Return of the King

Saturday January 30th: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
90kg - 10x3

Barbell Row
50kg - 10x6
---
Barbell Curl
30kg - 3x8
---
Run (Treadmill) - Couch to 5k week 8 day 2
- incline 2
- Run 28 mins
- Started run at 10kmph and increased by 0.1kmph every 3 minutes.. which brought me up to 10.9kmph at the end
---

Bench & row supersets took 1hr 15 mins in total. Pretty knackered getting through it to be honest. 90kg feels heavier than it should, but got it done.

Cut the reps per set on the barbell rows from the usual 10 to 6. The theory here is that each set of bench was 270kg volume (90kg x 3reps) so barbell rowing 50kg x6 (300kg volume) more than equalizes that. No point in going for 10 sets of 10 reps and being totally depleted before the run.

Curls were curls.

Run was a debacle. Prior to it I had been listenng to various podcasts whilst I did my bench/rows/curls. Towards the end a TED podcast on "the dying experience" (or similar) came on. It was incredibley morbid. It kicked in just as I was unracking the 10th set of bench and I most have made the set about 10% heavier. Funnily enough I had killed than podcast a few days before whilst Squatting as didn't want to listen to it, but the iphone was jumbling the order randomily and played that one next in the playlist.

This topic of death had me all melancholy and I was seriously almost in tears. I find this happens me a lot when I train alone (the melancholy bit), especially without driving music or if listening to something soothing such as a podcast/background music. I often end up thinking about my childhood/family/life experiences, etc.

Anyway I get out of the gym (my shed gym) and head to the treadmill (in the apt complex gym on another floor). I was so out of it after that podcast that I forgot to take off my elbow sleeves, plus forgot to set a walking warm up speed... so instead lunged straight into the run with no warm up at 10kmph.

Struggled on like this for about 1 minute wondering why everything felt so off, then realized I still had the hoody on, plus elbow sleeves and death podcast. Nearly tripped myself up taking them all off whilst still running. Got through the run in the end but was feeling very odd.

Wednesday February 3rd: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 6x6 ... fine
**add slingshot**
90kg - 1x3
100kg - 1x3
105kg - 1x3

Barbell Row
60kg - 6x8
---
BB Curl
20kg - 3x12

Sumo Deadlift
70kg - 1x5
120kg - 3x3
---
Run (Treadmill) - Couch to 5k week 8 day 3
- incline 2
- run 28 mins
- started at 10kmph and increased by 0.1kmph every 3 minutes.. until 20 mins when I started increasing by 0.1kmph every minute. This took me up to about 11.5kmph at the end and 4.9km total in distance
---

Bench felt better than usual. Probably because I took an extra day between the Military Press on Monday and Benching today (Wednesday).

Increased the Barbell Rows by 10kg to 60kg and choose the reps to equal exactly the Bench volume per set (i.e. 480kg)

Was just going through the motions on the run but decided after the half way point to try push it a bit faster at the end to break 5km. Just missed it by 100m, doing 4.9km instead. That is the furthest I've run in years. Will increase the pace a bit earlier next time.

As a reminder I have two running goals (treadmill vs. outdoors - who cares):
1) Run 5km distance in one go
2) Run 5km in 25 mins

Not too far off the first one now and will break it in the coming days when the time limit on the run goes from 28 mins to 30. The next challenge will be increasing the pace overall to get through the 5km in 25 mins..

Saturday February 6th: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
85kg - 7x5

Barbell Row
60kg - 7x8
---
Barbell Curl
30kg - 3x10
---
Run (Treadmill) - Couch to 5k week 9 day 1
- incline 2
- Run 30 mins (broke 5km distance after 29:16)
---

Running goal #1 achieved: Run 5km.

Started run at 9kmph and increased by 0.1kmph every minute until 27 minutes where I was feeling a bit bit gassed and reduced from 11.6kmph to to 10kmph, then 9.5kmph at 28 minutes and finally 9kmph at 29 minutes.

Hit 5km distance at 29:16 so first running goal achieved with time to spare. Knew that I could ease off the pace in the last 3 mins and make it to 5km ok. Next time I'll try to keep pushing the pace for the last 3 mins also and see where that gets me. No point in totally going for broke today when I have 2 more run sessions left on this couch to 5km plan.

Bench felt pretty good groove-wise: 85kg - 7x5 paused was ok. Did lots of band pull aparts with scap retraction between each bench/row superset. Fatigued slightly from Military Press yesterday.

