SecondsOut’s BodyBlog

All my lifts sucked today. I can think of a couple reasons why they sucked but I’ll write about each exercise first.

 Squat: 200 (5/5/3)

I pulled off 5 reps in the first 2 sets but each rep was a struggle and my form was crappy: I had to use my lower back to complete 1-2 of the reps in each set. In hindsight, I probably should’ve just taken some weight off the bar. This was my second attempt at 200; I did better than last time (4/4/3) but I’m resetting to 185 since my form sucked.

Bench: 145 (5/4/3)

This was my third attempt at 145, so I’m resetting to 135. I’ve made no progress on my bench for two weeks now (last time was also 5/4/3). My form wasn’t great either: I was lifting and lowering unevenly.

Deadlift: 185 (supposed to be 245)

By the time I got to deadlifts, I felt like complete sh*t. I did 2 warmup sets like always but felt completely exhausted by the end of the second set. Ironically, my form was the best it’s ever been. I didn’t know what to do after the second warmup set: should I do a set of 5 with less weight, do a set of 10 with even less weight, or just skip the lift completely? I decided on a set of 5 with less weight: 185 instead of 245. Even 185 was a struggle, which is insane: I was lifting 185 no problem back in January!

 On a positive note, my dips weren’t affected at all by my fatigue on the big lifts: I still banged out a set of 6 and a set of 5 no problem.

What the hell’s going on?

Yeah, so something’s gone horribly wrong. I think I know what it is: my diet. Not only have I decreased calories but I’ve quit all supplements. That means I’ve been getting substantially less protein. In addition, I rode my bike to the gym today — a 20 min. bike ride — which was way too much cardio/leg exercise before a workout. My legs were probably tired from the bike ride and then I tried to do a full set of squats: it definitely wasn’t happening. I just joined a new gym, one that’s much closer to where I live, and I thought riding my bike would be a good warmup. It’s obviously way too much so I’m never doing it again.

What am I gonna do about it? 

After the gym I went directly to GNC and bought a 5 lb. tub of ON whey. I’m sure I won’t get vasculitis again if I use the whey in moderation. Besides, I’d been using 4 supplements around the time the vasculitis first popped up and I’ll only be using 1 now. I’m taking a week off because I want to change my gym days to Tues., Thurs., Sat. instead of Fri., Sun., Tues. I can use the time off to get my diet in order and do some cardio. Hopefully I’ll return to the weights next week feeling a lot better than I did today and make some actual progress instead of wasting my time.

Supplements

I’m off supplements completely. For the past couple months, I’ve had a skin rash that I found out is called "vasculitis." Vasculitis is a reaction in the cells of the small blood vessels to a chemical or a drug. The chemical can come from anywhere; the only "chemicals" I’ve ingested recently are the supplements. I stopped taking the supplements and the vasculitis went away. I don’t know if I’ll ever use supplements again: the rash was annoying.

Calories

For the past 4-5 months, I’ve been eating between 3,000 and 4,000 cals. on a regular basis. I’m cutting back to 1,500-2,000.

Today, Thurs. 5/3 (1,475 total calories)

Meal 1 (300 cals.)

- 4 egg whites (about 120 cals.)

- 2 slices of diet wheat bread (100 cals.)

- 1 c. milk (80 cals.)

Meal 2 (305 cals.)

- popcorn (225): I know this sounds strange but the popcorn I eat is low in fat and sodium, and has 22.5 g of dietary fiber (!) and 7.5 g of protein in each bag. It’s also low in calories and very filling.

- 1 c. milk (80)

Meals 3-5 (290 each/870 total): these three meals are the same because they’re my work meals. It’s much easier to pack the food when it’s all the same rather than having to use separate containers for everything. Besides, these are three good foods.

- 1/2 c. oatmeal (150)

- 1 c. milk (80)

- 1/12 c. almonds (60)

Squat: 175 (5/5/5)

After doing 180 for two workouts — albeit, not getting the full 5/5/5 — I expected 175 to be a breeze. I finished the workout but had some difficulty on the last couple reps on all 3 sets, and the last rep on the final set was a real struggle. The last time I did 175, I couldn’t finish all 3 sets, and I made the mistake of bumping up to 180 too early. I should be fine with 180 now but I’m concerned with the slow, stuttering progress I always seem to make on squats. I’m always struggling with this exercise, always having to focus on form, and I always have doubts about whether I’ve gotten the form down 100% correct.

