It's Big. It's Heavy. It's Wood.

[tertius]

Well.
For my 1,000th post, I'll start a log, and then all you motherfuckers can make fun of me for being a skinny-fat weaksauce liberal-minded intermittent lifter.

I'll give y'all the standard background.

30 years old.
6'2", currently somewhere between 170# and 180#.
This is up from 160 or less this summer.
Came out of high school weighing less than 140.

I started SS for reals in July, got a good period of lifting in, then hurt an adductor (I am, for some incredibly annoying reason, prone to groin injuries), and then got blasted in the face by teaching and learning requirements, stopped sleeping anything like regularly, and my training went in the toilet.

I'm hoping to continue something Starting Strength-ish over the winter break as long as I can, and after my meager time management skills get buried, switch to Dan John's One Lift A Day program, and variants there of, as most take less than an hour. I'm also easily bored, and after six weeks or so, I WILL start fucking with the program, whatever it is. I like a lot of the programs in "Never Let Go" because most of them aren't intended to be done very long.

I don't have much in the way of definite strength goals. I'd like to DL 500 someday, and put bodyweight overhead (this will ultimately be in the neighborhood of 200#). That'd be hot. I'm a long, long way off from that, though. Especially the press, since I'm super weak in the upper body, at the moment. Mostly, I'd just like to not be skinny and weak.

Right now, I lift in my incredibly low ceilinged, arthropod infested basement with my very ghetto setup. I have a shitty 'standard' bar, 195 # of plates (purchased years ago), I hang my bar from the joists with chains and hooks I forged, and I've got some kettlebells that I found dirt-ass cheap online (on sale & free shipping!). Hopefully in the next month or so I'll carve out the time to build a set of squat stands, and buy a proper bar and plates. Since by the end of next week I'll be squatting all the plates I own. Which is nice, but not useful in the long run, and not impressive when it's like 200#.

PRs for lifts:

SQ 185 3x5
DL 195 1x5
BP 115 3x5
OP 85 3X5
PC 105 1x3

Last lifting session went something like this:

Squat
170 x3, 175 x3, 180 3x3

Bench
95 3x8

Chins (with band, because I suck, but emphasizing the negs)
5, 4, 2

Kettlebell swings 16 K
15 per arm.

By that point, my back was pretty unhappy, so I called it quits.

Obviously, I'm Not Doing The Fucking Program.

The triples on squats are for two reasons: I'd rather not buy all new pants, which I will need to do post-haste, if my legs get much bigger. Also, I hate my thighs rubbing together, and I'm not used to it yet. I'd rather spend that money on protein, liquor, and stogies. Or, you know, plates. Two, I'm still getting back in the groove, and I don't want to hurt my goddamn groin again, because it sucks.

I'm doing eights on the bench for the opposite reason; my chest is fucking sad. I mean, you can't see my heartbeat anymore, so that's good, (a year ago, this was occasionally true, you could literally see my heartbeat through my chest), but I don't want to start microloading my bench at 115 pounds. Seriously. So, I'm aiming for some hypertrophy to get better levers, then I reckon the strength will come a bit easier.

You may commence your mockery.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Well hot damn! My two favorite internet correspondents have now started logs here. First Ian and now you. Welcome and good luck in reaching your goals. As for your basement, just watch out for the Brown Recluse Spiders. Their venom won't kill you, but my Dad got bit by one some years back and the protein digesting chemicals from the little bugger left him with a $.50 sized crater on the front of his shin nearly a 1/2" deep. It didn't look too good with the old jungle rot scars he had as a reminder of his amphibious landing on Tulagi.

Glad you're here tertius. What a Christmas gift.

[tertius]

Well hot damn! My two favorite internet correspondents have now started logs here. First Ian and now you. Welcome and good luck in reaching your goals. As for your basement, just watch out for the Brown Recluse Spiders. Their venom won't kill you, but my Dad got bit by one some years back and the protein digesting chemicals from the little bugger left him with a $.50 sized crater on the front of his shin nearly a 1/2" deep. It didn't look too good with the old jungle rot scars he had as a reminder of his amphibious landing on Tulagi.

