Week 23 - Cruise Control

Day 1 - 19/12/2011

Motivation Level: High
Energy Levels: High
Sleep: 4hrs

Recovery
The value for overnight rest is misleading a little. Nocturnal mode was activated as of Friday evening and most of the sleeping was done during the day, LULZ!

Routine - AM
Fasted (IF): 8hrs 30min
Routine: Analogue stationary bike 20min (9min hill climb @ 3min intervals)
Duration: 20min

Notes - AM
Short and sweet. Despite the activities that I engaged in over the weekend, this morning’s session was business as usual so to speak. Sweat-fest it was, but was not expected.

Routine - PM
Fasted (IF): 12hrs 30min
Routine: Back
Duration: 1hr 45min

• 5min Treadmill incline LISS warm up
• Cable row: 6x50kg 6x50kg 6x70kg 6x100kg 11x125kg 8x125kg 6x125kg 6x100kg 6x100kg 6x80kg 6x80kg 6x100kg (PB-R/PB-S)
• Dumbbell row: 6x30kg 6x42.5kg 6x60kg 6x60kg 8x60kg 10x60kg 6x60kg (PB-R)
• Barbell shrug: 6x70kg 6x70kg 6x120kg 6x120kg 8x170kg 6x170kg 15x70kg
• Pendlay row (under grip): 8xBar 8xBar 6x60kg 6x60kg 6x80kg 6x100kg 3x100kg 12x60kg

Notes - PM
Top session. Strength levels have been increased with two repetition based PBs, some dirty sets are now partially dirty, and the dirty repetitions at certain sets are now noticeably less dirty. This combined with the observation of a steady gain of numbers (see Nutrition notes) in the scales along with the fact that I just spent the past two weeks deloading indicates a very bright green light at how I’ve approached certain things thus far. I’ve purposely avoided my usual ritual of starting off these back sessions with pull ups/chin ups/etc. to mix things up a little. You could say a mini-deload for those routines for now. Onto the session.

Cable rows: strong. Form was fantastic on all sets with the exception on the later parts of the sets at 100kg and 125kg. These aren’t as dirty as they used to be and that’s my approach, pick a dirty weight, clean that shit up, move up to another dirty number, rinse and repeat. It’s a sensible approach as I do this with safety, ie. wrong parts aren’t getting sore, the right ones are, as expected are and that’s all that matters. Repetition based PB here, all good. Dumbbell rows are a much missed routine and were clean as usual with the exception of maybe the last two repetitions of a set or two at 60kg. When looking at the volume involved, that’s a good rate. 60kg are the max weight and I don’t mind sticking to these and working on my repetition counts instead. 2 of 2 PBs, repetition based. Sweet as her nipples. Barbell shrugs saw the first signs of fatigue but all in all, still pretty strong. Concentrated on having shoulders touch the ear and each repetition had a brief hold at the top. The later parts of the 170kg sets perhaps may have been a bit dirty but not as bad as I’ve seen others’ (in a public gym of course) where no holds are performed and the routine looks like a fucking combination of squat, triple extension, and a bad 1/64 version of a Romanian deadlift. It’s hard to explain. Pendlay rows were sweet also but fatigue showed. The later parts of the 80kg sets as well as majority of the 100kg sets were dirty but as I noted earlier, not as dirty as they used to be. So there is progress.

All in all, a top session being the first day back from a two week deloading phase and fresh from a two night piss up over the weekend. I can’t complain at all.

Nutrition
Total: 3,000 calories
Protein: 350g
Fat: 50g
Carbohydrates: 236g
Meals: 2

