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Training Log
Training for the Week of August 29, 2011
Sep 5th
My weight has been hovering between 180-183 lb. for several weeks now. I’ve noticed that I feel better at a higher bodyweight. Maybe it is a guy thing. Maybe most people would feel better with more muscle mass instead of worrying about a specific number on the scale regardless of body composition.
I’ve been looking into how to lean out as I would like to work my way down to a lower body fat percentage. I’ve never made a real go at this before so it’s new territory for me. Most of my dietary changes over the course of my life have been concerned with increasing food quality or the amount of food I eat in a day. Keeping up with the number of Calories I’ve eaten or the macronutrient breakdown of that food has never stuck with me for very long. I keep wanting to change the game plan and I know that doesn’t work, but it is so tempting to try and incorporate aspects of a variety of diet plans to come up with the magic ‘silver’ bullet. Discipline and consistency. It’s that simple and that hard.
Training has been going well. When I got started back to lifting this summer I tried to stick with a linear progression a la Starting Strength as long as I could. Without a power rack I was left to sub in front squat for squat and drop off bench press for extra press sessions or a variation of the press. Main issue I had with this setup was the duration of the workout sessions and just feeling drained afterwards. Starting this week I switched over to the Wendler 5/3/1 program as best I can with the equipment I have. I’m working with the Boring but Big assistance setup. The four lifts I’m focusing on are: front squat, press, deadlift, and push press. For the Boring but Big assistance lifts I switch over to squat after the front squat working sets and press after the push press working sets. I’m really liking this setup so far. I can focus on one main lift for the workout session and then focus on weaknesses or other areas of improvements with the assistance movements. Here’s how training looked this week.
Monday, August 29, 2011:
Front Squat: 5@60kg (132 lb.)
5@60kg+10 lb. (142 lb.)
15@70kg+10 lb. (164 lb.)
Squat: 5×10@70kg (154 lb.)
Good Mornings: 5×10@40kg (88 lb.)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011:
Press: 5@50kg (110 lb.)
5@50kg+10 lb. (120 lb.)
11@60kg (132 lb.)
5×10@40kg+5 lb. (93 lb.)
Pullups: 2×5@BW+45 lb.
3 singles @BW+70 lb.
5×10@BW
Barbell Shrugs: 2×40@70kg (154 lb.)
Thursday, September 1, 2011:
Deadlift: 5@100kg (220 lb.)
5@110kg+10 lb. (252 lb.)
12@130kg (286 lb.)
5×10@100kg (220 lb.)
Hanging Leg Raise: 5×12@BW
Friday, September 2, 2011:
Push Press: 5@50kg (110 lb.)
5@60kg (132 lb.)
15@60kg+10 lb. (142 lb.)
Press: 5×10@40kg+5 lb. (93 lb.) – Used Fat Gripz for last 4 sets.
Chinups: 5×10@BW
Bent-Over Row: 3×10@40kg+5 lb. (93 lb.) – Used Fat Gripz here as well.
Pushups (ballistic, dynamic, whatever): 3×10@BW – Hands and feet elevated about 10 inches with plates. Start with hands on the ground and then push up quickly to catch yourself on the plates.
Training for the week of Monday, July 4, 2011
Jul 10th
Been continuing to eat more food as I started in mid to late June and it has shown on the scale. I’m eating big meals along the paleo line with extra carbs from sweet potatoes and then sneaking in protein shakes with coconut milk in between meals. This is working really well for adding bodyweight. I’ve been teetering around 178 lb. lately which is about the highest bodyweight I’ve seen in my life. I have to admit though from being as low as 160 lb. just over 18 months ago to being around 170 lb. for the past year it is weird to see the scale climb bit by bit over the past several weeks. It almost invokes a panic that I’m getting fat. I’ll take some tape measurements soon to see where the mass is going to, but from the mirror it looks like a good bit is headed into muscle. My goal is to hit 180 lb. before tweaking the diet to reduce bodyfat. I’ve never been super lean before, but I have never really given it a go to try and get lean. I wanted to make sure I was eating plenty for a while before trying to lean out with any diet changes. My goal right now is to eat plenty of food and then some.
Weight graph for the past few weeks:
Training for this week was a bit time compressed with the holiday on Monday. I ended up not lifting as planned on Monday and moved Monday’s workout to Tuesday. Also, this week I picked up my Hi-Temp bumper weights which had been on order for a while. I was originally trying to get the weights in the proper colors used by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), but Hi-Temp was having trouble getting the materials in for the coloring process. So, I had to get them in black if I wanted to use them soon. The weights came in metric weights: 10, 15, 20, and 25kg which works out to: 22, 33, 44, and 55 pounds respectively. The bumper weights were back home in time for a snatch and power clean session on Friday.
I’ve been maxed out on the weights I had available for deadlift as it took everything I had to hit 300 lb. Now with the bumper weights I will be able to add weight to the bar and see if I can’t break some PRs.
Tuesday, July 5:
Press: reps of 5-4-3-3 at 140 lb.
Wednesday, July 6:
Deadlift 2 sets of 5 reps at 300 lb.
Friday, July 8:
Snatch: Worked up to a heavy single at 60kg (132 lb.) and then 3 sets of 1 rep at 50kg (110 lb.)
Power Clean: 5 sets of 3 reps at 90kg (198 lb.) – Really felt good to hit some power cleans, I’ve missed doing those.
Pullups (neutral grip): 3 sets at 10 reps
Ring dips (supersets with pullups): 3 sets at 10 reps
