Saturday 2/17/07

Warm-up - 5 minutes, 3 mph, treadmill

- Warm-up - Squat ------- bar x 10, 95x5, 135x2, 165x1
Squat -------------------- 3x5 185 lbs
- Warm-up - Bench Press - bar x 10, 95x5, 135x2, 165x1
Bench Press -------------- 3x5 185 lbs
- Warm-up - Deadlift ----- bar x 10, 135x2
Deadlift------------------- 1x5 230 lbs
Dips --------------------- 2x8 plus 25 lb weight
One arm dumbbell curls --- 1x8 40 lbs
Cable Tri Extensions ------ 1x8 150
EZ Curl bar -------------- 1x8 65 lbs
Cable Tri Extensions ------ 1x8 150

Notes:
Squats went real good. I thought I was in trouble when I felt the 165 during my warm ups, but I really concentrated on technique and did them. By the way, I only go parallel, no A2G (yet).

Bench is still going up. Challenging, but going up. I tried the same warmup routine as I did for squats and thought it helped.

Deadlift was hard, especially the first rep. I plan to go up 10 pounds next time.

ur bench is more than ur squat and deadlift? sweeeeeeeeet :)

I'm starting with skinny little legs. :) And I think my 7 years of pushups gave me a head start on my upper body strength.

BYW, My deadlift is 230 lb. and I'm real proud of that. I leave the weights on the bar a little longer than I need to to show off a little (no one does dead lifts at my gym so they don't know is "only 230"). :biglaugh:

But I'm honored that you, Sentinel, noticed my journal. It was your post, Guide to Novice Training that got me going with a structured goal orintented program. So far you and Eric have been a great help and inspiration.

What is the suggested way to microload? I mean, how do you add just 1 to 3 pounds when the smallest plates are 2.5 pounds?

ya that would be a hard thing to do, maybe try 5% of your weight

Well that's always the problem.

You can get a set of fractional plates. Check out ProWristStraps for that and Sleazy's post in the off topic section about the coupon offer they have right not.

You can use small lengths of chains with clips. You can use large washers (if you can find some which I doubt.)

Here's the way I do it:

A way is to go buy yourself a set of adjustable ankle weights. They come with either small metal rods or weight packs weighing either 1/2 to one pound each that go into pockets on the ankle weights. The rods are best probably. And 1/2 pound increments are best if you can get them. Don't bother buying an ankle weight that has more than 10 pounds unless heavier ones is all you can find.

Then you need a pair of cheap elastic wrist wraps with velcro. You then use the wrist wraps to strap however many of the rods (or packs) onto the bar. If they are 1/2 lbs each you can make adjustments from one to four pounds which is small enough for most peoples purposes. This is not going to be as precise a weight as fractional plates but I think it is plenty precise enough.

These ankle weights can be found at places like Target or Walmart usually. The ankle weights themselves are useless but it's much cheaper than fractional plates (of course you understand your supposed to by the cheapest pair they have :) ).

Either way you do it you can easily carry around what you need in a little bag inside your gym bag.

BTW, once you can't continue loading at 5 pounds anymore I would go to 3 pounds and maybe adjust downwards to 2. If you get a set of fractionals you'll be able to use 2.5 pounds. After you can't progress that way anymore I would use some other stategy to get it going again.

Tuesday 2/20/07

Warm-up - Treadmill 5 minutes
Warm-up - Squat - bar x 10, 95x5, 135x2, 165x1

Squat ----------------- 1x5 1x4 1x5 190 lbs
Military Press ---------- 3x5 120 lbs
Row ------------------- 3x5 125 lbs
Chin-ups -------------- 1x8 1x8

Notes:
I think I sabotaged my squats tonight. :angryfire: I did all my warm-ups A2G. When I did my working sets, they were harder than I expected. I was expecting them to be hard, but I barely did them. I finished the second set but the last rep took too long. I wasn't pleased with the overall timing of all my reps. And today was on two days rest. I plan to wait until I stall, then back off to a weight where I can handle A2G. I'll stay at 190 for Thursday.

Finally, MP completed 120 lbs with good form and timing. Felt strong. (Maybe because two days rest) I have until Saturday to make 2 one pound weights to hang from the bar. Microloading.

Row still going up, but getting harder.

I haven't done cardio in a while. I'm trying to focus on being ready for my lifting workouts. But I miss working up a HIIT sweat. I think I'll continue to hold off for a little while longer.

Thursday 2/22/07


Squat -------------------- 3x5 190 lbs
Bench Press -------------- 3x5 190 lbs
Deadlift------------------- 1x5 235 lbs
Dips --------------------- 2x8 plus 30 lb weight

Notes:
Squats went good. I was worried after the first set, but I found I wasn't using my whole body. I gotta start concentrating. There's a lot for me to think about to do a good squat.

I was real strong on the bench press. I tried some tips from one of Sentinel's journal entries. I was real tempted to do more reps, but I'll be challenged more soon enough.

Deadlift was awesome. Again I was tempted to do a few more reps, but resisted. It was hard though.

30 pounds was a good weight for my dips.

I was really bummed after Tuesday's workout because of my squats, but as I look back, except for those squats, I was real strong this week for the other lifts. I'm real close to stalling on squats and I've been surprised every workout lately that I actually complete my 3x5.

Saturday 2/24/07

Squat -------------------- 3x5 195 lbs
Military Press ------------- 3x5 122 lbs (yep 122)
Rows --------------------- 3x5 130 lbs
Chin-ups ----------------- 2x8
One arm dumbbell curls ---- 1x8 40 lbs
Cable Tri Extensions ------- 1x8 160
EZ Curl bar --------------- 1x8 65 lbs
Cable Tri Extensions ------- 1x8 160

Notes:

Squats were real hard. I had tough time pushing them out.

MP were hard too. I was stuck on 120 lbs for a few sessions, then had a good lift Tuesday. Following Eric's suggestion, I made 1 pound weights, and microloaded with a 2 pound increase. Well, I did my 3x5, but I wasn't pleased with my sets. More below.

Rows are still going up, but getting hard.

Last few reps for chins were very hard and I got them done but slow.

I'm not thrilled with my Squat and Military Press speed lately. Actually as I think about it, just about all my lifts are slowing down. Even though I'm finishing my sets, I think I'm doing my reps too slow. There is definetly no explosiveness. I'm nearing my max weights on just about everything. I can push them out, but like I said, my bar speed is slowing down.

So I'd appreciate advice on what's better, keep increasing the weight and finish the sets even though the bar speed is slower, or back off and get the speed and explosiveness back? I'm not missing reps yet....

I'll back off if that's the right thing to do, but I'm looking forward to squating 3x5x200 Tuesday. It's been a secret goal of mine to have that 200 pounds on my shoulders, and I'll be on two days rest.

Don't worry about how slow you are getting them up as long as you are progressing. When you can't progress then you can back off. There is no use in introducing criteria that complicates a simple program. Getting the rep up is really all that counts. You don't get extra points for explosiveness. Obvioulsy trying to be explosive is good but load progression is all that really matters. The bar is for sure going to slow down.