Life took a dive yesterday

Alright, life took a dive yesterday. My position has been eliminated with the company, after 3 1/2 years of working there. Honestly, I'm ok with it. I have lots of options and a pretty good plan. The thing I'm upset about, though, is that work was paying for school. This puts my Master's on hold.

Needless to say yesterday was not a great day, and I opted for a foot long cheesesteak instead of my usual fruits and veggies all day. However, I did get my workout in. Quick recap:

I felt much better about 185 on squats. Planning on moving up to 190 on Friday.

I almost finished 170 on bench. I did 2x5 and 1x4. So close! Expect me to finish this Friday!

I deadlifted 175! And it was awesome! Expect 185 next week!

We finished with abs. It was a good workout.

Sorry, something came up at work so I'm making this short. I'll get back on my rant about school, but two quick things.

1) Unemployment means I'm getting back into working out hardcore! There will be some free time for the rest of the year and I'm getting my cardio on!

2) If I can figure out how to pay for it AND it becomes official that I can't finish school (which that's what it looks like) I have every intention of finding an MMA gym and starting Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai Kickboxing. My roommate studies the former, his gym has pretty reasonable prices, and honestly I've been thinking about this for a while; the school stuff was just getting in the way.

That's all I've got. Also, expect me to get back into the gym on Sunday hardcore with cardio, and I'm starting my pushups and running all over again.

One good note, I am apparently still losing weight. I bought a shirt that was too small to button a few weeks ago, and it totally fit today! To celebrate I had a second veggie juice at lunch (I found a vegan restaurant that juices).

So that's my life. More updates to come.

Bring it!

Friday and Monday

Alright, things kind of hit the fan in my life over the last few days. Friday I ended up getting into a fight with my Stats teacher (that's a whole other story that I'll keep away from here, save to say he's a moron, a dick and does not speak English well at all which means he doesn't have the knowledge to grade my homework correctly), and when I got home I was way too angry to run or do my pushups. I did lift, though, so that was good. I did a round of squats at 185, almost finished bench at 170 and did pullups. It's been a few days so I don't remember numbers all that well.

Over the weekend I had the flu, and that was really lame. Sunday I did not run or do yoga because I was having trouble breathing.

Yesterday I still didn't run or do pushups and didn't go to work because of the flu. However, I did lift that night and was feeling a lot better around then. I did 185 on squats again, but everyone said I wasn't going as low as Friday. I'm going to repeat that on Wednesday.

I finally finished 3x5 at 140 lbs on shoulder press! I felt like a beast when I was done with that! I'm going to repeat that Friday, and possibly move up to 145 next week!

I did 3x9 on chinups. I've noticed that chinups and pullups I can only move up when it's a bench press day. That makes sense, but I wish I could have done more yesterday.

We finished with situps and called it good.

As for pushups and running, I may need to start these two programs over again. I might try to do them tomorrow and pick up where I left off, but starting again on Sunday for both feels like a better plan right now. I'll keep you posted.

Bring it!

Wednesday's Workouts

Alright, quick recap from Wednesday.

I woke up and did pushups. I somehow can't stay in the third column of pushups, so I did 14, 19, 14, 14 and 19, the second column. Still good, but I'm worried why I can't keep up with the column I'm supposed to.

After that I did my morning jog. The rest of the group bailed, but I hit the road and had a good run.

That night we got into Starting Strength. I squated 180. It felt heavy, but I had good form. I'm going to repeat it today (on Friday) and hope to move up Monday.

Shoulder press was next and I made progress on 140 lbs. I did 1 set of 4 and 2 sets of 5. Why the first set only had 4 I'm not sure, but it was big progress and I'm looking forward to finishing this throughout next week.

We finished with deadlift. I tried the mix grip with the right hand underneath, and it felt weird but actually easier. I may stick with this, and switch my grip each week. I repeated 165, but it felt a lot better than last week. I'm planning on adding 10 lbs next week.

