work out B today after nightshift.

squats 5x5 @ 37.5kg (83lbs) These are starting to get tough and I really need to keep thinking of my form now the weight is going up.

OHP- first time at 22.5kg. (50lbs) First set managed 2!, next 3 sets took long breaks and managed 5. Last set managed 4- I had nothing left in the tank to raise the bar for the 5th one of the set. I am so weak on these it is unbelievable.

DL- 1x5 at 55kg.(121.25lb) This is again is getting heavy but I managed it.

Have a great weekend folks.

Squat-5x5@120 not very deep and I am sore. I think my form suffered and will have to redo this wt.
OHP-5x5@50 I de-loaded due to feeling weak today
Deadlift-5x5@145 dang, this felt heavy! But it is 10lbs over BW

Yesssss...Friday. Workout done at lunch to free up the evening and two days of rest. Although, I have a work party tomorrow night with a bunch of food so I might run tomorrow.

Squats - 5x5 at 70lbs. Watched a bunch of stuff on "hip drive" this morning where Mark Rippetoe smacks guys butts and makes them uncomfortable. I think pushing out my knees is key. Focusing on that helped a ton.

OHP - 1 set at 50, decided it was too hard, 4 sets back at 45lbs.

Deadlift - 1x5 at 95lbs.

20 minutes ellip.

Workout A tonight

Squats - 1x5 @ 80 lbs, 1x5 @ 90 lbs and then 5x5 @ 100 lbs. Woohoo I hit 100 lbs and it felt good!!!
Bench - 1x5 @ 65 lbs, 5x5 @ 75 lbs. That got a little shakey towards the end but I managed.
Row - 5x5 @ 85 lbs. This felt good.

crabada wrote: »

I know I'm lucky and I intend to take full advantage this semester.

you do it! it's exactly the right way to go. and yay that your first week seems to have been so much happier than you were thinking it would be.

on ohp, i'd ignore mehdi personally. from the looks of it, you really did push your body's boundaries there, because it's clear you were tiring progressively through those three sets at 47.5 and were much more tired by the end of them than you were when you started out. so you wouldn't have been getting tired if you'd been lifting within your limits, right?

although what do i know; it's just the way that i'm looking at it. i'm also thinking about the fact that i sometimes get much more impressive results for the upper-body lifts if something makes it so that i slot them in AFTER the deads. so you could consider that too.

okay well, tedious self-obsessed all about meeeeeeeee.

i went back to my chiropractor's office on wednesday and saw his partner. compared with early december, this new guy corrected at least one bone in my neck and a whole cluster[censored] more of them in my thoracic spine. and let me tell you, some of the ones in the rhomboids/traps zone hurt in a whole new kind of way. so go me for calling it right (as in 'something is wrong'), i suppose.

i have followup next week sometime and i'm really trying to keep myself out of the gym. i've been given a buttload of stretches to do, and if yesterday is anything to go by they were desperately needed. from the sounds of it (me interpreting hopefully here), everything that went wrong went wrong because a) all those muscles are so stupidly tight, and b) the ones on the right side are stronger than the ones on the left, so the tension has let my own right side pull my spine out of whack. i'm stretching like gumby and hoping like mad that when i go back any final adjustments he needs to make will be a) fewer than before and b) more likely to hold. in the meantime i'm doing bodyweight squats to try and retrain myself to give more of the work to my left side. and i have arguments with my own brain about 5 times a day. one side of it's saying 'but if you go in there and you keep it light you'll get better FASTER, because you'll be retraining more effectively,' and the other side is just barring the door and going 'no. no. no. NO.'

i'm not having much fun and i'm feeling stoopid for letting this happen in the first place, so sympathy and applause for being such a good little camper would be welcome

DawnEmbers wrote: »

I tried a little with the hip thing but it feels awkward and I'll have to do it more with just the bar before I can do it well with weight.

