My right glute pulled up really sore after Sunday’s session, and (as usual) I went back to sleep instead of training early Tuesday, so I’ve had a few days off. But had a day off work today, no excuses. Plus I had a big cafe lunch.
Training Notes:
Bench went OK, pushed the last set pretty close to failure, wanted 8+ so 9 was good.
No glute pain from the spanish squats but didn’t have a lot of energy either so took these pretty easy. Also had a sore knee as usual.
Not much else to say about the back, biceps and abs – at least I didn’t make any notes, so they must have been pretty smooth.
High Bar Pause Squat:
8x20kg
8x20kg
6x60kg
6x80kg
6x80kg
6x80kg
2.5 minute rests
RDL To Floor:
8x70kg
8x110kg
8x110kg
8x110kg
2.5 minute rests
Low Incline Paused Dumbbell Bench:
12x50lb / hand
12x50lb / hand
12x50lb / hand
3 minute rests
Dumbbell Seal Row:
12x50lb / hand
12x50lb / hand
12x50lb / hand
2.5 minute rests
Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Afternoon session after a pretty lazy morning.
Training Notes:
First time barbell squatting in a while, so took these pretty easy. My right glute started to get a bit sore after the first set or two. Also really struggled to get my knee sleeves on, my legs can’t have got bigger so they must have shrunk.
RDLs were nice and easy. First set of bench felt pretty good for a change, although it got a bit challenging towards the end. First set of rows felt surprisingly hard given the weight, but I think that was just because the RDLs impacted it. Wasn’t too difficult by the end, just a bit shaky.
Hamstring Curl:
12x35kg
12x35kg
12x35kg
— Supersetted with — Dumbbell LTE:
12x35lb / hand
12x35lb / hand
12x35lb / hand
2.5 minute rests between supersets
Footage:Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Haven’t been training consistently at all over the last few months and at one point had about 3 weeks off. But I got 4 sessions in last week, this is only my second this week. Hopefully a fresh start – still managing a sore knee and hip, but at least my shoulder now seems to be up for normal benching, it’s only sketchy with overhead work.
Stayed in bed too long this morning and woke up with a throbbing headache, but I had a window to train so I took it anyway.
Training Notes:
Badly misgrooved the first rep of the double so it was kinda hard, my strength is down a fair bit as expected since I haven’t been benching heavy at all really. The back off work was fine. My head was throbbing.
Just trying to keep these lunges easy, they had me blowing though.
Ran out of energy and motivation for the lat pulldowns. Finished with some pretty easy hamstrings and triceps.
Deficit Push Up (Feet on Bench):
12xBW
12xBW
12xBW
— Supersetted with — EZ Bar Curl:
10×27.5kg
10×27.5kg
10×27.5kg @ 10
2.5 minute rests between supersets
Footage:Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Slept reasonably well last night, wasn’t rearing to go this morning, still got a slight cold and there’s a COVID case at the office so I’m paranoid, but gotta get out and do something.
Training Notes:
Decided to go for a heavier triple today (and aspirationally wanted more) – I got the triple but it was pretty hard. Did some solid back off sets of five, shoulder is still not 100% but it is feeling pretty decent at actual working weights.
Haven’t done snatch grip RDLs in a long time, kept these pretty light. I was blowing a bit by the end but they weren’t too bad.
Some push ups and curls to finish, just trying to get some easy chest volume in and pushed the curls to where they were close to failure at the end.
Got this done in 41 minutes, went and walked the dog, happy days.
Early start Monday for F1, was still knackered yesterday morning and went back to bed instead of lifting, couldn’t lift this morning because of an early meeting, but managed to knock off work a bit early and get a quick session in. I’ve got a bit of a cold and ain’t feeling very motivated.
Training Notes:
Didn’t get as much of a quad pump as last time with the spanish squats but managed to push the last set a bit harder – really focussing on trying to keep my shins vertical and sit back to take pressure off the knee.
Shoulder slightly tight with the dumbbell benching but happy to start pushing these a bit harder, the last set was a bit slow.
Did some v-grip lat pulldowns for a change, these started easy (as expected) but the last set was kinda hard.