That's Wednesday. I didn't get to post yesterday so I just wanted to do a quick update.

Crap, I just realized I forgot my pushups this morning. Fortunately I pushed my run back to tonight, so I'm going to get the pushups done then too. That may screw with Starting Strength, but it's gonna get done. I'll keep you posted.

Bring it!

Starting Strength Week 11 Begins

We got into Starting Strength last night. It was a small group, so we got done quick. I was also pissed off thanks to poor communication by my statistics professor, but that's another story. My head was spinning when I got home, and lifting weights sounded like a really good plan.

I got started with 175 on squats. I did all three sets and felt good about the form. I'm going to move up to 180 on Wednesday, and hopefully continue progress for a few more weeks. It's noticeably harder to go as low as I have been, especially compared to where I was a few weeks ago. I've gotta pay close attention to my form, because I can easily see myself reverting to old ways. Last night I had good form, but it was borderline not good. I need to go lower, every single day. I'm still upping it to 180 on Wednesday, but I may stay there for a few days.

Bench press was next, and I made some progress on 170. Two sets of 5 and 1 set of 3. I thought I was actually going to be able to finish it, but the chest and arms just stopped working after that third rep in the last set. Still, this is great progress for 170, and the form was excellent on all of these reps. I think I'm finally getting over being tired from pushups in the mornings! Expect me to complete this one on Friday, because it's definitely on my radar!

We finished with chinups. I did 1 set of 11, 1 set of 10 and 1 set of 8. That's only 1 more rep than last week, in the 11 set, but I finally did more than 10 on a set! Next week I'd like to get two sets over 10, and all three to at least 10. It's ambitious, but that's my goal.

No abs. We were tired, I was hungry, and that was about it.

Good workout overall. Today is Tuesday, so it should be cardio night, but Gears of War 3 came out today and that's all I want to do tonight. Well, that, and make crab pad thai with my girlfriend. It's going to be a good night. And fortunately, the premier of Glee is tonight too, which means I can play my video games without feeling guilty. It's going to be a good night!

Alright, that's all I've got.

Bring it!

Monday Morning - Running and Pushups

Wow, I was tired this morning. That slowed me down a bit, but it did not stop me. I got started with my pushups at the crack of dawn (6am), and they were REALLY hard today. It was 14, 18, 14, 14, and 20 with 1 minute breaks. Unfortunately, I ended up with 14, 18, 14, 14, and 12. That last set was a killer. In fact, all of the sets were very difficult. I feel bad I didn't finish, but I honestly couldn't lift my body anymore. Hopefully I can get going better on Wednesday, because Wednesday according to the schedule is the first time I do 100 pushups!

The roommate and I hit the road for the run after that. No girlfriends for either of us today. We started with the usual 5 minute warmup walk, followed by 4 sets of 1.5 minutes running and 2 minutes walking, followed by 2 sets of 1 minute running and 1 minute walking. I really had trouble breathing today, but towards the end I got some energy and felt good. Week 2 of C25K has begun!

That's all I've got for right now. Tonight is Starting Strength. I feel my bad....my Dad wanted me to play poker either tonight or Wednesday night, but I told him I'm committed to this program and just don't have the time to take a night off. I want to see this through, even though there's no clear end to this program. I've gotta put on more muscle!

Bring it!

Wrapping up Week 10 and the Return of Yoga

It's Sunday, and I have a few workouts to put into the blog.

Friday morning was another pushups/running kind of morning. I finished Week 2 of 100 Pushups with 16, 17, 14, 14 and 20, with 2 minute breaks. That last number was the minimum, and that's the first time I only did the minimum on the last one. The last one is always an as many as you can do with a minimum number, and I usually go above and beyond, but not Friday. I was super tired and my arms were definitely tired from the week's work leading up to it. However, that's still 81 pushups, which is an awesome number to start my Friday with.