Rows were 480kg per set (60kg x8) to over compensate for the 425kg per bench set (85kg x5). Fine.

Threw in some curls as usual to prevent pipe wastage: 30kg - 3x10.

Weighed myself after breakfast and was 81.6kg on home scales (i.e. including breakfast & a few cups of tea in the belly). Probably lost a bit more fat and gained a bit more muscle in the past 3 weeks since Dexa scan #2 so will be interesting to see how the body recomp is going at next Dexa scan in 5 weeks at Dexa scan #3.

Monday February 8th: Squat Deload

Squat (low bar)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 3x5
---
Military Press
50kg - 3x8

Front Squat
50kg - 3x8
---
RDL
20kg - 1x8
30kg - 1x8
40kg - 1x8
---

Military Press hit the milestone of 50kg 3x8. Felt alright. Video'd first set - see below. 2nd and 3rd sets I was more concious of making sure I was setting up with shoulders even. I get the feeling that the right shoulder sits lower than the left and causes a bit of unevenness on both Bench & overhead pressing.

Squats: Did the first set of 60kg x5, then proceeded to unrack 80kg. Stood there with it for a few seconds before racking it and taking a super easy session by finishing off with another two sets of 60kg x5. Plan today was to go up to 100kg 2x5 but everything feeling a bit sluggish Squat wise so will take this final deload and then back to 100kg 2x8 as the first day of new program when I Squat on Thursday.

Front Squats fine. Video's first set. See below.

RDLs: adding these back in for a bit of hamstring destruction.

Hanley wrote: »

Bumpers, Eleiko PL set and ER rack?

What's your address again.

...also, send airfare.

2 bars:
- 1 Eleiko (for mainly comp lifts). Got a 10% discount plus the 2014 price (vs 2015 when I bought it) as I had a pre-existing quote from the year before
- 1 good quality local Australian powerbar (for supersets/assistance)

Rack:
- ER Rack. Got a great deal on it new direct from Denmark.

Weight Plates/Bumpers
- Same brand as the local Australian powerbar above. Little difference between these and Eleiko bumpers except the branding which is stamped on them as they come out of a Chinese factory
- Full size bumper plates: 4x red 25kg, 2x blue 20kg, 2x yellow 15kg, 2x green 10kg, 2x black 5kg
- Fractional plates: 2x red 2.5kg, 2x blue 2kg, 2x green 1kg, 2x white 0.5kg

Weight Tree:
- Same brand as the local Australian powerbar above.

Gym Floor Mats (12.15 metres square):
- picked these up as one of my old gyms was doing a re-flooring exercise which happened to match up exactly with when I was setting up the home gym a few months back.
- Width 2.7m (3 x 0.9m mats) and Length 4.5m (5 x 0.9m mats)
- it's slightly inspiring to know that in the past some great lifters have trodden on these mats
- these would have ended up in the dump if I didn't take them
- most of the gym floor is double layered with these mats. Was just 1 short of getting total double coverage. That single layered square is by the entrance and not a lifting spot so dosen't matter really

Dumbbells:
- 2 adjustable ones which go up to 10kg each. Too light to be honest. Ok for rehab/prehab. Got these years ago in London and need to upgrade to get some additional plates to load on

Bands:
- Light mini band from local Australian supplier (as per powerbar)

Chalk:
- local Aussie as per above

Sound System:
- UE Megabook (the bigger version - v2.0?). Great sound and works with blue tooth connected to iphone for your music library or stream spotify. Recently I've gone off training with blaring music though and just listen to podcasts on my iphone headset. I find this distracts me nicely and I get through the workouts without some much need for adrenaline, or something.

What is missing?
- Pull up bar. Need to figure out which one would suit the shed wall/roof configuration
- Chalk bowl. Won't bother with one. Use a tupperware container on ground by Squat rack instead and does the job fine.
- A couple more 20kg and 5kg plates might make superset loading slighty less of a maths problem. Sometimes when supersetting Bench and Deadlifting/Rowing I realize that the one plate I need is the first one I loaded onto the other bar and couldn't be arsed unloading it to get at it. First world problems.
- Blocks for Rack pulls
- Straps for heavier rows / messing about
- Heavier Dumbbells

Thursday February 11th: Squat

Squat (low bar)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
**add belt & wrist wraps**
100kg - 2x8 ... working sets
70kg - 2x12 ... drop sets & super close stance to hit quads
---
Military Press
51kg - 3x7

Front Squat
51kg - 3x7
---
Dips
bodyweight - 3x3

Ham Curls (band)
3 sets of random high-ish reps experimenting with both together and single leg variations
---

Took me a while to get going. Pace was pretty slow.

