...Of Three Six Five

Training Training Logs
1

Background:

Started university about two years ago, before then I had never touched free weights or did any sort of cardio program. I started rowing at university dropping my 5000m time by 3 minutes to 17:44. However my lifting only really kicked off with good technique about 10 months ago owing to poor original instruction. My favourite lift of all time has to be in the powerclean because when done correctly it gives an awesome rush.

In the next 12 months I am going to learn how to coach rowing but also due to other commitments I am going to stop the activity and concentrate on pure strength lifting programs. I will then return rowing probably in my fourth year when I will only have my academic studies to contend with.

Objectives:

-Gain Strength
-Gain Mental Attitude to keeping to a program (hence V-Diet)
-Gain Extra Mobility/Ability to Overhead squat 40kg+

Time to complete - 1 year/52 weeks/365 days

Workouts/Regimes:
(these have been carefully considered)

V-Dietalike (6 weeks)

Will kick the mental attitude into touch. I will have to stringent about my kcal intake. It will put me into a “functional” state of mind. Lose some flab I have built and will yield a solid foundation. Renamed “-alike” owing to use of bulk supplements not Surge/Metabolic Drive although HOT-ROX was found in the UK at a reasonable price.

5x5 (4 weeks, complex compounds due to home gyming)
5x5 (10 weeks, stronglifts program)

Strength, simple as. Objective here is to get the ability to do 8x3x400lbs/180kg

Beast Building (3 months, CTs’ program)

A bit of variety, will also bust through any plateau reached during 5x5s.

5x5 (10 weeks, advanced stronglifts program depending)

Back to 5x5s to add some more strength, WS4SB is also a consideration.

V-Dietalike TBC (6 weeks, depending on how my body is)

Very much a TBC.

= 53 weeks, but incl is 1 week off after each session except the 4 week 5x5.

Tests:
(from 3 Tape Measures of Progress)
-DL 3RM then progressing to 1RM
-No of Pull Ups completed
-3 Horizontal Jumps

I will try to update as regularly as possible. I have already started the V-Dietalike, completed one day, however I have not got all my measurements done owing to lack of equipment which will be fixed tomorrow.

2

Pre-Velalike
Day 0/365

DL 3RM (kg) 130
Pullups 1
3 Standing
Horizontal 5.39
Jumps(m)
Weight (kg) 85
Belly (cm) 100
Thigh (cm) 58
Calf (cm) 37
Chest (cm) 100
Shoulder (cm) 42
Upper Arm (cm) 32
Neck (cm) 37

Day 1/365 14/07/2008

Good workout, using the velocity diet intermediate workouts. But I am having to substitute deadlifts for cleans w/front squat and parallel dips for bench dips due to home gymage so…

Pull Ups, managed 2 on the first cycle then did negative partials for 5s on the third, went like this for the remainder of the five circuits

Dips, did 20 reps

Powerclean w/front squat 52.5kg will up it next time to at least 55kg.

-Shakes were ok, bit too clamly then too diluted. Managed to make quite a large mess in the work kitchen. Opps

Day 2/365

Got really bored at work with nothing to do, started to feel really fidgety about 2 hours after taking HOT-ROX which was weird. Legs also felt pretty grotty after the workout from the day before, I am not doing NEP owing to cycling to catch the train which takes about 20mins each way. Started drinking lots of fruit teas, no sugar or sweetener (NATCH). Added Boygin citrus oils to two of my shakes which made them taste amazing and you only need to use about half a drop for a shake.

3

Day 3/365 - 16/07/08

Every session is in kg

Alternating Dumbell Shoulder Press
20s,20s,20s

Lunge
52.5,52.5,52.5

One Arm Row
30,30,30

Tricep Extension (dumbell)
20,20,20

Dumbell Hammer Curl
15,15,15

Front Squat
52.5,52.5,52.5

Should put more weight on my front squat for next week could have probably at least gone up to 60kg. Ah well. Shakes went down well. Thought about my HSM once :P.

Day 4/365

I hate being bored it’s in the worst thing in the world. I had nothing to do all day at the office…so placed some bids on some camera lenses on ebay and started teaching myself ANSYS (computer simulation program). I am really starting to like frozen peanut butter it is definitely the way forward, it just tastes so much better hard than soft. I urge you just to try freezing about 20g then have a taste.

