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Strength in Interesting Places

Conditioning and fun day

1. LISS: Treadmill jog 50 minutes, 8.5kmph
2. Yoga: about 30 minutes

So, I slowed the running down a little bit and decided to get some good, easy duration (which is what LISS is about). I was going to go for an hour, but some potential sore spots which could turn into blisters started to turn up, so I cut it at 50 minutes. But it was just fine.

Yoga was pretty good, although it is not the easiest thing getting straight into it after a longish run. I'm doing my own sequence and have omitted a lot of stuff, but what I am keeping is mainly stuff to stretch the legs, hips, glutes and to a lesser extent the lower back and shoulders. Quite a few of the stretches would seem to hit the psoas, IT band and piriformis, which I hope will be beneficial. Anyway, it feels great afterwards.
 
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Conditioning and goofing off day

1. C2 rower: 5000m/30 minutes (pretty darn slow & easy)
2. Overhead squats: did a bunch of overhead presses with light dumbbells, working up to a few presses with the bar; did a bunch of power cleans working up to 30kg; did a bunch of overhead squats first with a broomstick and then with a 10kg 1" bar which we have for some reason; all this was basically warmup for doing 3x3 overhead squats with a regular, empty bar.

I am not really used to going for longer periods on the rower, and have never done OHS with weight except 1 or 2 singles with the bar about 6 months ago. So just going really easy with both of them. I'll try to do OHS with the bar again during the coming week, try to get 3x5 or 5x5 or something. I have a vague plan to make these a regular goofing off exercise- just something to do when I want to spend some extra time in the gym.
 
Kabul: Week Three, Weights Session One

Warmup
5 mins on C2 rower, bodyweight squats, bodyweight GMs, overhead squats with broom

Lower body/PC: squats
20kg x5, x5
40kg x3, x3
60kg x2, x2
80kg x1, x1
95kg x3, x3, x3, x3, x3

Upper body press: barbell bench
15lbs x10, x10 (dumbbell)
8kg x3, x3 (dumbbell)
20kg x3, x3
25kg x2, x2
30kg x1, x1
35kg x5, x5, x5, x5, x5

Upper body pull: barbell row
15lbs x10 (dumbbell)
15kg x5, x5 (dumbbell)
65kg x5, x5, x5, x5, x5

* * * * * * * * *
Notes
Got up at 6AM today so I could go to the gym. Wanted to be done quickly, so I only did the basic exercises- back in my room in exactly an hour. Will do assistance and probably some easy conditioning in the evening.

Everything was fine today. Squats felt decent, bench was comfortable, rows were good, although these will start to get heavy soon.
 
Are you pausing your reps when you bench? Are you benching with heels flat on the ground?
 
Tosa said:
Are you pausing your reps when you bench? Are you benching with heels flat on the ground?
Click to expand...

All reps paused, and I am doing them at a measured speed, except the last set whuch I am doing a bit quicker but not explosively. But my heels are up, and I'm pressing off the balls of my feet.
 
JauntyAngle said:
Edit... in retrospect, don't want too many shirtless pictures of me in this log. Those who missed these, just imagine a somewhat jakt management consultant in his late 30s. Got it? Good.

Once I have a proper sequence of weekly pics, I may still put some up though.
Click to expand...

ig40l.gif
 
You could try benching with your heels flat. It'll force you to moderate your arch and leg drive a bit. So just a way to get a little bit more training effect out of the weight you're currently using.
 
Tosa said:
You could try benching with your heels flat. It'll force you to moderate your arch and leg drive a bit. So just a way to get a little bit more training effect out of the weight you're currently using.
Click to expand...

I am genuinely not sure whether I should be looking for this. Mentally, I am thinking of myself not as training my bench press or developing my overall bench strength, I am thinking of myself as rebuilding the strength of my rotator cuff and enabling it to withstand the demands of bench pressing. I am not sure if mechanically disadvantaging myself in the bench will help, hinder or be neutral with respect to this process.

Once I am convinced that the strength of my rotator cuff is restored than I will be primarily targeting strength, and then I can definitely see the logic of trying to get more muscular effort with less load.
 
