Remember Remember the Lifts of November
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Squats
10 x 45 lbs
3 x 75 lbs
5 x 5 125 lbs but failed on the last rep of the last set.
OHP
6 x 5 75 lbs
1 hour of power yoga
Deads
5 x 135 lbs
5 x 185 lbs
1x5 205 lbs
When I got done with yoga, I noticed a couple in their twenties at the squat rack. The woman was squatting 185 lb for triples like it was easy. And her depth was good. The guy was doing the same. I went up to them after their set and let them know that I was impressed and told the woman that it was nice to see another woman lifting. This is the only time I've seen another woman in the weight section besides a few women who use the kettlebells or dumbbells.1 -
Oh, and I was able to do 4 and 1/2
assisted pull-ups with the small purple band. 3 -
Today I did strongman cardio, and did some lifting with dad.
Strongman cardio
10x yoke push down and back (230), sled drag down (180), 8 per side dumbbell clean and press @35
This was rough, and took forever. The clean and press was the same weight I barely could do for 6 per side a week or 2 ago. Sometimes I don't understand trainer logic. But I lived, even if cardio value may have been diminished by me having to pause and powerthru those dang cleans.... and trainer wasn't even there to call names when I was done. No fair.
4x15 Russian twists W/30lb dumbbell. - I made a note on the sheet saying I think I'm doing these wrong because they didn't suck.
Dad and I did bench and OHP.
10@45, 5@75, 5@95, 5@100, 5@"105" 3@"105", 2@"105"+3@95, 4@105
The quotes are because dad (the engineer) failed at plate math. When we were loading the bar back to 105 for him, he added a 5 and a 2.5 to his side, and I said "no dad, just the 5" and he goes "umm this is what I had on before" - well that made me feel better, as I was getting mad that I still couldn't consistently hit 105, and on the set of 5 I did manage my left arm was lagging BAD, which was strange, as normally my right is the lagging one. Well... I'm apparently close to nailing 107.5- dad did his last set at 110.
OHP - yeah, wasn't my favorite idea after my "cardio" for the day, but I took one for the daddy daughter lifting idea.
5@45, 1@65 (that wasn't feeling good), 5@50, 5@55, 5@60,
4@65 push press I stopped at 4 because even push press was getting wonky enough to be what I consider unsafe.
Daddy daughter lifting days seem to have began a tradition- as dad walks across the business complex when we are done to acquire wine for his girlfriend... so, guess what I end up doing as well.1 -
so . . . the deadlifts (favourite) failed horribly but the squats (nightmare) worked fine. fml and so forth.
i forgot until way late in the day that i didn't need to get back over the water for trainer day from my dad's place because . . . trainer is in hawaii right now. so i extended the dad-hangout time and then went to a random rec centre to lift.
where i was ignorant. because my home centre seem to be the only one with no sign-up board for the rack and i basically hogged it for a few hours before noticing people were lined up behind me being patient
shaking that off . . . though i am mortified. i did my bench for the week, with 3x7 add-ons. going okay still with this. and i did my squats, which went really well. near the end i discovered a tiny tweak that goes against everything i've always assumed or been taught. i get better hamstrings and more upright back angle out of my squats if i break my knees first, not my hips. it seems to 'release' the hamstrings and then when i go i can just sit straight down 'onto' them instead of the whole sitting-back thing. still unsure of my lumbar rigidity but the knee break also seemed as if it was helping with that, so i'll go with it. also the front squats, there's this strange tweak. i haven't worked out whether it's chin down or chin up or some bizarre combination of both but i know that it seems like it works. idk how my squats looked to anyone else, but they felt pretty good from the inside-my-skin view so i'll settle for it.
i'm trying so hard to stick with this thing i discovered where i don't do anything until i have sucked my left femur HARD into the socket, and then hold it there. but it is hard. i can't even seem to make it happen unless i left that heel off the ground, and then trying to release my heel down without letting go of the tension up at hte top is a pat-head-rub-stomach thing. but i have been getting enough pain that the move came into focus again and i tried this new thing before the hypertrophy sets, where i don't just suck it in and hold it while i'm in the set up, but throughout the actual squat move as well. it's one of those things that make your eyes cross, but if i can cue the nervous system to keep doing it i'm going to try, and see if/what effects it will have overall.0 -
Day off from lifting for me but managed to hit my target or over 2000 calories yesterday. I had been struggling to add calories but almonds and protein shake came in handy.
