Daily check-in: December why you started!
Replies
-
Workout B today -- felt good but I was a bit rushed. Left the hotel for Xichen Itza at 7 am and the hotel gym didn't open until 6. That made for one very short shower, lol!
Squats 5x5@100 lbs -- felt good and breaking into triple digit territory had been a mental hurdle for me. I recently widened my stance a tad and my knees aren't hurting any more, so that's good. Form seems to be very individual after s point.
OHP 5x5@55 lbs. Yay! This was a long time coming. I also cleaned the bar instead of using the power cage.
DL: 1x5@145. Form wasn't great here today, so I may repeat this weight next time. Felt like I was using too much back and not enough hip.
Accessories: hip thrusters 12@bw, 12@20 lbs.0 -
stopped at the gym on my way home today. it's a 'rest' day, but eh. i woke up late and drove to work, so i just went in for a bit of light stuff, not a total workout. it was fun. usually i'm in there and i'm there to lift, so this was more like just a recreational thing. also, yesterday's doms was just starting to take hold and i'm working on an experiment related to that. so i didn't do anything challenging, it was more like just range-of-motion maintenance with some of the lifts. especially bench.
squats: i did 3 or 4 sets of 5, or 6 or 7, or 8, with 65lb. that's light enough that i was just playing/consolidating myself about form. i did TRY 95 again, which was greedy and stupid of me, but i only did 3 reps and then put the plates back.
ohp: not with the bar. but i did a few practice sessions of just unracking my squat bar with 65 lbs, and standing and holding my starting position for 30 seconds or so. even that was pretty hard work, so i feel like that must turn out useful somehow, at some point. i also grabbed a 12.5 dumbbell and did 3 sets of 8 with individual arms . . . and whoa nelly, i can say 15 wouldn't have been possible. the whole stabilizer-muscle thing really is true.
pulldowns: shoulders and upper back are both really domsy and sore, so i stayed below 25lb and just did wide-grip work for smoothness and lats. and to get some blood into those areas. i think 3x8 or something like that.
rows: nothing serious. i got in a few sets of 5 at 65lb, with the big trainer plates. also deadlifted a bit at that weight, and finally added another 50lb and tried out my dl form with 115. it was do-able but too heavy to keep up if i plan to do a real workout tomorrow, so just a few reps.
bench: this is really why i went in. i did 3 sets of i-think-maybe around 8, with just the bar. what i was after was working the domsy muscles a bit, and actually feeling the details of the lift itself while i have doms to help me know when i was working them. it showed up that my left pec is pretty tight compared with teh right, so i was concentrating on getting it to relax and do a full comfortable share of the work.
not sure i will lift tomorrow, might take an extra day off. in any case, my imaginary idea of being there when they crack the doors at 6 am in order to lift and still ride to work is probably not going to happen this week. gonna take a hot bath with my protein shake and get started on sleeping right now. 40-minute onsite massage in my schedule tomorrow, yee hah.0 -
SouthernDaisy4 wrote: »@ Threnjen -nice job - I see no reason to be sad!
So.. If the DL @ a certain weight doesnt wipe you out it's " OK" to do more? I would have liked to do more on my B day but was unsure of varying from the program. Is it better to add reps or do another set or is it 6's?
I am intrigued by "Good Mornings" I haven't seen these. I would be very interested in adding a little sum-sum for the hammies. Mine are weak.
Enjoy your vacation!
Deadlifts are a pretty taxing lift - even if it doesn't wipe you out. I'd consider going up jumps of 10lbs until the 1 set is challenging, but if you feel it's way too easy I'd add a second and maybe a third set.
Good mornings in my case work the glutes and lower back more than the hammies. I rarely do them pretty heavy though - I'll use them as a pre-lower body exercise warm-up with the empty bar usually. If you're looking to strengthen the hammies more I'd suggest 1 legged romanian deadlifts - as a bonus, they work your balance and core, too!
Off to the gym for OHP! Will report back once I get to work
0 -
Happy Birthday to all!
Workout A (Fri)
Dumbbell Skis - 5 x 10 - 40
Overhead Press, Barbell - 5 x 5 - 70
Barbell Row, Bent Over - 5 x 5 - 110
squats 5 X 5 - 205
0 -
OHP 5/3/1 - maybe I shoulda taken an extra day off. It was hard to get out of bed, shopping made me go to sleep kinda late... But I went.
