TRAINING LOG: Joshua Siau

Okay, day one of week one of block one of Training lab, or my variation on it. It has been a long while since I lifted free weights, so I did just about everything but core, so I know where to start. Day one looked as follows.

Stretching upper body
Bench press: BAR 3x5
                      75lb 10x5

Upright Rows: 110lb 10x5

Skull Crushers: 30lb 10x5

Curls:   35lb 3x5
            25lb 7x5

Lower body stretches, and 1/4 mile walking on the track while I waited for a squat rack to open up.
Squats: 125lb 5x5

Deadlifts: 135lb 3x5

Calf raises: 10lb 1x5
                   20lb 1x5
                   30lb 1x5
                   50lb 1x5
                   60lb 1x5
                   70lb 1x5
                   80lb 1x5
                   90lb 1x5
                 100lb 1x5
                 110lb 1x3
                 180lb 1x1

1/2 mile walk on track to work the stiffness out of my legs.
The reason for such a wide range of weights during the calf raises is due to yesterday. Yesterday I can In to the gym for about 45 minutes to test my one rep max for all these lifts, but at the time I had forgotten about calf raises, so I had to do that today. I feel pretty good about this start, thought I am definitely going to need to work on being able to do the full 10 sets for legs.

Yes Craig, I seriously maxed out on calf raises.

Workout 09/27/2014
Block 1, week 1, day 3

Bench press:
BAR 3x5
75lb 10x5

Incline Bench Press:
65lb 10x5

Upright Rows:
110lb 10x5

Skull Crushers:
30lb 10x5

Curls:
25lb 10x5

Squats:
125lb 10x5
Woo-Hoo! 10 sets! One more week of that and then I will begin adding dead lifts too.

Calf Raises:
90lb 10x5

Planking:
20sec x5
Still experimenting with these, I've always had trouble with core work.

The pool was open at last, so I swam some laps to cool down.

More close grip work today. I worked it sets of 5 reps, but I didn't bother keeping track of how many sets. I just put on Mark Bell's Powercast and lifted until the bar wouldn't go up anymore.

I was talking to a coworker about my workout and he said something I found a little strange. He said if you're lifting you should NOT stretch before, except maybe very lightweight versions of your lifts. I'm going to keep doing what I do since it lowers my chances of injuring my shoulder again, but I wanted to ask you folks about that. Thoughts?

JSiau10 wrote: I was talking to a coworker about my workout and he said something I found a little strange. He said if you're lifting you should NOT stretch before, except maybe very lightweight versions of your lifts. I'm going to keep doing what I do since it lowers my chances of injuring my shoulder again, but I wanted to ask you folks about that. Thoughts?

Also, I would suggest looking at page 9 of this very log...since it's already been discussed here once.

As for not injuring myself because I stretch, I base that on my personal experience. I have left the gym with a "tweaked" shoulder or back more often when I failed to first stretch properly, than when I took the time to stretch out and warm up my body. This is not based on research or word of mouth, it is based on my personal experience.
     To be clear: 95% of the questions I pose here I pose in the hypothetical. I have my oppinion, and sometimes I may even try what I hear. But mostly I ask to understand where people stand on a particular topic. For example: I know where I stand on stretching before and after a workout. It will not change unless it becomes necessary. However I am also interested to hear where other people stand, why they feel that way, and how they came to that oppinion. It has nothing to do with changing what I do since I make changes as I find the need for them. It is true however that a lot of what I do comes from this family. I do take some of what you say to heart, and it has helped me tremendously.

JSiau10 wrote: As for not injuring myself because I stretch, I base that on my personal experience. I have left the gym with a "tweaked" shoulder or back more often when I failed to first stretch properly, than when I took the time to stretch out and warm up my body. This is not based on research or word of mouth, it is based on my personal experience.      To be clear: 95% of the questions I pose here I pose in the hypothetical. I have my oppinion, and sometimes I may even try what I hear. But mostly I ask to understand where people stand on a particular topic. For example: I know where I stand on stretching before and after a workout. It will not change unless it becomes necessary. However I am also interested to hear where other people stand, why they feel that way, and how they came to that oppinion. It has nothing to do with changing what I do since I make changes as I find the need for them. It is true however that a lot of what I do comes from this family. I do take some of what you say to heart, and it has helped me tremendously.

So I brought my new-to-me gym home, I found a sweet deal on Craigslist. I got a half squat rack, two barbells, 3 adjustable Dumbbells, a curl bar, two tricep curl bars, 45#x4, 35#x4, 25#x4, 10#x8, 5#x8, 2.5#x8, and interestingly 1.25#x4. The guy also hade a bench press setup that needs some love, and a decline sit-up bench for free because he just wanted rid of them. As soon as I got everything unloaded I setup the rack and pushed out a few sets of back squats of 15 at 135, and a new PR of 225 for 2 reps.

I almost set a back squat PR. I did not break parallel which is why I call it almost, but I was just above parallel. 255# in the bag. Now enough playing, I'll be spending the next few weeks on light weights and high volume, I found an app to track the bar while I lift and I am way off track.

Not as much today as yesterday.

OHP: bar 5x5
            95 5x5

Skwaats: bar 5x5
               135 5x5

Upright rows:
                 40 5x10
               60 sets of 10, I either did 5or 6 sets, I lost count at one point due to distraction.
               80 4x10

Deadlifts: bar 5x5
                 135 3x5
                        1x3

Curls: 60 1x5 just cuz.
That's all folks.

Workout 08-15-15

OHP
BAR 7x10
95# 7x5

SKWAATS
BAR 7x10
135# 7x5

DUMBELL UPRIGHT ROWS
40# 5x10
50# 5x10
60# 5x10
70# 5x8
80# 5x5

Was going to do Deadlifts but after doing rows for an hour I was tired. I'll go back in tonight to finish deads and curls, maybe even get on the treadmill. Who knows.

Workout 08-19-15

OHP
Bar 3x5
95 4x5
105 1x5

Deadlift
95 2x5
135 2x5
185 2x5

Dumbbell rows
50 3x10
60 3x10
70 3x8
Skipped 80

Squats
95 1x5
135 3x5
155 2x5

I'm cutting out curls. My bench press rack is almost ready to use, so that will be added. What is great about it is that it is adjustable, so I can change up the angle.

leg day, a mild one at that.
Squats
bar 2x10
135 3x5
185 2x5
200 1x5

deadlift
95 1x10 
135 2x5
225 2x5
240 1x5

my buddy and I were both draggin this day, so we didn't do as much as we normally would.