Hyde’s Strength Odyssey

Will be watching to see how it all works out. No doubt your planning and execution will be on point either way.
 
12/30/21
BW 243.0

7 min cycle
McGill Big 3
BW Squats

SSB Squat
60x5
150,240,330x3
+belt
380,410,430x3 PR

Sumo, deadlift bar
135x10 RDL
225x3
+hook
315,385,435x3
+belt
485x1 left hamstring started to pull

Reverse Hyper
BWx15
45 4x15

Flying high right now. I am radically stronger than my triples at RPE7 session from 5 weeks ago - my squat tonight was 55lbs greater on the yoke bar at the same effort level (375x3 then). Put 30 more lbs on deadlift, but felt the left hammy start to either cramp or tear during the first rep so I shut it down after that. I’ve had plenty of pulls in that one prior, and no desire for another serious setback! We’ll have a better idea tomorrow morning of the true extent, but I think I’ve dodged the bullet.

My lifetime 1RM on SSB was 435, so tripling 430 so smoothly is an awesome way to head into the new year!!!
 
SkRaw85 said:
PR no big deal….
Congrats brother!
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Thank you! I am truly very happy for it. One of those moments when you really see the payout, when you have total certainty that what you have been doing is working for you.

I had stopped 20mg Mk677 as of Christmas, as the CJC DAC should have been worn off. Began 10mg daily last night, and doses again this morning. Also this morning put ~170mcg of BPC157 & 200mg L-Carnitine subq near where I felt the tugging (left ham, outside insert by the knee), and pinned 600mg glutathione IM.

I can lunge, RDL, heel slide & curl my leg nearly painlessly, so I think it’s either the smallest pull humanly possible, or the residual pain was from a cramp during the lift. Very happy things indeed seem trivial!
 
Congrats on the PR and the ham recovery.
 
Been discussing the strongman show more with the wife and I’ve ultimately decided NOT to do it. When it comes down to it, it’s not just a fun derail - I can accept a delay in achieving overall goals for the sake of enjoying the journey - it’s also an unnecessary liability. If I got hurt training towards my powerlifting goals right now, I would be at peace with that, but if I got hurt training for or at this show I would regret swaying from my course.

Blast resumes to continue to follow the current training macrocycle. Pinned 270 test & 150 mast, for a weekly total of 480 test, 250 mast, 100 deca.
 
1/2/22
BW 246.2

10 min walk
Bird Dogs
Side Planks
Facepulls

Bench
45x10
95,135x5
185, 205, 225, 245 2x3
275x1

Plate-loaded Seated OHP Press
45,90/side x8
135x12
180,205x8 PR

Chest-supported Tbar Row
45,90x15
135x12
160x8+4+3

Reverse Pec Deck
90x20
120x15,10

Pec Deck
120,160x8
200x10
220x17+4

A light second bench session for the week today working technique. Benches are terrible at the commercial gym, but it was about 50* warmer than the garage would have been so it was a fair trade
 
1/3/22

10 min walk
McGill Big 3

Lying Leg Curl
40,70,100,130,160x12

Frontsquat
45,95,135,185x5
215,225,235x8
275,315x1

Back Extensions
2x15

Stir the Pot
2x20

Shoulder Mobility

“I'ma go hard whether I'm right or wrong
'Til I’m dead and gone - it's on
What y'all really want? Bring it on
I'ma let life be my song”

—Life Be My Song, DMX

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Last edited:
Segansational said:
Hey @Hyde what do you think about Smolov Jr?
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I think it can be used as a means to break a really serious plateau on squat or benchpress, but there is almost always a better way (gain weight, take more drugs, address an underlying weakness, accumulate more total volume/tonnage routinely, improve technique).

Cranking frequency through the roof is a generally unsustainable practice. Most of my knee pain issues are rooted in a dumbass program squatting 5x a week when I was like 21 for a few months. It’s just too much for connective tissue on most people.

Furthermore, most people looking at that stuff haven’t even tried just doing twice a week for a while on a lift, or even 3x. When you do something almost every day, there is nowhere left to go - so when you back down the frequency inevitably, the lift tends to fall back.
 
Good to hear that hammy didn't tweak too bad and good idea on staying your course if PL is your focus right now.
 
