Sam Ashen the PRs - Chapter 1: Warrior Training

[Sam Ashen]

Hello everybody and welcome to my first Challenge.  My name here is Sam Ashen, but that has nothing to do with my real name.  Fifteen days ago, I discovered this website while surfing for information.  Within 24 hours, I joined and started posting.  This is very unusual for me - Normally action like this requires a Potion of Heroism to make the 20 seconds of Berserker Rage easier.

 

I completely identify with Steve's statement, "I am a Nerd.  And I deadlift."

 

My goals are very much Warrior Goals.  A little over two years ago, I was on another forum and it was discussing Squats, Bench Press, and Dead Lifts, and the 5x5 Stronglifts program.  It had an appeal to me and the moment I tried it, I was hooked.  When I started, I had trouble staying focused and motivated and I had rotating knee issues, hip issues, hamstrings that refused to move, tight glutes and not in the good way.  I was a train wreck - if the choo-choo train could get going fast enough to qualify as a train wreck.  The past year I gained a lot of weight, but made a lot of gains.

 

On my signature, there are some links.  I linked the Introduction because it gives more detailed information about the path I have taken so far.  The short story is when I finished high school, I was 135 pounds (61kg) dripping wet and I gained weight at a rate of about 5 or 6 pounds per year until I moved for the first time to a different state.  (country even)  Since I was setting up a new life, I joined a gym and started a long practice of working with trainers.  I had a long pattern of making great progress for several months, then gradually go back downhill.  When I moved to the state I am currently living in, five years ago, I checked in at 217 pounds (99kg) and exhibited the same pattern.  From the outside, this is very frustrating to watch.

 

Here is the Quest List I am going to check off over the next six weeks:

 

1.  Keeping the Records:

An Apple a Day.  Maintain the daily food log.  There are 42 days in the six-week Challenge.  There are 42 days to check off. +1 CON when complete

Putting up Numbers!  Maintain the daily exercise log.  There are 42 days in the six-week Challenge.  There are 42 days to check off. +1 STA, +1 STR when complete

Rinse and Repeat!  Review the food log once per week.  Make one healthy change per week.  There are 6 weeks in the six-week Challenge.  There are 6 weeks to check off. +1 WIS when complete

 

2.  Leveling the Cooking Skill:

Eggs are your friend.  Boil 3 eggs per work day.  There are 30 work days in the six-week Challenge.  There are 30 days to check off. +1 CON when complete

Yes, you can Cook!  Prepare one creative meal per week.  There are 6 weeks in this Challenge.  There are 6 weeks to check off.  Bonus points if no fire trucks show up at my house. +1 WIS when complete

 

3.  Leveling the Social Media Skill:

Until you upload a video, all those numbers you post mean SQUAT!  Get on you-tube and upload a squat video.  Check when done. +1 DEX, +1 WIS when complete

 

Of course, not even the Starting Zone Quest list is complete without a boss fight!

 

No self-respecting boss is without minions, so here are the minions:

Bench Press.  5 sets.  5 reps.  Bodyweight.  It does not matter what I weight in at.  This is my goal.  Although it does not matter where these numbers cross, it is really a weight loss goal disguised as a strength goal.  The last time I checked was last week and I am 15 pounds away from this goal.  It will be checked once per week.  So either I lose 15 pounds of body weight or I gain 15 pounds of bench press.  Somewhere in between would be ideal and the number I have in mind is 195 pounds or 89 kg. +1 STR when complete

 

Now we are ready for the boss fight!  The name of this boss is:  2/3/4

1.  Bench Press.  1 Rep.  2 Plates.  225 pounds.  102 kg.

2.  Squat.  1 Rep.  3 Plates.  315 pounds.  143 kg.

3.  Dead Lift.  1 Rep.  4 Plates.  405 pounds.  184 kg.  +1 STR when complete

 

Alternatively, we can decide to pass on this Boss Fight until the next Challenge and work on form.  Exchange +1 STR for +1 WIS or Exchange +2 STR for +1 WIS, +1 DEX.

