Squats and Shoulder Press

Here are my sets from Friday
10/28/11
Squats - 4 sets
245x5
245x5
245x5
225x6

Seated Shoulder press (dumbbells) - 4 sets
60's x 5
60's x 4
60's x 4
55 x 5

Worked hard and fast for all these sets, and afterwards ate sushi like a champ at a place called Kotobuki.  Delicious and filling.  I should have posted on Saturday, because I don't exactly remember what I did on the shoulder press.  I may have done 5 sets... It's now 3 days later and I really just don't remember my exact sets.  Plus I was rushing for a dinner with family and friends.

Didn't train over the weekend, too much boozing and halloween ridiculousness.  Today I plan on doing some deadlifts after work.  I slept like total shit last night though, I may even put it off until Tuesday depending on how I feel. I want to deadlift at full strength, not after a ride home from work where I'm falling asleep at the wheel.

Goals Today

Alright, one thing I didn't mention yesterday was that I still felt tightness and soreness in my right forearm.  I officially think I messed something up in there.  I need a couple of days off from pulling, and considering deadlifts are the most intense pull you can do.... I'm putting them off till at least later in the weekend, maybe even next week.

That being said, I can push my face off, and intend to do so tonight after work.  And since it's a Friday, I should have plenty of time on my hands.  And, the gym will be relatively empty.  First, I'm gonna drill some squats.  I'm aiming for at least 1 set at 245, on top of my other work.  Next, shoulders are on the menu.  Either standing, or seated dumbbell press.  My form on standing is shitty, I have trouble.  Maybe that means I should concentrate on that today.

Oh and to keep track of what I ate:

Quick breakfast: 2 eggs with 2 bacon and cheese: Est protein: 25 g
Lunch: Chicken and lamb with yogurt sauce and salad.  Est protein: No idea,  maybe 50 g?

In other words, my ideal dinner would be a fucking 14oz steak topped with salmon and 2 scoops of protein powder.  I don't even think that would be enough.  I need like 150 grams to hit my goal of 230 in a day.  My problem was breakfast.  Eggs aren't great, because they only have like 8 grams each.  5 eggs only gets me 40 protein, and 5 eggs are filling.  Plus I only ate 2 this morning because I was in a rush.  I need to find easy sources of protein, quick.

We'll see.  Short post today, I'll leave you with this.  Made me lol.

Take it deep.

A journey

I said in yesterday's post that I used to be around 170lbs when I was last benching 185.  I figure I should go through my weight changes over the past year and a half.  It'll actually help me solidify what the hell I've done over that time period.

I started "getting in shape" around March of 2010.  I'm about 5'6", and I started out weighing about 165 with barely any muscle.  I've never really been "fat," but I wasn't anything close to skinny.  At this time I changed my diet to strict primal/paleo and started working out.  After a few months of dicking around in the gym, I gained some shitty strength and lost some weight, down to around 145.  This was now summer of 2010, and I realized that I weighed only 145 fucking pounds.  Yeah cool, I had some nifty abs but I knew girls that weighed more than me.  They were probably stronger too.

By the end of summer, I finally realized that I needed to be bigger and stronger.  Through some research and some help/motivation from a good friend, I got into squatting, deadlifting, and concentrated more on bigger lifts like shoulder press and bench press.  Next, I did what any reasonable human being would do.  I started eating bigger.  Way bigger. I started eating breakfasts of like 6-7 eggs with meat, cheese, avocados, and greek yogurt.  Lunch and dinner were feasts that left me feeling like I was going to die.  And then I'd drink 2 glasses of milk after that.  Ugh.  I still wasn't eating a ton of carbs, but the sheer volume of food was working.  I was gaining weight.  By October I was something like 160, and my lifts were increasing.  By December I was 170, and I was hitting PR's like crazy on bench, deadlifts, squats.  I felt like the man.  And then by January, I peaked at around 175lbs, and I was starting to turn into a bit of a fatty bobalatty.  Nothing crazy, but I was definitely sporting the beginnings of a gut.

Once February hit, I made the decision that I wanted to try and maintain my strength, but lean out a little bit.  I read about lean gains, a diet constructed by Martin Berkhan where you fast for about 16 hours and then eat your face off during an 8 hour feeding window.  Every day.  Fucking crazy, right?  I'm oversimplifying the shit out of it, but basically you fast for most of the morning, and then work out mostly fasted in the afternoon.  Afterwards you eat (real food) like a monster.  And by real food, I don't mean the processed shit you get at the supermarket.

