Wooderson's Training Log: Fat to Fit

[Wooderson]

Trust your instincts on the "but I may suffer strength wise". One way to get a little more energy is to get a little more oil (with protein, not with carbs). Or a little more protein after workout for muscle repair.

Remember that reduction in calories will affect thyroid function and overall metabolism.

Regardless of all that, you'd done one hell of a good job the last 6 or so months.

Ha... I may be ok with slower strength, but I gotta drop the fat off a bit. I always do the post-WO protien shake (50g) and that's when I do the BCAA as well. Contrary to most folks' habits, I always do my creatine first thing in the morning.

Thanks though. I often wonder if after say two weeks I just tried to do my 5rm max of all these things, how close to or far from ehere I am now woul I be?

[tuffnutts]

Interesting that you do BCAAs with the Protein shake, and creatine in the AM.

Listen, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

One reason why the benefits of leg strength should not be overlooked is the natural increase in Growth Hormone and testosterone production after a heavy squat or deadlift session. People think that such workouts lower testosterone, and they do.....they lower circulating testosterone because the muscles have taken it in with the post-workout protein to repair muscle. That's part of what testosterone does: up-regulate protein synthesis. Then because so much more was needed after a heavy leg workout, your brain and testes respond by making even more for next time. And natural increase in T is a really good thing

Ok, I'm done preachin'. Have a great weekend.

[Wooderson]

Workout #55 - A completed November 9, 2009

• Squat: 3x5 x 285 lbs
• Bench: 3x5 x 165 lbs
• Barbell Row: 3x5 x 130 lbs
• Push Up: 3xF - 15/12/9 (feet elevated on bench, slightly above horizontal plane)
• Inv. Row: 3xF - 11/6/5
• Rev. Crunch 3x12
• the Bear 5x5 x 45lbs
• Cardio: Elliptical 45m

Workouts remaining in Mission 2: 45
Minutes of cardio remaining in Mission 2: 2,790

Ok, I'm declaring bullshit on myself for predicting a stall at 290lbs, although the last rep of the last set was a grinder.

Really what seems to be the toughest for me are the pushups and the IR. With the first set on pushups I could probably do one or two more but I stop at 15. I want to get to 3x15 and then I'm going to elevate my feet about a foot higher. Right now my feet are elevated on a bench so that with my arms fully extended my head is slightly lower than my feet. I think I'll just keep elevating my feet until I'm basically doing handstand pushups. That's something I'd like to be able to do anyway, so why not?

I always do the bear on the power rack. Well today there was a couple I had never seen before squating together. The guy looked like a non-strung out version of Lex Lugar (the wrestler). That kept making me laugh inside. Anyway, I used a bar on a rack next to that to do the bear, and after the third or fourth set as I'm blowing up panting and sweating the guy comes over and says, "Dude, you're winding me doing that thing!" It just amazes me that people do the bear for 35 consecutive reps with actual weight and aren't blown up at all.

[Wooderson]

Interesting that you do BCAAs with the Protein shake, and creatine in the AM.

Listen, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

One reason why the benefits of leg strength should not be overlooked is the natural increase in Growth Hormone and testosterone production after a heavy squat or deadlift session. People think that such workouts lower testosterone, and they do.....they lower circulating testosterone because the muscles have taken it in with the post-workout protein to repair muscle. That's part of what testosterone does: up-regulate protein synthesis. Then because so much more was needed after a heavy leg workout, your brain and testes respond by making even more for next time. And natural increase in T is a really good thing

Ok, I'm done preachin'. Have a great weekend.

Thanks for preaching. I now understand why you chose the name 'tuffnutts'

Actually I do BCAA in all protein shakes, 5gm each. I mis-typed earlier. I simply do creatine in the AM b/c that's when I take it on non-lift days, so I keep things constant; it's easier that way. I figure as long as I do 5gm per day, I may miss a slight amount of benefit by not doing it PWO, but I'll get the greater benefit of simply taking it.

[nburge]

That's some top squatting dude. I know where you are on the IR's and press ups - I had the same feeling. In the end I ditched IR's for powercleans (but they're a bitch to learn) and the press ups for dips (which I thoroughly recommend). I will be interested to see whether you end up being able to do a handstand pushup though - I'd love to be able to do a set of those, it looks nails. A handstand on its own is a bit beyond me at the minute!!!

[FiveByFive]

Ok, I'm declaring bullshit on myself for predicting a stall at 290lbs, although the last rep of the last set was a grinder.

Good, now don't do it again!

Funny story about the bear man. Whenever I'm in there doing complexes I feel like i'm getting weird looks from people wondering why there's a puddle of sweat underneath me and I'm gasping for air while lifting weights, but maybe they're actually just curious what the hell is going on.

[Wooderson]

Workout #56 - 'B' completed Nov. 14th, 2009

• Squat: 3x5 x 290lbs
• OHP: 3x5 x 140 lbs
• Deadlift: 1x5 x 230bs
• Push Up: 3xF - 12/10/8
• Inv. Row: 3xF - 10/8/5
• Prone Bridge: 3x12
• Crossfit the Bear: 5x5 x 45lbs (naked bar)
• Cardio: Elliptical 45m

Workouts remaining in Mission 2: 44
Minutes of cardio remaining in Mission 2: 2,745

Holy crap 290lbs is heavy. I'm pausing about 10 seconds between almost every rep and taking 90 second breaks between sets. I will stall soon within the next 10 sessions, hopefully toward the end of that!

