Conditioning. Week 3. Upper Body and Jogging

BW - 202

Friday
Bench -
BarX20, 20
95X5
135X5, 5
165X5

BB Rows -
BarX20
95X10
135X15, 13, 12, 10

Cuff Work - Lots

Chins - BWX10, 6, 5, 5 (26 total)

Decline Sit-Ups - BWX15, 15, 10 (40 total)

Saturday
Jogging - 2 miles; 20 minutes

Bench still feels weak, and my shoulder feels like crap for a few days afterwards.  Probably gonna start looking for a Physical Therapist this week.

Everything else went well.  Including the jogging on Saturday.  I'd hoped to be much further along that a 10 minute mile pace at this point, but with all the set-backs I'm just happy to be able to jog the distance.

Conditioning. Week 3. Lower Body

BW - 203

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
185X5
215X5
235X5

Deadlift -
135X5
185X3
225X3
275X2
305X2
325X1, 1, 1

Cuff Work - Lots

Rope Extensions - X20, 20, 15, 13

Crunches - BWX80

So what I'm doing here is alternating each week between light volume and weight on one lift and super-light volume and slightly heavier weight on the other.  So today was the heavier Deadlift day.  This worked out well so that I could continue to test out the adductor.  I had no issues with it, and all the squats felt fairly strong.  Deadlift felt good too, however I can tell that both lifts are down from my winter bests.

This was supposed to be a day to work on push-up strength with push-up volume and weighted dips, but I'm continuing to rehab the shoulder strain.  It's feeling better, though.

Doing the rope extensions to keep some triceps work going on my off-bench day since the push-ups and dips are out.

Upped the total reps on crunches.  I could do more here either in the single set, or with more sets, but since the decline sit-ups are so hard, it's nice to have a lighter day on these as well.

Just for a reference diet-wise, this is what my bodyweight fluctuation has looked like over the past 2 1/2 years that I've been tracking it regularly:

I generally feel pretty good about this pattern, but I'm still working to tweak both diet and life-style so that each can meet the goals of the other.

Conditioning. Week 2. Jogging

Jogging - 1.5 miles; 15 minutes

Took the adductor out for a test, and everything went okay.  May be able to keep justifiably calling this a conditioning block.

Conditioning. Week 2. Upper Body

BW - 205

Cuff Work - Lots

CG Bench -
BarX20, 15
95X5
135X4
155X3
165X3, 3, 3

BB Rows -
BarX25
95X10
155X12, 10, 10, 10

Chins - BWX10, 5, 5, 5 (25 total)

Decline Sit-Ups - BWX10, 10, 10, 5, 5 (40 total)

Don't know if the shoulder's getting better or not.  The cuff pain has subsided somewhat, and I can bench...somewhat, but there's  a new issue right around where the outside of my left trap meets the point of my left collar-bone.  My Acromion?  Impingement?  I'm probably a few weeks away from looking for a Physical Therapist.

The bench started to feel strong as I went through the warm-ups, but the 165X3 sets did not.  I dunno.

Rows felt okay, though.

Chins and sit-ups were fine.  Upped the volume on both over last week.

Conditioning. Week 2. Hill-Sprints

Hill-Sprints - 10 sprints

Despite the 20+ minute walk to the hill, and some mobility work, the adductor strain that began with the Death Sprints of last Thursday, and escalated with Squatting on Sunday, lashed out violently against me on these sprints.  I tried to push through, but only managed 10 sprints, lopes really, in about 17 minutes. 

I was fairly afraid that I would wake up this morning hardly able to walk, but the pain has abated a great deal and with no pain medication.  I believe the long walk back from the hill, plus a healthy walk later in the evening to meet some friends may have helped. 

Obviously, I will now have to hold off on any running for the next few days.  Today was going be an off/walking day, and I may still walk.  Tomorrow was supposed to be my chance to get the flat sprints right on distance and intensity, but that is completely out now.  I will do some walking today and tomorrow, an upper body lifting session on Thursday, and then I will see on Friday or Saturday, after more walking and mobility, if a light jog seems do-able.  This sucks, but what can you do?

Conditioning. Week 2. Lower Body

BW - 205

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X4
155X4
185X3
225X3
265X2, 2

Deadlift -
135X4
185X4
225X4
275X4
285X4

Push-Ups - BWX25, 15, 15, 10, 10, 11; 86 total reps

Rope Extensions - X25, 20, 20

Crunches - X75

Okay session.  I programmed for 3 sets of 2 with 265.  However, all reps but the very 1st were slow, and my left adductor started feeling really sore after the 2nd set, so I stopped.  I think the adductor is still feeling blitzed from 'The Sprints of Death' last week.  I remember being surprised at how sore they were for about 24 hours afterwards.

Deadlifts were all fast.

