Yea I figured the pain would just turn into needed strength. If I ever get off of my sissy wagon completely I’ll probably delve into the hook grip realm lol.
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LOG # 29
Warm-up: elliptical for 3 mins to get myself sweating. Dynamic stretching of the hips, lower back, and shoulder joints. Rolled on the floor just because it felt good, and I was being goofy. (didn’t do agile 8 today, will probably do it tomorrow)
Squat: took a leap of faith and threw on an extra 25lbs from the last time I hit 270, to see if I could dish out one good rep. 290lbs 2 sets of 2. (Yay!)I was huffing and puffing something fierce, and I felt lightheaded for a few seconds after I was done. backed down to 135 for 5 reps, then up to 225 for 6 reps. Had to leave it at that because I was agitating my back. However I actually remembered to start using my belt, because I realize I need it pretty much for everything except bench, when I go heavy. (That’s also one of the reasons I hurt my lower back)
Bench: 165: 5x5
Deads: had to keep it light because my lower back was still a bit tense, but deadlifting light eased the pain quite a bit. 135lbs: 2 straight sets of 10.
DB work: DB rows with 30’s mixed with standing DB chest presses for 5x5
Hanging leg raises: 4 sets of 10
Calf extensions: straight set of 15 for two sets supersetted with leg extensions for a straight set of 12 (90lbs)
Had a giant surge of energy this session for whatever reason. Carbs have only been at 100g today. They usually are capped off at 250-300g each day. Protein has been upped to 200g a day. Charlie horses haven’t been popping up as much. I suppose I wasn’t getting enough protein, nor water for the last week once again. But today i’m doing good. I’m going to record my calorie intake today, as well as my protein intake to make an outline for how I will be eating for the next month just to get some of the fat off. bumped down the intake to 2,800 calories a day. Took of 200 calories to start with. So we will see how everything goes.
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On a completely different side note while I’m still laying in bed and thinking. As far as 2017 goals go, what I wish to accomplish has pretty much nothing to do with Training.
Personally, I wish to get closer to God, and be obedient to whatever his will for me would be. I’ve been cursing a lot. And battling laziness in other areas of my life. I’ve been putting Christ second to damn near everything I do, from the time I wake up to when I go to bed. All this leads to conviction, and I start feeling guilty and feeling unworthy. I’ve been doing better in not wallowing in my guilt because it leads to be doing destructive things as a means of punishment, and last time I checked that’s how a lot of Believer’s never get out form the holes they dig themselves into. I am proud of where God has brought me to, but I refuse to settle. Once I get into the groove of routine, and commitment, and diligence, i’ll start to see my faith grow 7X. And after that, all I have left to do is just wait and see where God takes me. I’m thankful that the good Lord has introduced weight training to me, because it mimicks so many other situations in life that we as humans face. (e.g, disappointment, pain, happiness, reaching goals, guilt, trying over and over again, etc.)
I’ve changed my educational career path for very good reasons (switch to psychiatry). I feel as though its the only thing i’m good at, and I find it to be a God given gift, and since a child I’ve always viewed things from a third person point of view. And most often times when i’m face to face with people I immediately stop talking and just listen to them. I don’t even have to like to person in a relative sense, ill still shut up and listen. I’ve slowly morphed into this person who realizes just how ordinary, and insignificant of a person I am compared to this entire planet. While I do realize I am very unique and special in my own beautiful way, I also realize that I play as a very small cog, in a giant watch called the universe. It used to scare me, but now I’ve found a sense of peace in realizing that I’m apart of a much bigger picture. switching it up, Most often times people never heed my advice until years later when they are dumping all their personal issues into both of my ears. I’ve learned to be extremely patient in most areas of my life. I’m too humble for myself and I’m often conceived as a push over, or a hermit. But I’m more or less just very reserved. If I need to defend myself I will, if I need to show respect where its due I will, if I need to lend a helping hand I will. I’ve been very good at teaching myself to adapt to my surroundings very quickly. I used to be so concerned with people’s approval, and wanting them to like me, and now as a 21 year old, college student I could give a care less. I have no room for judgment, and I do not think too highly of myself, because last time I checked, I have no heaven or hell to send anyone to. I’m just as human as the next person I see walking by.