I loosely followed this program for a long time.  The fasting wasn't the problem, it was eating enough after my workout.  Because I was still eating fairly strict paleo (mistake 1), I was eating a lot of fat and protein, which fills you up like a motherfucker.  Because of this, overall everyday I just wasn't getting enough protein, and not nearly enough carbohydrate.  And finally, I just wasn't sticking to the program.  I wasn't squatting, deadlifting enough (mistake 2), and was eating too much before workouts (mistake 3).  The program works fine, I just wasn't following it correctly.

Despite all that, I lost weight in time for the summer.  Of course I did, I wasn't eating enough!  Guess what else I lost?  Muscle.  A lot of it.  All of a sudden, I'm struggling to deadlift 255lbs, and my squat was atrocious.  Bench and shoulder press were laughable.  At least this time my weight didn't drop below 150.

This was just a couple of months ago.  I'm about 155 right now, and I'm beginning to put back on some weight.  I still fast for 16hrs a few times a week, and I always eat some kind of carbohydrate immediately after my workouts.  Usually some kind of potato, sometimes rice too.  I've upped my protein intake a whole lot, although I don't measure it (mistake 1, heh).  I've read all over you should be getting anywhere from 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.  My estimate is that I need over 230 grams a day.  To quote 70's big:

Has your progress slowed? The first thing to look at is your daily protein intake. What is it? Oh, you don’t even know? Well have fun shoveling shit in the regular infantry, because Special Forces are not in your future.

Touche.  It's high time I start measuring how much I get.

BTW, here are the links to my sources on primal eating, the lean gains program, and protein requirements for all that are interested.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-primal-blueprint/

http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html

http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2011/10/protein/

That about sums it up.  I'll leave you with a comic about Mike Fatcessa and Darelle Revis.

Take it deep.

Bench PR - Kind of

Left work a little late last night, and when I got home dinner was already done and on the table..  It's tough to choose to go to the gym and eat a reheated dinner rather than eating it hot, straight out of the oven.  Needless to say, I rushed things at the gym.

10/25/11

Bench - 5 sets

95x8 (warmup)

135x5 (warmup)

185x3 - PR

175x5

175x4

165x6

165x5

Incline Flyceps - 3 sets

Tried 65's, couldn't get them up.  I think I just wasn't rested enough.

60's x 5

55's x 7

55's x 7

Dips 1 set of 20 reps

20 x 1 

When I look at the total workout, it looks kind of weak.  But I did hit 185 x 3, which I'm happy about.  Next time I do flat bench I'll go for 185x4 or 5.  I also might cut out the fly's and put overhead presses in its place.

Also, 185 isn't really a PR for me.  I hit 185 around December last year, but I also weighed like 15lbs more than I do now.  I'm about 155 right now, back then I weighed 165-170.  Last year I did that whole "lose weight before the summer!" bullshit, and lost a shitload of muscle, and have been struggling to get it back all summer and fall. 

Skyrim

Holy shit, I just saw the new live action trailer for Skyrim, check it out.

I'm doing chest tonight, I'm thinking bench again along with some incline fly's, followed by whatever triceps shit I can do.  I usually try to switch back and forth between flat bench and incline bench from week to week, but I think I'm on the cusp of busting out 185 on flat.  That's my goal today, and I'm gonna nail it.

In other news, my forearms are ridiculously sore.  Like I can't make a tight fist b/c it hurts sore.  Makes me wonder if I still have some kind of lingering something in there from 2 weeks ago.  Furthermore, it makes me wonder if I should take a couple of days off from any kind of pulling so that whatever is tweaked in there can fully heal up.  I'm supposed to do deadlifts on Thursday, I'll see how I feel then.

Sunday pulling

I had a wedding this Friday, which made training on Saturday...difficult.  Needless to say, the wedding was a lot of fun and plenty of drinks were had.  Saturday I was in no shape to train anything except my water drinking abilities and play endless gears of war horde mode.

Sunday, I woke up, played some more gears, and then headed to the gym fasted.  My legs were still sore (and are still sore today...crazy) so I held off from deadlifts for now.  Instead I did a "regular" back and bi's kind of workout.

