Daily Check-in: Time March-es on

mirrim52

Thought I would start a March thread

Today was the first day of my deload. I think I increased my weights too quickly before, thinking that as long as I got 5x5 I was good, but as the weight got to my limits I noticed that my form was no so good. I don't want to risk an injury I could have prevented, so I am deloading.

Squat - 5x8 at 95 lbs. Feel like I had great depth and positioning. Starting to good better at locking out and squeezing glutes at start and finish. As I was warming up with the bar, I had some knee pain. I think that my weight was too far forward and my knee were going too far forward. I concentrated more on sitting back in to the squat, and no more pain, even with weight. But holy crap 8 reps was hard by the end! I need to cut back to 6 or 7 next time. It defeats the purpose of my deload if I am still really fatiguing myself by the end. I am thinking 5x7 at 100 lbs next.

BP - 5x7 at 65 lbs. These felt good too. Concentrated on keeping my shoulder blades retracted and tightening my core before starting. Also thought about pressing my feet in to the floor. I am going to do 5x6 at 70 lbs next time.

Rows - 5x5 at 65 lbs. These actually felt pretty good for once! I pulled the bar right to by bra band with a parallel back. It was still fairly difficult, so I will stay here for one more session.

Accessories -
2 x 60 sec planks - shaky, but very flat and tight
1 x 10 horizontal pulls from convict conditioning stage 2. Didn't quite get my body all the way to the bar toward the end, so I am going to keep trying.

DawnEmbers

Yay!

Went after work and it wasn't as bad today. Though, I did forget my notebook and had to try to remember what to do and at what weight. My back ached a little at random points but was pretty good overall. I signed up for a free form check workshop too, so I'll be going to that Tuesday morning instead of sleeping in since I work during the evening one. Will be interesting and I may ask about front squats.

Day 8, B4

deadlift 2x12 @ 135 - think I will try 145 next time when it's 10 reps

db shoulder press 2x12 @ 17.5 - slight increase, nice to have incremental dumbbells
lat pulldown 2x13 @ 60 - still tough at the very end but not bad

lunge 2x12 @ 20 - knees ache on occasion but okay so far
sb crunch 2x10 - eh, i still don't like the ball or crunches

For fun:
bench press 3x8 @ 75 - tad heavy but made it through
db bench press 3x8 @ 22.5
bicep curl 3x8 @ 30 - almost tried the ez curl bar but didn't this time

Now to do stuff I should have done before going to work and maybe get sleep at some point.

xcalygrl

I always forget to check in on the weekend. Le sigh.

Friday: did another Crossfit-style WOD. We ran for a few mins doing intervals. Then did 40 seconds work, followed by 20 seconds rest for 2 rounds:
--Lunges
--Pushups
--Squats
--Pull-ups
--Burpees
More running at intervals, followed again by 40 seconds of work and 20 seconds of rest for 2 rounds:
--Kettlebell swings
--Hip thrusters
--slam balls
--Dumbbell row and deadlift
--burpees
Then did 9 mins of abs work.

Saturday: technically it was a rest day, but I helped load and unload 3 trees worth of firewood and helped my mom put up a fence.

Sunday: 7 mile run. I beat my previous 10k time by over a minute, and shaved 7 mins off my 7 mile time.

fothers365

B today here.

Squats 5x5 at 66kg (145.5lbs)
OHP 5x5 25kg (55lb)
DL 1x3 85kg (187lbs)

Pressed up another kg in the squats to 66kg but wondering whether to drop to 60kg for a few sessions and work back up to make sure form is ok. Some of these may not have been 100% parallel.

OHP- deloaded to 25kg/55lb from 27.5kg. These were fine, I managed them all ok and each set was well paced. I might do 26kg next time. I really seem to struggle past 27.5kg big time.

DL- Managed 3 at 85kg but the last 2 just weren't going to happen. This was up from 80kg last time so a big jump. I deloaded a bit and did a bunch at assorted weights.

I need to look into heavy magnets or something. I have 500g (1lb) fractionals but I need something even less for those darn OHPs.

I have been sneaking in a few OHPs here and there through the day at 25kg and 26kg over the last few days (I work out at home) so am going to see how they go building back up again.

Happy March everyone

DaivaSimone

Totally posted in the wrong thread this morning.

Here's what I wrote:

DaivaSimone wrote: »

Again, solid workout have been logged here. Congrats gals!