Squat working sets were alright but I can tell my body isn't keen on all the running combined with Squats, heavy overheads and heavy bench. Everything has been building up and up in recent weeks and will be glad once the final (long) run is over tomorrow so I can back off the distance and work on speed over shorter distances.

Added an extra drop off set with a super close stance on Squats. Quads were on fire after each set with only 70kg. Interesting. Typically my normal Squat stance, even when heavy, dosen't seem to destroy my legs too much DOMS wise as I thing I'm slighty posterior change dominant / quad weak. Hence the extra close stance sets.

Front Squats for more quad muscle growth. Weight still handy enough and concentration on form. Took grip in to right on the edge of knurl which seemed quite comfy... which is odd as previously that was an awkward position for me.

Military Press felt pretty good. Was almost going to reset back down to nothing today and ramp back up in the coming month or two... but thought I should keep pushing on. Glad I did.

Added in some experimental exercises at the end for variety. Things are getting a bit stale mentally and I'm looking to incorporate new stuff to keep it fresh.

Dips: I don't have parallel bars for Dipping... but realized that if I put the two powerbars parallel to each other across the power-rack safetys... well, then I do! Just did 3x3 to get a feel for the rig, which was fine. Didn't want to destroy myself ahead of final heavy bench of this wave tomorrow.

Ghetto Ham Curls: Saw these on Matt Vincents youtube channel recently. Hook a band to a bar in the rack. Sit back a few metres & wrap back around ankles. Secure optionally with wraps. Ham Curl away. Alternatively I could just have went upstairs into the complex gym... but that would have meant mingling with the great unwashed masses... and the things I've seen up there in recent times from my vantage point on the treadmill convinced me to stay put in my shed.

Saturday February 13th: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
95kg - 6x3 ... alright

Barbell Row
50kg - 6x8
---
Sumo Deadlift (off 10kg bumper plates, double overhand)
50kg - 1x5
100kg - 3x3

Barbell Curl
30kg - 3x8
---
Run (Treadmill) - Couch to 5k week 9 day 3
- incline 2
- Run 30 mins (broke 5km distance after 27:12)
---

Benching 95kg 6x3 was ok. Had a day off since last overhead pressing which helped a bit with recovery. On the 2nd or 3rd set I managed to rack the bar precariously on the hook instead of in it. Noticed just in time and adjusted. Safetys were set correctly anyway, but it goes to show that you cannot get complacent. 95kg falling on me would have made a bad day.

Interestingly another podcast on the topic of Death ("rethinking Death" from the TED podcast to be precise) came on in the midst of my Bench worksets. On the final set, just as I unracking the bar, there was a paramedic talking about his experiences dealing with fatally injured people at motor crash sites. I thought about changing the podcast but didn't want to mentally give into the weight let it know that its buddy Death and got into my head.

Sumo Deadlift off 10kg bumpers for the sake or variety and to see how that feels as a prep for going heavier in future. Rolls around a bit but workable. Really need to get back into Deadlifting more. It's always an afterthought if I have time at the moment.

Run saw me complete the Couch to 5km programme. Started off at 10.1kmph and increased by 0.2kmph each minute until was up to 11.5kmph. Then I started increasing by 0.1kmph every 2 mins. Got to 3km distance in 16:00 mins then decided to ramp down to 10.1kmph again as was feeling a bit gassed. After this breather for a minute I started increasing again by approx 0.1kmph each minute. Towards the end I made the increases every 30 seconds. Once I hit 5km distance at 27:12 I went back down to 8kmph fro the final few mins.

Successful feeling to have completed the entire Couch to 5km. Will have a think about what I'll do next running wise. Enjoyed it and feel "fitter" than just lifting weights. May concentrate on increasing my 3km times and HIIT sprints before returning to the challenge of running 5km in <25 mins in the next couple of months. Also may move from treadmill to outdoors as getting a bit tired of having to wait for a treadmill or generally put up with other people doing silly things in apt complex gym.

Tuesday February 16th: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
75kg - 6x6 ... easy

Barbell Row
70kg - 3x5

Deadlift (conventional)
70kg - 3x5
---
Barbell Curl
20kg - 3x12
---
Run (Treadmill)
- incline 1
- walk 5 mins, run 5 mins (starting at 10kmph and increasing by 0.5kmph every minute)
---

Lightest bench of the next 6 week cycle. Day 1 of 12. Will peak with 100kg 6x3.

