Sandi's Training Log

[zizzy80]

Hey Sandi,

Just a quick Q. I always wondered.. Did you train a bit differently to gain that much of an upper body strength? Its amazing to me that you can pull those numbers. Amazing, I'd say.

[sgi4950]

Here's the training log for Monday, 06.29.09

Box Squats – 3x5x130
Bench – 3x5x95 (10% deload from 105)
IR’s – Feet Elevated- 7/25 lbs, 6/26.25 lbs, 7-27.50 lbs.
The BEAR – 5 sets -45 lbs. (bar only) set time/rest
52 secs w/30 secs
52 secs w/30 secs
50 secs w/45 secs
42 secs w/1 minute
43 secs

Box Squats – Felt good today. Slight groin twinge but nothing major. No problem with weight. 3 minutes rest between sets.

Bench – No problem here. Sad to deload from 105…again. 3 minutes rest between sets.

IR’s – These were tough with the weight and feet elevated. Reps were definately down. Tried to hang after what was the last rep and get another but no go.

The Bear intrigued me so I went ahead and went for it tonight upon Mehdi's recommendation. After the third set the cleans and the final press in the sets were very tough. It was challenging but I liked it. I probably won’t be able to use my arms tomorrow and I can't imagine adding weight to these. After I got the sequence down I got a little faster with it as I pressed without stopping the bar at the top of the squat. That felt pretty good. Heart rate got up to 160! The plan is to do these with every workout, adding weight along the way, in lieu of the elliptical....hmmmm....

[sgi4950]

Hi Leslie & Zizzy,

Thanks for the welcome Leslie. I agree with the motivation of reading about other people's progress. That's one of the reasons I've joined the forum.

I'm short on time tonight but I wanted to say thanks for the nice words from both of you and let you know I'll drop a note here tomorrow regarding prior training,etc. that you asked about. It's not all that exciting but I'll be happy to share!

[Barry06GT]

Hi Sandi!

Could you please explain what "The Bear" is. It sounds really interesting. Are they like power cleans?

IRs with feet elevated.....talk about a strong back! You rock!

Congratulations on toughing it through a really hard workout!

.

[sgi4950]

Hi Barry,

I am having a real struggle getting my BF down so yesterday when Mehdi suggested the Bear in lieu of 20 minutes of cardio that we had been doing I thought sure...why not and didn't spend a lot of time reading the particulars. I thought it was super tough when I did it last night but when I reread the description I believe I only did a fifth of the program! Yikes. I think it's supposed to be 125 reps not the 25 I did when I thought I would pass out. I'll try again on Wednesday and see what happens.

Here's what Mehdi linked me to about the Bear.

5 sets of 5 rounds of power clean, front squat, push press, squat, behind neck press. No rest during the rounds, go as fast as you can (with proper technique).
Start with 5 sets with 30 sec between sets, you should be breathing heaviely after set 2-3 depending on your conditioning levels.
No more than 1min rest between sets, the point is really to get out of breathe here.
Time how much it takes you to complete the 5 sets. Beat the record next time.
So it's at least 5 sets of 5 rounds, with 30 sec between each of the 5 sets, no rest between the 5 rounds. Empty bar for a start, 5 sets.
When it gets easier: shoot for 8 sets with empty bar. Then you can start adding weight, 5lbs/2,5kg.

Thanks for the Kudo's on the workout and the IR's. I'm surprised I can do the IR's with the weight and feet elevated too! I actually have a bit of a back condition but the strength training has really helped it out.

I think it's very cool that you and your wife are training with the same program. Do you actually train at the same time? If so how does the togetherness work for you guys? I finally got my husband to train but he doesn't want to do SL's. His goal is to beat me at everything. We are very competitive so it's been hard training in the same room at the same time. He does a predominantly kettlebell workout but I'm just glad he is training. Maybe one day I'll get him to convert to SL's.

[atypical1]

Hey Sandi,

I was doing the bear for my cardio work too (I call them "complexes" because that's how I learned about them). I just switched over to jump rope from these because I found myself not able to recover well enough. I was using a weighted bar so that might have been part of the problem though. Perhaps if you don't use a bar or use an empty bar these work better.

