I have ditched Mer-Man and the rest of the crew (aka CrossFit) that were holding me back and am now on a proper strength training schedule (see
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...t-long-819666/ for background/plan) . It shouldn’t be long until I can take you down for good.
Today was my first day back after a 2 week no workout break. I had vacation and then an outbreak of poison ivy. Figured I would wait for the steroids to get rid of the poison ivy so I wouldn’t be that guy-with-a-rash-in-the-gym last week. The only thing I did on vacation was water skiing and tubing. Don’t think they count as workouts. I did notice an increase in strength on getting up skiing (single ski). I hadn’t skied in a while and the extra strength allowed me to pull myself out of a few screw ups getting up. It made me happy that I could save myself from those miscues.
Vacation was in Maine with the family (wife, kids, and extended family up there). They noticed that I was working out more in my body appearance. I figured that was just family being nice. Until my wife and I went out to dinner this past Saturday and the waitress (slightly older lady) started hitting on me right in front of my wife. Pissed my wife off quite a bit.
Weight as of today: 220 lb, on the nose. Thought I was going to weigh more.
Today’s workout:
Squat: 3x5 255lb
Bench: 3x5 155lb
DL: 1x5 295lb
Weights felt pretty good, glad I dropped that much to make sure I get back into the groove. This was the first time I did a bench press correctly, ever. CrossFit didn’t teach bench since they don’t use them in their workouts. I just went into the gym and did what came naturally, which wasn’t right. Spent the weekend checking out how Rip teaches the bench (videos online at CrossFit, etc.). I never arched correctly nor did I keep my shoulders pinched back. Felt a little awkward positioning wise, but the weight wasn’t bad. Glad I am getting that corrected before the weights get higher.
I don’t get much in the way of gym observations since
a. I work out early and the only people usually there are on cardio machines
b. Gym is small and not a lot of people actually use it.
Today I did see a dude do a full DB circuit in his flip-flops. That has been the most out of the ordinary thing I have seen since I have used this gym.
I did find that Kittie’s remake of Pink Floyd’s Run Like Hell is a good song to lift to. I changed up my playlist when I came back from vacation and added this song to the rotation. It came up just as I was putting my work set weights on the bar for my dead lifts. It carried me through that work set nicely.