My family is very scattered and broken, after my parents divorced, and its taken me a while to adjust, but ive learned that nothing I did as a child had anything to do with my mom and dad separating, and once I realized that I was set free from so much unnecessary guilt I had been feeling for years. My mom and I have developed a bond so strong now, and I’m so thankful that I have an opportunity to have that type of relationship with my mother because not very many people do. My relationship with my stepfather has been blossoming as well. My relationship with my father is very weak, and most times I have nothing to say to him. He still supports me with my schooling, and comes to visit me every week or every two weeks. So that is something I will have to work very hard on in due time. My relationship with my brother is a hot mess. I was the good child who stayed away from drugs, and crime, and kept myself focused, so he sometimes resents me for that. I wish he’d view me as a sister instead of whatever he views me as. He drinks a lot, and has been to prison too many times to count, and wont let go of the stereotypical box many black men are placed into. There is nothing I can do to save him, so that’s something he will have to overcome himself. In the mean time I will still have an unwavering, unconditional love for him as I always have had as his little sister. (I did smoke a bit, and go to parties in my highschool years, but nothing that any other teenager and young adult hasn’t done). I’ve also gotten over the fact that I used to be so self conscious of the color of skin. Once I understood on an emotional and biological level as to why my skin is a darker shade than others, I no longer give hoot, and seek out friendships based on how I connect with others’ spirits, and character.
I’ve channeled a lot of energy into my marriage with Kelby. And I must say I am very proud of far we have come as a young married couple.I’m not as nice as he is, and sometimes I slip up and lash out at him. He’s very understanding and gentle, which is something I have never had until I met him. I do not push myself onto him for the same reasons I don’t like that being done to me. Its a very balanced medley of push and pull forces in our relationship. I know he isn’t as spiritually mature as I am, and I don’t force maturity onto him either. In due time he has been growing more and more and asking questions when he has them. I’m simply happy that he at least recognizes things that need to change in order for us to grow spiritually with Jesus. I pray for him quite a bit, and leave the rest to the God. He’s got issues with laziness, as do I, but there are many things we both lack as partners, and we recognize that in ourselves, and we slowly just build and build until one obstacle has been tackled, and we move on to the next. I’m glad to say I fell in love with my best friend. And while things get irritating, and things seem kind of mundane, and boring, there isn’t anyone else i’d rather go through all of this with than him. A lot of people kind of bashed us for getting married so young, but while we are young, we aren’t idiots. Sure we aren’t the smartest, or the most intelligent, but we live comfortably for our means. We both work, we can both pay our bills, he’s supporting me through college along with my father, and we both put time and energy into our marriage to keep it healthy. We dont live in a fancy house, or drive the best cars, or have thousands of dollars, but that’s okay. We’ve matured and grown up together, and my mom helps us with advice on wisdom, and maturing, and being content, and happy with our lives. So I think we are doing a-ok for a couple of 21 year olds.
These three major categories of my life are really all I care to keep building on. Training is something I also am very passionate about so I guess that makes four categories lol. I never pictured myself being this strong, or calm, or mature. But here I am. And I’m glad I met all of you guys, because most days, to tell you guys the truth, I talk to you guys more than I talk to anyone else (aside from my husband, and my mother). So I couldn’t ask for better friends. Hopefully one day I can actually meet you guys face to face.
But other than what I’ve spewed out to you guys on here, that’s the jist of everything I plan to build on this year. Slowly but surely.
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LOG # 30
Pump day today. Kept everything in the 10-15 rep range.
