Onwards with tectonic swiftness.

[chrisd]

Cycle Tabata 8 rounds
Treadmill 1min 4mph 1min 2 degrees 4mph 15 mind 6.4mph cooldown
Shoulder mobility stuff
Stretches

[chrisd]

Feeling a bit burned out, so taking it easier this week. Knee pain in the morning had me wondering if I should take time out, went after the session, go figure.

Sq
20x10
40x5
60x3
70x1
80x1
90x1
100x4x3 {P:0.6;I:0.6}

Bn
20x10
40x5
50x3
60x1
70x1
75x1
77.5x4x4{P:0.8;I:0.78}

Pr 42.5x6x3 (might have been 6x2, kinda lost count) {P:0.6;I:0.56}

Sumo deadlift, haven't done these in over a year, want to get back to them and see if I can do them properly
20x10
60x5
80x5
90x5
100x5
110x1 total cock up, should have been 105, felt bad, so I quit there No max to base it on. the nagging knee pain was gone after this, possibly the scraping of the knurl up the shins distracted me from it.

[chrisd]

Had a health check with new surgery. Blood test with a load of options, I figured I didn't need the prolactin test, but the rest was a bit of a mystery to me. Blood pressure seemed a bit improbable, seeing as I'd only been there a couple of minutes and had been talking, possible faulty gauge.

16/11/17

Front Squat, haven't done these for a while and decided that light squat day would be light, even with a light movement. The idea is to stay upright and make these as quad centric as possible.

20x10
40x5
50x3
60x1
65x6x3

Press
20x10
30x5
40x3
45x1
50x1
55x3x4 {P:0.6;I:1}

Bench
20x10
40x5
50x3
60x1
65x6x3 feet up paused {P:0.6;I:0.54}

Pull up 5x5
Lateral Raise 10x15x3
Dip handle knees to chest 12x3
sit up level 18x3

[chrisd]

18/11/17
One guy in the gym when I got there. Doing dips on a bench with his feet resting on the pulldown machine. There are dip stations for the racks, but I guess since everyone seems to have lost interest in the pulldown machine, it doesn't matter.

Deadlift
20x10
60x5
100x3
120x1
130x1
140x1
Warm up bench
142.5x2x2 142.5x1x2 and I was done, a bit disappointed that I didn't get the third double

Bench
20x10
40x5
50x3
60x1
70x1
80x1
82.5x3x4

Squat
20x10
40x5
60x3
80x1
100x1
Belt on
110x1
112.5x2x3 112.5x1

Press
20x8
30x5
40x2
42.5x6x3

[chrisd]

Intervals
Flogged myself to near death for 30 seconds then had a nap for a few minutes and did it again... not!!!

Bicycle Tabata 8 rounds

Treadmill 1 min 4mph 1min 2 degrees 4mph
5 minutes 6.5mph felt brave 10 minutes 6.6 mph
Cool down, pulse 125bpm at start of cool down 75% of 220-53 breathing easy 4:4 at top speed.

Dead hang for shoulders and back x3
Light front raise x15
Light lateral raisex15
Light rear raisex15
Cubansx15
Light btnx5
Assisted dipx5
Parameter dip x5
Stretched hamstrings, quads, calves
Upward facing dog 30sx3
Rbms
Wall sit
Joints feel better

[chrisd]

21/11/17

GOt my blood test results back. Big load of space where my care plan should be, quit smoking? I have, lose weight? don't want to, alcohol ? nil, increase physical activity ? oh yeah, how much do you bench.
blood pressure 113/69 (I suspect this is a faulty result), previous 126/83
total cholesterol 4.64, previous 4, no preparation for test, so ??
Weight 85kg previous 73kg
HbA1c 37 previous 40
Heart disease risk 5.59
Chance of being sat on by an elephant 0.238%

Squat
20x10
40x5
60x3
80x1
90x1
100x1
102.5x4x4 {P:0.8;I:0.89} Rep quality varied, don't look down!

Press
20x8
30x6
40x1 kinda forgot to do 3
50x1
55x1
57.5x1 felt okay so
60x2x2 60x1 fairly satisfied with this. Three doubles would have been nice, but the last one really stuck
{P:0.5;I:1.25 or 0.65 depending on actual 1rm, the 0.65 is probably closer}

Sumo deadlift
20x10
60x6
80x2
100x6x3 When I get this right, it's nice, shove the hips where they should go with tension in the shoulders, head up, feel stress in the hips and legs and the next thing I know I'm standing up with the bar. When I get it wrong, it's just like a wide stance conventional deadlift and I feel it in my back. I've had some pretty long term pain in the knee area which I figure is patellar tendinitis or similar. It seems to go after doing these, so I'm sticking with it. If the cure for a problem caused by bouncy low bar squats is to do a movement that nobody should train, then I declare myself to be nobody and yah boo sucks to the opinions of a texan manatee.