We got into the run after that, and wrapped up Week 1 of C25K. I'm feeling better about the running, though this specific Friday my allergies were acting up. When my allergies act up my nose closes up right away, and I have a lot of trouble breathing. I pushed through though and had a decent run. I'm looking forward (kind of) to increasing the run times starting tomorrow.

I went to work, had a busy day, and then got home around 6pm. We actually had some weird scheduling issues and a few people had to bail, so we didn't get started until 8:30pm. There were only four of us this time so we got the whole workout done in an hour.

I wrapped up squats at 170. I feel like I have finally got squats down, and starting Monday I'll be adding weight again. The plan is 5 lbs a day, possibly repeating everything twice. But ya, these squats felt pretty good. I like that the form is feeling better for me, and now that I'm doing them correctly I really feel like my legs are getting a full workout. It's awesome!

Overhead press was next, and I made more progress on 140. Well, sort of. I completed 3 sets of 4, which is only one rep more than what I did on Monday. However, it was good to be consistent on all 3 sets, so I am looking forward to upping each set on Wednesday. It really feels like a lot of weight though, but I know I have to move out of my comfort zone at 135. I guess it's just going to feel heavy from here on out.

Pullups were next, and I completed 1x9 and 2x8. That's the same as the week before. I felt strong with them, but my form started to die on the last three reps of each set. Hopefully I can finally get over this being tired from pushups thing and start upping my reps next week.

I finished with curls at 70 lbs. I did 3x5, and am beginning to make progress on curls. My arms felt good afterwards, and I like that keeping my back straight and core tight are part of the challenge on this exercise. I'm very glad we decided to put them into the mix for Fridays.

We skipped abs because it was so late, and that was the end of Week 10. I had my hemp protein/soy milk afterwards (no synthetic supplements for two more weeks) and began a very relaxing weekend.

Today (Sunday) my roommate and I began our first week of Sunday Yoga. Thanks to Hulu.com we have access to a whole crap load of yoga videos, and we picked a good stress relief/flexibility yoga session. It was an hour long, and it felt good to stretch and work on my yoga again. Overall this was a good yoga workout. Not nearly as hard as P90X, which was nice, and it worked a lot of deep leg and lower back stretches.

The plan is to do yoga every Sunday from here on out. Wish us luck!

Tomorrow starts Week 2 of C25K, Week 3 of 100 Pushups and Week 11 of Starting Strength. Progress on everything!

Bring it!

More progress in Week 10

Week 10 moved forward last night with some more Starting Strength.

We skipped the basketball game since it was too dark and went straight into the gym. I hit the bag a little, but overall I skipped the warmup (not something I recommend, but I was feeling lazy).

Squats were first, and I repeated 170. My legs were really killing me and these felt hard. I think it's because I'm finally doing them correctly, and like the first few weeks of this program I was having trouble adjusting. Hopefully next week I'll be feeling better. That said, I did have great form and really felt like I was getting a workout, pushing through barriers and making progress. I did not feel like I owned these, though, so I'm going to repeat 170 on Friday and move up +5 on Monday.

Bench press was next, and I finally feel like I'm catching up to the pushups. The 100 pushup plan in the mornings has been taxing my chest and arms and it forced me to drop to 165 last week, which I could not complete. Last night I did 165 again, and this time I finished it. It didn't even feel too bad either. Not easy by any means, but I rocked out all 15 reps (3x5) and had excellent form the whole time. The plan is to move up to 170 on Monday.

Deadlift was the final lift for Wednesday, and I upped the weight 10 lbs to 165. My form was perfect, or at least great for me, and I got through all 5 reps (1x5). Unfortunately they were a lot harder than I thought they would be. I actually had to take a break before the last rep. It's weird that these are so hard since they look exactly like squats, but I struggled so much more on deadlifts at 165 than I did with squats at 170. But I did get them all done and felt like a beast at the end. My friend did 275 on deadlift last night, and he made it look awesome (not easy though) so I'm a little embarrassed that he did 110 more than me, but it's not a competition and I know that. I'm still glad with how I did. Since it was so heavy, though, I'm going to repeat 165 next week.

