Overhead press 

145 x 5

167.5 x 5

190 x 4

Weighted dips

80 x 10, 10, 10

Super-set with weighed chin-ups 

80 x 8, 8, 8

Weighted push-ups

80 x 12, 10, 10

Super-set with dumbbell curls with Fat Gripz 

35s x 10, 10, 10, 10 (last set on its own, no super-set)

Knew I didn't have 5 in me after the 4th rep felt hard, but I was pretty happy with that.

I fill in on Fridays to do deliveries for my company and one of the routes took over an hour of lifting of had made a huge order from us. I moved 2 stacked pallets worth of Gatorade and protein shake cases by hand. The morning was compounded by especially bad nausea that I could tell had impacted my sleep based on how tired I felt. I noticed while warming up that my blood sugar felt crashed and when I held my hand up, it was shaking. 

I don't want to end on a negative note; I felt awesome when this was finished and it was a miserable blast to break out the 80 lb weight vest.

 Done on Sunday:

Bench press 

230 x 5

265 x 5

300 x 4 (failed a 5th)

Block press

335 x 1

350 x 1

Seated overhead dumbbell press 

80s x 9, 7, 7, 7

Lying dumbbell rows 

80s x 25, 20

Kettlebell lateral raises

15s x 30

Dumbbell hammer curls with Fat Gripz 

35s x 8, 10, 10

Came close to getting the 5th rep but couldn't lockout. Added some heavy block press singles so I'd end on a win.

Later in the evening, went on a 2 mile jog/run. It started off leisurely when after about a half mile I decided to run the rest of the mile and ended up finishing it at 9:50, at which point I slowed down again.

Bench press 

230 x 5

265 x 5

300 x 4 (failed a 5th)

Block press

335 x 1

350 x 1

Seated overhead dumbbell press 

80s x 9, 7, 7, 7

Lying dumbbell rows 

80s x 25, 20

Kettlebell lateral raises

15s x 30

Dumbbell hammer curls with Fat Gripz 

35s x 8, 

Yesterday evening: 

 

Mat pulls (6) 

550 x 5

RDL mat pulls 
365 x 8, 8

 

Sandbag squats
200 x 20

 

Strong performance, really ripped the weight up with uncaring brutality despite feeling some soreness in my hamstrings and low back from ABCs the day before.

 So screw that last update, I came home and did a kettlebell workout. SHOSHU!

ABCs

50s x 20 in 5:58

Push-ups: 30, 20, 20

Super-set with chin-ups: 15, 15, 12

Went on a walk with my lady and just got back. Feeling better and about to cook-up some pork belly and play Champions of Norrath together.

 Helluva day. Started work an hour early at 7am to get dropped off in Salinas to pick-up our truck that's been there since August. Ended up being a whole ordeal and when I finally got the truck off their lot, it started stalling at a gas station in Gilroy. I eventually got it going again and got back to work a little after 2. I'm feeling pretty beat now and since today is supposed to be a date night, I'm going to hold off on training until tomorrow. Didn't eat much all day and was really hungry but I'm filling up on fish curry and brown rice now.

 I dragged my carcass to boxing yesterday on some seriously sore legs from Saturday's squats, but I skipped rope and moved fine. Light sparred 3 rounds with 2 skilled people and 1 beginner. One of them had real good technique and we were keeping very busy with a high volume of punches until he started to slow down and breathlessly goes "This is supposed to be a warm-up??" Darn, I thought we were having fun and the strikes were light, but I eased up a little there.

Beginner was an overweight guy who comically waltzed around the whole gym as I chased him and practiced on cutting him off. He also made comical lunges and sways that looked straight out of drunken master. Nice guy though.

We partnered up after that to drill slipping 1-2s while moving to the end of the gym and then back, alternating who's punching and defending depending on the direction. Repeated this drill while ducking left and right hooks. I got my asked by partner to slow down in my forward movement twice. I was probably still formatted to be chasing down drunken master from earlier.

