Seeking advice on training

A stopwatch and cheap HR monitor are solid investments. I also have a free Tabata app on my phone that lets me program two sessions - I only use two, one for jumprope HIIT and one for metcons with a sandbag.

I only use the HR monitor ( a 20 year old Polar that can't even store data) occasionally to keep me honest or when making changes to an existing routine.

Interesting stuff once you get into pacing and rest intervals etc. Every day I jump rope 5 minutes for a warm up, my jump rope HIIT only lasts 12 minutes total with 4 minutes of actual work. I can do an entire resistance session after 5 easy minutes, after the 4 at all out intensity I'm done for the day. If I had to fit in more work after a few hours I'm sure I could, but feel I get best results just letting that ferment.

At some point I''ll get into Maffetone base conditioning using HR but I really don't have time for long cardio sessions currently.

 

Awesome stuff Dekapon

 

I second the heart monitor. It could be used to keep your heart rate out of the glycolytic zone and to help you build endurance while your building strength. A good example is here: From "Simple" to Serious Endurance | StrongFirst

As far as your routine, sticking to S+S, and whether you should have fun.... the most effective program is the one you are motivated to stay consistent with. On again and off again with the "perfect" program wouldn't be as good as a consistent practice with a good program.

 

Also great work! Keep up your practice. Changes are always incremental and hard to notice but all the incremental changes will add up over time.

 

Thank you guys for liking and writing in my log. It really means a lot. Living by myself in the forest is wonderful, but can also lead to apathy in form of "what does it matter if I train or not?". Writing and getting support and advice really helps, thank you!

I pressed the 48kg twice today. Once after breakfast and once before lunch. It wasn't pretty and I wouldn't call it a "strict press" but I got it up over my head without using my legs or jerking it. But only with my right arm, my left wrist is still a little sore and hurts a a little when I sit a heavy bell down on the ground from a clean. So still a way to go before I claim victory... or call myself "Obese Tamer".

Did a lot of greasing the groove and wave loading for the presses last week. A lot of 8reps with the 32kg and 12 reps with the 24kg and only once or twice a day did I press the 40kg. Going for volume.

Was house and dog sitting for a friend during the weekend. A nice small cabin by the ocean filled with nice art and beautiful furniture made by my friend. And a really sweet but high maintenance dog! Brought my green neoprene 24kg kettlebell to train with. The dog really didn't like it... looked like a big green round dog toy... that didn't move no matter how hard you tried.

We weren't that good at selfies...

After two days with little sleep, 90min dog walk twice a day, playing catch, 100 snatches and greasing the groove presses I was home and really tired.

Slept a lot this week, went off the diet or at least added butter and stopped drinking protein shakes, ate some candy at the cinema (Endgame), slept some more, binged a series (Bosch S5), read a book (Excession) and didn't really do anything else before today.
Doesn't bode well that I can skip training, eat more food, sleep and wake up stronger... Will have to try to forget I did that...

Today was training day again, was still a bit tired and "off" so took it light:

10 goblet squats. 5 40kg and 5 48kg
60 two hand swings with 48kg
40 one hand swings with 32kg
16 presses with 32kg (8, 8)
10 rows with 48kg (5, 5)
10 presses with 40kg (5, 5)
Sauna

Feels better now, but think I'll have to be careful with my wrist, it's getting better, don't want to make it worse. So might focus on walking and two hand swings the coming week.

Haven't lost any weight this week, hardly surprising, but haven't gained any either. Was nice eating only food with no protein shakes, even though I was only eating about 140g protein a day for five days. Actually started longing for my frozen casein pudding with extra cocoa, banana and peanut-butter.

 

"Maximum Effort!"

Whaaa?!! Of course it matters...always!

A good lesson to learn though - a little break and some "what the heck" food and activity choices can often lead to a nice follow on session. Sustainable discipline is an average value, not absolute.

 

I can't believe this just happened, but Deadpool is playing in the background and right as he leapt off the freeway and said "Maximum Effort", I saw your image posted! Weird!!!

