Bluebirds, Butterflies, and Barbells - A Starting Strength Journal

[FastCatChamp]

I like the diagrams up above......

...nice looking program

[PeterGibbons316]

Cross posting from home gym flooring thread...

Finally got my floor put in today....



Five 4'x16' ½" thick rubber rolls from www.rubberflooringinc.com. My room is actually 15'10" wide, and each roll was between 6 and 18 inches longer than ordered, so I had to cut the excess off each roll to fit in the space. Honestly this was not nearly as bad as I had imagined. I taped a straight line, ran a razor blade along the tape, and then just kept slicing along that same line until the excess was cut off.

I had everything laid and spaced out, so I just rolled back the rubber one side at a time, put some glue down, and then rolled it back over the glue. I made sure to keep the rolls close together to help hide seams as best as possible. I had never used a trowel, but it seemed pretty self explanatory. The adhesive I used was also from rubberflooringinc - http://www.rubberflooringinc.com/acc...-adhesive.html I put some weights on top of the edges and at the seams as it cures (in pic).

Lastly I caulked the outside edges with some of this stuff: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Sonneborn...2#.UcPEvvmkqgs I actually didn't quite have enough, but I'm not sure I will bother getting any more.

Waiting for everything to cure for a couple days before setting up all my equipment. Huge sense of accomplishment getting this done completely by myself. In my last house I paid someone like $500 to do this in a space about half as big. So I'm pumped to have put down twice as much flooring for a little more than half the cost! It was a full days work though. Took me about an hour or maybe a little more to cut and prep everything, then probably 3-4 hours to put down the adhesive and caulk. Will post some additional pics once it cures and I get all my equipment in there.

[jshaw5]

Sweet, so you gonna have everything set up this weekend?

[12ccopeland]

Friggin sweet. I can't wait to know this feel some day

[PeterGibbons316]

Sweet, so you gonna have everything set up this weekend?

Probably. I'm supposed to go to Mexico this week, so really it doesn't need to be finished until I get back. Shouldn't take me more than an hour to get everything set up though. I do still want to build a deadlift platform. I have the plywood sitting down there waiting, just need to screw/glue it together and go get some stall mats for it. Although, I might actually use the leftover flooring strips that I have instead of going to get the stall mats - depends on whether or not I can get the seams done right.

[GinjaNinja85]

Good work getting that all done yourself. As a tradesman myself, I know that good feeling of saving money on other people's labour well. Sounds like you made a professional job of it.

[mstatefan91]

Awesome work getting your new home gym set up. Also, looks like your strength is holding up pretty well. How much longer on the cut?

[PeterGibbons316]

Good work getting that all done yourself. As a tradesman myself, I know that good feeling of saving money on other people's labour well. Sounds like you made a professional job of it.

Awesome work getting your new home gym set up. Also, looks like your strength is holding up pretty well.

Thanks guys!

How much longer on the cut?

Good question. Maybe another 10 weeks or so? I'm getting close to being able to dunk, not sure if another 10 lbs would be enough to get me there.

[PeterGibbons316]

Conditioning - Week 21 ME Day
BW: 207.2

Color code:
Estimated 1RM PR (weight + 0.033 x weight x reps)
PR for reps/weight

Squat
45x5
45x5
135x5
225x3
315x2
365x1
405x2 (vid)

I feel like I've been doing this long enough to know that I'm hitting depth, but in the vid these don't even look close. Next time I squat I'm going to have to get a good vid from knee height.

Probably could have had another, but would have been a grinder.

Bench Press
45x5
45x5
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x3

Was going for 2, but the second was easy so I got a third. Not much of a grind surprisingly.

Deadlift
135x8
225x5
315x3
455x1 (vid)

Wasn't happy with the speed, so I didn't even try a 2nd. Form looked solid though.

Seated DB OHP
35s x 5
50s x 5
75s x 1
65s x 5

Wasted a lot of energy just getting the 75s into position, and the single turned into a bit of a grind, but I got it - felt great. Incredible how much easier 65s and even 70s are compared to 75s on this exercise for me. Considering sticking with the 65s until I can get 8 and then progressing like that.

Basketball
~90 minutes

Heart rate monitor was screwed up today for some reason so no graphs. I played 3 or 4 games. I played awesome my 2nd game, but we lost. Typically the winning team stays and the next 5 guys waiting to play will jump in and play against the winners. If there are only 2 guys wanting to get in, the 5 guys that lost shoot three-pointers until 3 guys hit and they get to stay. Well I suck at shooting threes, so even though I scored more than anyone else on my team that game, I had to sit out the next game I went over a court and did nothing but shoot threes. Gonna have to work on that going forward.

