DW's "I'm actually gunna make progress this time" challenge

[Kishi]

You outgrew a gym? Wow, that has got to be an awesome feeling. All I've ever done is just run away from them.

[dustinwh]

haha yeah. the gym at my apartment complex only has dumbbells that go up to 50 pounds, and a couple stupid machines. i can deadlift the two 50s without a whole lot of effort, and can struggle through a 5x5 on the dumbbell press with the 50s also. i'm only at 40 lbs for a 5x5 of push press, but I have a feeling i will be up to 50+ in no time if i keep up the effort.

and i am not going to explicitly change my goals, but i have decided to make strength my main priority, and not stress over trying to gain weight. in the past month i have had significant gains in strength, but my weight has remained almost exactly the same and my bodyfat percentage has dropped about a point (which if i did the math right is about a 1.6 pounds of fat lost). i will keep on eating a shit ton of paleo foods everyday, but not concentrate on gaining weight. building mass will be a side effect i'm sure, but I am not going to worry about it anymore like i had been.

[smedly]

Hey man, just noticed your post in the strength squad so, welcome! Looks like you are going strong and with great results! Keep it up and good luck with the army.

P.S. You want to go skydiving? Join Airborne and get paid to do it!

[dustinwh]

thanks Smedly! I actually do want to go Airborne. I also want to do some free fall jumps before I do the typical Airborne jump where you just drift the whole time.

[dustinwh]

First day of barbell lower body!!!!!!

After warmup:

- Half mile run to get blood pumping

- Squat 5x8 at 135lbs

- Deadlift 5x8 at 185lbs

- Calf raises with 80lbs

- Side to side with 8lbs medicine ball on a decline bench.

[dustinwh]

I haven't really updated with regards to my dietary goals lately, so here it is:

My appetite has been insatiable the last few days. I can't seem to eat enough. I am going through food like crazy. Haven't had this happen since I hit a big growth spurt in junior high. Hopefully this is a good thing? Since Monday I have been through 18 eggs, 3 pounds of ground beef, a half pound steak, 4 big chicken breasts, a gigantic thing of spinach, another huge thing of mustard greens, two things of the yellow cherry tomatoes, 2 pounds of asparagus, a lot of almonds, lots of coconut milk, and a couple bags of frozen berries. Plus on Tuesday I went to an awesome salad bar and ate my money's worth there.

This is kinda weird for me, but I'm also kinda glad. Hope I can keep this up and maybe gain a little lean weight. However, this is expensive!!

[Kishi]

I hear that. Robb Wolf is supposed to be doing a post on his site on getting around that eventually. It will be an occasion for gladness.

[dustinwh]

UPDATE 15 SEPT 2011:

Went to the rec center again with my friend. I had a great time, but he kept getting frustrated. He started the whole paleo thing about two months after I did. He started doing bodyweight stuff after I did. He is a bigger framed guy and the same height as me probably with a comparable body fat percentage- but I weigh around 160 and he weighs 185ish. He was getting frustrated today with the workouts because I was lifting more than him, and I was trying to help him with his form. He also said that he is frustrated because he hasn't seen any results from spending a couple hours four times a week in the gym this week. I tried to tell him nothing big happens the first week, especially when you are just starting out and trying to get form down. Anyways, here is what I did:

-Sprinted for a warm up to get some blood pumping

-Push Press 5x5 with 90lbs (did one set with 100 and it made my wrist start hurting so I dropped back down to 90)

-Chinups then max curls with 45lbs bar to kill my arms: 10-15/6-6/5-5 (chinups-curls)

-Bench 5x5 at 115lbs then 1x10 with 95lbs

-Incline 5x5 with 95lbs

-Bent over rows at 90lbs

-Dips between two bars: 12/8/4

-Decline bench situps with throwing of a 10lbs medicine ball

Overall, I am satisfied with it. Next week I plan on focusing more on what the RSG Barbell Battalion suggests because I'm spending tooooo much time in the gym when I need to be doing homework. One push and one pull a day. Stupid heavy. (I just found a copy of the RSG on a flash drive. My old computer bit the dust and I forgot I saved it on the flash drive also.)

Eating:

Still friggin ravenous. Ate about 3800 calories today.

Tomorrow is ENERGY LEGS day. Deadlift and Squats ftw.

[dustinwh]

UPDATE 15 SEPT 2011:

Went to the rec center again with my friend. I had a great time, but he kept getting frustrated. He started the whole paleo thing about two months after I did. He started doing bodyweight stuff after I did. He is a bigger framed guy and the same height as me probably with a comparable body fat percentage- but I weigh around 160 and he weighs 185ish. He was getting frustrated today with the workouts because I was lifting more than him, and I was trying to help him with his form. He also said that he is frustrated because he hasn't seen any results from spending a couple hours four times a week in the gym this week. I tried to tell him nothing big happens the first week, especially when you are just starting out and trying to get form down. Anyways, here is what I did:

-Sprinted for a warm up to get some blood pumping

-Push Press 5x5 with 90lbs (did one set with 100 and it made my wrist start hurting so I dropped back down to 90)

-Chinups then max curls with 45lbs bar to kill my arms: 10-15/6-6/5-5 (chinups-curls)

-Bench 5x5 at 115lbs then 1x10 with 95lbs

-Incline 5x5 with 95lbs

-Bent over rows at 90lbs

-Dips between two bars: 12/8/4

-Decline bench situps with throwing of a 10lbs medicine ball

Overall, I am satisfied with it. Next week I plan on focusing more on what the RSG Barbell Battalion suggests because I'm spending tooooo much time in the gym when I need to be doing homework. One push and one pull a day. Stupid heavy. (I just found a copy of the RSG on a flash drive. My old computer bit the dust and I forgot I saved it on the flash drive also.)

