Worked out at a friends' gym; she was testing her max squat so I did the same. Nice to get a PR of course and hit the 3 wheel milestone -- I was hoping I had more in me, but as shown below the 325 fail wasn't particularly close. Squat gains have been lagging DL and BP a bit, though it was certainly my most practiced lift prior to this program so I suppose that makes sense.
Finished my first 2 sets of BP and ran out of time unfortunately. Felt like I should have been able to finish the third set. Will figure out next time if I repeat or try to move up.
Thanks brotha. Been happy with it, especially since when I last benched with any regularity (over a year ago) I was stuck at work sets of 165, ha. Been doing lots of pressing and overhead work in meantime so I guess that's helping. Still figuring out proper bench form, but involving some leg drive where I had none before is of course helpful too.
Today did a bootcamp-style cardio circuit taught by my mom's personal trainer with my family (everyone's home for Christmas). Not the most beneficial use of time in the gym but it was fun to do with the fam and felt good to get a sweat in.
Hope to get a lift in tomorrow morning then I head off to Switzerland for my honeymoon for a week. Will do some skiing and plenty of melted-cheese-eating but probably not so much lifting.
I've been traveling a bunch lately and my lifting has been sporadic as a result. Looking forward to settling down when I get back and hopefully grinding out some progress at the gym.
I did some health and fitness today. Limited by my hotel gym where the heaviest dumbbell was 30#.
12/30/2014 Workout
A. Superset:
1. DB Bench Press 3x20 @ 30#
2. DB One-arm row 3x20 @ 30#
B. 12 minute EMOM:
10 DB snatches @ 30# (5 right / 5 left)
C. Superset:
1. DB Shoulder Press 5x12 @ 30#
2. DB Bulgarian Split Squat 5x10 @ 30#
D. Superset:
1. Pushups 3x20
2. DB Curls 3x10 @ 26#
Definitely interested in hearing ideas for people's favorite hotel/traveling workouts. I don't really like high rep / light weight bench press -- sadly enough my grip was my limiting factor there. Probably get just as much out of pushups at that weight.
I like DB snatches. Would have liked to have gone heavier. Prob save em for the end next time.
Also liked the Bulgarian Split Squats. I have poor balance so nice to work that. It also gives a good stretch to my tight right hip flexor -- I may add them in regularly as stretches (unweighted). Interestingly I found it a lot easier to keep my left knee out when squatting than my right knee... I assume I want to push the squatting knee out as I do in a barbell squat?
Went skiing the last two days. Not much of an update but there it is.
Vacation ending tomorrow; I plan to lift tomorrow night. I also start a new job Tuesday after 2.5 months of hanging out. Looking forward to getting back to both grinds.
Superset:
Tempo ring dips (3-3-0-3) 5x5
Front squats 5x5x185
10 min metcon of bear crawls, pushups, 53# kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls
Felt great to get back in the gym. I ate like crap on vacation. Lost ~5 lb and look quite a bit squishier. Was worried I might have lost strength on my layoff but if anything the rest seems to have helped.
Wasn't sure I was gonna finish back squats but I did (vids below). Wish I were tighter, less wobbly, more symmetric. Focused on driving knees out but still work to do there esp on later reps. Did some work opening my hips beforehand and hip flexor bothered me much less than usual -- going to keep working on mobilizing.
Pullups were meh. I've been doing weighted stuff with 25 lb because there's a nice 25 lb vest at my gym. I have never approached my bodyweight stuff (pullups/chinups/pushups/dips) with any systematic programming. I'd like to improve on these so I'll look around for programming to work in. I've seen frequency method mentioned a few times here -- curious to hear if anyone has other thoughts on good programs.
10 min metcon of push presses, deadlifts, box step-ups
Deadlifts felt good. The sets were touch n go so I can't call them real 3RM but I haven't attempted a heavy deadlift single in a long time so my TnG triples at 355 and 375 were 1RM PRs as well.
I'm starting from scratch on the snatch. My gym has an olympic lifting coach come in once/week -- she had me just work from power position with the bar all day which was great by me.
Last edited by LetsHugItOut; 01-07-2015 at 11:27 PM.
Nice lifting! Seems like a four page deadlift must be there already.
Thanks Monte. I feel like it probably is; none of the reps today felt too tough. I'm going to try to get some more form videos up in here before I attempt a 1RM -- I want to make sure my back looks ok.
Well, turned in the worst session of my life yesterday. Was attempting 3x5x275 HBBS; failed 3rd rep of my 1st set. Gave up lifting for the day and messed around with some kettlebell snatches to work up a sweat. I was very hungover. Negative WIM despite 2 days of rest. Moving on. Will re-try squats and probably bench today.