Vid:



Notes:
Since we moved out of my mom's we have been doing "Saturday mornings with Mimi" - I get up at 6:30-7:00, take my son to my mom's, go to the gym, then go pick him up, grab lunch, and head home. So far it's working out really well. While I was at my mom's I grabbed all the rest of our stuff that we were storing over there. And after heavy squats and deadlifts, and an hour and a half of basketball....I tweaked my back loading a ~40 lb box into my car at my mom's. Feels like a pull/pinched nerve in the right side of my mid back - bottom of lat or trap or something. Nothing major, but it just pisses me off.

Lifting went well though. Everything was feeling tight and solid. PC was a little fatigued from being hunched over in the basement all day on Thursday, so I took it easy on my squats/deads.

BW lowest all year as well.

[12ccopeland]

You definitely hit depth there PG, fret not. Very solid workout; hopefully the back gets better quickly :O

[PeterGibbons316]

Thanks man. I think the back will be fine, although I'm a little worried about flying on Monday. Those seats are so small that I usually end up with a catch in my back when I fly - we'll see. Maybe my boss will call me tomorrow and ask me not to even go.

Also, not to toot my own horn, but I love how the weight bounces at lockout.

[jshaw5]

Good stuff man, glad to see those lifts are holding strong. I hate shooting squats at that angles, if that's my only option I'd almost rather just not record them at all haha.

Nice job on the weight loss, but I will catch you haha. I think I was 207.6 this morning, but I did a high carb refeed today, so my weight will probably go up a little bit and take a few days for it to settle back down.

[dopamine72]

Sucks about the tweak bro. A lot of lifters who get inured hurt themselves doing things outside of the gym like that when they are not warmed up. So be careful.

Nice double with 405.

[im2manly]

you are a ginger? +that double didn't look to bad at all. #toohardonself.

[PeterGibbons316]

Conditioning - Week 22 ME Day
BW: ???

Color code:
Estimated 1RM PR (weight + 0.033 x weight x reps)
PR for reps/weight

Squat
44x5
44x5
132x5
220x3
308x2
396x3

Everything was in kilos, didn't bother adding more weight, just loaded my 4 plates and left it at that.

Bench Press
44x5
44x5
133x5
181x3
220x2
253x0
253x3

This bench sucked. The hooks for the bar were like 6 inches long. So I set up under the bar like I normally do, unracked fine, but as I came up on my first rep I slammed into the bottom of the first set of safeties. Some dude was there watching me so rather than grind out a paused rep from there he just pulled it off of me and racked it. Tried again setting up farther from the bar and hit all 3 reps.

Deadlift
132x8
220x5
308x3
352x1
396x5

Everyone in a 30 ft. radius had stopped what they were doing to watch. All the bars there had no knurl anywhere near my standard deadlift grip location, so I had to use straps on these and it was still starting to slip toward the end. Felt really good.

Vid:

Tried to get a vid of my squat but the camera fell over before I even got in the rack Gym was too crowded to get other vids.

Notes:
So I'm in Mexico on business this week. My friend here found a gym walking distance from the hotel with barbells and a rack, and got me all set up there. It is a good thing he went with me too because otherwise I never would have gotten in there. They wanted to know my medical history, blood type, emergency contact, etc., etc. My Spanish is very basic, no way I could have understood all that. They have a fingerprint reader that I had to set up as well, and now I can go back all week. I might go Thursday night, but probably not. This was all for 71 pesos - less than $7......for the entire week.

Glad I was able to get some work in. I wasn't sure what the altitude would do to my lifts (at ~6000 ft right now), but didn't seem to have too big of an impact. I am struggling to stay hydrated, and yawning constantly though. Hoping to be back home Friday night, but there is talk of staying til Saturday. We will see.

[MatTheCur]

LOL at people stopping to watch a 400lb dl... I can only imagine what it must've looked like


Great work Jason

[dk240t]

Always feels like a bonus for me when I can get a serious lifting session in while traveling.

I'm back from Chicago/Italy/Baltimore now. Will be back in the gym today finally after a couple weeks off.

[Ironlife]

Nice job mate, getting gym time in when your in another country. Great dedication bro

[adamdavidson47]

I hate it when I hit the rack during bench. Never fails. Stupid fukcing thing.

[jshaw5]

Nice job getting it done in another country. Is your home gym waiting for you at home, or do you still have to set it up when you get back?

[Juggernaut0]

Nice job gutting it out in a different enviornment.

Imagine if you didn't go so light on squats. Jaws woulda been on the floor. lulz

[PeterGibbons316]

LOL at people stopping to watch a 400lb dl... I can only imagine what it must've looked like


Great work Jason

Thanks!

Always feels like a bonus for me when I can get a serious lifting session in while traveling.

I'm back from Chicago/Italy/Baltimore now. Will be back in the gym today finally after a couple weeks off.

