09 Jan 2014
Weight: 180.4 lbs ??
Duration: 1 hour??
Forgot gym shorts so...what did I do? Buy a new one of course! For $26! At the gym! Woo! Best money I've ever spent.
Squats: 3x5xBar + 5x105 + 3x125 + 1x145 + 5x5x165
Lower back did not feel great. These are getting pretty heavy.
Seated Plate Raises: 2x10x25
Seated Lateral Raise: *2x10x10
*Seated DB Shrug + Clean + Half Press: 2x10x10
Did these first since a couple was using the squat rack. Tweaked something in the back of my neck during the first set of the lateral raises so I took a few extra breaths and massaged the area.
Deadlift: 5x125** + **3x145 + 2x165 + 1x185 + 5×215
Used the belt on the top set. Low back was getting killed.
*Accessories:
*Preacher BB Curls 10x50
Standing BB Curls 10x40
Seated DB Curls 10x25
Incline DB Press 10x35
DB Press 2x10x35
*Core:
*Pushup-Position Planks 40sec.
06 Jan 2014
Weight: 178.4
Duration: 11:35am - 12:17pm ~ 42min.
Inner thighs are still suffering some serious DOMS. Snowstorm Hercules swung by so some friends and I went up to do some snowboarding down a mountain. Haven't snowboarded in...4 years. Lots of falling, twisting and putting my body in weird contortions. I realized how little stamina I had. This is definitely to be expected. Strength training, to some degree, will exercise the heart, especially as poundages go up. BUT, the kind of work being done, at least on the StrongLifts regiment consist of short 2-3 second spurts of stress under load. That's it. There is no doubt that 5 sets of 5 reps near maximal effort will definitely get the heart rate going. However, the stamina I'm talking about is endurance stamina. CrossFit'esque I guess you could say.
I've intentionally left out conditioning at this phase. My primary goal before I'd like to start adding conditioning is to first regain close to the strength I had before my shoulder surgery. This means, 5x225lb squat, 5x275lb deadlift, 5x145lb bench. I haven't included the Press here because, well...I haven't been doing them. My next and potentially final appointment with my shoulder doctor is this coming Thursday. My shoulder is still fairly tight during squats so I will definitely remember to let him know. I haven't been consistent with my daily stretching, but I have been wall walking with my arms during workout days.
Squats: 3x5xBar + 5x95 + 3x115 + 1x135 + 5x5x160
Shoulder was pretty tight today. I was trying very hard to dig the bar down lower, but shoulder just wouldn't budge. It got a bit better on the later sets. Legs were already suffering from some DOMS. Luckily, I didn't feel much of it during the lift, but still had a presence when walking around or going to sit down to rest. Last 2 sets were really good, shoulder locked the bar well in place and raised my elbows up to keep it locked in. I made a conscious effort not to look straight ahead since it would be putting my neck in a very compromising position and instead tried to imagine keeping my neck inline with my back, kind of like the picture in front of Mr. Rippetoe's Starting Strength book. I saw that my butt was going up faster than my shoulder on some reps so I'll have to watch out for this.
Bench: 3x5xBar + 2x5x65 + 3x85 + 5x5x100
Used a with-thumb grip. Used less tuck. Felt the load a bit more on the shoulders because of this. Right triceps were working a bit harder. Drive my feet through the ground helped a lot towards the last few reps of the last set. Consciously made sure to squeeze the hell out of the bar and keep whole body contraction once I unracked the bar.
Rows: 5x55** + 3x75 + **1x95 + 5x5x115
Felt some of the reps in my low back. I was definitely jerking some of these, especially towards the last 2 sets. I banged the bar on my knees on the way down on one of the reps. Definitely felt pretty terrible and painful, but luckily it was mostly the bone and not the soft middle part of the knee which would have hurt quite a bit more.
Accessories:
**Seated DB Curls: 8x25
**Preacher BB Curls: 8x50
Standing BB Curls: 10x40
Incline DB Press: 10x35 + 15x30
DB Bench Press: 10x35
Pushups: 3x8xBW
Arms were pretty beaten up today. My forearm is still sore from the snowboarding.
*Core:
*Pushup-Position Planks 3x30sec.
Should've done 35 seconds per set, doh!
02 Jan 2014
Weight: 179.6 lbs
Duration: 11:40 to 12:35 = 55 min.
The duration doesn't include warm-up. I officially got to the gym at 11:20ish. The warm-up was a bit longer today as I incorporated some Agile 8 into the mix to get my legs prepped better. More warm-ups = more time spent outside of office soooo I'll have to be super efficient with my core lifts and try not to rest for too long.
Squats: 3x5xBar + 5x95 + 3x115 + 1x135 + 5x5x155
My shoulder is still cooperating! I was able to get the bar off the right traps and on the top of the posterior delts. There was definitely still a bit of resistance, but I once it was placed the bar was pretty much locked in. The "shelf" that Mr. Rippetoe was talking about in his bar position video felt super solid and super stable. The squats definitely felt heavy today. I felt like my knees were travelling forward a bit. Felt a little lower back engagement on a few reps when this happened. This reminds me...I need to start video recording myself again!! Also, I noticed that my right quads were a bit more worked than my left.
Seated Plate Raises: 3x8x35
Seated Lateral Raise: 3x8x10
Seated DB Shrug + Clean + Half Press: 3x8x10
Jumped up to 35 lbs on the plate raises. These drained the life right out of my shoulders as I went from set to set. I could barely get through the first 2 reps of the third set on the plate raises. I think I have to stagger the weight on each start of the plate raise sets. The fatigue just builds up way too quickly for me to recover and do honest reps with good form.
Deadlift: 5x125** + **3x145 + 2x165 + 1x185 + 5×205
Progressively increased resting time between warm-up sets as I worked my way up to the top set. I used an alternate grip on the last set and it felt very solid. The left hand was supinated while the right hand was using regular pronated grip.
*Accessories:
*Preacher BB Curls 10x50
Standing BB Curls 10x50
Seated DB Curls 8x25
Incline DB Press 10x35
DB Bench 10x35
Tricep Extensions 15x40
Did some tricep extensions to hit the triceps a bit more and give the chest a bit of rest.
*Core:
*Pushup-Position Planks 3x30sec.
Was browsing through imgur and found one of the 30 day get more fit things and saw one for planks. This motivated me to start doing some regular core training. I did 3 sets of 30 sec. planks using the top pushup position instead of the more popular elbow planks. I'll see if I can do these daily and increase the length of time by 5 seconds each day.