Yesterday I worked out at about 12, and only had a protein shake and some candies I stole from student counselling between when I finished my workout and when I ate dinner at 7 or so. I then proceeded to stuff my face with pizza, but that wasn't enough to make up for the 6 hours during which I deprived my body of nutrients. Today everything hurt and I was tired and sore and stiff and it was hard to get moving. I eventually made it to the gym but I felt weak and tired easily and just didn't have the kind of work out I had been hoping for. This time at least I brought myself a left over slice of pizza to eat between my workout and physio, which was a good plan. I was so wrecked during physio though that I kept almost falling asleep while stretching. As soon as I got home I collapsed onto my bed and slept for an hour and a half. I didn't even have the energy to shower or change out of my gym clothes! Once I woke up I started re-hydrating in earnest and made myself dinner and food for the next few days to make sure that this doesn't happen again. The moral of the story? When you're lifting heavy, abusing your body doesn't just effect you the day of, it can last for multiple days and really fuck with your entire system.
Because of this, the OHP that should have been easy at 60 x 5 x 3 was really rough, and deadlifts were hard too. I'm determined to eat and recover better next week so that 60 lbs feels as easy as it should. Otherwise I did lat pull downs and farmer carries, and my hands hurt from all of the grip, but otherwise it was ok. The other good news is my back didn't completely give out during deadlifts, hooray!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
A good squat day!
After Tuesday I had to take a week off because my back was really hurting me and then I went to visit some friends in New York City. But that just meant I was raring to go when I hit the gym today.
The squat rack was busy so I did my light 5 bench press first. 75 x 5 x 3 was hard but very doable.
My squats were definitely the highlight of the workout today. I had a heavy triple on the menu, so I worked up 65 x 5, 85 x 5, 95 x 3, 100 x 3, 105 x 3, 110 x 3, 115 x 3 and fiiiinally made it to 120 x 3. This was a huge mental boost to me, because 120 x 5 x 3 is where I got stuck in September. It was definitely a mental block then, and seeing myself get back to that number, even for fewer reps, felt awesome. The squats themselves felt way lighter than I thought they would, and I had the strength to probably go higher but I didn't want to risk my back. That's ok though, I definitely have the confidence to push my heavy triple and lighter 5 x 3s now. I was smiling through the whole set and grinning like a fucking idiot by the time I finished. But it was awesome!
One thing that made the difference for my hip I think was make sure to stretch out my quads, hips, and glutes and do some back warm ups before squatting. Basically I need to do my physio and a few cat-cow/up dogs before I start and my hips/back seem to be ok. I noticed a pre-hip ache pain in my quad that went away if I did the quad stretch before squatting, so that was awesome.
Then I finished up with bent over barbell rows. Those hurt my back a bit, but I could definitely feel them in my arms.
The squat rack was busy so I did my light 5 bench press first. 75 x 5 x 3 was hard but very doable.
My squats were definitely the highlight of the workout today. I had a heavy triple on the menu, so I worked up 65 x 5, 85 x 5, 95 x 3, 100 x 3, 105 x 3, 110 x 3, 115 x 3 and fiiiinally made it to 120 x 3. This was a huge mental boost to me, because 120 x 5 x 3 is where I got stuck in September. It was definitely a mental block then, and seeing myself get back to that number, even for fewer reps, felt awesome. The squats themselves felt way lighter than I thought they would, and I had the strength to probably go higher but I didn't want to risk my back. That's ok though, I definitely have the confidence to push my heavy triple and lighter 5 x 3s now. I was smiling through the whole set and grinning like a fucking idiot by the time I finished. But it was awesome!
One thing that made the difference for my hip I think was make sure to stretch out my quads, hips, and glutes and do some back warm ups before squatting. Basically I need to do my physio and a few cat-cow/up dogs before I start and my hips/back seem to be ok. I noticed a pre-hip ache pain in my quad that went away if I did the quad stretch before squatting, so that was awesome.
