Last night none of us were feeling very motivated, but around 7:30 we got started on Stronglifts. As usual we did squats first. I upped the weight and completed 5x5 at 175. I'm going to repeat on Monday and next week will get back into the dreaded 180 lbs!
Shoulder press was next and it'd been a while since we worked these! I opted for 105 lbs, and that proved to be a good weight. I got through 5x5, and will up the weight by 5 lbs next week, but man I was tired after!
I did 5x5 on pullups after that. This is not part of Stronglifts, but it's what I've been working on for a few months now and I want to keep it on Thursdays while we do this workout. For some reason pullups are easier for me when I tuck my legs a little higher, and I did well on them doing that last night. I'm not sure if that's cheating though. I'm not using momentum to get up, I just find it easier to pull my body when I'm compact.
Deadlift was last and I pulled 195. I know I was doing more before this, but it's been a while since I lifted heavy and I want to work my way back up. Just 1x5 on this program for deadlifts, but I'll be adding 5 lbs next week and will soon be back to where I was.
For some reason motivation has been tough the last few weeks. The whole group admitted it last night. We still work out, at least with lifting, but none of us want to anymore. We're not quitting, but it's weird how the motivation has dwindled.
As for my own working out, somehow life keeps getting in the way. I don't remember being this busy or tired a few months ago, but somehow finding time and energy to work out on my own has really been a struggle. I remember having so much down time a year ago and working out made perfect sense to fill that time. Now I don't have any free time and I don't know where it all went.
I'm really really struggling to stay motivated. I wanted to start P90X this week, but distractions got in the way and rather than fighting them like I should have I gave in and just sat on the couch. I don't know how, but I absolutely need to start working out again, preferably P90x, ASAP or all of my work for the last year and a half will have been for nothing! Junk food, busy schedules, not getting rest....all of these were things I never had to deal with before but somehow they keep popping up in my life and I need to find a way to squash it or I'm just going to lose it.
K, I've had my rant. Wish me luck on getting back into the swing of things. My plan (I know, my plans are garbage these days) is to do 300 for the first time tomorrow with sets of 15. Wish me luck!
Bring it!
Let's get Mazel-Tough!
Friday, January 6, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Day 1 of Stronglifts 5x5
K, P90X ran into a snag. Let's go over the weekend.
New Years Eve was incredible! We had a huge party at the house with lights and colors and a ton of people! It was a blast!
Sunday we slept in late, then slowly cleaned the whole house and rebuilt the gym. The last part took a lot longer than we thought, and after installing the new floor we left it a complete mess and went to bed.
Monday was somehow a work from home day, so we finished cleaning the garage/gym after finishing up my day's work. That's when tired REALLY kicked in from the last few days and P90X just didn't happen. The girlfriend and I got into the gym, made it through the warmup, and
then she looked drained and I didn't want to push her. We decided that starting immediately after New Years was a poor decision and have pushed P90X Lean back one week. We'll start Monday!
Monday night people came over and I'd officially gotten my energy back, so we finally started with the 2 day split of Stronglifts 5x5. This is a different version of Starting Strength that can be done as a 2 day or 3 day split, but we've actually been pulling a little from it for the last few weeks now. Here's how it went down.
We started with squats (as always). Since it'd been 2 weeks since I lifted heavy I went down to 165 again. I did 5x5 (see where the name Stronglifts 5x5 comes in?) and felt really good about them. I'll be adding 10 lbs to the squat on Thursday.
Next was bench and I did 165 again for 5x5. These felt really great and I'll be moving up 5 lbs on Monday. It's good to see my strength didn't leave me after not pushing hard for two weeks.
The new exercise for this program, bent over rows, was an interesting workout. I did 5x5 at 55 lbs. It felt like a low weight, but the great thing about these lifting programs is that even with a low weight, in a few weeks I'll catch up to a weight that'll really work my muscles. That said, I definitely felt 55 lbs and really enjoy this exercise. You're bent over in an "L" shape and using just your arms you raise the bar to your chest. It felt good and when I focused on using my shoulder blades I really felt it in my upper back. Excellent!
This isn't part of the program, but we've decided to add in chinups on Mondays and pullups on Thursdays as homage to the original program (and to have an excuse to keep working pullups). I did 5x5 on the chinups and felt pretty damn good about the form.
