Dylanamus's Ghost: Training Log

[dylanamus]

I see a log as a way of looking at myself in the mirror and seeing the past, present and future. I think it's important to make my thoughts, goals and expecations pubically and irreversably noted somewhere, not just so I can measure my progress, but so I don't lose sight of my targets or forget the motivation and determination I felt when I started. My log is a ghost lap of my strength and fitness.

I don't see my height as an excuse to underachieve - and it's about time I felt confident enough with my strength and build to feel equally, if not more, capable than others. That is my psychological goal.

I encourage anyone to contribute to my log and slap me around if need be. Now onto the blood and iron:

Age: 26
Height: 158cm
Weight: 63.4kg
Body Fat: 18%

Short Term Goals: 15% BF
Squat - 62.5kg - 5x5
Deadlift - 70kg - 1x5
Bench Press - 42.5kg - 5x5
OHP - 35kg - 5x5

Mid Term Goals: 13% BF
Squat - 90kg - 5x5
Deadlift - 100kg - 1x5
Bench Press - 55kg - 5x5
OHP - 40kg - 5x5

Long Term Goals: 10% BF
Squat - 130kg - 5x5
Deadlift - 140kg - 1x5
Bench Press - 80kg - 5x5
OHP - 60kg - 5x5

[dylanamus]

I have been doing all the weight lifting and most of the body weight exercises in stronglifts for 3 weeks now, increasing 2.5kg per workout, except deadlifts, which I've carried up to the squat weight each time.

Thoughts so far: shoulders were definitely not happy with OHP at the beginning, but a decent dynamic warmup and a few lighter reps before getting into it has made things smooth now.

Deadlifts were not even an excercise until today. At 43kg the weight was only just enough for my mind to disengage my arms from the lift enough to get my core into it. As a result, I felt almost all the stress in my lower back. I've tried to keep my goals a little more conservative on the deadlifts as I think I'm more of a squatter, but we'll see. I've added supermans and barbell good mornings every day as an exercise for my lower back. I think the prone bridges are helping too. It's time to increase deadlifts at their own rate now.

Today's workout:

5 minutes dynamic stretching and some jogging on the spot.

Squat: 43kg 5x5 - focusing on form to keep it interesting, otherwise easy as pie.
OHP: 28kg - this weight reminded me to breathe, but wasn't a muscular challenge per se
Deadlift: 43kg 1x5 - need to work on form. 1x5 was easy, but only my lower back felt it.
Pullups - I tried to make it work with what was around me, but couldn't. Squat rack arriving soon!
Prone Bridges: 45secsX3 with both legs. I focused on extending my legs as far back as possible without touching the ground. This intensified the exercise nicely.

Hydrated with water/whey/LSA/flaxseed meal/oatmeal. Taste isn't important when you're thirsty! Not that it tastes bad.

I look foward to workout A on Wednesday.

[guru]

Ah, finally.

I was waiting for this, dylanamus. Now I can pounce on your log too.

I envy you when you say at 28 kg, the OHP does not feel like muscular effort. Of course, you are 15 years younger than me, but that's no excuse. Now I think I will have a tough time keeping up with you.

One question though, short term is how short, mid term is when & long term is how long? I too have short & long term goals in my sig. but I realise that I have achieved most of my short term ones, so am confused regarding the timeline for long termers.

& why the Ghost?

[dylanamus]

Thought you'd be the first to post, Guru hehe. I wouldn't worry too much about my OHP. Because I've been manually raising the bar to my shoulders for squats from a power clean, I'm certain things will get exponentially harder herein: 43kg OHP was extreme in the load/deaload x5 format during squats.

Good timing for the squat rack to arrive this week really...

As for timelines. Short term about 1-2 months since the rack arriving. Mid term 3-6 months and long term, as long as it takes! I tried to make my long term goals very heavy so that I'd have something to keep working towards for as long as it takes.

