Better Living Through Iron

Training Over 35 Lifter
61

[quote]mcl wrote:
I still hate Good Mornings.

Cycle 1, Week 3, Day 4.

Warmup: 3x3 ab-wheel rollouts
1x3@205 romanian deadlifts

Squat: 5@220, 3@250, 8@280 (= 355lb estimated 1RM, new PR )
Leg press 5x20@110
Leg curls 3x10@60
good mornings 5x10@135
rowing intervals: 7 (15/45)
30m elliptical (yeah, I pussied out on the cardio today)

total weight moved: 24,255 lbs.

Weight: 234.5
2,716 kcal
128.2g fat
155.3g carbs
247.2g protein

37%p/41%f/22%c

Too much fat, too little protein today. :confused:

[/quote]

Congrats on the PR! and rowing intervals plus 30 min on the elliptical looks like sufficient cardio to me…

62

[quote]soldog wrote:
mcl wrote:
I still hate Good Mornings.

Cycle 1, Week 3, Day 4.

Warmup: 3x3 ab-wheel rollouts
1x3@205 romanian deadlifts

Squat: 5@220, 3@250, 8@280 (= 355lb estimated 1RM, new PR )
Leg press 5x20@110
Leg curls 3x10@60
good mornings 5x10@135
rowing intervals: 7 (15/45)
30m elliptical (yeah, I pussied out on the cardio today)

total weight moved: 24,255 lbs.

Weight: 234.5
2,716 kcal
128.2g fat
155.3g carbs
247.2g protein

37%p/41%f/22%c

Too much fat, too little protein today. :confused:

Congrats on the PR! and rowing intervals plus 30 min on the elliptical looks like sufficient cardio to me…[/quote]

Thanks! You’d think it’d be enough, but I typically do 45m on the elliptical. My body’s being horribly resistant to losing the fat. I lost 1lb of fat in 3 months, and since I wasn’t willing to go to a cardio-style lifting workout, or decrease my kcals drastically, my only remaining option was increasing the cardio. I’ll know in a couple of months whether it worked, when the immersion-testing truck comes back to my office complex (I get immersion tested for body comp every 3 months).

63

I skipped Friday to get my days back in sync with the weekdays. That, plus I really think I need to lower the weight on the good mornings, since my hams still haven’t recovered from Thursday’s workout.

Cycle 1, Week 4, Day 1:
Warmups: 3x3 ab-wheel rollouts
Military Press: 5@45, 5@55, 30@65 (rep PR, but not an estimated weight PR: 130 lbs)
Dips: 5x10@BW
Rows: 3x12@135
Shrugs: 3x15@115
Elliptical Intervals: 7@15/30
40m Elliptical steady-state.

I finally ordered some lifting straps, and will probably buy some gloves too, as my girlfriend complains about my callouses.

I’ve got an appointment for the preliminary interview at the sleep study center on Thursday, which probably means I’ll have to do a sleep study sometime in August, and get fitted with something for apnea. Which may or may not help with my body composition and recovery.

Weight: 236
2,249 kcals
80.1g fat
167.3g carbs
231.6g protein

41%p/31%f/28%c

64

Cycle 1, Week 4, Day 2:

I’m really not feeling into it today. Just couldn’t get motivated. Maybe because I skipped my morning coffee. :slight_smile:

Warmups: 3x3 ab-wheel rollouts. I need to find an alternative core activation warmup, because my abs can’t take these 4x/week.

Sumo Deadlifts: 5@110, 5@135, 70@165 (yes, SEVENTY. I stopped because I a) ran out of gas, b) my callouses were killing me, and c) I was getting very bored! As far as my legs and back are concerned, I could have probably knocked out another 30. Rep PR, and estimated 1RM PR. Estimated 1RM=550lbs!. I sincerely doubt I could pull 550, and I think the estimated 1RMs with the deload weight isn’t accurate, since it’s more about endurance than strength.)

I’ve got some straps in the mail to me, and will be picking up gloves before my next set of pulling exercises.

Lunges: 3x6@10
hanging ab raises: 3x15@BW

Elliptical Intervals: 9@15/30
Steady-state elliptical: 10m

I pussied out on the cardio, as my heart just wasn’t in it today.

Weight: 235.5.

2,212 kcals
87.8g fat
113.4g carbs
244.3g protein

45%p/35%f/20%c

65

[quote]mcl wrote:
Cycle 1, Week 4, Day 2:

I’m really not feeling into it today. Just couldn’t get motivated. Maybe because I skipped my morning coffee. :slight_smile:

Warmups: 3x3 ab-wheel rollouts. I need to find an alternative core activation warmup, because my abs can’t take these 4x/week.