Push-ups were okay.  Next week I'll shoot for 90 in the same amount of sets or fewer.  Shoulder felt fairly stable throughout.

Speaking of the shoulder issues, I programmed to alternate weekly between weighted and BW dips here, but to be on the safe side, I'm just doing push-downs.

Got all the crunches in 1 set.  That's fine.  I'll just keep progressing them as a single set.  Think of it as a 'light' day, as opposed to the decline sit-ups on the other day.

Conditioning. Week 1. Upper Body

BW - 205

Cuff Work - Lots (capsule stretching, band dislocations, pull aparts, 5lb. plate "cleans," front raises with various grips, band external rotations)

Bench -
BarX20, 20
95X6
115X6
135X6
155X8

BB Rows -
BarX15
95X10
135X15, 12, 15

Chins - BWX10, 5, 5

Decline Sit-Ups - BWX10, 10, 10

Being very careful with the shoulder since I seemed to re-aggravate it by sprinting (!).  Just tried to run through a sequence of everything I've ever done for shoulder cuff and shoulder prehab.

That included an extra warm-up set with just the bar, and more reps and smaller jumps on the warm-up sets.  Originally I programmed for 12 reps of 155, which would normally be slightly challenging but completely do-able.  Everything was very tentative today, and I cut it at 8.

The lay-off and tentativeness about the shoulder seemed to cut into my rowing as well.  This felt more like a neuromuscular issue than a strength issue.  My mind just didn't want to let my body "get after it" today on these.

Chins were okay, though.  Programmed for 20 total, and got it in 3 sets.  Hoped to go over on the last set, but 5 was the limit.

The crunches I did in my BW circuits in the last block did not set me up well for decline sit-ups.  Originally hoped to do 60 or so total reps, but had to bring that down, and will adjust my programming for this block accordingly.

Conditioning. Week 1. Sprints

65* yards -
10 sprints; 0.10 - 11 seconds; 30 seconds rest
3 minutes rest
5 sprints; 0.10 - 12 seconds; 30 seconds rest
3 minutes rest
3 sprints; 0.10 - 11 seconds; 30 seconds rest

*was supposed to be 55.  I used a GPS app to measure it in an empty field.  I could tell the app was unreliable, but I went with it even though the distance looked WAY long.  Checked the distance as best I could with google maps this morning, and it's no LESS than 65 yards.  Woof.

Well this was a surprise!  I was supposed to start off this block doing 3 sets of 10 on sprints, waving time and distance every week.  This week I was shooting for sub 0.10 second sprints, but I couldn't make that no matter how hard I tried (see the *note above).  After the 5 sprints, I knew I was in trouble, and after the first set of 10, my midsection was cramping so hard, I knew there was no way I'd do another set of 10, so I called an audible and did 10, 5, 3 instead.  So that gives me a baseline of 3 sets, 18 total sprints.  Next week, I'll try (getting the distance right and) upping the volume to something like 21 or 22.  I'd at least like to be hitting my target 3 sets of 10 by the end of this 5 week block.

Oh, after two weeks off from pressing, and a week off from training at all, these sprints were enough to bring my shoulder pain screaming back.  Great.

Full Body-ish. Week 5. Squat (again) and Deadlift

BW - 208

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X3
155X3
185X2
225X2
255X1
275X1
285X1
295X1

Deadlift -
135X5
185X3
225X3
275X2
315X2
335X2
365X2
375X0

Circuit - 4 times through; no rest
Chins - BWX5
Rope Extensions - X15
Face Pulls - X20

Last day scheduled for this block, and about to go on a short vacation for 4 days.  Because of the strained shoulder keeping me from doing my programming, and because I have these days completely off coming up, I decided to just set some new PR's in Squat and Deadlift.

285X1 and 295X1 are both Rep PR's in the Squat, and 365X2 is a Rep PR in the Deadlift.  I tried to pull a single at 375, but couldn't break it off the floor.  Legs were gone. 

None of these PR's are remotely surprising giving my training the last several months, and that's why I felt confident that I could come into the gym today and fuck around and hit a bunch of PR's.

Full Body. Week 5. Hill Sprints

Hill-Sprints - 30 sprints; 36 minutes

Full Body-ish. Week 5. Squat

BW - 204

Squat -
BarX10 (paused)
95X5 (paused)
135X5
155X4
185X3
225X2
265X3, 2

 Cuff Work - external rotation with 5 lb. plates and Face Pulls; 2X20 each

BB Complex - 95X5, 105X5, 5, 95X5
1-Arm RDL, Hang High-Pulls, Cheat Curls, Yates Rows

My shoulder pain came back with a vengeance last week, so I'm dropping pressing this week and just doing legs and back.  It's the last week of the Full Body block anyway.

Absolutely no pop out of the bottom on squats.

Complex was still tough even without the overheads.