Pangram's training log

[pangram]

Hi everyone,

The numbers:

26 years old
62.5 kg / 138lbs
1.74 m / 5.7 ft

Goals:
I'm a voluntary firefighter - I'd prefer more overall explosive strength needed when running with hoses while sucking air from a 6l tank on my back, or having to drag someone away from somewhere.

Right now I run every morning (approx. 20 mins) and hit the gym on Mon, Wed and Sat. Friday I practice thaiboxing.

This morning I started on SL5x5:

Squat : Empty bar first, then 5x5@20kg. The "squat rack" turned out to be a Smith machine - I want to use freeweights next time, they should have those in another room.
Bench press : Empty bar first, then 5x5@20kg. Keeping the elbows next to the body makes it a lot harder!
Inverse rows to failure: 20/15/12 - had never done these before. Very nice.
Pushups to failure: 25/15/14 - Needs some work. Also harder with the elbows next to the body.
Reverse crunches: 3x12@20kg counterweight. Abs were a bit sore from kickboxing but not too bad.

This was more of a "trial run" - this Monday I hope to start for real and do a proper freeweighted squat. I will also have to read up on how to do a proper overhead press and deadlifts. Looking forward to it! I feel like I've been wasting time on the machines for over half a year, I wish I had discovered this site sooner

Thanks for reading.

[pangram]

Right, second time! I had been looking forward to it since last Saturday

I've done a lot of reading on this site, and saw I forgot to take into account the 20kg the empty bar weighs. Doh! I had been squatting 40kg on the smith machine. Stupid.

Since my gym turns out not to have a squat rack, I started with deadlift (empty bar, 20 kg) so I could properly use it for squatting later. This was interesting, my form definitely needs work. I need to figure out what to tense and when, what to bend and what not to bend. SL.com and Starting Strength should provide clues (not that I have not been reading, but reading is different from doing).

After that, the press. 20kg. I kept in mind that the bar should always go up straight, and I should move under the bar. Felt good.

Then, she squat. I tried something resembling a deadlift + clean + press to get the bar behind me and on my shoulders for squatting stance. 22.5 kg. No way I could have done this with the 40kg I used in the smith machine.

Pull-ups! Chin over bar 15/7/5 . Not bad.

Prone bridges, 3x30 sec. Not bad, but I felt my legs work instead of my abs. I'm probably doing something wrong.

All in all, my forms need work. I feel my back but am guessing that it's normal since it's not used to weightlifting. If anyone has anything to mention that they feel I should know, please don't hesitate

Looking forward to Wednesday thanks for reading.

[pangram]

This is interesting, I'm not sure if it's related, but since I started this I'm hungry all day. After I eat, half an hour later I'll be hungry again. So far I'm just answering the call, see where that goes.

[holvoetn]

Hoi en Welkom

Good to see you have started. Now you will not get rid of us anymore

Minor comment:
Be advised the bar in a Smith machine is usually only 10kg, not the full 20kg.

[pangram]

Wednesday!

Hallo H, thanks for the info However, I've christened the Smith machine into Chin-up/Pull-up/Inverse Row machine. Everything else is done with a free barbell.

It went pretty well today.
Squats - 5x5@25kg. Not having a squat rack sucks. But it helps me work on my deadlift, clean and press at the same time. The squat itself is no problem, that leg press machine might not have been completely useless.
Bench - 5x5@22.5kg. Keeping the elbows inward makes this a lot more rewarding! Again, no problem. The chest press machine was probably not entirely useless either
Inverse Rows - 15/9/5 . Last time I did not use the chest-to-bar rule. Oops! Doing better now.
Pushups - 25/14/9 . Keeping my elbows inward. Yeah! Very nice.
Reverse crunches 3x12@18kg. Slowing the way back makes this a lot harder. Had burning abs during the second set already. Great!

All in all a good workout. Afterwards I had some leftover pasta (multigrain spaghetti, lean ground beef, tomatosauce ( self made, pure tomato and some olive oil) and veggies, some ground cheese ) - a friend told me carbs should be taken before workout, not after because it restocks your glucose levels, but any surplus just gets stored as fat. Exercising your muscles should trigger your body to try to improve their strength, so having excess protein available should be useful.

Not sure what to think of this, this site seems to advocate carbs after workout. But a gazillion sites say a gazillion different things.

Any opinions are appreciated. Thanks for reading

[holvoetn]

Looks like a nice session indeed

Is there really no way to have something like a squat rack or powerrack in your gym ? If not, you might have to research options to setup your home gig. It is not THAT expensive (and I already know a good place for ordering in the Netherlands . I'll be ordering my weights there too: helisports.nl )

In theory carbs should be taken AFTER working out.
Do it before and it will be burned instead of excess bodyfat. Do it after and it will restore the glycogen levels in your muscles instead of using protein and other more useful building blocks.
Your choice

[pangram]

Hi H,

About the chance for a squat rack, I don't think so, I never see people do much with barbells except bench - and the occasional squat in the Smith. I sometimes wonder if the 'personal trainer' there knows what he's doing.

I'm actually surprised by the pricing on helisports.nl's stuff - it's probably the shipping costs that kill

With regards to carbs - pasta just tastes way better after a workout, too.

