Sadburger's lifting and progress journal - 12 weeks

[sadburger]

Week 5, Workout 14

Week 5
Workout #14
A few days late posting this, this workout was on Tuesday


ATG Squats
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x1125
WS
4x5x140

Bench Press
Warmup
1x7x75, 1x5x100, 1x3x120, 1x1x135
WS
4x5x150

Deadlift
Warmup
1x7x115, 1x5x150, 1x3x185, 1x1x205
WS
1x5x230

Dips
3x5xBW

I think I'm going to like the extra sets better. When I can do 5 sets, that is when I will increase my weight. The extra volume was really noticeable, even though it was only an extra set on this workout (couldn't get the fifth and last set). Going to do one more week of dips at BW and then start slowly adding weigh to them. Going to have to use the dumbell between the feet thing since I don't have a belt for now.

Another workout tonight and I'll get that posted up, then weight/bodyfat in the morning.

 

[sadburger]

Week 5, workout 15

Week 5
Workout #15


ATG Squats
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x1125
WS
4x5x140

Overhead Press
Warmup
1x7x55, 1x5x70, 1x3x85, 1x1x95
WS
1x5x105, 1x3x105, 2x5x95

Bent Over Rows
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x120
WS
3x5x135

This week really has been a mess for some reason. I wasn't able to increase many of my lifts, or the ones I did increase I wasn't able to do my full sets / reps with. I'm really not sure what the cause was (not eating enough? body just tired? only one day of rest on the past weekend instead of the normal two because of the travel plans f'ing up my schedule?). I'm thinking at some point I may need to take a week or few days or something off just to rest and do some light cardio or something, but I'm not quite ready for that yet.

 

[sadburger]

Workouts Completed: 15 of 36

Starting Weight:
213
Current Weight:
211

Starting BF %:
21.5
Current BF %:
20

 

[spesmilitis]

squats and deadlifts on the same day seems kinda harsh, have you consulted someone experianced on this routine?

I can tell your weight is the last number, but which is the rep and which is the set?

 

[sadburger]

squats and deadlifts on the same day seems kinda harsh, have you consulted someone experianced on this routine?

I can tell your weight is the last number, but which is the rep and which is the set?

This is Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength Program, one of the most talked about programs for starting out in weight training. It's based around squats 3 days a week with other core exercises alternated each workout. If you read the "Where to Start" thread stickied at the top and follow the link to option A, this is that program.

setsXrepXweight

 

[sadburger]

Week 6, Workout 16

Week 6
Workout #16


ATG Squats
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x1125
WS
3x5x140

Bench Press
Warmup
1x7x75, 1x5x100, 1x3x120, 1x1x135
WS
3x5x150, 1x2x150

Deadlift
Warmup
1x7x115, 1x5x150, 1x3x185, 1x1x205
WS
1x5x230

Dips
1x5xBW, 2x5xBW+10

Gar. I really feel like I'm in a rut. I haven't been able to increase my weight on pretty much anything for the last week and a half, and today I felt even weaker on the same weights as I used last week! I wasn't able to do a fourth set on bench press, same weight as last week, I couldn't do a fourth set of squats... what is going on!? I did my first weighted dips however, that went well... I did one normal set and then threw a 10 lb dumbell between my legs for the last two, and was able to do them.

Also, I got a weird rash on both of my arms just on the inside of my forearms about 30 minutes after I thought the gym.. not sure what could have caused that, it is in a place that nothing should really have touched...

 

[EFFORT]

Whats your diet looking like at this point? What are your totals for fat and protein and for carbs on the weekend? Are you doing 5lb increases? Have you been working out 6weeks straight? In "Where to start" i had a max testing week after each 4 weeks of routine, you basically go in the gym mwf and do a 3-5 rep squat max monday, 3-5rep bench press and 5rep row on wed, and a 3-5 rep deadlift max on friday. Max test week does amazing things. You get to test your maxes and see how much stronger you've gotten which will really pump you up, you can up your calories, and get more sleep. This week allows your body to catch up and you may get yourself some interesting gains off it. Try it out and see, then the following week i bet you'll be able to increase weight on the main lifts. So try that out, and don't forget to post the diet stuff either. (there are a lot more tweaks that can be made to the routine to keep gains steady as well but i'm pretty sure updating the diet and doing a max test week is all you need at this point)

 

[sadburger]

