9/21/16

Weight: 208

First day of new program yesterday and it was tough. I'll definitely be improving my general physical preparedness with this workout. The reps were relatively low, but the sets were high and it definitely made a difference. My philosophy is: Build strength, don't test it. You can do too many reps, but not too many sets.

Bench: @65% 8×4
Deadlift: @65% 8×4
Squat: @65% 8×4
Pull-ups: 5×5

Will implement a second day of the above, but substituting pull-ups with OHP, or maybe in addition. Rest of week looks like:

Thurs: conditioning brick
Fri: long cycle(24 miles)
Sat: day 2 of weights
Sun: long run(6.2+ miles)

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Starting weight: 184.5
Target : 175 0 by surgery date Aug 17

July 10 184.5
July 12 182.5
July 17 178.2
July 25 176.6 - well that's the easy part over with. Still it's nice how it already feels better (and pants are just a little bit looser).

Update... went into surgery (quad bypass) at a little under 175 on Aug 30th. Gained a bit in hospital (fluid retention)... but at home now and nicely recovering at 170.0. Obv losing muscle mass (only allowed exercise is walking) - but will build up again after sternum heals.

Best of luck on recovery Jake.

sent from my <insert clever thing here>

Any thought on strictly body resistance workout?

I want something that I can maintain without relying on gym membership.

Calisthenics can be a great workout when performed vigorously and with variation.

Why not start with the basics: push-ups, planks, body squats, pull ups, wall sits.

These can then be advanced: handstand pushups, pull-up varieties, plank variations.

I'm no expert and the above is off the top of my head.

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I have actually been doing it for little over a month now, just curious if anyone out there has some positive or negative reference to such workout.

If you are self-motivated then there is no reason why running, pushups, and pullups won't get you in great shape. That's basically all soldiers had for centuries. It will get repetitious though. So if bored, jazzercise.

All right. I'm at an alltime high in weight. I'm tired of being out of shape. It is time. So, today is what, last day of summer? Lets do a three month goal, for first day of winter: Down by 25 pounds. Acceptable is 20. Yes, Sol, I know measuring healthiness is not by weight. But being obese is unhealthy, so I'll be measuring not-unhealthiness by weight. Go me.

Just gets boring

Crossfit have a load of good bodyweight only workouts and I constructed a bodyweight only plan for pokero a few months back that I can try to dig out if you're interested

Sure, please do.

I'll be on the weight loss train again next week, after I get back from my holiday.

Also have a poker friend who has access to decent hgh and am thinking about doing a 12 week cycle once I've dropped the 12lbs I'll need to lose

Gotta confuse the body, amirite babe?

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LOL, wife told me that I lost too much weight and she doesn't like it.

My pants all sag and I lost like 20 lbs on the bench. can't moderate myself on a diet

I struggled with the declining bench as well. Increasing volume and slowing my loss a bit helped.

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Now that I'm done chopping down trees and removing tree stumps my physical activity has gone way down and I expect that to show in the amount of weight I lose each week. I definitely need to increase my physical activity but I'm lazy.

6/16/2016: 189.5lbs
6/22/2016: 181.5lbs
6/27/2016: 178.5lbs
7/3/2016: 174.5lbs
7/11/2016: 174.5lbs
7/22/2016: 168.5lbs
7/29/2016: 165lbs
8/5/2016: 162lbs
8/12/2016: 159.5lbs
8/19/2016: 157.5lbs
8/26/2016: 156lbs
9/2/2016: 153lbs
9/9/2016: 150lbs
9/16/2016: 148lbs
9/23/2016: 146.5lbs

Finished last week strong with a second day of the same workout, did a 30km cycle and 10km run over the weekend. Felt good.

I've created my first program, which is below. I don't have a ton of time to devote to the gym, so I need to balance triathlon training with my weight training. Therefore I don't have much accessory work for my compound movements, I just have a lot of volume on the basics at relatively heavy weight, but definitely a submaximal approach.

Week 1: 65% - 70% 7×4
Week 2: 75% - 80% 7×4
Week 3: 85% - 87% 7×3
Week 4: Deload if necessary - 40% - 60%. No deload - repeat week 3.

New cycle: 75% of last cycle is 65% of new cycle...rinse and repeat.

Day 1:
Bench
Row: 2km
Run: 5-10km

Day 2:
Deadlift
Squat
OHP
Pull-ups: 5×5

Day 3:
Rest

Day 4:
Bench
Pull-ups: 5×5
Cycle: 40km

Day 5:
Deadlift
Squat
OHP
Pull-ups: 5×5

Day 6:
Rest

Day 7:
Pull-ups: 5×5
Long run (10+km)
or
Long swim (2km)
Run: 5-10km


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7x4? sounds kinda like a body builder.