MrKleen73 said:
Good to hear that hammy didn't tweak too bad and good idea on staying your course if PL is your focus right now.
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Thanks! I could feel it a tad on the top set of leg curls, so I knew not to mess with loading up RDLs yet, but I am pleased I could squat with it.
 
BennyMagoo79 said:
205 x8 plate press...nice dude!!!!
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Yeah this is that machine where I was doing max singles in my no-barbell time some months ago lol. 4& a half plates a side for 8 reps was looking pretty cool today, honestly. Wish I could do that on a barbell press, of any kind!
 
Hyde said:
I think it can be used as a means to break a really serious plateau on squat or benchpress, but there is almost always a better way (gain weight, take more drugs, address an underlying weakness, accumulate more total volume/tonnage routinely, improve technique).

Cranking frequency through the roof is a generally unsustainable practice. Most of my knee pain issues are rooted in a dumbass program squatting 5x a week when I was like 21 for a few months. It’s just too much for connective tissue on most people.

Furthermore, most people looking at that stuff haven’t even tried just doing twice a week for a while on a lift, or even 3x. When you do something almost every day, there is nowhere left to go - so when you back down the frequency inevitably, the lift tends to fall back.
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Guilty as charged! But pretty much planning to take any and all means to improve my numbers this time around. ;) But Smolov Jr is only 4x/wk, not every day? Or do you think that's still too much frequency for the same lift? I just came off of a deadlift every day for a month program, so it doesn't seem that extreme to me, LOL.
 
Segansational said:
Guilty as charged! But pretty much planning to take any and all means to improve my numbers this time around. ;) But Smolov Jr is only 4x/wk, not every day? Or do you think that's still too much frequency for the same lift? I just came off of a deadlift every day for a month program, so it doesn't seem that extreme to me, LOL.
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Still unnecessarily excessive when you can just try 2-3x/wk. You can train as much as you can recover from, and everything you do has a recovery cost. If you are spending 4 times a week on one lift, what things are you putting on the back burner? Will that be worth it if overall development is the goal?

If you deadlift 135, you can probably do that 7 times a week. Chris Duffin tried to deadlift 880 every day for a month using every recovery modality under the sun and made it about 2 weeks before he tore his hip. And that was an incredible feat nobody has ever accomplished in itself.
 
1/5/22

4 min Assault Bike
Bird Dogs
Band Pullaparts, Pressdown, Rows

Bench
45,95,135,185,225,255,265,275,285,295x5

2-Board
250 4x10

Band Pullaparts
Monster 3x30

DB Rotators
10 2x10

Band Pressdown
Light x100

Shoulder Stretching

Did 3 sets of 2-board before I realized I was supposed to be doing closegrip for those. Today was quite the accumulation session for bench! 2ml Triton definitely seems to add some overall endurance to the session, which I was very glad for indeed. Took a 25mg Anadrol sublingual before this one along with my Focus XT and noopept.

Time for some sushi!
 
Segansational said:
Hey @Hyde what do you think about Smolov Jr?
Click to expand...
Hyde said:
I think it can be used as a means to break a really serious plateau on squat or benchpress, but there is almost always a better way (gain weight, take more drugs, address an underlying weakness, accumulate more total volume/tonnage routinely, improve technique).

Cranking frequency through the roof is a generally unsustainable practice. Most of my knee pain issues are rooted in a dumbass program squatting 5x a week when I was like 21 for a few months. It’s just too much for connective tissue on most people.

Furthermore, most people looking at that stuff haven’t even tried just doing twice a week for a while on a lift, or even 3x. When you do something almost every day, there is nowhere left to go - so when you back down the frequency inevitably, the lift tends to fall back.
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haven't been getting notifications on your log again but saw this... Smolov is insane.
I think the 4x9 day was the one that wrecked me the worst. You really can't do it unless it's the ONLY thing you're doing and even then, it's insane.

It's not just the volume but an intermediate to advanced lifter is going to be going heavy and it will trash you.
 
