HT Comp, interrupted - May 30 & 31

Saturday, a lot of walking around window shopping, and some deep stretching in the PM. Tried to stay within my Lose it limit for the day, but also tried to have a couple of beers (one was only 1/3rd of a beer - an undrinkable Kilkenny from some Irish pub). First beers in a long while. Last too.

Sunday, 6 or 7 sets of close grip pulley chins x12+ in the motel gym, some direct pulley arm work too. Then lots of walking around Disneyland.

Worked pretty hard coming into the weekend, knowing I'd have the break. So, recovery days more than training interruption days.

HT Comp 1.2 Squat Reps - May 29

AM
Ab wheel rollouts x10/11/12
5 mins.

PM
Main set
Glyco timer, in .30 on 2:00
Oly Squat, 5x10 @ 135/185/////
10 mins.

- 2 min -

Antagonists
4 rounds, HT timer, in .30 on 1.15
Ring Row, max reps
Ring Dip, max reps 
... one more Row.
12 mins.
 
8 hours - 2200/0600. 28 minutes total, PE: 7. 24 hours. 
230/14.

HT Comp 1.1 Front Squat, H PullPush - May 28

Front Squat 5x5

in .30 on 2.00

@135/185////

...x10 @155

13 mins.

- 2 mins -

4 rounds, HT timer in .30 on 1.15

Pendlay BB row @ 155/165/175//

Ring Push up x12+, deep

... a 5th set of rows.

11 mins.

7 hours - 2230/0530. 27 minutes total, PE: 6. 24 hours. 230/13.

That Does It: Spring Assessment

Couple of things happened this week. One, I was dressing for CC's graduation, and my clothes weren't fitting. I feel big and strong and solid. But. But I was thinking, "How am I supposed to tuck my shirt in? My pants feel like lycra already." During the event, this pic happened.

Second, I got out the measuring tape for composition assessment. Sure enough, the camera didn't lie. I've gained 7 lbs since the last quarter assessment (and since dropping the BodyX membership).

No changes; on the plus side, my calves haven't lost size even though I'm not really sprinting or doing direct calf work, and the regular squatting has added size to my hips and thighs.
Downsides: my neck is fatter, my waist is an inch bigger.



Okay, so it was time for a fresh into-the-summer cycle anyway. HT here we come. Vanity, I know. Also a challenge. I've not done any composition/cutting for at least 5 years now.

Let's start with a couple of purposes.

I hope to lose 15 lbs. down to 215 - if that's all fat, and all from around my middle at 5 lbs an inch, then I should hope to see a 37" measurement at the waist.

I'm going to focus on greasing the groove on squat and deadlift - half the time to a 5RM, half for reps. I might not get any stronger in these lifts, since I'll be in a cutting nutritional phase, but I will run a lot of electrons over the neural pathways.  This should set me up to add weight later in the year. Squat three times a week (front/oly/front), DL twice a week. One other day to Power clean/Overhead squat. 4 on, 1 off.

I'll be doing antagonist couplets after/with the Squat/DL work. Pendlay rows/Ring Pushups, Pull up/Overhead Press, Ring row/Ring dips. When there's no couplet, there's a Death by pull up, Death by press, Death by power clean or GtO. 3 on, 1 off.

Adding back in conditioning. Bike trail sprints, Brighthouse hill repeats, Train grade repeats, MA tabata bag work, and KB chippers. These I'll do in the AM while I have an extra half hour because I'm not driving kids to work. 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off (which is to say, Monday and Friday mornings off from this second-early session).

I'll be using Lose it to track calories (and won't be worrying about Macros); ceiling set at 2213 cal/day before exercise allowance. I'll be doing IF through the morning more often than not - eating in the noon to 6 window.

That does it. Rotational work with medium volume, higher frequency and alternating load. Lots of water and sleep, and a lot less food. See you in 15 lbs. - or 12 weeks, whichever comes first.

Unconsciousness by Pull Ups - May 27

Death by Pull up

9.5 rounds.