We finished with a quick 50 situps and called it good. Overall a good lifting day.

Bring it!

Jogging and Pushups

Quick update.

I woke up this morning at the ass crack of dawn (6) and got started on pushups. Today I did 14, 16, 12, 12 and 20 for a grand total of 74 pushups. There were 1 minute breaks in between since the iPhone still doesn't understand seconds. They actually felt hard towards the end of the set, especially the last 10 in the 20 set, but overall I felt great at the end!

After that the roommates and I hit the road for Day 2 of C25K (running). We did a 5 minute warmup (which is on every run day), then alternated 8 times between 1 minute of jogging and 90 seconds of walking, followed by a 5 minute cooldown. It was a grand total of 30 minutes and I felt pretty great by the end, followed by a half hour period where I did not want to leave the couch.

I had my juice this morning too. It's a good way to start the day.

That's my update. Tonight's Starting Strength and I'm debating moving deadlift up to 175. I'll keep you posted.

Bring it!

Week 10 begins!

I wanted to get a quick recap of last night's workout into the blog.

We started the night with a game of basketball. I finally bit the bullet and played since they'd have been at an odd number without me. There were no lights and it's finally the time of year where it's dark before 8, so we could barely see. I'm also terrible at basketball, and it showed. However, my team scored 1 point, and it was entirely my point! Granted, we lost, but I got a basket and I'm stoked about that (I'm terrible at basketball, seriously).

After that we hit the weights. I upped squats to 170, and focused on the good form. I felt like I wasn't going as low as Friday, but I was still using really good form. The weight feels very heavy when I go low on these (which it's supposed to I guess), but I'm proud of my performance. I think I'm going to repeat 170 on Wednesday and up it to 175 on Friday.

Shoulder press was next, and I finally got started on 140. I did the first set of 5, then got 4 on the second set and only 2 on the last set. My arms felt dead from putting that much weight over my head. Plus the pushups from the morning were still taxing me a little. Still, 5,4,2 is pretty good to start this weight out on. Hopefully I can get through it within the next two weeks and move up to 145!

Chinups were next, and I got 2 sets of 10 and 1 set of 8. Considering my poor performance last week (pushups induced), I'm really proud of these numbers. Hopefully next week I can get back up to 3 sets of 10, and start progressing again the following week.

Instead of ab ripper, we decided to do Cardio Abs from Insanity. We skipped the standing up section and went straight into the ground stuff. The overall consensus was that this was hard, very hard, and a few people said they just didn't have the ab strength to do some of the exercises. That's a fair assessment. It'll probably be a while before we get back into this DVD, and we'll be sticking to ab ripper soon. There's also talk of 8 minute abs, so if we can track those DVDs down they may be in the mix soon.

That's all I've got. I'm hoping to get some cardio in tonight after work, and I'll keep you posted how that goes.

Bring it!

Lots of updates (C25K begins)

The last few days have been productive.

First off, I finished the first week of 100 pushups. Friday morning I did 11, 15, 9, 9 and 20, each with 2 minute breaks. It feels good to start my mornings with pushups.

Friday night we got into Starting Strength and wrapped up Week 9. I squated 165 again, but this time I focused on mimicking the same form as deadlifts. I had to make some adjustments on deadlifts a few weeks ago, but I finally felt great about that form. After mimicking the same changes I made, I got a lot deeper and everyone said I looked great. That felt good. Tonight I'm planning on moving up to 170 on squats, and adding 5 lbs from this point on. And like other things, I'm only moving on if I had good form on everything.

Bench press was next, and I did 165 again. I struggled on the last two reps, but overall it was good. I touched my chest each time, so I felt good about that. It's going to be another week or two before I can move up on bench press thanks to the pushups, but pretty soon I should be back at 175 no problem.

