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brikis98's journal

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yea, back in the college days, i could easily afford to blow 2+ hours a day on sports + lifting. but that kind of changes when you're at work 8-10 hours a day + commute...

i went into the new gym, warmed up for a few minutes on the exercise bike, and then stretched a bit, including some windmills. i definitely felt it in my hips, but in a good way. i guess i'll keep doing this for a couple of weeks and see what happens.
 
You might be able to shave some time on your warm-up but cutting out the 10min elliptical. I used to do that (or bike) before lifting, now I just run up and down the stairs in the gym for maybe 2 minutes to get my heart going and legs warm, then I do leg swings (windmills as described above), inch worms, walking kicks, warrior lunges and other dynamic stuff. I spend maybe 10min total on dynamic warmup before I lift, sometimes a few min less.
 
Originally posted by: gramboh
You might be able to shave some time on your warm-up but cutting out the 10min elliptical. I used to do that (or bike) before lifting, now I just run up and down the stairs in the gym for maybe 2 minutes to get my heart going and legs warm, then I do leg swings (windmills as described above), inch worms, walking kicks, warrior lunges and other dynamic stuff. I spend maybe 10min total on dynamic warmup before I lift, sometimes a few min less.
Click to expand...

interesting... do you have some websites that show good "dynamic warmups" to do before weight lifting?
 
Originally posted by: brikis98
Originally posted by: gramboh
You might be able to shave some time on your warm-up but cutting out the 10min elliptical. I used to do that (or bike) before lifting, now I just run up and down the stairs in the gym for maybe 2 minutes to get my heart going and legs warm, then I do leg swings (windmills as described above), inch worms, walking kicks, warrior lunges and other dynamic stuff. I spend maybe 10min total on dynamic warmup before I lift, sometimes a few min less.
Click to expand...

interesting... do you have some websites that show good "dynamic warmups" to do before weight lifting?
Click to expand...

I have gotten a few ideas from this video
 
today's workout:

light front squats: 135x5, 160x5, 195x5, 195x5
military press: 100x5, 120x5, 140x5, 160x5
4 sets of hypers (PT for my back)
weighted dips: BWx5, 30x5, 50x5
dumbell preacher curls: 40x5, 50x5, 60x3

i tried out the "dynamic warmups" today and i definitely liked them - i made sure to do plenty of windmills to really warm up my hips. they still hurt a bit, but I think it helped. it was a light squat day, so it's hard to tell, but hopefully it'll be even better on monday's workout.

military press was pretty easy until the last set. i think my form starts to fall apart a bit at the heavier weights, so i might have to step it down ~10lbs. hypers felt *great* - my back hasn't had a "good" burn/pain in it in some time, and it was wonderful to work it w/o feeling like i'm injuring myself. dips were very easy, although after front squats + military press, my wrists were hurting, so i had to do a bit less weight. the first two sets of preacher curls were pretty easy, but 60lbs is a *lot* of strain on one arm and i just couldn't get up 5 reps. i felt my forearm and all the tendons through out under lots of stress, so i'll prob do 55 next time and work my way up.
 
Originally posted by: brikis98
Originally posted by: gramboh
You might be able to shave some time on your warm-up but cutting out the 10min elliptical. I used to do that (or bike) before lifting, now I just run up and down the stairs in the gym for maybe 2 minutes to get my heart going and legs warm, then I do leg swings (windmills as described above), inch worms, walking kicks, warrior lunges and other dynamic stuff. I spend maybe 10min total on dynamic warmup before I lift, sometimes a few min less.
Click to expand...

interesting... do you have some websites that show good "dynamic warmups" to do before weight lifting?
Click to expand...

Hmm none handy, I learned all my warmup stuff from a conditioning class I took earlier this year, I'll try to find some vids on Youtube.
 
05/11:

good news: I weighed in at 214lbs today
bad news: as it was mother's day, we had a family get together and I ate a massive amount of food and had no time for exercise.
 
Originally posted by: brikis98
05/11:

good news: I weighed in at 214lbs today
bad news: as it was mother's day, we had a family get together and I ate a massive amount of food and had no time for exercise.
Click to expand...

What's living if you don't live every once in a while? 🙂 You'll be fine!
 
Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Originally posted by: brikis98
05/11:

good news: I weighed in at 214lbs today
bad news: as it was mother's day, we had a family get together and I ate a massive amount of food and had no time for exercise.
Click to expand...