So that was Monday, and sorry it's taken me a few days to get back on here. I planned on doing a workout last night but didn't get out of the office until a lot later than normal, and I wanted to spend as much time with my girlfriend as I could (she and I have been running around like mad men lately and I owed her some us time). Today is Wednesday and tonight I have every intention of getting into the gym for an hour when I get home from work.
Tomorrow is Day 2 of Stronglifts. Wish me luck as we bring back shoulder press and deadlift!
Bring it!
New Years Eve was incredible! We had a huge party at the house with lights and colors and a ton of people! It was a blast!
Sunday we slept in late, then slowly cleaned the whole house and rebuilt the gym. The last part took a lot longer than we thought, and after installing the new floor we left it a complete mess and went to bed.
Monday was somehow a work from home day, so we finished cleaning the garage/gym after finishing up my day's work. That's when tired REALLY kicked in from the last few days and P90X just didn't happen. The girlfriend and I got into the gym, made it through the warmup, and
then she looked drained and I didn't want to push her. We decided that starting immediately after New Years was a poor decision and have pushed P90X Lean back one week. We'll start Monday!Monday night people came over and I'd officially gotten my energy back, so we finally started with the 2 day split of Stronglifts 5x5. This is a different version of Starting Strength that can be done as a 2 day or 3 day split, but we've actually been pulling a little from it for the last few weeks now. Here's how it went down.
We started with squats (as always). Since it'd been 2 weeks since I lifted heavy I went down to 165 again. I did 5x5 (see where the name Stronglifts 5x5 comes in?) and felt really good about them. I'll be adding 10 lbs to the squat on Thursday.
Next was bench and I did 165 again for 5x5. These felt really great and I'll be moving up 5 lbs on Monday. It's good to see my strength didn't leave me after not pushing hard for two weeks.
The new exercise for this program, bent over rows, was an interesting workout. I did 5x5 at 55 lbs. It felt like a low weight, but the great thing about these lifting programs is that even with a low weight, in a few weeks I'll catch up to a weight that'll really work my muscles. That said, I definitely felt 55 lbs and really enjoy this exercise. You're bent over in an "L" shape and using just your arms you raise the bar to your chest. It felt good and when I focused on using my shoulder blades I really felt it in my upper back. Excellent!
This isn't part of the program, but we've decided to add in chinups on Mondays and pullups on Thursdays as homage to the original program (and to have an excuse to keep working pullups). I did 5x5 on the chinups and felt pretty damn good about the form.
So that was Monday, and sorry it's taken me a few days to get back on here. I planned on doing a workout last night but didn't get out of the office until a lot later than normal, and I wanted to spend as much time with my girlfriend as I could (she and I have been running around like mad men lately and I owed her some us time). Today is Wednesday and tonight I have every intention of getting into the gym for an hour when I get home from work.
Tomorrow is Day 2 of Stronglifts. Wish me luck as we bring back shoulder press and deadlift!
Bring it!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The last day of Starting Strength for 2011
Well, we had our final day of SS for 2011 last night. This Friday we're setting up for the big new years party, so we got one final workout in.
I don't know if it was laziness or because we had a small group or because it was the last workout of the year or because it's the only workout of the week (for SS that is) but we decided to switch it up. We kept the bar at 135 the whole night and did more reps.
I did squats, 3x10 at 135. It wasn't as hard as I thought, but it was definitely tiring! Doing that many reps is something I haven't done in a long time. After that was bench, again 3x10 at 135. This ripped my chest! It was much heavier than I thought it'd be, but overall I think I could have probably done 5 sets. Finally we did deadlift, and I did 2x10 and 1x5 at 135. I wasn't planning on doing 30. Instead my goal was to do 25, which is half of what I'll be doing on 300. It was much harder than I thought. I felt like the life was sucked out of me from lifting that much. But I did it so it was awesome.
Next week the weight goes back up, but it was fun to work like this. No more workouts the rest of the week. The gym is filled with furniture due to some cleaning and getting ready for the new years party. Next week the gym gets a redesign too (more mat areas so we can get more people doing DVD workouts) and Monday the girlfriend and I start P90X Lean! And a week from Saturday I start running 300 (technically 150) workout! Should be fun!
This will probably be the last post for 2011. Happy New Year everyone! I'll see you in 2012!
Bring it!
I don't know if it was laziness or because we had a small group or because it was the last workout of the year or because it's the only workout of the week (for SS that is) but we decided to switch it up. We kept the bar at 135 the whole night and did more reps.
