Sam's Strength Training Journal

Bench Press

2 x 6 x 40 kg

3 x 5 x 60 kg

Last time 62.5 was a big of a struggle..failed on last reps of second and third sets, so I decided to drop the weight a little. 60 was pretty easy though. I probably started with too much weight a couple of weeks ago.

DB rows

3 x 5 x 44 kg

Dips

3 x 12

Pull-ups

1 x 6

1 x 6

1 x 5

Full squat

2 x 5 x 60 kg

3 x 5 x 80 kg

Felt good today.. I don't know what happened a few sessions ago but my legs felt great today so I'm happy. Going really deep with squats and steadily upping the weight.. I hope to be doing 90 - 100 kg full squats fairly soon!

Strict OH press

2 x 5 x 30 kg

3 x 5 x 45 kg

Powerclean

5 x 3 x 50 kg

5 reps front squat after each clean on the last set of 3

DB clean & press

3 x 5 x 22 kg

It was hot today. A swim would be nice but I might have to have one tomorrow because it will be my last day of warm weather for a while. USA on Wednesday!

Just had a nice workout without pushing myself too hard.. didn't really want to risk injury before a long flight tomorrow!

Deadlift

2 x 5 x 60 kg

3 x 5 x 90 kg

Felt so much better than last time

Clean (from knees)

5 x 3 x 40 kg

Cleans two days in a row is pretty tiring..

Barbell shrugs

3 x 5 x 90 kg

Pinch gripping

10 kg & 5 kg plates, passing around my body 10 times each way..

I'm flying to the U.S.A tomorrow. I probably won't be posting very often, but I'll be training as usual! See ya.

I've been in San Francisco and LA for the last week, hanging out with my girlfriend and visiting her family, which has been really great! Probably not eating as much as usual and I've only managed one workout in the last week which was chest and upper back.. I figure a week off won't hurt too much. We went to Millennium in SF, which was amazing. It was great to be able to go to a really nice gourmet vegan restaurant for a change.

I'm staying at my girlfriend's house now and I'll be able to use the home gym for a while and I can do some cooking which will be great.

I have fallen in love with clif bars, builder bars, larabars and organic food bars. I like the clif bars the most and I've been stocking up on those and keeping them in my bag to snack on as I travel.

I have fallen in love with clif bars, builder bars, larabars and organic food bars. I like the clif bars the most and I've been stocking up on those and keeping them in my bag to snack on as I travel.

How good are Clif Bars!

I love those things...

Don't worry you can order them from Vegan Essentials (Last time I ordered 100!)

You use to be able to get them in Australia, but Nestle put a stop to that

Clif bars are amazing! I'll probably stock up and bring some home with me.

I made some pumpkin cookies from the fat free vegan blog, although these were the not-so-fat-free version..They are very nice. Here is the recipe - http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/10/pumpkin-cookies.html

I've been working out but have been using machines in the basement here. Hopefully I can get out to a gym and get back to free weights soon.

I might do legs and shoulders tonight. I always have fun with those workouts.

I bought 10 clif bars, 5 builder bars and 7 larabars tonight.. should keep me going for a little while. Trader Joes is great! The clif bars were 99c each.

I haven't been keeping a food log but tonight I had a couple of big burritos with baked veggies, brown rice, black beans and salsa. They were fantastic.

I'm in Athens, OH right now. I love this town! I arrived to find a package from Robert, which was the vegan fitness DVD, some flyers and some sample vega products. They are so good! I've finished them already and watched the dvd last night. I enjoyed the section on shopping for food and other products and the vegan potluck the most. Thanks again Robert! I would like to take some vega home with me or order some when I'm home, but I'm not sure what the rules are with hemp in food in Australia.

There is a great selection of vegan food in cafes and restaurants and there is a great natural food store right around the corner from where I'm staying. http://farmacynaturalfoods.com/ - I'm about to go and buy a few things and I'll head over to the university gym later today. Happy times.

While I am enjoying my time over here so much, I am also excited to go home to see family and get started on some projects I've been planning for a while. I want to build and buy some weight lifting equipment for my garage. What I'd like is a simple set-up with a home made lifting platform, olympic barbell, plates and maybe a bench. I'd also like to start growing some herbs and veggies in my yard. I'll have quite a lot of free time during February, so hopefully I can get started.

I would like to take some vega home with me or order some when I'm home, but I'm not sure what the rules are with hemp in food in Australia.

I've had Robert send me some Vega stuff through the post and I didn't have any dramas.