Deadhangs through 7, then stopped when I lost full contraction. This protocol needs a different name if I'm not going to sell out on it.

2 mins - 

5x10, in .30 on 2:00

45/65/75/85/95#

...man, the shoulders are tight. Getting down into the bucket was really funky today too.

8 - 1 hours - 2230/0630. 22 minutes total, PE: 8. 24 hours. 230/13.

Shoulder Girdle Grinding Power Clean Antagonists - May 26

Power Clean Couplet, HT timer

5 rounds

Power clean 5+ @135# (10-7's, mostly)

FtB (7's, maybe)

12 mins.

- 1 min -

PullPush Couplet, HT timer

5 rounds

Pendlay Row 6+ @135

Ring Pushup 12+

11 mins.

8 hours - 2200/0600. 25 minutes total, PE: 7. 24 hours. 232/14.

Front Squat & PushPull - May 25

Front Squat, for a heavy triple
135x8/145x8/155x8/165x5/175x3/185x3/195x3/205x3
... in .30 on 2.00
16 mins.

5 rounds
Press 5x135/5x145#////
Pull Ups, kip for max reps
14 mins.

Tabata bag work
... stop kicks and simple 3's
9 mins.

Feeling gassed pretty quickly.

6.5 hours - 030/0700. 43 minutes total, PE: 8. 24 hours. 232/13.

Hinge Day - May 24

Death by GTO
Buying in, didn't go to the wall on this
6.5 rounds with 135#
8 mins.

- 1.5 mins - 

5 rounds, HT timer
Chins x max reps and squeezes
Deadlift x10 @ 185
13 mins.

8 hours - 2300/0700. 22 minutes total, PE: 8. 72 hours.

Somebody Stop Me - Squat/Clean, PushPull - May 21

5 rounds, HT timer
Squat 10@135# AtG
Power Clean 5x135#
12 mins.

- 1 min -

4 rounds, HT timer
Pull up, max rep kips in .30
Press 6x135#
... one more Pull ups
12 mins.

- 1 min -

.15 on, .15 off Bag work
...only a few minutes before I had to book it to CC's awards night. I didn't think I was going to get an exercise in today at all, but when I got started, I didn't want to end.
3 mins.

6 - 1 hours - 000/0600. 28 minutes total, PE: 8. 24 hours. 
227/14.

No Man's Land - Front Squat and HPush/Pull - May 20

Front squat, in .30 on 2.00

10@135/8x155/////

14 mins.

- 1 min -

4 rounds, HT timer

Pendlay row 9's@135

Ring Push up, close grip-ish, 12's+

... one more row

11 mins.

8 reps is no man's land. I need to determine if I'm going heavy or HT, and follow through. No, it's not like I was doing 8's with my 5RM today. Just not focusing.

8.5 hours - 2200/0630. 27 minutes total, PE: 8. 24 hours. 
227/17 - dehydrated.

Deads - May 19

Lighter fare these days. Going simple, short, and completely by feel until I lock into a program - er, soon.

5 rounds, in .30 on 2.00

FtB Fat bar (7's)

Deadlift 10x135/8x185/6x205/6x225//

... then two more DL 6x225, mixed grip (with no antagonistic FtB).

7.5 - 1 hours - 2300/0630. 26 minutes total, PE: 7. 24 hours. 
229/15.

Chins/Press - May 18

5 rounds, HT timer

Chins (x5-3)

There was this on the way to work though

Press @ 135# (x7-10-down to 3)

... one more chin to end it.

Tired and lazy today.

6.5 hours - 2330/0600. 15 minutes total, PE: 6. 72 hours. 
230/15.

Motivated to Squat - May 14

Motivation is bullshit. Getting better should be something you’re already about. Not something you need to be goaded into. I’m not saying some things don’t light a bigger fire under your ass than others, but if you have to seek out reasons to get better, you’re losing. Meaning, If it requires some outside force to resonate with something inside of you, you aren’t in possession of what it takes to get better all on your own.
How will you CONSISTENTLY get better if it requires the dangling carrot to do make you do so?
At some point you have to decide that getting better is just a part of what you are. What makes you, you. When that happens you won’t need “devices” in order to get better. It will just be something you do. If you were isolated in a room with your weights for 10 years, would you get better without the influence of external forces? I hope you can say yes to that. If not, figure out how to say yes to that. 

