Yesterday was a success meeting up with my sparring partner, and we got some decent video. It was his camera, so I'm waiting for him to upload the video. I'll link it once it's up.

Today's routine will be THE SPARTAN CHALLENGE OMGGGGG!!!!!!

3/22/13

Today was a day for pirates to swang thar swards, ARRRR!!!!!!!!!



As mentioned previously, the handle broke off one of the swords in our previous session, so I'm holding it from the blade and using it as a short sword until I replace it. Several times you'll see my sparring partner WIDE OPEN, but because I'm unaccustomed to the length my killing strikes miss him by a significant margin (such as at :58, where I actually do hit him, but with a long sword would fully skewered him, or at 1:57, where I don't hit him at all).

This is just a few minutes of us sparring. We also go through several pre-sparring routines that weren't filmed. I'm still showing him some offense/defense techniques. Sometimes I have to correct him on really LOL stuff, like reminding him to hold the sword with his top hand close to the base (inorite), but he's catching on fast. We also spend long portions of the session trading off spots where one of us only attacks while the other only defends. Tough maintaining defense form instead of constantly retreating, and defense gets more than a little awkward using the short sword. Huge swaths of my body are uncovered unless I adjust what would be basic defenses for a long sword.

3/23/13

The Spartan Challenge

Round 1
Run for 7m
100 pushups w/in 2 minutes (took me 45s)
100 crunches w/in 2 minutes (took me 1m)

Round 2
Run for 7m
75 pushups w/in 2 minutes (took me 35s)
75 crunches w/in 2 minutes (took me 45s)

Round 3
Run for 7m
50 pushups w/in 2 minutes (took me 30s)
50 crunches w/in 2 minutes (took me 35s)

You're supposed to run minimum full mile w/in 7 minutes each round, but I average 3/4 mile.

You're also supposed to do situps, not crunches.

Nice log, congrats on getting better

Those pushups seem insanely fast. Do you touch ground with chest each rep?

Beastskills looks great, gonna use this a lot as I work on muscleups/hspu

chis,

Don't always touch the ground, but if I don't, I repush very close, maybe a few centimeters off. Yes, they're very fast. This was the first time I actually timed myself and I was a little "WTF?" myself, but remember I'm usually busting out 100/75/50 in their respective rounds at once, no breaks. The 2 minute threshold allows you to break if necessary, but high count pushups suuuuuuck, so I always attempt to push through and get them over with.

Funny enough, once I started applying bench form to my pushups, eg contracted shoulders, non-flared elbows, pushups were harder for like a week, then suddenly a million times easier to blaze through high numbers.

3/25/13

Bench
185x8
200x7
210x6
215x5
225x4

Squat
145x7
155x6
165x5x3

Deadlift
155x7
165x6
175x5
185x5x2

Weighted pullups
20x7
25x5x3
20x5

Weighted dips
40x7
45x6
50x5x3

Half turn ab rotations
x5x3

Abs felt fine to do a full rotation, but my arms were too tired to support me on the reverse rotations. Half turn ab rotation is the same exercise as the video in the OP, except I don't flip all the way backwards. I stop when I'm upside down, legs raised above me.

Last set on the bench was only sorta. I've never benched that much weight so asked the bro on the bench one over to spot me, and he gave me an assist on the last rep. No worries. I felt like a ****in' boss just lifting that much weight. I remember looking at bros last year benching that much weight and thinking of myself doing that like it would only happen in some distant promised land.

As far as squats and deadlifts, steadily adding more weight and always feel like I could add more, but I'm sticking to my plan of increasing weight slowly so that I don't sacrifice form just to add plates.

just crushing that bench, busto

If only my puny squats and DLs would catch up

Noooooooo!!!!!!


If your squats and deadlift catch up, then it'll make me feel really weak. Right now at least I can think "He benches way more than me but at least I squat way more than him". Do you want to take that away from me?

LOL Poppa. Coming for you... and your DLs, too!

Edit: See your last squat was 245. Guessing I won't see you too soon...

Wouldn't be a busto log if the lower body > upper body imo.

/troll

It's a Rhymes log!

4/1/13

15 leaping lunges
21 pullups
21 situps
X7 rounds

Each round, decrease the pullups and situps by 3. So 2nd round was 18 pullups/18 situps, 3rd round 15 pullups/15 situps, etc. So once you finish 7 rounds, you should be at 0. (I think? Am bad at math.)

Finished in 16m30s.

I've also added leaping jumping jacks and pistols to my morning wake-up routine. Hoping the one-legged squats and leaping jacks will help add to my squat weight.

Is it acceptable to do different kinds of squats multiple times in the week? My life will not be complete until I crush loco and Poppa. Anything I can do to increase my progress will be a boon

Are you logging kipping pull-ups here??

It would be dishonest to say I do not kip here and there, but I can usually make it through each set clean.

4/3/13

I left the gym today feeling like jelly.

Bench
185x8
205x7
215x5x3

Squat
155x7
165x6
170x5x3

Deadlift
185x7
205x6
225x5x3

Weighted pullups
25x7
30x5x3
25x5

Weighted dips
45x7
50x6
55x5
60x5x2

So moderate gains in all areas except the deadlift, where I realized I felt comfortable enough with my form to just load up dem plates and have at it. I wasn't comfortable benching 225 again this week without someone to spot me, but I still consider the 215 a gain, at least breakeven, since I was able to maintain for more sets. And lawdee lawd do I see that my deadlift has finally matched/surpassed my bench? Only a matter of time until dem squats get in line.

