Friday:

3×10 wall squats
Baseball bat torch press, mills, ninja chops 2 x 10
Elliptical intervals 20-mins

Monday:
3×10 lunges, prisoner style
3×10 SDL @ 60#
5×3 cleans @ 85#
Work up to max 2-hand anyhow:
—Right arm: 35#U/30#L
—Left arm: 25#U/25#L
Turkish Get-Up: 30# fixed barbell, both sides

Wednesday:

Total body foam rolling
10-min circuit for rounds: 2 + 1/3 rounds complete with
—10 x explosive Smith machine bench press throws @ 75#
—10 x burpees
—100 ft bear hug carry @ 50# (second round 50 ft)
5 x 7 BB complex, collated: hang cleans, front squat, good morning @ 65#
—Rounds 4, 5 – substituted back squat for front squat
—Round 5 – barefoot w/socks

Sunday:

3×10 lunges
3×10 SDL 2 20#
6×6 each:
—PUBPU
—Dips

Monday:

Lower body foam rolling
1×10 wall squats @ 8″ + 1×4 @ 6″ (I fell over)
3×10 ball leg press @ 90#
6×1 BB complex @ 75#: deadlift, bent row, hang clean, front squat, OH press, good morning
DB complex:
—1×5/side DB clean/press @ 20# + windmill @ 20#U/20#L
—1×10 towel high pulls from height @ 20#
—1×5 PURBOH @ 20#
PUBPU for reps: 7
Rope pull-ups for reps: 5
Bear hug walk, 150′ @ 70#
1×10 bear hug squats  @ 45#
20′ treadmill intervals from 1mph
Shin-box-pretzel circles with back twist stretch

Notes:
—The weights at the place I’m training this month are bare steel, not rubber, so bear hugs are an interesting exercise in grip as well as raw strength.

Worked through a grueling session in the gym today as punishment for not going all week. Essentially combined two workouts into one. Now I really need a professional massage.

3×10 lunges, terminal knee extensions, straight-leg deadlifts @ 65#
4 sets:
—Deadlift ground hold, 8 sec @ 260#
—One-arm DB deadlift x 5 @ 50#
3 sets:
—Bent-over row x 8 @ 65#
—Hang clean x 8 @ 65#
11 x pull-ups: 7, 3, 1
5/side x one-arm snatch + windmill @ 25#
8 x alternating ground-plate explosive pushups, 3 plate stack
8 x cable torso twist @ 40#
60 sec alternating DB cleans @ 20#
Total body foam rolling

Tore up my muscles over the last two days, resulting in total-body soreness and a nasty-looking bruise on my right bicep. Looks like the three 310# rack pull singles yesterday busted some capillaries in that area. Hopefully all this will result in some growth, since I feel like I’ve more or less stagnated now. I’m continuing to feed the muscle with chicken, fish, whole milk, fruits and veggies, and even a little complex carb in the form of tapioca, oatmeal and whole grain bread. I’m going to have to wean myself off of the coffee though, since it’s going to raise my blood pressure chronically (not to mention I need some time to downregulate before I try some of the more stimulating supplements on my list).

Thursday:
10 box pushups
5 wall pushup (estimate a 30 deg angle from horizontal) – handwalks down wall (eventual goal of assuming the table pose)
Deadlifts:
—3 x 225#
—1 x 240#
—1 x 250# (all three went up easy. I could have done more but decided to back off).
15 min. circuit (only accomplished one round):
—35# plate snatch for reps (8-12); OH carry 1 lap (roughly 100ft)
—70# barbell hang clean for reps (5); bear hug carry 70# 1 lap
—90# plate deadlifts for reps (4-6; the height of the plates amounted to deads from 90 deg knee angle); farmer carry 1 lap
Foam roll entire body

Friday:
Lower body foam roll
3 x 10 wall squats from 12″, 10″, 8″
3 x 10 medicine ball leg press, 4lb ball, 90# press
Box squats: 10 x 140#
Bear hug squats 35# for reps – 25
3 x superset:
—10 x lunge Buehlers /side @ 25#
—310# rack pull for time (8 sec, 8 sec, 10 sec)
Close with yoga/gymnastics posing and stretching, including turtle and straddle planche work

Meet day. I tried dieting this week to bring my weight down, but ultimately ended up not getting enough protein, losing water, and, in the end, losing raw strength. The trade off wasn’t worth it. I took 35# off my maximum bench press, which puts me at 115# and squarely in last place on the VM rankings, provided my first lift passes the judging.

Bench press:
—several warm-up sets with the bar for adjustment of pins, hooks, and bench
—5 x 95#
—3 x 115#
—1 x 135# trial lift

Attempt 1: 115#
Attempt 2: 125# fail

Push press 10 x 60#

10 burpees

Total body foam rolling

I’m at home for Thanksgiving, so workout space and equipment is once again limited. I do have the facility of a door-frame pull-up bar now, though.

Bent press x 5/side, 10#
2-hands anyhow x 3/side, 10#U/10#L
Windmills x 1/side, 20#
TGU x 2/side, 20#
Neutral pull-ups x 8
Neutral push-ups x 5
Bosu glute-ham raise x 5
Bosu glute bridge march x 5/side
Dead bugs x 5/side

New squat PR!

Back squat:
—8 x 65
—5 x 95
—3 x 110
—1 x 130
—1 x 145
—1 x 160
—1 x 170
—1 x 175

Bear hug front squats 1×10 @ 50# + carry for 4 laps

Pull-throughs 1×10 @ 60#

Bench press 1×8, 1×6, 1×7 @ 95#, + several bar-only (45#) reps for technique practice

Mobility and stretches: turtle, cobra, unilateral cobra, downward dog, and child poses, plus unilateral cobras to pretzel

Thought I’d share a recipe for turbo torrone (turborrone?) that I made today. It didn’t turn out as great as I had hoped, so I’ve made some tweaks which are reflected in the recipe below.

4 oz. unsweetened 100% dark baking chocolate
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 egg white
4 scoops vanilla whey (each scoop is roughly a tablespoon)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 heaping teaspoons creatine monohydrate

Place chocolate, broken into inch pieces, in bowl, place in microwave for one minute. Add butter, heat for another minute and stir melted contents together. Meanwhile, whisk egg white and sugar, gradually add in chocolate mixture, walnuts, then add, spoonwise, creatine, then whey. Mix until firm. Lay out on baking sheet. Form into thick roll. Squeeze and drain excess butter. Press sides in to form triangle. Chill in refrigerator until rigid.

Makes a thick roll about 1.5 inches in diameter and 8-10 inches long.

Mobility session today felt so great! First passively warmed everything up with the foam roller and got blood flowing again, since it was very cold outside and I didn’t want to cramp up too soon by getting right into motion. Then spent quite a bit of time really opening up my shoulders and knees. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this loose. Right after that, I got started on benching practice for my upcoming meet. Details below.

Total-body foam rolling

Weighted stick shoulder exercises (10#): hanging stick scap rolls, shoulder back-rotation, body roll practice from bent over position, stick out front scap rolls

Arm screws (without stick)

Hip mobility compass: Front-to-back sweep with chest tucks at each cardinal direction, quad stretch to ground, Indian pistol, both sides

Hip opening/knee mobility: shin box x 5/side, pretzel x 5/side, combo shin box/pretzel spins x 2/direction

Bench press practice (from pins):
—6 x 125#
—3 x 135#
—1 x 140#
—1 x 150#