Defeating My Brother In Glorious Lifting 2.0

[MattNeilsen]

Bro, just get your squat to 500 and then running will be easy...cause it's so sub-maximal...

I'm not totally sure either how applicable the numbers are to the average person since the data is extrapolated from elite lifters, but it's probably not too far off (though, obviously individual variation will always play a role). I did find it interesting to see how much strength can be realized with existing levels of muscle mass. That article is one of 6-7 articles that Nuckols wrote in a series about strength vs mass - you can find the list of all the related articles here. There's a helluva lot more that goes into strength than I realized.

Safe travels tomorrow!

[brettj]

Back from Columbia and had a great trip! Visited Bogota, Cartagena, Santa Marta where we went for a 4 day jungle trek, and Medellin. Jungle trek was a real highlight but really brutal. We covered 70km over 4 days, most of it hills, in 30 degree or more weather and the occasional torrential downpour. I am still covered in healing bug bites a week later. Really fun and definitely worth it though.

Before I left I weighed 218lbs. This morning after breakfast I weighed 203lbs. So I lost 15lbs over 2 weeks... I've been off creatine and not lifting so I pretty much deflated like a balloon. My experience from my India trip last year though is that most of it should come back pretty quick. I definitely lost an inch or two around the waist though so some of that weight is body fat. During the jungle trek I could smell my body going into ketosis so definitely a bit of a hard cut. Last time this happened was during tactical training when I was in ketosis every day. I didn't know what it was at the time and thought I had pissed myself because I reeked like ammonia, but figured out what it was.

Anyways, back at it. Not sure what the plan is going forward. I'm SOOOOOO close to squatting 500, but I also need to take my cardio seriously enough that these police bootcamps don't crush me. My options are basically give up on making strength progress or try to run a compromised program while fitting in enough cardio that I survive. Then if I get hired and get a class date I'll go back to running the program I did to prepare for the fitness test.

Today:

Worked up to some light sets of 5 just to ease myself back into things. I am still recovering from the trip, and work capacity is gone.

Squat: 225x5, 275x5, 315x5

Bench: 135x5, 160x5, 185x5 - Also experimented a bit with my grip width on this. The video of my last PR makes my grip look a bit CGBP. Took some videos and found the spot where my forearms are 90 degrees, which is only about an inch wider than I use. I didn't find it that comfortable though, so maybe this is just a personal preference thing.

[MattNeilsen]

Welcome back! Glad to hear you and your wife had a great time. Any fun stories from the jungle trek?

[brettj]

Welcome back! Glad to hear you and your wife had a great time. Any fun stories from the jungle trek?

Thanks! Here are some random things that happened:

-A girl on the trek had a bad allergic reaction to the bug bites on her leg, couldn't walk, and had to be carried by a mule.
-We hiked through an indigenous village where tribal people still basically live a close to traditional lifestyle. One lady would leave her kids at the camp we stayed at. One of the kids at the camp was proficient with smart phones and would bother everyone to borrow their phone and listen to music.
-We waded through a waist-high river during a rainstorm. We were wet for 4 days. We crossed a river again in a weird box thing hung from a cable 30 feet over the river.
-I ate a live flying red ant.
-We saw an abandoned ancient city in the middle of a jungle.

[brettj]

Not a strong week fitness wise. I got some stomach bug on the trip and took antibiotics for a few days. My bodyweight is still around 204 today. Today I worked up to some light singles as a sort of power day on bench and squat, then did some chinups.

Anyways, apparently I'm a runner now. The message I got at my last meeting with the cops is that at this point I pretty much have to be class ready in case I get picked, so it's back to cardio. I did a light 5k run on Thursday that wasn't too hard.

I'll have to figure out what I'm doing for programming again. For lifting I'll probably go back to the minimalist 2 day routine I stole from one of Hanley's posts. It worked pretty well for maintaining strength. Then I'll do a bunch of cardio, probably a similar setup as before when I was training for the fitness test, but I'll try to do a lot more running and up the volume a bit... Not totally sure yet.

Also I'm probably going to continue to lose weight. Already people at work have said I look "good" like I "lost weight". They mean it as a compliment, but I'm dying inside.

[brettj]

Yesterday:

Assault bike HIIT: 5 20s intervals 1:5 rest ratio - cardio goes away fast, 5 reps gassed me pretty bad. I did hit like 1600 some watts though which is a record

Today:

Squats: 315x3, 325x3, 335x3, 345x3

Bench: 185x3, 190x3, 195x3x2

Chinups: 4min EMOM: 12

This will be a strength/hypertrophy medium volume day. Goal is to do 3rx5s at 75% on bench and squat, then 7min EMOM chins. Easing my way into that this week.

The other day will be a Power day where I work up to some light single at 85-90% and deadlifts at 80%. Not sure about the weekly setup yet. I want to do 2 day lifting along with 3-4 days cardio including 1 HIIT day, one tempo run, and one or two LISS runs. I might also incorporate some practice with body weight calisthenics stuff like pushups. Not sure how to include the bootcamps either since they sort of mess with my consistency... Maybe that will be my first LISS day and if it trashes me I'll skip the second? Not sure..

