Some time in mid-February, I set some goals for March 31st. And here we are. I met some goals and didn't meet most, but got very close. Here's the recap:

GOAL:
Bodyfat: 12%
Weight: Doesn't matter yet.
1RM bench: 200lbs
1RM box squat: 285lbs
1RM DL: 300lbs
1RM WPU: 50lbs

End Game:
Weight: 168lbs - Decreased by 12lbs.
Bodyfat: 13% - Goal not reached, decreased by three percent.
1RM Bench: 195lbs - Goal not reached, increased by 10lbs.
1RM Squat: 285lbs - Goal met, increased by 40lbs.
1RM Box Squat: 285lbs - Goal met, increased by 30lbs.
1RM Deadlift: 290lbs - Goal not reached, increased by 65lbs.
1RM pull-up: 65lbs - Goal exceeded, increased by thirty lbs.

Those numbers are pretty decent in my books. For my training from here on, I'm going to scale the weight back a bit and try to do more reps. So I'll be on three week meso-cycles for each exercise for my MEs. I'll start with the main sets being 3x3s, then 3x4s, then 3x5s. After maybe two or three months, I'll re-evaluate my numbers.

ME Lower Body/HIIT

ME Deadlifts:
1x5 135lbs
1x5 225lbs
1x3 245lbs
1x3 255lbs
1x3 260lbs
2x3 265lbs
1x3 260lbs

Unilateral:
3x8 75lb barbell step-ups, each leg

Posterior:
3x8 35lbs hyperextensions

Abs:
3 cycles of:
1 min atomic crunches
1 min 15lb roped medicine ball hip swings
---

11:00 HIIT stationary bike, one min warm-up, one min cool-down
---

I changed the order of some things. But first, the DLs. Form was sloppy today, so I really shouldn't have gone up in weight and I didn't decide this till the middle of the second set, so I went back down and just did another set at 260. I also should've put something in-between 135 and 225, but I didn't feel like taking plates off and putting others on. Probably the reaosn for the poor form today. Unilaterals went well. So did everything else. I'm glad I found a roped med ball (someone brought it in, I asked to borrow it).

I put HIIT last today because I read about glycogen depletion being the reason why cardio - HIIT in particular - was so effective in the morning before eating. The theory goes that because there's no other available source of energy, the body will metabolise even more fat than it would otherwise, even with the increased fat oxidation that HIIT inspires. Well, the same article suggested post-strength training HIIT as a method of simulating the effects, since we use up all our glycogen stores in the process of lifting.

This is how it went:

Warm-up: Not so bad. Legs kinda stiff from the step-ups.
First two sprint intervals: This is kinda tough with my legs feeling the lactic acid burn, but I can do it.
Next three sprint intervals: Oh god, what did I get myself into?
Next three sprint intervals: MAKE IT STOP!! FUCKING GOD! WHY AM I DOING THIS TO MYSELF!?!?! No, no! Must keep going. Just a few more minutes.
Sprint interval seven: *face is cringing up* M-my God.. am I going to start crying...?
Sprint interval eight: *the first tear* Oh my god, I'm crying. THIS IS MAKING ME FUCKING CRY!
Sprint interval nine: *tears free-flowing* I DON'T WANNA DO ONE MORE!! FUCKK! FUCK MY LIFE!! FUCK YOU DANNO! I CAN HEAR YOUR VOICE TELLING ME IT'S OKAY TO STOP.. WELL FUCK YOU!!
Sprint interval ten: *still crying, people are asking me if I'm okay, but I actually can't talk* LAST ONE! LAST FUCKING ONE!! I HATE EVERYONE!
Rest interval ten: Oh fuck, I messed up, didn't I? there's one more, isnt' there? FUCK YOU!
Sprint interval eleven: OH MY GOD, I HAD IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! GOD FUCKING DAMN IIT!! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!! FUCK YOU ALL!

...Yeah...........

Beast Skills seminar

So today was the Beast Skills seminar with Jim Bathurst. A good four hours of gymnastic strength skill development/coaching, which led to some very productive things. Among them is a few new ideas for warming up, the realisation of how much easier a tuck planche is on parallelettes... and my first muscle-up. Make that my first FIVE muscle-ups. Singles, of course, cause it was taxing.. And this was done on rings, so I'm not sure how good I am to be able to transfer them over to the bar yet, but damn it, I got it! I attribute this to good coaching and the development of the necessary strength through Danno's little program. Very happy with this.

Themed Training - Conditioning

Fairly nice day tonight despite the weather. After going through proper form for many of the exercises and doing enough to drill it in a bit (best part were the duck walks), we did a very short circuit. Tired from the drills from the exercise, it wasn't SUPER easy, though.. I should've added more to it. Ten or fifteen metres or so of QM, 20 push-ups, duck-walk back, and 20 squats. Nothing so bad at all, although the squats were a bit tiring after the QM and duck-walks.

