Milking Billy Goats

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 6

Thurs. 12/23

This was supposed to be a cardio and volume-chins day. I got in five negative chins on the garage rafters, but it rapidly became clear I was getting sick. :-( It was an odd sort of bug, with the principal symptoms being fatigue, and for the worst two days diarrhea. I tried to sleep a lot to get over it as quickly as possible, and often woke up feeling worse than when I went to sleep. I was worried about losing progress, but I didn't have the appetite to eat so I was basically off the program completely. The exhaustion lasted until I perked up a bit Tuesday evening. I was still feeling the effects, but I could at least think about working out.

That's more than you need to know, but the point is it was bad enough that I clearly didn't have the energy to lift even though I was very frustrated because of how well my squats had been progressing up until then. I still had extra reps in me at 175, so I should have been able to go up several more times before resetting. But it wasn't to be.

That also meant I didn't get much of the drywall work done that my wife had planned for me. :-(

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle2, Week 7

Wed. 12/29

I was rather eager not to lose any more than I had to, so today I took out a 7-day free membership at Gold's. My city gym is closed this week, and I may need to change gyms in any event (as discussed before), so I might as well just continue looking at the alternatives. I'm not back to normal yet, but I thought I'd make it if I reset the weights down 10%. That's the nice thing about JP's program--how many extra reps I have on the last set tests where I am and how much I can add back on. No PR's for me for a while, though.

When I went in to Gold's I told the woman "just show me the squat rack." She told me there was one in each corner. So I headed to the nearer one--it only contained a Smith machine. That is a "squat rack" to her, it seems.

Squats: 155x5,5,7

I was surprised to find I still had energy for extra reps. I actually could have done one or two more, but I lost my balance on rep seven and stopped. I hope that's a sign that when I'm completely recovered, I won't have lost much strength.

Press: 95x5,5,8

Extra reps here too. Again, hopefully a good sign that I'll be back up to my PRs soon.

Back Extension: 5#x10,7,10

Gold's has a horizontal rack instead of a 45 degree one, and I found I tended to slide backwards. That's what happened to set 2.

I also messed around with the assisted chin machine. I can do a full rep on the lowest assist setting (12 or 18 lbs, I forget which), so hopefully I will manage to work up to a BW chin soon.

Good: the weight plates are round (unlike 24-hour fitness), so deadlifts won't have the bar moving around every rep. On the whole a more serious clientele.

Bad: other people actually use the power rack.

[Mulgere Hircum]

I have more workouts to log here, but since the point of a public log is public humiliation, I guess I should mention some other public humiliation I've let myself in for. First is a little competition with tfarny for working totals at the end of January, discussed in tfarny's log somewhere around here:

http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=20410&page=4

Second is the sissy bench race, discussed here:

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=20954

Not the world's most exciting competitions, but the point is to train harder, right?

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 7

Fri, 12/31

Still at Gold's. Since I missed some days, this is a DL day (alternating until back on schedule).

BP: 145x5,5,10 (Rep PR)

Benches first because the power rack and squat rack were in use. One thing I like about JP's LP program is that even when I reset, I don't feel like I'm losing time because I can try to beat my previous rep count at the same weight. I got eight reps on the last set at this weight before, so this is a Rep PR. That's presumably a sign of recovery.

Deadlift: 205x6 (DOH grip)

I didn't feel much like trying to do power clean warm-ups, and as that's not a separate major lift for me I don't mind dropping it when I don't feel 100%. Six is one less rep than I got last time at this weight--I'm still not recovered, apparently, and getting a reasonable performance on the bench tired me out. Still, I'm not that much below previous performance.

Curls: 60x8+40x12

Presumably the preloaded bars are more accurate than the stupid curl bar at the city gym, so I'm still feeling out what my real limits are here, plus being tired out.

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 8

Monday, 1/3

Last workout at Gold's (at least on the freebie week).

BW: 208.4

This may indicate a slight drop in weight, which would be good since I have plenty extra--that's why I'm on JP's diet. Hopefully I'm gaining lean weight and dropping fat now that I've added cardio to the strength training. If I can do both, I'll be one happy camper, er lifter.