Nice job mate, getting gym time in when your in another country. Great dedication bro

Yeah, I'm glad I looked in to it because the last time I was here there were no good gyms anywhere around. Just takes a little work up front to line something up - and a friend willing to help with the language barrier

I hate it when I hit the rack during bench. Never fails. Stupid fukcing thing.

Ugh, yeah that was bad. Especially because it was the BOTTOM safety position. So I'm pinned at that point, or forced to do the roll of shame. That's what happens when people that don't lift design fancy workout equipment.....and then people that don't know any better put it in their gym.

Nice job getting it done in another country. Is your home gym waiting for you at home, or do you still have to set it up when you get back?

I have to set it up when I get back. I'll make my friend help me though, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes really. I took the rack apart in just 5 pieces, and I think everything else was able to stay together.

[PeterGibbons316]

Conditioning - Week 23 Dynamic Effort
BW: ???

Color code:
Estimated 1RM PR (weight + 0.033 x weight x reps)
PR for reps/weight

Power Cleans
45x5
135x5
135x5
155x3
155x3
155x3
165x3
165x3
165x3

Dropped the weight on these and worked on my rack. Went well with the 155 sets, but there were a couple reps with 165 where I didn't get my elbows up enough.

Basketball
~1 hour

Played an awesome game against guys that were a lot better than me, but held my own. Scored about half my teams points. Very happy even though we lost.

At the start of the second game some guy on the other team threw a cross court pass and I was about to intercept it. I see my teammate running for it as well and I'm like "I got it, I got it" but he kept running and ran right in to me. Our legs got tangled up really bad and I hit the floor pretty hard. My knee was really bothering me afterward, still had full functionality but there was pain there so I didn't do much hard running or jumping after that. Left after that game. Too pissed off to bother uploading my heart rate data as a result.

Vid:

No vids.

Notes:
So I've got this sharp pain behind my right knee whenever I bend my knee. The pain is on the outer side of the knee. I've done a little reading and I'm thinking either a strain in my biceps femoris or a sudden case of tendinitis in that area. Running hot water over it in the shower helped, as well as ibuprofen. I should probably stay off it for about a week or too, but I'm stubborn and will probably play Frisbee on Tuesday anyway (although it is supposed to rain, so maybe I'll get lucky and it will be canceled). I'm so upset that this happened .

[Ironlife]

So I've got this sharp pain behind my right knee whenever I bend my knee. The pain is on the outer side of the knee. I've done a little reading and I'm thinking either a strain in my biceps femoris or a sudden case of tendinitis in that area. Running hot water over it in the shower helped, as well as ibuprofen. I should probably stay off it for about a week or too, but I'm stubborn and will probably play Frisbee on Tuesday anyway (although it is supposed to rain, so maybe I'll get lucky and it will be canceled). I'm so upset that this happened .

Hmm seems similar to the pain i felt, and still dealing with. I am feeling slightly better after 4 weeks no squats and i can now bend without pain but just stiffness is still there in the mornings. Heat packs and light stretching of the quads and hammys helps

[MatTheCur]

Oi ... Take care of the knee, Jason. Also, I hope you were waiting for the dude in the parking lot with a "gift" for his knee... lol

[HunterMC6]

Notes:
So I've got this sharp pain behind my right knee whenever I bend my knee. The pain is on the outer side of the knee. I've done a little reading and I'm thinking either a strain in my biceps femoris or a sudden case of tendinitis in that area. Running hot water over it in the shower helped, as well as ibuprofen. I should probably stay off it for about a week or too, but I'm stubborn and will probably play Frisbee on Tuesday anyway (although it is supposed to rain, so maybe I'll get lucky and it will be canceled). I'm so upset that this happened .

I would advise against this. Every time I have injured myself and thought F it I will just go do "insert activity here" it had made it way worse. However go with what you feel.

[jshaw5]

Sucks about the knee man. I'd say play it on the safe side and skip frisbee, but I've been in that spot many times where I've been injured and I kept trying to play before fully healed, making it take much much longer to fully recover.

[Juggernaut0]

Heal that knee up quickly man. Hope all is well.

[PeterGibbons316]

Knee feels a lot worse today than yesterday. No way I will be doing anything for probably at least a week. I don't even feel comfortable trying to cut the grass.

Thanks for the kind words fellas, I appreciate you looking out for me

[12ccopeland]

Knee feels a lot worse today than yesterday. No way I will be doing anything for probably at least a week. I don't even feel comfortable trying to cut the grass.

Thanks for the kind words fellas, I appreciate you looking out for me

I definitely agree with staying off of it then. Christ injuries suck. Every time I tweak something slightly I just think the worst of it but it usually ends up being nothing. Heal up quick big guy.