The problem is, the gym owners here seem to think the ratio of equipment density to gym usefulness is like this:



Where it's actually more like this:


It's not really useful to have 3 bench stations if there's 2 inches of walking room between them.

lol USA#1

BP: 155x5x2, x9
- reset
- last set to failure
Chins: +25x8x2
Face-Pulls: 60x12, 70x15
C&J: 95x3
PC: 155x3x3
DL: 300x6
- probably back rounding on the 6th

Tried to C&J, but there isn't really much space. Once I cleaned 135, some dude walked right behind me, so I decided to cut it at 95.

Still have one more place to check out. So far, Bally's is the best, which is pretty sad. Talked to the CF guy about plate rental, he said he doesn't want to start keeping track of that, but he'll be moving to his own place soon and will have open time. I'll see how that goes, but I know CF places are stupidly expensive.

Currently at 177lbs ~13% bf. Not much chance of dieting at my parent's place (they purport to be healthy eaters, and get all organic and low-cholesterol crap, but then put sour cream+bread on all their salads and eat cakes after). I'm gonna go up to 185 and reevaluate, hopefully my bench/ohp get less pathetic along the way.

And I have to hear ****ing diet/exercise advice. FYI, the key to looking good is step classes.

Got to fence for about 40 minutes yesterday. Had to stay late at work and missed the full class, but the coach let me gear up and do free bouting. Owned everyone, except the last bout when I was dead tired (had to fence non-stop since I kept winning). Landed some sick points that I didn't even know how they happened, and got a back flick. And I totally destroyed this 12 year-old kid, 5-2!

Foam rolled when I got home, so I wouldn't be as sore today.

Press: 107.5x5x3 + 3 push press
Chins: 27.5x9x2
FS: 235x5x2, x7
One-arm press: 40x6 in right, 35x7 in left
Anti-rotation twists: 25x12x2

Last free trial. Some guy emailed me that his gym will be ok with me bringing my own bumper plates to store there. I'm gonna go for a second look on Monday and verify there's enough space. Otherwise the gym's pretty good. That means I gotta find plates somewhere and lug them to the gym. Assuming this goes through, I'll probably just pick up a pair of 45s and then use the hex ones for smaller weights.

Stayed up til ~2am playing MTG on Sunday. Diet of Wendy's double-Baconator and 20 chicken wings. Barely woke up to get to work at 9:45, so no gym. Contemplated going after work, but had to stay late and then I'd be home at like 10.

Fencing tomorrow, so I'm not going to attempt salvaging this workout. Plan is T: fence, W: bench/curl/pc/dl, Th: fence, F: press/chin/squat, Sa: lay in bed all day, Su: fencing tourney. I'll see how that goes.

GTGing parallel-grip pullups doing 14-16 a few times a day. Generally crushing, but haven't been able to hit 17 yet.

Finally found a cool place to fence, with lots of people and where I'm one of the worst fencers.

Unfortunately haven't found a good gym. Checked out a couple today, but they mostly sucked. Gonna look at 2 more tomorrow, otherwise gonna go with Bally's I saw today (except it's like 80F in there). Can't get a decent free trial for tomorrow, so I'll have to lift Friday morning (gonna do squat/bench/curls/dl since I haven't done anything this week) and then fence in the evening. Then a tourney Sunday.

Looks like I'll have to lift MWF mornings, fence MF nights, and do drills W night. Hopefully the lower leg volume on GS will make it doable.

Oh, and I hit 17 pull-ups today.

After my post yesterday I was like "wow, that's some pussy bitch ****" so I set my alarm to gym-day and hit a free pass at Gold's Gym.

BP: 160x5x2, x8
Curlz: 70x12, x13
- thought I did 65 last time
DL: 305x7
- could have done like 2-3 more, but I'm kinda scared of doing DLs to failure

Then I noticed they had some jump boxes, so I did these:
Box Jump: 3' x15x2
- the tallest box they had, looked about 3 feet.

Then I did platform depth jumps, but messed up the order since I've never done them:
Platform Depth Jump: 3' to 2' x10

Gonna do press/chins/squats tomorrow morning and fence evening

Just woke up from a really bad cramp in my left hamstring. Last thing I remember was deadlifting in my dream.

Took a trial day ($35/day lol) at the place that's BYOBP (bring your own bumper plates). Otherwise everything's hex Only one squat rack, with fixed safety bars, but they're actually low enough to allow atg low-bar unlike some other ones. The hooks seem ok height for me, too. And I only do FS for now. Nobody was in the squat rack today, and it's mostly old people/milfs with PTs. They also have that swivel thing to put a barbell in for rows and core stuff. And some jumping boxes, but max seems to be around 2.5' and I don't see much around to increase the height besides plates. Pool and rock climbing. Also dance classes if I'm ever feeling bicurious.

The workout:
Press: 110x5x2, x6 (I think)+3 push press
PG Pull-ups: +30x8, x9
FS: 240x5x3
- almost failed a couple in set 2, but felt like I had more left in the tank. Fell apart on set 3 for some reason, probably because of yesterday.

