Saturday 7/18
Pull-ups
3
3
3
3
3
3
10
Sunday 7/19
Kettlebell Press
20 x 1 x 70
All of the presses were easy. I’m still nervy about my back, though. Just a little wonky-feeling. So I’ll stick on the 70 pound bell for awhile before moving to the 88.
2 Likes
Monday 7/20
Pull-ups
3
3
3
3
3
3
10
Tuesday 7/21
Kettlebell Press
30 x 1 x 70
1 rep every 30 seconds for 15 minutes. This went really well. The 70 is a nice weight that is just heavy enough to work but not so heavy that I can’t handle without much of a warmup. I’ll stick with this for a few weeks, then might start adding in a few loose-end singles with the 88 after the timed portion of the workout in preparation for doing the entire workout with the 88.
2 Likes
Wednesday 7/22
Pull-ups
3
3
3
3
3
10
Thursday 7/23
Kettlebell Press
30 x 1 x 70
1 rep every 30 seconds for 15 minutes.
Friday 7/24
Pull-ups
3
3
3
3
3
10
Saturday 7/25
Kettlebell Press
30 x 1 x 70
1 Like
Sunday 7/26
Kettlebell Press
30 x 1 x 70
1 Like
Starting today, here’s my plan for July and August in the “keep it simple and easy while I’ve got a newborn & have limited recovery capacity”
M-W-F: Kettlebell Press 30x1x70
T-Th-S: Pull-ups 6x3 + 1 Max Set
Sunday: Wild Card or Rest Day
This will build some work capacity and prep me for a long term idea I have to work on pressing the Beast (48kg / 106-pound) kettlebell - eventually having a light, medium, and heavy press day. I haven’t purchased a Beast yet - that will be a Christmas present to myself if I’m faithful to my program / goals & diligent about getting my weight down to target. I’ve been stuck on 220 flat morning weight for a few days but no floating back upwards, so it’s only a matter of time before I crack the two-teens and keep on rolling. 210, here I come…
5 Likes
Monday 7/27
Kettlebell Press
30 x 1 x 70
You should throw a link to your log at the point you started losing weight to people who come in here on severe caloric restrictions or doing other dumb stuff - slow and steady weight loss is the best and most sustainable kind of weight loss. You’ve got about as methodical of an approach to things as anybody I’ve seen, so I’m not surprised. Good job.
1 Like
Thanks, much appreciated. I’ll write a bit here as a summary, and then at the top put a link to this post maybe.
For those of you just joining us, in February of this year I decided that it was time to drop some pounds after knowing-but-kind-of-denying that my clothes were getting tighter and that even my big deadlift didn’t really justify the kind of mass I was lugging around. I stepped on the scale at 258.6 pounds on February 4 of this year. Almost six months later, I’m 220-flat and still dropping slowly, hoping to flatten out between 200-210 pounds by the end of this year. Once I dip under 210 pounds, I’ll keep myself honest by only allowing myself to attempt new lifting PR’s on days where my bodyweight is 210 pounds or less. That will be my “weight class” for daily life, if you will.
I’m certainly not any kind of professional in this area nor a guru for getting people into contest shape, but certainly think the following basic steps can work for almost anyone trying to shed a few pounds:
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Move a little more outside your workouts. I’ve lifted consistently every day for years, but still had let the weight creep on over time because once I moved to the burbs and had to start driving to work, I lost a lot of ambient movement during my day. Before the pandemic, I had started parking half a mile away from the office instead of in the garage next door, which built in a 10 minute walk on each end of the workday (NEPA - not really a workout, just a little bonus movement). It sounded silly, but a mile a day turns into five miles a week turns into 250 miles a year…it does add up when you’re basically not moving at all except during your workouts. Now that I’m working from home (thanks pandemic!) my wife and I take our kids out for a pretty long walk every morning.
