Pat's Training Log

[patrickmeniru]

13/01/2016

Fun session in the evening after work, did a bunch of grip stuff, plate pinching, picking up dumbells by one end, fatgripz deadlifts, handstand work, flag practice and generally messing around.

Was surprised at how much harder the thick bar makes deadlifts, I could only just get 130kg off the floor and couldn't finish the lift, although it was at the end of the session. 120kg was fine for several single reps, though not easy, which compares to a double overhand deadlift PR on a regular bar of 215kg and just missing 220kg at the knees.

Video of flag work below, handholds aren't ideal as they are awkwardly shaped and very slippery but not terrible.

[patrickmeniru]

15/01/2016

Squats:

1 x 5 w/70kg

1 x 5 w/90kg

1 x 5 w/110kg

1 x 5 w/130kg

4 x 6 w/140kg

1 x 5 w/120kg (paused)

Split squats:

3 x 5 w/40g

[patrickmeniru]

16/01/2016

Deadlifts:

Hook grip - speed:

1 x 5 w/70kg

1 x 3 w/120kg

1 x 2 w/150kg

4 x 2 w/180kg

Straps:

4 x 4 w/180kg snatch grip

Did a little handstand work between sets and messed around with some power cleans, managed to hit 120kg for an ugly single (caught bolt upright but not quite on my delts, was more just above my nipples and muscled it into position to finish the lift), which I think is pretty good going considering it's not a movement I ever train.

Edited January 16, 2016 by PatrickMeniru

[patrickmeniru]

18/01/2016

Played 70 minutes of 11 a side football, unfortunately managed to hurt my ankle as a result of a poor tackle by an opposition player. Think I was very lucky not to break my leg or suffer a really serious ankle/knee injury, was playing on hockey astro rather than grass or 3G turf, which probably saved me as there were no studs on my standing leg to lock the foot in place as the tackle came in, which would have been disastrous.

I don't think it's particularly serious, but is very sore at the moment and doubt I'll be able to do any deadlifts this weekend or any squatting until next week at best. Fingers crossed however.

[patrickmeniru]

22/01/2015

Walking pretty normally again after hurting my ankle, need to do some re-hab to reinforce proprioception and make sure I don't have a weaknesses that makes me vulnerable in future.

Some of the guys at the gym are getting into grip after I brought grippers and fat gripz to a session, which is great. Did some fat grips deadlifts and closed a #2 a bunch of times, confirmed my suspicions that I have an easy #2 as it was quite a bit harder than mine.

No feet bench (2 second pause):

1 x 5 w/20kg

1 x 5 w/60kg

1 x 5 w/80kg

1 x 5 w/100kg

4 x 3 w/120kg

3 x 3 w/110kg

1 x 8 w/110kg (touch and go)

Did some pull-ups and handstands, will do some volume pulling after deadlifts tomorrow.

[patrickmeniru]

24/01/2016

Annoying session today, managed to hurt my back trying for an extra unplanned rep, which my mind wasn't right for, and felt sluggish and weak throughout.

Deadlift (hook):

2 x 5 w/70kg

2 x 3 w/120kg

1 x 3 w/160kg

1 x 2 w/200kg

1 x 1 w/230kg

1 x 1 w/250kg

2 x 0 w/260kg (didn't break the floor)

1 x 3(1) w/230kg (straps) hurt my back on the last rep, nothing serious I don't think but will be too sore to squat for a few days at the least.

[patrickmeniru]

24/01/2016

Volume upper body pulling workout, can't remember exact sets/reps/weights but below is approx.:

Single arm standing cable rows, 4 x 10 w/35kg

Single arm seated cable rows 2 x 10 w/30kg

Close grip T-bar rows - 3 x 15 w/130kg

Pull-ups - 3 x 5

External cable rotations - 3 x 10 w/5kg

Rear delt cable flys - 2 x 20

Fat gripz EZ curls:

1 x 10 w/10kg

1 x 10 w/30kg

1 x 10 w/50kg

1 x 5 w/50kg (preacher curls)

2 x 10 hammer curls w/18kg

1 x 20 curls holding the sides of a 25kg bumper plate

2 x 10 dumbbell shrugs w/50kg

Grippers: lots of closes of my #2 and #3 various sets, nothing quite as wide as CCS for the #3 though, but felt strong.

