7/17

NG Chins 5,7,12,15

BW: 184 (dressed, shoes)

Walk 1.5 miles

Ortho gave me the go ahead to train again. Waiting a couple more weeks on DB Press or hard climbs. Should be good to generally use my thumb otherwise. Some V0-V1 climbing this weekend might just hit the spot. She also weirdly suggested I back off on the grippers, claiming the wear and tear from grippers and climbing could cause problems considering the missing ligament in my right forearm (martial arts injury). There's only so much dangling and squeezing one can do without getting tendonitis. I'll reduce to once a week

Diet is going well and it appears I will meet my goals by the end of August (<175)

7/16

Rest

7/15

CoC 100 2x5 120 3x5 140 2x2 170 2x1 no close 140 2x2 no close

Walk 3 miles

7/14

A Day (Squats, Reverse Lunge, Planks, TRX lever Rows, One Arm Cable Row, band press, palloff press, metabolic work, etc)

Day A is a dynamic warmup with foam rolling, mobility, activation work, overhead work, some weighted leg work, strength training and PT work, and metabolic work and more foam rolling at the end. Just a solid hour of supersets and PT. Feels pretty good after its done. B Day will involve a larger grip component.

The goal will be to climb 2+ sessions a week on top of 2 of these PT sessions, 1 CoC, and 2 DB Bench sessions

7/13

NG Chins 3x5 3x10 overhand 1x8

Forearms are a little tired

7/20

BW:178.25

PT Day B later. Will attempt a light DB Bench with wrist wraps

7/19

Walk 1.5 miles

CoC 100x5 120 3x5 140 1x3 170 2x1 no close 140 2x3



Getting close. Well past parallel on right.

Next session is in 7 days. May scale back pullups to once a week as well.

7/18 Rest

7/23

PT

NG Chins 3,3,6,10,12

BW:181 dressed

Gym:

Rings 10,8 pull-ups NG

DB Bench 40x12 55x10 65x7

1/10 pain on thumb. Can do these again soon. Not exactly a 21 set pyramid but better than nothing. I'm going to build on these slowly before doing anything crazy again

7/22 rest

7/21 rest

7/20

Walk 1 mile


Diet went well for a while then I had 4 days of higher kcal. Back on track the last few days. I'd like to hit 175 soon and spin my wheels less.

I was going to climb this weekend and bailed. My thumb needs another week or two to be safe

7/25

PT Day B:

Squat lateral walks
1 Arm Full plank
Med ball chest tosses on wall
Farmers walk
kettle bell RDL
Kneeling DB NG OHP 12lb
High Step ups
Cable row
TRX Lever rows
Chest Press to overhead (bands)

Along with the usual dynamic warmup with activation work, marching glute bridges, overhead reaches and med ball taps, squats and reverse lunges, lateral movement, high knees, etc. Warmup is essentially like 10-12 mobility movements.

Was pretty happy I could do the OHP pain free. Will be able to increase weight NP. Thumb pain varied between 0-1/10 throughout the session

Overall I am pretty happy with the PT. A lot of the work I'm doing isn't specific to climbing and more falls in line with GPP. Which seems good. I have no problem with learning to move laterally more efficiently, or doing a volume of moderate intensity injury prevention work, or even just getting better at climbing stairs and improving my cardio (hour of supersets can do that apparently). Improving my lat and shoulder health could be one of the best thing I do for myself physically. In terms of climbing specific training, I do think the GPP element will translate to better performance, and even if all I get out of it is a couple hours a week of injury prevention work and mobility, it seems worth it (I'm paying $20/session to use the gym and get programming, with a group of other athletes with 1-2 coaches supervising). Pushing a sled is also really fun, and anything that makes me work that hard is going to turn out some nice results, even if it doesn't get me to V6

7/24 rest


Rest of week projected:

Weds CoC, rest
Thurs PT Day A
Fri rest
Sat Pullups. climb!
Sun DB Bench, Pt (doing a very easy Day C now, basically all mobility and stretching)

With DB Bench I can see working up volume for sets of 8-15 reps and rebuilding some strength for the next month, progressing into sets of 5 over another few weeks, then moving to higher intensity higher volume lower rep work, which will be one day a week of a massive pyramid up to heavy triples and doubles

8/1



7/31

Rest

7/30

DB Bench 50x10
low rope row 2x30
Pull-ups 1x5

DB Bench made thumb hurt. 3/10. Had to quit. Sad

7/29

climb 1.5 hours V0

Tuck Front Lever Body Rows 1x10
Tuck front lever 3 sets

Sent a few nice V0, wasn't easy. Building back will take a little time. Forearms were torched the next day following this return climb.

