Choronodon's Battle Log

[Broba Fett]

Yep.  Been eating a big deficit for awhile now.  That's most of how I lost my first ~100lbs. 

 

Doing the lifting thing because it interests me more than endless cardio.  I get more enjoyment out of it.  Results are more tangible than just losing a lb or two per week.

 

Might not be optimal but we'll see how it goes and how far I can push it while on a deficit.

[Choronodon]

Yep.  Been eating a big deficit for awhile now.  That's most of how I lost my first ~100lbs. 

 

Doing the lifting thing because it interests me more than endless cardio.  I get more enjoyment out of it.  Results are more tangible than just losing a lb or two per week.

 

Might not be optimal but we'll see how it goes and how far I can push it while on a deficit.

 

I hear you Something a little more visceral about moving heavy things around

 

Hope you'll be joining the warriors during the next challenge!! (heck, or just join this one! late-comers always welcome!)

[Broba Fett]

I think I'm gonna lurk around a bit on the challenge posts, get acclimated and get used to keeping up my battle log and then probably get into the next challenge.

 

It's good to know I'm welcome.  I appreciate it.

[Choronodon]

Squats - 5x5 @ 95lb (still feels like I'm ass-leading)

OHP - 5x5 @ 62lb (not as ugly)

DL - 1x5 @ 165lb (form breaking again)

 

Next workout I think will be a round of form-concentration for squats & deadlift. Need to get these movement patterns better ingrained.

[Choronodon]

Squats - 5x5 @ 85lb (dropped weight to address form... still needs work)

BP - 5x5 @ 70lb

DL - 1x5 @ 155lb (still addressing form, feels better!)

[Choronodon]

First week back at the gym down, after over a month away. Feels so good, I wonder I stopped going. Adjusted my program a smidge. After the first week back at it, squats are at 50lb, OHP at 48lb, bench at 75lb and deadlift at 165lb.

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[Choronodon]

Squats at 55lb (only going for 5lb/week increases)

OHP at 51lb

Deadlift at 180lb

Bench at 90lb

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[Broba Fett]

Good to see you back at it.  Looking forward to seeing those numbers shoot up!

[Choronodon]

Week 3 down:

Squats @ 60lb

OHP @ 54lb

DL @ 185lb

BP @ 100lb

Monday failed last rep of DL (@185lb). Wednesday chalked up and knocked them out, then today tried for 190lb and went nowhere. Also failed BP today, died around the 3rd rep of my 2nd set. STALL. Going to rest up / eat up this weekend, start again on Monday @ 185lb (DL) & 100lb (BP), and see if I can work through the increase during week 4.

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[Choronodon]

Week 4 - not so good

Squats - 65lb

OHP - 56lb

DL - no progress

BP - 100lb

Lousy week, made no progress with deadlifts and in fact failed to complete the sets I did attempt at 185lb. Will deload for next week by 20lb.

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[Choronodon]

Week 5:

Squats - 70lb

OHP - 58lb

BP - 110lb

DL - 175lb

Pretty good week. Building DL back up after deloading. Passed the little roadblock at 105 for bench. Squats are starting to feel a touch odd, form slipping I think. We'll see how next week goes.

With bench and press both finally difficult, shifting to alternating workouts for them instead of doing both in the same workout.

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[Choronodon]

Week 6:

 

Squats - 75lb

OHP - 60lb

BP - 110lb (failed 115lb)

DL - 185lb

 

Last week of this session down. Squats are feeling ok. Maybe still a hair off, maybe it's the increased weight requiring an adjustment, dunno. Press is a good workout now. Hung up at 115lb on bench (in the 4th set). Also still sticking at 185lb on deads. Failed my last attempt (3 reps), completed today's attempt. Form feels different at that weight, like my back might be shifting. Rounding maybe?

 

Anyhoos. In my six weeks back to the gym, my lifts have progressed as follows:

 

Squat - +30lb

OHP - +15lb

Bench - +65lb

DL - +50lb

I'm happy with that.

