Van's Training Log

[wrenchhands]

Stick with it bruh. If you're skinny, you can lose whatever weight you want.

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs, 1x2 - 175lbs
3x5- 225lbs

So, I'm sick. runny nose, sore throat, typical flu crap. But, my sis was at the gym this evening so I went anyways. Wonderful workout B was the plan, coughed up three sets of squats and called it a day. I was impressed with myself, that I even got that many!
Off the milk for 2 weeks as per my doctors instructions. Something about it interfering with the absorption of my medication...
Well, I squatted 225lbs even tho I'm sick and didn't have any milk for 2 days, so HA! I'll show you Mr.Doctor! I'll still get stronger with enough hard beef and dasheen!

[wrenchhands]

Yeah milk gave me low iron counts when I went to give blood. Go figger.

[Van]

To train or not to train...I'm mentally ready, but physically, I'm not sure my body will respond they way I want it to...
It's a training day tomorrow... Guess I'll pack my gym bag and take it to work anyway. 230..105..335..big scary numbers. If I feel up to it I'll hit the gym, if not, home and rest for a couple more days. We can all live with a missed OHP, but I hate missing my deads.

[wrenchhands]

Hell yeah missing deads suck, expecially it's only 5 of them.

I got 0 last time. ZILCH. NADA. JACK SQUAT.

My squat was jacked though.

[Van]

The days are going by and I'M NOT TRAINING!!
I hate when my schedule gets messed up. I've not trained since last week Thursday! Got sick over the weekend.
My car won't be fixed till next week, so Sunday training is out again(Can't get to the gym without my car, public transport seems to shut down on sundays).
Mondays and Wednesdays I've got night classes. Tomorrow I've got a stupid board meeting to go to...Friday, it's not my normal sun-tue-thu schedule, but I'll take whatever I can get. Hopefully I'll get a taxi after and get home somehow.
We already have enough to worry about with regular work and getting some damn food inside us...I guess I wouldn't mind if I was plateaued somewhere up in the high 400-500lbs on my lifts, but valuable n00b gaining days are being wasted!
I hate when life(and bad drivers ) get in your way of training.

[Van]

Oh, I forgot to mention, I bought some new shoes today! I got a pair of the highly recommended Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars. Costed too damn much if you ask me, but I needed new shoes, and I won't be doing anything but lifting in them!

I already wasted money on expensive running shoes earlier this year when I was a cardio junkie. They weren't a complete waste though, they helped me recover and prevent further shin splints(this hurts like hell-try not to crack your bones people!).They've been holidaying in a cardboard box since I started SL.

Fun story though, I tried Deadlifting with them one day and couldn't get it off the floor, took em off and presto, easy 5 reps. I've kinda gotten accustomed to the barefoot DL's. The trainers gave me a funny look a couple times, but the gym wasn't too busy so they left me alone, I'm sure If I tried barefooting it on a busy monday, they'd tell me I had to wear the shoes so as to not scare away the .
Alas, no more barefoot squatting and Deadlifting. Oh how I will miss the stares and laughter of the biceptz curlzers!

[wrenchhands]

You aren't wasting your n00b gains, your putting them off for another day. There are 30, 40 an 50 year olds getting beast on this forum.

Anyways, I'm in the same boat. My schedule gets messed up, and it creates a negative spiral.


Well, don't fall into the negative spiral. I started stronglifts the first time last September, and ended up qutting because life got int he way until march. No gains. Don't let it happen to you, pull yourself back and get on board when you can.

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs 1x2 - 185lbs
3x5 - 230lbs

OHP:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 85lbs
3/2/3/1/1 - 100lbs

Deadlift:
warm up: 1x5 - 135lbs, 1x4 - 185lbs, 1x3 - 225lbs, 1x2 - 275lbs
1x2 - 335lbs

Chin-ups:
6/5/5

Finally made it back to the gym after two horrible weeks of not training. And what a crappy workout to return with!
Squat form was horrible. Chest still dipping too low. The 185 warmup set felt heavy, so imagine the 230. I'm either going to repeat this weight, or deload.

OHP is once again the most evil exercise in the world.

A trainer told me I was using my back too much while deadlifting and i should squat down more. This was on my first warmup set with 135 on the bar. No I have no idea how i could possibly have had poor form on something that light...
I also don't know how to not use my back to deadlift
I think mentally I questioned myself too much after that and I just didn't have a good set thinking I was doing it wrong.
Crap chinups...didn't bother with bridges. went home to cry about the sucky workout.

Maybe its the time off, maybe its the poor eating, maybe its the poor sleeping, maybe its my asshole boss working me too hard...fucking maybes...

[Van]

Sunday 13th September

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs, 1x2 - 175lbs
5/4/3 - 230lbs

Bench Press:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x5 - 95lbs
5/3/4/2/2 - 135lbs

Barbell Row:
warm up: 2x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs
5x5 - 155lbs

Dips:
warm up: 1x4 - BW
3x5 - 30lbs

Reverse Crunches:
10/10/10

Cardio:
20 mins medium intensity eliptical machine. according to the heartrate sensor on the machine i was between 135-145 bpm for the duration.