Thumb pain 0/10

7/28 rest

7/27 walk 3 miles

7/26 wide pullups 1x10

CoC a few closes on #1 and felt weak and quit. Minimum 2 week break.

8/1 PT

Just for reference as we added a few new exercises, I'm writing everything out below.

My strength coach has changed and I'm down to one day a week. I combined my A and B day and will be doing work I essentially can't do at home or at the gym.

Warmup:

(running between exercises, 1 set each)

leg extended ab isometric on back 20 reps
Glute bridges
Marching one leg glute bridges
RDL bwx20
Squat bwx25
side retraction w cable
arm reaches facing wall
arm reaches back to wall
palloff press w cable
cable chest press 20 reps
high knees (1 run)
high knees with arms overhead (1 run)
lateral movement (1 run)
Reverse Lunge 10/leg
med ball overhead taps
plank 90-120 sec
side plank 45-60 sec/side

Main workout:

Cable band row 3x15
Trap Bar Deadlift 95x10 155x5 185x5 easy
One arm NG DB Press 15lb 3x10
Rev lunge 16kg kettleball 3x8 easy
Farmers walk 24,28,32kg 1 run, easy
One arm plank reaches 3x10/side (50-60 seconds or so) ultra hard
Band Chest Press to overhead 3x10(two reaches/rep)
TRX Body Lever Row 3x10
Sled push 3x1 run

Removing the DB press from the main workout, which I can do at home on my own B day, and replacing it with step ups and/or cable chest press. Would also like to keep the squat lateral walks with a band. Eventually I'll switch back to 2 days/week and start getting in my B day at Momentum, plus add a few new exercises. For now this should be perfect

So my B day at home will look like:

Pullups 3 sets
Tuck Front Lever Row 1 set
Hanging L Sit 3 sets
Leg Raises ? Sets
NG Pushups 3x10-20

RDL (soon)
DB Bench (soon)
Kneeling NG DB Press 3x12

Next week I will start Trap Bar Deadlift at 135x10, then do 3 work sets building up to 225x5 or so. This feels like the perfect deadlift variation right now. I can get really strong using this movement

8/3

rest

8/2

Pull-ups NG 5,6

DB Bench 45x12 60x6 65x5 70x4 75x3




1/10 thumb pain. awesome

Next time I'll warm up with lower reps and start building back the pyramid. **** 5x5, **** high rep work, etc

Re: Pullups, this is my equivalent of taking a break from pullups while acclimating to PT and climbing. Between the body rows, Cable Row, Trap Bar Deadlift, Tuck Front lever rows, and climbing, my upper back is taking a lot of stress right now

Pretty sore from DB Bench and PT. Climbing Sat, maybe can work up to V1

8/5

2 hours Climbing
pullups 1x8

Sent a new V1 and fell on a new V2. Improvement from last session at least. Gonna head into South Boston next time and volume some V0

8/4

rest

8/6

Warmup: arm slides front and back to wall, cable band row, cable press, overhead reachers,

DB bench

45x7
55x6
60x5
65x4
70x3
75x3
70x4

Went to do 1x5 ring pullups after warming up and felt a pain in the left upper trap at the start of the first rep. The same area hurt a little yesterday when my feet cut out on a V1, the only real wear and tear from the session

Was going to pyramid down with 60x5, 55x6, 50x8-10 but left trap hurt a little with each rep, so I stopped

I think its a minor tweak, should be better by PT Tuesday and certainly for climbing later in the week. Not hurting at all the next day

I think I'm about ready to transition back to the full Sheiko pyramid.