Increased weight on Barbell Rows. Could overall row sets in half and used sets 4-6 for Conventional Deadlifting instead.

Took Deadlift grip out to half way between knurl and rings. Helps avoid knees bashing arms and seems a more comfy position. Being extra vigilant on setup given past history of Conventional Deadlifts and my back not getting on.

Some curls & a short deload run to finish off. Shins a bit battered for the couch to 5km programme and want to give them time to recover a bit whilst still keeping the running up.

Friday February 19th: Bench

Bench (all paused)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 6x5 ... done in 30 mins with rows/deadlifts below

Barbell Row
70kg - 3x5 ... slightly sloppy

Deadlift (sumo)
70kg - 1x5
110kg - 3x3
---
Barbell Curl
30kg - 3x8
---
Run (Treadmill)
- incline 1
- walk 5 mins, run 6 mins (starting at 10kmph and increasing by 0.6kmph every minute)
---

30 mins flat to do bench/rows/deadlifts. All pretty light except rows which were sloppy at that weight.

Run was short again but up to 13kmph at the end. Working up to faster speeds over shorter distances.

Monday February 22nd: Squat

Split Squat
bodyweight - 3x5 per leg (1st set from ground, 2nd and 3rd with bumper elevating front leg)
---
Squat (low bar)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
90kg - 1x3
**add belt & wrist wraps**
110kg - 1x3
125kg - 2x5 ... working sets
85kg - 2x12 ... drop sets & high bar with normal stance
---
Military Press
54kg - 3x7 ... right on the edge of my 3x7 pressing abilities

Front Squat
54kg - 3x8 ... fine
---
Heel elevated 45 degrees Squats
bodyweight +10 per arm kg - 3x8

RDL
60kg - 3x8
---
Squats with dip belt standing on a few bumpers per side
bodyweight +10kg - 3x10
---

Squat working sets felt heavy enough. Need to roll my adductors and stretch out my external rotation prior to Squatting. This is something I have overlooked for the past few months. Need to keep knees out more and take a slightly wider stance for more power. Currently feel like I'm coming forward a bit much and taking all the weight on my toes.

Squat drop sets felt good. Went back to a normal stance with these (vs. super close stance I'd used for the past couple of weeks) but kept the high bar grip (where my thumb actually goes around the bar) and the setup felt perfect. Much different than my low bar technique where the bar is half way down my back.

Much other leg trashing went on:
- split Squat
- front Squats
- heel elevated Squast
- RDLs
... and bust out my SpudInc dip belt for some dip belt Squats.

This SpudInc dip belt hasn't seen the light of day since perhaps 7 or 8 years ago in London. It will be used a lot more going forwards for dips/pull ups/dip Squats with the home gym setup.

Warmed up with split Squats as I've been doing the past few sessions. Just bodyweight, but starting to put a bumper plate under the leading leg to get a nice deep dynamic stretch at the bottom.

Military Press 54kg 3x7 was tough. Very close to failure on the last rep. Actually hit myself in the chin on the way up on one of the last reps as my form was all over the place and it was all hands to the pump (get it?) to keep the bar inching upwards at snail pace. Will go to 3x6s for the next couple of sessions. The aim with all this Military Pressing is to get to 60kg 3x5 in the coming weeks... so perhaps 3 sessions of 3x6 and 3 sessions of 3x5 would get me there at the current rate of adding 1kg to the bar each session.

Took 2 hours to do all of the above, including the warm up and throwing some cardboard box trash out of the gym area. Have been listening to the "stuff you missed in History class" podcast a lot recently. Great stuff to train to. Keeps you distracted and unemotionally involved in the heavier sets.

Thursday February 25th: Squat

Split Squat
bodyweight - 3x5 per leg whilst doing band shoulder dislocates
---
Squat (low bar)
20kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
**add belt & wrist wraps**
100kg - 1x2
115kg - 2x8 ... working sets
90kg - 2x12 ... drop sets & high bar
---
Military Press
55kg - 3x6 ... tough first couple of sets Third fine

Front Squat
55kg - 3x8
---
Heel elevated 45 degrees Squats
bodyweight +10kg plate per arm - 3x8

SLDL
65kg - 3x8
---
DB Row (supersized homemade DB)
24kg per side - 1x5
---

Took about 2 hrs 15 mins to do that^^.