10/23/11
1 Hand Dumbbell Rows - 3 sets
65x8 (warmup)
80x5 (warmup)
95x8
95x8
95x7

Not much rest between sets on these

Chinups (wide bar) - 4 sets
30 reps across 4 sets, maybe 1-2 minutes max in between sets

Bi barbell curls - 2 sets
70x8
70x8

This was a workout on speed.  I didn't rest enough between sets, and it definitely effected the weight I could do.  Plus, by the end my forearms felt crazy tight, but no pain.  It didn't help that the Jets game came on the TV at some point.  It made me go even faster b/c I wanted to get home already and watch the game with a beer in my hand.

Overall, I rate this workout: Shitty. Maybe I should stop doing bullshit workouts on the weekend.  If anything, I should have done 100lbs on that dumbbell row.  I could have handled it easily.

The only good part was I ate my fucking face off when I got home from the gym, and the Jets won.

More Squats

Did some squats last night.  The last time I did them was on 10/9/11.  That's 11 days ago!  It might be too far apart, but I have trouble doing squats when my back is sore from deadlifts, and vice versa (legs sore when I do deads).

Either way, here are the sets.
10/20/11
Squats - 5 sets
135x8 (warmup)
185x5 (warmup)
235x5
235x5
235x5
235x5
235x5

Man, I was struggling like a motherfucker on the last 2 sets.  I considered dropping the weight on the last one... but...screw that.  Went for it, and nailed it.  Last time I only hit 235 for 2 sets.  This time I got it in for all 5.  Finally some progress.

Going to a wedding tonight where the drinks will be a flowing, so a Saturday training session is highly questionable.  We'll see.  Stranger things have happened.

Shoulder Press

Did some seated dumbbell shoulder presses last night, followed up by some barbell shrugs.  Here are my sets.

10/18/11

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press - 5 sets

35's x 8 (warmup)

45's x 5 (warmup)

60's x 4 - PR

60's x 4 - PR

55's x 5

55's x 5

50's x 6

Barbell Shrugs - 3 sets

135x10 (warmup)

185x8

205x7

205x6

One thing you can tell by reading my workout posts is that I don't do a lot of exercises at the gym.  The most I do is 3, and on very rare occasions I'll fit in a 4th exercise.  Instead, I try to hammer out 4-5 really heavy sets on my main lift (in this case shoulder press), and then try to fit in the other shit however I can.  Since I get to the gym so late, time is a big deal to me.  This helps me maximize the big lifts, and still get out of the gym in under an hour.  

And by the way, 60lbs in each hand is a personal record for me.  I know, it's pathetically light, but shoulders have really been a lowlight for me.  I'll note anytime I can up the poundage on any of these lifts.  

Survivabillity, Building Character, and Not Giving Up

I was talking with my wife Anna this morning, and we got into a discussion about the benefits of lifting heavy weights that most people don't really think about.  Obviously, a lot of people train to look better, or just be healthier.

For me, these things are important, but there's another aspect to training that drives me.  Gaining strength.  While "looking better" and "getting healthier" may help get a lot of people into the gym, I feel that getting stronger keeps them there.  I've heard it said that being stronger makes you harder to kill.  Sound intense?  It damn well should!  That sounds to me like one of the most important reasons you should be trying to get stronger.  Off the top of my head I can think of so many scenarios where being stronger could save your life.  Imagine getting into a car accident.  If you have more muscle protecting your limbs and organs, it makes you more likely to survive.  Imagine you have to defend someone you love from an attacker.  Wouldn't you be better able to survive and win the encounter with more strength?  Having more muscle leads to less fatigue, less chance of getting sick, less chance of getting seriously injured.  There are other examples, but you can obviously get the point I'm making here.

Another benefit of lifting heavy weights?  It builds character.   

I read an article a while ago that really moved me.  Of course, I can't find it now to put up the link, but I'm pretty sure it was on 70s Big somewhere. (A really great training blog btw) Either way, the author talked about how consistently getting under the bar and lifting heavy weight takes grit and determination.  If you can get yourself to the gym to train your ass off 3 times a week, you can handle almost anything.  I'm not talking about hopping on the treadmill, or just doing some "bicep curls."   I'm talking about the big lifts that, when done heavy, wreck your life.  Things like the deadlift, the squat, shoulder press, and bench press.  The determination you use to add an extra 5 lbs to your next lift, or to do that extra set of deadlifts even though you're annihilated... it helps shape your mindset when handling all other aspects of your life.  It builds a quiet confidence, and the ability and willingness to own the situations you have to deal with in your daily life.

