Munen Muso: Turtle Bear's Log

[TurtleBear]

10/25/2023

Im back! Hunting trip was great. I haven't been in about 10 years, just with all the craziness of life and having kids n stuff. I really had a great time. I think I am gonna pick up a compound bow and start practicing to get ready for next year.

Breakfast:
Peach

Lunch: Protein Oatmeal

Dinner: Beef taco

Training: 40 minute bike ride
Karate class

Today's weight: 212.4

[TurtleBear]

10/26/2023

Breakfast: Protein oatmeal

Lunch: Egg bake and pancake

Dinner: Sausage sweet potato veggie mix thing.

Training: Hard Karate class.

Todays weight: 212.4

[TurtleBear]

10/28/203

Weird day eating wise yesterday. I was on the move a lot so deferred to drinking a lot of protein shakes.

Breakfast:
Protein Shake + Apple

Lunch: Protein shake + Apple

Dinner + Meatball pasta

Training: Hard Karate Class

Today's weight: 210.4 ---> 10lbs in 20 days!! Not a bad start! I'm thinking my goal weight is gonna be around 185-190.
I know I'm cutting down, but I am feeling kinda froggy and I might do some actual lifting today.

[TurtleBear]

10/29/2023

Lunch: Protein Shake + Apple

Dinner: Greek Burger + Ceasar salad

Training: First lifting session in a minute. I don't really have any rhyme or reason for it. I just really felt like lifting. I did Day 1 of the 12 Week Montana Method Template on this site. Went super conservative on my E1RMs. I am trying to ease this into all the fighting stuff Im doing, and the calorie deficit and just being a bit detrained. Squat volume will probably be on the lower end for the first week or two If I keep up with the lifting.

Bench: 20 reps in sets of 2 and 3 with 180

Squats: 1 x 307.5
Then 32 reps with 245 in sets of 4.

Chin ups: 4,3,3


Bodyweight this morning: 212.4

ಠ_ಠ

Very well body.....game on.

[TurtleBear]

Quick post today as I am up to Halloween Shenanigans.

Yesterdays training: Moderate Karate Session

Today's training:
Bench: 10x5 with 150lbs
Preacher Curls: 12, 10, 6 with 45lb bar.


Will write up more tomorrow. Happy Halloween everyone!

[TurtleBear]

Im back!

Got laid up with the crud post Halloween, nothing too crazy but it hung around for forever. Ended up taking a lot of the week off. But Sunday I started feeling back to normal so yesterday we were back at it!!

11/6/2023
Breakfast:
Apples and Cinnamon

Lunch: Enchilada Casserole

Dinner: 2 BBQ Roast Burritos

Training:
40 minutes of biking
Moderate Karate class ((Could definitely tell that I hadn't done anything in a week. Oof)

Today's Weight: 213.4---> I didn't deviate too much from the diet while I was sick, that said I wasn't very active so weight went back up just a bit.

[TurtleBear]

11/7/2023

Breakfast:
Protein shake: 1 scoop of protein, 2 cups of milk

Lunch: BBQ roast burrito

Dinner: Sausage potato bake thing.

Training
Bench:
"14-20 reps with 187.5-192.5 in sets of 1-3"
20 reps with 192.5

Squats:
1 x 307.5: Done! Felt great. Probably more of a 6 than a 7
"32-45 reps with 240-250 in sets of 3-6"
32 reps with 250 in sets of 4.

Chins: 3,2,1 (Arms so damn weak)

Sandbag over shoulder 7 min amrap
14 total reps with 155lb sandbag. Took it really easy on these.


Todays weight: 212.8

[TurtleBear]

11/8/2023

Breakfast:
Protein shake: 1 scoop of protein, 2 cups of milk

Lunch: Sausage potato bake thing

Dinner: Homemade Bagel crust pizza. ---> Was incredible. I way overate. I knew what I was doing. And it was worth it.

Training:
35 minute bike ride
Really light Karate class.


This morning's weight: 214 .
Its alright. Bagel pizza was worth it.