 

The last time I checked was on Monday, February 16.  1 and 3 are already in the books, but we are 20 pounds away on the Squat.  As mentioned above, this means SQUAT until there is a video - so we are going to have to figure out how to get the video uploaded.

 

Reward:  Achievement:  2/3/4, baby!

 

Oh yeah.  Motivation.  I can sum up my motivation in a single word.  DING!

 

DING! 5 sets of 5 reps at body weight!

DING! 3 plate Squat!

DING! 2/3/4, baby!

 

Hmm.  Maybe I should write this up in several places at home and at work.  Hmm.  Maybe I should make one of these the password for my computer at work I have to change every 60 days.

 

Questions?  Comments?  Insults?

 

If I start an Accountabilibuddies group titled, "2/3/4, baby!" would there be joiners?

[Br0din]

In for stalking.  what do you use to count calories?

[Sam Ashen]

I use My Fitness Pal.  The funniest comment I had so far was:

 

I use my own calculations for strength training because the MFP calculations tend to be based on a grandmother doing bicep curls. ;-)

 

It calls Strength Training 275 per hour at my weight.  Maybe it is conservative.

 

And oops!  I forgot to mention a thing about tracking my weight once per week.  It looks like it is implicit.

[Br0din]

My user name is tyrsnbdr if you are looking for supportive friends.  

 

I don't "eat back cals" for my strength training because I work out 3 of 4 days so I consider it part of my BRM.  I dont worry about eating less on the 4th day either.

 

And that comment is sadly true.

[Stronkey Kong]

I use My Fitness Pal.  The funniest comment I had so far was:

 

 

 

 

It calls Strength Training 275 per hour at my weight.  Maybe it is conservative.

 

And oops!  I forgot to mention a thing about tracking my weight once per week.  It looks like it is implicit.

 

I would estimate that most of my past workouts were 200-300 calories / hr. But that doesn't take into account the workout's total worth which is the post workout anabolic burn. Strength recovery burns calories.

 

But yeah, any calculation MFP has for the caloric offset of strength training is garbage. I just track my cals, macros, and look at my progress, and adjust accordingly.

[matty_mcfly]

Following along for the dings!

[Sam Ashen]

This is a little early, but I just did the food and exercise log for the day.  What it looks like is in the spoiler below.

 

Thursday.  Surprise!  The new Challenge threads are up and I can join the Recruits for real!  I posted my Challenge and declared which boss fight I am going to participate in.

 

Hogger must die!  I remember the old days of playing World of Warcraft, this was one of the quests near the end of the Human starting zone.  For anybody new the the game, it was a very rude initiation to Elite mobs.  They are much tougher than regular mobs.  Might figure I'm Level 11 and he's level 10.  No problem.  Oops.  Okay.  Looking for Group:  Hogger must DIE!

 

For a long time, that was a two-plate bench press to me.  It weighs 225 pounds.  Loading up 220 pounds might be no problem, but forget about 225 pounds.  Monday night, I did it and it was no problem at all!  A glass ceiling has been shattered!  Now, I am trying to get a 3 plate squat.

 

The work tonight:

1 mile treadmill run as a warmup

 

Deadlifts:

1x10x135 pounds

1x5x225 pounds

5x5x315 pounds

 

Squats:

1x10x45 pound empty bar

1x8x135 pounds

1x5x185 pounds

5x5x225 pounds

 

A little bit lighter.  Go over some technicalities.  Identify the mistakes I make and when I make them.  Got a prescription for some remedial work on the med glute.  My knees wibble too and I try my best to fight it.  I think if I can remedy this, the squat will be much more powerful.

