Same story, different week.  Lifting is going great but the diet is slow.  My schedule got a little off with the holiday weekend so I'm doing bench and deadlifts this weekend instead of squats and shoulders. 

Squats and shoulders went well last week.  It's the three rep week  which ends up being my favorite. My overhead press is up to max of 225.  Did 5 reps @ 370 on squats and followed it up with really heavy leg presses.  Worked up to 3 reps @ 1350 and a single @ 1440.  The single rep wasn't in the plan but I wanted to see if I could get it.

It's starting to look like the 242 weight class may be the only realistic goal for December.  I'm not giving up on 220 but I don't think I can there by December and keep lifting hard.  We'll see.

Maybe moving stones in Anonymous' back yard next weekend will help.

I've started being more regimented about vitamins and supplements. Multivitamin, BCAAs, vitamin B complex, l-carnitine and fish oil. I seem to have more energy but who knows why. We'll see.  

AJE

Making Progress

I really suck at keeping this thing up to date, much as I suck at the diet side of the process.  Lifting is going well overall.  My bench is stuck at about 360 and doesn't seem to want to budge.  I haven't diagnosed the problem yet but I'm trying to incorporate some heavier tricep work since I seem to be losing it at the top end of the lift.  We'll see if that pans out over the next few months.

Deadlifts and squats continue to see improvement.  I missed a 505 deadlift last week after my last heavy set.  Lost it about 2/3 of the way up.  I'm incorporating rack pulls to try and improve the top end of the lift.

Standing overhead presses have seen the most dramatic improvement.  I felt froggy last weekend at the end of a heavy 5/3/1 week and decided to try a single at 225.  I missed it at first but stepped out, reset and pushed one out.  Very minimal leg movement to get it started.  The top end felt like it took an hour by I got it all the way up.

Going well and I'm going to do better with updating this thing.

Long Time No Blog

Been a while. Week 1, month 4 on the Wendler 5/3/1 program. Bench press night working up to 5@305. Very weak effort. Got better from there though with heavy incline DB presses and close grip bench. Pull-ups and rows too.

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Exciting Friday Night

I'm officially old and boring.  The wife and I went to the gym for our big Friday night out.  Didn't even get to grab dinner at Chipotle afterwards.  Straight home to get the kids to bed.  But at least the lifting went ok.  Tonight was a shoulder workout, the last heavy work of my first Wendler cycle for shoulders.  After a warm-up, 5x150, 3x170 and 2x190.  I might have been able to squeeze out one more rep, but I didn't have my belt and I was worried about not having more support.  Then on to heavy dumbbell presses, 8x90s, 6x95s, 4x100s and I missed on 105s.  Did three sets of close-grip bench, sets of 6 at 225 and then dips, 4 sets of 12-15.  Haven't done dips in forever because of the shoulder issues but they felt great tonight.  We'll see how it feels in the morning.

Weight was down a little this morning and I stayed on track with the diet today.  We'll see how it looks in the morning.  Thanks for all the encouragement I've gotten over the last couple of days.  Thanks for reading.

- AJE

Progress with 5/3/1

Another fun Thursday night of deadlifts. This is the third week of my first Wendler 5/3/1 cycle, so it's the first heavy week. Bench went well on Monday, with a final set of 3x330, a personal best.

Deadlifts went great tonight. Couple of warm-up sets followed by 5x345, 3x390 and the final set of 4x435. The last set is supposed to be a minimum of 1 with as many more as you can do, just stopping short of failure. I set a goal of 3 but had one more in the tank so I pulled 4. It's a personal best.

Still have squats and overhead press workouts to finish out the week.

Dieting sucks but I think I'm finally committing to trying to track calories, etc. We'll see if that helps make a difference. It's easy to track the weights I'm lifting but counting calories seems like such a girlie thing to do. Funny, but it is so much easier for women to talk about losing weight than it is for guys. It seems almost unmanly for guys to admit to needing/trying to lose weight. Weird when you consider that I'd stick my hand in a blender before I asked a woman her weight. There are thousands of blogs by women about losing weight and very few by dudes.

- AJE

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Catching up

I've been terrible about updating this thing recently. To fast forward things, lifting is on track but the holidays were not kind to the diet. But I'm catching back up on that front and am down to about 251. Long way to go to get to 220 by December.

Started a new lifting regimen, trying the Wendler 5/3/1 program. So far I'm really liking it but I'm not quite finished my second week. I hope to have set new personal records next week. We'll see.

AJE


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Monday Night

After another long day at work I managed to get out to the gym for a little bench press work. Still trying to get back to where I was a few months ago, but I'm getting there. Same old Precor warm-up then some stretching and warm-ups on the bench. Then the following: 8x230, 6x260, 5x280 and them 3 sets of 4x300. I did a single at 320 and it felt ok so I did another single at 335. Not back to 345 but it won't be long.

Hopped over to incline on the Powertec for 6x230, 6x270, 6x320, 4x340 and 3x360. Then supersets of dumbbell presses and flys, 12 reps in each set. Felt pretty good overall.

Weight was up a few pounds this morning as expected. Ate a really light dinner after lifting so I'm hoping tomorrow will be better. I got off track last week. I was lifting heavy and was hungry all the time. It'll be hard to stay on track during Christmas but I'm going to give it a shot. If anybody has any (helpful) suggestions I would appreciate the insight.

- AJE

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Sunday Squats

Another cold afternoon in the gym, made a little worse by Grossman's late pick.  Did anybody really think that he was the better option?  Anyway, after watching that game and seeing the worst onside kick ever in the Colts/Jags game, I made it outside to do some squats.  After warming up on the Precor and doing a few warm-up sets and some stretches, I did the following:  6x230, 5x260, 5x290, 4x315 and 2x345.  Felt good and since I hadn't tried a 1RM in a month or so I went heavier and managed to get 1 good rep at 375 for a new (modern era) personal record.  Pretty good day overall.

Not sure how the weight will be in the morning.  We had a babysitter tonight and went out to do a little shopping and then grab dinner at Bonefish Grill.  Too many bang bang shrimp and then a big ole piece of grouper.  It was great but I'll see how it looks on the scales tomorrow.  I've been more successful having larger breakfasts and lunches and then smaller dinners either right before or right after lifting. 

Hope everyone is doing well and that you're ready for Christmas next week. 

- AJE

Deadlifts on a Snow Day

Since I'm working from home this afternoon, I took an hour off to go do deadlifts.  After a 10 minute warm-up on the Precor, I did a couple of light warm-up sets.  Then jumped into the work sets:  6x325, 5x365, 4x405 and 2x445.  445 was my previous 1RM.  I was feely froggy so I decided to try a new personal best and managed to squeeze out a single rep at 455.  Thought I would document it with a photo (taken after I finished the rep lest I jinx it).  Now I officially need another set of 45s for Christmas. 

More Pictures

Here's the main working area, with the dumbbell rack against the wall and the entertainment section (very important).