I was AWOL this weekend, pretty much healing my ego because of the bad week I had, food and exercise wise. At some point, I was too shameful to talk about it here on MFP, and then I realized that I was just relying on one of my usual self-defense mecanism that I use plenty in real life: when struggling with something, just shut the *kitten* up and keep it to yourself until you're about to explode.

I know, I know, not the most efficient thing to do, but that's all I know. I've been living with my husband for 9 years now, and we still have this fight all the time (he wants me to talk more about my feelings, I'm upset because words just don't come out easily, he feels like I don't trust him and I feel like he doesn't understand that I can't help it, then I explode and we go back to square one. typical.). So, let's try to not do this here.

I had a bad week. I had trouble to fall asleep at night, I had pain in so many areas of my body, I was tired and I was out of focus. I didn't do all my workouts during the week and I struggled to follow my eating plan. I blowed my calorie goal on Friday and Saturday (probably 500 cals over maintenance on both days?), mostly because of booze. Sunday was a bit of disordered eating because I was slightly hangover, but I managed to stay under calorie goal, thanks to some hard aerobic workout. So, that was my weekend.

Good news is, today is a new day, and a new week, so it's time to step up and do better. I started by going to the gym this morning, and I gave all I had to make it a good workout. Let's move on.

Warmup: 15 minutes on the AMT, stretch and good mornings (5 without the bar, 5 with the bar)

Workout A

I strained my back this weekend with my aerobics, and it was really painful yesterday night, so I decided to deload 10% from my highest squat load to prevent pain in my lower back.

So.

Squats: 1x5 @ 45. 1x5 @ 65. 1x5 @ 85, 1x5 @ 100, 5x5 @ 105. I probably won't jump back to 120 next time, and will take this opportunity to work on form.

Barbell row: 1x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 55, 5x5 @ 65. I'm feeling really more comfortable with those. I should have done 70, but will wait until my back feels better.

Bench: 1x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 55, 5x5 @ 65. Feeling good but still heavy. Will repeat. The guy on the bench next to me was benching 215 with apparently no effort. Oh well.

Accessories:

Farmer's walk: 1x4 @ 35, 1x4 @ 55 (about 50 feets). I love the grip work, seriously! It makes me feel more powerful.

Plank: 82 seconds on the BOSU.

Stretch and foam rolling.

I was in the gym 80 minutes and burned about 422 calories, which is a good way to start fresh.

ScientificExplorerGirl

YAY FOR MARCH AND WARMER WEATHER!!!
Dropped my calories for March from 1700 to 1600. Hopefully my lifts won't suffer.

WARMUP
bike 5 min
arm swings 1 min
kettlebell swings 2 mins
jumping jacks 1 min
third world squat 5x8

LIFTS
Squat 5x8 105
OHP 5x5 51.3
Deadlift 2x5 95

EXTRAS
Standing Biceps Curl, Dumbell 3x10 35
Convict Conditioning Pushups Step 3 Knee Pushups 3x12
Convict Conditioning Pullups Step 3: Jackknife Pullups 3x17

krokador

*waves* I'm still alive, still trudging along. Got my cardio HIIT in this morning (altho barely), strenght work on Sunday, active recovery on Sat. I'm at a point where I'm fairly beat up both mentally and physically, but I've got one more week on this program before a deload so I can make it! I think. lol

You guys keep working it'! I see some great progress around

MissHolidayGolightly

ScientificExplorerGirl wrote: »

YAY FOR MARCH AND WARMER WEATHER!!!

I thought this was funny because I drove through a snow storm which turned into an ice storm yesterday on March 1.

@DaivaSimone‌ way to bounce back from a rough week. What's done is done.

Went to a wedding this weekend which was a great time but I'm happy to be home where I can lift and eat normally and not drink like a fish. Plans to lift tonight after dinner. Was going to go after work but I'm hungry so that's not going to work.

lovetowrite73

Good afternoon!

We had snow and then ice last night so I was a little slow going out this morning to the gym. Because of that, I did nothing extra since I had to get back home and ready for work. Anywho, this is how today's workout went:

Squat: 1x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 55, 1x5 @ 75 and 5x5 @‌ 90
OHP: 5x5 @ 55 - I thought I was going to struggle through these but incredibly, these were pretty easy to get up there. We'll see if I'm singing the same tune on Friday. LOL
Deadlift: 1x5 @‌ 115

I thought about doing a really quick 10-minute HIIT on the treadmill but decided against it. I didn't want to rush back home with the roads the way they were. I'll get it in on Wednesday.

lhapple82

I went in for a lunch time workout today. I'm also switching up my days this week to MWF because I'm heading to a yoga retreat for the weekend.