 

Deadlifts make me hungry.  I get home and start feeding my face with both hands.  I talk about eating so much, my auto-correct thinks my email address ends with ".nom"  I had to figure out an emergency pack to bust open to get me through to the end of the day.  The crust of bread at the end of the loaf and two glasses of water seemed to do the trick.  I have enough bread to make peanut-butter sandwiches all the way through Sunday.

 

I also noticed I have under-represented the calorie count of a peanut-butter sandwich in MFP.  Oops.  Check the labels.  2 slices of bread, plus supposedly 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.  Hmm.  How many tablespoons are there on a heaping butter knife?  If I really want to know, I could check if that jar lasts one month or two.  If I was really energetic, I could look up when I bought that jar of peanut-butter.  It is almost time for another jar.

 

Score for today:

2187 Calories

198 Carbs / 100 Sugar

95 Fat

153 Protein

3.385 Sodium

 

I think I am better off keeping my daily journal in my daily journal and give summaries of where I am at with regard to my goals here.

[Bekah]

hi again You have been tagged as a Warrior in this thread, and what that means for you is that a Warrior Ambassador or a Warrior GL should come by and say hi to you. I think they would have more specific (read: better) diet advice than I would, given your heavy lifting. 

However, if you WANT to do Paleo and WANT to have quick easy awesome food...I recommend batch cooking and these cookbooks: 

 

Well Fed

Well Fed 2

 

and this is MY favorite, but a lot of people don't like it, so YMMV: Everyday Paleo

Batch cooking and crockpots are the BEST friends you can have when trying to cook/eat Paleo and don't want to spend a zillion hours cooking. 

 

I'm glad you showed up and joined the Rebellion! 


 

[Sam Ashen]

You have been tagged as a Warrior in this thread, and what that means for you is that a Warrior Ambassador or a Warrior GL should come by and say hi to you. I think they would have more specific (read: better) diet advice than I would, given your heavy lifting. 

 

I did my own tag.  At the time I thought that was what I was supposed to do.  I will chalk that up as one of those newb mistakes that we are trying to work out in the Recruit first Challenge.

[Rurik Harrgath]

Looks like you're making some excellent strength progress.  Keep up the good work!

[Bekah]

I did my own tag.  At the time I thought that was what I was supposed to do.  I will chalk that up as one of those newb mistakes that we are trying to work out in the Recruit first Challenge.

You can totally do any tags you want, usually newbs dont and someone else does it for them, so I assumed that was the case with you...so kudos for doing that shit yourself and saving other people some work  

That being said, someone should still come along in the next few days and if they dont, I will force them to

[Sam Ashen]

Made it in Friday.  This is going to be 6 days this week I made it!

 

Food log got done.  I forgot to do it at work, so I copied the meal from the day before, unfortunately.  I can figure that out when I get back on Monday.  We're going to miss a few things .  Most important is the log is kept.  Fixed the peanut-butter sandwich issue - Well, most of it.

 

Got the exercise log done.  Not copying it right not, just the highlights.

 

DING! Bench Press.  5 sets.  5 reps.  190 pounds.  (86kg)

DING! Power Clean.  1 rep.  215 pounds.  (98kg)  Signature updated.  

 

I weighed in at 198 pounds even (90kg) but I am basing my goals on a Monday morning weigh-in.  Curiosity got the best of me.

 

EDIT:  Tomorrow is an off-day.  I will probably have lunch or dinner or both with a buddy of mine and I will actively try to smash a one-time meal record on MFP.  Think I can ding 3K?     Sugar drinks make it easier, but that's no fun.

 

That will probably mean working the heck out of dead lifts tomorrow.  That gets the monster appetite going.  I might even get a video of some sets or some good reps.  That will get me part way to one of my quests.  (The other part is to get my butt on you-tube.)

[Sam Ashen]

Okay.  Saturday was a pig-out day and I did my darnedest to do exactly that!  I did a good bit of lifting work, adding step-ups and lunges to the front squats.  I also did overhead presses and dead lifts.  Then it was time to go to town.  I even got some nom! pictures and tried to spin them into a funny story.