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Find the single silliest snack that you tend to eat during the week and just stop eating it. For me, on the drive home from work sometimes I’d stop at a gas station and buy, like, Pop Tarts under the “I’m going to work out when I get home so I need a snack.” Nothing against folks that can fit Pop Tarts into their healthy balanced diet, lol, but that was really absurd on my part. I’m not putting in 90 minute marathon sessions in the gym. My workouts are short. No need to “fuel up” unless you’re really killing it IMO.
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If you like booze a little but not a lot (e.g. a “taster” or “social drinker”) just drink a bit less. Currently drink a beer every day? Either switch to just weekends, or my current gambit now that my wife is no longer pregnant - we split a beer with dinner most days (whereas I used to drink one myself every day). It’s just enough that we both enjoy the ritual and the taste, but 6-8 ounces rather than 12-16 ounces of beer a day adds up over the course of a week.
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Finally, everyone’s personality is different when it comes to this, but simply tracking stuff makes me stay honest. Daily morning weigh-in and logging food with My Fitness Pal. I don’t obsessively weigh-and-measure, usually an eyeball guess is good enough for me, but just putting in the stuff that I eat naturally keeps me honest. I’ve been pretty steady at 2400 calories with roughly 25% protein, 50% fat, 25% carbs (not that those are real magic numbers, just about where I tend to land). I do try to eat low-ish carb but not super hardcore low carb. In the last few weeks, a typical day - I have two eggs and an ounce of smoked salmon for breakfast; a big smoothie with whole-milk kefir, berries, and spinach for lunch; and some sort of protein-and-vegetable dinner. Usually squeeze in my 15-minute-daily-workout either in mid-morning or early-afternoon during one of our kids’ naps (again, thanks pandemic! There are upsides to remote work…)
For high-level athletes, things get more complicated, but for “regular guy that wants to be in decent shape” the above probably will get most people most of the way there.
9 Likes
Tuesday 7/28
Pull-ups
3
3
3
3
3
3
10
Wednesday 7/29
Kettlebell Press
30 x 1 x 70
Seems so weird to come in here and not see a 500lb axle deadlift. Hows the body? Are you missing the squats and deads ?
1 Like
I miss them like crazy, but I also know that over the years my habit of ‘deadlift if I want to no matter how bad my back is feeling’ on a given day probably wasn’t the best thing for lifting longevity, so I’m trying to be disciplined enough to earn back the right to deadlift by purposely-not-deadlifting for a few months to make sure I’m actually healed enough to resume doing so. I’ve learned that there’s a difference between soft tissue injuries that can be battled through vs. structural issues that really have to be worked-around because they just don’t heal without some time.
For August, I’m gonna go with alternate-days of my kettlebell press workout (sticking with the 70 for now) and my pull-up workout. In September and October, I’ll have two “light” press days with the 70 and one “heavy” press day with the 88. As a Christmas present for myself, if I’ve been a good boy, I’ll buy a 106-pound kettlebell and have a light (70), medium (88), and heavy (106) press day on Monday-Wednesday-Friday, broken up with pull-up days in between (Tuesday-Thursday) and a heavy barbell workout or two on the weekends. That’s the current vision anyway, always subject to change.
Bodyweight has been stuck on 220-221 for about a week now. That’s okay, it’s on track overall, but I was really hoping to crack into the “219.X” for a morning weight by August 1. Oh well, I’ve got two more days…
2 Likes
Thursday 7/30
Pull-ups
3
3
3
3
3
3
10
Friday 7/31
Kettlebell Press
32 x 1 x 70
Extended my workout by a minute from 15 minutes to 16 minutes because I have the eventual vision of my light / medium / heavy press days being 32 reps / 24 reps / 16 reps with 70 / 88 / 106 pound 'bells, respectively and things divide nicely into even-spaced time intervals that way.
Also, joy, I weighed in at 219.2 this morning, my first logged morning weight under 220 since my weight-control journey began.
4 Likes
Saturday 8/1
Pull-ups
15 x 3 (EMOM)
Kettlebell Press
6 x 1 x 88
1 Like