The Herfs log

[herf]

Currently 280lbs-33.5% BF. I take BF% measurements using an Omron fat loss monitor. Its said to be pretty damn accurate! I'm going to post in this log every Friday when I first wake up and see what my weight and BF% is. Going to get a tape measurement also for upper arms, neck, chest, waist and thighs. That is also going to be done weekly.

Pretty much my goal is to get to 15% body fat. I'm not really concerned with weight as long as I hit my BF% goal. Even if that weight range is 150-400 lbs. When I do hit my goal, I will take a look in the mirror and see if I want to go any lower or stay about the same. In order to get this, my first goal is 30% BF! If I can get to this in a relatively short amount of time, I know that what I'm doing is right and I can achieve what I really want to get to. It may only be 3.5% decrease, BUT a decrease is showing that I'm heading in the right direction. My next goal is 20% BF by mid/late summer time. If I could just hit this, I'd be ecstatic!

Just started the Metabolic Diet an hour ago. Sunday at midnight! Went to the store and stocked up on ground beef, colby jack cheese, italian sausage, bacon and sugar free jello. I need to get some more cans of Tuna and some flax seeds. Maybe some broccoli...but I hate the stuff and not sure a good way to prepare it.

Currently the only supplements I'm taking are Whey protein, L-glutamine and fish oil capsules. I swear by L-glutamine for recovery and alleviating soreness!
http://www.a1supplements.com/100-Whey-Protein-Gold-2-Lbs.-p-1345.html That is the whey I'm using.
I'll post what WO and what weights I'm using after the actual workout, seeing as how Sunday is rest day.

[herf]

Today I changed gyms and started at the YMCA. They actually have the equipment that I need. Doing squats was pretty easy, but the benching was wobbly cause of I'm used to a smith machine. Started the A diet also, feel tired. Ate alot though, but I need to incorporate some more veggies.

breakfast-- 3 scrambled eggs
snack--half pack of sugar free jello
lunch-- chicken breast with ranch and salsa
snack-- handful of peanuts and a stick of colby jack cheese also cup of protein drink with fiber in it.
work out
dinner--went to bar and had 20 medium chicken wings. this is a monday ritual. (only drank ice water)

Weights are very light because I'm just starting out and trying to get the form and technique down right.

squat 5x5 65-65-65-65-65
bench 5x5 65-65-65-65-65
inverted rows: 3xF 4-3-3 (i really need to improve these!)
push ups 3xF 20-13-13 (I could really feel these in my abs for some reason)
reverse crunches 3x15 15-15-15

My pushups really surprised me because 2 months ago i was lucky to get 1 set of 7 and thats it.

[guru]

Hi herf,

Good decision - changing the gym. The wobbling will stop once you get used to balancing the bar. That precisely is the idea behind not using the smith.

One suggestion on the log format. In SL we keep the same weight for all sets, so instead of writing squat 5x5 65-65-65-65-65, you can just write squat 65 kg - 5x5. Always indicate the unit (kg or lb) at the end of weights. This will avoid confusion, e.g. today I don't know whether you're squatting 65 kg or 65 lbs. I assumed it's kg.

Great numbers on the push ups really. You can think of adding weights to these or trying dips if your shoulders feel ok with them.

Happy lifting mate.

[herf]

Thanks for the input Guru! Good point with the 65,65,65 business. I was half asleep last night typing that out.

Unfortunately everything is in lbs. Just starting out and only started out using the bar. My squats should be higher than my bench, but i had some serious DOMS going on, and I didn't know to work through them. I had DOMS again and worked through the leg pain and on the second set, well, the pain totally went away! I am tempted to add 10 lbs every week till I actually feel a slight challenge, BUT I want to get that technique down and I know that soon enough the weight will start to add up.

Anyways. Day 2 of anabolic diet. Not tired at all. Kind of surprised at that. I REALLY need to start eating some green veggies!! maybe some steamed broccoli with melted cheese on them?? I think theres also a no carb veggie dip i can try. Thats the only part of this diet that is going to ruin me...the veggies!! I won't update my diet, only my training log, but since i replied, figured why not.

[herf]

OK i dug up some pics from myspace to help me track progression. These are not really good pics though.
This one was taken over summer by my son when he got ahold of my camera phone.


and this was take by a friend of mine when he came to visit, im the fat dude on the left heh


These were taken when I was about 260-265 with 33.2% BF at 5'10". Right now I'm about 280 with 33.5% BF. Not much difference.

[herf]

Gym was not to busy tonight! But there were bars and weights laying all over the place. I am pretty anal about that, if I see 10lbs with 25lbs weights on the same peg in a rack, i rerack them. Putting the 45's on the bottom and the 2.5's on the top. Gym is going to think they have a new cleaner on mon-wed-fri !!
Day 3 of metabolic/anabolic diet. I'm not tired at all! Actually feel pretty good, but the WO tonight drained me FAST.

Squats-75lbs-5x5
over head press-65lbs-5x5
Deadlift-95lbs-5x5
Negatives-3xF in seconds 3-3-3 (Yeah chinups/pullups are by far my weak point!!)

Skipped the prone bridges, it felt like i pulled an ab muscle when i did the negatives. Really hurts when I try a prone bridge for even 2 seconds. Not just regular muscle soreness, but a stabbing pain. So I better lay off the bridges for tonight. Will try them tomorrow.

Went deeper in my squat making sure my hips were below my knees. I now know what you guys mean by feeling it in your glutes!! At only 65lbs the OHP got me wore out on set 5. I started shaking. Wonder if its because I'm starting anabolic diet and I'm not a great fat burner yet? For shits and giggles I squated down as far as I could when out of the gym, and went up slowly, paying attention to my knees. They ALWAYS used to crack and pop...but it didn't happen at all. Wonder if this is from only 2 weeks of squatting and my knees are getting stronger?