Being Sheiko there is another day of 5x3 work and a day of assistance. For me, the goal will be to keep the one day a week pyramid, and increase intensity versus the intended program by pyramiding down with higher rep, higher intensity sets following the main work sets (which are in the 70-85% range). I'm already doing an assistance day at the PT gym with kneeling OHP and cable chest press, and could see adding in some incline work eventually. That should be enough volume for now

The metabolic element of shorter time between sets plus the focus away from hypertrophy and towards pure strength would seem to suit my training and weight loss goals and has worked well in the past. It's also a lot more fun than 5x5 or 3x10. So I'm sticking with it

Sheiko DB Bench:

Assistance includes Cable Chest Press, Cable overhead reachers, kneeling DB OHP, as well as PT work

Week 1

50x7
55x6
60x5
65x4
70 2x3
75 2x2
70 2x3
65x4
60x6
55x8
50x10

Week 2:

50% 6 1
60% 5 1
70% 4 2
75% 3 2
80% 2 2
75% 4 1
70% 5 1
60% 6 1
50% 7 1

Week 3:

50% 6 1
60% 5 1
70% 4 2
75% 3 2
80% 2 2
75% 3 2
70% 4 1
65% 5 1
60% 6 1
55% 7 1
50% 8 1

Week 4

50% 5 1
60% 4 1
70% 3 2
80% 3 2
85% 2 3

Rest

55% 5 1
65% 5 1
75% 4 4

8/8

Warmup

Trap bar Deadlift 135x6 175x5 205x4 235x3 265x8
Cable Row 3x15
Farmers Walk 62,70,75's
One Arm DB Press 3x12 12,12,17(kettleball)
TRX Row 3x15
One Arm plank Reaches 3x10
Rev Lunge 3x8 24kg,28,28
Band Overhead Reachers 3x20
Cable Row 3x15
Sled Push 3x1 sprint (90lb+carriage)

Had way more in me for trap bar than expected. Looks like I can increase weight 10% a couple times and go for a heavy 2-3 rep max in 2-3 weeks

Reverse Lunge seems useless for me now with weight. Bodyweight seems better, and finding a harder leg exercise, ideally unilateral. Bulgarian split squat, maybe. Or Squats. Definitely starting some step ups

8/7 rest

8/10

Ring Pull-ups 2x10

DB Bench

50x6
55x5
65x4
70x3
75x3
80 2x3
75x4
70x5
65x7
60x7
55x8
50x10

Band Row 7x20

One arm dead hang ng 3 sets/arm
Dead hang ng 2 sets

That's right mother****er. Crushing that pyramid. 75's 2x2? How about 80 2x3. Calling this week 1. Maybe 90 3x2 for week 4, maybe heavier. Maybe 80x3 85 2x2 and 80x4 + pyramid down next week.

Not sure if I should keep the B day and go easy or just murder the pyramid once a week + assistance.

8/9

Rest

8/12

Pullups NG 3x8

(no climbing this weekend)

8/11

Warmup

leg extended ab isometric on back 20 reps
Glute bridges 20
Marching one leg glute bridges 20
Plank 1 minute
arm reaches facing wall 10
arm reaches back to wall 10
Squat 20 reps
RDL 20 reps
adductor rocks
Horizontal band abduction 10 reps/side
palloff press w cable 10 reps/side
Cable Band Row 15 reps
high knees (1 run)
Marching with arms overhead (1 run)
lateral movement (1 run)
med ball overhead taps 20 reps


Main workout:

Squat 95x8 115x7 135x5 150 2x3 135x5

Plank 2 min
Side plank 2x30 sec
Band side retraction 3x10
Paloff Press 3x10
One leg RDL 1x10
Rope thrash 1x45 sec






Threw together a B day at the PT gym: had an extra session about to expire

I decided to do a few squats as an experiment. Didn't have time or energy for much else of a workout afterwards: if I make it in for another B day, maybe squat at the end of the session, or for its own session, would work better.

Honestly I was a little perplexed by my weakness in this exercise considering how light the trap bar feels and how well the bodyweight work was going. I guess it's not like I've been doing pistols or heavy split squats or other high intensity strength work for my legs. I've done Trap Bar DL literally twice.

