Not a bad idea. I'll give DLs a shot for the next 2-3 workouts and see how it goes, then backoff maybe to every other time.

Well.....there are no kettleballs to be had at my gym. There are medicine balls with handles but they are like ~15lbs at the highest?

Unless I go to your place, KBs aren't an option afaik. As for pull-throughs I can for sure do those at my gym, I just need to review form and weight programming. I even tried 'em at a light weight last visit (just a few reps) to see if I remembered how to do them...I mean, I was doing some sort of pull-through but a real video might help. I'll go look at T-Nation I guess altho I'm not super familiar with searching there yet.

Good pull through vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgXkHRVaoUc

Use a dumbell for the swings. That is a fine substitute and one that Mike R told me was just as good as using KBs.

Its not ridiculous, it's MANLY and VIKINGESQUE!

...and easily obtainable with a hudge protein shake (70-80g worth), if you don't want to go all out on the dead animals.


ETA: imo it's time to stop DLing every workout once you start failing sets.

Meh. I'm sure other things you're doing in your life are much more manly and vikingesque than just eating a bunch of protein :P. I doubt Vikings were able to scrounge up 200g+ protein per day, that's a helluvalot of pillaged cattle or w/e, .

Yeah, this is the way I'm likely going to up my protein. I should find a good, cheap powder source, a good recipe for mixing, and then just down a couple each day. I used to have 3 protein shakes a day. They were just EAS vanilla protein powder from costco + milk + frozen blueberries/strawberries. So I know how simple this can be.

Yeah, I'm going to go to every other sesh and get some hot swings & pullthrough action going on. I'm also not going to go up in weight when I fail sets (which my lurker friend was sure to point out on my last log, lol).

Pillage(d) is my fav word.

Do you shop at Costco? They have the cheapest protein I've been able to find. 6lb bag for $36 (it was 28.99 6 months ago, fkn oil prices).

Carl,

Yup, there's a Costco ~5 mins away from my house. This one features Muscle Milk protein powder in Chocolate and Vanilla I think: http://www.amazon.com/CytoSport-Musc.../dp/B003U0E044.

I remember thinking the macronutrients were okay but calories from fat > 10% total calories which imo/ime is unnecessary for taste and ideally would be lower in a protein supplement.

They also have muscle milk shakes I think but I didn't check what was actually in those, I'd imagine they're @#$% compared to just mixing milk or water + powder but I dno.

Right now the only supplement I take are gummy vitamins. Which will switch back to a pill multivitamin when I'm out as their micronutritional content is a bit meh (but they are gummy!!!! lol).

I may want to start taking fish oil again. But I found it not making a very big difference for me once I changed my diet a couple years ago (previously I'd get way less sore from working out).

Speaking of food. It's snack time! Gonna go pillage some Greek yogurt+mixed nuts. Also, having gone to Greece a year ago, I now find anything marketed in any way "healthy" by it being "Greek" completely hilarious. That country has to be fatter than the US imo. Just ridiculous over there, .

I like Optimum Extreme Milk Chocolate the best. I get usually get 5 lbs from Bodybuilding.com for ~$45.

I like putting frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries & pineapple imo), protein powder, creatine, glutamine and pasturized egg whites in a blender. You can substitute milk or water for the egg whites if you want. Add more protein powder if you use water imo.

5/13 log - session 11

Warmup routine for ~35 mins.

Squats:
45x5x2
55x5x1
85x3x1
115x2x1
145x5x3

The outside of my shoulders/arms were really sore on this one from pulling my elbows back and up. I may be "pushing" or something too much with my arms rather than just resting the bar on my back and keeping my shoulder blades tight. Hmmmm. I could also go with a high-bar squat but I'm thinking I just need to get used to letting the weight sit there, rather than trying to "keep" it there with my arms.

Bench
45x5x2
65x5x1
90x3x1
115x2x1
130x5x3

Not super easy but not super hard, felt I had at least 1 more in the tank. I had some trouble with my left hand doing this lift but not with the squats so that's nice, it seems to not be getting worse at least.

Pull-throughs
25x7x1
35x6x1
45x6x1
55x5x5
60x5x1
55x3x5

I'm not positive these helped my glutes all that much, my butt didn't end up sore the next day or anything. But if I went up any more weight I had a hard time pulling the rope thing forward through my legs at all, and there was a lot of pressure against my hands holding it. Maybe I just need to concentrate even more on the thrust part with my butt and hold it there or something.

Any more tips on these or programming for them?

Swings
I couldn't really figure out how to do these with dumbells so I basically didn't. The videos I looked at before going had people doing them several different ways. It seems to me the most logical way is to hold a dumbell with both hands and then swing it just like a kettleball through the legs. But I tried that and my shorts got in the way and it didn't feel like I was thrusting it up correctly. My mom was in town so I just quit to spend more time hanging out with her.