Sumo Deadlifts: 5@110, 5@135, 70@165 (yes, SEVENTY. I stopped because I a) ran out of gas, b) my callouses were killing me, and c) I was getting very bored! As far as my legs and back are concerned, I could have probably knocked out another 30. Rep PR, and estimated 1RM PR. Estimated 1RM=550lbs!. I sincerely doubt I could pull 550, and I think the estimated 1RMs with the deload weight isn’t accurate, since it’s more about endurance than strength.)

I’ve got some straps in the mail to me, and will be picking up gloves before my next set of pulling exercises.

Lunges: 3x6@10
hanging ab raises: 3x15@BW

Elliptical Intervals: 9@15/30
Steady-state elliptical: 10m

I pussied out on the cardio, as my heart just wasn’t in it today.

Also not tracking my food today. At least, I haven’t yet. I know everything I’ve eaten so far and will enter it into FitDay this evening and update this post with the nutritional info.

Weight: 235.5.[/quote]

planks & leg raises for the core

Not motivated? wth do you call 70 deadlifts? and after that who needs cardio

66

[quote]soldog wrote:

planks & leg raises for the core

Not motivated? wth do you call 70 deadlifts? and after that who needs cardio[/quote]

Planks would work.

I really didn’t need motivation for the DLs. The weight was so light, I just turned my mind off and counted each rep. It really was a case of getting bored with it. When I hit 70, I thought, “ok, that’s adequate.” I was definitely not psyched up to do the lifts. It was like I was lifting on autopilot.

There was a period of about 20-30 reps where I was forcing myself to really explode on the last half of each concentric motion (which, with light weights, isn’t easy!), and making damn sure I was pulling myself to the bar, and pulling the bar back. My toes were off the ground for almost all of the lifts.

Like I said, I think the deload reps are more about endurance than anything else. I really don’t believe I could pull even 500 once. MAYBE 365 once, or 400 on a really good day, if I was completely fresh and fully-recovered.

But, 400 was the goal I set for myself by the end of the year. If I go past it, I won’t complain. :slight_smile:

67

Really tired today, so I pussied out.

Cycle 1, Week 4, Day 3:

Warmup: 2 planks, 1:00 each.
Bench press: 5@75, 5@95, 40@115 (= 270lb estimated 1RM. new PR).
db bench: 5x15@40 (20 ea)
db row: 5x10@30
db tricep extensions: 3x15@10

No cardio at all.

Weight: 234.

No food logging today.

Had my preliminary appointment at the sleep doctor. She definitely suspects I have obstructive sleep apnea, and I’ll probably need a CPAP machine, or jaw surgery. I’m scheduled for an overnight sleep study at the beginning of August.

Oh, well. Hopefully insurance will cover it all, and it’ll help me get more and better sleep, which means better metabolic response to all the exercise and clean eating.

68

[quote]mcl wrote:
Really tired today, so I pussied out.

Cycle 1, Week 4, Day 3:

Warmup: 2 planks, 1:00 each.
Bench press: 5@75, 5@95, 40@115 (= 270lb estimated 1RM. new PR).
db bench: 5x15@40 (20 ea)
db row: 5x10@30
db tricep extensions: 3x15@10

No cardio at all.

Weight: 234.

No food logging today.

Had my preliminary appointment at the sleep doctor. She definitely suspects I have obstructive sleep apnea, and I’ll probably need a CPAP machine, or jaw surgery. I’m scheduled for an overnight sleep study at the beginning of August.

Oh, well. Hopefully insurance will cover it all, and it’ll help me get more and better sleep, which means better metabolic response to all the exercise and clean eating.[/quote]

aieee! jaw surgery? lets hope for a less intrusive solution…

BTW - deloads aren’t “pussing out”… and I think I’d go to sleep doing that many reps…

69

MCl rough news about the jaw and cpap…

still your training looks rugged,
if your shoulders are bothering you try the ytwl protocol
lots of old dooods swear by it.

we got a new sticky at the top of the forum ,
check in there for some good shoulder rehab links.

kmc

70

Thanks, KMC.

Cycle 1, Week 4, Day 4:

Warmup: 2 planks @1:10
Squat: 5@120, 5@140, 40@175 (= estimated 1RM 405lbs. New PR. I don’t know why I keep getting nice round numbers for these reps. It may be because I’m keeping count in my head, and when I get close to a round number, I push myself to make it, and then quit.)

Leg press: 5x20@60
Leg curls: 3x10@30
Good morning: 5x10@60

Intervals: 6@15/30 on the elliptical.

Weight: 233. Which of course I promptly hosed by having 3 donuts this morning when I got to the office. :confused:

71

[quote]mcl wrote:
Thanks, KMC.

Cycle 1, Week 4, Day 4:

Warmup: 2 planks @1:10
Squat: 5@120, 5@140, 40@175 (= estimated 1RM 405lbs. New PR. I don’t know why I keep getting nice round numbers for these reps. It may be because I’m keeping count in my head, and when I get close to a round number, I push myself to make it, and then quit.)

