Becoming an Athlete

Amazing progress!!!  My work capacity has come up.  Body fat keeps dropping. Strength is creeping up slowly but steadily.Aches and pains are subsiding for the most part,.  My core is rock hard.  Yes, I finally have visible abdominal definition even around my obliques. Here are the subtle changes I'm making for Block II: Moving schedule to 4 days per week: - Mon: Push 1 - Tue: Pull 1 - Thu: Push 2 - Fri: Pull 2 Start each Push session with a few cleans Start each Pull session with a snatch grip pull high pulls Changing run intervals from 1-2 work-rest ratio to 1-1 - was 1 min run / 2 min walk - now 1 min run / 1 min walk Getting a little heavier on all the core movements: - sets of 10 instead of 12 Keeping it simple, consistent, and progressively harder is paying off perfectly.  Sustainable rate of improvement.  :-)

I took a week off from work and had an amazing time.  In addition to time spent with my kids, organizing and cleaning my home, I got in all my scheduled workouts and some bonus work. The weights on all my planned lifts are moving up at a steady but conservative pace.  Where I pushed like a madman was on the bonus work.  lots of kettlebell work, olympic lifting, runs, hikes, and rucks (i.e. slow jog with heavy pack). I'm dropping fat and adding muscle, but weight has stabilized at 204.  I need to get my ass in gear and do 3 things: eat the right meals eat more frequently do more cardio That's it.  Aside from the last 5 pounds, I'm rocking and rolling.

I'm sticking to my guns and just working ONE FREAKING PLAN, with much less hoping around. Block Training is just another way to talk about periodization.  I'm in Phase2, block 1. Each block is built on 4 separate workouts: Push 1 vertical bilateral horizontal unilateral Flat bench fly (fixing my hollow chest) triceps bilateral quad dominant unilateral MetCon (just treadmill intervals for Block 1) Pull 1 vertical bilateral horizontal unilateral Biceps bilateral Brachialis unilateral Hinge / Hip:  Strictly deadlift!!! MetCon (just treadmill intervals for Block 1) Push 2 vertical unilateral horizontal bilateral Flat bench fly (fixing my hollow chest) triceps unilateral quad dominant bilateral (Bulgarian squats.  I HATE these.  I must do these.) MetCon (just treadmill intervals for Block 1) Pull 2 vertical unilateral horizontal bilateral Biceps unilateral Brachialis bilateral Squats.   No reason to ever NOT squat MetCon (just t...

Now that I'm 39, I've decided being a ripped 199 is probably healthier and nicer to look at than a smoothed-over 230.  I'm not as strong as I was at 230, but that is largely due to all the injuries sustained working at maximal weights. My current weight is 205.6, as of Wednesday morning.  I want to compete as a light weight in Highland Games this year, which is anything under 200.   So if I get to 199 and continually work to improve my body composition, strength, and explosiveness, I'll be a very competitive light weights. Next year I'll bump up to Masters division (over 40), but I'll probably still compete as a light weight, too.