I don’t think there’s anything majorly wrong with my form, maybe just a couple points I need to work on. I used to get lower back pains after squatting but focusing on keeping my back straight (i.e., not leaning forward), seems to prevent strain.

 Bench: 140 (5/4/4)

After lifting 135 for 3 complete sets two weeks in a row, I expected 140 to be easy. As it turned out, I couldn’t finish the last 2 sets. I think I can explain this, though. On Tuesday, I added Dips and Tricep Presses to my workout and my tri’s have been really sore since then. I think the big strain on my tri’s limited my strength on the bench today.

Deadlift: 230 (1×5)

Dips: 10 (6/4)

Squat: 180 (5/5/4)

I posted 180 as my squat number for tonight but I’m actually gonna drop to 175 for next time. The past two workouts have been with 180 and my form hasn’t felt right either time. My legs start to move inward and I end up having to push up with my lower back.

 I have a lot of respect for Olympic lifters who squat huge weights. Their form often looks perfect: they seem to always squat atg, they never lean forward, and their legs remain as solid as tree trunks. I would like to have my squat form be really impressive one day.

Upright Row: 95 (5/4/3)

Nothing much to say here. I used to have problems with bringing my left elbow up higher than my right, but I seem to have worked out the kinks in my form for now. I’ll repeat 95 for next time to get the full 5/5/5.

Pendlay Row: 100

I actually started off with 105 but I had to drop back to 100 because I couldn’t lift the bar close enough to my chest. I was a little disappointed because I thought I was making serious progress with my back. That being said, I handled 100 with ease. It’s strange how 5 lbs. can make or break a lift. I want to do 100 again before progressing to 105.

Lying Tricep Press (3×10): 40/35/35

I’m going to start ramping my bi curls/tri presses. For tri’s, I’m gonna do 30/35/40 next time.

Dips (3xFailure): 2/2/2

I know 2 is pathetic but I used to not even be able to do 1. Also, this is my first time doing dips in months. I’m saving it for the end of the workout, after abs. This’ll give my tri’s some extra recovery time from the presses.

I spent 90 mins. at the gym today, which is way too long for me: since January, my goal has been 60 mins. or less (45 is ideal). See, even though my profile says I began lifting in January ‘07, I actually started in June ‘06. However, I experienced such meager gains during that time and knew absolutely nothing about lifting, bulking, cutting, and/or the effects of cardio. As a result, the period from June to mid-December ‘06 was almost completely useless: I might as well have been sitting on my ass eating cheetos and watching TV. One of my major problems was the amount of time I spent in the gym. I used to spend 1.5 to 2 hrs. at the gym doing all kinds of exercises. I didn’t know it at the time, but overtraining and under-eating were ruining my gains.

 In a way, I’m not disappointed in tonight’s workout. True, I spent a long time lifting, but that was mainly because I did 3 warmup sets (10/8/6 reps) for each of the 3 main lifts (Workout B is Squat, Upright Row, Pendlay Row). Also, I’m on Rippetoe’s, which means small sets of heavy lifting and long rest pauses: I rest for 2.5 mins. after each set of 5. Did I overtrain tonight? Probably not. Actually, I felt great before, during, and after the workout, which I believe is partially due to the Ergolean AMP and NOX-CG3 pre-workout stack. I’m about 1-hr. post-workout and I still feel like I could run a couple miles.

Still, I think it’s a good idea to limit myself to 2 warmup sets from now on. I don’t want the warmups to negatively impact my performance on the 3×5.

***If you have any experience — good or bad – with these or other supplements, I’d be really curious to hear about it. Seriously, any information on any supplement is welcome: I value personal opinions over professional reviews. Thanks!***

I’ve always been wary about supplements and hesistant to spend much money on them. I also didn’t want to be the typical ignorant noob and think the key to getting big is to spend hundreds at GNC. Since I began lifting last summer, I’ve only ever used protein powder. When I noticed a plateau on just about all my exercises, I decided to give some stuff a try to see if it would help me break the plateau. My stack is on my profile page, but I’ll type it here anyway:

ON Whey; Met-RX MR; Cell Tech; Ergolean AMP; NOX-CG3

The ON Whey is much, much cheaper than IsoPure, which is good enough for me. It also tastes much worse, but I don’t really care: I just drink it fast.

