[quote]pkoad wrote:
You sure nowhere around you carries oly DB handles? Every Sports Authority, Play It Again, and similar stores I’ve been in had them tucked away somewhere in the freeweight section. I think even Wal-Mart has some.[/quote]
From the best I can tell WalMart handles seem hollow… that bothers me. In any case I’ve ordered some online and should be here in the next few days no big deal.
[quote]mpenix wrote:
salamando thanks for the input… or backstory i guess. My diet is still a work in progress but I’m eating relatively clean minus a few vices here and there. Nearly 3k cals on my of day and 3.5k on my ON day give or take. I’m still dialing in… I think my body is just reacting cuz i’ve been so sedintary before (i.e. lazy). Now I’m kinda shocking the system.
The only tip I have for you is to stay away from the smith machines… yeah they’re safer but in the long run your gains will suffer because of the lack of ROM (range of motion).[/quote]
They’re also not really safer. Something about how you’re locked into that range of motion, can hurt yourself. There’s nothing wrong with the smith machine for some exercises, but if you have the option of free weight or smith squats, definitely go free weight.
About to go workout.
Just wanted to point out that exactly a month later. I weigh 181.6lbs up from 174.2lbs
1 month: 7.4 lbs gain. I’m sure most of it might be fat, but I am most definitely getting stronger and seeing results. It’s 1 full month… but I still have 2 workouts to finish due to my set back last week.
For simplicity I guess I’ll just go by weeks of SS. So I’m 3 weeks and 1/3 done… after today it’ll be 3 2/3rds does that make sense?
8/27/2009 Workout Log
Squats : 3x5 : 230 lbs
Bench : 3x5 : 150 lbs
Deadlift : 3x5 : 275 lbs
Workout Notes:
I felt pretty good going into the workout, the squats proved to be a little difficult, nearly got stuck in the hole a few times but powered through. Going to increase by 10lbs next time… if I fail, I’ll try again… fail again… well I’ll reset the squat.
Bench: Felt okay on first 3 reps of set 1… felt like I really had to push to complete ALL the reps. Will only increase by 5lbs next time.
Deadlift. I tried to take people’s advice into consideration. If you watch my arms it’s a lot more rigid. I’m proud of that. I worked on my form throughout my warmup sets and think I executed it well on the workset. I’ll post up the videos next.
8/27/2009 Deadlift 275x5
8/27/2009 Squat 3x5 @ 230
Well done. Squats and deadlifts still look easy
Week 4 COMPLETE!!!
8/29 Workout Log
Squats : 3x5 : 240 lbs
Standing Military Press : 3x5 : 100 lbs
Pendlay Rows : 3x5 : 150 lbs
BB Curls : 3x8 : 70lbs
SkullCrushers: 3x8 50lbs
Workout Notes
Workout went okay at best. The squat seemed a bit heavy for me… next week will only increase by 5. I nearly failed 1 time on each set of squats… no good.
Mil Press was spot on, very difficult for last set… felt great. Good challenge.
Penlay Rows… oh where do I start, 150 seems too heavy for me… I was able to complete the sets but with horrible form. I’m calling a reset on this out of necessity. Going back down to 135 and hope for the best.
Drank a half gallon with the workout. 4 weeks of SS done!
Squats look great. You’ve got weeks of progress, easily, yet.
Great job on the deadlift. Definitely fixed flexing your elbow!
New picture looks much better; you’re starting to not look so skinny. 
Kicking ass! Keep it up.
Thanks man I’m doing my best… wanna get this ball rollin’ come on MUUUUSCLE!
I forgot to mention this… my diet while pretty good has not been perfect. I eat some sweet things, greasy things, etc etc… the list goes on.
I’ve stopped smoking (over 40 days now)… and for my next “trick” I’ll be cutting out caffeine. Starting September 1st… there will be absolutely no soda, no coffee, no tea, no chocolate… nothing. I’ll probably have some “sickness” from the withdrawals but I know in the long run I’ll be better from it.
I know I’ll probably start to lose some fat, and theirin lose some of my scale weight. I don’t care… I still plan on weighing 190 as my next goal and I’ll go from there. If I dip under 180 for awhile no big deal… I’ll just have to eat more GOOD things!
Morning Weight: 184.6lbs. Nuff said.
I’m merely curious, can you post a typical daily diet? Something real. If you ate candy, leave it in. Portion sizes would be nice, too. Maybe track what you eat for the next few days?
9/1/2009 Workout Log
Squats : 5x5x5 : 245 lbs
Bench : 5x5x4(miss) : 155 lbs
Deadlift : 3x5 : 285 lbs
Workout Notes:
Something felt off today, I didn’t get much rest last night as I was battling my RLS (restless leg syndrome) and didn’t have enough time before the workout to wait after eating… so I ate then worked out immediately. The milk tasted off today as well. Just a lot of things off.
