Mad March workout check in thread
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Success! I survived Mardi Gras weekend and somehow managed to get a workout done today, that's a first!!! And it even felt pretty good, must have been all the carbs from the beer... :laugh:
Today was B day. I have kind of a love/hate with it because I love doing bench press, but can't stand those rows still. So:
squats: 5x5 @ 95 pounds. Looking forward to finally hitting triple digits next time!
BP: 5x5 @ 80 pounds
rows: 5,5,3,4,4 @ 85 pounds. Darn it. These felt pretty good at 80 pounds but 85 was hard.
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who posts form videos. They've helped me correct a few things here and there on occasion, so they're much appreciated!0 -
Bench day! Ugh. Gym was full when I got there. Had to use a bench setup I'm really not used to. It's 3s week:
75x3
90x3
100x10
75x5x10
again played with the grip on boring but big sets, but it was a lot more challenging than last week. I have a feeling next week's is going to be tough (85lbs starting weight).
Power clean
warmed-up with the bar and hang cleans x5
75x3x3
80x2x3
triples felt more challenging yet better than going for 6-8 reps, so i'm going to stick to that for a bit. Hopefully I can climb all the way to 95 soon. the 10# bumper plates are flimsy and unstable lol
DB Push Press
20x8, 25x8, 27.5x2x8
Bent over cable crossovers and shoulder internal & external rotation work
Finished it up with 10 mins on the stairmaster. I wanted to do bike intervals but all the recumbent bikes were taken (SRSLY, ALL the "typical" cardio machines were taken. WTF) so I went with the next best thing. Spinning bikes give my knees too hard a time and I wanted something leg specific today since my upper body is SHOT haha0 -
Deadlift day for me.
Squats: 5x5 at 140
OHP: 3x5, 3x4 at 97 (failed on rep 5 on last two sets) Got to figure out how to increase this, thinking of deloading a bit and working back up.
Squats: 1x5 at 228, going at this weight one more time, since I tend to be careful with these (old back injury makes me cautious), but it felt pretty good everywhere except my hands. I think my grip will give up before my body does.
I worry that I'm not squatting enough, then I remember that in addition to my bar weight, I'm lifting my body weight too and it isn't a small amount (deadlift isn't even at body weight yet). Yeah, I'm a fatty, but I'm still lifting and getting stronger. My body is changing and reshaping.
Today is just one of those days when I feel terrible about myself in every way. Tomorrow will be better, but I still did my workout.0 -
Thank you all for your replies in regards to the warm ups. Yday was my first day and I'm not sure if I did everything right but I thought the workout would take me about an hour about I finished it in about 30 minutes. I didn't take the 90 sec breaks I just waiting possibly 30-40 seconds then continued. Is this ok?
I did workout A
Squats 4x5@45
1x5@65--45lb was fairly easy so I jumped to 65 unknowingly, thought It was 55lbs
Bench
5x5@45
Row
5x5@65
I wanted to take a video of my form, will do so next time.0 -
Here's my workout today.
Squats 5x40 - i decided to go down for the smoother motion and to double check form. Will try 45 again next time
bench 4x75 and 1x70. Went down on last set cuz arms were shaking
Row 5x60
Leg press 5x155 - hoping it will help improve my squats.
then ended doing some hiit. Maybe 15 min worth. Dont last long after the weights.
I'm very happy with my progress so far. Still a ways to go to catch up to most of you. I'm looking for a gym that has a squat rack but having very little luck. We have a Lifetime near us but very expensive with a lot of extras that i will never use. Might have to convince dh to buy one for home. For my current squats, i have to lift the weight over my head for each set and back when done. This is probably using up a lot more energy.0 -
Thank you all for your replies in regards to the warm ups. Yday was my first day and I'm not sure if I did everything right but I thought the workout would take me about an hour about I finished it in about 30 minutes. I didn't take the 90 sec breaks I just waiting possibly 30-40 seconds then continued. Is this ok?
I did workout A
Squats 4x5@45
1x5@65--45lb was fairly easy so I jumped to 65 unknowingly, thought It was 55lbs
Bench
5x5@45
Row
5x5@65
I wanted to take a video of my form, will do so next time.
Yeah, when the weights are lower it'll take you less time to recover between sets. That's perfectly normal. As you progress in weights it'll get harder, and you'll be adding in additional warm-up sets so it'll factor in too.0 -
Thank you all for your replies in regards to the warm ups. Yday was my first day and I'm not sure if I did everything right but I thought the workout would take me about an hour about I finished it in about 30 minutes. I didn't take the 90 sec breaks I just waiting possibly 30-40 seconds then continued. Is this ok?
I did workout A
Squats 4x5@45
1x5@65--45lb was fairly easy so I jumped to 65 unknowingly, thought It was 55lbs
Bench
5x5@45
Row
5x5@65
I wanted to take a video of my form, will do so next time.
