Deth

I didn’t sleep all that well last night. I fell asleep easily then less than an hour later I was awake. Eventually I grabbed my tablet and went downstairs. I guess it was midnight or 1:00. It was just a bit too warm in here and I’m in no way used to the summer like temperatures. Fire pit smoke didn’t help matters.

This morning I was to do squats, bench press, good mornings and pull ups. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was considering skipping today, making it a rest day and pushing everything back by one day. That’s how I’ve been doing things. Rather than having a set rest day I rest when I feel I need it and that’s been working really well for me so far and allows me to work around things I can’t control.

The squats felt, of course, heavy as fuck but at 250 pounds for 3x5 they were heavy for me. They looked excellent. It seems I am slowly getting the more upright torso I’ve had in the past. For now there’s a temporary cost of a little bit of depth. If it’s anything like the past that very deep squat will come back with time. I’m easily well below parallel even now. I just have the natural ability to do it for the most part. Like anything else there’s some things I needed to clean up to move better but the ability is there.

Bench press has always been a weaker lift for me. I never really cared too much about it either so that helps it stay weaker. Since it’s in the version of starting strength that street parking has I’ve been doing it because why not? It won’t hurt anything to see where I go. Today I was to do 160 3 x 5 and it felt good, surprisingly since my wrist / forearm is somewhat angry from all of the sandbag stuff yesterday. It felt good and was light so I threw in a couple of extra sets for good measure. A little extra work when it’s light won’t hurt me.

The other things I had to do were the good morning that I’ve been doing at 75 pounds. They’re feeling good and my knees are slowly staying straighter. I don’t foresee myself adding any weight to them anytime soon. I could but I see no benefit in that but increased risk. I also had pull ups today but my forearm did not like any pulling motion so I opted to pass on them today. I could have done them but it just didn’t feel so great so I figured it’s smarter to rest the little muscles in my forearm.

Fast forward a few hours when Molly got home we wanted to take the sled out and play with it. It’s only the second time we’ve gotten to use it since we got it! Can you believe we’re actually finally having a few dry day here in Central PA?

The workout we made up was pull the sled 50 meters then push it back 50 meters followed by 8 sandbag over the shoulders then 4 sandbag power cleans. She used the heavier 35 pound bag and I used 75 pounds in mine.

Last time I did the sled I used a 35 pound plate. This time we used two 25 pound plates. I could have and should have used more but it’s a fairly new toy to us. We have only actually used it twice now thanks to uncooperative weather for it. We’d only used one a handful of other times in at the gym. I’m trying to be smart and slowly easy into it and see how it feels even though like anything else in life when I get an idea I want to jump fully into it. That sled sure does get the heart rate up and the legs burning in a hurry! It was a great addition to our equipment and something we’d be hard pressed to find in a commercial gym.

The sandbag stuff felt really good with the 75 pounds. My only mishap is the one time my sweaty hand slipped off the bag as I was tossing it over my shoulder and I basically punched myself in the face. I love the fact that the occasions I do stupid shit like that there’s never a video! After we were done I did re attempt one ground to overhead with sandbag and it felt good even though my wrist wasn’t too happy. Maybe I should have given the 100 pounds a shot since this was basically just a workout for fun and to collect some vitamin D in the sun.

The one frustrating thing though about today is one of the inner filler bags in my rep fitness sandbag opened yet again. At least with the gravel in it I was able to continue without eating a ton of dust. Guess there’s a reason that was so cheap but it seems to be only the over the shoulder stuff that makes it pop open. The Velcro on the rep fitness one is definitely not as robust as the brute force one. The brute one is hard to open to fill it but the rep one opens pretty easily. It’s served me well but we never ever had an issue with the brute force one leaking at all. One was well less than half the price of the other and the old adage that you get what you pay for prove true again. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been pretty happy with it. It’s just like anything else. There will be advantages and disadvantages to basically anything you can buy