#spring shred

who’s there?

Monday, bitch, lets go.

My body is doing a great job of recovery from the soreness inflicted last week. I originally planned on doing a conditioning day Saturday but my first week of training hit me super hard, and I think I needed the recovery. I would like to give myself a gold star for fighting through a panic attack. It’s been almost four years since one. It’s terrible, your skin begins to crawl and you just want to climb out of it, you can’t breathe, can’t control your lungs, your head can’t calm you down, you shake and the last thing you want to do is keep on living because it all seems so hard. Like someone dropped you in a pit of despair and forgot to pull you out. Like everything is black and you can’t see even the next 5 minutes in front of you. Life never came with a user manual. You gotta keep on keeping on. You always got this. You can always carry on. You can always carry on. I never claimed to be perfect and I think more people suffer with things than they would like to admit. But we all keep moving forward. Because you can ALWAYS find a way to keep moving forward. Perhaps maybe the people who struggle are stronger because, they know how to get through it all.

My system felt pretty shot after that and took the weekend to recuperate and I’m glad I did. Today starts training with a new partner. I’m using this week to asses where he is and then we’ll go from there based on his goals. He’s not “out of shape” in the usual sense but he does have some lofty goals which I will keep under wraps for the sake of privacy until he is ready to share and things more concrete. I did a little research on the requirements he will need for his goal, and what I’ve deduced is that he needs a good strength to weight ratio. He needs to reach a much better cardio endurance level than the average person, strong shoulders, back and overall fitness level. It’s going to be hard. But completely possible through correct tactics, strategy and SMART hard work. I do believe strength training 4 days a week and conditioning training every single day will get him there. But for now we’ll see where he is on the fitness scale. I’ll be taking him through my daily training this week and get feedback from him.

I mentioned last week that it was very difficult having my HEAVY days back to back so I’ll be splitting them up this week. I’m starting with a heavy lower body day today and then an upper endurance day tomorrrow, then heavy upper body, then lower endurance - unless he objects and wants to start with a different one. Today will be exceedingly heavy for me considering all the rest i got over the weekend. I’m still hammering down form and technique, and will definitely be focusing on that if I’m taking someone through it with me.

I’m starting him out with a mile run to warm up. Then we move onto my warmup mobility work. A couple warm up sets of deadlifts, just to get it going. Then we move onto working sets. I start out with deadlifts because they are usually the most taxing compound movement. Then squats. Now, squatting and deadlifting is best done with a flat shoe that doesn’t provide bounce like a running shoe and provides good solid connection to the floor. So a change of shoes may be needed. I know, high maintenance but what are you gonna do. I’ve found I like to switch to chucks, and recently tried squatting barefoot in socks which I like. Don’t judge. Im going to be taking him through proper form and technique (leg placement, hand placement, high bar vs low bar, cues like 1. bend the bar = keeping kinetic energy from the lats to the glutes to support the bar almost like you’re doing a lat pull down, retracted scapula 2. Belly breath and draw ribs down. Inflate/ increase intrabdonminal pressure, activate and push outwards through obliques, queuing deep spinal stabilization 3. Spread the floor - solid footing 4. Sit back - break at the knees and hips simultaneously. Now, his goals may not be the same as mine, but I need to at least see if he has the basic compound lifts down. He could probably cut out a lot of the “fluff” I do, and not do as many assessory movements as me. Mentally, he seems ready to really test what he’s made of. He seems so focused and he’s ready to sprint out of the gate. I’m excited to see where he’s really at and move from there. We can start the squats with some drills to make sure he has technique down.

We will be ending the session with stretches.

Deadlifting cues:

Mid foot under barbell

Hold arms overhead, draw shoulder blades back, activate lats and back.

