Quagmire911 Lifting Journal

[Quagmire911]

Yeh good and bad days, and good and bad weeks/months...where does it lead.

Thanks for the input Don.

 

[Quiksilver]

It sucks being weak doesn't it?

Every time I read your journal I see you're icing injuries and trying to heal wounds.. maybe a month off lifting is in order? keep the light daily cardio and a couple intense sessions, and maybe a light fullbody workout once a week. That should heal any nagging war wounds you still have.

I just got over a groin injury from touch footie, so i'm a little weak now too

 

[MrS]

BAD MONTHS?
DELOAD
CNS FATIGUE
NOT PRIMed.

 

[Quagmire911]

Thursday

Not a bad session today, probably on a count of cutting the alcohol way down on last week. Knee is feeling a bit better, will just have to avoid squats for a while. Not a fan of them anyway Here it is:

Wide stance gm's 65kgx5 75kgx5 90kgx15 PR? -Think this might be a PR. Quite pleased with it. Had the desire on this set, which is something I have been missing. I actually loaded an extra 5kg on than I thought and only realised after. Can really feel my glutes worked again after doing this.

Leg press 140kgx6 150kgx15 -This is a different leg press than the one in the other gym. When you push the sled goes up at a 45 degree angle, so I think it is harder than the other one.

Kneeling rollouts 2x5 -Worked on doing these slowly and controlled.

COC No.2 R 1x2 x3- Nearly got a third close.
L1x1 x4- Nearly got a second close. I may purchase a COC 1.5 for christmas. The jump between one and two is too large- I haven't really made much headway in the last 5 months.

Chin hold- 62s

Well that was it. Actually kind of enjoyed the session today which was good. Not much else to report. Until next time...

Quagmire

 

[Quagmire911]

Monday

Got a cold on Friday which is still lingering a bit, not quite as bad as it was. Should be back to normal in a day or two. Wasn't too bad considering. Here it is:

Bench 85kgx4 70kgx10- The weights felt better today after the deload last week. My numbers have dropped of a touch though, not really in the groove with this at the moment as I haven't been doing it as much. Will see how things progress over the next few weeks. My overhead press is well up to par compared with this now so I should probably concentrate on this. I still want to make headway with the press though. After this I was trembling kind off, think that means the CNS took a hit and wasn't use to it. Form didn't feel spot on, as I say I wasn't in the groove. Felt like shoulders were taking too much of the strain. I reckon my tri's are weakpoint.

Kroc rows 40kgx8x8- These felt good.

Left it at because I was feeling kinda shaky as I said.

The knee has progressed further and feels nearly 100%. Same with the right shoulder. So fingers crossed in a few weeks I'll be good as knew and can give it hell in the new year. Going to try and keep the reps a bit higher in the meantime.

That's all for today, until next time...

Quagmire

 

[Quagmire911]

I wanted to update my current PR's:

Deadlift 155kgx6 160kgx3 185kgx1 (407lbsx1)
Squat 92.5kgx21 122.5kgx5 140kgx1 (bit below parallel) (308lbsx1)
Front squat 100kgx3 (220lbsx3)
Bench 90kgx5 102.5kgx1 (226lbsx1)
Overhead press 60kgx8 65kgx5 72.5kgx1 (160lbsx1)
Good morning 90kgx15 105kgx5
COC No.2 1x3 (Right hand)
Leg press 160kgx12 -Flat sled

As of 4th December 2008.

Progress has been treacle slow for some time, thats what happens when you drink a lot. I fear that I have actually regressed a bit in the last month or so because of how much drinking there has been. This week and last week have been cut well back and I definitely feel the difference bodily.

I am thinking to log my drinking in here so as to be held accountable- and I will be honest. This week has been:

Monday - 11 units (Bottle of wine+beer)
Tuesday- 0
Wednesday- 0

I had a kind of realization on Monday, or should I say Tuesday once I had sobered up. Thinking what the f*** was I doing, what had been the point. I didn't even enjoy drinking that night, and it was more for escapism which is just bulls***. I don't really have anything set in stone, I just intend to drink less, and less frequently. If I'm in the house and want some Bulmers, which I love, I'll allow one bottle (2.6 units) now and then. Hey- studies show those who consume roughly that amount everyday live longer . If I am out with mates then maybe one day a week have three bottles. Occasionally I'll have more (hint- hogmany/new years eve ). Although I may take January off.

