Going a bit awry

[Arigh]

I'm going to throw in some backlog and history before starting to use this as a workout log.

I've been lifting on and off since freshman year of college back in '06. I knew very little back then, and I did an awful workout that centered around bench press because that's the only exercise I really knew. The upside to this was that my chest became immensely strong for my size, the downside was a torn rotator cuff that kept me from lifting for over a year.

After my shoulder fully healed, I didn't exercise at all. This changed in 2009 when I began frequenting a rock climbing gym at my college. I was hooked, I would climb for hours and hours. I had a few minor pulley injuries and at one point a wicked case of elbow tendonitis, but no serious injuries.

In 2010, I moved with my (now) ex-girlfriend to Philadelphia, but couldn't find a rock climbing gym that captured the camaraderie of my old gym. I also lacked a partner to help ease this fact and make it more comfortable, so I stopped climbing.

Shortly after moving there, we broke up, and I was extremely depressed. My appetite went out the window, and in a 2-3 weeks I went from ~155 lbs down to 138 lbs or so. As a way of dealing with this, I turned back to my almost-forgotten friend: Lifting weights.

I started doing a Horizontal/Vertical-esque 3 day split, AxBxAxxBxAxBxx...

Horizontal: Deadlift, Bench Press, Rows, Core and optional bicep accessory work

Vertical: Squats, Weighted Pull Ups, Overhead Press, optional tricep accessory work

My max lifts at the time were pretty horrifying to me, ~165 lbs for bench, ~180-190 lbs for squats. I wasn't deadlifting in the beginning because I had nowhere to do so. The gym I was going to was laughably bad.

I still essentially stick to this, though my rep ranges have changed each time I've plateaued. I started with a 5x5, which I stuck to for 4-5 months as I built back up a base of strength, this time in more than just chest.

After those 4-5 months, I changed to a 3x3 rep scheme, and my strength jumped. I consider what I was doing a sort of "peaking" after I put back on some weight. I also started deadlifting at this point, because I switched gyms. I stayed on a 3x3 for 2-3 months, then switched to 3x10, in the hopes of continuing to put on more weight. I continued with the 3x10 until today, actually.

The highest I weighed during this year long period was 185 lbs, currently I'm around 175 lbs.

The heaviest I've ever done for 10 reps are:

Bench: 225x10

Squat: 315x10

Deadlift: 295x10

Pullups: +45 lbs x 10

I think that's it for background info. Now I can start using this as a workout log.

[Arigh]

Today, I switched things up and decided to go 5x5.

Deadlift: 225, 275, 295, 315, 330

Bench Press: 185, 205, 225, 235, 245 (failed, only got 3)

Bent over barbell rows (did 3x10 on this out of habit): 45, 90, 115, 135x5 (wanted to see what I could do

Left lifts: 2x25

Decline crunches, twisting at the top: 2x20

Curls: 2x10@30 lbs each, 35 lbs each

[Arigh]

Continuing with the 5x5

Squats: 225, 275, 315, 325, 350

Pull ups: +25, +35, +45, +55

DB OHP (x10 reps): 55, 60, 65 (failed completely), 55

Tricep pushdown: 75, 85, 100 (3x10)

DB shoulder raises (I have no idea what to call them): 2x10@ 25, 30

[Arigh]

11/14

I was at my parent's house, so I didn't have access to everything I usually do, and I was also under time constraints, so this was a bit cut down. Shoulders were mostly cut out.

Squats: 5x5@223, 267, 300, 311, 355 (bit shallow on this set, honestly doesn't count. barely at parallel)

Pullups: 3x10@22,33,45

Pulldowns: Heavy doubles and singles, the weights are irrelevant because the resistance is off. I decided to throw these in because my pullups seem to be slipping, despite my weight not changing much

Dips: 3x10@+45

Shoulders: Random improvised flys and raises using plates because I didn't have time to set things up for military press.

[Arigh]

11/16

Deadlifts:5x5@225,275,315,330,340 (failed, couldn't even get it off the ground), 335x3

Bench: 4x5@155,175,195,215

On and off injury to my right pec has been acting up. Not sure if it's tendonitis, a tear or something else. Hurts in the middle of my chest where my pec is attached to my sternum. Doesn't hurt now, but I'm babying it for a little while

Barbell rows: 4x10@+45,70,90,115

Curls: 2x10@30,35

Leg lifts: 40,30

Was going to do more core, but I was feeling lightheaded and a bit nauseous. Might do russian twists later tonight to hit obliques after I feel a bit better.

