A note- I missed Friday to spend time with the girlfriend, and may miss tomorrow for the same reason. Thursday I am leaving with the family on a trip, but I’ll try to fit in a gym visit (no promises) but Friday will most probably not happen. I’ll see if I can get my hands on a gym while I’m gone so I don’t fall behind, but I can’t really say, so this may be a crummy week altogether.
Fucking love the attitude. But dont apologize.
Looking forward to the next updates.
Got back from vacation yesterday. The girlfriend and I took today off, but I’m officially getting my ass back into gear tomorrow. I quit my job on Wednesday, and so have much more control of my diet than I did back then. I can also start going to the gym earlier, and wont really have to skip a day to hang out with a friend or such.
While I still plan on going 5/week, I still am sticking to my “overschedule so I have some leeway” so the girlfriend will still come first if need be, but she also goes to the gym 5/week so it shouldn’t really be a problem. I’ve decided that if I skip a weekday, I’ll try to go on an available weekend.
Now for some good news. My back is doing better. I’ve been able to “pop” my back for the last week or so, which really helps with the stiffness and helps alleviate the pain. It’s getting to the point where I don’t really feel too much pain, but the lack of flexibility tells me it’s still not recovered. What it does mean is that I’m closer to deadlifting. I’ve noticed that it feels better after a day at the gym- more flexible and easier to “pop” so I’m more glad than ever that I’m working out.
Tomorrow I’m benching. Going to work my ass off for the 3x8, but realistically I’ll probably fail. My goal is to move onto 105 lb in two weeks, although realistically it’ll be another month.
When I go back to school the program will be changing. I will reinclude deadlifts, take out shrugs, and adjust my set/rep goals to 3x5 rather than 3x8. I feel that I’ll progress faster this way, and that the lifting heavier will have more of an impact on my strength than the higher repetitions will.
Soemthing else to note, is that now that I have some free time I’m going to try to learn how to cook a few dishes, so that I have more control of my college eating schedule and calorie intake. I’m also going to lower my calorie goal to 2500 / day. After watching my eating and seeing the intense dips and peaks, I realize that 3000 / day may be too much of a jump for me.
I’m not naturally a hungry person, and so I never developed a proper stomach as a result. I tried it in college, and it was easier then to be honest because the food was all high calorie slop, but I’m not going to go for 3000 / day if I have to eat junk food once or twice a day every day.
Rather, I’m going to to aim for 2500 / day, and then up the calorie intake slowly over time. I’ll try to eat as much as I can still, but I think having a more attainable goal will keep my motivation higher and make me work a bit harder, rather than giving up mid day because I know I’ll fail.
Tomorrow I’m going to weigh myself before and after on the gym’s free weight scale and make this my new “starting point.” The goal is to hit 125 lb before the end of August, which I should more than achieve. I want to hit 130 before school, but that may not be possible. I’ve decided that’s okay, I’m going to take everything more slowly. I’m hoping for .5-1 lb/week, and hopefully as I’m able to consume more I can get something closer to 1-1.5 lb/week going for me.
Weight: ~122 lb
I don’t think I’ve lost any- I’m going about three or four hours than I did while at work. The goal is to make sure the number I get next week, no matter what it is, is higher than the one I have so far this week. I’ve gotten about 600 cals in for breakfast today, which is a good start. Especially since I find it difficult to even eat breakfast.
Did some punching as a warmup today, and then straight to the bench.
Bench Press: 100 lb
5/5/3
It may have been 5/5/4, but I do remember not even hitting 5/5/5. On Thursday I’m going to drop back to 95 lb, reassess my form, and then work my way back up. I think that I’ve “forgotten” how far I can push myself on the bench, and the fear of failing is making me stop early. I’m going to see what I can do about getting a spotter.
Calf Raises: 315 lb
3x20
I forgot how much I was doing last time, which is why I returned to 315. Not too bad.
Shrugs: 225 lb
3x20
Like Calf Raises, forgot my previous lift. Needs to be upped.
Not going to lie, forgot to do Rows entirely. I don’t feel too bad about this, because I honestly hate Rows with a passion, but I’ll try to shove them into tomorrow’s workout.
I didn’t forget to do rows today. I was just too physically exhausted to try.
Back Raises: 20 lb
20/15/15
Alright, doing these with a 25 lb plate next time.
Military Press: 75 lb
5/5/3
What I expected, but I think the weight is fine. Here’s aiming for 5/5/4 next time.
Squats: 135 lb
3x8
Form was great. Legs feel absolutely destroyed, much more wasted than they were with the higher weight.
Pull Ups: 20 lb
10/5/5
Gave myself a longer rest period between sets 2 and 3. it is unlikely I will hit 10 reps while using the 25 lb plate to weight these. I should not have tried these after squats- should have done them before.
What kind of rows are you doing? There are so many variations you could probably find one you’d like better.
Sitting Cable Rows.
I used to do bent over dumbbell rows, but my back didn’t really approve, and I don’t think my back will allow for barbell rows.
I don’t really have the mind muscle connection for rows. There’s just no satisfaction to doing them, and I don’t really have a sense of progress when upping the weight.