I did squats, 3x10 at 135. It wasn't as hard as I thought, but it was definitely tiring! Doing that many reps is something I haven't done in a long time. After that was bench, again 3x10 at 135. This ripped my chest! It was much heavier than I thought it'd be, but overall I think I could have probably done 5 sets. Finally we did deadlift, and I did 2x10 and 1x5 at 135. I wasn't planning on doing 30. Instead my goal was to do 25, which is half of what I'll be doing on 300. It was much harder than I thought. I felt like the life was sucked out of me from lifting that much. But I did it so it was awesome.
Next week the weight goes back up, but it was fun to work like this. No more workouts the rest of the week. The gym is filled with furniture due to some cleaning and getting ready for the new years party. Next week the gym gets a redesign too (more mat areas so we can get more people doing DVD workouts) and Monday the girlfriend and I start P90X Lean! And a week from Saturday I start running 300 (technically 150) workout! Should be fun!
This will probably be the last post for 2011. Happy New Year everyone! I'll see you in 2012!
Bring it!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Cardio X
Last night the roommate and I did Cardio X. It looks like SS is going to be put on hold this week and we'll get back into it next week, after the new year. Anyways, we got started around 3pm and overall it was a great workout. The yoga section felt good, the kenpo section was fun as always, the plyo section got my legs feeling good and my heart rate up and the core section was a good finish. I really like this workout and overall it was a good workout day.
I'm going to try to get some more PT 24/7 in starting later this week. The holidays need to end so I won't be so busy!
Bring it!
I'm going to try to get some more PT 24/7 in starting later this week. The holidays need to end so I won't be so busy!
Bring it!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
I'm running out of titles
I'm running out of titles for the SS workouts. Fortunately I'll start P90X in just over a week and my titles will be taken care of for me.
Last night we got into SS around 7. We warmed up with the first 10 minutes of Game Day from The Asylum, and then hit the weights hard! First up was squats, and I made more progress at 180. The first set felt just as heavy as ever, but by the end I felt really in control. I'm not working out Friday (Reel Big Fish concert!) so I'm going to repeat this throughout next week and hopefully move up to 185 after the new year!
Shoulder press was next and I stayed at 115. I did all of my reps (5x5) and they felt much better than last week's. I'm planning on repeating this one more time, next week, and then moving up to 120 after the first of the year as well. 2012 is going to start off hard!
I decided to repeat 205 on deadlift, and I'm glad I did. This was HEAVY! I did all 5 reps, but I felt so beat afterwards. It's so weird that I can't move up on shoulder days, but I definitely would have struggled with 210. Also I felt like my form was rough last night. No one said anything, and my group's usually good about saying if form is bad, but I just felt like it was rough. Not back, but a little bit, I think. Hmm. That said, I do feel fine today aside from the usual muscles being tired, so maybe my form was better than I thought.
I've been slammed with work all week and haven't made it into the gym in the mornings. I want to work out tonight, but I also want to finish my last report (I'm halfway through) so I can sleep in tomorrow. It's going to be a game time call. I have 3 programs that have 30 minute workouts, Jillian Michaels (less than 30), PT24/7 and ESP-XC. I may just do one of those tonight to get my heart going, but we'll see if I have time. I'd say worst comes to worst I'll finish the report tonight and workout in the morning, but I want to sleep in tomorrow so I have a ton of energy for Reel Big Fish!
Overall last night was awesome and hopefully tonight or tomorrow I can get some conditioning in. Wish me luck!
Bring it!
Last night we got into SS around 7. We warmed up with the first 10 minutes of Game Day from The Asylum, and then hit the weights hard! First up was squats, and I made more progress at 180. The first set felt just as heavy as ever, but by the end I felt really in control. I'm not working out Friday (Reel Big Fish concert!) so I'm going to repeat this throughout next week and hopefully move up to 185 after the new year!
Shoulder press was next and I stayed at 115. I did all of my reps (5x5) and they felt much better than last week's. I'm planning on repeating this one more time, next week, and then moving up to 120 after the first of the year as well. 2012 is going to start off hard!
