Updates too numerous to number

So the last ten days just melted into a flurry of work and crap and other stuff. Got my workouts in though, which is worthy of a pat on the back. Will try to sum up in this post.

Sunday Feb 22. Stronglifts #17

Did an hour-and-a-half of Taekwon-Do first (mostly teaching, so not too hard) then headed straight for the gym to get some lifting done. Was extremely short on time, so did the lifts only this time, no auxilliary stuff.

Squats: 1×10x20 – 2×5x40 – 1×5x50 – 5×5x60kg – YAY! Big Plates(tm)

Bench Press: 1×10x20 – 2×5x40 – 5×5x50kg – Ok

Went a bit short on the warmups so the first work sets felt heavier than the last. I hate having to hurry in the gym.

Tuesday Feb 24. Stronglifts #18

No stress today, so back to the regular warmup. 5 minutes elliptical, hip and glute exercises. A bit of power cleaning and overhead squatting. Once again I credit the overhead squat for my strong form and good depth on the regular squats. Recommended.

Squats: 1×10x20 – 2×5x40 – 1×5x50 – 1×3x60 – 5×5x62.5kg – Heavier and heavier. I’m looking at a stall here soon, although it could be down to my diet, this week wasn’t all that good eating-wise.

Overhead Press: 1×10x20 – 1×5x30 – 1×5x32.5kg – 3×5x37.5kg – Quit after three sets due to back pain.

Deadlift: 1×10x20 – 1×5x60 – 1×5x70 – 1×5x80kg – Strangely there was no back pain on the deadlift. Felt good and went up easy.

Chins: 1-1-1 1×5 neg.

Plank: 3×30seconds. Didn’t feel like doing more.

Wednesday Feb 25. Taekwon-Do

Did all my patterns and focused a bit extra on Joong-Gun and Toi-Gye. Worked up quite a sweat too. Also worked extra on getting the correct height on punches. I’m going for a grading at the end of march and this stuff needs to be down pat.

Oh, and I did the 360deg jump in Chong-Moo nearly perfect.

Thursday Feb 26. Stronglifts #19

Same warmup as last time, although I put in some of Brad’s infamous halos to work the shoulders a bit extra.

Squats: 1×5x20 – 1×5x40 -1×5x50 – 1×3x60 – 5×5x65kg - Good stuff

Bench Press: 1×10x20 – 1×5x30 – 1×5x40 – 1×3x50 – 5×5x52.5kg – Getting heavy

Inverted Rows: 9-6-2

Push ups: 11-4-3 – knuckles as always.

Reverse Crunches: 2×12/5kg counter – 1×8 no counter.

Friday Feb 27. Taekwon-Do

Did about 45 minutes of patterns going hard and working up a decent pool of sweat. Excellent dynamic even if I do say so myself. Need to keep focus though, when I go hard I have a tendency of starting one pattern and slipping into another without noticing until the end.

Sunday Mar 1.

Wifes birthday.

Monday Mar 2. Stronglifts #20

5 minutes on the rower, no hamstring pain, YAY! Regular stuff for the rest of the warmup.

Squats: 1×10x20 – 1×5x40 – 1×5x50 – 1×5x60 - 5×5x67.5kg – This felt really heavy. Wasn’t too happy with my form either.

Overhead Press: 1×10x20 – 1×5x30 – 2×3x35 – 5×5x37.5kg - Third time’s the charm. Never thought I would get this up, but it seems the glute activation stuff is working, because this time I actually felt I got some help from that  body part as well.

Deadlift: 1×10x20 – 1×5x60 – 1×5x70 – 1×3x80 – 1×5x85kg – Ok. I can go heavier on this, but forearms and grip will probably give in first.

Chins: 2-2-1-1-2-1 – Weeee…

Plank: Bah, didn’t feel like it, so I did  Ab wheel rollouts instead. Kneeling and fumbling and looking like a giraffe caught in syrup, but got through 5×5.

Tuesday Mar 3. Taekwon-Do

Patterns again. Full power no mercy and a bucket of sweat. Drew a bit of a crowd at the gym too, which always makes me go a bit harder

Since the hamstring is healing nicely I might start doing some kicking drills soon.

So that was a monster update. WordPress clocks me in at just over 600 words, but it feels more like 6000.

Stronglifts #15

Tried the elliptical for the first time ever in my warmup today. Obviously a quad-dominant exercise. Better than the treadmill, not quite as good as the rower. Followed with the usual hip and glute stuff, then a few overhead squats with the bar. These are really good for flexibility, and have improved my back squat technique no end.

Squats: 1×10x20 – 2×5x40 – 1×5x50 – 5×5x55kg – This is starting to feel like work! Did low bar again and was satisfied with form, but it felt a lot heavier than sundays 52.5.

Bench Press: 1×10x20 – 2×5x30 – 1×5x40 – 5×5x47.5kg – This was actually rather hard. Last week 45kg was easy, so this was obviously not an optimal day.

