So I have been strength training for a little while now, and I'm hoping starting a log here will help keep me motivated by being accountable to random people on the internet, and the desire to not be perceived as a quitter. Plus, nobody I know will talk strength with me, and find me annoying when I talk about it. So that's why I need you people. My history with weights is the same as a lot of peoples. Spent 3 years, primarily in the summer, looking to "get ripped" (awwww yeah). I did your typical back/bi, chest/tri, legs/shoulder routine they teach kids in highschool for some reason that escapes me. At one point I lost a lot of weight looking for my six pack, which I never found because I had no muscle mass on my core. Was down to 145ish, and was incredibly weak. Overall, I never gained any strength and very limited muscle over 3 years of sometimes spending 7 days a week toiling away in a YMCA. Incredibly frustrating. Jump to today, I'm doing a Starting Strength variation, and I'm far stronger than I've ever been in my life. But I want to keep on improving, and see how far I can push my strength. I don't play any sports, so this is my outlet for activity for now. I'm still very weak, and haven't progressed particularly well, but even the gains I've made already seem like mountains when I think about how physically incapable I've been my entire life. So here are my goals right now, marked for the end of 2013: Squat: 315 Deadlift: 350 Bench: 200 Press: 150 I'm 170 lbs, 5'11" right now, and gaining weight. Training log... commence!
Oh you've come to the right place. Welcome to the logs. Where are you at now in relation to your goals?
My best lifts are steadily improving, so I didn't include them, but here is my session from today, which is a good picture of where I'm at: (weight x reps x set) Squats Barx5x2 135x5 175x3 195x2 200x5x2 200x3 Bench Barx5x2 105x5 120x3 135x2 140x5x3 Deadlift 135x5x2 185x3 195x2 205x5 Failed the last two reps on my squats... this weight is feeling really heavy, and I stalled out on it before working my way back up already. Bench and deadlift felt great though. My best over head press is 100x4. It's been a tough weight for me, but I think I'll handle it much better next session.
Welcome to the logs sorcerer supreme. Lifting AND comics down for both here. And I am in the same boat, only a few of my friends even go to the gym. The rest don't give a crap about what I do in the gym. Same with comics and cartoons..
Welcome to the Logs. Love the user name!:icon_chee You should have picture of the Sorcerer Supreme as your Avatar.
And so it is done! Hopefully this imbues me with the mystic arts, which I shall use to move more weight around. I actually haven't read any Doctor Strange in quite a while, he was always my favorite superhero though. I'll have to start again.
To quote Leonard from Big Bang Theory, "No, I'm the King of Nerds!":icon_chee My Xmas presents this year included three Marvel Graphic Novels, a Captain America action figure and a radio-controlled Batman figure...:redface: I'm seriously considering switiching my training program to Juggernaut or the(Cosmic)Cube just because of the names!
I haven't read any Dr Strange stories in a while either. The last time I saw him, he was repairing Mjolnir after Thor damaged the Hammer when he was forced to kill his grandfather, Bor.
So this is yesterdays session: Squats Barx5x2 135x5 175x3 195x2 200x3x3 (failed hard) Press Barx5x2 75x5 85x3 95x2 100x5x2 100x4 Chin-ups 13x11x10 So squats were really bad, and I felt really weak with them. I've been having a lot of soreness in my knees after squatting lately, and I'm positive its because I'm really bad for having my knees swim in on me. I tried to correct that yesterday and force my knees out, but I lost a lot of power doing it. I'm going to have to drop the weight and focus on form I think, because the soreness is definitely not where it should be. My copy of Practical Programming is coming on Thursday, can't wait to start reading it. My progress on a linear program has been getting really slow, so I'm starting to think a weekly progression might be the right move... I'm not nearly as strong as I thought I'd be before moving on, but I have made good progress, and I started very weak. I think steady weekly progress would be better than constantly stalling and resetting.
Today's Session: Squats Barx5x2 135x5 160x3 175x2 180x5x3 Bench Barx5x2 110x5 125x3 140x2 145x5x3 Deadlift 135x5x2 185x3 205x2 215x5 Dropped my squat weight by 10% to focus on form. Tried to really focus on keeping my knees out, and even with the decreased weight I struggled with it a bit on my later reps. I'm going to start working back up to 200 while focusing on my knees, at least until I figure out how I'm going to set up a program for weekly progression. The other lifts went well, my deadlift should be a lot better but unfortunately limited weight meant I couldn't progress with it for a while. It felt hard, but I thought I maintained form pretty well. I'm thinking I need to post a squat form check pretty soon.
