Starting Strength is still going strong. We'll get to that in a minute.
Tuesday I didn't get to work out. Unfortunately there was an emergency with my girlfriend's crazy (now ex) roommate, so that consumed my night. Fortunately I didn't have to be at work on Wednesday until late, so I woke up early and did 8 rounds of the Bas Rutten Boxing workout. I still don't understand how I can do an entire Insanity workout without stopping, but just 4 rounds of Bas and I feel like I'm going to die. I did 4 rounds, took a ten minute break and moved around, and then another 4 rounds and a stretch. It was a nice 45 minute workout, and I felt great at the end. The reason I chose boxing for my workout was because my legs were absolutely dead from Monday's squats, even two days later, so running and jumping just didn't feel like it was going to happen.
Last night after work I met up with Mark and Anthony in the gym (garage), and after a quick warmup we got right into SS Day 2. We started with squats, this time 10 lbs heavier than we did on Monday. Every workout it goes up 10 lbs, so be prepared if you are starting this program! But, the 10 additional pounds wasn't as bad as I thought. I actually didn't really notice the difference. I think a part of that is that I went right into it rather than working my way up like I did on Day 1, since I already know my starting weight. My legs hurt like Hell during the first set, but by the second I was feeling great. I've still gotta work on keeping my back straight, especially towards the end of sets when I'm getting tired, but overall I think I rocked the first official set of building squats.
After that we went into Shoulder Press. We watched a quick tutorial on these before the workout, and they are interesting. You raise the bar straight up, move your body forward a little to compensate for angles (it makes sense when you do it), and then the final thing is a shrug. The shrug is really where you feel it, because your elbows are already straight and the weight is over your head, and that shrug is just one final push that's all shoulders. It took a few sets to build up to this, but I finally did my three sets at 95 lbs. On Monday I'm up to 105, so wish me luck!
Finally we finished with Dead Lifts. We watched the tutorial for this one too. First off, I learned very quickly that I am not good at these. I actually maxed out at 105, which is really low. Then Mark got into his sets, and when he got all the way up to 155 I decided that maybe I'd done something wrong. I hopped in with him and did a set at 155, and it hurt but actually went alright. Then he did 175, and I did that too. That was bad. My form was terrible and I looked very tired by the 5th rep. There's only one set of five on these, so the fact that I was that tired by the end sucks. And then Mark and Anthony pointed out that I had just completely given up form at that point. I rested and tried to do a few more reps with the right form, but as soon as I got into the position the weight just felt extremely heavier and I bailed. I wrote down that I did 175 lbs, but I think I'm going to stick with 155 and next Wednesday (dead lift day again) I'll try 175 again. Form is incredibly important on these, and aside from the proper form making this a hell of a lot harder, it also prevents you from throwing your back out, which is exactly what I was unintentionally trying to do with my bad form.
We finished with 15 minutes of abs and a stretch, followed by a nice dinner of sesame ginger tuna and rice. Today is Thursday, so tonight I'll get a cardio workout in, and tomorrow we finish up Week 1 of Starting Strength. Tomorrow's an awesome day because we finally have all of our starting numbers, so we can really just get right into lifting heavy stuff.
That's all I've got. Time for work. Bring it!
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