Whats your diet looking like at this point? What are your totals for fat and protein and for carbs on the weekend? Are you doing 5lb increases? Have you been working out 6weeks straight? In "Where to start" i had a max testing week after each 4 weeks of routine, you basically go in the gym mwf and do a 3-5 rep squat max monday, 3-5rep bench press and 5rep row on wed, and a 3-5 rep deadlift max on friday. Max test week does amazing things. You get to test your maxes and see how much stronger you've gotten which will really pump you up, you can up your calories, and get more sleep. This week allows your body to catch up and you may get yourself some interesting gains off it. Try it out and see, then the following week i bet you'll be able to increase weight on the main lifts. So try that out, and don't forget to post the diet stuff either. (there are a lot more tweaks that can be made to the routine to keep gains steady as well but i'm pretty sure updating the diet and doing a max test week is all you need at this point)

I haven't done a max test week, maybe that is what I need. I am not quite as careful on the weekends, I eat out and have fast food and the occasional drink so I don't watch my macros as much on friday and saturday, but I generally try to make sure I'm staying fairly low fat and mainly getting carbs.

For weekdays when I'm "on" I am pretty strict, for today I will have 3102 calories, 61% fat 37% protein (206 278) and about 33 g of carbs (20ish of which are fiber). This is actually a bit of a bump, I usually am closer to the 2700 range on calories.

 

[EFFORT]

I haven't done a max test week, maybe that is what I need. I am not quite as careful on the weekends, I eat out and have fast food and the occasional drink so I don't watch my macros as much on friday and saturday, but I generally try to make sure I'm staying fairly low fat and mainly getting carbs.

For weekdays when I'm "on" I am pretty strict, for today I will have 3102 calories, 61% fat 37% protein (206 278) and about 33 g of carbs (20ish of which are fiber). This is actually a bit of a bump, I usually am closer to the 2700 range on calories.

Your calories are pretty low man i haven't seen many people that can get stronger off 2700-3102 cals a day. Up your cals near or above 4000, take the max test week, and watch the gains start back up.

 

[sadburger]

So, I haven't been keeping up with my journal.. Work has been crazy, taking half of next week off so I'm making up the hours this week, plus I just got a contract for my first book deal, so I've been swamped. I haven't missed any workouts or anything, just haven't posted. Anyways, here is all the workouts that I missed posting about:

Week 6, Workout 17
ATG Squats
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x1125
WS
4x5x140

Overhead Press
Warmup
1x7x55, 1x5x70, 1x3x85, 1x1x95
WS
3x5x105

Bent Over Rows
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x120
WS
3x5x135

Pullups
1x2, 1x1, 1x0

Week 6, Workout 18
ATG Squats
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x1125
WS
3x5x140

Bench Press
Warmup
1x7x80, 1x5x100, 1x3x125, 1x1x140
WS
3x5x155

Deadlift
Warmup
1x7x120, 1x5x155, 1x3x190, 1x1x215
WS
1x5x240

Dips
3x5xBW+10

Week 7, Workout 19
ATG Squats
Warmup
1x7x75, 1x5x100, 1x3x120, 1x1x135
WS
4x5x150

Overhead Press
Warmup
1x7x55, 1x5x70, 1x3x85, 1x1x95
WS
3x5x105

Rows
Warmup
1x7x70, 1x5x90, 1x3x110, 1x1x125
WS
3x5x140

Pullups
1x2

Was able to get some increases again, so I'm happy about that. Got another workout tonight, and then Friday, and then I'm on vacation, so I'm going to take a week off of lifting and hopefully that will help stimulate some new gains when I get back. I'll keep up the cardio though. Weight and bodyfat update at the end of week 6:

Workouts Completed: 18 of 36

Starting Weight:
208 - I'm using this as my official starting weight now, as I'm sure it is much more accurrate than the 213.
Current Weight:
206.5

Starting BF %:
21.5
Current BF %:
19

My first good measurement in the teens Hopefully I can keep it up, I'd still like to hit 16% or so by the end of this twelve weeks (I will not be counting the week I take off as part of my 12 weeks).

So far for these 6 weeks that puts me at -5.48 lbs of fat and +3.98 lbs of muscle. Not bad so far! I don't know if my goal of 215 @ 16% bodyfat is reasonable for the next 5 weeks, since I would have to drop another 5ish lbs of fat (defininetly doable) but gain 13 lbs of muscle. I think 205 @ 16% is much more reasonable, and it represents losing 6.5 lbs of fat and gaining about 5 lbs of muscle. That is my new goal for this time period. After that I'll start a new program, set new goals (probably getting down to the 12% bodyfat range, around 200 lbs with another 12 week program). Once I'm there, I can start really focusing on picking up more muscle mass.. I really want to shed the fat first, and as long as the strength gains are coming, I'm happy. I think I'm still on my way to hitting my strength goals, had a few stalls but I've been increasing again lately.

