The 36th Chamber of Grymm

[Grymm]

I haven't had time to put this together properly, but I need to get this started.  I'll revise this post but the basic structure is going to stay the same.

 

Part 1:  Stronglifts.  I'm going to continue my stronglifts progression at the typical 5#/workout.  I did the last month in the morning, but for now I may switch to after work.  I can superset chores with lifting for additional productivity and I won't feel rushed.  Ultimately, I think this will help out with sleeping more.  Goal: 12 sessions.

 

Part 2:  Diet.  Last challenge, I tracked a lot and monitored the results.  My take aways are this:  my floor for calories/day is 2800.  The last 4 days, I've been well north of 3000/day and dropped back down to 263 (from 270 post LA) as of this morning.  I'm definitely not eating too much and as the lifts are getting heavy, I'm not going to split priorities.  Getting stronger is priority 1.  My minimum daily intake is 2800cal and 200 protein.  My food quality is pretty good so I'm not going to get more specific than that.  I do have one food related sub-challenge.

 

Part 3:  Sub-challenges:

1. Ride my bike twice this month
2. Drink (7) gallons of milk this challenge (milk fits my dietary/strength goals, a quart a day is not too challenging, and I want to up my calcium intake)
3. Build a level platform in the basement for deadlift and press.
4. Walk around the lake (10) times
5. In bed 8 hrs/night.  I can't necessary control how much I sleep sometimes, but I want to see how often I can hit this goal.

 

Part 4:  Adulting: 4 pts.

1. Throw out the desk in the living room
2. Throw out the recliner in the living room
3. Replace the outlets in the basement
4. Triage my wardrobe for things I should have thrown out long ago
5. Fix the lawn mower (currently borrowing a lawn mower)
6. Clean out the leaves in front of the house
7. Throw out computer components in the closet
8. Demo the ceiling in the downstairs room
9. Build a top hat into the ceiling in the downstairs room
10. Get a checkup. I'm due and I hate going to the doctor.
11. Get my wisdom teeth pulled. My dentist said I should. I just need to arrange it prior to them becoming a problem.
12. Finish the voice modulator (Halloween project 1).  This counts whether it works or not.
13. Make a meaningful progress towards getting my PE (take a practice exam, start a practice book, schedule the FE)
14. Hang up a decorative item.  Anything.
15. Fix bathroom fan.

 

 

 

[Grymm]

1. Stronglifts: (7/12)

2a. Cal 2800: (15/28)

2b. Pro 200: (14/28)

3a. Bike (0/2)

3b. Milk (4/7)

3c. Gym (0/1)

3d. Lake (5/10)

3e. Sleep (13/28)

4. Adulting (0/4)

 

Bonus:

22Push Challenge: (12/22)

(updated 8/1/2016 1:45pm)

 

[RedStone]

Here of course!! All the stronk.

 

[BarbarianBassBro]

Stronglifts! Whoohoo!

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

[Jord]

And here I thought lifting and eating was all the adulting necessary. 

[Grymm]

I've been having a pretty productive week, but haven't really had time to post.

 

Monday:

S: 2x5x45, 3x95, 3x135, 5x5x160

B: 5x45, 5x5x90, 5x5x95

R: 5x5x95

 

Tuesday:

Walked around the lake.  Sports Authority is going out of business, so I took the opportunity to buy some gym clothes and replace my Nike 5.0 Cross trainers which I've torn through both the tops and the bottoms.  I like them for walking, but not at $100+.  I got a pair of Nike 3.0 cross trainers for almost 50% off.

 

Wednesday:

I got asked on short notice to sub for a friend's volleyball team so I had to slam out this workout in a little over 60 minutes.  I picked up time my shortening the warm up/mobility as much as possible and supersetting my shoulder press and squat work sets together.

S: 5x45, 3x95, 3x135, 5x5x165

DB OHP: 5x5x(2x35)

DL: 2x5x170  This should have been 175, but in my haste I forgot to put a 5# on one side.  I changed my set up a little standing up between reps to get a deeper breath.  

Volleyball was a little rough.  Luckily, it wasn't a very high level game so not as taxing on the back.  I played fairly well for having not played in 2 months, but my left calf and right shoulder weren't particularly excited about it.

