Workout A - 12/29/12

Squat:
190 x 5
190 x 5
190 x 5

Bench:
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5

Deadlift:
250 x 5

Dips:
BW-20 x 8
BW-20 x 8

Standing cable crunch:
70 x 17
70 x 17
70 x 17

Not much to say today, except this is my last training session in 2012.  Business as usual.  I did use an alternating palm grip for deads, but I'm going to try straps next time.  Off to Hermosa Beach for New Years!

In honor of my trip:

Workout B - 12/26/12

Squat:
185 x 5
185 x 5
185 x 5

Press:
105 x 5
105 x 5
105 x 4

Rows:
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5

Chin-ups:
BW x 8
BW x 7

Standing cable crunch:
70 x 16
70 x 16
70 x 16

This was a great workout.  I almost did 180 again on squats, but I went 185 anyway and I'm glad I did.  They felt good, and the only typical adductor/hip pain was during warm ups.  I'm not sure if foam rolling and stretching is helping, but I like the trend.  I had my first failed set today on press.  Looking forward to completing all of them next workout!  My arms felt spent by the time I got to chin-ups so I thought I would perform poorly, but they went quite well.  Almost BW x 8 for two sets now.

Music!  I wish there was a better live video of this.  It's one of my favorite songs of the last 15 years:

Workout A - 12/23/12

Squat:
180 x 5
180 x 5
180 x 5

Bench:
160 x 5
160 x 5
160 x 5

Deadlift:
240 x 5

Dips:
BW-30 x 8
BW-30 x 8

Standing cable crunch:
70 x 15
70 x 15
70 x 15

Squats felt a little better than the last workout, although my adductor pain was worse.  The first set continues to be the worst one.  Bench was fine weight-wise, but my left elbow was hurting still.  Hopefully I can get it feeling better over the next couple days, or else it'll definitely start limiting me.  Deadlift was tough but and I felt like my grip was going to fail.  I'm not sure if I should get straps or start using an alternating-palm grip.  I used it for the last rep and predictably my grip was much better.  I used -30 pounds on assisted dips to work on my form and give my elbow a rest.  I think I'm going to work up from there, at least until my elbow feels better.

Music!

Workout B - 12/21/12

Squat:

180 x 5

180 x 5

180 x 5

Press:

100 x 5

100 x 5

100 x 5

Rows:

130 x 5

130 x 5

130 x 5

Chin-ups:

BW x 8

BW x 6

Standing cable crunch:

60 x 20

60 x 20

60 x 20

Adductor machine:

185 x 8

185 x 8

185 x 8

Well, the Mayans were wrong and the world didn't end after all.  To celebrate, I went to the gym!  Good workout today.  I feel like a wet noodle coming out of the hole during squats; too much forward lean.  I'm a little concerned about depth, but I think I'm getting to at least parallel.  Press was great.  Rows were heavy but form felt better than last time.

Today's music, in honor of the Mayans' incorrect prophecy:

Workout A - 12/18/12

Squat:
175 x 5
175 x 5
175 x 5

Bench:
155 x 5
155 x 5
155 x 5

Deadlift:
230 x 5

Dips
BW x 8
BW x 8

Standing cable crunch:
60 x 19
60 x 19
60 x 19

Adductor machine:
180 x 8
180 x 8
180 x 8

Pain.  I realized today that my gym doesn't have 1.25 lb plates, so I can't micro load... Yet!  I'll probably buy some this weekend.  I'm going to need a little gym bag soon I think.  Anyway, because of this, I did 175 on squats again since the bar was moving slow last time.  It moved even slower this time, and I barely got it up.  Blame poor quality and lack-of sleep last night.  The adductors were painful.  Bench is getting tougher but I'm still not near failure yet.  Deadlift was tough, although my biggest problem was feeling like I was losing grip.  Dips were awkward and hard.  My form sucked and my arms were pretty tired.  Meh, substandard workout.