You are correct about 125 total reps. It's 5 sets of 5 reps per exercise. I thought the bear as written was to do a power clean, followed by a front sqaut, followed by push press, followed by squat, then a behind the neck press. That is one "rep". Do 5 of these reps per set. I did them slightly differently in that I did 5 cleans then 5 front squats then 5 push presses etc. I'll be interested in reading how much you like or dislike these.

james

[sgi4950]

Hi James,

Thanks for your description of The Bear (complexes). Once I read your explanation of the exercise it made sense. So, I did do the 125 reps like I was supposed to do. Thank goodness...I was really wondering how I would get through more on Wednesday than I did on Monday. So I'll give it a go again on Wednesday, with the bar only, then I'll try to add some weight from there. It's OH and D/L day on Wednesday so I'm guessing that will make it even more taxing.

How lond did you do these for, how many sets and what weight did you get up to before you decided you weren't recovering properly?

Thanks again.

[atypical1]

I did these for a good couple of months and got up to 95 lbs. I really like doing them and think that they could also be a great strength training tool. The trouble is that I was effectively squatting 5 days a week which is just too much for me.

james

[sgi4950]

Hey Leslie and Zizzy,

Thanks for the great compliments and the questions about my prior training. You guys asked…so here’s the journey I’ve been on that’s got me to where I am today.

I’ve always been somewhat athletic. I got involved in weight training a long time ago and I’ve gotten back into it and out of it more times than I care to remember. Not serious weight training, I've just always been drawn to the free weights at the gym. For years I’ve struggled with consistency in training so I knew I needed an outside commitment, much like a set appointment, to get myself in to a regular training schedule. I had put on weight and BF and I wasn’t getting any younger. My back and knees were hurting on a regular basis so I had finally had enough and I hired a trainer. That was in November 2007. Here’s how it went from there.

November/December 2007 – Trained 3 x’s a week and adjusted my food intake to eating clean 90% of the time. The eating part came relatively easy but I hadn’t really trained in 10 years so the training was difficult. I’ve always been pretty active but I was truly out of shape. We did dumbbell work, core work, stability ball work, basic stuff like push-ups, jumping jacks, etc.

January 2008/February 2009 – I got the office staff involved in training and we hired a trainer for the office too. I figured the more the merrier and it would help to keep us all motivated. We did “boot-camp” type workouts 2 x’s a week. This was in addition to my 3 x’s a week so I was then at 5 x’s a week (M-F) in a boot camp type atmosphere. At the office we had dumbbells and stability balls so it was lots and lots of reps with dumbbells and cardio based exercises. Working out with the guys kept me motivated and helped me to keep pushing myself.

During this same time, around mid-year 2008 I changed trainers at my house and started with a new trainer that, like most personal trainers, he trained all sorts of people with what I call the “usual stuff” but he trained himself with free weights and heavy lifting. This is the type of workout that I had always done in the past so I was excited to match up with someone with the same interests. After a few months of training with him I bought a power rack, bar & plates. I always liked to squat in the past so it was like Christmas when the rack arrived! Mind you I’ve never been great at any lifts, I just liked to do them, they made me feel good about myself. We started doing squats, DL’s and bench presses immediately along with a lot of other accessory exercises including pyramids of push-ups and chins. I hadn’t done heavy lifting in a long time so we started with very low weights. I started squatting with 65 lbs and worked up from there to 1x5x145 lbs, regular squats not box squats. With the bench I started with the same 65 lbs and worked up to a 1RM of 115 lbs. On the D/L I started with the bar and worked up to a 1RM of 200 lbs. All max weights were achieved over the course of about 7 months. I enjoyed training with this trainer but we had no real program outlined and I didn’t feel like I was making good enough overall progress. How I felt each training day and what we hadn’t done lately seemed to dictate what we were going to do on a given day. Not enough structure and progress for my personality! I had a host of minor injuries over the course of the the year, strained back, torn calf muscle, shoulder pains, groin. I think the lack of a specific program accompanied by my desire to perfect my technique, to limit my injuries and increase my strength, is what left me wanting more from my training. That accompanied by the fact that my body composition had not changed an inch, a pound or a single BF % in almost a year of training and proper diet was concerning. I knew I needed to find another avenue to pursue I just didn’t know what it was.

March 2009 – While just getting back into training, early in 2008, I came across the Stronglifts site, signed up for e-mails and updates and visited the site most days. Not getting involved, just reading and learning and trying to incorporate some of what I learned into my then current training program. Mid March I received an e-mail from Mehdi about the fitness coaching. I didn’t think long about it. Given the aforementioned I decided to sign up for the fitness coaching that very day. The allure of someone helping with technique, food, program etc. all in one, made it a no brainer for me. So I started the coaching in March. Here’s what we started with in the fitness coaching.

