Been sick all week with a bad cough and sore throat. Haven't been feeling too crummy except for sweating out a fever overnight on Thursday.

Trained on Thursday:

Overhead press 

150 x 3

172.5 x 3

195 x 2

145 x 3 x 8

Super-set with chin-ups: 10, 15, 15

Heavy band chest press: 3 x 10

Super-set with dumbbell curls: 35s x 10

Didn't hit 3 like I wanted and I have an excuse with illness and the fact that I've been doing more labor at work, but I still don't want to be skating on thin ice with these numbers. I want to be able to hit the minimum on a bad day. I'm excited about changing the apparatus for this day to switch things up - maybe an axle clean once and press away, a Swiss bar, a log, or a push press.

Heavy labor weekend as we wrap-up the move. Got home on Friday evening and set-up to bench:

Bench press

215 x 5

250 x 5

280 x 6 (failed a 7th)

Swiss bar bench press

225 x 10, 7, 8

Super-set with lying dumbbell rows: 115s x 3 x 10

Band pressdowns: 15

Super-set with alternating dumbbell curls

35s x 20

After that, did some moving. Nothing crazy but there were some loaded carries with boxes of books that were a good workout all on their own. It's why I went easy on the bicep curls earlier.

Saturday:

Squats

335 x 5

385 x 5

435 x 5

320 x 18

After that, went out and moved a bunch more stuff. This one was a solo trip so I lifted what was possible with one person. More loaded carries back-and-forth over the course of about an hour and a half.

Sunday was the big one. All-day move with the heaviest items via 2 people. We managed to get everything out and into the moving van (which my work kindly lent me) except for a massive bed headboard. My girlfriend was just too small to help with that, even with shoulder straps made for moving heavy objects.  I had expected this and hit-up a friend the day before, but he was unavailable. We ended up scheduling a moving company to move this piece alone for $50 on Wednesday. 

Ended up finishing at 9:00pm and I felt like I got run over by a train by the end of the night. All "good" pain, though.  I'm elated that my lower back feels great. It's my upper-back that's sore as hell from pulling heavy items into myself when carrying, and that feels awesome. I feel like I should have paid to get an upper-back workout this good.

I'm also feeling a little sick with a sore throat and a light cough, but nothing too bad. Drinking tea and hot bone broth with eggs at work, and I have an entire frozen pizza from Italy in the work freezer for lunch. There are still some smaller items to move out this week but nothing heavy enough that they require two people or a moving van.

Wednesday boxing was a great session Wore a knee sleeve because of my tender knee, but it felt solid the entire time, including while skipping rope. Started with footwork drills via a rope ladder on the floor, switched to rounds on the heavy bag, and ended with light partner sparring where we could only use a jab. I appreciated this part especially as a way to help shake-off ring rust until I can get a new physical from my doctor and submit the paperwork to the gym in order to be sparring eligible again.

 
Was going to squat heavy yesterday, but I ended up erring on the side of caution because it was the first day I hadn't felt any knee funniness. Coupled with all the moving I'm doing, I made myself take a full day of rest.

Strict press

140 x 5

160 x 5

185 x 3

Against bands: 100 x 3 x 10

Super-set with chin-ups: 15 x 3 x 10

Barbell curls: 45 x 30

Not surprised by my performance, as I was quite worn coming into this. Did a lot of heavy lifting during the move on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Monday in particular had me move a massive dresser up three flights of stairs by myself which was especially shoulder intensive. Just did the bare minimum while falling short of 185x5, but I aim to tackle that again this cycle. Went especially light on my biceps as they took on a lot of work the past 3 days.

My right knee has been feeling funny since Saturday morning, before any of the heavy moving began. If I turned around in place, the torque on the knee made me feel a slight buckling sensation, but without pain. By Monday, it felt like there was sustained pressure on the knee and that it SHOULD hurt, but again, no pain. Today, that pressure sensation appears to be gone, but while on my lunch walk I took a hard step and felt a flash of slight pain for a moment. Because of all this, I've put a pause on my daily morning jump-rope rounds and at boxing today, I'll wear an SBD knee sleeve to be safe. Best guess: I stand a lot at work and have been skipping rope every morning at over 200 lbs, so it's probably just a matter of needing some rest.

Squats (high bar): 290 x 20
Super-set with deadlifts: 290 x 20

I am helping my girlfriend move in today (woo!) and needed something fast, challenging, but not body breaking so I'd be game to lift the biggest pieces of furniture at her place. This was perfect. The squats were easy, but I felt like death once I started repping out the deadlifts. Was wary about my lower back, which was feeling a tremendous pump and that can cause a tendency to lose tension, but I walked away feeling horrible but healthy, which is a good way to train.

Also, missed recording a deload bench day the day before yesterday, but worked up benching 205x5 followed by 150x3x10 JM press super-set with axle curls, ending with a 20-rep set of 80 lb dumbbell rows.

