Workout Check-in: Heavy Metal Edition (aka August)
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Hello! New to the site, and getting back to regular exercising. Lots of great lifting going on in here!
Aug. 1, got a short swim in. Nothing special, but it was very relaxing.
Let's see, Aug. 2, spent about an hour on the bike and then:
Front squats 5x5x65
Overhead Press 5x5x50
Deadlift 5x1x145
Aug. 3, 1:15 on the bike
Should get another work in tonight. Going on vacation next week, but I plan to get some workouts in there -- just don't know what I will have available.
Cheers!0 -
^^ Welcome!!0
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Last night was
Squat 5x50,65,75,90,100 My hips came up too fast in a couple reps but most were good.
Pause squat 3x5x75
Bench 5x45,55,70,80,90 That last set was really hard. I have done 95 for 6 reps before so I was pretty disappointed with that.
Pause bench 3x5x70
Row 4x5x65; 5x75 The last set of rows were heavy too. Ahh!! Hopefully I was just having an off day.
Glute bridge 3x10x145
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derpderpderp, still can't squat/deadlift with knee pain. I'm just a basket case of injuries.
I decided to try more volume again but with that pyramid technique. It was much easier than doing 20 to 50 reps of terror.
OHP 1x5 45/45/50/52.5/55/57.5/60/62.5/65/70lbs
Bench 1x5 45/45/60/65/70/75/80/85/90lbs
Dumbell Rows 1x20 35lbs each arm.
Shrugs 3x10 65lbs
Dead Hangs x3
I'm totally an arms/chest bro now! I walked out of my gym feeling like I was so pumped and wide I had to go through the door sideways. Ahhh, I watched too much Broscience on youtube. Hopefully soon my knee feels better, I need to rest it more than I do.0 -
Workout B:
Squats - 90lbs 5x5
OHP - 40lbs 5x5. I did 45lbs for 2 reps and it was a struggle. I'm having major issues with these. I'm going to look back at form and see if it's issues there and maybe add some other workouts to help build strength that may help me improve. Any tips?
Deadlifts - 95lbs 1x50 -
awkwardsoul wrote: »I'm totally an arms/chest bro now! I walked out of my gym feeling like I was so pumped and wide I had to go through the door sideways. Ahhh, I watched too much Broscience on youtube. Hopefully soon my knee feels better, I need to rest it more than I do.
Ah, well you compliment me then because I can't do arms/chest at all at the moment! All I do is legs on legs on legs on legs. (Dom wouldn't approve. ;P)Jackie0Marie wrote: »OHP - 40lbs 5x5. I did 45lbs for 2 reps and it was a struggle. I'm having major issues with these. I'm going to look back at form and see if it's issues there and maybe add some other workouts to help build strength that may help me improve. Any tips?
OHP is a tricky b****, but the first thing I would check is your grip width - your pointer finger should be about in line with the edge of your shoulder - I like to press my thumbs into that bony ridge in front of my shoulder before slipping into my grip. Try not wrapping your thumb around the bar and rest it into your palm rather than your fingers - that way you'll be more stable and press through the wrist directly. Make sure your legs are engaged, butt tight. And press up while keeping your elbows from flaring out. If that still fails (or you were doing that already) then we can diagnose what else you could be doing. But do keep in mind this is the hardest lift to increase!0 -
Squat 100lbs 5x5
Dead lift 100lbs 1x5
OHP 40lbs 5x5
Bench 40lbs 5x5
Row 40lbs 5x5
Those are mine for the past two workouts (A&B). I know it says to add weight to the squats each time, but I wasn't ready. (Listen to your body right?!)
Not super impressive I'll give you that, BUT! I weight 105 lbs so I'm excited about those squat/dead lift numbers.
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Jackie0Marie wrote: »OHP - 40lbs 5x5. I did 45lbs for 2 reps and it was a struggle. I'm having major issues with these. I'm going to look back at form and see if it's issues there and maybe add some other workouts to help build strength that may help me improve. Any tips?
OHP is a tricky b****, but the first thing I would check is your grip width - your pointer finger should be about in line with the edge of your shoulder - I like to press my thumbs into that bony ridge in front of my shoulder before slipping into my grip. Try not wrapping your thumb around the bar and rest it into your palm rather than your fingers - that way you'll be more stable and press through the wrist directly. Make sure your legs are engaged, butt tight. And press up while keeping your elbows from flaring out. If that still fails (or you were doing that already) then we can diagnose what else you could be doing. But do keep in mind this is the hardest lift to increase!
Thank you! I will definitely take all of that into account and reassess what I am doing. I know for sure that I don't have my thumbs wrapped around the bar, I was paying extra attention to my elbows today - making sure they didn't flare out, but the rest I need to pay attention to as well.0 -
Dreaded squat day today. I don't know why but squats and I are just, not cool together. Anyway I deloaded because of my 2 weeks off and that helped I guess, still felt a lot heaver than I think it should have.