Next we donned the shield and alternated rounds throwing: jab, duck, left hook, left body hook. Next round was just blasting 1-2-3s.

Ended with 2 rounds on the heavy bag and then a plank that was unsatisfyingly short in time.

It felt great to be asked by different people to ease up on the pace. My conditioning is holding up well while going up in bodyweight and aggression is what I've been lacking before.

 Overhead press

155 x 3

175 x 3

200 x 3

Decline close-grip bench press 

225 x 5 x 10

Super-set with chin-ups 

Bodyweight x 10

30 x 4 x 10

Incline skullcrushers with Fat Gripz 

35s x 10, 8, 

Dumbbell curls with Fat Gripz

50s x 12 (alternating)

35s x 10, 10  (bilateral)

Making good gains on the press. Felt strong there.

It's quite possible that Dorian Yates and I are the only beings in existence who like decline bench. I'm doing some bodybuilding with it to develop my lower pecs.

Glad I dug out the Fat Gripz, I forgot how pumped they make my arms. Mid-workout picture:

 Squats

365 x 3

435 x 3

485 x 2, 3

Strip-sets of 405x4, 315x7, 225x10, 135x10, 50x10

Romanian deadlifts 

225 x 2 x 10

Kettlebell swings 

50 x 50

Ab wheel

15

Super-set with 15 crunches 

On the first set of 485, my belt felt so tight I couldn't get full breaths in my belly. I loosened it up a notch, hit 2, hesitated because the 2nd felt real heavy again, went for it and came up with a third rep that was stronger than the 2nd. Great moment of overcoming fear.

The belt felt a little too loose for my liking, but that was better than being too tight.

 Bench press

247.5 x 3

282.5 x 3

315 x 3

Seated overhead dumbbell press 

80s x 8, 9, 9

Super-set with lying dumbbell rows 

115s x 10, 10, 10

Dips

17, 12, 10

Super-set with dumbbell curls

35s x 12, 10, 10

Last two bench sets felt heavy, but that's no surprise. I just benched the day before yesterday and cut down on a rest day to hit this tonight and make time for George tomorrow after work.

Used one Fat Gripz on the dumbbell curls; couldn't find the other but I've been wanting to use 'em again.

Stomach is feeling much better this morning after not lifting last night. Will keep monitoring and noting further patterns.

Went on a partner jog yesterday evening but spontaneously decided to stop at Super Duper Burgers for dinner and got a chicken sandwich, garlic fries, and Coke Zero. Portions were small, but this time I mainly went in for the experience, which is how I treat fast food these days when I end up going once in a blue moon. Got to relax for the rest of the evening and even squeezed in some Champions of Norrath time together before bed.

 Deload

Overhead press

95 x 5

115 x 5

135 x 5

Decline bench press

185 x 10

205 x 3 x 10

Chin-ups: 20, 15

20 dips

Been feeling horribly nauseous and burpy in the mornings for a couple of weeks now. It persists until the early afternoon and seems to have crescendoed this week. After reviewing past patterns, my theory is it's from increased caloric intake paired with lifting too close to bedtime, so I'll make some adjustments there and see if I feel better.

 Monday was a slog. Despite 7 hours of sleep I felt seriously tired, but got through a deload super-set:

Squats

225 x 20

Super-set with deadlifts

225 x 20

Dropped the bar down and went straight to Costco after this. Picked-up ingredients to make a homemade weightgainer shake because eating 16 microwaved eggs every morning has been getting extreme old. I'm drinking my concoction this morning: organic A2 milk, oatmeal, almond butter, chocolate casein powder, cinnamon whey powder, and a banana.

 Returned from a weekend trip L.A. last night at around 8. I used the hotel gym on Saturday morning, just sticking with cable accessory exercises like flyes, pressdowns, and curls. Later, went to Muscle Beach for a quick hour before dinner at one of the best Chinese restaurants I've ever been to.

