Mikedesc's training Log

[mikedesc]

Hi Guys,
I've been following the site on for a few weeks now and have been really impressed with all of the advice and the whole community atmosphere. So I decided it was time I finally got around to joining you all.
I'm 43, 5ft 7", 17 stone with a BF% of about 30. My main goal is to lose weight and reduce BF%. I've been doing the Stronglifts 5x5 for a 4 weeks now. I started with fairly low weights as I've not got a lot of experience lifting. I've worked up to the following:

Squat = 5x5 55kg
Bench Press 5x5 41kg
Barbell Row 5x5 41kg
OH Press 5x5 38.5kg
deadlift 1x5 60kg
dips 4/4/4

I've got nowhere to do pullups / chinups as I train in my home gym, but I do dips on the handles of my treadmill. Not got any olympic weights or bars yet but will save up to get some. I did manage to get some squat stands which helped with the squats and OH Press.

Anyway, I'm training Mon/wed/fri , but work at sea, so I've only got a few more sessions left before I go back to work for a month. I can't train with weights as much on the ship. I do plan to do the Stronglifts 5x5 when I'm home for each of the 4 week's at home and plan to do javorek's complex#1 when away along with rowing.

[mikedesc]

Today's workout
14/04/08

Warm up
10 min treadmill
2x10 leg swings
2x10 shoulder dislocations

Squats
1x5x35kg
1x5x45kg
5/5/5/2/- 57.5kg - sharp pain in lower back, stopped the squats.

OH press
1x5x35kg
5/5/5/3/4 41kg
just couldn't finish the last couple of sets. Been expecting it as I've struggled to complete the last couple of OHP workouts. Will give it two more shots and see how it goes.

Deadlifts
1x5x71kg
miscounted weights - should have been doing 65kg.

Dips
4/2/2
upper arms still feel sore from Friday's workout

Cardio
10 mins intervals on treadmill

[Mouse]

Mike
Hope the back's ok from the squats
Good effort on the Deads though - if they felt ok - build frrom here with them

[mikedesc]

Cheers Mouse,

The back is still very sore. I have a previous back injury from a fall many years ago in the Navy and sometimes it causes a few days of pain. Usually from picking up a piece of paper or something equally pathetic. Or from a couple of days of rough weather at sea.
I'll probably have to miss out the squats and BB rows tomorrow, but I'll definitely try to do something.

The deads felt good despite being heavier than expected, but I'll need to buy some more weights to progress much further, so that might have to wait till I get back from my next trip to sea.

[Eric]

Out of curiosity, what do you do at sea?

[mikedesc]

Hi Eric,

I work for a survey company and am an AUV(Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) Supervisor and the technical coordinator on the survey vessel.
Basically in charge of the survey engineering department. We deploy, operate and maintain survey equipment - sonars, pingers, magnetometers and seismic equipment, as well as doing some seabed sampling for environmental projects. Very varied work and the AUV projects are really good to work on.

Mike

[mjh]

Hi Eric,

I work for a survey company and am an AUV(Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) Supervisor and the technical coordinator on the survey vessel.
Basically in charge of the survey engineering department. We deploy, operate and maintain survey equipment - sonars, pingers, magnetometers and seismic equipment, as well as doing some seabed sampling for environmental projects. Very varied work and the AUV projects are really good to work on.

Mike

Sounds like a lot of fun. Not your average desk job, that's for sure.

[mikedesc]

Wednesday's training was postponed due to my back injury.

Sharp pain doing squats on Monday was my back suffering from a very old injury - dislocation/misalignment of sacro-illiac joint.
ROM very limited - I'm ok standing or sitting, but the in between phase is extremely painfull as it leads to sciatica.
I've been doing some gentle stretching and just trying to get normal ROM in lower back / right hip.
So I'll give my back a few more days to recover and start back with lighter weights on the squats.

I've become so hooked on the programme up until this point that I feel absolutely gutted that I can't train.

[Eric]

Hi Eric,

I work for a survey company and am an AUV(Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) Supervisor and the technical coordinator on the survey vessel.
Basically in charge of the survey engineering department. We deploy, operate and maintain survey equipment - sonars, pingers, magnetometers and seismic equipment, as well as doing some seabed sampling for environmental projects. Very varied work and the AUV projects are really good to work on.

Mike

Interesting stuff. Having varied work is something I love...it keeps the work fresh.

[mikedesc]

After 10 days without going to the gym because of my back injury it felt good to get back to excercice today.
Unfortunately, it's the gym on the ship and has very little equipment. 5x5 is not an option, especially when the ship moves around a bit.
Today is fairly calm though.

Today's workout:
Warm up: 10 min on rower (concept II) Level 7- 2371m, 3 x 5 shoulder dislocations, 3 x 5 squat stretch

Weights: 3 x Javorek's dumbell Complex #1, 9kg/dumbell, 2 min rest between sets.

