Whatamidoinhere Battle Log

[whatamidoinhere]

This is a neat section. It looks like a nice parrallel to the 4-week challenge areas. Today is a week shy of a full month on Ice Cream Fitness (with mods because I don't listen so well). Initially this was a 5x5 program, about 2 weeks ago after browsing a Greyskull subreddit I started using AMRAP for final worksets. I also added Chin Ups and Pull Ups later on because I'll be damned if a workout doesn't feel complete unless I do one or the other.

Note: Warm up sets not listed. For the newbs in the crowd (like me): EVERY PROGRAM ASSUMES YOU ARE DOING WARM UP SETS, I wish that was something clearly stated in all "Beginner" programs but that is rarely the case. Having used Starting Strength a few years ago, I had some idea of how to determine my baseline already as well as how to do warmup sets.

Starting point:
Dec 19 - Ice Cream A (baseline day, lbs)
Squat- 65 x5
Bench- 55 x5
Bent Over Row- 45 x5
Shrugs- 45 x5
Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 30 x8
EZ Curl- 45 x8
Hyperextension- 10 x10
Cable Crunch- 40 x10

Dec 21 - Ice Cream B (baseline pt2)
Squat- 70 5x5
DL- 155 1x5
Press- 55 x5
BO Row- 45 5x5
Close-Grip Bench- 50 x8
EZ Curl- 45 8/7/8 (failed)
Cable Crunch- 45 2x10

Estimated Starting weight is 178lbs, may have been slightly lower but since I'm trying to gain weight I'll err on the side of chocolate.

[whatamidoinhere]

I have been successful thus far in keeping to the day-on day-off schedule without hiccup. After a few weeks of eating a ton of food, I think I'm at or above 180 right now. Also a full week done on first 4-week challenge.

Most recent events:

Jan 08 - IC A
Squat- 135 4x5/10
Bench- 80 4x5/16
Bent Over Row- 75 4x5/6
Shrugs- 75 2x8/14
Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 42.5 3x8
EZ Curl- 50 3x8
Hyperextension- 25 10/11
Cable Crunch- 40 2x10/14
Chin Ups- +0 7/7/5

Jan 10 - IC B
Squat- 145 4x5/6
DL- 205 1x8
Press- 75 4x5/8
BO Row- 70 4x5/12
Close-Grip Bench- 75 2x8/12
EZ Curl- 52 8/8/7 (fail)
Cable Crunch- 40 2x10/20
Pull Ups- +0 6/5/3

[whatamidoinhere]

Another session down, another step closer to the 500 club (first of many goals), sitting at 445 now.  Also, I weighed in at 183!  Even with some water weight and food in the gut, that's gotta represent progress.   Dead by the end of the workout but not much of an actual burn.  Curls hit the spot though.  After the last failure I was happy to break 8 on the last set.

 

Jan 12 - IC A

Squat- 150 5x5
Bench- 90 4x5/12
Bent Over Row- 80 4x5/9
Shrugs- 85 2x8/14
Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 43.5 2x8/10
EZ Curl- 52 2x8/9
Hyperextension- 25 10/15
Cable Crunch- 40 2x10/16
Chin Ups- +0 8/6/4

 

YAY for newb gains!

[whatamidoinhere]

Sore shoulder during the squat today... Not sure what I did but it took forever for it to loosen properly for low-bar.  Left the gym starving and tired.  Pretty sure that means it was an awesome day   also, well on my way to 235 by the end of the month!  yay.

 

Jan 14 - IC B
Squat- 155 4x5/4 (fail)
DL- 215 1x8
Press- 80 4x5/8
BO Row- 70 4x5/13
Close-Grip Bench- 80 2x8/11
EZ Curl- 53 3x8
Cable Crunch- 40 2x10/15
Pull Ups- +0 8/6/3

 

40 lbs away from the 500 club, wooo.

[Slayer]

Woot! Always fun to see other people making awesome progress!

[whatamidoinhere]

Today was a real drag getting my ass to the gym.  I'm glad I got there but it was not pleasant getting there.