Pullups went pretty well. I did 1x9 and 2x8, the same as the week before, but again with all of the pushups I'm cutting myself some slack. And those are still respectable numbers, so I'm good. Hopefully this week I can move up to at least one set of 10, but I'll give myself one additional week before I get upset about it.

Curls were the final thing. I did one set at 75 and 2 at 65. Lower than I have been going, but the form was good and I felt good about them. We were talking about adding in a preacher stand or going against a wall to do curls, which would help keep our backs straight, but then someone pointed out that keeping the back straight and isolating the arms without assistance is one of the challenges. From that, a light bulb went on in my brain, and I could see finally how these kinds of curls matched up with the rest of the program. All of the muscles are engaged, even though the arms are doing the primary work; that's the same premise behind squats and deadlifts working the back, and the core work that gets put into starting strength. Overall I'm very glad we put curls in. I'm also noticing a little more definition in my biceps, so I'm happy with that too.

We finished with Ab Ripper X. My legs hurt from the squats, which made a few things difficult, but overall it was a good ab ripper for everyone, and I got my 50 mason twists in.

The weekend was pretty low key. The girlfriend and I hit the town Saturday night, but other than that we stayed close to home and it was nice to relax.

Today (Monday) was the first day of C25K. I'm not actually training for a 5K, but I'd like to start a few mornings a week with 3 miles. This program should get me there. The roommate, his girlfriend, my girlfriend and myself all met in the living room at 6:15 and hit the road immediately. I'll get to that in one sec....

Before running, while everyone was getting ready, I knocked out my pushups for the day. Today I did 14, 14, 10, 10 and 20, each with 1 minute breaks in between. 68 pushups is a great number to start the day with, for now. I can't wait to get up to 100!

After pushups we hit the road (see, I told you I'd get to that) and it actually wasn't as terrible as I thought. Day 1 started with a 5 minute warmup walk, then alternating 1 minute of jogging and 1.5 minutes of walking for 20 minutes, followed by a 5 minute cooldown walk. The alternating between walking and running really made it feel good, and I was surprised how well I could do. We did a full lap around the neighborhood, and finished the program with a few laps around the park behind the house. We get back into this program Wednesday. I'm a little curious if everyone in the house will keep up with it, but I'm in for the long haul so I'll see you at the finish line in 8 weeks!

So those are my updates. Tonight we're getting into Week 10 of Starting Strength, and I'm planning on getting shoulder press at 140 started tonight. Wish me luck!

Still doing veggie juices in the mornings and lots of fruits during the day. I still snack on other stuff at night, but I'm better than I was before so it's all good.

Bring it!

Week 9 of Starting Strength Continues

I don't think I mentioned it in Monday's post, but we are officially into Week 9!

First off, a few things. A friend in the weight lifting group has unfortunately fallen into a sad situation. I'm not sure when he'll be joining us again in the gym, but for those who know what I'm talking about I just wanted to say that we're all wishing the best for our friend. We'll see you soon man!

So Tuesday came and it was a very difficult beginning of the work week. Long story short, cardio just wasn't going to happen. In fact, it probably won't happen this whole week, and as frustrated as I am with that, it's the right decision. I need to lose weight, I need to do more cardio, but going absolutely insane because I'm trying to fit a cardio workout in on top of school, work, the other work and a jumble of nonsense that has entered my life just isn't worth it.

Wednesday came and first thing I did that morning was my 100 pushups. Of course I'm not at 100 yet, this program is 6 weeks. But I did do my required portion and got 58 pushups in the books: 10, 12, 8, 8 and 20. I was supposed to have 90 second breaks in between each set, but my phone's timer only does 1 minute and 2 minute, so I opted for 1 minute. However, tomorrow's sets are 2 minute breaks, and I might just do the whole 2 minutes.

