I love it when a plan comes together

mickmac

So I'm back to training this week after about a month off due to a problem with my shoulder.

I was training a fair bit for the last year - 3/4 times a week - mainly doing strength and EDT stuff. I dropped a bit of weight over this time and learnt to keep my workouts simple and compound exercise-focused rather than using every bloody machine in the gym.

I learned to love the deadlift, squat, power cleans and all forms of pull-up and dip and over this time. That is not to say I'm any good at them. I just like doing them - the slow but gradual improvements and the minutiae of proper technique appeal to me.

My plan is simple: I'm going to get stronger between now and Christmas.

Before I start the strength portion of my plan, however, I'll be completing this programme of barbell complexes: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1624757 in order to shed a bit of the weight I put on over a month of relatively low activity, get a bit of endurance into my flaccid corpus and focus my mind in the way only reasonable physical discomfort can. I'm using 25kg for the duration.

I've got one week done. I have three to go.

After that I'll be doing three sessions of strength and three of conditioning a week. I'll put up the details of that and some more specific goals and whatnot at a later date.

mickmac

So... Week one on the road to recovery is done.

I've been finishing each session with sets of bodyweight rows - they're good for my shoulder and I like them.

I'm torn between using this log to whine about how I'm feeling every day rather than boring my missus with the gorey details or using it as some sort of motivational device for myself where only the accomplishments of the day ar recorded.

If I'm honest in everything - when training is hard, when I feel crappy, when I just couldn't be arsed - I run the risk of psyching myself out. On the other hand I could just shut the **** up and train.

There's probably a middle ground somewhere... Thing is, the complexes are designed so that if you've chosen the correct weight to do them with, you'll be wondering why THE HELL you ever started the programme in the first place so it's gonna hurt - I should just get over it.

Anyway nothing to do now but not eat crap and go to the park tomorrow. Monday it all starts again...

mickmac

Week two started poorly.

I slept too late to train before going to work and felt crappy to boot. Managed to get home and get my work done at lunchtime though 5x5 with 75 second break.

It went well.

My stamina held out and there was far less grunting and the general sense of "squeezing" reps out on the squat/press compound. I finished up with 5x5 of BW row with the belt with 30secs between sets. My grip strength is getting better.

Got rained on on the way back in and am now munching some cous cous, peas and a chicken breast.

So things are looking up...

mickmac

Sleep continues to be a problem for me...

I need to go to bed earlier and get up earlier. **** this circadian rhythm bull****!

I did my second complex today. My favourite one. I like the hang clean-squat-press. Went well. Not much else to report. Will train tomorrow and then again on Saturday.

(It occurs to me that this log won;t be in any way interesting to read until I start into the strength-building part in 2 and a half weeks time.)

mickmac

So I got a good sleep last night after a loooooong two days of work. A quick cycle after I got up and then a good breakfast set me up for the day.

I did complex C, the explosive one, this evening and was suitably shattered by the end. I was seeing dots in front of my eyes by the third set - always a good sign, right?

The last time I did these complexes, last Christmas, I wasn't able to do the jumping split squats with anything heavier than a 9kg weight, despite using 25kg for everything else. This time around I'm stronger, so it's 25kg all the way.

Anyway I finished off as always with the BW rows. I use an old taekwondo belt wrapped around my chinup bar for them and it's working wonders on my grip strength as well as helping my back. I might see about raising my feet higher next week...

Anyway, roll on Saturday, the most challenging day of the week.

I can't effing wait!

mickmac

So I decided that there was very little point to updating on my progress on the Cosgrove complexes.

They were the same thing every week, only increasingly difficult, and they had the desired effect - I perspired, I got a shift under myself and I grew to hate/fear them so much that the prospect of "normal" gym work developed a blissful, holiday-like appeal.

So I've now finished my first week of training. My plan is based on the conjugate training method. I'm doing weights three times a week and some form of conditioning or metcon three times a week, sometimes after my weights, sometimes not.

Each weights session consists of an upper body push, an upper body pull and a lower body exercise alternating between hip and knee dominant. I alternate the sets of push and pull and do the lower body at the end.