1/6/22
BW 249.8

4 min Assault Bike
Bird Dogs
Side Planks
BW Lunges & Squats

SSB Squat
62,152,242,292,332x5
+belt
362,382x5

Conventional, deadlift bar
135,225,315x5
+hook
365x5
+belt
395,425x5
+straps
455x5

Such a great night. -15* windchill here, so wife urged me to go to our friends box down the road and save the heater gas. Ended up randomly training with an old lifting friend there that I haven’t seen since before my son was born. First time pulling conventional since June, but the bar was moving like I had never quit, so he urged me to take 455 - perfect RPE7 lift. 40lbs up from Sumo 5’s a month ago.

Moving into a deload week; no training til after bloodwork Monday morning.
 
Dustin07 said:
how quick do you normally get your bloodwork results back?
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Because it has IGF1 on the panel, it can take 10 business days. That isn’t that important to me, but this particular test has everything I do want at the best price point, so I don’t mind the wait. If you avoid one with IGF1, 3-5 business days is the norm for Quest through PrivateMDLabs.

I want to see where I’m at, that I’m not about to keel over, and there’s been no grievous effects from adding in Telmisartan since I’ve never used it prior or ran testosterone this high. Knowing how bad things are now will help guide how long I blast and what else I use.
 
Bought a new (used) platform from a friend’s gym to install under our stall mat and yoke. Now we can deadlift where we squat & bench, and I can move the old stone loading platforms I have been pulling on outside behind our fence this spring, specifically for loading like they were built for. Much smoother footing to deadlift inside now, and we will gain a big footprint in the garage only having one platform. Wife prefers to clean & press from the concrete floor anyway since we have bumpers and drop pads.

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Hyde said:
Bought a new (used) platform from a friend’s gym to install under our stall mat and yoke. Now we can deadlift where we squat & bench, and I can move the old stone loading platforms I have been pulling on outside behind our fence this spring, specifically for loading like they were built for. Much smoother footing to deadlift inside now, and we will gain a big footprint in the garage only having one platform. Wife prefers to clean & press from the concrete floor anyway since we have bumpers and drop pads.

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Click to expand...
no sound system?
 
Hyde said:
Bought a new (used) platform from a friend’s gym to install under our stall mat and yoke. Now we can deadlift where we squat & bench, and I can move the old stone loading platforms I have been pulling on outside behind our fence this spring, specifically for loading like they were built for. Much smoother footing to deadlift inside now, and we will gain a big footprint in the garage only having one platform. Wife prefers to clean & press from the concrete floor anyway since we have bumpers and drop pads.

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Hell yeah!
 
On your Chest and Shoulder day I noticed your warm up includes facepulls. I just do an external and internal rotator cuff with plates. Is facepull more effective to warm up?
 
thebigt said:
no sound system?
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Haha definitely not; I don’t think the baby or my neighbors would appreciate the violence blasting in my earbuds while they’re sleeping!

jtmass said:
On your Chest and Shoulder day I noticed your warm up includes facepulls. I just do an external and internal rotator cuff with plates. Is facepull more effective to warm up?
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I believe so, at least as an overall warmup - gets a lot more blood through the shoulder girdle, and even the pecs & elbows via indirect movement. It also reinforces scapular retraction before anything is ever pressed at all. A band Pullapart is a decent substitute as well, for variety.

And they aren’t mutually exclusive - you can try a set of Facepulls first and then do your rotators and see if they still improved more or if the Facepulls were sufficient. Ideally this stuff is quite fast and to the point.
 
Hyde said:
Haha definitely not; I don’t think the baby or my neighbors would appreciate the violence blasting in my earbuds while they’re sleeping!



I believe so, at least as an overall warmup - gets a lot more blood through the shoulder girdle, and even the pecs & elbows via indirect movement. It also reinforces scapular retraction before anything is ever pressed at all. A band Pullapart is a decent substitute as well, for variety.

And they aren’t mutually exclusive - you can try a set of Facepulls first and then do your rotators and see if they still improved more or if the Facepulls were sufficient. Ideally this stuff is quite fast and to the point.
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i forgot what it's like having a baby in the house :)

congrats again!!!
 
Hyde said:
Haha definitely not; I don’t think the baby or my neighbors would appreciate the violence blasting in my earbuds while they’re sleeping!