[TurtleBear]

Quick dietary reflection: So yesterday (other than dinner) happened to be a low-carb day. Ive been doing protein shakes the last two days because I was out of oats. Then lunch was a sausage bake, which is literally just sausage, sweet potato and a ton of veggies.
Coincidentally, I also got a really big headache yesterday as well. This is not the first time that this has happened.
Years and years ago, I tried a run of paleo and I dropped a bunch of weight really quick. ((I wasn't trying to lose weight at the time)). But I would get these same headaches all the time.
Whats also odd is that if my carbs are decent my calories can still be really low and I wont have a headache.
I know a lot of people thrive on low carb, so I am not trying to say what I recommend for one person or another.
But I think a good "Rule 6" on this weight loss journey would be "No low carb meals".

I mentioned that I ate a ton of bagel pizza last night, and part of that was that it was so delicious. The other part was that I found after eating two pieces, my headache started to go away. So the deliciousness was compounded by the fact that when I ate it I felt better physically. So having carbs in place as a "weight loss" rule makes sense because it keeps me from overeating in order to get rid of a headache.

[TurtleBear]

11/9/2023

Breakfast: Protein Oatmeal

Lunch: Left over bagel pizza

Dinner: Rotisserie chicken mac n cheese

Training:
75 minutes of bike riding

11/10/2023
Early morning training: I typically try to avoid early morning sessions, but I've got a full day today so I got this one in this morning.

Bench:
"35 to 50 reps in sets of 4 to 8 @ 155-160"
10x5 with 160lbs

Barbell Preacher Curls: 45lb Bar
10, 10, 10.

Push ups: 5 sets amrap
17, 11, 11, 11, 11,11,

Was supposed to do deads this morning too. Low back was super pissy during warms ups so I decided to skip it today. Made the right call. Back is starting to tighten up a smidge. Ended up just being a full bro session which was fun.

Today's weight: 213.5

[DCR]

early morning sessions

Was supposed to do deads this morning too. Low back was super pissy during warms ups so I decided to skip it today. Made the right call.

I don’t know your age but I’m 45 this month and there is a direct relationship between these things. When I have to do an early morning session, there just is no reasonable amount of warming up that would make any difference. It takes a few hours of being up and moving for me to be lubed up.

[TurtleBear]

early morning sessions

Was supposed to do deads this morning too. Low back was super pissy during warms ups so I decided to skip it today. Made the right call.

I don’t know your age but I’m 45 this month and there is a direct relationship between these things. When I have to do an early morning session, there just is no reasonable amount of warming up that would make any difference. It takes a few hours of being up and moving for me to be lubed up.

I'm only 31 but yea man Deads always seem to be really improbable any time I do a morning session. Squats are okay, bench feels great.

I've just never been a morning workout guy. I am up early (4 am) just about every morning and feel great most of the time. Like you said though, it takes me a few hours to get lubed up.

I spent a lot of my 20s fighting for my athletic hobby. Some of the guys on my "team" would get up and train at 5am. Even during that time, I never felt that early morning sessions were productive for me. I can read or work on remodeling my basement at 5 am, but heavy lifts? Forget it.

[TurtleBear]

11/10/2023

Breakfast:
Protein shake: added milk and had two apples to keep the carbs higher

Lunch:
Protein oatmeal

Dinner: Enchilada Casserole


This morning's weight: 212.2

[TurtleBear]

11/14/2023
No training or food yesterday. Stomach was really under the weather. No other symptoms, I think it was something I ate.

Starting today off on a good foot though. Benched this morning ((Will have everything posted tomorrow))

This mornings weight: 212.4

[TurtleBear]

11/15/2023
Food:
Morning:
Protein shake and a breakfast bar my wife makes

Lunch:
Brats and sweet potato

Dinner:
1 Slice of homemade breakfast pizza


Training
AM: Bench
Single @ 217.5 (Felt like RPE 6 )
Then:
182.5 for 24 reps in sets of 3

40 Minute Bike Ride

Afternoon karate class: On the lighter side again -.-

Today's weight: 212.4

[TurtleBear]

Also @DCR

We had that discussion last week about getting a bit older and being kinda creaky in the morning.
I tried to squat this morning. Was a hard no.

I will say that if I could lift around 6 or 7 I think it would be fine.
But 4 am right when I get up? Nah...

[TurtleBear]

Alright.

So gonna derail a bit from the format here.