Still, it would be best to put a stack in your suit case (Along with Clif Bars of course) as postage gets a little

excessive at $20 per pound.

I worked out at the Ohio University Ping Centre gym today. It's a pretty amazing facility.

Front Squat

1 x 10 x 45

2 x 5 x 115

3 x 5 x 135

I hadn't done these for about 5 weeks, so I'm easing back into it.

Barbell Bench Press

1 x 10 x 45

2 x 5 x 115

3 x 5 x 135

Feeling stronger and 135 seemed easy. Maybe the break helped. Well.. it wasn't really a break since I was using machines for bench press and pressing 80 - 90 kg. That felt like cheating

Dumbbell Row

3 x 5 x 100

Dips

1 x 12

1 x 10

1 x 10

Pushups - for the 1,000,000 challenge!

5 x 20

I've had lots of nice food today and did a few push ups here and there.. about 112.. couldn't help myself. I told myself that today was going to be a rest day.

Here's what I ate yesterday.. I hope I can remember it all.

Breakfast

2 oranges

2 bananas

1 cup oats & soy milk

Mid-morning

Shake:

- Soy milk

- 1 banana

- big handful of kale

- 1 scoop brown rice protein

- Flax oil

Lunch

Huge burrito with rice, guac, lettuce, black beans, salsa

1 apple

Afternoon snack

Wrap with falafel, baby spinach, veganaise, salsa, black beans and 1/2 an avocado

1 PB Builder's Bar

2 oranges

Dinner

1 cup of 7 whole grain pilaf

1 block baked BBQ tofu

Handful of baby spinach

I ate more oranges, bananas and apples throughout the day but I can't remember when. Also had over 4 litres of water. Oh yeah I just remembered I ate two cherry pie larabars and one pecan pie larabar.

Here's the wrap -

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v52/essjayyell/IMG_0460.jpg

I'm flying home tomorrow. Mixed feelings Sad about leaving my love but happy to see family and go back to summer. It won't be too long until we're back together. I've stocked up on clif bars and builder bars and might even go and buy some more tonight to take in my carry on luggage.

Here's the pizza I ate tonight -

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v52/essjayyell/IMG_0464.jpg

I'm back home in the land down under. It is so HOT! Wow.. Just yesterday I was playing around in the snow in cold Ohio. I do love summer and can't wait to get into the surf.

I'm doing my best to stay awake until about 9 or 10 tonight and then I'll just crash and hopefully wake up at a normal time, around 6 - 7 am and I won't be too jet lagged.

I just weighed myself.. 83.5 kg / 184 lb ! How did that happen?

I'm going to try creatine. We'll see how that goes. Just have to remember to drink a lot of water. It will be interesting to see how it affects my strength and endurance.

I'm aiming to weigh 200 lb / 90.7 kg and stay lean this year. I think it's definitely doable. Only about 15.4 lb / 7 kg to go.

I'm going to try creatine. We'll see how that goes. Just have to remember to drink a lot of water. It will be interesting to see how it affects my strength and endurance.

 

I'm aiming to weigh 200 lb / 90.7 kg and stay lean this year. I think it's definitely doable. Only about 15.4 lb / 7 kg to go.

I've got some creatine you can have, if you want it?

It's open, but it doesn't go off or anything.

I'm not going to use it.

Morning weight is now around 82 kg / 180 lb and evening weight around 83.5 kg - 84 kg / 184 lb - 185 lb

I think I got a cold on the flight home, so I guess I'll take it easy for a while. It's just in the head, runny nose etc and not in the chest, so maybe I'll be okay to train.

Today 23/01

Breakfast

1 blueberry soy yoghurt

1 banana

1 orange

1 cup oats & soy milk

Water & vitamins - flax, iron, zinc, B12

10:30 am

Smoothie:

- Soy milk

- 1/2 scoop rice protein

- 2 tsp spirulina

- 1 banana

Workout

Bench Press

1 x 10 x 20 kg

2 x 5 x 40 kg

3 x 5 x 65 kg PB

I haven't tried a 1 rep max yet. I'll do that soon. I guess it would be around 80 kg.

