Liz's Little 500 by '07 Log

[JP]

I have decided to set a goal for myself for the end of the year. I'd like to get my total to 480 lbs (218.2 kg) by the end of 2006.

I'm thinking of something like a 200 lb (90.9 kg) DL, 170 lb (77.3 ) squat, and a 110 lb (50.0 kg) bench. My current DL max is 165 lbs and squat is 145. I haven't tested bench in a while now, but I'm doing 85 for reps, so I imagine I could get a max of 100 lbs pretty soon.

If anyone thinks I should adjust my goals up or down, let me know!

i think the goals are good, i would thing you would have more in the deadlifts to be honest, your squat is already comparatively good, and deadlift is lagging behind IMO. I think you would make the biggest total gains by focusing on getting that deadlift up, i'm sure you have 100kg/220lbs in you by the end of the year.

[FormicaLinoleum]

i think the goals are good, i would thing you would have more in the deadlifts to be honest, your squat is already comparatively good, and deadlift is lagging behind IMO. I think you would make the biggest total gains by focusing on getting that deadlift up, i'm sure you have 100kg/220lbs in you by the end of the year.

Yeah, I agree. I started squatting regularly last October but didn't start deadlifting until this January, so my squat was a little ahead. Since I started DL, I've increased the weight every time I have done it, so I have made good progress, but I know I'm not going to keep that up. I think I'm at the point now where my progress is going to slow. But maybe I could make 100/220 by the end of the year. We'll see!

[FormicaLinoleum]

On Wednesday I was supposed to go for a mtn bike ride. I got all ready, got my bike, and went to my car so I could go pick up my buddy and go to the park... and found my car window smashed. Second time in less than a year. So I instead spent the next couple of hours making an appointment to have it fixed, cleaning up the mess, and taping up the window. Nothing was taken because I keep my car completely empty, but I have to shell out the money for the new window.

Thursday I made it to the gym (glad it's just two blocks away!). All weight in pounds.
Squats: 75 x5, 140 x3/2/2
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 120 x8, 180 x8/8/8
Incline Dumbell Press (weight per dumbell): 20 x8, 35 x5/5/4
Rear Delt Row: 45 x7, 80 x4/4/4
One-Arm Dumbell Row: 25 x7, 50 x5/5/5
Wide-Grip Pullup: -100 x5, -60 x3/2/3

[FormicaLinoleum]

I am behind!

Monday:
Mtn bike ride. I can't remember how long it was, maybe a bit under an hour and a half. Felt pretty tired by the end. This was at the less challenging park.

Tuesday (weights in pounds):
Squats: 75 x5, 140 x4/3/3
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 120 x8, 180 x8/8/8
Barbell Bench Press: 45 x8, 85 x4/4/4
Barbell Shoulder Press: 45 x7, 60 x5/5/5
Cable Row: 55 x7, 110 x4/3/3
Lat Pulldown: 55 x7, 100 x5/5/3

Wednesday:
Mtn bike ride, at the more challenging park. The ride was about 1:40 long. I was pretty tired throughout. We decided we are going to stop going to the easier park and just stick to the more challenging one in order to get into better shape. There were lots of riders out this evening--we thought that perhaps there's a race coming up there.

Thursday (weights in pounds):
Deadlift: 75 x6, 155 x5/5/5
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 140 x9, 180 x8/9/9
Chest Dips: -70 x6, -20 x2/3/2
Hang Cleans: 45 x7, 65 x5/5/5
Barbell Bent-Over Row: 65 x7, 110 x4/4/4
Narrow-Grip Chinup: -80 x6, -50 x3/4/3

[FormicaLinoleum]

Sunday went to the gym. All weight in pounds.
Squats: 75 x5, 140 x5/4/3
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 120 x10, 180 x9/9/9
Incline Dumbell Press (weight per dumbell): 20 x7, 35 x5/4/5
Rear Delt Row: 45 x7, 80 x4/4/4
One-Arm Dumbell Row: 25 x7, 50 x5/5/5
Wide-Grip Pullup: -100 x5, -60 x3/3/5

Tuesday did a bit of biking. There was a Trek WSD demo at one of our regular parks, so we went and I rode a Fuel. They said I could ride for 20 minutes, but I think I was out for more like 45. Ooops. Still much shorter than a regular ride. Then my friend and I both rode road bikes, but just for 5 min as they were about to pack up. We both got full carbon bikes. Very nice.

Tonight we'll do a regular ride with our own bikes.

[Jonathan]

I was chatting with Brian about your squatting the other day. I was thinking that you have been doing various numbers of reps at 140lbs for some time now and that you could benefit from some variation. How about some periodisation:

3x8x115
3x6x125
3x5x135
3x4x145
3x3x155
3x2x165
Max out!

Or something like that! I just think that perhaps your body is used to repping 140 now and could do with a change

Jonathan

[FormicaLinoleum]

I was chatting with Brian about your squatting the other day. I was thinking that you have been doing various numbers of reps at 140lbs for some time now ...

Yes, that's true--I have been at 145/140 for a long time. But there's a reason! When I hit 145 I saw a video or picture of someone here squatting and realized I was not going low enough. So I decided to lower my squats so that they were properly parallel. While I worked on getting deeper, I didn't increase the weight, I just worked on getting lower and lower each workout.