Maybe the biggest surprise was that I showed gains since I was in DC all of last week, which meant no gym and no access to my usual foods. I was very careful about what I consumed, mostly meat and salads. However, since I was unable to work out that week except for some bodyweight stuff, I cut my caloric intake and have maintained that cut this week. Cut is around 500-600 calories from 3k. Obv have maintained high protein consumption.

4/5/13

Went in without a plan, then figured hey, the sun is shining, it's a good day, why not make it a GREAT day by working in some legs!

Today's workout involved a compound movement that I don't know the name for. I'll call it the "sumo deadlift to push press." In the movement, you take a barbell, sumo deadlift it, lock in your wrists, squat, lung with each leg, squat, and on your way back up push press. Does that make sense? I should have taken video.

Routine:
Sumo deadlift to push pressX5
BurpeesX10
Rounds: as many as possible within 15 minutes

Last time I did this routine was before I started this log. At that time, I used an 85 lb barbell and completed 5 rounds. Today I used a 105 lb barbell and completed 3 rounds. Left feeling like jelly. A couple of times I could feel that my legs were about to fail, so I completed the movement and dropped the barbell for a pause before continuing.

4/6/13

Backwards rolling handspringsX5
Vertical freeze 12 seconds
Ground sweepsX10 (5 each side)
Repeat 3X

This was a repeat of 3/20/13 if you want to see a video of the workout.

Also did three sets of forward crawling mountain climbers, arms only.

I'm working on the rolling handsprings so that I don't have to reset each time I do one. I want to get to where I can flip up, drop into a burpee, spring up and forward, immediately drop back into another handspring. In the referenced video, I reset by doing a half-roll twice before continuing into the handspring. This time I did one roll. Next time my goal is to go continuously into each handspring, and then next round add in the burpees.

4/8/13

Ugh, woke up sick on 4/7 so took the day off. Went in today to lift the sickness out and am not happy. Might be because I'm still recovering from the sickness, but I didn't see the gains I expected. Might also be time to cut the cut. I was hoping to still see gains while cutting, but if I'm going to slow my progress like this then it might be time to gomad.

Incline bench
165x8
175x6
185x5
185x4
180x5

HB squat
165x8
175x6
185x5
185x4
180x5

Curls
55x8
60x7
65x6
65x4
65x3

Reverse fly
110x8
110x7
120x6
130x5
130x5

Full hanging ab rotation
5x3
4x
3x

Just couldn't finish my usual ab rotation sets of 5x3. Abs were fine, but the rotation is hell on my forearms, and they were screaming. Didn't feel like risking failure since that would mean falling to my doom.

Also did 3x3 false grip conditioning on the gym rings, which is essentially inverted rows.

Way way way too much volume if you're feeling sick.

Sick as in viral haha I had a cold.

Do you mean some sort of weird power clean and push press when you talk about sumo DL to push press?

This sounds an awful lot like Curtis P's or a variation thereof, which is a clean, either from the floor or the hang, lunge with each leg, and push press. It's a great barbell complex. I try and work it into a conditioning circuit every now and again at a relatively light weight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQf3Wy1F4rc

Bros, appreciate! It is just like the linked video, except the push press comes at the end of another full squat.

Mr. Rhymes learnin' dem new woids

Mr. Rhymes spends a day with Mrs. Rhymes at the gym! She has lately fallen off the wagon, not going to the gym regularly, claiming she is too busy, but then complaining that her fitness is not where she wants it to be. Tough to figure out how to talk to her about the topic. Even when someone tells you they want your help motivating them to get to the gym, that's dangerous terrain.

I said listen, you know you are beautiful, and you're beautiful to me. You just need to figure out what's important to you. If the benefits of working out are really that important to you, you must MAKE time. If these other things are more important, then accept that you won't be as fit as you want.

...success! I told her today we'd be working out together, and I needed her to commit to one hour. That seemed to help. Even after taking a few weeks off the weights and only doing intermittent cardio, she came back today seeing strength gains. Or so it seems.

I feel almost certain that she doesn't realize how much stronger she is now than before she got somewhat serious about fitness. See her numbers below on DLs. She claimed 35lb bar was "heavy," but it looked like she was completing the motion with such ease that I asked her to just try a heavier weight. We would have only gone up to 45lb bar, but another girl was already using it, thus giving me license to hand her the 55lb bar!!!1!1!! She smoked it.

04/10/13
Ugh, not happy with my bench or squat numbers last few sessions. At least DLs still making incremental increases. I am probably taking it too hard on myself since last session I was sick, and today I hadn't slept very much over the last 48 hours, but I am trying to maintain beastmode. May be time to up the calories or accept genetic threshold.

Mr. Rhymes
Bench
190x7
200x5
210x4x2

Squat
175x5x3
175x4
175x5

DL
190x5
210x5
220x4
230x3x2

Mrs. Rhymes
Bench
45x8x4

DL
35x7
55x5x4

Squat
+12x7x4

Other thing that I made sure to point out to Mrs. Rhymes was how much time it didn't take her to recover from between sets. She'd wait maybe thirty seconds before blazing through the next set while my sweaty ass was wondering if I was going to make it through the workout haha.

While I was busy finishing, she ran on the treadmill.

Finally saw the videos. Can't see them on phone.

Cool exercises but looking a little soft. Please stay away from the GOMAD. More cut IMO. Which means your 3000 calorie days should be numbered.

Numbered as in day 1, day 2, day 3?

Cutting since last week btw. Do you suggest a website or book to reference for how much to cut? I cut to around 2400 but obv will cut more if I have word that I can maintain volume without sacrificing my health and strength gains.