2 March
“EDT kicks my ass a fifth time”
mobility warmups
PR Zone 1:
Front squat 37.5kg: 6x5, 4x4, 1x5, 1x3 = 54 reps
Pullups (assisted) bw-27kg: 4x5, 2x4, 6x3 = 46 reps
PR Zone 2:
Military press 25kg: 4x5, 2x4, 4x3, 1x2, 3x3 = 51 reps
Seated cable rows 43kg: 4x5, 4x4, 5x3, 1x4 = 55 reps
cursory stretching
Half pleased half displeased. I’m especially happy with the front squats. I did really well on the first PR zone; I don’t know what the hell happened with the second. 
Glad to see it’s kicking your ass! I’m looking forward to trying this EDT thing. How many times a week are you up for this? I have to fit it in with one OL day, so I’m curious as to what your weekly schedule looks like.
Are you sore or just tired LOL
db
6 March
I kick EDT’s ass for once!
(took a couple of days off because I was feeling depressed…came back stronger)
Zone 1:
Snatch-grip deadlifts 55kg: 15x5 = 75 reps
Dips (assisted) 44kg: 6x5, 9x4 = 66 reps
Zone 2:
Pin press 35kg: 3x5, 1x4, 3x3, 1x2, 2x3, 1x2, 4x3 = 50 reps
Power curl from hang 26.5 kg: 4x5, 5x4, 1x3, 2x4, 3x5 = 66 reps
[quote]dianab wrote:
Glad to see it’s kicking your ass! I’m looking forward to trying this EDT thing. How many times a week are you up for this? I have to fit it in with one OL day, so I’m curious as to what your weekly schedule looks like.
Are you sore or just tired LOL
db[/quote]
I’m trying to do it 3 days a week but my schedule is all messed up. The Munich trip has been shifted forward and now I’m leaving Sunday!
My shoulders have been really sore after the military press/front squat day and my hamstrings somewhat sore after deadlifting. Otherwise I am just tired…after the workouts I feel too tired to stretch or do anything. The back and forth between deadlifts and squats three days a week does feel like a bit too much for me currently and I’ll probably do something different when I get back. I might stick with EDT, just try to find a way to make it work for my body a little better. I like the challenge of racing the clock; I am slow by nature.
I did yoga yesterday but I’m still not getting it in as often as I’d like.
13 March: 10x fingertip pushups!
Well, I came back from Europe with some kind of cold/flu sickness. It’s a chest cold too, with lots of wooziness, so even though I really wanted to go to the gym yesterday I stayed home. I’m feeling too poor for the gym today too. So this has turned out to be a much longer break than anticipated.
My bodyweight has eased down to 63kg and I’m mildly worried that’s muscle loss but I try to remind myself that two weeks out of the gym is not such a huge setback. Currently I’m trying to decide what program to do next. I’m considering:
Lose The Fat, Keep The Strength:
Escalating Density Training For Body Comp Breakthroughs
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=238edt2
I’m not sure I really need the fat loss that badly now and fat loss seems kind of easy but I did enjoy doing EDT and like the idea of doing more. I also considered going back to the EDT I was doing before the trip since I only did it three weeks but at the same time it does feel like time for something new.
Another round of WS4SB3, cause it rocks.
The new pullup program from MWA. Last I checked I can only do 2 bodyweight pullups.
Hey Saan!
I had to stop by your thread after I saw your post on the Wicked thread.
Amazing progress and great taper.
So I am assuming you lost the 50 on the AD and you incorporated heavy lifting?
Had you done any lifting prior to starting or played any sports?
really great job! I am working now to build my shoulders up so I am always noticing those first on a person.
Celeste
My cold was not quite gone yesterday but I was frustrated with being out of the gym for so long unintentionally so I decided to go in and do a low volume “easy” day.
22 March
mobility warmups
Overhead squat: 20kg/5 5 5
One arm offset overhead squat: 15lbs/30lbs/5 5 5
Parallel-grip pullups: 4 2 4 3 3 2 2
Fingertip pushups: 10 10 10
Inverted rows: 5 5 5 5
King deadlifts (bent knee to floor version): 5 6 6 6
stretching/yoga
20 bodyweight pullups! Woo! My biggest set previously was 2 and most done at once <5.
[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
Hey Saan!
I had to stop my your thread after I saw your post on the Wicked thread.
Amazing progress and great taper.
So I am assuming you lost the 50 on the AD and you incorporated heavy lifting?