Didn't actually workout on the beach this time because it's $10 for a day pass when it used to be free and I didn't have enough time before we had to leave for dinner to make the experience worth it. It was a fun visit but I want to come back and make a day out of it. I did pick-up another Arnold Schwarzenegger tank top, though.

Deload

Squats
225 x 5
275 x 5
315 x 5
225 x 20

Good mornings
135 x 20

Kettlebell swings
50 x 50

No thigh pain, I'm happy to report. Knees and back also felt good while going beltless and without sleeves.

Leaving for a trip to Los Angeles today after work to visit with my girlfriend's family. I certainly don't feel the NEED to train since it's just Friday evening until Sunday, but the hotel may have a gym and if not, morning push-ups and bodyweight squats would be fun.

 Deload

Bench press

135, 185, 225 x 5 (1 second pause)

Seated overhead dumbbell press

80s x 3 x 8

Dips

18

Lying dumbbell rows:

80s x 30

Swiss bar curls

45 x 30

Also knocked out the following circuit this morning:

20 burpees

2 minutes weighted shadowboxing

20 kettlebell swings with 25 lbs (grabbed what was in my living room)

Got a surprise on the scale this morning: 209, a loss of 2 lbs. I've been eating a lot so I was expecting a gain, but notably, I've been going more nights without eating or drinking casein protein before bed. No biggie, I'm getting stronger.

Leaving for Los Angeles tomorrow for a weekend trip involving family.

 Mat pulls (8)

550 x 5

Mat pull RDLs

365 x 2 x 8

Sandbag squats

200 x 15

I am really liking how capping the reps at 5 is letting me pull heavy but walk away feeling fresh. I'm curious to see if this will keep week-to-week performance consistent as opposed to wildly fluctuating between getting a high rep count one week and then not even breaking the bar off the mats the next.

Zero thigh pain on mat pulls, but I felt it a little on sandbag squats. Luckily, my deload starts after this session.

 Overhead press

165 x 5

185 x 3

205 x 1

Decline bench press

225 x 8, 9, 9

Super-set with chin-ups: 12, 12, 20

A little later in the early evening, I went to the nearest 24 Hour Fitness with the intention to sign-up for a month because I've been wanting access to the pool and steam room. This location has been historically rundown so hearing that it was recently renovated lured me in. I ended up waiting at the empty front desk for several minutes before I just took out my phone, signed-up for an online free pass, and then walked in. I bounced around from various machines as I came across them. all done for 3 sets of 10: machine lat pulldowns, cable tricep pressdowns, cable chest flyes, leg press, and cable curls. 

I also had my bag gloves with me and did a light round on one of their punching bags. Finally, I did mostly 5 minutes (took some time to figure out how to adjust while I was using it) of max resistance on the elliptical machine.

This was all fine, but when I went to one section of the locker room I was hit with a smell so bad I just about turned away and walked out from there, while the bathroom was dirty and in disrepair (not the source of whatever that smell was, by the way). The steam room and jacuzzi also looked crowded so I actually did end up leaving then.

I'm now leaning toward forgetting the whole idea of a gym membership. The upsides are that it's cheap, using machines are fun, and it's just down the street from my boxing gym so I can kill time in the hour I have between work and boxing by using a massage chair or going for a swim, but that locker room was absolutely brutal.

 Squats
405 x 5
455 x 3
505 x 1

This was damn near miraculous. While squatting 405 I felt my mid back seize up. Not nearly as painful as a low back tweak because this was purely muscular, not disc related, thankfully. Cautiously proceeded up to 455, which felt fine, and then 505, which felt very light on my back but was still enough to rekindle the upper thigh injury I experienced last weekend. Was able to walk upstairs fine and the pain isn't bad. 

Boxing yesterday:

3 rounds jumping rope, 3 min each
3 rounds weighted shadowboxing, 3 min each
Partner combos: take turns slipping 1-2s and then 1-2-3s. 2 rounds each for 2 minutes.
Conditioning: plate crawls with push-ups
2 minute plank