Giz,

I will start posting them, I just don't like to post them everywhere and seem like spame.

Baseball:

Just found a local adult team that I am going to try out for next season. One small problem is I haven't played competitively in ~five years. Hell, I can't even find my old glove anymore and I fell in love with that thing over the years.

So I guess one of the first steps I need to do is get a glove, but what else should I be doing to get back into baseball?

In my google searching to find a team, I found a guy that runs a baseball training facility here, which seems more geared towards children than adults (http://www.stksports.com/). The guy that runs the facility played in the minors and had a short stint in the majors, but was never anything big. Just realized that this guy is a sponsor for the team and also plays for them occasionally. So I think I'll go talk to him and hopefully get on track to play some ball next Spring and/or some games throughout the Winter.

Hmm, guess I forgot to log last week. Oh well, on to today.

8/1/2011:

Squat: WU+, 5x3x335

A couple grinder reps, but I'm loving this 3 rep set scheme.

Bench: WU+, 1x5x135, 1x4x175, 3x5x165.

Wasn't sure where I was at on bench since I haven't done it in 1.5 months.

Power Clean: WU+, 3x3x155

Trying to learn these and completely replace Pendlay rows. The last set of these was really tough. I'm going to repeat this on Friday with one caveat. Do a lot of WU sets where I execute really good form as I'm still in the learning phase.

Lying Tricep Extenstion: 3x8x65

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I think my squat from last time must've been 325 on my last update and I entered it in wrong.

8/3/2011:

Foam roll + ~10 stretches from Magnificent Mobility

Squat: WU+, 3x335, 3x3x325

Last rep on 335 was a mega grinder, so I dropped some weight. Last rep on the 3rd set of 325 was a pretty bad grinder so I just skipped the last set. In retrospect, I think I should've dropped some more weight after the last set and pounded out a set to failure of 225 just for more volume.

OHP: WU+, 2x5x130, 1x4x130

Really tough.. Practiced cleans by hang cleaning this up, so it's kinda like I'm going to be doing some sort of clean 3x per week.

(Sumo) Deadlift: WU+, 3x315, 10x225

I felt whooped by the previous exercises and couldn't WIM the 315 5 times. I've got a small case of T-Rex arms wrt DL. They just don't hang right... So I tried to Sumo DL after reading a little bit about it. I'll get a video posted next week.

gGHR: 3x10XBW

these while at the same time.

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I posted this in the LC thread, but I've made a year long goal of being able to squat >=400lbs @ <200lbs weight. I will likely need to change up my squat programming, but right now if I can go up 5lbs per week on my 3RM, I'd be repping over 425 at the end of the year. I'll get the programming in place so that on October 1st I'll have three solid months of training to for sure meet the goal. Until then I'll just try to keep up with periodization.

No no no therey. Like this:



Short arms leads to rounded back unless I go sumo.

re: Deadlifting

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/deadlift/

I noticed the Sumo style was really tough for me to get it off the ground. So I'm going to focus on a lot accessory work with GHR, RDL, and GM. My DL is behind where it should be anyways, so time to get **** done.

o you mean like, always. i thought you ment you ended up with them after a workout. my bad.

I forgot to log my Friday workout. I remember it being pretty meh and thinking that my last several sessions had been meh. Now I've been barely eating at maintenance and getting decent sleep, so I am thinking it's probably time to move on. So this is my last week on Starting Strength. I'm not planning on training super hard this week, nor is it going to be a traditional deload week.

I'll be moving on to Wendler's 5/3/1 starting 8/14. I filled out an excel spreadsheet for the next 12 months which I can provide once I get home. I'll be doing the main lifts with a combination of the types of accessory lifts. The lifts and accessories will looks something like this:

Sunday:
Press-5/3/1
Chins/Pulls- 5x10
Dips- 5x15

Monday:
Power Cleans- 3x3
Deadlifts- 5/3/1
Deadlift- 5x10 (40-50% of training max, rounded to nearest 10)

Wednesday:
Bench- 5/3/1
Kroc Rows- 5x10-15
Tricep Extension- 5x10

Thursday:
Power Cleans- 3x3
Squat- 5/3/1
One-leg/pistol squats- 5x10-15
Ab-wheel- 5-10

Accessory exercises will change as necessary. For example, right now I plan on completing 5x10 light DLs after my 5/3/1, but on deload weeks that might be too much volume and I'll do something different like 5x10 GHRs and 5x10 hanging leg raises, or I might not do Jack ****.