Inverted Rows 7-5-3 – Mmmhmm…

Push ups: 11-5-3 knuckles – Regressing here too, but might have to do with bench improving.

Reverse Crunch 3×12 / 5kg counter – Tried without counterweight at first. No chance.  Even with the same five kgs as last time this was a struggle.

Didn`t seem to have as much gas in the tank today, but still was happy with my performance. Felt like I managed to push myself harder through the last reps of all exercises, and the entire workout was a mind over matter thing. I win.

Stronglifts #13

Busy in the gym this morning so I had to shuffle the exercises a bit.

5 minutes treadmill, hip/glute/shoulder then overhead squats and a set of bar ohp’s for practice. Much better, and funny how light the bar seems compared with only a month ago.

Bench Press: 1×10x20 – 2×5x30 – 1×5x40 – 5×5x45kg – Squat rack was busy so I went and did the bench first. No problem, but bar movement is slower now, so this is actually strength work.

Squats: 1×10x20 – 2×5x30 – 1s5×40 – 5×5x50 – Back to 50kg and no problem. Form felt good too.

Push ups: 14-7-3 – Inv. row machine (also known as a smith) was busy with a couple of kids doing quarter squats with 50kg (same guys using the squat rack earlier for…something not related to squatting…)  so did the push ups first. Improved numbers but might be due to the changed order of things.

Reverse Crunches: 3×12 5kg counterweight. -  A little harder this time, but no problem. Might try without weight next time. I’m actually quite impressed with myself on this one. Before starting SL i tried reverse crunches using a heavy chair for counter and couldn’t do one rep proper…

Inverse rows: 5-3-3 – Finally got to these as the boys left, worse numbers than last time, but I’m willing to accept that as a side effect of the changed order. Will attempt to follow normal protocol next time. Hopefully the gym quiets down towards the end of february.

Late again, Stronglifts #10 and 11

Forgot to blog mondays workout. Felt like crap too, so no wonder. Here’s a roundup of the week so far.

Monday 2009-02-02

Had to rush this workout as I had a doctors appointment.

5 minutes on the rower, not too clever as I agitated the hamstring again. Some light air squats and overhead squats to start off.

Squats: 1×10x20 – 2×5x30 – 5×5x42,5kg – First workout with miniplates. Light and easy, but felt good technically.

OHP: 1×10x20 – 1×5x30 – 5×5x32,5kg – This was heavy, but I hope that was mostly due to me cutting short the rest periods. I still need to work on grip and arm placement on this one.

Deadlift: 1×10x20kg – Hamstring didn’t feel like deadlifting today so I stopped after the first set.

Chin ups: 2-1-1-1 – 2×5 negatives

Plank: 3×40 seconds/15 sec break – Harder than last time…

Wednesday 2002-02-04

5 mins treadmill. Squats/ohs/shoulder dislocations

Squats: 1×10x20 – 2×5x40 – 5×5x45kg  – Focus on breathing this time.. Still easy

Bench: 1×10x20 – 2×5x34 – 5×5x42,4kg – Still fairly easy.

Inverted Rows: 8-5-4 – Slight improvement!

Push ups: 10-7-5 – Knuckles again.

Reverse Crunch: 3×12 with 10kg counter. Think I might go for 5kg next time as this was surprisingly easy.

Stronglifts #9

Same warmup as the previous day + practicing power cleans with the bar.

Squats: 1×10×20 – 1×5×30 – 5×5×40 -Decided to drop a bit of weight as I was getting too far ahead of the program. Worked on low bar  during the work sets, but I still don’t like it.

Bench Press: 1×10×20 – 2×5x30 – 5×5×40 – Ahead here as well, so stayed on the same weight. Don’t know if I’ll go up next time, still feels rather easy but is somewhat ahead of the curve.

Inverted Rows: 3xf 7-4-4 -Finally some improvement!

Push ups: 3xf 10-5-2 – Knuckle pushups again, only slightly better than last time.

Reverse Crunches: 3×12 12kg – Got through all sets with a 12kg dumbbell, but only barely. Going down to 10 next time.

The small plates arrived today, didn’t need them for this workout, but nice to have them ready for monday morning.

Stronglifts #7

Short on sleep this morning, and freezing cold as well. Five minutes on the treadmill (hate) brought some warmth, then I did some hip mobility and glute activation exercises before finishing off with a new idea I had about doing shoulder dislocations. Pretty clever eh?. Also put in some overhead squatting for fun.

Squats: 2×5x20 (low bar) – 1×5x40 – 5×5x50 – Actually had to work a bit for these, and getting near the point where I need smaller increases pretty soon. Worked on bringing the glutes more into the lift. Low bar still doesn’t agree with me, but I’m hoping to improve that slowly.

Bench Press: 1×10x20 – 1×10x30 – 5×5x40 – Still easy, although a bit wobbly at times.  Going up to 45 next time.

Inverted Rows: 3xf 5-4-3 – Can’t seem to improve the numbers on this one, but I feel like I’m doing them better every time, so at least there’s some comfort in that.

