Swann's Dry Bones Journal
[B][I] The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. ... And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ... So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ... So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10 ESV)[/I][/B]
I was trying to think of what to call this journal, and this passage came to mind. The dead, dry bones returning to life. I'm starting out the dry bone; the goal is to become an exceedingly great army!
In putting together my workout plan, I re-evaluated my goals. I knew that I wanted to return to - and even exceed - the strength I had in the 'halcyon days of youth' ten years ago. So maximal strength was on the docket. I also want to redevelop some speed and explosive power, which I really haven't worked on since I was practicing combat arts, also about ten years ago. Finally, I didn't want to completely ignore cardio - especially with my family history of heart disease - so I needed to include some cardio without detracting from my other goals.
These came together in my workout plan. I'm using Wendler 531 as a base. First, it's a proven solid strength training program. That addresses my maximal strength concerns. Second, it is very adaptable regarding secondary lifts. This allowed me to add power cleans for my explosive training without too much difficulty at all. For cardio, I'm using the HIIT program from here ([url]http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ultimate-8-week-hiit-for-fat-burning-program.html[/url]). It came together fairly well this morning, IMHO.
[B][U]Day 1, 6/20/2011[/U][/B]
Warm-up (Recumbent Bike, 10-Count Burpees)
[B]531 Squats[/B]
45x10 (Stretching set to loosen up the knees and lower back)
135x3 (Warm-up set)
170x5
195x5
220x12
[I]I only did the stretching set and the warm-up set since the first working set is so light. I figured my squat max at about 287, which is about twenty pounds less than my max, but until I can finish my power rack I didn't want to push my luck with my improvised squat rack. Safety first and all![/I]
[B]Power Clean and Press, supersets with Front Squats (Clean Grip)[/B]
95x4 / 4
115x4 / 4
135x3 / 3
155x2 / 2
165x1 / 1
[I]The numbers before/after the slash are the reps for the cleans/squats. I haven't really done Front Squats prior to the last week and a half or so, so they are still somewhat new for me. So even though I could have done significantly more squats, I decided to keep them at the same number as the cleans until I feel more comfortable with my form and whatnot. Next week if I don't increase my FS reps, then I'll do some individual sets of FS apart from the PCs. I unashamedly do a push-press for the press part of the Power Clean and Press.[/I]
[B]One-Armed T-Bar Row, supersets with Bench Dips[/B]
3x70x7 (Each Arm)/ 3x10 Dips
[I]My T-Bar is a home improvisation. I put the olympic bar into the wedge of one of the studs in the garage to hold the end, weight the other end, and have at it. So technically there is some weight from the bar, but I'm not concerned enough to figure the coefficients and whatnot, so just the added weight is good enough for me. My last set had five good reps, but the sixth and seventh were pretty ugly. Bench Dips felt good; I may need to weight these next time.[/I]
[B]Pull-Up Complex[/B]
3 Assisted, 4 Assisted, 3 Assisted, 1 Negative, 1 Maximum Hang
[I]My back is lagging from too much time focusing on my front side (bench; I admit it, I made the same dumb mistakes a lot of kids do). I'd like to regain the pull-up ability that I had in the Marines, so I added these as well. I'm basically using the program from this site ([url]http://www.fiftypullups.com[/url]). Even though I can do some pull-ups, I'm starting at the lowest rung of the training program since I'm doing this at the end of my workout. I figure when I can get to 5x7 or so at the end of the workout, then I should be able to do around 20 or so fresh. If it works, then I'll add weight and go back to the beginning. I don't need to do 50, but 20 would be nice.[/I]
Wrap-up
([B]Turkish Get-Ups 1x25x3[/B] (Each Arm) [These were mostly done as a cool-down, hence the low weight and reps]; [B]HIIT Training Phase 1[/B] [I only did 6 of the 10 cycles, since a thunderstorm decided to show up and relieve me from my sprints])
Overall I feel really positive about today. My major two concerns are the sloppy form on the third set of the T-Bar Rows, which is easy to correct; and the limited number of Front Squats that I did. I really need to do more than this as accessory lifts on Squat day. I'll have figured out how I want to approach this come next week.
And to anyone following this journal, thanks and welcome aboard!