Also, very nice lifting friend!

 

You've made great progress in a short time. Pressing the 48kg is no joke. Well done.

 

!
Thanks!

Yeah, I know. It's just so easy to think "I'll do it tomorrow" when it's just you that knows if you did it or not. I got a lot of farm work/house maintenance I've meant to do "tomorrow" for years now...
Good advice about the sustainability of discipline. Maybe I'll take a few "off-days" more frequently. Strict diet and training for a month and then take half a week while doing nothing. Not binging, just taking a break from weighing food and counting calories.

Thank you! It sure isn't. Still a bit "panicking" when cleaning the darn thing, it's so freaking big! I wonder if a competition bell is easier to press... Hopefully I get used to it.

 

Have had a lot on my mind lately, been training, but perhaps not as much as I would've liked. Only five sessions and not that much walking since the 11th. But have trained harder the times I did.

Read an article in "Nature" about an effective weight loss plan that I really liked. It's basically like this. You eat healthy but have an calorie restriction for two weeks, then you eat healthy but more food at calorie balance , then have two weeks of restriction, two weeks balance etc. etc. Subjects dropped more in body fat this way then the control group that was on a calorie restriction the whole time.
Last week I therefore tried to eat at calorie balance and now I've started two weeks of calorie restriction.
LINK:
Intermittent energy restriction improves weight loss efficiency in obese men: the MATADOR study

It's not pizza and beer two weeks and lentils and potatoes for two weeks. It's lentils and potatoes for two weeks and then just LESS lentils and potatoes for two weeks... But it's nice to not go hungry and have a little "extra" in form of bananas, nuts and apples or maybe a small amount of butter in your brown rice, carrots, leeks and lean ham with salad.

Lentil and potato-soup (stock footage)

Had a "cheat day" last friday, but I also took a long walk and did 100 snatches in 9:36 min with a 24kg. The day after I did 110 two hand-swings with the 48kg, pressed the 40kg and 32kg a lot, did farmers walk for 5x60m with 40kg and 48kg. Ate a lot of food, rested a day and then did 110 one hand-swings, 6 get-ups and 100 presses with the 32kg and suitcased carried it 400m . Ate and slept some more, took a 7km nice forest walk and some greasing the groove presses and after all this I had gained 3,4kg!

But only +1cm at my waist, and that depends a lot on when and how accurate you are with the measuring tape so I would say my waist is about the same.
If not counting the cheat day I ate about 3500-4000kcal a day, around my "balance" according to the charts, maybe a little over, but not much.
Really interesting about the weight gain though. Can't be good walking around that depleted on glycogen and stomach content all the time. That's what I like about the 2 weeks on/2 weeks off-diet. Hopefully it works, just important not to eat to much on the "balance"-weeks, will use a kitchen scale to make sure I don't exceed.

I noticed my right leg is a lot stronger than my left. So much stronger that get-ups with the 32kg on my right side feels really easy but are just barely manageable on my left side.
I've had this problem since I was about 11 years old but never had an issue with it before. My upper body is more balanced, right arm only a little stronger, but the difference in my legs now that I know is huge!
So have started greasing the groove on single leg deadlifts and doing the knee-to-standing-part of the get-up. Really weak in my left leg, could barely do single leg deadlifts with the 48kg on my left, so doing them with the 40kg until I get some strength and balance.


Walked another 7km yesterday. Those white specs in the photo are Aspen seeds, couldn't capture it better with my phone, but it looked like it was snowing. Pleasant walk.

Today I had offered to take my friend's kid to fotball practice if I could take with my kettlebell and do some swings while he played.
300m suitcase carry from the parking lot with 32kg (he and his mom met up at the soccer field)
15 prying goblet squats with 32kg
100 one hand swings
40 presses
550m (!) suitcase carry back to his house. Also carried it in the "clean"-position a while to rest my grip.