Squats, I psyched myself up for those and they were proving to be very difficult, bar speed suffered but form did not.
Bench, nearly missed my 4th rep of the first set but powered through… the last set was horrible, nearly failed on rep 4 but go to rep five and ended up having to roll the bar off me. What a pain.
Deadlift… ouch. Able to complete but unable to feel good about completing. Very very hard to ignore the pain and push through…
Seems like my gains are going to slow down now… as I’ll likely have to reset a few lifts as well. Oh well, at least it started on the first day.
Gooch, I’ll do my best to track what I eat over the next few days. I just eat to eat, Food is just fuel and i’m like the delorean in back to the future.
[quote]goochadamg wrote:
I’m merely curious, can you post a typical daily diet? Something real. If you ate candy, leave it in. Portion sizes would be nice, too. Maybe track what you eat for the next few days? [/quote]
It’s not a great diet… and it’s not typical I eat what I want but some of my staples are the almonds as well as the cereal and milk. If I’m craving carbs I get carbs… if not then I try and eat “healthy”. I’ll also typically eat a piece of chicken about the size of my hand with a healthy serving of broccoli. It just depends on my mood.
Today: (In no particular order)
1 bowl of Kashi Go Lean cereal, with about 2 cups of whole milk.
3/4 can of Almonds (about 6 servings)
1 Gatorade
Half Gallon of Milk During workout
McDonalds Big Mac and a McChicken with a Hi-C.
1/2 Large Pan Pan Meatlovers Pizza
and I’m about to eat a lot of crap soon (1 whole box of Kraft Shells and Cheese).
I’m eating to grow… not eating to slowly slide up the scale and gain no fat. I fully expect to be fat when I’m done.
Oh, also every single morning I wake up, before my cereal I take a multivitamin and fish oil caps.
Here’s what I received in the mail today… yay.
I also purchased 4 more 10lb plates, and 2 more 45’s. Bringing my oly set up to 430lbs.
I reset my weights down 20%. Starting on the B workout. Good move too.
9/3/2009 Workout Log
Squats : 5x5x5 : 195 lbs
Military Press : 5x5x5(miss) : 80 lbs
Bentover Rows : 5x5x5 : 120 lbs
Workout Notes:
Today was weird, had a weird split sleep schedule, and I went into work at 6am when I normally go in at 12. It was off. My whole schedule was off. The whole day I’m looking forward to working out, then get home and sleep for my 2nd 3hour nap that day. I wake up, pound some Mt. Dew (because I discovered real quick that caffeine headaches are not to be put up with)… so I’m back on the “juice” haha. Oh well there goes that “goal” at least I can do it in moderation at best. Maybe someday I’ll fully quit.
Anyway, back to the workout out. Squat warmups were fine and the workset seemed oddly heavy to me… even though I was doing 50lbs more last time. Maybe a reset was the right thing, or maybe I need more rest. Either way next workout I’ll have a 2 day break right after… and we’ll see how I feel on week 6.
Mil Press was good, strong… not easy not hard… reset was right for this as well.
Bentover Rows… a little easy but still felt right about doing the reset.
All in all, a good time to reset, I may be needing more “recovery” time instead of 1 on 1 off 1 on 1 off 1 on then 2 off… we’ll see how I feel next week though. Week 5 is 2/3rd done. Woo.
I understand your desire to change body types, i’ve done so also in the past, but remember it’s only humanly possible to add about 2 pounds of muscle a month under optimal conditions, the rest is fat, and if you add too much fat you’ll have to diet down later. When you diet down you’ll lose some muscle. There’s science at work here brah, don’t try to gain to fast unless you’re looking to be a skinny fat guy.
[quote]VonStinkle wrote:
I understand your desire to change body types, i’ve done so also in the past, but remember it’s only humanly possible to add about 2 pounds of muscle a month under optimal conditions, the rest is fat, and if you add too much fat you’ll have to diet down later. When you diet down you’ll lose some muscle. There’s science at work here brah, don’t try to gain to fast unless you’re looking to be a skinny fat guy.[/quote]
I’ve been skinny fat most of my life. I’m gaining weight (fat + muscle) because it’s been difficult for me to gain weight because of my crazy metabolism. I actually WANT to gain fat. I want to gain muscle too… I’m not scared of a diet later on… it’s fine with me. I’m gaining weight, 10lbs in 1 month. You say I gained only 2 lbs of muscle… I say I gained 10lbs of weight. I look better, I’m stronger, and I’d rather overfeed my body and get that 2lbs of muscle and 8lbs of fat than get 1lb of muscle and 4lbs of fat. Ya dig?
Don’t ever listen to something like 'its only possible to gain x amount of muscle in x amount of time", everyone is different, depends on so many different things. And people have DEFINITELY gained more than 2 pounds of muscle in a month before.