Go with the flow!

[Espi]

Thanks Mel!

Body is slowly fattening though.. even trying to get back to maintenance is a chore. And then I'll be cutting from late Feb on to get rid of about 2kg of fat that piled back on. It's affecting my insulin sensitivity I guess. A few months before I was surprised to see I could stop eating carbs as I felt satiated by them, not hungry. It's still there but not as profound.

Would you know I thought of you today? Was reading your log offline (by email) and you mentioned how you felt bad about not having done the step-ups right before. Guess what, I think 95% of people who do step-ups do it the wrong way (at least... what we see as wrong) and put the force in the rear leg. I always did, until about 1 yr ago, a good trainer at our gym pointed out to me that I should push off only with the advancing leg. What a difference! It's HARD that way

[stingo]

How come you're reading stuff by email?

[Espi]

With thread tools I can subscribe to threads. Takes less time than actually going to the forum. That's what I do when I want to respond to a thread.. admittedly one is following someone less well by email, but it beats not visiting any thread at all.
This way I can keep up with what people are doing without feeling like an intruder when I do post in their logs.

[Espi]

Friday Feb 1
Triple Anti-KISS 2-2C – in another gym!
all weights in kilograms

ASSISTANCE WORK
A1 front squat
40x5
A2 back squat
40x3
Geez, I’m no longer good at back squatting.. GM-ing it!

waves
B1 deadlift
WU: 50x5

72,5x8 (0)– 72,5x8
77,5x6 (-1) – 77,5x7
82,5x5 (-1; 7RM) – 85 (5RM) x5
Really noticing I’d done DLs 1 day before.. sore lower back, so I dropped back 1 rep

ASSISTANCE WORK
C1 hang & power cleans
At least 10 singles with empty bar, both as hang and power clean.

D1 lying leg curl
15x5
It’s been ages since I did those (no lying leg curl machine in our gym) and the weight was humbling low.. also still sore hams.

PREPATORY WORK
E1 decline db/bb press
(2x14)x12-11-11
20x10

Easy peasy PR, highest weight of the 2 times I ever did this exercise.


ODD EXERCISES
None today

General: today I was in another gym, where a buddy of mine trains, who’s a very decent powerlifter as well as Olympic lifter. I’d hoped for some tips on how to improve my lifts, but alas, she had to do her own training.. which took quite a bit of time. It was a joy to watch her do it. Wished I had her shoes (elevated soles are easier!) She did give some cues, and will be working with these.
Since this gym has special stands for taking off the bb, I was able to do both front and back squats. My back squats have severely deteriorated.. totally GM-ing it. Front squats now are easier to do!
This gym is in 2 floors, a bit clumsy .. downstairs mostly back & leg machines plus these stands. Upstairs the benches, Smith machines and cable stations.
Was very pleasantly surprised by the decline bench with foot rests! Also very neat to have my SO with me, who handed the weights.

Training statistics
Volume: 5219
# of sets: 22 # of reps: 100 - avg reps/set : 4,5 - kg/rep : 52,2

[Espi]

Saturday Feb 2
Triple Anti-KISS 2-2C-II
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
The usual stuff

drop set
A1 weighted chins
BW+6x1 – BW+5x1 - BW+4x1 – BW+3x1 – BW+2x2 – BW+1x2 – BWx1-1

Drop sets worked indeed better . At the last set I was too tired though to get more than 1 rep w/o too much cheating.. and didn’t even want to think about negatives.

waves

deadlift
Done yesterday

PREPATORY WORK
Done yesterday.

ASSISTANCE LIFTS

B1 pull throughs
21,3 (12RM) x20
26,3 (15RM) x14
Totally surprised at how easy the first set was, then realized someone else had intruded into my set-up, done another exercise and then I’d forgotten to reset it at 28,8kg.

D2 Smith lunge
37,5(10RM)x10
35 (11RM) x12

SMALL STUFF
E1 wood chop
16,3x14

F1+2+3 neck exercises (front/rear/side)
6,3x18 front/back
6,3x15 left/right

G1 cable exo rotation
3,8x16

H1 Saxon side bend
6x13

ODD EXERCISES
Excercises You've Never Tried Before #11
H1 Swiss Ball Russian Twist (reverse excercise)




Did it again: this time it was easier, and got 5 reps for each side before I fell off


I1 Hamstring Cable Curl




This time I brought my own ankle/wrist weights and did the exercise with these.
Hmmm it’s still hard to refrain it from sliding up.
Eventually I did the same exercise in the LifeFitness hip station and actually, while you might scoff at machines sometimes, this one really rocks! It’s a bit similar to this one (can’t find an exact similar image though)

Also , since I was already beating up my hams, did a set in the seated leg curl machine. Ouch with just 33x16 (RM = 30reps, set in Oct 2005 when I used to do these religiously!)


