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!
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