Hardartery - Recreational Outrage

[DCR]

Wednesday 2/17
Barbell Hack Squats - did 'em flat footed with a grip in the pretend knurling so they aren't "Hackenschmidt" Squats
225 x 1 - ouch, this lit up stuff I didn't realize was going to be involved
225 x 3 x 6 sets
315 x 1 x 3 sets
These are different and interesting. I think that I like them better than the belt squats that I've been doing. Hitting the hamstrings is an issue though, I'm relying on an ability to slide and it doesn't always happen. Some of them it just sank in and didn't want to go, which gets awkward.

Man, I did a ton of these when I was in high school, Ironman Magazine had three articles a month telling me that if I didn’t squat I’d never be big, but I had a barbell and no rack. When the pandemic hit and my stands hadn’t come yet, I tried them once but couldn’t seem to do them at all. Had a super hard time getting in position and then had same issue with them hitting my hams. Admittedy, I only gave it one shot before just saying fuck it because the stands were gonna arrive soon.

I’m guessing at your size/strength that you’re just DOH-ing these - if they got real heavy, can they be hooked, or are straps pretty much the only option?

[Hardartery]

Man, I did a ton of these when I was in high school, Ironman Magazine had three articles a month telling me that if I didn’t squat I’d never be big, but I had a barbell and no rack. When the pandemic hit and my stands hadn’t come yet, I tried them once but couldn’t seem to do them at all. Had a super hard time getting in position and then had same issue with them hitting my hams. Admittedy, I only gave it one shot before just saying fuck it because the stands were gonna arrive soon.

I’m guessing at your size/strength that you’re just DOH-ing these - if they got real heavy, can they be hooked, or are straps pretty much the only option?

I am DOHing them, both in the Homer Simpson sense and in the sense of how I gripped the bar. I imagine a hook would be possible, for those that hook grip. I cannot seem to hook, at all. I have enormous palms and relatively short fingers, and have never managed to perform a successful hook grip. I know everyone says that it is possible for anyone to do, but I have no issue with just going to straps so I honestly didn't put that much effort into it.

[Hardartery]

Tuesday 2/23
Deadlifts - conventional
315 x 3 - DOH grip
404 x 3
495 x 3 - mixed grip
585 x 3 straps
615 x 2 x 2 sets
585 x 2
495 x 6
Thursday I start keto because I'm too fat and nothing is taking it off. So, I resort to full keto for a while. It sucks, but it got me from 285 to a U105 weigh in once before, so if it can get me under 270, hopefully under 260, that would be great. After much research, and listening to a bunch of Jerry Brainum Youtube vids, I think it's probably an insulin issue. Type 2 runs in the family, to make an understatement, and I get hypoglycemic shakes sometimes when I don't eat often enough. Maybe a keto will help reset some stuff, might end up low carb more or less on a permanent basis. I cann't take Metformin, and no BP meds work on me (CYP 2D6 polymorphism that apparently negates about 40% of all meds on me). The BP is elevated, and the doc has a bit of a fit about it when I see him.

[Hardartery]

Thursday 2/25
RDL's
315 x 7 x 3 sets

Bent Rows
315 x 4 x 3 sets
First full day of keto diet, feeling loopy. The last time I did a diet like this, it sucked. It was tuna and 0 carb shakes every 2-2.5 hours. But I went from 285 to making weight as an U105kg. Of course I was 246 the next morning after making weight, but still. We'll see how this goes with me doing research instead of following a prescribed regimen.

[Hardartery]

Sunday 2/28
288 this morning. Struggling to get the calories and grams of protein in on full retard (Keto is <25g of carbs, tough). 4 days and I'm tired of eating.
Overhead Squat
bar x 5
95 x 5 x 2 sets
115 x 5 x 3 sets

[Hardartery]

Monday 3/1
287 this morning. I am so tired of eating, keto really kills food joy. Although I got some pepperoni that has 0 carbs, which helps, but I don't want to overdo it.
Hack Squats
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 3 x 2 sets
315 x 6
The form is way better at the lighter weights, but I can't get it to carry over to 315 yet. Bar position is hard for me, biomechanically, but I can do a minor contorsion with my chest on the lighter weights that puts me more upright but the weight is really behind me and I'm pushing off of the toes from that point on in the lift - but the bar clears the hammies easily. I just can't get it to quite go right with 315. Maybe if I move up in weight the 315 will be easy enough to get and I'll just struggle at the top set.

[Hardartery]

Wednesday 3/3
Clean and Press
One clean and press away
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 3
245 x 2
225 x 3 x 2 sets
135 - 5 BTN + 5 in front, one set.

[Hardartery]

Forgot to include, I've been 286 for two days now, we'll see what tomorrow brings. I should be near the end of water loss but not yet in full on ketogenesis, so I'm expecting a stall. However, it's tough to get enough calories in. I managed to finally hit 3k calories today, by eating 15 slices of pepperoni in a sandwich using havarti cheese slices as bread. I am tired of eating. Big bonus though, my idiot self just realized today that mayo has no carbs. Hot dang. Calorie vengeance is coming.

[Hardartery]

Thursday 3/4
Bro'd it up today
Barbell Reverse Curl
135 x 5 x 4 sets
Plate Curls
45 x 10 x 4 sets
Supersetted with PLate Shoulder Press (Like DB's but plates)
45 x 10 x 4 sets
286 this morning, that's three days in a row.

[Hardartery]

Friday 3/5
Floor Press
135 x 10
225 x 6 x 4 sets

Side Raises - plates
45 x 10 x 3 sets

I watched a Youtube of Mark Bell telling me that I was doing Floor Presses all wrong, so I tried it his way, as far as I could without a rack. Still picking the bar off of concrete blocks while lying on the concrete patio, but tucking the arms further in and using a narrow grip. Definitely hits the triceps harder.

