Jordan's Log

[Jordan]

Jordan's Log

SamG has inspired me to start up my own log on here to track my progress and get some feedback.

I'll steal his format for my introductory post.

I'm Jordan. I've never been in great shape, and would like to change that. I'd like to be healthy and get babes.

* VITALS

Height: 6'2"
Weight: ~225
Age: 22
Sex: Male

I'd estimate my bf% to be around 25%. I definitely have a bunch to lose, and a lot of strength to gain.

* BACKGROUND

I've dabbled with weight training before, but I've never been totally dedicated to it. In the past I have focused on my upper body, but would like to focus on total body transformation from here on.

I'm a relative n00b at squatting and deadlifting. This is definitely something I need to change. I've done some research and had others look at my form. Keeping my back straight and getting deep enough are my main challenges with squatting. My deadlift form is probably okay, although my knees might be going a bit too far forward for my later reps.

In the past two months I've begun working out about 5 times a week, lifting 3x a week and doing cardio 4-5x typically 20-40 minutes. I've lost about 6 pounds and have seen modest improvements in my lifts and cardio performance.

I do fine on ellipticals, but I absolutely suck at swimming and running. My swimming form is terribly inefficient and I can barely swim 50m in a row. I ran my best mile about 2 weeks ago in 8 minutes. Recently I ran 1.5 miles in a little under 15 minutes. These were both very challenging for me.

* GOALS

-Lose weight. I'd like to get to 205-210 pounds or so and then reevaluate my weight goals.

-Get strong. Benching 225lbs has always been a goal of mine. Ideally I'd be able to bench it multiple times, but for now I'll set this as my 1RM goal.
For the other lifts I'd like to be able to at least get to a novice level for my weight according to this http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLi...Standards.html
1RM goals:
Military Press: 120
Bench Press: 225
Squat: 235
Deadlift: 300
Clean: 170

-Get conditioned: I want to be able to run a 5K at a 9 minute mile pace like it's no big deal. And I'd like to be able to do it at a 7 minute mile pace if I really push myself. I am clearly very far from being able to accomplish either of these, but that's why they are goals.

-Look good. I figure this will come naturally once I reach my other goals.

* PLANNED ROUTINE

Rippetoe Starting Strength, with some form of cardio 5-6x a week. I'm planning to do 20 minutes on the elliptical after lifting, and either ~40 minutes of elliptical or running on off days.

* EQUIPMENT

I have a membership at the YMCA, and I also bought a pair of New Balance 817s for running.

* DIET/SUPPLEMENTS

My diet is fairly good. I eat Kashi GoLean in the morning. A spinach/mixed greens salad with a breast of chicken and an egg or two at lunch, with some soup occasionally added in. After work, I'll eat some ANPB on my wheat bread with a little jelly. Post workout I'll have a protein shake and a creatine shake. For dinner I usually have about a pound of lean meat with some spinach or other veggies.

Supplements: I'm taking a multivitamin, about 6g of fish oil, glucosamine chondroitin, creatine, and I just started taking an ECA stack to give myself a boost in fat loss.

Thanks for reading, comments are welcome. Pics of me/videos of lifts are a future possibility…

[Jordan]

Week 1:
9/4/07
Workout A:

Squat:
1x8x95 – Probably not enough warmup
3x5x135 – a bit too heavy, form wasn’t as crisp as it should have been.

Bench
Didn’t warmup… kind of stupid of me
1x5x165 – This was heavy for me and was likely my 5rm. I finished but had to lower weight for the next sets.
2x5x145 – This wasn’t too hard, but I wanted to make sure I finished the sets for my first Rippetoe workout.

Deadlift
1x5x75 – just practicing form
1x5x135 – too heavy for me I was doing my best to keep my back straight but I am pretty sure I didn’t do a great job.

[Jordan]

9/6/07
Workout B:

Squat
1x8x45
1x8x95
3x5x115 – a little light but I decided it was better to start slow and make sure I’m doing it right

Press
1x8x45
1x8x55
1x8x65
3x5x75
I wasn’t sure what I was capable of here so I kept going up in weight until I found a weight I was comfortable doing 5x, but still fairly heavy.

Pendlay Rows
1x8x45
1x8x55
3x5x75
Again I wasn’t sure what I was capable of here... This still felt a little light.

[Jordan]

Week 1:
9/8//07
Workout A:

Squat:
1x8x45
1x8x75
3x5x125
This felt pretty good. I think I may have gotten sloppy on my last couple of reps though.

Bench
1x8x45
1x8x95
3x5x155
Bench felt good today. Going to try to move up to 160 next time.

Deadlift
1x8x45
1x8x75
1x8x95
1x5x115
I wanted to make sure I got the form right here. I felt like I could have done a bit more, but I’ll be patient, and add slowly.

[SamG]

Good luck, Jordan. Keep it up!

[Jordan]

Thanks for the encouragement, Sam!

Next lifting day is Tuesday so I decided to try my luck at running today. I "ran" 2 miles in 20 minutes. This is as far as I've ever gone, but I feel like I cheated a little because the last .4 miles or so was downhill. It was encouraging nonetheless.

[Jordan]

yesterday I got my body fat % measured. It was 23.6% by the caliper method using my tricep, back and chest. I think this estimate is a little low, because I carry a slightly disproportionate amount of fat in my legs/butt, but it's close enough... i did 30 minutes on the elliptical afterwords.

Today.. not going to list the two warm-up sets for each exercise
9/11/07 Workout B
Squat
3x5x135

Military Press
3x5x85
Tough but I pulled through.

Pendlay Row
3x5x80

30 mins elliptical (~440 calories according to machine)

Workout felt very good. I think I'll be ready to squat more on Thursday.

[Jordan]

9/13/07 Workout A

Squat
3x5x145
Very happy with squat progress. I think I've made great improvements in form since I found the squat rx videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq8CWv8UPAI

Bench
3x5x160
The hardest workout of today. My bench is my strongest lift right now, but that's because it's all I've ever worked on until a month ago. I think my bench will go up very slowly relative to my other lifts, and will likely be surpassed soon by both squats and deadlifts.

Deads
1x5x125
Could have done a little more possibly, but this was challenging. Will up again on Saturday.

Body weight at the gym post workout was around 223 lbs.

[Jordan]

9/15/07 Workout B

Squat
3x5x155
This felt awesome. I felt the burn throughout my whole quad.

Military Press
3x5x90
Very happy with this lift as well.

Pendlay Rows
3x5x85
This wasn't too bad. I think I may want to learn to clean soon though. I'll start studying videos of it.

After my workout I felt good so I decided to try to see if I could do a pullup. To my surprise I was able to handle doing three in a row. Very encouraging. I thought I'd have to wait until I was down to ~200 pounds before even being able to do one.

After lifting I did 20 minutes of Cardio at ~155 bpm on the elliptical.

Overall a great workout, and I can confidently say that even though I'm heavier than I've been in a while, I'm as fit as I've ever been.

[shemp]

That's awesome on the pull-ups Jordan. They are tough on a heavier guy. You do want to feel that squat in your butt.