Workout B - 12/16/12 - I'm an idiot

Squat:
175 x 5
175 x 5
175 x 5

Press:
95 x 5
95 x 5
95 x 5

Rows:
130 x 5
130 x 5
130 x 5

Chin-ups:
BW x 7
BW x 5

Standing cable crunch:
60 x 17
60 x 17
60 x 17

Squats were exceedingly difficult.  I had to REALLY push to get a couple of the reps up.  Though my last set was stronger than my second, once again.  I'm going to start micro-loading with 2.5 lb increments now, as I feel I'm very close to failing my first set now.  I felt such a rush when I completed the third set.  It was really intense, like I haven't felt before while lifting.  Mega adrenaline!

So yeah, as the title says, I'm an idiot.  I can't believe I did 95 lbs on overhead press again.  I even loaded up 100 lbs like I was supposed to, then thought it was wrong and took it back down to 95.  What the hell?  The last rep was a struggle so I guess it's not the worst thing in the world.  I'm going to micro-load this up to 97.5 lbs next time as well (in theory/if I'm not an idiot again).  Rows were tough and I think I need to repeat the same weight again to get some form issues worked out.  I'm definitely not tight at the top of the movement.  My first set of chin-ups felt good, and my second felt pretty weak.  I was spent at that point.

Music of the workout that got me through my last set of squats:

Workout A - 12/14/12

Squat:
170 x 5
170 x 5
170 x 5

Bench:
145 x 5
145 x 5
145 x 5

Deadlift:
215 x 5

Dips:
BW x 8
BW x 8

Standing cable crunch:
60 x 16
60 x 16
60 x 16

Adductor machine:
175 x 8
175 x 8

Umm, adductor pain, anyone?  Ouch.  I got through squats but man, my adductors were screaming.  My form was quite sloppy on several reps and I don't feel like I hit depth on a couple either.  Meh.  Bench was pretty easy.  Deadlift is getting heavy, but not max exertion yet.  I'm thinking I'll only go up 15 lbs on deadlift next time.  I added in the Good Girl Machine at the end, and I think I'll try doing it twice a week.  Hopefully I can start building up some strength in the adductors so they won't hurt so damn much during squats and be in a constant state of soreness all week.

Today's song is presented in honor of my painful experience, as the title is quite fitting:

Workout B - 12/11/12

Squat:
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 5

Press:
95 x 5
95 x 5
95 x 5

Rows:
125 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5

Chin-ups:
BW x 6
BW x 6

Standing cable crunch:
80 x 10
80 x 10
60 x 15

I used the Good Girl Machine at the beginning with pretty light weight, and it seemed to help the adductor strain/pain during squats.  I think I'm going to progressively overload that exercise at the end of my 1st and 3rd workout each week to try to strengthen the adductors up.  Squats went well otherwise, and I'd say my exertion was the highest yet.  The last set continues to be the easiest one.  Maybe I'm not doing enough warm up sets.

Then my workout got a little weird.  I mistakenly did the same weight as last time for the standing overhead press.  I didn't realize it until I was done and went to record my sets.  Oh well.  Rows went fine, I guess.  I think I need to start doing 5 pound increases instead of 10 on those now.  I felt my form starting to break down during the last rep of the last two sets.

I went to do chin ups and I couldn't stop my knees from hitting the assistance bar.  I only got 6.  Then I switched to another machine with no interference and still only got 6.  On standing ab crunches, I'm not sure what was up, but I think last workout I read the machine wrong and was really doing 60, not 80.  80 seemed way heavier, and I only did 10 reps before going down to 60 x 15.

Okay then.  That was far too detailed.  How about some music?

Workout A - 12/9/12

Squat:
160 x 5
160 x 5
160 x 5

Bench:
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5

Deadlift:
195 x 5

Dips:
BW x 8
BW x 8

Standing cable crunch:
40 x 15
80 x 15
80 x 15

Squats were hard once again, but I can't say they were appreciably harder than two days ago.  Good sign! My adductors were still hurting at the top of every rep though - no improvement.  I did a little research and think I'm going to do some light warm ups on the adductor machine (a.k.a. Good Girl Machine, see pic) and perhaps progressively overload it at the end of workouts once or twice a week.

Looks enjoyable.  I am pretty convinced this is just a weak point, which makes sense since they really don't get any work in everyday life.

Bench was still easy, and deadlifts weren't really tough either, but at least they feel like it's taking some effort to get the bar off the ground.  I added two sets of dips at the end with my body weight, and then used the standing cable crunch ab machine to get some work in there.  The dips weren't too taxing so I think I'm going to keep doing them while bench goes up and then eventually start raising reps/weight.