 

[sadburger]

Week 7, workout 20
ATG Squats
Warmup
1x7x80, 1x5x100, 1x3x125, 1x1x140
WS
3x5x155

Coming up on the last rep of the last set, I experienced MAJOR head pains and had to stop my workout. Posted thread here with more details:

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=128995

 

[sadburger]

Phew, it has been awhile!

The last three weeks or so have been... different. In my lost post, I noted that while doing squats I had some major head pains and couldn't finish my workout. I posted a thread and received advice that I needed to go to the hospital. Four hours later the pains were still so strong that I could barely sit up, so I did in fact decide to head in to the hospital.

After being in the waiting room for a few hours, I got into the ER. Waited some more, had a cat scan, as the ER doc thought I might have a bleeding anuerysm. Cat Scan came back okay, but to be sure they wanted to do a spinal tap. The wheel me into a room and had me sit up and lean over a table. Injected some pain killer into my back, and then had a nurse on each side of me hold my arms down... yeah that was a good sign it was going to hurt. The doc couldn't get the needle into the right place so he was digging around with the needle in my spine, man did that hurt like a mofo.

After a few minutes of that he gave up and the admitted me into the hospital so they could do a flouroscopic spinal tap (basically use an xray machine to see where they are putting the needle). I also met with a neurologist. Spinal tap came back okay and they let me go, and scheduled a follow-up with the neuro.

I pretty much couldn't do anything... If I lifted a 25 lb box my head felt like it was going to explode, very horrible week. A few days later while lying in bed my head got so bad that I couldn't sit up, and the left half of my face went numb... I was seriously considering the possibility that I was having a stroke. I didn't go back to the hospital that night but just stuck it out. I had my appoinment with the neuro a few days later and he scheduled an MRI and MRA to look into my head and see what was going on. He also said that he thought it was migraines, and gave me a prescription for them (Imotrex... scary **** from all the warnings, plus it has a pretty severe warning about taking if you have high blood pressure, which I am on meds for, and did tell the doc before he prescribed). Since that day I haven't had any head pains at all... they just stopped. I got the MRI and MRA and haven't yet had a followup appointment with the neuro to see the results, but should have that later this or next week.

Today, I went back to the gym. I didn't have a workout sheet with me, just wanted to get some lifting done. I did some front squats (I am taking back squats out of my routine and switching to front, as I am still pretty convinced it was a technique issue on the squats that caused these three weeks of hell), and did some sets of bench at 150. I also did deadlifts @ 250, so it doesn't seem like I've suffered too much strength loss in the three weeks being off from the gym. Probably take it easy and just do some basic lifting the rest of this week, and then pick my regular program back up starting on next Sunday. Looking forward to getting back to it, felt like crap not being in the gym at all!

 

[simon]

Good to see you're ok. They did exactly the same stuff to me at hospital when I had the same symptoms except my doctor wasn't a retard and could actually do a spinal tap properly. Pretty nice feeling huh

 

[EFFORT]

Christ man i've heard about that spinal tap, sounds like a terrible experience, is there a reason they can't put you under for that procedure?

 

[simon]

Christ man i've heard about that spinal tap, sounds like a terrible experience, is there a reason they can't put you under for that procedure?

It's not really that painful, just a really uncomfortable feeling, and takes less than a minute if the doctor does it right. They just have to make sure they get the right vertebrae otherwise you're screwed :cheer:

 

[sadburger]

Woo, an exercise post!

Okay, so last week I started back in the gym after my hospital incident, just to get back into the swing of things and make sure I was okay to start working again. Today I did my first full workout, with my newly incorporated Front Squats.

Here is the workout:
Front Squats
Warmup
1x7x60, 1x5x75, 1x3x90, 1x1x105
Working Sets
3x5x115

Overhead Press
Warmup
1x7x55, 1x5x70, 1x3x85, 1x1x95
Working Sets
2x5x105, 1x3x105

Row
Warmup
1x7x75, 1x5x95, 1x3x115, 1x1x95
Working Sets
3x5x145

Couldn't finish my last set on the overhead, and I felt a lot weaker on them, but I will get it back going strong. Overall the workout felt good, and I am glad to be back working near my PRs and looking forward to adding more weight again.

Front Squats: I like them! A lot better than the back squats (thanks Stronglifts, your site was-- as always -- a valuable tool for me to learn and decide upon these squats). I started working on them last week just working on technique, and the first few times it was really awkward on how to hold the bar, but once it "clicked" it became easy as anything. I wasn't sure where to start out as far as the weight goes, so I just picked a number and started from there and increased until it felt about the right weight to be working at. I feel a lot better with these as far as staying in proper form and I think I will be pleased with incorporating them into my routine.

Unfortunately I have to be on the road for the next two weeks for business, but hopefully I will be able to find a gym to use like I was able to last time. That's all for now, later guys!