As for today I found some Olympic bumper plates and a plate stands second hand so now I can deadlift with the bar a little bit higher off the floor. Won’t lift Now till Monday as I have my little sister round for dinner tomorrow. Treat day it’ll be as I’ve made a lovely free from brownie and lacto free cream
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I'm just leaving this here.... robots are apparently better at box jumps then me.... well and backflips, but since I can't backflip, and not sure I've ever tried to back flip, everything is better at those than me
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2153729-watch-humanoid-boston-dynamics-robot-do-box-jumps-and-back-flips/2 -
Ugh, squat day....
Warmup- 3x 135lb sled drags down and back, and 12 kettle bell swings@35
Squats, 10@45, 8@65, 4@95, 5@105, 5@115 - this is where things kinda fell apart... we were supposed to hit 5@125 and 5@130 I think... but my depth wasn't there, my strength wasn't there. After the 115 he asked for comment and I said it felt terrible... and he replied yeah didn't look real good either...
So... we went off script... switched to 3 sets of I think 5? Maybe more? Of work on form VERY paused squats @65.... so, narrower stance, stay more upright, *kitten* to grass... count to three, then come up. I about had to remember how to bail on squats here. Went to come up on one and failed... trainer said I did awesome and was actually cool to see... I thought I had about tipped backwards - he said I actually had tipped forward, and brought it back, paused again and got back up. It was probably a balance failure due to wonky ankle... but hadn't worried about bailing in a while since trainer has been there on heavy sets... yeah neither one of us were expecting me to have an oops @ 65 lbs.
Sumo deadlifts - these still weird me out... but 5x4 @115.
Then we did some very odd goblet squats to work on some things.
He elevated my heels by having me put them on the bar of the cage... and try and keep my torso very upright, and move from the knees... apparently the goal is to get me to use quads more in my squats? I must be a weirdo in this, isn't the usual problem that folks are quad dominate in their squats? Anyways 3x12. Oh and using the huge weight of 10lbs hehehe - he had started with a 30, and it became very evident that this was a bigger tax on my brain than he thought.
3x15 each side dumbbell oblique crunches @60lbs. These escalated quickly - Got one set in, and then we added the wrist straps, which helped a ton. My range of motion had gotten very short in an attempt to keep ahold of the dumbbell ... with the straps was waaaayyy better of a movement.
I have a feeling that muscles I didn't know I had that will be screaming tomorrow.
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I'm just leaving this here
hah. i thought this was going to be a crossfit joke, but i'll take it.
somewhere yesterday my grownup chip kicked back in and i decided that there is nothing whatever to gain from doing deadlifts with completely deplorable form. aka the ones that i did on thursday. so with that in my mind i went back today, took that new 10 pounds off the bar and did my week's workout properly - at 120.
it really is a major problem. i've never had htis happen before and it's appalling. before the bar even gets to my knees the left one shoots so far forward my entire leg ends up rotating inwards on that side just to get the knee out of the way of the bar.
can't wait to hear what the sports doctor has to say about it if/when i ever get called back to go and see them, but in the meantime i gave it a little diy thought of my own and decided the knee can only be shooting like that if my hip isn't committed on that side and is caving in as soon as the weight gets on it. so the clear solution is to use way-much less weight and to STOP DOING IT.
part two of my home-made fix is getting properly into my hips before i even start the real pull. because another weird habit i can't explain where it came from, is how come my body thinks it's suppose to sumo conventional deadlifts these days. no wonder my knees don't have a clue where they fit into all this.
120 went better - way better, is all i can say. i was making a real point of keeping my hips way up and getting them way back as well, and that was enough for me to start studying the weirdo left leg and sort of catch whatever its problem is in the act. strange thing, i think my adductors are going to be really sore tomorrow from fighting in the cave-in, on that one side. it's only been a few hours but so far i'm feeling less bad aftermath than i (unsurprisingly) had from the horror-deadlifts when the same span of time had gone by.0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »
it really is a major problem. i've never had htis happen before and it's appalling. before the bar even gets to my knees the left one shoots so far forward my entire leg ends up rotating inwards on that side just to get the knee out of the way of the bar.
