Thanks, but just to be clear those are pounds, not kilograms. I'm still happy with it though.

Darned elbow tweaked again--I guess to really get rid of that I'd need to drop lbbs for a good while.

Can you explain this a bit?

Shouldn't be happening.

Getting strong in here

Jesus

Yeah when I would lift my arms to support the bar at times it was overcranking and my wrist was bending back probably transferring load to my elbows. Been doing a couple of things differently including wider grip, less lifting of my arms, and stricter wrists. It's helped, along with lengthier warmup of that joint and wearing an elbow sleeve, but every so often it produces discomfort like it's been re aggravated. Doesnt interfere with any other exercises, just some pain and fear. It's the reason I started leading off with OHP or benchpress, just so I don't skip them because it tweaks in squats. Took me forever to realize it was squats (in my defense I am always super setting).

Typically ice it and no trouble by the next day.

11-7
Hot Yoga

11-9

C2 Rowing: 3:00 @ 22 s/m

OH Press 2x5x155, 1x6x155
Front squats 2x5x195, 1x6x195
Pullups 20x2
Deadlift 1x5x405, 1x5x425
Dips 3x13

Lousy day to be in a college gym, so many glum faces. Skipped lbb squats today and tried a few warmups with hbbs. Spread the pullups over the entire session and just never felt like going for a real set. Decided to take it a bit easy on OHP and just redo the last weight, which was good because I felt the traps fighting me again.

Looking back, I likely should skipped today. Friday night was crummy and essentially restless. Today I felt significantly more solid on the OHP and felt like I'd changed my elbow on the squats. Chosen to diminish the weight a bit and simply do the significant lifts to get a workout in. First time off two days' rest for some time. Still going to attempt to make it on Tuesday.

11-9
late Hot Yoga

11-10

Running; 4.5 miles (hills), 61 minutes

Drop off car at mechanic, run home. It's a good system but sucks when it's time to pick up the car.

11-22

C2 Rowing: 4:00 @ 22 s/m

Hammer curls 1x24x25, 1x16x35, 1x8x45
Benchpress 3x5x245
Front squats 2x5x190, 1x7x190
Zercker squats 2x5x225
Hbbs 1x5x225, 1x5x245, 1x5x255
Chinups 2x10
Dumbell Skullcrushers 1x6x45
Back extensions 1x8x35

I guess that's an unexpected two week layoff. Have still been making it to yoga 2-3x per week and gotten a couple of runs in. Aimed for a bit of a bridge day today and opted to pass on low bar squats so as to not risk another elbow tweak for the holidays. Feeling out high bar squats whereas front squats are fine.

11-25

OH Press 3x5x155
Front squats 1x5x200
High bar back squats 1x5x250
Pullups 2x12
Deadlift 1x10x335
Dips 1x14

Kind of abruptly ended when I found out the gym was closing early tonight. I think it's fine since I was thinking of this as a second bridge day. Hbbs did not feel good on my traps today. Weird, but nice walking away from a workout without even the slightest throbbing in my elbow.

11-28

Hammer curls 1x24x25
Benchpress 2x5x250, 1x6x250
Front squats 2x5x205, 1x6x205 PR
Chinups 2x5x+15, 1x8x+15
Dumbell Skullcrushers 3x5x50

1-arm kettlebell swings 4x15x50


That's a blister-pace 45 minute session which meant skipping power cleans and back extensions. Bench press felt somewhat surprisingly easy--front squats did not. Have not done any weighted chins or pullups for a while so just easing into it. Skullcrushers feeling really fun. I'm hoping (but have no proof) that doing the frontsquats (as comparatively light as they are) will stave off heavy losses on my low bar squat while I keep that break going.

Oh, that superhot blonde with the tattoos was back (no showing this time, just skin-tight yoga pants and a similar top), and she brought a friend with her! I'm pretty sure they go to opposite sides of the room to see who's scoping the other out--I could save them some time and just tell them "everybody", lol. I wonder what they study...

11-29
Hot Yoga

11-30
Swimming:

1x400m free
2x200m free
1x200m back/breast
2x100m medley
3x100m free
1x100m back/breast

Wasn't timing the laps, but whole workout took 45 minutes which is pretty good for me generally for 1600m granted I'm usually doing a bunch of short sprints with 30 second rests. Considering it's been 6 weeks without hitting the pool, I think that's great!

12-1

OH Press 3x5x160
Front squats 3x5x215 PR
Pullups 2x5x+15, 1x8x+15
Deadlift 1x5x425
Hammer curls 1x22x30, 1x12x40, 1x8x45
Dips 2x5x+20, 1x10x+20


I have got to remember chalk for deadlifts. Frontsquats are back to feeling easy on the legs. First time weighting dips, was fine.

