Still trying to lift more at the shore

ambw = 194.0

8:45am lifting:

Press (V)
+1 107.5x8x3
What a difference a week and a pound makes. These were incredibly difficult. Went on about 3m intraset rest until the last 2 sets (son woke up from his nap). 1st reps of every set were fast, 2nd reps got tough, and 3rd reps were basically all grindy. I have a sticking point like halfway up around my forehead. The bar flies to there, then I have to work like crazy for the next 2-3 inches and then it flies to lockout. Not sure if that's common.

Bench
135x2x10, x8
Damn. These really shouldn't be this hard. 3rd set 8th rep was an all out grinder, had to wiggle it up. What a crazy loss of bench strength from 2 weeks without the exercise, but still pressing frequently. This shit is tempting me to just make it a main lift again and LP it back up. Probably wait til I start eating again though.

Chins
7, 2x6
Upper body just felt so fried from all that volume and grinding.

63-58 win over the #2 seed. We are now on a 3 game winning streak since losing the 3 talented but clueless kids, 4-2 overall, and tied for the #2 seed owning the head to head tiebreaker. Next week we play a pretty weak team and then playoffs the following Weds.

I got to the game over an hour early to get in a good shoot around before the first teams got there, then rested during their game. It paid off. I'm back.

I went 11-13 from 3 and had 40 overall. They literally tried all 6 of their guys on me at various times and usually multiple at a time. My guys did find me for 5 wide open ones, but the rest were created and hotly contested. They were picking me up full court for the last 20m of the game whether I had the ball or not.

This should have never been a ball game. I had it going right from the beginning and we were leading by 12-15 until about 4m to go in the first half when a couple of our guys lost focus and gave up open driving layups and offensive rebounds to cut it to 1 at the half. It was tight most of the 2nd half, our new guy J played solid d all game and had a few nice drive and finishes. M and D were way off...I was penetrating and drawing guys and finding them for wide open 3s and they just weren't hitting tonight. If they were hitting this would have been blowout central but it happens.

AMBW = 194.0

Squat (M)
+2.5 212.5x3x3
Felt like a medium squat - no struggles.

SGDL
+2.5 135, 185, 205x5
No issues other than grip starting to go out the last couple reps...gonna have to chalk up next time.

4/30/16

ambw = 193.0

Press (I)
110x1, xF. 100x6
Lol. Plan was 119 for 5 singles, which would have been a 1.5 lb increase for singles. Final warmup felt heavy as shit in my hands, and I couldn't even complete it.

Bench
135x3x10
Rested a little extra to get all my reps...30th all out grinder. Goal for now will be to decrease rest periods since this weight is much more challenging than expected.

Chins
2x5, 3x6
3 sets of 6 were done later in the day since I ran out of time before son's swim lesson.


Started feeling sick last night and even worse today...probably not going to be squatting and deadlifting today, and may explain the intensity press yesterday.

Can't remember feeling as sick as I did S/M/Tu. Feel a bit better today but still pretty shitty, but needed to move some weight around.

Press
95x3x5
First set was toughest by far.

Bench
135x3x5
Very easy except I couldn't take a real breath when laying down.

Chins
3x5
Not too bad.


Hopefully by Saturday I'll be ready to start moving some real weights again. Calling this an unplanned deload week.

Game tonight @8:45: M is out. I was planning on going and not really playing much unless I had to. Now I have to.

Funny development, though. Our beast from last year, Ja, is back early from wrist surgery. Good thing I handed in his waiver prior to the season starting, he'll be with us tonight and for playoffs next week. He can score, but where he'll really help is guarding big guys and rebounding. He's only about 5'9", but fucking strong, long arms, and a high, quick jumper. Not to mention, playoffs will be 3 games in 1 night assuming we make championship game, so the extra body will be huge. Our new pickup this year will now be called Jo.


Edit: forgot to mention I picked up a nice ol' Schwinn airdyne today from 1996 in great shape for $125. Probably going to start a 2/wk HIIT progression (thinking Mon and Fri) starting this Friday assuming I'm feeling up to it.

We were Team IR tonight. Ja was not in basketball shape at all and the wrist looked kind of bad. Jo turned an ankle and was unavailable the final 5 min, forcing me, who couldn't breathe the entire second half, to stay on the court, and G, who's not a basketball player, and D, who got his arm cut open enough To stop the game for a few min to get it bandaged up.

Oh, by the way, we won 32-31 for a 4 game win streak and final record of 5-2, good enough for the 2 seed. I hit 3/4 from deep (1 early spot up and 2 contested pull up pops in a row) and finished with 11. Hopefully Jo gets his ankle right and we're ready to roll full steam ahead for playoffs next week.

Feeling pretty crappy this morning...

3m warmup on airdyne...can't wait to HIIT that thing tomorrow :)

Squat (M)
+2.5 215x3x3
3rd reps slowed down some...squats were hardish but not as bad as I thought it might be given sickness and not squatting for a week.

SGDL
+2.5 135, 185, 207.5x5
Chalked for last set...no issues.


Jo can barely walk on his ankle this morning...D strained his calf. Hopefully I'll be 100% next week and between me, M, and Ja we'll be ready to roll. Hoping at this point that Jo and D can just heal up enough to give us something out there so we have at least 5 live bodies (1 sub) to try to get through 3 games in 1 night.

Congrats on the Schwinn and the W! lots of positive vibes. Sorry to hear about your team mates tho

Thanks man...still felt real shitty this morning and almost talked myself out of doing it today. Nonetheless:

Airdyne
4 x 20:140
Yeah. I see why people say this thing is killer. You literally can go from your leisurely resting pace to all out effort in a split second. Actually thought I was doing pretty decent for my first time, but I barely could finish my 4th round. Highest RPM I got was 93, my resting pace was mid 40's. My thighs were so dead I couldn't manage to stay on the thing for more than 5 seconds of my cool down. Had to hop off and walk around the garage. I've had lead thighs plenty of times, but maybe never this bad. Every step felt like I was going to sink through the garage floor. Gonna go for 5 rounds next time.

Wish I had this thing for all of basketball season...maybe this will help the scale and bf% continue to trend downward for a little bit, because I don't really wanna eat any less than I currently am.

AMBW = 192.0 ... Only have 2 holes left now on my medium lifting belt.

Feeling better today health wise...probably like 90%.

Press (I)
110x5x1
Wanted to go higher...but first rep at 110 was a little grindy. All subsequent reps were easier, definitely had some room in the tank. Didn't time rest periods but I don't think I ever went over 2m or so.

Bench
135x3x10
1st 2 sets were surprisingly easy. 3rd set was tough with 29th and 30th being grindy. Right shoulder didn't hurt at all!.

Chins
3x6
Didn't feel very strong on these...damn bench volume.


So my plan at the moment is to continue to try to hang on to whatever strength I can until the end of June, while cutting another 5-7 lbs and setting a lifetime PR bf%. The wife's school year ends 6/17, so starting Sunday 6/19 I believe I'm going to just run a basic bear bones LP, while eating and sleeping accordingly! Im not going to set goal #'s to hit this summer, but I'll just say that I would like to smash my PR's across the board.