Week 12 Post-Deployment Training Log Week 12 of 12 – Last Week and Program Overview
Final Week Workout: This week my energy was down a little bit. I’m not sure if that was a busier week last week or what. Last week of training went well and overall have no complaints. Today was the last day of the workout. Weighed myself prior and was 206lb, I’m 6′. I hit 88lb (53+35) on the kneeling KB press with both hands. Right felt much stronger and likely could have been doubles. I did the 2 min hang with pullups every 30 seconds. This was a lot harder than I expected. I’m uncertain of if adding the weight hurt or helped. I was doing my rep sets at a min with 35lb with a dip belt and that was challenging. At the end of the 2 min my forearms were burning. The squat I worked up to 500lb. 475 my last warm up was less stable than I thought it would be so I just stuck with the 500 which was easier than the 475. Thought that was a reasonable place to stop. Rack pulls just stuck with 405×25 again. This felt fine, but after I was done for the day. Finished with sled pushes which were light.
Program Overview:
Goal: Re-establish a training base – if I’m strictly using this as the metric, at this time I think the program met this goal. As I add in more variety I’m curious to see how the other lifts feel.
Things I didn’t like:
– the monotony. Doing the same lifts every time got old. I was ready to move on by week 6 and really ready by week 8.
– The only other big critique I have is it didn’t feel overly taxing. This probably isn’t a negative, I just mentally struggled with it. Not using undulating periodization or working to maxes or rep max or set maxes or pushing “hard” made me question how much I was getting out of it. While I think this something I didn’t like, it was probably good for my body.
– The rack carry I don’t think I’m going to use going forward. I loved the waiter carry for shoulder stability and I loved the suitcase carry for core stability. The rack carry I didn’t feel like I got a ton out of, maybe I didn’t load this enough.
Things I liked:
– The weighted carries. When I was going for the 2 rep heavy sets, I was surprised how stable these felt. I attribute this almost all to the weighted carries.
– Constant flow – personality wise I don’t like sitting around. I really liked the mobility work tied in and the constant motion.
– I think this program met the objective of building a training base.
– The kneeling press – having more of a powerlifting background I float towards the bench. I think the focus on the OHP was a nice change. I’m curious to see what my bench feels like over the next couple months.
What I would consider doing in hindsight:
– potentially increasing the goal maxes to 455 on the rack pull and 365 on squat. This might be dumb, but something I would consider.
– The weights on the weighted carries. I think I would start with 100lb and increase by 20lb per block on the suitcase carries.
– The overhead press felt right around 75lb – I was limited by KBs and had to carry 2 in one hand to get the weight’s right. I would like to play around with the load on that.
– Having a set routine on the last exercise. I chose farmers the first 4, prowler the second and belt squat marches at the end. I would probably do 1 each day and rotate them between the light, medium and heavy days contrasting the load.
Supplements:
AM – Multi, fish oil, vit D, curcumin, ashwaganda
PM – ZMA, L-thaeonine, fish oil, occasional melatonin
Diet: was up and down throughout the past 12 weeks. I feel thicker, but I was running a lot less than the couple months I was mobilized. Was drinking more nights than I would like. I generally only have 1 when I drink and my rule is no more than 3. Don’t know why I was doing this. It was nice having home cooked meals again.
Stress: the first 2 months were a lot more stressful than I thought they would be. Even though it was a stateside mobilization, I had almost no tolerance for people at work when I got home. Things seem to be stabilizing over the past week.
Learning: Completed the IFM curriculum and case study. Now studying for the certification test in November. Finished – How Will You Measure Your Life – Clay Christenson, 50 Psychology Classics – Tom Butler- Bowdon, Little Book of Common Sense Investing – Bogle, Will to Power – Nietzsche, Hero With 1000 Faces – Campbell, Infinite Game – Simon Sinek, Couple books on Dog training, Food of the Gods – Terrence McKenna, Indistractable – Eyal, and Beyond Training – Ben Greenfield.
Biggest Lesson: I’ve been struggling with thinking about the type of life I want to live. I turned to Clay Christenson’s book because I loved his insight when we read his papers in school. He stated the metric he used to evaluate his life, was to see how many lives he can positively impact. How many people can he help improve their self-esteem. I think that metric is really resonating with me. It might be a reasonable screening question to consider when thinking about future opportunities and when people ask for help.
Training Going Forward: Will be restarting the Average to Savage 2.0 program. I think lifting 3 days a week has been what my body can handle. I plan on running this until the winter, then doing an O lifting block, then running the bodybuilding and triathlon training in the spring/summer.
Seeking Progress 