2018-12-20 training log

/ hsoi

Today wasn’t training – today was fun.

I’ve long wanted to do some lifting challenges, but never could find the right way to work it into my greater programming and goals. But everything converged well to make this week a fun week.

Two days ago, I hit a nice milestone of bench pressing 300 lb.

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Bench Press. 300 lb. PR. . Bar x 10, 95×5, 135×5, 185×3, 225×3, 250×1, 275×1, 300×1, 135×20. . Superset facepulls during bench warmup. Wide-grip pulldowns after. . One step closer to my “3” goal for Bench Press. 3 would be “3 wheels” – 315# – but “300” is a “3” milestone along the road. And a pretty cool one. Very happy with this PR, especially given all the injury and hurdles to get here. I learned a lot along this road. . Again, it’s just a fun week and this was one of the fun. So simply did 135×20 for giggles, then some lat pulldowns and 10 minutes on the bike for my knees. . . . #gym #benchpress #pr #ignitefitnez #liftlocal #wendler531 #531 #300poundsisalways300pounds

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And then today I opted to try the Half-Hour Deadlift Challenge (from Dan John over at T-Nation). Basically, deadlift 315 60 times in 30 minutes. A number of ways to approach it, and I took the “1 rep every 30 seconds” approach.

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Deadlift. 315×60. Yes, 60 reps. . 135×5, 225×3, 315×60. . This week is a fun week. For sometime I’ve wanted to do some lifting challenges, and Dan John’s Half-Hour Deadlift Challenge seemed like it would be fun. Deadlift 315 lb 60 times in 30 minutes. I opted for the “1-rep every 30 seconds” variation. . I expected to die, but I didn’t. Sure I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but it really wasn’t too bad. The mental of staying in the zone for 30 minutes was the tougher part. . That was a lot of fun. Happy I did it. . It was also an excuse to try out time-lapse video. A bit a bit disappointed, since it looks like I’m just standing around the whole time. But it makes sense given the lift itself only took a couple seconds. Oh well. . . . #gym #deadlift #ignitefitnez #liftlocal #wendler531 #531 #timelapse #halfhourdeadliftchallenge #danjohn #tnation

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(the time-lapse video didn’t turn out as illustrative as I wanted… but still fun)

I’m pretty sure I’ll be sore as hell tomorrow (and Saturday), but it really wasn’t that bad. Oh sure, I started to feel it maybe 10 minutes in, and close to the end I was getting a little tired, but I could have kept going for a while. It was more the mental, the “have to be in the zone for 30 minutes” that was the tougher part. But about 20 minutes in, it all went auto-pilot.

One thing I got out of it is the joy of singles, which I already was exploring with squats. It’s just different than going for reps. It can’t be all the program is about, but there’s quite the place for it.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun. I’m glad I did it.