What's living if you don't live every once in a while? 🙂 You'll be fine!
Click to expand...

hehe, of course. it's just a funny change from when i was bulking: i'd go to random family events and have my happy fill of delicious food and be happy about it. now that i'm trying to cut, there's that twinge of guilt i have to suppress first 🙂
 
05/12:

Had one of my best weightlifting days in a LONG time today. I felt strong, bar speed was excellent, and best of all: none of my random injuries bothered me in the least. The back felt great, the shoulder was 100% and after some more dynamic warmups, the hips didn't bother me at all 🙂

Front squat: 140x5, 165x5, 190x5, 215x5, 240x5
Bench: 180x5, 210x5, 240x5, 270x5, 300x5
Weighted pull-ups: BWx5, 20x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x5
Abs

Front squat was awesome today. I'm really liking the dynamic warmups and although my hips were a bit stiff before the workout, they felt great through out squats. My back has gotten still better at holding the weight, so the bar was flying up and down today, which means 245 for next time. Bench was silky smooth as well, so 305 it is. The last set of weighted pull-ups was a bit rough, but I'll bump to 55 next time and see what happens.
 
Originally posted by: paulxcook
Nice benching, you're nearly repping 3 pps! Other stuff looks good to.
Click to expand...

thanks 🙂

I used to do the idiotic routine of going to the gym every other day and doing only bench, biceps and abs. I did get a strong bench, huge arms and strong abs, but as a result, I also plateaued hardcore on all of them for a *while* and became a very unbalanced lifter. i think i was stuck at benching 225 for more than a year. i also believe a lot of my injuries were a result of not doing a proper workout routine for so long.

anyways, getting legs + back into my workout, and especially doing the Bill Star 5x5 allowed the rest of my body to catch up a bit and has helped me get through the plateaus. at the end of my last bulk, i put up 315 (3 plates) for 4 reps... 1 rep shy of my goal, but still solid...

 
Dang you are strong, good work man! I'm thinking about trying front squats just out of curiosity, although I plan on still doing back squats 5x5 until I get to 300lbs, maybe 315.
 
thanks gramboh 🙂

I only started doing front squats because my lower back was injured and back squats were putting far too much stress on it. I have to admit they are really growing on me, although some part of me is also itching to be able to do the weight I did with back squat (325x5).

05/13:

another great workout today. I did HIIT biking:

3 sets of 30 seconds at 16, 1 min 30 seconds at 8
4 sets of 30 seconds at 17, 1 min 30 seconds at 8
3 sets of 30 seconds at 18, 1 min 30 seconds at 8

Including a leisurely 10 minute warmup, I rode 8 miles in ~31 minutes, which is a pretty solid pace. The thing that impressed me the most was that my breathing and legs recovered *very* quickly after the 30 second sprints, which I believe is a good indicator of improving cardio. This is the hardest biking session I've done so far and I could have easily kept going at the end of it. I still have a long way to go before I'm happy with my conditioning, but I'm happy to see some good improvement. I think next time I do the HIIT biking i'll do the same speeds but change the sets to 2/4/4 instead of 3/4/3 to push myself even more. also, assuming I can find a relatively car-free route, i'll try to start biking to work next week. it's ~10 miles each way, which is long enough that doing it on a daily basis should really boost my stamina.
 
05/14: day off from the gym today. The good news is I weighed in at 213.5lbs. That's almost exactly 10lbs lost since I started the cut 1 month ago at 223lbs. If I can be at 203lbs in one more month, I'll be one happy camper 🙂
 
Originally posted by: brikis98
05/14: day off from the gym today. The good news is I weighed in at 213.5lbs. That's almost exactly 10lbs lost since I started the cut 1 month ago at 223lbs. If I can be at 203lbs in one more month, I'll be one happy camper 🙂
Click to expand...

Congrats! Especially since you are gaining strength at the same time. I think my 'honeymoon' period with lifting is over, I went from 218 to 200 (seem to have settled at 203 now) between September and December 2007, been at 200ish since but strength is increasing while I still excess fat around my belly. Hopefully I'll stop being an idiot and fix my diet this summer.
 
Originally posted by: gramboh
Originally posted by: brikis98
05/14: day off from the gym today. The good news is I weighed in at 213.5lbs. That's almost exactly 10lbs lost since I started the cut 1 month ago at 223lbs. If I can be at 203lbs in one more month, I'll be one happy camper 🙂
Click to expand...

Congrats! Especially since you are gaining strength at the same time. I think my 'honeymoon' period with lifting is over, I went from 218 to 200 (seem to have settled at 203 now) between September and December 2007, been at 200ish since but strength is increasing while I still excess fat around my belly. Hopefully I'll stop being an idiot and fix my diet this summer.
Click to expand...

i'm pretty happy about the weight loss, but to be fair, my strength gains have been minimal - when I switched to a cut, I reset my lifting back ~4-5 weeks as I was stalling and fighting through some injuries. I also changed the exercises I did - back squat to front squat, rows to pull-ups, laying off deadlift for now - so it's hard to measure progress there. having said that, i'm confident i haven't lost any strength (except possibly lower back muscles involved with deadlift), which was really my goal during cutting.

sounds like you accomplished almost the exact same weight loss i'm going for - how tall are you? did it get any harder as you got closer towards 200, or was it just more of the same?
 
