Squats today.
Warmup
122kg * 1,
132kg * 1,
142kg * 1,
112kg * 5,
112kg * 5,
112kg * 5,
112kg * 5,
112kg * 5,
112kg * 5,
Reps in reserve on most of these sets.
Bench today.
Warmup
115kg * 1,
120kg * 1,
125kg * 1,
130kg * 1,
135kg * 0.5,
110kg * 5.5,
110kg * 4.5,
110kg * 5,
110kg * 3
1hr 45m including a weigh-in with my new scales. Bodyweight is 94.7kg. I also took my bodyfat percentage. I expected it to be between 20 and 30. Apparently, it’s 37.5%!!! This must be erroneous. Oh well, it was useful to have the scale - I checked the weights of the weights that I’ve got, and I found that they were all exact to within 0.2kg, which gives me lots of confidence that they’re a good brand. The weights at the gym vary by as much as 2kg, which isn’t great, but it is advertised on them in fairness.
The 135kg attempt would have been a level PB. I would say though that my level of focus was only around 70%. I have done 9 days in a row now, and I’m starting to wonder if it might be time for a deload. That’s not long, but I always train with a lot of intensity and I’ve been at it every day. Hmmm, I need to think… Let’s go over what I’ve done in the last 9 days.
Tell you what, I’ll do pull tomorrow, deadlifts the day after, and then everything will be roughly symmetrical in this training block. That’ll mean I will have done
Bench 4 times, pull 3 times, squats 2 times and deadlifts 2 times. I’ll then take a break of about 2 days I reckon, see how I feel.
I really reckon after that deload I’ll be hitting PB territory on my bench. Squat and deadlift will be a way off still, but I’ve still got plenty of time to get those up.
If there’s one thing my scales are telling me, it’s that I could still lose a fair bit of bodyweight. I could probably get down to 83kg with a concerted effort. I have made some changes to my diet which are beginning to have an impact. When I get snackish now I nibble on a carrot. Got some pickled gherkins in too which I’m very much looking forward to. And I’m doing more cooking, home recipes, instead of ready-made meals.
Starting the deload today as I feel pretty burned out
Walked the dog
Wow - measured the waist circumference. It’s down to 38 3/8, almost 2 inches down from 15 days ago! I guess the snacking on carrots is really working! And pickled gherkins. Lovely. I am still on the fairly large size by my standards, but I hope that if I keep this up I can be down to a more neat waist size. 34" would be great. I have been that lean in the past. I could probably even dare to go a bit further and get it down to more like 32". Who knows, really. All I can say is whatever I’m doing at the moment is working. It’s true, like the guy said in this thread, losing weight is all about the diet. I’ve got the hard training box ticked anyway.
Deload day 2
Took the dog for a walk. Just had some carrots and pickled gherkins as a snack. Had a healthy lunch too - had lamb’s liver and an onion bhaji. Drinking green tea and redbush.
It’s quite tough not going to the gym actually. It’s on my mind a lot. I’m looking forward to my next phase of working out though. I’m hoping I can bench 135kg, maybe slightly more than that for a PB. It’d be good if I could deadlift 205kg, and then maybe squat circa 155kg.
Back in action today. My aunt got me a new pair of trainers, so I had to do a workout =)
Chins - 2,
3,
8,
6.5,
6,
5
Bench
Quick warmup
120kg 1,
120kg 1,
130kg 1,
135kg 1 (level PB)
136kg 0
We’re entertaining tonight, so I cut the workout there. Now I’m making a chili con carne.
Focus probably about 85% this afternoon. Another day on the deload and it may have been a bit higher.
Damn, 136kg (300lbs) has defeated me twice. It’s like gravity is working hard to stop me joining the 300lb club =) the 135kg was a good solid rep too. Perhaps next workout cycle I’ll get it. Going to put the volume in on my next few workouts before the deload.
I will do deadlifts tomorrow.
I’ve rediscovered milk before bedtime. You can’t beat it. Really helps one get to sleep.