I decided to repeat 205 on deadlift, and I'm glad I did. This was HEAVY! I did all 5 reps, but I felt so beat afterwards. It's so weird that I can't move up on shoulder days, but I definitely would have struggled with 210. Also I felt like my form was rough last night. No one said anything, and my group's usually good about saying if form is bad, but I just felt like it was rough. Not back, but a little bit, I think. Hmm. That said, I do feel fine today aside from the usual muscles being tired, so maybe my form was better than I thought.
I've been slammed with work all week and haven't made it into the gym in the mornings. I want to work out tonight, but I also want to finish my last report (I'm halfway through) so I can sleep in tomorrow. It's going to be a game time call. I have 3 programs that have 30 minute workouts, Jillian Michaels (less than 30), PT24/7 and ESP-XC. I may just do one of those tonight to get my heart going, but we'll see if I have time. I'd say worst comes to worst I'll finish the report tonight and workout in the morning, but I want to sleep in tomorrow so I have a ton of energy for Reel Big Fish!
Overall last night was awesome and hopefully tonight or tomorrow I can get some conditioning in. Wish me luck!
Bring it!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Last night's workout
Last night we did Starting Strength. For some reason I wasn't feeling like working out so here's how it went down. First off was squats. Once again I revisted 180, and it felt just as heavy as ever! I was starting to feel better by the last set, but overall they still felt hard. Hopefully I can finish this up this week and up the weight next week.
Bench was next and I made more progress on 170. Actually, I completed 170. The very very last rep my arms started to give out and someone had to help a tiny bit, but according to Vince he only used a finger and I lifted it all myself. So I'm chalking this up to success, even though I'll be repeating it next week.
I did a few pullups, but like I said I wasn't feeling like working out and that was that.
Tonight start Hanukkah! I celebrated a little this morning with the girlfriend (she got me cigars and scotch! She knows me very well!) and tonight we're with my folks. Tomorrow is more working out. Should be fun.
Bring it!
Bench was next and I made more progress on 170. Actually, I completed 170. The very very last rep my arms started to give out and someone had to help a tiny bit, but according to Vince he only used a finger and I lifted it all myself. So I'm chalking this up to success, even though I'll be repeating it next week.
I did a few pullups, but like I said I wasn't feeling like working out and that was that.
Tonight start Hanukkah! I celebrated a little this morning with the girlfriend (she got me cigars and scotch! She knows me very well!) and tonight we're with my folks. Tomorrow is more working out. Should be fun.
Bring it!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Friday and Sunday
Let's recap the last few days.
Friday we got into Starting Strength with the goal of finishing quickly and getting the weekend started. It was a long week and we all needed to relax!
Squat started off with 175, and I felt pretty good about these. For some reason they hurt so much at the bottom, and I'm starting to think that that's never going to go away. But after the first set (the first set is always the hardest) I felt like I was able to go fast still with solid form. Not extremely fast, but definitely like I can control the weight. If I have to hold that much weight I'm going to do it as quickly as possible and that's what I did. So overall I felt good about them.
Shoulder press was next, and somehow I didn't finish 115. I did 4x5 and 1x4. The very last rep my whole body just gave up and I couldn't lift the weight anymore. It was lame!
I finished with 3x5 on pullups and called it good.
That was Friday. We've put abs on hold until the first of the year.
Sunday I was at WalMart, and low and behold they were selling PT247! If you read this blog often you know that I have an obsession with fitness DVDs, and this is one that's been on my list for a while now! I also hate ordering fitness DVDs online (at least from their regular store....I'm still an Amazon.com junkie), so seeing this at WalMart was a great find. This is basically an amped up version of Tae Bo, taught by Billy Blanks and everything! The big difference is the attitude of the whole thing (way more self defense than just aerobics to music) and as you probably know I'm a martial arts junkie too. This was right up my alley. Also cool about it is the gloves that come with it. They are mock MMA gloves that connect to resistance bands which connect to your feet. The whole program is like this (I'll get to why that's cool in a moment) where you use the gloves, and since it's designed around the gloves every move focuses on using them correctly. Just holding my arms up in guard was difficult!
The reason the bands themselves are cool, though, is that this is a new trend I'm seeing in the fitness DVD craze. Too many people are pirating the DVDs, so now trainers are selling DVDs with a piece of equipment and designing the workout around that equipment. This makes it much harder to pirate, and since I'm kind of a late night TV fitness equipment junkie too I find the trend amazing. I also want to get Rip 60 someday too, but that's a different story. They were selling it at WalMart also, but I wanted PT247 more.