On Mondays I’ll be working up to 3 sets of 5, on Wednesdays 3x8 and Fridays 3x12 adding a rep each week and then retesting my max. I’ll be using my 5, 8 and 12 rep max.

Thanks to the wonder of excel I’ll be doing a random programme every day based on a pool of 4 or 5 different exercises in the pull, push and lower body hip and knee dominant categories. I've taken to doing extensive shoulder warmups at the start of each session and I'm usually pretty warm from cycing to the gym anyway.

Monday:
Dip
5xBW
4xBW
3x 15kg
3x 15kg

DB row
5x17.5
4x20
3x25
3x25
3x25

Deadlift
5x60
5x80
3x100
3x115
3x115
3x115

I need to be careful with the dip. My shoulder is still a bit achy. I’m going to take the BW row slower than I have before and focus on keep the form VERY strict – no putting a bit of body English on the lift to get it started.
I didn’t do anything to finish up because a) I’m lazy and b) I didn’t want to take the piss my first day back.

Wednesday
Push press
10x15
5x35
4x40
6x42.5
6x42.5
6x42.5

Pull up
6xpressup
5xBW
6xBW
6xBW
6xBW (4/2)

Front squat
6xBW
6x35
6x40
6x45
6x47.5
6x47.5

I finished with this: do 10KB swings and then 1 BW row; 10xKB swing + 2 BW row... 10xBW row. I used a 10kg weight to swing and alternated l/r arms each set. It took me 9mins1sec and I was FAR from banging out 10, 9, 8 or even 7 straight rows by the time I got there. Very tiring.

The chinups were tough. I have strength but no endurance so I "kipped" a bit to keep going for longer. It worked... sort of.

Thursday:
I was a nice evening so I went to the park and did some running/sprinting. After a bit of running to warm up - a languid 400m - I did some mobility and joint stuff. Then 5 cycles of: 5xburpee - 50m sprint - walk back. I forgot to time myself but I'm had to stifle an auld bit of puking after the fourth set. Good times. I cycled home and stretched a lot and was only a tiny bit tight the next morning

Friday:
DB press
5x30
10x35
10x40
10x40

Chinup
Warmups
8xBW
8xBW (6/2)
8xBW (4/2/1/1)

Powerclean
15x15
10x35
10x35
10x35

I finished with 5 rounds of 1xclean and press (45kg) + 2xBW dips + 3xhanging leg raises. Again i forgot to time myself. So I guess the lesson for next week is to bring my bloody timer with me...

mickmac

So I had a decent week of training last week but my diet at the weekend was absolute garbage. Mostly too much of the things I know I'm not supposed to eat.

I'll do better this week. I have the supplies and the technology. I will make myself bigger, stronger, better than before. (And also run in slow motion and make cool noises when I jump over things...)

Anyway I got to the gym at lunchtime today and did this:

Bench
10x15
5x45
5x65
4x75
4x75
4x75

DB Row (single arm)
5x15
5x17.5
5x20
4x25
4x25
4x25

Squat
5xBW
5x35
5x55
5x70
4x82.5
4x82.5
4x82.5

Not fantastic numbers by any measure but still coming back up to my previous levels before I took my little summer sabbatical. I haven't weighed myself in a while and don't intend to until this weekend. After that the extraordinarily average nature of my lifts will be revealed!

To finish I did:
3x powerclean and press - 6 x pressups - 9 x squats
AMRAP for 3 mins. I managed 4 cycles in just over the time and was fairly puffed out after it.

Good craic

mickmac

My actual goals from this programme (and possibly beyond) have become signifigantly more refined.

My aim now is to hit a double bodyweight deadlift, 1.5 times bodyweight squat, bodyweight military press and chins/pull for reps with 20kg added.

I'm assuming that by training toward these goals and eating cleanly I'll lose a bit of fat along the way and, as much as this is a nice fringe benefit, it's not my focus at the moment.

Saturday is D-day for weighing myself. From there I'll know exactly how big the hill is likely to be.

mickmac

Had a bit of a funny day in the gym yesterday.

I felt like I was in too much of a hurry and getting nowhere because of it. The upshot was a slightly tweaked neck. That said, I wellied into both my shoulders and neck with a tennis ball when I got back to work and, while far from perfect, they feel better than expected.

