The Training Week That Was - 2/17 - 2/23

A few changes for this block. I've consolidated my Sat snatch/clean and Sunday morning squat into one Saturday morning. Sunday (as well as Wednesday) are purely upper body days, since the upper body is really lagging. Any sort of snatch-type work is wrecking my wrist and counterproductive to healing, so any overhead stuff is going to be with a jerk grip and I'll work it wider over time. My eye is towards being back to full lifting (pain-free) by April Fool's Day.

To compensate for the additional load on the pulls, the long pause work and the Saturday morning squat are designed to bring the total accumulated tonnage in those exercises down for this block.

Nutrition wise, I'm still basically backloading every night. With this block, I'll most likely have a smaller backloading Saturday nights and none on Sunday nights. I haven't been on a scale in weeks, but all my clothes fit great and I've been eating massive amounts of everything.

2/17 - Feeling sick so I didn't train.

2/18 - Happy Presidents Day! Hiked St Mary's Glacier with the mutt and froze our huevos rancheros off.

2/19
Abs x150/GH Raise x20/Chin x10/500m row @ 1:42
Snatch High Pull (1 Pull + 2 High Hang Pulls) up to 100x1x3
Snatch Pull w/ Two Count pause at the knee - 100x3 120x3 140x3x3
Back Squat w/ five count 60x5 80x5 100x5 110x5 100x5x4 (holy lord I suck at these)
Sumo DL - up to 150x1x4 170x1x5 190x1 (sweet pull...for a 165)
1100# Abs: 4x15 Neck/Side Bend/Standing Abs/Halos

2/20
GH Raise x20/Pullup x20/Standing Abs 3x10 Heavy/500m Row @ 1:38
Chest Supported Row 5x10
JM Press 5x15
Iso OH Press 5x15
Lat Pulldown 3x10
Bunch of sets of presses on our new jerk blocks

2/21
Absx60/Reverse Hypers/500m Row @ 1:34
High Hang Power Clean 50x a bunch 70x a bunch 90x1x4 100x1 100x0 90x2x4
Floating Clean 70x1x3 90x1x4
Clean Pull w/ Two Count Pause 110x3 130x3 140x3 150x3x3
Front Squat w/ 5 count pause 135x3x2 185x3x2 205x3x2 215x3 225x5
3x15 each Standing Abs/Four Way Neck/Side Bend/Hanging Leg Raise

2/23
Rev Hypers/Bar Work
Pwr Clean 60x3x3 80x3 90x3 100x2 110x1 115x1 120x1 125x0 (5kg off my old PR)
B Sqt 135x5x2 205x3 245x3 295x3 335x3 365x3


Excellent three-part series from Dangerously Hardcore on creatine, its effects on the body and dosing suggestions:
Part 1: Effects at the Cellular Level
Part 2: Effects on the Body
Part 3: Dosing and Timing

The Training Week That Was - 2/10 - 2/16

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.- Gustave Flaubert

A little bit of goodness from Cupid's Undie Run:

2/10 
Muscle Snatch 40x3x2 50x3 60x2 70x2 70x1 80x0x2 70x1x2
Squat - bar x5x2 60x5x2 100x4 120x4 
Pause Squats - 100x5 120x3 130x3 140x1 150x1
(calves real tender so didn't get crazy here)
Chest Supp Row - Shit ton of 12s
Std Lateral Raise - Shit ton of 12s
1100# Abs and Neck

2/12
Muscle Snatch 3x3 60kg
Snatch from High Hang - bunch of doubles at 40kg/50kg/60kg (it's slow, but it's coming)
Snatch High Pull w/ Pause up to 130x2
Floating Snatch High Pulls - Bunch at 80 and 100
Snatch DL - Two Pauses from Deficit 100x3 115x3 130x3x3
Back Squat 135x5x2 225x4x2 275x5 295x2 315x5x3
1100# Abs (sprinked in some GH Raise because it was a packed house tonight)
Traction

2/13
Abs x100/Sots Press
Pwr Snatch up to 60x3x3
Pwr Clean up to 90x3x3
Push Press - 135x5x3 155x5x2 165x5 (I'll take it)
Snatch Grip Press 4x6 95lbs (again, I'll take it)
Meadows Rows 5x8
Pulldown/Lateral Raise/Pressdown 4x15 each