- Paul Carter

I feel like a tank right now. I'm a little dinged up, but I can feel the training response this week - tight and huge. Not putting up crazy numbers, just feeling the HT kicking in. I'm going to feather the gas pedal some, but I'm going to stay on this HT run for another cycle.

Squat, in .30 on 2:00

8@135/5@185/5@205/5x5@225

... 5's were pretty much the extent of what I was able to do in .30 today. Felt heavy, went up pretty well. Dropped all of them into the bottom of the hole, that's a win.

15 mins.

- 2 mins -

HT couplet, 5 rounds

Fat bar deadhang pulls x5-4

Press @ 135 x7-5

12 mins.

7.5 hours - 2230/0600. 29 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 7. 229/15.

Lab Rat: Lose It! and the Bodyweight/Calorie/Exercise Intersection

One year later, we're revisiting some of the aggregated data we've generated via the Lose It! app. See the 2014 write up here. Consider this a 7-year test of whether or not the Lose It app functions as a weight loss instrument for someone who exercises regularly. 
I'll ruin any suspense early: it does.

What we'll be doing differently here is ignoring the type of exercise done (which, Lose It the app doesn't really care about anyway; converting all work into calories expended). If we were doing hypertrophy work, we'd expect some weight gain. If we were doing more endurance work, we'd expect muscle loss, and therefore, weight loss. Maybe. But we're also not going to have any composition data to compare in this set up. Bodyfat up or down? We'll not know.
Optimally, we want to compare Bodyweight/Bodyfat to total food intake, with a macros breakdown, and an additional layer comparing total work volume done; and that, by work type - perhaps broken down by energy system.

Lose It! assumes that the user wants to lose bodyweight, and simply assumes that the less you eat, the less you'll weigh. Which is true; if you eat nothing, soon you'll weigh as much as worm shite since you'll be dead. Lose It does compute work calories by subtracting them from your daily total ingested. So if you work more, you get to eat more that day without going over your daily "limit." So we can examine those three factors while using the app - Bodyweight, Calories ingested, and Calories expended through exercise.

We've got 7 years of tracking, with a two-year hiatus hole in the middle where I didn't do any logging. Let's just look at the graphed data overlays and see what they suggest. First, we compare Bodyweight to Calories ingested:

...and see no real correllation. Late in the graph, we see that where the purple calories are up, weight goes down. Not what one might expect at all, right?
There's those two peaks on the right, where calories dipped and bodyweight dipped correspondingly by about 8-9 pounds, but generally, there's 3 years worth of plateau-ed intake with inexplicable BW change.

Compare the same Bodyweight chart, but now to an overlay of Calories expended during exercise. 

Before the hiatus, we see low BW when calorie expenditure via exercise is high, and a general BW climb when exercise calories are lower. After the hiatus, exercise climbs and BW drops - still what the general consensus would presume. Especially since we aren't comparing intake as well.

So, let's add that. The three factors compared:

 Which is messy. Cut to the chase. Here's where Lose It shines. The app takes the Calories In for the day minus Calories Out and ka-smushes them, into total Calories over or under your daily limit (which is the red line below, each data dot is a monthly average either above or below the limit line).

Very nearly a direct relationship between calories over showing as bodyweight gain, and calories under showing as bodyweight loss. Even with exercise type, and any macros breakdown, removed from the equation, the Eat-to-Work-to-Bodyweight math works within the limits of the app.

If you'll notice, there's also a month of lag-time along the rise and fall of the graph - maybe I have to undereat for a couple of months before my body decides it's going to be losing weight. The same happens when gaining. A visual reminder to me: whether cutting or building, have patience in the programming.