67.5x5
72.5x3
85x1
90x1
92.5xfail
65x6
Iiiii... think I'm going to change my plan and give OHP a boost somehow. Less bench press. More shoulders. We'll see where I go.
every 30s for 5 mins: explosive rapid fire jump squats x5
4 sets of feet elevated push-ups to submax w/ 60s rest in-between: 7-7-6-6
For time (KBs @ 25):
- Knees to bows x 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
- KB alternating bent over row x 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
- KB Rack Lunge x 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 per side
- Double KB swings x 10, 8, 6, 4, 2
Managed in 9:10. But I wasn't really feeling it. *shrugs*
2 days off-ish then my Garage Built Body Test day is comin' up! Kinda glad to be heading into a deload period.0 -
Hi all
Hope you don't mind me joining you - last month was a total work out bust - I made it to the gym twice!! Am hoping checking in here will help me get back into it this month. Here's last nights numbers.
1st day back - so reduced weights a bit.
Squats 5 x 5 at 40kg - but wasn't happy with them, so I'm repeating the weight tomorrow.
Dumbell bench press - 5 x 5 at 7.5kg - super easy!
Rows - 3 x 5 at 40kg - didn't deload enough, there were people eying up the bar so just kept going after squatting. Think I'm going to stick here weightwise though and see if I can work back up to 5 x 5 quickly - if I can't I'll deload after third failure.0 -
Workout A
Walking warmup-10 min.
Squats-warmup 5@45, 5&95, 5x5@110
Bench5@45, 5@55, 3x5@60
Bar Rows-5@30, 5x5@60
Tricep-10@15 DB
Skull crushers 10@15
Shoulder press 20 w/15 lb DB
10 push ups
1 min plank
Stretching0 -
Reading these posts are so inspirational! I've been having a crisis of confidence lately and took a week off. One of the really strange issues I'm having is fear. I am dead afraid of losing in on squats and going down with the weight on my back. Intellectually I know the safety bars will catch the bar, but I'm having real issues getting over it. I welcome any tips.
For my last lift, which was Wednesday, it was an A workout:
Squats: did a drop set 180. My PR is 192.5, but with the fear, I've dead-ended there, so am dropping down and starting again.
Bench: 77.5, which is where I keep plateauing, I hope to push pass this time.
Rows: Solid and fairly easy 80 so ready to move on. My PR is 97.5, but my form broke down so I dropped and am building again.
Then 15 minutes on the elliptical. Trying to get a little cardio in on lift days.0 -
Restarted SL 5X5 for real this time.... i've been half assing it for about a month and really only lifting 2 times a week at best.
D3 W/O A
Squat: 80LBS... for not wanting to go to the gym i felt really good at this weight, hoping to break 100lbs soon!
Bench: 60lbs...this is starting to get kind of difficult, but i powered through it and felt good after.
Row: 75lbs....this was actually supposed to be 70lbs, but i took off the 2.5 plates after my squats instead of the 5lbs....i took the full 3minute rest between sets but i didn't curl up into a little ball in pain and i wasn't sore this morning, hopefully 80lbs next time!!0 -
Workout A today. My shoulder still feels like a bunch of @$$.
Fast walk 1/4 mile to gym, then 3 min warmup on the treadmill, then lots of shoulder circles in an attempt to make my shoulder feel better. Chest huggers kind of work.
Squats: warmups 1x8@55 lbs, 1x5@ 100 lbs, then 5x5@135 lbs. Fine, though the wall is coming soon.
Bench: warmups 1x8@45 lbs, 1x5@75 lbs, then 5x5@95 lbs. Eeeeh, some shoulder pain if let my form waver at all. The last set was not awesome. Might stay at this weight just to make sure I don't injure myself further.
