xorcist

I'm far from giving up! I took some time off because I got two pretty bad colds back to back and decided that I needed to really let myself rest and recover completely. The whole time I obsessed about getting back to the gym! Monday February 8, 2010 Squats Warmup 2x5@45lbs 4@65lbs 3@85lbs 2@95lbs Work Sets 3x5@115lbs Bench Press Warmup 5@45lbs 4@65lbs 2@85lbs 1@95lbs Work Sets 3x5@105lbs Calf Raise Machine 10@200lbs 12@240lbs 10@280lbs 10@320lbs Assisted Pullups 7@145lbs (counter-weight) 5@135lbs 3x5@120lbs Dips 7 6 4 DB Curls [email protected] 10@15lbs [email protected] 5@20lbs 5@20lbs Wednesday February 10, 2010 Squats Warmup 5@45lbs 4@65lbs 3@85lbs 2@95lbs 1@115lbs Work Sets 3x5@125lbs Overhead Press Warmup 5@45lbs 4@50lbs 2@55lbs Work Sets 3x5@60lbs Deadlift Warmup 5@45lbs 4@65lbs 3@85lbs 2@95lbs 1@115lbs Work Sets 5@125lbs

From the way that you describe your problem (sleeping too much, or too often) and self-medication with caffeine your problem sounds more like excessive sleepiness and mental fatigue than a lack of physical energy. If this is the case then it's likely not related to your diet and the cause needs to be determined by a doctor. It could be sleep apnea, or narcolepsy, or hypothyroidism, or depression, or a dozen other unrelated things.

I'm supposed to believe this just because some anti-science conspiracy theory website says so?

I pretty much laugh at everything constantly because life is so absurd I can barely believe it most of the time. The highlight of last week was discovering a certain South African hip-hop band called Die Antwoord. This is the future of music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_pS46YRMIQ

The story that I heard was that Hitler ate a lot of sausages and did a lot of meth.

Yikes! Stories like this make me wonder if I shouldn't be learning complicated lifts like squats and deadlifts from websites and youtube videos. Sorry to hear that you hurt your back Rob. Hope you feel better soon!

That's hilarious. It's like some kind of strange power rack crop circle. If only you had arrived an hour earlier to witness and document what had happened here. I'm sure it involved extraterrestrial contact and/or comedy. Today some guy was doing some yoga style pushups and some weird pylometric stuff right next to the rack I wanted to use. I asked him if he was using the rack and he assured me that he was so I used a sketchier rack instead (one that I never want to fail on). Sure enough, he really was using the rack for the next half hour to superset chinups with the rest of his why-do-you-even-need-a-gym-membership bodyweight workout.

BW: 182lbs Squats Warmup 2x5@45lbs 4@65lbs 3@85lbs 2@95lbs 1@125lbs Work Sets 3x5@135lbs I'm starting to feel that 10lb increments on squats every workout is not going to be sustainable much longer. One reason is that I'm definitely not eating as much as I should be because I really want to avoid putting on any extra fat right now. I'm pretty stoked that I have reached squatting a plate below parallel so fast and I'm pretty close to my PR right now for squats. I think that in order to avoid hitting a wall too soon, and to give my deadlifts a chance to catch up I'm going to lower the increments down to 5lbs on squats. Standing Press Warmup 5@45lbs 4@50lbs 2@55lbs Work Sets 3x5@60lbs These are starting to get pretty hard too, but I feel like I'll be making slow and steady progress for a while still. Assisted Pullups 8@135lbs (counterweight) 5@115lbs 5@115lbs I tried using the assisted pullup machine today. Maybe I'll alternate this with rack pullups until I am strong enough to do unassisted pullups. Calf raise machine 10@220lbs 10@260lbs 10@300lbs 10@340lbs 10@340lbs dips 3XF I can still just barely do a few partial reps, but I'm definitely improving here. Pushups I've decided to try adding the hundred-pushups program as an 'assistant exercise'. I'll do the prescribed pushup reps on the same days as my SS workouts after everything else. 10, 12, 7, 7, 15

Squats Warmup 2x5 @45lbs 4 @65lbs 2 @85lbs 1 @95lbs Work Sets 3x5 @125lbs Bench Press Warmup 5 @45lbs 4 @65lbs 3 @85lbs 1 @95lbs Work Sets 3x5 @105lbs Chinups 3x5 I was able to do one half-assed chinup each set after which I did 4 more negatives.

