Training Update and Random Thoughts

Here’s the weekly rundown with some random thoughts at the end.

Monday:

Fat Bar Overhead Press:

155x5

115x8x3

Tuesday:

Sprints

Wednesday:

Clean High Pull:

274x1x5

Jumps and sprints and such

Bear Complex (Clean pull, hang clean, push press, front squat, push press, back squat, push press.  Doi each exercise once in that order equals one rep.  Should have videoed it.  Sorry.)

3x3

Thursday:

Upper back and arm work

Treadmill Sprints:

8.0 incline, 10.5 mph, :15 on, :15 offx4; :10 on, :10 offx2

Friday:

Squat:

385x5, 325x6x3

Good Mornings

My left shoulder right now is feeling kind of junky hence the extra upper back work on Thursday.  I think I got a little overzealous on Monday and did 20 wall walk ups with a press.  I’m going to have to modify that for future use.

There is a definite sports void right now with the end of football.  There will be news all the way up to when the season starts but I’m going to miss the action.  This hole cannot be filled by basketball and hockey.  I’m only a marginal hockey fan and since I don’t have cable I can’t really watch any of the games.  And to me NBA basketball is barely a sport.  I’ve never liked the games (mostly because I’m no good at it) and I really dislike the culture of it.  Seems to be a lot of “me” guys that are only out for themselves.  It’s also hard to like a bunch of guys that make 10 million dollars per year and live paycheck to paycheck because they spend every cent they make.  I’m sure there are guys like that in the NFL but I don’t like them either.  Case in point: Johnny Jolly.  That guy deserves everything he gets.  I was very much hoping that the NBA season was going to be cancelled just for the case study.  I thought it would have been very interesting to see how many guys went bankrupt or turned to illicit means to get by.  And I’m supposed to care about the poverty situation in America?

I had a pretty good post Super Bowl bloat from all the salty meats and treats.  Those brownie-on-top-of-Reese’s-Peanut-Butter-Cups-on-top-of-Tollhouse-Cookie-Dough bars were amazing.  Being the former fat kid that I am I’m already coming up with ways to make them better.  I think stirring in some peanut butter M&M’s would do the trick.  I really need to stop thinking about stuff like that.

Just like I thought was going to happen I pushed too hard on dead lifts.  I still had some soreness in my spinal erectors on Thursday, a full seven days post lift.  Need to start lifting with my head and not my ego.  Speaking of which, I haven’t trained my neck in while…

I’m going to start slowly adding in sprint days.  I did some kind of sprint work Tuesday through Friday.  This gets rid of my Saturday sprint day and gives me two consecutive days to rest.  None of the days are overly taxing and should help me maintain some leanness as I gain weight.

According to recent traffic on this blog the thing most people want to see is…bathroom selfies.  That post literally got 5-10 times the traffic of my other posts.  I post the links to these posts on Facebook and Twitter and I’m sure most of it came from people on Facebook wanting to see all 188 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal.  Unfortunately that was a one and done thing unless I do another diet coming up.  A note to all male readers: Bathroom selfies are lame as hell.  Ladies, however, keep doing what you’re doing.

Squats are feeling really good.  I started incorporating a stretch from Kelly Starett (if you are having any kind of issues with mobility or flexibility check this guy out.  He's wicked smaht.) into my pre workout routine and I think it has made a huge difference on my IT band pain.  The last time I squatted I was on my first or second work set and realized that it didn’t hurt.  Here’s the stretch:

Whenever I have a client that had issue that was solved with soft tissue work and stretching the one thing that I harp on the most is for them to keep doing what they did to get it to feel better.  For instance, if they had lower back pain and it went away once they incorporated daily quad/hip flexor stretching and rolling out I’m like a nagging mother for them to keep doing it.  It takes time for adaptations to take hold.  You may feel better but once you stop doing what you were doing nine times out of ten the issue comes back.  Long story short, roll out, stretch, and do mobility work every day.