Wednesday night (last night) we got back into Starting Strength. Everyone's packed on so much muscle in the last few weeks and it's awesome. One guy dropped down about 50 lbs on everything and is now doing sets of 10, and I guess he's doing that for 4 weeks. Another guy is just working in with us but doing his own reps. Myself and a few others, though, are sticking to the plan and building building building!

First off was squats. I did one set at 230, but this time I filmed myself. I was going lower than I thought, but there's definitely room for improvement. I bit the bullet and dropped down to 165. Unfortunately I really don't know if I'm built right to do squats. Even at 165, my body just doesn't feel like it can bend the proper way. My hips point out too far too the sides when I walk, and it makes bending down with my back straight difficult. But I'm going to stay at 165 until I can fix squats, so this may be a few weeks.

After that was shoulder press. I did 3 sets of 5 at 135, and it felt really heavy. I've completed this twice now, but it really felt hard. I'm thinking the pushups that morning were a major culprit. The plan is to finally move up to 140 on Monday.

We finished with deadlifts. I only did 155, but with my change in form last week I actually felt like I rocked this one. 155 felt very heavy though, which is weird, so from now on I'm going +5 to keep my form solid.

The fact that I can do deadlifts well now gives me hope on squats, especially since they're similar. I want to see if I can mimic that form and hopefully I can get squats down soon. The other thing that's crossed my mind, though I have reservations on it, is the idea of switching squats for deadlifts. 3x5 deadlifts 3 times a week and 1 set of squats feels problematic, but I'm going to get some opinions from a strength building forum I'm on.

So that's my story. I've had juices every morning too, so I'm glad I'm sticking with that. I've gotta look into the logistics, but I'm planning October 1 of starting a 10 Day Juice Fast. Still debating though.

Tonight's Thursday, still a hectic week and I'm probably not getting out of the office til late, so I'm thinking no cardio tonight. I'll wrap up Week 9 tomorrow, and Week 1 of the 100 pushups, and Monday I'm looking forward (kind of) to starting the 5K training too.

That's all I've got. I'll keep you posted.

Bring it!

Labor Day Weekend and 100 Pushups Begins

Friday we did more Starting Strength and it went pretty well. For some reason my shoulders were tired and I actually didn't complete 135, but I'm still planning on moving up on Wednesday. I did my pullups before the shoulder presses though, so that's probably what happened.

Saturday night a group of us went to see Deadmau5. I've seen him before, a year ago, and it was amazing so I couldn't miss this show. It was another outstanding performance, and by 3am I was so tired from dancing all day. Sunday we hung around the house eating junk food and not moving. I was probably good with the cardio from dancing if I hadn't eaten the junk food, but it was overall a not so good day health wise.

Today, Monday, is Labor Day. Today is also Day 1 of a new program I'm following, 100 Pushups. It's a 6 week plan to get to 100 pushups. It's only 3 days a week though, so my goal is to finish it, and then do it again on the other three days of the week while continuing 100 pushups on the original three days. So anyways, today was day 1, which ended up being 51 pushups total: 10, 12, 7, 7 and 15. The last one is my max number. There were 1 minute breaks in between.

The numbers slightly increase when I do this again on Wednesday, and the breaks extend to 1 1/2 minutes. It should be an interesting 6 weeks.

Since it's Labor Day, we also got into Starting Strength a lot earlier today so we'd still have our whole days off. It was a pretty good Starting Strength day, even though most of my numbers actually dropped.

First off, I did 230 for the first time on squats. I also went a lot lower, so the week of 225 was a good plan. However, I'm really starting to think that my form is terrible on squats, and I have a lot of work to do on them. If that is the case, I'm going to drop down to 135 and get the form correct this time. That will be decided on Wednesday, when I video tape myself squatting. The decision will be made then, so stay posted.

We got into bench after that. I was planning on finishing 175 with good form today, but I stopped on 4 of the first two sets. I ended up finishing at 165 for the final set. I'm thinking all of the pushups, especially only an hour before, made today's bench stuff difficult. I'm still good with it, but it'll probably be two weeks before I can finish bench at 175 considering the toll the pushups are going to take on me.