A weary workout today. Deadlifts. Got 190kg, then went for 200kg and the bar just rotated out of my grip. I didn’t go for it again; I could feel that I wasn’t really there for the heavy lifting. I was 50/50 about working out today anyway - I had gone through an appointment with my psychiatrist in the morning which was quite emotional. In truth the deload probably wasn’t long enough too.
I’m wondering about getting a new bar - I think unfortunately the bar has become slightly compromised due to my being lazy about deloading it at the end of a workout. It’s still much better than the bars at Xtreme.
So I just did a couple working sets at 150kg, 4 reps each. My grip didn’t feel good even on these.
I’ll come back. I don’t really know why my bench is so far ahead relatively speaking to my squat and deadlift, by my standards. I think maybe the running I was doing has wasted some of the posterior chain musculature.
Just been doing a bit of surfing on Instagram. It’s given me some perspective. There’s this tiny (comparitively) Asian guy pulling 700 lb. It changed my perspective a bit… I probably look more muscular and I’m pulling 440lb at the moment. When I was younger my emphasis was always to move the most amount of weight with the least muscle. Now I’m older I’m starting to get more interested in building muscle as well as strength for its own sake. I’m grateful that I’m paying more attention to my diet. I think it’s paying dividends in my body composition.
So I can think of myself as a powerbuilder - a cross between a powerlifter and a bodybuilder. Not serious enough to go to either extreme, a happy medium.
All glory be to God.
Bench today.
Warmup
100kg * 4,
110kg * 2,
100kg * 8
100kg * 8
100kg * 7
100kg * 5
90kg * 9
90kg * 8
1hr 15m
So a rep-based workout today. Pleased to hit 8 reps on 100kg twice, that’s definitely the most amount of reps I’ve done at that weight. Not that I was really going for any record.
Ate some shitty food yesterday evening. Regretting it, but it kinda happens at Christmas time.
Chins or BOR tomorrow.
Bent Over Row today.
warmup
80kg 2
85kg 2
90kg 2
95kg 2
80kg 7
80kg 7
80kg 6
80kg 5
70kg 10
Lots of volume for me today. I’m not feeling too sharp at the moment, but I’m sleeping well anyway.
I have been wondering about adding some sugar to my post-workout shake. My intuition has been that it’s unnecessary, particularly if you are looking to stay as lean as possible. That was confirmed by this article here:
Menno Henselmans - optimized workout nutrition
Basically all the studies done in the area have found that if you are ingesting protein after a workout, adding carbs makes no difference to you fat-free-mass gain or your strength.
I used to ingest dextrose with my post workout shake. Oh well, you live and you learn. =)
Squats tomorrow. I don’t think I will go too heavy given the way I am feeling at the moment. I suspect I’ll do some reps with about 120kg.
It’s going to take some time to get my squat and deadlift into PB territory. I reckon it’ll be close against my original goal of doing it by the end of winter. Mean time, I’m hoping my bench can go from strength to strength.
I’m not sure I’ll be doing any more cardio - I really think it’s cramped my strength some. I suppose you just need to decide which side of the fence you lie on with cardio vs resistance training and just go for it.
Squats today.
A real grinder’s workout. Pleased with the outcome.
Squat
Warmup
110kg 2
120kg 2
130kg 1
120kg 6
120kg 4
120kg 6
120kg 4
1hr30m
Surprised myself the second time of getting 6 reps at 120kg. I think the eccentrics were better. If I could describe them they would be ‘linear’ - not too fast, nor too slow. Smooth, even.
Not a huge amount of volume today, but the sets at 120kg were intense - with no reps in reserve.
I’m looking forward to testing my 1RM on this lift soon. Probably in the next training block. Things are shaping up for me to do one more session of squats this training block. I’m thinking of training up until the end of December. So doing 13 days in a row, then taking 3 days off.
I think my New Year’s resolution will be to try and workout 280 - 300 times in the year. Imagine the progress I could make if I kept to that? The most important thing with working out is consistency for me, I have no problem with intensity. But I need to manage myself and give myself the necessary breaks so as to keep myself interested in working out.