* Sq: start with 100lbs, do 5x5. Add 5lbs each workout. Should take 1 month to get 140lbs for 5x5 (current best 145lbs for 5 it seems), which would already be a record.
* bench: start with 65lbs and do 5x5. Add 5lbs each workout.
* Deadlift: start with 135lbs for 1x5. Add 5lbs each workout.
* Overhead Press: start with the empty bar, 5x5. Add 5lbs each workout.

I quickly learned, via videos, that my form sucked on just about all my lifts and about every facet of my squats were wrong! We changed my squats to box squats and decreased the weight to 80 lbs to work on technique. I became obsessed with proper form and became paralyzed with the particulars. Once I got over those issues (for the most part) and acknowledged the fact that I was going to stall the tweaking has become part of the fun. I still do box squats and I will probably continue to do so as long as I physically can, as they are tougher than regular squats. My form has definitely improved on all my lifts, I feel stronger than ever and my log confirms that. I’m now doing working sets on most lifts with what were previously close to or were my max lifts. I still have a long way to go and I have no intentions of going back to my former out-of-shape self. Now when I get past the plateaus my excitement is bridled by the thought of “oh no…now I have to add 5 more lbs”! But at least I enjoy most every training day, I have a plan and I have a support system to help me reach my goals.

Long story short…I’m not sure what in particular got me to the point I’m at today with my current training both physically and mentally. I’m guessing it’s been a combination of a lot of things along the road that brought me to where I am now.

Sorry for the length of the post but one thing led to another…and before I knew it my story was way too long. Almost like therapy!

[sgi4950]

Hey James,

I hear what you are saying about 5x's a week squatting and with 95 lbs I bet that was really tough. Way too much! I'm thinking these are going to be like a post workout workout!

Sandi

[joda]

Sandi,
I love your attitude and approach to this. Great reading your back story! I know what you mean about learning to accept that the stalls happen. Maybe it's obvious, but I try to remind myself that the reason I stall is that I'm asking my body to do something really, really hard that it's never tried doing before. And then cut it a little slack...
Joda

[sgi4950]

07.01.09
Here’s today’s training.

Pre – Wall Slides, Shoulder Disloc, x-walks, x-supines, foam rolling groin/hips/back before and between sets on squats

Box Squats – 3x5x135

Press – 3x5x86 (PR)

D/L – 1x5x215 (PR)

Bear – 8 minutes - 45 lbs (bar only)

Squats – These felt heavy today and the legs felt weak coming off the box. No groin pain during the squats and no hip pain throughout the day today so that’s good news.

Press – I wanted to get by my nemesis of 85 lbs so I used the handy micro plates and went to 86 lbs and got the 3x5. Mental warfare on my part. The last rep of each set took everything I had to lock it out and it wasn’t pretty but hey…I did it! Very happy day with the Press. A PR and I’ve made it past 85...finally!

D/L –After the press I was wiped out and wondered if this weight was going to happen today. Even the warm ups felt heavy. Between the 4th and 5th rep I thought I was done but I managed to get the 5th rep off the floor. My hands had the impression of the bar on them for 10 minutes after the lift! This is the first day, that I can recall, that my back has felt tight after D/L’s. I’ll celebrate the PR with an ice pack and a visit to the hot tub tonight.

Bear – Got these done in just under 8 minutes. Time was better today but they felt harder today…I’m going to say it was the press & D/L that did me in.

[guru]

Congrats on the PRs, Sandi. Looks like the fractional plates are doing their job very well.

[zizzy80]

Good job on the PRs. You did Bear AFTER you did the press AND DL? That's doubly impressive!

[sgi4950]

Back was feeling a bit better so I decided to go ahead and go for training as scheduled. Maybe not the wisest decision.

Pre – X Walks, X Supines, Shoulder Disloc, Foam Rolling for Groin/Hips/Back
Box Squats – 3x5x140
Bench – 3x5x100
IR’s – 3x7x27lbs/elevated feet
Bear – Zero

Squats – 1st set felt good and I thought to myself, good…no back pain. As soon as I got into the 2nd set the lower back pain was back. The 3rd set was a struggle. No groin pain today though.

Bench – All went OK. Worked on explosion and all reps were fast…except the last rep of the third set. ½ pace for that one. No sticking point at this weight.

IR’s – Much harder than last time with the back being bothersome.

The Bear – Big zero here. I started on these and by the second set I couldn’t go any further, back was not cooperating. “Back” to the ice pack tonight. Sigh....

I’m hoping by Monday everything is feeling better and I can get in a good strong workout. I really want to get to 220 on the D/L before we head out of town!