Using the formula in the book, I calculated 1RM for each lift:
Press: 157
Dead: 367
Bench: 204
Squat: 368

Training Maxes:
Press: 140
Dead: 330
Bench: 185
Squat: 330

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Got a little busy at work, so I can't finish this now. Will write up more later if I feel the need.

Sumo uses different muscles than the std DL obv, and from my own experience you can lift as much/more. It takes a bit of time to get used to a new style though. See jdockkkk's log for some discussion of different sumo styles (mainly very broad stance vs a closer one). Very beneficial for us t-rex guys though.

Sumo is going to take some major practice to get used to because I'm terrible now. Just saw this post now, so I'll check out jdoccks log for further talk.

On to today's show:

8/8/2011:

Foam roll + dynamic stretching + can't find my damn lacrosse ball

Squat: WU+, 5x3x315

Set 4
Set 5


Overhead Press: WU+ 3x5x135

Set 1
Set 2

Sumo Deadlift: WU+, 1x5x275

Pretty tough and of course I forgot to film this :sigh:

gGHR: 3x10xBW

----

I felt decent going to the gym, but the workout lacked some umpgh. I think it's because this is my last week and I am anxious to try out 5/3/1.

Week 1, Day 1 of 5/3/1

OverheadPress	1	5	105
	1	5	115	Est.Max
	1	8	120	151.968
Dips	5	3x10,2x8
Pullups	10	3

Last set of press was pretty difficult. I didn't reach my training max, so I have room to work.

I was going for 5 sets of 10 on dips, but wasn't able to get the last two sets. My triceps just started crying after the 4th set.

Currently at home on set 6 of 10 for the pullups. Wendler says to do 5 sets of 10, but there's no way I can do a single set of 10... Maybe do another session of 10 sets later today. My shoulders feel like they got a pretty good workout so far lol.



Going to run a few sprints once the sun goes down. Too hot currently.

Temperature
91.2 °F
Feels Like 103 °F

Monday	08/15/11	Bodyweight:	201.2
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Power Clean	3	3	135
Deadlift	1	5	250
	1	5	265	Est.Max
	1	5	280	326.62
Deadlift	5	10	135

Today was very fun and challenging. I started with some foam rolling as usual and found my lacrosse ball, so I did some much needed work to my calves and feet. I need to spend some more time with the lacrosse ball.

Wendler says it's not a bad idea to do cleans on either DL or squat day, so I integrated it into my DL this week. This had an impact on my max reps for DL, but I'm not sure how much. My grip is weak and my DL is ****. A combination of technical difficulties and forgetfulness has kept me from getting recent video. I also think having 5 sets of 10 looming past the maximal effort lift might have forced me to leave a bit in the tank. And 5x10x135 was surprisingly difficult. All sets using overhand grip for grip work. I may switch to mixed grip for max effort sets on weeks 2 and 3.

Failed to progress north for the last two days. Must complete conditioning!

Also, my weight is too high. I sort of binged after buying a ton of groceries.

Wednesday	08/17/11
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Bench	1	5	140
	1	5	145	Est.Max
	1	11	155	211.7765(PR)
Tricep Extension	5	10	45
Kroc Rows	1	10	70
	3	10	75
	1	10	80

Went home sick from work at about 11am, overall body ache, sore throat, hot/cold sweats, etc. Ended up getting in to see the Dr. at 2pm and got some antibiotics plus a followup for some blood tests (unrelated to illness). After the Dr visit I went home and relaxed and felt like working out after a couple hours, so I motivated myself to get ready and head to the gym.

I foam rolled but only did upper-body foam rolling + lacrosse ball work on the arms and scapula.

Bench felt really good since I didn't whoop myself on squats before hand. I think I could have gotten 1 more rep. This is technically a PR and I plan to PR every week on bench as my hand has mostly healed and I think my original Training Max may not accurately portray my true strength levels.

I need to remember to weigh the ez-curl bar at the gym to make sure it is 25lbs. I had been completing 3 sets of Rip style Tricep Extensions before, so I'm pretty happy to get 5x10.

