Next microcycle (training week) starts today with high bar squats Olympic weightlifting style (ass-to-grass), followed by lying leg curls, a zillion calf raises (wtf even is Maximum Recoverable Volume (MRV) on these things anyway? 10 sets in a workout? 12?!), and then a bit of upper body work with tricep pressdowns and standing dumbbell overhead press.
This is as per Renaissance Periodization's Male physique training template, the 4 day full body Novice/intermediate program, which has an algorithm to help appropriately titrate volume dosing to make sure you aren't over doing or under doing your training. I used to struggle with balancing those two things in my training and so far this program has helped a lot with that. It'll have me deloading after 3 more weeks of volume and intensity and load progression.. I might cut it off after 2 more though since my mom will be coming down from Canada to visit for a weekend and I figure that's a good time to deload.
And these are my and my wife's two baby cats, little girl Penny (black) and little boy Charlie (grey and white) harassing me while I try to lace up my shoes as usual, to walk to the gym.
Also the shoes are NB Minimus, the trail walking version, but I use them as my general purpose training shoe, for pretty much everything except squats/hack squats/leg press, where I've recently discovered that weightlifting shoes really help me to hit a full depth Olympic squat even with my awkwardly long femurs.
Any type of minimalist shoe is ideal for deadlifts of all types, since having your heels down allows for maximal activation of the posterior chain. And for walking since they help strengthen the foot (I'm still trying to work on reducing my tendency to flat-footed-ness), especially the arch.