I was exhausted after that. That 550m "short walk" back to his house while carrying the 32kg was tough. Had to stop and catch my breath two times. Didn't help it was really humid, damp and hot with approaching thunder in the distance. Was drenched in sweat when we made it back.

 

You live in a lovely place!

 

Magnus, keep the faith and stay the course dude. Sometimes it just takes time. Plus, usually your midsection is the last place to lose fat. If you train and eat right it will come.

 

Did the the "healthy but less food" for about a week then I said "to hell with it!" =/
I don't feel good when eating small amounts of food. Don't have the energy to train or do things and feel weak when I do train.
I'm seriously thinking about just doing my healthy/clean/high protein diet and keep training until October and then do an evaluation and check back on the year. I grow stronger everyday and If I eat healthy and about 2500-3000kcal a day I feel good, energetic and sometimes even happy.

Been doing single leg deadlifts almost every day for my left leg. Can do them in set of five with the 48kg now. It's more balance than power that's needed.

At fotball practice last Tuesday both me and his mom was there. She had brought her 16kg kettlebell and I brought my 32kg. Same long suitcase carry from the parking lot but we took turns carry both 32kg and 16kg on the way back. It's much easier carrying two heavy bells than one.
Did 15 prying goblet squats, 100 one hand swings, 10 snatches, 4 getups, 15 single leg deadlifts, 50 presses and 10 "knee-to standing"-thing before walking back home.

My new timer from IKEA for 2€/2$ is great! It only has 3 large buttons, is the size of a hockey puck, a big display that works in direct sunlight, has a magnet on the back, takes one single AAA-battery and has a low pleasant beeping sound. My mums egg-timer in her kitchen is as loud as the fire alarm and placed on the kitchen fan in same height as your ear...
No need for an expensive fragile smart phone that takes at least 15 pushes to start a timer or a 5 min argument with Alexa...

Have started using it both for my rest and doing 40 one hand swings in 2 min with the 32kg every session.
Taking 5min rest between heavy sets is a lot longer than you would think when your heart rates up and you're gasping for air. 5min feels like 20min, good thing I now have a timer for it.
Yesterday while my father was here dropping of a trailer I showed him my 48kg and I clean'ed and jerked it easily with both right and left arm. Was quite surprised, had only pressed the 40kg this week to let my left wrist fully heal. I guess I now have to clean&jerk it for reps next week...

Today I was at one of the worlds strongest women (ranked 6th) to try strongman for the first time, just a couple of km away. She does this once in a while. Anyone can show up and train with her for free and she's happy to show the techniques. Today only me and one other guy showed up and she had been to a BackStreet Boys concert the night before and was a bit tired.
We did log press, farmers walk and atlas stones.
It was really fun! Even though I wasn't that good... But that's more ego than anything else. I usually have to do a thing about 10-20 times before I really get the hang of it.

We did log press for 5 reps at 60kg, 70kg, 80kg and all three of us failed at 90kg.
It's a lot easier cleaning a kettlebell than a big strongman log, but man, does it look cooler.

Then we did farmers walk.
Warm up with 43kg, then a few 2x7m (with turn) with 63kg, 73kg and 83kg.
Than the other guy, who was taller and had a lot more tattoos and muscles than me, wanted to try for 130kg. He did one pass of 7m and it looked like he was going to break, but he did it. He talked about how much it hurt and that he almost fainted. Strong man indeed.
I tried to lift it but couldn't. I got some tips about technique and was told to rest at least 5min.
We took of 30kg and I could almost lift it, or the weights moved, but couldn't lift them up nor start walking with them. I was a bit worried about dropping them on my feet, couldn't really "relax". I then did 2 passes with 83kg that felt more like a proper training weight for me.

After that I wanted to try Atlas stones and the other guy sat down with a cup of coffee.
I got really good instructions from our host and I could on my second try lift the smallest of the stones, 68kg. Lifted it four more times, tried a 78kg and a 90kg but couldn't get a grip on them. It's a lot of technique and "sisu" required and I didn't have neither today.
Trying to lift a totally smooth round stone is nightmarish for a kettlebell entusiast, it's like... "WHERE IS THE HANDLE!!?"

