Bitten by the Lifting Bug

Training Over 35 Lifter
601

[quote]urbanman wrote:

[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:
Actually it was 21-15-9 on the burpees and rope slams…lol

Hell if women at 25 could have your body that you have at 45… I would umm err nevermind!

So KBgall what do you call the Traps?

[/quote]

WoW, reading through your log and seeing the progression is truly inspiring. While your body at 45 might be smoking hot (I surmise such from your coaches comments above) I see a dedicated strong woman that set goals and worked hard to achieve her goals. Now that to me is sexy! Congrats.

I look forward to following your continued progress through your log.
[/quote]

Hi, Urbanman!
Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words! The journey thus far has truly been amazing; the cool thing is that not only have I attained certain goals with regards to strength and losing some fat, building muscle, etc, but I’ve learned a whole lot about myself (both good and maybe not so good). I couldn’t have come this far in this timeframe without my great support team led by Fischer and supplemented by what we refer to as our “Iron Family.”

Looking forward to checking out what you are doing as well.

602

This sporadic logging is no good. I’ve been super busy moving into a new house and getting settled, so that’s why I’ve been away from the log, even though I have still continued to train to keep my sanity. :slight_smile:

Last week was Week 4 of my program.
Monday, 7/29
overhead squats for warmup, 3x3
squats:
95 x 5 x 2
115 x 3 x 1
135 x 6 x 3

flat bench (close grip)
65 x 5 x 1
80 x 5 x 1
95 x 6 x 2

Pendlays
bar x 5 x 1
75 x 5 x 1
105 x 6 x 3 (Man, these are rough!)

Wednesday, 7/31
DL
135 x 5 x 2
160 x 3 x 2
185 x 6 x 3 - Booyah! Felt very strong on these.

Did Fisch’s bootcamp that evening. It’s been a while. Body screamed at me. Must make friends with the darn sled again…

Friday, 8/2
overhead squats for warmup, 3x3
squats
95x5x1
115x3x1
135x6x2

bench (wider competition grip)
75x5x1
105x6x3 - Rick’s training buddy, Mike, reminded me to squeeze the bar with a death grip. Made all the difference in me getting in every rep that day.

Ran out of time to do the hang snatch, so I did those on Saturday.
bar x 2 x 3
55 x 2 x 3
65 x 2 x 2

603

I will be moving to a 2-day-per-week lifting routine starting tomorrow, since I’ve had to shuffle my schedule. At KB class tonight, Fischer kept laughing that evil laugh about the program, so I’m um…a little worried about what’s in store. Methinks it’s gonna hurt. A lot.

Stay tuned. :slight_smile:

604

Week 1, Day 1 (2 days/week program)

warmup: overhead squats, barx3x3

Squats
5 sets of the following: 65/85/105, where one “set” was 5 reps @ 65, 5 reps @ 85, and 5 reps @ 105

Supersetted with abs on the slant board (unweighted for now).

So it looked like this: squat 65 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 85 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 105 x 5, abs 5 reps. Rest. Repeat for 5 sets total.

Bench/chinups were next:
bench: bar/65/80
chinups: 2 reps
Same progression as above: barx5, 2 chinups, 65x5, 2 chins, 80x5, 2 chins. Rest. Repeat-5 sets total.

I liked Day 1 of this routine. I broke a serious sweat really early on!

In addition, I happened to develop a pretty bad migraine just as I started benching…had to curl up on the floor between sets. Fischer asked if I wanted to stop, but I didn’t, and finished it.

Thought I would have to back off to singles on the chinups after the 3rd full set, but I was able to get 2 each time. That was huge for me to get this many and each one was nice and strong. Happy, happy!

I spent the afternoon at home reviewing reports for work and refueling. Then I went to Fischer’s bootcamp in the evening. Oddly enough, I felt really great afterwards!!

Plan for tomorrow: Rest, rehydrate, and roll, roll, roll…

605

[quote]KBgal wrote:

So it looked like this: squat 65 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 85 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 105 x 5, abs 5 reps. Rest. Repeat for 5 sets.
[/quote]
Interesting. What percent of your 1RM is used for these numbers? How long were the rests between sets? Might be an interesting challenge for me down the road although I am not sure my hip could handle that volume of squatting . . . 15 sets!

606

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]KBgal wrote:

So it looked like this: squat 65 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 85 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 105 x 5, abs 5 reps. Rest. Repeat for 5 sets.
[/quote]
Interesting. What percent of your 1RM is used for these numbers? How long were the rests between sets? Might be an interesting challenge for me down the road although I am not sure my hip could handle that volume of squatting . . . 15 sets![/quote]

I can this answer I think a little better than Jean.

% of 1rm is 70% for the top sets.
1st set is 60% of that
2nd set is 80% of that.

These are done roughly (the weight guidelines) so loading the bar is minimal hassle.

Rest is 2-3 minutes between “sets” no rest between squats and situps.

Lots of volume yes with a increase of total tonnage as well.

Doing this to build muscular endurance and stamina as well as strength down the road.

607

Done with benching it works wonders with women to increase their strength.