[brettj]

Today:

Ran 4k(2.4 miles) at a speed of 6.5 mph (10.4 kph)

I'm trying to devise a plan to get in class ready shape. Apparently before class they do a fitness test to see where you're at, and you can look at some of the standards online which helps give me some direction as far as what to prepare for. They have different standards for different ages, but I'm just going to try to hit the best standards for the 20-29 year old category. To get the best score the standards are:

Leger Shuttle Run: Stage 11.5 (this will be hard... basically running around 2.1 or so km in under 12min)
Push ups: 47 in a row (should be easy, back when I was doing my benching I'm pretty sure I hit 70...)
Chin ups: 1253kg (so 12-13 chin ups at current bodyweight. Seems manageable with some practice. Also in the video I watched they weren't that strict)
Sit ups: ???? The standards talks about the plank, but apparently they test these so.... No idea. I don't know the last time I did a sit-up either.
Flexibility/Body composition: whatever. I'll try to lose some more weight. I honestly don't care about my flexibility though.

I was thinking of doing something like this:

Mon: HIIT on assault bike PU/Chins/SU
Tues: 5rx3s at 75% on Bench and Squat, also maybe some cleans or light pulling
Wed: LISS try to work my way up to a 10km run at a decent pace. PU/Chins/SU
Thurs: Power day weights, work up to some 85-90% singles on Squat and Bench, also some pulling
Fri: Tempo run. 4min on, 2 off, 3-4 rounds. PU/Chins/SU
Sat: maybe more LISS eventually?

Progression wise, I'll try to maintain strength and LP all the cardio stuff. I'll probably try to work my way back up to 10-12 springs on the bike and not much more since they are insanely stressful, work my way up to 10km on the treadmill then increase speed, and slowly increase speed on tempo run. Maybe once I get a date for the test I'll try to tailor my cardio with a bit more specificity towards the Leger and try to run 2km at a fast pace.

I just tested my push ups and got 39 in a row which is lame, but I"m sure I can increase that quickly. About to go try max chins and sit ups.

edit: got 10 chins pretty easy. Considering this is my shitty post vacation performance geting 13 should be a breeze. Wasn't sure how to test sit ups, seems that the standard is head on the ground to elbows touching knees... I don't know if there's a timer or a pace though? Basically I just tried to do as many as a could at a steady pace without stopping and got 30? More research required here...

[brettj]

Squat: 315x2, 340x2, 365x2, 385x1

Bench: 185x2, 197.5x2, 210x2, 225x1, 235x1

Power cleans: fucked around with different weights

[CamLeslie]

Dude those standards seem like you could do them just by adding chins and pushups after your regular workouts, I'm not sure I would through out everything just to hit them. Especially if you want to beat your brother. My 2 cents, do some jogging, do some chins and pushups and metcon shizz after your regular workouts.

I'm not like super chin guy but I could do like 3 (I have rings) then started doing them for a week and could do 6 unbroken. Went to a place with a bar, did a set of 12 like no big deal. Ok so I just saw your edit. Chins you are good to go. I once did ~85 push ups but I was doing sets of 30 on bench. Anyway don't listen to me, you got this figured out.

[brettj]

Dude those standards seem like you could do them just by adding chins and pushups after your regular workouts, I'm not sure I would through out everything just to hit them. Especially if you want to beat your brother. My 2 cents, do some jogging, do some chins and pushups and metcon shizz after your regular workouts.

I'm not like super chin guy but I could do like 3 (I have rings) then started doing them for a week and could do 6 unbroken. Went to a place with a bar, did a set of 12 like no big deal. Ok so I just saw your edit. Chins you are good to go. I once did ~85 push ups but I was doing sets of 30 on bench. Anyway don't listen to me, you got this figured out.

Haha, ya I'm not too worried about the pushups and stuff honestly. It's the running that needs some improvement. Getting stage 11.5 on the Leger is pretty brutal. I've gotten 8 before and could have gone a bit longer (maybe 9?), but it gets progressively harder every stage. It was honestly really tough keeping up with the cardio demands and running a proper strength program, especially when there's lots of running, so for the moment I have to bite the bullet and focus on my career rather than beating my brother.

The good news is it sounds like his training sucks right now, so I don't think he'll beat me in the near future. Considering it took me like a year to put 20lbs on my squat once I got to mid 400s, I might have some breathing room if he's anything like me...

Today:

Tempo run: 3 rounds of 4min @ 8mph with 2 min rest. Surprisingly easy... I remember plateauing on these around at a bit higher speed before, so I think I have some room to push these. Being 15lbs lighter helps.

Push up density: 75 in 5min (lame performance, I think a combo of fatigue from the run and benching yesterday sewered it a bit, not too concerned though)

Sit up density: 50 in 5min (no idea if this is good? I'm sure these will improve since this is my second time doing them)

Chin up density: 19 in 5min

[CamLeslie]

The good news is it sounds like his training sucks right now, so I don't think he'll beat me in the near future.

This is good because I am way more invested in this than I should be.

