Here’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing the past 3 days:
I’ll catch up on blogging, email, and everything else in life over the coming days. Thank you for your patience.
Me
If you could give me one piece of advice…
…about running a small business, what would it be?
I know other small-business-owners and entrepreneurs read my blog. So if there is one thing you can share with me from your experience, please do.
A lesson learned.
A mistake made (and how to not repeat it).
A wise principle.
A guiding concept.
Whatever it might be, towards helping one achieve success.
For example, Michael Lazerow says the #1 mistake entrepreneurs make?
…FOCUSING ON THE WRONG THINGS.
Successful entrepreneurs focus exclusively on efforts that matter and are able to tune out the rest. People who focus succeed. It’s that simple.
So, what can you teach me? I’m ready to listen. Please add a comment.
Workout Music
Something many of us already knew, but it’s always interesting to read the science behind it.
Y’all know I like heavy metal, and as such tends to be what I listen to when I lift. But recently I’ve lifted in silence. I get to the gym before anyone else, it’s empty, and I just enjoy the silence. I’m not sure what effect it’s had on me. I think it’s been good for my mind, but bad for my lifting. It helps me calm my mind, but calm is not what I need when the weight is heavy.
Perhaps it’s a signal to me about other aspects of life right now… and a need to take back greater control over things in my life…..
Lifting postponed
We interrupt our regularly scheduled gym trips for… other things.
Got some stuff going on this weekend that will drain me bigtime. Due to time and finite energy, I figure it’s best to just dedicate to that task and pick back up on Monday… or Tuesday.
And if I know what’s good for me, I’ll re-read the Carb Back-Loading book and refresh my memory on those things. I mysteriously lost 5# the other week (that deload week). It hasn’t come back so I figure it is true loss (i.e. not water or other things). Doesn’t feel like fat tho, and that may explain some strength loss? I don’t know for sure.
Just hope this diversion doesn’t compound things.
But such is life.
2013-03-20 training log
Hmmmm….
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle X, week X
- Work Set – Squat (working max: 285#)
- 2x5x45 (warmup)
- 1x5x120
- 1x5x150
- 1x3x180
- 1x3x210 (work)
- 1x3x240
- 1x4x270
- Assistance – Squat
- 2 x 20/10 x 135
- Assistance – Leg Curls
- 3 x 12 x 65
Hrm.
I’m not sure what to make of today.
No progress vs. this same place last cycle. I opted to stay at the same weight, go up in reps. If I got 5 reps I would have been happy, but #4 almost didn’t make it up.
But I can say a few things.
1. I know I’m not fully engaging my upper body. I am losing tightness and arm drive.
2. Given how I “hinge” when I go up and down, I’ve started to lean a little forward always to keep a straight path. Well, instead today, I opted to start with the bar a little lower on my back/shoulders. That felt more like where it should be, but of course, threw everything off. I think if nothing else, I was so mentally focused on that positioning that I forgot all else.
3. To that same end, I kept fiddling with my foot positioning to get the most natural movement for myself.
So I probably threw something out of whack… but this is how it goes. I have to find my right groove, and whenever I think I have it, I realize I don’t. Just a long process.
Alas, due to time constraints, I didn’t do a full workout, but came close. I’ve always wanted to try a 20-rep program. Granted today was nothing like that, but I thought why not… just throw 135 on the bar and go for 20 reps and see what happens. Dang… that’s tough. The 135 didn’t kill me, but it was taxing, especially to my lower back muscles. I went for a second set, striving for 20, but 10 was as far as my body would go (I didn’t rest very long between sets, just enough to catch my breath, maybe 90 seconds).
Sometimes I wonder if doing higher reps like this, at least for a while, might help me again on technique work. Because instead of finding the groove then you hit your rep max and so you stop, find the groove and now you have to stay in it for a long while… able to focus more on that groove than anything else.