Yeah, when the weights are lower it'll take you less time to recover between sets. That's perfectly normal. As you progress in weights it'll get harder, and you'll be adding in additional warm-up sets so it'll factor in too.
Oh ok thank you. Sorry with the typos idk what happened lol. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something incorrectly because I whizzed through the workouts. Thank you!0 -
This is my first post in this group, although I've been lurking and picking up lots of tips for just over a month now.
I've been doing a boot camp class three days a week for over two years, and although I love it, we use low weights (most use 5lbs, I just moved up to 8s) and I felt I needed to add in some heavier lifting. I started Stronglifts on January 31 and am now right around the one month point. So far I love it! I try for three days a week, which I have been able to hit most weeks.
At this point I have managed to add weight every workout, although I know I'm going to stall soon on my overhead press. I've also only been adding five pounds instead of ten every time I deadlift, as it's an exercise I feel less experienced with and don't want to burn myself out too soon.
Here are my most recent weights for each exercise:
Squat - 100lbs
Bench Press - 70lbs
Row - 70lbs
OHP - 70lbs
Deadlift - 115lbs
Looking forward to seeing where I can take it from here!0 -
Great progress , Kaylajane!
No squats for me today :sad: I tried the bar and my knees hurt too bad. I guess 185 will have to wait until Wednesday. OHP was 70 lbs. Should've been 75, but I didn't check my stronglog first :ohwell: That 225 lb Deadlift was my b!tch today, though :bigsmile: Finally got all 5 reps up and it was easier today. Since I didn't do squats, I added skull crushers and rows on the machine.0 -
My first fail today. Couldn't OHP for 5 reps.
Warmups, then
Squats 5x 5x70
OHP 5x 4x55
DL 1x 5x110
and 30 forward lunges each side with a 10 lb kettlebell0 -
okay, got all 5 video's put together on youtube.
Today's squat sets:
http://youtu.be/OqU7uhprOUc
I noticed a few things, one being that my left foot (closest to the camera) is lifting off at the heel indicating that the weight is getting pushed forward. Getting the weight more upright could help that and the amount that my knees are past my toes. The second set was pretty nasty and I noticed the "lazy" left leg while I was doing them so.....Third set I felt was my best set. I did collapse a little on a few reps and I see myself fighting off the forward tilt.
Anything else? Recommendations?
What I noticed was the guy in the background squatting MUCH less than you to barely parallel - LOL!
You GO, girl!0 -
Here's my workout today.
Squats 5x40 - i decided to go down for the smoother motion and to double check form. Will try 45 again next time
bench 4x75 and 1x70. Went down on last set cuz arms were shaking
Row 5x60
Leg press 5x155 - hoping it will help improve my squats.
then ended doing some hiit. Maybe 15 min worth. Dont last long after the weights.
I'm very happy with my progress so far. Still a ways to go to catch up to most of you. I'm looking for a gym that has a squat rack but having very little luck. We have a Lifetime near us but very expensive with a lot of extras that i will never use. Might have to convince dh to buy one for home. For my current squats, i have to lift the weight over my head for each set and back when done. This is probably using up a lot more energy.
If he is handy there are lots of "home built" rack plans on line..that's what I have for now...0 -
Fairly crummy few days, actually literally with the amount of bread I've been eating!
Squats
20x5
20x5
45x5
60x3 (finally moved over to the squat rack)
75x5x3 rather squat-morningy feeling to me.
Bench
20x5
20x5
25x5
30x3
35x1
40x5x3 harder than I thought it would be. Glad I didn't try to push these further!
Power cleans - they guy who oly lifts at the gym was just finishing as I needed the platform, perfect timing. Suggested I might want the women's bar. I pointed out that I had bigger hands than he did played around with the jump/rack and some hang cleans, eventually chucked a couple of 5kg bumpers on and did some 30kgs.
You can see in the vid Dan the trainer who I had the session with was there with someone else. The feedback after that first one was 'arms were too fast, need to let the hips pop first'. My bigger concern is that I think I'm still bending my arms. This is hard! I think a bit more weight on the bar, weirdly, would probably help..
Movie update to youtube failed.. hopefully this works!
http://www.wevideo.com/hub/#media/ci/1588471590 -
Good Monday Ladies...hope all had a good weekend....I must have
Hello bodyweight squats....RAWRRRRRRRRRRR (it's playing right now too):noway:
Any pang I had over the 4lb weight gain over my vacation south is so gone with that....:drinker: Bahama Mama's for everyone...
Anyway Workout B for me today Yah DL day.