Pull arms down and shoulder width grip the bar

Bend knees

Chest up, brace core, straight back, hips not too far down or up

Stand

Squat cues:

Draw ribs down

Inflate obliques

Bend the bar

Twist feet into floor/spread the floor

Sit back

The rest of the workout looks like:

Stiff dead’s or RDL’s

Hip thrust

Hamstring curl

Leg press

Good mornings

Back extensions

My partner showed up to the gym late Wednesday and looking a little rough. It was apparent he was running on about 4 hours of sleep and little to no food. He complained about it nearly the entire time. I ran him through a short version of the workout we had planned so I could get him in and out of there. And towards the end of the workout I had to serve his excuses to him on a silver platter. So you know you aren't sleeping enough? You know you aren't eating enough? You say that there isn't enough time to plan all of that and you are running around your life like a mad man? Well, me too. How do I do it? Let me tell you a secret: you create your own priorities. You create them. You create time. You will find a way if it is important to you. It’s clear you know what your troubles are: not sleeping and not eating enough. SO now that you know them.... you also know how to FIX them. Push yourself to go to bed early, pack your food and carry it around with you if you have to, fill a gallon of water and bring it everywhere you go and, yes, look like that crazy person but who the fuck cares because those people who judge you will never have the same goals as you. You cannot stand here in front of me complaining about how much you did this to yourself. Get your act together. Show up on time or you don't get to workout with me. Period. Go to sleep early, pack your food with you or you only hold yourself back with your own EXCUSES. I will only hear it a few times before I will nicely SHUT YOU DOWN. As someone once told me, don't complain about something if you aren't willing to fix it. 

He’s well rested now and well fed and ready to kill today’s workout. He won't be able to workout tomorrow with me so I've devised another hybrid workout - combining a strength upper body day and an endurance/volume driven lower body day. Again, we’ll warm up with running at least a mile and then take to the weights. 

Yesterday was purely cardio and conditioning. I ran more than I thought while I waited for my partner to show up. It’s always hard for me to start running again, but it always gets easier after mile 2. But until mile 2 it fucking sucks. I woke up feeling lean this morning and it seems I dropped a fair amount of weigh overnight. Must be the cardio I'm gradually adding back in. Since I'm working out with my partner today I'll be doing the workout alongside him. And instead of having another lifting day tomorrow, I'll go to hot yoga. 

Today’s workout:

Warmup with 1 mile run. 5 mins rowing. 20 pushups and tricep dips. mobility work/drills etc.

DB incline chest press 5x 5-8 (heavy)

seated DB shoulder press 5x 5-8 (heavy)

overhead plate walking lunge 3x10 each

reverse DB lunge 4x12

goblet squat 3x12

one leg RDL’s 3x12

pull-ups 4x 8

bent over db rows 4x 8-10

chest supported reverse flyes 3x10

upright barbell row 3x10

seated db decline curls 3x10

tricep cable pulldowns 3 sets till failure 

Here we are finishing up week 3. I performed a lower body endurance day despite feeling dead tired. Since it’s the last lower body day of the week I wanted to use a lot of conditioning work and keep my heart rate up by moving rather quickly (I didn't have a ton of time)

barbell squat practice (light weight) 4x12

Goblet squat /superset/ sumo squat 3x15

One leg hip thrusts 3x15

Single leg RDL’s 3x12

Cable abduction /superset/ glute kickback

Walking lunges

Pistol squat till fail

Leg raises for core

Plank rotations

Russian twists

Jump over bench thingys

Now, the real challenge here isn't my workouts, its my diet. It seems I need to supplement some specific things (vitamin D and iron specifically). The iron deficiency probably is why I crave a giant steak every so often. I’m forced to add more red meat to my diet, spinach, broccoli, dark turkey and shellfish, berries, among other things I could add. I don't eat shellfish but I might add some in if I need it to fucking live or at least feel better lmao . Looks like I have some adjusting to do so I'm not deficient and die (dramatic, I know). That being said, straight after the gym today I ate a pound of spinach, an avocado, two steaks and an entire pint of strawberries and whipped cream. You know, vitamins and minerals.

You know those side to side bench jumps? You place your hands securely on a bench and jump over, lifting your hips up and land on the other side. You do it as quickly as you can and build momentum. Well, I did those, and immediately after my set, sat down on the bench. Only, the exercises must have made me dizzy or knocked my center of gravity off and instead of sitting on the bench like a normal person, I fell completely over it when I sat back. Heels over head. I Did a somersault and rolled onto the floor. Once I started falling there was no way out so I just finished the flip and stood up and laughed at myself. I think that’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done in the gym. Ever. I guess you can never take yourself too seriously.

Today was an upper body endurance day. I was running on a couple hours of sleep due to being at the hospital to help someone go through labor and delivery so I was definitely feeling R O U G H even with a nap. But I just wanted to keep my heart rate up. And I plan on getting a longer run in this weekend and keep up on my nutrition.