The journaling is good. It helps me keep it all together, and is a useful record. Even if nobody else posts here, it’s still useful to have to look back over. And you never know, if I do something remarkable, here’s the proof. I will concede that I’m a bit of a pipe-dreamer at times, but there you go, that’s the way I am.
I’m really curious how much progress I can make in 2020 if I really apply myself.
I will concede that I lost some ground this summer, fell off the wagon a bit, with the holidays. I should have been keener to get back into it but obviously something wasn’t working. I think I wasn’t paying enough attention to my diet - so long as I was getting stronger, I didn’t care what I ate. But the diet is fixed now, and I’m feeling better for it. I’ll look better for it soon.
Gonna watch the end of The Chase now.
Happy days.
Bench tomorrow.
Damn it. Got the shits.
I had this last winter and I was unwell for about 3-4 weeks. God, I hope it’s not going to be like that this time.
Curse it, curse it to hell! Aaaaaagh!!
Happy Christmas T-Nation.
2019 years ago our savior, JC, came into the world.
T-nation remains a great source of information, its articles in particular, but its forum also. When I was first getting into strength training there was the My Protein forum which was a great source of information. However, they’ve closed that down, which was a great shame. I don’t know why, quite.
Which reminds me to be grateful for the things you’ve got. So, God, I would like to say thank you for
- My health
- Family
- Friends
- Income
- Fulfilment
Being ill is hard, but paradoxically it reminds us to remember how valuable having good health is.
It feels like this bug won’t be a long one at the moment. I do very much hope I’ll be back to my better self soon. I’m ok with waiting a couple days to see how I feel. I can still feel my quads from the last squat workout, so I know there will be some training stimulus still there, so hopefully my body is supercompensating.
And I’ve just had a lovely, high-protein Christmas dinner, chicken with pigs in blankets, so that’s all good.
Not feeling my best, I decided to do a workout anyway. I figured that I would be a ways off from setting any PBs or anything, so it might just be good to get back in the arena, as it were.
Bench
warmup
100kg 4
110kg 2
I was then going to go for 100kg and see how I felt. I got 8 reps with this weight last time out, which was a PB. I wasn’t sure whether I would keep some reps in reserve. So I thought I’d get under the bar and see how I felt.
100kg 9
100kg 9
100kg 7
1hr15m
Yep, that’s right, I got 9 reps! A nice surprise. And what was even more surprising is that after racking after the 9th rep in the next set I felt as if I could have gotten 10!
Not a lot of volume, but I want to hold back a bit until I know my gut health is better.
I checked my bodyweight, and it hasn’t gone down, so I’m obviously rehydrating myself well enough.
I’m enjoying doing all this rep work. I think I’m starting to build up quite a solid, well-rounded programme for lifting, that my body responds to. I still think about my 1 rep max a lot, but I’m starting to get it that, in order to progress, you must train differently and periodize what you do, and it helps to not obsess too much over a single number.
It’ll be nice to get 10 reps at 100kg. It’ll be a nice benchmark - I suppose that’s a metric tonne technically =)
But next time out I think I’ll do some rep work with 110kg to keep the body adapting.
For anyone interested in ‘the long game’ here is a guy who is 82 and is still ‘ripped’, and has been almost all his life. There’s lots of wisdom there I’m sure.
Still a bit unsure where I’m at. Was up several times in the night. Anyway, I don’t suppose you want to read much about that!
Bent over row
Warmup
80kg 3
90kg 3
80kg 9
80kg 8
80kg 7
1hr 10m
Just a low volume workout to keep things ticking over while my body is battling this infection.
Deadlifts tomorrow. I just hope I get a better night tonight.
A better night. Haven’t ‘gone’ for over 24 hours now. Probably a sign that I’m over the bug! Praise God!
Deadlifts
warmup
150kg 1
160kg 1
170kg 2
150kg 6
150kg 6
150kg 7
1hr 15m
Again a low-volume workout while my health has a slight query over it. I feel like next time I go for it I will be able to eat in to the 200kgs. But as I’ve said before, I’m really enjoying doing some reps. If I make it another day or so without any tummy trouble I might up the volume a bit.
