Farmer's Log 2

Training Over 35 Lifter
541

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]DaCharmingAlbino wrote:
It’s better to be a piston than to be pissed on.
[/quote]

That’s always been one of my favourite sayings. Confucius right?

Did you have any corresponding trouble with your upper back at the time?

James - A Happy PR filled New Year to you too.

Dude - I’d probably say my back to chest strength ratio has never been better since I started doing all these face pulls and pullaparts. I was shocked how much my middle and upper traps have grown when I caught sight of them in the mirror when shaving my head the other day. But you’ve made me wonder if it coincided with raising my feet on the weighted push ups. I’ll have to check. Thanks for the idea.

Well we’ve just booked a ferry crossing to Santander, northern Spain for Feb 15th, so I only have 6 weeks of lifting left! Noooooooooooo!

“Shit just got real” as you Americans would say, or “crikey, gosh” as we say here.[/quote]

Now that you mention it, I do have an imbalance in my upper back. The muscle that seats the right shoulder blade (rhomboids?) in towards the spine on pressing is weak on me, so I tend to press with the left side while guiding with the right side. Really shows up in the heavier jerks and snatches. Might have something to do with it, but I don’t really know.

542

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Dude
[/quote]

Copyright infringement. I demand payment.

543

[quote]DaCharmingAlbino wrote:

Now that you mention it, I do have an imbalance in my upper back. The muscle that seats the right shoulder blade (rhomboids?) in towards the spine on pressing is weak on me, so I tend to press with the left side while guiding with the right side. Really shows up in the heavier jerks and snatches. Might have something to do with it, but I don’t really know.
[/quote]

That’s interesting because I have an upper back issue too. I’ve been having it for 15 years or so. It’s like an old friend to me now, I call it my “twinge”. It lies somewhere under my right shoulder blade and towards the spine. It just goes from time to time doing a variety of exercises (I’ve twinged it doing one arm rows, front squats, chins etc) hangs around for a couple of weeks, sometimes months and then clears itself up for a while until I do it again. But I don’t have it right now. It’s not a major problem otherwise I’d get it looked at. I just train through it. I also don’t have a clue what it is.

CK - No that’s his username, I wasn’t copying you honest. I didn’t mean to infringe any laws…I…I…alright, alright calm down, there’s no need to get nasty…no, no I don’t want you to cut them off and stuff them down my throat!..I’m transferring the money now…Jeez!

02/01/2012

3 min w/u on bike

Squat @ 264 lbs x 10-10-10

Military press @ 132 lbs x 8-7-5

Chin ups @ bw x 9-5-5

DB one arm row @ 102 lbs x 6-6-5

Doesn’t look like much, but inbetween every single set instead of having a rest interval I did a 1 minute spell on the bike. It was damn hard work.

But I discovered a couple of interesting things. 1) Cycling inbetween sets of squats allows some recovery of the lower back muscles without letting the quads rest or lose their pump, so the next set feels like a continuation of the first, but without the limiting back fatigue.

  1. Cycling seems to work the abdominals. During my 2nd set of chins I had massive abdominal cramping which stayed with me the rest of the workout and was particlarly noticeable on the bike intervals. I’m sure it was the cycling that caused it.

The whole workout took 47 minutes from the first work set of squats.

I was planning on doing ab rollouts, but after the cramping I was afraid this might happen.

Might alternate this daily with a more conventional BB workout.

544

i got a bike!

interesting about the stationary bike… i might need to experiment with that for the quad pump… but then i might need to experiment with higher rep squats, too… dammit. i WILL.

545

Dang Brett, lots of work going on here. and plans for the continent all made!

546

Honestly cannot remember what my line of thinking was with the Ronny Coleman video? Probably something silly.

Well Merry New Year and such, hope you get the sternum problem resolved.

Riding a bike between sets, you sir are the man!!

547

Alexus - Did you know cyclists live longer than non cyclists, even taking in to account all of the ones flattened by trucks. That’s good to know isn’t it?

MJ - Thanks and nice to hear from you.

dday - Doesn’t matter, I found it funny anyway. The biking’s to burn some calories. I need to shift some fat in the next 6 weeks. I don’t want love handles ruining the line of my thong.

