Quik's Workout Log

[Quiksilver]

I'll try to get a video camera quag, will have to borrow it but I'll ask around tomorrow. My form is decent for DLs, I have a long torso so it's difficult to find someone to replicate. I guess I'll let you be the judge tho.

What I wrote in that other thread was just what SL wrote, truth be told I don't have a special place for my shoulders.

I forgot to mention in the post above: weight is now below 85kgs, and my progress pics 4 weeks apart show a little less fat on upper abs and my man boobies are also deflating

 

[Quiksilver]

Tuesday, sept 9, 2008

1. Morning cardio
Treadmill, 60 minutes

2. Weighted situps
10x20
10x20
3. Crunches 2x15 @ bw
4. Reverse crunches 2x15

Diet:

4 eggs, whey
250g beef, veggies
4 eggs, whey
4 eggs

Missed a solid meal.

No back pain or soreness, did my stretching and I'm sure this back muscle is healing fast.

 

[Quiksilver]

Wednesday, sept 10, 2008

1. Morning cardio
Treadmill, 60 minutes

2. Incline bench 2x5
5x65
5x65

Felt steady

3. Flat bench 2x8
8x45
8x45

4. Dips 5x5
5x4
5x6
5x8
5x10
3x12.5 (f)

Getting tough, I'm sure the added bodyweight since I did these last year is helping with strength.

5. Standing overhead press 2x8
8x32.5
4x32.5 (f)

6. Side raises 2x12
12x9
12x9

7. Tricep pushdowns 2x15
15x15
15x15

Maxed out the machine, will switch movements next week.

Diet:

4 eggs, whey
250g beef, veggies
4 eggs, whey
250g beef, veggies
4 eggs, whey
1L green tea and like 8 cups of coffee.. Took a coffee making course.
As always, took my pills.

Overall good day despite the disappointing f on OHPs.

Back felt great again. I'll go hard but not 100% on back day friday, and be very careful doing Rows.

Cheers

 

[Lifeforce]

Hey it's great to hear your back is feeling better. Seems the same old wounds always came back to hunt you when you get a back injury. Mine is getting better as well even though i can't deadlift properly at the moment with max weights.

Anyways, just a tip on the rows if you're not doing it. Try to keep the bar close to your legs and pull if you're not doing this. I see so many people having the bar far out from the legs with the lower back ending up taking a massive amount of load from the weight.

Well I'm looking forward to reading the next back day for you. Wish you the best of luck.

 

[Quiksilver]

Yeah there is some truth in that Lifeforce.. If you don't deal with back strains/sprains as soon as they occur, they can keep coming back.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

1. Morning Cardio
treadmill, 60 minutes, 490 calories

2. Ab work, crunches/reverse crunches/weighted situps/bridges.

3. Post workout Cardio
treadmill, 30 minutes, interval training(2min walk/1min run)\

Diet:

same old same old

-shake(4 eggs, whey, green tea)
-beef + veggies
-shake(4 eggs, whey, green tea)
-beef + veggies
-shake(4 eggs, whey, green tea)

 

[Quiksilver]

Friday, September 12, 2008

1. Morning Cardio
treadmill, 60 minutes, 475 calories

2. Deadlift 2x5
5x100kg
5x102.5kg

Warmed up slowly and back felt fine, so i went for the extra yard.

3. Pull-ups
wide: 3xbw
hammer: 3xbw
classic: 3xbw
chin: 4xbw

I had a little more juice but I couldn't focus.. there was a very(VERY) fat chick standing right beside me staring at me while I was doing these. Disconcerting to say the least. There was a moment where I was sure my life was in peril and i was to be her next feed.
-
I'm torn between using the Lat Pulldown machine until I'm strong enough to do pullups for reps, or just fight for each rep for now until I can string together 8 in a row.

4. Bent Over Rows 2x8
8x40kg
8x40kg

I read up on these and checked Youtube for the right form, figured out where I went wrong to hurt myself, and corrected it.

My stance was too wide, I was holding the bar too far from my body, and my knees weren't bent enough.