The ghost is just some philosophy crossed with mario kart. Something to remind me of where I was at mentally at the time I started and to make me laugh haha

[dylanamus]

Workout C:

Moving 75kg packages to garage and installing SQUAT RACK. Was quite the workout doing up bolts really tight so far overhead I had to be on my tippy toes haha

Pullups: 1x7
Chinups: 1x7, 1x5

Felt like experiencing both, seeing as they'd been left out of my workouts until now. Hard work! My new favourite exercise

[guru]

Congratulations. Should be quite a workout, putting that thing together.

Feels good, isn't it? Though I wish it a lot, I will not be able to make my own home gym at least for some time now. Anyway, nobody gets near the squat rack in the gym except me. So I'm HAPPY.

- Guru

[dylanamus]

Workout A

Squats: 45.5kg 5x5
Bench Press: 33kg 5x5
Inverted Rows: 10,9,7. 8th not quite right.
Pushups: 20,20, 20 - Failed after 3 on the last set due to my left wrist giving way. Rested a minute and changed to fist instead of palm down and soldiered through another 20. This was HARD.
Reverse Crunch*: 12,12,12 + 3 dragon flys

*To make the crunches harder, I incorporated the slow lowering of the legs in a full length extended position on the downwards part of the crunches. Much harder thanks!



Thoughts: Getting to my upper limit of manually loading and deloading my shoulders for squats safely and confidently - (couldn't use the rack as I don't have weights for the olympic bar yet and the shorter bar doesn't fit over the spotter guards).

This was the first time I've done inverted rows and they were harder than I expected. I think I need to work on getting the positioning just right. This was consequently the first time I've done a full prescribed workout in one go. Coupled with extra weight, it felt like a great session. Hope I feel sore tomorrow to show for it

[guru]

Great. First full workout. Congratulations.

I have been doing the reverse crunches with legs straight to make them harder, & they are just right hard now. Easier than these & I'll have to think of doing them with dumbbell behind.

Inverted rows are hard, although easier than pull ups. But I have heard that strength built from doing these helps the pull ups.

Keep it up. See you using your full fledged setup soon.

- Guru

[dylanamus]

Guru: thanks for the support. Adding "half dragons" to reverse crunches worked. My stomach was sore today I forgot to mention I did the inverted rows with my feet elevated by the bench. I guess it makes it a bit harder as your centre of gravity is above the most of your weight when you begin each rep?

CARDIO: Visted the folks today and jumped on the exercies bike. I did one 5km ride on easy resistance, then 3km on a medium to hard hill simulation one. Then I set a 135bpm HR target race. I never even got to that HR after a further 35 minutes of incessant riding on medium resistance including a sprint for the last 3 minutes. Must be something wrong with the pulse monitor, as my HR at rest was 65ish.

My legs felt dead and sore after 3 minutes, but they didn't get much worse until about 30 mins of riding, so I guess the idea is to grin and bare it. I was sweating and puffed after the 45 mins total. This could get addictive

It will be a nice surprise if the weights arrived back at home while I was away

[guru]

Hi dylanamus,

I will tell you what I think of the cardio - do it on the same day as your weight training. If you do it on the rest days, your legs will not get the rest. The effect is early stalls. Believe me, I have gone through this before I started SL. The routine my gym fellows gave me was a BB routine, alternate day weights & cardio (35 min.) I hardly gained in bodyweight & after a couple of months, my lifting figures actually fell. It gives a good feeling of sweating fatigue, though. Pity you can't do it in the open air.

About the HR monitor on the machine, those are extremely unreliable. My gym is just 6 months old & the stationary bikes there have never given me a consistent HR. One moment it shows 67, I release the bars & grip them again, it shows 130 or so, sometimes 110, just any random figure imo.

Hope you don't mind my rant, but I thought I should share my experience.

- Guru

[dylanamus]

Hi dylanamus,

I will tell you what I think of the cardio - do it on the same day as your weight training. If you do it on the rest days, your legs will not get the rest. The effect is early stalls. Believe me, I have gone through this before I started SL. The routine my gym fellows gave me was a BB routine, alternate day weights & cardio (35 min.) I hardly gained in bodyweight & after a couple of months, my lifting figures actually fell. It gives a good feeling of sweating fatigue, though. Pity you can't do it in the open air.