Bench
20x10
40x6
50x3
60x1
65x8x3 {P:NA;I:0.72} an increase in workload for the sake of doing some 8 rep sets.

[chrisd]

Front Squat
20x10
40x6
50x3
60x1
Warm up bench
65x8x3

Bench
20x10
40x6
50x3
60x1
70x1
80x1
85x1
87.5x2 less than 90% so microplates on
88x2x2 88x1 {P:0.7;I:0.71}

Press
20x8
30x6
40x2
42.5x8x3 {P:0.8;I:0.75}

Pull up 5x5
Lateral raise 10x18x2
Dip bar Knees to chest 3x14
sit up full decline 8x3

[chrisd]

Bollocks!

Deadlift
20x10
60x6
100x3
120x1
130x1
140x1 {P:0.05:I:0.09}
Warm up press

Get interrupted by some bloke asking if I've finished deadlifting. No, that's my target weight on now, but you can work in. He suggests we roll the loaded barbell off the platform so he can do his skipping.. Wait, what? Yes, he want to skip (jump rope) on the one deadlift platform which has a sign on it saying "Only do deadlifts on the deadlift platform"

Sure, I'll move a loaded 150kg barbell for you, so that you, a grown man can skip. Just so long as you wear a schoolgirl outfit and chant "salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper" and put it on YouTube. There are loads of other spaces and three more rooms in this facility, why is the deadlift platform a nitwit magnet?

150 0,1,0,0 Fuck it! {P:0.1:I:0.21}
140 1 {P:0.05;I:0.09}
100 6 {P:0.2;I:0.16}
{TP:0.4;TI:0.54}
And quit, Skippy had taken to beating up the marshmallow punchbag.{H:;P:;I:}

Press
20x10
30x6
40x3
50#1
55x1
60x1
62.5x1x4 {P:0.4;I:1.04}

Squat
20x10
40x6
60x3
80x1
100x1
110x1
115x2x3 115x1 some reps were okay, others not so good. {P:0.7;I:0.875}

Bench
20x8
40x6
50x3
60x1
65x8x3 feet up tng {}

The programme so far.

Being basically a made up in a hurry lash up with a smattering of common sense from actual lifting sources, I am sort of pleased with it, but have reservations. I added weight to all lifts, so that is good. Less good is the fact that the squats and deadlifts are feeling damned hard at percentages that I should be handling okay. Also I missed a press in the last cycle and decided to call it a form failure, or a bad day and proceeded as if I'd made the lift, this seems to have panned out okay, multiples at a previous PR makes it look promising for my next press Pr attempt.

Bench seems to be doing better than everything else, a 5kg increase early on and recent sessions have been okay. Conclusion, for the small lifts, more volume is (for me) better from more frequency. I chose to do this with the fairly random notion of alternating a progressive ramped increase with a light day, I've now morphed the easy light day into sets of 8 in some vague hope of achieving hypertrophy. Basically I bought some new shirts and they are a bit loose.

The deadlift. Missing 142.5 for a double last session and now missing 150 for singles makes it look like I'm heading for a failure. Likewise, squats have been problematic. I cold submit a form check, but I know the form is off and I know that the answer is that the weight feels too damned heavy. So, what to do. Do more ? Do less ?

I swapped out conventional light deadlifts for sumo. And my deadlift started stalling, that sort of suggests a solution.

Possibly it's time to look at a five week cycle for squats and deads, adding in more time in the 80ish percent range. Triples at 85% would fit the current scheme, for deads. I'm honestly considering switching the squat program to the same pattern as the press and bench, alternate heavy (ish) light and forget about seven day weeks. Maybe, maybe I'll just put the light day back to back squats.

[Wilhelm]

I can barely imagine my reaction to an asshat like skip rope guy.

[chrisd]

I can barely imagine my reaction to an asshat like skip rope guy.

When I entered the gym, he was using an aluminium practice bar with a pair of 5kg bumpers as an ab roller with his feet on a bench, in a rack, naturally. He's the same guy that invaded my rack and tired to 'help' me with a grinding bench some time ago.

[chrisd]

27/11/17

Cardio time.

I eschewed the bicycle tabata, opting instead for a fitness test on the elliptical. After pressing a variety if buttons I succeeded in achieving damn all. I tried to get it to do a random programme and then gave up in despair after a couple of minutes.