Notes
Renamed intentions starting this week due to the fact that weight-ins have actually either been stable and/or on the mild increase of 1kg ever 4 weeks. If this rate continues then I’m finally going to hit 74kg this time next week. Can’t complain considering strength is hopefully up, which is to be determined by the PB counts by the end of this week but I’m feeling I’ll get a few down. As well as composition levels haven’t been compromised at all. Nothing has changed really, I’ve simply been a little more flexible over the weekend. A normal tension day template applies today and the dish for the week is my awesomesauce (healthier version) of Adobo. The REAL adobo, Filipino style. None of this franchise burrito pile of horseshit.
The weekend was VERY flexible, not counted (because that’s what anal-retentive fucks would do, paranoid toxic so-called health freaks). Weekend nutrition consisted of pizzas, deep fried awesomesauce chips, bags of 15 pieces of chicken, and a fucktarded amount of alcohol (near constant from Friday 7PM, ramped up from 10PM, then kept at a constant with a sleep in between towards 2AM Sunday morning). Last time I drank in similar amounts and duration, was at the coast, rented a beach house over two nights, some cigaweeds were also involved as well as other stupid shit and the occasional standing crunches. Even though this weekend wasn’t as bad, alcohol amounts were similar over the same duration but no standing crunches were done (I’m quite proud of this, this is a new PB) and I started feeling awesomesauce as of yesterday afternoon whereas the coastal one recovery dragged on throughout the first two days of the training week.

Damage Control

• N/A

Notes
Quads/hamstrings are the only sore body parts and today marks day 4 since last week’s leg day was last done. Those widow-makers are fan-fucking-tasically awesome and I have a good feeling about that routine for improving strength and putting on some muscle size so they will be a keeper for me. Absolutely fuck all stretching, and injured tricep tendon physio routines were done over the weekend. Also, no tricep conditional work along with broxperimentals were done, although even after the series of events over the weekend, I still had to use up a fair bit of energy and control to hold back from not training last night. The lateral epicondylitis situation is still evident and my phsyio was right. Leaving zero activities for this worsens the condition and it was consistently evident throughout the weekend. I will soon acquire a list of basic routines I can apply to strengthen and relieve this minor challenge. One final thing, throat viral shit is still evident but seems to be undergoing a slow but steady improvement.

Day 2 - 20/12/2011

Motivation Level: High
Energy Levels: High
Sleep: 7hrs+

Recovery
Sufficient but pretty broken, leaving a slow’ish start to the morning. Not a problem at all.

Routine - AM
Fasted (IF): 9hrs 30min
Routine: Analogue stationary bike 20min (9min hill climb @ 3min intervals)
Duration: 20min

Notes - AM
Solid. Warmed me up nicely. An early morning pre-workout workout for my PM workout.

Routine - PM
Fasted (IF): 14hrs
Routine: Barbell Snatches Practice
Duration: 80min

• 5min Treadmill incline LISS warm up
• Barbell snatch: 5x40kg 5x40kg 5x50kg 5x55kg 0x60kg(2) 3x50kg 5x50kg 5x55kg 1x57.5kg 1x57.5kg 1x57.5kg 5x50kg
• Plank: 195s
• Barbell Turkish Get up: 2x20kg 1R/1L

Notes - PM
Some ups, some down. It’s great that I can identify these things and tweak things as I go along. I was expecting to be able to progress through to 60kg today but alas, I didn’t. I had two failed attempts on set 5. It’s funny how 57.5kg seems achievable and yet I could not complete the movement with an extra 2.5kg. In three sessions over 12 days (during my non-tension days), my progression looks like the following:

Session 1 - 08/12/2011 - Coach assisted
10x40kg 10x40kg

Session 2 - 15/12/2011 - No coach
5x40kg 5x40kg 5x45kg 5x50kg 5x50kg 5x50kg 5x55kg 5x55kg 5x50kg 5x50kg

Session 3 - (Today) - No coach
5x40kg 5x40kg 5x50kg 5x55kg 0x60kg(2) 3x50kg 5x50kg 5x55kg 1x57.5kg 1x57.5kg 1x57.5kg 5x50kg

The last set of today’s barbell snatches was probably the best. I say this because my mind kinda switched on. I was more aware. I felt that throughout the earlier stages of the routine that I was a little lazy, the ooomph momentum lacked, bar travel got too far from my body, I wasn’t getting under the bar, and all in all, not very efficient at all. It’s amazing how much better I felt when I forced myself to become more conscious. I guess grinding/practicing this movement over time and time again will allow this movement to become more natural. Various parts of my body will remember the hows, wheres, and whats of this movement as to relieve my mind from thinking too hard about this and that. I will be conducting research in the next couple of nights as to how to develop this movement. And by all means not copy someone else’s plan that they have used or preach about, but read up on a lot of ideas, grab similarities and perhaps modify it for my own. I’m far from stupid and I’m not lazy. I’ve seen many, whether it is in the nutritional field and what not, thinking “oh shit he is strong he looks great hey I’ll copy what he does so when I grow up I’ll just be like him” bullshit. This is one thing I keep trying to enforce for others’. Identify the basic principles but don’t copy everything to the dot. What works for someone else has a high probability that it won’t work for you, or perhaps even do more damage to you.

