Virus ??

All normal here.. false positive ? 

Had a comforting Chicken Shish last night... some home work out stuff tmmr me thinks

Chicken Shish? Well I guess E-coli isn’t as bad as Covid... 😂

Breakfast - 2 scoops of Huel 1 scoop porridge, bag spinach
Supps - Creatine - Blood & guts Preworkout


Chest/Back

Slept in today, was still in bits after the leg session yesterday. Supposed to go heavy today but the person who I was supposed to train with let me down last minute.

Not a great session I probably should have taken the day off, woke up late and had breakfast an hour before the gym I normally leave it at least 2 hours.

Got up to 130 on flat bench and only managed 5 reps could have been physiological because I didn’t have a spotter. I did 3 reps of 140 and 1 rep of 150 was going to go for another which I’m sure I could have completed but lost my bottle as well as focus.

I didn’t do any deadlift or pull ups as I was aching already so used the plated machines for my back lifts apart from rows.

Feeling depleted today going for a run later and will take the weekend off. Have a massage booked for tomorrow and will ice bath Sunday.

@Harvey thanks for the info

@Matt I meant story on Instagram. I’ll have a butchers of the links you sent tomorrow
 
@Marky thanks pal, will remember that 😂

@Dean have you manned up yet and shook off the virus Trump style? 😂 hope you’re getting better pal.

Heres a great story...

Didnt feel great monday small cough... took temp.. thing bleeps red..oh oh.. go and get tested.. get home told daughter..she tells me thermometer went red because of a low battery....took temp again all good... loooooled thought i had covid

Just got test back..

errrr..Positive

Oh man, get well soon.... I’m sure your CrossFit workouts have boosted your immune system though.

You’ll like this one. Mr “I drink £4 coconut water while working out” is actually a PT he came over to me today and started telling me about how he was used to hardcore gyms, not health clubs like Nuffield blah blah... I entertained him for a while until he asked me if I needed spotting on anything 😂

@harvey - Sounds good, so you’re the man to ask about plateaus? I’ve never tried any form of steroids yet but may look at trt in a few years at the moment I think I’m ok. Although some of the Preworkouts I took a few years ago had substances that are now banned in the UK and considered illegal.

Any info regarding Sarms? One of my old employees was on some form of Sarms and saw results very quickly.

Breakfast - 2 scoops of Huel, bag spinach, one banana
Supps - Creatine
Preworkout - Nuts, cranberry juice & a double espresso in a a shot (Tea cup size)

Completed my pull ups in of 10 sets of 5 sets and push ups in 4 sets of 25

Leg day, went for a walk in Gedling park with the family then ran round also - had to walk the last mile

Did lots of stretching and accessory work

Squats & box jumps - super sets
60kg 10 x squat - 10 box jump (x2)
80kg 10 x 10
100kg 5x 5
110kg 5x 5
120kg 5x 5
140kg 5x 5 (x3)

Heavy leg press super sets with Bulgarian lunges x 5 not sure how heavy I went but was shaking
Walking lunges with shrugs

Had trouble walking down the stairs after, the Preworkout gave me a huge boast today.

Weighed in today 14st 9lbs so feeling good, I’m really enjoying the convenience of Huel....

@Matt tagged you in the story today, 😎

@iraise 5 sports scientists? Love it. So when I was younger most of the gyms were spit and sawdust and knowledge was based around Personal experience. Very different from what  I’m used to now, they were friendly places filled with tons of ego,  skewed knowledge and conversations that started with “When I’m on the gear” again I was fortunate that when I started lifting seriously I was surrounded by pros.

@Matt are you training chest twice a week on this plan? What’s the challenge? Is it a rep challenge or max lift?

I’m really struggling with wide arm pull ups at the moment fellas. Yesterday I couldn’t get more then 4 out per superset and this morning the max I did per set was 7 (Day off today just did my push ups and pull ups)

I’m going to do my first 5k timed today on Strava plus it’s raining and I just love running in the rain. I’m sure my time is going to closer to 30 then 24 where I need to be for the challenge but knowing that I’m going to take an hour out to run in the rain is keeping me going.