So... I'm not entirely sure that I am picturing this issue correctly because I'm not entirely sure exactly what's happening before the rotating inwards.... but if I am...
especially due to wonky ankle, my knees have a tendency/desire to want to cave/rotate inwards, on both squats and deadlifts. The cue that seems to help with this (and breaks up the monotony of trainer just always yelling "knees out!!") is to pretend each foot is on a lazy Susan, and as you are doing the lift you are trying to rotate said lazy Susan outwards. For me, this causes me to put outward rotation pressure on everything from my toes to my hips. And thus keeps the knees from caving in, and also seems to brace the hips better, and as I'm trying to picture this to describe it, it also apparently tightens the lower part of my core some as well,1 -
Last night's session:
squat - 1x10 @ 45, 1x3 @ 108, 2x3 @ 129, 2x3 @ 145 (instead of 155), belt 4x2 @ 165
good morning - 1x3 @ 69, 2x3 @ 85, 6x3 @ 95
db fly - 5x10 @ 17.5 (couldn't find the 20 or 25 dbs)
cable abs - 3x10 @ 800 -
So... I'm not entirely sure that I am picturing this issue correctly
lol; nobody could. this one is WEIRD. i've never seen it happen to anyone else either, and i people-watch a fair bit in the gym.
picture the downward dog position. now shift all your weight to one leg and slack off on the other one. the slack knee moves forward, right? that's what i find myself suddenly stuck with, once the bar's a few inches off the ground. that left knee ends up way OVER the bar, so the knee-in thing wasn't really a muscle failure. it was me being all type a and 'MOVE, DAMMIT' so i could keep moving the bar. horrible ugly. just all the cringe. it actually looked a bit like a jefferson deadlift, only without me being over the bar.
i don't think it's weak rotators because as soon as i caught myself at it it was just as easy for me to move the knee to the outside instead - and then i looked like i was doing a plie with a barbell in my hands. even more cringe. horrible.
the failure to me is not the lateral movement - in or out. it's the forward shift. that's the thing that shouldn't be happening and that tells me something's not taking part. i may just be subconsciously afraid to trust any serious weight to that left hamstring, so that's why i dropped down to 120 again- so i could start out properly back on my heels and keep myself there all the way without fear. if you think about it, as soon as your hamstrings cop out of a deadlift you lose the tension that fixes your knees in place, and forward is naturally where they get pushed.
i could rig up a video of the train wreck just to fill in your mental blank spot, but i ain't going to
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Ummmm bench.... and all I really have or want to say is
Grumble grumble that sucked, more grumble.....
Yes, I know, normally not my attitude regarding bench. Just not my day, neither for lifting or for life in general. Hoping I fix this overall mood before tomorrow or else two days of work will be a dang long two sucky days of work.0 -
Deloaded a bit today and just tried some different stuff. It felt good, so I'm going with it.
5 minute warm up on 8 incline on the treadmill
Squats 5x5 @ 85
Bench 5x5@65
Barbell bicep curl 5x5@45
TRX inverted row 1x5
Barbell row 5x5@85
Arnold press 5x5 with 12.5 dumbells
Dips 5x52 -
Squats
10x45 lbs
3x85 lbs
5x5 125 lbs
These felt pretty good today. I'm really trying to make sure form doesn't suffer as the weight goes up. I could feel my form going on the last couple of reps on the last set but other than that, they felt good.
Row
Did 5x5 at 75 lbs today again to work on form before I add more weight. I feel like I've figured this out so I will start increasing weight again next time.
Bench
10x55
5x5 at 90 lbs.
I was able to get these without failing so that felt good.
2 sets of 5 pull ups with the small purple band
Then I just did some core stuff, weighted bridges, ball slams, andweighted lunges to kill some time before I needed to pick up my kids.
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Well.. my mood did not improve significantly. But maybe a little. Just one of those weeks where even my anxieties have anxieties. Like, what kind of weirdo gets anxious about how anxious they are?
Strong man cardio 10x d&b yoke carry (250) down sled drives (115), and "sand bag chops" 10 each side...
the chops were awful. And my arms already hated life from bench yesterday, and that made them and the drives extra sucky.
And the chops will result in strange strange bruises... both on shoulders and legs.... the boyfriend is getting used to deadlift bruises (like literally saw the video the other day "what are those called???" "Deadlifts" "so those are why your legs always have bruises?" "Yes". But at some point we are going to reach the level where someone thinks he is responsible and then I may have to ease up on the hobbies that bruise me
Trainer thinks I have been taking too long on cardio... I suggested if he maybe programmed things that weren't nearly impossible even at slow speed for my "cardio" that maybe I could go faster. Apparently we are going to remain in disagreement for now.
Either way- next time he suggest doing deadlifts on this or that day, and I say that day... because I was sore and tired .... remind me I should pick deadlifts first.... tomorrow is going to hurt.