I believe so, at least as an overall warmup - gets a lot more blood through the shoulder girdle, and even the pecs & elbows via indirect movement. It also reinforces scapular retraction before anything is ever pressed at all. A band Pullapart is a decent substitute as well, for variety.

And they aren’t mutually exclusive - you can try a set of Facepulls first and then do your rotators and see if they still improved more or if the Facepulls were sufficient. Ideally this stuff is quite fast and to the point.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I’ll try it out on my push day.
 
1/11/22
BW 248.6

7 min cycle
Bird Dogs
Side Planks

Reverse Hyper
45 2x15

GHR
2x10

Dynamic Boxsquat
45x5
+ light bands
45,135,185x3
235 4x3

GHR
2x10

Reverse Hyper
45 2x15

Some light work tonight since I had to miss my leg day yesterday morning for bloodwork (then wife worked in the evening, and this morning was her normal training day). Bench deload early in the morning, then squat/pull in less than 48 hours.
 
Hyde said:
1/11/22
BW 248.6

7 min cycle
Bird Dogs
Side Planks

Reverse Hyper
45 2x15

GHR
2x10

Dynamic Boxsquat
45x5
+ light bands
45,135,185x3
235 4x3

GHR
2x10

Reverse Hyper
45 2x15

Some light work tonight since I had to miss my leg day yesterday morning for bloodwork (then wife worked in the evening, and this morning was her normal training day). Bench deload early in the morning, then squat/pull in less than 48 hours.
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What are the tests your blood work include? Just want to compare and see how different it is from what I do.
 
jtmass said:
What are the tests your blood work include? Just want to compare and see how different it is from what I do.
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CMP with EGFR, CBC, Lipids, Total & Free Test Ultrasensitive, Estradiol Ultrasensitive, TSH, PSA, IGF1 (don’t care about that)

Would be great to have CRP, Hba1c, Vitamin D, Prolactin, but I have to operate on a realistic budget if I am pulling this stuff 3-5x a year. The most important things for routine sampling IMHO all fall into the first 3 - that’s the stuff that shows your health trending.
 
1/12/22
BW 249.2

7 min cycle
Bird Dogs
Side Planks
Band Pressdown, Row, Facepulls, Rotators

Bench
45x10
95,145x5
195 4x1
250x1

CG 2-Board
250 2x15

Fat Handle DB 45* Incline Bench
90 3x15

DB Rotators
10 2x12

Band Pressdown
Light x100

“Now it's all irrelevant
The journey here and what it meant
Time and distance, others hate for my persistence
Every stride enlightens
It all begins emerging
I've been here before but veered from my path

…Only the true soldier on”

-Through the Thorns, Hatebreed
 
Hyde said:
CMP with EGFR, CBC, Lipids, Total & Free Test Ultrasensitive, Estradiol Ultrasensitive, TSH, PSA, IGF1 (don’t care about that)

Would be great to have CRP, Hba1c, Vitamin D, Prolactin, but I have to operate on a realistic budget if I am pulling this stuff 3-5x a year. The most important things for routine sampling IMHO all fall into the first 3 - that’s the stuff that shows your health trending.
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I used to check Total and Free Test before. But, when we are on cycle, these values will be on a higher scale anyway, right. PSA is prostate health?
 
jtmass said:
I used to check Total and Free Test before. But, when we are on cycle, these values will be on a higher scale anyway, right. PSA is prostate health?
Click to expand...

Right, I get the test that will show elevations in tt above 1500 so I can see that my gear is dosed right approximately and how my body responds to that dose, and the free test indirectly tells me what SHBG is doing.

I do not think it’s critical at all; if you inject something and it’s working to your satisfaction that’s all that matters. But over years collecting this data will give me extra knowledge about how my body processes things and what to expect. So it’s more of a longterm play.

Yes, Prostate Specific Antigen can be a red flag worth keeping an eye on.
 
Hyde said:
Right, I get the test that will show elevations in tt above 1500 so I can see that my gear is dosed right approximately and how my body responds to that dose, and the free test indirectly tells me what SHBG is doing.

I do not think it’s critical at all; if you inject something and it’s working to your satisfaction that’s all that matters. But over years collecting this data will give me extra knowledge about how my body processes things and what to expect. So it’s more of a longterm play.