 

Honeymoon cruise starts tomorrow!!! Not sure exactly what will be available on the ship, but I intend to stay active. I'm making plans for dumbbells sessions, but ultimately it'll depend on what available

[Jimbo]

Anyhoos. In my six weeks back to the gym, my lifts have progressed as follows:

 

Squat - +30lb

OHP - +15lb

Bench - +65lb

DL - +50lb

 

That's great!

 

Have a wonderful honeymoon!

[Choronodon]

I'm back!!

 

Honeymoon was good. Loved the cruise .

 

In brief summary, we were violently seasick in Key West, took lots of photos in Nassau, and did water stuff in Cococay. I'll dump a few pictures up later.

 

Kept decently active during the cruise. Borrowed this workout (http://www.fitocracy.com/knowledge/on-the-twelfth-day-of-fitmas/) for the cruise, which was a nice change from barbell stuff. Also did some running on the boat, and a boatload (ha ha, I crack myself up) of walking / stairs.

 

Back in the gym today.

 

Read Wendler's 5/3/1 program while out (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AJ8CIQM/ref=oh_d__o00_details_o00__i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), and found it really interesting. Keeping that in mind for when I finally tap out my current progression.

 

MUST EAT MORE!!

[Choronodon]

Working from home today, as the South shuts down in preparation for coldmaggedon. Took a picture of breakfast:

Big improvement over my old breakfast, which was typically a mountain dew.

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[Choronodon]

Photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Choronodon]

Having a hard go getting back into the swing of things after the honeymoon. Only two gym sessions this week, and for one of them only did squats. Been really tired this week. Also have a gym buddy (sort of). Trying to synchronize everything with him, I go way earlier than he's used to, and we do completely different workouts (he does lots of isolation work).

 

Not much progress on lifts. Deadlift still at 185lb, trying to make the step to 190. Bench still at 115lb, trying to complete a full 5x5 at that weight. Squats & OHP still progressing as planned.

[Choronodon]

Does that look like 450 calories worth of pasta to you? It's a whole dinner plate full... I think MFP is gypping me.

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[Endor]

Cool pics mate, looks like you had a great time on Honeymoon, glad to hear it  

 

Rock wall, was that actually on the cruise ship? How cool is that!

 

Your goofy smirk is a little bit Garth from waynes world

 

Glad you are getting your brekky in properly, that's heaps better than Mountain Spew, keep it up!

[Choronodon]

Cool pics mate, looks like you had a great time on Honeymoon, glad to hear it

 

Rock wall, was that actually on the cruise ship? How cool is that!

 

Your goofy smirk is a little bit Garth from waynes world

 

Glad you are getting your brekky in properly, that's heaps better than Mountain Spew, keep it up!

 

The cruise was awesome. We were actually too tired each night for proper "honeymooning" There's a lot to do on those ships.

 

Yeah, the rock wall was on the ship, they had it up on the top deck, against the stack. I would've climbed more, but it surprisingly (to me) windy & a bit cold on deck. It was quite nice, but not really weather I wanted to climb in.

 

I also have proper gym shirts now, so I'm not wearing my Mountain Dew shirts to the gym anymore

[Choronodon]

Still having a hard time getting back into the swing of things post-cruise. A lot of stuff going on across life leading to the return of some poor habits & truly horrible sleeping. This had led to no appreciable progress on my lifts, so I'm hovering around the following:

 

@145lb bodyweight

Squat - 90lb

OHP - 61lb

BP - 110lb

DL - 180lb

 

After I finish this week out, next week I'll start advancing BP & DL again, see where I end up. BP I think I just need to muscle through. I dunno about DL. I can manage 185lb, but it's HARD. 190lb I haven't even managed to break from the ground.

 

If I still can't get anywhere, since I have a set of fractional plates I'm considering dropping from 5lb/session increases on BP & DL down to 1lb/session increases & see if that makes for progress.

 

Upset about squats. Now my left hip / knee are bugging me. Stupid weird legs.

 

Have been reading up on other programs. Texas Method, MadCow, etc. 5/3/1 seems to get the recommendation for folks who are more recovery-challenged though (problems eating / sleeping enough which is definitely me).