Workout B - 12/7/12

Squat:
155 x 5
155 x 5
155 x 5

Press:
95 x 5
95 x 5
95 x 5

Rows:
115 x 5
115 x 5
115 x 5

Squats are getting difficult.  The last rep of each set was tough and slower, and I had a bit of forward lean.  I think my adductor twinge is a flexibility issue, but I'll keep a close eye on it still and continue to do some stretching.  Press was finally tough, and rows are starting to give me a little fatigue now.

I'm going to increase calories per day to 3500.  I've been gaining closer to a half pound a week rather than my goal of a pound.  Unacceptable!  Alas, I guess my metabolism is a lot faster than I thought.

Music of the workout, in honor of last night's amazing show:

Workout A - 12/4/12

Squat:
150 x 5
150 x 5
150 x 5

Bench:
125 x 5
125 x 5
125 x 5

Deadlift:
175 x 5

Squats felt heavy, although it seemed like my last set was the easiest.  The last rep of each set went up a little slower than the rest, but otherwise pretty good.  I need to pay attention to my lateral movement as I squat - I'm feeling it a little more in the upper part of my right adductor.  I wouldn't call it pain; it's closer to muscle fatigue, but it still feels weird.  I'm not sure if I'm going down uneven and putting more stress on it, if it's an imbalance, if it's just tight, or what.  Anyway, it's something to pay attention to until I can work it out.  Bench was not challenging, nor was deadlift.  I'm almost there though.  Three sessions from now will be a PR for deadlift, and I think bench won't be far behind.

Select music from the workout:

Workout B - 12/2/12

Squat:
145 x 5
145 x 5
145 x 5

Press:
90 x 5
90 x 5
90 x 5

Rows:
105 x 5
105 x 5
105 x 5

Chin-ups:
BW x 8
BW x 6

Finally, a workout that made me feel like I actually accomplished something.  Squats weren't torturous, but I felt like I was noodling around through the movement, and the weight was significant.  I could probably get 10 pounds more next workout, but it feels like that would be my last time and it would be a struggle. I'm going to bump it down to 5 pounds in the interest of continual progression.  The overhead press wasn't too bad, and rows were still a bit on the easy side.  I did chin-ups mostly because I feel like I haven't been taxing my upper body at all so far, and I kind of wanted to see where I was with straight up body weight.  I'll probably drop them next workout for a couple weeks until I get used to the workload with all movements feeling heavy.

My weight was up around 174 this morning, so I think I'm going to stay the course with 3200 calories a day for now.  Of course, that number is in perpetual evaluation mode, and I'll adjust as necessary.  I'm interested to see what the scale does now that the weights are starting to get heavy.

Music of the workout:

Workout A - 11/29/12

Squat: 135 x 3 x 5

Bench: 115 x 3 x 5

Deadlift: 155 x 1 x 5

The last rep of each work set of squats had a little bite today, but nothing to struggle with.  My form felt good although I feel like I should be sitting back a little bit more.  Bench was not difficult at all; it was rather boring.  Ditto, deadlifts.  I hate two day rest periods right now.  Feel my seething disposition, the pure essence of my discontent.

Okay, that was fun.

Body weight

I should probably start including my body weight in some of these posts.  Ideally I'll see about a pound a week increase.  If not, I need to increase calories.  It's somewhat difficult to accurately gauge weight gain on a day-to-day basis since so many factors come into play that cause weight to fluctuate.  So, I try to weigh myself 4-5 times a week, keep as many variables constant as I can, and track an approximate average in my head.  When I started this in early November, I was around 171 lbs.  Right now my mental average has me at about 172.5-173 lbs.  That's a little slow, so if I don't see a jump in the next week, I'll probably bump up my daily caloric intake by 200.

Workout B - 11/27/12

Squats were incrementally harder, and I noticed my form getting kind of sketchy because I wasn't too focused.  OH press was not really challenging, but when I didn't focus on form they got a little tougher.  Rows were easy.  Lessons from today?  I need to find certain form triggers, or a progression of thoughts in my head as I'm doing these.