4x60 second planks.0 -
Well.. my mood did not improve significantly. But maybe a little.
if it helps you any, getting to see the payoffs for your work really makes a difference to my attitude about my own work. it's clearer from the spectator seats maybe, but getting to watch you smash things over and over again just kind of reconfirms my faith in the entire process. probably doesn't help when you're down in a struggle trough, but i do appreciate it so i wanted you to know this.
idk how i got so stupid while i wasn't looking, but it dawned on me somewhere today that my by-xmas plans were based entirely on doing each lift TWICE per week . . . not once. because #duh #math.
so after work i went to the gym. i was actually feeling pretty ready for it, which is nice because i benched so recently and i'm encouraged by how fast my upper body seemed to be ready for ohp and more work. with that said though, i didn't finish today. the upside is: seems i can clean 60 pounds pretty easily now (bumper plates on short bar), and not just once either. not saying my form was anything like a real clean, but i CAN say they were really easy. just idk, didn't even register the pull part - just the 'now we flick the elbows under, ta dah'. it was fun and i felt semi-badass.
downside: i can clean it but it's still harder to get that tight shelf and a good setup for pressing that way. i got through the doubles but my form felt sloppy, and the triples kind of defeated me without a strong setup to start them off. so i said i'll go back and get them done right tomorrow. i'm planning squats too, hip and so forth permitting.
also did rows tonight, and then a little bunch of extemporaneous pseudo deadlifting with a kettlebell and the focus on my weak leg.1 -
canadianlbs wrote: »Well.. my mood did not improve significantly. But maybe a little.
if it helps you any, getting to see the payoffs for your work really makes a difference to my attitude about my own work. it's clearer from the spectator seats maybe, but getting to watch you smash things over and over again just kind of reconfirms my faith in the entire process. probably doesn't help when you're down in a struggle trough, but i do appreciate it so i wanted you to know this.
It does help, thank you!!! The overall attitude is more due to non lifting things. Like that whole job arena. But– the anxious bit has kind of piled on to the point that it has definitely bled into other parts of my world - like yesterday's bench session. Most of the time the lifting/running/whatever can turn a pretty rough day around. But, every once in a while I don't separate my worlds well.2 -
welp, seems like overhead press eighteen hours apart doesn't work. maybe if you sleep more than three or four of those hours,but that wasn't me :P
instead i did warmup sets of five up to the fateful 60, and then admitted i was in over my head. i did do squats though, so it wasn't an absolute waste.0 -
Today was deadlifts - for time? Or on time?
Ummm warm up 4 x sets of 10x 45lb good mornings, 6x pull-ups w/knee in big purple,band (the step reappeared, but figured I couldn't really regress since I proved I could do it) and 12x70lb face pulls
Everything between here and ab work was a minute or less between sets... timer going.
Deadlifts
8@95, 6@115, 4x8@145 This still felt pretty easy, which really was probably needed. And besides.... I just called 32reps @145lbs easy...
Shrugs 3x8@185- these still suck
Some sort of weird row - kind of like our stronglifts row, but apparently a full range of motion was not the goal for a change? 3x6-8@115 - obviously this wasn't working well... and so I kept stopping and looking at him and kept saying my arms aren't hardly moving... and he first of all disagreed, but also seemed to think I met the objective. I kind of smarted off with a "I'm not sure what if anything we just accomplished there" sort of statement.
3x12 each side bicep curls with 25lb dumbbells...and I didn't realize until typing that I made major progress here since the last time I did dumbbell curls... I spent the time being frustrated because the last 3-5 on the right side on each set were very terrible. But the last time I did dumbbell curls I was TRYING to get to 20lb ones and would eek out maybe 5@20-
4x12 ab roller0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »welp, seems like overhead press eighteen hours apart doesn't work. maybe if you sleep more than three or four of those hours,but that wasn't me :P
instead i did warmup sets of five up to the fateful 60, and then admitted i was in over my head. i did do squats though, so it wasn't an absolute waste.
Ummm.... wasn't the goal of the lift to be in over your head?
But in seriousness ... I still have those in over my head days - sundays bench was one...I have a feeling I will have a lot more of them here soon. Between travel,schedule and possible weather, may be 3 or more weeks before I see trainer again. Which means either I will be left to my own devices and I will get myself in over my head again (I have already envisioned ego based bench press issues)... or trainer may send me programming, in which case the "you've got to be kidding me" bits won't have a safety net...this could get interesting.
