I think this is my third attempt at a weight loss thread. Seems like I have a bad case of the yoyo. The last time I logged two years ago, I lost from 114kg to below 90kg during my paternity leave. That lasted for half a year after starting to work I lost lost the food and exercise habits I had established and ballooned back to a little above my old weight.
As I turn fourty in May, I want to get back into exercise and weightloss, and as there is no major change for my life on the horizon, I want to keep it of this time.
I started this journey four weeks ago, but only wanted to start logging, after showing some results. Two weeks ago I also started doing SS again.
I mostly do daily weigh ins, but keep a spreadsheet for the Sunday weigh-ins only. So that is what I am going to log. I will also log my SS workouts. I don't count calories, but that might change if I stall.
Oh, and I am 1,80m (5'11")
So here are the results so far:
Jan 15th 117.2kg (258.4lbs)
Jan 22nd 114.5kg
Jan 29th 113.9kg
Feb 5th 112.4kg
Feb 12th 111.1kg
Goals:
- Get below 100kg / If possible before my 40th birthday on May 8th or for my cousins wedding three weeks later.
- Get below 90kg by the end of the year.
- keep my weight below that
- do an SS like program and some walking/ swimming until I am in the double digits
- set new exercise goals then.
- not have to start fourth weightloss thread in the future
As I said, I am doing SS, but from previous attempts I noticed that I liked the AMRAP thing from GSLP, so I am doing SS with AMRAP on the last set. So this was today: Squat 85kgx5,5,7
This was my last 5kg jump. Going for 2,5 next time.
My basement is too small for me to OHP in, so I have to take the time to rearrange the room next to my garage before I can do this. I am doing them seated instead. I believe this would be called Military Press? Military Press 30kgx5,5,9
I've never done the power clean, but I decided I would give it a try until my bodyweight is <100kg. Since I started this workout rather late, I just fooled around and did 6 or seven hang cleans with 30kg. Made a video, but the angle was too low, so you can't see me catching the bar. I will do this again on Friday with better video.
Squat 87,5kgx5,5,9
Third set:
The first two and the last one seem a little wobbly. The rest look better to me. Any thoughts?
Bench: 50kgx5,5,10
Will keep this at 5kg jumps.
Deadlift: 85kgx7
I think I had one or two more in the tank, but my shoulders felt weak, so I thought my upper back was rounding quite a bit. Based on the video, it doesn't look like it that much.
Your deadlift appears to exhibit a more severe form of my problem. I'd suggest looking at the back and forth that I've been having with ActionJeff in the form check thread and following the advice he gave me.
Hmm, ActionJeff talks about a lot of things in your deadlift, some of which I can see in my videos too, some of which I don't see. So I am not totally sure, what you are talking about.
As nuclear500 commented on me not breaking at the hips, I watched the RomanianDeadlift video someone posted in the form check thread recently and I will do some light RDLs after my workout tomorrow and see whether I can improve things.
You can clearly see your back go into flexion (and not re-emerge from flexion thereafter) when you go down to grasp the bar, and whenever put the bar on the floor. You also appear to need to move the bar out around your knees to put it down, which is a whole other problem. You can see that my issue is similar, in that I simply cannot reach the bar without rounding my back. Pulling from blocks appears to fix this for me, and I expect my flexibility will come around, in time.
Well I really don't see much rounding while the bar is going up, but I agree, that I haven't paid attention to the descent at all. Just wanted to get it back down.
I try to set the bar the way Rippetoe teaches it: step under the bar, so that it is mid-foot, lower my hands to the bar and so on. Of course the back will be rounded at this point and I really don't see why it should be a problem, as long as there is no load on my back.
But I guess focussing on my hips on the descent should also be good for engaging the hamstrings and improving my starting position.
During the concentric, you're apparently having to extend your back to get upright at the top. In other words, you don't appear to be in full extension until lockout. I'm aware the rippetoe setup advocates rounding to grasp the bar and then squeezing the chest to get the back extended before pulling. You might try keeping your hamstrings loaded and lower back extended while you grasp the bar and see if that works better.
IMO, prove me wrong by seeing if you can lower the bar to the floor under control without rounding your lower back. It might help you cue extension anyway.
Had to lift before lunch and only had two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast, so I learned that lifting on an empty stomach isn't that much fun. Squat 90kgx5,5,7
Military Press 32,5kgx5,5,6
I guess 1kg jums would be better here. I hope I will be able to make enough room to do OHPs soon.
Tried some hang cleans and then some power cleans with 30kg and then some RDL with the same weight to focus on breaking at the hips on the descent. I didn't have much time, but next time I am not deadlifting I want to try power cleans properly.