Leg press: 5x20@60
Leg curls: 3x10@30
Good morning: 5x10@60

Intervals: 6@15/30 on the elliptical.

Weight: 233. Which of course I promptly hosed by having 3 donuts this morning when I got to the office. :confused:

[/quote]

We are our own worst enemy when it comes to food. I’m sitting here drinking Coca-Cola and eating chips, it’s why I’m hanging around 200 lbs.

BTW - another nice “deload” day. I don’t believe I’ll copy you on this…

72

Yeah. Part of me wants to go in and try some heavier lifts, part of me is depressed looking at the max Cycle 2 weights, and part of me realizes that even though they’re well below my estimated max, the “as many reps as possible” bit is going to royally kick my ass.

Plus, I’m going to try BBB for Cycle 2, just to keep the accessory lifts fresh. For Cycle 3, I’ll try whatever’s in the book that isn’t BBB or the current accessory sets I’m doing. Then, I’ll probably rotate back to this set of accessories.

73

Damn, I hate my weight fluctuations. 237 this morning (was 239 yesterday. Damn carbs!)

Cycle 2, Week 1, Day 1:

Decided to go with BBB for accessories this cycle.

Warmups: 2 planks @1:20, 3x3 ab-wheel rollouts.

Military Press: 5@70, 5@80, 11@95 (not a PR. :frowning: )
Accessory MPs: 10@95, 10@80, 10@70, 10@60, 10@50

Chinups: I can’t do 5 good chinups, let alone 5x10. With bands, I also can’t knock out 5x10. So, I thought I’d try the assisted chinup machine (I know, I know…)

3x10@10 assist, 1x10@12 assist. At this point, I gave up because all it was doing was pumping my forearms painfully rock-solid, and I wasn’t feeling it in my back at all. So I switched to the lat pulldown machine, 1x10@90. I think I’ll stick with the lat pulldowns as a substitute here.

Intervals: Did standing high-jumps onto platforms today for some variation. 15/30, working from smallest to largest, back to smallest, and then one last set on the largest platform (there are 4 different-height platforms). Total of 8 sets.

No steady-state cardio today. I slept like crap all weekend, and not so great last night. Today was basically, “get in there, do the base work, and get out”.

No food tracking today, because I iz a lazy bastid.

I ordered some 5-HTP and GABA to help with sleep, and I’m going to try adding Resveratrol and Quercetin to help with AI (I have some liquidex and clomid, but I absolutely can’t stand the taste of the stuff, and it hangs around in the back of my throat all day.)

74

Picked up some straps and gloves with wrist wraps. Hopefully my pushing and pulling will be a bit more effective now that I won’t have to worry so much about my callouses making me quit before my muscles do.

75

That was festive!

Cycle 2, Week 1, Day 2:

Warmup: 2 planks @ 1:30

Deadlifts (sumo): 5@185, 5@215, 27@240 (= 455 lbs estimated 1RM. Tied a PR, I think. I’m not counting the ridiculous estimated 1RMs from the deload week. I’m solidly convinced they’re wrong. Those deload reps are all about endurance.

This was my first time using straps, so I used them for all of these, to get the hang of them. Since I was using the straps, I couldn’t do a full setup each rep, so on the last set, I did a full setup at 10 reps, and again at 20 reps.)
Accessory deadlifts: 10@240, 10@215, 10@185, 10@155, 10@135.

Out of curiosity, at the end of all the deads, I tried 365. And made it! Held it locked out for 10 seconds. That IS a PR, since that’s the most I’ve ever deadlifted.

reverse crunches: 5x15@BW (the recommended BBB accessory here is hanging leg raises, but I couldn’t manage them).

After all of the above, I decided to give a 405lb deadlift a shot. Got it to the top of my kneecaps, but couldn’t lock it out. Tried for about 2 seconds, but my vision started to go black, so I had to drop it. I probably could have pushed through, fucked the bar, and locked it out, but I think I panicked, as that’s the closest I’ve come to blacking out so far. If I was doing this completely fresh, I probably could have gotten it up without so much trouble.

I left everything on the floor today, so no intervals or steady-state. Hell, I can barely lift my feet right now.

No food log today.

Weight: 235.

76

Weight: 237

Made two changes today:

  1. Even though it’s not a scheduled workout day, went into the gym and did:
    dislocations
    face pulls
    close-grip front lat pulldowns
    Cable rope rear delt rows
    straight-arm pulldowns
    pushups

A bunch of each. My lats and back are one of my weaker areas, and I thought I’d give them a bit of extra attention. Not too much though, as tomorrow’s bench day.

