Week of 1/17/20

My wife and I welcomed our daughter, Miss Finleigh Rae into the world on Monday, January 13th. She was in the hospital until Thursday afternoon and I didn't train while we were at the birth center. I was needed elsewhere and taking a few days off from the gym probably wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, I just feel like I haven't had any solid or consistent training since the end of December.

I did train on Sunday 1/12 and completed the following:

Bench Press up to a hard set of 4 

45-135-225-255-275-295 for 5's.

305-315-335-350 for 4's.  I am happy with the set of 4 at 350, it moved well enough and it was stable with good speed.

Close grip 9-8-7 @ 315lbs then 225 for 28 reps. 

I should've hit 315 for 10 on my first set but I took too long between reps 7 and 8 and stalled out after 9. 

bent rows 5x8 @ 185lbs 

50 chin to ceiling crunches unbroken

100 band pull aparts 4x25

Nutrition has not been well tracked due to eating hospital food at odd times over the past week. I tried to hydrate well and control what I could control outside of that (making the best food choices I could, etc) but I feel like everyone wants to bring you the most tantalizing comfort foods they drop off meals when you get home, etc. I will be back on track as soon as possible and document training/nutrition moving forward with the chaos of a toddler and a newborn at the house. 

Update 1/10/2020

This past week of training has been up in the air. I started getting sick last Sunday (1/5) and I spent the early part of this week feverish, chills, and throwing up. I have been on just about every over the counter remedy known to mankind and I am finally on the mend. I did manage to get some training in despite being sick but it did not go well.

1/6/2020 - Happy Birthday to me!
Push Press/Push Jerk 2.2 x 5 sets; 3 mins rest
Warmup: 45-95-135-185 x 2.2
Work sets: 205-225-245-255-265 (dropped 265 from overhead onto my catch pins on my second push jerk) dropped to 245 and hit 2.2 with ease.
Inverted row (BB) 5 x AMRAP 12-12-10-10-11
(GHD & Dips for 10-1 descending ladder, but I had to scale it to heavy hamstring curls with a band and pushups to the barbell.)
Hamstring Curls SS Barbell pushups 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1; 8 breaths exactly between movements.
100 chin up crunches for time: 3:00 minutes even

This workout wouldn't have been as challenging if I had any energy whatsoever. But I got in and got the work done.

1/8/2020 - The apex point of my sickness hit on this day.
Today's workout was scaled from:
5 Rounds @ full effort
25 unbroken wallballs - 20#/12# to 10 ft
20 Hang Power Clean - 105#/80#
15 KBS - 2/1.5pd 70lb/53lb
Rest 2:30 b/t sets exactly

As I type this out, I realize that I totally messed up Wednesday's workout because I did 3 rounds straight through in 7:30 *facepalm* I was supposed to rest 2:30 between sets and that would have made more rounds possible and maybe I would not have felt as if I was going to pass out in my garage...
My training:
3 Rounds for time 7:30
25 goblet squats @ 25lb
20 HPC @ 95#
15 KBS @ 55#

1/10/2020 - Work up to a 3RM on front squat, & a 2RM on snatches in 60 minutes.
Front Squat - 45-135 for 5's, 225-275-315-365-385 for 3's. 385 for a PR and the most I've ever unracked on a front squat.
Hang snatch (I was standing on my deadlift platform and there are garage door brackets overhead so I was afraid to do snatches from the floor. I definitely need some oly lift technique work, these were ugly.)
45-95-115-135-155
50 unbroken chin to ceiling crunches.

Two a Day 1-3-2020

Clayton and I started the OPT CrossFit Programming he did “back in the day” to work on our work capacity, skill development, and functional strength alongside our big 3 training.

Day 1 OPT: AM session 6:30AM start time

Warm up, moved around, pulled 135 for a couple sets of 5. Got the jump rope out and stared at it with a twinge if fearful anticipation. 

3 rounds for time 

21 deadlift @ 185# 

50 jump rope skips (SU’s) 

Aux:

3 x 10 heavy lat pulls 

3x10 GHD 

8:00 Minutes even. Clayton finished his barely under 6:00 for a PR. I was doing well and cruised through round 1 in just over a minute and the jump rope went way better than expected. Round 2 I made it to 15 deadlifts and had to set the bar down to stand up and breathe for a couple breaths, finished out my last 6 and the jump rope was slowed down quite a bit. Tied in to the bar for round 3 and made it to 11 deadlifts before I had to set it down (hamstrings/hips/lungs were on fire 💀) finished the last 10 and attacked the jump rope and hit the wall pretty hard. I could make it through 3-5 skips before it felt like my feet wouldn’t cooperate and I kept missing skips. After my final round I stopped the timer as it clicked over the 8:00 even mark and laid on the floor for a good minute or so. I was anticipating having to scale this workout and I didn’t have to so that’s a positive for day 1 and feeling like I’m pretty far out of cardio shape. 

