Felt pretty tired on Monday from poor sleep quality the night before. Did a 5-minute jump rope round in the morning before work and went on a 1.79 mile jog for 20 minutes in the evening.

Didn't sleep great that night (tons of weird dreams that kept waking me up, including one where I "killed" a ghost with a flamethrower and then remarked "Mmm, barbecued ghost" like I was Duke Nukem), but felt more alive yesterday.

Axle power cleans

155 x 5

180 x 5

205 x 5

Deadlifts:

375 x 5

440 x 5

500 x 5

https://youtu.be/KnjrlBsc70s

Bent-over dumbbell rows: 115 x 8, 10, 8

Super-set with Swiss bar bench press: 205 x 10, 9

215 x 7

Romanian deadlifts

315 x 8

275 x 8

Super-set with hammer curls: 35s x 3 x 10

Axle clean once and press

140 x 5

160 x 5

180 x 5

Super-set with band pull-aparts: 3 x 15

Barbell front squats 

225 x 5

260 x 5

290 x 7

Super-set with chin-ups

Bodyweight x 10

15 x 10

30 x 10

Seated dumbbell Arnold press

80s x 7, 7, 6

Super-set with T-bar rows 

4 plates x 8, 8, 8

Sandbag carries 

200 x 2 x 1 min

x 35 sec

Felt great going into this session and had a strong showing as a result. Yet another reminder to not skip deloads if the program calls for it. 

Strict press went from 175x4 a month ago to a smooth 180x5, and those were some of the best front squats using a barbell clean grip I've ever done. Felt more comfortable keeping the bar in place.

Had a fun experience in San Francisco's Chinatown over the weekend. It's my tradition to buy a new Bruce Lee shirt everytime I visit from any number of the souvenir shops lining the street. One store caught my eye this time due to the life-size Bruce Lee replica they had and the shopkeeper began to excitedly chat me up not long after I entered, telling me I "look very dangerous" because I'm "so calm" and due to how I carry myself. I was already planning on buying, but as a sales tactic it was very good, haha. He asked me what martial arts I do and when I answered that I previously took Muay Thai but am doing boxing now, he feigned intimidation and said he KNEW I was a dangerous man. When I asked him if he did any martial arts, he said yes: a .45. Turns out his son did Muay Thai as well. This conversation was framed in some of the most animated mannerisms I've ever come across. The guy spoke like a character in a kung-fu movie. Anyway, ended up walking out with a new shirt and a wall tapestry showing a scene from Enter the Dragon.

 Really good boxing session yesterday. More technical than usual for Wednesdays. After rope rounds, we did a round of dumbbell shadowboxing, normal shadowboxing, and then partner drills. Got advised to throw my right uppercut more vertically and less like a shovel hook. Partner was pretty skilled so we went pretty fast, which was a good workout in the end. We partnered-up on the heavy bag, too, having to throw nonstop 1-2s at the same time on opposite ends, but then ended with everyone having their own bag and doing rounds on it. 

I'm looking into getting my first ever weight vest. Got my eye on the Rogue Echo.

Deload

Axle power cleans

110 x 5

130 x 5

150 x 5

SSB squats

270 x 3 x 5

Lying dumbbell rows: 80s x 3 x 10

Super-set with SSB JM press: 170 x 3 x 8

Dumbbell stiff-legged deadlifts

80s x 2 x 8

Still weighing 198. Reducing calories at lunch and my post-workout meal are 2 easy tweaks because those are currently my largest meals. I'm in no hurry.

Jumped-rope for a 7-minute round this morning. I have boxing this evening. Craving a sparring session. 

Saturday deload

Axle clean once and press

90 x 5

110 x 5

130 x 5

Super-set with band pull-aparts:

Front squats

135, 185, 225 x 5

Super-set with chin-ups: 3 x 10

Bent-over barbell rows

185 x 3 x 8

Super-set with weighted dips: 50 x 8

75 x 8, 8

1 minute sandbag carry

Went on a 3-hour evening walk with my girlfriend in the evening to our local park and back. Way restorative.

Sunday morning:

1 round, 10 minutes jumping rope (PR)

Band-resisted striking drills: jab and straight right

Bicep rehab: 70 axle curls with 25 lbs

Evening: 4 hill sprints, followed by a 12-minute jog afterwards.

Monday was a rest day, and then this morning before work I did a 7-minute jump-rope round.

Biceps got surprisingly sore from those light axle curls. It's been a minute since I've done Poundstone curls. 

STILL no sparring available for weekly class sign-ups and haven't been asked by the coach to come spar on the side, either. I might ask him if I can train with their masters team on Wednesdays to hopefully get more sparring in.

In non-training news, it's been awful several days since the bombs started dropping on Iran Friday afternoon and family being stuck in Tehran. Just got word from my brother this morning that they've left the capitol, though, which is a huge relief.

Had a good, technical boxing session Tuesday night. Shadowboxed with dumbbells and only the 4 pounders and up were available (being the biggest guy I let everyone else pick the lighter ones first), but I was careful and didn't have any shoulder pain. Took turns with different partners practicing bodyshots. 

Yesterday after work:

Axle clean and push press

200 x 1, 3

Incline bench crazy bells 

145 x 2 x 8

150 lb keg + 200 lb sandbag carry super-set: 35 seconds each

Sandbag carry: 1:05

Sandbag floor to platform loading: 8 reps

Came into this with sore shoulders, traps, and upper back. Cleans were giving me trouble as a result; whole upper back just felt fried and I had several missed attempts as a result before I finally got the 200 lbs to my chest. The next set came easier. 

