In Search of Strength

[HomeGymChains]

Sorry to hear of the rough couple of months ahead. Best wishes for getting through them.

[CharlesSwann]

Didn't feel great today.

03/31 - 7th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Beltless ATG highbar: 190x1, 200x3
Floor rows: 120x5, 130x5, 140x4
Feet-up dumbbell bench: 40x10,12,15

Sorry to hear of the rough couple of months ahead. Best wishes for getting through them.

A really nice silver lining is my hip is feeling better than ever! I'm losing a bit of extra weight too. Good chance to reset I guess.

[PhDPepper1111]

Hope everything is ok Iron Brother.

[CharlesSwann]

04/06 - 8th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Beltless highbar squat: 190x1, 200x3
Bench: 120x9,9,8
Neutral grip pull ups: (body weight) for 3x8

04/09 - 9th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Beltless highbar squat: 185x1, 192.5x1, 200x3
Wide-grip pull down: 82x5, 96x5, 103x4,4
Overhead press: 80x3, 85x2, 90x1, 95x1, 60x12

At this point I cycled off creatine (lots of travel and running low and less time to workout)... weight started dropping around here maybe from 105kg to 100kg.

04/15 - 10th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Beltless highbar squat: 180x1, 190x1, 200x3
Bench: 120x1, 140x1,2,2
Row from blocks: 140 for 3xd5

04/16 - 11th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Visiting a local home gym! Lots of fun but not a lot of weight + standard bar
Dumbbell overhead press: 30x10, 32x8, 32x9
Pull ups: 13 + 20s negative
Beltless highbar squat: 150x10

04/22 - 12th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Beltless highbar squat: 180x1, 190x1, 200x3, 210x1

04/23 - 13th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Visiting a local home gym! Lots of fun but not a lot of weight + standard bar
Bench: 100x19
Pull ups: 95x2, (body weight)x18
Cheat curl: 50x5
Hammer curl: 18x10

05/01 - 14th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Visiting a local home gym! Lots of fun but not a lot of weight + standard bar
Seated barbell press: 80 for 3x6
Trap bar row: 95 for 3x8
Paused beltless highbar: 160x3 + 2 unpaused

05/08 - 15th workout abroad (weights switched to kg)
Visiting a local home gym! Lots of fun but not a lot of weight + standard bar
Beltless highbar squat: 130x20
Bench: 130x3
Chin ups: (body weight) 3x12

...

And now I'm back home as of May 23rd. Didn't get to workout at all for the last 2-3 weeks, unfortunately. Let's, uh, call it a deload.

My weight ended up dropping from around 105kg to 95kg (damn!)... I'll cycle back on creatine and start shifting to high frequency speed-track based squatting again. Not sure what to do for bench but I'll start just readapting for now. I'll keep in OHP too. Hopefully grip work too.

Next workout tonight. Jet-lagged as all hell but itching to squat!

[PhDPepper1111]

you love to see it! 'Welcome back'!

[CharlesSwann]

As mentioned above, super jet lagged and down about 20lbs, but I want to get back into it ASAP.

05/24
Beltless highbar: 405x1 (0.29m/s - oof, half some of my best pre-trip speeds, let's drop the weight and build up), 335x1, 355x1, 375x1, 395x1 (0.41m/s), 405x1 (0.35m/s - better, but still rough, glad I got more work in though)
Bench: 225x5, 245x5, 265x6
Pull ups: 50 for 3x10

you love to see it! 'Welcome back'!

Haha, good to be back! Glad to see you.

[CharlesSwann]

05/26
Beltless ATG highbar: 315x1, 365x1, 385x1, 405x1 (0.36m/s)

[CharlesSwann]

Quick workout before I visit my family. Hopefully back for bench tomorrow night, maybe more pull ups at family house today.

05/28
Beltless ATG highbar: 315x1, 365x1, 385x1, 405x1 (0.43m/s), 415x1 (0.37m/s)

Getting a bit faster each session. Not super quickly, but it's moving. Hopefully I didn't actually lose this much strength from the weight loss.

[CharlesSwann]

05/30
Beltless ATG highbar: 315x1, 365x1, 385x1, 405x1 (0.48m/s), 425x1 (0.34m/s)
Bench: 225x5, 255x5, 275x5
Seal row: 225x5,5,4

[CharlesSwann]

06/02
Beltless ATG highbar: 315x1, 365x1, 385x1, 405x1 (0.45m/s), 425x1 (0.34m/s)

What happened to my squat??

[CharlesSwann]

06/05
Beltless ATG highbar: 315x1, 365x1, 385x1, 405x1 (0.52m/s), 425x1 (0.43m/s), 445x1 (0.28m/s)
Overhead press: 185x1, 205x1 -- wanted to triple it, haha
Pull ups: 60 for 3x10

Slowly but surely :')... weight is back up to around 213lbs too. Cycling back onto creatine without a loading phase.

[CharlesSwann]

06/07
Beltless ATG highbar: 315x1, 365x1, 405x1 (0.53m/s), 425x1 (0.38m/s), 425x1 (0.36m/s), 425x1 (0.35m/s)

Tomorrow bench + back.

[CharlesSwann]

Got a bit delayed. Dog got hospitalized/surgery and I had a few low sleep nights taking care of him. Should be okay now.

06/10
Beltless ATG highbar: 315x1, 365x1, 405x1 (0.52m/s), 425x1 (0.43), 445x2 (0.34/0.22)
Slingshot bench: 315x1, 365x0 (wow, RIP), 315x3
Seal row: 225x8,8,10

Ouch. This has been probably one of my worst strength drops in my lifting career, but I didn't expect my slingshot work to drop that much.