Evening Session: 8:00 PM start time - 9:05 end time. 

Bench Press - Work up to a heavy set of 5

5’s @ 135-225-255-275-295-315-335 

Close grip bench (1 board) 

2 sets @ 225 x 35, 25 

Super Wide grip bench 

1 set @ 135 x 50 

Aux Circuit 

5x20 band hammer curls (Elite FTS Orange Average Band) 

5x15 Kettlebell upright row 55# 

5x10 Narrow grip bench 1/2 rep for tricep focus 185#

100 band pull aparts (thin red band) 

50 face pulls (thin green band) 

45 second front leaning rest (pushup plank) - shaking like a leaf on a tree. 

Today was exhausting but I felt like I still had the motor to power through the evening workout in the garage. It feels good to be enjoying training as much as I am and focusing on weaknesses/muscle imbalances. 

Nutrition and hydration today was good. I drank 96oz of fluids during PM training (48oz of water with 1 scoop of Aminocore & 1 scoop creative, 48oz of plain water). Sitting at 290g protein, 230 carbs, 60g fat for my macros, I had an extra scoop of protein with Greek yogurt before bed. I am looking forward to a rest day and getting some sleep this weekend. 

Stay strong! 

Garage Training 1/2/2020

Today's training took place this afternoon in the garage. With tomorrow's planned workout, and coming off of Deadcember I wanted to hit some sets of high bar back squats and do some auxiliary work to focus on my quads and help build my squat in the future. I have never been a quad dominant squatter so improving that portion of my squat and pushing my rest periods to increase intensity will pay dividends later. Happy to be moving the needle and getting better today! My legs were almost immediately sore following today's training and that is something I haven't experienced in quite a while, hoping that my muscles adapt and my heightened recovery efforts are effective.

Work up to a heavy set of 5 on Squats - put on my Oly Shoes to help with the high bar/narrower stance squat.

A1 - HBBS 7x5 275-315-335-365-385-405-425 @ 3 minutes rest - Final set of 5 was challenging, I moved the weight with good speed. I could feel my quads getting very fatigued towards the end of the work sets. Probably has to do with my conditioning currently and it's an unfamiliar movement.

B1 - Tempo Squats 31X1 2x4 @ 345 (wanted 4x4 here but I was totally out of gas) 

C1 Kettlebell upright row 3x15 @ 55#

C2 "Heavy" seated hamstring curl 3x10 @ Elite FTS grey band  

C3 TKE (Terminal Knee Extension) 3x25 each leg @ grey band

D1 Russian KBS 3x15 @ 55#

D2 Max Effort Plank 3x30s  

My hydration today has been very good, my meals were spaced apart well and I am currently sitting at 280g protein, 200g carbs, 50g fat for the day. I feel like I could've added another small protein meal in during the day but I wasn't too terribly hungry and my macros look better than they have in quite a while. I'm glad to be measuring, weighing, and documenting my macros/caloric intake again. I also upgraded my vitamins to a pack of various capsules that include a probiotic and a few other odds and ends instead of my regular multivitamins I was previously taking. I'm coupling that with taking the OptiGreens and OptiReds by 1st Phorm, they are both superfood complexes, the greens have servings of vegetables and probiotics to help with digestion and reduce bloating while increasing my vitamins and minerals I'm intaking. The Reds are another superfood phytonutrient blend but with red fruits and vegetables with antioxidants and it's supposed to help with nitric oxide levels, reduce inflammation, and help with natural energy. Today is day 1 of taking the two together, but I have always had good luck with the OptiGreens previously when I could afford them. Only time will tell...

Stay Strong! 

Deadcember Recap 2019

Deadcember 2019 was my third year in a row of doing the Pen and Paper Strength app's Deadcember programming by Sorinex. Daniel McKim has programmed the month long mini peaking cycle for two years running and I am a huge fan of these fun and productive mesocycles. The best part is the workout is posted on Instagram at 2:00 PM the day before the workout so you feel like a kid on Christmas waiting for the prescribed training to be posted. The Sorinex_Deadcember page also promotes an encouraging lifting community worldwide that is united in their pursuit of a new PR regardless of where they are in their training career. Just a great cause all the way around.

Deadcember programming focuses on all of the muscle groups associated with pulling big weight off of the floor. Along with deadlifting in some capacity 5 days per week for the month of December. The varying intensity of the workouts allows for recovery time, and the assistance movements involve a lot of shrugs, upper back work, hamstring curls/GHR, bicep curls, and abs of course. My first year I pulled 545 and it was the ugliest pull of my life, last year I pulled 550 clean and dropped 565 before a true lockout, and I was barely able to budge 585 off of the floor.

