conditioning | push sled | taking it easy bro | workout#2 for the day

 I bought the XPO sled for a couple of reasons:

• Get lean as fuck by adding a new amazing conditioning tool.
• Rehabbing my back.

After a sprint session with the sled this weekend, I found that #2 is not in the cards if I go balls to the wall. Either the angle I'm at or the speed I'm going made things worse, so today I mixed it up a bit. 

20min speed walking with the sled

Body angle almost completely upright

This is definitely not the same conditioning level as an all out sprint, but I was able to get outside and work up a sweat while making my back feel better. Tomorrow I can add in some leg work before repeating a slow sled walk.

calisthenics | rest pause | pike pushups

Pike pushups 

35x7,3,2

15x15,5,2 

Bwx16,5,3

Minor accessory (1 set per row, bands only)

Tricep extensions

Rear delt raise

Added another cinder block for height this session. Definitely feeling the intensity rachet up a bit.

Hurt

I don't know if my sandbag medly this weekend or the massive amount of band deads fucked me up, but I feel like asshole. I hate this. I don't mind the constant prehab or restorative exercises, but if they can't prevent days or weeks like this then what is it all for?

Felt discomfort last night. Heat emanating down from my back to my legs and feet. Keeping lifting purely to upper body work. May explore pulling the sled tomorrow depending on how I feel.

I will beat this. I will not be a war story asshat in his 40s.

2x daily big 3 is still the dosage I need.

Exercise | 2020 - 22 | drags and dips

Dragging weight
Loaded up my sled as much as humanly possible (i.e. sandbags are near capacity). Great 15min workout but the rubber connector snapped near the end. No biggie.

Calisthenics 

I was showing ana ring dips and accidentally knocked out 5. Figured might as well continue to the point of adaptation (28ish reps).

Workout (all movements on rings)
- Dips: 28 reps in ~10sets
- BW tricep extensions: until i couldn't
- Rear delts: until i couldn't

Also, day 2 no sugar. Still on easy mode.

exercise | 2020 - 22 | sled drags 14min

Dunno how much i talk about this but i fucking love foods, supplements, and exercises that give me immediate feedback.

Food

• Broccoli? I feel like 1000 bucks
• Arugula? Every poop is my best poop. Why do i have so much poop in me? Is that always there? Lingering. Waiting. It just needed the fiber. Or. OR. Is the arugula making the bulk? The amount of arugula I ate != the poop I had. 
• Pasta? Someone is slowly choking me out

Supplements

• Maca? Earth crushing boners and orgasms
• Literally any preworkout? Explosive diarrhea 

Exercises

• Bench press? This feels wrong but everyone says it is gold. I must be doing it wrong.
• Behind the neck push press? The gains are out of this world but my neck keeps getting hurt. Part of the process I guess.
• Chinups? My entire body transforms when I can pull multiple sets of 3 with 90lbs+BW

Two(2) things have changes in this past week - I built a weight sled and hung 2 pairs of rings in my garage. The rings are being used for pullups, dips, etc, but I really wanted them purely for hanging for time. The relief provided to my back by a mixture of Stuart McGill's Big 3 and decompression hangs is fucking amazing and felt right away.

I mentioned sleds in my last post as well, but holy fucking shit I'm in love. My knees and back feel amazing. The risk of injury is really god damn low, and I cannot wait to start loading this more (which, is going to be super easy). Instead of buying plates, I'm picking up sand and/or pea gravel at ~$5 per 50lbs. Shove that shit in gallon freezer bags, duct tape up the bags so they are hard to break, and shove the bags in a larger canvas bag. For dirt fucking cheap I've got an easily loadable sled.



Equipment used:

• 20lb weight vest
• canvas bag filled with about 30lbs of pea gravel
• 45lb kettlebell
• 60lb kettlebell

something something i love one arm weighted carries

This last year has been a mixed bag of injuries and recoveries. The most recent boon I've explored have been one armed carries. I cannot recommend these enough. They're great for cardio, recovery, and correcting imbalances.

The two(2) I love right now are waiters walks and suitcase carries.

Waiters Walks
What is it: Walk with a kettlebell or dumbbell overhead
Why it's awesome:
- My shoulders feel bulletproof
- Great cardio
- Obliques get worked something fierce

Suitcase Carries
What is it: Walk with a kettlebell or dumbbell next to your body (i.e. a one handed farmers walk)
Why it's awesome:
- This is the best ab workout ever. My back feels bulletproof more so than any other type of recovery method I've used to rehab my back. This is a god damn game changer and I love it.
- Great cardio
- Can go heavier than waiters walks without jeopardizing safety

Benefits to Both
- Injury prevention
- Fat loss
- Grip and ab strength

How to Incorporate
- It's own training day: 20min of as much distance as possible. Go heavy.
- End of a regular training day: 5min of as much distance as possible. Use medium weights (just less than isolated training days).

Recovery methods 2: everything hurts

Tl:dr
- movement is lubrication
- go for a brisk walk

A month ago i couldnt move without pain or discomfort. I was still dragging my ass to the gym a few times a week to do something. Literally anything.

I asked my girlfriend if we could go for a long walk since we had been inside all day. Im not gonna say this would have been a cakewalk if i was well, but a few miles through the florida sun had me on deaths door.

2 things happened:
- the next day i felt god damn amazing
- i started to prioritize moving over lifting

How good is your strength if you cant move like a person? Not much dude. Im not saying walking rules and lifting drools. Im still in the gym 3 to 4 times a week. But placing an emphasis on recovery makes the strength youre training for more attainable and more usable.

Mix this together with something anti inflammatory like fasting and baby, you got a stew.

What i mean is:
Sunday
heavy, low to medium volume lifting
16:8 fasting
High protein, medium carb, low fat

Mon
20 to 30 min walk. Preferably multiple
Omad fasting
High protein, low carb, medium fat

Repeat
Take additional walking days as needed

Recovery methods 1: tight hips

My mom forgot the best saying she ever perpetuated.

"It's all in the recovery"

She would say this to me whenever I made a mistake as a kid. If I got a bad grade. If I said something I regretted. If I lost a baseball game. This is a heck of a one-two punch. It told me what I did post fuck up was more important than the fuck up itself. Lets talk about recovery. Cause we're all a little fucked up. And we all could use a little recovery.

TIGHT HIPS
Your hips suck because you sit too much and are quad dominant. Most of the time when my knees hurt it's because I haven't stretched in friggin forever. Back in the days of innocence - 2014 - I thought I needed knee surgery because of how hard it was for me to walk after getting out of a car. I literally had to shuffle everywhere I went. Surely I broke my knees doing front squats.

Bitch please. This will change your God damn world in 30 seconds a day.

Hip Flexor Stretch on a Bench
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdMk68JDT1U

Cossack Squat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Ilhz2q4m4

With these 2 moves your quads and groin will feel loose as pie. I usually do both after lifting.