Learning and Lifting - A student's tale

[Cat in the rack]

Damn do I lack free time. This mornings weigh-in was 69.1kg so not awful, did some reading this morning, went to a stats workshop, 3 hour gap I spent in a cafe somewhat studying, then a social lecture to end at 6. Got home, had dinner, prepped tomorrow's food, and that is the monotony that was my day.

Still, tomorrow I get to go to a morning lecture, then to the gym, followed by work, followed by bed. At least it's a bench day, though it's also a cardio day which is something I've really been slacking with lately, probably all this walking I've been doing. Okay, tomorrow I gotta really push for some cardio, at least 10 minutes postworkout.

That's all for today, have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Got a text from my manager this morning saying someone called in sick so long story short I had to come into work early. Still, woke up with a weigh-in of 69.7kg, not bad for a week into the month. Went to a morning lecture which was the biggest waste of time ever, 2 hours of introducing the lecturers, explaining what the module is about, makes me glad I left after hour 1.

Got to the gym, took some preworkout, hit a bench day.

Bench press was 72.5kg which I did for 3 sets of 3, second set was the quickest, third set I had a trigger-happy spotter who yanked the bar away half way up rep 3, but overall not bad. Did fat grip pull-ups for 5 sets of 4, went up pretty easy. Followed bench with fat grip dumbbell rows 5x10 with 22kg, then fat grip dumbbell overhead press with 14kg, 5 sets of 10 dips, then 5 sets of 12 fat grip barbell curls with 22.5kg. Cardio was limited to jump rope between most sets, though it did go pretty well at least. Then I showered, ate, and started my shift 2 damn hours early.

Been at work since then, not much to do so I decided to update here on my phone. Gonna prepare my dinner a bit later, gonna go with chicken and rice and salad, all fairly standard.

But hey, tomorrow I have no work us just one afternoon lecture, so I'll hit up some squats shortly after whenever I wake up, probably take a nap at home, then head to the lecture, head home, and who knows what'll be going on later. Probably not much as I have a morning lecture on Friday.

Anyway, that's about it, nothing else comes to mind, I am so looking forward to a semi-relaxing weekend, have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Weigh-in of 69.7kg, had some coffee before hitting up some squats. Built up to 110kg which sadly I was unable to make a third rep with, gonna have to work on squats a little better next cycle. Deadlifts with 70kg for 5 sets of 12 was no problem, as was leg press with 120kg for 5 sets of 10. Hanging leg raises for 5x8 went really well, as did 70 second planks.

Came home and ate something of a cheat meal as it included ice cream and brownies, but ya know. Got a lecture at 4 so I'll finish what little revision I have left before then. Aside from that not much else to say, tomorrow's OHP day should go well, and I'll try to make it to the gym for cardio on Saturday seeing as cardio has been lacking somewhat lately.

That's about it, have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Weigh-in of 69.1kg today, pretty low but I'm sure it'll shoot back up in no time. 2 hour biological lecture at 10 this morning so not too bad, pretty interesting stuff on motivation and addiction, suspiciously low on the biology side of things but I'm sure that'll begin to change in the coming weeks. Headed to the gym, got changed, took a little pre and headed up. Incidentally I've decided to only use pre-workouts on days where I'm working or have lectures before the gym; after work I'm a little knackered mostly from being up on my feet for hours, and after lectures I'm more mentally fried than anything.

Anyway, onto the workout, and it went pretty awesome.

First fat grip chin-ups, 5 sets of 6, previously the last 1-2 sets have ended quite grindy, but today they were shooting up, definitely will be upping to 7 at some point soon, might leave it to the next cycle.

Then we had OHP, last week I only hit 4 then 3 reps rather than 5 with 47.5kg, but today 50kg went up for 5 sets of 3, second set ended grindy but I must have just messed up or something because it didn't feel as difficult on following sets. Incidentally I've decided on the initial strength stuff (core 4 lifts) to push for max sets rather than reps. So 5+ rep week I'll go for as many sets of 5 rather than max reps 5 or more, stopping at 5 sets maximum. So ideally each week I'll be doing 5x5, then 5x3, then 5x1, the exception being deadlifts with a single max set, and I also imagine 1+ rep week is where I'm least likely to get maximum sets, just due to how draining it is to go that heavy.

Assistance work followed, fat grip dumbbell row for 5x12 for 22kgs, and fat grip dumbbell bench for 5x12 for 20kgs, couldn't manage a fifth bench set but I'll still up the weight to 22kg for sets of 8.

Then last lifts were dips for 5x10 which seem much better lately, and fat grip barbell curls for 5x12 with 22.5kg, which also went well.

Finally got some cardio to finish with, 10 minutes of punch bag on top of the between-sets jump rope, damn Ronda Rousey has made the punch bag a more popular piece of equipment.

Rest day tomorrow, I realised Monday would make a better cardio day than tomorrow as I have a fair bit on this weekend. I've already eaten lunch today but have yet to shower, put on some laundry earlier also. I'll be going on a bar crawl tonight but only to the first 2 locations as I've got work 9am tomorrow.

Okay, that's about it, looking forward to hitting some sets of singles next week, except for squats for which I'm going sets of 5 a little lighter as they've not gone well this cycle, if I don't make 5x5 with 100kg I won't progress to 105kg as the starting point next cycle. Bench is gonna be 75kg (1RM was 77.5kg), deadlift 130kg (1RM of 130kg), and OHP 52.5kg (max of 55kg but this one is the most conservative). I may be keeping some lifts the same weight as this cycle but going for more sets, have yet to decide fully.

