Ignoring The Stopwatch

I did something yesterday while I was working out that I have never done since I started training five years ago. Rather, I didn’t do something.

I didn’t time my rest periods.

In the past I’ve certainly NOT RECORDED my rest periods, or been NOT ANAL about them (oh my god, I’ve rested thirty seconds over two minutes, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE DOWN!?) but I’ve never been totally unaware of generally how long it was since my last set.

When my dad got me started with lifting when I was fourteen, he didn’t lord over me on the machines. He was right next to me working antagonist groups, but he never said: GO NOW. DO THE SET RIGHT NOW. END OF THE WORLD IN FIVE MINUTES AND YOU STILL HAVE THREE SETS.

Nope. Just “when you’re done with your set, look at the clock. After two minutes, do your next set.” So I did.

Sometimes a set would take longer than another because I recently bumped weight, or whatever. He had his own workout going on and would peek over from time to time to make sure I was using my biceps and not my ass when I did curls, but he didn’t count my reps for me. He didn’t count my rest periods for me. He kept it simple and chimed in if I was doing something horribly wrong.

In all my recent efforts to reduce complexity in my program, I’ve just found that I’m still programming my rest periods as though they really mean something. So I decided to leave the watch in the locker and just go whenever I’m ready.

Just as I thought I would, I recovered from warm-up sets quickly (in many cases, significantly less than the two minutes I prescribe myself on my workout tearsheets) and needed an undetermined longer amount of time to recover from the top sets on down.

What was once pushing three hours to do got knocked out in about an hour-and-a-quarter. Accounting for the additional 30 minutes of steady cardio I tacked on as part of a “moar srs” fat loss effort and it’s still roughly an hour of time saved.

I’m certainly feeling the after-effects of the workout now, more than I did when I took those extra minutes, but I LIKE that. It’s not a debilitating level of soreness, just “hey man, take it easy.” Which is what I want to feel on my rest days!

Speaking of rest days: I’m reconsidering my approach to frequency as well, meaning the number of times per week I work out. I can get by on one or two workouts a week, and it really isn’t a broken or horribly rigid scheme to begin with.

But MAYBE I could do more, and I’d like to allow myself the opportunities to try, should they present themselves.

Simply, my approach to rest intervals, both between sets and between workouts, is this:

“Wait until you’re comfortable, without getting RELAXED, and go again.”

That was my subvocalization yesterday, talking to myself so I wouldn’t feel obligated to check the clock.

Workout for Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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Sans Bullshit

I received an ankh for my birthday; I've wanted one since I was very young.

Lots of horeshitastic nonsense in January, I mean ta tells ya!

But rather than get into all of that, suffice to say I’ve been binging rather orgasmically. The only record I’m obliged to place at the moment, is Thursday’s workout.

Depletion workout on Monday, with a return to fasting as well.

Birthday Lifts

Deadlift

1. 65lbs. x 5 (from hang; hook grip)
2. 65lbs. x 5 (hang-hook)
3. 95lbs. x 3 (hang-hook)
4. 140lbs. x 2 (from floor; hook grip)
5. 165lbs. x 5 (from floor; left hand under; increase next week)

Incline Bench

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 45lbs. x 5
3. 60lbs. x 3
4. 80lbs. x 2
5. 90lbs. x 3 (stay-at next week)
6. 80lbs. x 5

Hi-Low Twist

1. 20lbs. x 5
2. 30lbs. x 5
3. 40lbs. x 3
4. 50lbs. x 2
5. 60lbs. x none! half-way, static hold (staying the weight)
6. 50lbs. x 1 (keeping in mind the goal of the de-loaded sets is to get one more rep than the previous set…)

Weight: 161lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 15.8%

Obviously, I didn’t make my birthday goal. My goal by the end of May is sub -9% body fat. Let’s get to it.

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DOMS Day

I had a pretty long workout yesterday. I was tired when I got home, and though I stayed up rather late I wanted to enjoy some non-DOMS time. I knew as soon as I woke up I’d be sore and ache all over. I am.

From a pure-strength perspective, yesterday’s workout was a little… meh. I still had a belly full of Christmas foods, and I think this compromised my benching form. When I activated my pecs I think it interacted unfavorably with this food, and I subconsciously began benching with my arms. It wasn’t until my second set of incline benches (incline bench is always where I really start to feel my chest anyway) that I realized my elbows were tucking in. I dropped the weight and did a third set and deliberately jutted my elbows out. I felt like an idiot for not having caught this sooner.