i saw that video where he teaches the hip-bounce for ohp this summer, when i was just starting out with lifting. it helped, but i agree that it's a lot trickier to learn than it looks - hard to get the timing just right.

fwiw i personally got all purist a short time later and went back to doing an absolutely strict press with no help from my lower body at all, but i think that's just me. the best ohp weight that i ever got definitely came courtesy of that little boost from the hips.

lhapple82 wrote: »

Thank you for the welcome! Ugh, I hurt myself today. My husband and I went to the gym together this morning. There was a guy in the squat rack, and when I asked how long he would be, he was "just getting started". He spent the whole time we were there hogging up a couple of things people wanted to use while he grunted, groaned, and counted all of his reps out loud in his circuit.

I could not lift my squat bar up and over (80lbs). My husband would lift it up for me, and I would duck under. That part was fine. However, I insisted on taking the bar off myself, and I definitely tweaked something in my neck/shoulder. It got progressively worse as I went through my bench presses (65lbs), and I had to get out of there before my rows. I'm icing now, but I will never make the mistake again of not squatting in the rack!

I bought my squat stand just for this reason. I knew I could squat heavier but just didn't feel confident that I could lift over and back without injury... I hope you recover soon!

lhapple82 wrote: »

I'm icing now, but I will never make the mistake again of not squatting in the rack!

that really sucks. hope it gets better really soon.

lhapple82 wrote: »

Thank you for the welcome! Ugh, I hurt myself today. My husband and I went to the gym together this morning. There was a guy in the squat rack, and when I asked how long he would be, he was "just getting started". He spent the whole time we were there hogging up a couple of things people wanted to use while he grunted, groaned, and counted all of his reps out loud in his circuit.

I could not lift my squat bar up and over (80lbs). My husband would lift it up for me, and I would duck under. That part was fine. However, I insisted on taking the bar off myself, and I definitely tweaked something in my neck/shoulder. It got progressively worse as I went through my bench presses (65lbs), and I had to get out of there before my rows. I'm icing now, but I will never make the mistake again of not squatting in the rack!

Ouch! Hope you feel better soon.

"Rest" day turned into doing
push-ups with 1.5min of slow mini cycle in-between each sets x9/9/10/9/9 (and then 4 cuz I wanted 50 xD)
bw squats with arm mini cycle for 1:15 between sets x 28/26/30/26/26/24
hollow rocks with foam rolling in-between sets (and um, it does require some core activation to roll, btw O_o) x 14/12/16/12/12
finished that off with a 1:05 plank

then went ice skating for about 25 minutes, walking for 20, vacuumed for another 20 or so, and I just decided to throw in a few chin-up negatives because I felt like I neglected my back previously...

I just can't take 2 days off in a row. can I? Can't wait to be back in the gym tomorrow!

So I did Workout B yesterday with husband taking some videos of me in the gym, to help me with my form.

Warm up: 15 minutes elliptical

Squat 1x5 @45, 1x5 @ 65, 1x5 @85 and 5x5 @ 90.

We took a video of the first one with just the bar and another of the set at 85 pounds. I think that I will need to pay closer attention to my grip because I break my wrists a lot on the bar. For the rest, I'm not sure I'm squatting parallel (because, you know, fat thighs), but there's no butt wink in there. Husband told me I was looking like If I pushed with my back, which is bad, need to focus on the knees. For those reasons, I'll stay at 90 on Monday.hi

OHP 5x5 @‌ 45

I did my OHP in the cage for the first time, yay! As the fixed barbells were on the other side of the gym, I didn't bothered to warm up. I tried to mimick the Mark Rippetoe's hip thrust and it was helpful. I think that I will be ready to add some plates next time.

Deadlifts 1x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 95, 1x5 @ 110. I did some sumo rep on the last set, so I will repeat this load next week.

Accessories: assisted pull ups with the machine, alternate plank on the BOSU.

After that, I teached my husband how to bench press and how to curl with a fixed barbell and I checked on him while he was training his arms for the first time. I don't think we have a new believer here, but it was fun, as a woman, to teach a man how to lift.