Squats worksets were ok. Did some adductor rolling and band distraction stuff on hips to open them out prior to Squatting. Cannot say it made much difference to be honest. Did roll my calves beforehand too... which was very painful and something I don't usually do.

Squat dropsets were again high bar with normal stance. Liking these. 90kg 2x12 with each set done in 1 go (rep after rep after rep) - no standing around breathing or taking a rest half way through the set.

The toughest part was the Military Press after high rep Squats. Felt a bit light headed on the first couple of MP sets. Usually do the MPs paused on chest each rep, but went to touch and go on 2nd set as was getting heavy. This had the weird outcome that I managed to touch the roof with the right side bumper - something I've never done before. Perhaps due to shrugging shoulders up when going TNG caused it to be a bit higher than usual. Went back to paused on chest after nice long break and 3rd set was ok.

Front Squats were ok, but had to take a nice long rest between the sets as I was seeing stars from the prior exertions.

Did SDLs instead of banded hamstring curls. Just got mixed up after so long in there. Superset those with the heel elevated Squats holding plates.

Also rigged up a supersized dumbell using my old non olympic dumbbell handles, some old non olympic sized 1kg plates as washers and a 10kg new oly sized dumbbell plate per side.. to give me a 24kg dumbbell. Will create a second one tomorrow and try doing some DB presses after benching for the laugh. ROM will probably be pretty restricted due to the size of the plates. Actually used them for some rows at the end of the workout today and they felt ok (if slightly limited ROM).

Monday February 29th: Squat

Squat (low bar)
20kg - 1x5
40kg - 1x5
60kg - 1x5
80kg - 1x3
100kg - 1x2
**add belt & wrist wraps**
115kg - 1x1
125kg - 1x1 ... supposed to be 2x6 working sets
95kg - 1x2 ... supposed to be 2x12 drop sets
90kg - 1x3
85kg - 1x4
80kg - 1x5
75kg - 1x6
70kg - 1x7
65kg - 1x8
60kg - 1x9
---
Glute Bridge / Hip Thruster (whatever name I don't know)
20kg - 3x10
---
Ham Curl Machine
setting 3 - 3x12
---
Leg Ext Machine
setting 3 - 3x10
---

Decided to skip my usual 15 minute warm up or foam roller/bands/dynamic stretches etc and just get straight into Squatting. Added in a few more light sets and hoped that Squatting would loosen me out. Not sure if that was the reason but had a bit of a shocker. Unracked 125kg for what should have been 2x6 and racked it after a slow grinder of a 1st rep. Couldn't be arsed grinding out then rest. Same story with the drop sets.

Since the plan was going to hell in a handcart I decided to really mix things up and pyramid down which was good fun - just resting long enough to reload bar for each downward set.

Probably a bit too fatigured coming into today. Everything adding up. Didn't bother trying to Military Press either. Did a few Glute busters which feel odd - never really get the hang of these.

Then went off and did some machines for total muscle confusion.

Interesting.

Thursday March 3rd: Squat

Squat (high bar)
20kg - 1x5
30kg - 1x5
40kg - 1x5
50kg - 1x5
60kg - 3x10 ... nice & easy

Military Press
30kg - 3x12 ... easy
---
SLDL
60kg - 3x10 or 12 ... cannot remember exact reps. Forearms burning though by the end after double overhand grip
---
Calf Raise (weight tree base used to elevate toes for greater ROM)
bodyweight - 3x12
---

Driving back from school / daycare drop-off I decided to YOLO and hopped straight from the parked car into the cage to get training done in record time. Stuck with the warm up being just more light Squats to save time again.

Everything felt great - as it should when it is nice and light.

Did the calf raises using the weight tree base as a step to elevate toes. Held stretch at the end of each set in greatest ROM had my calves on fire. So inflexible. Oh the burn! Won't be able to walk tomorrow. Used my yellow mini band to hook myself to the weight tree so that I could lean back slightly without falling over. Home training is great for ingenuity.

Didn't have my shaker bottle with me as it was an unplanned entrance into gym. Instead drank it, for the sake of protein, after gym which probably wasn't the greatest idea. Had to go meet some people shortly afterwards in the office and the beta-alanine kicked in just as I was arriving causing me to paw my face incessantly like a leper. I usually have a few pre-prepared bottles of protein/creatine/beta-alanine sitting in the cupboard to save time on gym days.

Sunday March 6th:

Swim splashing about