I may put Squats off a few more weeks until I hit my 2-3RM for Trap Bar Deadlift and become better acclimated to the rest of my PT. I could see the fatigue from this session rolling over into my Tuesday training

Ultimately something like:

50%x7
55x6
60x5
65x4
70 2x3
75 2x2
70x4-5

Could be good once a week

For now I think improving my leg endurance and technique, mobility through higher rep work while improving max power in the trap bar deadlift will be the priority. My adductor was hurt only a few months ago and aggressively adding weight to the squat would be counter to my goals of injury prevention. I'm already taking a risk with heavy Trap Bar DL

Mark this two solid weeks of training with minimal thumb pain. Feels good, man

8/15

Band overhead reacher stretch
Cable Band Chest Press 2x20

Db Bench Press

1x6 50
1x5 60
2x4 70
1x3 80
1x1 90
1x3 80
1x5 75
1x5 70
1x10 60
1x11 50

Cable Band Row 7x10

was supposed to PT and trap bar deadlift today but legs are still sore so decided to put it off till Thursday. If I squat again I may just do 3x5 at 145, something really easy. Maybe I should just do step ups and reverse lunges instead for now

Had a pretty hard day and week which played into this decision.

8/14 rest

8/13 ng pullups 3x8

was supposed to climb and did a few sets of pullups and rested instead

8/17

Warmup

Trap Bar DL

185x7
215x6
245x5
295x5
325x4 grip slipped, no chalk

Plank to 1 arm plank 1 set
TRX Body Row 3x10
Sled push 3x1
Farmers Walk 75's 2x1

Later (ran out of time):

Cable Overhead Reachers
DB Press kneeling
Cable Row
Cable Press
Cable palloff Press

8/16 rest

Trap Bar DL continues to be easy and massively fun. More sets next week.

Trap Bar Deadlift for next week (3):

185x5
225x4
260x2x3
300x2x3
335x3x2
300x4+

Week 4:

185x5
225x4
260x2x3
300x3
335x2
1-2 sets of 1-2 reps at 95%+
300xMAX

Rest 2 weeks

Then I'll restart again with a set of 8-10 reps (last time was 265x8) and do another month long cycle that peaks with heavy doubles or singles week 4

8/17

Chins 1x7 (forgot to log)

8/18

rest

8/18

Cable Row
Cable Press
Cable Reachers

Chins Wide NG 1x10

Squat

BWx20
135x8
155x3
175x2
145x5

DB bench (speed)

1x5 50
1x4 60
2x3 70
4x2 75

Well, I've been benching every 4-5 days so far rather than once a week, and felt like I could bench today (but not max effort). This was a really light easy B session in the sheiko program, so I figured I would get it in as a speed workout to prime me for the big pyramid next Tuesday.

Decided to keep squatting once a week. This was a random workout but next week gonna work up to 2 doubles at 80%+

I figure my squat is super weak so just adding 50-100 pounds to my double with low volume linear progression once a week will ultimately help me realize some strength gains that could translate to my other lifts. It also seems super easy for me to add 5-10 pounds 3-4 times a month for some period of time, so why not milk it

8/19

Bouldering 2 hours

one arm dead hang 20+ seconds

Sent a few V1 and a new V1 and V2.

Feeling pretty strong like I'll be back to V3+ soon. Dead hang was a lifetime PR

All of the routes in my gym were just reset and apparently every V4 there is really a 5. Maybe I can send the rest of the V2 next week and get back to some soft V3/V4 in September



Not sure if I enjoy climbing or DB Benching or Trap bar DL more right now but they're all pretty awesome

8/21

rest

8/20

Squat

45x5
55x4
60x2x3
70x2
75x2
80x2
85x1
80x2


Didn't quite have 85x2 in me and stopped after the first rep

Squats are looking explosive. Did this after squatting with higher effort 2 days ago. Conceivably I can just add 30-40 pounds a month to a double or triple for a couple months, without effecting the rest of my progress. I expect to plateau around 110kg-120kg and then have progress come slowly, but who knows. This is really just assistance for the Trap Bar

DB Bench pyramid Tues and then rest till Thurday's Trap Bar session.

last 3 weeks of training have picked up a LOT following the thumb injury:

Progress:

8/20 Squat 2x2 80 1x1 85
8/19 bouldering, 1 arm hangs
8/18 DB bench 2x3 4x2, ng pullups 1x10, Squat 135x8 155x3 175x2 145x5
8/17 Trap Bar DL, PT workout, chins 1x7
8/16 rest
8/15 DB bench pyramid 80x2x3 90x1 75x5 70x5 60x10
8/14 rest
8/13 Pullups ng 3x8
8/12 rest
8/11 Squat 150 2x3 135 2x5 115x7
8/10 DB bench pyramid 80 2x3 75x4 70x5 65x7 Ring Pullups 2x10 one arm dead hangs
8/9 rest
8/8 PT workout, Trap Bar DL 265x8
8/7 rest
8/6 DB bench 60x5 65x4 70x3 75x3 70x4
8/5 climbing, 1x8 pullups
8/4 rest
8/3 rest
8/2 db bench 45x12 60x6 65x5 70x4 75x3 Pullups 2x6
8/1 PT Trap bar DL 185x5
7/30 DB Bench 50x10 QUIT pullups 1x5
7/29 climb 1.5 hours V0 front lever, front lever row
7/28 rest
7/27 walk 3 miles
7/26 pullups 1x10
7/25 PT, CoC #1 closes

Feeling way stronger than I did last month

It's also worth noting that despite doing a high value of CoC for over a month, my forearms are getting way sorer from climbing and deadlifting and farmers walks than they ever did from smashing volume on grippers

8/23

Pull-ups NG 1x15

8/22

DB Bench

1x6 50
1x5 60
2x4 70
2x3 80
2x1 90
1x4 80@10

Cable Row 4x15

90 wasn't hard, but the 4th rep of 80 was a total grind to failure I locked out over several seconds. I quit pyramiding down at this point.

I was supposed to do 85x2 but only had access to 80 and 90. Next week 85 3x2 is still the goal. Would be nice to get 5 reps at 80 and 8-10 at 70

8/24

Warmup 15 mins

Trap Bar DL

185x5
225x5
265x3
300x2x3
335 2x2
355x1 https://youtu.be/Dul5ep22nBw
300x8

2x2 sled push 90
2x1 farmers walk 85's
2x10 body lever TRX row

Pm:

Pull-ups rings 1x8

DB Bench

50x5
60x5
70 3x5

Cable Row 3x15

Totally effortless and painless despite reaching failure on 2 sets 2 days ago. Go figure. Glad I did this workout to make up for axing the pyramid down after going to failure on 80's. Now 5 days break and crush 85 3x2 seems totally reasonable

Trap bar was great. I caved a little bit today. 355 wasn't bad at all and wasn't too heavy, and 300 was fine till rep 8. Things to do to fix:

-set up: make sure my legs are in good position and loaded before pulling with full force.
-do my bw squats with a band
-Heavy RDL opening hips and pushing out knees
-Squat lateral walks with a band (Man these suck)
-back squats with good form

I don't think this form issue is going to stop me anytime soon but adjustments will be required to continue adding weight. Adding RDL once a week will also require some adjustment, especially now that I'm squatting again.

I won't do another set of 8 until the start of my next DL cycle

8/27

Squat

45x5
50x5
60x5
65x2x3
70x2
75x2x2
80x2
85x2 Bad
80x3x1 Good

PM: Pause squat

50x4
60x3
65x3
70x3
75x3

Good

Was a little off and form wasn't great on several sets. Doubled down in the evening and brought the stance back in for some triples, and form was much improved. I'll combine into one workout next week

8/26 rest

8/25 climb 1.5 hours

Sent some new V1 and V2 relatively easily. Getting it back

dead hang 1 arm 35 seconds/arm

Pull-ups 1x5

Run Fast 2x1 minute



Solid past week of good diet

8/29

Pull-ups NG 1x8 wide 1x2

BW 179.5

8/28

warmup

DB Bench

50x7
60x6
70x5

75x2x5
85x3
75x8

65x8
55x9

Cable Row 6x10
Step ups 2x10
Palloff Press 3x10

85x3 75x8 felt good. The next session calls for 80 5x3 and then it's time for a restart or a new program. Maybe next week I'll feel really strong and go for 90x2 and then reevaluate. More likely I need a full week's break