Also did a little handstand pushup practice.

26/01/2016

Ankle is feeling much better, although not good enough to play football yet, but knee is feeling really ropey.

Band reverse flys:

4 x 20 (purple band - pretty thin, just to warm up)

Face pulls:

4 x 10 w/20kg

Horizontal rows:

1 x 10

Bench (with Fatgripz):

1 x 15 w/20kg

1 x 10 w/60kg

1 x 10 w/80kg

1 x 6 w/100kg (paused)

1 x 10 w/100kg (last rep didn't lock out, not sure if I could have done, but just lifted enough to rack it)

2 x 10 w/100kg (slight spotter assistance on last rep)

1 x 10 w/60kg

Felt like my thumbs got a good workout from benching with the FatGripz, will experiment with this to see if I like it or not, I don't think it affects my strength too much.

Squatted the bar for three sets of 10 reps, lower back and knee felt a bit rough but actually better after the 3rd set, so will probably try some light squats next session.

Edited January 26, 2016 by PatrickMeniru

[patrickmeniru]

27/01/2016

Front squats:

1 x 10 w/20kg

1 x 5 w/60kg

1 x 5 w/80kg (3 second pause)

1 x 6 w/100kg (3 with pause, 3 not paused)

1 x 3 w/110kg (2 second pause)

1 x (1) w/110kg - not exactly sure what went wrong but chest fell forward as I went into the hole and lost the bar forwards

2 x 3 w/110kg (used straps as handles from here, because miss hurt my wrist a little)

1 x 3 w/100kg

1 x 5 w/90kg

1 x 10 w/80kg

GHR

3 x 10

Hip flexors feeling really tight lately, need to make a note to stretch them thoroughly soon.

[patrickmeniru]

01/02/2016

Tried to squat 5 x 5 today at 140kg, warmed up, first set felt good, second set my back felt a bit weird, but legs felt strong so finished the set and then back tightened up a lot and was very sore for a few days (low-thoracic, rather than lumbar region but suspect it's linked to my deadlifting mis-hap). Very frustrating as deadlifting is unlikely to be an option for a while, and I felt I was very close to 600lbs, but better to recover fully and build slowly than rush and seriously injure myself.

04/02/2016

Did some volume chin up and dipping with 15kg on a belt and some abs work.

[patrickmeniru]

05/02/2016

Good session today in some ways, not so much in others. Good news is that I TNS'd my #3 for a single with my right hand for the first time and just missed an MMS close with my #3.5, haven't really done all that much gripper work lately so am surprised but pleased. Will try and get a video of a #3 TNS at some stage. Gripper wise left hand was struggling because my left wrist has been out of sorts since missing a front squat rep.

Bench:

1 x 8 w/35kg

1 x 6 w/75kg

1 x 6 w/95kg

1 x 3 w/115kg

1 x 1 w/125kg

1 x 2(1) w/130kg

3 x 3(1) w/125kg

1 x 3 w/125kg

1 x 10(1) w/100kg

1 x 10 w/70kg

Did a bunch of unweighted pull ups and chins between sets and messed around with grippers.

[patrickmeniru]

08/02/2016

Upper body circuit - 4 rounds:

10 seated rows w/59kg

10 tricep rope pull-downs w/20kg (the leverages on this machine meant that this felt absurdly hard for such a light weight, machine goes up to 63kg, but no idea who is going to be going anywhere near that in an office gym!!)