2/14 - Happy Valentine's Day
Abs x100/
High Hang CJ - 50x1x5 70x1x3 90x1x3 100x1x3 (no jerk) 110x1x2 (no jerk)
Floating CJ - 70x1x3 80x1x2
Deficit Cl Pull - Two Pauses 60x3 90x3 110x3 130x3 140x3x3
Front Squat bar x5 60x5x2 90x4 110x3 120x2 130x3x3
1100# Abs

2/16 (Feeling sick so I kept this easy)
Random stuff
Cleaned up to 110 for three singles

The Training Week That Was - 2/3 - 2/9

2/3 (I just realized that I trained six days in a row last week. That wasn't smart.)
Back Squat - bar x5x2 60x5x2 90x4 110x4 130x5 150x5 160x5
-Second back squat in about nine weeks and didn't wrap the wrist. Also only 5kg off my previous PR set of five. I'll take it.
Push Press 50x5 60x5 70x5 (caused pain/wrist too weak to keep going) 60x5x2
Lying BB Row bunch of sets
DB Row 105x8 110x8x3
YWLT x3
Pressdown/Curl/Pull Thru - 60 of each
1100lb Abs: 4x15 Standing Abs/Cal Back/Neck/Grappler/Ab Wheel

2/5
Sots Press 25 reps  OH Squat 25 reps (No wraps. Wrist getting more stable!)
Muscle Snatch 3x3 60kg (smoked these)
Snatch High Pull w/ Pause 70x3x3 90x2x2 100x2x2 110x2 120x2x2
-Snatch High Pull + Pause at Knee High Pull  4x2 100kg
Snatch DL from Deficit w/ Two Pauses 100x3 120x3 130x3 130x3 140x3 (140 prob too much right now)
Back Squat 135x5x2 205x5 255x4 300x5 315x5x3 (Last set was my best. Hate when that happens.)
1100# Abs: 4x15 Standing Abs/Cal Back/Wheel

2/6
OH Sqt/Sots Press/Ankle Stretch
Pwr Clean up to 90x3x3 (getting closer)
Front Push Press 3x5 60kg
Behind Neck Press 4x8 40kg
Meadows Row  5x12
Seated Row 5x10
Curls/Band Shoulder Complex/Pressdowns - 60 each

2/7
Sots/OH Squats/Sled Drag/GH Raise
Clean with a Pause: 50x3x2 70x2x3 90x2x2 100x1x3 110x0 110x1 110x0 110x1x2 115x1 120x1 125x0 (jammed the shit out of my RIGHT hand this time. Not bad, just ridiculous)
Down Sets: Clean Pull + Floating Clean - bunch of sets at 70-80. Just could not get the timing right and the hand was bothering me, so I left well enough alone.
Clean Pull - Two Pauses from Deficit: 70x3 100x3 120x3x2 130x3x2 140x3x3
Front Squat 60x5x2 95x4 110x4 125x3 130x3x3
1100# Abs - 4x15 Grappler/Standing/Cal/Ab Wheel

2/9
Sots/OH Squats (getting sick of seeing me write that down yet?)
Snatch up to 50kgx2x2 then pulls up to 130x2x2
Pwr Clean up to 100x2x3 then left well enough alone

Cupid's Undie Run: A friend of mine works for Children's Tumor Foundation and puts on the Cupid's Undie Run. Me, being a sucker for anything that induces shame for a good cause, have partaken the last two years. This year I somehow managed to pull not one, but both of my calves. Running in Chuck Taylors maybe not the best idea after spending most of my days in weightlifting shoes and dress shoes? I'm limping around like an idiot this morning. Will there be pictures? Only time will tell...

...OK so you get one:

This is a bonus video and goes along with my previous post regarding zazen. Andy's website is here. I can't personally vouch for it, but I've read some very good things.

Zazen (or Why I Stare At A Blank Wall Every Day)

Two places that I look for some peace and quiet are zazen and the weightlifting platform. For me, those are the two main places where I can get some peace and quiet. There's no Facebook statuses, Twitters, text messages, emails, friends, girlfriends, telemarketers, overpriced gas, etc; it's just me and a wall or me and a barbell.