Originally posted by: brikis98
Originally posted by: gramboh
Originally posted by: brikis98
05/14: day off from the gym today. The good news is I weighed in at 213.5lbs. That's almost exactly 10lbs lost since I started the cut 1 month ago at 223lbs. If I can be at 203lbs in one more month, I'll be one happy camper 🙂
Click to expand...

Congrats! Especially since you are gaining strength at the same time. I think my 'honeymoon' period with lifting is over, I went from 218 to 200 (seem to have settled at 203 now) between September and December 2007, been at 200ish since but strength is increasing while I still excess fat around my belly. Hopefully I'll stop being an idiot and fix my diet this summer.
Click to expand...

i'm pretty happy about the weight loss, but to be fair, my strength gains have been minimal - when I switched to a cut, I reset my lifting back ~4-5 weeks as I was stalling and fighting through some injuries. I also changed the exercises I did - back squat to front squat, rows to pull-ups, laying off deadlift for now - so it's hard to measure progress there. having said that, i'm confident i haven't lost any strength (except possibly lower back muscles involved with deadlift), which was really my goal during cutting.

sounds like you accomplished almost the exact same weight loss i'm going for - how tall are you? did it get any harder as you got closer towards 200, or was it just more of the same?
Click to expand...

I'm 5'10 and have a relatively wide build you could say. I have no idea what my BF% is, I really need to get that measured. I basically relied 100% on exercise to go from 218 to 200. The first 10 pounds were really easy, and the last 8 took a bit more effort. Basically, I cleaned up my diet slightly, but I still do not control it at all (no idea what my calories are). I eat healthy at breakfast (fat free yogurt and cottage cheese, banana, water) and moderately at luch (whole grain bread sandwich, skim mozzarella cheese, fatty sausage deli meat, lettuce, tomato then late afternoon I have an apple and granola bar for gym energy). My problem is I don't cook dinner often, usually I go out and I gorge on horrible junk food on the weekend.

Anyway, I don't know what my ideal weight is, I have to get serious and get some measurements done so I can set a realisitic goal and achieve it. I want to lose the fat around my belly (cutting) via a cleaner diet, while still maintaining strength.
 
05/15: gym was hot & humid today, so i felt a bit sluggish during the workout, but it went ok.

front squat: 145x5, 170x5, 195x5, 220x5, 245x3, 195x8
bench: 185x5, 215x5, 245x5, 275x5, 305x3, 245x8
weighted pull-ups: BWx5, 25x5, 35x5, 45x5, 55x3, 35x8

I'm liking front squats better every day. Really good bar speed through all the sets, no pain in the hips (did dynamic warmups before lifting) and my back felt great. A bit of an off day on the bench, as I had to fight with 275 and all 3 reps of 305 were slow and awkward. Still, I got the weight up and with some rest, I'm confident next time I bench (Monday), I'll pull of 5 reps with 305. Pull-ups were decent the whole way. The heavy 3 rep set was actually really easy and it seems stamina is a bigger limiting factor - the 8 rep set afterwards was much more brutal.
 
Originally posted by: brikis98
I started off 2008 with a ~2 month bulk while doing the Bill Star 5x5 program. I missed most of my goals for this year by a little bit, but hopefully I'll get them before the year is out. This first post will just list my starting stats and goals. I'll writeup the progress in subsequent posts.

Stats as of April 15, 2008

Height: 5'11"
Weight: 223lbs

Squat: 325x5
Bench: 315x4
Deadlift: 405x3
Pendlay Rows: 225x5
Incline Bench: 260x4
Military Press: 165x5

Short term goal:
Hit 210lbs by June 15th while (at least) maintaining the current lifts.

Medium term goal:
Hit 200lbs by Aug 15th while (at least) maintaining the current lifts.

Long term goal:
Increase lifts to new PR's while staying at 200lbs by end of 2008:

Squat: 345x5
Bench: 335x5
Deadlift: 425x5
Pendlay Rows: 245x5
Incline Bench: 275x5
Military Press: 185x5
Click to expand...

you're a damned beast. you could bench me lol
 
hehe, thanks rasczak 🙂

05/16:

the good news: weighed in at 212 today, just 2 pounds away from my June goal with almost a month to spare! if things go really well, I may be at 200 before the end of June, which would be fantastic. I got HIIT later today.
the bad news: my lower back is hurting a lot today - just a dull persistent pain. no idea why, as it felt completely fine yesterday. this is the first setback i've had in a while, and it's damn discouraging. i wonder if going to a chiropractor would help?


