melkor's Journal
Oww, I'll pay for that in the morning.Apr 01 2008 04:49
Well, now that several days have passed with no dizziness, fever or other annoyances, it's time to start up something again.
Total Calories Consumed 2,278Not much of a deficit - perhaps just as well, I'm going to be needing the calories considering what I got up to today.
Activity Minutes Calories
Weight Lifting - (Free Weight Nautilus or Universal-type),
Power Lifting or Body Building, Vigorous Effort 60 546
Normal Calorie Expenditure (?) 1,380 2,229
Total Burned Calories 2,775
Some notes on todays workout:
Warmup: The Mobility Complex -
Workout: Starting Strength, workout A-extended version.
Oww, I feel pitifully weak - given that it's been a while since I've done real barbell training I don't think I'm going to be setting any PR's any time soon. Well, in squats anyway - I did a ramping up with 1x5@132lbs and 1x5@176 to my work sets at 3x5@198lbs. I could have gone heavier, but I think that not pushing it to the bleeding edge of what's possible straight off is a good idea, particularily coming off the flu and a 2-week hiatus. As it is, I'm still going to be feeling this in the morning ;)
Well, my pushing strength hasn't suffered much - decline pushups and dips seems to have helped a bit there. Ramping up was again 1x5@132lbs and 1x5@176 to the work sets of 3x5@187lbs - only 12lbs less than my squat, revealing a horrible strength imbalance. Or that I wimped out in the squat, that's always possible - though the way my hamstring's cramping up I'm not sure this is the case; we'll see how bad DOMS hits me in a few days :)
Deadlifts - started the ramping up from 2@220lbs, made 1@286 to see how that felt, and did 5@308 - had to switch from an overhand grip to a locking grip for the last two reps, but I made all the reps with good speed on the bar.
Dips - did 8,5,4 bodyweight dips, which felt like plenty, be a while before I need to start using weight on those.
All in all, not a bad start coming off a hiatus like that, though I need to get my rear in gear - both B. and my brother are using more weight on their squat work sets than I am. Kinda cool actually, now that I think about it.
nothing like easing back into it... sheesh! glad that you're back to doing what you love (assuming that it isn't kleenex and thermometers) |
Heh, yep, this is easing back into it - I think that once I've done a strength block and pushed some heavy iron to get stronger, I'm going to go do German Volume Training by Poliquin - lower intensity, lots and lots more volume :) |
Melkor joins the living! So glad you're feeling better... Back to killing yourself. You'll get to enjoy using your new toy and not just looking at it... Have fun! |
starting strength looks cool. the second lift you did (push strength) was a bench, right? you're right to test out the waters before pushing yourself, that's the idea w/ramping, i think. it's like you trick your body into thinking it can do the exercise (w/increasing weights) bec, after all, you're not lifting your max. you keep doing that and gaining strength and then one day you're lifting your max, and soon thereafter you've gone beyond. if you're feeling quite dizzy today or tomorrow, consider that it still might be too soon to throw yourself around w/weight plates. but if you're really getting better, then that's great and i hope you're able to jump right in there. most coaches couldn't kick a field goal or run 200 yards to score a touchdown. i think the fact that your trainees are lifting more than you can right now illustrates that you've been pushing them to their limits (not yours). good work. |
I've been feeling the expected tighness/soreness in my hamstrings, quats, glutes, and pecs today, but not any dizzy spells or any other unexpected side effects, so I think I'm good on that score. Well, apart from feeling beat up after squatting, which is only to be expected. Yes, that was bench press - should have specified that more clearly up top. I damn near bench as much as I squat, which is a sign of a dreadful strength imbalance; or would have been if I'd done my squat sets at the same percentage of my 1RM as benching - I near-failed the last two reps of each of the last bench sets, but I had no problem making the squat reps. So I could potentially have gone heavier, but I didn't want to start too agressive just in case. And thanks! In some measure it's been easy - just follow along with Rippetoe - but it's been fun pushing them to exceed their own expectations for themselves. B. thinks he probably would have stopped at 135lbs if left to his own devices - good thing he wasn't, eh? |
once you're back into the swing of things, you can worry about sqatting a "respectable" percentage above your bench. for now, stay upright and stay injury free. i'm approaching lifting my max weights (next week), and the lifts are getting harder. this program only has me deadlifting once a week, so today was a doozy. you mentioned feeling "beat up" after squatting, but for me it was the deadlifts at the end, really used up my hams and glutes and everything. i had some genuine fear about doing hiit afterward. maybe it's bec, as you mentioned in a thread, it's so CNS-heavy. |
Yeah, HIIT will eat into your recovery like nobody's business; I don't think I'd want to overdo the HIIT training after such heavy lifting as the 5x5 - this is where training logs come into the picture. Lets you evaluate the combined impact of everything you're doing relative to your current fitness goals. 'Course, I've told my trainees that we're going to start incorporating HIIT hill sprints into the training now that the ground is free of snow - remember that hill I measured out to do sprints up? Now that I'm not doing Tabatas or the RFFL tri-sets I think I'm going to need something like that on a regular basis, no matter how much I hate it ;) |
you're absolutely right, melkor. it'll eat up my recovery, and then i'll disappoint myself in strength gains. i'm going to try maybe hiit 2-3 a week (after the lighter weight lifting days) and just do less intense interval training aside from that. |
Sounds like a good plan, yes - start with 2 and see how that works for you. Trying to do too much at once is kinda counterproductive - your body does better if you pick 1-2 fitness dimensions to improve in at a time. Well, you'll see improvements, but a lot more incremental than what focus will give you; or so all the literature says. |
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