Rows: warmups 1x8@45 lbs, 1x5@75 lbs, then 5x5@95 lbs (was supposed to be 90 lbs, but I was looking at my bench weight instead of my row. Whoops.) Better than normal. I YouTube form again and noticed that Mehdi says to pull from your elbows. That helped a bit. Will certainly stay at 95 lbs given that I was only supposed to do
Weigh in today says I lost .8 lbs. What with all the holiday eating, I will take it. I will more than take it. I will run with it like I stole it.0 -
museumnerd1 wrote: »Reading these posts are so inspirational! I've been having a crisis of confidence lately and took a week off. One of the really strange issues I'm having is fear. I am dead afraid of losing in on squats and going down with the weight on my back. Intellectually I know the safety bars will catch the bar, but I'm having real issues getting over it. I welcome any tips.
Have you practiced failing? It's loud and feels a little weird, but it's was an immense help once I got to the point where I knew failure was a possibility. Now I know what to do and how it will feel, and it's not so scary anymore.0 -
-
Today I did cardio only. Just an hour on the treadmill though had a minor issue at one point. Since I'm going to do the couch to 5k program in spring, I try to jog a few minutes a couple of times when I do long treadmill sessions. When I walked outside in September, I could barely jog three minutes. Now I'm doing 2 sets of 5 minutes. However, after my first set today, I couldn't get the treadmill to slow down. Not sure what was up with that as I had to pause it. I changed machines then later managed almost 8 minutes. Think next time I do a cardio day I'll try to do a 10 minute stretch as the first one and see if I can make it.
It'll wait though. Tomorrow I get to lift more weight.
0 -
@Canadian, love how you were like, oh rest day, NBD, let me just stop by the gym and BUST OUT A BUNCH OF HARDCORE LIFTS
lol well. not all that hardcore and tbh today was my official 'lift' day and i just didn't have it this time. obviously squandered the bit of gas that had trickled itself into the tank yesterday.
this client site is piloting a 'wellness' schtick that basically amounts to 40-minute sessions of onsite therapeutic massage from advanced students at a local school, for 10 bucks. it can't be hurting their fridays workplace attendance either i'm eligible in spite of being a freelance, and i'm so on this . . . apparently though, that stuff in my neck that i always thought was some kind of cartilage/bone is my scalene muscles - the deep-level ones that run up from your collarbones and keep your head on. the guy started a project of working on them, and it's a good thing, but one result in the gym tonight was i just couldn't get my shoulders comfortable under the bar. i repeated my warmup sets three or four times and still couldn't find the right groove, so i called off the squats and found my ohp wasn't responding well either today, so i didn't even try the deadlifts. more protein shakes, and a bunch of calcium/fish oil/glucosamine, and i'll lift tomorrow or sunday instead.
i'll put this in the 'in other news' column though in the meantime. i've gotten tired of planks. could be i'm just too lazy to do the work of getting down on the floor and then getting back up again, but there's my shoulder as well. i've worked out my own personal workaround just for fun, and it's been the main thing i've been doing these past couple of days. i do a 'walking plank.' in simplest terms, i just brace up my core to the point where it's just as tight as it gets a plank . . . and then i hold it like that and go walk round the block. i MAY look like a dalek or an animated lego person from across the street, i don't know. but i've been doing it every hour or so throughout the workday for a few days, and it's getting to be kind of fun. i actually feel like i can feel this girdle of muscle around my body, like i'm walking inside a tube of light steel or something.
reckon it can't hurt anyway. and being able to 'find' it and hold it and keep it engaged while moving my arms and legs is like a whole neuro-retraining process for me as well.
0 -
W1/D3 w/o A
5X5 @45 swat. Shallow, ugly and hard but I got them done.
5X5 @ 50 bench
5X5 @ 70 rows
The bench and rows were pretty easy.
0 -
Hi all! I forgot to post yesterday. Everyone's progress is so awesome! You are inspiring me to push myself harder :-)
Friday's Workout (A):
Squat: 5 x 8 @ 40 lbs
Bench: 5 x 8 @ 35 lbs
Row: 5 x 8 @ 50 lbs
Went well. I really feel it after 8 reps. Feels nice!!
I am also starting to do squat cleans (thanks krokador!) with body weight only for now. I did 1 x 8.