Squat: 2x5 @ 45, 5x5 @ 85 (Um, I apparently can't do math. I was so confident what my weight should be that I didn't look at the bar calculator. I was only supposed to do 75, which I realized in my 3rd set when I thought "Man, this is pretty tough today!")
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 50 (These felt good today)
Barbell Row: 5x5 @ 70 (I definitely felt these!)

I'm also going to my regular yoga class this afternoon, so I think a detox bath and an early bedtime will be in order!

katro111

Started the last week of the Smolov intro microcycle today. Next week is the guts week/base mesocycle. I'm going to do Smolov Jr. for bench press starting next week, too, so it will be 3 weeks of just squats and bench, 4x per week. The 4th week is testing 1 rep maxes. Smolov for squats keeps going after that, but Smolov Jr. for bench ends and I'm going to go back to Wendler's for it.

Squats: 2x2 @‌ 155lbs
3x8 bodyweight lunges
3x8 bodyweight split squats

Bench: 3 @ 85, 3 @ 95, 3 @ 105 then 3x10 @ 77.5lbs
3x10 inverted rows (lowered the bar down from last week's inverted rows)

Finally it was "warm" enough to walk the dog today! A lot of the snow melted during the day so that was nice. It's supposed to get up to 40F tomorrow, but with sleet so who knows... I really miss being able to spend more than 30 minutes outside.

Llamapants86

Ohp day
50 lbs x 5, 60 lbs x5, 70 lbs x 5
Them 3x8 @ 50%(empty bar)

And finally 10/8/6/4/2
Bentover rows empty bar
Assisted pullups
Hanging knee raises
High knee march

Then (because it is going to be too cold to do it tomorrow outside) I did my 30 sec on 60 off hiit on the elliptical.

AbsoluteTara79

Annnd...I'm back. I took a week off. Between my back pain, some sort of food poisoning and a sinus infection that I can't kick, I think my body has sufficiently sent the signal to rest a bit. So I didn't work out at all Tuesday-Sunday. Twas nice. And it was also a good mental exercise to tell myself that I can take a week off without it sliding into 2 weeks, a month, etc.

But, because my back isn't 100% I did a really easy work out tonight to test the waters.

Squat 8@45lbs, 5x5 @ 65lbs.
OHP - I couldn't deload, so 5x5 @45lbs
Dead - I was most worried about these, did 1x5 @‌ 70lbs.

Everything felt good, no pain. And 20 minutes on the elliptical to close the night.

threnjen

Check in. Took a week off for no real good reason. I just felt stretched too thin and had to dump something from my plate, so I dumped gym. Now this week I feel fat and lame. So I need to get back to it.

Today I did Workout B, which I do far too often.

5x5 squats deloaded to 85lbs after a week and a half since last lifting
OHP and Good Mornings 5x6@45
The deadlift bar got picked up right on my last set of OHP (happens every time) so I did supersets of Chin-ups and Dips on the assisted machine, 3x5@30lbs assist. I had wanted to do 5x5 but I could barely complete that last set and it wasn't happening.

My focus this month is to buckle down and focus on Stronglifts and less about some arbitrary amount of time to spend working at the gym. I just need to DO and not freak that I have to set aside 2 hrs to work out cause it just isn't gonna happen.

canadianlbs

i ate an ice-cream sandwich thingy just before i went on to the gym. it was necessary, but it might have scrambled my brains. i lost track again of which lifts to do.

workout something.

squats: 2x5@45, 2x5@65, 5x5@75. and that was the most i could have done even if i'd been trying for more. not stellar, not awful, but form felt all sort of idk-what-i'm-doing-really. i didn't pre-stretch except for a little at work before i left for the day. current strongest interest with squats: keeping left shoulder tight - way tighter than i 'think' it should be.

ohp: took me a while. i'm still sore from saturday, and at first i just did half-assed reps/sets with the 30lb bar as the rack was taken. just couldn't tell if i was setting up symmetrically or not. but then it freed up again and i got in there. 5x5@45 again . . . and again, it was all i could have done. mid-delts were having a fit by the end. i think i haven't been fully doing the lockout - the bar gets up and i can hold it up there forever so it must be over my shoulder joints, but i got my torso just a little bit further forward today and it was a totally different feeling. so my hopes are up, once all the excitement dies down in my muscles after today.

rows: 5x5@50, plus some preliminary warmup sets at 30. i really wanted to do these, weirdly. just anything to counterbalance the effects of ohp today and bench saturday. after a couple of sets i put an extra 2.5 pounds on the left side of the bar because i'm so over this left-sided lag and i want the damn thing to catch up.

deadlift: these were my favourites today. i did a few at 50 to feel for form, 5x1@100, 5x1@110 and 5x1@120. i kind of can't seem to decide whether to fish or cut line with increasing from there or just stay where i am for a while and get much stronger. anyway, 120 is what i pulled today and it wasn't especially hard.

psych101

Had rest day yesterday

Back at it tonight

Squat 5x5 @ 160lbs.
Bench 5,5,5,5,4 @ 90lbs. Failed last one! Dammit!
Row 5x5 @ 100lbs. Hard. Form sucked. Repeat!!

xcalygrl

Yesterday was Workout B day.

