Merkley's guide to pretend lifting

[Merkley]

WEEK 8 DELOAD

GB ARMS:

 This was painful as fuck, no way around it. 20 lbs dumbbells were ruining my arms. Barbell curls with 60 lbs and the preacher curls with 75 lbs had me questioning my current life choices....

[Merkley]

WEEK 9 DELOAD

 GB BACK:

 Today was a smoother workout. My elbows didn't give me a rough time and I managed to get through pain free! I made sure not to abuse the situation. ALSO! I managed some successful lat pulldowns! I changed the handle from the normal lat pulldown handle to the handle that allows for a neutral grip, WORLD OF DIFFERENCE! By successful I mean I could feel it in my back and I didn't have to stress my arms to get through the motion.

 I'm taking an extra deload week. I pushed way too hard these past couple of deload weeks and feel I need another week of actual deloading. I need to lighten the weight vs. just dropping on volume. I've been putting too much stress weight wise on my body and it's really affecting me negatively.

[ShawnJ]

Sounds like you have been beating down the body hard buddy, rest up and come back killing it! Happy New Year!

[Merkley]

Sounds like you have been beating down the body hard buddy, rest up and come back killing it! Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year to you as well.

 I finished my week 9 deload.... But I have to be honest I'm still feeling rough, really rough. All there seems to be is pain, regression, and zero enjoyment in training. I don't want to train and when I do I want to get it done as fast as I can and I find myself doing only things I like to do and with weight amounts I want to do (which right now isn't much). Overall I feel shitty, mentally, physically....

 In fact, the only thing I want to do is sit with a good book and read. This is how I spent the vast majority of my weekend. (The eagle and the dragon by Chris Duffin, amazing read!)

 I'm speculating that this is a mixture of both my training taking it's toll and my nutrition not matching up to the demands I've put on myself, I dunno.

 In any case, I'm going to continue with the remainder of the GB program. Although I'm going to be utilizing more auto regulation at this point.

 



 

[ShawnJ]

Sounds like you have been beating down the body hard buddy, rest up and come back killing it! Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year to you as well.

 I finished my week 9 deload.... But I have to be honest I'm still feeling rough, really rough. All there seems to be is pain, regression, and zero enjoyment in training. I don't want to train and when I do I want to get it done as fast as I can and I find myself doing only things I like to do and with weight amounts I want to do (which right now isn't much). Overall I feel shitty, mentally, physically....

 In fact, the only thing I want to do is sit with a good book and read. This is how I spent the vast majority of my weekend. (The eagle and the dragon by Chris Duffin, amazing read!)

 I'm speculating that this is a mixture of both my training taking it's toll and my nutrition not matching up to the demands I've put on myself, I dunno.

 In any case, I'm going to continue with the remainder of the GB program. Although I'm going to be utilizing more auto regulation at this point.

Sounds like a good plan to auto regulate from here in, looks to be a very demanding program. It’s hard finding that balance of enough work to grow, and not too much work to burn dafuq out! You will get that hunger back!

[Merkley]

Sounds like a good plan to auto regulate from here in, looks to be a very demanding program. It’s hard finding that balance of enough work to grow, and not too much work to burn dafuq out! You will get that hunger back!

 I hear ya! I never know when to back off until it's too late. Even when I do notice signs of fatigue there are many times I ignore it thinking I'm having an off day and just push through it. Next thing you know I've injured myself or end up in these kind of situations.

 

[ShawnJ]

Sounds like a good plan to auto regulate from here in, looks to be a very demanding program. It’s hard finding that balance of enough work to grow, and not too much work to burn dafuq out! You will get that hunger back!

 I hear ya! I never know when to back off until it's too late. Even when I do notice signs of fatigue there are many times I ignore it thinking I'm having an off day and just push through it. Next thing you know I've injured myself or end up in these kind of situations.

Haha I’m the same way

[Merkley]

WEEK 10

GB LEGS:

 Things were off to a rough start however as the workout progressed things got better. By the end of it I felt I had a decent workout even though I wasn't pushing my limits.

 Right now my body is feeling pretty good minus my right elbow/shoulder, it's been a little on the cranky side but nothing I cannot handle.

 In other news I wrapped up reading the eagle and the dragon by Chris Duffin, fucking amazing read. I highly suggest getting it! After reading it I immediately got the audio version (that he actually reads). I'm going to go through the audio version right away to experience the book differently. I know it sounds crazy but man.....it was awesome!

[Merkley]

WEEK 10

GB CHEST:

This was an in and out workout, nothing special, 45 min and done.

 I've been adding in 20 min walks after my training just to be a little more mobile.

[Merkley]

WEEK 10

GB BACK/ARMS.

I wanted additional recovery time so I combined my back workout with arms. I've lightened the load for both back and arms so I was in an out in 30 min. My forearms and biceps are still painful to train, going over 15 lbs dumbbells is fucking brutal. Hell even doing 10 lbs, 8 lbs, and 5 lbs, is a challenge.

 I think it's time I either drop arm work for awhile or get things checked out or both!

 Right shoulder is ruined, right knee is not doing so well, and my right lat has been getting painful muscle spasms for the past 4 days....

 Seems I should be taken out back like ole' Yeller. lol

 The upside, I get to learn what may be causing these issues and how to correct them.

 

[ShawnJ]

Hope u start to feel better buddy, dialing it back might be the smart move for a bit.

[Merkley]

Hope u start to feel better buddy, dialing it back might be the smart move for a bit.

 Yeah, me too. I don't believe my body is giving me any other choice other than to back off.

 LOL, listen to me...I'm not the one needing a new hip.

[ShawnJ]

Hope u start to feel better buddy, dialing it back might be the smart move for a bit.

 Yeah, me too. I don't believe my body is giving me any other choice other than to back off.

 LOL, listen to me...I'm not the one needing a new hip.

Hahahaha touché
😂

[Merkley]

 I did my leg workout in the beginning of the week and that was it for training until yesterday. Yesterday, I managed to get to the gym and did a quick 45 min upper body workout before the gym closed.

 As much as it pains me to say this, but I'm ending the GB training. It's a great training program but right now I'm just so fucking beat up and in need of some re-structuring. I look forward to re-visiting this program in the near future and hopefully in a caloric surplus. What I'm going to do now I'm not too sure but it'll be refreshing to be logging my training sessions in detail again.