The good news is that I am now squatting to proper parallel so I can start increasing weight again.

That squat workout you gave me--that's to be spread over multiple workouts, right? So I'd do 3x8x115 one workout, then next time do 3x6x125, and so on?

[Jonathan]

Aye, that's right. Obviously, that is just an example of what you could do - feel free to adjust it or do something totally different

Jonathan

[FormicaLinoleum]

Wednesday:
Mountain bike ride. I didn't fall or hurt myself in any way on this ride. We're making ourselves take slightly longer rides to get ourselves back into shape. This ride was pretty good; I felt pretty smooth getting over obstacles and okay climbing.

Thursday (weight in pounds):
Squats: 75 x7, 140 x4/5/5
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 120 x10, 180 x10/10/9
Barbell Bench Press: 45 x8, 85 x5/3/4
Barbell Shoulder Press: 45 x7, 65 x2/2/1
Cable Row: 55 x7, 110 x5/5/5
Lat Pulldown: 55 x7, 100 x5/4/4

I want to get 3x5 @ 140 lbs before I move on to something else on the squats. I imagine I should be able to do that at my next workout.

[FormicaLinoleum]

I had a few days with no activity. But then...

Wednesday:
Mountain bike ride. It was short--just about an hour--because my friend had chain problems. We got about 20 feet and one of her link got all bent and we ended up having to stop and take it out. But then we got on the trail; we just had to take a shorter ride than usual.

Thursday at the gym (weight in pounds):
Deadlift: 75 x6, 160 x5/5/5
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 130 x8, 190 x6/6/6
Chest Dips: -70 x6, -20 x3/3, 0 (bw) x1
Hang Cleans: 45 x7, 70 x5/5/5
Barbell Bent-Over Row: 65 x7, 110 x4/3/4
Narrow-Grip Chinup: -80 x6, -50 x3/4/3

I did my first unassisted dip--yay! It was just one, but now I can work on increasing my reps on those.

[JP]

exellent! How about pullups, are you far with those?

[FormicaLinoleum]

I'm not very far with pullups. I can do a pullup at home from a standing position, but if I hang from the bar I can't budge myself! I haven't been doing much work on them though--I know I should be doing negatives regularly.

[FormicaLinoleum]

Lots of rain and a visit from my mom interrupted my usual schedule, but I managed to get to the gym a couple of times.

Thursday evening (weights in pounds):
Squats: 75 x5, 140 x5/5/4
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 130 x7, 190 x7/7/7
Incline Dumbell Press (weight per dumbell): 20 x7, 35 x5/4/4
Rear Delt Row: 45 x7, 80 x4/4/4
One-Arm Dumbell Row: 25 x7, 50 x5/5/5
Wide-Grip Pullup: -100 x5, -60 x3/3/3

I was totally pooped this day. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was a combination of not having been going to the gym as regularly and the heat and humidity. The weight room is not well cooled, which is very unpleasant for the summers here. I did okay, but it was a huge struggle. On my last set of squats I felt I could barely stand with the weight, let alone squat with it. But I managed 4. I knew I was going to be really sore.

And I was. My legs hurt lots on Friday. When I got up on Sat they were still really hurting. At the gym, I could barely do a squat with no weight at all. So I decided just to do some low weight, higher rep stuff and let my legs recover for next time (which will be Monday). Tired again. And we ran out of time and didn't get in our last two exercises (cable row and lat pulldown).

Saturday:
Squats: 75 x7, 95 x15
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 130 x7, 190 x7/7/7
Barbell Bench Press: 45 x8, 85 x5/4/2
Barbell Shoulder Press: 45 x7, 65 x2/1/1

[FormicaLinoleum]

I went to the gym on Monday but I lost my paper with what I did on it, and I can't remember it all. I do know that I finally did 3x5 @ 140 on squat, so next I am going to do a periodization routine for squat (the one Jonathan suggested above).

Thursday (weights in pounds):
Deadlifts: 95 x7, 165 x5/5/5
Calf Press (one leg at a time): 130 7, 190 x7/7/7
Incline Dumbell Press (weight per dumbell): 20 x7, 35 x5/5/5
Rear Delt Row: 45 x7, 80 x5/5/5
One-Arm Dumbell Row: 25 x7, 50 x6/6/6
Wide-Grip Pullup: -100 x5, -60 x3/1/3

165 is my old 1RM for deadlift but last night I did 3x5 at that weight, so my max must be higher now. I need to retest all my maxes soon. I'll do squat at the end of the periodization. Deadlift and bench I'll do within a few weeks, I think.

[FormicaLinoleum]

Friday I went for a bike ride. We ended up being out for just over an hour. The heavy rainfalls and flooding we had the other week caused some changes to the trail--trees down, deep trenches from water running along. About 45 or 50 minutes in, my biking buddy had a pretty hard fall (an endo caused by a big trench at the bottom of a dropoff). She hit her shoulder and head (hooray for helmets), and did this:



She won't be riding this week as her whole shoulder area is very sore and she can't move it much.

I am supposed to go to the gym on Tuesdays but I have to stay at work very late for a board meeting, so I won't get to. My next exercise will be Thurs at the gym.