Squats: 5x5 at 175#. These felt expectionally heavy, but I was able to get all of the sets. I did almost get stuck in the hole on the last rep of the last set, but I was able to push through and get it up.
OHP: The app deloaded me down to 90# instead of keeping me at 95#, even though I haven't failed on 95#. I was feeling off after my squats, so I took the drop as a blessing. I got 5x5 done with 90#.
Deadlifts: 1x5 at 200#. So, I'm having a problem that I could use some advice on. When doing my deadlifts, my left grip gives out before my body does at the higher weights. I'm able to do 1-4 just fine, but my grip starts to fail on rep 5. What can I do to help this? Buy one of the grip strength things, keep pushing, something else? I can lift higher weight for 1RM testing, so I know my body can keep going if my grip doesn't fail. Side note: I do mixed grip already. My left hand has the palm facing away from me while my right hand has the palm facing toward me.

Then did some accessories:
Narrow stance ATG squats supersetted with straight leg deads: 5x10 each with 60#.
Hip thrusters: 3x10 with 40#.
Leg press narrow supersetted with wide stance leg press: 3x10 and 3x8 (respectively) with 180#.
Also did 7.2 miles on the bike afterwards. I was pretty much trying to smoke my legs hoping for some DOMS today. We'll see.

Andi_1977

I'm still going strong, even though I seem to forget to check in more than one or two times per week! Snow shoveling screwed up my schedule last week, as my back needed 24 hrs to recover from that each time, but I still managed to get in 3 days of lifting last week. Last night was workout B:

Squats: 1x5 @ 45#, 1x5 @ 65#, 5x5 @ 80#
This finally felt heavy, so I may just stay here one more workout before moving up to 85#

OHP: 1x5 @ 20#, 5x5 @ 35#
Finally got all 5 sets at this weight, will work on 40# next time...xcalygrl, I'm not worthy!!! I will feel puny until I can at least do the 45# bar!

Deadlift 1x5 @ 95#
I jumped up by 15# this time b/c I wanted to leave the smaller plates set up on the bar I use for OHP for next time...I figured, what the heck, I'll just slap the 25's on there and see if I can do it...yep, I'll be going for 100# next time!

There's just something about being able to lift more each week that is so satisfying! Now I just need to work on my diet so that the scale starts slowly moving in the opposite direction again!

lovetowrite73

@xcalygrl‌, maybe try farmers walks but keep the heavier weight in your left hand to improve your grip.

LariMoore

My very 1st Stronglift workout post! Yay!


Workout (A)
Squats, 105# was too heavy, staying at 95 for now
Bent Over Row (BOR) 60, kind of easy. Go up by 5 next workout
Bench Press 65, a bit of a challenge. May stay at 65 just to be safe. Dont have a spotter

canadianlbs

lovetowrite73 wrote: »

@xcalygrl‌, maybe try farmers walks but keep the heavier weight in your left hand to improve your grip.

i've been using only my left hand to do all my plate-wrangling. with a pinch grip except for the heaviest ones. figure it can't hurt, anyway.

coltsgirl311

Ahhh, first workout of March...

Workout A:
Squats: 5x5@100 lbs. These were really tough, even after resting 2+ minutes in between sets. I think I'll stay at the weight and rest the full 3 minutes next time.
OHP: 5x5@50 lbs. For some reason my 5x5 app is not increasing my lifts properly, even though I know I did 45 lbs without failing last time. Anyway, these still felt pretty easy so I will try 55 lbs next time.
Deadlift: 2x5@105 lbs. I think I did this weight last time, but my app was screwed up on this lift too, so I just went with 105. I did 2 sets rather than 1 just to make sure form was good.

Accessories: Calf raises, 4x20 (BW) and good mornings, 3x10@50 lbs

Cardio: An hour on the elliptical. Thank goodness for Netflix and "House of Cards"!

mirrim52

Working back up from my deload

Squats - 5x6 at 100 lbs. Depth is much better, as is my lockout and preparation. I actually went ATG on one of my warm ups with just the bar and hit the safety. Oops.