[herf]

I had to skip breakfast today because of family court today. I only got maybe 2 hours of sleep last night. For some reason I felt like I could run around a track and not get tired! Stayed up until about 7am and woke up at 9am. Took shower and had to be out the door at 920am. Got out of court at 1215pm and finally got to gym at 1240pm. I did not eat at all today except a small handful of peanuts before I rushed out the door. I was not tired at all during the workout, which I think is odd. I even took extra time between sets, up to at least a minute to make sure I get enough rest.

Squats 5x5- 80lbs-paid extra attention to pushing with my hips, this helped alot! I think I have the form down now.
Benchpress 5x5 70lbs-Really easy.
Reverse row 3xF-5-7-4.5 I almost got my chest to touch the bar!! I was pretty excited seeing as how I could only get 3 normally and about 6 inches from the bar.
Pushups 3xF 22-16-16 !!! These totally drained my tank!! I had to rest about 5 mins between each set.

Ill the do the reverse crunch tonight when I have a bit more fuel.

[herf]

Squat ------95lbs 5x5
OHP---------65lbs 5x5
Deadlift---135lbs 2x5
Negs in seconds--3--3--2
Prone bridges tonight

Had the gym all by myself, was nice! I checked out the spreadsheet to see where about I should be, I was off in some of my weights, so I adjusted accordingly to see if thats where I should be in reality. Jumped the squat up 15lbs, and the Deadlift up by 40lbs. These felt ALOT better to me. I believe I had good form, but second guessing the form on my deadlifts. Could not remember if I was supposed to bend my knees a little or keep them straight. I will have to review the videos yet again. Gym time was alot longer today because I had to take longer breaks in between sets and lifts. Was tired through most of the lifts, but kept on slugging away at it!

Also not as hungry on second week of AD. I'm eating less, but eating enough. I'm hoping the weight starts coming off, need to hit 20% BF by late summer!!
So far today eating
1015am---4 scrambled eggs with salsa
1245pm---big bowl of raw spinach and spicy ranch.
245pm---about 2/3lbs of gorund beef with a little bit of manwich
expected from now on till end of night--
530pm---big bowl of raw spinach, spicy ranch and sugar free jello
800pm--10 chicken wings---medium style
1130pm--sugar free jello with creamy style whipped topping.
100am...sleep!! 930am---wake up!!

[herf]

Did 15 mins of Interval training on the elliptical today. Burnt 221 calories at 937 calories an hour!! Interval is ALOT harder and burns ALOT more calories than just putting it on a setting and doing it steady for 35 mins. The intervals started at easy, medium, hard, holy hell WTF, hard, medium, hard...etc. each interval was about 45 seconds long. I felt great afterwards and my heart rate on easy was about 140 and WTF hard about 170 beats per min.

[herf]

Now for the current measurements. Man, this is alot of posting and not much training posts!! I'll post what I had about 3-4 months ago, they are at the gym and can't get to it today. All measurements in inches. All measurements were self done and I'll say give or take an inch on chest and waist.
Right bicep flexed---17.25
left bicep flexed-----17.5
right forearm--------13.25
left forearm----------13
chest------------------53
bellybutton waist----51 !! (man i got some lovehandles!!)
belt line waist-------47.5 (but i wear 42 waist size? hmm)
right thigh-----------28
left thigh-------------28
right calf-------------17
left calf---------------17

I'd LOVE to drop at least 10 inches off my waist and keeping the rest of the measurements the same.

[herf]

Squats 5x5---------100lbs
Bench 5x5----------85lbs
Inverted row 3xF--5-5-5
Prones 3x30-------30-30-30 seconds (last night)
pushups 3xF-------29-16-21

Workout went well. Had energy for most of it. The inverted rows are still feet down and my chest is STILL about 2 inches from the bar, usually the last rep is about 6 inches from the bar. They will stay feet flat until I can hit the bar consistently. Forearm hurt alot from the deadlifts 2 days ago, but I worked through it and it feels fine now. Squats were fine, had good form and pretty easy still. Kness over toes and pusing with hips and not chest. Hips below knees. Bench press is light but a bit wobbly, so I'm guessing I'm "strong" during the lift, but stabilizer muscles need work. Not going to do any "big" increase in weight anymore until the bar is totally stable. Prones last night went really well! First time doing the prone bridge, I could not go for over 10 seconds on the first rep, now im at 3x30 and only shaky during the last 10 seconds. ALMOST got 30 pushups first set!! My arms gave out when I was at 29.5, man, I really wanted 30. I used to think push ups were all chest, but my triceps are on fire. I should have taken a bit more of a rest after the first set, only got 16 on second set. I think I'm going to upgrade to dips and on the weekends let my 39lb son sit on my back and see if I can do push ups weighted. Never did dips. Should be interesting.

[fatcat]

Hi Herf, sounds like it's going pretty well - keep up the good work!

[herf]

Thank you fatcat! I'm tempted to skip weights, I am guilty of skipping up a little, but for the most part....I'm sticking with it.

[johnjohn]

on the weekends let my 39lb son sit on my back and see if I can do push ups weighted

Heh, clever trick. Do you plan on fattening him up when you need a heavier load?

Keep it going, seems like you're doing well .

[herf]

Do you plan on fattening him up when you need a heavier load?

haha he's only 4 right now, but I have a 7 year old daughter that will do just fine. She might go about 55lbs. Not sure on her.