Glad to hear that you will be taking a break from the heavy work. That will allow me to catch you in some and run off and leave you in other areas. Amazing how close our numbers are given your training experience, and our similar builds/ body type.
Yes, adult peers are nice. Yesterday the kid that started lifting with us was just plain goofy in the gym. He misloaded a bench set for my son putting on a 10 and a 5 instead of a 5 and a 2.5. He wandered aimlessly between sets just lifting what ever. He didn’t finish the prescribed work. He wouldn’t help load, unloaad, or pick up weights. Very frustrating. I was glad to help him learn, but im not in the gym to baby sit. My son said dad this guy is about done with us right?
4.18.18
Woke at 234.6 lbs. I decided to do an unofficial check-in and took some measurements. They’re unofficial because they weren’t fasted (my weight was). Last measurements were taken 3.18.18.
Weight: 234.6 (+10.0)
Neck: 43cm (no change)
Shoulder Width: 134.5cm (+2.5 but reliability is questionable)
Chest: 114.5cm (+3.5)
Abdomen: 94cm (+2.0)
Waist: 93cm (+1.0)
Hips: 109.5cm (+4.0)
I measure in cm because it’s a smaller increment. When I started tracking I thought it would allow me to be more accurate. I round things and 0.5 cm is probably more accurate than going to 0.25 inches.
I’m waiting till June 1st to bust out the underwear pics.
You have a point about the cm I may need to switch. Measurements are marginally reliable at best but will show you trends through time. I’m just a data junkie and have been tracking all this weight/ measurment for almost a year now. I’ll post yearly totals soon.
It is hard for me to believe that a year ago I was 275lbs and 35ish% bf.
NEUTRAL PULL UPS BW x 8 x 5 sets Finally! Doing these first helps a ton. I’ll start doing sets of 5 with added weight now.
BENCH (new form thanks to @losthog; I watched the whole series.)
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 5
205 x 3
225 x 5 x 5 sets
I’m sure it’s far from perfect (or even good) but I feel stable for a change with the new form. Here’s today’s last set.
And a clip from last year…
PENDLAY ROW
175 x 5 x 5
SEATED OHP (no back support)
115 x 5 x 5
REV DB FLY
25s x 10 x 5
This took longer than I thought but time flew by because my daughter was downstairs with me. She was doing chin ups, push ups, band rows, and bodyweight squats between my sets. I love it!
I noticed an immediate change for the better. I’m still having issues with keeping the lats engaged but it’s gonna pay off big time. Fix one issue at a time brother. Rome wasn’t built in a day…
No kidding. I was giving myself cues through the set, especially after the third rep. I assumed I was losing tension in my back. I didn’t even try to pull the bar apart. I’m just happy to keep my feet in one place. I have been very uncomfortable lately and I’ve had happy feet during my sets.
The tip to do a bridge on the bench to experience the pressure on the traps is what did the trick. Finding that pressure gets my feet where my body wants them. I’m happy to have found it. I actually started to tuck my legs back like that a few weeks back but I got away from it because my heels weren’t anywhere near the ground. I’ve never attempted to arch before. I don’t grab the bar like he did in the videos; I grab the bench over my head and I can actually push my head and shoulders towards my hips and arch that way pretty easily.
And the final bonus of the day is that I had zero shoulder pain! I was about to go back to an all bodybuilding approach. Feet flat, back flat, just use the pecs and push. Having some technique will definitely help me reach 3 plates a lot faster.
I’m at in-service today which runs from 0800-1900 with an hour lunch. Due to the pain I’ve had in my spine during my early morning workouts and the articles about when to work out I’ve decided to scrap my 0500 sessions. I was going to lift after work tomorrow but my wife has to go to a work function so I’ll have to pick up the kids and get them dinner after work. To avoid missing the session I tried to cram it into my lunch break today. I didn’t get it all done but I got the important stuff done.
I LOVE the program, Mort! Day 1 of lower body is taking about 40 minutes to an hour. I’m doing 15 sets of lower body work so I rest a bit longer. I don’t even try to stick to my usual 60 seconds of rest on squats. I set the timer for 80-90 seconds and when it beeps I get back to the bar and get going. I’m sure that adds another 10-15 seconds to my rest times. On everything else I’m setting the timer for 60 seconds.
On day 1 of upper body day the workouts are about 35-40 minutes. Day 2 of lower body has been right at 70 to 80 minutes. Day 2 of upper body is around 45 to 50 minutes.
I forgot to weigh myself this morning but I feel fat LOL. My uniform pants are noticeably tighter. I don’t really mind because I’m feeling it in my ass and legs. No tall, skinny guy ever complained about having bigger legs. I’m wearing a new external vest today and it’s a big snug. I just need to adjust it. But my mid section is bigger and I’m feeling it. I hope my belly doesn’t grow too much more as I continue to press on towards the goal of being “swole”. It’s not bad now but it could be if I gain another 20 lbs and it doesn’t get spread out the right way.
Today is rest day since I lifted yesterday. I don’t really think it matters much to switch up my Thursday/Friday routine. I’ve read a couple of articles/programs by CT and he likes to program things so that you never lift more than two days in a row and never had two days in a row off. So M/W/F/Sat isn’t much different than M/W/Th/Sat. Doing squats over the lunch hour felt much better on my back too. No pain. I used the belt on deadlifts yesterday but that’s because I felt like my form wasn’t perfect. The weight is starting to feel a bit heavy. I also screwed up my first set which was beltless. My hook grip slipped after the first rep so I did two more with regular double overhand grip. The bar was slipping the whole time so I finished with two reps of mixed grip. The pauses and break in tempo made the set much harder than it needed to be. Sets two and three were done with the belt and straps and they moved smoothly.
Cons: Relying on one can let your core muscles slack off and increase the likelihood of injury outside of the weight room doing normal things like carrying groceries.
Pros: Can add 5-10 lbs to your lift immediately due to the improved stability. I think it allows me to keep training in a fatigued state without increasing the risk of injury to my spine. I try not to use it until I get to heavier loads (hopefully 85% and up). Once I put it on yesterday it felt much easier to move the same weight. I felt more stable.
I think it’s a tool to be used like straps and other aids. It’s not necessary but if you like to push your limits and don’t want to be limited by one part of your body then you throw the belt on and keep going. I would compare it to using straps on deadlifts so you can lift more weight than your grip allows.