@BangBang

Whats been your history of training over the years? Has it always been casual or every competitive?

Sorry for the late reply just seen this.

Very casual, more lifestyle. I’m fortunate though as a lot of my friends are/were competitive athletes and I’ve always trained with them. I did Kick boxing and wrestling from the age of 4 and boxing from the age of 10 all the way to my 20’s so I’ve always kept a decent level of fitness and strength

Did some power lifting with my brother around 20 years ago too.

Overall my level of fitness is probably at the lowest it’s ever been.

On the weekend I’ll trifle through my garage and find my old lifting numbers and post. They weren’t as high as they were in my 30s when I formed my “old man strength” but were impressive to say I was in my late teens early 20s and weighed a lot less too.

What’s your history with training? Being the deadlift man I’m assuming some sort of athletics or flexibility based sport like kick boxing or Thai boxing?

That’s some great work Matt.. 120kg for 8 is super strong. Are you going for 140 or 150?

Thanks mate. My PR is 145 and I'd be happy to consolidate that as I've only done it twice in my life. If I feel good on the day I think I have 150 in me so hopefully I'll get to give it a go. I've tried it once and got about half way so not too much further to go......

My real goal is to be able to press 140 confidently for a few reps. There's something about 3 plates that just looks good when you do it for a few reps.

My training partner hit 147.5 for his 8 which was really impressive. He's got a 170 PR as well so really pushing to hit 4 plates this time round although a 10kg jump is massive when you're so close to your limit as I'm sure you know.

3 plates for reps is a good target, it’s light work though. If you’re at 120 for 8 reps I’m sure 145-150 for 3 reps in a month is sound target.

OHP is overrated, I’m 5’9 with broad shoulders so will always find it easier then people that are taller with longer levers. Plus I do headstands as part of my meditation

Official weigh in this morning 14 stone 11lbs - Damn

I should be in the ball park but I'm 45 having trained on and off (mostly on) for 25+ years so I'm pretty much at my limit and the gains are hard to come by. I'm not particularly strong genetically so it's been a long road to get where I am but I reckon there's a few more kgs there in the next year or so if I stay focussed.

I definitely had a mental block at 3 plates which disappeared just before lockdown when I hit it several times. I've got a great bench programme now which has seen improvements every time I've run through it so definitely feel like I could beat the 145 this time round.

I'm 6' 4" with long arms so yeah the bar has a long way to go on my OHP.

It's mainly injuries that hold me back though to be honest. I have more tweaks and twinges than you could imagine which comes from years of body building 'bro' type training and just being generally stupid.

If I could have a decent run at bench without an injury break I reckon 150 would be attainable but I can't remember last time I went more than a few weeks with literally nothing wrong. Dodgy shoulder and dodgy hips are the main ones for me with the added bonus of all kinds of tendon issues in the wrist, elbow, forearm, triceps area..... Fun times

Not complaining, I just have to live with it and accept that every now and then I'm going to have to slow down or even take a complete break.

Thankfully I seem to have found a programme that is keeping me injury free. I still get tweaks but nothing that has kept me away completely. Everything now is based around hypertrophy and I've completely gone away from strength or anything that has hurt me in the past. OHP, squats and dead lift have all gone and it's paying dividends. I've kept heavy bench work in because I love it but other than that everything is in the 10 to 15 rep range now.

Understandable, I’m 40 and already feeling the burn. Tendon issues? My father suffered with tendon issues from Yoga, which also relieved the inflammation. Crazy how old age catches up to you.

I’m sure 150 for reps is still attainable though 😎

Breakfast - 2 scoops of Huel 1 scoop of oats bag spinach
Supplements - Creatine - caffeine preworkout (blood & guts)
Post workout - 4 scrambled eggs, broccoli 2 scoops of rice and a double espresso
Timed rest between sets - 1 minute

Had a weird morning was on the phone to Japan for an hour so didn’t have time to do my pull ups. It got to 5am and I knocked through my push ups quickly did 4 sets of 25 the last 10 were half reps so I rested for a minute and did 10 pause reps.