Crazy bells made my left shoulder hurt, the opposite intended effect of doing them for rehab. I got through the 2 sets but pretty much need to avoid incline benching of any kind until my shoulder's healed.

Keg was spilling water so I went with just the sandbag for a second round of loaded carries. It's been 10 years since I bought and sealed the keg and it's time to perform some maintenance repairs. 

This morning: 5 minute jump-rope round in the living room before breakfast and work. 

Snapped a mirror shot last night a couple of hours after lifting. I'm bigger than I usually am at 198 lbs - credit to strongman training.

Axle power cleans

175 x 5

200 x 3

225 x 1

Deadlifts 

435 x 5

485 x 3

545 x 1

Bent-over dumbbell rows 

100 x 10

115 x 10, 10

Super-set with weighted dips

50 x 10

100 x 8, 8

Romanian deadlifts: 315 x 2 x 8

Super-set with dumbbell curls: 35s x 8, 10, 10

Doing cleans and heavy deadlift reps before the final deadlift set has been great, I've found. The top set moves slower than it normally would, but my back feels so strong and warmed-up by that point.

 Friday night boxing was the usual circuit: medicine ball burpees, plyometric push-ups, and dumbbell lateral holds. I was very careful going in due to left shoulder pain, but I was able to get through all 3 rounds well. Focused on recruiting my traps for the dumbbell holds and doing mini shrugs so there was some movement going on. I used the 4 pounders, which I also shadowboxed with beforehand and was careful not to injure my shoulder any worse with them. Ended with rounds on the heavy bag and then a 3-minute plank.

Saturday was a wild time in DTSJ for George's birthday, although it took forever and too many movies/YouTube videos to actually leave the apartment. Took Sunday as a recovery day. Had some sad "Mexican" food from a white-washed joint in Los Gatos, Nina's Taqueria, but Persian ice cream and a walk in the park afterwards made up for it. 

Axle clean once and press

155 x 5

175 x 3

195 x 2

Super-set with band pull-aparts: 3 x 15

SSB front squats

270 x 5

305 x 3

345 x 3 (PR)

270 x 10 (PR)

Super-set with pull-ups: 3 x 12

Incline dumbbell press: 80s x 5 (stopped due to shoulder pain)

Swiss bar bench press

235 x 3 (stopped due to shoulder pain)

225 x 6, 7, 7

Shoulder was a little achy pressing overhead, but manageable. Incline pressing even light weight hurt the most and I opted to shut that down rather than ignore the pain, even though the weight was moving quick. 

First set of bench press hurt. For the second set, I stripped off the 5 lb plates to bring it down to 225, and then focused on pressing in more of a downward trajectory than normal, almost as if I was decline benching. It worked, and by the third set I was bench pressing with minimal pain.

Real happy with how my front squats are progressing. I'd like to try the snatch grip with a straight bar again sometime with a silly idea to prevent the bar slipping: double-sided cat tape wrapped around it. It's designed to make cats' paws stick to surfaces they shouldn't be on, driving them to avoid it. I have some in storage somewhere. 

Bicep is about the same: there's pain but it's manageable. I will have to say goodbye to log cleans for awhile, but I was able to do unassisted pull-ups this time and they felt good.

 Recuperation day yesterday. Did some tonic exercises in the morning:

30 band pull-aparts

5 Turkish get-ups with a 25 lb kettlebell

30 band pull-throughs

50 one-arm 25 lb kettlebell swings 

Now that my right shoulder has healed, my left has started to act up. This time it comes from boxing: there have been a few rounds where we had to throw non-stop 1-2s on the bag and the strain of keeping my hands high took a toll on my shoulder. Nothing too bad, just some pain if I raise my left arm over my head and only sometimes.

In the evening, did an uncounted number of reverse crunches super-set with normal crunches across 3 sets while watching a Muhammad Ali documentary.

This morning I made space in my living room and skipped rope for 5 minutes. Much like when I first switched from Muay Thai to boxing, I kept messing up from the subtle difference of barefoot vs shoes. Still a good micro-workout. Last minute I picked up the pace and did high knees with the rope.

 Tuesday night boxing:

Worked on distance control with a partner using the plastic rings outside. One person takes 3 steps forward, throws a combo with the lead foot inside the ring to indicate fighting range, and then steps out, allowing the other person to go, all while circling each other around the ring as if we're sparring. After switching partners every round the final pair I was in was with Dominic, my Muay Thai coach's uncle. He is not in shape and has to take breaks sometimes, but works hard. After this drill, we donned body and hand shields. Combo we worked on with this gear was a right-hand lead to the body, left hook to the body, and left hook to the "head" (or in this case, the hand shield). Partner had some very hard body shots that I felt through the shield, especially with my slim torso at this weight.

Really digging Tuesday late classes with this coach. The time of 7:30pm-8:30pm feels sweet when I get home from work and have extra time to make a nice meal and relax before class, but expectedly sucks to get home at nearly 9.

Yesterday:

Log cleans: 230 x 3 x 1

Super-set with seated dumbbell overhead press: 80s x 3 x 8

Lying dumbbell rows: 80s x 3 x 10

Sandbag carry: 1 minute

Sandbag floor to platform loading: 5 reps

Bicep still hurts, but feeling better. Cautiously went ahead with log cleans and sandbag work.

The cleans came really strong; had no problem with them at all aside from being ginger with the bicep. Went ahead trying to press 230 overhead, too; I came closest on the 2nd attempt but it wasn't there.