Chinups were last, and my arms were pretty much fried. I did 3 sets of 10 last week, but today I got 1 set of 10, 1 set of 8 and 1 set of 4. That was rough. Again, the pushups are going to take their toll for a few weeks.

We finished as a group with a pretty decent ab ripper x, and that was that.

Time to finish relaxing. Happy Labor Day!

Bring it!

Two day recap

I'm feeling good about the last two days of working out (which is great, because officially I had a terrible day yesterday).

Tuesday night I came home, and after some clever convincing, the girlfriend and I decided to make progress on her 4 week challenge. We hit play on Kenpo X, and it went pretty well. It was really really hot in the garage that day though, and she and I were both tired, so after the 30 minute mark we decided to call it a night. But she's getting a lot better at punches, and she did a great job. Me, I like Kenpo X when I can hit the bag, so it was a decent workout for me as well.

Wednesday, the day, was a pretty rough day. I did not sleep much the night before, and the day was filled with long meetings, a big event where I was on my feet half the day, and lots and lots of caffeine.

I came home feeling very defeated from the long day, but when people started showing up to lift I got a second wind. We hit the gym and we hit it hard. Skipped warmup, but everything else was great.

I continued my progress on squats at 225 lbs. My depth is getting a lot better, and I think after one more day I'll be feeling great about this, with plans to move up to 230 on Monday.

Bench press was next. I've been reading a lot about touching my chest with the bar, and I decided that I am cheating my reps too much at 185. I dropped down to 175, but made sure every single rep I touched my chest. I managed to get 1 set of 5 and 2 sets of 4 at 175, and I'm very pleased with that. Every rep touched my chest, and I'm glad I caught this mistake in my form so early. I only had to drop 10 lbs, but doing a full rep is a great feeling. I was very pleased with this lift, and look forward to wrapping up 175 (the right way) throughout next week.

Finally came deadlifts. I've been having a terrible time with these for a few weeks, and dropped down to 135 (huge drop) last week. This week I put my ego away, and accepted that that's about where I should be until I get my form down. I upped it to 145 this time, and I also made one more change: I have really wide hips that bend more to the sides than straight forward when I squat down. That's been a challenge on my squats, but it's really been a challenge on my deadlifts. To combat this, I decided to keep my hands inside of my legs instead of outside. Somewhere online I was reading that the grip doesn't matter as much on deads, since your arms are just holding the weight rather than lifting. I haven't actually done any research on if anyone in the world keeps their hands inside the legs, but I've gotta say, for the first time, I felt like I really could do deadlifts, well, with my arms inside. Granted it was only 145 lbs, but this really felt right. I'm very pleased with deadlifts.

There will be more research on the arms inside thing, but unless I find some expert who flat out says not to do it, I'm sticking with this in the future.

We wrapped up with the usual ab routine, and that was great.

After that came dinner, some cupcakes for one of the friend's birthday, and called it a night. Unfortunately, the massive amounts of caffeine finally kicked in, and I got really dizzy and fell asleep very quick. No video games for me last night.

A few quick notes about last night too. Anthony, one of the three original guys, hurt his foot (it might be broken) about a week ago, and finally had to call out sick for a lifting night. I hope you get better dude. Also my buddy Caleb has turned into a semi-regular for lifting nights. He's a little sporadic with when he shows up, and we've caught him leaving the gym to go outside and take a break more than once, but it's cool having him over. Also an old buddy from high school ended up getting an invite, and it was cool to see him again. He mostly hung around the gym using the machines I have, but he did do a set or two on all of the lifts we did.

So that's the last two days of working out, and I'm proud of them. Tonight the girlfriend and I are doing cardio together with Cardio Challenge from Supreme 90 Day. Expect a recap in the morning.

Bring it!