5. Bicep curls 2x5
5x33kg
5x33kg

I don't know why I did these, at this rep range or that weight. I'm still uneasy at having Chinups and Bicep curls on the same day. The way I want to arrange it is so I have low rep/high weight bicep on monday, and lower weight/higher rep on friday, because from past experience on this program, trying to increase strength with DB/BB bicep curls is hard right after doing weighted chinups.
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Diet:

-6 eggs, 125g beef, 75g kidney beans
-2 scoop whey + 2 cup milk
-125g beef + 75g kidney beans + an orange
-sausage + chicken pasta @ the university restaurant
-1 scoop whey + green tea + kidney beans
-3 eggs

Had some carbs today, partly because it was Back day and I wanted to reduce risk of reinjury, and b/c I had next to no carbs all week. Kept it all clean for the most part, low GI, no sugar/sh1t.

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Very good day on the whole, happy with my deadlift considering the scare last week. Didn't sacrafice anything to the muscle strain and even managed to add a little weight to the deadlift. It should start accelerating in the coming weeks, along with Squats.

cheers!

 

[Quiksilver]

Monday, September 15, 2008

1. Morning Cardio
treadmill, 60 minutes, 485 calories

2. Squats 2x5
5x105kg (+5)
3x105kg (f)

I should have made the second set.. Didn't have any preworkout carbs, was a little distracted, had a headache, and hadn't done squats since I strained my back. I suppose I can make excuses but bottom line, failed a set of squats for the third time ever I'll do the same weight next week to consolidate.

After I hit 2x5x105, only ~40kgs away from PRing again! By the end of January I should be there, latest. This time will be unbelted too, so I don't know what that counts for.

3. Squats 1x20
20x77.5kg (+2.5)

The 19th rep was a little tough, but overall I'm very happy with this considering the failure on squats and the headache.

4. Walking Lunges 1x10
10x35kg (+5)

5. Stiff-Leg Deadlifts 2x10
10x40kg (+20kg)
10x40kg (+20kg)

My lower back was again pretty fried after 20 rep squats so I took a 5 minute break after lunges then did these. Low weight, I know, but it'll go up steadily.

6. Standing BB Bicep curls 2x5
5x36kg (+2.5)
5x36kg (+2.5)

I'm going to do low rep/heavy weight biceps on monday, then lower weight/higher rep DB biceps on friday after chinups. That should do the trick.
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Diet:

cardio
-shake(4 eggs/whey/green tea)
-beef + veggies
-shake(4 eggs/whey/green tea)
-like 5-7 cups of coffee, took my last coffee making class today
workout
-whey + oats
-beef + veggies + 4 eggs

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Very good day, I'm not really disappointed at the squats failure, considering its the first time since the back strain, and I could have had it anyways.

 

[MrS]

You\re 40 kilos away from PRing?
Isn't that a bit far off mate?
good mindset, however, well done!

Also on the 20reppers, it should get hard anywhere from 10-15, you should be grinding them out by the 19th, not just finding it a little hard.

If your back is that fried and you can only do 40kg stiff leg dls, try doing some back extensions, hypers, reverse hypers, glute ham raise, band good morning, or even nothing for the back at all. Just do some abs.

 

[Quiksilver]

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

1. Morning Cardio
treadmill, 60 minutes, 485 calories

2. Weighted Situps 2x10
10x25kgs
10x25kgs

My first time using a DB instead of plates. It's less comfortable but it'll do the trick.

3. Crunches 2x15
15xbw
15xbw

Not sure how to add weight to crunches, holding a plate behind my head might work though.

4. Reverse Crunches 2x15
15xbw
15xbw

Will start to strap plates to my ankles.

5. Bicycles 1x15
15xbw

6. Postworkout Cardio
treadmill, 30 minutes, intevals(2walk/1run)

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I'm not a fan of abdominal work so I just do whatever, after the weighted situps of course. If anyone knows a good core strength program for off-days(tues/thurs), post it up and I'll give it a go.

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Diet:

cardio
-meal 1: 6 eggs
-meal 2: 8 eggs
-meal 3: 250g beef + veggies(double serving)
workout
cardio
-meal 4: 250g beef + veggies + 1tbsp olive oil
supps: 15g fish oil, 6g vit. C, 2xmulti, ran out of vit. E will pick up more tomorrow. Recently added vitamin C so we'll see how that helps.
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You\re 40 kilos away from PRing?
Isn't that a bit far off mate?
good mindset, however, well done!

thanks

Regaining strength is easier than building it for the first time, so I think even I'll be surprised by how fast I reclaim those 40kilos.