Death by KB Singles - May 13

Simple day. Didn't go to the wall on these - feeling some achiness in my right rotator cuff the past few days. So, kept 'em low and Russian, and shut it down before the volume got too high.

1.5 pood. 1 with the left, 2 with the right. Ended after 17 on the left.

PM
Easy stretching.

8 hours - 2200/0600. 17 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 7.

Front Squat and RingsRings - May 12

Front squat for a triple, on 2:00
5x135/5x155/5x175/3x185/3x205/3x215
11 mins.

- 2 mins -

5 rounds, HT timer
Ring Rows x max reps
Ring dips x13-8
13 mins.
 
7 hours - 2300/0630. 27 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 7.

Power Clean and DL - May 11

Dehydrated, and it's early.

(Death by) cleans @ 135#
5.3 ... didn't really push for a number.
7 mins.

Deadlift
5@185/5@205/3@225/5@205//
8 mins.

205 feels heavy. 225# felt worse. Last deadlift day, I was telling myself that it's only bodyweight! Today, it wasn't even BW.

9 - 1 hours - 2130/0630. 17 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 7. 230/16.

Squat easy, Pull harder - May 10

Front squat 6 x 7-8 @ 135#
11 mins.

Death by Pull up
10.3 rounds
12 mins.

Walked to/from Hingepoint today.

7.5 hours - 2230/0600. 23 + 50 minutes total. 48 hours. PE: 9.

Squat reps, not weight - May 8

4 rounds, each alternate on 2:00
Front squat @ 135/145/155/165 - until form broke down (7-5)
Back squat @ same (until .30; 8's mostly)

Again, just squeezing in what I can on what was to be a full day. Feeling less loose than I have been - tough to get down into the bucket this morning.

8.5 hours - 2130/0600. 15 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 6.

PushPull - May 7

4 rounds, HT timer
Chins x6-5
Press @ 135 x8-4
... one more set of Chins.

Just a little time today to squeeze in a little session.

9 hours - 2130/0630. 11 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 5. 233/13.

Three 5's, DL day - May 6

5 rounds, HT timer
Pendlay rows @ 135 x10-7 
5 mins.

5 rounds, same timer
Power clean @ 135x8/@ 145////
6 mins.

- 3 mins -

Deadlift, on 2:00
8x 185/235 x4/x5/5/4
9 mins.

It's only BW! I either need to release my expectations, or release my inner neanderthal on DL days.

7.5 hours - 2300/0630. 25 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 7.

Rest Faster Circuit - May 5

5 rounds, on the minute
Front Squat x7 @135/x6 @155/x5 @185///
Press @135 x8/7/6/5/4
Pull ups x max reps (8's)
... one more Squat @ 135 for 8.

Bell was ringing early, and the RI seemed What,Already? short each round. Come to find out that I'd been futzing with the On the Minute settings on the timer last, and just assumed I was on the HT timer. Live and learn, and a good way to work some conditioning in. Discomfort, too.

9 hours - 2130/0630. 16 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 8. 230/14.

Triplet Circuit - May 4

4 rounds, HT timer

Ring row - 10-8's

Ring dip - 10-8's

Kb singles @ 53# - 10's

... one more ring row and kb double.

Started these off with the On The Minute timer, which was just a little less rest than I wanted (20 on, 40 off) and a little less work. 30 seconds on is where it's at for full efforts, and I need (needed, today) 2work to 3rest to bounce back fully.

7.5 hours - 2230/0600. 18 minutes total. 24 hours. PE: 7. 228/14.

Squat and Leave - May 3

High bar back squat, on 2.00

10x 135#/9x 185#/8x 205/225 x7/6/5/4

14 mins.

8.5 hours - 2230/0700. 14 minutes total. 48 hours. PE: 7.

Simple Stuff - May 1

6 rounds, HT timer
Pull ups
Press @ 135 (7's - 5's)
11 mins.

3 x max reps Chins
5 mins.

5x10-11 Ov Squat x bar only
8 mins.

6.5 hours - 2330/0600. 27 minutes total. 36 hours. PE: 6.