Figured I’d better do some hamstrings so did dumbbell RDLs til I was getting a bit tired, then just threw in some easy ab volume to finish. 45 minutes all up.
Background Noise: JJJ Hottest 100 2011 then YouTube
Single Arm Dumbbell Clean and Press:
12x35lb
12x40lb
20x40lb
2.5 minute rests
Reverse Lunge:
12x30lb / hand
12x30lb / hand
12x30lb / hand
2 minute rests
Back Extension:
12xBW
12xBW
2 minutes rest
Treadmill Walk:
32 mins / 2.48km
Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Had a really lazy morning watching F1 on the couch and stuff, but decided to get out and do something cardio-like this afternoon.
Training Notes:
I like these clean and presses for a mix of strength and cardio, I started pretty light but 30lb was easy enough that I added a little weight, and 40lb was still quite easy so I pushed the third set out to 20 per arm. My shoulder isn’t quite 100% for overhead work, it felt a bit pinched at the top but no genuine discomfort.
Did some light reverse lunges after that, was blowing really hard after the second and third sets.
Chucked in some back extensions, but my back (and just generally) was feeling really smoked so I called it at two sets and jumped on the treadmill for a pretty lazy walk.
Slept pretty well last night, did some shopping and stuff this morning and then felt like I actually had pretty good energy for once. Maybe the reduction in caffeine and change in approach is starting to pay off.
Had a consult with the clinic yesterday to run through bloodwork and they suggested some more cardio to try and improve my cholesterol numbers. So this change in training is probably timely, although I’ve not been trying very hard with it. Need to fit in some actual structured cardio somewhere too, apparently walking isn’t cutting it.
Training Notes:
The rest has done me good – normally after the 70kg set my shoulder is tight and a bit sore from getting stretched out for the first time, but today was the best it’s ever felt since I hurt it. There was virtually zero tightness so I decided to do a somewhat heavy set of five today and then some lighter back offs. Picked this number based on feel but apparently it’s the most I’ve benched with the narrower grip. Aside from being a bit shaky, they all felt pretty solid, I even considered pushing the last set closer to an AMRAP but decided to quit while I was ahead. Did some lazy flys and called it.
Figured some trap bar deadlifts might be another way to get quad volume so banged out some reasonably easy sets of eight, my knee wasn’t loving them so I wasn’t excited about going any heavier than this.
I’d never done terminal knee extensions before but had a play with them today, had a pretty decent quad burn by the end so these seem like another good accessory that won’t upset dodgy hips and knees.
Wanted to do some back work after that and the trap bar was already loaded so trap bar rows it was. These felt heavier than they should have but were a decent way to finish.
Chin Up:
10xBW (rep PR; +1 rep)
3xBW
6xBW @ 7.5
90 seconds then about 70 seconds rest
Spanish Squat:
15xBW
15xBW+10kg
15xBW+10kg
15xBW+10kg
90 second rests
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press:
12x40lb / hand
12x40lb / hand
12x40lb / hand
2 minute rests
Back Extension:
20xBW
10xBW
2 minutes rest
Deficit Push Up w/Feet on Bench:
15xBW
15xBW
2 minutes rest
Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
I’ve been pretty lazy this week in terms of training. Actually thought I’d take the whole week off but woke up at 5am this morning and figured I’d do something even if it’s easy. I wasn’t really that interested and almost went back to bed….
Training Notes:
Apparently I’ve never done ten reps of chins before – got them pretty easy but they were hurting my right elbow. Tried a wider grip for the second set, wasn’t much better. Went with the angled grip for the third, it might’ve been better but I was losing the desire by then. Three sets was enough.
Grabbed a plate and loaded the Spanish Squats a bit, these were good, I had a fair quad burn by the end.
Went very light and easy with the dumbbell benching and didn’t even bother putting on elbow sleeves.
Intended the back extensions to be the end of it, but then threw in some push ups as an afterthought, these felt a heck of a lot better than the ones from the floor the other day, and didn’t bother my shoulder at all. Setting up at the right angle (ie not straight out to the sides) probably helps.