Yes, Prostate Specific Antigen can be a red flag worth keeping an eye on.
Click to expand...

I definitely have to keep an eye on Prostate. I’ll include that in my blood work next time. Thank you!
 
Hyde said:
Right, I get the test that will show elevations in tt above 1500 so I can see that my gear is dosed right approximately and how my body responds to that dose, and the free test indirectly tells me what SHBG is doing.

I do not think it’s critical at all; if you inject something and it’s working to your satisfaction that’s all that matters. But over years collecting this data will give me extra knowledge about how my body processes things and what to expect. So it’s more of a longterm play.

Yes, Prostate Specific Antigen can be a red flag worth keeping an eye on.
Click to expand...
most definitely!!!
 
1/13/22

7 min cycle
McGill Big 3
Pullaparts
Hip & Shoulder stretches
BW Squats

Squat, powerbar
45,135x5
225x3
295 4x1
365,415x1

Conventional, deadlift bar
135,225x5
315 4x1
365x1

365 moved just as fast as the technique singles of 295, which blew me away, so I threw another 50lbs on. 415 did slow down some, but for it to move so easily beltless on a day I felt generally unready to lift tells me my squat is certainly back over 500lbs now. Everything usually feels quite heavy on these deload weeks (confirming I am deloading at good intervals), so this was great.
 
wfreiling said:
Big boy squats on the horizon
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Yeah I am looking forward to seeing where things are at in 4 more weeks. I don’t think I’m really going to be in range to make it worth doing the meet in 8 weeks, but I don’t need to decide until a month out either. As long as I keep making progress without injury, I’m happy.

I have been off my 10mg Mk677 from Mon-Thurs. I saw 252lbs in the morning before taking that break, then dropped down to ~249 pre-poop. Began it Friday again and today (Sat) I am back to 252. So the Mk is worth a good 3lbs of waterweight.

Last 2 weeks cycle has been:
-Test E 480mg
-Mast E 300mg
-Deca 100mg

as well as 1 weekly serving each of: 15mg Trest Ace oil, 10mg Dbol cap, 25mg Anadrol tab the previous the week. None this week as it’s a deload.
 
Hyde said:
Yeah I am looking forward to seeing where things are at in 4 more weeks. I don’t think I’m really going to be in range to make it worth doing the meet in 8 weeks, but I don’t need to decide until a month out either. As long as I keep making progress without injury, I’m happy.

I have been off my 10mg Mk677 from Mon-Thurs. I saw 252lbs in the morning before taking that break, then dropped down to ~249 pre-poop. Began it Friday again and today (Sat) I am back to 252. So the Mk is worth a good 3lbs of waterweight.

Last 2 weeks cycle has been:
-Test E 480mg
-Mast E 300mg
-Deca 100mg

as well as 1 weekly serving each of: 15mg Trest Ace oil, 10mg Dbol cap, 25mg Anadrol tab the previous the week. None this week as it’s a deload.
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You are at a similar total aas dosage to me. I'm finding around 850mg/week is my threshold for negligible side effects. Going up from here seems to be not worth it.
 
BennyMagoo79 said:
You are at a similar total aas dosage to me. I'm finding around 850mg/week is my threshold for negligible side effects. Going up from here seems to be not worth it.
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Looking at the recent years cycles & adding up all the orals and such, the trend I noticed was that ~900mg/wk range is where things were totaling whenever I was getting into the juiciest parts of cycles. That amount isn’t going to work the same for me if I was just using straight primo or something, but assuming that’s a mix of mild oils and something harder.

I definitely am getting a lot of sides I wouldn’t have by having the 100mg of deca on board, but it really is helping me not have joint pain training through the cold winter months so I’m trying to finish the vial.
 
Added 450mg of EQ to the remaining 1.5cc in this morning’s glute shot.

Drug dosage last 2 weeks has been static, only 4 weeks left in this training cycle, and leaning against doing the meet in 8 weeks. Not sure about orals or anything until I see my bloodwork, so I figured this single bolus shot is a good way to add 100 or so mg/wk into things over the next month & bring total weekly AAS to a gram or so.
 
