Training

Today was light squat day. Still, I was sore from being a wuss and not squatting for so long. Here's how the session went.

Squat-
225x5x5

DB Row-
80x5,5

Weighted Pullups-
45x5,1
90(almost)

That's it. Did a bunch of shoulder work hoping to balance out my right shoulder and clear up the pain. It's improving, so I plan to just keep plugging away.

Zuuuuuuuuuuubaz. Now if he just had a rat tail.

Jiu Jitsu

Rolled tonight for a couple hours. Worked on escapes from mount and learned a new variation on a head and arm choke. Finding that my lack of strength is really hampering me right now, but I did manage to get thru tonight without shoulder issues on my right side. That's a win. Excited to get back on top of the strength and come back better than ever.

Forpliktet Inntil Døden

Had the chance to break the fast and start training today. Felt good. Here's the meager start.

Squat-
275 x 3,3,3,3,3,3

DB Row-
50 x 10,10,10,10

Rack Pull-
315, 405, 495, 585

Hormone blast. Feeling better than I have in weeks.

I Blodet Ditt

We all have desires in our deepest heart of hearts, things that often reach beyond reason or smack of complete absurdity to others. Passions that need no why; an internal high road. These are things that we are often made to feel guilty for or discouraged from. Common sense is valuable, but a starched, broken heart is no price to pay for it. Keep a piece of your dream with you always; God-given ambitions may be one of the only great things we get in this rat race of so-called normalcy. Not everything needs a "why" just this second. It's in your blood, and its probably there for a reason.

Undead

Back from the edge. It's been a while! After several injuries and a lot of personal priority changes (buying a house, finding out I'm gonna be a dad, etc.), my strength training has taken a back seat. Figured I needed some new objectives to get the fire going again.

I've been doing some jiu jitsu with a few guys from the local wrestling club and I'm thinking of competing in the fall. I've been working with some MMA clients and started doing the JJ training to help me better prepare programs for these athletes. The cons of this are weightloss, strength loss, and lots of tweaks and dings. The pros are better conditioning, flexibility, and the joy of choking out another human being.

So I'll be kicking things off this week by getting my strength training back in full swing as well as a more organized grappling schedule. I still have a nasty shoulder but my back is better, so I hopefully won't have to compromise too much on my lift selections.

So here's to bigger squats, better conditioning, and some cauliflower ear.

Check It Out

Give it a look. This is where I'll be posting for now. www.alexnss.com

See what our powerlifting team is up to, how we train, as well as lifter profiles, events, etc. Stay strong!

More Training and Video

Training is going really well. It's nice to do something different for a bit. I'm squatting once a week, maybe twice if I feel really good, and I'm running mostly high rep/volume for now according to the template I'm following. I'm doing some iso hold hip stability progressions that have helped my hip flexor immensely in just 2 days. Bodyweight is still low, so if I buckle down soon and put a few pounds back on, I should get a nice strength shot. Here's a little bit of the last couple days. Squat- Narrower stance because of hip. 135 x 5 185 x 5 225 x 3 245 x 8, 10, 12 Back extensions, lunges, etc. Squat- day after (hip felt good) worked up to 365 x 1 still narrower stance, felt good for a change. Weird since I've been squatting light and infrequently. My shoulder has gotten a bit better too. Went from not being able to unrack a bar for 3 months to benching 195 last night with relative ease and no pain, just a hair of tension. Here's a sweet video of a truly great lifter. These squats are raw except for knee wraps and a belt.