Seated Dumbbell Press:
12x30lb / hand
12x30lb / hand
12x30lb / hand
2 minute rests
Footage:Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Went out and played putt putt with the family yesterday and napped in the afternoon instead of training. Slept well but woke up too early because both hips were hurting, had pretty low energy today and didn’t care that much but wanted to at least do something.
Training Notes:
Hoping that these Spanish Squats might be helpful to get some quad work in and not hurt my knee/hips. I had a quad pump from these and quite liked them.
Did some eights for bench, these felt ok but I ran out of gas pretty quick.
Haven’t pulled out the landmine attachment for a while, these were pretty easy.
A bit of light pressing to finish, mild shoulder zaps started in the second set though. But I pushed on and didn’t feel any at all in the third so no idea what’s up with that.
Background Noise: Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
Body Weight Push Up:
4 reps
10 reps
10 reps
10 reps
10 reps
10 reps
— Supersetted with — Body Weight Squat:
15 reps
15 reps
15 reps
15 reps
15 reps
15 reps
No rest
Kettlebell Swing 2:
20x40lb
20x40lb
2 minutes rest probably, I didn’t note it
Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Decided I’m sick and tired of being sore and injured and my fitness is shithouse so I need to change things up – no heavy work for a while (or a lot less) and let’s get more conditioning work in. Also, more sleep and shorter workouts because I’m sick of being tired. Also, no coffee beforehand and no Monster during training, reducing caffeine will probably help. This was the first attempt at all that.
I was back at work today so had to get up early to do this after crappy sleep. Took some convincing myself just to do even this little session especially without a cappuccino beforehand.
Training Notes:
The push ups and squats were supposed to be AMRAP in ten minutes but I did six sets in 8.5 minutes and quit. Also my shoulder didn’t enjoy the push ups and was a bit sore to start which was why I only did four reps at the first attempt.
The kettlebell swings made me hate myself and realise how unfit I actually am, this should have been pretty light but I was cooked.
Lying Leg Extension:
10x65kg
10x65kg
10x65kg
— Supersetted with — Single Arm Dumbbell Bench:
12x45lb
12x45lb
12x45lb
2 minute rests between supersets
Reverse Fly:
12x30lb / hand
12x30lb / hand
12x30lb / hand
2 minute rests
Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Slept until almost 7am again seeing as I’m not at work this week. Mowed lawns in the morning, trained in the afternoon purely to take my mind off other stupid stuff.
Training Notes:
Hip wasn’t feeling too flash after the belt squats the other day so I decided no barbell squats for a while. The split squats still caused some discomfort at maybe 4/10 but were otherwise nice and easy.
The hamstring curls were intended to be pretty easy but the last rep of the third set felt pretty short.
Leg extensions at the same weight as last week, bench a bit lighter, my heart really wasn’t in it.
Nice light rear delt work, shoulder felt pretty good.
Dumbbell Seal Row:
10x70lb / hand
10x70lb / hand
10x70lb / hand
2 minute rests
Dumbbell Squeeze Press:
12x55lb / hand
12x55lb / hand
12x55lb / hand
2 minute rests
Dumbbell Upright Row:
10x55lb / hand
10x55lb / hand
10x55lb / hand @ 6
2 minute rests
Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Feeling pretty crappy lately and didn’t train yesterday. I’m on leave from work this week and normally this is a signal to my brain to train more but actually I think it should be the opposite and a chance to rest, especially since it’s school holidays. So I spent some time with the kiddo this morning including playing basketball at the park and got out for some lifting mid afternoon, after a nap.
Training Notes:
Bench felt pretty good, shoulder was a bit clicky but mostly painless. Pretty light weight though, and no top single today because I felt lazy. Actually considering golf last week and basketball this morning it’s been surprisingly good, maybe one day soon it will feel normal.
Went a bit heavier with the rows today, and got a bit challenging at the end.
Subbed in squeeze presses today, felt heavyish but not too bad, then finished with some upright rows using what was loaded, which also felt heavy.