[b]HIIT: [b]on static bike level 4, 4:30min@80rpm, 5 x {30s@120rpm,60s@70rpm}, 5 x 30s@120rpm,30s@70rpm},3min@80rpm - 9.6km

3 x TGU's L & R with 9kg dumbell.

It felt really good to get going again but the dumbell complex had my HR going well and towards the end of the 3rd set it was a real struggle.
I've not tried the TGUs before and they felt OK.
I'm going to stick with the same weight for a few more sessions then look at increasing a bit for both the dumbell complex and the TGUs.

[mikedesc]

Today's Workout:

Warmup: 10 min row L6 - 2334m, 3 x 10 Shoulder Dislocations, 3x 5x 20sec Squat stretch, 1x10(L&R) Leg swings

Weights: 3x Javorek's Dumbell Complex#1 with 9kg dumbells

OHP - 1x5x18kg/1x5x22kg/2x5x27kg/5x5x31.6kg

Power cleans - 5x5x31.6kg

10 min HIIT - static bike.

I started with the dumbell complexes but once I'd finished I didn't feel as if I'd had a decent workout so I tried a few other excercises.
It's been a few weeks now since I hurt my back and I'm still very wary of doing squats. However I did manage to do some OHP's even at a lower weight that I'd done before. I guess after a short break it's better to deload a bit and rebuild anyway. Apart from that, the gym on the ship has a limited number of weights - all vinyl and with a standard spinlock bar. This limits how much I can physically put on the bar. And it's only because the weather is so good at the moment and the ship's not rolling around that I could do any OHP's and Power cleans.

At least I managed to feel like I got a decent workout in this time.

[mikedesc]

Today's workout:

20min static bike L4 inc 8x(30s@100rpm, 30s@70rpm L6)-10.3km

Hamstring stretches
3x10 shoulder dislocations
3x10 Bird dogs
2x10 Hydrants
10x30s squat stretches

20min Static bike L5 @85-90rpm-10.5km

As I'm carrying a lot of fat, at the moment that I want to lose, I am going to do cardio a couple of days a week between weights workouts as well as HIIT on weights days.
I have also in the past neglected to do any proper stretching and now that I've seen what to do for glute activation and to improve shoulder flexibility I thought it would be worth spending some additional time doing some properly. Hopefully I'll start to feel the benefit soon.

[mikedesc]

Today's Workout:

Warm up: 5 min cycle L5 - 2.6km, 3x10 Shoulder Dislocations, 5x30sec squat stretch, 1x10L&L leg swings

Squats:
2x5x27kg
1x5x31.6kg
1x5x33.8kg
5x5x36.2kg
As the sea was calm again I decided to try some squats. The max weight available is only a little more than I squatted this time. I dropped the weight quite a bit since hurting my back a couple of weeks ago and everything felt good.

OHP
1x5x27kg
1x5x31.6kg
5x5x33.8kg

BB Row
1x5x27kg
1x5x31.6kg
5x5x33.8kg

Pull Ups
0/0/0 - it's the first time I've tried these and I was quite pleased to be able to pull myself up a couple of inches, twice on each go. I'll keep on trying these and see how far I can get before I get off the ship. Then maybe invest in a pullup bar for home.

It felt really good to be able to squat again even if the weights are lower than previously- I'll concentrate more on form.

I love the OH Presses -my fave excercise by far. It's the one I'd like to keep as close to my previous weights as possible. But..... How do I keep the strength I had if I physically don't have the weights to lift what I did before? Can I do more reps or sets and maintain strength? Or will that just cause me to bulk up?

Anyway, as long as the weather holds I'll continue with 5x5 as best I can. I have no Bench available so may have to resort to doing floor presses and I'm not sure about doing deadlifts.I guess I can work on technique, but I'll not be anywhere near the weights I was doing before coming to work.
Any ideas?

[Lathiel]

Do more sets. You can progressive overload with more weight, or more work done. And regardless, you're going to build muscle, but you're not going to bulk up if you don't eat to bulk up. There's no worry there. You can always Press 3x a week, you'll just stall sooner; if you don't feel like doing floor presses.

and Do deadlifts, i don't see why you wouldn't. If the weight is an issue, what they taught in gymnastics after a technique was mastered, was to change something about it to make it harder. If you can, try a snatch grip on your deadlift on an elevated surface. Things like that. Or find some paint buckets, and put them at the end of the bar for extra weight. Get creative

[mikedesc]

Hi Lathiel,
Thanks for the ideas. I'll see how the presses and squats go and maybe do a few more sets.
I like the idea of being creative - I can measure the contents of a paint can - 1L=1Kg
I can probably muster up a few chains as well.

Cheers,

Mike