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Squats 1x5@75. 5x5@80
OHP 1x5@40. 5x5@45
DL 1x5@85. 1x5@135 1x5@165
New PR. I had to talk myself into it because although I know many people lift much much more, this one scared me for some reason. Maybe because my first goal weight is 170
DB curls 5x5@30
Arnold presses 5x5@30
Rower for 10 minutes because I should really start doing more cardio. Plus, there will be pie tomorrow.2 -
Going to be somewhat easy from now until the meet. Tonight was deadlifts.
deadlift to knees 2x3 @ 135, 2x2 @ 129, 2x2 @ 175, belt 3x1 @ 186 last set tried to pause
bench 1x3 @ 65, 1x3 @ 75, 2x3 @ 88, 23 @ 99, 3x2 @ 106
db fly 5x10 @ 25
deadlift 1x3 @ 135, 1x3 @ 159, 2x3 @ 186, belt 5x3 @ 2152 -
Hadn’t managed to get a 5x5 in for a week or so due to my last minute training for the 5k charity run on Sunday. Was a bit worried about the numbers but I turned on the app and it told me to ‘reduce weights by 10% so you don’t get sore’. It’s like it could read my mind!
Anyhow smashed all but rows.... current numbers a little reduced but:
Squats 5x5 @ 50kg
OHP 5x5 @ 22.5kg (hit this no problems which I was happy about given previously I found that weight a *****)
Bench - 5x5 @ 32.5kg
Row 3x5 @ 40kg (wasn’t feeling it so didn’t push myself for the final 2 sets. Form way off so will deload next time).
Deadlift 1x5 @ 47.5kg2 -
So, happy Thanksgiving! (Belatedly)
Realistically, dad invited me down more because he was excited for me to play with the home gym he put together, than because of the holidays.
So, he has a rowing machine, cage, bench, bar, and plates at my disposal.
Yesterday - ran 1.5 miles. Bench 10@45, 5@75, 5x8@95. Still trying very hard to get 95 to stop feeling heavy.
Today - ran 2.1 miles. 10@45 good mornings, 5@45 stretchy hangy things, deadlifts 5@95, 5@135, 5@155, 3x5@175. Dad had done the rowing machine, I had ran. We were both a bit hungover (oops). We had intended to go heavier.... but we stopped at 175. We justified it as we were working on my grip strength with the heaviest I could go without chalk. (Which he did have just for me.). And let's just say rep 3 of the 3rd set was really my limit for grip without chalk. Oops.
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trainer finally back from hawaii. not that i begrudge him or anything . . . .
i had a good session today. did bench, deadlifts and rows on 5x2 and 3x3 for all of them. got mr t to show me sumo deadlifting as well, but i just played with that and did my real sets in the conventional style. they felt way stronger and better than last time i tried them. bench got better as i went along too, and the rows were just strong from the start and stayed that way.
probably something to do with me eating dinner about an hour beforehand.2 -
More benching and a little bit of squats.
bench 1x3 @ 65, 1x3 @ 75, 2x3 @ 88, 5x3 @ 99
squat 1x3 @ 108, 2x3 @ 129, 2x3 @ 155, 6x3 @ 175
good morning 5x5 @ 125
bench 1x4 @ 65, 1x4 @ 75, 4x4 @ 88
db fly 5x8 @ 27.5 (went up earlier than expected so did 8 instead of 10 reps per set)
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Training paid off, under 30 mins for my charity 5k today. 29.58 mins. Pretty chuffed with that. Now back to a little more focus on the weights 3
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did squats, up to 6x3 and just 2x2 by this point. tried ohp but nope, my left shoulder was not having it.1
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Well, I was absent for a while... Good job everyone for keeping it up in the meantime!
I personally have failed to really even maintain any semblance of working out while i was on vacation... Aside from that day I did like, 20 burpess. I walked a good bit? It hasn't even been a nice rest, either. Neck's still a pain, although isn't bothered by lifting anymore so there is that. Which reminds me I need to call the physio and get an appointment to get it checked out. It's been hurting me for long enough.
So I have evaluated what I want/need to do a bit and decided to go in today and "test" a few lifts (will finish to round them up tomorrow) with a heavy triple + amrap at 75% of the triple weight, which I will use in a slope algorithm to determine a 1RM to work off of for (at least) 2 cycles of Wendler. I still plan on taking part in the ETP online powerlifting meet, even if i know I won't be at 100% of what I can do.
Squat 165x3 -> 125x10
(175 would be my 1RM... I did 3 reps at this weight less than 2 weeks ago, though. So err, we'll see...)
Bench 120x3 -> 90x12
(127.5lbs 1RM... Please, I know I can handle 130 for sure, if not 135)
Pendlay Row 115x3 -> 85x11
(122.5? Psh. Maybe this wasn't the best method to go with xD)
Plan is to do 5/3/1 3-days a week (squat, bench/row, deadlift/ohp) with some accessories, work on my mobility weak points (aka hips), add in metcons and hiit/cardio to lose some weight in the process. Gonna try to focus on core strength a bit more, too. Gonna stay away from oly lifts for a bit, at least until the neck is better. It's sad cuz I love 'em, but they're not worth the risk right now.1
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