Woke up with a headache yesterday morning which was still lingering in the afternoon and I decided to take a rest day. Woke up early this morning for the F1 sprint with a headache again and it still wasn’t gone by 12pm, but I decided to go out and just do something light otherwise I’d run out of time. So no heavy deadlifts today.
Training Notes:
Just did some dumbbell RDLs instead of deadlifts. I wasn’t blowing too badly by the end but my headache wasn’t any better.
Struggled through some squats, obviously I’m capable of much more but the harder I pushed the more my head throbbed. Just did a bunch of easy sets and had a bit more of a go with the last.
Was struggling a bit by the end of the benching, I contemplated one more set but called it.
Some nice easy cable crunches, and pushed the last two sets a bit harder. Still had a headache.
Hammer Curl w/Twist:
15x25lb / hand
15x25lb / hand
15x25lb / hand
2 minute rests
Footage:Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Got back from work trip on Wednesday night which included 18 holes of golf and not enough food or sleep, so I just wasn’t up for a 4:30am start yesterday. Took an extra day off the gym, didn’t get the lights out until 10pm last night but slept like the dead and got back into it this morning.
Training Notes:
Half expected to go light or skip lifts today but did everything pretty much as programmed. The 100kg bench set felt stupid heavy to start with but I found a groove with the back off sets eventually, was breathing a bit heavier than I’d like to be after easy sets of five though.
Little bit of easy work on the lat pulldowns too, got a little challenging towards the end.
Decided to do these lunges early instead of leaving them until last – I wasn’t awfully puffed but did have a quad burn by the end and didn’t enjoy these much.
Triceps pushdowns were meh, started easy, last set was about all I had. Was actually going to skip curls altogether but compromised and just took the weight that was already loaded for a few easy sets to finish the session.
RDL to Floor:
10x125kg
10x125kg
10x125kg
2 minute rests
Lying Leg Extension:
10x65kg
10x65kg
10x65kg
— Supersetted with — Single Arm Dumbbell Bench:
10x50lb / hand (PR; +2.5lb)
10x50lb / hand
10x50lb / hand
2 minute rests between supersets
Slept OK, actually could have got up earlier – but lay in bed for a while thinking about whether to get up and do this since I was going to be in the car for hours today travelling for work. Obviously I figured it was worth doing. But I’m only logging it now, three days later.
Training Notes:
Decided to start slowly bringing back squats without the box and today’s RX was a paused triple before box squats for back downs. All went OK, apart from feeling heavy and out of practice, and some weird left knee pain mid way through the work sets – it’s my right that’s stuffed so that was a bit unexpected. No ill effects afterwards though.
Kept the RDLs reasonably light, I was blowing a little at the end but nothing major.
I’d actually RX’d just two sets of leg extensions to save the aforementioned bad knee but went light enough to bang out three anyway. Didn’t make any notes about the benching so I guess there’s not much to say.
Some rows to finish which were pretty solid, pushing towards failure at the end.
Dumbbell Lateral Raise:
12x20lb / hand
12x20lb / hand
12x15lb / hand
2 minute rests
Footage:Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
I’d actually planned on training yesterday afternoon but after washing the car and other jobs in the morning I decided to have some downtime instead. Which meant getting up at stupid o’clock on a Monday morning after short, broken sleep because my body clock is still adjusting to the daylight savings change on the weekend, yay. But whatever, last session of a deload week so just get something done and maybe try a bit harder next time. Which might have to be another early session tomorrow if I can be bothered. Or not.
Swung a golf club for the first time in a few years yesterday too, since I’m supposed to be having a game on Wednesday. Right shoulder and right elbow didn’t like it much, but I might be OK if I swing at like 85% and below. Guess I’m unlikely to go back to playing regularly, which is a shame.
Training Notes:
Decent bit of benching – completely fluffed the unrack for the single but it stil moved OK and didn’t hurt at all. Then I went a bit heavier on the work sets than what I programmed, but they were still pretty easy. And I had programmed eights for the dumbbell sets but did tens without really approaching failure so that’s fine. Did rows with the same weight basically because I was too lazy to change plates and again found them pretty easy.