 

Thursday:

Freak thunderstorm action in the afternoon.  Tons of trees and power lines down, road closures.  It took me over an hour to meet my friend for dinner.  Had I walked it, it would have been a little over a mile.

 

Friday:

S: 5x45, 5x95, 3x135, 5x5x170

B: 5x5x100

R: 5x5x100

 

General commentary on squats - I need to do some accessory sets at light weight (some probably being hundreds of reps over a couple weeks) along with a few glute specific exercises.  My balance is poor.  My glute recruitment is poor.  My hip flexors are firing trying to compensate.  My ROM is much better than a month ago, but it still needs a fair amount of work.  It's a process.  Once I get this somewhat sorted, I'll enjoy squatting a lot more.  I might pick up a pair of lifting shoes to see if a little change in geometry can help a bit.

 

[Jord]

For what it's worth my favorite glute exercises are banded glute exercises. There is tons of information to pick some on Bret Contreras' website. 

[Grymm]

13 hours ago, Taddea Zhaan said:

For what it's worth my favorite glute exercises are banded glute exercises. There is tons of information to pick some on Bret Contreras' website. 

Thanks for the heads up.  I'll check it out.

 

Today, I switched up my warm ups with some compound/dynamic stretchy thingies that seem to work on my week points.  I think it made a nice difference today and should pay dividends in the near future.  Then, when I'm good at those, I'll switch it up again.  That may be a while because today I was awful at them.  I'm not sure what I would call them, but if you saw them you'd probably recognize them.  I'll call them "Surfer-Y-T-W", "floor angels", and "4-position bodyweight squat".  I still had to do some of my stretches, but these were pretty good and help my balance.

 

Sunday I got a lap in around the lake.

All dietary objectives complete Sunday/Monday.

 

Monday workout:

S: 5x45, 3x95, 3x135, 5x5x175

I noticed my phone was MIA between sets 3 and 4 at 175 though close enough to keep playing music through bluetooth.  Set 4 was my best set.  Then my mom called which necessitated another break.  Then set 5.

OH DB P: 5x5x(2x40), one arm at a time.  I did one set without holding the other db, and it got much less stable.  Noted.  I threw in 3x5x40 db curls to occupy some time between sets where I wasn't setting up for DL, but I didn't do these in the squat rack so they don't count.

DL:  3x5x185

I think mission accomplished.  The muscles of my lower back feel pretty worked, but no disk pain.  I could have done more DL sets, but I was already at 2hours and I still needed to cook dinner.  I dropped the bar on my later sets of squats maybe an inch and it felt like an improvement.  175 was easier than 165 or 170.  I think the different warm up routine helped a bit as well.  

[Jord]

10 hours ago, Grymm said:

Monday workout:

S: 5x45, 3x95, 3x135, 5x5x175

I noticed my phone was MIA between sets 3 and 4 at 175 though close enough to keep playing music through bluetooth.  Set 4 was my best set.  Then my mom called which necessitated another break.  Then set 5.

OH DB P: 5x5x(2x40), one arm at a time.  I did one set without holding the other db, and it got much less stable.  Noted.  I threw in 3x5x40 db curls to occupy some time between sets where I wasn't setting up for DL, but I didn't do these in the squat rack so they don't count.

DL:  3x5x185

I think mission accomplished.  The muscles of my lower back feel pretty worked, but no disk pain.  I could have done more DL sets, but I was already at 2hours and I still needed to cook dinner.  I dropped the bar on my later sets of squats maybe an inch and it felt like an improvement.  175 was easier than 165 or 170.  I think the different warm up routine helped a bit as well.  

 

[Grymm]

Complete false start on my workout this morning.  While I got in bed last night at exactly 9:29 last night (8:01 before my 5:30 alarm), I didn't go to sleep until almost 11.  Usually, that would make getting out of bed hard, but I was up and at it by 5:35.  I ate breakfast number 1 and started warm ups.  I really didn't want to work out, but I was pushing through.  I did some bodyweight squats, 5x45 squats, 5x95 squats, and more bodyweight squats.  And there I was looking at 135 for another warm up and it just wasn't happening. 