12-2

Hot Yoga

12-4

Hammer curls 1x24x30
Benchpress 3x5x255
Front squats (pause) 3x5x225 PR
High bar back squats (for speed) 3x3x255
Chinups 2x5x+25, 1x8x+25
Dumbell Skullcrushers 3x5x55
Power cleans 5x3x135
Rows 3x5x135
Back extensions 1x8x35

Well that benchpress was really ****ing hard, especially the first and last sets. Tempted to start microloading right there, but I'll wait and see how 260 feels next time if I can get it in on schedule. I kind of like the pause on frontsquats, just because it doesn't seem to make a difference to my back (which is the limiting factor) but does make it a bit harder on the legs. Maybe a half second-to a second. HBBS had just not felt good where the bar rests last time, so I'd decided to just keep about the same weight today and try to emphasize a power-burst for work. The bar felt fine today anyway but stuck with my plan.

Power cleans were a big emphasis today, and it feels really locked in about 80% of the time...to be honest, the weight felt a bit light. At least I like where I'm landing on my legs and my elbows being up. The posture feels a lot more natural now having done frontsquats every workout for a month.

Finally worked some rows in! Not sure which kind. Take the barbell and pull it up to the belt, arms about shoulder-width.

Overall, first workout for a while that didn't feel like I'm coming off a layoff.

12-7

OH Press 2x4x165, 2x3x165 Bonk
1-arm Arnold Press 1x9x50
Front squats (pause) 1x6x230 PR
High Bar Back Squats 1x3x230, 1x5x275
Pullups 2x5x+25, 1x8x+25
Deadlift 1x1x435 Bonk
Hammer curls 1x25x25
Curls 1x10x95
Dips 2x5x+35, 1x10x+35


Damned OHP again. All felt a little weird. Deadlift bonk gave me a head rush twice. Could be overall lack of heavy squats catching up to me.

12-8

Hot Yoga

12-9

Hammer curls 1x24x30, 1x8x45
Benchpress 1x4x260, 4x3x260 Bonk
Front squats (pause) 3x5x235 PR
High bar back squats 1x3x235, 2x5x295
Chinups 2x5x+35, 1x8x+35
Dumbell Skullcrushers 1x5x55, 1x5x50, 1x6x50
Power cleans 5x3x145
Rows 2x5x145, 1x6x145


Well, guess I need to do something with my bench. Maybe a reset, or maybe try 5x3 for a while. HBBS felt terrible, or in other words that's a challenging weight.

Power clean feels great. Elbows popping right up, weight landing on arms, knees already bent.

1-3

Hot yoga


Turned out the bonking was getting a cold and that turned into pneumonia. Crappy 3 weeks but feeling mostly better now except lingering dry cough. Today was first exercise of any kind and took it fairly easy. Probably won't do any lifting until next week, although I was kinda encouraged that I had no coughing fits in yoga. Maybe a bodyweight or easy session.

Two hard goals for the year are a 1-arm pullup and a bodyweight OHP. Will try to come up with an actual plan but for now will pick SS back up for a while and find out if I was stalling or just sick. Vaguely recalling for 1AP the grips and positioning from standard two-handed pullups don't translate particularly well, so I can go ahead and start modifying a bit.

1-5
Hot Yoga

Worked a little harder today. Felt really good for the first 15 minutes.

1-6

CR Rows: 2:00 @ 500m

1-arm Arnold Press 1x6x25, 1x5x35, 1x5x45, 1x5x55
OH Press 1x5x115, 1x5x135, 1x1x160
Mixed grip pullups 3x5 left-lead, 3x5 right-lead
Parallel bar side-to-side pullups 4x5
Parallel bar Frenchies 1x2
Front squats (pause) 1x5x115, 1x3x135, 1x3x215

Just a light bridge day. Pullups basically just more like the motion of a 1-arm pullup. Really crowded in the gym, wasn't sure I'd get to a rack.

1-8

CR Rows: 4:20 @ 1000m

Front squats (3 second pause) 1x5x95, 1x5x135, 1x5x185
Front squats (pause) 1x4x225
HBBS sumo stance below parallel box squats 4x2x225
HBBS 1x5x275
Rows 3x6x135
Bench Press 3x5x225
Power Cleans 3x3x135
Back Extensions 1x6xbw
3-way shoulder raises 2x5x15

Felt better than expected, especially after a busy day. Still counting it as a bridge day so not really trying to push any weight thresholds. Been reading about the Westside method so thought I'd try some of those cool-sounding box squats. I liked it but didn't feel like going for 12 sets (the short rest meant it worked well circuiting box squat/bench/box squat/row), just wish I'd tried it with front squats as well (coward).

My original plan for bench was just one work set, but it felt good and fit right in to the circuit so went ahead. Maybe a little light on weight. Tried a rep with a 3 second pause and decided I won't be doing THAT again without a spotter!

Power cleans felt nearly perfect. Could have done more but it was time to go.

3-way shoulder raises are just 5 lateral, 5 front, and 5 bent over side raises. Heard it's a good assistance.

I've been alternating pullups and chinups each workout--moving forward I think I'm mostly going to be doing heavy pullups-ish stuff on OHP days (nicely antagonistic) and rows and curls on bench press days (plus maybe some speed or endurance pullups). Possibly "bench press day" will just become "push press day" as well, or something like that.