Eating:

Still friggin ravenous. Ate about 3800 calories today.

Tomorrow is ENERGY LEGS day. Deadlift and Squats ftw.

[dustinwh]

UPDATE:

Did some leg stuff today:

-Squats (15 with bar as part of warmup): 5x5 at 185lbs (25lbs more than i weigh!!)

-Deadlift- 4 sets of 5 at 185 1 set of 5 at 205

-Did some more core work

-Did some power cleans just for fun (really light weight for 15 reps)

EATING- STILL RAVENOUS!!

School- Staying ahead on readings by at least one chapter so far! (thats a first for my college career so far. in previous semesters i would read the night before a test if at all)

[Kishi]

My word! If you're eating Paleo, how are you ravenous? That stuff is filling.

[dustinwh]

I have no idea why I am this hungry. From February on when I was trying to lose weight, I would be full on 1800-2200 cals a day. For the past several days I have been hungry almost constantly. It may have something to do with the fact that I cut back on carb rich paleo foods like fruit, sweet potatoes, jicama, etc as well as all dairy. I am not entirely sure; I am just hungry. All the time.

[dustinwh]

UPDATE:

Push Press: 5x5 @ 90lbs

Deadlift: 5x5 @ 185lbs

Bench: 5x5 @ 105lbs

Core Work

Eating: A+

School/Life: A

For some reason, I wasn't feeling 115lbs. I started the first set with 115, but dropped it down because I didn't think I could crank out a 5x5 with it today. Hence, the 105 on bench. The deadlift was easier today than last week, but I didn't go up any because I have a huge freaking gash in one of my fingers and didn't want to put more stress on it than necessary.

I WILL go do some sprint work tomorrow, regardless of whether or not I think I have the time. I will sacrifice other things to go run.

[dustinwh]

TRAINING UPDATE 21 SEPT 2011

SQUAT: 5x5 at 135 (dropped weight and will add 5lbs each workout)

CHINUPS: 5x5 at bodyweight

BENT OVER BARBELL ROWS: 5x5 at 70 pounds (will add 5lbs each workout)

My friend that has never done barbell training (or much more than bodyweight stuff for a couple months) is trying to keep up. I tell him to drop the weight more and build up, but he doesn't want to. For me, today's workout wasn't especially difficult, but I could tell that I worked what needed to be worked (but that's my plan- steady increase in weight from workout to workout with one push and two pulls per day) and he was struggling more. I need to figure out how to convince him to drop his weight down so that he doesn't overtrain or injure himself being this new to barbell training.

[dustinwh]

heck yeah! 9 hours of sleep last night. Whoop for recovery!

Today is an off day. Which is great because I'm stuck in a basement with super bright white florescent lights staring at a computer screen all day. Gotta love aerial photography in the digital era.

Diet: Still eating more than my goal. Still hungry.

SIDE NOTE: I got Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution yesterday. I read almost half the book last night (instead of doing homework... one day off doesn't hurt, right?) I have already read the Primal Blueprint several months back and been through most of the stuff on robbwolf.com. I like all the sciencey stuff in the Paleo Solution. It is good stuff to know.

[dustinwh]

UPDATE:

Squat 5x5 @ 140lbs

Bench 5x5 @ 95lbs

Push Press 5x5 @ 70lbs

Deadlift 3x5 @ 80kg

I was going to go climb some stuff this week, but due to the deep gash in my finger from fixing something someone else didn't do right the first time, I didn't. Its on the tip of my finger, so lifting isn't an issue, but climbing is. I bled pretty consistently for about 2 hours before my coworker showed up for his shift so I could take the time to actually use my mad first aid skills to take care of it.

[Kishi]

Yeah, but two hours of bleeding, dude. For serious.

[dustinwh]

Yeah, but two hours of bleeding, dude. For serious.

It was either wrap my finger in a paper towel and electrical tape and keep helping customers, or make them wait till I got it under control. On weekends the first few hours we're open there is only one person there. And it was a gameday weekend and a weekend where a class got their rings, so we were abnormally busy.

[smedly]

Keep up the good work man! Hope your finger decides to quit bleeding soon.

[dustinwh]

Keep up the good work man! Hope your finger decides to quit bleeding soon.

Thanks! It's stopped now. Doesn't really hurt unless I put all my weight on it (like climbing).

[dustinwh]

So I just lost my workout partner for the week. He can't work out because of tests or something. Whatever.

I'll still go and do my damnedest at throwing some barbells around.

[Hermione Gainser]

I'll still go and do my damnedest at throwing some barbells around.

Commence with the throwing of the barbells, sir.

[Kishi]

Well, go rock it then, dude! Let us know how it goes.

[Sanjh]

So I just lost my workout partner for the week. He can't work out because of tests or something. Whatever.

I'll still go and do my damnedest at throwing some barbells around.

At least it's not hard to find spotters around the gym. Throw them barbells.

[dustinwh]

Tomorrow (27 Sept) marks the 30th day of my whole30 challenge. I have a post detailing how it went that is going to be posted at 7am on my blog (URL in my signature).

UPDATE:

Squat: 5x5 @ 145lbs

Chinups: 4x6

Bent over row: 5x5 @ 75lbs

As per the goals stated in my first post on this thread, I am going to stick with the 100% paleo gig for the remainder of the challenge (+whey protein). I am also increasing my daily caloric intake. This challenge I have been 3300+ a day, with many days over 4000. I am going to shoot for greater than 4500 kcals a day as a minimum. I would like to actually be over 5000 a day. That may be difficult, but this is a challenge, right?