Any tips on doing these?

5/14 log

Did a long warmup with plenty of foam rolling and then did shooting for ~45minutes or so. I felt really smooth shooting and also threw down a bunch of weak dunks on what I can only assume was a 9' hoop. Since I can't touch the rim I doubt it was 9.5'.

I shot free throws and while I kept missing my first 2 every set of 10 I did, I hit 70%+ so I really think that game a couple weeks ago where I sent 0/6 was some weird blip.

I've eaten a ton of food this weekend and am going to do some good warmups in a bit before my game at 8pm tonight. My mom will be watching so I may get crazy and jack up some 17' open-look shots, lol.

I'll show you how to use a DB for swings next time you're here.

We'll work on pull throughs too. Until then, next time you do them, do 10+ reps per set imo.

Definitely dont try to go all out on the bench with no spotter, unless you find a rack and set the pins just right. Always leave one in the tank.

IN! will be keeping an eye on your progress.

5/15 log

My mom was in town and attended our game so she got some good pictures of our team. Which is great b/c we won and we're 5-1 on the season. Should be a good playoffs but I'm not sure we can beat the team that pummeled us last week even if we play well vs. them.

The team we played tonight was quite good with a lot of back cutters who were very athletic. One guy on their team was tall and very springy and surprisingly strong. Twice He got the ball on the other side of the hoop, came over to my side for a reverse layin and there was nothing I could do as he was so quick and strong. Several times we gave him "and 1s" so in the 2nd half I just cut off all the passing lanes to him when he was on my side of the hoop (we play a 2-3 zone and I played back wing today exclusively).

Anyway, I had a few nice assists imo considering my usage rate was probably like 10% as usual, lol. I didn't attempt a shot in the 2nd consecutive game. My stat line was likely something like: 0shots, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 0 turnovers, 1 PF.

But I disrupted a lot of offensive rebounds and our bigger guys got a bunch of them. I also got a foul called on the other team by weakly but annoyingly trying to take the ball after he rebounded it and making sure I went down when he whipped an elbow at me. Which helped as they got into foul trouble quickly and so it turned into an extra trip to the line at some point.

We played a good game and our 2nd half D adjustments just killed. Next game will be the playoffs and I feel really good about my mid-range shot, so if I ever get a play called, I'm ready, .

Awesome! It will be hard for me to go too wrong when I can workout with Cha every couple weeks, .

5/16 log - sesh 12

Warmups for ~30-40 mins. The thoracic rolling at the beginning is super easy for me now and nothing every seems sore when I do it and I can bend as far as possible. Foam rolling 4tw!

Squats
45x5x2
60x5x1
90x3x1
120x2x1
150x5x3

Not sure my form is that perfect but I feel if anything I'm getting a bit better at these. I've switched to gripping the bar with my thumb *around* the bar rather than up against it (as I read in SS) as it seems easier on my left hand thumb.

Press
45x5x3
55x3x1
70x2x1
85x5x1
85x3x1
85x4x1

Ugh. Just ugh. I feel like I'm not gripping the bar well enough, my elbows aren't out enough, I'm not moving my head back enough. I'm not setting everything tight enough before each rep. I'm going to stick with 85 for next time and just really study up, watch videos, and get after it imo.

DL
135x5x1
135x4x1
150x3x1
210x2x1
250x5x1

Brought chalk for the first time (accidentally spilled some on the floor ofc, lol @ me, but made sure to clean up well as I think chalk isn't allowed in my gym). And I went with underhand grip for my left hand on the heavy lift (and overhand with my right hand underhand for the 2 lighter lifts before that).

And I pulled the 5 reps more or less "easily" but I"m pretty sure my form isn't great. My lower back is feeling a lot of the work so I gotta make sure to keep it straight and tight.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to pulling 260 next time and keep it going up!

Also, I always have like 5 new bruises forming on Monday, lol. Apparently we have 2 more playoff games and then there isn't another season for the rest of the summer so I guess it'll be nice not worrying about having minor nicky nacky injuries all the time.

Something I consciously did last time I pressed, and I think it helped, is I squeezed the bar as tight as I could. That seems to get more muscles involved. I usually try to do that when I bench too. If you weren't already doing that, give it a shot.

I can't really squeeze as tight as I'd like with my left hand, as I can't really do that without squeezing my thumb tight, and that doesn't really seem necessarily good for it (some squeezing yes, but not as hard as I can squeezing).

But I will try keeping this in mind on bench and press next week as I think a lot of it is mental and not using an efficient technique.

yeah thats right, I forgot about your hand. Dont mess your hand up more just for the sake of pressing a little more. Let it heal first.