Running is getting better. Maybe my playlist was just good idk. I had to talk myself into starting but then I didn’t want to stop. Nice and steady pace for now, I’ll add speed work in later. But I’m finally finding my groove. It’s been so long since I've been able to run consistently. After my food injury, I was really careful, stopped entirely and moved to low impact. It feels SOOO GOOOOD now but i’d still rather run outside. Damn endorphins. I did my warmup run, mobility and activations then started with squat instead of deadlift and work up to a 3 rep max which felt pretty gosh dang comfortable which means I can move up more which is good because I’ve always felt like my squat personally sucked. I maxed out with deadlifts and they felt good too but grip started failing me. Typical. I spent A LOT of time doing technical work on squats and deads with my partner. His form isn’t ready for heavy weight so we moved him to a goblet squat to make sure he hits depth. Went into RDL’s, hip thrusts, leg press, hanging leg raises etc. I thought by the time I did hip thrusts that my legs were shot but then I felt that the leg press actually did them in... But the weird thing was after my whole workout I felt like I still had energy and could have ran more. Idk maybe I’m building muscular endurance or something because I really feel like I’m always pushing myself at about 70%-90% of my max during my sets, and I try to keep the intensity up but I’m doing a lot of instructing sooooo idk. But I’m also hitting it 4x a week so I don’t want to completely demolish myself in one session and make myself down for the count for days on end. Das just the way it is right now. Kinda complicated and a little confusing but its sorting itself out. Maybe I'm just getting fitter. It’s so crazy because I never really noticed it but now I'm warming up with weight that used to be my max and I'm doing more work than ever before. I feel like the energizer bunny. I just keep going and going and going. Crazy how the body adapts over time. 

Today is upper body and I plan on hitting it as heavy as I can since its week 3 and I'm ramping up intensity. I also plan on running a little further than last time. My legs feel like they got a solid workout but they don't get torn up anymore in a way that leaves me incapacitated. AS far as diet goes, I'm fucking starving all the time. It’s not like I don't eat but I could definitely devour the entire world and still have room for dessert. 

If you don't want to read my lengthy rundown, feel free to avoid this post. I have a lot to say. I’m headed into week 3 of the training program I wrote for myself and it’s week 2 for my gym partner. As much as I love being on my own, having a partner there makes me push myself more. The first 3 weeks are phase 1 where I'm spending time hammering down technique. Done and dusted. I’m still working on tempo but I really really want to start pushing the weight more. Last week felt good and I'm ready for more. Cardio is increasing slowly again and its continuing to lean me back out. Patience and one step at a time right? I do feel a little sorry for my partner, I kind of threw him into the mix and told him to sink or swim, but hey, he asked for it. And I told him it would be hard. I have some personal matters that may interrupt my routine this week but I don't plan on missing a beat. I’ll adjust if I have to, even if I have to combine days. Im totally ready for this and I really hope my partner continues to catch on fast so I can branch off and do my own thing. I don't want him to rely on needing me there for everything. I sent him the rundown of this week’s program and some notes explaining things. These workouts are hard for me, by the end of the week they leave me feeling completely run over. But its cool thats the point. I'm ready for a kickass week in and out of the gym. Here’s a look at some of my plan and notes: (I genuinely love doing this shit)