Back on the grind! Didn't have a great night of sleep so I was a lil sluggish to start but I think I did pretty well today!

50/10 intervals with a 30# KB

-Single arm russian clean x 19/18/18
-1 arm push-up progression on KB x 13/12/11
-repeat previous 2 exercises on other side
-KB alternate arm swing 30/30/32 (total)

Then 6 rounds of 20/10
- 20kg KB sumo deadlift high pull x 10/9/9/9/8/10
- Bear crawls 10ft and back x 2/2/1.5/1.5/1.5/2 (I could've pushed a bit harder here, I think...)

Then did some squats, 5 sets of 3 @ 125
superset with Pendlay rows, 4x8 @‌95

then 13 hollow swings, hanging knee raises, 3.75 chin-ups with the red band (I'll get 4 soon!) and 45s of hanging on the rings. My grip was shot! Completely! I debated trying to hang onto the rope, but I'll wait til I'm consistently doing 15 knee raises, methinks

I only got two workouts this week but will be better this coming week.

Row 70 5x5 for second time. I think I'm going to wait here another workout before moving up.

Bench 85 5,5,5,4,4. Is it weird that 85 was so much easier than 80 for me?? I was so nervous about doing this weight and told myself I'd go for a 5x3 but then I went ahead and did 5 for most of the sets. It felt amazing. I actually did 5 on the second to last set but on the last one I zigged right and zagged left then barely dropped it into the hooks so I didn't count it. I don't think I'll be sticking around here very long.

I had to wait forever to squat because I went to the small gym and a couple was using the rack forever. So I did other stuff:

Skull crushers 30 3x8.

Assisted pull up (chin up? The back of my hands faced my face) 50 lbs left over 3x5.

Chest fly laying down 20 3x8.

I was getting my stuff to leave when I saw them go leg press (yes, after they were squatting with goblet squatting in between sets) so I ran over to get my work in. 130 3,3,3,3,0 I don't know why why 130 is so much harder than 125 for me. Maybe I just don't like even numbers. I should just try 135 to see if it's easier lol. Anyway, I was tired and couldn't get my head in it so hopefully it's easier on Tuesday. I was shaking and felt nauseous so I didn't attempt the final set.

Looking great, all that effort.

Krokador - That still make me feel tired. I could probably hang on the rings for 5 seconds max. lol Looking great though.

MissHoliday - I actually will leg press after squats if I don't have to do it before squats just cause it can be a good method of waiting for the rack/cage to free up. But for the most part I try to save the accessory for after the main, so leg press at the end of day B. I'm sure you'll get those reps next time. Though I've never done a goblet squat, sounds interesting option for those boring rest times where I practically need to twiddle my thumbs to have something to do. lol


Today I ended up going before work. Changing up my lifting schedule because my work schedule and days off are changing. Since freight is moving to Thursday and I'm going to cover photo that night, I don't want to lift that day. Also, hard to believe I'm on week 11 of SL already. Has gone by so fast. Midday gym = busy but manageable.

Day A

Squat - 5x5 @ 140 - Felt pretty good though had one in the middle where I went even lower and questioned my ability to get back up. But made it through in the end.

DB bench - 3x8 @ 27.5 - benches were all taken and it was hard to get one over by the dumbbells but I used it while I waited to do regular bench.

Bench - 1x5, 1x4 @ 90, 3x5 @ 85 - Yeah, fail number 3. It was rough but okay at first then last rep on set 2 couldn't get it up and had to use the lower spot. But managed to do the last 3 sets at 85 instead of struggling and dropping down to 80. I'll take it down to 80 next time and work up again.

Row - 5x5 @ 95 - Actually didn't feel too bad this time. I'm going to try 100 next.

30 minute walk treadmill.


Not bad overall. Saw a couple interesting sights to report in other forum topic. Not bad and now I can get ready for work.