Push ups: 3xf 10-4-1 – Went for knuckle pushups this time, and brought the elbows a bit more in. A lot more challenging this way.

Reverse Crunches: 3×12 15kg – Yah man! Decent burn in the abs afterwards too. Lighter counterweight next time.

Today was the first time I actually felt somewhat worked when leaving the gym after an SL workout. Good stuff.

Blank File – also known as stronglifts #5

Early start again this morning, in the gym and ready at 08:15. Throat is still sore, and hamstring is still there, but soldier on we must. I’ve cooled off on the TKD while the hamstring heals, focusing on relaxed stretching instead.

Warmup was the usual 5 minutes on the rower, then a few minutes with the aerobics bar doing squats, ohs and shoulder dislocations.

Squats: 1×5x20 low bar – 1×5x20 – 1×9x30 – 5×5x40 – Tried low bar squats, but rounded the back a bit too much on the bottom. I think more work on the Ohs might help. The rest of the sets were high bar and felt a lot better, chest up, eyes forward, power from the hips. Weight was good, but there’s room for improvement still.

Bench Press: 1×15x20 – 1×5x30 – 5×5x35 – Easy. Used the first set to make sure eyes were locked to the ceiling, the remaining reps just flowed. Much more to go on here.

Inverted rows: 5-4-2-4 – Still not much improvement. The third set was stupid, I didn’t have a proper grip at the start. It’s weird how much harder this is with feet elevated and only counting chest-to-bar. I could probably do twenty chest-almost-to-bar.

Push ups: 21-9-4 – Improvement still. I should be adding some resistance work here pretty soon, but I have a goal of doing fifty straight up, so I think I’ll add volume first, probably another set, while keeping the first set locked at fifteen or twenty.

Reverse Crunches: 12-12-5 15kg counterweight – Woah! So much easier than last time. Must’ve had a real bad core day on sunday, because this was a huge difference. Will stay with the 15kg next time too, to try to get to 3×12

Met a guy I used to work out with, and had a chat with one of the gym owners, so again I spent more time talking than working out, and more than two hours in the gym. Doesn’t matter though, I’ve got the time available right now.

What a mess…

So even though my hamstring still is a bit sore after monday, and the throat remains sore, I decided to head over to the gym to put in another stronglifts workout today. Have been quiet for a couple of days to try to get over those two afflictions, but couldn’t stand sitting still anymore. A good thing too, as I actually feel a lot better now that it’s done.

Got a decent warmup today too, as when I got to the gym I had to clean up the entire free weights area plus some other stuff. Looked like some kids had had a lot of fun last night. There were bars and plates all over the place, and the mats and swiss balls were everywhere except where they were supposed to be. Even some of the machines were moved, and some of them were loaded with ridiculous weigths. 180 kg on the lat pulldown anyone? With alternating 10’s and 20’s? Funny stuff I’m sure.

So over to the actual workout. Even though I was already rather warm I did 5 minutes on the rower to feel out the hamstring. Went slowly and controlled and finished an easy 1120 metres.

Squats: 30kg 5×5 – Weight still easy. Focused on hip drive and breathing.

Bench Press: 30 Kg 5×5 – Did one set at bar only, then decided to go for 30 instead of the prescribed 22.5, mainly because I couldn’t find the proper small plates and then figured what the hck. Still easy though, and technique seemed good. A bit of a wobble in the fourth set as I lost concentration for a second. Gotta stop doing that.

Inverted Row: 3xf: 5-4-3 – Same as last time, but better rom this time, got all the way up to the bar on all reps.

Pushups: 3xf: 16-9-7 – A lot better.

Reverse Crunch: 5-4-3-2 with 15kg counterweight. – a LOT harder with the 15 kg than when holding on to the wall! Supposed to do 3×12 on these. Need a lot of core work

Afterwards I played around a bit with overhead squats with an 11kg bar. There are a few flexibility issues there that I need to work on. Also tried Ab wheel rollouts using a curl bar with 5kg weights. Ho, there is a lot of core work ahead.

Oooh, I’m strong!

Went through day one of Stronglifts 5×5 today. No weight to speak of, but still felt I got a decent workout. Here’s how it went:

Warmup: 5 minutes on the treadmill followed by  supersetting 10 squats, 10 overhead presses and 10 shoulder dislocations (all with one of those aerobics lightweight bars) repeated three times.

Squats 5×5 20 kg (aka bar only) fairly easy, although short breaks nearly turned this into an endurance workout. Still need to watch my form.

Bench Press 5×5 20 kg easy. Think this is the first time I’ve benched since high school.

Inverted Rows Also known as body rows, although with feet elevated. 3 sets to failure: 5,4,3 and yes that s*cked.

Pushups: 3 sets to failure 12,6,6

Reverse Crunch: 3×10 holding on to the wall. Actually rather impressed I managed to finish these, last time I tried I struggled with every rep. This time only the last couple were any trouble. Will try with only a dumbbell for support next time.

So no big issues here. Form is the key in the beginning so that’s what I focus on. Deadlifts and overhead presses on tuesday.