 2800 calories in the span of a week, assuming I don’t try to overcompensate on the evening meal. Biggest concern would be inadequate protein intake for the day, but given how much I eat in general I feel like that’s really a non-issue. Food for thought, pun deliciously intended.

 Training Log: Entry 3672

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, rough night of sleep)

TACTICAL BARBELL SPECIFICITY BRAVO Week 1, Workout 1

SSB Squat
4x12x225

Lever belt squat
4x12x180

Axle strict press from rack
3x12x108
1x11+1x108

(3) Incline DB bench
4x12x60s

Dips
1x8x55, +4BW
3x12xBW

ASSISTANCE

Standing ab wheel
3x10

Lateral raise dropset
35x10, 35x5, 35x2.5, 35xEmpty Hands

Notes:

• Finally back to the program. Hand was healed up enough.

• 1 minute rests on SSB squats for sets of 12 continues to just absolutely suck. Following it up with lever belt squats also sucks. For the press, I took 1 minute rest until the final set, which was 2 minutes. DB incline was 60-90-90 for rest, and dips was 1 minute.

• Knee felt ok. First set of squats sucked, but after that it got with the program.

• I didn’t even think about my pec on the first set of incline bench, and then thought “oh hey, I guess it’s healed”, but the dips showed me that it still isn’t 100%. No pain: just pulling. Playing it safe, but still getting in some solid training. In general, this was a solid workout. Specificity is marketed as pump and fluff, but when you cram it with compound lifts, it’s brutal.

• Weighed in at 85.8 yesterday and 84.8 this morning. Yesterday, it was like my body was shedding all of it’s water all day: weird post competition effect. Also got a 1:28 hang: new PR.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. It’s one steps, so low activity. On that note, my general activity has dropped, since I no longer get in my lunch time walk. I have to get home and let the puppy out during that time, as the Valkyrie is no longer in a WFH situation. Just lends to this being a good time for gaining.

 Training Log: Entry 3671

GRAPPLING UPDATE

No hardware today, but I got 1 win out of my 3 matches, and my first ever win by choke, bringing up the number of submissions I know to TWO.

First match

Second Match (win)

Final match

The fingers in my left hand are swollen, so I won’t type much, but I weighed in at 194.4lbs for a weight class of 195 wearing a full set of sweats with my phone, wallet and keys in my pocket and a belly full of a typical weekend breakfast, so suffice to say I was undersized. Yet this was the first one of these competitions out of the 4 I’ve done so far where I didn’t feel overpowered by the competition. I moved dudes where I wanted them to move and made them not like tying up with me, and in the second match in particular you can see me really imposing my will while standing. I actually wanted to slam the dude when I got his back, but he fell as a defense.

I tapped early to both armbars: live to fight another day. I have some swollen parts, and Specificity Bravo is going to be interesting tomorrow, but considering I came in still undergoing physical therapy for my dorked up right knee and 2 weeks post pec strain, I walked away without much to worry about.

I grappled the same guy for match 1 and 3, which kinda sucked, because dude definitely had me figured out. But props to him: he was the better dude out there. I’m pleased that I never panicked while on my back, but maybe a little more scrambling would have been good.

I met my goal of winning at least ONE match, and did so going up a weight class and 2 age categories below where I should have been. The guy in the second match came up to me later and went “F**k you’re jacked dude!”, which is also cool.

40 years old, I grapple once a year, and I can still give someone a bad time: that makes me happy.

 Training Log: Entry 3670

PM WORKOUT (1400)

Buffalo bar squat
31x225

Notes:

• Got up at 0400, got ready to train, and realized I just plain didn’t want to do it. Competition is on Sunday, it’s the final workout of the program, I’ve already done the weights before, and I don’t see how 1 workout could make me better, but it could definitely make me worse. So I went back to bed and slept until 0515. I got off work early today though, and decided to get in something. My white whale is 50 reps at 225, and I felt like going for it today. Using the tacky shirt got me to overcome the normal difficulty of the bar rolling down my back, and I got an incredible leg pump from this, but I was struggling with how tight the belt was, and on rep 31 I felt something wanting to come back up, so I racked it. It’s still there waiting for me: I just need to come in with a strategy.

• Happy with how the knee and hip held up through this. Curious to see how I feel come Sunday. I’m not smart.

• Woke up at 86.0kg. 3kg gained in 6 weeks: solid.

• Got in a 1:18 timed hold last night. I went without a metronome, and that worked better by NOT knowing how much time was passing.

