Littlelee Lifting And Sleeping Log

Where is my manners, Congratulations with the daughters.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed, hope your hubby gets a well deserved job :slight_smile:

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I have a notebook for training. It’s a school year weekly planner. It has plenty of space to record my workouts on each day. I also put PRs on the monthly calendar page that precedes each new month as well as tracking all PRs in the notes section in the back.

I also use an app that calculates estimated rep maxes. I can pick an exercise and look at the history to see what I’ve done and what the eRM was. It’s handy.

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I use a spreadsheet. When I hit a new rep pr, I enter it under that weight with the date. Down the side I list the lifts, across the top, the weights. I also have a section that calculates estimated 1RM based on weight and reps for each lift, and I track that as well.

I also have a spreadsheet with three years worth of weight and BF%.

Cray cray.

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@mortdk -thank you

@Frank_C @The_Myth

You guys are way more organized (and anal) then me. I think I will be going old school with pen and paper!!!

My daughter graduated last night. She won an excellence award, was on the honor roll, and won the french award (surprising and weird). The ceromony and dinner was long and awkward, but she did amazing!

Tonight off to watch my older daughter graduate high school (tears)

Still no word about hubbys job (grrrrr)

And deadlift day soon!!!

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Deadlift-Cycle 5-Week One-5/3/1

Deads
1x5-135 lb warm up
1x5-165 lbs
1x5-175 lbs
1x8-185 lbs

Gotta tell you I thought I would get more.

Good Mornings
5x5 superset with:

Planks
5x1 minute

Well this was supposed to be yesterdays workout, but with my daughters graduation and stuff, I got too busy.

So, I went tonight (another busy day) and I remember why I don’t go at night.

1.) I am def weaker
2.) It is too bloody busy
3.) Young boys doing curls in the squat rack, and stopping to pose and look at themselves every two minutes
4.) Young girls wearing next to nothing, with full make-up and hair (major pet peeve)

Gonna stick to mid morning workouts from now on!!!

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10-1 is prime time for me, nothing is better than a close to empty gym

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I like going between that time as well. I find my fellow lifters more mature (for example, nobody is slamming down their deadlifts, which has happened both times I have gone in the evenings) and it just seems everyone is more respectful earlier in the day. And it is definitely less busy!!!

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That’s solid :ok_hand:

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Thanks, I was hoping for more. Its like my body and brain shit down after 8 reps and are like “uh nope, were spent”. I looked back at my reps and find I am stalling out on deadlifts…sigh…

Have you filmed any of those top sets? At times it has helped me to say, “Okay, at rep 6 I felt like I was grinding, but according to the video it was still moving fast, so when I feel like this physically, I know that I can push myself to get at least 2-3 more.” It gives me reference points, basically.

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No, never taped myself…guess I havent wanted to fool around with trying to set up my phone etc…I kinda go with how my body feels…
I have not experienced all this back tension before…my back just tightens up…it normally happens during sumo, but lately I can feel my core taking over even during conventional because my back is getting fatigued…
I may have been able to grind out 1 or 2 more, but I am afraid of injury because things feel off.

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Great advice from @Despade! I can think of several times where I thought I was grinding and my form was crap but then I watched my video and saw that my form was fine and the weight moved at a reasonable speed. I simply put my camera on the mode where it faces me so I can see the screen. I set it on the ground and hit record. I’ll prop it against my bag or water bottle. I trim it later to cut out all the down time. You don’t have to post it!

I think you’d benefit from more volume at reasonable weights. Doing 3 x 8 on Fridays and then 5 x 8 on Mondays starting at 70-72% worked really well for me. That’s how the Guaranteed Simple Strength & Size program starts. The weights weren’t max effort, but my body had lots of practice. I felt like I could have used more weight even when I was doing 5 x 5 at week six, but I followed the program and destroyed my PR when I finally reached week 12.

I’m not saying you have to abandon your 5/3/1 training, but maybe trying a BBBish approach to get more volume could help bring up your lower back strength. Just some food for thought. If you feel like you’re stalling then it may be time to assess the program and make some tweaks. There’s a reason I bailed from 5/3/1 and it was stalling… I also hated hitting 10-15 reps on deads and squats in the early cycles.

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Well you are not the first to suggest more volume, in fact several people have said that. I do not feel confident fooling around/altering the 5/3/1, I am not even sure what that would look like? Would I add volume sets and still do the main lift for rep maxes?

You got more than 5 reps, meaning the program works.
There’s good days, there’s bad days, A lot of average days, a few extremely good days.

This one is hard to judge, you work out late, lots of people and stuff has been going on in your life lately, so many reasons for this.
But in the end you did more than 5 :+1:

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The new/current 5/3/1 has endless options. I think you’d be fine doing what you’re doing and adding the volume after the AMRAP. You could also add the volume sets to your squat day if you feel like you’re spent after your deadlift AMRAP.

I like to tinker with stuff so I’d probably bastardize the program :laughing:

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@mortdk- In this you are right. I have never been a late day lifter, and this did have an impact last night…But looking back on my progress I have only lifted 185 x8, several times…so it kinda feels like I am stuck.

@Frank_C- basterdizimg is my prime concern, I would like to keep it as pure as I can, I am not knowledgable enough to fool around and discover what is working and what is not…it is also very hard for me to push more after that last set…or I am just being a big baby lol

In Other News:
I am currently going back to being a blonde…woohoo! Being a brunette does not suit me.

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And now you did it in a late night session. Not that bad.

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I really like your glass half full approach! You are like my positivity coach!

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BBB would not be bastardizing anything. It’s typically a 5 x 10 with 50% of your TM done after the main lift or on the opposite day (BBB deadlift after squats in your case). I think you’d benefit from a 5 x 5 with 70% for starters and see how you feel. You could even start with 3 x 5 on week 1, 4 x 5 on week 2, and 5 x 5 on week 3. Keep the weight the same all three weeks and then increase the weight for the next cycle. We’re just hoping to improve your strength by practicing the lift. These sets should not kill you.

I guess this could also be the FSL approach. Call it whatever you want; it’s not going to break the program. I’ve learned first hand in the past 12 weeks that submaximal work done for volume can improve your strength.

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Press Day-Cycle 5-Week One-5/3/1

Press
1x5-45 lbs
1x5-50 lbs
1x11-55 lbs Rep PR

these start off as strict press, then near end of main set are more push press, is that ok?

Seated DB Shoulder Press
3x8-15 lbs S/S

DB Side Raises
3x8-15 lbs

Flat Bench
5x5-55 lbs S/S

Paused Flat Bench
5x5- 55 lbs

@Frank_C- enough benching volume?

Thanks to some good advice will volumize the opposite lift (extra bench on press day/extra press on bench day) from now on.

Good workout. Realized when writing down my past rep maxes that this is really only cycle 4-duh!

Still awaiting hubby job news-so frustrating. I have been called 5 seperate times to work in 4 days and I have turned all the shifts down in the hopes something would happen this week. That might have been a mistake.

I look tubby. Need to clean up my eating a bit I think.

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