Results from Monday’s food log (which was a fairly average day’s food intake) was quite surprising. Much fewer calories than I thought, less protein and higher fat and too much of that fat was from dairy.

I ate…

Breakfast - Yoghurt, honey and muesli

Lunch - Eggs, chorizo, tinned mackerel and salad

Tea - Tuna steak, baked potato and cabbage

Roughly 2400 total calories

Made up of 125g fat, 125g protein and 200g carbs. So I spent Monday night trawling through John Berardi’s website and made some changes yesterday.

Breakfast - Yoghurt, honey and muesli (finding it difficult to find high protein stuff for breakfast)

Lunch - Tinned tuna, tinned mackerel, cottage cheese (Damn that stuff is frigging foul!!) and salad.

Tea - Sirloin steak with 30g stilton cheese, 2 fried eggs and broccoli and peas

Snack - Handful of cashews

166g protein, 64g carbs and 106 fat. Much better.

Ate nearly all the carbs at breakfast and the majority of fat came from fish and meat, not dairy. I don’t think I need to reduce calories yet, just eat ‘cleaner’ and then adjust in a weeks time.

Tuesday night’s w/o

3 min w/u on bike

RDLs @ 220 lbs x 10-8-8

Pull ups @ bw x 7-6-5

Push ups @ bw x 25-25-20

Pendlay rows @ 176 lbs x 7-6-5

Pushdowns @ 88 lbs x 12-12

1 minute on the bike between each set (14 total bike minutes)

Time taken 52 minutes.

548

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]big nurse wrote:
Which port to do leave from brett ??[/quote]

Portsmouth. Was trying to leave from Plymouth because it’s closer, but they don’t sail until the summer months.[/quote]

Damn…i was hoping to escort you off the premises !!

549

BN - LOL.

04/01/2012

Calling this accessory day. Basically the stuff I haven’t managed to fit in the last couple of days because I’ve been too knackered.

Face pulls @ 66 lbs x 16-14-12

5 mins bike

Band pullaparts (3 bands) x 16-14-10

5 mins bike

EZ curls @ 77 lbs x 16-12-10

5 mins bike

Ab rollouts (roll out off toes and back on knees) x 6-5-4

5 mins on bike

Off to watch Sherlock Holmes. I hope it’s good.

550

Crikey-

that bike thing falls in that ‘eccentric reps’ business
and its an easy way to sneak some conditioning

training looks good- that cramping thing
might just be from being knackered

I was surprised what progress
in the traps and upper back
I made with thing like face pulls,
or tiny dumbell things for shoulders

551

What happened to the 90 minutes of B2TW workouts every day for the next 6 weeks that you promised your fans? I feel gypped.

The only time I got abdominal cramping was from doing weighted chins the day after deadlifting plus ab rollouts.

552

eggs? what about eggs for breakfast?

553

[quote]kmcnyc wrote:
that bike thing falls in that ‘eccentric reps’ business
and its an easy way to sneak some conditioning[/quote]

I really enjoy cycling outside, but there’s no way I’m going to bike indoors for 20 mind numbing minutes staring at a chuffing wall, so as you say, the rest intervals is a good way of getting it in.

[quote]kmcnyc wrote:
training looks good- that cramping thing
might just be from being knackered[/quote]

I think you’re right. I looked up lactic acidosis and the 3 main symptoms according to wikipedia are “deep and rapid breathing, vomiting, and abdominal pain”. I didn’t have the vomiting, but certainly had the other two. So I think it was just a build of lactic acid that I mistook for cramping.

554

Alexus - For some reason I just can’t stomach the thought of cooked food first thing in the morning. Just the mention of a cooked breakfast upon waking makes me want to heave. After a few hours I could manage one. Don’t know why that is. And no, I’m not going to eat them ‘Rocky style!’

PG - The 90 minutes, 7 times a week was just my upper parameter, what I ‘could’ go up to. TBH my conditioning is what’s limiting my workouts to about an hour right now. Who knows in a few weeks I might get up there. Don’t knock it 'til you’ve tried it though. 1 minute rest periods are hard, just try lifting with no rest period at all. It’s tough, trust me. Puke making stuff.

limps away muttering…“must try harder”…“must put more effort in”…retch…“must not let Punnyguy down”

555

Thursday 05/01/2012

Squat @ 264 lbs x 10-10-10-10 (straight sets)

Done with a 90 second bike interval between each set…

Chin ups @ bw x 11-7-6

Military press @ 132 lbs x 10-8-7

DB one arm row @ 102 lbs x 7-7-6

Total 56 minutes. 13 1/2 on bike.