This is my 3rd week on Cell Tech. I can’t say that I’ve noticed any extra explosiveness or massive gains. However, I can say that I haven’t had much difficulty completing any of my sets and I don’t feel like there’s something blocking my progress anymore. I don’t know if it’s the Cell Tech but I’m going to continue using it for at least another 5 weeks before I pass final judgment on the stuff.

Ergolean AMP: damn, this stuff is great. They’re fat-burn/energy pills. People on the forum have said that they only use AMP before their workouts, but I’ve been following the directions on the bottle and using them everyday. They’re also supposed to suppress appetite and not make you feel drained or jittery like caffeine does. It’s been less than a week so I’ll have to take more time to evaluate it.

NOX-CG3: again, it’s only been less than a week. It’s actually been 3 days: 2 non-workout days and today (a workout day). I followed the directions; I didn’t notice any real difference in my workout today. I’m at least going to finish the package, of course, to see how I feel about it. I bought it for a few reasons: 1) it was on sale over the net 2) I’ve been wanting to try a pre-workout supplement 3) people on the forum have said good things about the stuff.

Deadlift: 220

      I felt confident that I could’ve lifted 225 but I didn’t want to add weight too quickly (last lift was 215). I’d rather progress slow with the deadlift — adding 5 lbs. at a time is fine by me — and keep working on my form. The last thing I want to do is injure my lower back; I’m still a noob and I need to be careful with my big lifts.

     Ever since the gym trainer pointed out the fact that I was rounding my lower back, I’ve been kinda paranoid about my form and I second guess myself. Sometimes, this is going on in my head during the lift, which is probably the worst time to have a conflict. To improve, I think I need to lift slowly until I feel more comfortable with the movement. This may mean dropping some weight or reducing my progress, but I’d really like to have good deadlift form: the deadlift more than anything else is an exercise that I’d like to be able to lift humongous with one day.

Bench: 130

     The last time I attempted 130, I needed a spotter. Today is the second time I put up 130 alone for the full 3 sets of 5; next bench I’ll finally be up to 135. It’s about time I started working with the big plates! I have to admit that mostly all I’ve been thinking about for the past month has been getting those 45 lb. plates on the bar for my bench press. I can finally be satisfied with my progress on the bench, although my new goal is 150 for working sets and 185 max. It’ll take a while but that’s where my mind is.

Squat: 170

    A couple weeks ago I’d been wondering why my squat wasn’t improving very much and I seemed to always get stuck struggling with 175 lbs. I decided to go back and reread some of the stuff I’d read about squats and watch some instructional squat videos. Turns out that while I’d been trying to squat by shifting my hips back and keeping my knees behind my feet, I’d actually been leaning forward, which is totally incorrect. As some of you know, you’re supposed to keep your back as straight as possible when you squat: my lower back was getting more of a workout than my legs.

In one of the videos, the guy (an Olympic lifting coach) explained that if your legs/knees start to push inward during the lift, it’s a sign of weak legs. My legs/knees have been doing that for a while. I took a day out last week and started over, keeping the weights light while I practiced form. I kept adding weight until I found my 5-rep max I could complete while keeping in correct form. That was 155. It was a slight blow to my ego (having to drop 20 lbs.), but there’s a huge difference in how I perform the exercise now, and my lower back feels much better.

Squat: 165    Bench: 125    Deadlift: 210

      I’m just about at the same level I was at before I stopped for 2 weeks. Everything went well today: form felt good and each rep was challenging but I finished all the sets. I usually work triceps on bench/deadlift day but I decided to do biceps instead, since they’re not used on either the bench or deadlift. I’m wondering how this’ll work out, though, because I use my biceps on upright row/pendlay row day. However, I’m wondering if doing biceps and the row exercises separately will work my biceps more often during the week, rather than bombing them on upright/pendlay day and then not working them at all the rest of the week. Hopefully this doesn’t have the opposite effect of overworking my biceps. Anyway, I aimed for 3 sets of 10 with 45 lbs. I managed 10/10/8: couldn’t get through the last 2 on the last set. I’ll bump back down to 40 and it shouldn’t be a problem.

      I’m always thinking about the creatine. How will I know it’s working? I bought one of the big tubs — the 6.7 pounder — and I figure I’ll finish it and then see how I feel about the results. This is only my first week working out with creatine, so I need to give it more time.