I forgot to update my online spreadsheet and it still listed pullups for today, when I had changed it to Kroc rows. Well I forgot how to program Kroc rows, so I just did 5 sets of 10 and tried to increase weight. Now that I realize I'm only supposed to do 1 set and 20+ reps, this will change my gameplan next time I'm there. At least I kinda know where I need to start now since this was my first time attempting a Kroc row. Can't wait to put >100lbs on these...although I'm pretty sure the gym's dumbbells that only go through 110 .

Still living south of the Vag. I don't want to overexert myself while sick and eating at slight defict. I've lost 5.3 lbs since Monday, which seems just like std water weight and variance.

Overall: I need to work on my INTENSITY. I know I can go harder than what I'm currently outputting.

Thursday	08/18/11
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Squat	1	5	250
	1	5	265	Est.Max
	1	7	280	345.628

Well... Wendler said he kinda likes the "ain't doing jack ****" assistance work and sometimes it fits in perfectly with my schedule lol. I foam rolled before hand, but I didn't go straight to the gym and I wasn't as thorough with my rolling. This lead to the top, outer part of my right thigh tensing up and hurting on the last set. Next time I need to make sure and foam roll properly and not rush it. My assistance exercises were supposed to be single leg squats and GHR, but since my thigh was hurting after the squats, I just called it a day. I'm currently considering going in today to do some power cleans and my squat assistance exercises... but we'll see if I have that motivation when I get out of work.

Week 2
Sunday	08/21/11
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Press	1	3	115
	1	3	120	Est.Max
	1	6	130	155.974
Dips	5	10
Chinups	10	3

Completely surprised I made it into the gym this day. I got pretty torn up the night before, but was still able to get to the gym and do some work.

Tuesday	08/24/11	Bodyweight:	187.8
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Power Clean	3	3	140
Deadlift	1	3	250
	1	3	280	Est.Max
	1	4	315	356.958
Deadlift	5	10	135

Changed this to Tuesday as I was too exhausted on Monday, subsequent workouts pushed back to Th/F.

I apparently wasn't paying much attention to my spreadsheet and I did next weeks workout, except for the 5 on the first set. Sometimes I'm a big dumb animal, but I should've known something was up when I started off with Cleans. One rep short of my previous max... I need to work on my max effort.. BADLY! This might be simply a recovery issue and I'm not waiting long enough in between sets.

Apparently I lost 13 lbs since weighing in last Monday, which is pretty intense. I weighed myself this morning and I was 194... so I gained ~6.6 lbs since yesterday. My body is just crazy.

lol wow, that's some sick bw fluctuation. Or do you weigh yourself under widely varying circumstances, like Sat morning after taking a piss and a dump and Monday evening after eating like an animal all day without taking a dump?

I'm strict about only weighing myself in the morning after I use the bathroom. I do it every day so I do notice a lot of variance, but this is def out of the ordinary. freak and weird dude ldo. My diet is relatively stable day-in and day-out. Last night was a little strange in that I had several late night snacks that were high in calories, so I expected to increase some in weight, but not this much.

It could be my scale, but it's less than a year old and it has always been consistent with myself and roommates.

Yeah confirmed freak/weird dude.

AIDS is so retro.

lolol I had AIDS before it left Africa

Wednesday	08/25/11
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Bench	1	3	145
	1	3	155	Est.Max
	1	10	165	219.945 WR
Kroc Rows	1	17(LxR)	75
Tricep Extension	5	10	45

About the bench, felt like I killed it and I might have been able to get one rep more, but I still feel happy about it.

Kroc Rows were somewhat successful. I'll repeat 75 next time to ensure I get 20+ next time.

Tricep Extensions were a little more difficult than the last time, but I presume that's because I did them after the Kroc Rows.

Didn't weigh myself this morning because I woke up so early I forgot about it.

I kinda like working out in the morning and will probably continue to do the same in the future depending on how much energy I feel after work.

Awesome day followed by a WIL day. Swongs are one thing.

Thursday	08/25/11
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Power Clean	3	3	145
Squat	1	3	265
	1	3	280	Est.Max
	1	3	300	329.97

Slept in because I was up kinda late last night. Long busy day of work. Followed by a session of Black Ops with a friend. WIL. The gym closes at 8 on Friday's and I didn't get in there till 7:15pm. I got to do a quick foam roll and I decided to do some cleans to warm up since I didn't spend much time on the roller.