Squats: 135lbs 4 sets of 10
Leg extensions: 4 sets of 15 @ 90lbs
Calf extensions : 2 sets of 20 @ 70lbs
Glute blasty thing: 3 sets of 10 @ 50lbs each leg
Hip thrusts: 135lbs 4 sets of 15
DB bent over rows w/ 35’s 3 sets of 8 each arm
DB standing shoulder presses w/ 15s for 3 sets of 4
Lat pulldowns: 3 sets of 12 w/ 75lbs
Machine chest dips w/ 100lbs 4 sets of 10
Abs: hanging leg raises, weighted sit-ups, machine ab crunch. All for 3 sets of 10. 1 min plank with 45 pound plate on my back.
Clean and jerk: 90lbs 6 reps
Snatch: 90lbs 6 reps
Warmup: agile 8 (forgot to roll the sides of my hips). Light walking for 5 mins.
Cool down: light stretching and warrior 1,2 & 3 yoga poses, laid on the ground for a few mins.
Nothing was taken to failure, I just wanted to play around with the rep scheme to introduce something new to my muscles that I usually don’t do.
Forgot that I actually had two Olympic lifts jammed into my head from when I first started to get into crossfit (had a few problems with the whole reality of it so I dropped it), however I do like the snatch, clean, and jerk, because it allows me to work on my explosiveness and speed. But I never worked up in weights so I’ve always stayed at 100 or 90 pounds.
Other than that, this is today’s training. I also focused on EMOM elements, but they were in 10-15min bursts. The whole workout wasn’t EMOM.
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LOG# 30
Cardio: 30 mins, brisk walking.
On my way back home I did some bursts of running (not sprinting) with 1 min rests.
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What do you guys think of this? Agree? Maybe disagree?
LOG # 31
Today was working up to PRs again. I felt great tonight. And I actually remembered to use my belt for my working sets.
I warmed up very very well. Skipped the Agile 8, because i didn’t want to exhaust myself. But I did warm up with 135lbs for all three lifts (light but gets me warmed up)
Bench: 195lbs. PR
Squat: 295lbs. PR
Deadlift: 305lbs. PR
All for 1 rep with good form.
For bench I worked up, from increments of 135(10 reps), 155(5 reps), 165(2 reps), then 185lbs (2 reps), then 195
For deadlift I worked up in increments of 135 (10 reps), 180 (6 reps), 200( 5 reps), 225(2 reps), 275( 2 reps), then 305.
For squat I worked in increments of 135(7 reps), 225 (5 reps), 275(3 reps), then 295 for 2 reps. I could’ve slapped another 5 pounds on there but I chickened out.
I’ve noticed these pump days followed by a rest day or active rest day REALLY help with the heavy days. I’m very proud of my progress.
I’ve also been squatting to some plates on and off just to make sure I’m hitting depth (all is still good).
So that’s it for this training day. Weight has been doing good too. Have also cut down my carbs to 200 grams. So far so good. If my energy starts to get depleted I’ll UP them up as needed. Protein is at 200 grams, or 150 depending on my stomach.
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So you should be. A year from now I think you’ll be looking at 375/250/400 or so.
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those are lovely numbers 
They certainly aren’t bad, and they are well within your capability given time and effort.
I feel like I’m going to have to work extra hard to get my deadlift up to that number. My upper body always needs extra attention assistance wise.
Just keep plugging away. As your squat goes up your DL may too.
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I agree with most. Machines are a great way to make your body out of “whack”. People do like to have companionship. (He put it differently.)
I don’t agree that people can easily build a specific muscle to a degree it is huge compared to the rest of the body. The body doesn’t work that way.
From what I have read Arnold and Columbo and those guys did a lot more compound movements than what he made it seem. They did isolation work of course but their muscle base was built with compounds and their workouts were built around compounds.
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For your bench you might want to warm up with less. That is almost 70% of your 1RM and for 10 reps that is a working set. As per 1RM calculators most people fail at 10-12 reps with 70%.
The slowly adding weight is great though.
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Oh okay. I suppose that’s why I had to take like a 7 min breather. So maybe 5 warm up reps?
