LiftStrong’s BodyBlog

Started playing basketball with one of my neighbors down the street a few nights ago. So far we’ve made it out every night and even encouraged one another to come back so we can keep fit together. Tonight we played some 21 with one of the other guys on the street and some neighborhood kids. Of course he decided we’d play 21 by 1’s with no 2 or 3 point shots. Think I was ready pass out at one point, haha. Hell I was laid out on the concrete at one point what am I saying. Feels good though because I don’t even think of it as a work out, just having fun. Good times.

Alright, so I’ve changed gyms. The wifes company has a coporate account with LA Fitness, so we get a nifty membership to the shiney new gym down the street. However, after researching this joint the other night, I’m starting to wonder if I should have stayed at my quiet hide away gym back in Allen. Time will tell I suppose.

In the mean time I’ve taken up swimming, now that I have a pool to actually swim laps in. Can’t tell you how much perspective I have now on the whole Michael Phelps thing. I’m ready to drown after 5 or 6 laps, and thats with me taking breaks between most of them! However, I am feeling a little better as it’s been a low impact way to work cardio and not jar my knees which seem to hate me more each year.

I’m offically down to 230 from slightly over 245 back in July. Coupled with a decreased body fat% and I’m feeling better over all. I really need to toss up some updated progress pictures, but I just haven’t found the time. Maybe I’ll do that this week and stop putting it off.

Anyhow, I’m staying on track for the most part, it’s just a very slow jog. At least I’m making progress on my goals though!

Getting a little discouraged. Not so much with my strength as with my over all body fat. It’s closing in on two months and I have yet to see anymore of a decrease in my BF. I’m eatting clean, but nothing like straight chicken breast, salad greens, and water.

It’s motivating to see people around here getting into such great shape, but at the same time I think perhaps I’m trying to gauge my own personal goals and gains too much off of these other people. I keep telling myself it’s just a day to day thing, that results come with time and aren’t going to happen over night, but shit, it’s still frustraiting just the same. I keep wanting to change my workout routine, try new supps, and change my diet, but I’m also thinking two months just isn’t enough time to see if what I’m currently doing is really working or not. Guess I’ll just tighten down and keep things as they are for a few more months before I decide to make adjustments again. Hell I don’t know how my body reacts for crap yet. Gotta stick it out.

What do you do to stay motivated? Have you ever been in a similar situation where you weren’t getting the results you felt you should be receiving? How did you handle it and get past it? Fill me in, because I’d sure like to know.

So after doing my off day typical cardio, I got the idea to go toss some weight around because my shoulder was feeling good and I haven’t really worked it in two weeks. That was last night and as of today everything is feeling good. So I plan to go ahead and mix in some light shoulder/arm/back work for another week or two to test the water and make sure I don’t rush back in too quick.

Alright, so I’m going to put the 5×5 on the back burner for certain. I started doing more reps, going with 10s this starting tonight. Certainly felt more burn, and was really surprised I could get 10s out on these full squats I’ve been doing. I know a month ago I’d have fallen over or pulled something. I think doing the full squats is a much better choice over the typical squat you see people doing at the gym. Gets more muscles involved and actually removes some of the stress from your knees believe it or not. Look that shit up.

Funny I should end that about knees though because my right one is feeling a little tweaked. I think it’s because I’m doing more reps though, we’ll see how it feels tomorrow. Aside from that I think this is going to work better for me for now. I really wanted to do the 5×5 to see how well that program would work and if I could get faster gains in my strength, but considering my shoulder, and me really wanting to lean up, doing more reps will probably yield those results faster.

Oh, and go USA! Lets bring home some more gold huh? Phelps is a damned animal if I ever seen one. Pool shark has a whole new meaning.