Cleans went pretty solid and I tried to do a short rest between each set. I've been doing shoulder dislocations and some resisted rack position stretch (?).

Squats felt heavy. This is where the WIL came in to play. I kinda psyched myself out when I decided I was leaving after squats. I can

--------------

http://articles.elitefts.com/article...-the-deadlift/

I think this write-up + video were very informative and I will be boooming up in DL soon.

Considering going crazy on my #NUTRITION and living in super surplus city to stop these days from happening. I also need to go running... grrr.

Also start doing good mornings for help with the deadlift.

When I first started doing them twice a week a year or so ago it made my DL jump almost 100 lbs pretty quickly.

Week 3
Sunday	08/28/11
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Press	1	5	105
	1	3	120	Est.Max
	1	6	135	161.973(PR)
Dips	5	10	BW
Pullups	3	3

I had excellent rest and gave a decent effort for my OHP. I didn't feel like being in the gym for very long, so I started to superset my pullups with dips. This yolked my arms pretty solid and I could only go 3x3 on pullups. I also don't have a pullup bar anymore, so I don't have a way to complete these at home. I'm going to alternate which exercise comes first from now on, so next week pullups first then dips.

Monday	08/29/11	Bodyweight:	196.4(lolwtf??)
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Deadlift	1	5	250
	1	3	280
	1	4	315
Deadlift	5	10	135

My weight came back to normal, not exactly sure what is up with that. I was sick for a couple days, but no extra bodily fluids evacuating from me during that time. I watched the video I linked above the day before I did these DLs and I have to say I think my form improved a ton. I tried to take some video, but my phone (or me) is a dumb dumb. I really like the 5x10 DL after my heavy sets too, especially now that I'm getting my form corrected.

I'm going to make some slight tweaks to the order and frequency of accessory exercises on my spreadsheet. This will make it easier to just take my phone to the gym and look at exactly what I need to do and then do it.

Wednesday	08/31/11
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Bench	1	5	140
	1	3	155	Est.Max
	1	11	175	239.1025 (PR)
Kroc Rows	1	15	80
Tricep Extension	5	10	50

Didn't eat much yesterday, but I crushed this bench session! I have some video of the last set, I just don't have the data cable here at work and I forgot to upload last night. Once I get home I'll get that uploaded.

Going to repeat the weight on Kroc Rows and Tricep Extensions next time.

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Life stuff: Just paid rent and I'm kinda broke right now until next paycheck, which is 10 days away. I just ran out of whey and don't currently have the $$ to go buy more. So I'm going to stuff my face today (squat day) and next week is my deload week.. I'm almost certain I won't be consuming enough protein nor calories to maintain next week, but I guess I'm lucky because it's an easy week that won't require that much effort. I guess I'm going to be losing a couple lbs and some strength

Decided I wasn't strong enough for 5/3/1 yet and switched to Texas Method after perusing various programs. I didn't really give 5/3/1 a chance, but some comments about the lack of stimulus compared to SS really hit home and I already noticed my squats just felt lacking on 5/3/1. Once I get stronger I plan to revisit 5/3/1, but for now we're transitioning to TM.

Doin' Front Squats on the 2nd training day of the week instead of light back squats; starting at 135lbs adding 5lbs every week.

To determine the initial load, I took 90% of my recent 5RM hoping that would help with initial progression and acclimating to the load.

Sunday	9/11/2011	Bodyweight:	196.2
Lift	Sets	Reps	Weight
Squat	5	5	255
Bench	5	5	165
Deadlift	1	3	280
Ab Rollout	3	10

Last two sets of squats got tough so it was a decent effort.

Bench seemed ez.

Deadlift was tough after all that volume before it, but I know there's no way I could do 5x3 Power Cleans after 5x5 squats and bench. I'm going to drop the weight a little bit next time and make sure I get 5 reps.

Came home and did 3 sets of 10 ab rollouts. Last set was tough and I'm repeating 3x10 next week with the hopes of going up to 4x10 in 2 weeks.

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Rabble rabble rabble, football, 9/11, USA#1