10 lat pull downs - around 50kg

10 wide grip dips

10 external rotations each arm

10 feet elevated pushups

5 chins

10 bicep curls w/14kg

10 overhead dumbell press w/14kg

30 reps crunch variations

Rested 2-3 mins between rounds. Also managed to get to the top of the leaderboard for time hanging from a pull up bar with 2:35. It's made harder by the fact that the bar is one of those you get at the top of commercial mutigym cable machines with the rubber grips that I find much harder to keep a grip on than a normal metal bar, even one without knurling.

09/02/2016

Stretched and did some rolling for 30 mins.

Front squats - back still sore so kept it light and will stick to front squats and very light back squats only for a while.

1 x 10 w/20kg

1 x 10 w/40kg

2 x 10 w/60kg

10 lunges (5 each leg) various types with each set of squats.

Wrist still sore from front squat mishap, but wasn't too uncomfortable in rack position.

Edited February 9, 2016 by PatrickMeniru

[patrickmeniru]

Been a bit lax in posting here of late - have managed to get to the gym most days, but usually office gym only so mix of pull-ups, dips, abs, handstand work etc. Bodyweight is up to 98.5kg following a weekend of indulgence, getting far too close to 100kg for comfort.

In terms of 'proper' sessions I've tried to remember some stuff below:

14/02/2016

Front squat:
Warm up to working sets of 5 with 100kg and then 106kg.

Fat gripz deadlift: doubles with 120kg

Grippers: #2.5 TNS closes both hands and a few #3 MMS.

Some muscle ups.

15/02/2016

Face pulls: 4 x 10 w/20kg

Bent over rows:
2 x 10 w/60kg
1 x 10 w/70kg
1 x 10 w/80kg
2 x 10 w/90kg

Bench (all with ~1 sec pause):
1 x 10 w/20kg
1 x 6 w/60kg
1 x 5 w/80kg
1 x 5 w/100kg
4 x 5 w/110kg
1 x 3(2) w/110kg

Incline dumbell press:
2 x 6 w/30kg

Dumbell rows: 2 x 10 w/30kg

Kroc rows (but stricter): 1 x 10 w/50kg

[patrickmeniru]

Have moved out of my flat recently prior to my move to Amsterdam for six months so training has been disrupted even more than it has been generally of late.  Bodyweight is down to 94.5kg as of 6 March 2016. The below doesn't represent everything I did in these sessions, but it's the essence of them.

05/03/2016

Stretched and squatted up to quite a few easy triples with 120kg, just easing back into things and working on form, happy with how form is looking all things considered.  Will try and post a squat form update video in the next week or so. Benched a few sets of 120kg for paused triples.  Did a few snatch grip deadlifts also with 120kg to finish.

06/03/2016

Deadlifts up to 230kg for a single, felt pretty heavy. Planned on doing 10 singles with 220kg but failed the first rep (*sigh*) so went down to 200kg and did a load of DO singles, which felt like good grip work - texas bar beat up my hands quite a bit.  Did front squats triples with 100kg.

07/03/2016

Felt pretty sore from the weekend, just stretched and rolled a bit. A little handstand work.

08/03/2016

Handstand work, some FL and BL work and a few other bits and bobs. Rear delts were really sore from handstands and FL.

 

 

 

[patrickmeniru]

09/03/2016

Chins:
1 x 3
1 x 3 w/20kg
1 x 3 w/30kg
2 x 3 w/40kg
1 x 2(1) w/40kg
1 x 5 w/20kg
1 x 3 w/20kg
1 x 6

Dips:
1 x 3
1 x 5 w/20kg
1 x 5 w/30kg
3 x 5 w/40kg
1 x 15 w/20kg
1 x 5 w/20kg (paused)

1 x 10 pushups
1 x 5 bicep curls to overhead press w/18kg dumbells

12 minute run on treadmill average 13km/h.

 

[patrickmeniru]

13/03/2016

Have arrived in Amsterdam and moved into my flat here, there isn't really anywhere in the flat I can practice handstands sadly (low ceilings) but there is a beam that I can hang my rings from, which is nice.