Last night we had another frustratingly easy kyokushin class.
O how I long to feel the burning in my lungs and and fatigue in my limbs as in the days of yore....

But classes lately havent been that.

So I decided to go off regularly scheduled lifting and do some Brian alsruhe stuff that was hard and in my face.
That is one great thing about being on a cut. It opens up whatever I feel like doing today, and allows for programming ADD.

So here we go:
10 Minute EMOM
3 Farmers Carry Deads followed by a 50 foot carry

Then
4 Rounds:
3 Sandbag over shoulder: 115lbs
6 Deadlifts: 225, 265, 275, 265
30 second RKC Plank
90 Seconds of rest.

^^ Back is still a bit chatty with me so I didn't push too heavy. I just autoregulated what felt like a solid heavy set with the back tweak and under the giant set conditions.

There was supposed to be a 10 min deadlift assistance finisher. But I passed on it due to said chatty back.

Finally:
10 minute emom conditioning
3 Burpees
3 squats
3 push ups
12 Mtn climbers
12 jumping jacks


Wasnt out to break any records or anything. Just wanted to sweat and feel some fatigue. I had a lot of fun with this session.


Today's weight: 211 even.

[DCR]

Also DCR

We had that discussion last week about getting a bit older and being kinda creaky in the morning.
I tried to squat this morning. Was a hard no.

I will say that if I could lift around 6 or 7 I think it would be fine.
But 4 am right when I get up? Nah...

Right, so awake for a few hours. That’s what I need as well, although I have to admit that if I got up at 4, I might not be functional til noon haha.

[TurtleBear]

A bit behind on posting. But I am still going at it

Saturday:
60 minutes of Sparring
60 minutes of Regular class

Sunday: Just wanted to get in a lot of work and have a lot of fun
Strength:
3 Rounds
8 Inverted Rows
8 Z Presses: 65, 75, 85 (Did 5 reps of this for the top set.)
8 Standing Plate Halos: 35lb plate.

Weighted Overhead Carry: 45lb Barbell
3 Rounds
10 Standing Strict Presses
Take 6 Steps
8 Standing Strict Presses
Take 6 Steps
6 Standing Strict Presses
Take 6 Steps

My upper body work capacity is complete trash outside of bench press. But that said, I had so much fun doing these.

Assistance: Dumbbells 17.5, 17.5, 12.5, 12.5
4 Rounds
8 Bent Over Flys
8 Standing Lateral Raises
8 Standing Arnold Presses
8 Standing Semi-Supinated Strict Presses
2 minutes rest.

10 minutes of body weight conditioning


Monday:
40 minute bike ride
60 minutes light kyokushin class

[TurtleBear]

Alright. Back to normal format.

11/21/2023
Sleep: 8 Hours

Breakfast:
Protein apple cinnamon oatmeal

Lunch:
Homemade General Tso's chx (not fried)

Dinner: Rotisserie chicken, Veggies and Potatoes.

Training:
1.
At the Top of Every Minute for 10 minutes: 155lb Sandbag
4 Sandbag Sprawls
50 Foot Sandbag Carry

2.
5 Rounds
A. 3 Box Jumps
B. 5 Squats: 265, 275, 285, 295, 295
C. 10 Hollow Rocks
D. :90 Seconds Rest

Assistance Stuff:
4 Rounds
A.5 (1&1/2) Front Squats: 95lbs, 95lbs, 95lbs, 95lbs, 95lbs
B. 8 Sandbag Squats: 70lb sand bag for all five rounds
C. 20 Second Wall Sits. Arms not above head yet.
2:00 mins rest.

Today's weight: 213.

Notes:
1. This was really fun. Back was slightly chatty toward the beginning, but really felt lubed up throughout the work. No issues after that.

2.
B: These felt strong today. Second set was grindier than the first, but still felt really good.
C: I haven't done hollow rocks in a very long time. These look so stupid but they are surprisingly difficult.

3:
A: Legs were starting to get pretty tired at this point. 95lbs was not "heavy" for me at all, and I felt it more in my abs than I did my legs. But that said, I haven't done front squats in forever and I wasn't used to the new rep scheme. I didn't wanna just full send it first try.
B: All four sets of these were hard. Humbling haha.
C: Had to put my arms on my legs to get through these. Also humbling.