Squats 165 @ 5x5...:drinker: almost talked myself out of 165...:bigsmile: but kicked myself in the butt...my new bigger rum bum apparently...according to my friend who is a bodybuilder...hehe
OHP 88.5 again today...due to failure on set 4 and 5 last week (it's heavier than I remember...:bigsmile: )
4x5...then 1x4...almost got it...
And DL
200lb 1x3...got 4th one up but bad rounding..definately not counting that one. First fail on DL..meh I am okay with it...
owie hands...big pinch in the palms...
*I am doing a little self experiment tho...I came home from work and worked out...just had two yogurts between 3 and 5:30...I feel like I had a great workout...so gonna try no supper before I lift on Wednesday and see if that help...maybe even repeat today for food.
Anyone notice dinner timing and lifting success?0 -
Awesome squats, Stef! I've never played around with dinner timing, since I'm a creature of habit but I sure did have a great workout after eating ALL THE CARBS yesterday!
Week 4 of Wendler's 5/3/1 for me, so that's de-load week. Kind of fun to be able to do more reps and other things for a change.
Squats: 4 sets of 5 reps at 65 lbs, then 1x5 at 85 lbs, then a set of 10 at 100 lbs.
Bench: 4 sets of 5 reps at 45 lbs, and I did sets of 15 push ups in between sets. Then 1x5 at 55 lbs, then a set of 15 at 65 lbs.
One-arm Dumbbell rows 3x10 with a 40 lb. DB.0 -
Welcome, kaylajane! Impressive weights for 1 month in!0
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Sort of A for me yesterday
Had to prepare for another stupid snow storm yesterday, so did not make it to the gym. Hubby brought some weights home though. We didn't have time to set up the stuff in the office, so the bench is in the shed for now. He spotted me and I had to do the bench on a stability ball. It was crazy and tough! I also did OHP, but no weighted Squats
Squats
3x20 BW
OHP
2x5 @ 30
5x5 @ 55, but he was spotting/helping, so I will stay at this weight next week. Also had to pick the bar up from the floor and it was tough getting it into position. I usually stay in the squat rack for OHP and start at the right level.
Bench (balanced on stability ball)
1x14 @ 30 (trying to get a feel for it)
5x5 @ 55 - he was spotting/helping on these too, but I think the addition of the stability ball made it much harder. Regardless, I will stay at this weight next time.
My SL app updated and crashed, so I lost my previous workouts. I'm super bummed about this and will have to go back through my diary/threads to find them.
Also started a cutting phase today on a keto diet. So far so good, but very thirsty and getting used to all the fats. Hopefully all goes well and I don't get the keto flu. I was trying to keep carbs at or under 45 before cutting, so hopefully it won't be too terrible.0 -
Excellent workout last night - yay!
Squat:
Warm 5x5x45, 95, 115, & 135x3
Work 140
form was a little wobbly, particularly my knees wanting to come in. I'll stay at this weight one more time. Goal for March is to add 5 lb / week so I'm good staying here even twice more if needed.
OHP:
Warm 45
Work 65x5,5,5,5,4 - FTW!!!!
I have been so stuck on the OHP it was feeling a little ridiculous. I've been dialing in my tricep work and I think the lying tricep extension was just the thing I needed. Even though I bombed out on the last rep these were So. Much. Easier. than any OHP I've done prior. (I blame the goofy song that came on during my set -- it totally threw my concentration off)
Dead
Warm 45, 95, 115, 135
Work 155 - PR for me. Form was a little loose; didn't keep the bar as close to my body as I'd like. I'll stay here one more time. My goal for DL in March is to add 10 each week. So - we'll see how that goes. Maybe i should shoot for adding 10 bi-weekly...?
Misc accessory work that I had to hurry through in order to get to an appt0 -
lwoodruff - how did you learn to clean? I'm wanting to learn this and so far haven't found anyone game to teach me. A couple of the PTs at my gym deferred to one particular trainer who I'm trying to track down....
So maybe I can try these based on my own prep - studying videos etc? I'd love to hear how you figured these out!0 -
lwoodruff - how did you learn to clean? I'm wanting to learn this and so far haven't found anyone game to teach me. A couple of the PTs at my gym deferred to one particular trainer who I'm trying to track down....
So maybe I can try these based on my own prep - studying videos etc? I'd love to hear how you figured these out!
I'm going to be nosy and jump in
I learned the cleans from the Starting Strength book and some youtube videos. It can definitely be done without a PT. You just have to be real thorough and patient with it.
I think I posted those in the Feb thread, but here are 2 videos that really helped me get the breakdown. The first one is a snatch progression, but the basics are the same (the grip on the bar varies, thus the bar path does too, but the explosiveness and the stages are pretty similar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8cAwzQx8nE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i9PYreNypI
(And just for reference, here's me doing power cleans. I still have a lot to work on, but I think I'm pretty decent considering no PT :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZvzuc2VL4 ) 0