Something that is tough for people to wrap their mind around is the idea that successful zazen IS zazen. By that, I mean that there isn't some sort of end goal. The point of the journey IS the journey. The whole point to doing zazen is to do zazen.

I will make this point: when I first started doing zazen, it was the exact opposite of what I expected. I pictured this tranquil, quiet time to not think. What I got was the exact polar opposite. My mind ran a million miles an hour and it felt like Heathrow with thoughts taking off and landing constantly. I learned how to calm things down a bit after a couple weeks of consistent practice, but this is a constant battle for me in zazen. This also illustrated a great lesson for me: if you want the fire to go out, stop fanning the flames.

When I'm doing zazen, thoughts bounce in and out of my head pretty much constantly. But they aren't really coherent thoughts; more like thought fragments or a half-molded piece of clay. When I latch on to one, it starts molding into something coherent. Once I figured out to stop giving these thoughts energy, they just fell away. Rinse, repeat and apply everywhere. Those little thoughts can be death by a thousand cuts and leave you exhausted when important, real life shit comes along. I think we tend to self-destruct by giving additional energy and stoking the flames on some things when we could simply let them go. To borrow an over-used and under-appreciated quote from Chuck Palahniuk (via Tyler Durden in Fight Club) that I'm still trying to really figure out:

“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”

In short: for me, zazen is like training my ability to distinguish between important and unnecessary and let the unnecessary go. So try it: sit down, shut up and see what happens.

A Sample Week of Carb Nite

Lot of Twitter questions about what a week of Carb Nite looks like for me. ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE. I'm not a huge breakfast fan, so I don't really get down on it that often. You could do just fine subbing one of the shakes for some eggs/bacon/sausage/etc if you absolutely want to have some breakfast in the morning. When I do have breakfast, it's almost always bacon and eggs with some raw butter and some veggies.

1/6
Slept in til 8am
8:30am: Coffee w/ Coconut Oil and a small bit of protein powder
During workout: Coffee from a gas station (I'm so thirsty I could drink coffee from a gas station)
1pm: Chipotle Salad with half chicken/half steak, fajita veggies, sour cream, cheese and pico w/ fistful of fish oil
7pm: Steak Fajitas w/ guac and sour cream (I mix everything into a big mess. No beans, no tortillas, no chips) with another fistful of fish oil.
Pre-bed: Biotest ZMA and Mineral Support (I used to wake up at all hours of the night; these help me stay asleep once I'm down for the count.)


1/7
Rise @ 5:30
6am - Americano made from an Aero Press and  from Kaladi Brothers (best coffee in town). Aero Press looks like something out of an "As Seen On TV" commercial, but it makes an awesome cup of coffee.
7:30 - Coffee w/ coconut oil and protein powder
9:30 - Coffee w/ heavy cream and protein powder
11:30 - Buffet from Garbanzo (tough to go wrong with chicken, beef, tons of veggies and feta) with fish oil
6:30 - Leftovers from Garbanzo; mostly cucumber salad with a side of steak and chicken + fish oil
9:30 - ZMA/Mineral Support cocktail


1/8
Rise @ 5:30
6am - Americano
7:30am Coffee/Coconut Oil/Whey
10:00am Coffee/Heavy Cream/Whey
11:30am Sliced Steak Salad, no dressing w/ fish oil
PWO shake is a scoop of leucine and 30-40g whey isolate
7:30pm - Chipotle Salad w/ Veggies, sour cream, cheese, chicken and steak PLUS a bunch of leftover veggies, fish oil, a swig of probiotics and a glass of raw milk.
9:00 - Casein shake
10:00 - Contrast shower and ZMA/Mineral cocktail


1/9
Rise @ 5:30
7:30am Coffee/Coconut Oil/Whey
9:00am Coffee/Heavy Cream/Whey
11:30 - Small cup of Cioppino stew, some chicken cacciatore, teriyaki kale and string cheese from Whole Paycheck.
6:00 - Three eggs in raw butter, a couple links of sausage and some ham from Niman Ranch along with some fish oil, kale and probiotics.


1/10 - Carb Nite
7:30am Coffee/Coconut Oil/Whey
9:00am Coffee/Heavy Cream/Whey
11:30 - Cheese Omelette and Bacon from Zaidy's Deli along with a fistful of fish oil
4:30 - Large Americano with a healthy pour of heavy cream
7:00 - Muscle Feast Anabolic Recover PWO
8:00-bedtime - Gummi bears, a spotty banana, Reese's cups, two doughnuts, Grilled Chicken Pho. The pho totally stuffed me up like nobody's business, so I didn't have my usual "everything but the kitchen sink" Carb Nite.