Monday: lower body strength 

1.25 mile warmup & 500 meter row

Dynamic mobility warmup

Warmup walking lunges x1, side to side walking squat

Deadlift 1 warmup set then 5x5

Squat 1 warmup set then 5x5

RDL 3x10

Barbell hip thrust 4x8

Leg press 4x8

Back extension 3x10

Hanging leg raises 3x failure 

Tuesday: upper body strength 

1.25 mile warmup, 500 meter row

Rotational shoulder warmup, single lat pulldown warmup

Bench press 5x5

Pullups 4x8

Db rows 4x8

Upright barbell row 3x10

Skullcrushers 3x12

Inverted row till failure

Wednesday: conditioning

2 mile run

1000 meter row

Box jumps

Alternating arm kettlebell swing

Snatches

Sled pushes

Battle ropes

Turkish get-ups

Thursday: lower body endurance/volume

1.25 mi warmup run

Walking lunges with overhead plate x20 each leg

Sandbag clean and jerk 2 x12-15

One leg RDL 3x15

Seated hamstring curl 3x15-20

Pistol squat transitions 3 till failure

Reverse lunges 3x12-15

Friday: upper body endurance/volume

1 mile run

Mobility drills and warmups

Single arm rows 3x10-12

Inverted rows 3x10

Pullups 3x10

Bicep curls with barbell 3x12-15

Tricep dips to failure 3 sets

Db incline chest press 3x12

Db shoulder press 3x12

Boxing on the heavy bag 

Welcome to Week Two! I’m so proud of you for successfully making it through Week One and learning all that you did. Seriously, give yourself a pat on the back. Celebrating your successes are just as important as anything else. They keep you moving forward. Put your successes in that cookie jar and pull from them every time you start to doubt yourself.

The next six to seven weeks will continue to be physically and mentally demanding. We wont take a deload week until week 8. A deload week is a period when you reduce your weight or intensity to give your body a break and prepare for even harder training. In a sense, you are setting yourself back for one week, in order to slingshot yourself even further ahead.

Cardio: This week we will increase our running distance by about 10%. Runners increase distance by no more than 10% every week in order to avoid injury (at least thats the by the book method and I’ve heard its unreliable in some cases). Because our training is aggressive we will increase by just over 10%. This is uncharted territory so I’m trying to be conservative while also daring greatly. Our warmups this week will be 1.25 miles. Then, we will do a longer run of 2 miles once this week. Our first goal is to get you to 3 solid miles of nonstop running. Our total distance to shoot for this week will be about 6 miles (1.25 miles x 3 to 4, then a 2 mile run). It sounds aggressive but, based on what you’ve shown so far, it is totally attainable (If you feel you need to lower this distance, we’ll drop down to a base goal of at least 5 miles ran this week. Get 5 miles by any. means. necessary.). Our training is aggressive for a reason. Pushing yourself is something you’ll have to get extremely used to. Results don’t come from comfort zones. 

Strength: Just like last week, we’ll have four lifting days, splitting them into 2 strength and 2 endurance days. Our strength focus is on compound lifts. Assuming you feel okay with the form and technique, we will run you through: the barbell bench press, barbell back squat, conventional deadlift, rows, and pullups. Get familiar with always training for strength on those 5 lifts. If we can, we will push you with more weight than last week. 

Endurance/Volume: We will take 2 days to train muscular endurance (how many times you can lift something before you get fatigued). We will have to use a lower weight than what we use on strength days and slightly different set of exercises. On Wednesday we will have our cardio and conditioning day where we also test your endurance and stamina with a “functional” crossfit style workout. If this sounds boring, don’t worry because soon it wont be. There are a million and one ways we can switch it up and endless things we can add i.e. boxing days, crossfit, agility work etc. What we are doing now is creating a foundation on which you will build everything else on. 

Mobility and Injury Prevention: Always, always, always, practice your drills. Every. Single. Day. Warmups and mobility will be done before every single workout no matter what. Especially the shoulders and rotator cuff. If you skip those you will end up getting yourself hurt and no one has time for that. Besides warming up the shoulder we also need to strengthen the rotator cuff, but not aggressively. Tearing that rotator cuff leaves you with a lifelong injury. Open up the chest, shoulder, back and hamstrings. Practice hip warmups, body weight exercises and ankle mobility. If you can, try some yoga.

Recovery: is a vital part of training hard. It builds your body up so you can hit it hard again. Without recovery you will be spinning your wheels going nowhere fast. You are requiring your body constantly adapt under a state of stress and come back stronger each and every time. Your body is ruled by its nervous system. Your nervous system is broken into 2 parts: sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (relax and recover). You need to take care of both of these or your body will break down. When your fight or flight is activated for too long without a recovery it can malfunction, your adrenals can fatigue and other very horrible things. Training hard means putting your body under a massive state of stress and inflammation, so you need to allow yourself space to recover and you need to get good at it.

Train hard. Drink water. Eat food. Get sleep. One day at a time. That’s all you gotta worry about. If there is anything you would like to focus on, add, or try out please let me know and I’d be happy to adjust. 