Yeah, sometimes I think I fiddle too much as well. But hey… it’s how I am. My brain’s always thinking, tho perhaps sometimes too much. 🙂
2013-03-18 training log
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 18, week 1
- Work Set – Press (working max: 155#)
- 2x5x45 (warmup)
- 1x5x65
- 1x5x80
- 1x3x95
- 1x5x100 (work)
- 1x5x120
- 1x8x135
- Assistance – Press
- 5 x 10/10/6/6/6 x 80
- Assistance – Pull-ups (band assisted)
- 5 x 8/8/6/6/5 x BW
Not much to say. It was a press day. I felt alright, but today was nothing spectacular. Just happy with how things went and that my shoulder didn’t yell at me too much. 🙂
Music you don’t want to hear at the gym
Music you don’t want to hear at the gym: .38 Special’s “Hold on Loosely”
Yesterday when I arrived at the gym, the radio was on the local rock station — someone left it off from last night. No way to turn it off, so I deadlifted with it playing.
This song came on prior to my heavy sets.
When you’re deadlifting, the last thing you want to hear is a cue of “hold on loosely”. 🙂
2013-03-15 training log
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 18, week 1
- Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 375#)
- 1x5x150 (warmup)
- 1x5x190
- 1x3x230
- 1x5x245(work)
- 1x5x285
- 1x7x325
- Assistance – Deadlifts
- 5 x 5 x 185
- Assistance – Pulldown Abs (kneeling)
- 4 x 15 x 100
Today worked pretty well. I know 7 reps isn’t tons higher than the prescribed 5, but it’s an increase at 325. All good.
When I was doing assistance lifts, I opted to work on where I was breaking. I sometimes lift my butt before the weight comes off the ground, which isn’t good. So I wanted to really focus on breaking at the knees, getting the weight off the ground, then I could straighten up.
Otherwise, working good.
2013-03-13 training log
Felt better today
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 18, week 1
- Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 235#)
- 2x5x45 (warmup)
- 1x5x95
- 1x5x120
- 1x3x145
- 1x5x155 (work)
- 1x5x180
- 1x8x200
- Assistance – Bench Press
- 5 x 10/10/10/10/6 x 140
- Assistance – Pendlay Rows
- 5 x 10/10/10/8/8 x 120
Felt a lot better today. While I matched the same as last cycle (8×200), I did more total work between both work sets and assistance sets. Just the way the calculations and rounding of percentages worked out that I did 200 again. But more workload overall, my head was more into it. All good.
I also played more with my foot position. I started out doing what I thought, being a bit more “out” but my final work set was again that flopping around and no tension. So I tried pulling my legs back. My shins were just behind perpendicular; where if you drew a line from my knees to my toes, that would be perpendicular to the ground. I found myself greatly able to push up and push solidly. A little care needed to avoid my butt coming off the bench, but this might be a position to work with for a little while and see how it goes. I only did it on my assistance sets, and it seems I notice the problem more with heavier sets so… we’ll see.
2013-03-12 training log
Back in the gym, and I’m not happy.
Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 18, week 1
- Work Set – Squat (working max: 295#)
- 2x5x45 (warmup)
- 1x5x120
- 1x5x150
- 1x3x180
- 1x5x195 (work)
- 1x5x225
- 1x5x255
- Assistance – Squat
- 5 x 10/10/8/6/6 x 150
- Assistance – Leg Curls
- 5 x 10 x 60
- Foam Rolling
*sigh*
So I took all of last week off completely. I even found myself slacking a little bit and falling back into bad habits. *sigh* Stress in life is wearing on me. I didn’t return to the gym yesterday due to daylight saving time — body said it was time to go, clock said it was too late.
So back I am today, and it sucked. I kept my squat weight the same from last cycle, aiming for rep PR’s. Well if rep PR’s are the goal, I missed it bigtime. Last cycle I did week 1 255 for 7, only got 5 today. I know I was mentally off, but I think it was physical too.
During the assistance squatting, I really focused on pressing my head back into the bar, and realized with all the falling forward I was doing during the work sets… 1. it’s techinque (I am forgetting to press my head back), 2. it’s weakness in the lower back because my erectors were tuckered out before anything else…. they were really activated from all the head pressing.
So it was what it was. I’m not ready to totally chalk it up to other things… maybe just an off day. Just have to see how the cycle progresses.