EDIT ---> did HIIT running today, but changed up the routine a bit:

5 minutes of dynamic warmups
5 minutes of walking/light jogging
3 sets of 20 seconds @ 9mph, 40 seconds @ 6mph
9 sets of 20 seconds @ 10mph, 40 seconds @6mph
5 minute cooldown

In short, I reduced the sprint time by 10 seconds, but also reduced the amount of rest by 50 seconds. This made each "set" 1 minute, instead of 2, making the workout shorter but also MUCH more intense. The first 3 sets of 9mph sprints and the first 3 10mph sprints were surprsingly easy. The next 3 felt solidly challenging and felt great. The last 3 were absolutely brutal. I was quite exhausted when I was done and kept feeling it for the next hour.

In the end, I'm not sure what I like better: the old system with 30 second sprints and 1 min 30 second jogs (1:3 ratio) or this new system of 20 second sprints and 40 second jogs (1:2 ratio). I definitely felt it more from the latter, but I also ran at a higher speed than before. The only real issue with the 1:2 ratio is that you spend a lot of the time speeding up and slowing down. Perhaps this would work better on a track (instead of treadmill) or elliptical or bike. I guess I'll try it out a few more times and see how it goes.
 
05/17:

it was a gorgeous day out, so i decided to jog to and form the gym. it's ~.9 miles each way, which is a pretty decent warmup. today's workout:

light front squats: 145x5, 170x5, 195x5, 195x5
military press: 110x5, 125x5, 145x5, 160x5
weighted dips: BWx10, 35x8, 55x8
one armed dumbbell preacher curls: 50x5, 60x3
hypers: BWx12, BWx12, BWx12
deadlifts: 135x10

Today is a light day of squatting, so it was pretty easy. Military press I was not happy with: my form has gotten very sloppy and although I got all 5 reps on the last set, it was ugly through out. I think I'm going to watch some more instructional videos, drop down 10lbs, and work my way back up. Dips went fine, although without a spotter, it's tough getting the dumbbell properly seated in my legs. Preacher curls I just did for fun - my biceps get plenty of work from weighted pull-ups twice a week, and these were just to see the strength gains from that. I was happy to see the 50lbs dumbbell flying up, but 60lbs was a bit too much of a jump, so I only got 3. Hypers felt really good on my back - so good, in fact, that I decided to try out a very light set of deadlifts. It went alright - a little bit of soreness on the last 2 reps, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. I might do 2 sets of hypers and 2 sets of deadlifts next week (again with only 135) just to see if I can start to work back into it.

As for the jog back home after the workout... That was a very long .9 miles... After HIIT running yesterday, walking around all over town doing chores this morning, the run to the gym, and the squatting, that proved to be a much tougher run than I expected.

 
05/18:

weighed in at 213.5 today, which kind of sucks, but i'll work my way back down. today was a day off, but in the pleasant weather, i did take a 1hr walk with the gf all over town.
 
05/19: didn't get much sleep last night and it showed. the workout:

front squats: 145x5, 170x5, 195x5, 220x5, 245x5
bench: 185x5, 215x5, 245x5, 275x5, 305x4 (missed 5th rep)
weighted pull-ups: BWx5, 25x5, 35x5, 45x5, 55x4 (missed 5th rep)
abs

squats went pretty well and i'll bump up to 250 for next time. bench went fine until the last set, where 305 seemed a lot heavier than i remembered it. i got through 3 reps ok, the 4th was incredibly tough and the 5th just didn't happen. i'll be repeating this weight next time. weighted pull-ups also went fine until the last set, where reps 4 and 5 were a nightmare. i didn't quite get much chin all the way up on the last rep, so i'll be doing it again next week as well. finally, did some abs, but my lower back started to hurt a bit. this goddamn injury just won't go away. sigh. hopefully thur will be a better workout.
 
05/20: weighed in at 211.5 today. Got some HIIT running later today.

today's run:

5 minutes dynamic warmup
5 minute warmup walk/jog
11 sets of 20 seconds @ 10mph, 40 seconds at 6mph

my legs and lungs were burning by the end of it. i'm still not sure i like this new ratio. the first 6 sets are far too easy and the last 5 are far too hard. with the old approach (30 second sprints, 1 min 30 second jogs) it was a much more gradual tiredness. not being an expert on HIIT, i don't know which is the right feeling. i also feel like i'm really burning out my legs with this, but maybe that's good for them. i guess i'll do it a few more times to let my body adapt a bit and see how if it gets any better.
 
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