Today's not-so-great session (which should have been yesterdays session): Squats Barx5x2 135x5 160x3 175x2 185x5x3 Press Barx5x2 75x5 85x3 95x2 105x3 105x2x2 Pullups (BW) 6x6x6 So wasn't feeling great today. Stomach was a bit off, and I was kind of screwed up schedule-wise. Took some form videos though, so if anyone peaks in here, I'd appreciate any feedback. My squats felt better than last session, and I'm just working on the same stuff. My cues I'm giving myself are "chest up," "stay tight," and "knees out" right now. I notice I have some buttwink in the video as well, although my lower back has been feeling fine during/after the lift. Any suggestions here would be really helpful. Press was awful, and by the time I got to it, I felt more tired than usual. Took a form video of my last warm up set, which l think doesn't look too bad, but a critique would be good. Working sets crushed me though, and I only got off 3 by 2 by 2. I think I need to warm up a bit lighter, because my press isn't very strong, and I feel the warmup is hurting my working sets still. Was very dissapointed, because 100 lbs. felt good, and I wasn't expecting such a dramatic drop off. I did pullups from basically a dead hang today for the first time (I have been doing them from about 3/4 extension). Felt okay, other than the low amount of reps I got off in comparison to what I was doing before. But I was expecting as much. Here's the vids: And yes, I accidentally hit the ceiling and have to move on the second rep of the press. It's a low ceiling, so I have to move the tiles aside, and occasionally I miss, heh.
Gonna play some log catch-up, was super busy this week and didn't find much time, and only got 2 lifting sessions in unfortunately: Mondays session Squats Barx5x2 135x5 165x3 185x2 190x5x3 Bench Barx5x2 115x5 130x3 140x2 150x5x3 Chinups (BW) 9x7x5 Saturdays session (I did what I would usually do on a wednesday..) Squats 45 135x5 170x3 185x2 195x5 195x3x2 Press 45x5x2 75x5 85x3 95x2 105x4 105x3x2 Deadlifts 135x5 185x3 205x2 220x5 Overall, I've been struggling a lot lately and I'm convinced that a program change is in order. My bench is the only thing really improving steadily still, and that's getting more and more difficult too. I just started a carpentry apprenticeship (why this last week was so busy), which means I'm working full time doing hard physical labor, so I'm going to really have to see what I can handle lifting wise. I burn a ton of calories at work, so I'm going to need to eat like crazy to keep up. I've been reading Practical Programming, so I'm going to pick an intermediate program outlined in there to try I think. I'm going to try and plan something today and start either this coming week or the next.
Haven't had much time to get on the computer lately, so I haven't logged in a while. Still learning how to organize my time around my new job. Starting a new program this week; I'm trying out The Texas Method basically as it's written in Practical Programming, with a few minor changes. I decided to do bent-over rows instead of power cleans, and put my percentages a little different on the light day (went 85% instead of 80%, because the weight I calculated was a pretty light, on account of me being very weak...). So I'm taking it light for the next few weeks to get into the groove of the program and adjust to my new jobs physical demands, and I've set my weights so that I'm setting new records in around a months time. Today was the light day, so it looked like this: Wednesday session Squats 45x5x2 95x5 115x3 135x2 145x5x2 Press 45x5x2 55x5 65x3 70x5x3 Chinups 10x9x8 Well, it felt REALLY light, which was a little frustrating, but I'm sure I'll appreciate it a great deal when the weight increases. I took today as an opportunity to work on form, and I felt I made some great adjustments to both my squat and press. I was very happy with my chinups as well, as 10 reps with very strict form is something I haven't been able to do before.
Okay, so I'm absolutely terrible at keeping a log it seems. Going to try and post more consistently now, and cut back on the commentary. I get a bit carried away writing about shit, heheh. Did Fridays session today, because of a busy schedule the last few days: Squats 45x5x2 135x5 175x3 195x2 205x1 210x5 Bench 45x5x2 115x5 135x3 145x2 155x5 Barbell Rows 135x5x3 Top sets were tough, but I felt pretty good about them. Definitely going to need to make sure I eat this coming week. So progress has been going well with the Texas Method, and I feel like I can definitely sustain progress this way. I made a thread a few weeks ago about lifting with my new job (carpentry, so pretty physical work) and it hasn't been a problem. Prioritizing eating and sleeping has really paid off. My lifting days are a little screwed up right now, but hopefully I can get back on Mon/Wed/Fri soon.
Mondays Session (On tuesday...) Squats 45x5x2 135x5 175x3 185x2 195x5x5 Press 45x5x2 65x5 75x3 85x2 95x5x5 Deadlift 135x5 175x5 195x2 215x1 225x5 Felt pretty awesome today, besides deadlifts. I felt like my form was breaking down a little by the end of my top set. My deadlift is absolutely terrible, and I feel like it will need a lot of attention down the line, but it IS progressing, so I'm leaving it for now. Squats are going well, and that's the main focus at the moment.
Friday Session (On saturday...) Squat 45x5x2 135x5 185x3 205x2 215x4 (Missed my 5th rep...) Press 45x5x2 65x5 85x3 100x2 105x5 Rows 140x5x3 So had my first really disappointing session in a while. Didn't get anywhere near enough sleep and was drinking last night, which isn't an excuse, but I totally psyched myself out on the squat because of it. Gonna try the same weight next week, and I'm positive I can hit the 5 easily. Rows felt shakey form wise, and press was harder than it should have been.