[Arigh]

11/21

Squats: 5x5@275,300,315,330,350

Pullups: 3x10@bw+25, wasn't feeling it. I'm feeling some oddness in my left shoulder, which is never a good thing.

DB Press: 3x10@50,55,60

Tricep Press: 3x10@?? It's a machine, their resistance is never actually what it reads, so it's not worth recording

[Arigh]

11/23

So, I'm going to try something different. After reading a whole lot of Chaos and Pain, and reading some things written by Jim Wendler, I'm going to go to a 5/3/1. 4 days, each centered around a different "big lift." I started today with deadlift, because I squatted on Monday. I couldn't do everything I wanted to, and I failed my last heavy set. I'm still feeling a good bit of DOMS from Monday, and I just couldn't fight through it.

Deadlift:

Warmup: 3x5@157,201,236.5

3x5:261.5,289,333(failed 333, could only do it once, which is pretty bad considering when doing a 5x5 last week I was able to do it)

5x10@201

[aj_rock]

Hey man! How's your nutrition? It's gonna play a big part in improving your numbers, which are already pretty good.

[spatzcat]

I was just going to ask that as well...nutrition is a huge deal. what did you eat the day the deadlift failed?

[Arigh]

I don't have a set plan for my nutrition, generally I'm just winging it and trying to eat for the most part "healthy" things. This isn't even remotely effective, I know. Nutrition and supplementation are both huge, but I ignore them quite well.

That day I remember before lifting I had eaten breaded, baked fish of some sort. I was home, so my mother cooked, it was a white fish with a wine sauce. I know that part of the problem was the fact that I had eaten before right before lifting, and I was lifting late. I seem to lift the best in the early afternoon on a semi-empty stomach.

After this weekend, though, I'm going to have to take a look at everything for some other reasons; I finally had some people to go bouldering with while I was home. This is something that I used to do very regularly, and I was bouldering about V5-6 on plastic. On Friday, I failed to complete even a V3, and V0-V2 were honestly difficult.

This makes sense, considering I'm about 40 lbs heavier than when I was climbing regularly, and I also haven't climbed regularly in approximately a year and a half. So I didn't expect to come back and magically be Chris Sharma, but I did expect to at least be able to get through a V3 or 4.

Since it's late, I'm not going to lay out my plans, but I feel the need to modify things so I can be better all-around, rather than just able to lift. My ability to run, climb, and generally DO things is down below where it should be, so I feel a rethink of everything is in order. I don't necessarily need to even include climbing into my workouts, but I need a broader base, while still pushing my strength higher. Inherent in this, is the need for an actual look at my diet, or lack of one would peg it better.

This is all a bit rambly.

[aj_rock]

Well, hey, for not keeping track of nutrition, you're doing pretty well. What you'll find though, is that the better your numbers get, the more just 'winging' your diet isn't going to work. As you get stronger and stronger, your gains get slower and slower, and it takes more precise nutrition to be able to eek the most profit out of your gains, or you'll find yourself plateauing quickly and frequently.

[Arigh]

I've spent the last few days planning what exactly I want to do. Goals are difficult, because mine are not complementary. On one hand, I want to get as big and strong as I can, on the other I want to be able to climb at a decent level, and I apparently have more than two hands because I'd also like to be decent in the cardiovascular/running sense, and, Hell, much like most people I'd like to look better while doing it.

In order to accomplish any of this simultaneously, I'm going to try to keep it simple: 5/3/1 (Which is great, partially because it sets things up a week in advance, so you know exactly what you're doing each day), but with some accessory work added while keeping rests to 60 seconds or so, and adding some conditioning work into this, probably some light jogging building up in the same way couch to 5k does (Read: Slowly, because I'm awful at running). On the climbing front, I'm adding a second pull/chin day to help get some amount of endurance back in my back, and I'm going to do some work on a gripper. I would like to put up and use my hangboard, but I have what I think is a pulley injury in my right index finger from a month ago, still hasn't fully healed, so a hangboard would make things much, much worse. To top this off, I'm going to attempt to go on a Paleo diet, despite my love affair with ice cream and M&Ms.