Glad you're here tertius. What a Christmas gift.

Yeah, they're native to the area, but I don't think I've ever actually seen one, with the little fiddle on their back.

[tertius]

First actual workout entry.

Felt a little indigestiony going in, but no big deal.

Warm-up with kettlebell swings, and high pulls. Realized if I oriented myself parallel to the joists, I could do a full swing without smashing the 'bell into them, by going into the bay. Clever me.

Squat
175 x3, 180 x3, 185 x3, x3, x5

Squats felt good, though I started feeling sore on the outside of my hips, and glutes during the warmup, which is odd, and I don't recall occurring before. Going back through my old logbook I discovered that the most I'd ever lifted previously was 182.5 (my bar weighs 17.5 lbs, and I recently got some 1.25 pound plates that I just leave on the bar to make it an even 20). So, PRed without knowing it. Figured I'd do five on the last set, just cuz.

Press (on the milkcrate)
70 x8

This didn't go so well. Did one set of eight, barely. Went to do the next set, did one rep, and then got stuck.
Figured that seated presses are harder than standing, so I took the bar out into the driveway, stood in the snow, and did the other two sets.

70 x5x2

Could only manage fives, though, and with poor form. I've got a bad habit of way overarching my lower back when pressing.
I did, however, learn from much of the advice that was given to Dastardly, and cleaned up my grip a bit, and worked on really getting
under the bar, which helped a lot. Not sure what to do about the back-arching, though. Probably need to strengthen my abs. Especially since my back is now very unhappy with me.

Deadlift

185 x5

Could have done more, but didn't want to use up all my plates right now.

Started out with this for musical accompaniment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6mTX0d6JPo

Deadlifted to this:



Crammed my warm-ups and work set into the length of the song (album version is closer to six minutes, hence the somewhat jarring edit, which has always surprised me, that they left that in). Just managed to finish during the final
"Fall if you but will, RISE YOU MUST".

Now, a couple teaspoons of fish oil, some milk, a shower, and then probably a burrito or two.

[ColoWayno]

Congrats on the new log. We have to figure out this basement gym thing... low ceilings make it tough.

[MazdaMatt]

Ever seen a kneeling chair? It has a place for your feet to rest and your shins to bear your weight. I figured that would be a good way to press in my basement when I finally get myself sorted out.

Go grab a bar right now and put it in your press position. Practice leaning back AT THE HIPS instead of arching your back. I am horrible at doing this and it just takes practice and concentration to do it. You'll notice a definite difference between arching back with your spine and leaning back with your hips.

Sometimes I like to do a high-speed set of 4-5 quarter-rom crunches before I step up to the press bar so that my abs are "activated" if that makes any sense.

[Ian Kovtunovich]

Tersh, welcome to Der Log Zone. I feel like we're freshmen in homeroom on the first day of school or something. AND, somehow I missed the memo that you are ca 1 mile tall.

Curvy-back press advice, which may be tough to implement from a milk crate (depending on where you are getting the bar from--should work if you have it set on something at shoulder height already, may be harder if you are picking it up off the floor): I find it useful to grrrrr lock down my abs first, and then set my back against the pull of my abs. I find that my back is much stronger than my abs (duh?), and if I set my back first, it stretches out my abs and I can't lock 'em down as tight, whereas, if I set abs first, I still get a good, stable back position and much better postural control on the front side.

Bonus hardcore basement workout tip: set off a bug bomb canister at the start of your workout. Breathing the pyrethrin will make you highly destructive, and the rain of dying spiders as you are grinding out your work sets will be totally viking.

[tertius]

Congrats on the new log. We have to figure out this basement gym thing... low ceilings make it tough.

Yeah, hopefully it help keep me on track.