[CharlesSwann]

Phasing front squats back. Gonna start light and slowly build up.

06/12
Front squat: 315 for 2x2 + 315x5
Sledgehammer deadlift + hold: (9cm)x30s,24s,11s

Tomorrow bench + back + more grip.

[CharlesSwann]

06/14
Beltless ATG highbar: 405x1, 425x1 (0.41m/s)
Bench: 285 for 3x5
Pinch block & hold: 47.5 for 5s, 9s, 8s

Tomorrow back + more grip...

I had kind of a realization... I was hitting 445x3 almost every session while travelling and I feel like I've been inexplicably far from being able to do that since coming back, so I must've gotten so much weaker.

But I was looking through my tracker history/notes and actually my speeds right now aren't that bad at all compared to my best days. I think part of it might be that I'm hitting every 2-3 days and building fatigue, but while travelling I was doing like once a week. I'm definitely weaker but not as bad as I thought compared to my best work. I need to review my old training a bit more and readjust my expectations. This is all kinda preliminary for now, just realized my perception was pretty off... instead of doing worse than I thought now, I was actually doing better than I realized while travelling.

[CharlesSwann]

06/15
Pull ups: 90 for 3x5
Ez-bar curls: 105 for 3x5

[CharlesSwann]

06/16
Beltless highbar: 405x1 (0.55m/s), 435x1 (0.40), 455x1 (0.41), 475x1 (0.28)
Grippers: #2.5x1,1,2

Interesting session! Decided to push heavier singles and this time I pushed through the weird drop around ~435 and found I was able to get much heavier. Must be some psychological thing at play or who knows. I'll keep doing this a while.

[CharlesSwann]

06/20
Beltless highbar: 405x1 (0.57m/s), 445x1 (0.43), 475x1 (0.36), 500x0 -- 500 felt good but lost it at the sticking point
Bench: 290x5

Squat has been coming back a bit lately. I guess ever since I realized my speed expectations were off. Anyway, I'm hoping to be back above 500 soon if this keeps up.

Back + grip tomorrow. Front squats day after. OHP after that. Something like that at least.

[CharlesSwann]

06/22
Front squat: 325 for 2x2 + 325x5
Overhead press: 185 for 2x3 + 185x4
Sledgehammer pronation: 5 for 5x10

Still planning on hitting squat every other day (or more) and presses every third day (or so) with 2x/week back work and a regular grip rotation. Should hit rows ASAP and then squat/slingshot in the next few days.

[CharlesSwann]

06/23
Seal row: 225 for 3x10
Wrist roller hold: 70x15s,12s,10s

[CharlesSwann]

06/24
Beltless highbar: 405x1 (0.42m/s)
Sledgehammer DL: (9cm)x30s,17s,19s

06/28
Beltless highbar: 405x1, 445x1, 475x1 (0.27m/s - bit misgrooved but saved it)
Bench: 295 for 3x3

Decided to start a routine tomorrow. Not really happy with how things've been going since my trip and going to lean on some mindless hard work instead.

[CharlesSwann]

So obviously starting on a bad note hitting a misgrooved heavy single yesterday, but whatever. Hopefully it washes out (lol).

06/29 - Russian Squat Routine Day 1/18
Beltless ATG highbar: 405 for 6x2
Pinch DL & hold: 47.5 for 9s, 11s, 9s

[PhDPepper1111]

You got this!!

[CharlesSwann]

07/01 - Russian Squat Routine Day 2/18
Beltless ATG highbar: 405 for 6x3
Overhead press: 190 for 2x3 + 190x5
Pull ups: 90 for 3x6
EZ-bar curls: 110 for 3x5

Was pretty sore from last session (low back and adductors mostly) but today was actually easier than last session. Guess I'm recovering from the heavy single more than I'm draining from the volume, which is good news! With how I'm feeling now I think the 6x6 should be okay, my main goal is to do it as 'easily' as possible so I have enough energy for the last half of the program.

You got this!!

Honestly appreciated!

[CharlesSwann]

07/04 - Russian Squat Routine Day 3/18
Beltless ATG highbar: 405 for 6x2
Grippers: #2.5x2,1,2 -- still awful at set up

[CharlesSwann]

07/05
Seal row: 235 for 3x8
Sledgehammer pronation: 5 for 5x10
- tried 2.5, 2.5, clip and it was too easy
- tried clip, 2.5, 2.5, clip and it was better

[CharlesSwann]

07/06 - Russian Squat Routine Day 4/18
Beltless ATG highbar: 405 for 6x4

Felt really good! First set was my easiest of the routine yet, but I lost a lot of steam across six sets and had a reasonably tough finish. But feeling fairly confident for the routine so far.

[CharlesSwann]

07/08
Bench: 295 for 3x5
Wrist roller hold: 70x15s, 9s, 10s

[CharlesSwann]

07/09 - Russian Squat Routine Day 5/18
Beltless ATG highbar: 405 for 6x2
Sledgehammer DL: (9cm)x30s, 30s, 24s

Same old. Felt heavy and tired (though not nearly as bad as the 6x2 days have been before), but I'll probably be OK in time for next session. Always an interesting program.

[CharlesSwann]

07/10
Pull ups: 95 for 3x5
Pinch DL & hold: 47.5 for 8s, 10s, 9s