The Herfs log

[herf]

Squats-------------155lbs----5x5
OHP-----------------85lbs----5x5
Deadlifts----------165lbs----2x5
Assisted chins----130lbs----4,4,4

Everything went smoothly. Was a bit shaky with the OHP but I narrowed my grip to where my hands were almost shoulder width apart and they were much easier. Squats and deads were still very easy. The assisted chins killed my biceps, they hurt...alot. Took alot of fish oil and L-glutamine, hoping that alleviates the pain that I know I'm going to feel tomorrow in them. I think chins work your biceps more than curls for some reason. I guess its not the muscle that hurts, but the tendon right in my elbow that connects the muscle to bone. Happens alot when I do arm work. Even hurts to type.

I skipped Monday workout and had to do it today. Not sure on what I'm going to do for Wednesday work out. I'll do the squats if my legs are not sore and do the rest of the routine so I don't miss a day. Arm soreness might be a factor, might just do cardio till my Friday workout.

Off the anabolic diet now. It would have been to hard to maintain in a trucking job. 10 hours on the road and all I could think of doing was carrying a pepperoni stick around with me, that would have looked funny and would have gotten old fast. I'm still eating alot cleaner though, better than I have ever been, so it's been a learning experience I guess. Like tonight I had swiss steak with real mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. I put back on the 10lbs that I lost in water gain, but it's ok with me because my body fat monitor says the same thing.

[herf]

Did a simple 15 minute interval cardio on the elliptical. Tried level 2...much harder than level 1. Level 1 fluctuates from 15-20 resistance and level 2 is 20-30 resistance. Makes all the difference especially when you put in 280lbs for the weight! Kept my pace at 90-100 whatever they measure and my heart rate peaked at 158 bpm on the hard part and dipped to about 150 on the easy parts.

Biceps still store, or I would have lifted. Damn arms and weak/sore tendons.

Think I'm getting sick...nose is running...hopefully just allergies.

[firewire78]

Good going Herf. We've both got similar physiques, age and goals....build muscles...lose the fat.

Keep up the good work.

[herf]

Thanks firewire! I'll be paying a visit to your log, just get one going and put it in your sig!

[herf]

Squats-------------------160lbs----5x5
Bench press-------------120lbs----5x5
Inverted row, feet down---3xF----7,6,7

The inverted rows were feeling pretty good. I think I'll now start trying them with my legs straight and toes up. I am really surprised I can do that many, seeing as how when I started I could only get like 2-3 and my chest was like 12 inches from the bar.

Squats are still easy, but I refuse to skip any weights on them, they will start to catch up in weight very soon!

Bench was shaky and my arms were like leaves for some reason. I say some reason because they were easy, but arms were still shaking. Odd.

Skipping the pushups, my right front shoulder muscle feels weird. Everytime I move my arm I can feel my shoulder muscle tighten and relax....weird feeling and its kind of sore. I have not done prone bridges in a while and I'll do them tonight seeing how my shoulder feels. I'll get my pushups in this weekend when I can have a kid sitting on my shoulder blades again for weighted pushups. See if I can break my record of 4 with a 40lb kid sitting on my back.

[herf]

Squats--------------165lbs--------5x5
OHP------------------90lbs--------5x5
Deadlifts-----------165lbs-------2x5
assisted pulls------130lbs-----4,4,5

Squats went well, still pretty easy. OHP are shaky. My arms shake like a leaf in the wind, but I still manage to get them. Deadlifts are still pretty easy, not too sure about form, I'll have to recheck that. I really don't like negatives, so I'll stick with the assisted pulls for a while and see how they transfer over to real chins/pullups. Still hard to believe that it takes about an hour to do just those lifts. I did not eat enough before the WO session and this is probably what made me shaky during the OHP....well that's what I'm telling myself at least.
This lifting was actually yesterday but was busy all day yesterday and never even had a chance to sit down and post this.

[guru]

Hey herf, good work there. 90 lbs on the OHP is supposed to shake your arms.

I strongly suggest doing a video where you have any doubts on the form. It's the surest way to get rid of the flaws.

[herf]

I was seriously considering doing a video of my squats and deads. I really think I have good form on my squats, but its hard to judge by just looking at a mirror. Hard to see your back if its rounding or not. For my deads I do not use the alternating grip, it feels awkward to me, instead both of my hands have palms in grip. I think that is Romanian style? I'll have to look that up. I just feel weird asking the random dude in the gym to record me doing my stuff. I'm a pretty quiet guy.