Also on the 20reppers, it should get hard anywhere from 10-15, you should be grinding them out by the 19th, not just finding it a little hard.

lol I was playing it off a little.. what i meant was that the 19th rep was where i met a sticking point for a split sec on the way up. Again I have a fair way to go before I PR on 20 rep squats..max was 20x112kgs. Right now I'm keeping the 1x20 at 75% of 5RM.

If your back is that fried and you can only do 40kg stiff leg dls, try doing some back extensions, hypers, reverse hypers, glute ham raise, band good morning, or even nothing for the back at all. Just do some abs.

I'll probably alternate GMs and stiffleg deads every 4 weeks. Dont worry about the weight just yet, the 40kgs is just a starting point..
I still don't know why my back is sore after 20 rep squats, my form is pretty good.. The lower back is probably still just weak from many months of being sedentary over the past year after the back sprain.

 

[Quagmire911]

How do you know you form is good? Do you take videos? Not saying it isn't, but you are guessing otherwise. It is very hard to keep perfect form for every rep on a widowmaker, at least I think so.

Taking into account that the erectors are part of the posterior chain, they will tire on a set of 20 reppers. Sand Blaster (IA MOD) says that in his experience a lot of people have an under conditioned lower back and I have seen this in myself sometimes when doing higher rep work that involves the posterior chain. Something to consider.

You could maybe try doing the curls after the lunges and stick the RDL's afterwards so you have some more time between it and the squats.

Keep it up, and get some videos.

 

[Quiksilver]

How do you know you form is good? Do you take videos? Not saying it isn't, but you are guessing otherwise. It is very hard to keep perfect form for every rep on a widowmaker, at least I think so.

That's very true.. I know for a fact that every time I do a widowmaker, there's one or two sketchy reps around 16th and 17th. As far as form, I'm not a beginner in the squat rack and all the guys I lift with have said I have very good form.. The only guy know at this new gym squats 400+ in the off-season and he thinks my form is okay. A video would be great but a video camera(the one that I'm looking at buying) is about $400 away right now. I'm hoping an old friend can come into the gym with me on friday and hopefully he has an up to date camcorder that I can use.

You're likely correct about the underconditioned lower back too, 8 months of being sedentary will do that for sure. I don't know what more I can do about that though, besides just keep plowing forward.

I'll try rearranging the workout next week to give a breather between taxing movements, actually never thought of doing that specific swap
.

 

[Quiksilver]

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

1. Morning Cardio
treadmill, 60 minutes, 400 calories

I eased the pace down a little bit.. from 5.0kmh to 4.0kmh. Just wasn't feeling it this morning.

2. Incline Bench 2x5
5x67.5 (+2.5)
5x67.5 (+2.5)

I was watching some Dave Tate video's on correct benching for and tweaked mine a little bit. Felt good, might be in for a +5 increase next week.

3. Flat Bench 2x8
8x50 (+5)
8x50 (+5)

Likely a +5 increase next week as well.

4. Dips 5x5
5x4
5x6
5x8
5x10
5x12.5 (+2 reps)

It felt like I had another 2-3 good reps in me, so considering the failure at 3 reps last week, thats a 5-6 rep strength increase. I think I lightly pulled a pec muscle doing these, though I didn't really feel it till the next movement. It doesn't feel serious, so I'll just hot/cold/stretch it for a couple days, no big deal.

5. Overhead Press 2x8
8x32.5
8x32.5 (+4 reps)

Bumping to 35kg next session.

6. Lateral Raises 2x12
12x9
12x9 (+2 reps)

Failed at 10 last week, so cleaned up 9kgs. moving to 10kgs next.

7. Tricep Pushdowns 2x15
15x37.5kgs
15x40kgs (+2.5)

Found a way to increase weight, and also figured out what the units were. Each plate is 2.5kgs.
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Diet:

cardio
-shake: 4 eggs + 30g whey
-125g beef + veggies
-125g beef + veggies
-shake: 4 eggs + 60g whey + 2tbsp cream + 1 tbsp OO, banana, orange
workout
-shake: 4 eggs + 30g whey + 1tbsp cream, 90g oats
-250g beef + veggies
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Good workout today, was doing some consolidation work, just cleaning up some of the failed reps from last week, and chugging along steadily on bench now.