Evening session

"50/20" assistance
5x10 Lying Tricep extensions-bar +25kg
4x9 barbell lunges each side- 40kg
19:00 total

Others
Six back iso-holds, 3 sets, 10 seconds each hold
Ab circuit- failed on second set
Foam rolling IT band and shins

* * * * * * *
Notes
Finished off from this morning, by doing my assistance. 50/20 lunges are just horrible, but I am improving quite a bit. Will get 50 reps next time. As I have said before, 50/20 seems to be a great protocol for getting swolt. If I can stick at this for a while, could be some very good results in both jaktness and, less importantly, strength.
 
Logentry031012.jpg


Notes
- Trying out a new format for my log entries. Comments welcome.
- LISS was fine. Nice to get an hour in. After doing 50 minutes 3 days ago and then rowing for half an hour 2 days ago I am starting to feel like less of a slob.
- Just light, fun weights to finish. Keeping it light, especially on the front shoulders.
 
Jaunty Update With An Appropriate Focus on S&C

So, plans now firming up rapidly.

I'm out of Kabul on Monday, which is time for 3-4 more lifting sessions and a few conditioning sessions, then to Chiang Mai. Planning to stay for 6 nights. Could be a little rough as it will be the first time back since initiating the separation with my wife. At least being in Chiang Mai I will have access to a proper gym so will be able to continue proper training for a while.

I head to Duabi on around the 14th, spend a couple of nights there and then to the UK on the 16th. That will mean a couple of crappy hotel workouts. This time I guess I will stay down by the beach.

I'll be headed up to my folks' place in the borders of Scotland, and will be there for much of the next two weeks. Haven't been there for 6 years, I think. It is really quite a nice area and should have some great runs. There's also a big "leisure centre" pretty close to their house which has a gym and a pool, but I have no idea what the gym is like. Surely they must have a squat rack? But at the least I will be able to run, and will certainly be able to do weights in some form. There will be trips to Newcastle and London to see friends, and we can expect exercise to go out of the window for these.

Headed back to Kabul in early November, and I will be here for around two weeks. So once again, decent gym and some cardio stuff. After that, back to Thailand, where I am planning a diving holiday for a couple of weeks. The place I will go to does actually have a reasonably well-equipped gym nearby. So for those two weeks I will be gloriously active- diving or snorkeling or both every day, and also getting 2-3 gym sessions a week. I am expecting to be back in Kabul shortly after that, maybe mid-December, to start up a big new project

So basically I am all over the place (again) for the next two months, but I reckon it should be possible to get reasonable consistency in my S&C&J work.
 
041012.png


Was not feeling great today, but dragged my ass down to the gym and had a full session: three main lifts, 50/20 assistance and girls' pushups for teh pump in the chesticles.

The deadlifts felt fine, no back issues. Still light of course, so we need to see. The overhead presses feel smooth and light as a feather, as they should. Can't wait to go heavier. My chins still feel harder than they should. With the assistance, GMs and curls day is the easiest 50/20 day that I am doing but GMs are just starting to get a little harder and curls are now a little too heavy for me to get in sets of 10- I am tiring and having to add "catch up" reps at the end now. But I still got my 50.

Having some slight technical issues with the new log format- losing a bit of resolution when I am setting these up. Will continue to refine.
 
Thats a fantastic way to post your workouts, You pretty much force the workouts into a off-topic picture. The negative with this idea is that no one will read what you did! :)
 
CRZA said:
Thats a fantastic way to post your workouts, You pretty much force the workouts into a off-topic picture. The negative with this idea is that no one will read what you did! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks! I prefer to think that my posting method makes an off-topic picture into a part of an on-topic post. :)

It's true that the lifting information isn't very prominent. At the moment that isn't such an issue, but if I do anything that I am proud of, I can make that part more prominent- bigger font, dedicated area of the picture for text, blur or grey out the background picture, that sort of thing. So it's a work in progress... I will improve it over time.
 
please don't post logs in picture form, it just makes your log larger in size than it needs to be - pictures are larger in kb than text by a considerable margin, which means there is more to load, which puts stress on the servers, which is the whole point of locking the logs at 1k.
 
Uber BAM said:
please don't post logs in picture form, it just makes your log larger in size than it needs to be - pictures are larger in kb than text by a considerable margin, which means there is more to load, which puts stress on the servers, which is the whole point of locking the logs at 1k.
Click to expand...

Dammit.

Okay.
 
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