Gym - 6:30

My brother showed up so my split was out the window again. We trained back and chest.

Really struggling with pull ups at the moment, it’s because I’m carrying some extra weight but doing multiple sets of 10 seems difficult.

We did supersets of pull ups and flat bench working on volume and form. I got 10 reps of 130 which felt great, my brother got 6 reps of 4 plates.

Deadlift 100kg for reps with incline dumbbells 40kgs which seemed pretty taxing.
20 x incline 10 x DL.
Other auxiliary work
Weighted dips - 3 sets of 15 with 40kg weighted

Depth push ups with a pause - this was the hardest exercise super-setted with peck deck I failed on the last set of 10 only got out 6 which was embarrassing because my brother did an extra 10 while looking me straight in the eyes.

All my meetings have been cancelled today so will get an extra 20 minutes of stretching tonight.

Had a general check up yesterday and have been told that an op I had planned for January maybe pushed forward, not sure yet but if so I will be taking a break next month to recover.

What recovery regimes do you all follow?

Had an over eager gym’er this morning he saw me put the belt and wraps on while on the rack and he came over and said
 “Can I just show you something” continued stand in the rack and show me the motion of squatting and then said “try it without the wrist wraps and chalk next time” so I told him I would next time I was squatting and I continued to press the weight over my head. I think he was embarrassed for giving me unsolicited advice on an exercise I wasn’t doing.

Love this

Your OHP is light years ahead of mine. I've been stuck at 80kg for as long as I can remember and every extra kilo I try seems like I've added an elephant to the bar, 100kg+ over head is huge.

I think my problem is my core strength, I have the pressing strength there to do more but overall I can't put it together. I'd imagine with your dead lift and squat you can brace really well and form a nice base to press off.

Hahahahahaha... helpful weakling shuffles away in silence

Lol you literally can’t make it up, I was already tilted when he walked in carrying a carton of coconut water

That’s some great work Matt.. 120kg for 8 is super strong. Are you going for 140 or 150?

Thanks mate. My PR is 145 and I'd be happy to consolidate that as I've only done it twice in my life. If I feel good on the day I think I have 150 in me so hopefully I'll get to give it a go. I've tried it once and got about half way so not too much further to go......

My real goal is to be able to press 140 confidently for a few reps. There's something about 3 plates that just looks good when you do it for a few reps.

My training partner hit 147.5 for his 8 which was really impressive. He's got a 170 PR as well so really pushing to hit 4 plates this time round although a 10kg jump is massive when you're so close to your limit as I'm sure you know.

3 plates for reps is a good target, it’s light work though. If you’re at 120 for 8 reps I’m sure 145-150 for 3 reps in a month is sound target.

OHP is overrated, I’m 5’9 with broad shoulders so will always find it easier then people that are taller with longer levers. Plus I do headstands as part of my meditation

Official weigh in this morning 14 stone 11lbs - Damn

Breakfast - 2 scoops of Huel - Green Juice (4am)
Supps - Creatine - Caffeine pre-workout
Post workout - Banana, Mango, Rice and tuna - (8am)

Off split because my gym buddy has an injury

I added in some squats this morning because I was feeling a little weak, then straight onto strict OHP using the rack and Olympic bar (much prefer this to dumbbells although I did finish on dumbbells)

Supersets of strict OHP with Pull ups because I didn’t manage to do my 100 pull ups at home this morning

60kg x 10 - (10 pull ups)
70kg x 10 - (8 pull ups)
80kg x 8 - (5 pulls ups)
90kg x 5 - (4 pulls ups)
100kg x 3 - (4 pull ups)

Did some other auxiliary work and finished off with dumbbells went heavy single arm press with no rest to failure used the 36’ers got 20+ with each arm

Next shoulder session I will be doing some rep work so will stick to around 80kg over head and next week I’ll attempt to go up to 103kg I think I’ll be on track to hit 110kg within 4 weeks

Had an over eager gym’er this morning he saw me put the belt and wraps on while on the rack and he came over and said
 “Can I just show you something” continued stand in the rack and show me the motion of squatting and then said “try it without the wrist wraps and chalk next time” so I told him I would next time I was squatting and I continued to press the weight over my head. I think he was embarrassed for giving me unsolicited advice on an exercise I wasn’t doing.