 Training Log: Entry 3669

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL GREY MAN Cycle 2, Week 3, Workout 3

MAIN CLUSTER

Deadlifts
16x405 (+1 rep PR, hell yeah)

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

Lever belt squat
5x8x230

Behind the neck barbell press
4x8x105

Axle curls
4x8x81

ASSISTANCE

Reverse hyper/standing ab wheel superset

3x15x360/3x10

Band pull aparts
1x75

Notes:

• 16 reps of 405 is a +1 rep PR from last time I pulled this.

  

• In a fair bit of irony, I was listening to “Somewhat damaged” from NiN’s “Fragile” album, wearing my torn up “somewhat damaged” sweatpants that have the words “broken, bruised, forgotten, sore” written on them, and right before the very first rep of the deadlift, the lever on my belt broke. The bottom half of the latch snapped off, so it was only secured from the top. Which means I actually pulled this without the belt fully latched, which is really pretty awesome. I had some more in me, but with the grappling competition on Sunday, I didn’t want to blow myself completely out. Right now, my left hip flexor is calling me an idiot, so it wa a good call to not completely send it.

• You’ll see that the lever belt also had a small mechanical issue in the middle of the set, so the irony continued. But my knee felt awesome.

• Stuck with the BtN presses. My pec is feeling pretty good, but, in turn: why push it on the last week of the program? I’ll continue letting it rest and heal and see what I can do in Specificity. BtN presses rock anyway. Same reason I cut out benches at the start of the workout.

• I DID manage a keg carry of 238.5 last night, but immediately after I went to Tang Soo Do and noticed that my knee, which had felt awesome all day, was tight and uncooperative. I’m going to read the tea leaves here and just put the Milo experiment on continued hiatus. If I can get my right knee recovered, I’ll be able to do more damage in the long run compared to if I keep hammering it. Also got a 1 minute hold.

• Weighed in at 85.0kg this morning. Growing well.

• Tang Soo Do on the schedule for tonight.

 Training Log: Entry 3668

AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s Alarm)

TACTICAL BARBELL GREY MAN Cycle 2, Week 3, Workout 2

“ROW ROW ROW YOUR BLOAT”

20 minute recovery row

Notes:

• Ended up taking a total of 4 motrin yesterday, and as much as I didn’t want to, I think it was the right call, because my knee is feeling much better. Seriously felt like I had reset my rehab back to square one after yesterday. Zero issues on the rower, minus my hips feeling tight from sitting right after waking.

• Woke up at 84.7kg. I have until Thursday to decide my weight class/division for Sunday, and right now still no one else in my age/weight range, so unless that changes, I’ll be competing up a weight class and with the 30-35 year olds. Which, on the plus side, means zero worries about making weight.

• Tang Soo Do tonight. Weather is supposed to be warmer, so if my driveway has thawed I’ll take out the keg again.

• Valkyrie is going strong on ABF. She completed 15 ABCs on Sunday and 75 presses yesterday. She’s honestly outgrowing her bells, but we’re keeping it slow and steady for now.

 Training Log: Entry 3667

AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm, very good night of sleep)

TACTICAL BARBELL GREY MAN Cycle 2, Week 3, Workout 1

MAIN CLUSTER

Buffalo Bar Squat
4x3x360

Axle strict press from rack
4x3x172

SUPPLEMENTAL CLUSTER

Band pushdowns
4x21

DB rows
4x8x145

GHR
4x8x50

ASSISTANCE

GHR sit up
3x10

Reactive slingshot push ups
60

Notes:

• Felt awesome in the training today. Knee was feeling smooth and springy, and I was able to get to depth on the final 3 sets without a break in motion. Pec has just the slightest bit of discomfort in it, and with the potential competition this weekend, I saw no reason to put it at risk, so stuck with the push downs.

• Valkyrie put the flannel sheets on the bed last night with the colder weather here, and it went a long way toward improving sleep quality.

• Push ups at the end were to get a little work through the pec. Cut out chins because it caused a slight amount of agitation.

• Regrettably, I slipped on the ice on the way in to work and really torqued my healing knee. Thankfully, the rehab has been going well enough that I managed to recover, whereas before I’m pretty sure I would have needed medical attention. Still sucks. On that note, the keg carry experiment may be on hiatus until conditions improve. But I did carry a 237.5lb keg last night with a 1:12 fat grips hold.

• Weighed 84.7kg this morning. There’s no one in my weight/age group currently, so I may just compete up a class and not sweat making weight.