 

[Quagmire911]

For conditioning your lower back:

You could try at the end of a workout a move you know fries your lower back. Pick it and do 2/3 sets of low weight for 20-25 reps. When I say a low weight, I mean a weight that is still challenging for the number of reps. Pullthroughs (in a stance that targets the lower back), hypers, stiff legs, whatever...

 

[Rampage1]

are you lifting as much as you can in the bench or are you taking it easy and getting your body acclimatised to the process as them weights seem quite low for your weight and your experience at lifting!

Also, your flat bench is SIGNIFICANTLY lower than incline, shouldn't it be the opposite?

 

[Quiksilver]

I'll try just knockin around with the SL deads for now Quag.. Every week my back seems to get stronger and I'm less spent after certain movements, in a month there probably won't be any problem with SL deads right after 20 rep squats.
-
Hey Rampage, I could probably bump the weight another 5-10kgs and would be able to knock out a few reps, judging by feel I could probably knock down a single of 85kgs too.. but right now yeah I picked a weight I can do 2 sets of 5 reps with.. I certainly couldn't manage that with 85kgs.. The workout should be in here somewhere where I hit the max single of 1x100kg, but I injured my back when I hit around 2x5x85.5kgs. Pretty much 10 months of little to no bench pressing=muscles waste away, conditioning drops, etc., so for now it's all regaining strength..

In short, for 2x5 67.5 is all I can lift right now Next week 70kg will be all i can lift, and the next week it'll be 72.5, etc etc etc.
--
as far as the flat bench goes.. It's around 75% of my 5RM on the incline. I don't know why I chose 75%, but until I find a reason to change it, it'll progress as my incline does.

 

[Quiksilver]

Thursday, September 18, 2008

1. No Morning Cardio

I woke up late for some reason and I had an exam at noon, so my priorities had to come first.

2. Abdominal Work
-bridging(front, sides) 1 minute each
-knee raises, 5kgs 2 sets to failure
-alternating knee/leg raises, 1 set to failure
-Kneeling pulley abs 1x25
-Weighted Situps 1x to failure, 10kgs

I'm using tuesday as heavy/weighted ab work, and thursday as work capacity/endurance work for the core.

3. Post-workout Cardio
elliptical, 30 minutes intervals(2slow/1fast), 320 calories

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Diet:

-shake: 4 eggs, 30g whey, 2tbsp cream, water
-beef + veggies
-beef + veggies
workout
-shake: 4 eggs, 30g whey, 1tbsp cream, tbsp OO, water
-went to bar, had an alcoholic energy drink(sin!)
-3 eggs cooked, 1 tbsp cream

3,035 calories -- not including the energy drink.

I'm gonna start monitoring calorie intake a little more over the next few days, I'm concerned it's risen a little for no reason. Likely, I'll cut out that heavy cream once the carton is finished, which will be difficult because it's rather tasty Also, I'm not supposed to be eating 2xWhey on off-days unless I'm fatigued, but I find it difficult to take the raw eggs without some sort of flavor.. Might have to step my game up and just hit them back without whey.

The unnecessary stuff(cream, whey) put me 820 calories over what it's supposed to be.

It helps to check up on the calorie intake sometimes

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On a good note, that pec strain I had yesterday is feeling fine(cant feel it at all) and it'll be 100% by next wednesday, so no harm done. I'll wear a sweater next time to keep warm so it doesn't happen again.

 

[Quiksilver]

Friday, September 19, 2008

1. No morning cardio... AGAIN!
That's two missed sessions in a row. My sleeps haven't been top quality so maybe that has something to do with it. Also, exams might be partly to blame too. Whatever, I'll do some cardio tomorrow to make up for it.

2. Deadlifts 2x5
5x110kg (+10)
5x110kg (+7.5)

3. Bent-Over Rows 2x8
8x42.5 (+2.5)
8x42.5 (+2.5)

Still being careful on these, making sure form is tight each rep.

4. Pull-ups
wide: 5xbw (+1)
hammer: 5xbw (+1)
classic: 5xbw (+1)
chinup: 4xbw (f)

Going to work up to atleast 8xbw before I start to add weights.

5. DB Bicep curls 1x15
15x10kgs

I wasn't really paying attention at this point, will start to crank up the weight in the coming weeks.

