School, sleep, and nerves

It's the first week of school.

Incidentally, sleep has sucked for the past couple of days due to registration and also because of the wife's really weird work hours.

Lastly, I can feel my nervous system shot from all the heavy lifting, so a de-load week is definitely in order.

I'm hoping to be ready to go by next Monday, after this upcoming drill weekend. Hope your first couple'a weeks of January and of school are going well. Peace out suckas!!

No shoes, no wraps, no problem

Forgot my TK knee sleeves and squat shoes. Oh well, barefoot squatting it is.

Squat

115 x 5
135 x 5
165 x 5
195 x 5
225 x 5


Bench

95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 5



I was supposed to do rows again, except I was joined by some good friends and decided to run a circuit with them. It worked out fine, and my back still got a great workout with them. And, we put together a pretty kick-ass circuit as well.

Kettlebell swing
Band rows
Modified burpee (triangle push-up, split leg & knees-to-elbows during the jump)

30 sec on, 15 sec rest
45 sec on, 30 sec rest
60 sec on, 45 sec rest
45 sec on, 30 sec rest
30 sec on, 15 sec rest

Keep in mind, that's per exercise, and then rotate. So, let me fix that...

30 sec on, 15 sec rest  Kettlebell swing
30 sec on, 15 sec rest  Band rows
30 sec on, 15 sec rest  Modified burpee
45 sec on, 30 sec rest  Kettlebell swing
45 sec on, 30 sec rest  Band rows
45 sec on, 30 sec rest  Modified burpee
60 sec on, 45 sec rest  Kettlebell swing
60 sec on, 45 sec rest  Band rows
60 sec on, 45 sec rest  Modified burpee

45 sec on, 30 sec rest  Kettlebell swing
45 sec on, 30 sec rest  Band rows
45 sec on, 30 sec rest  Modified burpee


30 sec on, 15 sec rest Kettlebell swing
30 sec on, 15 sec rest Band rows
30 sec on, 15 sec rest Modified burpee



We finished just under 18 minutes, which means we cut some seconds off somewhere. After this, Louie went to hit the bag, and Marc and I decided to do some extra credit.

Medicine ball, 12 lbs
   30 ball slams

Kettlebell farmer's walk, 20 kg (28kg for Marc)
    25 yards

The 5x5 and A Look Back on a Productive End-of-the-Year

A great, productive meso-cycle using the 5x5 protocol. If I remember correctly I took a week to de-load after the 4th week of training. In retrospect, I probably should have noted this. Anyhow, I ended the year great with a new PR - a 225lb squat for 3 reps.


Here's to another great year of lifting, training, and hopefully (eventually) hitting the roads for some runs again. Happy New Years!!!