Anyway, that's a wrap, lotta' studying to do this weekend, compared to most of summer, so not actually that much. Have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Last night I went to an all you can eat Brazilian place, you fill up your plate with salad and whatnot, then sit down at your table as people come by and bring you freshly cooked meat. Essentially the way I see it is you load up on carbs then have seemingly infinite protein thrown at you, can't remember the name of it but it was awesome. Anyway, no surprise this mornings weigh-in was up a lot at 70.4kg, so just 100g under the halfway goal, but I'm expecting something of a drop by tomorrow morning, if not the next day.

Got some studying done this morning but not a whole lot, tomorrow's a cardio day at the gym straight after lectures but before work, so I'll have a nice hour or two to get some more studying done before my shift starts. Then at around half 1 I headed to the gym with a buddy.

After warming up was 10x3 bench press with 70kg which went great, my gym buddy's form was way off but it's not anything I've not pointed out to him before, and at least it's better than it was a year ago. I alternated with fat grip pull-ups and chin-ups same as usual, but I couldn't convince him to, 5 sets of 4 and 6 which went up pretty easily.

Then was fat grip dumbbell rows which I did 5x8 with 24kg and dips for 5x12. The session ran a bit long as tends to happen when I'm working out with someone else, so I didn't have time for the usual curls. So I went up to a max weight with dumbbells which was 18kg, then max rep curls with just the barbell so 20kg, I got to 20 reps and stopped, I probably had a few more in me but I figured at 20 reps there's not much point continuing.

Got home, ate one helluva meal which I think was 2,000 calories, suffice to say I won't be eating any more today. Gonna be heading to a friends house and chilling this evening, once I've showered and got dressed, and that's all I've got planned for the rest of the day. So yeah, that's all folks, have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Up way too early with a weigh-in of 70.2kg, so it's shifting back down and if I had to guess I'd say I'll level out around 70kg, which ain't half bad. Had bfast and headed to a morning lecture, wound up round the friends house later than I was expecting, so the morning was a bit rushed. I had every intention of going to the gym for cardio before work but I'm knackered and decided not to.

I really need to step up on my cardio a little as of late, I dunno if it's lectures or work or all the walking I have to do to get everywhere now, but I've not been giving cardio 100%. I have a friend who likes to jog so I think I'm gonna tag along when I can, even if it's just once a week at least it's a little extra cardio, plus it's not generally the type of cardio I do so it's good to mix things up. I'm gonna also start planning my cardio out more fully, which should help me stick to something more consistent, 3x a week is what I'm gonna aim for, any type of cardio will do.

But other than that things are good, I've got a little studying to do, some notes to rewrite, etcetera. It's still early days in the semester so there isn't much to do but I've still gotta get it done, I figure I'll do what I can before work today, then tomorrow I have a three hour gap in my day so I'll do a fair bit during that. Not that I'll study 3 hours straight, the new episode of Gotham (still think it's a fairly awful show) airs tonight so I guess I'll watch that during the break, that'll give me about 2 hours to fill with studying which I guess would make sense to keep separate rather than 2 hours straight.

Anyway, studying to do, got work later but it's only 5 hours so not too bad, plus I'll have to cook my dinner there as well. I'm gonna do a little studying now, maybe take a little nap, get a little more studying done, then go to work. Have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Tutorial this morning finished early so I came home instead of hanging around campus for 4 hours. I've got around 2 hours now before I have to head back so I'm gonna try to get all my revision done before then. As of now I have two textbook chapters to read and 2 notes to rewrite, shouldn't take too long but I might not get it all done before I leave. Plus I'll have another lectures notes to rewrite and chapter to read after my lecture at 4 today. Still, on the plus side there's a placement fair tomorrow meaning no lecture, so I don't have to worry about work piling up.

Anyway, this morning's weigh-in was 69.7kg, so still .4 above the start of the month or around a pound net gain. I'm hoping for 70.5kg to end the month as that's my halfway point towards my target goal, but it isn't vital that I reach 75kg at my max.

Tomorrow's gym day is squats so there won't be postworkout cardio, but the following day is bench so I will put some in then, gotta work on keeping cardio up and I'll be sure to get lots in during the deload week coming up. That's about all for today though, have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Okay gotta make this quick as I've only got 20 minutes.

Woke up too early with a weigh-in of 70.4kg nice and high, then headed to lectures. Took some pre then headed to the gym.

Workout went ridiculously great. Nailed 5x1 on bench with 75kg, pull-ups were smooth, assistance work went off without a hitch, ended with 10 minutes cardio.

Showered, ate, studied a little, then work started. I've had a bit of a headache all shift, caught a housemates cold I think, nothing I can't brush off though.

Gonna head home very soon, drink something hot, then go to bed as tomorrow's an early start also plus squat day. That's about it, have a good one

[Cat in the rack]

Alright, same weigh-in of 70.4kg this morning, same annoyingly early wake-up time. Had gym this morning for squats and I decided that I've been sacrificing volume for weight. So I stuck fairly light, 90kg, and did 5x5, went up pretty easy, next cycle I'll start at 95kg, follow the same method as other lifts. Followed with 4x8 deadlifts with 80kg, 4x8 leg press with 120kg, 4x8 hanging leg raises, and 4 planks of 70 seconds each which weren't too difficult.

Also realised I've been kind of an idiot, as my house is just over a mile from the gym, running home provides decent cardio. With obstacles like traffic and whatnot I did it in 12 minutes today, I'll try to do faster next time, and so on. Got home, ate, showered, then headed to a lecture. 2 hours of hell this was, I can tell this particular lecturer is a waste of time. Got a one hour gap I'm on now before a 2 hour tutorial of the same subject and I feel dead. Still, push on I guess, at least I got tomorrow off (aside from work).

Might be going out tonight, might not, we'll see how I feel after a nap when I get home at the end of eternity. Anyway, that's all, have a good one