Cardio: fasted dog walking, fetch and tug playing, and 0.9 mi of dog running with bike.

Squat: 160x5,5,11 (Rep PR)

Felt real good that I could get 11 reps on the last set (well, after I regained consciousness, anyway :-) ). I skipped over 160 last time, but I only got 10 reps at 155.

Press: 97.5x5,5,8 (Rep PR)

I was pretty wiped out from the squats and that probably affected my presses. I'd skipped 97.5 last time, but only got 7 reps at 97.

No chins, as I'm on frequency method now.

Back Extensions: I'm dropping these because my DL's are showing signs of stalling and I want to see if it is from overdoing it on back exercises. They aren't helping as much this time as they did a decade ago, so I am OK with dropping them if they're interfering with DLs.

That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. It has nothing to do with feeling wrung out after squatting, no siree. :-)

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 8

I should probably start logging cardio better, so:

Tu. 1/4

Biked 5.38 mi.

Wed. 1/5

Back at the city gym. The first thing that greeted me on the door was a notice that they'd be closed for the rest of the week because of a boxing event *at some other park*. :-( Guess I need to think harder about joining a real gym.

Cardio:

Was worried about the deadlifts, so I conserved my energy and only did fasted dog walking.

Power Clean warmup: up to 130x3 (PR)

These were kinda questionable though--I was having trouble getting my elbows up and catching too much weight on my arms. These need repeating until I feel better about them, I guess.

Deadlift: 210x8 (Rep PR, DOH grip, no chalk)

Yes, I'm tracking how much weight I can DL without chalk or a mixed grip. It's just another bit of cheap motivation to chase....

Bench Press: 150x5,5,8 (Rep PR)

I may have actually done 9 reps, I was a bit fuzzy at the end. I missed rep 9 (or 10) and had to rack on the low hooks, which I haven't had to do before. Was OK at the time, slightly unnerving afterwards (though frankly 150lbs on the chest won't kill me).

Curls: 55x8+45x12

I'm sick of bars whose weight I don't know, so I did this with the Oly bar in the power rack (sigh--the least used bar in the gym). I dropped the weight on the first rep so I could do the second set with the empty bar. I'm at minimum reps now so I'll stick with this weight scheme and try to get the reps up for a while.

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 8

Thursday 1/6

Negative Chins: 6

An adequate, but not impressive number. JP said I should emphasize the bottom of the movement, and on the last one I went back up a few inches at the bottom as an experiment. I don't know if that would be NDTP or not.

Barefoot intervals: I've occasionally wondered if I'd have had less pounding if I'd done the barefoot running thing (it wasn't a movement then, though, so I'd never heard of it) back when I was a runner, so I tried a couple of short intervals while walking the dog. Mainly, I learned that I'm way out of shape for running (no surprise), but indeed my stride changed completely to striking on the ball instead of the heel just as they say. I may toy with this--I'm not doing any serious distance running, but a somewhat casual interval program may be a reasonable way to burn some fat. No LSD running, I think--too much pounding to recover from. While I'm a novice lifter I think all the LSD is going to be cycling.

Speaking of cycling: ~9mi.

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 9

Got too busy to update the online log. :-( I did manage to keep up the exercise, barely, I just need to catch up.

Mon. 1/10

Squat: 165x5,5,9 (Rep PR)

Press: 100x5x3

I was very tired this day, and ran out of gas on the presses. I should have been able to get more than five reps on the last set.

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 9

Wed. 1/12

Deadlift: 215x10 (RPR) (DOH PR)

I was really breathing hard after this, but it gave me hopes of PR progress soon. One thing that happened with the reset is my grip is strong enough now to do these with a DOH grip.

Bench: 152.5x5,5,8 (Rep PR)

I believe I ran out of time before I got the curls done this day.

[Mulgere Hircum]

Cycle 2, Week 9

Sat 1/15

Press: 100x5,5,9 (RPR)

At this point, I started experimenting with pressing first, since pushing squats and deadlifts to failure is so draining.

Squat: 170x5,5,11 (RPR)

Clearly a good day, lots of improvement expected if I can do eleven reps only five pounds under my PR weight.