Then we worked on some technique, picked up a random, did a very short conditioning segment before stretching.. stretched, and called it quits. Oh, but I left my beanie by the rails, so when I got to my car, I ended up having to run across the campus and back again. :(

Kung Fu

One hour BDKF

Three sets of 50 push-ups (wide-stance), 50 sit-ups, and 50 squats as quickly as possible.. 10 second rest between each, one min between sets.

ME Lower Body

ME Deadlifts:
1x5 135lbs
1x5 205lbs
1x5 225lbs
1x3 245lbs
1x3 255lbs
3x3 260lbs

Unilateral:
3x6 Pistols, each leg

Posterior:
3x8 decline front plank knee extensions

Abs:
15 kneeling abwheel roll-outs
15 reverse crunches
Repeat three times
---

So, my warm-up set for the DLs sucked. Major. Ass. But then I began to pay stricter attention to form, and kept my chest up, and PRESTO! Everything just fell into place.. and each lift felt good. Very good. In order to use my hamstrings in the lift, I ended up having to "lean back" a lot further than I thought I should have, almost to the point of feeling like oyu're falling backwards (exactly what Charles said to me), but the weight of the barbell keeps you upright. So I'm comfortable with the DL form, now, which is an amazing feeling!

Also, I timed my rest intervals between sets today, particularly the DLs.. I've realised that three minutes is a LOT Logner than I thoguht. My "three minute" rests have probablybeen around 30 seconds, max. Which is probably what leads to failing on the last bench reps, or my low back getting tense.. So now I know what it feels like to rest a full three minutes, and I think I can significantly increase my weight just on the basis of more (appropriate) rest time.

ME Upper Body

HIIT stationary bike:

1:00 warm-up (slow)
10:00 HIIT
1:00 cooldown
---

ME Bench Press:
1x5 135lbs
1x5 145lbs
1x5 155lbs
1x3 165lbs
3x3 175lbs*
1x3 165lbs

Supplemental:
1x12 pull-ups
1x6

Superset:
3x8 2x25lbs rear delt flies
3x8 2x25lbs overhead DB press

Traps:
3x15 2x30lbs DB shrugs
---

The last rep of the last 175lbs set failed. I did an additional set at 165 to make up for it. Hopefully, I won't miss the lift next time.

Themed Training - Kips and Hips

After a nice warm-up, we started with some kipping drills against a wall, then moved to pop vaults. A lot of these guys lacked flexibility, so we worked that a bit as well as just long jumps to get used to that hip drive. Afterwards, we moved on, played around a bit, did a longer conditioning session, and I tried to incorporate as much hip technique as I could into our drills. I think it worked out rather well.

When I got home, I did some soft tissue work with the foam roller, stretched out, then got bored and did some pull-ups and back lever progressions.

Binh Dinh

One hour Kung Fu.

This is the first time I've finished a form (60 techniques in this one.. well.. 62 or something) since training again with my father. I have also never sweat so much in my life. This form is more difficult than the ones I had learned in my past years, as it involves a few leg sweeps that my hips are not flexible enough to perform properly and at the end just now.. it reminds me a lot of Muay Thai all of a sudden. The last little portion of the form is all close-quarters knees and elbows and this is a HUGE contrast to all the quick forward and backward low jump strikes in the beginning that close and clear distance in a rush. I didn't even know this aspect of Binh Dinh.

ME Lower Body

Lower body warm-up

ME Squats:
1x5 135lbs
1x5 175lbs
1x5 205lbs
1x3 225lbs
1x3 245lbs
3x3 255lbs

Unilateral:
3x6 2x30lb DB Split-squats, each leg

Posterior:
3x8 Decline front plank knee extensions

Abs:
2x15 atomic sit-ups
2x10 secs L-sit on p-bars
---

Okay, so that posterior exercise is something new I stumbled across today.. and they SUCK LIKE A MOTHER. So much pain and it was just BODYWEIGHT. Holy crap. They were actually supposed to be single-legs, but I soon realised I wasn't strong enough to do that, so I did them as doubles and they still killed me. I was going to do box squats again, but someone else had the ONLY plyo box that was the right height, so I did free squats. Still rather productive, I think.

Seriously, though, my poor hammies.. :(

ME Upper Body

Warm-up:
1:00 jog

HIIT workout:
10:00 sprints

Cool-down:
1:00 walk
---

Upper body warm-up

ME Bench:
1x5 135lbs
1x5 145lbs
1x3 155lbs
3x3 165lbs

Supplemental:
1x15 65lb chest-supported row
1x12 65lb chest-supported row

Superset:
3x12 2x20lb front raises
3x8 2x40lb overhead press
---

So my ME Bench is the same as last week. And I got nauseous again. Maybe it's dehydration, I don't know. I'll have to make a conscious effort to hydrate myself more and see if that makes a big difference. As far as not getting stronger... I'm not sure what this means. It could just be because I'm losing weight. It could be that my technique isn't perfect yet, but I'm not oging to push anything. I'll increase when it feels right... right now, going even to 170 probably wouldn't have been the greatest idea, so I didn't.