Wasted session.

After the strength maintenance work I went about the depletion routine. I’ve been eating a lot of carbs in the latter half of the week (though surprisingly few at the beginning of, which nearly balances me calorically.) I either wanted to burn the sugar already saturating my muscles, or I hoped that if I hadn’t fully digested all of that food yet that I could get some tardy partitioning on my side.

Onto the numbers:

Body Weight: 159lbs
Body Fat%: 18.6% (fully loaded; still made me a little grouchy with myself.)

Flat Bench

1. 45lbs. x  5
2. 60lbs. x 4
3. 80lbs. x 2 (machine) ~ end of warm-up
4. 100lbs. x 3 (machine)
5. 95lbs. x 1

I moved to the machine because the first two warm-ups seemed unusually difficult. I attribute this to lack of adequate rest between warm-ups which I ordinarily afford myself. Lack of patience lead to lack of reps, though I did hit my goal of three reps on the top set. My elbows always do what they’re supposed to on the machines but I had two major problems which led me back to the bar for the final set: hand spacing is horrendous/hurts my wrists; nasty sweaty prick stole the machine while I was getting a drink of water.

He was really gross. He didn’t offer to let me work in or anything, and I probably would have barfed on him if he had. Ugh. He came over while I was using it, asked me how long I had on it (“about three more sets, I just got here”) and after one set I put my workout log on the seat and went to the nearest water fountain to sip some water. Come back, he’s dripping all over the seat. Notebook’s on the floor. I grab my book, snicker at his calves, and go back to the floor.

Incline Bench

1. 85lbs. x 4
2. 70lbs. x 5
3. 65lbs. x 5

The top set I arguably shortchanged myself on. I don’t know where the failure was coming from, arms or chest (I didn’t know under stress of the bar, I didn’t think about it on the spot while I was writing in the log, and I can’t remember besides) but I could have probably screamed out a fifth rep on the top set. I had a lot more working out to do, and my goal was 4 reps for today, so I just left it to that.

Second set, as I said, was the “oh shit I’ve been doing it wrong” set, verified by the light final set I used solely to check form. I’m a doofus.

Incline Fly

25lbs. x 4, 4, 2

Nothing changed from last week.

I didn’t have my glasses on, so I got to play “who’s that look like?“:

• Had Alton Brown doing strict curls and rear lateral raises
• Pee-Wee Power Curls (with calf raise)
• My ex standing above my head (if you look at the mirror from the bench I was on) doing whatever she was doing. She had cool yellow short shorts, though, so I knew it wasn’t actually the ex. Still couldn’t look at her directly though. MIRRORS ONLY, COWARD!

Nautilus Abs

3 x 5 @ 60lbs.

I checked the other machine, it’s a “Life Fitness” brand ab worker. I love my gym. It has abs, biceps, and triceps in its own “wing” of the gym, near the pool, squash, and basketball courts. It’s also the closest section of machines (though to be fair it has benches with the vertical handles so you can do reverse crunches, and a mat with medicine balls) to the locker rooms. Presumably so you can pump up your abs/guns and run to the mirrors/pool as quickly as possible.

Speaking of, still playing the celebrity lookalike game: Alec Baldwin was doing some combination of limited ROM shoulder press + tricep extension with a cable machine, further down the line than the Life Fitness ab destructinator.

Oh, and I finally heard that “Poker Face” song while I was working abs. I was not amused. But, abs were the only thing I progressed on for-reals this session. So whatever.

RELATIVELY HIGH VOLUME TIME, GOOO~!

Round One

1. Horizontal Row: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
2. Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 13 @ 10lbs; 2 x 15 @ 5lbs.
3. Squats: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
4. Standing Calf Raise Machine: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs.
5. Dumbbell Curl: 2 x 15 @ 8lbs. (Pee Wee came by and did his power curls to show me how to lift 65lbs. Thanks bro. This weight was perfect for me, though.)
6. Cable Tricep Pushdowns (w/rope): 2 x 15 @ 30lbs. (Could have done 35, but probably not 40lbs., but the station didn’t have 5lbs. jumps.)