 

Jan 16 - IC A

Squat- 155 4x5/6
Bench- 95 4x5/10
Bent Over Row- 85 5x5
Shrugs- 90 3x8
Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 45 2x8/9
EZ Curl- 54 2x8/6 (fail)
Hyperextension- 25 10/16
Cable Crunch- 40 2x10/20
Chin Ups- +0 8/5/4

 

Thanks Chloe, I'm still very much in the honeymoon phase and I'm already looking for something to replace Ice Cream (with mods).  I feel like it takes too damn long, maybe I'm just impatient though.  I'm sure once I start to see physical changes in addition to the numbers going up I'll feel a little better about the program.

[whatamidoinhere]

Today, I am jazzed as hell.  I felt good in the gym, my numbers are up, I feel great after working out, appetite is huge!  Just really nice after the last couple sessions.  Very small downer is the drop in my Chin Ups and Pull Ups over the last couple sessions.  Gonna totally blame it on volume and my weight going up.  I'm just gassed by the end of training.

 

Jan 18 - IC B
Squat- 160 5x5
DL- 225 1x8
Press- 85 4x5/7
BO Row- 75 4x5/9
Close-Grip Bench- 85 2x8/11
EZ Curl- 54 3x10
Cable Crunch- 40 2x10/25
Pull Ups- +0 7/5/4

 

Squat form didn't quite feel right, I need a gym-tech to sort my shit out I think.  Gonna do a manual reset next session instead of following the program on this one.  I'll do work sets at 145 and get solid feedback on form.

 

DL felt AWESOME today.  Two plates a side was my super-secret-doesn't-count-for-the-challenge-but-it-makes-me-feel-fuzzy-anyway-achievement.  Nice to have that one behind me and feeling good doing it.  At home I was using straps to pull 165 three months ago.  Now I'm at 225 strap-free.  The slow and steady game is fun.  I'm looking forward to looking back in December 2016.

[whatamidoinhere]

Felt good heading in today.  Hungry, very hungry, but good.  I wasn't paying attention to last IC A and forgot to run the same weight on curls.  Didn't matter, still hit the next weight and passed that, LUCKY!  Also, finally hit the big 10 reps on my first chin up set.  Considering my weight is up and session volume is up, that felt like an amazing achievement.  Left the gym starving but happy.  I'm looking forward to DL tomorrow, I was practicing hook grip today and I'll keep practicing until I can use it on the workset.

 

Jan 20 - IC A

Squat- 162.5 4x5/4 (fail)
Bench- 100 4x5/11
B.O. Row- 90 4x5/6
Shrugs- 95 2x8/14
Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 47.5 3x8
EZ Curl- 55 2x8/9
Hyperextension- 25 10/13
Cable Crunch- 45 2x10/15
Chin Ups- +0 10/7/4

[whatamidoinhere]

Well, today was a bit good and a bit bad.  The bad; I am still stalled on squats, and they brought their friends OHP and EZ Curl to the fail-party.  I thought I was good to go but I quickly ran out of gas after the DL.  Oh, and I ran short on time so I dropped the row today. I probably should have left out cable crunches but I'd already started the bench and didn't want to change the order of things further.  The good; DL is still going up, back and shoulders feel like they got a great workout and I'm holding steady at 183 lbs.  Today was a win, smaller than usual, but a win.

 

Jan 22 - IC B
Squat- 162.5 3x5/4/5 (fail)
DL- 235 1x5
Press- 87.5 3x5/4/4 (fail)
BO Row- NADA (super fail?)
Close-Grip Bench- 90 2x8/9
EZ Curl- 56 8/6/6 (fail)
Cable Crunch- 45 3x10
Pull Ups- +0 6/4/4

 

Pull ups also took a small hit but I'm amazed I got as many as I did considering how tired I was when I got to them.  Next time... COFFEE pre-workout!

[whatamidoinhere]

I finally made the 5x5 squats at 162.5, felt good.  Ate a lot, gonna sleep a long time hopefully.  Weighed in at 185 lbs, had some food and water in me so not unexpected.

 

Jan 24 - IC A

Squat- 162.5 4x5/6
Bench- 105 4x5/9
B.O. Row- 92.5 4x5/9
Shrugs- 100 2x8/12
Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 48.5 2x8/11
EZ Curl- 56 2x8/9
Hyperextension- 25 10/14
Cable Crunch- 45 2x10/12
Chin Ups- +0 8/5/3

[whatamidoinhere]

Well.  I think I'm getting tired of this Ice Cream stuff by now  It's probably a diet thing.