115 lbs x 5, 120 lbs x 5, 135 lbs x 5
5x8 95 lbs and that was all she wrote. I had wanted to do some bum focused accessories as well but I was done.
Ran 6.4km before lunch to get some movement through my legs.0 -
Did not want to get up this morning and it wasn't even that early of an alarm, but I laid in bed extra long which meant a have less time before work now. Tomorrow and Sunday will be rough. May have to sleep in my jogging clothes or work clothes, lol. I have to get up early for 4 mile jog tomorrow and Sunday I get the 6 am work shift, oh goodie.
Workout A
high bar squat 3x5 @ 155 - decided to increase this time and it went pretty well
bench 1x3 @ 100, 2x5 @ 95 and for sun 1x8 @ 75 - was going to de-load, tried 100 instead and had to use the "oh sh!+" rack spot on the 4th rep attempt. Barely got through 95 again, so yeah probably de-load. I have issues with bench, don't quite get leg drive and I struggle to unrack the bar every set cause my arms are short (pretty much all of me is short, lol). Need to work on this.
bent over row 3x5 @ 85 - Decided to do this instead of p-row as I was near a good spot. 85 is actually higher than I got on the 3 rep sets in NROLFW so not bad.
lat pull down 3x10 @ 70 - eh, arms were getting tired but made it through
Then I decided to just leave cause had the long drive home. Needed enough time to shower and eat before driving all the way to work. I need to check a gym's start up fee and how to close my current account as I think I need to switch to one closer to home. Using up way too much gas between work, gym and long jog at the park.0 -
Here's a recent Rippetoe video on the overhead press (there is a whole series of them and they're all good) I found it pretty helpful, and it specifically addresses the ideal grip. It's shorter than a lot of the other videos I found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnBmiBqp-AI
Workout B today (first one!)
Squat 5x5x50lbs
OHP 5x5x45
Deadlift 5x5x650 -
I haven't been posting much this summer, and have deloaded a few times due to lack of progression and vacations. Feeling pretty good with where I'm at and thrilled that I've overcome a couple of plateaus.
Tues : 125 squat
85 BP...first time completing all of my reps at this weight so YAY
95 rows...pretty easy because of deloading.
Today: 130 squat...still feels good. I really like my form improvement after deloads.
65 OHP...my most frustrating lift but I'm very happy with how it went today. 70 lbs was my previous plateau.
175 DL...felt good. I could have probably upped the weight on this but, again, I like the form improvements I see.0 -
Couldn't go to the gym on Tues as we were out all day and didn't get home until after 9. We did walk all day though, so that is something. Took the kid to Legoland Discovery Centre and an aquarium.
On to today...
Pull ups 2x2, 1x1
Squats - major deload to work on form. 5x5 at 95 lbs. Added 2 sets since I dropped weight so much. They felt really good though. Concentrated on pushing my knees\legs out and was able to get really low. I think I know what proper depth feels like now. I will add 10 lbs each workout until I hit my new working weight.
Bench - 3x5 at 70 lbs. Good, but hard.
Bent over rows - 3x5 at 75 lbs. Ok. Hard-ish.
Shrugs - 3x8 at 55 lbs
Skull crushers - 3x8 at 35 lbs. Shaky.
Barbell curls - 3x8 at 40 lbs. Still challenging. I don't know if I can jump up to 45 yet. Might try adding reps.
Hyperextensions - 3x10 with 20 lbs. Finally really felt these in my lower back.
Cable crunches - 3x12 at 50 lbs. Never feel like I progress on these, so added 2 reps per set. Hard, but did them.0 -
Today was:
Squat 5x50,65,75,75
Ohp 5x45,45,55,60
Deadlift 5x95,115,135,155
Pause deadlift 3x3x115
Hip thrust 3x10x125
Ab wheel 3x10
Assisted pullup 3x5
I think everything went pretty well today. Standing up and resetting after each deadlift seemed to help my deadlift form.0 -
Jackie0Marie wrote: »maybe add some other workouts to help build strength that may help me improve. Any tips?
tbh, if you're pressing half of your deadlift weight then imo you're doing pretty well there. not that i'm very knowledgeable, but.
for ohp, one simple thing first from my experience. which is that staying honest and doing my rows made a huge difference to my ohp comfort/ability level. so, making your ohp all about me and my rows . . . i would say do rows. i like to do a few sets of 8 at about 60% of my work weight on workout b days, just to warm up my lats and rear delts to get them into the game for my press.
second thing is more complex and i could be talking nonsense. just got this one from my first-ever training session last week (and next session coming up tomorrow whoohoo!). how to explain. what he said to me was straightforward enough: engage your lats. i.e. once you have your grip and the bar is unracked and in front of you, do this first before you actually press.