 

It looks like I learned how to link to a specific post in a thread!

 

I also got some videos of some of my sets and uploaded them to the computer.  Now I just need to get a you-tube account and start uploading!

 

The exercise log is in, but the food log needs some finalizing.  I had a huge bowl of deep-fried ice cream and MFP had that at 0 sugar.  

 

Okay.  It is fixed as well as I can.

[matty_mcfly]

Haha (I think) I just got your username and it made me literal lol

[Sam Ashen]

Sunday.  Day before Game Day!

 

Here is the daily grind all filled in.

 

No exercise today.  Just rest and shopping and laundry and typing stuff here and stuff like that.

 

I tried to be creative today and bought stuff I figured I would need for a salad.  Next time I should add eggs to it to bump the protein count.  I also saw a pineapple and decided it has been so long, I was going to have a pineapple!

 

See everybody tomorrow!

[Sam Ashen]

Okay.  Going over the SMART goals......

 

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Attainable/Achievable

R = Realistic/Reasonable

T = Timeous

 

The boss fight I specified:

Mobs:  Bench Press.  5 sets.  5 reps.  Bodyweight.

Boss: Squat.  1 rep.  3 plates.  315 pounds.  143 kg.

 

Specific?  Check.

Measurable?  Check.  Iron does not lie.  Count the plates.

Achievable?  Check.  Either I have to get stronger or better coordinated - Or I am already there and don't know it.

Realistic?  Check.  10 pounds to bench press goal.  20 pounds to squat goal.

Timely?  Check.  We are doing this in a six-week Challenge.

 

So.  There are 10 mobs between myself and my goal.  The boss has 20 Hit Points.  There is a 6-week timer.

 

1.  Keeping the Records:

An Apple a Day.  0/42 Days of Food Log

Putting up Numbers!  0/42 Days of Exercise Log

Rinse and Repeat! 0/6 Weeks Reviewed

 

2.  Leveling the Cooking Skill:

Eggs are your friend.  3/90 Eggs Boiled

Yes, you can Cook!  0/6 Creative Meals - No Fire Trucks!

 

3.  Leveling the Social Media Skill:

Until you upload a video, all those numbers you post mean SQUAT!  Not Done.  Video on Laptop.  [0/6 Weekly Videos Posted]

 

Bench Press Mobs: 10/10 Remaining

3 Plate Squat Boss: 20/20 Hit Points Remaining

 

Moving on to the list of Questions:

1. Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)?  Is it reasonable?

2. Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on?

3. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them?

4. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked?  What will you use to track them?

5. How are you grading your goals?  Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)?  Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€?

6. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured?

7. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge?  What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those?

8. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another?

9. Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set?  If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them?

10. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest?

1. Achievable?  Absolutely.  6 weeks to get the 5x5 Bench Press to 200 pounds, or 195 pounds if I can get my weight down 5 pounds.  I am 20 pounds away from the 3-plate squat.  If the issue is strength, then I need to make the gain.  If it is coordination, the gain will happen faster.  If it is mental, then one warm sunny day it will snap!

2. Three Quests build into the main quest?  The pattern is providing an audience so the whole world can watch.  It is more difficult to epic fail if are on camera.  The audience will also make helpful and timely comments that may help achieve the quest.

3. Realistic?  See 1.

4. Measuring and Tracking?  See above.  Check.

5. Grading?  See above.  It is graded by X/Y.  The boss fights will have a 3-week mid-Term exam.

6. What if I become ill or injured?  If we lose a week or two, then we just have to ramp back up when we get back.  If we lose the Final Exam week, then it has to be postponed.  We can also review the list of "In the very unlikely event that" you get struck by lightning in broad daylight, get killed in a plane crash in the absence of travel plans, meet a girl and it works out, etc.  Something might happen.  When the scenario is over, you do what you gotta do:  Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep marching.  Are the goals still achievable?  Do you need a new set?