  1. drank a gallon of milk. I decided that this crap I’m doing where I’m so worried about my weight and waistline is basically screwing over any hopes I have of gaining any significant lean mass. I already eat totally clean 90% of the time; I just don’t eat ENOUGH. So, I’m going to keep eating the way I’ve been eating, but I’m going to try to add in a gallon of 1% milk each day, which should give me about 2200 extra calories a day, and some extra fats and protein.

If I start putting on ridiculous amounts of fat, I’ll dial it back to a half-gallon per day, and so on until I feel comfortable with the gains/feeling.

Now, if I could just stop with all the gastrointestinal upset from all that milk… (I finished the gallon by 2pm. Which is good, because now I can focus on finishing my gallon of water for the day. :slight_smile: )

77

Weight: 237

Cycle 2, Week 1, Day 3

Warmup: 3x10 facepulls@50, 2x3 ab-wheel rollouts, 5 dislocations
Bench: 5@125, 5@145, 11@165 (not a PR. Don’t know what happened, but form fell apart and I could barely get the bar back up for 11. Meh. i didn’t sleep well last night, so I’m going to blame it on that. Or sunspots. Or gnomes.)

BBB: 10@165, 10@145, 10@125, 10@105, 10@95

Accessories: DB Row 5x10@60.

Cooldown: 5 dislocations.

No cardio. I’m really just not into the cardio this week. I may take a 30-minute walk later.

Another gallon of milk being polished off as I write this. Had most of it before the workout (stopped an hour before, to prevent sour stomach).

Feels like I’m recovering better, but it may just be psychological.

Interestingly, even though I’m consuming >2000kcals more than I have been, I didn’t get the skin temperature spike that equates to “oh crap, I’ve eaten too much” until a snack last night. Which pretty much confirms what I’d suspected: I haven’t been eating enough to support the work I’ve been doing. Sigh.

Well, at least I’m fixing it now.

78

Going to take the camera to the gym today to see if I can get some video of today’s workout.

79

Wow. Ok, the lack of cardio is catching up to me, endurance-wise. I ended up breaking up by 5 10-rep BBB sets into 10 5-rep sets. That, or I’m not used to the belt (just bought it, and thought I’d wear it today to get used to it, even though the weights weren’t heavy enough to need a belt. I was having a bit of trouble with oxygen today.)

Weight: 237.5

Cycle 2, Week 1, Day 4:

Warmups: 1 plank @1:00, 2x10 glute bridges, 2x5 facepulls@50.
Squat: 5@200, 5@230, 9@260 (= 335 lb estimated 1RM. NOT a PR. Current PR is an estimated 355 1RM, from 8@280 two weeks ago).

Video of my 9@260 (do not poke fun at my ridiculous warm-up/psych-up!)

Several observations:
a) Jeebus I’m fat
b) sorry for my ass in your face
c) I could go deeper.

Contrast this to video of half of one of my BBB sets: 5@230:

One thing I really notice: I’m coming forward as I’m going down and coming out of the hole. I need to stop that.

BBB work: 2x5@260, 2x5@230, 2x5@200, 2x5@170, 2x5@140

Accessory work: Leg curls 5x10@50.

no cardio, because I’m a lazy fuck.

80

[quote]mcl wrote:
Wow. Ok, the lack of cardio is catching up to me, endurance-wise. I ended up breaking up by 5 10-rep BBB sets into 10 5-rep sets. That, or I’m not used to the belt (just bought it, and thought I’d wear it today to get used to it, even though the weights weren’t heavy enough to need a belt. I was having a bit of trouble with oxygen today.)

Weight: 237.5

Cycle 2, Week 1, Day 4:

Warmups: 1 plank @1:00, 2x10 glute bridges, 2x5 facepulls@50.
Squat: 5@200, 5@230, 9@260 (= 335 lb estimated 1RM. NOT a PR. Current PR is an estimated 355 1RM, from 8@280 two weeks ago).

Video of my 9@260 (do not poke fun at my ridiculous warm-up/psych-up!)

Several observations:
a) Jeebus I’m fat
b) sorry for my ass in your face
c) I could go deeper.

Contrast this to video of half of one of my BBB sets: 5@230:

One thing I really notice: I’m coming forward as I’m going down and coming out of the hole. I need to stop that.

BBB work: 2x5@260, 2x5@230, 2x5@200, 2x5@170, 2x5@140

Accessory work: Leg curls 5x10@50.

no cardio, because I’m a lazy fuck.[/quote]

I am by no means anything more than an internet expert and a rank beginner - but I suggest you sit back more to keep those knees from tracking so far forward, get rid of the bar pad because it more the bar up and away from your center of gravity, and work on getting those elbows forward while raising the chest. Keeping your head back and up may also help.

and yes work on the depth for the heavy sets.

Finally, you could put your little dance to music and have some real fun…