More Starting Strength

Well, it's been a busy few days but we got into the gym last night.

Jacqi came over early to do some cardio and we decided to do Phase 1 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I really like this workout. It may only be 20 minutes, but it's a killer. And it's only level 1. Jacqi did really well for the first two circuits. She took a bit of a break during the third, but I was still really proud of her. As for me, I tried not to overdo the weights because we were lifting after, but I did get some good bicep work and I love the cardio sections. When I get a chance on my own I want to try levels 2 and 3 sometime soon. I'll let you know how they go.

Starting Strength was next. I was a little tired from not working out Monday, but overall I made some good progress on most things. I got started on 175 on squats, and aside from the first set feeling really heavy I felt really good about these squats. I'll repeat on Friday and plan to move up next week.

We decided to do bench instead of shoulders since we missed it Monday. I did 3x5 at 170, but my body felt week as Hell. I think the pushups in Jillian Michaels tired me out. I did another 2x5 at 165, but I'll stay at 170 overall starting Monday.

I got my deadlift in next. I've had a theory that I can only move up on deadlift on bench days, and I put that theory to the test. Sure enough, 205 was much easier than it should have been. It's interesting that I can only move up on those days, but hey, it worked and I felt awesome. Everyone said my form looked better than ever too, so that was cool.

For kicks I did 3x5 on chinups too. We're cutting out abs until the first of the year, so that was the end of the workout. I felt good about it.

So some quick updates. After this week no one can do Fridays anymore until the end of the year. We had talked about moving to a 2 day split on Mondays and Thursdays after the 1st, but I think we're going to start that next week. It's slower progress overall, but it works better with people's schedules. Plus we're losing a spotter (the roommate is upping the jiu jitsu practices). We're going to a 2 day version of a program called StrongLifts 5x5. This is the program that got me thinking about doing 5 sets instead of 3. I've heard it working as a 2 day, even though it's usually a 3 day. It works best like that if you're doing other stuff too, and I'm still starting P90X Lean in January with my girlfriend. Here's what it's going to look like:

Mondays: Squats 5x5, Bench 5x5, Barbell Rows 5x5
Thursdays: Squats 5x5, Overhead Press 5x5, Deadlift 1x5

It's pretty similar to what we do now, except it won't switch workouts on different days. Also we have barbell rows in now, which will work the back. I think we're going to keep the chinups/pullups too, which will be on Mondays and Thursdays respectively. I'm excited to put this one into motion.

What's cool about this is I won't have long workouts on Friday nights anymore. This will give me more energy, because frankly I pass out on the couch within an hour of SS every night. I can also start taking my amazing, patient girlfriend out to dinner on Friday nights. She's waited a while for me to have Friday nights free, so she deserves to be taken out on the town more often!

Also to document, I think this Saturday my buddy Richard and I are going to start running the 300 workout. It's supposedly the fitness test the 300 guys took when training for that awesome movie. It's 300 reps total of 6 different exercises, 50 reps each. The goal is to do it in under 20 minutes. I'm going to start with 25 reps of everything and time myself. Then Richard will go, and anyone else who shows up to do it. Once I can do the whole thing in under 20 I'm going to add 5 reps to each exercise, and keep doing that until I can do the whole thing as written.

So that's what I have going on. Tonight is dinner with my girlfriend and possibly my folks and tomorrow is SS.

Bring it!