As for the numbers, in the near future (3 months or so) I want to hit a 250 bench, 440 dead, 180-185 overhead press (or whatever bw is). I couldn't actually give a toss about the squat. My bench is probably around 210 at the moment, but it should recover quickly over the next few weeks. Don't know about the dead, haven't done it in long enough.

Well there it is. Time to make the weights my b*tch again. Off to the gym in around 12 hours, now it is time for bed. Later,

Quagmire

 

[Quagmire911]

Thursday

Definitely feeling the difference having cut back on the drinking. Felt strong again today and everything was easier. Here it is:

Deficit deadlifts 140kgx8 - I reckon it was about a 1" deficit. I would have done normal if I could, but these plates are s***. I also had to contend with my feet and the bar sliding on the carpet, and my grip slipping on the s****y bar. So the circumstances weren't ideal, but I made do. Quite happy with how it went taking the circumstances and deficit into consideration. Once the other gym is revamped I'll be interested to see what I can do on a platform with a good bar and from the right height. 155kgx6 is the number to beat. I was going to post a video of the set, but it is taking far to long to load up on youtube. Maybe another day.

Leg press 155kgx21 PR- Don't know what the hell happened here, up massively on last week, and last week was hard. Not complaining. This is a PR and it is on the 45 degree sled. Happy.

Kneeling rollouts 2x8- These felt better this week. Slow and controlled.

Blob lift 22.5kg 2x15 - Tryed this out with a dumbbell loaded on one side. Felt like good conditioning for the posterior chain, it was a bugger.

Well a much better session today. Slightly annoyed at the equipment at hand, but what can you do. I am interested to see how Monday will turn out now that my test levels are coming back online. Pretty excited to see what can happen over the next few months if I am sensible with the drinking.

It is post workout and I am having two breasts of chicken, peas, and then three big pancakes with cream and jam (yum ). I am going to have one Bulmers later on so that is 2.6 units. So:

Alcohol-2.6

On another note my weight was 179.4 today which is down around three pounds over the last few weeks. The only real change has been the addition of green tea in the last month- so hears hoping its all fat. No doubt I will lose fat a lot more easily now that the drinking has been cut substantially. Waist in the morning is currently 35"-35.5", which is down a tad in the last month I think. I'll know I'm on the right tracks when i'm under 35" again.

Well that is all for today, until next time

Quagmire

PS-Injuries are continuing to fade.

 

[frenchbeauty]

Bench 90kgx5 102.5kgx1 (226lbsx1)

Man two plates Nice Quag

Btw I used to be drinking a lot too last year.. messed up with my energy levels and mood. I now limit it to once a week, glad to see that youre trying to cut down.

 

[Quagmire911]

Bench 90kgx5 102.5kgx1 (226lbsx1)

Man two plates Nice Quag

Thank you, but three will be better...

 

[Quagmire911]

Ok here is the alcohol count:

Friday: 14 units -Bit high, but I managed to stop here. Usually would have kept going, so its a start. Not to concerned about this as I had the weekend before I was in the gym again.

Saturday: 0 -Working

Sunday: 7 - Just got home from work and having been in last night as well I felt like a reward. So a bottle of Bulmers and 100ml or so of Baileys on ice which I think is reasonable. EDIT- Was bad and had another one.

I'm doing better, had a bit more on Friday than I intended but there it is. The main thing is that I have it back under control. Feel free to comment if you disagree . Until tommorow...

Quagmire

 

[Quagmire911]

Tuesday

Felt a bit groggy upon waking yesterday and was out last night, so I went in today. Went alright. Here it is:

Bench 90kgx3 72.5kgx10 -Fairly happy with how this went. Going to take it back to 85 next week and try to beat 4. I think this shows a slight improvment on last weeks 85kgx4. My best is 90x5 so I amen't too far off that.

Kroc rows 45kgx8x8 -The weight was more what it should have been than last week.

DB oh press 25kgx8 -Only did one set as I was starting to feel beat up. Don't want to let my overhead strength suffer whilst I work on the bench. Still had a couple in the tank at this weight.