So it would appear that things are getting worse...

Repeated squat weight, got fewer reps than last workout. Slightly better form on the reps I did finish however. Once more chance to get it right, else its deload time.

I think I've been cheating on BP and not really touching the bar to my chest. Before I would go down till my arms were parallel with the floor. that was about 2 inches above my chest. This was because my shoulders simply lacked the mobility. I would never be able to get it off my chest at all, but a few weeks of mobility exercises and I think I can finally let it touch my chest without much pain. I dropped the weight back to 135, and touched my chest with teh bar on every rep. This hurts my shouders a slight bit, and its hard to get it to move off my chest still, but its the correct form, so i'll work from here.

repeat on dip weight since i didn't do them for a couple weeks.

[Van]

Monday 14th September 2009

Trying out Armstrong Pullup Program since my pullups have been making little progress and pullups are just as important to me as the rest of the exercises.

6.00AM

• Pushups - 3 Sets to failure
  14/14/12

Rolled out of bed, stretched a bit and then did these. with a proper warmup I could probably manage more reps, but I was still sleepy and cold muscles don't like high intensity work.Approximately 4-10 minutes rest between sets,did a set, brushed my teeth and made breakfast, did a set, had breakfast, did the last set.

6.00PM

• Hip mobility exercises
• Ankle mobility exercises
• Shoulder mobility exercises
  
• Pullups - 5 sets to failure, 90 seconds rest between sets
  6/5/5/4/3
  
• tabata jump rope.
  
• Hanging Leg raises - 3 sets, haven't done these in a long time.
  8/5/5

The program says to do the pullups a couple hours after doing the pushups, but I can't get them in a work, so in the evening after work will have to do. This shouldn't affect the progression, i'm assuming because the idea is to really give your shoulders enough recovery time between the pushups and pullups.

[Van]

I'm back and mad as hell!

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs, 1x3 - 135lbs 1x3 - 175lbs
3x5 - 205lbs

OHP:
warm up: 1x5 - bar, 1x4 - 75lbs
5/5/4/3/5 - 95lbs

Deadlift:
warm up: 1x5 - 135lbs, 1x4 - 185lbs, 1x3 - 225lbs, 1x2 - 275lbs
1x4 - 315lbs

Pull-ups:
20x2
Chin-ups:
5x2

Prone Bridges:
70secs/60secs/50secs

After a month of sessions that I'm just not going to acknowledge as proper training, I'm deloading everything and trying again. Dropped Squat by 20lbs, OHP by 10lbs and Deadlift by 20lbs. Clearly it wasn't enough.

Even after a month of various shoulder and wrist stretches and mobility exercises, I'm still getting wrist pain while squatting, but its way much less than before. I'll keep working on getting these shoulders ad far back as possible.

I think my problem with OHP is all in my head. on the final set, it's like I'm happy its over and somehow push myself and got 5 reps. I need to treat ever set as if its my last set, then maybe I'll see better results.

The funny pull-up numbers are Day 4 of Armstrong. apparently my day 3 I did crap, because i struggled with the 9 sets of 2. Today however, it seemed I could go on forever. I stopped because It was getting late and I really couldn't spend any more time doing them. Next week they will be 3 pullups per set.
Still doing the three sets of pushups to failure every morning when I wake up. The first day -14/14/12 second day-14x3, 3rd-15/15/10 and today-15x3, clearly I'm getting better at pushups!Can't complain about that.

A pretty ripped bodybuilder, looks like he's preparing for a competition or something told me I should wear a belt when Deadlifting. I tried to explain to him our philosophy on strength, but he just didn't understand, and kept insisting it was too dangerous without the belt. He's one of those guys who wears a belt for everything, even his cardio. its funny to see a guy running on a treadmill with a weight belt on.

[wrenchhands]

I hope you're not gonna take it anymore.

[Van]

Squat:
warm up: 1x5 - BW, 1x5 - bar, 1x5 - 95lbs, 1x4 - 135lbs, 1x3 - 185lbs
3x5- 210lbs

Bench Press:
warm up: 1x10 - bar, 1x5 - 95lbs
5/4/4/3/3 - 135lbs

Barbell Row:
warm up: 2x5 - bar, 1x4 - 95lbs
5x5 - 160lbs

Dips:
warm up: 1x5 - BW
3x5 - 35lbs

Farmers Walk
3x50 steps - 85lbs
I'm not sure of the distance so I counted how many steps I took. That's one 85lb dumbbell in each hand.

Ate a lot of food today. It would seem that food helps a lot! Adding a bit of milk, perhaps a glass or two. extra carbs clearly have a positive effect on my strength, despite their negative effect on my gut area....
I felt good for the whole workout despite missing reps on bench. It didn't get me too down.
I gave the rows everything I had, the last rep of every set didn't actually touch my chest. It was about 1 inch away. I think that I can correct this and still increase the weight. If I can't get every rep next workout, I'll stay on that weight till I can.
Dips are awesome. only 10lbs away from strapping on the 45lb plate!
Farmers walk just for fun!

[wrenchhands]

Damn weighted 3x5 dips? Nice, I'm trying to get into it, what do you use, a belt?