They’re not necessarily painful or anything, and I don’t hate actually doing the movement, but I kind of hate rows overall. I’ll still do them, but they’re the ugly sister of my exercise selection.
Tomorrow I’m going to the gym with the girlfriend again. She’s going to spot me, so hopefully I can gather the confidence to do a few more reps than normal. Going to aim for 100, I can try 95 next week.
Here’s yesterday’s log:
Rows: 50 lb
3x8
Can’t progress because there’s no more 5 lb jumps, only 10 lb jumps. I’ll add more reps.
Calf Raises: 325 lb
3x20
Add more weight
Bench Press: 100 lb
6/5/5
Okay, so maybe regressing isn’t the best idea right now. They’re doable.
Shrugs were skipped because they’re not very important and I didn’t want to keep her at the gym even longer because of them (we both did rows, then her exercises to make sure she was doing them right, then I did calf raises while waiting for the bench.) She did manage to bench the bar about three times, which is three more times than she could do it before. She’s going to try pushups, and we’ll try again another time.
My legs are still incredibly sore, and I have squats today. This may be a disaster.
I’m postponing today’s gym visit to another day, because my legs are still too trashed to squat anything. I’ll return to the gym tomorrow.
Legs only now feel well enough to do squats, so I went today.
Back Raises: 25 lb
3x15
Much harder.
Pull Ups: 25 lb
10/5/4
Going for 30 lb next time. Can’t wait until I’m adding 45 lb.
Military Press: 75 lb
5/4/3
Squats: 145 lb
2
Squats: 135 lb
5/5/5
For whatever reason I couldn’t go as deep today as I did last week. I think my legs may still be recovering a little. This is why I didn’t add any weight, and it’s also why I stopped early.
Overall kind of a bad day, but it was good to go through the motions.
Had to miss Tuesday, a friend texted and a group of us were worried he was going to do something stupid. We spent the day making sure he was okay. But I did go yesterday (just forgot to log it).
Rows: 60 lb
8/6/5
Went “fuck waiting” and tried 60.
Calf Raises: 335 lb
3x20
These are getting harrrrrd.
Bench: 100 lb
3x6
Next time aiming for 3x7. Or at least 1 more rep than I did today.
Skipped shrugs. May skip them frequently because “fuck shrugs.”
I haven’t been to the gym in a week, and I’m fairly certain I’ve lost a couple pounds. There isn’t really an excuse. I moved my bed and since my face is no longer in direct sunlight, I’m waking up later, as a result going to bed later, and not finding time for a proper gym visit while trying to cram friends in. I’m setting an alarm because I don’t want to slip back into the “wake up at 1 PM” swing of things, especially when I used to get up at 10. My eating’s been shit, and there’s no excuse for that either.
I don’t like how often I’ve been missing. I’m going to set my gym schedule to “whenever possible” rather than M-F because I keep missing. I’m still aiming for at least 3/week. Consider this a more casual log for the time being, I’ll resume training in full when I go back to school. I’ll also make some more changes to the current program.
Back Raises: 25 lb
3x15
Pull Ups: 30 lb
4/3/2
This makes me very sad, but I think I was just underutilizing my legs. I’ll work on 30 lb until I’m ready for 35.
Military Press: 75 lb
5/2/2
Needs work.
Squats: 95 lb
3x8
My legs just couldn’t get down to parallel when doing 145. Not even close. I was even having a little difficulty with the bar. I scaled back to 95 lb. These weren’t terribly difficult, although my legs still do feel a bit beat. More importantly, I noticed some knee pain. Discovered my squat form was off- I’m bending forward with the knees. This probably also means I’m going lower than I have to while squatting, and putting more pressure in the wrong places. I’m going to work on correcting this. Also working on my bar placement for a bit. Expect my squat to be rather low for a few weeks while I work my way up properly. It may be slowed down depending on my knees.
Rows: 60 lb
3x5
Bench: 100 lb
6/5/5
That last rep felt like dying
Calf Raises: 310
3x20
On the leg press because the squat rack was taken, think my form was better though.
How is the gym and eating situation? Where’s the weight at these days?
To be honest, both situations are horrible. All the private colleges in the area are starting, so I haven’t had a day to myself in a while and wont for about another half a week while I try to see them. I can say that after about another week or two it’ll improve, but I don’t think I can regularly keep up good eating and gym visits until I go back to college and get my shit together, because I’m sure something else will come up.
I should feel bad but I don’t. I simply prioritize the people in my life over the gym, and I wouldn’t have it another way. School starts for me on the 26th but I should get there about a week early so there’s about 3ish weeks left of this shitty gym performance before I pick back up. I will most likely get weaker and absolutely get lighter by a couple pounds, I may drop down to about 118 again. I should be able to make up for it though. I’ll start small again- a quarter gallon of milk a day, then a half gallon, three quarters, a full gallon, etc., on top of my meals which I can manage calorically much better over there.
I have access to a stove this year at college- my calorie count should definitely exceed last years and I should start putting weight on again. The goal will be 1 lb/week, and to hit 140 lb by the end of the year (as I expect some weeks to go slack- breaks and finals and girlfriend visits and the like.)