Ran approx. 9km in just over 45 mins, will do some gripper work, rings work, stretching and light calisthenics this evening.

[patrickmeniru]

14/03/2016

Didn't have access to the gym that I get to use for free with work, so did a session in my new flat, will upload a quick video showing the kinds of things (and a squat technique progression video!) hopefully tonight, depending on when I get out of the office.

Can't remember exactly but workout consisted of pull ups and chins with a variety of grips, mostly from beams rather than bars/rings, which I find quite taxing on the fingers from an endurance standpoint.  I also did a little handstand work, some pushups and some rings work, I've definitely become much less adept at rings over the last two years or so!

15/03/2016

Went to the gym today, but think I'll have to look for another options as it's a very commercial gym with only one rack, no real bars (they are all 10kg Technogym offerings), no full size plates (they were all really small diameter) and not enough plates in the entire gym to load a barbell with more than ~200kg.

I get use of another gym with work but it's by appointment only (a pretty weird concept IMO), so will see if I can get a session there to scope it out.

Squat:
1 x 10 w/10kg
1 x 8 w/50kg
1 x 5 w/70kg
1 x 5 w/90kg
1 x 6 w/110kg
1 x 3 w/120kg
1 x 3 w/130kg
1 x 2 w/140kg
1 x 1 w/150kg
1 x 2 w/160kg
1 x 1 w/160kg (had planned a double but 1st rep was a bit of a grind)
1 x 3 w/140kg
1 x 3 w/130kg
1 x 5 w/110kg
1 x 5 w/90kg

Practiced handstands and did some abs work and some pull ups to finish.  Managed to hold a 30 second handstand without 'walking' or bending my arms, which might be a PR. Also managed two consecutive freestanding handstand pushups with good control, which was nice.  Finished by stretching.

[patrickmeniru]

17/03/2016

Went to the other gym in Amsterdam that I get free access to, sadly the personal trainers there only seem to cater to those looking for a very general level of overall fitness and not to people who want to reach a higher level or very specific goals, they do have a crossfit class on Wednesdays so I might check that out to see if the coach can offer any cues for gymnastic/olympic movements.

Nevertheless had a reasonable session just doing some general fitness work/cardio and just following instructions.

Warmed up with 14 minute run on treadmill alternating every 2 minutes between 9km/h and 12.5km/h on a 1% gradient.

Circuit 1: 8 push up type things, (starting from all fours like a cat/cow yoga pose, lifting knees to a squat and moving hands about a foot forward, then lowering the torso and sliding it forward just off the ground to a position akin to the bottom of a push up, then reversing, being sure to stay low until the end of the movement.  This was actually quite taxing on the shoulders by the last set), 20 kettlebell swings (24kg), 20 push press w/20kg.  3 rounds, 1 min between rounds.

Circuit 2: 10 x jump to support on dip station with three tucked leg raises then down, 10 narrow grip handle to chest pull downs w/~70kg, 500m row (average approx. 1:53). 3 rounds, 90 secs between rounds.

[patrickmeniru]

17/03/2016

Went to the gym around 10pm right after I got out of the office to do bench, but felt so weak - evidently my shoulders and triceps were more fatigued then I had realised.  Did a little handstand work, some scap pull-ups and messed around with some bottom up kettlebell presses for the first time.

Bench (paused):
1 x 10 w/30kg
1 x 8 w/50kg
1 x 8 w/70kg
1 x 5 w/90kg
1 x 3 w/110kg
1 x 1 w/120kg
4 x 2 w/110kg

Between sets of bench did 10 curls each arm with 18kg dumbbells.

Tried to work on handstand form but it was hard  because of fatigue and the fact I hadn't warmed my shoulders up properly (so didn't have great ROM overhead).