7 minute rest. Each numbered item was done straight through, so all the rows and then all the raises, and then all the squats, etc. 30-60 seconds between sets, no more than 2 minutes between exercises.

Round Two

1. Horizontal Row: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
2. Squats: 2 x 15 @ 45lbs.
3. Calf Raise: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs.

My shoulders are fried. I was starting to feel mighty nauseous before my second set of squats this round, and on the ninth rep vertigo hit me. I completed the set but decided not to risk a final one.

Overall, it was a good workout. Took me a total of about three hours to complete. Went to Barnes & Noble afterward and read some comics for a few hours. My arms were all pumped, and it turns out I have traps. I got some interesting looks when I took my coat off. Should have worn a bigger shirt.

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p.i.n.k Training

So I got a call a few days ago informing me of a fitting the first week of January for a fashion show in Milwaukee on the 9th.

So that means low-carb dieting for the next two weeks, and no enjoyment of Christmas meals whatsoever! Yay!

I was going to do some depletion work today, but since I only had 2 hours to workout, I essentially only had time for my usual routine. My weight is the same, but my body fat percentage mysteriously went down. I’m calling a fluke, since I’ve only started low-carbing TODAY. Yesterday I had nearly 300g.

Numbers time.

Post-workout and post-post-workout meal. I didn't even bother posing correctly.

Weight: 160lbs.
BF%: 16.2% (I check it three times…)

Deadlift

1. 200lbs. x 5 (LO)
2. 180lbs. x 5 (LU)

Fuck yes. That is all.

Lat Pulldown

1. 50lbs. x 5
2. 75lbs. x 5
3. 100lbs. x 3
4. 85lbs. x 5

I don’t feel like I activate my lats properly when I’m chinning, so I’m doing underhanded pulldowns. I’m definitely feeling my lats right now.

I didn’t load properly, though. I put the same amount as I would have offset on the chin assist, so for that reason what you’re ACTUALLY seeing is my warm-up lifts. I would be lifting 100lbs. (offset would thus be 60lbs.) on my third and final warm-up set. I knew this was going to be a lot harder than usual when I completed my first warm-up. I should have listened to myself, but part of me was thinking I was just coming off my high from making my reps in deadlift 45 seconds ago, so I carried on. (I also activated more of my mid-back on DL than I was anticipating. This scared me because I didn’t realize what was happening when I did it and it sounded like a couple ribs popped. But no pain, no injury.)

When my third warm-up set was as difficult as it was, I stopped it there, and called that my effective top-set for this workout. I moved a plate lower for a conservative deload, and got my reps there. Next workout I will see if a full rest before the 100lbs. combined with adaptations will allow me to get my reps. I’m not holding my breath though, I’ll likely be pretty depleted by the time that workout rolls around.

Horizontal Row

1. 80lbs. x 5
2. 80lbs. x 4
3. 80lbs. x 4

First set, again, felt like I wasn’t as strong as I should have been, but again I made the excuse that my previous exercise impacted me too much. This time, a little bit more of a legitimate excuse. My lats were genuinely exhausted for a change, and like I said, DL hit my mid-back for once. However, I was feeling some tightness in my shoulder, so during my rest before my second set I sauntered over to the dumbbell area and grabbed the broomstick to do some shoulder dislocations and watched the aerobics class.

Second set went much better, despite not getting all the reps. Technique felt cleaner.

Third set, no complaints, I failed on my fifth-rep attempt and slownegged it back.

Cable Crunch Nautilus Ab Thingy

3 sets of 5 @ 55lbs.

I gotta say, as far as goofy-lookin’ ab machines go, Nautilus felt like I was getting a decent range of motion on them. I don’t remember the brand-name of the one next to it, but I’d used it before, and it felt like such a stunted “I’m hurling now” jerky motion that I didn’t mind trying something new.

The reason I didn’t do cable crunches? Triceps aren’t strong enough to push down 55lbs. apparently. Oh well.

Chatted with Andy a bit following this, he seemed interested in my dieting history and the genesis of my intense interest in fitness and why I don’t already have the results I’m clearly so motivated to achieve. I felt they were honest and worthwhile questions to answer, so I did. Might write a post about it, but I’ll save it for when I’ve achieved. No sense in writing another “but this time it’s different!” until I AM different.

Plus I need to find all my fat kid pictures.