In my mind, I'm still doing SS...with some greyskullish modifications and experimenting a little trying to decide what to do next.

1-11

OH Press 1x3x135, 3x5x150
Mixed grip pullups 4x5x+15
Parallel bar side-to-side pullups 2x6x+15
Parallel bar Frenchies 1x2
Typewriters (3 second lock-off) 1x6

Front squats 2x5x115, 1x3x150, 1x3x235
Front squats wide stance below parallel box squats 1x5x150
Front squats narrow stance below parallel box squats 1x5x150
HBBS 2x5x285
HBBS sumo stance below parallel box squats 2x3x235
HBBS sumo stance below parallel box squats (for speed) 6x2x150

Dips 3x5x+15
3-way shoulder raises 2x5x20


Bah--150 was lighter than it needed to be for OHP. Will probably try for 160 next time instead of 155.

Today the gym was so crowded it was continually a challenge to get an open pullup bar AND an open 15 lb dumbell. Actually was just lucky to get a squat rack but it turns out nobody asks to work in if there's a box sitting right there.

Really enjoying the box squats and thinking about just switching to them. My understanding is you can generally do about 85% of your norm for similar reps. Comparing 235 box to 285 regular felt somewhat similar, but good lord is it hard to get started. Westside does speed work with 50% weight at the bottom and 75% weight at the top. I don't have bands (or a good place to clip them in my gym) and was just thinking of splitting the difference, but 50% at the bottom feels *totally* different and more explosive. Anyway, still mostly just "trying stuff"

Ran out of time for deadlifts.

Lately been taking wife and dog for a walk in the park with the wheelchair, and doing about half the 1 mile route as walking lunges. Hoping that and the wide-stance squats supplement the posterior-chain neglect from dropping low bar back squats.

1-12

Hot Yoga

Did a walk in the park today and realized the actual portion of walking lunges is closer to 5% than 50%. Pretty sure that's still within an acceptable margin of error.

1-13

CR Rows: 2:30

Bench Press 1x5x240, 3x3x240
Front squats narrow stance (3 second pause) 1x5x135
Front squats narrow stance below parallel box 1x5x185
Front squats 1x255 F
HBBS sumo stance below parallel box squats 1x5x255, 1x6x255
HBBS 2x5x300
1-arm Arnold press 2x5x50, 1x8x50
Hammer curls 1x16x25, 1x8x40, 1x6x45
Power Cleans 4x3x145
Rows 3x5x145
Back Extensions 1x8x+25


First truly terrible overnight for the wife in a while. Woke up about every half hour except for a couple of multi-hour blocks from 3 to 7 (I...think). Considered skipping workout entirely, but altogether I probably still managed 8 hours of sleep and felt OK-ish. Bench was harder than expected, and I've never bonked on front squats before (I got it up, but only by stopping well north of parallel). Could have been the sleep or just too much effort on the warmups. Also felt it in my chest having just walked over from bench press.

HBBS felt great; the sequence is actually a sandwich of one set box squats @ 255, two sets of regular squats @ 300, and then an AMRAP of box squats @ 255. I like it, and the effort feels pretty similar overall.

Power cleans felt good except the last set got a little loose.

1-14

Power Yoga

All of the stretch and balance, with just 20% of the sweat!

1-15

Jump rope ~= 3:00

Sandbag OHP 1x6x120, 2x5x125, 1x8x125
Sandbag Box Squat unilateral (this means it's on one shoulder) 2x5x80, 2x5x120
Sandbag Box Squat wide stance 2x5x160, 2x5x200, 3x5x250
Sandbag Pause Squat (ass-to-grass) 1x8x250
Sandbag 1-arm Arnold Press 1x5x50s, 1x5x52.5, 1x8x52.5
Leanback rows 3x10xbw (looks like upside-down pushup)
Pullups 2x5x+5, 1x10x+5
Sandbag Good mornings 2x10x120
Box jumps (20") 4x5


Today's workout brought to you by sandbags! Sandbags, taking my word on how much they weigh since 2013! Sandbags! We haven't moved since early 2015! Sandbags--what is that smell? Sandbags! Who's the one thing available on a Sunday morning? SANDBAGS! Sandbags, because iron is expensive but sand is practically free!

So, not having weighed the bags for...weight loss since making them, I've got one 50 lbs, one 80 lbs, and one 120 along with wrist/ankle weights of 2x2.5 lbs. Theoretically. It's a little weird because you just can't get the weight even for something like OHP, plus when loading up all 3 bags for heavy squats, I've got the 50 lb on as a backpack, the 120 over one shoulder, and then get low to grab the 80 lb before essentially power cleaning it onto the opposite shoulder. Then start the squats!

Anyway, fun for a change and a workout I can do at home even in the mornings if wife is still asleep (now that I've discovered box squats) or Sundays.

*Forgot:

Kettlebell swings 4x15x50 (but with a sandbag)
Zercker deadlift 2x10x120 (also sandbag)