So I got home, sat on the couch for a while, and then around 4:45 hit play on Cardio from PT247. This was a great workout! It was like a shortened version of the punching part of Kenpo X. Just combos and movement. But like I said, with these gloves just holding my arms up in guard was pure pain! Throwing punches was really difficult too! Overall I was very impressed, and might be doing another workout tonight.
The only thing I didn't like was how short this workout was. I guess they're all a little over 30 minutes and I need (want) more of a workout than that. So I also hit play on Level 2 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I'd done level 1 twice before and felt ready for level 2. This was a good workout, working pretty much the whole body in about 22 minutes. Mostly weights (endurance wise) and cardio with a little ab work. It's 3 circuits of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. I really like this workout and will be doing it again (even though it's for girls...ha!).
So ya, good Sunday for working out. Tonight is Starting Strength. This is my last week of organic protein and I'm looking forward to getting back into synthetics next week. Also tonight starts the new Monday/Thursday routine. Should be fun. And if my friends Jacqi or Rod decide to come over early I'm going to get them in the gym and we'll do a cardio DVD. Probably the cardio/combo one from ESP-XC, but we'll see.
Bring it!
Friday we got into Starting Strength with the goal of finishing quickly and getting the weekend started. It was a long week and we all needed to relax!
Squat started off with 175, and I felt pretty good about these. For some reason they hurt so much at the bottom, and I'm starting to think that that's never going to go away. But after the first set (the first set is always the hardest) I felt like I was able to go fast still with solid form. Not extremely fast, but definitely like I can control the weight. If I have to hold that much weight I'm going to do it as quickly as possible and that's what I did. So overall I felt good about them.
Shoulder press was next, and somehow I didn't finish 115. I did 4x5 and 1x4. The very last rep my whole body just gave up and I couldn't lift the weight anymore. It was lame!
I finished with 3x5 on pullups and called it good.
That was Friday. We've put abs on hold until the first of the year.
Sunday I was at WalMart, and low and behold they were selling PT247! If you read this blog often you know that I have an obsession with fitness DVDs, and this is one that's been on my list for a while now! I also hate ordering fitness DVDs online (at least from their regular store....I'm still an Amazon.com junkie), so seeing this at WalMart was a great find. This is basically an amped up version of Tae Bo, taught by Billy Blanks and everything! The big difference is the attitude of the whole thing (way more self defense than just aerobics to music) and as you probably know I'm a martial arts junkie too. This was right up my alley. Also cool about it is the gloves that come with it. They are mock MMA gloves that connect to resistance bands which connect to your feet. The whole program is like this (I'll get to why that's cool in a moment) where you use the gloves, and since it's designed around the gloves every move focuses on using them correctly. Just holding my arms up in guard was difficult!
The reason the bands themselves are cool, though, is that this is a new trend I'm seeing in the fitness DVD craze. Too many people are pirating the DVDs, so now trainers are selling DVDs with a piece of equipment and designing the workout around that equipment. This makes it much harder to pirate, and since I'm kind of a late night TV fitness equipment junkie too I find the trend amazing. I also want to get Rip 60 someday too, but that's a different story. They were selling it at WalMart also, but I wanted PT247 more.
So I got home, sat on the couch for a while, and then around 4:45 hit play on Cardio from PT247. This was a great workout! It was like a shortened version of the punching part of Kenpo X. Just combos and movement. But like I said, with these gloves just holding my arms up in guard was pure pain! Throwing punches was really difficult too! Overall I was very impressed, and might be doing another workout tonight.
The only thing I didn't like was how short this workout was. I guess they're all a little over 30 minutes and I need (want) more of a workout than that. So I also hit play on Level 2 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I'd done level 1 twice before and felt ready for level 2. This was a good workout, working pretty much the whole body in about 22 minutes. Mostly weights (endurance wise) and cardio with a little ab work. It's 3 circuits of 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. I really like this workout and will be doing it again (even though it's for girls...ha!).
So ya, good Sunday for working out. Tonight is Starting Strength. This is my last week of organic protein and I'm looking forward to getting back into synthetics next week. Also tonight starts the new Monday/Thursday routine. Should be fun. And if my friends Jacqi or Rod decide to come over early I'm going to get them in the gym and we'll do a cardio DVD. Probably the cardio/combo one from ESP-XC, but we'll see.
Bring it!
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