Remember, our goals are:

Main lifts

Strong shoulders

Strong back

Running

Cardio capacity

Being a strong motherfucker 

For the weekend you will need to:

Continue with mobility drills every single day

Drink lots of water and eat lots of food

Take time to relax

Perform a cardio routine i.e. a light jog for a couple easy miles

Practice pushups, tricep dips, pull-ups and walking lunges

Lower body endurance/volume day:

conventional deadlift 3x12

goblet squat 3x15-20 // barbell squat 3x12

single leg bodyweight hip thrust 3x15

DB romanian deadlift 3x15

cable abduction // cable glute kickback 3x12-15 (I know, so fitspo lol)

overhead plate walking lunges 2x20 (aka death)

pistol squat 2x20 and kickboxing

core finisher: hanging leg raises with twist // wall sit with wall ball taps

Whatever you’re doing, you can ALWAYS do it. Hold that faith in yourself. I hate when people tell me they cant do something (something that they want/ something that they would be able to do). It just sounds like they don't want it badly enough - what I'm hearing isn't just a litany of excuses but also that you aren't ready to want it badly enough. OK, so now we know where your priorities lie (lie? lay? I'm confused). And that's fine, if that's your choice, but at least be man enough to not complain about dealing with the consequences of it. If you truly want a life without limits, quit putting them on yourself. *drops mic*. It’s natural to feel comfort in those limits - it’s the brain’s ability to keep you surviving. But what if the way you have been surviving isn't how you want to live anymore?

Tomorrow is my total body conditioning day. I’ll be performing 15-20 minutes of boxing followed by a circuit of drills. I want to climb that rope too. I find so much joy in moving my body these days, its more fun than work for me. It’s like a playground.

Right now, my whole body is exhausted from this week so i’m going to give my nervous system a break and take a bubble bath. Saunas and hot baths are surprisingly good for recovery because your body produces something called heat shock proteins. It becomes a therapeutic experience (part of the reason I love the heat from hot yoga). The heat forces your body to not only recover better the NEXT time you are placed in a similar situation under the same stressors (oxygen, cardio capacity, heart rate, body temp) but also helps with recovery kind of like taking an ice bath but um yeah I’m not about to do that. Even though I'm bunkered down ready for snow, the cold and me don’t mix too well.

Tonight’s workout went phenomenal. I did well on deadlifts, really pushing the weight and those reps. I’m going to have to get straps or something because my hands get sweaty and the bar slips lololol. Then I chucked my chucks off for squats because I couldn't grip the floor well enough and just squated in my socks. I used proper technique and they felt really, really good. Hip thrusts killed me because they were single leg, then went on with RDL’s and glute kickback and abductors (fitspo, I know). I was feeling a little feisty so I did work with pistol squats and hit up kicks on the heavyweight bag, which brought back feelings from the boxing club. I remembered how to do it properly and the basics came easy for me - I guess muscle memory is real. I ended with some core work, drags etc. I took my headphones off and was like panting heavily hahaha. Took me exactly 1.5 hours. I keep wanting to finally post some progress pics but my pic game has been t r a s h ever since I quit the social media game and i keep thinking “eh I can do better, ill post something later, just a little more progress and then I'll post something”. It’s been a weird week. And I'm trying to keep my head out of the trash.

That being said, I cant move right now without feeling a constant state of soreness that doesn't seem to ever disappear completely. It’s fine. I’m fine. My back is super sore from deadlifts yesterday so I today I wanted to focus more on shoulders and arms, which I did. I blasted them and left as soon as I could. My gym partner and I got into it. I drew a boundary line and he didn't like that too much. If there’s one thing I know, its that when you create healthy boundaries with people, some won't like it. I know what I will and will not tolerate. He proceeded to project his insecurities on me and all I wanted to do was get myself out of that situation so I went off on my own and blasted the music. I didn't want to storm out or run away from it so I just ignored how it made me feel for a moment and got my workout done and then ditched. Knowing the reasons behind something doesn't necessarily make what you feel any more bearable. It just sucked. I got a take on it from a third party and was told not to worry about it, that I was a kind person and sometimes that dude is an asshole. Either way, it just sucked being in that position. I’m not saying I was in the right or in the wrong, but people are people what can you do. If you don't grow some thick callouses you will spend your whole day collecting tiny little paper cuts from people. I’m so tired of it. Yes, I am being dramatic. Probably just hungry. 

I.am.so.sore. Thank god tomorrow is cardio only. I told my gym partner he was on his own tomorrow. I don't fuck around with bullshit like that.