3 x 10 scap pull-ups

Bottom up kettlebell presses, worked up to using the 20kg kettle bell for a single rep, did a few reps with 16kg kettlebell. Found it very hard to cheat curl/hang clean the 20kg kettle bell into position with my left hand - kept losing wrist stability and the kettlebell would topple. But once it was in position the press and controlled eccentric was okay. Quite a fun exercise.

[patrickmeniru]

19/03/2016

Front squat:
1 x 8 w/10kg
1 x 6 w/50kg
1 x 5 w/70kg
1 x 5 w/90kg
1 x 3 w/110kg
1 x 3 w/100kg
1 x 5 w/90kg
1 x 5 w/70kg

Deadlift (plates are small so effectively a deficit) set the weight down gently betwee reps:
1 x 5 snatch grip w/50kg
1 x 5 snatch grip w/90kg
1 x 3 snatch grip w/110kg
1 x 3 snatch grip w/130kg
1 x 3 w/150kg
1 x 3 w/170kg
1 x 3 w/190kg (straps from here)
3 x 3 w/210kg
2 x 5 w/150kg snatch grip

Then cycled to a crossfit box to try it out, wasn't expecting a full workout but oh well:

Back squat, was told to do three sets of 10 reps each heavier than the last and culminating in a '10 rep max', from first warm up squat to finishing the squats was 15 minutes, I didn't realise this so went at my usual pace then had to do my three heavy sets with little recovery (maybe 3 mins between sets).

1 x 10 w/110kg
1 x 10 w/115kg
1 x 10 w/120kg (form started to break down a little in the last 2-3 reps, chest collapsing quite a bit).

Next moved on to a 15 minute circuit, three rounds of 5 exercises, had to complete each exercise within a minute, any faster meant you got some time to recover before the next minute (and next exercise) started.  Found this really touch from a capacity standpoint, especially the pistol squats.

1. 40 second plank
2. 10 single arm kettlebell swings (32kg) on each arm
3. 8 GHR sit ups
4. 5 pistol squats each leg
5. 14 burpees

Very sore today, planning to go and stretch/do some mobility work. Below is video of squat form.
 

 

[patrickmeniru]

25/03/2016

Stretched and did mobility work, practiced handstands and some 100kg fatgripz deadlifts sumo, to try and strengthen my hips/hams and glutes.

[patrickmeniru]

25/03/2016 (NB - post above should be 24/03/2016, posted after midnight and didn't realise)

Benchpress:
1 x 6 w/30kg
1 x 5 w/50kg (paused)
1 x 5 w/70kg (paused)
1 x 3 w/90kg (paused)
2 x 3 w/110kg (paused)
1 x 2 w/110kg (paused)
2 x 5 w/100kg (paused)
2 x 5 w/100kg

Between sets did face pulls (15kg) and external rotations with cable machine (6.75kg) for sets of 10 and 5 respectively.

Incline dumbell press:
3 x 6 w/32kg

Pull-ups:
1 x 5
2 x 6 w/20kg
1 x 10
1 x 10 chins

Finished with some abs work, couple of sets of hanging leg raises for 10 reps each and some sit up type movements.

[patrickmeniru]

26/03/2016

Happy Easter to everyone, went to the crossfit box to join in the WOD today, took it pretty easy on the circuit part because I aggravated my knee playing football and my patella tendon is pretty sore so thought weighted box overs were maybe not the greatest thing to be doing flat out.

Warmed up then was meant to hit a 3RM on pull ups using up to 5 attempts:
1 x 3
1 x 3 w/20kg
1 x 3 w/35kg
1 x 3 w/45kg
 

Circuit was max reps of a circuit comprised of 16 'box overs' holding 16kg kettlebell, 8 pull ups and 24 sit ups, in 8 minutes.  Managed just a shade under 4 rounds for 188 total reps, felt like I could have carried on for another 8 minutes pretty easily because of how steadily I took the box work, although my pull ups would have become less and less strict.
 