OHP - 5x6 at 50 lbs. Man just one extra rep is hard! But form felt good, locking out much better at the top. Sometimes I still forget to really push up and shrug, so still working on remembering that. I think I will stay here and maybe throw a couple extra reps in.

DL - 2x5 at 135 lbs. These felt heavy today so I just did 2 sets of 5 instead of going up to 145. Did one mixed grip, one overhand.

Accessories - 2 x 60s planks. Ouch.
3x7 assisted pull ups at 55 lbs. First time I did all reps right up to the top, but still hard.

xcalygrl

lovetowrite73 wrote: »

@xcalygrl‌, maybe try farmers walks but keep the heavier weight in your left hand to improve your grip.

I'll start adding these in as accessories to see if they help.

I'm also going to see if alternating my grip helps (making my right hand the palm facing away and the left palm facing toward me).

Thank you!!

xcalygrl

canadianlbs wrote: »

lovetowrite73 wrote: »

@xcalygrl‌, maybe try farmers walks but keep the heavier weight in your left hand to improve your grip.

i've been using only my left hand to do all my plate-wrangling. with a pinch grip except for the heaviest ones. figure it can't hurt, anyway.

This would probably help too. I do most of my plate wrangling with my right hand, since I'm right handed. Thank you for this suggestion too!

DawnEmbers

Went to gym super early (for me), which meant fighting through traffic to get there, for a free form workshop. Turned out that I was the only one to sign up for the morning session, so it was basically a free one on one session with a trainer. We went of deadlift, front squat, back squat and overhead press.

Overall, my form isn't too bad, which was good to hear. I have things to work on for everything but it's all little things. However, my wrist and shoulder does make it not work well for the front squat/push press combination. Just the bar in that position, not even making it to 90 degrees cause I can't get that far, is too painful on my wrist due to past injury. Going to work on wrist, forearm and shoulder stuff but I may just do a set of front squats using the cross over hold, set down, then right away moved to the overhead press position and do that right after without rest, once I'm in stage 2.

Also need a tiny bit more depth on squats and work on not letting my shoulder round a bit on many of the lifts. Posture needs a little work in general so will be thinking on that.

List of things to target with my accessories, mobility work, etc: wrists, forearms, rhomboids, shoulders in general, hamstrings and glutes. Which means I may need to make myself learn some new things, like maybe hip thrusts and good mornings, along with some wrist curls and such. Fun times right there.


It was interesting and good to get a form check after lifting for a few months. Glad I went even though I'm very tired and traffic was a nuisance. Also got the body fat tested with the little hand held device. While not the most accurate, it gives me a general idea. The number was almost 2 percent lower than when I had it last checked in December. Making progress but lots of work to do still.

threnjen

DawnEmbers ours had the form workshop today... and we're both in Portland area... do we live in the same city?!

The other one is at 5 tonight and I am thinking of going even though I am soooo sore from yesterday.

DawnEmbers

Well, I don't live in the same place as my gym. I go to the gym in Beaverton and think you're on the other side of there from where I technically live. All these little places connected has taken some time getting used to, lol. The workshops at 24 hour fitness were 8 am and 6 pm, I think, though most people signed up for the pm one from what he said. Well, considering I'm the only one who was there for morning, it was pretty obvious most were going tonight.

threnjen

I go to the Beaverton one on Murray/Scholls

DawnEmbers

Ah, so same one then. It could have been 5 instead of 6. I didn't look that hard because I have to work from 4:30-10:30 anyways. That is funny. I usually don't go till 11 pm though when possible. Just so many people there much of the day. Plus traffic in morning and afternoon/evening isn't worth the struggle. Though my boss goes after work at 5 or 6 some days, which I think is crazy due to how long traffic takes to get there.

perseverance14

Everybody is doing great! Here is my workout today:

Workout A (Tues)

Overhead Press, Barbell - 5 x 2 - 50

Overhead Press, Barbell - 5 x 5 - 70

Barbell Row, Bent Over - 5 x 5 - 95

Squats 5 x 3 - 125

Squats 5 x 2 - 145

Squats 5 x 5 - 165

Dumbbell Side Bend - 5 x 10 - 40

Flat Dumbbell Fly - 5 x 5 - 40

Reverse Curls 5 x 5 - 95

Reverse Curls 5 x 3 - 105

Underhand Bicep Curls - seated 5 x 5 - 105