4

Day 5/365

God this workout was hard

Powerclean
52.5,52.5,52.5

Bench
25,25,25

Chin Up
6,6,5

Lat Raise
10,10,10

Row
52.5,52.5,52.5

Crunch
8,8,8

Lunges
20,20,20

Used a smaller weight on my lunges just to get the balance of the exercise, I am more used to squating than lunging. Anyway I felt pretty broken.

Day 6/365

Did about 3 hours of walking due to working on a university open day. Ate 400g of chicken breast for lunch, needed a quick fix and it was on discount in the university shop. The macros were 165kcals per 150g 18g pro/0.7 carb/6g fat so not too bad filled me although I felt a bit weezy afterwards. In the evening I added too much citrus oil to one of my shakes and nearly puked. Another discovery I have made is using a blender to make a sort of ice-crush shake although it’s “nearly” solid it cools the body meaning the body needs to expend energy keeping the body at a regular temperature, been cited in the Get Shredded Diet.

5

Day 7/365

My parents visited and took me out for lunch. Decided to go for a local cheddar sandwhich and a smoked salmon platter. Too bad it took an hour to arrive and was a rather limp meal. Not exactly what I had in mind for a HSM.

Drank one shake before the meal and had two in the evening. Ran out of chocolate flavouring which was a tad annoying means I am going to have to buy some sweetner. Although I have had the idea of using the “espresso” from the coffee machine and putting in my shake.

I got my bike fixed as well which was good. Although I was told it got broken because I wasn’t riding it properly. I am considering buying shoes/cleats/new pedals. Also bought X-Files Series 1-9 on DVD for £65 incl pp from EBay which I thought was a pretty sweet deal considering it’s £90 on play.com.

6

Day 8/365 21/07/20008

Wow, had an awesome session of weights

Pull Ups:
Managed 2 full pull ups for all seven circuits which was sweet, did partial negatives for the 3rd although did manage 3 on the first and second.

Dips:
Did it with a 7.5kg weight this week which felt good and powerful, managed to squeeze out 10-15 reps over the circuit

Powerclean:
Put up so more weight, I think it’s up to 57.5kg assuming the 1" bar weighs 7.5kg. Felt better than last weeks.

In terms of food I had my shakes, I was also offered a small hand cake by my boss which I took one small bite of then when turned around I binned it. Cold peanut butter tastes as good as ever. Started seriously considering joining the French Foreign Legion after university.

Day 9/365

Learnt a lesson today; never overfil a shaker bottle that doesn’t have a screw top and attempt to shake it. Boom, nice wet shirt at least the office is boiling and the water will evaporate. Holland and Barrettt have a sale on they are selling Fish Oil 500s at £12 which cost me about £15 for 340 from myprotein arghhh!. Oh well my caps have more EPA/DHA so they are better!. Bought some fructose sweetner to go with my citrus oils. I think I might need to control the use of the coffee machine started getting hot chocolates instead of espressos and HC definately has kcals in it. I shall STOP!

7

Day 10/365

Every session is in kg

Alternating Dumbell Shoulder Press
20s,20s,20s,20s

Lunge
20s,20s,20s,20s

One Arm Row
30,30,30,30,30

Tricep Extension (dumbell)
25,25,25,25

Dumbell Hammer Curl
17.5,17.5,17.5,17.5

Front Squat
62.5,62.5,62.5,62.5

Bit more weight this time, actually felt better as a result which is good, also the shoulder presses were more controlled. I still feel a bit “new” with the lunges since I don’t normally do them. I am also practising my snatch technique during my warm up although I think I might need to add weight to it as the bar is a bit too light.

8

Day 11/365

I bought some allen keys for my bike to raise the seat as I wasn’t getting full range on my legs which wasn’t nice. Not much happened today I drank my shakes etc also had a really good nights sleep. My Box set of X-Files came although it says on the dvd that there are Eps 1-7 although it only shows four on the root menu, something I’ll have to sort.

9

Day 12/365

This workout was messy nearly really messy all over the flow as well :P. Used Barbell bench my “9” powerclean is right on my barbell bench so was kind of convenient.