General: finally a workout, where despite sore muscles (bum, hams mostly) and a bit painful shoulder I felt strong, focused & confident. Felt great to have that feeling back again, even though my workout wasn’t magically out-of-the-world. Still avoided the sprinting ab workout.

Training statistics
Volume: 8881
# of sets: 30 # of reps: 275 - avg reps/set : 9,2 - kg/rep : 32,4

[Fitwit]

You are never an intruder when you post in my log!! All are welcome

[stingo]

Originally Posted by Espi

This way I can keep up with what people are doing without feeling like an intruder when I do post in their logs.

Umm that's kind of the point of posting to logs, for others' comments - otherwise we'd just keep it to ourselves? lol

[Espi]

Well actually I meant.. when I don't have enough time to visit other person's logs in person by going onto the forum and being there almost physically (it feels like that), then I can still follow them along and not jump into the conversation without knowing what happened before.... I still know how Tom is now on plan E and enjoying life (good music, beer, food) a bit more than before....

[stingo]

Originally Posted by Espi

Well actually I meant.. when I don't have enough time to visit other person's logs in person by going onto the forum and being there almost physically (it feels like that), then I can still follow them along and not jump into the conversation without knowing what happened before.... I still know how Tom is now on plan E and enjoying life (good music, beer, food) a bit more than before....

I actually had beer (Bullfrog's Lights Out Stout) and pizza yesterday because my dad asked me to go some pizza (which he rarely does). It was a nice treat.

Glad to see you're getting back into the swing of things with your workouts. It makes you appreciate the fact of how good your workouts are normally.

[Espi]

Monday Feb4
Triple Anti-KISS 2-3A
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
1 windmill x 10 each side
2 quick ham & calf stretch x10
3 torso stretching x 5 for each (cat/camel)
4 Frankenstein x10
5 regular pushup x10 (pissed me off that these are suddenly so hard, used to do regular ones all the time… so back to this!)
6 lateral lunge x10 each side
7 walking lunge in reverse x10 each side
8 prisoner squat x13
9 Russian UB twist w med ball x10
10 Swiss leg curl x12

waves
A1 db bench press
WU: (15x2)x7
(17x2)x6 (-1) – (18x2)x6 (-1)
(19x2)x4 (0) – (20x2)x4 (-1)
(21x2; 5RM)x3 – (22x2; 5RM) x 2
Shoulder pain really made it impossible to get decent amount of reps. Should’ve gone up just 2 kg, not 4kg.


PREPATORY WORK
B1 front squat w hang cleans
WU: hang cleans for 30 & 36 kg
WU: 36x5
42x8
44x8
46 (8RM)x10
Decided to go really easy and not do hang cleans to give shoulders a rest. Only cleaned the 30 & 36kg and then just simply put all of the other barbells back in the ‘normal’ way.
Front squats felt very good and it wasn’t hard to do 10 reps for the last set…if I’d wanted I could have done even more.


ASSISTANCE LIFTS

B2 standing military press
23 (11RM)x10
22x10
21x10

Alternated with the front squats.

D1 triceps rope pushdown
23,8x5
21,3 (11RM)x8
Never did these with 23,8kg before, so this is the first reference data point.


D2 pec deck
35,5 (19RM) x18
33 (23RM) x14

METABOLIC WORK
db swing + goblet squat + renegade row
14x 6 -6 -6
Three sets of each. Hmmm that db swing was getting hard after the 2nd set and now I’m not even swinging it above the head, just vertical!

ODD EXERCISES
Excercises You've Never Tried Before #11
None today, shoulders are killing me.. so need a bit of rest.


General: again happy that I had good focus and stability. Just too bad my shoulders are not in the best of shape.. too many f*ing hang cleans & military presses botched them up.

Training statistics
Volume: 13607 (+3104)
# of sets: 35 (+5) # of reps: 259 (+32) - avg reps/set : 7,4 (-0,2) - kg/rep : 52,5 (+6,2)

[Espi]

Wednesday Feb 6
Triple Anti-KISS 2-3B
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
1 windmill x 10 each side
2 quick ham & calf stretch x10
3 torso stretching x 5 for each (cat/camel)
4 knee pushup x10
5 Frankenstein x10
6 lateral lunge x10 each side
7 walking lunge in reverse x10 each side
8 Russian twist w 3kg medicin ball x 10
9 Swiss leg curl x15
10 prisoner squat x 15

waves
A1 front squat w hang cleans
WU: no hang cleans
WU: 40x5
45x7 (0) – 47,5x7 (+2)
50x6 (0) – 52,5x6 (+2)
55x5 (0; 6RM)– 57,5x3 (3RM)
Felt good from the start but got distracted by chatting to 2 new gym goers and then at the last set when I had thought to do 5 reps, it felt heavy from the 1st rep on and decided to stop at 3 reps, instead of risking to topple over. Weird how large the gap is between 55 (6RM) and 57,5 (3RM). Still more or less uncharted territory.