I'm definitely going to get some I-beams and weld together my own farmers walk implements, about 70-80kg each... And maybe get a tire or two to flip...
But I think I really should start doing heavy deadlifts. Couldn't even move 200kg, a bit of a dent in the kettlebell armor. Lifting something really heavy is tough and doesn't feel like the carryover from heavy swings is there.
But so expensive with a barbell and weights. =/ Maybe I'll make a square trap bar/yoke from 1" plywood with holders for bricks.


Didn't take any pictures while strongman training, so here's some rabbits! Notice the dents from the kettlebell in the lawn I put there in march. (No lawn mower, just the rabbits that keep the grass short.)

 

Your log is spot on! Very good storytelling and great training here. I got my motivation back to start my diet againg, because of your sisu. Thanks, my friend.

 

Thinking about doing something really stupid... and that is signing up for the local strongman competition on the 10th of August.

It's a local lighthearted event called "the worlds strongest person from this little town in Sweden" (sounds funnier in Swedish). It's held every year during the summer festival in my old home town among other events like car shows, bands playing, face painting for the kids, a "fun run", dance shows, a beer tent (very important!) and so on... You get the idea, qualifying for nationals in strongman this is not, just something for the locals to look and laugh at.

Don't know the events but have checked out other more "serious" strong man competitions in "folk/citizen/peoples class", meaning for average strong persons, not the elite, and I could possibly maybe handle those weights with two months hard training.... maybe.

This is a typical strongman event in "folk class":
Farmer Walk 105kg 20m for time
Circus dumbbell overhead press, 60kg for max rep in 60 sec
Tire flip, 310kg, 8 flips for time
Atlas stone, 140kg, max rep 60sec 1m height.
Truck pull, 15 tonnes, 12m for time

I haven't signed up yet but I kind of like the idea. Setting a goal and working on it for two months during the summer might be good for me. I don't have any delusions about winning, neither do I have the "winner mind set". If I could manage the weights in each events in "folk" and finish last I would be happy with that. Like the fat guy signing up for a half marathon, who trains really hard and finishes, but last. You wouldn't laugh at that guy for trying, right? Maybe he won't be last next year?

My choices for the summer are:

• Train for local strong man event together with my girlfriend
• Focus on loosing weight
• Reaching "Simple"
• Turning my gym into a green house/ guest house
• Playing through "XCOM2: War of the Choosen" on hardest setting
• Doing some home improvements, including a new staircase
  
• Reading the "Dune Chronicles"
• Doing permaculture/creating a food forest in the garden

I know if I try doing all of them I'll end up doing none of them, even the video game because I'll just play something else because I'd feel bad about not doing things on my to do-list. So I'll have to choose one main focus and if I'll have the time and energy maybe I'll do one more task. Remember, I got autism, this is how my mind works.
I really want to do the strongman thing. It seems fun and if I'm doing strong man I don't have to loose weight, just eat healthy with lots of protein around energy balance and focus on getting stronger.

Anyway, look at this picture and tell me I don't look happy.

Here I am after completing cutting, welding and carrying my farmers walk implements I bought at the junk yard together with all these weights. At scrap metal price!

174kg of weights and two 155cm H-beams (wider I-beams).

The end result was this, after much thinking, tinkering and help from my neighbor and his MIG welder. It took time to find and cut the scrap metal for the "feet", but feels like it was worth it, at 5cm height I can drop them without risk crushing my toes.
52kg a piece without the weights. I'm calling them my "B-52's".

I did about 40m with them without weights, one pass with 62kg, then three shorter walks with 82kg.
Only problem is, at 155cm long, they don't fit in my car, so I have to carry them 1km back home, going to do that tomorrow... But it will only be 52kg a hand, the weigh plates did fit in the backseat.

