helm's log

[helm]

Squat
1x3x30kg
1x3x50
1x3x70
5x5x90

Bench Press
1x10x20kg
1x3x40
1x3x60
5x5x65

Barbell Row
1x5x70
4x5x65

Dips
5/4/6

incredible, how much strength gets lost from missing a few sessions. the 90kg squat was pretty hard, that pain went away when turning my leg a little. I think it's from driving almost 1000miles and hitting the gas pedal all the time.
took a little too much weight for barbell row, had to lower it...
dips - no comment

[KIB]

Good to get you back at the squats, Helm.
How did you manage 6 reps on the last set of dips?
Or did you rush the second set?
Good push, either way. It's always a great feeling when you can do more reps than last time.

[helm]

nice one today

Squat
1x5x30kg
1x3x50
1x3x70
5x5x92

OHP
1x5x30kg
5x5x44

Deadlift
1x3x50kg
1x3x90
1x3x110
1x5x130

had a pretty long night last night, only 4h of sleep and 1 or 4 beers too much... forced myself to get up and go to the gym anyways, since they're only open from 10am-1pm. felt really shitty when entering the gym, but really great when leaving it.

squats weren't that good, since my coordination was slightly disturbed, but eventually got the 5x5.
interestingly OHP with 44kg wasn't that bad at all. alternated with deadlift warmups after the 3rd set again, works just fine.
finally back to the deadlift PR. grip was very good, hands felt like they were sticking to the bar, with simple overhand grip. looking forward to next time...

new month next time. stupid membership regulations. will get me a gym membership card that allows me to train monday & friday morning (30€), and will try to sneak in on wednesdays. most of the time the membership card doesn't get checked, they don't really bother. don't want to buy a 4month card for 50€ for the 3 weeks that I can use it...

[helm]

Squat
1x3x30kg
1x3x50
1x3x70
1x3x90
1x3x92
1x10x72
1x5x2
1x10x72

Bench Press
1x10x20kg
1x5x50
3x5x65

Barbell Row
5x5x65

Dips
10/8/5

hmm. strange one today. got up too late, didn't eat properly and felt totally weak at the gym. 92kg squats were incredibly heavy, so I decided to do 2 sets of 20 reps with 72kg. only made 10 reps, needed a break again.
had to push really hard to get that 3rd bench set, decided to leave it like that. 3x5 is good too, right!?
barbell rows were no problem at all, could even do them with pretty high speed.
dips were nice too...

did another 20min of cycling afterwards (indirect way home), like the last 3 times. forgot to post that.

got me a membership card for the gym which is only valid on monday and friday, but cost only 25€, thanks to the friendly girl with the shiny blue eyes
will do some home stuff on wednesdays, like ross's no excuses workout again. that'll get me used to not being able to hit the gym from october on...

[jester87]

your other training logs looks good, but this last one looks really weird. i think you shouldnt compromise your breakfast... if you cant have it in time for the gym pass (or work, or date, or whatever) it's the gym pass that needs to be compromised, not the breakfast imo.

I think i know what you're talking about, i have those lazy days too. And i think that breakfast and 1hour rest afterwards helps to clear up the mind. Then when you get there, even though you still might feel lazy, the best remedy ive found for me is to just do the reps hard and fast. Do them like you are totally ready and awake! Especially the squats works well for me this way. I always find that the first 2sets feel kinda hard, but when i get to the 3rd, I begin to feel "hell yeah, bring it on!" and im pulling reps like nobodies business

doing controlled fast reps on the bench really helped me to pull those last sets. I was finally decided to put another extra 2.5kg on my 70kg today. and by doing it fast i did a clean 5x5! I've been afraid to add more weight for long time now because i dont have a spotter...

surely, the barbell rows should definetaly have awoken you!!? they are the ONE exercise that makes my face go all red

Your dips looks to be in order

oh btw, you weigh 1kg less than me! i think you should add more to your overhead press... it looks a bit meager compared to your other stats. i do 42.5kg and gonna up to 45kg in two days. and my other stats arent amazing as your stats. i reckon you could probably pull 5x5 50kg. Hope you decide to try it out, maybe you've been there all along!