Powerclean
57.5,57.5,57.5

Bench
57.5,57.5,57.5

Chin Up
9,7,5

Lat Raise
12.5,12.5,12.5

Row
42.5,42.5,42.5

Crunch
12,12,12

Lunges
20s,20s,20s

Lunges came up although for some strange reason it seems that I decreased the weight for the rows which is annoying to say the least. I was pleased with the chins as I was able to do more which is always good. Today is Operation Find Out Where My Polar F11 Is.

10

Day 13/365

Got pretty bored today. I have started to do a market survey of all the supermarkets in my area for food prices so I know what is cheap.

Oats (1kg)
Bran Cereal (/500g)
Eggs (30)
Fro Fish (/kg)
Fro Chicken (/kg)
Fro Mince (/kg)
Apples
Bananas
Mince 10% (/kg)
Chicken (/kg)
Pilchards
Mackrel
Tuna x4
Baked Beans x4
Brown Rice (/kg)
Pasta (/kg)
Dr Mixed Fruit (/kg)
Peanut But (/kg)
Ryvitta
Cottage Cheese (/kg)
Chedder Lite (/kg)
Potatoes (/kg)
Wheatabix (24)
Yoghurt (500g)
Ketchup (1kg)
Sardines
Fro Veg (1kg)
Whole Milk
Tinned Toms
Squash

That’s what I am looking for.
Polar F11 is still MIA

Day 14/365

Had lunch with my grandmother today at a nice restaurant. My road bike feels amazing having tweaked the handle bar angle.

11

Day 15/365:

Felt really groggy/dizzy when I woke up today but it gradually wore off. Might have been because I took six HOT-ROX by mistake the day the before but I doubt it.

Pull Ups:
Weren’t as good as last week but still about 80% completion at BW.

Dips:
Did it with a 10kg weight this week felt good. Did 11/12 reps each set

Powerclean:
More weight feels gooood 67.5kg felt like lifting a feather

Some arsehole is testing out his base on his car at full whack opposite. Bloody annoying. Replaced my F11 with another F11 for £30 off ebay :smiley:

12

Day 16/365

Burst inner tube in my front bike wheel was a greater bummer on was a great day. I bought a 18-200mm AF-S DX VR nikon lense for £320 which is a sweeeet deal. I also got a lot of more interesting work done as well.

13

Day 17/365

Switched my workout to the morning as I had on a research trip to the Institute of Civil Engineers library, which I must say is an impressive building.

Alternating Dumbell Shoulder Press
20s,20s,20s,20s

Lunge
20s,20s,20s,20s

One Arm Row
30,30,30,30,30

Tricep Extension (dumbell)
25,25,25,25

Dumbell Hammer Curl
15,15,15,15

Front Squat
67.5,67.5,67.5,67.5

I lowered the hammercurl as I wasn’t getting good form with it but the front squat was raised to good effect. I have to clean each time before I squat as I have no rack.

Contemplating buying Maximum Strength for £7.10 on amazon.co.uk for after.

14

LOL Started posting on thefitcast forum a log so decided I can do two things at once.

I am already on Week 6 of Rippetoe’s SS. So here we go:

Weights in KG because we use metric in the U of K. The maxs were done on the Thurs/Fri before Week 1 and then normalised to 1RM on a calculator on a Rippetoe spreadsheet I found on SS Wiki

Weight = 84 approx
Squat 115 1RM
Bench Press 67.5 2RM
Deadlift 145 2RM
Press 52.5 1RM
Powerclean 70 1RM

Anyway yesterday was

Squat
2x5 40
1x5 50
1x5 70
1x3 95
3x5 120 ( I had to sub in front squats for about a week and a half, increase of about 15kg !!, due to getting trap pain which I was told to solve by closing my hands on the bar which I tried today and felt so good)

Bench
2x5 25
1x5 45
1x5 50
1x4 60
3x4 70
1x3 67.5 (Dropped the weight down as the the 70 was not moving)