I started back doing some cardio today. Need to see how this all fits together with my schedule.0 -
Have you practiced failing? It's loud and feels a little weird, but it's was an immense help once I got to the point where I knew failure was a possibility. Now I know what to do and how it will feel, and it's not so scary anymore.
when i'm at the gym and i see someone doing a careful, systematic warmup before they start work, i don't think 'there's someone who can't just walk in and lift'. it actually puts my respect of them through the roof. i think 'there's someone who not only knows all the mechanics and muscles they're going to use, but they're putting in time and using that knowledge to make sure they bring everything online properly before they start in'.
now that you guys have got me thinking about this, i think i'd feel the same kind of respect if i went in and saw someone who wasn't lifting, but was just systematically taking the time to work out a safe way to bail on a specific lift. to me it says the opposite of 'amateur'. it says they're knowledgeable and serious
0 -
found this useful site with trigger point charts that display pain referral pathways based on mouseover actions. been using it to isolate which muscles to focus my lacrosse ball against and i thought you guys might find it useful as well.
http://triggerpointmaps.com/triggercharts/0 -
Hi everyone! I caught a cold this week and my TOM, so I decided to deload my weights.
Tuesday
Squats: 5@50,60,75,90,100
Bench: 5@45,45,50,50,55
Row: 5@45,45,50,55,65
Good mornings: 3x10 @45
Thursday
Squats: 5@55,65,75,75
OHP: 5@45,45,50,50
DL: 5@95,100,105,120
Tricep bench dips: 3x10
Saturday
Squats: 5@50,65,80,90, 3@105, 8@75
Bench: 5@45,50,50,55, 3@60, 8@45
Row: 5@45,50,50,55, 3@65, 8@50
Good mornings: 3x10 @45
Tricep bench dips: 3x10
Have a good weekend, ladies 0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »apparently though, that stuff in my neck that i always thought was some kind of cartilage/bone is my scalene muscles - the deep-level ones that run up from your collarbones and keep your head on. the guy started a project of working on them, and it's a good thing
Massage97 will probably have something to say about this, but my experience with having any of my neck muscles worked on almost always leads to a pretty big headache if I'm not careful about drinking loads of water and/or taking an Advil. So just be aware as you continue to have this area worked.
C.
0 -
Back home to my usual gym and the dreary Pittsburgh weather.
Started with a mile run for warmup.
Squats: 2x5@45, 5@75, 5x5@105 -- these were hard and I felt my form kind of going so I'll probably repeat this again next time.
BP: 2x5&45, then it was supposed to be 75 lbs but on my first set I really struggled to get 4 reps so I broke out my brand new fractional plates and did 2x5@72.5 and 2x4@72.5.
Rows: 5x5@80
Accessories: Hip thrusters 12@bw, 3x12@30 lbs
Then I ran another 3 miles.0 -
0
-
I was a runner first and started lifting weights only recently, so, yeah, the running is the easy part for me. LOL. A lot harder after the squats, though!0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »found this useful site with trigger point charts that display pain referral pathways based on mouseover actions. been using it to isolate which muscles to focus my lacrosse ball against and i thought you guys might find it useful as well.
http://triggerpointmaps.com/triggercharts/canadianlbs wrote: »apparently though, that stuff in my neck that i always thought was some kind of cartilage/bone is my scalene muscles - the deep-level ones that run up from your collarbones and keep your head on. the guy started a project of working on them, and it's a good thing
Massage97 will probably have something to say about this, but my experience with having any of my neck muscles worked on almost always leads to a pretty big headache if I'm not careful about drinking loads of water and/or taking an Advil. So just be aware as you continue to have this area worked.
C.
Scalenes are nasty muscles when they are aggravated. Takes awhile for them to release. And Courtney is right, LOTS of water. The planks could be aggravating it too, tight shoulder and tight neck go together all the time. Wish you guys were here so I could fix your problems! And for $10!!! They may not be experienced but you can't lose with that price.0 -
Scalenes are nasty muscles when they are aggravated. Takes awhile for them to release. And Courtney is right, LOTS of water. The planks could be aggravating it too, tight shoulder and tight neck go together all the time. Wish you guys were here so I could fix your problems! And for $10!!! They may not be experienced but you can't lose with that price.
thank you, that's nice of you - considering that i just heavily snubbed an entire company that was trying to enlist my professional input for free ;-) so far so lucky, and i haven't had headaches but i do have some hope. most of the referral reactions i've given myself so far by experimentation seem to go down my back, and actually to hit at least two of the areas in my left shoulder that i just know to be kind of dead spots strength and mobility-wise.
as far as the planks, yeah . . . i've moved this week to doing the same kind of thing but while standing upright. my left shoulder honestly doesn't like me putting too much weight on it, and now i'm thinking there might be a chance all of this is coming from an ancient whiplash issue i have with my neck.