I’ve committed to a 5km challenge with some friends I have to get my time under 25 minutes going to write it in on Wednesday so will update with my revised workout plan from November to Feb

Lovely bench day today. I think the deload week served me well as for the first time since lock down I had no niggling pains to hold me back.

It was 8 reps today on the programme and my target was 115kg. Warm ups felt really easy and 100kg for 6 felt so good I decided to go for 120kg and hit the full 8 with a little bit in the tank.

That equals my 8 rep PR so I guess I'm now officially back to full pre-lockdown strength at last.

Volume work was fun, 80kg for 24 reps completed in a single set.

The next 5 weeks on the programme are all low volume so it'll be an interesting lead up to the 1RM attempt on 21st November.

That’s some great work Matt.. 120kg for 8 is super strong. Are you going for 140 or 150?

Thanks Iraise and nice to meet you ✊🏽👊🏽

Recovery

Last night -

Stretched for 40 minutes
No foam rolling or trigger balls as I have a deep tissue every Saturday.

Today
5am - 1 litre of warm lemon water - Cold shower

5:30 - 40 minutes on the elliptical

6:30 - 20 minutes Yoga (Mindfit Yoga)

Breakfast - 3 boiled eggs, two scoops Huel bag of spinach

8:30 - 2 laps around Gedling park with the family

12 - Deep Tissue massage followed by acupuncture in my right hand

Spending the day making a den with the kids, then a stay in date night with the missus and boxing in the AM

Tomorrow I’ll be visiting my father so will use his hot and cold jacuzzis.

Back on it on Monday... Hope you all are having a great weekend 👊🏽

You make that unrack look ridiculously easy. Until you actually start to press and it slows down I'd swear you were doing a set of 3 or 4.

It doesn't look like you set yourself up particularly well. You look like your arms are reaching for the sky whereas if you set your scapula properly you'd probably be 10cm closer to your chest before you even start. I didn't see any arch and also no discernible leg drive. Amazing to still press 145kg so easily.

Have you ever done any technique work? Seriously with a few little tweaks you'd be pressing 4 plates from what I've seen there.

Great feedback thanks. I did some power lifting after recovering from ripped tendons in my right hand which stopped me from striking. So maybe 20 years ago, I weighed a lot less but my numbers were pretty high.

I do really need to work on my form, so any other tips would be welcome.

[I stuck to 40% of my average lifts while I was doing this program so I didn’t hit lactic on each session.]

This was my 8 week post lockdown workout

I stuck to 40% of my average lifts while I was doing this program so I didn’t hit lactic on each session.

2 x sets for each movement, 10-15 reps non compound movements and 8-10 reps for compound movements 4 Days a week 3 days rest.

1. Warm up then stretch (cables)
2. Seated Rows
3. Cable pull down
4. Squat
5. Deadlift
6. Military press
7. Incline dumbbell press
8. Dips
9. Push ups
10. Sit ups
11. Pull ups
12. Warm down

What do you mean by this? a) why 40 b) why didnt you want to hit a point of a lactic build up?

So an old school friend of mine is a NFL combine trainer, he wrote the regime for me. It’s something they use when a player is recovering from injury builds mobility and balance before you start serious training.
The 40% is so that I can do the workout 4 days in a row before taking 3 days off, not sure of the science behind it but seemed to work.

The 240 DL was my 1 rep max, I haven’t really reached a 1rm on anything else like today I could have gone heavier on bench but decided to do some reps instead. I’m no where near the 240 at the moment but may concentrate on it in Feb when I go back to a strength regime.

I’m a big believer in ice baths and have always incorporated them in my training, I buy 5 bags of ice from Aldi and use my own bath sit in for 10 minutes x 2. I haven’t had a hot shower in years so the ice bath isn’t that bad.

Nice to virtually meet you by the way and look forward to the thread

https://instagram.com/stories/stevensethi/2421257839333687435?igshid=montdwln2hwu