1/16/22
BW 252.2

7 min walk
DB Rear Delt Flyes, Tri Ext, Rotators, Pec Flyes

Widegrip Bench
45,95,135x15
175,185x25 oh yeah baby

DB Side Raises
30 5x15

alt w/ Pec Deck
130,150,170,190,210x15

Rear Delt Flyes on Pec Flyes
100 5x15

alt w/ Dips
BW 2x15

Broke out the 25-rep widegrip. Last time I went for 2 sets of 25 at 185, I strained my pec trying to finish the second set - this was a month out from the meet and had to coast in and still benched 369lbs EASY. So this tells me bench should be 365+ currently.
 
1/17/22

5 min walk
McGill Big 3
Hip stretches, roll bottom of feet, lunges

Lying Leg Curl
120,140,160x12

Frontsquat, beltless
45,135,205x3
255 3x6
275x6

Legpress
270,450,630x10
-mash left quad-
720x20

Looking at more indicator lifts, repping 275 beltless fairly easy on fronts bodes very well for my upper back/ab strength to be able to produce a bigger squat again. Really starting to feel like a force of nature in the gym the last 3-4 weeks! The 8-plate Legpress was just me sandbagging some easy volume into the equation; could have definitely did 25+ reps or used more weight if I wanted to mess up Thursday’s squats coming up.
 
HEALTH CHAT

Very pleased with bloodwork. Everything is under control, besides cholesterol, but even that is quite solid for me in this scenario (being on cycle for 12 weeks, gaining 10kg, eating McDonald’s at least 2x/week and generally eating lots of trash & sugar to help keep weight up, NO cardio). All my gear and supports are certainly legit. I have the current health, so to speak, to go 8 more weeks to the competition, but likely will not do so. Blood, liver, kidneys, glucose, trigs all good.

HDL is only 33, & LDL has crept up 30 points or so to 139, so I have added 5mg Ezetimibe nightly. Studies found that 5mg produced statistically similar results as 10mg, and on average I should be looking for around a 15% reduction in LDL while bolstering my HDL & lowering triglycerides.

Bumping Deca to 125mg/wk, and adding 25-50mg Proviron daily to take advantage of the higher current androgen level (another good reason for the Ezetimibe to help protect HDL).

Added 8oz salmon meals 3-4x a week the last couple weeks in lieu of my 4 grams of double strength Krill oil those days, and switched from a pomegranate extract cap daily to 4oz actual juice. Easy calories, and hearth health impact can only be superior.

In general, amazed at Telmisartan at just 20mg. Not just blood pressure support, but the total lack of sides and massive reduction in water retention & edema on testosterone. I have to actually supplement a lot of sodium to stay adequately hydrated, as opposed to avoiding it heavily like I normally would on test or deca. I will not really bloat at all even eating like an American asshole. A truly marvelous on-blast bandaid for kidney health, even if you don’t need the blood pressure help.
 
1/19/22
BW 250.0

7 min cycle
Bird Dogs
Pullaparts, Pressdowns, Rows, Facepulls, Tri Extensions, Rotators

Bench
45x15
45,95,135x5
185,235,275,295,305x4
315x3+MISS

CG 2-Board
255 3x10

Vaporized. 305x4 was 5lbs progress. I felt like 315x4 was going to be there at a high RPE, and as I’m getting to the end of this blast I was fine pushing that. But it stuck midway up on the final rep - even threw my hips up & put every ounce of energy into pressing it out, but in the end I was bested. Straining so hard left me blasted.

Pretty disappointing, but definitely put the axe on competing in March. Just going to spend the last few weeks trying to grow into ~250lbs as a better foundation for next blast.
 
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A follow up to my message; it’s a galvanized pipe welded to the cut end of an Olympic dumbbell, then I use baseball tape at the end. Very sturdy. If you try it, don’t forget to strip the galvanized steel with muriatic acid before you weld to avoid the fumes.
 
RegisterJr said:
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A follow up to my message; it’s a galvanized pipe welded to the cut end of an Olympic dumbbell, then I use baseball tape at the end. Very sturdy. If you try it, don’t forget to strip the galvanized steel with muriatic acid before you weld to avoid the fumes.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the ideas!
 
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