Ever seen a kneeling chair? It has a place for your feet to rest and your shins to bear your weight. I figured that would be a good way to press in my basement when I finally get myself sorted out.

Go grab a bar right now and put it in your press position. Practice leaning back AT THE HIPS instead of arching your back. I am horrible at doing this and it just takes practice and concentration to do it. You'll notice a definite difference between arching back with your spine and leaning back with your hips.

Sometimes I like to do a high-speed set of 4-5 quarter-rom crunches before I step up to the press bar so that my abs are "activated" if that makes any sense.

Kneeler might do the trick, yeah. Might try the crunches. As for hips, well, that's not so much a problem. I did Tai Chi for years, back in the day, and have no problem folding at the hips, or popping my hips back, etc. I think part of the problem is that I have so little upper body musculature that for me to get a place for the bar to rest that isn't, like, in my neck, I have to stick my chest waaaaay up, and doing that while maintaining a normal arch is very hard to do for me at the moment.

Tersh, welcome to Der Log Zone. I feel like we're freshmen in homeroom on the first day of school or something. AND, somehow I missed the memo that you are ca 1 mile tall.

Curvy-back press advice, which may be tough to implement from a milk crate (depending on where you are getting the bar from--should work if you have it set on something at shoulder height already, may be harder if you are picking it up off the floor): I find it useful to grrrrr lock down my abs first, and then set my back against the pull of my abs. I find that my back is much stronger than my abs (duh?), and if I set my back first, it stretches out my abs and I can't lock 'em down as tight, whereas, if I set abs first, I still get a good, stable back position and much better postural control on the front side.

Bonus hardcore basement workout tip: set off a bug bomb canister at the start of your workout. Breathing the pyrethrin will make you highly destructive, and the rain of dying spiders as you are grinding out your work sets will be totally viking.

Eh, it's less than two meters, Ian. But I can touch the ceilings in my house. Add in plates, and I need ten foot ceilings, basically.
Imma have to try setting up that way on everything. I can keep a good back position squatting, but that's mostly because my back is strong enough to do so without much trouble. I rarely feel like my abs are working much.

I'm taking the bar out of my 'rack' when I'm inside, but I power clean it when I'm outside.
This is probably why Rip says you can't setup to do a press properly by doing PCs. :-\

[tertius]

Squat
180 x3, 185x3, 190 x3x3

Weird sensation of soreness/pain at the very top of my left quad. Doesn't hurt now, though. Well. No more than anything else.

Bench
100 x8x2 , x7

Missed the last rep because I lost count. SO corrected me when I asked, but I was pretty out of gas.

Kettlebell Cleans
20 with 20 kilo.

Chins (with band)

2 x (knee) 3 x (foot), 2 x (knee) 2 x (foot)

Started feeling vomitus at this point, which is still persisting.

Abs hurt a bit too, as I made an effort to engage them while squatting.

[Ian Kovtunovich]

Squat
180 x3, 185x3, 190 x3x3

Weird sensation of soreness/pain at the very top of my left quad. Doesn't hurt now, though. Well. No more than anything else.

Bench
100 x8x2 , x7

Missed the last rep because I lost count. SO corrected me when I asked, but I was pretty out of gas.

Kettlebell Cleans
20 with 20 kilo.

Chins (with band)

2 x (knee) 3 x (foot), 2 x (knee) 2 x (foot)

Started feeling vomitus at this point, which is still persisting.

Abs hurt a bit too, as I made an effort to engage them while squatting.

Sorry you got the workout nauseas, man. I've been known to get that shit; it hasn't happened too much with SS, but when I do metcon crap, fuggin' A. Story of my life, the nausea.

And hey, how's come yer doin' 3 reps on squats, but 8 on bench? Them thar's 'posed ta be fives, or ye not be doin' the program, laddie! (I know, you're in a subterranean insect zoo lifting with rebar and cinderblocks and praying the mold spores don't get you before you finish your reps.)