And i agree. Im honestly not sure why he said that little bit about Arnold. I mean the guy was pulling and squatting some serious poundage in his golden years, so I d agree that he left out some needed info. But I do think people can develope certain parts of their body more than other areas. Not to an insane degree, but it is noticeable. Like the guys I usually see in other gyms who favor upper body, but neglect everything else from the glutes down. I don’t know what you’d call that in text book terms though lol.
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forgot to log my workout from days ago. Been sleeping right after I come home from work.
LOG # 31
squat: 135lbs 3x10
deadlift: wait…did I even deadlift? I think I did, no wait I didn’t.
lat pullowns: 125lbs: 5x5
leg extensions: 95lbs 2 sets of 10
calf extensions: 70lbs 3 sets of 10
DB bent over rows: w/ 35s 5x5 each arm
OH press: 90lbs 5x5
bench: 135lbs 10 straight reps, then 4x4
glute master thing: 60lbs 3x8, 55lbs 3x8, 50lbs, 3x19, 40lbs, 3x10 for each leg
glute kickbacks: forgot what the resistance was at, 3x10
hanging leg raises 2 sets of 10
2 min plank
assisted pullups: 3x8 (I’m a lot heavier than I think I am lol)
burpees: 10 reps (not doing that anymore. hurts my wrists)
I weigh 195 now. My energy has been pretty good, but I’m hungry all the time ever since I cut back my carbs to 250 grams a day. Ill be hungry at 2, 5, and 7 in the morning despite getting up and eating prior. I’m hungry all throughout the afternoon, and I’m hungry dead in the middle of the night, and at 1 in the morning. I’ve been watering down my protein shakes, however I’ve gone through two big gallon containers already. I was mainly using my shakes to staff off hunger, but I do realize these things are mass gainers as well so that’s why ive been watering them down. I’m already creeping up on 3,500 calories a day, and I’m blowing through whatever is left of my check when it comes time to buy groceries.
my meals are very decent.
I buy turkey, tuna, chicken, and 80% lean ground beef.
Rice, steel cut oats, quinoa(however you spell it), ive cut out any bread for the time being because ill eat the entire loaf.
salad, frozen veggies, onions (love onions), vinegar, grapes, apples, oranges, acai juice (gotta water this down because 8 oz ha 24 grams worth of sugar)
fish oil, magnesium, iron, sometimes vitamin c if I run out of OJ.
cases upon cases of water and citronella tea.
I buy KeriGold butter instead of veggie oil (but I rarely cook with it since most of my pans are nonstick anyways)
almond, peanuts, pistachios, PB. ( I don’t really like any other nuts)
This is what I stay buying and don’t really vary off because I suck at cooking and its simple to throw these together. I’m not sure what else is wrong. Did my well woman’s checkup and my blood work came back A1. Did my x-rays and everything looks spot on. My menstrual cycles are normal, however I don’t bleed for more than two days then it tapers off and disappears after 5 days. So I don’t think that’s a problem.
I guess this is just part of getting stronger? I’m not worried about eating more, since my weight tends to sort itself out. I’m not really gaining much nor am I losing anything so I suppose muscle is being steadily built. My pants are getting loose at the waist ever so slowly, however its going to take a min before I see anything too different in the mirror so I’m going to have to train myself to not look at the mirror every possible moment. My main issue is that the hungries are disrupting my sleep. I’m literally having to make something every 3 hours give or take. And I struggled at work with my energy these past two days because I cant just readily whip out snacks, or stuff I packed from home because I cant eat while serving customers. Not to mention my breaks are 20 and 15 mins. And I only get two of them, and I’ve trained myself not to scarf down food anymore. So ill have to figure out what to do because this is irritating me.
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The hunger is your body adjusting. Don’t worry about it, just ride it out. Should abate quite a bit after a couple of weeks. It’s also often a sign your body is using fat reserves.
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Mmmmmmm. Ehh. You’re right. I just get tired of waking up all the time to eat. Not to mention this time I’m actually heating up pots and pans and preparing the food instead of buying crap like I once was.
I get what you mean. What I did was just sit it through and not eat until my meal times or close to - but then I also wasn’t waking up out of hunger.