As I will be gone Mo-Fr next week for a school exchange program and staying at a colleagues house, I won't be able to lift. I will do a workout on Sunday evening and then hopefully on Friday after I get back. Will deadlift for both of those.
Maybe I'll try starting the burpee "villain challenge" from the GSLP-guy. Will see whether there is enough room in my colleagues guest room.
As I will leave tomorrow in the morning, I did the Monday workout on Sunday afternoon. Squat: 92,5kgx5,5,8
Bench: 55kgx5x5x7
guess I will switch to 2.5kg increases here.
Deadlift: 90kgx6
Breaking at the hips seems to have worked, although the first rep was a little unstable. My back goes into flexion the last few inches of the way down, which is basically me dropping the bar. Looks like an improvement to me. I will switch to 2.5kg jumps here as well.
You can see your spine extend at each rep's lockout. It should be extended from the beginning. A properly performed deadlift trains hip extension non-isometrically and spinal extension isometrically. Take some weight off the bar and see if you can lower the weight to the floor without flexing your spine.
I wasn't at home for the weekend, so I couldn't check my weight on Sunday. I'll take Monday's weight for this week.
February 20th: 110,4kg (-0,7kg)
Spent the whole weekend away and had a three beers, two whiskys and some snacks. Wasn't happy about the snacks, but I will count them as my only cheat meal in two weeks. At least I kept the trend positive (or negative, actually)
This week I will be away for a class trip and staying at a colleague's place. My only goal is to lose weight this week and I won't set a number.
I noticed that I keep my head very high,which looks unnatural. That may be a result of lifting so close to the wall. I will try to deadlift facing the other direction next time.
Feels like I controlled the descent better this time. There seems to be some slight back rounding.
Gets me to an overall loss of 8.0kg in 6 weeks, although this week is a slight cheat, as I had a bad headache yesterday afternoon and went to bed without any dinner.
While I was on my trip last week and tried burpees and push-ups. Couldn't even do three sets of eight push-ups. My arms are fine, but I don't have enough core strenght to keep my body flat. I will keep doing three sets of push-ups to failure in the morning and try to do some planks throughout the day.
Wednesday workout:
Squat: 100kgx5,5,6
Military Press: 35kgx5,5,8
Deadlift: 95kgx6
I have left for a class trip again and will be gone until Monday. Hopefully there will be enough time left to restart a regular workout schedule in the evening.
Goals for March:
bodyweight for squat and deadtlift, 70kg for bench, 40kg for military press.
Bodyweight below 105kg.
So I habe been back from my trip since Tuesday, but I've caught a cold, so I skipped lifting and hope to be back at it by the weekend.
I thought about my workout a little while I was gone and I think I don't want to do power cleans after all, as the few times I tried I didn't really feel comfortable. Googling for an alternative led me to Pendlay rows. The 5kg bumper plates I bought for PCs should be good for Pendlay rows too.
I am still thinking about the number of reps. Most programs I found seem to be suggesting standard SS 3x5 sets. However most assistance work is done at sets of 8-10. I think I will just start with 3 sets of 8 at 30kg and see where I go from there.
Oh and I did my weigh-in on Tuesday morning:
March 7th: 108,6kg (-0,6kg / -8,6kg)
Slowing down a little, but still progressing in the right direction.
Yesterday was the first day I felt close to normal, so today I started lifting again. Deloaded all lifts, because I still didn't feel completely recovered from my cold and my shoulder hurt a little earlier today.
squat: 80kgx5,5,11 bench: 50kgx5,5,13 deadlift: 80kgx8
Squat and bench felt great, deadlift was a little more difficult, but I guess I could have reached one more rep by hook-gripping, but I only thought of that after taking the plates off the bar.
All of those are more reps on the AMRAP set than when I passed that weight 2-3 weeks ago, so I guess I will do 5kg jumps each and restart the military press where I left off.
squat: 85kgx5,5,10 military press: 35kgx5,5,7 pendlay rows: 30kgx8,8,8
Militar Press was a little weaker than when I last did it two weeks ago, but still enough to go with the regular progress.
I really liked the pendlay rows as they make me focus on "loading" my hamstrings, which should be very good for the deadlift and I also noticed that there is a slight arc of my back right at the top. I am not sure whether that is because I don't hold my head straight or whether something is wrong with my shoulders.
I am going to add 5kg to the rows and get 10kg bumper plates soon as rows seem to be fun.
Friday workout: squat: 95kgx5,5,7 time for 2.5kg jumps, i guess MP: 36kgx5,5,6 pendlay rows: 35kgx8, 40kgx8, 45kgx10
Tried to find a weight where the rows seem tough, yet I still feel comfortable enough with my form.
I think I will do 8,8,AMRAP at 45kg next time and see where things take me.