Well that was that. My right shoulder is feeling pretty decent, I pretty much have full range of motion in it again. Just have to be cautious with it, I feel very slight twinges when doing explosive stuff so it probably isn't quite 100% and liable to re-injure if I get carried away. The knee seems to have hit a wall in the healing process. I only feel pain in it when my leg is at certain angles. I am thinking of going to the doctor although I don't know how much use that will be. I suppose it hasn't really been long enough to start considering other options. If I have the cash I'll get some cissus around christmas.

Weight was down another pound this week to 178.5ish. Sometimes I think I am getting fairly lean again and othertimes I don't see a difference. If the pound a week keeps up and I go under 175 there should be a noticeable difference. Either that or I am losing muscle.

That is all for today. Not sure when I will be in next, maybe Friday this week. Until then...

Quagmire

 

[Quagmire911]

Friday

Decent session today. Here it is:

Good mornings 65kgx5 80kgx5 100kgx12 PR -Pretty happy with this. I thought my form looked not bad. Here is the video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2jzWg0zq_vM

Leg press 120kgx5 140kgx5 165kgx10 PR- This was hard.

Kneeling rollouts 2x10 - Good stuff. These are getting pretty good. Need to find a way to progres to standing rollouts, I must do one! Got a video and don't see anything wrong with form.

Well thats it. Not much else to report. Knee is pretty much the same. Have been doing a bit more walking in the last week or two which is good.

That's all for today, until next time...

Quagmire

 

[kickureface]

nice form on the GM!

wtf are rollouts?

and wait what hpapen to knee?

 

[Quagmire911]

Thanks.

These are rollouts:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tg1YDlTvSQM

Although I am doing mine from the knees, standing are much harder.

My knee has been problematic for a while. Not sure what is going on.

 

[Quagmire911]

Well,

First time in a while. Things have been slow on my end, as they have been for a long time. I haven't been logging as there hasn't really been a point. I'm pretty much where I have been for the last year or so. The reason for this is a lack of discipline as anyone who has followed this log will know. Not much point in posting outwith this log as everything that has needed to be said has been, and there are great resources such as ironaddicts.com etc.

This year I've done around a 200x1 bench, and could have managed a bit more. Deadlift is around 350-375. Haven't squatted in 4 months or so on account of the knee, although I did 130ish for a rep this year and it went up like nothing was there. The highlight this year was equalling my 143x5 overhead press, if that is a highlight. So i'm not too far off my peak. I'm currently going to the gym every few weeks or so and maintaining what I have strength wise. Doing some pressups and chinups at home for some endurance stuff to work on something new. Doing a bit of jogging as well to bring up the cardio, although I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago and its just getting back to normal. There has actually been progress with the endurance stuff, maybe I'll log it. Weight is still 180-185 and probably 15% bf.

So yeh, as I say. I haven't been properly progressing strength wise for some time, so there is no point in me laying out what I do. Maybe I'll put in the endurance stuff for a change. Quagmire will be back though, and 3/5 will fall on the bench and dead. F**k the squat. Although I am determined to make 4 my ***** too.

Until next time...

Quagmire

PS- Come to think of it, I think I made a 175kgx21 leg press which is a PR, although I've used three different machines this year which f**ks with things.

 

[JohnnyIrish]

Yeah I hear ya squat wise.. I have the same problem lately. The fish oil and glucosomine/condroitin/msm help but not enough to do squats

Anywho good to see your alive and still have your goals buddy!

 

[Quagmire911]

Wednesday- The revival

I've been off the wagon long enough. I am determined now. I want to dead 500, bench 300, and overhead 200, as soon as possible. I still want to squat 400, but I'll have to feel confident with the knee before I approach that. Should probably get an xray. Drinking a lot has taken a rather unfavourable toll on my body composition. I could probably drop a stone in fat quite comfortably. Last I checked a few days ago I was hovering around 184-185. I'm not fully decided on my approach weight wise yet. I may just start dowing the calories and going north again to get these numbers fast. I'm not happy with the muscle mass I have. Dropping the stone in fat and putting on a stone or two in muscle would probably do the trick. Things still aren't great finanically though so eating clean may be a problem. I have been doing more cardio lately though, so with the drinking out of the equation for the most part my metabolism will be reved up. I may end up recomping.

Anyway, I have decided to follow Wendler's 5/3/1. I will be following this:

Day one

Deadlift Starting with max at 150kg
Hip machine work
Ab work
Overhead press Starting with max at 60kg

Day two

Bench Starting with max at 80kg
Chins
Pressups/DB presses

On last set do more reps if it is not difficult, but stop 1-2 reps short of failure.

