Beards, Barbells, and Beer

Mon Mar 31, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x2
195x5
225x5
(+belt)
255x5
285x5
310x5

Wooooooo.... 310x5 was tough. The first couple reps were good but the 4th slowed down and the 5th was a grinder. Moderate GM'ing on the last rep.

- DB rows
30x10
65x0
100x8
100x8

My left shoulder felt better today so I think I'll try some light benching on Wednesday. I'm thinking that in the near future I might switch things up so I bench first and squat second. I think squatting first fatigues my shoulder, which leads to bad bench technique, which leads to pain.

I was supposed to be off the rest of this week but my cat got sick so I can't leave town. Instead I'm only taking Thurs/Fri off to do some stuff in town. I think I'll squat again on Wednesday instead of deadlifting.
 
Wed April 2, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x2
195x5
225x5
(+belt)
255x5
285x5
315x3
255x4

My hamstrings were still feeling fried from Monday's squats. Once I was warmed up I felt pretty good but 315x3 killed me. The reps were good but afterward my legs were fried. I was supposed to do 255x8 so I thought instead I'd do 255x4x2 but the 4th rep was a real grinder so I only did the one set. I think I'll have some solid hamstring DOMS again tomorrow.

My vacation has changed again so I'm taking Fri/Mon off. My wife is off work for a bit and has a job interview on Friday so she wants tomorrow to brush up on some stuff. So tomorrow I'll head to the gym for some light bench and upper back work.
 
Thurs April 3, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching, DCSW

- Bench
45x10
75x8
95x6
115x4
135x5
135x5
135x5

My form felt like shit today and my left elbow ached a bit. Next week I'm going to take video of my bench so I can see what's going on. I'll probably post it here for feedback.

- DB rows
30x10
65x10
100x10
100x10

Then I repeated some of the DCSW.
 
Wed April 9, 2014

I had Friday and Monday off and then I wasn't feeling well yesterday morning so I took a sick day. I got lots of sleep and felt pretty good today.

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x2
195x5
225x5
(+belt)
255x5
285x5
315x5

Boom, 3 plates for 5 reps! The 4th rep slowed down and the 5th was slow and had some moderate GM'ing. This has been an unofficial goal for a while (repping 315) so hurray for me!

- Inverted rows: 3x12
- Push-ups: 3x8

A little bit of upper body work. Tomorrow I'll do some more light benching and some rows. Deadlifts on Friday.
 
Thurs April 10, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching, DCSW

- DB Bench
20x10
30x10
40x10
40x10

Left shoulder felt alright. I think I might do DB bench for a while since my shoulder seems to be okay with it.

- DB Rows
20x10
30x10
40x10
40x10
60x10

Kinda random today but I just wanted to get in some back work. Finished up with some foam rolling and stretching. I should buy/build a foam roller for home and do this more often because I feel so good right now.
 
Fri April 11, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
285x1
315x1
345x1x10 (singles)

These felt pretty good. Not too heavy so I focused on good bar speed and a strong lockout.

Finished up with some face-pulls followed by upper body foam rolling, stretching, and some very light shoulder dislocations.
 
Mon April 14, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x2
195x5
225x5
(+belt)
255x5
285x5
320x3

I didn't get enough sleep over the weekend so I felt like shit today. My form felt sloppy but I got the reps in. After hitting 320x3 I felt so shitty that I just left and headed back to work.
 
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Wed April 16, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
285x1
315x1
345x1
(+belt)
370x1x8 (singles)

Felt good today. Good speed off the floor though I noticed that the bar seems to slow down a lot just above my knees so next weak I'll focus on pushing my hips through more.

- Facepulls: 5x20

Also did some push-ups and tricep pushdowns between sets. I'll do more upper body stuff tomorrow.
 
Thurs April 17, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching DCSW

- DB Bench
25x10
35x10
50x10
50x10
50x10

- DB Rows
25x10
35x10
65x10
85x12
85x12
85x12

Felt pretty good today. I'm going to keep with the DB bench for a while since my shoulder likes it. I finished off with some stretching and foam rolling.
 
Mon April 21, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x2
195x5
225x5
(+belt)
255x5
285x5
320x4

The 4th rep was a grinder with some moderate GM'ing and I knew there was no chance at the 5th rep. I had another busy weekend with not enough sleep and I had to be up early this morning so blah. No energy.

- DB Bench
20x10
30x10
40x10
50x10
60x5
60x5
60x5

These felt fine. I'll do some back work at home and then more on Wednesday.

I think I might test my squat again and then change up my program. The Madcow squatting is starting to feel like a grind. Or maybe just a deload.
 
Wed April 23, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
285x1
315x1
345x1
370x1
390x1x6 (singles)

These felt good. I concentrated on pushing my hips through harder today and my lockout was better. My speed off the ground is usually good so I'm going to keep focusing on lockout for the next little while.

- DB rows
30x10
60x10
90x18

I decided to Kroc it up today. I probably could have done more reps with my right arm but 18 was about my max with the left.
 
Still doing Muay Thai?

I've been training at Kings MMA in Huntington Beach & I'm planning on starting the MT at some point. I mean, with Rafael Cordeiro as an instructor I'd be stupid not to.
 
Still doing Muay Thai?

I've been training at Kings MMA in Huntington Beach & I'm planning on starting the MT at some point. I mean, with Rafael Cordeiro as an instructor I'd be stupid not to.