[Hardartery]

Sunday 3/7
Deads - conventional
315 x 3 - DOH
405 x 3
495 x 3 - straps, I forgot to bring the chalk outside with me and the humidity here this time of year just makes everything damp and slick
585 x 2
625 - miss at the bottom of the knees. Weird for me, but it felt wrong from the jump
625 x 1 - I knew I had it immediately, almost went for two but the hammie was making noise and I don't want a strain
585 x 2 x 2 sets
585 x 1
Time to leave the max stuff alone and switch up. I really, really, really, really hate to miss in training. I usually switch if it feels too close to a real max, the cut is messing with me. I have been 286.6lbs for almost a week. Every morning, and all day long. I'd swear the scale must be broken to be that exact every single time, but it's working correctly for the wife. Hopefully my body adapts to the ketones soon and it picks back up a little. In the meantime I'm dropping bar weight a little and going to 5's, maybe 5x5, maybe some Zercher DL's as assistance. We got a few thing shipped in so I have a new set of figure 8 straps that are a little smaller - the other ones were really meant to be used with an Axle but I also wasn't sure what size to order, my wrists are around 8 1/4", sometimes a hair bigger depending on water weight. They were great, but stretched a little and are probably right for the Axle now. The new ones are too small,especially for the right hand. Hoping they'll stretch a little too and be just right.

[Hardartery]

Wednesday 3/10
Clean & Press - one clean per set
135 x 5
225 x 3 x 3 x 4 sets

Bent Rows
225 x 7 x 3 sets

Barbell Front Raises
135 x 10 x 3 sets

285 today, which is just slightly higher than the 284.6 yesterday, but I'm finally not at 286.6. The workouts just trash me though, which according to the keto experts means I'm still adjusting to burning ketones. We'll see.

[Hardartery]

Thursday 3/11
RDL
225 x 5
315 x 7 x 4 sets

[Hardartery]

Saturday 3/13
Barbell Hack Squat
225 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 4
315 x 6 x 3 sets
Screwed around with the Hackenschmidt Lift. Well. If you need calf work, that's prolly gonna get it. I don't ever lift anything from up on my toes so just trying to balance everything was entertaining enough. 283 dead this morning. So there's that. I think the biggest key to keto is that you don't want to eat anymore, ever, so it's a fight to go shove protein down your gullet. When I back off to low carb (80-100g of carb a day instead of as close to zero as possible) I can break it up with some protein shakes I guess.

[Wilhelm]

Been LCHF 4 1/2 years now.

Crunchy was what i missed most often.
Now i have 3 triscuits sometimes.
60 calories 4.5 net grams carbs.

It's amazing how i've changed.
No way three of pretty much anything would have been satisfying before.

[Hardartery]

Been LCHF 4 1/2 years now.

Crunchy was what i missed most often.
Now i have 3 triscuits sometimes.
60 calories 4.5 net grams carbs.

It's amazing how i've changed.
No way three of pretty much anything would have been satisfying before.

That is not exciting, LOL. Once I'm sufficiently less fat I may even try cyclical (I've read it is one or two carb up days a week, like say the weekend), but I expect I'm more or less at least somewhat low carb from here on. My father and all of his brothers are diabetic, one of my younger brothers goes back and forth depending on lifestyle, paternal grandfather as well. I'm not interested in being diabetic, and Metformin is a no-go, crashes my calcium quick and hard so it would be straight to injections. Travelling with a refrigerated kit? No thanks.

[Hardartery]

Monday 3/15 283 lbs
Floor Press - CG
135 x 10
225 x 9
225 x 8 x 2 sets
225 x 7

Curls - Plates
45 x 12 Hammer
45 x 12 normal
x 3 sets
I didn't realize I was lifting at Bro-thirty until it was too late to go back. Oh well.

[Hardartery]

Wednesday 3/17 285 today(?!?!?!)
Deads - Conventional, just because
315 x 5 - DOH
405 x 5
495 x 3 - mixed grip
585 x 3 x 3 - straps
Felt really heavy today. The diet is doing me in at the moment. Brain was even less functional than usual, exhausted, it was a huge fight to force myself out there to lift. Oh well. I'm working this weight up to 5x5 for now and maybe slowly ease up while staying at 5x5 for a while. I am not getting the calories I need at all and it's affecting me.

[Hardartery]

Friday 3/19
Zercher DL
135 x 2
225 x 2
315 x 1
315 x 2 x 2 sets

RDL
315 x 8 x 3 sets

I had planned to do more, but my Hammies informed me that we were done for the day. There's always tomorrow.

[Hardartery]

Monday 3/22
OHP, one clean and press away
135 x 3
135 x 5
185 x 5 x 6 sets

Bent Rows
275 x 5 x 3 sets

Clarification points: Dropped the weight to focus on some volume in press. I am switching over to a 5x5 reps x set scheme and easing the weight up slowly. Very slowly. Once upon a time I had 275 for sets of 5 strict, BTN and in front were the same. I got there by doing 5x5 every week and not giving a rip about the weight, I screwed it up when I focussed on Push Presses and 1 RM and stopped strict pressing in favour of implement variety. My Push Press got okay, but it honestly was crap considering what the strict press was. There are several reasons for this, the main ones being that I used a "Floating" rack and NO ONE should do that. It's retarded. The other problem was ineffective feedback from training partners. It's actually really easy to just do a Push Press in competition without really trainnig it. What matters is being able to rack the weight comfortably enough, and touching the anterior delts/top of the pecs for force transfer. Rant over.
The Bent Rows are parallel to the floor torso, not touching the floor on the reps, avoiding body English.