I haven’t weighed myself to be sure though. I’m a little scared to. We’ll find out soon enough.
Tomorrow MAY result in a gym visit, but a friend is going back to Chicago and I have to meet him, so it depends on how tomorrow morning works out really.
When you started your pullups were 8/5/4 but you hit 10/5/5 with 20 lbs. You were squatting 95 lbs, but later you did 3 sets of 8 with 135. If you eat somewhat reasonably I’m sure you won’t lose it all, and whenever you’re ready to really commit I’m sure you’ll see the results you’re looking for man.
Thanks, that makes me feel much better.
Back to the gym today. Weight definitely has dropped but I’ll try to prevent any further dropping. Still okay though, no major drop.
Pull Ups: 30 lb
7/6/4
I think I could’ve gotten 8 on the first rep if I tried for it. The belt is digging into my hips a little, since I have rather pointy hips. That is an annoyance I hope gets remedied with more weight.
Leg Press: 100 lb
3x8
Why the leg press? The only squat rack in the gym was taken, and I knew that I wasn’t going to have a shot at it for quite a while. I figured leg press was better than nothing. I focused on pushing off with my heels, but knee kind of twinged on two reps in the last set. No pain, and it was the other knee- the left knee this time. I set the leg press so that I was pushing off at about parallel, although I know it’s no replacement for squats.
Shoulder press: 77.5 lb
8/6/5
Yes, another machine, as a result of the lack of squat rack. Felt these in my shoulders a good deal though which was nice, although I prefer the motion of the regular military press.
[quote]Reygekan wrote:
I don’t really have the mind muscle connection for rows.[/quote]
You gotta practice man. When I was getting started, I practiced flexing my back religiously and now I have a great MMC even with really heavy weight. Just play around with your back and it’ll easier. Shoulders back, down, chest out, chest tall, elbows to side, yadda yadda. Takes no time at all and it’s all to your benefit. In regard to your bench, you’re really making progress but you’re still pretty light and that’s gonna put a damper on your pressing prowess. What’s your situation in regard to what and how much you can eat? When you say good eating exactly how much food are you referring to?
It’s slowly getting easier, I used to have little feeling back there at all but now I can definitely efel it with heavier weights. I’ll try playing around with my back until it’s easier.
I consider a good eating day to be 3000 calories, with a bad day being less than 2000 calories (often as low as 1500.) I’ve been prioritizing people while back though, and so there’s often times when I don’t get nearly enough meals due to the poor eating habits of other people I know.
Compounding the problem, the rest of my family is Muslim. I, however, am a Muslim. This is relevant because it was Ramadan the last month, and since I wasn’t fasting I wasn’t a priority when it came to what kind of meals I had at home. So there was a lot of salad, and that wasn’t helping.
Although there’s been an improvement, I’ve had fairly good (2000-3000 calories) eating days 3 out of the last 4 days (that’s rare for the summer) and with almost everyone I know at college now I have more time to myself. I should be able to go to the gym again today. I still probably wont be able to hit 5 times a week, but I should be able to go back to 3 times a week and keep my eating up (most of the friends I have left are fatasses.)
Truthfully I have a very small stomach, and I don’t really like food all that much for lack of a better way to put it. I’m going to try and up my eating in baby steps.
My bench is quite possibly the lift that takes me longest to progress on, but then again I haven’t progressed weight wise all summer so that’s very probably related.
[quote]Reygekan wrote:
It’s slowly getting easier, I used to have little feeling back there at all but now I can definitely efel it with heavier weights. I’ll try playing around with my back until it’s easier.
I consider a good eating day to be 3000 calories, with a bad day being less than 2000 calories (often as low as 1500.) I’ve been prioritizing people while back though, and so there’s often times when I don’t get nearly enough meals due to the poor eating habits of other people I know.
Compounding the problem, the rest of my family is Muslim. I, however, am a Muslim. This is relevant because it was Ramadan the last month, and since I wasn’t fasting I wasn’t a priority when it came to what kind of meals I had at home. So there was a lot of salad, and that wasn’t helping.
Although there’s been an improvement, I’ve had fairly good (2000-3000 calories) eating days 3 out of the last 4 days (that’s rare for the summer) and with almost everyone I know at college now I have more time to myself. I should be able to go to the gym again today. I still probably wont be able to hit 5 times a week, but I should be able to go back to 3 times a week and keep my eating up (most of the friends I have left are fatasses.)
Truthfully I have a very small stomach, and I don’t really like food all that much for lack of a better way to put it. I’m going to try and up my eating in baby steps.
My bench is quite possibly the lift that takes me longest to progress on, but then again I haven’t progressed weight wise all summer so that’s very probably related.[/quote]
I understand you have religious obligations. I have times when I don’t eat much myself. The point is being consistent in the long term with your eating and training. Gradually increase your food intake over time. You have to condition your body to handle more food. You’ll always need to start pushing your scope of how much to eat. 3,000 isn’t terrible, but it usually is not a very effective level of intake for most people to really gain. If you want to gain a lot, you have to eat for it. I’m not saying get fat. What I’m saying you’ve gotta eat for the muscle.