As for the lateral epicondylitis situation, MUCH MUCH better compared to last weeks’ session. I’ve been compiling a small list of exercises I’ve been doing in and out of the office that does in fact relieve the situation. Even in between sets. I was far far less lazy compared to last week during the first half of the movement so the movement will not be flagged under Damage control.

Planks were for shits and giggles as were the barbell Turkish get ups.

Nutrition
Total: 2,000
Protein: 248g
Fat: 100g
Carbohydrates: 30g
Meals: 1

Notes
LG/IF (pretty much a SKD on an off-day) day, standard non-tension template. Energy intake is rough only with a range between 2,000 and 2,500. I switched to smooth peanut butter, for my dessert. So awesomesauce.

Damage Control

• N/A

Notes
Wheels are still sore, wow. I’m on the 5th day since my leg session last week. Seriously, widowmakers fuck you up real good. Back, especially the upper portion and trapezius are fucking sore also, beautiful. Tricep tendon daily loading/conditioning as well as pectoral and back stretches were done over night. I’ve found some daily exercises in which I can do even in the office for the lateral epicondylitis situation and so far it is actually very promising. The dormant time overnight usually leaves my elbow stiff until I’ve done some sort of heavy lifting which relieves it but so far on my first day of compiling together a small list after some intarwebs investimagation, I’ve felt a massive improvement this morning.

Day 3 - 21/12/2011

Motivation Level: High
Energy Levels: High
Sleep: 6hrs 20min

Recovery
Late night, kind of expected. Still feeling rested. I must note that I’ve been taking some Orange Triads over the past month or so and I ran out last week. It’s a multi-V which is supposed to much stronger than your off-the-counter variants. I’ll leave the next week or two without any form of multi-V and see if there is any notable difference without them but thus far, I don’t feel any different.

Routine - AM
Fasted (IF): 9hrs
Routine: Analogue stationary bike 20min (9min hill climb @ 3min intervals)
Duration: 20min

Notes - AM
All warmed up, these brief sessions have served me well as a warm up pre-workout workout for my afternoon sessions.

Routine - PM
Fasted (IF): 13hrs
Routine: Chest/Shoulders
Duration: 2hr 45min (60min unintended break)

• 5min Treadmill incline LISS warm up
• Incline dumbbell press (45 degrees): 10x30kg 10x30kg 6x40kg 6x45kg 6x50kg 6x60kg 8x65kg 3x70kg 6x60kg 6x65kg 8x50kg (PB-W)
• Flat bench dumbbell flye: 6x30kg 6x30kg 6x34kg 6x38kg 6x45kg 4x45kg 6x38kg
• Seated barbell military press: 6xBar 6xBar 6x30kg 6x30kg 5x40kg 6x40kg (PB-W)
• Dumbbell isolated side lateral raise: 6x15kg 6x19kg 6x27.5kg 6x27.5kg 6x32.5kg 7x37.5kg (PB-R)
• Dumbbell reverse flye: 6x38kg 6x38kg 6x50kg 6x38kg 6x38kg 6x38kg

Notes - PM
So firstly, there was an unintended interruption from the 1hr mark of this session. My normal heavy tension lifting day in the weights room usually contains 1hr 45min in duration. I found this to be a massive disruption to momentum. Massive. I had passed on some information about CKD, IF, and my blog (my journal which does show my CKD and IF results) to another staff and was caught up for an hour talking. No big deal. I’m not going to through a tantrum like a child. It was for a good cause and I like giving, in and out of my bedroom. *Silence* Anywaaayyyy... onto the session.

