I’ve been thinking about some more workout changes.

Part of the reason I went on the particular program layout was to try to save myself some time, but I’m finding that I’m not saving that much time. Plus I am feeling a little more beat up. And I’m bothered by my lack of shedding my gut, tho I know that’s just how it goes (and that my diet slacked off).

I’ve been thinking about switching to one of Wendler’s 2-day a week programs. It’s even slower gains, but I think that may give me a little more time overall. Just thinking about the greater work schedule that I’m dealing with, what with the new job and all.

I’m also realizing that a pure paleo-style diet isn’t working for me, or I’m failing at doing it right. My body screams for carbs… I’m just not getting the energy I need. Or maybe I was just hitting that transition zone and failed to tough through it. I’ve been reading about carb cycling and that might be what is right for me. So much of diet it trial and error until you find what works. The fear with carb cycling is what it implies for “family eating”, since Wife and Kiddos won’t be doing such a thing. Hrm.

So… don’t know. Just contemplating things so I can keep progressing but make everything work.

Finally… I am happy with my improved commitment to dry fire practice. One of these days I’m going to have some room in my schedule to try IDPA.

Mostly good day.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Bench Press (working max: 215#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x85
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x3x130
  • 1x5x140 (work)
  • 1x5x165
  • 1x10x185
• Work Asst. – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (supersetted with work bench press)
  • 6 x 10 x 70
• Asst. #1A – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10/10/9/9/7 x 135
• Asst. #1B – Face pulls (supersetted with the asst. bench press)
  • 5 x 12 x 65
• Asst. #2 – EZ Bar Curls
  • 3 x 10/9/8 x 50

I’m not totally sure what to make of things. Have I gotten weaker? All my assistance work is at less weight but I’m also getting less reps out of it. But I have ramped up the intensity, with supersetting, a few more excercises and sets, less rest between sets. So I figure it’s all good. Certainly I’m being pushed regardless of what the numbers are.

I noticed my benching was wobbly today. Just didn’t feel stable under the bar. I was trying to work with my foot and leg placement and drive, and think I did more harm than good, but that’s alright… just go back to what I was doing.

In other news… well, I’ll discuss that in another posting.

My back is happy with me… so far.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Deadlift (working max: 325#)
  • 1x5x135 (warmup)
  • 1x5x165
  • 1x3x185
  • 1x5x215 (work)
  • 1x5x245
  • 1x7x280
• Asst. #1 – Hyperextensions
  • 5 x 10 x BW
• Asst. #1B – Hanging Leg Raises (superset with hypers)
  • 5 x 8/8/8/5/5 x BW
• Foam Rolling

Well, my back wasn’t unhappy with me, which I’m happy about. 🙂 As I said on Monday, form really gets minded here, and I was slacking a bit on the last set. Gym owner was watching me and told me that on that last set, on my descent, I’d get the bar past my knees then my back would round… probably me saying “just get the weight back to the floor”. But it’s right and true because I’ll go back to pull the next rep and my lower back isn’t flat and I have to reset it. So, yeah… need to watch the descent and that I don’t round it at the end. Thanx, Andy.

I did opt to NOT do more deadlifts for my assistance work, which I think is wise at this time. Did some hyperextensions instead, which gave my lower back and hamstrings some work, but didn’t kill me. Plus some nice stretch too. Supersetted that with the leg raises, which I’m trying to stop pussing out on. 😉

I don’t think it’s so much that my abs are weak (tho they could be). But moreso I’m not keeping them solid and tight throughout the duration of the movement. It certainly could be weakness, but I won’t know until everything is tight and THEN starts to collapse, y’know? I need to try to watch and analyze for this. I have even thought that I might do some light ab work during my other days, e.g. during triceps pressdowns or biceps curls, just drop to the floor and do 10 crunches or something. We’ll see. I must confess I hate ab work, that keeps me away from it and easy to justify skipping it, and that’ll be the death of me. The right thing to do is to do what you hate until you love it…. *sigh* I know this, it’s just hard to do it. 🙂 But nothing worth having in life is easy so….

With slight trepidation, I return to the gym.

“Week 1”

• 5 reps – Press (working max: 145#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x60
  • 1x5x75
  • 1x3x90
  • 1x5x95 (work)
  • 1x5x110
  • 1x8x125
• Work Asst. – Chin-ups (supersetted with work Press)
  • 6 x 2/2/2/2/2/3 x BW
• Asst. #1A – Press
  • 5 x 10/10/8/8/8/ x 85
• Asst. #1B – Wide, pronated grip lat pulldowns (supersetted with Asst #1A)
  • 5 x 10 x 120
• Asst. #2 – Triceps pressdowns (EZ-Bar)
  • 3 x 12 x 55

After my mishap with my lower back last week, I took the rest of the week off. While my back feels better, it’s still not “normal” feeling again. So with reserve I went back to the gym… I need to see what I can do, because sitting around doesn’t do anything useful at this point.

I also am resetting my weights. It’s coincidence that I reset at the same time I have the injury, but it works out and bodes well. I opted to reset just about every weight because well… there’s no harm. Always go a little lighter and it’ll be fine in the long run. Must listen to the wisdom of Wendler, even if my ego doesn’t want to accept it. Because like Henry Rollins said, “200 pounds is always 200 pounds”. Worth listening to.

