Syndr0m's Chesticle Admiration Thread

extremely short summary of the past couple years

I'm married & have two sons
frontsquatted 170kg (375lbs)
benched 140kg (310lbs)
ran a marathon
recently got into bjj

still look and weigh around the same (95kg/210lbs)

hoping to one day to reach a 200kg squat

juggernaut method for squat and bench, I don't deadlift anymore because of lower back issues

mainly wanna log to keep track of stuff and it will help keep me accountable

6 Jan 2025 [ Cycle: 8s / Phase: Realization ]

Squat 8RM
8x120 @RPE8 = estimated 1RM 160kg

Strict Press
4x12x30

BOR 3x12x60

Bicep Curl 4x12x7.5

nice squat. deserved a few cheers or whoops from other gym goers

he's probably got some more from when we trained in a powerlifting gym in chengdu

I've been away for a while, what did you mean by this?

Fwiw I'm weak again now, I spent most of last year running.

Getting a heavy squat in under the eye of a couple gym buddies is the best feeling ever for sure

Also adds strength because of adrenaline and ego

This place in the video was dead as hell though lol

tbh, I can't believe that a 170kg FS doesn't equate >> a 200kg BS.

was it that you weren't doing BS/couldn't find time for a 1RM when you were in 170kg FS shape?

I injured my lower back deadlifting drunk some time in 2022 and it took me a long time to figure out how to train around it, eventually I gave up backsquatting because it kept making it worse again. I found out having the more upright back angle in FS seemed fine, so for a year or so I trained only FS+bench and some accessories. Maybe I was capable of it at the time but I was too afraid to try. I seriously doubt it though given how awkward my BS felt by that time.

Welcome back!

Do you have a brief trip report for the marathon?

It was just a bucket list kinda thing, I've always wanted to do it just to unlock the achievement, nothing more. My only goal was to finish in time.

I hated the training and always felt it was boring. Also because I ran on heart rate (140-150) which usually meant 10-11min/mile, running sessions were long and slow.

The first few months were okay because the distances were short but I got incredibly demotivated as soon as I was supposed to hit 15-25km several times a week. I dreaded it even though it was not hard or anything. Just boring and it didn't even make me feel good. I got zero endorphins from it. Also for a while I tried mixing it with strength training but at some point I realized I was just making it harder on myself cause I was always tired and it made my legs feel heavy and stiff.

Eventually I just quit the gym and tried to stay consistent with the running and not worry about the distances anymore. I did two normal runs and one interval session a week for a couple months straight and slowly started seeing clear improvement (my pace went up and my hr went down). I never went over 15km the last few months.

I was super excited about the marathon day itself, but then as soon as I started I realized my heart rate was way higher than usual. Probably nerves or something. But my plan was to just run the marathon the same way I trained, I stuck to the heart rate, which means I now ran even slower.

I finished in 5:15 by easy jogging start to finish, there was no moment where I felt like giving up, no pains, no struggle. Just extreme boredom. Some time around 25-30km I started calculating and realized if I absolutely killed myself I might have been able to finish within 5hrs, which seemed like a really dumb strategy (it's still not impressive and I might not have made it). So I just kept to the plan and finished with a smile.

Maybe it sounds stupid but I had really mixed feelings after. On one hand I was super excited I finally did it and I hit my goal exactly as planned. On the other hand, running in the back of the marathon you're surrounded by old people, overweight people, out of shape females, people with diseases, etc. So I suddenly felt like my achievement wasn't all that impressive anymore lmao.

Either way, I don't think I'll ever do it again. I just don't enjoy the training at all.

Probably not all that unusual of a story; it's hard to keep doing something you don't get a lot out of. I'm pretty surprised that I've enjoyed it as much as I have, though I had a fair number of hiccups at the start. I originally started running because I thought Hyrox looked cool and I wanted to give one a shot, but here we are over two years in and I haven't done one yet and I'm running 5 days a week. Life, man.

Regardless, finishing a marathon is very impressive; I'd assume having a bit more of an actual training plan that's specific to the marathon distance (i.e., locking in on a race pace based on your lactate threshold and training around that as well) would have gotten you a faster time, but that seems to have not been the goal, so successfulvulture.gif. I think being a HYBRID ATHLETE [sup]TM[/SUP] is probably "better" than solely lifting or solely cardiobunnying (of course, bathtub tren is better than both), but chasing quasi-optimality over what you actually enjoy doing doesn't seem like a recipe for success for me.

high school chemistry lab on the weekends tren and ultra high step count* is better than both, I think you meant.

That reminds me, I actually did a lactate threshold test fairly early on. My IAS is 177 and my max hr well over 200. I found out that even after years of crossfit my base conditioning was still terribad, hr shot up real high super early on. The guy who did the test told me I basically start from 0. He wrote up a program and had me running 4 times a week at 12:00/mi. It was around here the demotivation started mostly because the frequency was too high for my taste. And every week I missed a run I felt like I was getting behind. And meanwhile the distance was going up, and runs got longer, so it was an even bigger mental hurdle to get started, and so I started missing more runs. After 2 months or so I stopped running completely for a while and then I got back into it with this book that prepares you in 12 weeks, running 3x/wk and never over 9 miles. It sounds stupid to any serious marathoner but I don't think I would've made it (mentally) without this book.