6. Plate pinches
10kgsx46seconds
10kgsx46seconds
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Diet:

-meal 1: shake(4 eggs, 30g whey, 3tbsp cream, 1tbsp OO, 300mL green tea)
-snack: spoonful of beef chili
-meal 2: 2 eggs, sausages, piece of toast, veggies. @ a restaurant
-meal 3: shake(4 eggs, 30g whey, 3tbsp cream, 300mL green tea), orange, banana
workout
-meal 4: shake(4 eggs, 30g whey, 3tbsp cream, 300mL green tea), 90g oats
-meal 5: 250g beef, veggies
-meal 6: 250g beef, veggies

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I finished off that darn cream today, and while it was very tasty, it's adding unnecessary calories to the diet. I'll remember it for the coming months if I decide to up my calories a little, but for now sadly it's gotta go

I've let my foot off the gas a tiny bit this week, missed a couple cardio sessions and started eating a little too much, so I'll get that in check this weekend.

Great workout though added 10kgs to my deadlift and put it ahead of my squat where it's supposed to be.

 

[Quagmire911]

Good job on the deads.

If you are going over 20 seconds a set on plate pinches, you should up the weight.

Keep it up.

 

[Quiksilver]

Saturday-Sunday, September 20-21, 2008

Cleaned the diet up pretty well over the weekend. I'm still unsure if I'm losing fat with it while I'm gaining strength, so for now there's no reason to mess around with it. Next week I'll assess if I should add another morning cardio session.

Saturday:

1. Bike ride
30 minutes, hill biking, low intensity.

Transportation, didn't really feel like doing cardio today. Didn't do stretching, had an exam at 830 in the morning and forgot to do it afterwards.

Diet:

M1 - shake(5 eggs, 30g whey, 300mL green tea, small amount of milk, 20g OO)
M2 - 250g beef + veggies
M3 - shake(6 eggs, 30g whey, 300mL green tea)
M4 - 250g beef

The rest of the vegetables weren't fresh anymore so I didn't feel like eating them.
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Sunday:

1. Bike ride
15 minutes, low intensity

Again transportation.

Diet:

M1 - shake(6 eggs, 15g whey, 20g plain yoghurt, 300mL green tea)
M2 - 250g beef + veggies
M3 - shake(6 eggs, 15g whey, 20g plain yoghurt, 300mL green tea, 20g OO)
M4 - 250g beef + veggies

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Is it really better to eat 6-8 meals instead of 4? I figure just get the right amount of calories down the pipe without overstuffing at one meal is okay, and I have my doubts about the metabolic boost of 6-10 meals a day over 4-5.
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Also, I went back and read some DC articles. The diets he gives people and the diet he eats himself has a meal of (1 whole egg + 5 egg whites) and he keeps preaching olive oil and flaxseed oil. Why does he have a problem with saturated fats?

While we're on about that, I hear Poliquin and also a few other respected trainers talking about consuming (healthy) fats, and eating extra lean red meats. Again why do they do this?

 

[Quagmire911]

Firstly on your question about 4-5 meals, instead of 6-8 or whatever. I have been having 4-5 (usually 4) for some time now. Strength has still been going up and seems a lot more correlated with my routine and what I do in the gym. From what I see my body composition is more affected by what I eat throughout the day, rather than how may times I eat throughout the day, although you would expect this.

As far as eating 6-8 to get an extra metabolic boost, I don't think it is terribly important in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps it favours body composition slightly, but we are not prepping for a BB'ing competition, and quite frankly I find 4-5 meals to be a lot more conveinient and haven't really noticed any difference. This is me of course and I hardly took notes. I have seen that you MUST eat every three hours or your nitrogen balance will get out of whack and you won't gain as well, but again I am not on the size wagon like a lot of guys.




Moving on. Interesting you say about DC not liking saturated fats. Did he actually state that? Because "preching" olive oil contradicts this since olive oil has a high saturated fat content.

And would you be able to link to these Poliquin and respected trainer articles? It would be interesting to read them. Keep in mind that alot of these guys are in America where the cattle are corn fed rather than grass fed. Grass fed cattle are naturally leaner and their meat is A LOT healthier. Do any of them actually state that they have a problem with saturated fat per se?