And so on to my old friend the treadmill. I was going to do two miles at my new super fast pace. More on that later.

Warm up 2 minutes at 4mph at 0 degree incline because I forgot to increase it at the start of the second minute.
Set speed to 6.6 and incline to 2 degrees to mimic roadwork.
Got to ten minutes and felt pretty good, so put speed up to 6.8.
Pulse check 125bpm
Still felt pretty laid back at the two mile mark, so thought sod it let's try 7 and see if I can last 5k.
5k rolled around, so I prepared to cool down by backing of to 6 mph,
Still felt the urge to do a bit more, so tried some strides.
Stride 1 30s at 8 mph, too easy, strides are supposed to be fast light running, one minute at 4mph
Stride 2 30s at 10mph, still easy, one minute at 6mph
Stride 3 30s at 11mph, okay, one minute at 6mph
Stride 4 30s at 12mph, fast, but okay for 30s, back to 6, hit cool down button, check pulse
Top reading 135 bpm. 81% of estimated max. Cool

Shoulder rehab work
cubans 2kg 25reps
Front raises 2kg 20 reps
rear raises 2kg 25 reps
Dead hang 30sx3
Paralette dipsx10
Actual dip bar dips x5 , feet off floor, slightly awkward being sideways in rack, need to face the other way next time
Btn presses
20x5
30x5
40x5
45x1
50x0, not there yet
hammer curls 10kgx8x2
reverse curls bar in rack emom 8x5

Stretching including rbms

[chrisd]

Lifting time.

I thought I was going to have to be reasonable and only use two of the racks at once, but the kid who came in stuck to machines and dumbbells, Ha!

Squat
20x10
40x6
60x3
80x1
90x1
belt on
100x1
Warm up bench
105x4x4 {P:0.8;I:1} Ploughed through these with minimal rest owing to time constraints. A bit high on the volume, so keep an eye on the rolling total

Bench
20x10
40x6
50x3
60x1
70x1
80x1
90x1
92.5x1x4 {P:0.4;I:0.78}

Deadlift
20x10
60x6
100x2
105x6x3{P:0.6;I:0.54}

Press
20x10
30x6
40x2
42.5x8x3 {P:0.6;I:0.56}

[chrisd]

light day

Squats reverted to back squats, for no good reason
20x10
40x6
60x3
70x1
80x1
Warm up press
87.5x6x3 {P:0.6;I:0.6}

Press
20x10
30x6
40x3
50x1
60x1
65x1 PR!! Legs locked, heels together, back as straight as bendy wobbly ramrod, ground slow, but up it went, right side first, but I'm counting it! {P:0.1:I:1}
55x3 {P:0.15;I:0.2}
45x8 {P:0.27;I:0.26}

Bench
20x10
40x6
50x3
60x1
65x8x3 feet up and paused first set, feet up and paused six of the second set, last set feet up tng.
{P:I:}
Sumo deadlift

Still a bit hit and miss with technique here. The last set was good, but the first set was engaging my back too much. Pull self down into floor and the bar goes up, it seems kind of contradictory when I'm doing it, as I pull, my body lowers and then I feel my legs tense and react and the bar is up. Also I could do with a bar that has the knurl and smooth parts reversed.
20x10
60x6
80x3
100x6x3


Dips Usually shoulder rehab work here, now I can dip, so dip I did. Can't get depth on the first rep, then I can get my elbows back on the second rep and it's fine. I set the dip bars low in case I had to bail out, but all was well.
6x3

Hammer curls 12.5x8x3

The thin boy was in doing leg press and dumbbells and back extensions on the floor and something with a swiss ball. I suspect he has been reading those magazines, I hope for his sake he didn't pay anyone for that programme.

And just for the sake of it, here's a song with really nasty lyrics

[chrisd]

Like the curate's egg, today's session was good in parts.

Deadlift Dead loss
20x10
60x6
100x3
120x1
140x1
Warm up bench
150x0 and I quit trying for weight. 150 is getting harder, not easier. My back feels like some sod nicked my disks and replaced them with broken glass and six inch nails. I'm going to have to seriously consider my relationship with the conventional deadlift. When I got stuck around 120, my coach of the time said my form looked okay and recommended that I do what he did when a lift stalled and regressed "Say @$£$ it and leave it for a month in case anything needs to heal up". I'm seriously considering that. I haven't done cleans and snatches in a while and I could do those alternated with the sumo dead, which feels like it could go a lot higher.
110x6x3 {P:0.6;I:0.6}

Bench Actually quite pleasing
20x10
40x6
50x3
60x1
70x1
80x1
90x1
belt on
95x1
100x unrack, rerack, put the belt on (doh!) 1 PR two plates at last, slow, but up it went.
80x4
60x12 was going to go to failure, then thought better of it.