It’s a ritual of mine that I start my chest/shoulder days with dips. They are probably my favourite for the chest region. They just hit my nipples that much harder when compared to some heavy pressing. But as I mentioned on Day 1 this week, I’m giving the body weight routines like chins, pulls, and dips a mini-deloading within a non-deloading phase, if that makes sense. Incline presses felt awesome. Now my PB was assisted on the get up before the first rep but I pulled 3 clean repetitions so I’ll count that. Usually my ego back in the day would not even count this, not when ANY portion of the routine was assisted. But considering this is the second time I’ve tracked incline presses this year (LULZ), I’ll let this one pass. Flyes were also pretty good although these were 27kg (13.5kg each arm) away from my PB, these were waaaay cleaner. Arm bends were minimal (within safe levels, not locked like an idiot) throughout the lift, not 45 to 90 degrees bullshit. Plus, I also concentrated on slow and controlled movements. The seated military presses were using an adjustable bench but done inside a power rack. The barbell at the starting position sat under the chin level and at times I would let the bar touch the pins to allow full range of motion. I normally do these presses on a smith machine but I think it’s time to familiarise myself with a bar for this one. And, since they are new for me, I’m marking this as a PB. I felt pretty strong with these and they did not bother my injured tricep tendon. These also prevent cheating in terms of push pressing them using the legs instead of clean controlled presses. Dumbbell isolated lateral raises were dirty at mild levels during the 27.5kg sets and at moderate levels on 32.5kg and 37.5kg, but that’s what it’s about for me and that’s how I progress, clean up the dirty number, pick another dirty number, rinse and repeat. Despite the unintended 60min interruption which started after set 3, I still managed to do OK on the remaining sets however fatigued kicked in nice and fast and was pretty evident during the reverse flyes. And since I was nearing the 3hr mark in the weights room I rushed most of the sets here with minimal rest periods in between set, hence I wasn’t about to even equal the current PB.

Nutrition
Total: 3,000 calories
Protein: 350g
Fat: 50g
Carbohydrates: 236g
Meals: 2

Notes
A crap load of rice, chicken, Milo, choc whey, and milk. Amen.

Damage Control

• Flagged - Dumbbell isolated side lateral raise - 27.5kg and onwards - mild
• Flagged - Dumbbell reverse flye - throughout - mild

Notes
Back including traps are sore at moderate levels. Healing tricep tendon daily loading physio prescribed successfully conducted as well as the usual back/pectoral stretches. Waist down is all clear. The lateral epicondylitis situation flared up a few hours after yesterdays barbell snatch practice. It seems the pain has shifted. Not in addition but some previous basic functions have been relieved of the sharp resonating pain/tingle but new movements that have not been able to produce this have started to. Flagged two delt routines that were done today linking to the right lateral epicondylitis issue on it’s first instance. A 3-strike-you’re out system is in place as always, will monitor as always. Next point of action: a definitive list of exercises to be conducted on a daily basis (already work in progress). I’ll also be dropping the barbell Olympic work on my non-tension/heavy days and since I’m pretty bored with kettlebells at the moment I’ll be implementing some HIIT in sprint form with a slow progression from 75% effort towards 95% effort over this summer period. The extra vitamin D dose should get my arse even whiter than normal.

Day 4 - 22/12/2011

Motivation Level: High
Energy Levels: High
Sleep: 4hrs 20min

Recovery
LULZ....

Routine - AM
Fasted (IF): 8hrs
Routine: Analogue stationary bike 20min (9min hill climb @ 3min intervals)
Duration: 20min

Notes - AM
BAU.

Routine - PM
Fasted (IF): 13hrs
Routine: Vitamin D Goodness
Duration: 45min

• 5min jogging/skipping warm up, 2x around the track
• 10x field length sprints @ 75% 17s-20s range sprint duration + 60s walk (from one edge of field to the other)
• 100x tire flips (entire field length), 10 push ups every 10 flips, total: 100
• 100x tire flips (entire field length), 20 push ups every 10 flips, total: 200

Notes - PM
Orgasmic. I think I’m in love, AGAIN! It’s like a quickie, short but sweet. Weather was perfect and got some decent vitamin D in the process. Sprints felt great with the exception on the 10th sprint where I could feel tightness in my hamstring on the left side (same side as healing injured abdominal wall). The tire flips were by accident and there was a bunch of tires at one corner of the synthetic pitch. I grabbed the biggest one and I thought it would be fun to flip that fucker the entire field length and back. The 10 push ups every 10 flips were just for shits and giggles and trying to be creative. Upped the push up count to 20 during the next field flips and that second round felt better. I could get creative with this and perhaps bring my 24kg or even my 32kg kettlebell and add that to the mix. A prowler and chain would be good too. Hrmmm, so many fucking options to brew more awesomeness in much bigger proportions.