 

When you squat every other day, the difference between 48 hours and 36 hours is noticeable.  Also, I hate mornings.  I wanted to work out early to separate it from volleyball later today.  Then I contemplated working out after volleyball or splitting just the squats to after volleyball.  Now I'm thinking I'll finish the week Thursday/Saturday.  I am not enthused.  Also, I didn't sleep enough.  On top of all of that, I didn't get to work until 9:15.  Somehow, I just wasted like 1.5 hours.  It was just a fail morning.  I did tack on 22 pushups though.

 

So no credit for 8 hours in bed.  No workout.  Do not pass go; do not collect $200.  And in the future, if I want to do a workout in the morning, I need to have some kind of plan to get going.  I don't do a lot of caffeine, so any kind of caffeine pre-workout would probably be really effective.  However, I don't know if amped up on caffeine is a feeling that will make me want to lift.  I also think some kind of progression concept to my mobility work would help.  I'm more mobile than I was, but I don't have any measurable goals.  I'm contemplating some kind of high volume bodyweight square/paleo chair mini-challenge.  That's specifically the area I need work.

[Grymm]

Redemption is mine!  I cut out of work a little early with the intent of avenging my early morning failure.  

Step 1:  Drive home with the windows down and no a/c.  Let some of the warmth soak into my bones and joints.  

Step 2:  Get a coke from Wendy's.  I don't drink regular soda or eat a lot of processed sugar.  Regular milk tastes sugary to me right now.  Coke is like rocket fuel.  The 6.5 hours of sleep felt like it was 4.  I was lethargic all day.  One large coke later, and I'm humming.

Step 3:  Return home to find a glorious bounty upon my doorstep.

Step 4: Crush workout in record time.  

 

Seriously, though, these two things while a boon to any lifter specifically benefit me tremendously at this time with my poor dorsiflexion at the ankles, and overall instability/balance issues.    It was tough for me to tell how off my balance was.  My bar path was pretty straight and I could push through the mid foot.  However, my calves and hip flexors seemed to be getting more work than my main pushers.  Reps at 175 were a lot more difficult then I thought they should be and that was somewhat demoralizing I suppose.  I was resting 4-5 minutes per set.  Today, I did all 5 sets in the span of 14 minutes.  I also spent way less time under the bar doing 2 or even 3 reps per breath.  I actually was probably going too fast but it just felt that much better.  I would say this went from a mediocre day (the cashier in the work cafeteria asked me how I was doing and I actually said "pretty good."  Pretty good for me is awful!) to a pretty good day.  Also, played volleyball immediately after and was in much better form than last week.

 

7/20/2016
S:  5x45, 5x95 **abandon workout** 

S:  Resume 5x45, 5x95, 5x135, 3x165, 5x5x180

B: 5x45, 5x5x105

R: 5x5x105

 

I love a good comeback story.

 

Also, new walking shoes (or general purpose shoes).  My Nike Free 5.0 cross trainers needed to be retired.  I was ripping through the toe, side, and had worn right through the middle forefoot on both shoes.  

Free 3.0 cross trainers - they don't make the 5.0 anymore?



I thought the 3.0s were supposed to be more flexible, but this shoes is definitely less flexible than my old ones.  Either way, it gets points for the obnoxious color and patterns. 

 

 

[Jord]

I don't workout in the morning often, but when I do my plan looks like this:

 

• prep EVERYTHING the night before. gym clothes, work clothes, breakfast, lunch
• put the things in the gym bag that need to go in the gym bag, put the lunch in the lunch bag in the fridge
• start winding down early, get in bed 30-45 min before I have to be asleep, read, do whatevs
• set alarm 20 min before I have to get out of bed
• hit snooze for 30 min
• get to gym 15 min late
• shrug and get on with it

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

22 hours ago, Grymm said:

Complete false start on my workout this morning.  ...  I really didn't want to work out, but I was pushing through.  I did some bodyweight squats, 5x45 squats, 5x95 squats, and more bodyweight squats.  ...

