Week 4 Notes – Program Post-Deployment Training Program
The Workout: I still enjoy the structure of the program. The overall time of the program continued to build over the 4 weeks. By the end of this the program was taking a little over an hour to get through the workouts. I continue to feel limited by the weights of KBs I have at the gym. I think the load on the loaded carries approached just right – 53, 75, 115. The hangs I would reconsider if I restarted the program. I think I would have done every set with 45 seconds. I would have increased the load with each microcycle instead of every week. Pushing the sets to 1:30 with 4 sets was too much hang time consecutively. I find it harder to hang than I do to do pullups or leg raises over the same amount of time. The weights I picked were fine. I’ve been training with a belt for years and the whole program I’ve done without a belt.
Other Training: Still haven’t found a way to add running back into my training schedule. I thought about doing 20 minutes after the workouts, but as the workouts have taken longer this isn’t as feasible from a schedule standpoint. I added another day of BJJ (4/week) and I continue to be mindful of how hard I’m training. I’m focusing on keeping my hard training days to 1-2 and the rest focused on technique. As the weather is nice I’m able to walk more with my wife and that’s always nice.
Stress: It’s been an odd year. I spent 4 months apart from my wife after doing 6 months apart last year. This was due to a military school, annual training and a deployment. On top of that we had two moves, bought a condo and close on Friday. I had both my grandmas die, including my dad’s mom on Saturday night. We had another great aunt die two weeks ago. My grandpa almost died of a bowel obstruction alone in the hospital while I was deployed. My other grandfather is 95 and in forced isolation in the nursing home because he left to go to his sister’s funeral. I had a nephew born 1 month before I left. I started a new job. Hired multiple employees and fired another. I completed my MBA virtually and after working on it in night school for 3 years, I didn’t get to walk across the stage in the Horseshoe. There’s been a lot of stress, but I haven’t felt more connected to family and my faith, maybe ever. Experiencing frustration and witnessing uncertainty has also made me more thankful. I truly feel blessed to live the life I have. According to my biomarkers throughout all of this, exercise appears to give me an outlet for this stress and it actually helps me recover.
Seeking Progress 