7 sets of 4 reps sounds like body building to you? Generally hypertrophy has more reps per set than that, but yeah for powerlifting it's more volume than you'd expect.

The goal(as I understand it) with sub-maximal training is to get in volume between 24 - 36 reps per lift, per workout, about 2x's a week. Staying in the 65% - 87% range, with the idea that 90% or more can be very taxing on the body and delay recovery. So put in the volume, keep the rep range low so you can keep your form on point, work your way up the %age's each week and increase at the end of the cycle.

Previously I was at or above 90% 2x's a month, and at or above 85% 3 weeks out of the month. Which I think can be rough on recovery.

We'll see how it goes.

This week I really slacked on exercise. Didn't get much at all. I knew I didn't put any weight on this week but wouldn't have been shocked if I had weighed higher than last time simply because of variance.

I did just create a new rule that I have to do 5 pushups anytime I enter my bedroom. Turns out I enter my bedroom a hell of a lot more than I realized. My chest hurts and my sides hurt so I had to amend the rule such that I have to do either 5 pushups or 5 crunches for each time I enter my room. I do need to start doing some cardio though.

My diet this week has consisted of 3 tacos around lunch time, a bag of vegetables for dinner, and then a late night bowl of cereal (fiber one with soy milk).

6/16/2016: 189.5lbs
6/22/2016: 181.5lbs
6/27/2016: 178.5lbs
7/3/2016: 174.5lbs
7/11/2016: 174.5lbs
7/22/2016: 168.5lbs
7/29/2016: 165lbs
8/5/2016: 162lbs
8/12/2016: 159.5lbs
8/19/2016: 157.5lbs
8/26/2016: 156lbs
9/2/2016: 153lbs
9/9/2016: 150lbs
9/16/2016: 148lbs
9/23/2016: 146.5lbs
9/30/2016: 146lbs

I've altered my exercise routine to be any combination of 200 pushups and crunches a day. Yesterday I only did 50, so today I did 350 to catch up. I've been doing more crunches than pushups but I did a fair amount of pushups today. My goal is to get to where I can do 50 perfect form pushups in a row without a real sweat. That's going to take me a very long time. My form is total crap. I can keep my back straight but getting all the way down and back up is a big issue. Baby steps.

BTW, I walk my biggest dog everyday when I get the mail and that's .6 miles. I need to start walking my other dogs as well but they are a lot more difficult to walk.

Also, I plan to quit my diet altogether in a week. I do have more weight to lose but it will be good to eat a variety of food. I'm not sure when I'll get back on a diet but I have a goal of doing 40 more yelp reviews by the end of the year and that will require me to go out to eat a lot these last 3 months.

Day 4 of my 30 day, 13lb weight loss plan

Keeping it really simple and can't get/buy into all these macro balanced diet plans

Am drinking no alcohol, only eating complex carbs after training, eating less food per meal and training 6 days per week

Think I should be fine with this, but will go harder if I get two weeks in and the progress isn't there

How about 5 crunches every time you enter the kitchen?

10/3/16

Weight: 206lbs
Lifts Total: 785lbs

Welp, missed the 10/1 weight goal of 185-190. I remember it being such a certainty in my head, but certainly didn't count on a calorie deficit impacting my lifts to bother me so much.

There is progress if you look at it from a %age of body weight being lifted. But in my head if my 1rm graph wasn't going up and to the right, it bothered me. So I slowed the rapid weight loss down. Still, the goal of a 1000lb total @185 rages on.

This past week was frustrating because i was having achilles/ankle pain and soreness. So I basically stopped all gym activity(got in 3 days before it hurt) and stretched the remainder of the days.

Feeling better today so I'm going to do some bench, pull ups, and some cycling tonight and go from there.

Good luck this week folks!

sent from my <insert clever thing here>

go easy on yourself Turtle, you've done an amazing job.

it really is hard to get much stronger when you're also trying to lose weight, given the importance of feeding the body's recovery and the juxtaposition of operating in a caloric deficiency to drop bodyweight

You're still most likely in the 'beginner' stage of lifting <18 months in, which is where all the biggest proportionate strengths gains will come (and easily), as your body/muscles adapt to taking on loads and you get better at the lifts and hence using your strength to more efficiently go through the movements. So to some degree, you've actually 'wasted' the best gain period of your lifting life from a pure strength perspective, by dieting and doing a load of cardio while you've been learning to lift. But given you weren't going to the Olympics anyway, the life and health benefits of losing 60 ish pounds and then losing another 15 or whatever the end goal is, plus getting a load stronger and fitter must surely outweigh the pain of a slight drop in strength or...heaven forbid a plateau, tenfold.

goals are important, but 1000 is just an arbitrary round number, in the same way as 10bb/h or a six figure income. You're winning the most important battle already, because you're eating, training and living right