Deadlift
1x5 50
1x5 60
1x3 120
1x5 140 (My deadlift has not been moving much, having grip issues)

and 90minutes of Ballet

Food (g)
Kcals 3000 excl veggies actually 2995
Fat 133
Pro 212
Carb 252

Today looks like

Morning Mobility with 7.5kg bar

1x8 OH Squats
1x8/8 Lateral Lunge
1x6/6 Reverse OH Lunge
1x8 Sot Press
1x10 Rollover-into-VSit
1x20 Mountain Climbers
1x10 Groiners (squat thrust with legs coming outside shoulders)
1x20 Hip Rotations (lying down, low V-arm placement and rotating knee with calf at 90* in a figure 8)

2x45m Circuits

HR Av 1 = 140
HR Av 2 = 180

Eats

Kcal 2631
Fat 134
Carb 174
Protein 195

Spent £57 on amazon for a new textbook, the watchmen graphic novel and rowing & sculling by paul thompson

15

Woke up at 0630, my legs refused to move so decided to give them till lunch time to recover.

I did shoulder press first as the racks were taken

Shoulder Press
2x5 20
1x5 30 (2x15 dumbells,no plates around )
1x5 35 (2x17.5 dumbells,no plates around )
1x4 42.5
5x3 50 (felt like I had to jerk the first rep to get the weight moving, however this is still an improvement as I managed to do all 15 reps, hopefully by a week on Friday I will be able to do all 3x5 with no momentum)

Squat
2x5 50 (no plates around for 42.5)
1x5 55
1x5 72.5
1x4 97.5
3x5 120 (I was unhappy with the technique at the same weight on Friday so hit it up again)

Powerclean - These hurt
2x5 25 (from the hang)
2x5 50 (no plates around for 40)
1x5 62.5
2x3 72.5 (missed the second rep of the first set, managed to squeeze out 2 sets of 3 but it wasn’t happening and I had been going for 60+ mins so…)
3x5 60 (really quick with like 45s rest)

Met a girl from ballet who said that she was scared of doing weights with big guys around so I suggested that she come at 0730 when I train when no one is around and I can help her out. I will probably do Rippetoe SS with her with rows instead of cleans, not confident teaching them.

16

Went for a 30min run

Max 181 Av 160

A bit too high…

Stopped recording my macros half way through the day, it will probably bite me in the arse tomorrow.

17

There was something in the air this morning which I couldn’t quite make out …anyway

Squat
2x5 45
1x5 55
1x4 75
1x3 97.5
3x5 120 (felt rocked solid going to hit up 125kg next week, it dawned on me that I completed 3x5 of my 1RM+5kg)

Bench
2x5 25
1x5 45
1x3 50
1x3 62.5
1x5 70
3x3 70
1x2 70 (I tried to do 5 on the second set but was never going to do so switched to 3 rep sets, the 1x2 was meant to be a 3 but I failed but I did 16 reps so its ok)

Deadlift
2x5 65
1x5 85
1x3 120
1x5 142.5 (so pumped after)

I did some single dumbbell snatches with a 20kg weight its feels pretty awesome

18

2 minute front plank
1.5 minute plank on each side
2 minute glute plank
2x10 single dumbbell snatch

…then went paintballing all day :smiley:

19

Ok here’s not how to recover from a Friday weights session.

Saturday - Wake up at 0600 do some core, then go paintballing from 0900 to about 1600. Food ate during paintballing 8 cups of coffee/tea, about 300ml of semi-skimmed milk and about 16 sachets of sugar. Came home and had about 100g protein and some fat/carbs. Then went out drinking (1 pint of lager and 4 2xvodka/redbulls) till about 0100, when I crashed.

Sunday - Wake up at 0800 go cycle to my boatclub ~30minutes then go rowing for 60minutes~ then cycle for ~20minutes till my tyre bursts then walk home

Sooooo Monday

Squat
2x5 45
1x5 55
1x4 75
1x3 100
1x5 125
1x5 120
2x5/6 100

Press
2x5 25
1x5 30
1x4 35
1x3 45
2x3 50
3x8/7/6 40

Had no energy for cleans so did rows

Bent Row

2x5 40
1x5 45
1x5 50
1x3 55
1x2 60
3x5 60

20

Tuesday 25th

3x15 Weighted sit up - 45lbs
3x8 Weighted crunch - 45lbs
3x6 Hanging leg raise
3x5 Roll out
2x10 Single Dumbell Snatch

Circuits (just one session)
Max 179
Average 141

I started teaching my friend weights, put some weight on the bar and she can DL at least 110lbs ;D