Other than that I'm pleased with the work. I misjudged the weights for things slightly and ended up dropping weight off towards the ends of the last set on the military press and the deadlift. I have a reference point now though.

Military press
10x15
7x25
7x35
7x40
7x37.5
7x35

BW row
5xBW
7xBW
7x5kg
7x10
7x10
7x10

Deadlift
7x15
7x45
7x60
7x75
7x75
7x75
7x72.2

Didn't have time for a finisher - I was knackered and late after all that anyway. I'll try doing something tonight.

mickmac

So Friday wasn't terrible - I had a small triumph over my desire to vomit when I do things my body considers difficult but came face to edurance-lacking face with my inability to bang out multiple reps of chin-ups.

Due to that I've scaled back my chins/pulls to an 8-10 progression on my 10-12 days. To be honest I'll be quite happy if I can rattle off 10 uninterrupted reps by Christmas

After warming up I did:

Dips
BWx11
BWx11
BWx11

Pull-up
BWx9 (4/3/2)
BWx9 (5/2/2)
BWx9 (3/2/1/1/1/1)

Single leg squat
20kgx11x2
20kgx11x2
20kgx11x2

My finisher was 5xKB swings (10kg, alternating hands), 5 burpees and 5 pressups at the top of the minute for 10 minutes. It was really effing hard. Thanks Dave...

mickmac

Just for kicks and to get my third condtioning thingy done this week Today I did AMRAP for ten minutes of:

5xKB swings (16kg), 6xrussian twists (15kg) and 5xBW rows using an old belt to make it harder on my grip/forearms.

I managed 9 reps.

I forgot to weigh myself yesterday. Must do it Monday...

mickmac

So i missed training on Monday and Tuesday was a washout but I've managed to psychically square my indolence away with the knowledge that I'll be doing something hard but interesting on Sunday so I might appreciate the extra bit of rest.

With that in mind I threw myself into too short but enjoyable session yesterday. I took a few things away from it:

1. I'm not nearly as strong in my shoulders as I think I am.
2. My grip strength, or at least my grip strength endurance is going to become an issue soon enough. I DLd 5x115 fine for the first two rounds but my last round was more like 5 singles than 5 reps in a row. My form degraded a fair bit as well so I'll have to work on it more at lower weights.
3. I need to take slightly longer breaks between sets.

Despite this I did okay. I was pleased with my chins. There's actually a sign of improvement there.

Military press
5x15
5x25
5x35
5x50
5x47.5
5x47.5

Chinup
5x scap pull
3xBW
5xBW
5x10
5x10
5x10 (3/1/1)

Deadlift
5x55
5x75
5x95
5x115
5x115
5x115 (1/1/1/1/1)

mickmac

Just because I wasn't here doesn't mean I was lazy!

On Thursday I did this as a bit of conditioning:
5xKB swings - 7xKB rows each side - 12 lunges with bar overhead - 10xjumps over heavy bag.

5 circuits took 11.07minutes.

I couldn't get to the gym on Friday so I changed come things up with my plan to do work in the attic. It went okay but honestly it's kind of hard to motivate myself in the attic in the same way I do in the gym... I wonder if the cycle there has some form of transmutive effect.

Bench
8x13
8x35
8x44
8x53
8x53
8x53

DB Row
8xBW row
8x10x2
8x16x2
8x20x2
8x20x2
8x20x2

Front squat
8xBW
8x26
8x35
8x46.2
8x46.2
8x46.2

On Sunday I did a level 1 kettlebell workshop in Wild Geese in Dublin (http://wg-fit.com/). It was the second time I've done a course like that but the first time I've been able to go home and practice what I've learned. Like a big nerd I took a load of notes. I think they'll be useful.

I didn't train on Monday and Tuesday because I was knackered and got back to stuff on Wednesday. After debating whether to call Sunday my light weight/high rep day I decided not to be a pussy and continue as planned. (I was in a hurry though so I figured I'd save time on warmup sets but doing a really, REALLY elaborate warm-up. It worked out... mostly.)

So I did this:

Dip
12xBW
12xBW
12xBW

BW row
12xBW
12xBW
12xBW

Power clean
6x15
6x25
12x35
12x35
12x35