Benched Monday - bicep felt and shittier than expected, and the weight felt heavier than expected. It happens. Top set was 215, hit it for 5 and called it good. While the weight felt heavy, I did absolutely 0 "psyching up" for it. Literally laid down, got tight and unracked it and went. Assistance was:
Military - 75 for 5x10 superset with
DB curls - 15s for 5x20
One-arm rows - 5x10 - 70, 70, 70, 65, 65 superset with
Cable tricep pushdowns - 5x20
Squatted today - similar story in terms of shittiness of the session - the combination of a few beers last night plus lack of sleep lately combined to kick my ass. Still got the work in, but ugh.
Squat - top set was 255x5
Squat - 150, 5x10
Good mornings - 95, 5x10 superset with
Kneeling band crunches - 5x10
Gotta start getting way more sleep, and I think things will start to look a bit better. I realize I'm weak as sin, but oh well. Plan is to run this for 3 months, then I'm going to try Wendler's 100 rep challenge program afterward (continuing on the hypertrophy phase). It'll be a hellacious mental challenge, but it should be fun. I do think some of the slightly higher-rep work I'm doing now will be helpful, but certainly won't be any guarantee of success.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Training Log
I realized that, while I don't necessarily have time to sit down and write out extensive blog posts, I can still use this as a training log and occasionally jot out random "stream of consciousness" type posts. That way, I'm still honing writing a bit, but not don't have to devote a ton of time to it. I've started doing Wendler's 5/3/1 with modified Boring But Big assistance work. I dropped my maxes down quite a ways (150 M/250 B/300 S/350 D). Run this for about 3 months, then see where to go from there. Started day 1 on Friday rather than wait for this Monday.
Friday
Military - don't remember my first few sets, but last was 130x7
assistance - DB Bench - 5x10 - 60/65/70/65/60 superset with empty barbell curls 5x20
Bent-over rows - 5x10 - 115/125/135/125/115 superset with seated DB tricep extensions 5x20 w/ 40 lbs
Saturday
Deadlift - don't remember the work up sets, last was 300x8
assistance - Heavy shrugs 10x3 w/ 585
Good mornings 5x10 w/ 95 superset with ab wheel 5x10
Friday
Military - don't remember my first few sets, but last was 130x7
assistance - DB Bench - 5x10 - 60/65/70/65/60 superset with empty barbell curls 5x20
Bent-over rows - 5x10 - 115/125/135/125/115 superset with seated DB tricep extensions 5x20 w/ 40 lbs
Saturday
Deadlift - don't remember the work up sets, last was 300x8
assistance - Heavy shrugs 10x3 w/ 585
Good mornings 5x10 w/ 95 superset with ab wheel 5x10
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Habit Forming
It's amazing how quickly we can fall out of habits. While I did say I wouldn't be able to blog nearly as much for the time being due to other commitments, I certainly didn't intend for it to completely dissipate as it has. This is due, largely, to the fact that it simply hadn't become ingrained as a habit just yet. Despite the fact that I had done it pretty consistently for a few weeks, it hadn't become automatic. And this highlights why it's so hard to change many habits at once.
We've all been there. We see what we want, we've decided we're changing our lives for the better, and the best way to get there is to change everything! Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way. I've heard it takes roughly one month for a habit to become automatic. And, while it's difficult to focus on doing 18 different things on a daily basis, it's a lot easier to focus on one. "I will do X every single day," is a lot easier than "I will do X, Y, Z, oh and A, B, C, too." Our minds simply don't work like that, especially because it gets really easy to say "fuck it all" the first time to you forget to do B, even though that one time, in and of itself, is not a killer.
This realization, though, has given me newfound respect for those who work with obese and overweight populations looking to lose weight. While it's not a population I work with, it is obviously a population that needs it. Most people see the fancy gizmos the douchebag trainers on the Biggest Loser berating people and acting like general assholes and assume that is what's necessary for weight loss. But none of it is. The best coaches and trainers in that segment of the population get people to change their habits. The majority of these people have spent a lifetime building poor eating habits, poor exercise habits, and poor life habits in general. What they do with the rest of their life doesn't support health, and their poor health drives them to continuing to make unhealthy choices in other aspects. The trouble, then, comes with choosing which habits to change first. The answer should be "the easiest one to change," but the one most people choose is either "all of them," or "the one that will make the biggest difference" (even though it's also the hardest one to change). I certainly don't have all the answers, or even very many, but I think it's something to ruminate on. And who knows, maybe down the line it's a group I become more interested in working with.
We've all been there. We see what we want, we've decided we're changing our lives for the better, and the best way to get there is to change everything! Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way. I've heard it takes roughly one month for a habit to become automatic. And, while it's difficult to focus on doing 18 different things on a daily basis, it's a lot easier to focus on one. "I will do X every single day," is a lot easier than "I will do X, Y, Z, oh and A, B, C, too." Our minds simply don't work like that, especially because it gets really easy to say "fuck it all" the first time to you forget to do B, even though that one time, in and of itself, is not a killer.
This realization, though, has given me newfound respect for those who work with obese and overweight populations looking to lose weight. While it's not a population I work with, it is obviously a population that needs it. Most people see the fancy gizmos the douchebag trainers on the Biggest Loser berating people and acting like general assholes and assume that is what's necessary for weight loss. But none of it is. The best coaches and trainers in that segment of the population get people to change their habits. The majority of these people have spent a lifetime building poor eating habits, poor exercise habits, and poor life habits in general. What they do with the rest of their life doesn't support health, and their poor health drives them to continuing to make unhealthy choices in other aspects. The trouble, then, comes with choosing which habits to change first. The answer should be "the easiest one to change," but the one most people choose is either "all of them," or "the one that will make the biggest difference" (even though it's also the hardest one to change). I certainly don't have all the answers, or even very many, but I think it's something to ruminate on. And who knows, maybe down the line it's a group I become more interested in working with.
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