Had you done any lifting prior to starting or played any sports?
really great job! I am working now to build my shoulders up so I am always noticing those first on a person.
Celeste[/quote]
Hi Celeste,
Thanks for stopping by; the compliments are of course great to receive. 
I lost the 50lbs basically following Berardi’s Seven Habits:
http://www.T-Nation.com/article/diet_and_nutrition/7_habits_of_highly_effective_nutritional_programs&cr=
with let’s say 75% adherence. Lifting heavy was the easy part because I got totally addicted to lifting weights. 
I had never lifted weights before last April. I don’t really have a sports background; I played a few sports as a kid and I did African dance and yoga in my early 20s. I got really out of shape in my late 20s; I’m a writer so I tend to spend all day sitting in front of the computer.
My shoulders are naturally small and sloping so I’ve been working on them a lot. Also I just think overhead strength is cool. I feel like I have a long way to go with them, actually. The one thing I did that seemed to make them grow noticeably was 3 sets of 20 rep DB presses.
Saan,
Fantastic thread! Amazing progress girl. Do you have pics of your legs? How is the lower body coming along? You have a drop dead gorgeous back 
B-3
25 March
Parallel-grip pullups (done throughout the workout): 4 3 2 1 1 1 1
BB bench press: 25kg/6 30/6 35/4 40/3 45/3 47.5/2
Seated cable row: 43kg/8 36/10 36/9
supersetted with
Face Pulls: 32kg/10 36/10 41/8
Overhead shrugs: 40kg/10 40/10 40/10
Chinups: 1
EZ bar reverse curls: 19kg/8 19/8 19/8
[quote]BodyBldgBabe wrote:
Saan,
Fantastic thread! Amazing progress girl. Do you have pics of your legs? How is the lower body coming along? You have a drop dead gorgeous back
B-3 [/quote]
Thank you. Jeez all these compliments are going to my head a little bit. 
I have one photo of my legs in my profile but it’s not a great photo. They have definitely gotten nicely muscular but they lack the definition I have in my upper body, unsurprisingly, since I have a bit more fat on my bum and thighs. That photo of my back is from my first attempt at posing, ever, ha. I will try to take better photos at some point fairly soon.
26 March
Handstand practice (verdict: keep practicing at home and do more pre-handstand yoga)
Foam & tennis ball rolling
27 March
Single-leg squat: 8 6 7 3
Split squat front foot elevated: 30kg/10 30/10
Pull-throughs: 55kg/12 59/10 59/12
Parallel-grip pullups: 3
L-seat static holds: 20s 17s 17s 10s
Earlier in the day I held my entire bodyweight up by my fingertips for a few seconds in the tuck position–as I moved into the L-seat I lost it. This has been the intent of all the fingertip pushups I’ve been doing. It looks like it’s working so I will keep at it.
I didn’t get to do leg raises because of idiots being idiotic in my gym; not going to tell the story because it just makes me angry.
I don’t think I outlined what I’m doing now–playing fast and loose with WS4SB3 (because I feel very comfortable with this template now) by modifying it to include strength skills practice. I’m going to stop doing pullups in their place in the program because I was having to use the assisted machine to get into the proper rep ranges. I think I’ll do much better with only bodyweight pullups and a higher frequency. Same for all these strength skills, I think, plenty of practice is in order.
Skills I’m currently working on:
Handstands (eventual goal is a handstand pushup but I still have a long way to go)
Headstands (pretty easy but good balance practice for handstands)
L-seats (goal: fingertip L-seat 30 seconds)
Hanging leg raises (legs all the way up to the bar)
Fingertip pushups (adding reps, working to get the strength to hold L-seat on fingertips)
Pullups of all sorts (adding reps)
Single-leg squat (adding reps)
I injured my tiny, weak, wimpy right wrist doing L-seats. I have a history of problems with my wrists–repetitive stress injuries from playing piano and typing as well as a lifting injury to my left wrist last summer. This is healing rather quickly as these things go and I’d doing all I know to speed recovery. I knew I couldn’t do my RE upper day as planned but I decided to do a left side only day–my left arm is weaker and smaller than my right anyway, so I figure it can’t hurt. This way I can stay on schedule, too, doing a ME lower day on Mon. and hopefully being healed well enough for ME upper on Wed. In the meantime I am going to re-read some grip and forearm strength articles and see what would be sensible to do right now to work on strengthening my wrists. Maybe I’ll buy some wrist wraps too.
29 March
“the left hand path”
One-arm wall pushup: 10 (easy!)
