Exercise Log 3.2.14 (Rest Day Log)

Today (technically yesterday, started typing up this log last night) is a rest day so it’s time to catch up a little bit on progress logging. It’s been a while since I’ve done this kind of update. My last rest day log post was Jan 6th, so it’s nearly two months since then. Time to see how I’m doing.

Physically I do feel some wear from the grind and hustle. Had some hard nap days, low energy. On top of this more strains and kinks in my muscles require more stretching and massaging. Aggravation in my right shoulder and in my left psoas (or some muscle adjacent to the psoas in that inner hip area) have been particularly problematic, but I’m working around it. Part of this has been chronically skipping yoga, to make up for it I have been more seriously stretching after my workouts. My weight still has not fluctuated (I’m still pretty consistently 160).

My initial assessment is that I may be training suboptimally long in my workouts and not adequately resting… staying up late to be social and waking up early to open at work is definitely a factor there. So I’m trying to take rest days more seriously and absorb them in and I’m re-assessing my workout program. Trying to shorten my workouts and increase things like intensity and focus in the major exercises I do. I do feel like I am trending towards being leaner and improving strength, but more slowly than I had before the New Year started.

Nutritionally I started mass cooking my meals which I blogged about, which is great fun and really tightening up my nutrition. I have a lot more wiggle room to be sloppy on my diet if I wanted, but no real desire to be. If anything, I may end my days shy of the nutrients and calories I really need to be optimal. I may need to get more high quality protein in my diet.

Winter has slowed me down quite a lot, and the inability to get good outdoor runs in has hurt my cardio quite a bit. As far as my routines go, I’ve spent a lot of time working on form and focus, lately I’ve not been as concerned about pushing myself as I have just doing everything the right way. I think that will pay off in the long haul.

Now my front squat not improving in two whole months is noteworthy, because I had a lot of crisis and redevelopment of my front squat these last two months. My first 165lb front squat, which happened just prior to that Jan 6th log, was awful form. So I went down in weight and worked my way up over a 20lb gap. Then I hit a few low energy days, where training was suboptimal. My thought process is that anyone can do a sloppy squat to push the weight up but I want to make it good and solid as that will give me the best long-term gains.

As for my deadlift, this last month I’ve had a setback there, lower energy again hitting me to compromise my max deadlift. I have a feeling though this is temporary. Cutting back my plan and taking rest more seriously I think will shore up any issues with staying energetic enough to make the workout happen. I may also do a few workout days that are deliberately cut short, just to see how progress happens after those days.

Alright, finally let’s sum up the goals. Improvements are rated from my last update on Jan 6th.

Goal & Progress Log (last update Jan 6th)

Deadlift of 400lbs (current max 285lbs) +30lbs
Front squat of 200lbs (current max 165lbs) no change
Bench press of 185lbs (current max 165lbs) +10lbs
5K pace 23:00 (personal record 23:58) (no new races)