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She Grabs My Ass and I Deload

Body Weight: 161lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 18%

Flat Bench:

1. 100lbs. x 2 (and 3 assisted…)
2. 90lbs. x 5 (+)

Incline Bench:

1. 80lbs. x 5 (+)
2. 65lbs. x 5 (+)

Incline Fly:

1. 25lbs. x 4
2. 25lbs. x 4
3. 25lbs. x 2

Plus sign means “increase next workout.” Just trying some easier notation for myself.

Now I get a little volume-bonkers.

Horizontal Row: 6×12 @ 40lbs. (+)

Lateral Raise: 2×12; 1×6 @ 10lbs. DBs

Squat: 1×12 @ 45lbs.

[WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM]

Bicep Curl: 2×12 @ 5lbs. DBs (+)

Triceps Pushdown: 2×12 @ 30lbs. cable (+)

Cable Crunches: 6×12 @ 30lbs. (+)

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It’s All In The Wrists

Well I just got home from lunch with pops, who picked me up from the gym.

I had an apple and a protein bar pre-workout. Probably close to 300kcal.

Getting Right to It:

This is the first time I've been sub-18% in over a year.

Body Weight: 159lbs.
Fat %: 17.7%

Fat Weight: 28.143lbs.
Lean Mass: 130.857

Deadlift:

1. 1×4 @ 200lbs. (LU)
2. 1×4 @ 180lbs. (LO)

Getting there. Next week should be my last at 200lbs, haha! Following this, a personal trainer I had never met before (Andy, in case I mention him in the future) seemed interested in my program. He wasn’t trying to shove a new program down my throat, so we were able to talk for a bit.

And then he taught me how to power clean. I have a new friend.

Chin Ass:

1. 1×2 @ 124lbs. lifted (35 off)
2. 1×5 @ 99lbs. lifted (60 off; going to increase this set next workout)

Horizontal Row:
3×5 @ 75lbs. ~ Getting increased again next workout.

Cable Crunch:
3×5 @ 50lbs. ~ Increasing next workout as well.

Big ol’ carby meal PWO: Bagel in the car (plain, just wanted some fast carbs because I was feeling light-headed… very glad I brought it with me); swiss steak with mashed potato and corn at the restaurant. Today’s maintenance day, though, and so I still have enough calories for dinner!

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Overeating

I ate a lot yesterday.

Went out to the Chinese buffet with mom to celebrate. Finished filming my parts for Thinking Speed the day before, so I thought I deserved a treat.

I ate almost 4200kcal! Ughh!

No guilt, just lots of water weight and poop. Interesting to me, though, I ate over the 3500kcal necessary to put on a pound of fat… but my weekly average remained below 1800kcal, the amount I need to MAINTAIN weight. I wish I could magically deplete overnight just to see where my highly-likely jump on the scale is really coming from, but I’m not going to even attempt depletion for the next few days. I had a brush with hypoglycemia last night and I don’t feel like flirting with disaster until things even out. Maybe being carb-bloated will help me eek out that elusive next rep on deadlifts tomorrow!

My arms are still whining at me about Thursday’s workout, and I really think I need to re-evaluate my form or try something else.

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Thanksgiving Damage

So. Let’s see the damage Thanksgiving did.

Weight: 159lbs. – Pretty smoothed out from the carby fare lately.

I’m not really liking how much less I’m eating on would-be maintenance days. I’m losing weight too quickly. On maintenance days I don’t really care too much about my macronutrient split, but on fasting days I’m thinking of bumping up the amount of protein I’m having.

Today I’ve officially stalled on deadlifts, misloaded my chin assists, and regressed on my rows. The weights I’ve lifted today are what I am considering my functional ability. I will not be expecting these numbers to go up much, if at all, through the rest of the diet.

If they go backward, though, then I’ll know I’m doing something wrong and I will be officially risking lean mass. Which honestly, I don’t care about, but I want to maintain STRENGTH and drop FAT.

Here are today’s numbers:
Deadlift

1. 200lbs. x 2
2. 180lbs x 3
3. 160lbs x 5 (the only improvement this workout)

Chin Assist

1. 60lbs. x 6 (felt suspiciously easy, checked the stack, was supposed to load 50lbs.)
2. 40lbs. x 1 (just pissed off because I screwed up my reverse pyramid, so I overcompensated by the same amount I undershot. Surprisingly good form despite not being able to do another one.)