Then I finished up with bent over barbell rows. Those hurt my back a bit, but I could definitely feel them in my arms.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Day 3
Light squats were ok today...last week my physio stretched out my hips a bit and it has hurt to squat every time I've tried since then, and today was no exception. At first it hurt in the hole and when I walked around after, but by the time I got to my working sets it just hurt to walk around after.
I got up to 80 x 3 for my heavy triple today. I possible could have gone to 85 if I'd had safeties or a spotter, but I'm not quite ready for that yet. Hopefully soon!
Afterwards I did 5 sets of alternating 10 double overhead push presses with 15 lb kettle bells and 5 push ups. I really wish I could do full push ups...I don't know if the problem is with my core or my arms. I'll just have to keep working on them I guess. In any case those 5 rounds were way harder than I thought they'd be! My arms were super tired afterwards.
I got up to 80 x 3 for my heavy triple today. I possible could have gone to 85 if I'd had safeties or a spotter, but I'm not quite ready for that yet. Hopefully soon!
Afterwards I did 5 sets of alternating 10 double overhead push presses with 15 lb kettle bells and 5 push ups. I really wish I could do full push ups...I don't know if the problem is with my core or my arms. I'll just have to keep working on them I guess. In any case those 5 rounds were way harder than I thought they'd be! My arms were super tired afterwards.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Tweaking the Schedule
I realized I had light deadlifts and heavy deadlifts/rack pulls back to back, which is not wise for my back or posterior chain. Because my back is so sensitive right now, I try not to have squats or deadlifts back to back on the schedule I messed around with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th days so they now look like this. I also have trouble doing most HIIT cardio movements if my back is flared up (like it often does after squats) so I made it optional on my light back squat days.
Day 3
Heavy Triple Bench
Light 5s Back Squats
Push ups/burpees/farmer carries OR HIIT if back is ok
Day 4
Heavy triple Rack pulls/deads
Front Squats
HIIT
I'm really glad I will have had the chance to play around with this and try everything out before the semester starts. Hopefully by the 26th I'll have the major kinks ironed out and everything will be good!
Days 1 and 2
So far I have completed the first and second days of my new schedule and I really like it!
Day 1:
Today went pretty well! It was my first time working up to a heavy triple for squats in about 6 months, so I was nervous and excited going into it. I ended up doing 115# x 3 x 1 which is pretty good considering I basically took 3 months off serious exercise and only got back to it last week. I definitely feel like with the confidence I'm gaining I can get to squatting 120, 125 pretty easily for 3. My 1RM for squats was 140 in April or May, so I'm hoping with some more training and confidence building I can blow that number out of the water in not too long.
Bench felt pretty solid too - I'm looking forward to my heavy bench day cause I have never tried any kind of max before with bench. I did 70 x 5 x 3, and I know I have done 75 x 5 x 3 in the past, so hopefully I'll be good with 80 or even 85 soon.
Day 2:
Today felt AWESOME. I was feeling super sad and Sunday Blues-y and hitting the barbell was exactly what I needed. First I did standing over head press (military press) which is kind of a nemesis of mine. It's the weakest of any lift I do, and I tend to try and over do it every time. Today I stuck with the weight I did last week and it worked surprisingly well! Last week I could only strict press 2-3 of the reps of each set and I had to push press the last few. Today I manage to strict press each rep of each set, and I actually felt pretty strong until the last one. I could definitely feel it in my abs! I'm gonna try the same weight next week and hopefully 60 x 5 x 3 will finally be comfortably challenging, and I can finally move on to 65.
Today was also light deadlifts, which felt hard but solid. I worked up to 150 x 5 x 3 and definitely also worked up a sweat. Oddly enough, my back hurt pretty badly yesterday after all those squats, but today by the end of my deadlifts it didn't really hurt at all. I hope that means I'm making progress!