No, it's been almost a year since I trained Muay Thai. I wasn't able to spar often enough so I lost interest. At my gym if you aren't sparring then the regular classes become rather monotonous because there is such a high turnover amongst the casuals that the classes tend to be fairly basic. I've been considering starting up again but right now I'd prefer to save the money to pay down some debt, plus training in the Summer sucks because the gym is so hot. If I do go back I'll probably try another gym. An MMA gym would be cool so I could do some BJJ as well.

Training under Rafael Cordeiro would be awesome. He used to be a Chute Box guy right? I briefly trained under a Chute Boxe guy when I first started MT (he was a guest instructor for about 6 months) and his classes were always fun and fast-paced. I assume you've been doing mostly BJJ there?
 
yep - he was a chute box guy,then started Kings MMA a few years ago. Fabricio Verdum, Rafael Dos Anjos, Beniel Daruish, Jake Ellemberger & a bunch of other pro fighters train there.

I've only been doing the BJJ - its pretty cool because there are 4 different black belts that teach classes, gi & nogi. Good environment.
 
That's awesome, I'd love train in an environment with so many high level athletes.

In other news when I weighed myself this morning I was 214.5. That's about 4 lb down from when I officially started my weight loss/beard growth challenge or 6 lb from my bloated weight a few days before that. That's over a period of about 4 weeks so booyah.
 
Thurs April 24, 2014

Conditioning

- C2 rower: 13 minutes
- Treadmill: 12 minutes
- Stairmill: 11 minutes

36 minutes total, heart rate in the 140-145 BPM range. My left knee started to ache a bit on the stairmill so for the last 3 minutes I slowed it down so my HR dropped to around 120.
 
Over the past week I've had to be up early almost every day and it's really been sapping my energy. I skipped the gym on Friday to save energy for Saturday because my friend wanted me to check out a new MMA gym with him. Unfortunately he bailed so I didn't end up going. I'm still quite tired today so I skipped the top set of squats and then did some push-ups and inverted rows. Tomorrow should be the last day I have to be up early and then I can finally get some solid sleep.

Mon April 28, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Squats
45x8
95x5
135x3
165x2
195x5
225x5
(+belt)
255x5
285x5

Then I supersetted push-ups (3x10) and inverted rows (3x12). Blah.

In other news I might be doing the Spartan Sprint on June 7. It's a shorter version of the Spartan Race (5k, 15 obstacles) which is the same idea as Tough Mudder, Warrior Dash etc. I'm waiting on a friend to confirm that he is going to do it (i.e. waiting for him to give me money so I can register us together) and then I'll switch up my training to include more cardio.
 
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Wed April 30, 2014

C2 rower, dynamic stretching

- Deadlifts
45x10
135x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x1
285x1
315x1
345x1
380x1
415x1x4 (singles).

Tough but fair. The first 3 were solid but I overthought the final rep and it sucked. I let my weight get forward and then ramped it a bit on my thighs. Balls.

- DB rows
30x10
65x10
100x10
100x10
100x10

Pretty good.
 
Here is my training plan for the Spartan Sprint. If I like how this goes I'm thinking that I'll run it for the rest of the Summer because in the last little while I've felt like my conditioning and work capacity has been shit. Plus I don't want my conditioning to be complete garbage when I start playing hockey again in the Fall.

For squats I'm going to follow the 5/3/1 rep scheme but I'm going to fit it all into two weeks. So Week 1 I'll do 5's on Monday and 3's on Thursday. Then Week 2 I'll do 5/3/1 on Monday and Deadlift singles on Thursday. I probably won't use the 90% training max thing because FUCKING YOLO MOTHERFUCKERS!!

My shoulders seem to like DB bench so that's what I'm going to do. My plan is to do 3 sets of 8-12 reps and once I can do 12 with a weight I'll add 5 lb and go back to 8 reps. I figure the race will have a bunch of obstacles where I have pull myself up and over things so pull-ups are a bit more specific than rows.

I'm continuing with my beard growth/weight loss challenge so hopefully I'll be under 210 for the race, under 205 would be even better. I've been doing well and have limited the junk food to a couple Starbucks cookies, a couple Tim Horton's bagel BELTs, and some beer (during UFC 172) over the past couple weeks and my weight is down to the 214-216 range, so I'm down about 5 lb in 5 weeks which is good.

- Monday
Squat
DB Bench
DB Rows

- Tuesday
Roadwork 2.0 (LISS rotating between cardio machines)
Pull-ups (time permitting)

- Wednesday
Rest. Though I've been considering using Wednesday for a mobility day.

- Thursday
Squat/Deadlift (alternating weekly)
DB bench
Pull-ups

- Friday
Roadwork 2.0 (LISS rotating between cardio machines)
Pull-ups (time permitting)

- Saturday
Some sort of interval training (will depend on my weekend plans but I should be able to do this most weekends except for the upcoming one)

- Sunday
Rest

If anyone has any comments feel free to chip in.
 
Thurs May 1, 2014

Conditioning

- C2 rower: 10 minutes
- Treadmill: 12 minutes
- Stairmill: 15 minutes

37 minutes total, HR in the 135-140 range. My forearms were burning on the C2 (probably due to the heavy deadlifts and rows yesterday) so I cut that a bit short and added the time to the stairmill.
 
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