Sunday morning lift session

Squat 5x5 @‌ 150lbs.
OHP 5x5 @ 60xlbs - babying my shoulder for a fortnight really helped as these puppies felt strong!
Deadlifts 1x5@190lbs then 1x3@ 220lbs. Boooooyah!!!!

Latpulldowns, step ups, single arm thrust thingies and single arm press things as accessories

Tired now. Off to eat all the foodz

Was tired today but still did ok.


Workout B (Sat)

Dumbbell Skis - 5 x 10 - 40

Squats 5 x 3 - 125

Squats 5 x 5 - 175

Deadlifts 5 x 1 - 195 (yes, back to where I left off before accident!)

Bench Press 5 x 5 - 100

Reverse Curl 5 x 5 - 105

Underhand Biceps Curl 5 x 5 - 110

i did a deadlift workshop today instead of going to the gym. not as much lifting, but totally worth it. and also smart, since whatever i was doing on friday i was doing it wrong enough to make most of my back far too unhappy for me to be willing to lift without supervision right now.

i'm finding out when i hurt, i can't use kinesthetic awareness anymore to tell me what my form is doing, because i'm just not getting the physical-sensation cues that i've gotten used to. so then my form tends to become just a process of random guessing, and it basically goes to hell. and then i hurt myself more.

the workshop was well useful though, cranky back and all. there's one thing in the rippetoe videos and photos that i adopted, which i am NOT going to do anymore. not that he prescribes it or anything, i've just been copying too assiduously.

most of his tutorial subjects seem start out by leaning down and grabbing the bar just about any old how, with rounded spines. and then they flatten out and set up their backs once their hands are on the bar. now that i've seen myself on somebody's phone, i'm not gonna do that anymore because for whatever reason i am not doing it right. so i'm going to set my back while i'm upright, and then do the same tight-spine hip-hitch thing that i do to break my own setup pose for a squat.

Today's workout was a little later than usual because didn't get out of work till well after 10;30. Only 2 more left of stage 1.

Day 14, B7

deadlift 3x8 @ 150 - Considered keeping 145 but went up a tad and wasn't too bad.

db shoulder press 3x8 @ 20 - easy enough
lat pulldown 3x8 @ 70 - increased and last reps were challenging

lunge 3x8 @ 22.5 - knees were okay but not a fan and my calluses bothered me a tad when holding the dumbbells
sb crunch 3x15 - meh, back ached a little

For Fun:
bench 3x8 @ 75 - tried 80 but it was too heavy for accessory rep range
db bench 3x10 @ 22.5 - decreased from last time and felt easy
bicep curl 2x8 @ 30 - I may change to something else, I tried to do one set with the ez curl bar and no way of holding it made sense and it all felt awkward and heavy with just a 10 on each side.
wrist curl 3x10 @ 15 - not bad

Late night as I still have updates to do and a newsletter to write about action&adventure. Good thing tomorrow I work an easy close shift and no fitness stuffs.

Thanks for the advise on the bench everyone! Today was deadlift day:

Squat: 5x5 - 105 lbs
OHP 5,5,5,5,3 - 60 lbs
Deadlift 1x5 - 170 lbs

Didn't have time for any accessory work today but am going to try to make it to a 5:15 spin class as I'm travelling for work the next few days and probably won't be able to work out (although I DID pack my gear) hoping the 2-a-days don't kill me!

Yesterday was workout A, and it was definitely better than last week.

Squats: increased to 5x5 @ 95#, after adding more warmup sets at lower weight. Felt pretty good, but I'll stick here for at least one more workout.

Bench: 5x5 @ 65# - I got my hubby to check my form, since this felt so wobbly last time. He recommended moving my grip out about a thumb's length from where the knurling (is that the right word?) starts on the bar. I guess my grip really was too close before, because this felt much more solid. I'm still going to stay at 65# for my next workout to make sure my form is where it needs to be.

Rows: 5x5 @ 70# - felt good, but I'll probably stay here for at least the next workout to fine-tune my form.

This week, I'm really focusing on my diet, as I know I haven't been on point lately. I'm going to aim for 1600 calories on non-lifting days, 1750 on lifting days, and one day at maintenance (should be about 2100) over the weekend. Hopefully this will get the scale moving a little bit again.

Went in for my (sad and pathetic) attempt at the scaled (further) version of 15.2. It's basically 2 rounds every 3 minutes of 6 OH squat @ 45lbs and 6 pull-ups. + 2 reps per round every 3 minutes as long as you get the reps in.

I had all my resistance bands as assistance (~80lbs with knee in, maybe 100 with foot in) for the pull-ups and decided to go for 55lbs for the OH squat so I could snatch it up easier on the first rep. (35lbs bar + 10lbs bumpers)

Had to drop my foot in on the 2nd round of 8 pull-ups because I wasn't making it in time. And i finished during the next round 2 pull-ups short. But it's not like I could've pushed past it. While the OH squats I banged without rest and fairly quickly, pull-ups are a HUGE weakness and I just couldn't get another rep even with my max assistance

Final score of 95. Puts me in 2068th place and the scaled workout still calls for unassisted pull-ups, too. Ew. lol

Finished with a fun little set-up I titled "Clean the ladder". EMOTM until failure, 1 rep of a full clean @ 75lbs + 1 per round. Fell 1 short of completing the 7th minute, which makes it 27 cleans total in 7 minutes. Not too shabby.

I then did some hollow swings and hanging knee raises (10/9 and 10/10 I reckon) but my grip was toast. I also tried to monkey bar around but no dice. I also established my baseline for the push-up and recline row work I'll be doing as my No Matter What sets in order to improve (17 push-ups, 11 rows. My back was pretty taxed at that point though).

It's like this bodyweight stuff needs to be rebuilt every time I stop doing it consistently for more than a week

@symba You could do DB circuits. With a bench. Seated OHP, bent over rows supported on the bench (or incline chest supported rows), and maybe goblet squats or lunges depending on how those feel. Maybe bench press if you back doesn't complain too much (you can put your feet up on the bench to remove tension from the lower back altogether). And body weight stuff. Does your gym have a TRX? You can get pretty creative with those, too. Without having to hop from machines to machines. Anyways, machines have a tendency to isolate too much, and the last thing you need with a lower back injury is to stop working the stabilizers altogether.

I haven't been recording my workouts here much. I've deloaded a lot in an attempt to get lower on squats and get more out of my lifts. Today was pretty good.
Squats-2x5@45 warmup,5@65 warmup, 5x5@100
OHP 2x10@25, 5x5@45
Deadlift-5@145
Good mornings-2x10@45
Bulgarian lunges-10@25
Curls-2x10@25
Tricep dips-2x10@20
Hip thrusters-10@25
Pull up work-walk the plank-5@bodyweight (I didn't have much in the tank at this point

My first post. I have been doing SL 5x5 just over three months. I didn't go up according to the prescribed weights but have been going much slower to prevent injury. I made it to 145lbs on squats, 80lbs on benchpress, and 60lb on rows today. I also did my usual 10 minutes of cardio before and 20 after along with stretching. Great Day!