 

Jan 26 - IC B
Squat- 162.5 5x5
DL- 240 1x5
Press- 86 3x5/4/5 (fail)
BO Row- 80 4x5/10
Close-Grip Bench- 92 2x8/9
EZ Curl- 57 3x8
Cable Crunch- 45 2x10/22
Pull Ups- +0 7/3/4

 

162.5 seems to be a tough spot for form still.  Been feeling sluggish as hell in the gym lately, time to reconsider the diet I think.  More CAFFEINE!

[whatamidoinhere]

Well, here is the final Ice Cream Fitness session and the first Greyskull right after it.  I got pretty damn fed up being in the gym more than 2 hours.  Ain't nobody got time for that! (Well, I don't have time for that anyway).  The Greyskull LP I'm going with is a little mish-mash of the basics and some things that I just wanted to make sure I got done.  Push/chin/pull ups all need to stay on the roster but I've moved then into the "Frequency" training category.  They will see daily use while the big stuff stays on a 3 day/week to every second day rotation.  I might skip the double rest day once in a while, that gives me the option to do exercise more often without actually being too much.

 

Jan 28 - IC A

Squat-  150 4x5/8
Bench- 110 4x5/8
B.O. Row- 95 4x5/10
Shrugs- 105 2x8/12
Tri-Pushdown w/rope- 50 2x8/10
EZ Curl- 56 2x8/9
Hyperextension- 25 10/10
Cable Crunch- 45 3x10
Chin Ups- +0 9/4/3

 

Jan 30 - Greyskull 2B

Bench- 95  5/5/14

BO Row- 85  8/8

Squat- 135  5/5/10

[whatamidoinhere]

My Greyskull plan is 3day/week and looks like this:

 

Week 1 Day A

OHP - 5/5/5+

EZ Bar Curl - 10/10

EZ Bar Tri Ext - 10/10

Squat - 5/5/5+

 

Week 1 Day B

Bench - 5/5/5+

BO Row - 8/8

BB Curl - 10/10

Deadlift - 5+

 

Week 1 Day A

REPEAT

 

Week 2 Day A

Bench - 5/5/5+

BO Row - 8/8

BB Curl - 10/10

Squat - 5/5/5+

 

Week 2 Day B

OHP - 5/5/5+

EZ Bar Curl - 10/10

EZ Bar Tri Ext - 10/10

Deadlift - 5+

 

Week 2 Day A

REPEAT

 

Every day I'll do chin ups, pull ups and push ups using the frequency method to improve.  It should be easy enough to bang off a set in the morning first thing, two sets in the evening and however many other sets are required throughout the day while I'm at work.  Long term goal?  Just wanna be stronger.

 

-Edited- Changed my mind about what "ups" to do each day, went for all three instead of alternating.  It's easier to track and better for me overall.

[whatamidoinhere]

Didn't get much sleep last night.  It was broken up into two short naps totalling about 5.5 hrs.  Won't be a habit.  Getting my ass into the gym was a pain but once there everything just melted away and I got right to it.  First impression?  Thank f*** I don't spend 2 hours in the gym dreading getting to the end of the workout.  I ran this in about 50 minutes and still left tired but feeling good.  Adding extra shit in like ICF had can definitely wait.

 

01 Feb W1A1

OHP - 75 x 5/5/10

EZ Bar Curl - 40 x 10/10

EZ Bar Tri Ext - 35 x 10/10

Squat - 140 x 5/5/8

 

Frequency stuff for the week

push - 6x6

pull - 3x6

chin - 3x6

[whatamidoinhere]

03 Feb W1B1

Bench - 85 x 5/5/15

BO ROW - 75 x 8/8

BB Curl - 50 x 10/9

Deadlift - 225 x 7

 

Things are going well except I probably put too much arm shit in to the plan.  I'll be pushing this thing over to the "help my dumb ass make a program" thread towards the end of the month

[whatamidoinhere]

05 Feb 1A

OHP - 77.5 x 5/5/11

EZ Bar Curl - 42.5 x 10/10

EZ Bar Tri Ext - 37.5 x 10/10

Squat - 142.5 x 5/5/10

 

Only used a small increment on the squats today.  I think it worked out.  Also ate some oatmeal at the mess hall today... It was an interesting experience.  I prefer instant oatmeal over this "real" stuff.