Strega's "My So Called Lifts" (syndication)

[strega]

My first log (09/14) chronicled the story of a pudgy 5’6”, 55 year old man. You can find all that blah history stuff on “My So Called Lifts” Season 1 and Season 2 can be found on that Texan’s site. So cutting out all the BS, I tweaked my back on vacation in August. I used that as an excuse to become a slacker, so now I’m trying to get back on the wagon.

Current weight 204, down from 207 over the past several weeks but up from 198 pre-vacation.

Current PR’s

Press 135
Bench 210
Deadlift 340
Squat 315


updates to follow:

[strega]

Basically just working out to get active again and get back in the saddle.
Squeezing quick workout of 25 mins or less before I have to pick up my daughter from volleyball.

9-19-17
BP
45x12
95x8 (5 sets)

Arnold Press
5x10
10x10
15x10
20x10
25x10

[strega]

9-23-17
Squat
45x5
135x5 (4 sets)

Curls Preacher
10x20
15x15
20x12 (no rest) to 25x4

[strega]

9-24-17
DB Press Incline
15x20
20x14
25x12

One Arm DB Row
20x10
25x10
30x10
35x10

Lat Pull Down
35x20
60x12
60x12

[strega]

9-26-17
Squat
45x6
135x5
185x3
225x3 (2 sets)

[strega]

9-27-17
Press 1.0 (1.5 minutes rest)
45x6
65x3
85x3
95x2
105x2
105x2
105x3

Arnold Press (1 minute rest)
15x10
20x10
25x10
30x8
35x6

[strega]

9-29-17
BP
45x10
95x4
115x3
135x4
145x4
155x4
165x4
175x3
185x2

Slow crawling out of the ashes.

[strega]

10-1-17
This feels a lot like confession "Bless me Father for I have sinned, it's been one month since I've last deadlifted"

DL
135x3
135x3
185x3
225x2
245x2
245x2

[strega]

10-3-17
Got home at 5:15, had to pick up my daughter from volleyball practice at 5:45. A minute or less between sets, about a month to go before the season is over and I get more me time.

Squat
45x5
135x3
225x3
235x3
245x3

[strega]

Off parent duty for the night and had some me time.
10-05-17

BP
One minute between sets, I gave this workout a name "the yo-yo"

45x10
95x5
115x3
135x3
155x2
135x4
155x3
135x5
155x3
135x6
155x3
135x7
155x2
135x8
155x3
135x9
155x2
135x10

[strega]

10-06-17
Had a free night wanted to squat or DL's but I twisted by knee so figured I'd just do some more upper body.
Quickly found out I was still totally spent from yesterday's workout and aborted the mission.

Incline DB Press
15x16
15x12

DB Preacher Curl
15x20
20x8
25x4

[strega]

10-8-17
Knee still can't handle much so I did something rather than nothing.
Press
45x6
65x5 (5 sets)

Arnold Press
20x8
15x8
15x8

[strega]

10-10-17
Squat
45x5
135x4
185x3
225x4
225x4
225x3 (hit safety system, went off kilter)
245x4

Not a super workout but felt good and no knee issues. I'm going to set a goal of reps 30 pounds more in a few weeks. As I get back into the swing of things and my body holds up.

[strega]

10-12-17
DL
135x3
185x3
225x3
245x2
Wife called from volleyball practice, telling me to get upstairs to meet a parent that was going to be picking up their kid.
So I totally cooled off for about 20 minutes and return to lift afterwards.
265x2
everything seemed fine...
285x0
WTF!? The right side came off the floor but crooked, I reset to make sure that the bar was not set weird.
Again it's coming up crooked, like WTF is going on... gave a half-heart'ed try again but this got into my head so I called it a day.

Sucks, this can't be right.... I can't be this weak this fast, "Detrain is coming around the corner"

[d0uevenlift]

Did you record your set to see why that 285 was coming up so crooked?

[strega]

Sorry, maybe I confused that the way I wrote it. I never completed a rep at 285, I put it back down, adjusted, scratched my head and repeat...
Maybe it was the cooling off period or maybe when I hurt my back this summer and stopped training for a bit I've really gone backwards.

[shaymus]

You should post more chess games.

Do you have a program you're following or is it more go into the gym and see how you feel that day?

[d0uevenlift]

The 20 minute break definitely could have done it.

[strega]

You should post more chess games.

Do you have a program you're following or is it more go into the gym and see how you feel that day?

I'll see if chess.com has an easy way to post stuff to a blog. I should be more tech-savvy about that stuff.

The gym for me is my basement.
I was following Andy Baker's "Strength & Mass After 40" program and got derailed during the summer. It's hard to keep a set schedule of days, my young daughter is pretty busy and I get bumped a lot. So when I have to push out a day it messes up my spreadsheets and I get all confused. I'd like to move back to something like that, for now as I'm trying to just build back to where I was I'm just rotating main lifts. If I did BP last, then Squat should be next, Press next time, DL next that sort of thing. But even that needs to be more formalized as I messed up my knee and did some swapping. I guess I'm right now "exercising" to train.

The 20 minute break definitely could have done it.

I hope so, I'm not going to stress too much. It was not all that long ago that I DL's 340 so I'm sure my body will come back.
There are clearly days that my mind is saying, OK if we do "x" today I'll give you permission to do more next time.
There is a lot of noise, telling myself that I'm not that old and I'm not going to break.

[strega]

10-14-17
Press
45x5
65x5
85x3
95x3
105x5
110x4
115x1