Squat: 125 x 3 x 5
Press: 85 x 3 x 5
Rows: 95 x 3 x 5

Next time I do the press, I'm going to add 5 pounds rather than 10.  I know this will be the lift with the lowest weight overall, so 5 pound increments now will help keep linear progression going as long as possible before micro loading begins.

Workout A - 11/25/12

Pretty much the same as last Thursday, but for workout A.  The weights weren't challenging.  Squats went up 10 lbs, but that's about it.  Hopefully starting this light will get me a few more weeks of linear progression by the time I exhaust the program.

Squat: 115 x 3 x 5
Bench: 105 x 3 x 5
Deadlift: 135 x 1 x 5

Workout B - Thanksgiving morning

Glorious pre-Turkey Day workout?  I think so!  Dropped weights to approximately 70% of my 5RM as per Rippetoe with the hope that I'll be able to keep up linear gains as long as possible.  As expected, this was pretty light and not a challenge. My heart rate only felt somewhat elevated after the squats.

Squat: 105 x 3 x 5
Press: 75 x 3 x 5
Rows: 85 x 3 x 5

I'm off to consume massive amounts of wine, turkey, and all the other goodies this day has to offer.

Start #2

On Sunday I repeated my first workout, meaning I didn't increase any of the weights as I would normally.  I did this mostly because I haven't been able to stick to the program so far due to the free trainer session, and had another coming up.  I figured another baseline workout would be good since I had no idea what I'd be doing today with the trainer.  Anyway, here's Sunday's workout:

Squat: 135 x 3 x 5
Bench: 155 x 3 x 5
Deadlift: 185 x 1 x 5

The trainer had me do a bunch of deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, chin ups, dumbbell rows, cable curls, and upright cable rows.  Not bad for a pull workout, but obviously not what I'm going to do.

I'm really looking forward to starting (again) with no interruptions on Thursday.  Oh, and eating massive amounts of food and drinking a lot of wine since it's Thanksgiving.

Robert Redford approves of all of this:

A diversion

I veered off course a little bit today, but not by choice.  I get two free sessions with a personal trainer at my gym as a part of their sign up package, and today was the first.  It was annoying not being able to follow my plan, but it was definitely beneficial since he was able to fix a couple flaws in my squat and deadlift form.  I couldn't even tell you the weights we did.

Anyway, I'll do a normal workout Sunday and then use my final trainer session Tuesday.  After that I can finally get on track.

The right state of mind

Today was my first "Workout B", where I do squats, standing overhead press, and Pendlay rows.  For the squats, I added 10 pounds to the weight of my first workout.  I don't think I mentally prepared myself for the first work set, because I very nearly failed on my last rep*.  I was probably a bit sloppy with form too.  I tightened everything up for the second and third sets and was able to complete them without reaching the brink of disaster again.  Trying to increase the weight every workout is going to be... magnificently painful.

Since I didn't know my work set weight for the OHP and rows, I worked my way up slowly again.  I really didn't feel like I was very close to my 5RM on either exercise, but that's okay.  My form was good, and I know it'll ramp up fast and I'll be suffering properly soon.

Squat: 145 x 3 x 5
Press: 85 x 3 x 5
Rows: 95 x 3 x 5

The entire lower half of my body feels obliterated.  This is good.

*I was definitely distracted by the amazing "scenery" at my gym.  Damn... I love it of course, but I'm going to have to make sure I get into the right state of mind before my sets.  Less gym bunny watching mode, more unadulterated hatred of iron mode.

Day 1

It all begins here I suppose.  While I did build up some base of strength over the last six months, this is the start of the real training.  Workout A: Squats, bench, and deadlifts.  I really had no idea what weight I’d be doing my work sets at, so I worked my way up slower than I usually will during warm up sets.  I purposely didn't go up to a weight that I felt was my true 5RM, but I got close.  Form and technique was paramount, and the weight will ramp up fast, so no big deal.  I’m not going to bother divulging the warm up sets; just my work sets.