I’m going about this wrong? My BF went back up a point, at least according to the all so accurate electronic BF machine at my gym. No calipers here. On top of that I’ve managed to go up a couple of pounds. I haven’t been eating dirty. Still eating relatively clean. On top of that I’m taking Lipo 6 to try and help expedite some more fat loss. I don’t know. Only thing I can think, when it comes to the weight anyhow, is that I’ve been working out fairly hard and taking some new supps. Maybe it’s muscle gain. Whatever it is, it’s frustrating when you want to lean up.

So yeah, maybe I’m going about this wrong? I want to lean up and add strength. Maybe I should put the 5×5 on hold since I can’t really work my upper body still. Should I up my reps to say 10-12 per set? Maybe that will help me lean out faster and then I can focus on the strength portion later, when I can do the 5×5 fully. I don’t know. Guess I’ll do some more research and asking around tomorrow. See what I can come up with. I’ve noticed some endurance and strength increase over the past few weeks, but hell anyone that sat on their ass like I had for that past few years, then dedicated to getting in shape would see that. Meh.

I love this thing. At least I can bitch here.

Just got in from the doctors office. Been having some pain in my right shoulder that started up about a week and half to two weeks ago. Turns out I probably have tendinitis at the ac joint. So I’ve been put on anti-inflammatory and told to cease major lifting concerning this shoulder. I can do light range of motion work…ugh. So my 5×5 program is going to be put on halt, at least most of it anyway. I will be continuing work on legs and core. *grumbles*

This sucks.

Alright, finally, and certainly reluctantly put up my full body pictures. The ones from early July, and the ones that I took today. I never want anyone to see these, at least not right now. No, it has to be done. In a year I’ll be able to look back at all of the pictures I have and will put up, and smile. Smile because I will have transformed my body from fat to fit. How did you feel when you first shared your pictures? Were they embarrassing or did you wait for a point in your journey that your were proud to share? How did you handle it?

So I’ve decided to give Bill Starr’s 5×5 a good run. You can find out more details here. For those unfamiliar, it’s a program based on linear progress. Ideally you should be able to attain 2.5% gains on each of your core lifts every week. So I’m going to put it to the test. For the next two months at least, I will be following this intermediate run down in hopes of reporting these gains on my core lifts.

Tonight was my first run at this, unfortunately it happens to be on the Friday session where you are supposed to attain your 2.5 for the following week. I went ahead as planned and calculated up where I should be with the weight I had been training with during the week. As it stands I actually set new personal records in each of my core lifts and will be trying to proceed with them for Monday. We’ll see. I tell you what though, deep squating has my quads ready to murder my ass. I’ll be suprised if I can get out of bed tomorrow. Oh well, no pain no gain as the old saying goes.

So I worked on Chest and Back last night. Started off doing a 5×5 at the bench. I slapped on the 2 45’s and popped off 5 to see if I would be alright doing more since my shoulder is strained right now. It sucks pretty bad because I want to train so hard, but I don’t want to tear my shoulder up and be out for a long time, not now, not when I’m really starting to get into this. I think that would tear me down pretty bad.

So anyhow, the 135 was fine. I slapped on 2 25’s, bumped the weight up to 185 and pushed out 4 more sets of 5. It felt pretty good for me because on that last set I was really worrying if I would be able to get all of them out. A little pumping myself up and they came out. Only 185 but shit thats a damn improvement from the 135 I was working a month ago. Rest of the workout was uneventful so it’ll be posted short hand.

Assisted Pull ups - 3 x 10 w/ 100lbs assisted

Machine Lateral Raises - 5 x 5 @ 90lbs - good strain on the last set

Cable Rows - 5 x 5 @ 110lbs - broke form to get he last rep, but the weight is good

Dumbbell Shrugs - 3 x 10 @ 55lbs - did a 1 second hold at the top on these and barely got out the last few reps of my last set

Did no cardio last night. I haven’t been doing my 30 mins of follow up cardio, and really need to get back on this. I plan to go for my cardio tonight and start following up my weight sessions again. Not going to lose the fat as effectively as I know I can if I don’t do this shit right!

07/31/08 - 235lbs and 19.5%BF