Anti-rotation: 25x12x2
Rows: 60x25

Felt like puking after press and pull-ups, which I've never had before. Not after FSes though. Generally wasn't feeling all that great. Probably mostly from gymming 2 days in a row, but also because yesterday's schedule was 5am wake up > commute > gym > work to 8 > commute > sleep

vidz l8r.

Ended up signing up for the gym after work. Got a printed+signed email confirming I can bring plates and c&j at the gym!

Then I didn't feel like going to the fencing place and doing explosive stuff + thinking for 2 hours. So I just did hit the weights:

c&j: 95x3, 115x3
pc: 160x3x3
bp: 135x5x2, x10
- I realized I have BP ADD, which is basically I focus on a spot on the ceiling, then think about how awesome the stuff on the ceiling are (fans, pipes, sometimes cob webs!) and next thing I know I have to lock out. So I figured I'll just do light weight and focus on focusing

kroc rows: 90x5x2, x10
- so single-arm BB rows don't seem practical. I'll just aim for sets of 5 with db rows then. Max dbs are 100, but I think I can load more if I wear the girly kettlebells as bracelets.

single db snatch: 50x12 (alternate 3 on each arm), 50x20 (alternate 5 on each arm)
- I think it's mostly a whole-body movement, so I'm counting arm-switching as a continuous set

Played MTG with old hs friends over the weekend. Turns out two are doing SS and have >300 squat, dl, but I think I got them in pc (and maybe dl). I'm gonna jump dl by 10 to 315 next since I crushed last week so badly. We were also the nerds in an already nerdy hs.

Today:
bp: 165x5x2, x8
- total ownage
Pullups: 35x8, x6
- should have done chins probably
FS: 245x5x2, x7

Then checked out the rock climbing area, bouldered for like 30-45 minutes 2nd time in my life. Destroyed V0s, but got owned at the top of V1s, too fatigued. I blame the w/o. Def coming back Wed for a rematch, but might stop by tomorrow after work to kick some V1 ass.

Fencing Thu + Fri I guess.

Bouldered for ~2.5 hours yesterday. Crushed the V1s and got an overhang V2, but my elbows were killing me by the end. Feels ok this morning though.

Gym after. Friends did 285 squats for form checks, both have good depth. Debated about the bounce out of the bottom of the squat (they say it's a bounce off the calves and knee joints, which is bad. they denied existence of the stretch reflex).

My stuff:
Press: 112.5x5x3
- I think PR
C&J: 135x3
PC: 170x3x3
- PR, but felt a bit iffy on the last reps
DL: 315x3
- grip was really sore from climbing, and the bar knurl dug into my hands. Going to retry 315 next week and expect to get it.

Some anti-rotation and rows 100x5 each arm. Apparently my row form sucks, so I'll have to work on it.

My friend had horrible curling PC form, so I just briefly showed him what I do and he did 3 singles of 170 PC+push press.

Thursday went relatively ok. Today I woke up at 4am with pretty bad elbow pain. Not tennis elbow, more like everything-around-elbow (like what I had some time ago back squatting, except in both arms and slightly worse). Iced it, and it got a bit better. Pre-work ibuprofen, and it was fine all day. Forearms DOMS like crazy though, I think if I had to high-five somebody, my forearm would snap off.

Hit the gym, and regretted it pretty quickly:
BP: 167.5x5x2
- Elbows were pretty sore, and my right lat was on fire, totally WIMed the last rep, but wasn't gonna try a 3rd set.
- Overall I think it was fine if I weren't tired, so I'm gonna move up to 170 next

FS: 250x4, x5, x4
- my right shoulder really hurt from the bar, and my lats/back were sore. Couldn't keep a straight back and failed a couple of reps. Still feeling good about it overall though, so gonna move up to 255.

I worked out after work to give myself an extra 9 hours to recover, but still felt pretty bad pain after. More ibuprofen, and now I'm feeling fine.

I was gonna go climbing Sunday, but now there's pretty much 0 chance of that. I'll just take the 2 days to recover and do weights Monday.

Sick day :\ I might dare rock climb tomorrow.

Still feeling a buy sick, but overall it was a good day. Moved rock climbing to after gym so we wouldn't have dead grips.

hbbs: 285x5x3
- gym with friend, and didn't want to just sit around while he squatted.

Press: 115x5x3
- could have done x6(7?) at the end, but didn't want to be too tired for rock climbing.

C&J: 135x3x1
- still too pussy to move up with hex plates, but I caught all in perfect lockout this time.

Cleans: 175x3x2
- decided to skip 3rd to save time. Still gonna move up and do bw 3x3 next time (holla)

DL: 315x6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0YKc6Y_6HA
- ezpz
- maybe lockout for like 2 seconds at the top.

db snatch: 65x4, x6, 70x3
- alternating arms every rep
- on the 70, started standing up too early and missed the weight forward just barely

Bouldering 1.5 hours after, got an overhang V2 and a bunch of other stuff I solved last time. Nothing new. But at least my elbows were feeling fine.