 

I wanted to drop by and let you know that you were my inspiration for going to the gym yesterday.  Crappy workouts are better than no workouts.  After reading your post I made a deal with myself that I would go and at least do my ramp-up sets.  So....while I know you weren't happy with it, sharing your experience helped me.  Thank you.  :-)

[Grymm]

11 minutes ago, Emerald_Dragonfly said:

 

I wanted to drop by and let you know that you were my inspiration for going to the gym yesterday.  Crappy workouts are better than no workouts.  After reading your post I made a deal with myself that I would go and at least do my ramp-up sets.  So....while I know you weren't happy with it, sharing your experience helped me.  Thank you.  :-)

Aw shucks, E_D.  And on top of that, I ended the day on a high note.

 

Awkward moment story!  So when I got finished lifting yesterday, I just tossed the belt on my bed, took a picture, and got ready for volleyball.  After volleyball, I was shot.  Turns out, a black belt isn't highly visible in the dark.  Who knew?  Anyway, I woke up this morning and it was on the pillow next to me.  My first thought was "Oh no!  I'm that guy!  I slept with a powerlifting belt!".  It's cool though.  We did a light breakfast #1 and parted ways.  Maybe we'll watch a movie later.

[Emerald_Dragonfly]

Sleeping with your powerlifting belt?  That there is some hard core dedication!

[Grymm]

I think my issues with mornings stem from:

1.  I'm a night time person.  Getting to bed at 9pm extremely difficult unless I do it every day.  Going to bed at 9pm every day would suck.

2.  If I don't get to bed by 9pm, I'm not going to be done sleeping by 5 am.  Getting up before I'm naturally done sleeping isn't ideal.  I could get by with 6 hours a sleep when I wasn't really doing anything of significant physical effort.  Now, I really want to get that full night's sleep.

3.  I'm pretty stiff in the morning.  Shoulders, hips, calves, back - everything.  It's some muscular stiffness but it's also a lot of connective tissue stiffness.  It takes a long time to warm that up.

4.  My body is not used to physical exertion in the morning.  I have never been a morning workout person and my job involves no physical exertion.  I can get up and go for a walk, but my energy levels are pretty low.  Some people get up in the morning ready to take on the world.  I get up in the morning ready to go back to bed, or at least very content to just lay there and do nothing.

 

Maybe, over time, I can retrain myself.  Right now, I don't really have to.  Lifting after work mostly works.

[elvenengineer]

9 hours ago, Grymm said:

I get up in the morning ready to go back to bed, or at least very content to just lay there and do nothing.

 

Maybe, over time, I can retrain myself.  Right now, I don't really have to.  Lifting after work mostly works.

I'm currently going through a debate of continuing morning workouts vs. moving them to after work. 

 

Going to bed at 9 is too early a lot of the time for me also. I did it in grad school, but... I don't think it's sustainable. 

[RedStone]

12 hours ago, elvenengineer said:

I'm currently going through a debate of continuing morning workouts vs. moving them to after work. 

 

Going to bed at 9 is too early a lot of the time for me also. I did it in grad school, but... I don't think it's sustainable. 

 

I started experimenting with this last week, and on the one hand planning for a later workout is stressful in someways schedule wise, but the workouts feel so so much better! I'm sure over time I'll get used to the schedule, but I think I'll be sticking with it for now since the results seem worth it  

[Grymm]

I did my push ups this morning and the hardest part may have been getting down to the floor. 

[Grymm]

Day 4 push ups complete.

 

Friday Workout:

S:  5x45, 5x95, 5x135, 3x165, 5x5x185

P: 5x45, DBP: 5x5x(2x40) 

D: 5x5x185  << this should have been 195, but 5# plates are so sneaky. Sometimes you don't even notice they're not on the bar.  As SL only calls for a single set of 5, I think this was an adequate amount of work.  Maybe I'll do 195 and 205 both next B day.  I came to this revelation first thing this morning.  Why did I figure this out 12 hours later?  Was I dreaming about lifting?  I generally don't remember any dreams, but it would seem unusual to wake up and have the first thought be "did I remember to add those 5# plates?"  Sure enough, checked the bar (because I don't have to rerack after lifting - that's part of my warm up for the next workout), and it was 185.

