Thursday, May 31, 2007

Day 74-75

Wednesday, Thursday
Wed - good plyo workout, feeling a little weaker overall from weights I think. The Irony never ceases to escape me.

Thurs - Squats, Deadlift, etc. Did some more sets at 205lbs in squat, but only up to 165 with deadlift. My lower back was hurting pretty good. Not hurting too much, but definitely saying hello. I feel like I'm doing the exercises correctly, so maybe I strained it last week when I was doing the GoodMornings as well?

Friday will be an off day (trying to take days off after the weigthtlifting day), then on into the weekend.

Should shoot a video this weekend.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Day 73

Tuesday
I'm starting to think my days off should be the days after lifting. Sounds logical, eh? I jogged today, and thought about doing all the plyo, but my knees were saying no. Nothing of a crisis, but just causing me to think, "why push it". I'm sure I'll be fine Wednesday.

Thanks to good feedback, I will continue to hone my workout exercises and schedule. For now, I'm staying with the current regiment where I do squats, good mornings, and deadlifts on the same day. That will probably change starting next week.

I weighed 200lbs this morning. I ate a lot on Memorial Day, so I hope it's an aberration. But my body likes to make muscle, and my body likes to eat.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Day 70-72

Saturday, Sunday, Monday
Saturday - dog hike, then a light jog and plyo and situps

Sunday - dog hike (rest day)

Monday - lifted weights. Felt weaker, but still lifted the same if not more. I got up to 5 reps @ 205 with squat, and got up to 5 reps @ 165 with deadlift, i think...i need to write this stuff down as I do it so I can chart my progress...I didn't do good mornings (bend over more than squat) because my lower back was pretty sore and I don't want to push it.

As for diet, cityofsteel wanted to know what i'm eating. I must confess, my diet could be better, in that, i'm not doing one set official thing. In fact, I've only lost 10 pounds in 2 months. I'm at 194, and I weighed around 180 in high school. I CAN say that I haven't had fast food since my quest began, and i'm eating more salads. I hate salads. But when I eat them, I feel better. But today (Memorial Day), I had 2 burgers and a hotdog. In sum: NO FAST FOOD, MORE SALADS.

Oh - since I've been lifting, my appetite increased. I'm thinking of doing the protein shakes for the first time. Stay tuned.

No video this week. Next week looks good for that. :-)

Friday, May 25, 2007

Day 69

Friday
Back in the weight room today. My body needed less weight, which I expected. I stopped at 185 on the squats, but did 135 again on the deadlift. I was definitely feeling it in my glutes.

On the good mornings, i felt it in the right parts again. I feel that my form is good, which I expect since I lifted weights for 6 years back in my virile days.

Thanks to folks for their input. John commented in the last post that I shouldn't do deadlift and squats on the same day...which makes sense overall, but if I only plan to lift 2x a week, how would that work? Seems I'd have to do 4x a week if I want to split things up.....John also commented on my jump style, which is cool. If only John left his email... :-)

Tomorrow is plyo day. I think I'll have more energy.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Day 67-68

Wednesday, Thursday
Wednesday I simply missed my workout. I overslept a little, had to take the dogs to the groomers - boom - no workout. However, I did yoga with my wife for 30 minutes at night. It was the third time I've done yoga, and it felt like a good thing to do, since I was feeling sore from Tuesday's weightlifting. I was mostly sore in my shoulders and trapezius, from the cable pull workouts. My legs/butt were surprisingly unsore, but I'm in good shape down there.

Thursday, i did the jog, plyo, and abs. But I had no energy. I had to cut short some of the plyo because I just didn't have the gas in the tank. I want to think this is good in that Tuesday's weightlifting really got me.

Tomorrow, Friday, I'm back in the weightroom. As measly the amount I already lifted, it will probably be less tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Day 66

Tuesday
First, what you really care about, the latest video:
Music by JUSTICE

Also, you can see the previous weekly recaps here:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7

So, today I went to the weight room for the first time in 6 years. I did squats for the first time in 14 years.

I decided to do the 10-15 minute jog to LA Fitness, up on Hollywood Boulevard. It is something that a healthy human just shouldn't do. Hollywood Blvd in the morning is like crawling on your dorm room floor after an all-night party with incoming freshman. Only it's stale, old, and dirty. For a moment, I felt like dropping my quest and instead writing an ethnography on the culture of bums and strung out partyers who inhabit this area. Including the students of Hollywood High, 2 blocks away. Their mascot is the Sheik. Sheik! There's a fun post-9/11 mascot for ya.

I didn't want to kill myself on any of the free weights, and rip my body up. I started with squats. I began with just the bar (45lbs), and then worked up. I got to 1 set of 5 @ 195, which is my bodyweight. My ego wanted to do 2 full plates on each side (225lbs), but I held back sans injury. --- To be in proper leaping conditioning, I'm supposed to be able to squat 2x my bodyweight, or 400lbs!!! That's crazy, but I'm sticking with my quest nonetheless.

Next, I did deadlift, working up to only sets at 5 reps of 135lbs. I really didn't want to mess up my back, so that was that.

Then I did "goodmornings", which are like squats, but you almost bend your back parallel to the floor. It works your lower back more than your legs. Here, I got up to about 135lbs.

Then it was on to various exercises I got from API, with the contraption where you pull a cable from the side. I finished with chinups, of which i could do only 3.

Eventually I'll get visual reference to explain all these exercises. The whole workout took a bout 1.5 hours. I think I can do this, about 2x a week. The other days with be plyometrics and conditioning. API would have me 4 days in the gym, but I don't think I can do that. We'll see. I'm in the gym, finally, so it's a victory!

Day 64, 65

Sunday, Monday
Good workout Sunday, the video will do the talking. But overall, I felt that I could have worked out harder, although we weren't sure what more to have done...

Monday I took the day off.

Tuesday I'm actually going into the gym!