7. Special Occastions?  The end of the Challenge coincides with Good Friday and Easter.  The Boss Fight will be either the week before or the week after.  It might be an idea to take that weekend off and prep lightly on Monday and smoke it Tuesday.

8. Conflicting Goals?  The Bench Press goal is really a weight loss goal disguised as a strength goal and the Squat goal is a pure strength goal.  Losing 10 pounds in 6 weeks and gaining 20 pounds of squat sounds like a conflict.  Maintaining the same weight and gaining 10 pounds of Bench Press without gaining weight and 20 pounds of Squat sounds like a goal to shoot for. Starting a Food Log generally implies a cut, because the first thing done in reviewing the Food Log is remove the junk.  This leaves holes in the diet that need to be filled.  So we have to work quickly to fill those holes.

9. Do I have the time in my schedule?  Yes.  Will I have a social life?  Two or three slots per week if I am planning to work 5 or 6 days out of the week.  It is going to mess with the video games, unfortunately, but that is the sacrifice I am making right now.  Playing Baldur's Gate from start to finish is out of the question.  

10. Multiple Habits?  Maintain a log.  Build a cooking routine.  Post videos on You-tube.  Multiple?  Yes.   Related?  Yes.  They also serves as reminders to do the other parts.

 

Your mini quest: Make sure your goals are definitely SMART.

 

I think so.  I claim the +1 WIS!  Anybody is welcome to step in offer feedback.

[Bekah]

You really have it very well structured, there isn't much to comment on, if that amount of gain is reasonable for you and you feel confident that you can achieve it in the 6 weeks, then there you go, and if not you just achieve it in 12 weeks, or whatever. You are being realistic in your goal setting and attainment, and not saying "I am going to lose 50 lbs in 6 weeks and gain 100 lbs on my squat" so you are doing fine, thats really the point of the smart goals anyways, to avoid that kind of stuff. 

[Sam Ashen]

Monday.  Day 1.  Food and Exercise Log are in.

 

Did a little something weird to my lower back during my cooldown set of squats.  x_x  I was able to continue the routine, but worked lighter deadlifts with a double-overhand grip.  Hindsight says I should have tried working with the hook grip.  I took some time hit it with a foam roller and a lacrosse ball.  Apparently, I could still do deadlifts but just had to be a little more careful.

 

The last time something like this happened, I dropped the weight to see where the issue started bothering me again, then switched to front-squats.  I can still do body-weight squats and goblet squats.  I am pretty confident about front-squats.

 

I will know more tomorrow.  My body will tell me first thing in the morning and I will check in the afternoon to make sure it is nothing too bad.  A rest and a massage might be good after three pretty solid weeks (17 of 21 days) of work.  Notice the quest list said nothing about how many days a week I was going to work, just that I was going to log them.  ("I took the day off today and treated myself to a massage!")  Maybe whip up something sort of creative for the evening.

 

I think I will end up doing front-squats, bench press, and rows.

[Bekah]

I absolutely love how you are starting this at a place with your body that you listen to it and adjust accordingly Vey Druid-y of you!

I hope the massage helps!

[Sam Ashen]

I absolutely love how you are starting this at a place with your body that you listen to it and adjust accordingly Vey Druid-y of you!

I hope the massage helps!

 

Listen to it by going on with deadlifts?    Here I thought I was going to be lectured about turning 42 this year pretending I'm still 24!

[miss_marissa]

Hope it's not serious! A massage sounds wonderful right about now.

[thekatisalie]

You by the end of this challenge ---> 

[Sam Ashen]

^^

 

+1 WIS if I can figure out which side to put the scabbard by the end of the next Challenge!

[Sam Ashen]

Oh.  And not if I keep eating like this!  

 

[Bekah]

hahahahahaha I came across a cookbook that made me think of you

Performance Paleo