About this time, Skippy walked in and started doing cable crossovers with maximum leg drive.

Squat
20x10
40x6
60x3
80x1
100x1
belt on
110x1
warm up press
Skippy is now benching 55kg in the next rack, feet up and making passionate noises
107.5x2 107.5x1x3 last rep felt best

Press
20x8
30x6
40x2
45x6x3 wrong weight, this should be less than 70% so I'll just repeat it for the first session of my press cycle.

back extensions with hold count of ten x3

[Wilhelm]

Nice PR, @chrisd!

[chrisd]

Nice PR, @chrisd!

It's been a long time coming. 102.5 some time next year.

[chrisd]

4/12/17

Joggy time.

treadmill warm up 1 min 4mph 1 min 4mph 2 degree incline set to 8mph, stop get mp3 player
8mph 3.1miles 2 degrees incline 23 minutes ish
4mph 1 minute 10 mph 30s 4mph 1 minute 12 mph 30s 4 mph 1 minute 12mph 30s 4mph 1 minute 13mph 30s 4mph and check pulse, top reading 140 (or 150, I forget)
walk for a couple of minutes and hit the cool down button
total distance 4miles

Conclusions: Treadmill readings are codswallop. I think I need to add gradient at high speeds or I'm just jumping over a moving surface. No wind resistance, so altogether too easy. Just for a laugh, I am going to see if I can record a bogus 20 minute 5k on this thing.

Pull ups 6,5,4
Hammer curls 12.5x8,5,5
Dips 6x3
Bradford (Bedford ?) Press 20x10
Dead hand for shoulders 30sx3

Loads of stretches

Bandanaman was in the weight room when I arrived. I found him doing some bizzare kind of press up variation. Where would one do this ? On the @£$$ing deadlift platform just beneath the sign which says "Only do deadlifts on the deadlift platform". FFS.

He came over after I finished dips and said "Oh, I've tried doing dips on benches and dips on the machines, I didn't realise that those things (The clip on dip attachments that look like nothing other than dip attachments) could be used for that". He has an American accent and therefore there is a fifty fifty chance of his having a lower than average IQ. I left as he was giving it all he had dumbbell benching a pair of 7.5s.

[chrisd]

5/12/17

Squat
20x10
40x6
60x3
80x1
100x1
Warm up press
107.5x3x5 {P:0.75;I:1.07} Inol suggest I went a bit overboard there, still I feel okay, time will tell.

Press
20x10
30x6
40x3
45x6x3 {P:0.75;I:0.585}

Bench
20x10
30x6
40x3
50x1
60x1
65x8x3 tng {P:0.6;I:0.51}

Sumo Deadlift
20x10
60x6
80x1, forgot what I was doing, thought "Wow 100 went up easily" then noticed my error
100x1
102.5x6x3 No max, so no numbers.
The plan is to keep loading the bar until this gets hard, then change the rep scheme until I'm doing singles then test it.
The sumo deadlift seems to be the best thing ever for knee pain. I've had the devil of a time of it every morning until I've done a load of warning up and stuff. Now I'm moving around freely and, if what I had was patellar teninosis (as seems likely) it's gone, or at least going. The SDL does use the quads in almost the exact range of motion recommended for treating knee pain on a leg extension machine, so maybe that's the answer.

Thus Sumo deadlifts fix knee pain. High bar squats and biceps curls fix elbow pain. MY brief experiment with BTN presses seemed to help with a shoulder problem. Maybe standing rows cure PTSD ?

[chrisd]

Lousy weather prevented me taking to the road.

Treadmill
1min 4 units of speed
1 min 2 degrees 4 units of speed
20 minute 7.5 units of speed. Peak pulse 130 ish
Enough time to listen to Thick As A Brick and half of Flower
cool down
If these units are kilometers, I'm sadly deluded. If on the other hand they are miles, then they are very easy miles. I'm pretty sure I can't manage a running movement at 6Kmh, but two and a bit 8 minute miles seems awfully quick. Weather permitting, there's a local 5K every Saturday, so I might be able to test this out.

Stretching and some Bradford presses to test shoulder.

[chrisd]

Squat
20x10
40x6
60x3
70x1
80x1
Warm up bench
90x6x3

Bench
20x10
40x6
50x3
60x1
65x1
70x6x3

BTN Pretty much for vanity purposes
20x8
30x4
35x2
40x6x3

SDL
20x10
60x6
80x3
100x1
105x6x3 these are feeling better, first rep is a bit dodgy, but the rest feel good.