I’ve been bitten by the teeth of iron and the only cure is to bite back.
This salty dog is ready to get serious about documenting the elixir that is the blood, sweat, and tears we get from lifting heavy shit (well, heavy to me). A little bit about me:
I’m a 54 year old who found free weight training about 15 years ago when my son hit high school and needed to start lifting for football. I’ve been weight training on an off since then with long periods of consistency mingled with longer periods of training inconsistency.
My life’s been filled with athletic sports activity since childhood, and then in my early teens sport specific conditioning and training as a semi professional MX racer. My professional life since my mid twenties has consisted of relatively sedentary entrepreneurial work and over the course of many years I’ve at least doubled in size. On my wedding day I weight 160 lbs soaking wet, and today I’m nearly twice that weight. At 5’ 11’’ that’s fat no matter how you look at it.
The good news in this though, I grew up the son of a butcher and my weight gain has been the result of larger portion sizes with a lot of protein as the primary target. A stress test in March 2017 confirmed what I’ve always known, I’m going to live forever so I figure its time to start getting serious about caring more for my heart and systems, and while at it grow more muscle.
This log is the route to that very wide and general goal. a more specific goal is to gain enough strength to begin Strongman training eventually maybe, just maybe, looking towards competing in a local Highland Games (who doesn’t want to compete in a kilt).
My interest are family (wife, son and daughter too) sailing, hiking, and being outdoors.
Got me a brand new log on this first day of June (yesterday’s workout) and damn it, I didn’t even come close to getting through my workout. Didn’t eat a damn thing all day, unplanned, though I did work 14 hours, and when I hit the bench portion I was done. Lighted headed and quasi shaky.
A perfect coinissuer music pairing. I grew up a young teen in the 70’s and went to concerts of nearly every significant rock band that traveled to SoCal, including Nazareth.
Farmer Walk
50 lbs db’s 100’ x 5
80 lbs db’s 100 x 5
I’ve recently re-assembled a home gym. I have a power rack which is great to have but I’ve only a cheap bench that has a total weight capacity rating of only 300 lbs.
My body weight exceeds the total weight of the bench, lol. This limits the weight I can bench although my PR is 205 lbs anyway.
Election night and dinner afterwards with the wife. Had a couple of beers with dinner so no workout today.
Instead I headed into the garage and rearranged my set up in preparation for a DL platform I’ll assemble soon. Ended moving about 1,000 lbs of plates and bars across the garage, lol. So much for no workout.
Found this treasure while searching for a DIY DL platform…
Wanted to get my heart rate running so I ran todays training session in a HIIT format with a 30 second pause between each exercise, and a two minute rest between sets. After the third set I had to increase my rest time to three minutes.
Planned on finishing with Military Press but I was pretty gassed.
Military Press was in the plan as well as some accessory work but cut the workout short.
Been experiencing some soft tissue issues with my knees, plural, for days after workouts. I don’t have any knee problems to speak of that can be identified as knee issues other than common creeks that any mid fifty year old male might experience.
Both knees have been exceptionally ‘tender’ after most workouts which started several weeks ago after a heavy squat day and then a six mile hike with the wife on a local trail a couple of days later.
Initially resorted to taking some Advil to relieve the discomfort but that’s not me. I don’t ordinarily take any kind of medication.
A little research on ways to reduce inflammation delivered some interesting information. Seems like Vitamin C, D & E and all the B vitamins work in unison to help reduce inflammation.
I’ve been taking the vitamin supplement “Animal Pak” on and off for the better part of my entire adult life. Hadn’t bougtb a new pak for some six months or so but had a dozen packets still left. The label pretty much confirms Animal Pak has in it a combination of vitamins and minerals to help reduce inflammation. Started taking one package a day since Tuesday.
Ironically also started drinking grass fed whole non homogenized milk last weekend for dietary reasons, because my body seems to burn more fat when it’s taking in a higher % of fat. My reading on inflammation also suggests that the CLA and ALA in grass fed whole non hemoginized milk also works to reduce inflammation in the body.
My knees have progressively felt better each day. Thursday’s workout felt good. My knees felt solid. Don’t know which of these two is reducing inflammation but it seems to be working.
It’s now Friday morning (I feel asleep last night while writing this, lol) and my knees feel pretty normal.
How do you combate inflammation to keep workouts intense but your joints healthy and discomfort/pain free?
Agreed. I failed to mention I take cod liver oil tablets daily. Been taking them for about 20 years but ran out a couple of months ago and my local Walmart hasn’t restocked even with an in-personal request to the dept manager. I guess I’m just gonna need to buy them online.
Just my opinion but depending on how you’re doing your MP I find front raise to be redundant. I’d do lateral delt raises instead to hit the 3 heads of the shoulder.