DB Rows

3 x 5 x 44 kg

Dips

1 x 15

1 x 12

1 x 15

Lat Pull-down

3 x 5 x 68 kg

Post-workout

Shake:

- Rice milk

- 1 scoop rice protein

- 1 banana

- 5 g creatine

- Water

Meal 4

Builder's bar

Water

Meal 5

1 can chickpeas

Baby spinach

1/2 an avocado

Vegan mayo

Water

25 January - Legs & Shoulders.

Squat

1 x 10 x 20 kg

2 x 5 x 50 kg

3 x 5 x 80 kg

One arm DB Clean & Press

3 x 5 x 24 kg

Seated Military Press

1 x 10 x 20 kg

2 x 5 x 40 kg

3 x 5 x 65 kg

I was going to finish up here, but decided to do some power cleans because I hadn't done them for a long time.

Power Clean

2 x 3 x 50 kg

3 x 1 x 50 kg + 5 reps front squat (very deep)

I was doing some deadlifts and shrugs to warm up for the power cleans and one of the trainers commented on how good my deadlift form is. I'm proud. haha..

Wed 28/01: Lower back, traps & grip work

I'm visiting my family right now, so I trained at a gym I've been to a couple of times. It's my favourite gym. The knurling on their barbells is pretty harsh and I have some nice calluses on my hands now!

Deadlift

2 x 8 x 135 lb / 61 kg

1 x 5 x 225 lb / 102 kg PB

1 x 6 x 135 lb / 61 kg

Barbell Shrugs

1 x 5 x 135 lb / 61 kg

3 x 5 x 225 lb / 102 kg

Dumbbell Shrugs

1 x 10 x 70 lb

Pinch Gripping

2 x 22 lb plates - 4 fingers & thumb, passed around body 20 times

2 x 10 lb plates - index finger & thumb, held 30 seconds - twice each hand

2 x 10 lb plates - 2 fingers & thumb, held 30 seconds - twice each hand

Thursday 29/01 - Chest & upper back

Great day today. I surprised myself.

Bench Press

1 x 10 x 45 lb (20.4 kg)

2 x 5 x 115 lb (52 kg)

3 x 5 x 150 lb (68 kg)

Singles -

155 lb (70.3 kg)

165 lb (74.8 kg)

175 lb (79.3 kg)

180 lb (81.6 kg)

180 lb (81.6 kg) PB

Dumbbell Rows

3 x 5 x 90 lb (40.8 kg)

1 x 3 x 120 lb (54.4 kg)

They didn't have 100's or 110's but they had one pair of 120's..

Dumbbell Bench Press

3 x 5 x 60 lb (27.2 kg)

1 x 5 x 65 lb (29.5 kg)

Pull-ups

3 x 5

Here's a new food plan I made today. Numbers in bold indicate grams of protein.

I always snack on fruit like apples, oranges and bananas throughout the day but haven't included them here.

7AM

1 cup oats | 26

1.75 cup soy milk | 12

2 bananas | 2

10 dates | 4

10AM

Protein shake:

- 1.5 scoop rice protein | 36

- 1 tbsp spirulina | 4

- 250 ml soy milk | 12

2 pieces fruit | 2

1PM

1 cup lentils / 400g beans / 400g chickpeas | 20

1 cup spinach | 5

4PM

Mixed nuts | 10

10 dates | 4

7PM

Tempeh & veggie stir-fry | 25

OR

Baked tempeh & spinach on wheat bread | 25

OR

400 g beans on burritos with avocado, mixed veggies & brown rice / quinoa | 20 - 25

OR

Salad with 400g mashed chickpeas, apples, walnuts, vegan mayo | 20 - 25

AND

Spinach salad with 200g beans / chickpeas / lentils | 12

250ml soy milk | 12

10PM

Protein shake:

- 1 scoop rice protein 22

- 1 cup rice milk 4

-------------------------------------------

Totals *

205 - 210g protein

4500 calories

750g carb

110g fat (18g sat)

4 - 5 litres water throughout day

*Averages

Sun 01/02: Legs & Shoulders

Front Squat

1 x 10 x 45 lb

2 x 5 x 135 lb

I thought I'd increase the weight and try some singles here, which is something I hadn't done before

1 x 2 x 175 lb PB

Singles: 7 x 1 x 175 lb

DB Shoulder Press

3 x 5 x 55 lb

Seated Military Press (machine, unfortunately)

1 x 10 x 45 lb

3 x 5 x 155 lb

Standing Overhead Press

2 x 5 x 95 lb (Strict)

Same again here.. I felt like going for some heavier singles with push press.

Singles (Push):

135 lb

155 lb fail

145 lb

145 lb PB

Nice to see some PB's in there! Well done!

Thanks Robert! Today I felt like going for some heavier singles, just to see what I could do. My push press is up 20 lb from last time I did them, so I'm really happy about that!