What’s been surprising is the intensity of the workouts despite being unwell. Obviously the bug isn’t too serious. But I guess the lesson is to just keep truckin’ so long as you feel alright. Equally there’s not much point in predicting a PR, just go in on the day, and see how you feel and what happens. That’s not to say that a structure isn’t helpful, though.
Bench tomorrow.
Yep, things appear to be back to normal now. =)
Bench
long warmup
120kg 1
125kg 1
130kg 1
136kg 1 (personal record!)
137.5kg 0 (never mind)
110kg 6
110kg 5
110kg 5
110kg 4
2hr
A long session, and my biggest bench ever!! Woohoo, I’m in PB territory. I’m the strongest I’ve ever been. At least on the bench. I’ll be so stoked when my squat and deadlift catch up too. It’s just a case of keep on pushing on. So as as reminder now my lifts are
Current
Squat 150kg
Bench 136kg
Dead 200kg
Total 486kg
PB
Squat 162.5kg (30/6/19)
Bench 136kg (28/12/19)
Dead 220kg (3/7/19)
Total 518.5kg
I know I’m not going to make up the differences on the squat and the deadlift overnight, it’ll take time and patience. I’ve still got that initial goal I set myself of doing it before winter is out in mind. I think that’s a well judged goal to be honest. It’s a bit of a pity to not be in PB territory for all my lifts at the end of 2019, but it just shows you that you’ve got to respect the iron, or the iron won’t respect you. Faff about and you can’t expect to be pushing your numbers up. In keeping this journal, I had a 2 month gap between September and November. I hope to put that right next year - to work out as frequently as possible and document every workout on here. I think my goal for next year is to have somewhere between 280-300 workouts in the year.
However, I’ve put in a solid 7 weeks of working out on the regular since November 13th. From which I’m benefiting and I feel glad about. But what if I could make that 70 weeks, or 700 weeks? Or even a lifetime? That’s what I’ve got to think about, the long term, as well as setting myself short and medium term goals. I’ve got to get fit and keep fit for the sake of my heart and keeping well for those that love me.
I don’t know quite why my bench has survived my summer lassitude the best out of the three lifts. I suppose the long distance walking and jogging has created some slow-twitch fibres and destroyed some fast twitch fibres in the lower body. I saw on YT that when you run you activate an enzyme called AMPK which is good for stamina and down-regulate mTor, whatever the fuck that means XD
My chinups haven’t endured nearly so well as my bench, either. I was doing about 10, now I’m down to about 8 on the first set. I need to get the belt and start adding weight to this exercise in order to make progress I think. Or doing one-arm eccentrics.
To be honest I’m not sure that my best total I’ve ever had is quite equal to my best theoretical total, I think when I was my strongest my deadlift was slightly behind. I’ll have to go back over the thread and have a look. Yes it was actually, looking back over the thread, the best my total has ever been is 517.5kg on 3/7/19.
Pull tomorrow. I fancy I’ll do some pullups.
I probably should start doing some OHP…
Pullups today. Reps as follows
Pullups
2,3,4,5,7,6,5,5,eccentrics,5,4,4
So lots of sets and volume today. Feeling good about myself at the moment. Got good momentum. I’m thinking God heard me when I said to curse my illness to hell! Definitely all better now.
Squats tomorrow, yey. I think I might be tempted to go heavy. I feel like I’ve got an issue to settle. You can’t keep a good man down.
Well, it’s the 29th December today, which means it’s 7 days since the shortest day. The days are getting longer, but very slowly. Today was 3 minutes longer than the shortest day. What I tend to do this time of year is follow the numbers closely, ticking off the little victories as they come along. I don’t know if it helps but it’s the only way for me to survive the long, dark winter.
I might be adopting a few more pupils. I have decided to do A Level work pro bono to take the pressure off teaching and make the experience less stressful.
Squats today.