I lift because I want to be stronger.  And strength gives you a better chance at defending those you love, and a better chance of living longer.  I'm nothing great when it comes to weight training.  I do what I can, and a lot of time I hit plateaus, and sometimes I fail.  Hell for the most part my progress has been terrible for a couple of months now.  But I keep on truckin.  And I'm not giving up.

Deadlifts, Fatigue, and Bad Form

Ahh deadlifts, how I love and hate thee.  Saturday I made it to the gym and did some. Here they are.

10/15/11
Deadlifts - 5 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
295x4
295x4
295x4
295x4
295x4

Interestingly, the forearm pain that I felt earlier in the week didn't really impact my workout.  I did feel some extra tension in my right arm during the lifts, but I was still able to keep a good grip on the bar and finish my sets.  I was really fatigued on the last set, and my form was terrible.  The last 2 reps I was using way too much quads to get the bar up instead of my back, and it showed.

The gym is iffy today.  I have to pick up a new suit after work, and then Jets are playing tonight.  I have a feeling I'm just not going to have the time.

Also, next time I do deadlifts I'll try and get some video.  It's good to have the ability to critique yourself after the fact.  Plus if anybody's actually reading this blog, they can give me some advice on my form.

Chest, Tri's and Dumbbell Fly's

Did some bench, incline dumbbell fly's and body weight dips last night.  Here are the sets.  You'll notice I added warm up sets below.  I figure why the hell not.  

10/13/11

Bench Press - 5 sets

95x8 (warmup)

135x5 (warmup)

175x5

175x5

175x4

165x6

165x5

Incline Dumbbell Fly's - 3 sets

40's x 8 (warmup)

50's x 5

55's x 5

65's x 4

Bodyweight Dips - 2 sets

25 reps

20 reps

I haven't done fly's in over a month, and I forgot to check my log before I went to the gym.  Because of this I was a little unsure of what weight I could do.  50's felt light, so I did 55's.  These felt really light too so I jacked it up to 65's.  Just like Goldilocks, these felt juuuuuuuust right, but at that point my chest was tired as hell.  Next time, I'll start with 65's after warming up.

I'm definitely slowly increasing my bench, at least in repetitions.  Last week I was only able to get 2 sets of 175 before having to drop it to 165.  This week I got 1 more set of 4 reps in.  Once I can nail 5 sets of 5, I'm increasing the weight to 185.  

What I eat

What you eat is an important part of any workout program.  I would even go so far to say that for general health, your diet has the biggest impact on changing the way you look and feel.

I loosely follow a "paleo" or "primal" approach to my diet.  You can read all about it here:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-to-the-primal-eating-plan/

That's where I first read about a primal or paleo diet.  If you don't want to bother with the article, here's a simplified summary. A strict paleo diet includes meat, veggies and some fruit, but would completely avoid all grains and beans.  Milk products could be included, depending on how they effect you.  On rare occasions, you could have some potato to get additional carbohydrate.  This approach works for a lot of people, especially if you have problems with your weight.  You control your sugar (carbohydrate) intake, while getting plenty of protein, fat, and fiber.  Combine this with a good workout regimen and you can really burn fat and lose weight on this diet. 

I'm not quite that strict, but I do agree with the main paleo principle: Eat lots of meat and vegetables.  Get lots of fat in your diet.  Every day, I get most of my calories from meat.  If it's an off day from the gym, I'll keep my carb intake pretty low.  If it's a gym day, I'll jack up my carbohydrates by eating a large sweet potato or (if i'm lucky) some sushi after the workout.  My diet also includes cottage cheese, eggs, some fruit, some nuts, and some occasional dark chocolate.  Also, if I feel I didn't get enough protein during the day I won't hesitate to have a protein shake with whole milk and heavy cream after dinner to top things off.  

I'll go deeper into the why of my diet in another post, but this lays out a good generalization of what I eat on a daily basis.

