Poppinfresh's log

[PoppinFresh]

8/6/07: First day of Rippetoe starting strength!

Workout A:

Squat:

1x8 @ 45
1x8 @ 95
1x5 @ 115

3x5 @ 125

Bench:

1x8 @ 45
1x5 @ 95

3x5 @ 105

Deadlift:

1x8 @ 95
1x5 @ 135
1x5 @ 155

1x5 @ 165

Also going to do 4 min of tabata intervals on a stationary bike later this evening. Is it better to do HIIT on lifting days and long cardio on off days or vice versa? I have heard from a few people to do HIIT on off days, but also read a t-nation article recommending doing it on lifting days.

[mattnxtc]

I generally do my HIIT on workout days mainly b/c its short and its a wasted day to go to the gym just for that on nonlift days...on days you do long cardio...work to keep it at a low intensity. You arent looking to push yourself.

[PoppinFresh]

8/8/07:

Workout B:

Pretty much a disaster. My legs were still really sore from Monday's workout so I opted to skip the squats, just did a couple of sets with the bar to get the blood flowing and practice my form.

Standing military press:

2x7 @ 45

3x5 @ 55

These were tougher than I thought, feel pretty good about my form though. On my last set, I had to drive with my legs a bit to get the 5th rep up - should I be doing this or just let myself fail the rep?

Pendlay Rows:

1x8 @ 45
1x5 @ 65

3x5 @ 75

Had a lot of trouble with the form on these. I am tall, my legs are long in comparison to my arms, and my hamstrings are inflexible. As a result I really was having a tough time getting down to the bar, any suggestions while I work on increasing flexibility?

Also did some lat pulldowns because I felt I hadn't done too much:

1x8 @ 100
3x8 @ 110

Cardio: 4 min of tabata sprints

[shemp]

[ QUOTE ]
My legs were still really sore from Monday's workout so I opted to skip the squats

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
did some lat pulldowns because I felt I hadn't done too much:

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Cardio: 4 min of tabata sprints

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm kinda confused. I personally don't allow myself to do extra stuff because I have energy left over from not doing my main work-- weird little rules like this help me keep focus. I'm also a bit surprised that your legs are fine for sprints but not squats. Anyway. Recovery runs help my leg soreness.

I guess the question(s) that I think is(are) coming through is if you know what your goals are and if you doubt that your program is well-suited for them?

[PoppinFresh]

[ QUOTE ]

I'm kinda confused. I personally don't allow myself to do extra stuff because I have energy left over from not doing my main work-- weird little rules like this help me keep focus. I'm also a bit surprised that your legs are fine for sprints but not squats. Anyway. Recovery runs help my leg soreness.

I guess the question(s) that I think is(are) coming through is if you know what your goals are and if you doubt that your program is well-suited for them?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not really sure what you are getting at here, I'm following the Rippetoe starting strength routine so I'm not going to do more sets of the main lifts than is recommended on my second day even if I have a little extra left in me. I'm also doing lifts that I have never done before, so I'm not going to keep pushing myself when I'm not comfortable with my form.

As for the leg soreness, it wasn't that I couldn't do squats, but with them being as sore as they were it seemed to me a better idea to give them a couple of extra days rest until Friday instead of wearing them down even more. I've never experienced soreness as a result of tabata sprints so I didn't think those would be an issue.

I think my program is suited to my goals(strength, cardiovascular endurance), can you elaborate?

[shemp]

Maybe I'm just having a tough time identifying with the following because it is outside my experience:

[ QUOTE ]
As for the leg soreness, it wasn't that I couldn't do squats, but with them being as sore as they were it seemed to me a better idea to give them a couple of extra days rest until Friday instead of wearing them down even more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just me, personally, DOMS would not keep me from a lift-- so I thought I'd poke around and see if there might be something else. But there isn't, so fine.

[PoppinFresh]

Ah, I was always under the impression that soreness was a sign that your muscles had not yet recovered, I could easily be wrong about that though.

[PoppinFresh]

8/10/07

Workout A

Squat:

1x8 @ 45
1x8 @ 95
1x5 @ 115
1x5 @ 135

3x5 @ 145

Bench:

1x8 @ 45
1x7 @ 95

3x5 @ 110

Deadlift:

1x8 @ 95
1x5 @ 135
1x5 @ 155
1x5 @ 175

1x5 @ 185

Cardio: 4 min tabata sprints. Have been slacking on my long cardio on off days but will start making sure to do those next week

[PoppinFresh]

8/11/07: 30 minute jog

8/13/07: Workout B

Squat:

1x8 @ 45
1x5 @ 95
1x5 @ 135

3x5 @ 155

Standing Military:

1x6 @ 45
1x5 @ 55

1x5 @ 60, 1x5 @ 65, 1x4 @ 65

Got a little overeager with these, my first set with 60 felt good so I decided to up it to 65 for the last 2 sets but couldn't get up the last rep. Gonna go for 3x5 @ 65 on Friday

Pendlay Rows:

Just did a couple of sets with the bar to work on my form a bit. Gonna have to figure something out with these, my body structure/inflexibility make it just so tough to get down to the bar, and I was feeling a bit of pain in my lower back from deadlifts on Friday so I didn't want to mess with adding weight.

Thinking about taking a session with a personal trainer to learn how to do cleans, or maybe substitute bent-over rows. Gonna do a lot of stretching this week and work on form at home to see if it helps.

[PoppinFresh]

8/14/07: 4 min tabata sprints

8/15/07: 30 min jog

Workout A:

Worked on dropping the amount of warmup I was doing and focused more on the work sets.

Squats:

1x5 @ 45
1x5 @ 95
1x3 @ 135
1x2 @ 155

3x5 @ 160

Bench:

1x5 @ 45
1x5 @ 95

3x5 @ 115

Deadlift:

1x5 @ 115
1x3 @ 135
1x3 @ 155
1x2 @ 185

1x5 @ 195

Going to drop weight and work on form next time, after reading SamG's log I realized that I am having the same problem as him where my hips are rising faster than my shoulders at the start of the lift. No matter how much I focus, with the higher weight I just can't avoid this.

ps - been thinking about pendlay rows so much that I had a dream about beasting them w/ perfect form last night. Waking up sucked [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]