A couple weeks back I had some weird flu-type illness, which completely knocked me on my arse. I had ridiculous temperatures and no appetite at all for two straight days. Over these two days, I lost around 3kg / 7lbs, hitting a low of 12st 5lbs / 79kg. Over the next week I struggled to regain my previous weight, and I'm only really returning to my previous weight now.
Periodic babes in this post. I can't imagine anyone minds.
An eating revelation I'd had after remembering a tidbit of info I'd read way back at the start of my lifting career, was adding double cream to stuff. I've started putting it in shakes and just mixing it into my cups of milk. It adds something ridiculous like 470cals per 100ml. I can easily put away 1000cals of this stuff without even thinking about it.
My shoulder work is going well as it stands. The other day I tried the uncle format for the military press, (detailed in Jamie Lewis' fucking cool blog here: http://chaosandpain.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/uncle-training-style.html)
I put on about 85-90% of my 1RM (between 65 and 70kg, embarrassing I know) and hit as many singles as possible in 20 minutes. I ended up getting 23 reps. I like this as a way to hit lots of heavy singles and keep the intensity as high as possible. Also adds a sense of competition, important for those of us who train alone. I am considering trying this for the deadlift after my current deadlift cycle ends.
One current medium-term goal is a bodyweight strict press (will have to be 82.5kg at the moment, current max on a good day is about 70kg). This would be fucking cool.
Going off on a tangent for a bit, I'd mentioned in one of my previous posts that I was going to plan out a decent deadlift cycle. It ended up looking like this:
I designed it like this to work on hamstring strength and leg drive from the floor (hence the deficits) and the sticking point at my knees (hence the rack pulls). I chucked in the speed pulls as an experiment really, plus they get me warmed up well for the heavier stuff later in the session. I usually finish these workouts with explosive Pendlay rows and shrugs. I'm currently in week 7 and will be working to a 3RM deficit pull in the next few days.
What a pair.
Another format I ran across for the squat comes in what I call the Bulgarian setup, though it's probably a long way from what they do (namely squatting everyday).
I essentially work up to a daily max (without killing myself - this might be anywhere from 90-95% of my competition max), then take off 10kg and do 3 doubles, then drop another 10kg and do 3 triples.
If your squat is higher than mine (which is likely as my best competition squat is 145kg), you might have to drop more weight between sets.
Now for the music:
I can't believe I haven't mentioned Black Pyramid yet in this blog. They just fucking crush. Every single one of their songs is amazing. I'll pick one of my favourites, Into The Dawn. This is a 15-minute epic riff-fest.
I also downloaded a couple more Hatebreed albums, which as usual, completely slay.
I bought the debut Pentagram album, which is just so badass.
And I've been listening to Jerusalem / Dopesmoker the last couple days, by the stoner leviathans Sleep.
These anthems are about an hour long, and are totally awesome.
And a smaller band I've discovered - Spelljammer. They have some large riffs that I rate so hard.
Christ, I could go on all day with music. One more - sludge godfathers Crowbar generally crush shit, and their latest album is certainly no exception. This particular song has one of the thickest riffs I've ever heard.
I think that's all I've got for now, I really should try and write on here more often.