Tonight I plan on doing some bench and maybe some dumbbell fly's.  If the weight belt is fixed I'll do weighted dips too.  If not, I'll probably just end up doing tricep cables with the rope (ugh) or skull crushers or something.  

Pulling and some Forearm Pain

Alright.  I worked a little late last night, but made it to the gym.  Here are my sets.  Keep in mind that these are working sets.  I warm up first with a set of lighter weight to get things going.

10/11/11
1 Hand Dumbbell Rows - 3 Sets
95x8
95x7
95x6

Felt a slight shooting pain in my right forearm during the 2nd set.  I rested a solid 5-6 minutes before doing my 3rd set.  The weight became difficult to grip in my right hand, but I managed to pull 6 reps.

Bodyweight Pullups - 5 Sets
32 total reps, broken out across 5 sets.  I used the smith machine for these b/c it has a wide bar.  I just raised the bar up to the top rack and did my pullups there.  I still felt some strain in my forearm, but it wasn't enough to have a significant impact on my work.

I get to add another complaint about my gym: The weight belt is often either missing or broken.  Couldn't do weighted chins b/c there was no weight belt available.  Hence the bodyweight pullups.

Upright Rows - 3 Sets
80x8
80x8
80x8

This time I felt the strain in my right forearm the moment I picked up the weight.  Took this one a little lighter b/c of this.  Afterwards I actually felt like this whole exercise was a waste of time.

Dumbbell Bicep Curls - 1 Set
35x8

At this point, my forearm really tightened up.  Figured I shouldn't press my luck, and called it a night.

Overall, I'm not particularly happy with how it went last night.  Today I don't feel anything in my forearm, so I hope it was just a little twinge.

Soreness - and why I hate my gym

"Holy fuck I am sore."  That's the first thought that popped into my head when I tried to get out of bed this morning.  Soreness is strange for me.  There are times where I work my ass of at the gym, but don't get sore.  Other times I feel like I had a shitty workout, yet the next day I can't walk without limping.  Today is one of those days. 

On Sunday, all I did were 5 sets of squats, 5 reps each.  Yes, the lifts were decently heavy, but today I'm literally limping around my office.  Stairs are a mini nightmare.  What doesn't help is that A) I sit at a desk all day, and B) If I don't lift after work, I usually just go home and sit while eating dinner, and then sit some more while either watching TV or playing some gears of war before going to bed.  And that's exactly what I did last night. Ate some meatza for dinner (pizza without the bread), and then planted my lazy ass in front of the xbox for the rest of the night.

I'm doing some "pull" at the gym today.  No deadlifts today, just some dumbbell rows, some weighted chins, and maybe some shrugs or upright rows.  I might throw 2 sets of biceps in there depending on how packed the place is, and how much time I've spent there. 

The gym I go to kind of sucks.  It's within walking distance from my house, which is fantastic, but the facility is mediocre at best.  You take a slow elevator to the 2nd floor, which opens up into an enormous space to workout in.  The "space" is filled with the usual treadmills, bikes, elipticals... which is expected.  But it's also filled with rows of chest, back, and shoulder machines that are duplicates of one another.  There are something like 4 different "chest press" machines.  This does not include the 3 different "incline chest press" and 2 "decline chest press" machines. The same goes for the shoulder machines.  It's overkill, and over half of them rarely get used.  There are only 2 squat racks, but thankfully they're usually open.  The worst thing is that they don't have 2 1/2 lb weights.  This means that when I want to increase my bench, my only option is to put an additional 5 lbs on each side.  A 10lb jump is pretty huge on bench press.  It's difficult to make and track tangible progress.

Anyway.. there's more that I hate about my gym, but I've been ranting for a while.  I'll post up my sets tomorrow.

Blogging

I'm Chris, and I have one goal: Get bigger and stronger.  I've been lifting for about a year and a half now, and while I've seen some pretty significant gains in some areas, I've completely leveled off in others.  I want this blog to be a way to keep myself honest in continually increasing my strength.  Whether it's an increase in reps or weight from week to week, I need to track my progress.

10/9/11
Squats - 5 sets
225x5
225x5
235x5
235x5
235x5

That's all I did on Sunday.  What a weak day at the gym.  And on the last set, I couldn't even go all the way down.  Exactly why I'm starting this fucking blog.  Time to man up on Tuesday and kick some ass.