 Deload

Squats

225 x 5

255 x 5

305 x 5

225 x 3 x 10

Stood narrower just because it's harder to keep my interest going during the workout, but not hard to the point that it fucks with the spirit of a deload.

Left shoulder has been in a little pain ever since last week, starting with the bench press workout I did and continuing into the push-up marathon we did in boxing. Nothing major, just something to monitor.

 Deload

Squats
225 x 5
255 x 5
305 x 5
225 x 3 x 10

Stood narrower just because it's harder to keep my interest going during the workout, but not hard to the point that it fucks with the spirit of a deload.

Left shoulder has been in a little pain ever since last week, starting with the bench press workout I did and continuing into the push-up marathon we did in boxing. Nothing major, just something to monitor.

Friday boxing was an especially brutal session. We started with a classic Friday circuit: medicine ball burpees, plyometric push-ups, and lateral dumbbell holds. After burning ourselves out on this, we worked the heavy bag under states of fatigue, mixing in more push-ups along with mountain climbers and squats. It also happened to be the coach’s 50th birthday so we ended by him going around to everyone and giving 50 strikes to the midsection. While waiting our turn we had to do non-stop jumping jacks. Having done squats the day before, my quads, which had been on the verge of cramping all session, totally fell apart after about the first 5 minutes of jumping jacks and I had to stop myself from falling down in some moments. Just an absolutely brutal amount of bodyweight exercises and grinding push-up reps to failure for the better part of an hour.

That all made me feel like I got hit by a train for the rest of the night and Saturday. On Sunday, I got in my first deload workout of this cycle:

Strict press

95, 115, 135 x 5

Against bands: 95 x 3 x 10

Super-set with chin-ups: 3 x 10

Dips: 2 x 10

Super-set with dumbbell curls: 35s x 2 x 10

Reverse hyper single leg curls

8 plates x 3 x 10

Also made some more bone broth for the week, this time with beef. I’m surprised that the chicken tasted better. I believe I did a better job of salting it and the softer chicken meat scraps detached from the bones easier so there were quite a few meat scraps in the chicken broth. Still better than anything from the store.

 Two entries I need to catch up on:

 

Bench press
245 x 5
275 x 3
305 x 3
First set last: 245 x 10

SSB JM press: 180 x 3 x 10
Super-set with axle curls: 80 x 3 x 10

Lying dumbbell rows
80s x 20, 10

305 was tough for the final rep, but I locked out. Still marks a 5 lb gain. Upper back is still extremely sore merely from doing barbell shrugs and, surprisingly, my shoulders and pec-deltoid connections felt uncomfortable while benching, which tells me my upcoming deload is going to be here just in time.

My bodyweight continues to hover at 203 as of my last weigh-in, making this the most modest mass gain phase I’ve ever done. While I’m a bit softer than the summer, I still have defined abs and a fairly slim waist. That’s OK with me, as I’m still making progress under the iron and I’m not willing to cut back the cardio and boxing training. I’m also enjoying going carb free until lunch time and before bed too much; simplifies half the meals for my day.

 

Squats
375 x 5
425 x 3
475 x 1
320 x 17

I felt a little sluggish tonight, but conversely, the weight felt pretty light. Thought about hitting a second rep of 475 but found myself walking the bar to the rack.

 

 

Attended first boxing session of 2026 at the new gym location yesterday. Much bigger than the old spot, which is super nice. No more dealing with overcrowding when trying to skip rope or claim a heavy bag. Did rounds on the heavy bag, weighted shadowboxing, ab exercises with a med ball, and then partnered up to take turns parrying and blocking just the jab (high or low). Finished with more ab work.

I made my first homemade batch of bone broth overnight after running out of my Costco supply and I'm never going back to store-bought broth. This was stupidly simple to make and I got to use my leftover $5 rotisserie chicken carcass instead of throwing it out. Will definitely make some beef and lamb bone broth later, but the chicken broth is delicious.

Happy New Year. NYE was fun. Went to Ellie's and caught up with everybody, although like last year it was rather low key as a house party. And made sure to see George a couple days later. We played R.A.D., which was rather rad. A lot better than Fast and Furious 9 that we watched right after.

Over the break, I strict pressed 200x2 and failed a 575 deadlift. Just one of those days where couldn't break it off the ground. I've been neglecting rep work for my hamstrings and I always notice an immediate performance boost in the deadlift after doing RDLs or that 20-rep squat/deadlift super-set I tend to do, so I hit RDLs with 315 for 3 sets of 10 afterwards, followed by 2 sets of 10 barbell shrugs with the same weight. Rather than my upper traps getting sore, it's more my lower traps and general upper back area that still feel it 2 days later.

On Saturday I also did a 5-minute jump-rope round followed by a 1 mile solo run, a brief break while I waited for my girlfriend to gear up, and then a 3 mile partner run. Have also been getting in that 5 min rope round every morning before work.