1/11
Rise @ 5:30
6:30am Coffee/Coconut Oil/Whey
9:00am Coffee/Coconut Oil/Whey
11:30 Kung Pao Beef - no rice w/ fish oil
7:30 Chicken and Cheese sausages, broccoli salad, two strawberries

1/12
8:00 - Coffee w/ coconut oil/whey
During workout - Coffee
12:00 PWO: Scoop of whey with leucine
1:00 - Chicken and Cheese Sausages w/ fish oil
7:00 - Cup of Cioppino Stew, bunch of meatballs in marinara sauce, fish oil, kale salad, string cheese, (crashed the Whole Foods hot bar)

1/13
8:00 - Coffee w/ coconut oil and whey
During workout - coffee
No PWO shake(Sundays are kind of a "whatever" workout while my hand is healing, so it's usually a ton of abs, neck, KBs and things like that. Nothing really worth having a shake over, so I just get a meal in when I get home. Not every workout demands a post-workout shake/insulin spikes/glycogen replenishment/etc.
I actually have no idea what I had to eat tonight,

The Training Week That Was - 1/27 - 2/2

No training on 1/27 or 1/28 as I was traveling and recovering from an epic lack of sleep/jetlag. This entire week I've been fighting the Icelandic flu that I brought back with me. I hope I didn't kick off a pandemic here Stateside. Back to regular programming next week.

1/29
Long Warmup (left IT band is really sticky up in my hip socket)
Muscle Snatch up to 50kg 3x3
Snatch with a Pause at Knee 40x3x2 50x3x2 60x3 - Pull only 80x2x3 100x2 110x1x3
Snatch DL, two pauses from slight deficit 90x3 110x3 120x3x3
Back Squat (lbs) 135x5 185x5 225x3 265x5x2 275x5
1100# Abs - 4x15 of each in circuit: Standing Abs/Ab Wheel/Cal Back Extensions/Grappler Abs
Traction

1/30
Short Warmup (I never need much of a warmup on back to back days)
OH Sqt x25
Pwr Snatch + OH Squat (3+1) 40x1x2 50x1 60x1
Pwr Clean 40x3x2 60x3x2 80x3
Standing Press 5x5 50kg
Meadows Row 5x12
Lat Pulldown 5x12
Single Arm DB Press 4x12
Hammer Curl/Pressdown/Pull Thru - 60 reps each

1/31 - Getting closer...
Shorter Warmup
OH Squat and Sots Press - 25 reps each
CJ/ pause at the knee - 40x a bunch 60x1x2 80x1x3 90x1x3 (hand no good overhead)
-clean only 100x1x2 110x0 110x1 (All of these felt real smooth; not heavy, just new. Nine weeks of just squatting might pay some dividends.)
Down Sets: Clean Pull + Hang Clean - 80x1x3 90x1x2
Clean Pull - two pauses from a deficit 90x3 110x3 130x3x4
Front Squat (NO STRAPS) - 60x5 80x3 100x3 110x3 120x3x3
1100 lb abs - 4x15 Standing Abs/Ab Wheel/Cal Back Extension/Grappler Abs

2/1 - Not my usual, just messing around with my friend's Oly class at Centennial Crossfit
Snatch - only up to around 135lbs for a couple singles. Wrist is entirely too unstable at the bottom of the snatch. Wrist isn't strong enough for all the shear forces just yet. Lot of Sots Press and Overhead Squats for the foreseeable. It's also making me change my positioning, which is putting more pressure further down my arm and gonna lead to an injury somewhere else in the kinetic chain if I don't get this sorted out. Also took the plunge and ordered some wrist wraps from Eleiko. Knee sleeves and wrist wraps; I'm turning into such a gear whore
Clean from Abv Knee - doubles up to 255lbs
Bunch of Clean and Snatch Pulls

2/2
Overhead Squats, Sots Presses
Snatched up to 60kg
Cleaned up to 100kg
Just came in and got something done to keep everything supple and bouncy. I want some legs for tomorrow's squats.