I don't have set days yet, because I'm coming up on finals week (next week [ohgodpleaseshootme]), so I'll be home then on a completely new schedule.

But I'm going with the normal 5/3/1 day progression, though I'm going to lower the weights that I was doing and let myself build back up (especially considering my recent deadlift failings):

Day 1:

Overhead Press

Weighted Pullups

Day 2:

Deadlift

Abs

Curls

Day 3:

Bench Press

Rows

Chins

Day 4:

Squat

Leg Curls (my gym for some reason has no leg curl machine, or a glute ham raise station, so I'm sort of screwed on this. Going to look into improvising something there)

Dips

Running: 2 days, starting with jog 2 minutes, walk 1 minute cycles. Going to have to test the waters and see what I can do first.

Gripper: I have a Cap'ns of Crush Trainer and #1, both of which I can close, but I'm going to go with a few warmup sessions on the trainer before doing the #1 again. I think I'll slot this in during Day 4 with 2-3 sets of 10.

Diet: I'm not knowledgeable enough to craft a full paleo diet, so I'm going with things that make sense. I'm going to eat a ton of vegetables and meat with some fruits. At least, until I can pick up a copy of The Paleo Solution, which I will probably do this weekend. I actually started today by eating 4 eggs in the morning with a banana, working out, then eating another banana (I ran out of whey protein, I usually have 2 scoops in 2% milk. Though, that's apparently out as well, so maybe I'll pick up almond milk), after which I started cooking up a load of pork and broccoli rabe sausage with a bag of steamed broccoli, carrots and water chestnuts (there were WAY more pieces of broccoli on the front of that bag than there were in there). Surprisingly content through this, so hopefully that bodes well.

Time to set up my next 4 weeks of 5/3/1. I'm going to use the formula that Wendler suggests for 1RM: wt. x reps x .0333 + wt.= 1RM Going by that, my 1RM for each (rounded to the closest 10 lbs) is as follows.

Deadlift - 380 lbs

Squat - 410 lbs

Bench - 300 lbs

OHP - No idea! Been using dumbbells for a while, I'll need to feel this out.

I'm going to make a weird sort of table that probably won't format correctly, but I'll fix it by trial and error later.

______W1 W2 W3 W4

OHP

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

DL

Set 1 225 240 255 135

Set 2 255 275 290 170

Set 3 290 310 325 205

BP

Set 1 175 190 200 110

Set 2 200 215 230 135

Set 3 230 240 255 160

Squat

Set 1 240 260 275 150

Set 2 280 295 315 185

Set 3 315 330 350 220

Those should be all the weights for my first 4 weeks, which I'm going to begin on Monday. This also uses 90% of my 1RM, as these 1RMs could be completely off.

Well, this was long. It should be fun, though.

[Arigh]

12/5

Day 1

I didn't have weights for barbell OHP, so this was mostly guesswork and finding where I'm at.

OHP

65x10

95x5

115x5

135x3

125x3

115x3

95x5

5x10@65

Pullups, decided to mimic what I did with OHP and pyramid up, then down

5x10@bw, +10, +25, +10, bw

All <60 second rest periods

[Arigh]

12/7

Day 2

Deadlift: 3x5@225, 255, 290

Hanging Leg Raises: 5x15

Curls: 2x10@30, 35

Felt something pull in my neck during my light 5x10@190 sets, so I stopped after the second set, as soon as I felt it. Currently icing it, and I'm going to preemptively take an Aleve because I do NOT want to have to stop lifting for a few days/weeks.

[Arigh]

1/10/12

So after a pretty long hiatus, I'm back to working out. After pulling something in my neck, I proceeded to have finals (which made me want to run away from home), get sick twice, then be busy while friends were staying with me. I only got to workout a handful of times, and they weren't structured or intense enough for my tastes. The only good side of this is that I'm recharged and ready to rock, and I also went climbing three times, which has psyched me up for climbing again. I'm going to TRY to get to a climbing gym more, but the closest one that I like is 30 minutes away. This makes going during the week a bit of a pain.

Today, I went back to 5/3/1 with squat day.