[holvoetn]

I'm actually surprised by the pricing on helisports.nl's stuff - it's probably the shipping costs that kill

Free shipping for what I am looking at, even to Belgium. Can't beat that
Plus they are one of the few places offering this combined with the fact they have the oly 50mm material. Most other places within our area only seem to have 30mm material.

[Anand]

hi pangram,

nice progress on your workouts.

i had the same issue as you do regarding the lack of a squat/power rack. so i had to do the same deaflift+power clean+press to do a squat. definitly not easy, especially as the weight gets heavy. and a lot of energy is drained just to get the bar in position to squat and to put it back down.

regarding using the smith machine, i think its not all that good. it takes away a very useful part of doing the squat - balancing the bar and trying to keep it in a vertical line through out the lift by yourself.

what i do instead of using the smith machine is use the inclined bench press. the bar position is about 4 to 4.5 feet above the ground. i do a quarter/half squat below the bar and lift it from the there. its not exactly in the correct position for lifting the squat bar, the back is inclined a little more that what it should be, so there will be some stress on the back if the lift is not proper. but doing this definitely helped. once i got the hang of how to lift properly, i was able to progress better on squats doing it this way.

if you want to, try this out with lower weights and ensure that your back is not taking much stress. Doing it this way gave me a breather from not having a power/squat rack for 4 weeks. Once the weight i was squatting got to about 0.7xBW-0.8xBW, it became difficult to lift the bar from the inclined bench, as the stress was getting to my back. now i am shifting to get into a gym which has a power rack.

Pull-ups! Chin over bar 15/7/5 . Not bad.

nice going on the pull ups. you could try the weighted pull ups if you find the regular ones easy.

[pangram]

Hi Anand,

Thanks for the tip - yes, the points you make I've been wondering about. Right now the weights I use are not that heavy, but this will pose a problem. I'm either going to invest in a home gym (I mean all I'd need would be a squat rack, a bench, barbell+weights and maybe a pullup bar if the squat rack can't be used for that) and that'd be under 500 euro.

I've been thinking of asking about a squat rack. However I'm pretty sure the owner will say "just use the smith machine" - I don't think I'd be able to argument my case very efficiently for the benefits of freeweighted squats versus smith machine squats. I'm just not that knowledgeable about it yet. I just like using freeweights.

With regards to pullups, right now it costs me plenty of energy to get the reps I get, so I'll wait a bit on the weights

[pangram]

Friday!

Squat - 5x5@27.5 kg . Seemed good, I'm working on my hip drive. I hope to get a friend to record so you guys can yell at my technique
Deadlift - 1x5@45kg . Damn that's heavy! I really need to work on this. I've seen Rippetoe's instruction video and read this site's article about it, but I have no idea what to lift with. Have to see and read more. I doubt I'd lift with my back, and it feels like that's the part that's utilised the most at the moment

What’s a Deadlift? Pull the barbell from the floor with both hands until your body is fully extended. Deadlift by pushing from the heels, and bringing your hips forward. Not by pulling with your lower back.

I have to keep this in mind.
Press - 5x5@22.5kg . Doable. My shoulders like the locking part. They're nice and loose now.
Chinup - 15/9/5. The last one I had to reach out of my toes for rewarding.
Prone Bridge 3x30sec. Not really anything to it - I wonder if this will become harder eventually.

Good workout, all in all.

On another note, I asked the gym owner whether he'd ever considered a squat rack. He said he'd thought about it, but that there is such a group of Neanderthals, as he called it, that threw the weights around and about that you could hear it at the lower floor (where the machines, bikes, treads, ellipts and such are) he said if he'd place one in the weight room (upper floor) it'd get worse, so if there would be one in the future, it'd be downstairs. Heheh. No deadlift weight dropping here, I guess

He said he squatted and pressed the same way I did, i.e. power clean and half press to get it on the shoulders.

Let's hope for the best.

Coming Monday is a religious holiday here, so no training I have some dumbbells at home that'll have to do.

Cheers

[pangram]

Monday! Well, actually Tuesday, but I did workout to the best of my abilities at home yesterday.

Squats and benches were completed with dumbbells. Luckily I had also just installed a pull-up bar, so the overhead presses I could do as well.
Pushups and reverse crunches were no problem.

Coming Wednesday it's off to the gym again, let's see if I can get a proper deadlift executed this time

Oh, and I got a tub of whey protein. Never thought I'd be someone who'd own a tub of protein. Damn you stronglifts.

[holvoetn]

Damn you stronglifts.

Yeah, heard that one before

[pangram]

Wednesday!

Squat 5x5@32.5kg Starting to get tricky with keeping ass to the grass. Form feels good, hip and chest do most of the work. I got a kick to the right knee last Friday during Thaiboxing which is now acting up again, though. It'll heal. I use the barbell-holder from the "sitting-up bench press" - it's about at the right height. When the weight gets heavier I cannot keep using this, however. I really hope they'll get a squat rack.
Press 5x5@25kg Nice! Shoulders cracked, felt good. Starting to feel like I have to work for it.
Deadlift 1x5@50kg I paid careful attention to keeping my posture and working from the heels and hips. It went like a charm! So that's what a deadlift is like
Pullup 3xF 11,6,5 . I noticeably have been overusing my new pull-up bar at home
Prone Bridges This time I had to work for it, I clearly found the correct posture for this and can see how it would strengthen the core. Great!

I love this stuff. Cheers

[eloony]

Motivational reading, thanks for sharing.