ME Lower Body

Lower body warm-up

ME Box Squats:
1x5 135lbs
1x5 185lbs
1x5 205lbs
1x3 225lbs
3x3 245lbs

Unilateral:
2x6 60lbs (2x30 DBs) Bulgarian split-squats, full ROM
---

I was going to do RDLs for posterior and then an ab routine, but I was feeling dehydrated, nauseous, and a bit of heartburn.. so for once, I listened to my body this time instead of pushing it and then vomiting.

Themed Training - Escape

I tried something a little new today, though it's really just a modified tag thing and I think I saw Danno do this in a video, so maybe I stole it from him. The idea is to have a preset course to run with a few members laying in wait. Once the runner reaches a certain point, standby members begin a chase sequence. Like Legend of the Hidden Temple, if anyone remembers that old Nickelodeon show, except the stalkers popping out are tagging you instead of just scaring you. This gave every movement a sense of urgency. This led to occasionally overjumping obstacles, leading to a bit of pain upon landing cats and whatnot, or just messing up and falling over a bit.. but the general idea is to learn some sense of control while under the tension of speed. I think it worked out really well, and I need to plan out better courses to do it again, as I intend on using this method of training/drilling more in the future.

More BDKF

One hour kung fu.

...so hungry.

Three Days

Friday:

Short session at Primal. First time at the new location. My chest/heart was acting up, so I couldn't do a huge amount, but it was fun and nice to see Zac again. And to meet Charles for the first time. At the end, I went to the back room and Charles gave me some pointers on my deadlifting and squat technique. Turns out that in my efforts to not stress the back, I stressed it more! I also discovered my hips are extremely tight and my ROM for squat/DLs is a lot smaller than I thought it was if I keep my back striaght and upright (relatively so). Apparently, I've been leaning over far too much. I've been doing bodyweight squats trying to just increase my ROM with the proper pelvic tilt. Seems to be working okay.

Saturday:

Rosslyn jam. Tons of fun. Involved these very intense pull-ups that required a massive amount of grip strength and left my fingers sore for awhile... which brings us to...

Sunday:

ME Upper Body Day

ME Bench Press
1x5 135lbs
1x5 145lbs
1x5 155lbs
3x3 165lbs

Supplemental
1x8 and 1x6 Chin-ups

Superset
3x8 30lbs seated overhead press+miniband pull aparts
---

My grip was SHOT still. I noticed during the chin-ups when, eventually, I could hang on only by my fingertips. So I cut everything pretty short and plan on taking another rest day tomorrow.

Binh Dinh

1 hour kung fu.

God, my legs got fatigued way too quickly.

HIIT and Technical Stuff

Though today was planned to be a rest day, I got bored. I went to the gym and did 15:00 of HIIT on stationary bike, then worked with LIGHT weights to practice my technique for bench and squat. 8 sets of 5 each, 115lbs and 135lbs respectively. Nothign major. I do know the bench a bit more intricately now and figured out how to do "elbows tucked" and "pull the bar apart." My bench felt much more powerful as the technique got down and the sets went on.. Even though fatigue was setting in, I was lifting the bar up with more force. So I don't regret my decision in the least to go to the gym today.

As far as squat goes, I think my technique has been pretty solid throughout my journey with it. The only thing I noticed was that I could actually get two inches or so lower than I normally do. I'm not entirely sure if this is practical or not, so maybe someone can give me some feedback on it. I already squat below parallel... is that extra inch or two of the ROM significant?

Three things!

Sunday - Fort Hunt Jam

Was fun, nothing huge. The ground was wet and cold and made things a bit difficult, but the place is amazing. I'll come back sometime on my own, prolly.

Sunday Night - ME Upper Body

Upper body warm-up

ME Pull-ups:
1x5 bodyweight
1x3 20lbs
1x3 40lbs
3x1 45lbs

Supplemental:
2x15 Push-ups w/ mini-band across back

Superset:
3x12 60lb bent-over row and 3x12 band pull-apart

Traps:
3x8 80lb shrugs

Grip:
3x1min 20lb hex DB pinch grips
---

Monday - ME Lower Body

Lower body warm-up

ME Deadlifts:
1x5 135lbs
1x5 185lbs
1x3 225lbs
1x3 235lbs
3x3 245lbs

Unilateral:
3x6 115lbs split-squats, each leg

Posterior chain:
3x8 hyperextensions w/ mini-bands

Ab circuit:
30 seconds each exercise, no rest...
Crunches
Reverse crunches
Russian twists
Front plank
Sprinter sit-ups
Hip thrusts
Jackknives
Left side plank
Side plank hip thrusts
Right side plank
Side plank hip thrusts
Front plank