Some light triceps, and even at this weight my elbows were annoyed so I need to find something else for triceps in the next block.
Subbed in lateral raises to see how they felt, and had no shoulder zaps in the first set which was good. Very, very mild in the second, but enough to make me drop load. It’s improved a lot but still not there yet, I guess.
Back Extension:
15xBW+10kg
20xBW+10kg @ 7
2 minutes rest
Footage:Nutrition/Health/Life Stuff:
Got more than eight hours sleep last night but it was a bit patchy, the dog still expected to go for his walk at 6am and jumped all over us. And I woke up with a headache, and feeling kinda achy and old. But it’s grand final day so I got the housework done and got into the gym before 11am so I could get couch time this arvo.
Training Notes:
Did some deadlifts, glute felt fine so worked up to a single which was maybe RPE 6 if that and then did some fives which fell nicely in between ‘stupidly easy’ and ‘hard sets’. Every now and again if I move the wrong way I get reminded that I do still have a little tweak lurking there but just gotta manage it a while longer, I guess.
About a ten percent load drop on the belt squats I guess, these stretched my hip a little but didn’t push it very hard, even with a last set that got kinda challenging.
Dropped some weight off the dumbbell bench too and got some easy work in, shoulder was a bit tight to start with but fine after the first set.
Cable crunches were a bit lighter too, just kept banging out pretty easy sets as quick as I could, and pushed the last a bit further. Probably had a few more in me but I was starting to lose shape a bit and it’s supposed to be a lighter week so meh.
Did some back extensions as an afterthought again, with some extra weight this week. Apparently twenty is the best I’ve managed with ten kilos but it’s not the first time I’ve done it.
Was in bed way too late last night because herding cats I mean kids, and it was Ahsoka night. Work has also kinda sucked this week so I woke up feeling very underslept and unmotivated even for upper body stuff. But whatevs, it’s a deload, so I did it and didn’t even waste time videoing, so I let Google play what she wanted and didn’t have to worry about copyright.
Training Notes:
Even this light weight for bench felt kinda heavy today and had me puffing a bit. Moved alright though.
A few relatively easy sets of lat pulldowns, thought about a fourth but CBFed.
Changed up the triceps and biceps today, tried some LTEs with the dumbbells, my left elbow felt a bit janky even at this pretty light weight but they were otherwise not very hard. I kinda miss being able to get a decent triceps pump but I don’t seem to get that much any more.
Probably pushed the curls a little harder than a true deload week would indicate, but biceps are important (hah).
Too lazy to do reverse lunges with weight so I just walked around doing bodyweight lunges, got a bit of a burn and sweat going.
Done in 51 minutes. Got a couple more lighter sessions planned, and a couple of days of work travel next week which might interrupt things a bit too.
RDL to Floor:
8x70kg
12x110kg
12x110kg
12x110kg
2 minute rests
Lying Leg Extension:
12×57.5kg
12×57.5kg
12×57.5kg
— Supersetted with — Single Arm Dumbbell Bench Press:
12x45lb / hand
12x45lb / hand
12x45lb / hand
2 minute rests between supersets
Had a big fight with wife and daughter Sunday arvo, so not a great night at all and then a really busy / stressful day at work yesterday too, so even though I got to bed on time I’m putting last night’s crappy sleep down to all of that. Was glad I had this week down as a light week.
Training Notes:
Did some squats. Stretched my hip out a little, but not much. This was heavy enough to feel like work, but easy enough that it didn’t completely suck and I could have kept doing sets. Planning on fives this block, so it’ll get heavy soon enough.
Did a warmup set with the RDLs to see how that glute thing felt, but it felt fine today so I threw on a little more weight and did some nice easy twelves. Wasn’t even blowing that hard by the end. Might actually do pulls from the floor in the deadlift session later in the week.
Probably need to rotate these leg extensions out because my right knee is getting pretty sore again, but I like these easy single arm bench presses and they make such a nice superset. All straightforward light work, but still enough to get the quads burning a bit.
Finished with some rows, was actually a bit surprised to get twelves pretty easily and with no egregious cheating. All felt pretty good.