I hear what you're saying. My legs are tired today going into my workout B tonight. Do you think the cardio should be done after the SL workout on the same night?

About the HR monitor on the machine, those are extremely unreliable. My gym is just 6 months old & the stationary bikes there have never given me a consistent HR. One moment it shows 67, I release the bars & grip them again, it shows 130 or so, sometimes 110, just any random figure imo.

I would have to agree with that observation with what I've seen so far. Hopefuly the monitors you attach to your waist are more accurate and consistant.

Hope you don't mind my rant, but I thought I should share my experience.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. It's always helpful to see another perspective.

- Guru

[dylanamus]

Workout B

Squat: 47.5kg 5x5
OHP: 30kg 5x5
Deadlift: 50kg 1x5 - smooth.
Chinups- 9,9,6 - Was surprised to get 9 on second set as first set was definitely until failure.
Prone Bridges: 45secsX3 with both legs, lower to the ground.

OHP was easy. This time I had two spotters to load me up on the squats, so I was fresh.
Deadlift was easy and caused no lower back stress. Short term target looking better now.
Went into pullups not expecting to get 9 and ended up doing 3/4 of the 10th.

[dylanamus]

Workout A

Still using 5 foot standard 8kg bar. (Weights include bar)

Squats: 53kg 5x5
Bench Press: 35.5kg 5x5
Inverted Rows: 12,8,8 - alllllmost squeezed out an extra rep per set
Pushups: 20,20,20 - first set flat palm, second and third bare fist. Sore left wrist again...
Crunches etc: Where a set is completed without pauses.
Set 1 - Dragon Flys: 6, Reverse Crunches: 12
Set 2 - Dragon Flys: 2, Half Dragons 6, Reverse Crunches: 6
Set 3 - Reverse Crunches: 12

I'm trying to add reps to the full dragon flys each workout by doing them until failure first then quickly adding easier exercises and trying again each following set. Didn't have another one in me on the last set!

My olympic weights still haven't arrived and I had no one to help, so I had to clean and jerk the 53kg between squat sets. Used hip momentum to get the bar back overhead and in front. Wasn't too heavy, but I'll definitely appreciate the use of the rack for these!

Bench felt heavy, but the more I challenged myself to be explosive and hammer out the reps fast, the easier it seemed. Maybe another 5-7kg and I'll be getting into stall teritory.

I really tried hard on the inverted rows - got my chest to the bar without using any swinging or anything. Pure arms and back! Biceps feel pumped after this and BP.

My right forearm and bicep (right at the inner elbow) are really tight and tender. This started on my last workout B where I threw all I had into the chinups and was topped up by the inverted rows and pushups. Shouldn't be an issue.

Bring on Workout B!

[guru]

Great job!

You've almost caught up with me on almost all the exercises, except maybe deadlift. But why that 5.5 kg jump in the squats? Makes you progress faster now, but it will also make you stall sooner.

If you are regularly getting a sore wrist, watch your wrist when going down & up. The forearm is supposed to ideally remain vertical throughout the motion imo.

Get your weights fast. I don't think cleaning & jerking those weights each time is good, especially since you are not an olympic lifter (atleast till now).

- Guru

[dylanamus]

Oh.. I accidently calculated my squat weight based on the previous dead lift - I thought it seemed a bit harder to clean and jerk hahaha Whoops! Should I do the same weight next workout or just continue on?

I've been trying to keep my pushup form as you say... temporary wrist soreness isn't something new to me though - happened all the time when I was a baker. I've ordered some pushup bars to get over this minor hurdle. Being able to go down deeper will knock a few reps off too.

The weights are due to arrive any day. Hopefuly before my next workout!

While I have no real experience as an olympic lifter, I did have to learn a variety of olympic lifts in high school and my old man helped me develop good technique at the time. That said, I hadn't done a clean and jerk for about 8 years until today... Felt like the best way to get the bar on my shoulders.

Note to self: How to consume 100g tuna, 150g cottage cheese and two tomatoes in under 5 minutes: put it on toast!