Thank you for the input. That is the conclusion I came to after continually reading. It would seem one person would say do a and another would say do b. I think the low impaact walking stuff shouldn't hurt in the short/long run and will stay with that. We'll see how it goes.

You can include HIIT once you move away from lifting heavy 3/week. If you lift less frequently HIIT is prolly fine. Tail end of SS is pretty heavy on the recovery though..

My neck also has not increased even though I'm up 30lbs and everything else is up significantly. I'm sure it happens sometimes, especially if you are tiny to begin with. I am 220 now, was 190 when I restarted SS.

My workouts are on indefinite hold, but not by choice. My wife's recovery is not going all that great, so I am still home. Depending on some test results tomorrow, she may need to go under the knife again this week. As such, my ability to lift has gone out the window until I get back to work. So all I have been doing is cardio, yard work, house work, etc.

I hate having this stress since I tend to let my diet go to crap. I tend to not eat as well as when I am not worrying about her health. Not sure why, but that is the way it goes with me. I'm not worried about it until the beginning of the month. No matter what is going on with my wife, I will get on the straight and narrow diet path.

Another thing that has come up in my life: I am now the assistant coach for my step-daughter's U14 soccer team. Looking forward to this experience. I have a lot of experience playing, but 0 coaching. Should be fun.

Sending out good vibes for your wife's recovery

Thank you for the good vibes. It appears she is getting better now. That means I should be able to start working out again on Monday. Gonna go back to SS, walking, and keep on my food intake. I have cut out alcohol and junk foods (weigh-ins next month). Keeping protein intake high along with fresh veggies/fruit. I'm feeling pretty good right now, although I think I may have lost some strenght from being out of the gym for so long.

Plan for Monday's workout:

Squat: 285 x 5 x 3
Bench: 175 x 5 x 3
DL: 325 x 5 x 1

Today's workout

Squat: 285 x 5 x 3
Bench: 185 x 5 x 3
DL: 325 x 5 x 1

Weight: 221 even

DL's were good today, even being off for a month. Squats were a little tough. Did warmups and first set of working sets low bar. Left shoulder felt a little too tight after that set so I tried stretching it a little more. Didn't want to screw it up so I went to high bar for last 2 sets. Will continue working on flexibility and my low bar form. If you read my last post I was planning on doing 175 for bench. Got under the bar and it was tough, more than I thought it was going to be. Finished all 3 sets without a problem (last rep a little slow). Was taking the plates off when I realized I was doing 185, not 175. First day back after almost a month is my excuse on that one.

Next workout I think I will squat at the same weight. Something in my form wasn't feeling right (in both low bar and high bar) and don't want to add anything until I figure it out.

Weigh ins are in a month and after that I will be hunting (up in Maine, first week in Nov). I plan on walking T/Th on the treadmill: 3.5-4mph, 0 incline, 30-40 min for the rest of Sep. This is to increase my cardio capability while not fully killing my gains in SS. Sometime in Oct I will change it up a little to include hills to make sure I don't have an issue hiking during my hunting trip. I am also assistant coaching my daughter's soccer team with practices M/W/and sometimes Th. Usually I'm not doing much except demonstrating, but sometimes I participate. Shouldn't effect my SS since I don't do too much.

Eating habits are back on track and I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. I know my diet wasn't great before and especially so while I was out. I blame that on stress (worrying) and no drive to eat better (possibly due to the stress). Now that things are getting better for my wife and I'm back into a workout schedule, I have the drive again to eat better. I plan on keeping alcohol out until after weigh ins since I feel that effects my ability to shed inches off my waist.

So the two "mistakes" you made this workout were high-bar instead of low bar squatting (high-bar is harder) and accidentally benching 10lbs more than you planned without failing?

**** you.

Yes, those were the "mistakes". Sucks getting back into working out after a month, my mind isn't always there. Although I find high bar easier (have done 315 HB before) since that is what I started with. Still haven't gotten the sweet spot for the low bar yet. Hopefully soon I will get it down.

Another thing that happened this weekend: Met a father of 2 girls on the soccer team. He and I didn't see eye to eye at first (I was trying to keep the sidelines positive, he didn't see my point of view). We met up at the end of the game and peacefully discussed what happened (tough to do during the game since I was tyring to figure out what to work on next practice). It came to a different style of coaching that our coach has than what he is used to. All ended well and I got invited to see an MMA fight he is promoting. Come to find out he is a pro MMA fighter and has a local MMA promoting business he owns. Should be a good time. May try to get his take on local gyms I could lift at when I don't go in to work and possibly my wife when she is back to normal.

Today's workout

30 min on treadmill @ 4mph (2 miles walked). Didn't feel bad doing this after yesterday's workout. Thought my legs would be worse off than they were since I am just getting back. I think I will stay at this time and pace for Th.

Forgot to mention the guy I saw working out today. Seems like he was fairly strong, but I had to chuckle watching him workout. Had a belt on the whole time (except during his stationary bike cool down) going from machine to machine, although he did do some type of a good morning/deadlift type move. It was like a straight leg deadlift, although he never went all the way to the ground nor did he keep his legs 100% straight. Actually saw him doing leg machine (lie on your belly, curl leg so foot goes towards your but) with his belt, for about 1/2 ROM. I did realize that walking on the treadmill gives me way too much time for people watching. Hopefully next time I can get a good view of the TV.

Probably was doing Romanian deadlifts.

Just looked them up. It seems like he was trying to do them, but his form sucked. Forgot to mention his back was rounded in the down position and I think he was going lower than he should (based on what I read on the exercise) but otherwise I think you are correct in the Romanian Deadlift being what he was doing. I figured it was an actual lift, just hadn't seen it done before. Thank you for the info.

Just put my food intake for today into FitDay. Pretty happy the way things are looking. So far today I have had :
Cals: 1,210
Fat: 45.4g
Carbs: 40.6g
Protein: 156.6g

I will have a snack in about 2-3 hrs, guessing around 20 g protein within that snack. Dinner is chicken breast (not sure how my wife is cooking it, but will taste good), brocoli and carrots. Carbs are coming in some milk (have skim milk [don't crap on me, that is what we have at the house] with protein shake) and veggies.