Quest for Fire

[Erok]

Thurs., 7/06. 225#. Fried chicken for lunch, plus lots of Na+ and K+ in my water. The heat index here is stupid.

Squat: 45x..., 135x5, 225x5, 300 x 5,5,5. bar speed is excellent, rest periods are 4-5 min.

OHP: 45x..., 95x5, 135x5, 145x5, 150x5. bar speed good, no belt.

RDL from the floor: 135x5, 225x5,5,5. love that stretch.

So, I guess I'm morphing into an HLM, Sunday Tuesday Thursday. This felt like a successful Medium day. Feeling more exhilarated than exhausted.


Pickle juice, steak, eggs, avocado, X-Files Season 10. What more do you really need?

[Erok]

Sun., 7/09. 227#. Oh, it's all about cheat day. Indian buffet for lunch; cider, beer, and a giant pretzel for snacks; then a big bowl of poutine with foie gras and a pork belly cassoulet for dinner. No regrets.

Belt's back at 3.

Squat: 45x..., 135x5, 225x5, 275x3, 335x5,4,5. fell forward a couple times in the second set, burning up all my energy.

OHP: 45x..., 95x8, 135x5,5,5,5,5.

SLDL: 135x8, 225x8, 275x5.


Cleaned all the spiders & ant eggs out of my smoker and did a brisket. Took about ten hours. For actual food, we made chicken kaboobs. Finally saw Logan. Wow.

[Erok]

Tues., 7/11. 226#. Belt's back at 4, though. That brisket is awesome, btw.

F Squat: 45x..., 135x5, 185x3, 225x1, 245 x 3,3. Fingers are bending back a bit too much. Gotta either revisit the grip, or get some long straps.

DL: 225x5, 315x2, 335x1, 355x1, 365x5. hook grip über alles.

Wife gets a note from IPF girl about packing the lats in her DL setup, and immediately pulls 215 like butter. My goal was to get her over 200 by the end of the summer. New goal is now 250.

Seated Chest Supported T-Bar Cable Rows Or Whatever I Dunno It's A Machine: 90x..., 105x10, 120x10,10,12.

CoC Trainer holds: until hands hurt.


Lamb sausages with zoodles & red sauce. X-Files Season 10 Episode 2 is one of the worst ever. Episode 3 is one of the best ever. Dammit.

[Erok]

Thurs., 7/13. 225#. The hardest part of 'dieting' is having a spouse who's not 'dieting'. Still pleased with how this is going. Belt @4.

It's a madhouse in the gym, so we elect to use the power racks in the garage. It's... fairly warm.

Squat: 45x..., 135x5, 225x5, 305 x 5,5. Nope. Too damn warm. Going back inside.

OHP: 45x..., 115x5, 135x5, 155x2, 175 x 1,1,1,1,1,1,1. Thanks be to Andy Baker, who I'm using as my excuse to do singles.

supersetted (Not the best idea, but time was running out) with:

RDL: 225x8,8,8.


butterflied pork loin chops with egg fried cauliflower.

[Erok]

Mon., 7.17.17. 224#. Palindrome Week continues!

So, Cheat Day on Sat. was certainly cheaty. Five kinds of pie, homemade nachos, and lots of fruit. Protein was low, though. Made up for it on Sunday, and kept it down despite the poop-to-soup montage on Game of Thrones. OH, man. Somebody please set that to '9 to 5'.

Squat: 45x..., 135x8, 225x5, 275x2, 305x1, 340 x 5,5,5. GM'd that last rep, but got the hips under it during the final hour.

My friend, who has had two shoulder surgeries, is convinced that I also need shoulder surgery. I know, when I write it like that, it seems like one thing. Keep in mind, though, that over the last ten years, I've injured my R shoulder four different times in four different ways (two in the gym - both benching, two out of the gym, doing stupid stuff). It clicks and pops all the time, and fully supinated bicep curls make it burn. Doesn't hurt, though, and I've benched on it recently (stop laughing!) without any worries. My friend has been selling me hard on Therabands. But, why don't I just do pullups?

Pullups x 2. Why don't I just look into Therabands?

OHP: 45x..., 95x5, 115x5, 140x5,5,5,5,5. strict four minute rests. Surprise; I'm out of time.


Porky pork with wife's homemade salsa and avocado. Chocolate chip cookie dough pie.

[Erok]

Wed., 7/19. 225#. I'm basically drinking salt water.

