So I elegantly forgot to mention my other training during the week, alongside the rippler. Guess I'll try doing that and mentioning the whole training regime.
The usual note: keeping bar weight at 45lbs/20kg for simplity of counting, although I know the bar is 20kg which in actuality is around 44Lbs.
Monday
Morning - Rippler Bench (1hr 20mins)
T1 - Flat Bench: 140Lbs 3x3 6x1
T2 - Dumbbell Incline: 45Lbs 5x5
T3a - Behind the Neck Press: 45Lbs (60 reps total)
T3b - Lat Flyes: 20Lbs (31 reps total)
This was ineresting because it was the first time I was bench 140lbs. Felt it would be difficult but grinded out all 4 sets, including the AMRAP, with rest time around 2.5mins.
The inclines though, a different story. The sets were okay until the fifth set where I really struggled to make 5 good reps.
The BTNP has a very high rep count it appears. I've never done it so I decided to stick with the default bar weight. I guess this will shoot up after the 3 week period.
Lastly, the lat flyes were also done on last energy. My energy levels today were really not up to scratch, and fell rapidly in the duration of the workout.
Midday - Varsity Gym
I don't like talking about this because I'm very critical of how it's done. I don't really think it has the right setup for my sport, and overall has a few faults in how we are trained. For all of the other workout mentions I will be just saying I did this, without mentioning what and how long.
The only part I do enjoy it's the explosive nature of some of the exercises, but overall I use this time more to taper down after the morning session.
Tuesday
Morning - Rippler Squat (1hr 30mins)
T1 - Back Squat (high bar): 280Lbs 3x3 5x1
T2 - Stiff-Leg Deadlift: 135Lbs 5x5
T3a - Pullups (bodyweight): (37 total reps)
T3b - Barbell Curl: 55Lbs (35 total reps)
The back squat is getting difficult but I realised the belt (and knee wraps) help so much. The AMRAP was finished at 5 reps, and overall I am happy with the progression of my lift.
The stiff leg deadlift was interesting primarily due to the fact that I actually did it right for the first time, which also meant I had to play with the weights. Naturally, I have short hamstrings, if that's a thing, but either way they don't stretch very well. The pretense I was under was that I HAD to keep my legs straight for the whole motion and only use the posterior chain and hamstrings. Only after watching the Alan Thrall YT video, did I get the explanation that the exercise is actually the Stiffer-Leg Deadlift, meaning I had to reach the floor, but allowed a small bend at the end. This ended up giving me a much bigger fulfilment afterwards and I think there is still some timing issues on my part but overall will have a good impact on my hamstrings and deadlift.
I honestly can say that I could do more pullups, BUT if I can bullshit down an excuse, it's that I had to do weighted chinups for varsity gym the day before so I was still kinda fatigued.
The curls... The usual sin of doing it in the squat rack, but this time felt much harder than last week - again possibly due to the varsity gym.
Evening - light varsity training session
Last day before our new coach was arriving, enjoyed it by giving as little shit as I could.
Wednesday
Technically, today is my day off from the gym albeit me having varsity lift at 15:30. Also got around 3hrs sleep during the night so I was a walking zombie for most of the day anyway, and me lifting would have caused a huge injury.
Midday - Varsity Gym
How I didn't injure myself - I do not know. I was barely conscious the whole day, and having a class from 19:30 - 22:30 meant I would have to function on caffeine from the word go. It sucked, I half-assed the weights and went through the motions but overall I was left pissed off and mentally fatigued.
Evening - 1st proper training
It sucked $%^&. The caffeine rush died, and I was barely moving, nevermind thinking in the drills. Ran into a wall head first, but I've already learned to live with ~10 brain cells, so I probably did more damage to the wall than to myself. But in actuality I did get dizzy and pulled out after 1 hour for the rest of the day.
If there is anything to get from this other than a laugh at my expense it's: GET YOUR NEEDED HOURS OF REST!
Thursday
Morning - Rippler Overhead Press (OHP) (1hr 15mins)
T1 - OHP: 90Lbs 3x3 4x1
T2 - Close-Grip Bench Press: 100Lbs 5x5
T3a - Incline Dumbbell Press: 42.5Lbs (38 total reps)
T3b - Dumbbell Pullover: 47.5Lbs (42 total reps)
This will be more succinct than the rest because the only lift I want to discuss today was the OHP. It's my least favourite (and coincidentally my worst). I scraped by the 90Lbs and not sure how well my back remained without caving forward. Got it done though, so looking forward to tomorrow morning's deadlift session!
Evening - Varsity Training
It's kinda nice when less than half of the team shows up, get almost nothing done but play games. Just great.
Friday
Morning - Rippler Deadlift (1hr 25mins)
T1 - Deadlift: 275Lbs 3x3, 5x1
T2 - Front Squat: 125Lbs 5x5
T3a - Bent Row: 155Lbs (35 total reps)
T3b - Rear Delt Flyes: 27.5Lbs (46 total reps)
Deadlift is my favourite exercise purely because of how I am still progressing in it pretty quick. Today was intensive though, felt a lot pressure all over. Took some pre-workout (Mr Hyde) to try supplement my tiredness from Thursday but it only really kicked in around the Front Squat, and brought me to a place I really never thought I'd need to go (more than once): the toilet. Those shits were really not warranted and the caffeine sped up the process too much. Outside of that the T2 felt a little too easy, guess I'll be bumping that up a lot next cycle. The T3 movements were pretty uneventful so not much to say.
Now some people may be wondering - why does it take me minimum 1.25hrs to do all the workouts when most people are around 50mins? If you look at my excel doc, you will notice that I have quite substantial core workouts, almost overkill. They take about 30mins to do because I am slow as fuck.