Week 1:

80% x3
85x3
90x3

Week 2:

75x5
80x5
85x5

Week 3:

80x5
85x3
95x1

Week 4:

60x10
65x8
70x6

Deadlift 80% = 120 85%=127.5 90%=135
75% = 112.5 80%= 120 85%=127.5
80%=120 85%=127.5 95%=142.5
60%=90 65%=97.5 70%=105

Overhead press 80% = 47.5 85%=50 90%=55
75% = 45 80%= 47.5 85%=50
80%=47.5 85%=50 95%=57.5
60%=35 65%=40 70%=42.5

Bench 80% = 65 85%=67.5 90%=72.5
75% = 60 80%= 65 85%=67.5
80%=65 85%=67.5 95%=77.5
60%=47.5 65%=52.5 70%=55

I'll probably add in a posterior core exercise on day one, and maybe some leg press occasionally. If I do squats I'll add them in after bench work. The max numbers are on the conservative side, this is something Wendler advocates, and is probably for the best initially until I get back into things. Going in and hammering myself wouldn't have done anything today.

Supps will be 1-3g vit c a day, 10g fish oil, 30g zinc. I may get some magnesium as well and a multi, but cash is tight. Although my finances will be bettered cutting back from drinking 5 nights a week.

Cardio will be a mix of stuff.

Thats it, workout to follow.

 

[Quagmire911]

Here it is:

Deadlift 120kgx3 127kg.5x3 135kgx3 - I wasn't to fail and could probably have got a few more reps on the last set, although it felt challenging. My cns won't be up to scratch yet though and hormones will be out of whack.

Hip abducctor 30kgx15 40kgx20 45kgx20- Not bad.
Hip adductor 60kgx15x20 x10 then immediately 70kgx10 - This started off slow but by the last set it had gotten much easier. 70kg is the machine maxed out. Bugger. Need to get some bands or something.

Kneeling rolloutsx5x5

One arm oh press 22kgx3 26kgx3 28kgx3 - These were a touch higher than called for number wise, but I had quite a bit in the tank, so it wasn't an issue.

I didn't bother going for more reps on the last set since it was the first week back. All in all it got the job done.

I've decided that the refurbished gym is actually s***er than the old gym, if this is possible. The bars are terrible, theres even less variety. Set and rep manipulation is the only way I am going to progress here. I'll probably add in two sets of high rep gms or stiff legs on this day. I'll maybe do some leg press after bench work.

Well thats it, nice and simple. Until next time...

Quagmire

 

[Kerpal]

Good to see you back!

I have a question... on your good mornings, are you going to full ROM? I always thought you were supposed to go down until your back is parallel to the floor...

I just started doing these but I've been using a safety squat bar (http://www.elitebarbell.com/C_ss5.jpg) because whenever I do it with a barbell I feel like the bar is going to roll over my head at the bottom.

 

[Quagmire911]

SS bar's are cool, wish I had that luxury.

Here is a quote from Alex on my gm's:

"I go all the way down to parallel on these (i.e. when my back is parallel to the ground) but your way is fine too."

There are a lot of different ways of doing them. I don't really feel comfortable going right to parallel on them, I feel it puts the back in a compromised position, for me anyway.

When I use them, I am usually directly training the deadlift, so I try to mimick the position of the deadlift as closely as possible. This is something Louie Simmons has talked about in his articles.

So doing it this way I can use more weight and the carry over will be greater.

However if I was going to be using it on the same day as deads in a higher rep range as I am considering, I may use less knee bend and go closer to parallel. I would be using a lot less weight this way so the risk would be lower. I'd use less knee bend to take the hips/legs out of it and really focus on the hammies/spinal erectors. Or I may just use my usual, my hips/glutes could probably use the work.

On another note, my weight this morning was 187lbs before eating. I think this is a record, and that is less than a stone of 2 bucks. Strange. I am a bit bloated, most likely water retention from drinking so thats probably a few extra pounds. My waist is in the 37-37.5 range which is a PR, although I still don't look too chubby when standing up, just bloated. I'll see what happens over the next week with the drop in alcohol.

Was going to cut the grass for cardio but the rain came on. Bugger. Will have to figure out something else to do.

Quagmire