I looked up Romanian style and the legs are stiff in that lift, mine are not. Maybe I'm doing a halfassed style haha. Its just a regular dead with palms facing me. Just read that alternating grips are used for when the weights get heavier to improve grip. I'll try to get used to them that way. I do 2x5 in deads so I'll alternate my grip between sets, 1st set will be left palm in, 2nd set will be right palm in.

I am definitely considering the video recording. My phone has video and this is just an easy way to do it. Even if I don't post it, I can critique myself. But there is always somebody that notices something you did not!

Thanks for visiting guru!!

[Leot]

If you have a digital camera, it should make much better videos than your phone will.

[herf]

My camera has great video taking ability. hmmm.....It would be easy to set up and press record. I'll have to do when the gym is empty. Good idea on the camera, I actually stopped using my real video camera and just started using the video on my digital camera. I'll look into that tomorrow since its a lifting day and get some squats and even tho its a bench day, I'll try to get some deads. At least 1 set to record. Wish I had my own home gym to do this in!!

[herf]

Doh, forgot to put down my 20 mins of interval elliptical yesterday on level 2. I'm going to probably cut that back down to 15 mins OR do 20 mins at level 1, not sure yet. My legs are a little sore and I would rather work on squats than get that extra 5 mins of cardio in. Off to gym in about 20 mins, really looking forward to hopefully soon put 2-45lbs on each side. Will take a few weeks though, but it's a comin' !!

[herf]

Squats----------------170lbs-----5x5
OHP--------------------95lbs-----5x5
Deadlifts-------------175lbs-----2x5
assisted chins-------150lbs-----4,4,4

Found a spot for my digital camera tonight and recorded myself. Holy hell do I have bad form! I thought I was squatting deep enough, but I'm not quite parallel, like I'm about 2-3 inches to high with my hips. My deads looked like I'm going to slip a disk in my back. It was rather disappointing really. I'm glad I recorded myself on the first set and reviewed it. I fixed a little bit on my second set of both squats and deads. Like my legs were stiff and I was still bent over and lifted all the weight with my lower back on deads. I don't think I'll post any of the videos till I think I've corrected my form. Then when I think I'm doing stuff right, I'll post them and see if anybody can find something I can't.

Oh I redid my my lifts because I went out of order a little, yes, I'm anal about keeping on schedule. Damn it.

[Horkster]

Today was a decent day. Man jumping up in weights really busted my ass! Starting to get rough and starting to need longer rests.

Herf, I started reading your log today, and I just had to laugh at this. I experienced it too. Took a big jump
on Squats and Deadlifts about 3 weeks in, and I am sure paying for it now. Yikes! And I'm too stubborn to chicken out and backtrack now.

Best of luck, keep on lifting. Thankfully my kids are too big now to use for pushups, they'd probably break my arms.

Hork

[herf]

Squats----------------180lbs----5x5
Bench press----------125lbs----5x5...I think
Inverted rows--------5,5,5------feet down and knees bent.
Prone bridge--------30,30,30---in seconds

The gym is closed on Friday so I skipped a day ahead and did my workout today instead of trying to get it done Saturday when I have the kids. I believe I will pay for doing this as my shoulders are still bitching at me for the OHP's I did yesterday.

Squats went surprisingly well tonight considering I did 170lbs yesterday. I thought I did 175lbs yesterday so I did 180 tonight. Damn it, I skipped ahead 5lbs. I don't want to do that, oh well. I forgot my little cheat sheet of weights I bring with me to the gym. EDIT: I wore some looser fitting shorts to the gym and this helped my squat form alot. I narrowed my stance a little bit and could squat much lower. Much = 2 to 3 inches that I needed. I felt I really had good form tonight as compared to last night. I think I was just trying to rush when I knew I was being recorded.

The inverted rows are getting easier and going to try them legs straight next time.

Bench went really well. I was tempted to skip up 10lbs this week, but decided against it. I'll get there, my 5th set made my arms shake a little. I'm an idiot and was not sure if I was on set 4 or 5...so I did another just in case.

Getting a George Foreman style grill, an offbrand cause its cheaper, to save on washing dishes. I'll be looking around online tonight. Its a great thing for grilling chicken!!

[atypical1]

I have one of those grills and love it. We use it to grill everything.

Great lifts, you really seem to be coming around!

james