I really love intervals, it feels much closer to crossfit and gives me a ton of endorphins. Like I love feeling like I'm working hard, it brings out my ego. But I understand in marathon training you gotta run slow to run fast.

Judging by my brother's training I also get the impression it all becomes more fun when you get actually good at it, so I think part of what makes it so boring for me is that I feel like I have to hold back so much.

Do you remember what pace you were running at when you just started?

Fyi at 12:00/mi even the shorter runs take 75-90mins

gonna dump some bjj notes in here as well cause I'm getting 1on1 classes and I keep forgetting all the terms

today focused on:
de la riva guard
tripod sweep
crab guard
berimbolo
rear naked choke
collar choke
bow & arrow choke
transition to armbar

9 Jan 2025 [ Cycle: 8s / Phase: Realization ]

Bench 8RM
8x80 @RPE8 = estimated 1RM 100kg (lol)

I started out at around a 10:30-11:00/mi pace if memory serves, after I ran for a few weeks at an 8:00/mi pace because I "should" be able to run that fast and wondered why my HR was approaching 180 after a mile. I also popped the same calf twice in the six months after I started.

For whatever it's worth, I have come around to the fact that time based training is better than distance based training for beginners, as building time on feet is the more appropriate metric; I don't think a long run that's much longer than 60-75 minutes is all that useful until you've gotten 6+ months of training under your belt, and 20-40 minute runs 3-5 times a week, with a gradual increase in the number of days and duration, seems like the safest way to build stamina without injuring yourself (like I did) or getting bored (like you did).

With that said, assuming you're looking to train "optimally", more than half of your training is going to be at whatever your easy pace happens to be; if you're training more infrequently, the intensity can go up, but you won't be able to tolerate as much of it as you would had you done a good 6-12 months of base building first. It all depends on your goals; I'm sure you can get plenty fit doing something (per week) like one easy run of moderate length, one long run, and alternating weeks with a moderately paced run (tempo, threshold, whatever) and an interval session with quasi VO2 work. It probably won't get you as aerobically fit as multiple dedicated marathon blocks will, but if that's not your goal, who cares?

A decent amount of my early (self coached) easy work was predicated on me getting to the next round number pace (10:30/mi down to 10:00/mi down to 9:30/mi, etc etc) as quickly as possible, which necessarily meant that my HR for those runs was "too high" because I was constantly striving to go faster and I couldn't hold it as long, but that was what motivated me. You also gain fitness relatively quickly, so my HR came down, but it helped me build the habit. Now my program requires me to maintain pretty strict HR ranges for certain sessions, and I'm more willing/able to do that because it's not interminably slow and I kind of enjoy the challenge; I'm not sure I would have been so amenable a few years ago.

I don't know. I haven't seen anyone post a video of a cool PR like that in a few years. I mean, Evoken does post stuff. Hmm, maybe others do and I just don't look at their logs lol.

Came for the chesticles, leaving because of the running.

The training doesn't look right. I truly believe all humans would enjoy running, if they did it right.

My sister ran 3:58 on 27 miles a week bro.

If you like intervals better I wonder if someone around here has run 2:57 marathon with mainly 1000m interval training. I wonder where he might be, could of probably changed your training to run an easy sub4 and stay out of the way of the obese and cancer survivors.

But I am wild guessing, wherever you are in China the weather sux. Indianapolis has decent running weather.

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pre-marathon :(

Fwiw my only goal was finishing. I optimized for that. My intensity was probably as low as it possibly could have been without walking. I think if I just ran based on how I felt I could've put in a waayyyyy better time, but at the risk of not making it through the last 10k's.

If doing interval training only can get me a sub4 marathon I might actually try it again lol. I just went entirely based off conventional advice. I really ran painfully slow, all the time. As soon as I sped up I was actually having fun but I also immediately felt like I was moving away from the training objective and wasn't doing it right.

Last bjj group class I pulled off my very first submission, on a purple belt of all things. my coach doesn't let white belts grapple other white belts. It was a rear collar choke. The purple guy was a bit sloppy with his defense at first cause he thought he'd find his way out of it later, but I somehow got his back after a bit of back and forth and immediately grabbed the collar with my right hand and started choking. It wasn't tight enough so I put my right leg on the shoulder and started adding some extra pressure. I was thinking about how the bow & arrow choke worked again but couldn't figure it out in the moment so I just threw my head back and lifted myself from the floor a bit to increase tension and he finally tapped after what felt like eternity. He immediately yelled ****, in Chinese. Man what a feeling, confidence increased a lot right after.

Today's 1on1 I learned about the various spider guards, into triangle choke and armbar.

16 Jan 2025 [ Cycle: 8s / Phase: Recovery ]

Squat 3x5x80
Bench 3x5x50
Bicp curls 1x20x15 2x15x20
Facepulls 3x20x10
RDL 3x12x60