Horizontal Rows
3×5 @ 55lbs. – This one irritated me the most. Down from 85lbs. I couldn’t do 70lbs. either. I maybe could have, barely, but I’m trying to do this exercise explosively so I had to bump it down another plate. Saddens me.

A PROPS, though, go to my new friend Jake. He is the first person to use the squat rack next to me for something that was not only NOT curls, but POWER CLEANS! I shook his hand and told him to continue the good work.

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Upper/Lower Body Split

Ughhh…

I feel like I’m speaking heresy. But I’m “using a four-day upper/lower body split, in combination with an hour of cardio daily, to lose fat.”

It’s in quotes so people can mock me when I go back to a pure workout for real men.

Today I found out I can’t make PRs in squats and deadlifts after four days of low-carb/low-calorie dieting. Who knew?

Stats
Total Weight: 164lbs.
BF%: 17.8
Fat: 29.192lbs.
LBM: 134.808lbs.

Today was a… lower body… legs day… UGH THIS SOUNDS SO STUPID.

Squats: 1 x 5 @ 200lbs.
Deadlifts: 1 x 2 @ 170lbs. (failed to lift 205lbs workset)
Hack Squat: 1 x 5 @ 45lbs. (first time doing this)
Leg Curl: 1 x 5 @ 75lbs. (making up for FAILURE deadlifts, only not really, surprisingly painful)

I did five minutes on a treadmill before I remembered the walk I have to do tomorrow. Love ya Sarah!

Some more rage: I’ve lost less than a pound of fat per month for the last three months.

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Full-Belly Workouts

I think I should stop having a bowl of oatmeal before I workout. It’s fucking up my bodyfat readings. Not to say I’m NOT a lardass, but the meter is essentially laughing at me as hard as I was laughed at in middle school. It saddens me.

10/8/09
Deadlift – 1 x 1 @ 195lbs. (left hand under, after failing a right-under of 205lbs.)
Bench – 1 x 4 @ 95lbs.

So next workout I bump up the Deadlift and Bench stays the same.

BW: 171lbs.
Fat%: 19.3lbs. (33lbs.)

10/14/09
Squat – 1 x 5 @ 195lbs.
Press – 1 x 2 @ 70lbs. (FUCK!)
HamChin – 1 x 5 @ 55lbs. offset (114lbs lifted; since I’m the same weight I was the last time I attempted this lift, I got the final rep I wanted, yay!)

Weight: 169lbs.
Fat%: 22.8% (38.5lbs)

See, this is why I shouldn’t eat a big bowl of oats before a workout. Not only when I breathe deep do my lungs expand fully, push down my organs, and make me feel like I should shit right there in the squat rack, but it bumps my bodyfat up too! Waah! I don’t really know how to do the math for this! So I gained nearly six pounds of fat and lost… seven and a half pounds of muscle. What the fuck? /sarcasm

At any rate, I need to get my diet in order. I think I’m going to change to something a little more staggered, where the majority of my calories are eaten on training days. I know that retained water artificially inflates my bodyfat “score” but I’m not going to be doing any bizarre glyco-deplete bullshit until at least a month from now.

Invoking Katch-McArdle: 370 + (21.6 x 58.725) = 1638

Multiplied by an activity factor of 1.375 leads me to 2252 calories for daily maintenance.  Suddenly the weight gain doesn’t seem so implausible =\

Anyway, I’m going to be eating at maintenance on training days ONLY, and dropping to 30% of that on days I don’t train. As much as I hate to diet by percent, I’m going to just for the sake of daily adjustments/sanity. Fat/carbs/protein; 20/50/30.

Using today as an example: I eat as close to 2252 calories as I can without going over and with getting at least 169g protein.

Tomorrow, I’ll assume nothing has changed, and use “yesterday” values: 2252 – 30% = 1576, with 118g protein and 197g carbs.

And then Friday I go to the gym again, so I’ll re-weigh and re-measure accordingly. I’m going to try to go in without a carb meal (maybe just some eggs or a proshake or something), it won’t fully deplete me or anything but I hope to get a more accurate reading nonetheless. Then I’ll use that to calculate for that day, which will be hard to manage if I don’t get to my dad’s house for fooding up, and then for the low days following all the way to Monday.

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