608

[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]KBgal wrote:

So it looked like this: squat 65 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 85 x 5, abs 5 reps, squat 105 x 5, abs 5 reps. Rest. Repeat for 5 sets.
[/quote]
Interesting. What percent of your 1RM is used for these numbers? How long were the rests between sets? Might be an interesting challenge for me down the road although I am not sure my hip could handle that volume of squatting . . . 15 sets![/quote]

I can this answer I think a little better than Jean.

% of 1rm is 70% for the top sets.
1st set is 60% of that
2nd set is 80% of that.

These are done roughly (the weight guidelines) so loading the bar is minimal hassle.

Rest is 2-3 minutes between “sets” no rest between squats and situps.

Lots of volume yes with a increase of total tonnage as well.

Doing this to build muscular endurance and stamina as well as strength down the road.
[/quote]

Great job KB, you kill it every time !! Your V taper must be off the hook at this point :wink:

Bench day for me Ill try the above, although not sure what my 1 rp max is at this point. Not even sure what my “real” 1 rep max is either.

How long do you run that Fischer ? Sorry if youve already stated :slight_smile:

609

Hey, Up and Snap!

I see that Fisch has replied regarding calculating the work weights. Note, too, that we backed off on what we called my “1RM” a bit so that I wouldn’t get buried.

For squats, I think my true 1RM is 180 or 185, but we used 160 then took 70% of that. Reason for this is that when I squatted the 180, my bodyweight was hovering in the 120-122lb range; now I’m hovering in the 117-119lb range and I’ve noticed a slight loss in strength (in squats, but not as much in my bench or deads) but nothing to be worried about. Fisch asked what I felt I could absolutely get for a 1RM, so I estimated 160, maybe 170. Having done other programs where the weight is a bit lower but we do volume, I was fine with setting it a little lower. After yesterday’s session, I think we set it right. Easy to get through the first few sets but challenging enough that by the 4th-5th sets, the fatigue started to set it. Over time, I can see how the conditioning will work - and as Fisch said, the strength builds as well.

Similarly for bench, my true 1RM is 125, but we used 115.

Will get to deads tomorrow. My max there is 240, but we may set it at 225 then calculate percentages off of that.

610

[quote]KBgal wrote:
Hey, Up and Snap!

I see that Fisch has replied regarding calculating the work weights. Note, too, that we backed off on what we called my “1RM” a bit so that I wouldn’t get buried.

For squats, I think my true 1RM is 180 or 185, but we used 160 then took 70% of that. Reason for this is that when I squatted the 180, my bodyweight was hovering in the 120-122lb range; now I’m hovering in the 117-119lb range and I’ve noticed a slight loss in strength (in squats, but not as much in my bench or deads) but nothing to be worried about. Fisch asked what I felt I could absolutely get for a 1RM, so I estimated 160, maybe 170. Having done other programs where the weight is a bit lower but we do volume, I was fine with setting it a little lower. After yesterday’s session, I think we set it right. Easy to get through the first few sets but challenging enough that by the 4th-5th sets, the fatigue started to set it. Over time, I can see how the conditioning will work - and as Fisch said, the strength builds as well.

Similarly for bench, my true 1RM is 125, but we used 115.

Will get to deads tomorrow. My max there is 240, but we may set it at 225 then calculate percentages off of that.[/quote]

Yes, i understand. G1 called it my “real” max. We all have that super hero, day that we are invincible, but realistically it doesn’t repeat itself consecutively. I go off my real 1 rp max all the time.

Either way for you, combining conditioning, not to mention the double wammys with your boot camp knock outs, you are an animal.

611

[quote]Up wrote:

Great job KB, you kill it every time !! Your V taper must be off the hook at this point :wink:

Bench day for me Ill try the above, although not sure what my 1 rp max is at this point. Not even sure what my “real” 1 rep max is either.

How long do you run that Fischer ? Sorry if youve already stated :)[/quote]

Hi, Up!
Will check with Rick on this. Typically, we’ve done my programs for either 6 wks or 8-9 weeks, but with this different setup, I’m not sure.

LOL on the V-taper! I need to get some pics to document the changes. Once I started the intermittent fasting with Fischer and some others, I leaned out a bit and have built some muscle (or maybe it just shows more 'cause I lost the extra fat). I finally see what I refer to as “Ab-a-dabs!” haha (and btw…yours are looking great in that avi!).

612

Regarding your question UP:

It depends,

  1. If looking to build over a long period of time this will work very well and it also depends on whether if your wanting to build muscle or strength.

  2. Or you can make a quick run at it and set all “reps” at 5 and start with 80% of your 1rm and keeping adding 5 pds per week to upper and 10 per week to lower and go until you stall.

Hope this makes sense.

For example I shot low and did only 3’s ( to keep volume lower) but will keep it this way until I stall.

613

Sorry I rambled. I would like to get 10 weeks before a deload is called for.

With Jean and myself we will increase in waves add for 3 weeks then back off till the second week and start again.