So I went and did what I did. A little surprised I only got 8 reps with 125, but then I realized 1. I’m supersetting with chins, 2. I was only taking 2 minutes rest in between sets! I need to rest longer during my main lift sets. Silly me. But I figured hey why not, let’s see if I can make my last chins set also a “rep max” thing. Only got 3, but hey, why not. Every bit helps.

I’m then a little surprised how my assistance pressing went, dropping the weight and the reps like I did. But, whatever. It pushed me, and probably because I took enough out of myself during the main sets. I dunno. Whatever.

I will say, my back felt OK. Granted this isn’t deadlift or squat day, but the back is still involved here. I really did watch my form tho… really keeping my torso tight, my butt clenched, breathing well, taking time to move slower if that’s what needs be so there’s no risk of a jerk or movement more sudden than my back would desire. I gotta say, this is a good thing, and maybe, just maybe, this injury is a time to learn. I’ll take that.

Yes, I’m a little nervous about Wednesday’s deadlift session. I just don’t want to risk injuring myself, but there’s no question that if it’s too much I’ll stop. I MIGHT actually only do my deadlift main lift and then do something else for assistance work like bodyweight hyperextensions. Not sure yet… I’ll think it over and see how it goes. I want good pain, not bad pain. 🙂

After doing what I did to my lower back on Monday, I have opted to take the rest of the week off from the gym.

I felt better yesterday morning and I feel even better this morning, but it’s not totally gone. A steady diet of heat, stretching, foam rolling, and Aleve. 🙂  I figure there’s no reason to rush back into the gym. I’ll start fresh on Monday.

Meantime tho, I have opted to reset. I came up with new weight values, and I’ll start on these and start a fresh Wendler cycle on Monday. I debated adjusting my assistance weights, but given the back issues I will adjust those down too. Just adjust and reset everything. And if the weights are too light, put a little “dynamic effort” behind them.

Ouch. In the bad way… ouch. 😦

“Week 1”

• WORK – Squat (working max: 280#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x5x140
  • 1x3x170
  • 1x5x185 (work)
  • 1x5x215
  • 1x5x240
• Asst. #2 – Crunches
  • 5 x 10 x BW
• Foam Rolling

Today was bad.

When I got under the bar with the 240, I came up on rep 5 and my lower back said “fuck you”.

That was the end of the day. Well, I laid down on the floor and did some crunches. And glad I did. That let me know what happened.

See, just prior to getting under the bar for the 240, I twisted my torso. It’s a movement I do now and again to pop my lower back. It works quite nice. But sometimes it doesn’t quite reset things and I have to finagle around more to get things to reset right. That must have happened. I didn’t notice it, nothing felt out of whack. But I reckon something just out of whack because after my first set of crunches I stayed on the floor and did some other twisting and movements and got quite a nice pop as my lower back reset.

*sigh*

It hurts. I don’t think I did anything truly wrong, but time will tell.

The other thing? I can see by my performance this first week that yes in fact I need a reset. It stands to reason. I’m going to do the math and start the reset on Wednesday, but continuing with this cycle. That is, Wednesday will still be 3 reps, but at much lower weights. It’s time to fix stuff, because I want to be in this for the long haul.

But otherwise, the squats went quite well. I reread some Rippetoe last night and had a bunch of things about the squat fresh in my head. My other sets went really well, proper cues in my head, and I was pretty happy with my progress, until my back hated life. Ah well, it’s how it goes.

Boy, this new template is tough.

“Week 1”

• WORK – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
  • 2x5x45 (warmup)
  • 1x5x95
  • 1x5x115
  • 1x3x140
  • 1x5x150 (work)
  • 1x5x175/li>
  • 1x5x200
• Work Asst. – 1-Arm Dumbbell Rows (supersetted with work bench press)
  • 5 x 10 x 70
• Asst. #1A – Bench Press
  • 5 x 10 x 140
• Asst. #1B – Face pulls (supersetted with the asst. bench press)
  • 5 x 12 x 65
• Asst. #2 – EZ Bar Curls
  • 3 x 10/9/6 x 60
• Foam Rolling

This is tough. A lot more work than I expected it to be. I’m not sure if the back work during the work set is detracting from the bench work, but, that’s alright…. I’m suspecting based on how things are going that yes in fact I need to reset.

Let’s just leave it at that.

Ooof.

“Week 1”

• WORK – Deadlift (working max: 335#)
  • 1x5x135 (warmup)
  • 1x5x175 (supposed to be 170)
  • 1x3x205
  • 1x5x225 (supposed to be 220) (work)
  • 1x5x255
  • 1x8x290
• Asst. #1 – Deadlift
  • 5 x 10/10/8/8/6 x 205
• Foam Rolling

Frak. That’s hard. 🙂

Some weights I rounded up because my brain just didn’t want to fiddle with the plates. I am quite happy with the 8 reps at 290. This is not likely a movement I’ll need to reset.

But on the assistance. Woof. That took a LOT out of me. 2 minute rest breaks? towards the end I certainly wasn’t feeling fully recovered before I started my next set. We’ll see how pushing this (and similarly on squat days) helps my conditioning… which I know I need more direct work on.