Reply With QuoteSelf-reflection is always a bit tough, but I trust this will be a helpful change for you! I'll be following your progress.
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boot29342342's log
I am slow, but eventually I get there. A bit of self-reflection has led me to conclude that I am "underrecovering". It only took two weeks of being unable to get a full 8 hours of sleep for me to realize that I cannot continue on a novice-like training load as I have been.
I am disappointed that I have to switch to periodization at my current weights, but I would rather move slowly than crash. I have not yet hit a wall on all of my lifts, but I regressed on the presses a couple of weeks ago, and frankly my inability to sleep is worrying me more than my inability to do a bodyweight squat at the moment.
So here goes my almost-intermediate training log.
Profile: 37 years old, female, fairly athletic but prone to injuries (esp. tendons and ligaments)
Dimensions: 5'9", 150 lb. Body fat in the low 20s, broad shoulders and proportionate build not unlike that of a shorter person.
Food: 2400 kcal on average, 140-200 g of protein daily, various sources, though animals will be bred and slaughtered every day. 200-240 g of carbohydrates, 80-120 g of fat.
Current Lifts, in 3 sets of 5 unless otherwise noted:
DL: 180 lb (1x5)
SQ: 135 lb (best was 150, had to back off to fix knee slide & hip tendinitis)
BP: 110 lb
CL: 85 lb (5x3, managed 90 lb the other day but couldn't do it across sets)
PR: 72.5 lb
Chin-ups: 5x5 at bodyweight
The plan: I have to introduce a light day and a medium intensity day, not unlike that in the Texas Method. I am also not going to deadlift every other workout anymore, with a CL-back extensions/chins-DL alternations. The first light day will be tomorrow, with squats at 80% of my current working weight, some light bench presses, and BE/chins.
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Self-reflection is always a bit tough, but I trust this will be a helpful change for you! I'll be following your progress.
Member
Thanks, scteacher!
Log: I actually slept pretty well last night (7.5 hrs) compared to the night before (4 hrs of sleep plus another 4 staring into the darkness and listening to the dog snoring). Ate 2450 kcal yesterday, with 145 g of protein.
Lifts are given as weight x reps x sets
Squats: 45x10x1, 65x5x1, 70x5x1, 80x5x1, 110x5x2. Easy peasy of course
Bench: 45x5x2, 60x5x1, 70x5x1, 90x5x2. 90 is about 80% of Monday's work set, 135 lb
Back extensions: (bw+45)x10x3
Chins: bwx5x3, bwx3x1, bwx4x1. I thought I would be able to complete all five sets at five reps, but no--ran out of juice towards the end. Methinks it's a tired-even-after-light-day and chins-in-the-morning thing. I can do five sets of five at night without any warming up, no problem.
A little scared of intensity day on Sat.
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Thought I slept well until I turned the lights on and saw that it was 5:15 a.m. (I'd been awake for about 45 minutes before that.) That made for a total of about 6 hrs of sleep last night. On Wednesday, I woke up with 4 hours of sleep. This has been going on for weeks now, and the trend is pretty clear. I sleep like shit on nights after lifting.
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Intensity day.
Previous day's intake: 2400 kcal, 156 g protein
Sleep: about 6.5 hours
Squats: 45x5x2, 100x5, 115x3, 125x2, 140x1, 155x5 <-- not only is this a PR, but it's a major breakthrough as it is my first set above body weight. Fucking finally. It didn't feel that heavy, either. Not entirely surprising as I've always been a hare, not a tortoise. I have no endurance, and sets across exhaust me even with longer breaks.
Press: 45x5x2, 60x3, 70x2, 80x5. <-- another PR. My previous best was 75 lb on this one, although I kept trying to do it in sets across. It also did not feel that heavy.
DL: 135x5, 155x3, 180x5. The only disappointment of today. I screwed up the count -- meant to load 185 onto the bar, which would have been a PR. Oh well. I'll try again next week. Need I mention that this, too, felt light?
Conclusion: My first day on TM was a success.
Callador
Grats on the PR's! :-)Originally Posted by tobo
I am the same way, I hate volume work. I have zero endurance and get winded looking at stairs.
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Thanks! I'm not too bad at climbing stairs, and I can walk fast for hours, but trying to run longer than 30 min is torture for me. I've always been a sprinter, which I suppose should come in handy in strength training.
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Re: sleep and training, I find that if I train in the evening it wrecks my sleep. Conversely, training in the AM helps it a ton.
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I never really train in the evening. First, the gyms in NYC get packed in the afternoons and evenings. Second, I am very much a morning person and have the most energy first thing in the morning. I cannot even do any serious thinking after about 5 pm. Anything you see me post after 5 pm on here is from Stupid Tobo, not Morning Smart Tobo.
✓ Member
I have some of the same sleep problems you mentioned on nights during the week when I go get bounced around in jujitsu for 2+ hours. I'm done by 8:30 and while my normal bedtime is 9:00, I am often up to 10:30 or 11:00 and dragging the next day. Even the less sleep I do get is restless and terrible. Unfortunately, unlike gym time which is discretionary, the jujitsu sessions are when they are.
Until the last several months I've always lifted at O-dark 30 because it helps me wake up for the day and to avoid the gym congestion problems you mentioned. But since I started competing this April, I discovered that I need to acclimate to lifting later in the day. I didn't get in my last deadlift until 9:30 at my first meet and like I said, that's past this geezer's bedtime. So I've been lifting around 4:30 after work. The added crowd in the gym sucks, but it's still early enough that I metabolize off the endorphins in time to get a good night's sleep. Most times. Of course some Albertson's Cheap-Ass Wodka has produced some salutary soporific effects when I still have the jumps as the evening wears on.
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