Squats Warmup 2x5 @45lbs 1x3 @75lbs 1x1 @95lbs Work Sets 3x5 @115lbs Press Warmup 1x5 @45lbs 1x4 @50lbs Work Sets 3x5 @55lbs Deadlift Warmup 1x5 @45lbs 1x4 @65lbs 1x3 @95lbs Work Sets 1x5 @110lbs Calf raises 10 @180lbs 10 @240lbs 8 @300lbs 10 @340lbs 10 @340lbs 21s 21 @30lbs 16 @35lbs

Squats: 2x5@45 3@65 1@85 3x5@105 Bench: 5@45 4@65 2@85 1@95 3x5@100 Rack Pull-ups: 3xF Dips: 3x4 Calf raise machine: 10@220 10@260 10@300 10@320 9@320 At first I thought I was going to have trouble finishing my squat work sets because the first one was kind of tough, but the second two were even easier than the first. This is the biggest benefit I notice while supplementing on creatine; It takes a lot longer to fatigue muscles while doing heavy sets. I decided to start doing rack pull-ups today as an intermediate exercise towards being able to do real pull-ups. This is the exercise where you rest your feet (your heels) on a bench and hang from a bar on the smith machine or a rack with your body bent at the hips in an 'L' shape. Then you do weighted or body weight pull-ups (or chin-ups) on the bar. I couldn't even do one complete rep of body weight which seemed kind of pathetic, but this seems to be a good exercise to get over the zero --> one rep hump for real pull-ups. I expect to improve quickly on this.

This is basically what I plan to do to get to pullups. I used to have a doorframe chin-up bar at home and before it broke while I was using it once and I fell on my ass I was able to do about 6-8 chinups. I've always had a lot of trouble training my upper back. Until now I usually only use the lat pulldown machine and get stuck at around 80-90lbs. From what I've been reading lately the problem might be that the lat pulldown machine is totally useless. My gym has an assisted dip/chin/pullup machine but I've never seen it unoccupied for more than 30 seconds at a time so I haven't even bothered trying to get in line to use it. I think I'll just work on chins until I can rep out a dozen of them then try switching to pullups. If I still can't do one pullup by then, I'll jump and do negatives or something.

Yesterday I picked up some creatine, so I'm starting on that now. I missed Wednesday, so I did my Wednesday workout on Thursday. Squat: 3x5 @95 Press: 3x5 @50 Deadlift: 1x5 @95 I also did a few vanity sets on calves and biceps Calf raise machine 10@200 10@260 10@300 21s: 21@30 19@35 Then as always, I did a half-hour of cardio on the treadmill.

I recently discovered Rippetoe's Starting Strength program and decided to give it a shot this year in the gym. I've taken the noob version of the program from Practical Programming and swapped in dips for pull-ups since I'm not even close to being strong enough to do pull-ups yet anyways. So the routine I'll be following looks like this Monday Squat Bench Press/Press Dips Wednesday Squat Bench Press/Press Deadlift Friday Squat Bench Press/Press Chin ups Here are the numbers from my first Monday workout Squat 3x5 @85lbs Bench 3x5 @85lbs Dips 2x4 I started working out a month ago after almost 2 years out of the gym. I'm starting really low to make sure I don't miss any of my increments and also because I'm just getting over a pretty bad cold and feeling kind of like ass today. These lifts were pretty easy and I don't expect to have any problem hitting my targets on Wednesday or Friday.

Those guys are either suicidal or training for the circus.