[Choronodon]

Today's workout sucked. On the positive side, at least that makes MWF this week that I went to the gym!

 

Squats really bothered my left side today. Little hip discomfort, but my knee had this crazy crunchy / numb feeling that started as soon as warmups started. Bailed on doing any squat work. Not messing things up like I did my right side previously. Fooled around with hang cleans and front squat a bit. Front squat felt better on the left side but not painless. Surprisingly it felt easier. Fun to do something different.

 

Otherwise waited for my gym partner to show up. He hasn't been on time once yet, and never seems to have a clear plan about what to do. He shows up "I wanna work shoulders today, my roommate showed me a couple of good exercises". He likes deadlifts though. We did singles for a bit, to see what we can do. I got one rep @ 195lb, couldn't do 205lb or 200lb. He was good all the way to 225lb & could probably do more.

 

Did clear 115lb 5x5 on BP. Ugly though. I can pound out 110lb 5x5 no problems. I'd rather gradually work my way up, keep form good. Buddy just wants to pound stuff out at whatever weight, no matter how ugly. He spent a lot of time in the gym when he was younger, isn't grokking my course of action.

 

Tried dips. It's embarrassing. I can do 2 or 3 at a time. 

 

Going back to foam rolling & leg raises to see how that affects the latest leg woes (seriously. wtf legs?). Want to nip this in the bud NOW. Started foam rolling today, and OMG why did I ever stop???? My legs are pain alley.

 

Next week I will start adding PC / HC to a workout for added DL recovery time, and start increasing DL / BP by 1lb/session instead of 5lb. This weekend I'll dig through 5/3/1 for squat accessory work in case regular squats continue to feel bad.

[Endor]

Still having a hard time getting back into the swing of things post-cruise. A lot of stuff going on across life leading to the return of some poor habits & truly horrible sleeping. This had led to no appreciable progress on my lifts, so I'm hovering around the following:

 

@145lb bodyweight

Squat - 90lb

OHP - 61lb

BP - 110lb

DL - 180lb

 

After I finish this week out, next week I'll start advancing BP & DL again, see where I end up. BP I think I just need to muscle through. I dunno about DL. I can manage 185lb, but it's HARD. 190lb I haven't even managed to break from the ground.

 

If I still can't get anywhere, since I have a set of fractional plates I'm considering dropping from 5lb/session increases on BP & DL down to 1lb/session increases & see if that makes for progress.

 

Upset about squats. Now my left hip / knee are bugging me. Stupid weird legs.

 

Have been reading up on other programs. Texas Method, MadCow, etc. 5/3/1 seems to get the recommendation for folks who are more recovery-challenged though (problems eating / sleeping enough which is definitely me).

OK I'm a little tipsy so I'm going to poke you a bit There's lots here about exercise and nothing about food. There is a link you know? Talk to me big fella, are you eating and sleeping right? You know these 2 things will influence getting that 190 off the floor right? You can do it, have a a full week of good food and decent sleep then go at it again with a nice warm up first and beast mode on

[Choronodon]

OK I'm a little tipsy so I'm going to poke you a bit There's lots here about exercise and nothing about food. There is a link you know? Talk to me big fella, are you eating and sleeping right? You know these 2 things will influence getting that 190 off the floor right? You can do it, have a a full week of good food and decent sleep then go at it again with a nice warm up first and beast mode on

Bring it!!

...

*sigh*

You hit on the elephant in the room that I keep skirting around. I'm obsessing about the 20% instead of concentrating on the 80%. My sleeping is poor, and it's a miracle if I manage to eat 3 full meals for more than three days in a row, but instead of concentrating on getting all of that straightened out I'm worrying about how many pounds to increase my lifts by, or which alternate program I think might work better. All that recovery stuff isn't any fun though *pouts*.

There's nothing to do but nut up and tackle all of that, or I won't get anywhere.

Thanks for the kick in the pants Dominic

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[Endor]

Great that you recognize it, the food will make all the difference. Pushup pvp on the cards with blaidd if you want some extra work...