[brettj]

The good news is it sounds like his training sucks right now, so I don't think he'll beat me in the near future.

This is good because I am way more invested in this than I should be.

[brettj]

Sick today but made it to the gym anyways. My performance sucked, but I got some work in at least.

6x20s 1:5 on assault bike. Felt like I was going to barf and wattage was way less that last week. At least got one more round in.

70pu in 5min
47su in 5min
21cu in 5min

Not reading much into any of this since I felt awful the whole time and was just trying to match my work on Friday.

[brettj]

Slept 12 hours and feel much better today if not perfect.

STRENGTH/HYPERTOPHY COMBO DAY

Squats: 345x3rx4s - felt okay, will do 5s next week, maybe increase weight in coming weeks

Bench: 205x3rx5s - maybe a bit heavy, 1rm has probably decreased. This is my bodyweight though, so that's cool.

Power Cleans: 135x3, 145x3, 155x3. 155 Seemed like any okay working weight, although I think that might increase fast with practice. Already it seems way easier this week.

[brettj]

Yesterday:

Ran 5km in 28:46 (6.5mph the whole way). Felt nice to run 5k (for real this time) without too much difficulty. Not a great time though, but I'm not going to beat myself up since it's my second distance run on my new program.

80pu in 5min
55su in 5min
skipped chins because I was running late

meh on these. I must have been drunk thinking I did 200 push ups in 3 minutes. No way that's possible. I was definitely a lot better at doing these back during my high volume bench program. I'm almost wondering if doing lots of benching was a better strategy for improving these? I'll stick with this for a bit and see how it goes.

Today (sucked):

Squat: 320x2, 345x2 - Stopped here. My legs were cramping up so bad I was worried about failing reps on 345.
Bench: 185x2, 197x2, 210x2, 225x1 @RPE 9 lame

Obviously getting used to the stress of running is going to take a bit. So far running regularly and lifting really do not mix well. I"m trying not to get discouraged though since I'm only still just getting started on this program.

[brettj]

Yesterday:

Tempo run: 3 4min rounds at 8.5mph. This was pretty hard. The heartrate thing at my gym doesn't work very well, but after 30sec rest on the third round my HR was still 180 so probably RPE 9.5 or so on the last round. I think this is around where I had difficulty pushing any farther last cardio block. Hopefully since this is my starting point this time I can push it father.

Push ups: 84 in 5min - happy with these since they were done in a state of utter exhaustion
Sit ups: 55 in 5min - I think fatigue creeping in on these. Abs feeling pretty sore, but still beat my score
Chin ups: 13 in 3min then I gave up because I failed a rep. Not reading much into this except I was exhausted from the rest of this week and the tempo run.

[brettj]

I decided to switch the cardio days around a bit to see if I can disrupt my actual lifting days less. So I'll do:

Mon: Tempo
Tues: S/H lifting
Wed: HIIT on assault bike
Thurs: P Lifting
Fri: Long distance run

The long distance seems to fuck me up the most before lifting, and the HIIT the least so I put that before my P day and put the distance run at the end of the week.

Yesterday:

Tempo run: 3 rounds of 4min at 8.6mph - heart rate hit 175, 180, 185 at the end of each round
92 push ups in 6 minutes
60 sit ups in 6 minutes
19 chin ups in 6 minutes

I feel like I'm making progress on running, but I'm surprised with how slow my bodyweight stuff is going. I really expected these numbers to shoot up a lot quicker since they are fairly novel to me. I'm wondering if there's an underlying fatigue/performance thing going on here. I'll take a light deload week eventually and see how my performance does and re-evaluate from there.

[brettj]

Today: Lifting Hypertrophy/Strength combo

I decided to reevaluate the weights I'm using since my 1RM has clearly decreased what with vacation and running. I estimated a 10% drop and have adjusted weights accordingly. My ego hurts though.

Squats: 315x3rx5s

Bench: 195x3rx5

This felt more like it should. Maybe as I adjust I can increase this, but I'd rather keep lifting conservative since making progress on running is the priority.

Power cleans: 135x3, 145x3, 155x3, 165x2, 175x1 - Still kind of messing around with these. Very form and technique dependant. 165 was supposed to be a triple but felt awful so I ended at 2. Then I tried 175 and it flew up and almost smacked my chin. Hard to program when the weight can be all over the place.

[brettj]

Today:

8 rounds on the assault bike. Wattage peak on the first round was like 1300 - I think this might be a reliable indicator of how much residual fatigue I have going on. My first day back I almost hit 2000, and when I'm dying my top speed will be like sub 1000. 1300 is a bit higher than average.

Didn't have time for my calisthenics. Will try to do them at work. This might be a good experiment to see how these go when I don't do them right after cardio.

[brettj]

Yesterday:

Squat: 315x2, 345x2, 375x2m 385x1, 395x1 - felt easy if creaky

Bench: 185x2, 205x2, 225x1, 235x1 - @9.5 on last single. So lame. It's like losing a pound of bodyweight sucks the life out of my upper body.

Had to end here because did this at work on break.

Have my long distance run today and I'm hoping there's a tornado or something so I'm not allowed to leave the house.