[patrickmeniru]

28/03/2016

Deadlift (felt really weak and slow today, was at the crossfit box, but didn't drop the weight, lowered it slowly to the ground for most of the reps):
1 x 5 w/70kg
1 x 5 w/120kg
1 x 3 w/150kg
1 x 2 w/170kg
1 x 2 w/180kg
1 x 1 w/190kg
1 x 1 w/200kg
3 x 3 w/200kg (straps)
5 x 3 w/170kg

Ring muscle ups:
1 x 5
1 x 1 w/ (4kg maybe) medicine ball between legs
1 x 3 w/ (6kg maybe) medicine ball between legs
1 x 1 slow rep with ~6kg medicine ball

Strict toes to bar:
1 x 10 with hip to bar extension
1 x 10

Bench (touch and go):
1 x 5 w/20kg
1 x 3 w/60kg
1 x 3 w/80kg
1 x 3 w/100kg
1 x 2 w/120kg
3 x 2 w/130kg
1 x 3 w/130kg (felt good, could probably have got 4 reps here)

 

Messed around with some one arm hangs, handstand walking and a thick rope climb. One arm hangs for 30 seconds pretty comfortable and 15 seconds with +25kg.

[patrickmeniru]

Another crossfit WOD today:

Practiced hang cleans, session called for 1RM effort, but clearly that wouldn't be appropriate for me given that I'm a complete novice at the technique - worked up to a few singles with 80kg, which felt like a very manageable weight to practice with. Still having a heard time convincing myself to get under the bar rather than just throw it up to my shoulders and also struggled with timing and with keeping the bar close to me (as well as the rack position and squat catch - so basically everything mobility and skill related!!).

Metcon (metabolic conditioning) consisted of:
40 wall balls w/9kg ball
20 toes to bar (tried to kip these but don't have the shoulder mobility to do it properly so did these without a swing but  bent my knees through most of the movement to take it easier).
30 wall balls w/9kg ball
15 toes to bar
20 wall balls w/9kg ball
10 toes to bar

Finished in 6:32 - could have been way faster if I could do the kipping toes to bar, as fatigue wasn't the limiting factor on those, just that I had to hang between reps to prevent excessive swing so the reps were slow. Also have a lot of technique to learn on wall balls, which I've never done before.

Cycled 10 mins to and from the box.

[patrickmeniru]

30/03/2016

Crossfit WOD, no strength component just a metcon:

4 minute time cap for each round with 4 minutes between rounds for three rounds:

Run 400m, 15 box jumps (not sure how high the box is, but not high enough to be at all challenging from an ability to get onto it standpoint, even when very fatigued), as many burpees as possible. Score was the number of burpees managed, my rounds went 25, 25, 29.  I though that there were 4 rounds so would have paced it differently if I knew it was just three, and tried to go 30, 30, 30 - I definitely had capacity for a few more burpees in each of the first two rounds.

One thing i don't like is that the burpee is trained as a pure endurance movement, when in athletics we trained it as a much cleaner, sharper explosive movement with a big star jump at the top of each rep. Once my fitness improves I might try and do 'proper burpees' (i.e. keeping body as a plank, jumping to a chest to ground, push-up, then explosive knees to chest into squat, then jump to triple extension) - which will hurt my WOD scores of course, but I think will lead to better fitness.

31/03/2016

No workout to report as such, but did a lot of mobility work following some of the MobilityWOD videos from Kelly Starrett. Now that I'll be crossfitting for the next few months, it's really a good opportunity/requirement to improve my awful hip and ankle mobility so that I can squat to depth with a more upright torso without having to make compromises by collapsing at the ankle and having my lack of internal rotation at the hip being the only thing preventing my knees collapsing inwards (I don't have this problem, but i think that it's due to lack of mobility rather than good mechanics, which helps explain my poor glute activation).

Managed to do about 3 hours of various stretches and rolling type movements whilst watching YouTube videos, focus was on ankles and hips, but also  worked a little on upper body.  Am going to target 1 hour a day of mobility practice.

Edited April 1, 2016 by patrickmeniru