This year I was coming off of a hamstring tear I sustained in June in the final stages of meet prep, (best thing that ever happened to my training, and I will talk about the "gift of injury" at another time) but setting a squat PR of 565 in sleeves back in October helped me mentally be in the mode of pulling big weight. This year I felt decent throughout the training cycle, I have a love/hate relationship with 6:00AM training and I feel like everything feels heavier than it should. I had good training sessions leading up to the "PR Party" and I pulled 535 during an early workout with relative ease so I mentally felt good about it. I came in on the 30th at 9:00 AM and started my normal warmup routine and added in a few box jumps and planks to help me prime my body to pull heavy.

I hit sets at 135,225,275,315 for a few reps a piece 5-3-3-3 then moved to 365 for a double, and singles at 405, 455, 495, 545, then pulled a clean PR of 565 and it moved very smooth. I slapped 585 on the bar, strapped up, and pulled hard on 585. It broke off the floor well and moved up my shins and past my knees decent, as soon as it crossed my knee caps the bar started whipping due to the weight shaking up and down and I stalled a couple inches from lockout and fought it (I would've been satisfied with a hitched rep honestly) and I couldn't move it another inch. My hands might've been a bit too close on the bar and it could've prevented me from pushing my hips through but the world may never know...I bit off a bit more than I could chew, but I still hit a 15lb PR and it highlighted some technical issues in my pull and some areas of weakness that I can address over the next couple of training cycles.

Inaugural Post 1/1/2020

I have wanted to start a written training log for a long time, and ironically, I created this blogger account 1 year ago today but never went through with posting on it. I have been encouraged to keep track of my training efforts and numbers in a notebook, but I am the worlds worst at that. So I will transcribe them onto here with a blurb of how I felt during training, what I am doing nutrition wise, life updates, etc. instead. There was an attempt made a few years ago when I was still in college to make vlogs of training and life, when I tried to document what it was like to train, and coach, and go throughout day to day life as a student teacher. But the quality of the vlogs were varied and it took a lot of extra time to edit and upload it. I am more or less using this as a way to hold myself accountable in training/nutrition and to give myself something to reflect or look back on in the future.

I'll also be sharing what's going on in my daily life as far as what I am reading, quotes or things I am pondering and attempting to apply to my life, or listening to in regards to Podcasts. I'll share resources and bookmark links to interests of mine.

The Karl Pearson quote "That which is measured, improves." comes to mind as I am writing this. It happens to be January 1st, and a lot of people make new years resolutions this time of year. But I read something this week that a friend of mine shared and it said something along the lines of "....don't focus on a *new you* in the new year, your *old you* is guaranteed to show up sooner rather than later. So focus on or fix the *old you* instead..." Improvement thoughts that aren't written down are just wishes until they are recorded, then they become goals. So here are some attainable written goals moving forward: 

Nutrition Goals - 

Without fail, hit daily protein intake goal of 250g minimum from suitable protein sources such as lean meat & high quality protein powder. 

Prioritize "gallon per day" hydration minimum. 

Limit heavier carbohydrate intake unless training requires it - days where the Big 3 are the training focus (Squat/Bench/Deadlift). 

Focus on colorful whole foods that will limit digestive inflammation and fuel my body properly in both macro & micronutrients. Eat green vegetables at every meal. Severely limit processed foods and sugar intake. 

Training Goals - 

Continue to improve strength, and building muscle while improving body composition. 

Strength Goals by December 2020: 600 lb squat (40lb increase in sleeves), 405 bench (25lb increase), 600lb Deadlift (40lb increase). 

Drastically improve GPP (General Physical Preparedness) and increase overall work capacity in all lifts. More sled drags/pushes, loaded carries, grip work, walking, running, jumping, throwing. 

Focus on auxiliary exercises and lifts even if it means training more frequently (twice a day, or 6 total days per week to fit in all in) build the muscles involved with and stabilizing for the big 3 movements.  

I need to prioritize my posterior chain and direct core work, pull more than I push, even if it means increasing training frequency. Shrugs, Rows, Inverted Rows, Pull Ups (assisted obviously), back extension, GHD, glute bridges, hamstring curls, calf raises, etc. 

Personal Goals - 

Improve my self talk, immediately. 

Write down 5 things I am thankful for at least 3 times per week. 

Strengthen myself mentally and spiritually to be a better leader in my household and in my career. 

Focus on reading or listening to something geared towards self improvement every day, then writing down a summary of what I learned or how I will apply said thing to my daily life. 

Improve myself to be a better role model, a better educator, and a better coach this year in order to build upon previous successes.

Continue to become the man my family will be proud of, and leave a strong positive legacy and a good, reputable name for my son and daughter. 

I will be printing this off and referring back to look at these goals as I continue to make log entries. 

Here's to getting after it in 2020!

Stay Strong!