Introduction and Grant's Workout Tuesday 8/12

So I've decided to also use this blog to detail my training journey. I might as well outline some of short-term training goals to give an idea of what I am working towards, as well as my current situation.

I have been recovering from severe adrenal fatigue, self-diagnosed about 3 months ago when I received an adrenal stress index test and found my cortisol levels had plummeted. Basically, I trained too hard for too long and on too few calories to sustain such training, and combine that with excessive caffeine abuse, I really screwed myself up big time. I will do a future post on the exact physiology behind such adrenal fatigue and how I am taking steps to slowly recover from it, but all you need to know for now is that it's a dangerous thing and prevention is the best medicine. So take a page out of my book and avoid extreme heavy training combined with excessive caffeine combined with daily uphill sprints for excess periods of time without proper recovery! Lesson learned the hard way, but I have to say that due to my journey through all of this I've become a stronger, smarter, and much more educated person and have learned in depth how to help others train more intelligently.

Anyways - my current training has lacked consistent structure due to me training based on 'feel', and I have been weight lifting 2 to 3 times a week for the past four of five weeks, which is the least amount of training I've done since I started lifting weights when I was 17. I've trained upwards of 4+ times a week for the past 7 years, minimum, going up to 7 or more weekly training sessions (two-a-days), to never less than 4 per week. For the majority of the my training career I usually was working out around 5 times a week on average, though.

I am coming off of a pretty big 'bulk' phase where I was really eating a high amount of carbohydrate in an effort to keep training hard, while recovering from Adrenal Fatigue, and at the same time building muscle mass and strength. It was working but I also realized I probably was not doing myself any long-term favors and I started to feel some negative affects of this. I finally began to allow my ego to rest and back off on the training, and actually took up yoga. I am extremely grateful for my new-found love for my yoga practice and have been practicing consistently 5 or more times a week since the beginning of July. This, combined with very few weightlifting sessions and shift in my training philosophy as well as diet/ nutrition strategy has enabled me to really feel rejuvenated, recharged, and recovered.

So here I am, almost midway through August, lifting less than I've ever lifted in my career, but feel better than I have ever felt. I am re-evaluating my physical goals and looking forward to the next couple months as I continue to recover and slowly up the training intensity while reaping the benefits of my yoga practice. I am learning more and more everyday and am excited about sharing this knowledge with everyone I am able to influence.

I currently weigh between 176 and 178 lbs, average morning weight. My sleep is phenomenal - I get an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep each night, asleep at 930 PM and awake at 530 AM, natural rise with no alarm. In my opinion, my nutrition is nearly perfect based on my current knowledge of human metabolism, physiology, and my own personal biology (more on this later). My body fat based on a 9-point caliper test, a very accurate method of testing, measured at 8.40% last check-in, Saturday 8/9. This leaves me with a lean body mass of right around 162 lbs. My strength is obviously down from my all-time highs, based on the reduction in training volume and intensity, but I feel light and athletic and know that it will come back quick.

Today's training was based on building strength across the entire body through the use of several heavy, multi-joint compound movements.

Tuesday - 8/12
"Total Body Functional Strength" - 70 minute training session

Morning bodyweight - 177.8 lb

Warm-up:
10x 1-Hand KB Clean and Press @ 44 lb (10 reps right arm, 10 reps left arm)
no rest
30x 2-Hand KB Swing @ 62 lb
rest 2 minutes

A) Power Clean + Push Press: 1+4, 1+3, 1+2, 1+4, 1+3, 1+2
185 lb, 195 lb, 205 lb
195 lb, 205 lb, 215 lb
rest 3 minutes between sets

B1) Front Squat : (31X0) - 5, 4, 3, 5, 4, 3
275 lb, 295 lb, 308 lb
275 lb, 295 lb, 308 lb
rest 2 minutes between sets, alternate B1 and B2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcj3wsPekDs

[youtube]pcj3wsPekDs[/youtube]

B2) Weighted Pull-up : (40X0) 5, 5, 5 (60X0) 3, 3, 3
+22 lb, +22 lb, +22 lb
+33 lb, +33 lb, +33 lb
rest 2 minutes between sets, alternate B2 and B1

Notes:
Power Cleans were all easy, 215 lb felt very light and snappy, caught well above parallel. First time power cleaning in over a month so this felt good. Push presses were also pretty sharp. Last two reps at 215 were a bit heavy but no grinders.
Front Squats were more tough. Last triple at 140 kg felt heavy, but still maintained good posture.
Weighted pull-ups were easy. Felt very strong here.
Fun to alternate squatting and pulling like I did. Great overall body strengthening and stimulus. Workout took longer than I expected. Had 5g BCAAs+ 10g Glutamine prior to lifting, and 5g BCAAs in the middle of B1+B2. Post workout nutrition was berries and homemade raw milk kefir along with half of a green shake.