Squat: 135 x 3 x 5

Bench Press: 155 x 3 x 5

Deadlift: 185 x 1 x 5

Ever see a person who benches more than they squat?  Now you have!  That shouldn't last long, but it definitely shows just how ineffective my apartment’s gym is (and only able to squat with 50-pound dumbbells).  I had no delusions of iron pumping grandeur, and overall this is kind of what I expected as far as weight.   Using various 1RM calculators, my total weight for the big three movements--maybe I should call them the Trio of Glory from now on--should be around 535-560 lbs.  Weak.  I have a LOT of work to do.  But again, this was expected, so if nothing else my motivation has increased by at least 17%.  Maybe even 19%.

The Plan

Alright, let’s briefly go over the plan here.  I’m going to be following a program that is a slight modification on Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength barbell training.  Why?  Because it’s proven, tried-and-true, gets results, really brings home the bacon and fries it too, etc., etc., etc.  If you want details, click here.  But the gist of it is training three days a week, alternating between two different workouts, which I’ll creatively call Workout A and Workout B.  The core exercises are all compound barbell movements, and eventually I’ll add in some accessory work.  Here it is:

Workout A

Squats: 3 x 5

Bench Press: 3 x 5

Deadlift: 1 x 5

Dips: 2 x 8-12

Abs

Workout B

Squats: 3 x 5

Standing Military Press: 3 x 5

Pendlay/Bent Over Rows: 3 x 5

Chin-ups: 2 x 8-12

Abs

However, at first I’ll just be doing the first three in each workout until I stop progressing and need to stress the body a bit more.  Pretty simple stuff.  I'll stay on the program until it stops working and it's time to move on to a more intermediate level program.

As far as nutrition goes, I’m sticking with what I've been doing, which is roughly 3200 calories and 170+ grams of protein a day.  As long as I hit those, I’m happy, although I do try to keep my fat intake around 75-85 grams a day.  If you really want to know why, watch this and this.  I don’t have much more to say about nutrition without going into a lot of boring detail.  I might increase the calories right off the bat, but we’ll see how my weight gain is.

I don’t plan on making an entry after every workout.  I don’t really have much of a plan for this, period.  I’m just going to let it ride, baby, go with the flow.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m predicting something between useless drivel and winning the first Nobel Prize in Blogging.

So there it is.

The Beginning

Greetings.  This blog is going to serve as a way for me to track my progress down the salubrious path to my weight lifting goals.  For the humans other than myself who are reading this, you may be asking, “and just what are those goals?”  Well, there’s actually just one at this point in time.  My goal is to reach a cumulative 1-rep max of 1000 lbs in the three big powerlifting movements: Squat, bench press, and deadlift.  Notice how clever my blog title seems now.  Alas.

Why is this my goal?  I’m not entirely sure, but I like goals, and it seems like a decent choice.  It’s certainly not unobtainable, and certainly not trivial.  On a deeper level, I’m doing this because in the last six months or so, I've really gotten into this stuff.  I've always been into some sort of physical activity and exercise.  In Middle School and High School I was a very competitive cross country mountain bike racer, to the point where I was nationally ranked as an 18 year old, fully sponsored on a national level team, and training to turn pro.  Then college happened, and I decided to be social and maximize fun and merriment instead of being a disciplined athlete.  I had lifted weights in the off season to supplement my racing training, and during college I lifted multiple times a week.   Since a post-college lull, I've been lifting consistently about four and a half years.  However, until earlier this year I always did whatever I felt like, rather than following any sort of program.  For some reason still unknown to me, about six months ago I started reading up on weight lifting, body building, proper nutrition, exercise science, and the like.  There was definitely a snowball effect as the more knowledge I got, the more I craved.  It’s interesting stuff!  I started a simple novice program in my small apartment gym and coupled that with finally eating right (“right” for the purpose of supporting my weight lifting endeavors, at least).  In the first four months I made more progress than I had in the previous four years of just “doing whatever” and eating what I thought was a decent diet.  I went from roughly 150 to 170 pounds without much noticeable fat gain, and I was lifting quite a bit more than I ever had.  But at this point my apartment gym had outlived its usefulness, and it was time to finally get back in a real gym.  That brings us to today.

That was probably more detail than anybody cared to read, but aren't you happy you know so much more about me now?  Note: If you answered “no”, then you are probably a mean-spirited individual and I’m glad I wasted the last minute of your life.  You will never, ever get that time back.  But this has indeed been far too long of an intro post, so I’ll end this nonsense now.

Good day to you.