Squats: 20@bodyweight, 135x10, 225x5, 240x5, 280x5, 315x9, 20@bodyweight

Skullcrushers: 3x10@bar+50,60,70

Glute Ham Raises: Not even remotely full reps, I was bouncing myself up with pushups while I desperately tried to pull using my hams 2x30

Push Ups: 20, 30

Wide push ups: 30

Diamond push ups: 30

Pull ups: 10, 15, 18

Why the extra exercises? Not entirely sure, I just felt psyched.

[Arigh]

1/17/12

Starting on Week2 of 5/3/1 round 1

Shoulders!

Overhead Press

95x5, 110x5, 120x6

Weighted Pull ups

3 sets of 5 at bodyweight +: 25 lbs, 35 lbs, 45 lbs

Curls

2x10@25 lbs, 30 lbs

[Arigh]

1/20/12

Round 1 Week 2 - Deadlift Day

I just realized that this should have been 3x3, I did 3x5. Oh well.

Deadlift

3x5@ 240, 270, 310

Hanging Leg Raises

5x15

Curls (Why did I do these on the 17th too? That was the wrong day! Derpiness is bad!)

2x10@30,35

[Arigh]

1/22/12

Not part of a structured workout, but I went to a small go-karting and and raced from 12 pm to 8 pm.

1/23/12

Round 1 Week 2 Bench Press

Bench Press

135x10, 185x5, 215x3, 245x3

Pull ups

5, 10, 15, 8, 5

Bent over barbell rows

2x10@bar+45, 90

[Arigh]

1/24/12

Round 1 Week 2 Squat

Squat

135x10, 225x5, 260x3, 295x3, 330x6, 225x10, 225x10

Skullcrushers

3x10@bar+25,35,45

Glute Ham Raise

Same deal, bouncing myself up with push ups 3x30

[Arigh]

1/27/12

Round 1 Week 3 Shoulders

Overhead Press

89x5, 100x5, 116.5x3, 127.5x5

Pull Ups

5@bw

3x5@bw+22,33,45

10@bw

Push Ups

3x20

[Arigh]

1/30/12

Round 1 Week 3 Deadlifts

Deadlifts

135x5, 225x5, 255x5, 290x3, 325x3

Hanging Leg Raises

5x15

Dumbell Curls

3x10@30,35,40

[bprime]

+1 for 5/3/1.

I wouldn't put myself on in any time in the near future, but I'm definitely a proponent of it.

[Arigh]

+1 for 5/3/1.

I wouldn't put myself on in any time in the near future, but I'm definitely a proponent of it.

I'm loving 5/3/1, I'll have to see how I progress after 2-3 rounds through it, but it really pushes you a lot further having it all penned out in advance.

[Arigh]

2/5/12

Had a bit of a break due to midterms week popping up on me unexpected, lots of sleepless nights.

Round 1 Week 3 Bench Press

Bench Press

10@135, 5@179, 5@200, 3@228.5, 2@256

Pull Ups

5, 10, 15, 10, 10, 5

Bent over barbell rows

4x10@ 90, 135, 179, 223

[Arigh]

2/7/12

Round 1 Week 3 Squat

Squat

10@135, 5@225, 3@250, 5@275, 3@315, 7@350

Skullcrushers

3x10@75,95,105 (just doing total weight including bar now)

Glute ham raise

Same deal, bouncing myself up with push ups 3x30

So I finally finished the progressive overload from 5/3/1 at 90% of max, so in a caffeine fueled procrastination fest, I made an excel spreadsheet to track and project the workouts I have and will be doing.

I used my assumed 1RMs from during the summer to calculate each workout on the lefthand side, then on the right I used the final set to calculate my 1RM during each week. Shows some interesting things, such as my estimated max on bench and deadlift being way too high, whereas on squat I lowballed it. Overhead press is spot on, though. I then copied the sheet, modified it a bit to reference the 1RM from the 3rd week of Round 1 and calculate my new 4 weeks. The difference in my deadlift and bench press maxes COULD be explained by my drop in weight from 185 during the summer to 170-173 currently and a minor chest injury during the beginning of Fall. I don't want to use those as an excuse, though.

After a few of these rounds, I'm going to start graphing things, because that sounds like a ton of fun. (I might have actually set that up already too. Maybe. [That means I totally did ])

I don't want to do the deload week, but I know I need it, and there's a reason for it being there.