antlas log

[Barkadion]

The gods of lifting taught me a very gentle lesson today that I won't soon forget. I was benching 90% of 1RM, and failed. Alone. Because the bench I was on had a very low rack option, I panicked and thought I could rack it there. Well, I only got one side hooked. The other side scraped my ear, and drew a single drop of blood. The next bit is fuzzy, but somehow I kept one side off my face, unracked the other side, and did a roll of shame. I finished my workout (except benching, which I quit on the spot), but the entire drive home I thought about how lucky I was that I didn't hurt my teeth or windpipe or anything else.

Two lessons - 1) When failing bench, don't be an idiot. Just put it on your chest and roll it down to your hips. (This is completely reasonable and safe at the weights I bench.) 2) Use a training max, not a one rep max. My 1RM max is only 95 lbs, so the margin of success and failure is only a few lbs. A training max will be much safer for me.

SQ - 135 x 5 x 5
BP - ugh
WPU - 3 sets of 4 with +20 lbs.

Hell of a lesson, antlas. It's good you are safe.

Gods of lifting never let us down

[J-Madd]

Use a training max, not a one rep max. My 1RM max is only 95 lbs, so the margin of success and failure is only a few lbs. A training max will be much safer for me.

This is reason #752 why using a training max is a good idea! I'm glad you made it home relatively intact.

[antlas]

Thanks Barkadion and J-Madd! I got off lucky for sure.

Today I did five sets of 2 minutes on the rower. My times are still improving - 2:02, 2:08, 2:11, 2:11, 2:11.

Yesterday was week 6 of this block, but I think I'm going to give it another 3 weeks before retesting. Even still, I've been reflecting over my progress the last block. My progress was uneven, and I haven't been feeling solid on my heavier lifts. I skimmed through the books again today and found out that (despite having already read them twice) I'm accidentally missing some key components. I've been doing 5x5 for max strength regardless of the weight, and I don't have enough variety in my HIC. My new goals will be to follow the Operator template more closely, and do at least two different HICs each week. My last goal was to do HIC at higher intensity, and I have successfully made that a habit. Baby steps!

Oh, and my bulk is progressing. I'm up to 120, started at 118.

[antlas]

I did a 3.7 mile run today in an effort to work off at least a few Lindt chocolate balls. I went after dark hoping to look at Christmas lights, but it turns out that ruins my night vision. All well, I still enjoyed the festive atmosphere, and the run felt great. I can tell rowing has improved my CV fitness quite a bit.

[Ten8]

I did a 3.7 mile run today in an effort to work off at least a few Lindt chocolate balls. I went after dark hoping to look at Christmas lights, but it turns out that ruins my night vision. All well, I still enjoyed the festive atmosphere, and the run felt great. I can tell rowing has improved my CV fitness quite a bit.

Those Lindt chocolates will be the death of me...glad to see I'm not the only one taking them on. Awesome log, you're making some great progress here.

[antlas]

Believe me, Ten8, you're in good company with the chocolates. Just when I thought we had gotten rid of them all...we were gifted another bag.

I got a heart rate monitor for Christmas (yay!) so I took it out for spin. I wanted to see how slow the base building HRM zone is. Well, let's just say I definitely did BB all wrong last summer. Today I ran 5.5 miles in 1:15 (!) with an average heart rate of 144. It felt like I was barely moving.

I'm really excited to do another base building block in the spring now, because I suspect I missed out on some gains by going too fast.

[antlas]

I've had a fun and productive week of training.

Monday - 5 rounds of 2 minutes on the Concept2. Speed averaged 2:10-2:15 per 500m. Heart rate 175-185 (yikes!)

Tuesday - 70ish%
SQ 105 x 5 x 5
BP 65 x 5 x 5
PU unweighted - 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Wednesday - usually my rest day, but I tried brazilian jiu jitsu for the first time. It was super fun! I'm going to look into going regularly.

Thursday
SQ 105 x 5 x 5
BP 65 x 5 x 5
PU unweighted - 6, 5, 4, 3, 4 (combined last two sets of 2)
DL - 135 x 4 x 5 - playing around with sumo stance some more. Really liking it, when I get it right.

[antlas]

It's been another busy week of training.

Friday: 5k in 28 minutes with a colleague

Saturday: Much needed rest

Sunday: last day at 75%
SQ 5 x 5 x 105
BP 5 x 5 x 65
PU 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2

Monday: two hours of BJJ. Good, hard work!

Tuesday: one hour of muy thai. I meant to stay for a BJJ class after, but the only other woman left and a few big guys came in, so I lost my nerve and left. All well, Rome wasn't built in a day. Headed to the gym instead and did my first day at 85%.
SQ 5 x 4s and 3s x 120
BP 5 x 4s and 3s x 75
PU 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 3

Wednesday: Planned rest

[antlas]

Thursday: one hour of muy thai and one hour of jiu jitsu

Friday: unplanned rest due to scheduling

Saturday: 85%
120 x 4s and 3s x 5
DL 145 x 3 x 5
PU 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3
Dumbell bench press, 40 x 8 x 3

Sunday: excruciatingly boring hour of LSS cardio. Rotated machines every 15 minutes for some variety. Average heart rate 130.

[antlas]

Monday - two hours of BJJ

Tuesday - planned rest

Wednesday - two hours of BJJ

I'm still working on integrating lifting, HIC, and BJJ training into my week. My husband also follows TB and trains BJJ, and we have a small child, so it's hard to juggle all of that scheduling!