CrossFatter LP

[Itchysoles]

Oh, all above was beltless. Not for any particular reason.

[Itchysoles]

Training has been sporadic and random for a while. Things happened; short story is I'm in Boblingen, Germany near Stuttgart for a month or three, then I'll land back somewhere in the US, probs the PNW because everywhere else in America sucks, right?

Not sure yet what my daily routine in here, it depends in part on some consulting work I'm doing that starts at end of month, so for now I'm just going in and doing sets of three, hopefully progress linearly back to where I should be. After heavy 3x3s I'm doing paused back off sets until it feels right. Doing density sets on deadlift and mixing in some heavy singles just in case I do actually make it back for the Fall Classic.

Real nice folks here at CrossFat Undisputed are giving me a deal--thanks, Moncef. It's fun to work with kg plates for a while. It seems there's lots of gyms of varying quality here in southern Germany, but as in a lot of places, CF gyms are the most consistent place to find a suitable strengthlifting training environment.

Second day in D-land, still recovering from the time change:

Squat:
170kg x 3 x 3
beltless long paused 120kg x 3 x 3
I like this scheme for a little while here, will add a heavy single to start and see how long I can sustain a +2kg LP.


Deadlift:
170kg x 5 in about 90 seconds, need to tape up. Been having a lot of hand trouble recently.
Add heavy single, if hands behave, try a +4kg LP every other workout.


Press:
90kg x 3 x 3
Add heavy single, +1kg LP. Supplementing with pullups, 1 arm pushups, and handstand pushups a couple days a week on non-gym days.


Clean and Jerk:
Several at 70kg. Will go light like this on deadlift days and heavy on non-deadlift days.

No, this doesn't really fit in this section of the forums, but I'll start an intermediate thread when I land somewhere permanent within the next few months and have a chance to give the Bridge a good go.

[Itchysoles]

Monday, October 2:

Short on open gym time today, so very little rest, no more than 2 minutes, lots of supersetting after then first few sets of squats. Feel a satisfying amount of soreness from bench and squat the next morning, maybe not quite enough deadlift. Will tape up and focus on that first next time.

Squat:
singles at 170kg, 180kg, 190kg
Then 170kg 3x3
then paused beltless backoffs, a few sets 160, 120

Bench:
Inclined about 3 inches.
120kg x 12, 140kg x 5reps x 5, 120kg x 6 long paused

Deadlift:
160kg beltless bunch of singles with about 20s rest between in clusters of around 5. Maybe did about 20 reps total at 160. Failed a single at 200kg that I really shouldn't have, probably attempted it while I was still out of breath.

Also a couple sets of bar muscle-up and strict chest-to-bar pullups, 28C in the gym today, jog-walked 3k to gym, short rest periods, random little variations on my lifts -- yep, I just WOD'd.

[Itchysoles]

Thursday, October 5:

Squat:
120kg x 6 beltless
150kg x 4
160kg x 4,3,3,1
Didn't feel great. Lot's of travel related stresses and I was trying to get more dead and press volume in during the time I had, so I backed off a bit.

Dead:
190kg x 1 every 30-60 seconds for 6 reps.
170kg x 1 using that scheme for about 10 more reps.

Press:
70kg x 10
95kg fail. What? Obv my training and recovery consistency is off, but I thought that was a conservative single.
80kg x 3reps x 5

Then a set of 25 toes to bar and continuing to get in some CoC grip work, pullups, and one-arm pushups at home to make up for reduced volume while traveling (only 2 gym days this week). Not doing anything to make up for lower body. Two heavy days and a lot of walking should be fine.

Going to Dachau on Saturday; hope to hit London and a couple favorite spots in Paris next weekend if work cooperates.

[Itchysoles]

So still here in Germany. Leaving in a couple weeks, and when I can get into a routine in my new home in Boise, Idaho I'll probs spend 3 or 4 weeks running advanced novice LP again then the Bridge. Meanwhile, I've been 3 or 4 times a week to the gym pretty consistently. No good open gym hours, so CrossFat it has been. This CF actually spends more than half the class time on individual strength programs, so it could be worse!

My conditioning is not too bad now, which actually feels nice, but I'm def a little weaker than I was. I've transitioned more and more to super high intensity strengthlifts to try to keep from transitioning too much to slow twitch with all the endurance work (including a lot of walking while traveling). Terrible program, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to get stronger anyway given all the outside variables in my life right now.

Some highlights from training/playing:
Last week I pressed heavy four times. Worked up from 95kg on Monday to 105kg on Friday. That 105 is probably a small PR (I had a sloppy 240# back in Canada, but didn't count it), not from getting stronger but likely because I switched to the new Feigenpress and it works for my big titties.

