An insomniacs training log

[Brock Perry]

As someone who routinely sleeps less than 25 hours a week, progress has been painfully slow. I continue to look for ways to rest and recover, but I've had to accept that it might not get figured out quickly and train anyway. Training and programming around severely impeded recovery have been humbling. Finding a level of stress that can be recovered from and is also sufficient to drive progress has been like threading a needle - and sadly has resulted in more advanced training than I have earned.

Andy Baker's 2 steps forward, 1 step back, exactly as written, has made squat progress possible for the past 4 months. Not an ideal rate of progress, but it beats routinely missing lifts. Maybe by the time I figure out how to sleep, I'll have earned programming this advanced. Snowflake rant over.

Today's only lift.

Low bar Squat
Warmup 45x5, 155x5, 225x3, 265x1, 305x1
3x3 @ 345

[Brock Perry]

April 16
<2 hours sleep
Press
1x5 @ 146
5x1 @ 160

Bench - Light
7x3 @ 215 2MOM

[Brock Perry]

A few hours sleep - good by recent standards.

Thanks to Stef for directing me here - Fried CNS? - and to Andy for writing it. Thus begins an early morning cardio experiment. Slow airdyne, bike rides with the dog and whatnot - ironically all things I've been avoiding to minimize stress. Also, I like to be lazy and call it minimum effective dose. I'm hesitant to back off to 2 days a week - but a short term reduction in numbers is probably called for.

April 18th
Squat - Light @70%
45x5, 105x5, 165x3, 225x2
3x5 @ 267

Deadlift
135x5, 225x4, 315x2, 355x1, 375x1
405x1, 395x3

[carson]

What is your age, height, and weight?

[Brock Perry]

What is your age, height, and weight?

Late 30s going on 60. 5'11, 215.

[Brock Perry]

April 20
Bench
3x3 @ 238

Press DE 1.5MOM
10x3 @ 116

[Brock Perry]

2SF1SB Round 4 - Week 1
Squat 5x5 @ 280 (70%)
RPE 700 #imnotreadyforautoregulation Junk sleep makes everything feel like junk but suboptimal progress is still progress. No shortage of calorie recovery though - thank you Easter dinner.
Pushing light DL to tomorrow.

Happy Easter

[Brock Perry]

April 22
DL Light - 2" deficit
2x6 @ 300

[Brock Perry]

Catch up
Working up to an hour of cardio before 6am each morning to induce sleep.

April 23
15mins slow airdyne. 2-3 hrs sleep.
Press (Deload)
3x3 @ 140
Bench (Deload)
7x2 @ 208 DE EMOM

April 24
20mins slow airdyne. 4+hrs sleep (small miracle)
Squat
10x2 @ 240 (60%) DE 2MOM

April 25
22mins slow airdyne. ≈3hrs sleep
2x6 @ 330 - relatively little. Trying to figure out appropriate DL slots around 2SF1SB squats.

April 26
30mins slow airdyne. 0 sleep.
Press
1@170, 3@152, 3x1@155 - This did not go as planned. Still got to 170 on 0 zero sleep, so I'll take it for now.

April 27
≈0 sleep.
Bench
1 @ 267, 2x3 @ 238, 1x8 @ 208

[Brock Perry]

April 28
0 Sleep

Squat 2SF1SB - W2D1
3@ 340, 5x5 @ 320

These felt awful and there were probably a few high reps in there. A gagillian mgs of caffeine and long rests lying on the floor to get through this one. Gagillian is, of course, a scientific metric measurement. A fist full in freedom units. Given my lack of sleep (have I mentioned I don’t sleep?) I try to not to abuse caffeine. Today I needed all the real and placebo effect I could get.
No question I have to start getting some sleep before this day in the schedule rolls back around. My boy thought it was great - after laughing at dad turn purple all I could do is lay on the platform and read to him until the next set.