[helm]

hey jester, I was indeed too lazy to prepare a real breakfast, and didn't even have a whole hour between getting up and arriving at the gym, so that were the main reasons for today's crappiness. same for me with the first one or two heavy sets of squats, the rest feels better then...

bench and dips are my weak spots, still missing some arm power. I was at 5x5x70 for the bench before my "summer break" (3 weeks gym closed/travel) and want to get back there soon. but I'm not in a hurry, I rather slowly increase weights than get some annoying injury.
same with the OHP, been struggling quite long to get the 5x5x45kg, will do 46 next session, since last time was 44...

actually the barbell row is on of the easier exercises, though it's not as much fun as deadlifts. will have to learn power cleans sooner or later. generally, I tend to like the OHP/DL workout more and see benching as a necessary evil. hope the next gym will have an incline bench, that might be more fun.

anyway, thanks for your comment!

[jester87]

Hi im noticing that you arent doing any pullups and chinups, which are great for both biceps and lats! my upperback (not the lats) is really bad. thats probably why the BOR are hard for me to do. when i say bad, i mean really bad, when i look into the mirror and crank the arms back (like in the squat) i can see skin forming instead of muscle flexing lol

btw, you do the powercleans when you do the OHP right? instead of placing the barbell on the rack, place it on the floor instead. that way you get to do the deadlift+power clean for each set. and you do them at a warmup weight which probably is ok!

im wondering how much your bodyfat is? last week i had 19.7%. Im aiming for 18% by the end of this month. you have any similar plans? that way we can have a lil competetion, where both can win though
and we can exchange tips and diets to see how it compares and why one did better if that was the case...

[helm]

I actually do chins and pull-ups, cause I have a bar in my doorframe. so at least once a day I do one set of about 8, quite often 2 or 3 sets. don't put them in the log, cause I don't do them directly after the workout, cause when I made it home from the gym, I only want to eat/drink and rest. and later on editing doesn't work anymore...

I don't do any powercleans right now, but want to learn them soon, by practicing the single steps of movement. current gym only has one barbell, and I didn't feel like practicing them yet

got my BF checked at the gym in february, was 20%. then bought those cheap accumeasure (or whatever) calipers, they said 17 after 2months, but the guy at the gym still measured almost 20% a week later with his expensive calipers. haven't tracked it since then, but visually some of the fat has left, still fighting that little ring around the stomach. I guess I'm somewhere in the 18% region. I guess I would lose the competition, cause my nutrition is not that good yet, I will not be at the gym that often this month and probably not at all next month
but as soon as I will have a well ordered life again, I will take the nutrition part very serious as well...

[KIB]

Nice big volume on the squats, Helm. Great dips, too!
Glad you got things sorted out with the gym membership.
You gonna try to talk your way past "blue eyes" on Wednesdays?

[helm]

thanks, kib!

I'll see when I wake up tomorrow, I'll probably be at the gym before someone's sitting at the reception, that's the best way to get in there without being bothered. otherwise I have to hope that "blue eyes" is there and try some sweettalking
might also just do my bodyweight stuff as planned...still got 11h to decide...

did about 50 pull-ups and chin-ups today, spread throughout the afternoon, starting with a little pyramid thingy, 4-5-6-5-4, alternating pulls/chins. but doing so without any warmup was apparently not good for the right shoulder, got a strange sensation inside, hope that will go away over night...

[jester87]

hmm thats alot of chinups and pullups! i would like to do them too like that... but im too paranoid and dont do shit after my workout and on my resting days. regarding your love interest... here's a tip: take a photo-camera with record function to the gym, tell her you gonna record and take some pics to study your form and btw, since i already have the camera here out in my hand, would you mind if i took some pics of your lovely smile, just to make sure the camera works?
then post it here so we can drool over her too
she better be hawt

[helm]

bad day today. started at night, when nature called me to my throne and made me sit there for the rest of the night. the following lack of sleep, inability to properly eat and the unpleasant thought of probably sharting myself kept me from going to the gym.
slept till 4pm, been eating some white bread and drinking chamomile tea since and feel quite weak. so no workout at all today...

jester, nice idea with the camera. but I wouldn't post any pictures, I'm a nice guy

shoulder feels ok again.

[Rob_M.]

Man, that's rough. Hope you feel better soon mate, had a similar thing the other night after eating some dodgy peppers.

[helm]

thanks, Rob. I think it was some beef burgers that were one day over their best before date...

[KIB]

thanks, Rob. I think it was some beef burgers that were one day over their best before date...

Oh, Helm, that's harsh
Hope it's over soon. Lots of water to replenish your fluids!