Squats
warmup
135kg 1
142.5kg 1
150kg 1
152.5kg 1
120kg 5.5
120kg 6
120kg 5
1hr 40m
The 150kg rep wasn’t the cleanest. But I got amped up and 152.5kg was nice and solid. At this stage I wondered about 155kg, but I thought that the last effort had probably taken this out of me. Like with the bench the other day, had I gone straight there, I reckon I could have got it, but going via another very heavy weight is a different story. Anyway, 152.5kg is a season’s best and just 10 kilos off my personal best. It’s going to be a good clean race between my squat and the end of winter. If I don’t take any breaks I will be squatting once every 6 days, so 5 times in a month. I reckon I can add 1 kilo each time. So that’s 5 kilos in a month, and 10 kilos in 2. That’s the maths anyway, no doubt the story will be a bit different from that. But we’ll see if we can’t have a 162.5 kilo squat by the end of Feb.
Deadlifts are another story. It may take me longer than 2 months to pull the 220kg again, given where I’m at at present.
I have to say I’m effing loving my training at the minute. I’m still mourning the lost gains in strength like a mother mourns a lost baby, but I’ll get there. And then it’ll be PR city, yeah baby.
Training as a natural is hard. There’s no forcing it, you have to put the time in. The gains will come, but they might not be as fast as you think.
I’ve put my goals on a whiteboard at home. I’ve divided them into short-term, medium-term and long-term as follows:
Short term
Bench PR: 136kg
Squat PR: 163.5kg
Deadlift PR: 221kg
Medium term
Bench 140kg
Squat 180kg
Deadlift 260kg
Long term
Bench 180kg
Squat 220kg
Deadlift 300kg
Total 700kg
So far I’ve got 1 tick - on the short-term bench PR. I expect my next tick will be the 140kg bench. Then it’ll be the squat PR and finally the deadlift PR will fall. After that I reckon it’ll be squatting 180kg. So these are the goals at the moment. It’s good to have goals, it keeps you focused. The fact that you can put a number to everything is what I love about lifting. There’s no bullshitting, everything is quantifiable. I wanted to have a bet with some of my guys that I couldn’t deadlift 300kg but nobody came up to the plate. I guess I just have to find the drive within, and do it for my own sake. I live quite a lonely life. I have no girls I want to impress. I just have one friend who’s really into the lifting too. I don’t even know if I want to bother competing; I might just be happy looking good in a t-shirt or even a tank top when summer comes around.
It’s written in the Bible that the body is a temple. And so shall mine be.
Bench tomorrow.
Bench
warmup
100kg x 4
110kg x 2
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
120kg x 3
110kg x 4.5
The last rep on the third set at 120kg was the biggest grind over a rep I’ve probably ever had, but I got there in the end and re-racked the weight. There was a slight debate in my mind at the start of the workout whether I wanted to go heavy to 120kg or go for that 10th rep at 100kg. In the end I thought I’d maybe leave that for another day. I’m looking forward to the future when I’ll be able to add an extra rep or two to the sets at 120kg. And a single at 140kg is on the horizon.
Deadlifts
warmup
200kg x 1
205kg x 1
210kg x 1 (SB)
170kg x 3
170kg x 4
170kg x 3
170kg x 3
2hrs
Bit of a banger of a workout today. I halved the deficit on my PB, adding 10kg to my season’s best! I’m glad I went for the 210kg, I wondered if 205kg would be my maximal effort, but it moved with a lot of speed. I really felt the explosive power back in the movement again. I have digressed from my diet of healthy eating. Christmas chocolates have come back in in a big way the last two or three days, and I wonder if the extra calories are responsible for today’s super human strength. Damn, if I ever do a meet, I’m going to eat a lot =)
So that leaves my current total at 152.5kg + 136kg + 210kg = 498.5kg. So I should be breaking 500kg soon and creeping, or bounding up to my previous best of 517.5kg. Shit I’m rather enjoying myself.
That’s 8 days on the bounce. I don’t feel like taking a day or two off yet. Starting to feel the elbows slightly though, so it may be wise to maybe do a deload after another week of lifting.