Sorry about the lapse in posts

I’ve been meaning to post, truly, I have.  What finally pushed me to get another post out was yet another link from my friend Mehdi at Stronglifts.  If he’s going to help me out and give me publicity, I feel I should actually post things.  Also, I’ve worked out since the last time I posted, but I haven’t trained with anything other than bodyweight exercises this past week, because I’ve had so much going on.  Yes, I know that’s a weak excuse, but my choices were not enough sleep and getting my training done, or getting sleep and not training.  That’s pretty much how it went.  I had accumulated a lot of fatigue the past few weeks, having just jumped right in to having four high-intensity days or more a week, compared to the 2-3 I had in the past, those not even comparing in intensity to what I’ve been doing lately.  Thinking about it though, I’ve decided to rethink my training for the next few weeks and see how it goes, just because I think this fits my goals more.

The plan is to basically do a push-pull split, with days focused on hypertrophy and fat loss, and days focused on strength.  The plan is to do a less CNS intensive bodybuilding style pull training on Mondays, and the same type of push training on Fridays.  Heavier weight, lower rep, strength-focused push training on Tuesdays, with pull being on Thursdays.  Big lifts that leave me lacking for a few days like squats will be rotated each week into either a lighter day or a heavy day each week for the first few weeks, and gradually build up to doing them or variations on both of the days, after seeing how it will affect me.

Since my goals are for increased strength, but also to lose fat and get bigger, I feel this type of training will benefit me a bit more than what I was doing before.  Also, what I was doing before turned more into a “go in and wing-it” style of training.

In addition to this, I’ve decided to expand on my blogging a bit and add an extra post in at least every few days either showing something interesting I’ve found on the web, something I’ve learned and think will help others, or just something random, to keep things interesting.  So, keep reading, and I promise things will get better.

Workout Post #3

Here’s the lowdown on Friday’s workout:

5×8 Face Pulls – 27.5 lbs

5×6 T-Bar Row – 70 lbs.

2×5 Pull-ups

5 Chin-ups

5 Chins with perpendicular grip

5×5 Deadlift – 185 lbs.

5×8 Overhead Shrugs – 105 lbs.

Workout Post #2

Last thursday I did go in for my workout, and did lats, biceps, traps, lower back, hamstrings.  Basically combined my thursday and friday workouts into one.  I don’t remember my exact stats, except that I pulled 175 in deadlift for 5×5.

Monday I went in and did 5×5 squats below parallel with 135 lbs.  That’s all I had time for, but I used a slow tempo, and a pause at the bottom, and felt it the next day.

I moved tuesday’s workout to today, and here’s how that went:

5×5 Overhead press – 85 lbs.

5×5 Incline press – 105 lbs.

5×10 dumbbell squeeze press (5 reps with dumbbells parallel to me, 5 perpendicular) – 25 lbs. db’s

2×10 Tricep pushdown – 50 lbs.

5×5 incline lateral raises – 15 lbs. db’s

I pulled off the Overhead presses this time without any trouble at all, not sure if it was tips from Mehdi, or if my shoulders just got stronger, probably a combination of both, with a lot of kudos to his posts on the subject.  In addition, I added 10 pounds to the incline press (still getting used to the motion, but it’s coming back).  All in all, I think this was a better rounded program for the muscles I was trying to hit, but it still needs a little tweaking.

Tuesday Workout and What Happened Yesterday

Today I decided to take my buddy Josh with me to the gym.  He’s had little-none experience lifting, and technique is turning out to be a struggle for him.  I hadn’t hung out with him in a while though, and I wanted a workout partner, so he fit the bill.

Here’s what the workout consisted of:

 5×5 Overhead Press – 85 lbs.

5×5 Incline Bench Press -  95 lbs.

5×5 Lateral Raises – 15 lb dumbbells.

5×5 Rear Delt Machine – 115 lbs.

I probably could have gone heavier on the Incline Bench, but I haven’t done it in a long time, so I wasn’t in any rush.  The overhead press became extremely difficult the last few reps, and I was unable to complete the last set, I only got 2 reps in before I had to use a small knee action to get it started, I’ll attempt this weight again next week, then decide what I need to do about it.  I’m not a big fan of smaller isolation movements, but the last two exercises were added, just because I never seem to feel like I’ve done that well on the whole shoulder with just presses.

In retrospect, it seems the workout was a little heavy on shoulder work, with not much in the way of chest work, I’ll probably end up doing some explosive push-ups tonight at home.

Yesterday was supposed to be a quad heavy day, but between work, errands, and a function at the school, I couldn’t fit in the workout I wanted.  I got a pretty good work from carrying two 44 lb dog food bags around and out of the store (I don’t believe in carts when I can carry the items).  What made it interesting:  I ended up parking about as far away as possible without thinking about it.  Then after the school function, I ended up carrying a ton of chairs to put them up out of the gym.  Wasn’t quite the workout I was looking for, but I did get something out of it, and I ended up helping people at the same time.

This Past Week in Summary

Not much has happened this week in my lifting, due to one particular problem:  I injured myself early on this week.  My schedule has typically been, Monday for Quads and Calves, Tuesday for Chest and Shoulders, Wednesday off, Thursday for  Hamstrings and posterior chain, Friday for Upper back/biceps, with weekends off.  I’ve been doing five sets of five with most exercises, using almost exclusively big, multi-joint movements (squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press, rows, etc.), upping the weight by 10 pounds each week on the big movements.  I also walk about 4-5 miles each night on the road since I live in the country and there aren’t many cars.

I’ve been seeing big improvements with this over my past records.  At one time I had a 1 RM max on the decline press of somewhere around 175 lbs, but recently, with the plateau I hit, things in most exercises started to go downhill.  My max dropped to 165.  Tuesday I was doing this press, five sets of five, for 165.  Big improvement.  One small problem though, something popped in my shoulder in the last few reps,  I was left able to do overhead pressing movements and lateral raise movements easily, but any type of raise to the front, caused sharp pain to go through my shoulder.  For those of you who are delusional, no, it didn’t feel good at all.  I couldn’t raise my arm over a few inches from resting in the front of my body, this left me unable to perform my Thursday and Friday workouts.

One good thing about this experience, it has once again taught me the importance of getting in a good warm-up, and good  stretching habits.  Today my shoulder feels perfectly fine again, I’ve been icing it when home from work, and our fitness director (who’s real passion is rehab work) taught me some good dynamic stretches that helped to keep things loose.

I start things over again on Monday, we’ll see how things go then.  I’ve learned some lessons this week, as I’m sure to learn more in weeks to come.  Feel free to post any lessons you’ve learned the hard way in the comments section, I’d love to hear your stories.

Welcome to My Site

This site is something I’ve talked about a lot lately, but haven’t gotten around to until now. It will detail my training, nutrition, and performance in lifting and other sports. The way I see it, having this online where others can see it will lead me to push myself harder, and strive to do better, leading to an improved self.

I don’t claim to be an expert, I don’t claim to know it all, truthfully, I don’t feel like I know that much about strength training and physique building, even though I’ve been doing it for about three years now. All I know has been learned through trial and error, from friends in the gym, and from great sites like T-Nation and Stronglifts.

Hopefully, with the help of readers here, and continuing to try and educate myself on these matters, the end result will be a stronger, leaner, more fit me.

Also, about the name, sometimes training can be torture for me, though other times it’s fun. Torture can be more literal in when I take things too far and end up injured, but it’s also how others often feel when they train with me. Oftentimes these are friends of mine who feel they have some lifting experience with their isolation moves and such, but after a good session, they realize, they too have a long way to go.