Only done 3 sessions this week, it's been really hot and humid and been having trouble sleeping because of it.
Have actually reduced 1cm at my waist and added 1cm around my neck. I'm now at 30,5% body fat according to the online calculator, down from 34,3% at beginning of april . The weight is still the same but I'm starting to notice some changes, especially at my arms, legs, shoulders and abs. Parts that were big and soft are now starting to become big and hard.
Still at same dangerous unhealthy, "to-fat-for-the-fat-ward"-BMI as I started in October though...

 

Great pics...
I bet the first three options on your list could happen concurrently without you even noticing...

 

Cool stuff @Dekapon! Like all the vintage weights. The local strongman event sounds great, if you look at it in that light. My first powerlifting meet, I bombed out. It was embarrassing, ending up there, I had two choices. Give up or come back with a fiery vengeance. I placed third in my second meet by a thin margin. I believe it is better to be the performer being judge, then the judge of the performer. Those who judge are usually the ones who are to afraid or insecure to do it themselves. Nothing wrong with challenging yourself and growing from it.

 

Yeah, they kind of go together, shame I can't lay in bed reading Dune and my stairs and guest room fix them selfs without me noticing. .
But if I'm doing strongman I won't try to cut calories. I've tried go on balance this week. Basically my old diet but if I feel like eating a banana, an apple, some raspberries, some nuts and a protein shake extra I'll eat it. Feels good right now, if I start to bloat I'll cut down again.
...
@Philippe Geoffrion , Thanks! Yes, no shame in showing up and make some mistakes, that's how you learn.
...
So today I carried my "B-52's" home. Roughly 1km light walk... with 52kg extra in each hand. Was thinking it might take all day and I'd have to go home and take a break and eat, but it took about 80min, with a lot of rest, didn't want to overexert myself. The slight uphill part midway through the meadow with all the mosquitoes was nice, and every time I banged the H-beams together it sounded like a cow bell, the cows looked at me like I was crazy and the summer sun was... hot.
Found an online calorie calculator and put in the numbers, body weight 248kg(!).


So an extra banana for me today.

Since no one is stopping me (Please don't do this, we beg you! Try finding solace in what you've achieved, this is folly!) I'm going ahead with the strongman thing. Might start a separate thread about training for the event. Still seeking advice...

 

Congrats on deciding to partake in the strongman event! Do you know what the events are? One thing I can say is strongman training used to happen in my old gym. They pretty much trained the events, albeit a little differently everyday.

 

You can congratulate me in august when/if I complete the event!
Don't know the events specifically, found a youtube video from a few years ago when they had tractor pull, tire flip and 4-wheeler dead-lifts. It's a farming community...
But now it's the strongwoman I trained with that organizes the event. So I'm guessing it's going to be farmers walk, yoke carry, log press and sandbag carries with gear from her gym. I think moving the atlas stones from her house into town might be to bothersome.

Yes, train for the strongman events instead of focusing on squats, deadlifts and benchpress like most people seem to do when I look at strongman training on youtube:
-"I only train specific events once a week, the rest of the week I'm doing, deadlift, squats and bodybuilding."
To me that sounds like a professional hockey player saying he only plays hockey once a week and plays curling 5 times a week.


My plan right now is keep doing my S/S-base with swings, get-ups, presses, snatches and rows and play around with the farmers walk and increase the amount of training with longer sessions with more rest in between sets.
There's a lot you can do with farmers walk. Go light for distance/cardio, heavy for short distance, deadlift them (maybe stand on a box), farmers hold and duck walks.
Something like this:
Heavy swings, distance farmers walk, volume pressing one day.
Heavy farmers, heavy press and row, light snatches for cardio one day.
Clean&Jerk and get-ups one day.

Natural stone carries and tire flips won't be impossible to fix. Don't know if I can afford to buy a sand bag, and don't really have space for it inside, the mice would eat it up if I keep it in the gym. Guess I could use a strap and tie together some weights, wrap a towel around them and put in a bag...