One-arm table pushup: 10 (just enough challenge; I like these and I can use them to progress to real one-arm pushups)
One-arm bench press: 7kg/20 12/15 13.5/15 16/15 16/15
One-arm military press: 16kg/10 17.5/10 19/10 19/10
One-arm curl: 11.5kg/10 13/10 13/10
Modified DB snatch: 14.5kg/20 18/15 18/15
It felt pretty weird to work the left side only. I added the snatches at the end to try to give the rest of my body a little more work. A better weight would have been 16kg for 3 sets of 20. The 18kg was a little insanely heavy in my hand near the end of the sets.
1 April
Single-leg squats: 6 6 6 6
King deadlifts: 6 6 6 10
Reverse hypers: 10kg/15 10/15 10/15
Forearm plank: 2 min.
My wrist was still bothering me so I decided not to handle the barbell. The bodyweight single-leg squats and king deadlifts are pretty intense so the workout was tough enough anyway. I meant to do three plank holds (the idea is helping stability for handstands) but I didn’t know I would be able to hold it so long–I quit at 2 min. but I probably could have gotten 3. Such a long hold is rather unpleasant; I’d much prefer to be working 30-90 seconds. Next time I’ll put my feet on a bench or table to make it more difficult.
Today is supposed to be ME upper and even though I’m feeling no pain I’m not sure my wrist is ready for it. I want to get to the gym and do something but I have no clue what. Maybe a full-body workout with some upper body movements in higher rep ranges if my wrist will tolerate holding weight. Maybe some yoga and some walking; it is a pretty day and I have been such a slug recently (pollution makes me not want to walk outside and I seem to have some sort of mental block against the treadmills at my gym). I want to be sure not to push too quickly because I’ve done the whole injury/re-injury/re-re-injury path before and I know rest now will get me back at 100% sooner.
Grr . . . so frustrating though, when I’m feeling nearly healed, knowing I have to take it easy. I feel like the last month has been nothing but setbacks. I now have less than 5 weeks until my next trip and I’d really like to work hard before I go because I know it will be difficult to keep to regular workouts when I’m bouncing around the US for three or four weeks.
4 April
“Tomb Sweeping Day training”
Parallel-grip pullups (done throughout the workout): 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 (= 15)
Front squats: 20kg/11 30/5 35/5 40/5 45/3 50/3 50/3 50/3
Seated cable rows: 36kg/10 36/10 43/8
supersetted with
Pushups (on fists): 10 10 10
BB reverse lunge: 20kg/10 30/8 35/8 35/8
Donkey calf raise: 15 15 15
My wrist is healing nicely but there are still a number of exercises I’m not ready for. I’m only following WS4SB3 in the vaguest way now but I don’t know how else to work around the injury. I just hope I’m doing a decent job with my modifications.
It’s been a while since I’ve front squatted–previously I was using 65kg but I felt a bit wobbly at 50 yesterday so I stuck with that.
(reverse lunges)
Leg photos were requested and I still don’t really have any but I did have some photos taken yesterday to help check my form and they are leg action photos.
(front squats)
I have really cool facial expressions at the bottom of my squats.
6 April
Step-ups: bw/8 20lbs/8 20/8 20/8
Parallel-grip pullups (throughout workout): 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 (=16)
Pull-throughs: 64kg/12 68/10 68/10
Pushups (on fists): 11 11 11
Face-pulls: 41kg/10 41/10 41/10
Hanging leg raise: 10 10 10
One-arm military press: 30lbs/6 30/6 30/6 30/6
This was pretty tough. My list of “off-limits” exercises is now cleans, dips, curls, l-seats, anything with hyperextended R wrist (like pushups) and just about any upper body BB movement. I feel pretty uncertain doing this intuitive, make-it-up-as-I-go-along plan. I’m sure it is good practice developing my own workouts but still . . .
My wrist is almost entirely healed now; I can even do regular pushups with hyperextended wrists. I left curls and overhead shrugs out yesterday, though, as I didn’t feel my wrist was quite ready for them. Hopefully the wrist will be feeling strong enough next week.
9 April
almost-ME Upper
BB bench press: 20kg/11 30/5 35/5 40/5 45/3 45/3 45/3
Fist pushups (feet on bench): 8 8 8
Seated cable row: 43kg/10 43/10 43/10
supersetted with
Face-pulls: 41kg/10 41/10 41/10
BB shrugs: 70kg/10 70/10 70/10