in some way that doesn't make sense when i try to explain it, i think of it as making it feel like my delts are pulling the bar down, while my lats are fighting my delts and pushing it up. or maybe the other way round - tbh i don't know. but i'm trying to generate and store a huge amount of isometric energy between my up versus down muscles, and centre it all in my shoulders. then the press itself is just a matter of releasing that energy. anotehr way you can try picturing it (i'm still fumbling around to find the one that really turns on the lightbulb for me), is pretending that the starting position for my press is as if i'm hanging from the barbell at the top of a strong pullup rep.
he also called it 'make a shelf'. now, that personally . . . that i got based on my own experiments i'd already been doing. he can call it that, but what i call it to myself is 'pretend some mad scientist amputated you at the armpits and you're just a torso sitting on a shelf in cold storage somewhere. now use what you've still got left to press with, and press.' my idea is to artificially shorten my kinetic 'chain' so that the 'floor' that my ohp is pushing off from isn't the floor. it's about my sixth rib.
interesting thing is: doing stuff like this seems to mean the most likely part of my body to cramp in a press is my quads. so obviously, it's not really like the rest of my body is just lollygagging around when i press.
long-*kitten* response, but i have this morbid love of the overhead press no matter how little progress i'm making wrt the weight. so if nothing else, thanks for the chance to ramble.0 -
Aug 5, Stronglifts 5x5 (I use the app and there was an update! Yay, no longer losing workouts. lol)
Front squats, 5x5x65lbs
Bench Press 5x5x65 lbs
Bent over Rows 5x5x80lbs.
Then put in just over an hour on the stationary bike.
Last night -- bowling. Not really lifting, but my ball carrier does weigh 60+ pounds.
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canadianlbs wrote: »in some way that doesn't make sense when i try to explain it, i think of it as making it feel like my delts are pulling the bar down, while my lats are fighting my delts and pushing it up. or maybe the other way round - tbh i don't know. but i'm trying to generate and store a huge amount of isometric energy between my up versus down muscles, and centre it all in my shoulders. then the press itself is just a matter of releasing that energy. anotehr way you can try picturing it (i'm still fumbling around to find the one that really turns on the lightbulb for me), is pretending that the starting position for my press is as if i'm hanging from the barbell at the top of a strong pullup rep.
he also called it 'make a shelf'. now, that personally . . . that i got based on my own experiments i'd already been doing. he can call it that, but what i call it to myself is 'pretend some mad scientist amputated you at the armpits and you're just a torso sitting on a shelf in cold storage somewhere. now use what you've still got left to press with, and press.' my idea is to artificially shorten my kinetic 'chain' so that the 'floor' that my ohp is pushing off from isn't the floor. it's about my sixth rib.
interesting thing is: doing stuff like this seems to mean the most likely part of my body to cramp in a press is my quads. so obviously, it's not really like the rest of my body is just lollygagging around when i press.
long-*kitten* response, but i have this morbid love of the overhead press no matter how little progress i'm making wrt the weight. so if nothing else, thanks for the chance to ramble.
Haha, I'll simplify the relation for you right here and now. Engaging lats = pressing shoudler blades together = expanding chest = more stable base to press off of. (And also better leverage to recruit the pecs into the lift which makes a huge difference down the line.)
Physiotherapist (different one from my usual one who is on vacation, whom I liked a lot better tbh!) gave me this trick which is basically "chest up" yesterday about the posture, but actually called it a sternum lift. And it friggin works at fixing like, everything. From not feeling certain stretches to keeping my head upright. It's just a tiny swivel of the chest, really, but my, why do they not teach that to kindergarten kids?! Seriously!
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Workout B last night
Squat 5x5x100lb
OHP (first time doing them correctly - standing) 1x3x55lb; 5x5x45lb - I had done 4x5 and 1x4 at 55 sitting my first workout B, but standing is much more difficult - I got through the last set at 45lb, but it was rough - not sure I should really move up next time like it says.
Deadlift 1x5x95lb - really not sure about my form on this one. It and the rows just feel awkward. We officially joined the gym, and I have my consult with the trainer on Monday, though, so hopefully I can get it worked out.
After that, it was late and hubby was whining to leave, so I didn't do anything else. Definitely feeling it in my back/shoulders today - legs feel pretty good for the first time though! Probably a good thing we had a short session last night, though - I didn't make it out of bed for my run this morning :-(0 -
I jogged 4 miles this morning.0
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Lifted this morning while my wee fella played trucks around the garage. Was distracting to say the least haha no accessories today. Still working back up from deload
Squat 5x5x125lbs
Bench 5x5x80lbs
Row 5x5x90lbs
Man I'm loving rows at the moment!
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