Finally I did some lat pull-downs (I still can't do pull ups and I haven't ordered any resistance bands to work on them) and farmer carries. I was surprised by how hard the farmer carries were! I did three sets of two laps of the lane of ellipticals carrying a 25# kettlebell in each hand, and it was seriously uncomfortable by the end! Hopefully a few weeks of this will make noticable differences in my deadlift grip strength, because I think that is one of the things really holding me back from a more aggressive deadlift.
Day 1:
Today went pretty well! It was my first time working up to a heavy triple for squats in about 6 months, so I was nervous and excited going into it. I ended up doing 115# x 3 x 1 which is pretty good considering I basically took 3 months off serious exercise and only got back to it last week. I definitely feel like with the confidence I'm gaining I can get to squatting 120, 125 pretty easily for 3. My 1RM for squats was 140 in April or May, so I'm hoping with some more training and confidence building I can blow that number out of the water in not too long.
Bench felt pretty solid too - I'm looking forward to my heavy bench day cause I have never tried any kind of max before with bench. I did 70 x 5 x 3, and I know I have done 75 x 5 x 3 in the past, so hopefully I'll be good with 80 or even 85 soon.
Day 2:
Today felt AWESOME. I was feeling super sad and Sunday Blues-y and hitting the barbell was exactly what I needed. First I did standing over head press (military press) which is kind of a nemesis of mine. It's the weakest of any lift I do, and I tend to try and over do it every time. Today I stuck with the weight I did last week and it worked surprisingly well! Last week I could only strict press 2-3 of the reps of each set and I had to push press the last few. Today I manage to strict press each rep of each set, and I actually felt pretty strong until the last one. I could definitely feel it in my abs! I'm gonna try the same weight next week and hopefully 60 x 5 x 3 will finally be comfortably challenging, and I can finally move on to 65.
Today was also light deadlifts, which felt hard but solid. I worked up to 150 x 5 x 3 and definitely also worked up a sweat. Oddly enough, my back hurt pretty badly yesterday after all those squats, but today by the end of my deadlifts it didn't really hurt at all. I hope that means I'm making progress!
Finally I did some lat pull-downs (I still can't do pull ups and I haven't ordered any resistance bands to work on them) and farmer carries. I was surprised by how hard the farmer carries were! I did three sets of two laps of the lane of ellipticals carrying a 25# kettlebell in each hand, and it was seriously uncomfortable by the end! Hopefully a few weeks of this will make noticable differences in my deadlift grip strength, because I think that is one of the things really holding me back from a more aggressive deadlift.
Introduction!
For my first post I thought I'd post my lifting schedule. I cannibalized 3-4 different plans to come up with the best one for me. It's probably not the most efficient plan for building muscle, but it includes all the things I like (heavy lifting days, lighter lifting days, HIIT/weights cardio) and covers all the bases (the big three lifts, vertical/horizontal push/pulls, exercises for focusing on weaknesses). while keeping the workouts fairly short (from an hour to an hour and a half) and keeping me moving almost every day. I'm posting this not because I want any comments or suggestions (so please keep those to yourself) but because I want to share what I'm doing! So here it is:
Day 1
Heavy triple Back Squat
Light 5s Bench
Bent over Row
Day 2
Light 5s Deadlift
Over Head Press
Lat pull down/farmer carries
Day 3
Heavy triple Rack pulls/deads
Front Squats
Push ups/burpees/farmer carries
Day 4
HIIT
Sprint intervals
Day 5
Heavy Triple Bench
Light 5s Back Squats
HIIT
'Light 5s' means 3 sets of 5 at 70% ish of my 1RM, and heavy triples means working up to a heavy triple of that lift, probably closer to 80-90% of my 1RM. HIIT stands for 'High Intensity Interval Training' which could be tabata rounds or a crossfit WOD or treadmill sprints, depending on what I've already done that week and what I feel like then.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)