The OHP man. wicked, I pushpressed the last one. Just nuts that last time I was here every single one of them was a pushpress. Now I'm just jamming away.

Deads are heavy. Heh. Vee.

[tuffnutts]

Workout #56 - 'B' completed Nov. 14th, 2009
...
Holy crap 290lbs is heavy. I'm pausing about 10 seconds between almost every rep and taking 90 second breaks between sets. I will stall soon within the next 10 sessions, hopefully toward the end of that!
...

Good work! Keep pushing and pulling!

I've just started a 5/3/1 (Jim Wendler) program myself. Ought to log it I think. See how far you get with this, man, you're doing great!

[Barry101]

290lbs 3X5 is an impressive number. You just keep going up! Also your OHP is really getting up there too.

Great Job.

[Wooderson]

Workout #57 - A completed November 19, 2009

• Squat: 3x5 x 295 lbs
• Bench: 5x5 x 170 lbs
• Barbell Row: 5x5 x 135 lbs
• Push Up: 3xF - 15/15/8 (feet elevated on bench, slightly above horizontal plane)
• Inv. Row: 3xF - 10/8/9
• Rev. Crunch 3x12
• the Bear 5x5 x 45lbs
• Cardio: Elliptical 45m

Workouts remaining in Mission 2: 43
Minutes of cardio remaining in Mission 2: 2,700

All I can say is wow. I have said that squats were "heavy" or "omfng heavy" or "holy crap that was hard." I have no way to define how difficult 295lbs was.

I'm also going back to 5x5. I think I can tell that dropping to 3x5 is reducing strength gains. Adding the extra two reps on the bench and BBR may me noticeably more exhausted since I'm not used to it any more. My next squat day will be 5x5 @ 300lbs. A big milestone, the heaviest weight I have done, and 10 more reps than I have done in a while. Honestly, I will stall. I don;t want to, but I will, and I'm ok with that. But I'm going to give it hell.

Big gain in pushups, and I'm stoked on that. If I could just get to 15 once on the IR right now I'd be stoked.

[atypical1]

I'm looking forward to reading the 5*5 @ 315!

james

[Wooderson]

I'm looking forward to reading the 5*5 @ 315!

james

I'm looking forward to doing that... probably about April or so...

[FiveByFive]

Man, you're almost up to 3 plates a side on those squats! awesomeness

[Wooderson]

Workout #58 - 'B' completed Nov. 20th, 2009

• Squats: did not do
• OHP: 5x5 x 145 lbs
• Deadlift: 1x5 x 235bs
• Push Up: 3xF - 13/12/10
• Inv. Row: 3xF - 11/8/7
• Prone Bridge: forgot all about this
• Crossfit the Bear: 5x5 x 45lbs (naked bar)
• Cardio: Elliptical 45m

Workouts remaining in Mission 2: 42
Minutes of cardio remaining in Mission 2: 2,655

So I decided that since in the previous 10 days I had only been to the gym three times I would go today and just drop squats since I did them yesterday. I'm going to see how I feel about going back tomorrow and doing the full A workout. I'm also considering keeping this approach and swapping so I do squats/BBR/Deads on one day and OHP/Bench on the other, mainly due to the volume of each since I'm going back to 5x5 on squats, OHP and bench. Thoughts?

OHP: first two sets, solid. third set I did one push press. last two sets were almost all push presses. I can tell I have been doing much less volume!

Deads were tough always. They are really working me in a lot of places and sometimes I think I'm failing form, but I can still get it on, so until I jsut can't do it I'll keep going.

[Wooderson]

Workout #58 - A completed November 22, 2009

• Squat: 5x5 x 300 lbs FAILURE
• Bench: 5x5 x 175 lbs
• Barbell Row: 5x5 x 140 lbs
• Push Up: 3xF skipped (feet elevated on bench, slightly above horizontal plane)
• Inv. Row: 3xF skipped (body at 30degree angle, legs straight in front of me)
• Rev. Crunch 3x12 skipped
• the Bear 5x5 x 45lbs skipped
• Cardio: Elliptical 20m

Workouts remaining in Mission 2: 42
Minutes of cardio remaining in Mission 2: 2,730

Commentary:

So my first time going back to 5x5 from 3x5 and I stalled. It wasn't even on the 4th or 5th sets. Well, it was, but it was also on the second set. I did 5/4/5/3/0. Valuable lesson here: I was right about 5x5 reducing strength gain, which is obvious on the face but I'll take this as proof. My guess is that if I had been doing 5x5 the last nine weeks I likely would have stalled before 300lbs because of failure on the last two sets that I have been skipping. I have two choices here: go by the book and do 5x5 @ 300lbs twice more and if I continue to stall then deload 10% or just go ahead and deload 10%. Based on the face that 5x5 is basically new again for me, I am thinking I will go ahead and deload, but I may do it to the last weight I did 5x5 on which was 255lbs (or a 15% deload).

The bench was really tough too. Last time I got to 175lbs I deloaded b/c it gave me some shoulder pain which I attributed to stress throughout the arm due to my tennis elbow tendinitis. My tendinitis isn't gone yet, but it is certainly better which is good. I'm not going to deload, but I'm watching this carefully.

I skipped so much today and cut cardio short b/c honestly, I was blown up from the squats. I took a two to three minute rest between each set, but it just blew me up. Really sore about 8" above my knees too. I cracked!