 

Started the top hat in the basement ceiling.  Turns out my floor construction is a little unusual.  The joists are only 2x6, but in the one part of the ceiling I tore out, they are spaced pretty far apart, but laddered closer together.  It might have something to do with the overhang of the second floor at the front of the house.  I'll have to tear out a bit more of the ceiling than I intended to get a better idea.  It should be enough gain in height, though.

[Grymm]

Just saw Guns N Roses at MetLife stadium.  It was quite a show but now it's 3:30am.  Time for a mighty sleep.  Probably didn't get my protein today, but worth it.

[Grymm]

Oh and a mighty sleep it was.  I did wake up around 9am, but I was not to be denied.  Round 2 took me to 1:30pm.  Granted, that screwed up Sunday and sleeping last night, but I feel pretty good.  Other than getting my 22/day in, the weekend wasn't really productive.  The GnR tickets were a last minute invite, and I slept through half of Sunday. 

 

I did go food shopping.  I bought materials to build a chicken/potato/broccoli/cheddar casserole (engineers build things).  I looked up a bunch of recipes for similar things, and I'm pretty confident I can just wing this.  That doesn't always work out, but it seems pretty simple.

 

Overall, week one was pretty solid.  I missed protein one day (~155g/200g) and sleep one day.  I like to start my weeks with a walk on Sunday, but that didn't happen.  I don't drink enough water on the weekend (and drink entirely too much non-water).  After the concert, I killed a half gallon of vitamin water on the way home.  I'm up ~6lbs since the start of the challenge, which is part of the point.  Most of that weight I think is just water retention in the muscles.  I think I've hit the point where my body is on board with a regular lifting routine.  As I rehydrate during the week, I expect to stay above ~267. 

[Grymm]

Monday! Back to work!

 

S: 5x45, 3x95, 3x135, 2x185, 5x5x190

B: 5x45, 5x95, 5x5x110

R: 5x5x110

D: 5x195

 

I did my 22 push ups right after bench.  I decided to try to use more tricep by doing them hands in but having just done bench, I did them with my hands on the bench, feet on the floor to make them easier.  I'm not sure the idea worked because my triceps felt quite worked and  I didn't have much weight on my feet.  My feet were dragging around on some reps.  Either way, check.

 

Also, made up for my Friday mistake and got the 195 DL in.

 

Built a chicken/cheese/potato/broccoli casserole that actually came out fantastic.  Next time I build it, I'll increase the chicken for more protein and use a larger baking pan.  Then I'll just need ~6 more people to come over for (2) days to eat it.  The amount I made is 8 decent sized dinners.  I could potentially cut the recipe in half I suppose but why make less when you can make more?

 

Recipe for future reference (I kind of made it up from other casseroles I found online):
3lbs cubed chicken breast (increase in future)

20oz chopped broccoli

1 large onion, chopped

2c brown rice (2c when uncooked)

2 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

24 oz Shredded cheddar

8oz Sour Cream

Minced Garlic, Salt, Black Pepper, Olive Oil

2lbs Potatoes Cubed (I used 4 typical baking potatoes)

 

Preheat oven to 425F

Put some olive oil in a baking pan, add onion, potatoes, garlic/salt/pepper as desired.  Mix it up, cover, and bake 25min.  Uncover and bake another 15-25 minutes until the potatoes start to brown.  They should be almost fully cooked at the end.  I think I baked mine a total of ~47min.

Cook the rice.  Cook the broccoli (might not be necessary for fresh broccoli).

When the potatoes/onions are done, mix everything together minus half the cheese in the baking pan.  Top with the remaining cheese.  Cover and bake maybe 25 minutes.  Remove the cover and bake another 10-15 until you've got the cheese the desired color.

As this contains raw chicken, maybe you want to ensure it's fully cooked.  I think 40 minutes at 425 should do the trick.  Also it'll continue to cook after you pull it out and let it sit a bit.  This casserole is like cement and holds a lot of heat. 

 

 

 

[Jord]

Looks good! I make things similar to this when I'm running out of groceries. I usually have chicken breast in the freezer, rice, and some way to make creamy cheesy sauce. Just add vegetables and you are done. I like it with broccoli or peas, but you could really add anything. I recommend adding some sriracha but I'll put that shit on anything.