Not the best session but miles better than yesterday so I'll take it.
Squats are feeling very heavy. Actually got closer than I thought to completing 3x5; just one rep short.
I haven't benched for a few weeks and seem to have lost some ground there as I last did 2x5x210. Next time I bench I'll attempt 3x5x205 again.
I started a new job last week which is crimping my gym schedule. My gym time will unfortunately be sporadic for a few weeks as I settle into a routine. I'll probably need to find a new gym to lift at since I can't make open gym hours at my crossfit gym anymore.
Did my crossfit gym's WOD today. It was much crossfit, replete with toes to bar, double unders, thrusters, and kipping pullups.
I'm worse at toes to bar than I have any reason to be. I've been in the "don't need to hit abs cause I do compound lifts" camp but I should hit abs.
Still figuring out how new job and lifting are going to harmoniously coexist in my life. One interesting development is that my gym is starting a dedicated oly track next week -- 4x/week of oly, squats, and accessories. I've been enjoying the (fairly) linear progress in bench and deadlift and think I still have gas in the noob gains tank, but if the oly club fits my work schedule it might be a better solution than mixing/matching WODs and lifting as I'm able.
Here are some recent videos. Any feedback/criticism is much appreciated, both on the lifts themselves as well as the video angles, etc. I haven't done much of this before.
Bench Press 5x185 lb 11/11/2014.
Props to the guy in the background who was ready if the weight was about to kill you. I saw a guy get a rep once, know he didn't have another one in him, he went back down, of course couldn't get it up, his toothpick of a spotter couldn't get it up either, I ran over and racked it. And they both looked pissed at me. So now I'm fine just letting guys die. But that guy's heart was in the right spot.
Props to the guy in the background who was ready if the weight was about to kill you. I saw a guy get a rep once, know he didn't have another one in him, he went back down, of course couldn't get it up, his toothpick of a spotter couldn't get it up either, I ran over and racked it. And they both looked pissed at me. So now I'm fine just letting guys die. But that guy's heart was in the right spot.
Then a bunch of burpee box jumps, toes to bar, and 135 lb power clean + push jerk because crossfit.
Staying super light with oly. Form is very slowly improving I think.
Planning on trying a new crappy gym near my apartment tomorrow. I like my crossfit gym and recently renewed my membership for the year, but I need a cheap flexible option for fitting lifting in.
16 min metcon of box step ups w 53# kettlebell, kettlebell swings, pullups.
Saturday Jan 17 Workout
Light snatches and clean and jerks. Still trying to hammer technique.
My gym's weightlifting club starts Monday. Timing isn't ideal for me (goes until 10pm two nights a week which is when I typically try to go to bed) but I'm giving it a shot. We had an info session today to go over the programming and it looks good to me. Lots of oly, squatting, pressing, and bodybuilding accessories.
Monday Jan 19 workout
Day 1 of weightlifting club... everything still in lb
BTN Split Jerk
2x2x95
2x2x115
2x2x135
1x2x155
Power clean (pause at knee) + Front Squat
2x115
2x135
2x155
Back Squat
3x5x225
Wednesday Jan 21 workout
Hang snatch pull + power snatch from power + OHS
2x2x75
2x85
2x95
Pause snatch pull + snatch pull
3x75
3x85
3x95
Bulgarian split squats (unweighted)
3x10 each leg
Meh. In a bit of a catch 22 -- my oly lifts are so weak that 60-90 minutes of them don't constitute a workout for me, but they won't get better unless I do them. Even the back squatting felt very light (3x5x70% was programmed). Both days had accessory work (curls, pushups, situps) that we didn't have time to get to; presumably this will get better as we fall into a rhythm. Frustrated so far but will try to give it a fair chance.
Grabbed the low hanging fruit this workout by PR'ing the jelliest dick of my lifts, the snatch. Weird to miss two 175# c&j (one on clean, one on jerk) -- can generally hit that consistently. My first 325 hbbs attempt was biggest gride of my life -- felt like I was gonna black out so dumped it.
Hang Clean
2x105
2x125
3x2x135
2x2x145
165 x 1,f,f
HBBS
5x165
5x205
5x235
5x255
Frustrating to miss cleans again that I should never miss. I think the biggest factor is that I'm tweaking technique and overthinking everything. Only solution is to keep plugging away I think (and making time to keep up my strength through other work -- also a problem since my lifting time is limited these days).
Hit the gym with a buddy. Haven't benched for a few weeks as I've been olytarding. He had 225lb on the bar so I tried it for a single since I've never really attempted a heavy BP single and wanted to breach the 2 plate barrier. Easy enough; I would guess my true 1RM is around 240 right now.