0 -
hgmfph. well, i lifted. and there's good news and what might be bad news, i guess. workout b:
squats: 4x5@95, and then another 2x5@100. i'm not calling it official until i've done the whole 5x5, but i was planning on 6 sets anyway, and just wanted to see if i could take another 5 pounds. and i could. also, a short while later i realised someone had left a big plate on each side of the bar and just wandered away, so i scooted in there underneath it and stood it up for a couple of seconds . . . just to see if i could. and i could. i'm a long way from squatting with it and i didn't try, but absolutely believe me: 2x45lb plates plus a 45lb bar is 135 pounds, which is my bodyweight plus a few pounds. and as of right now, my back and my core were strong enough for me to stand up with that.
ohp: 2x12@30, and then since the rack was free after all, i went in there and did 6x6@45. stretching and triggerpointing like a maniac in between sets, so i had mixed results. a few of the sets were extremely easy - and not just the first three or something. and a few of them were not easy at all. but i'll keep working on the Left Shoulder Project, and just call this a win.
there is definitely something on the outside lower edge of my left shoulderblade which is hampering me. it's either or both of: weak, and locked up. one of the scalene trigger points that i found actually releases exactly that spot, so i spent a hell of a lot of my time in the gym just standing around with my eyes closed and both my hands locked round my neck, leaning my thumbs on that point and then breathing my way into it. i think most people who glanced my way must have thought i was trying to throttle myself.
deadlifts: i probably shouldn't have done this today. really, with all the extra myofascial stuff i was trying to do and the various things that i've either stretched or released or made more tender than usual with self-massage, i might have done better to let all that settle for at least one more day before doing dl. but it's too late now, and i hope no-one will scold me for this. i did a collection of them at 100 again, and a few of them were so easy and clean that i went ahead and put the big 45s on the 30-pound bar and did five or six at 120 for my working set. but i'm pretty sure i wasn't pulling cleanly half of the time, and it's my own fault if i did give myself a new tweak . . . which i might have. i think i only did two reps after it happened and then i decided to quit before i put myself any further behind.0 -
@Canadian -- Fingers crossed you didn't tweak anything. And awesome job on the lifts! I can't wait until I can squat the BGPs. 0
-
WAIT! I didn't mean to just gloss right overCANADIANLBS 100 LB. SQUATS!!!!!!
I don't know why, but I thought you'd done them before so I was all "ho hum... oooh, she picked up big girl plates!" SORRY
That's awesome awesome awesome! AWESOME!
xo,
C.0 -
Late night for me but got in workout A, making it to the end of week 3. After long shift, did some warm up treadmill and such, then some warm up sets for squat and bench.
Squat: 5x5 @ 90
Bench: 5x5 @ 75
Row: 5x5 @ 70
Funny thing was for the squats, once I made it up to the working set weights, I had to go hunt down some fractional plates. There were none in the area by the squat racks. Had to go all the way over to the benches to grab the tiny little plates just to use them. 90 felt awfully heavy but I thought 85 was really heavy too and still managed fine. We'll see how this next week goes though as I approach that 100 mark. Bench was hefty and I struggled at the very end but made it. With row, didn't do the touch down but I also tried something different. I used a bar from one of the benches and used this platform thing. Found it easier to pick the weight up from that spot, then get into position instead of trying to get the not far enough off the ground bar up in order to do it. Felt better though I'm still not certain with that lift. We'll see how next time goes. Maybe wednesday I'll try it before work instead of after since it's not my day off anymore. *grumbles*
Overall, not a bad night. I'm more comfortable now with most of the lifts so we'll see how week 4 goes.
@canadian - nice work. Sounds like a pretty good set despite pending issues. Going to be long time before I can handle the big plates, and even then it's not close to body weight for me. Good luck with the shoulder issue.0
This discussion has been closed.