I squatted light three ways (LB, HB, OH) all those days just to stretch out and worked in taller and taller box jumps up to sets of 3 @ 40". Also did a fair number of cleans up to 100kg just trying to see if I could stretch into good Oly positions--I can't really without more work than I'm willing to do until I get about 200# stronger on my total, but at least it's fun to be able to hit 100kg power cleans for reps now.

This week I'm trying to do something similar with the high intensity on LBBS and DL.
Monday maxes were BS 170kg, DL 170kg
Tuesday maxes were BS 180kg, DL 185kg

Wednesday I will attempt BS 185kg, DL 190kg, and hopefully hit 200kg+ on both before I leave for America next Thursday. Would be pretty funny if I did actually PR after all the jackin' around I've done the last couple months. I'd come up with a name like "Starting Hybrid Bulgarian CrossFaceLifting 3/1/1/1 Cubed" and market it only to virile young men who are going to get stronger anyway.



Who knows how this will go with all the CF, travel, lifestyle factors right now, but at least I'll figure out exactly how much weaker I am and have some fun doing it. Will update more regularly and run out this thread by the end of January hopefully.

[PizzaDad]

Keep doing the strength work when you can. If nothing else, it will all be a good launchpad for you when you get to Boise

[Itchysoles]

Thanks, ZaPa. That's all I'm really hoping for right now. I have an optimistic theory that the extra dose of endurance will supercharge my straight strength training when I return; "phase potentiation" proves potent, I hope.

So just did my fifth day of heavy singles in eight days. So far has looked like:

Mon- BS 170kg DL 170kg
Tue- BS 180kg, DL 185kg
Thu- BS 181kg, DL 190
Frid- BS 182kg, DL 195

Monday DL 200kg-- just a few pounds short of my lifetime PR, felt pretty good even though I've developed a weird sticking point just an inch or two off the ground that makes everything deadlift over 90% a halting deadlift. Something about the point I transition to different pulling muscles or Oly technique interfering or .... quid?

Put up 100kg presses a few times over that week as well, but also failed at 100 and 105 a few times. It's the old LBBS elbow problem interfering again, which is why I laid of today and just did beltless paused front squats for the legs. I hadn't benched in a while, and failing 100kg was discouraging, so I threw in some benching up to a nice paused 150 kg (331lbs) single after a heavy 5, 4, 3. Maybe neglecting bench has contributed to my press regression as well. -- oh wells, I'll be back to following someone else's program soon enough.

Box jumps at 30" and single leg box jumps at 20" and set of 20 strictish toes-to-bar to end the day.

If I can get back in one more time in the next two days before I'm back to traveling for a while, I'll go for a small lifetime PR of 205kg (452lbs) deadlift then just have some fun for my last day with the good Volk at CrossFat Undisputed in Böblingen, Deutschland.

[Itchysoles]

Mon-170kg
Tue- 185
Thu- 190
Frid- 195
Mon-200kg

then...
Deadlift: 205kg (452lbs)
That's a 7lb deadlift PR and 2 lbs more than any lift I've done. (squatted 450lbs a couple months ago).

That was my 6th day pulling heavy singles within the last 9 calendar days. Seems to have worked out pretty well since my 205kg went up probably faster than 185kg did 7 days ago. If I can possibly get in to the gym for one more (more) day tomorrow before I move, I feel like 210kg would go up for sure.

Pressed a couple at 95kg, then light front squats and a 20 minute barbell WOD.

[Itchysoles]

Missed a couple logs in there somewhere. Moving around and stuff.

First workout here in Boise. Didn't have my belt or shoes yet, but found an Anytime Fitness a block from my new house that is a fan of SS. Noice.

5 sets of 3:
Front Squat @ 295#, last set RPE 8
Bench @ 275#, last set RPE 7.5

Deadlift a 2 minute long set of 10 using hook grip then a quicker set of 10 with straps. Both 315#

Chins: 12, 12, 15

[Itchysoles]

I've done a few sessions at Southside Athletic here in Minneapolis now. I'm doing 3 sets of 5 on press and deadlift and 5 sets of 3 on squat--trying to get back to low-bar squat even though I feel it in my elbow every time. Lot's a little tweaks to try to make that better: slightly higher bar position, leaning over more, wider grip. Last workout looked like:

Squat:
325# x 3r x 4s

Press:
185# x 5r x 3s

Dead:
335# x 5r x 3s

All that in a half-hour including warm-ups because the gym was closing, so I'm obviously not worked up to max intensity yet.