Friday 06/01/2012

With 90 second bike interval between all sets.

RDLs @ 220 lbs x 12-10-9

Pull ups @ bw x 8-7-6

Push ups @ bw x 25-25-25

Pendlay rows @ 176 lbs x 8-7-6

Pushdown @ 88 lbs x 15-12-11

(supersetted with no rest between)

EZ curls @ 77 lbs x 12-10-8

Total minutes 63 minutes. 18 on bike.

556

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
Alexus - For some reason I just can’t stomach the thought of cooked food first thing in the morning. Just the mention of a cooked breakfast upon waking makes me want to heave. After a few hours I could manage one. Don’t know why that is. And no, I’m not going to eat them ‘Rocky style!’

[/quote]

…I know this feeling. If I remember to drink water in the morning, it subsides and I can eat, though I’m still not enthusiastic about it.

557

09/01/2012

3 minutes on bike

Squat @ 264 lbs x 10-10-10-10

5 mins on bike

Chins @ bw x 12-8-7 (supersetted with) Military press @ 132 lbs x 11-9-7

5 mins on bike

Push ups @ bw x 25-25-20 (supersetted with) DB one arm row @ 102 lbs x 8-7-6

5 mins on bike

1 hour 14 minutes

A bit long. My wife came out to check on me, make sure I hadn’t died.

Things I have learned today…

  1. Supersetting push ups with one arm rows is much tougher than with Pendlay rows. I think because the one arm rows must target the serratus more. Really struggled to match the Pendlay day’s numbers, but couldn’t.

  2. Mobile phone companies are robbing bastards. They want £25 to unlock my wife’s phone so she can change network. It should be illegal. I wouldn’t mind but the phone didn’t even come as part of a package (so wasn’t susidised) she bought it herself to replace her old one. Greedy f**kers.

  3. 3 minutes on the bike really warms up the knees well before squats. Much better than just doing squats as a warm up. It gets a nice pump in the VMO which made my knees feel all cushiony soft. Mmmmm.

  4. I think I suffer from SAD (Seasonal affevtive Disorder). Sunshine affects my mood more than anything else.

558

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I think I suffer from SAD (Seasonal affevtive Disorder). Sunshine affects my mood more than anything else.
[/quote]

And you live in a tough country for that. Move to Colorado. Sunshine nearly every day.

559

[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
I think I suffer from SAD (Seasonal affevtive Disorder). Sunshine affects my mood more than anything else.
[/quote]

And you live in a tough country for that. Move to Colorado. Sunshine nearly every day.

[/quote]

Yeah, but how much of that sunshine is with snow on the ground?

Where we are hoping to move to (Portugal) has 2500 hours of sunshine a year!

I don’t think Wales has had that much sunshine since it was formed.

10/01/2012

3 mins on bike

RDLs @ 242 lbs x 12-10-9

4 mins on bike

Face pulls @ 69 lbs x 17-14-12

4 mins on bike

Band pullaparts (x3 bands) x 17-15-12

4 mins on bike

Pushdowns @ 91 lbs x 16-14-13 (supersetted with, no rest) EZ curls @ 77 lbs x 14-11-9

4 mins bike

Ab rollouts (rollout off toes & back on knees) x 7-6-5

4 mins on bike

1 hour 8 minutes.

I’ve started to put the bike work inbetween groups of exercises rather than between individual sets because it was affecting the quality of my workout too much. I still want to keep the tempo up, but certain exercises like squats and rdls difficult/dangerous to do when you can’t keep a stable core because you are puffing like a train.

This way I can start to increase the poundage more so I don’t feel like such a pussy compared to the rest of you guys.

I should still keep making fat loss progress because of the dietary changes I’ve made and the fact that I’m doing an hour 5 x a week instead of 30 minutes 3 x a week.

560

mmmmmm, portugal. I think I could prolly live with that