Nutrition
Total: 2,000
Protein: 248g
Fat: 100g
Carbohydrates: 30g
Meals: 1

Notes
Non-tension template. Protein comes first as usual.

Damage Control

• N/A

Notes
Pectoral soreness mild. Upper back and traps soreness mild. All clear. The lateral epicondylitis has undergone a big noticeable improvement, perhaps an approximate of 20% reduction in pain. The complete avoidance of Olympic barbell complexes this afternoon also played a big part, good signs. I could lay off them for a month or so and analyse the status then, for now the outdoor shit will keep me preoccupied. Rain or shine, I’ll keep doing these for a while. Daily tricep tendon loading and pectoral/back stretches maintained at approximately 60mins in duration.

Day 5 - 23/12/2011

Motivation Level: High
Energy Levels: High
Sleep: 5hrs 30min

Recovery
Aaaahh....... again. Distractions.....

Routine - AM
Fasted (IF): 7hrs 30min
Routine: Analogue stationary bike 20min (9min hill climb @ 3min intervals)
Duration: 20min

Notes - AM
No change. Just the usual short pre-workout workout for my afternoon workout.

Routine - PM
Fasted (IF): 12hrs
Routine: Waist down
Duration: 2hrs 15min

• 5min Treadmill incline LISS warm up
• Barbell deadlift (Wide stance): 3x70kg 3x70kg 3x110kg 3x150kg 1x180kg 1x200kg 0x200kg 0x200kg 1x180kg 3x150kg 5x150kg (PB-W)
• Barbell back squat (ATG): 10xBar 10xBar 10x40kg 10x40kg 10x60kg 5x80kg 5x80kg 5x80kg 3x100kg 3x100kg 5x80kg 5x80kg 5x80kg 5x80kg 5x80kg
• Barbell deadlift (Conventional): 5x70kg 5x110kg 4x140kg

Constipation face

Notes - PM
Not a bad session despite being very phlegmy, 2x 24hr fasts over the past 2 days (related to distraction/adjustments to social life), and also only having 11hrs of sleep (again, related and my fault...) in total over the past 48hrs. I’m fairly content with the 200kg pick up on the wide stance but I’m not proud of it as it was a little dirty. Self assessment is great because I took a video of a failed attempt after trying to replicate my first successful 200kg lift @ 73kg, so I got a video/pic taken instead on a known doable weight at 180kg (attached pic, 50% through the movement/hold). It’s a great thing indeed, gotta love technology. Squats were ATG and felt like more hard work compared to when I was doing 5x105kg repetitions. Practiced my breathing and upper body stability/strength preparation during the cool down on my third routine using conventional stance. All in all, could have done better. Not stoked about the 200kg despite the successful albeit dirty lift but it was still a nice way to end the last session for the year 2011. The first year where I wasn’t dedicated to cutting, hence the more attention to detail with strength progression as opposed to the time prior starting 2009 where body composition was the main goal.

Nutrition
Total: 3,000 calories
Protein: 350g
Fat: 50g
Carbohydrates: 236g
Meals: N/A

Notes
Just the usual template. Making adjustments on timing due to social reasons, again. Being flexible but making sure I get my energy intake in, which on a tension day is intended to be in the surplus department.

Damage Control

• N/A

Notes
Chest soreness now ad moderate levels: 6/10 (increased from mild, 2/10 yesterday). Upper back and traps now on Day 5 since training them, now finally at mild soreness levels at 2/10. Bottom down is surprisingly clear after yesterday’s sprints and tyre flips, but impressed at myself that my control at re-introducing sprints considering my mild abdominal wall strain has been spot on. Which is great, because today is a mammoth day for waist down.

Weekend Outlook going Into Week 24

Training
I was provided access to a non-public gym last year, I’m not so anal this year and it would be good to take a break from the elite facilities. Training will be maintained but they’ll be more just “fun” things. Things I can do randomly and anywhere. Things that spring to mind are: how many push ups can I do in a day (aiming at 3,000+), hand stand push ups, more broxperimentals with the broceps, tricep conditional work with what I’ve got at home (moderate weight dumbbell and heavy kettlebells), etc. No logging will occur.

Nutrition
Flexible... No logging will occur.

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