614

Week 1, day 2 (last Friday, 8/9/13)

Deadlifts
Top set was 155 x 5 x 3 reps.

overhead press (seated)
45 x 5/50 x 5/ 60 x 5 - 5 sets

Tues, 8/13/13

KB class. Yep, still doing KB classes. I have been under the weather recently, but I felt great about midway through/after class. Fisch called for lots of reps in this one…swings, swing peaks, goblets. I continue to back way off on the weight in class due to the intensity of the weight training I do on Wednesdays/Fridays (i.e. I stick with a 20-25# bell instead of the 35/40/45#).

615

[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:
Regarding your question UP:

It depends,

  1. If looking to build over a long period of time this will work very well and it also depends on whether if your wanting to build muscle or strength.

  2. Or you can make a quick run at it and set all “reps” at 5 and start with 80% of your 1rm and keeping adding 5 pds per week to upper and 10 per week to lower and go until you stall.

Hope this makes sense.

For example I shot low and did only 3’s ( to keep volume lower) but will keep it this way until I stall.[/quote]

Thanks, I have been on a roller coaster training wise :frowning: my longer week at work just drains me, then ill have a knock out week. Not sure if i should consider 3 full body wos all the time r alt full body on my drain week and my 4-5 on the other. Today was supposed to be legs, which i love training(well love/hate :wink: ) but made a huge batch of Holupki and cleaned instead, house was a bomb, and teens have been working too.UGH!!

Sorry for the hijack//

616

[quote]Up wrote:

[quote]FISCHER613 wrote:
Regarding your question UP:

It depends,

  1. If looking to build over a long period of time this will work very well and it also depends on whether if your wanting to build muscle or strength.

  2. Or you can make a quick run at it and set all “reps” at 5 and start with 80% of your 1rm and keeping adding 5 pds per week to upper and 10 per week to lower and go until you stall.

Hope this makes sense.

For example I shot low and did only 3’s ( to keep volume lower) but will keep it this way until I stall.[/quote]

Thanks, I have been on a roller coaster training wise :frowning: my longer week at work just drains me, then ill have a knock out week. Not sure if i should consider 3 full body wos all the time r alt full body on my drain week and my 4-5 on the other. Today was supposed to be legs, which i love training(well love/hate :wink: ) but made a huge batch of Holupki and cleaned instead, house was a bomb, and teens have been working too.UGH!!

Sorry for the hijack//
[/quote]

No worries. :slight_smile:
Yeah, it can be nuts sometimes trying to get in the planned training. I have been going through a ton of crazy stuff myself the past several months; I’ve let some things go (like um…the logging here for a while) but tried to keep to my gym schedule as much as I could, because when everything else is chaotic, it helps me to keep my training as close to a “normal” schedule as possible. Then in the past month, I realized that I have to completely lose my Monday workout time, but Fisch assured me that we’d work out a good 2-day-a week routine. So far, I love it! It’s challenging, but I noted that there is an efficiency about it that really works. I get my lifts and conditioning in, then if I have anything left and/or more time, I can add in add’l accessories (I’m still doing the KB class and bootcamp, which are one night a week for an hour). I hope you can figure out a way to adjust on those longer work weeks so that you can still get some work in without killing yourself. :slight_smile:

Now all that being said, sometimes there’s just no way to get around the “life” stuff (and I’m thinking about the stupid work conference call that I must be on this Wednesday instead of squatting and benching! UGH!!!). Stupid meetings. :wink:

btw…I had to look up “holupki.” First sentence of the first recipe I saw mentioned bacon. I’m sold!

617

A little catching up on last week’s work:

Week 2, Day 1 - 8/14/13
warmup: overhead squats - bar x 3 x 2

squats
70/90/110: 1 set = 5 reps @ each weight; repeat for 5 sets total

bench
Top set was 80 x 5 x 5

chins (3,2,2) x 5 - I am pleasantly surprised at how these are coming along.

Week 2, Day 2 - 8/16/13
OHP (seated)
50/55/65 x 5 x 5
chins: 2,1,1 x 5

DL
125/145/165 x 4 x 3 (the last set, I did 5 reps instead of 3)

618

Looking good in Jean and can you train earlier on Wed?

619

Got that training in earlier on Wednesday (thanks, Rick!).

Week 3, Day 1 - 8/21/13
I had to start with bench this time, as one guy was hogging a bunch of equipment. Grrrrr…

bench:
(55/75/85) x 5 x 5

chins:
(3, 2, 2) x 5 - I struggled with these that session. Went to doubles across the board after set 2.

overhead squats: bar x 3 x 2

squats:
(75/95/115) x 4 x 5reps - then the 5th set, I got 10 reps! I was only going to do the 5 reps, but then Fisch called out AMRAP (and I wanted to cry, because I was on rep 4 and “almost done” in my head). Still, I got the 10. Very happy as fatigue had set in by then, and that’s almost my bodyweight (I’m somewhere between 117-118# for bodyweight now).

Onward and upward!

620

Week 3, Day 2 - 8/23/13

seated OHP
(50x5/60x5/70x5) x 5 - Last set of 70, I got 7 reps.

chins: (2,1,1) x 5 - Felt much stronger on these than when I did them Wednesday.

DLs:
(135x3/155x3/175x3) x 5 - Last set of 175, I did 10 reps. Felt good…probably could have gotten 12 or 13.