PREPARATORY WORK
A2 deadlift (starting at 2nd wave)
50x5 – 67,5x5
75x7 (0)
77,5x7 (-2)
80 (9RM) x 7
OKish, kept being distracted here too, now by the displaced bench press station that was ‘poking’ into the free wts area Not dissatisfied though.. 2nd set was good, 3rd could have been better.


B1 supine rows
BW+4x8-8-7

ASSISTANCE EXERCISES

C2 step up
BW+(2x10)x8
BW+(2x9)x8
BW+(2x8)x8
Much better than last week.


pre WO : the usual MCT-filled apple coconut omelette & Karno4
WO-drink : Iso Spark w Endure

General: hmm don’t know what is worse: feeling unfocused and still be reasonably strong or feeling good & focused, but have a shoulder problem ..
Smelled ammonia when I was finished lifting and decided to not do odd exercises or cardio.. but go home. Easy day today.

Training statistics
Volume: 13126 (+61)
# of sets: 23 (-8) # of reps: 187 (+47) - avg reps/set : 8,1 (+2,1) - kg/rep : 70,2 (+3,3)

[climban]

Hi Espi,

Nice to find you here too! It 's actually because of your review on B&F site that I begun some internetresearch about NROL! Finally decided to buy NROLW (oh yes, I still am a girl after all ) and ended up here.

Your workouts are pretty impressive!

[Espi]

Friday Feb 8
Triple Anti-KISS 2-3C
all weights in kilograms

DYNAMIC STRETCHING
The usual 10 exercises.

drop set
A1 weighted chins
BW+7x1 – BW+6x1 – BW+5x1 - BW+4x2 (+1) – BW+3x2 (+1) – BW+2x1 (-1)

That one with 4kg was actually a very forced 2nd rep.

waves

A2 deadlift
WU: 50x5 – WU 70x5

80x5 (-2) – 82,5x5 (0)
85x4 (-1) – 87,5x4
90 (5RM) x 3 – 92,5(3RM)x6 PR!
Yay, yes yes!!! Used a belt for the second time ever and it seriously helps a lot! Also, that I’d eaten a lot of carbs (and fat) the night before: chocolate FTW! (and rice cakes w fig jam )

PREPATORY WORK
B1 decline db/bb press
(2x14; 12RM)x18 (+6) : another easy PR!
(2x13)x15
(2x12)x20 (0)
Gaining lots of confidence. It greatly helped to put my feet underneath the aerobics bench that I’d pushed against the wall, so it wouldn’t budge.

ASSISTANCE LIFTS

C1 pull throughs
31,3x8
28,8x8

Highest weight sofar was 26,3 kg so another easy PR. Felt good..

C2 Smith lunge
40 (12RM) x 8
37,5(10RM)x10 (0)


SMALL STUFF
D1 kneeling cable crunch
16,3x33
Should have upped the weights. Keep forgetting this is too easy.

E1 cable exo rotation
3,8x17 (+1)
OKish, though right shoulder whined for a bit. Also tried to do scaption push ups against a wall. Hmm regular ones are better, not enough resistance against the wall.

F1 Saxon side bend
6x13 (0)

ODD EXERCISES
Excercises You've Never Tried Before #11
Got chased away as gym was closing early as they always do on Friday (730pm).


General: very happy about both focus and strength which resulted in nice PRs. It wasn’t all that easy as there were 2-3 persons yakking away right in front of me … funny how I always used to be the yakking one. But all of a sudden it bothers me, as once you’re lifting seriously heavy weights, I simply can’t do a good set without proper focus.
With high reps, low weights, this had never been a problem.
Was also happy how decline db presses didn’t hurt shoulders at all and pull-ups only when struggling to get up. When I give the shoulders a bit more rest, they should recover in a few weeks.

Training statistics
Volume: 11016 (+2135)
# of sets: 29 (-1) # of reps: 249 (-26) - avg reps/set : 8,6 (-0,6) - kg/rep : 44,2 (-11,8)

[stingo]

Nice work Espi - Congrats on your PRs - Where is your workout from? Or is it self-designed?

[Espi]

It's self-designed. I've given the set-up a while earlier.
I don't get to do the metabolic work as much as I'd like though. Perhaps it's good to split them up and devote an entire workout to them?