Front Squat: 45x10, 135x5, 185x5, 225x2, 250x3. Guy walks by, and says "That's a hell of a front squat." I've never been complimented on these before. I was rattling plates at the top, though.

Wife squats 190x3, 195x3, 200x3, as a direct result of my patent-pending "Can you even tell the difference?" method.

DL: 225x5, 315x3, 335x1, 355x1, 375x5. hook grip, no belt. so ouch, very strain, much lift.

Lat Pulldowns: 60x15, 80x8, 90x8, 100x8, 60x..., plus a bunch of what I'm gonna call 'reverse shrugs' at the end of each set. Shoulders feel really good today.


crispy pork, riced cauliflower, fried eggs, avocado, salsa. There's also a thing called 'English Butter Fudge'. Yes.

[Erok]

Sat., 7/22. 226#.

Squat: 95x10, 135x5, 225x5, 305x3,3,3,3. Sassy.

OHP: 95x12, 135x5, 155x3, 180x1,1,1, 175x1,1,1, 135x5,5, 115x12.

out of time, so: one round of Dumbell Madness.


Two dinner parties - first one was all desserts, second one was drinks, burgers, and my world-famous Shlimp Scrampi.


Sun., 7/23. pruning the two redbud trees in our yard. using one of those pole saws with the slicer thing, which breaks. Borrowed the neighbor's much nicer pole slicer thing. Fiskars, baby. Counting it as pin-firing for the elbows.


eggs, cheese, bacon, Rogue One.

[Erok]

Tues., 7/26. 227#. This may be the first plateau. We'll see. Belt's still at 4. This weekend was super cheaty.

Squat: 45x..., 135x5, 225x5, 275x3, 315x1, 335x1, 355x1, 375 x 1,1,1, 300x5,5. That felt great. All singles were solid & smooth. If I'd had more time, I would have done three more.

OHP: 95x8,8,8. just to catch my breath.

DL: 225x5, 315x1, 365x1. Not sure why I did that.

SLDL: 225x8,8.


Meatball Curry. Yes.

[Erok]

Thurs., 7/27. 227#. My summer preworkout is one quart of salt water, 12 oz coffee, and some B12 gummies. Winning.

Frunt Squat: 45x..., 95x8, 135x5, 185x5, 250x2,3. experimenting with using wrist straps around the bar, like Andy Baker demonstrates. Certainly helps keep the delts up and tight, but there's a new pressure on the outside of the wrist. Still better than bending the fingers all the way back, though.
-
Superset!
-
OHP: 45x..., 95x5, 125x5, 145x5,5,5,5,5. Mahst Akkyoomyoolayte Moahr Vahlyoom!


Reverse Hyper. Yep, you read that right. First time ever. Gym got one of those huge dining-table sized Rogue ones. Actually quite comfy. 0#x12, 25x12,12,12,12.
-
Superset!!
-
Lat Pulldowns: 80x12, 90x12,12,12, with inverted shrugs at the end of each set.


Pork chops, supersetted with cabbage fried in ghee and tallow.

Had a very vivid dream last night, in which a sick bison had taken up residence in our backyard. A snowstorm was coming, so we set out a very large blanket for him to snuggle up in. We'd check on him periodically during the snowfall, to see if he was still breathing. I kept feeling slightly disappointed every time, because I was really looking forward to butchering him.

[Erok]

Sun., 7/30. 228#. It's Greekfest, and there's also a big box of cereal in the kitchen. Oh, yeah-I mean: Opa!

Squat: 45x..., 150x8, 240x5, 290x3, 345x5,5,5. You guessed it:
-Superset!-
OHP: 45x..., 95x5, 135x5, 150x5,5,5,5,5. I get to press while I'm recovering between squat sets, so I'm doing something about every four-five minutes. I don't know if it really saves any time, but it sure is fun changing out all those plates!

Lat Pulldowns: 90x12,12,12,12.
-Superset!-
Reverse Hypers: 35x12,12,12,18.


Gyros, fries, cereal.
Wife also entrusts me with the getting of groceries, so we got: a 5# pork shoulder, 3# of ground chuck, 2# of chicken thighs, and 2# of breast.
Pork spends the evening getting shredded down to carnitas, chuck is smooshed flat in ziplocs for quick-thaw 1# servings, thighs are marinating in buttermilk & spices for kabobs, and breasts get poached in olive oil & wine for chicken salad.