Talldude's Journal

[talldude84]

Well...I'm going to try to make it a habit to post progress in here every so often. I got somewhat of a busy schedule coming up (with finals approaching fast) so there will be times when I won't update for a while. Anyhow, i'm doing this to keep myself on track. I'm coming up on my 3rd week of lifting now. I actually started lifting in 9th grade and gained 30lbs of muscle that year, but then some unfortunate circumstances came up and I was without a gym for 2 years, and basketball consumed my senior year in HS. Now i'm in college and since i'm not playing competitive sports, I've made a decision to get myself in shape (because you just feel so damn good when you're in shape). Here's my today's workout:

Every excersice was done on 5x5rep, except for abs and lower back:

Today was upper body day:

155lbs bench press - felt good, needed my spot on the last 2 reps, perfect!

60lbs 1 arm row - got a nice workout on my back muscles.

dips w/bodyweight - well, i'm a tall guy (6'8) so any bodyweight excercises are a biatch because of the long arms. Went to failure on the last set.

40lbs standing shoulder press - felt like poopoo - my triceps were toast so my shoulders didn't even get a decent workout. Had to supplement with 15lbs lateral raises. Next time i'll do shoulders after bench so this doesn't happen again.

130lbs lat pulldown - felt pretty good overall. My lats are probably my weakest area, so I need to work my ass off on these. Pull ups are no-go...arms are too long and I weigh too much for my strength to be able to do enough.

35lbs standing curls - got a nice bicep workout in. Was planning on preacher curls, but it was taken.

incline twisting situps 3x10 w/35lbs plate - damn do my abs hurt now! Heh, definitely got a nice ab workout doing these.

back extensions 3x10 w/45lbs plate - lower back felt great after doing these!

trunk twists w/25lbs plate - a very nice finish to the workout. I love this excercis since it hits so many muscles all at once!

Overall workout felt pretty good. I got a energy drink and high protein nuts to eat right after working out. Then I got 2 sandwiches made on whole wheat bread with lots of meat in them. One of them was turkey, the other one was assorted deli meats (it tasted GREAT). Eat them about 2 hours apart.

I noticed that I've gone up in weight also. I was at 227lbs, which is the heaviest i've ever been. I've also been noticing that I'm losing fat and gaining more definition all around my body. This is great since i'm trying to work up to 240lbs while lowering my fat percentage.

I changed my diet this past week to 5-6 meals a day of healthy food and lots of protein. Within the next few weeks I should be seeing results from the diet. So far, I think it's working since I've gained some weight.

More to come next week!

[talldude84]

Well...been super busy this week with school.

Anyways, yesterday I went to play a bit of b-ball and then lift. However, as it turns out I had a b-ball game and I had to play the entire game. We lost too . I was feeling pretty tired but I still went to lift:

Wed, april 14 workout (lower body day):

SLDL 165lbs - 5x5 Felt ok during this. Adding weight next time.

Squat 185lbs - 5x5 My quads were already super tired from the 1hr+ of intense b-ball so I went light. Next week more weight.

shrugs w/jumping motion - 185lbs - 5x5 I wasn't up to do hang cleans so I just went with this to give the traps/calves a bit of a workout as well as getting some explosiveness training in.

All in all I felt like **** in the weight room, so I reduced weight in every excercise and skipped some excercises altogether. Next leg day is going to be a lot better since b-ball and ultimate frisbee are over and my legs are getting proper rest now. Didn't weigh myself - I think i've dropped a bit of weight though, all fat as far as I can tell. Overall feeling better than in a long time.

[talldude84]

April 17, 2004:

Weight: 222

Workout:

incline DB press - 55lbs 5x5

BB row - 125lbs 5x5

lat raises - 15lbs 5x5

Wide grip pulldown - 135lbs 5x5

cable fly - 50lbs 5x5

cable row - 130lbs 3x5

incline situps w/10lb plate behind head - 3x10

Wood choppers - 25lbs 3x10

Felt good, got a great pump on my biceps today. My weight's staying pretty steady, but I can see that the fat is leaving my body. Next time i'm going to increase my benchpress to 165lbs and see how that feels, and lat raises @ 20lbs.

[Heisman]

Do you have a set routine?

How many cool dunks can you do?

[talldude84]

Originally posted by Heisman
Do you have a set routine?

How many cool dunks can you do?

I don't really have a set routine right now. I try to vary it up as much as possible. However, I know what I have to do to hit every muscle group I have, so on one day I might do an incline DB press instead of regular bench. That kinda thing. It's working so far. I've gotten a lot leaner in the past month, my weight has stayed about the same but I'm starting to get striations in my shoulders now and my 4 pack is showing through clear. I feel a lot stronger/quicker already too.

As for dunks:

180
360 (can't do 2 hands yet)
1/2 hand tomahawk
bring it from the hip, across the body with 1 hand

Those are my favs. I can do pretty much every dunk that you've seen except between the legs, windmill and freethrow line (I need about 2ft in from the ft line). I dunno why I can't get the windmill down...guess I don't have the hangtime. Same goes for between the legs - not enough time in the air/too slow at bringing it through the legs.

By next year, I should have all this **** down, if I keep with working out.

[Heisman]

Cool.

You can do a frickin windmill. Just practice a bit with a tennis ball. As soon as you get in the air bring your arm around as fast as you can. A windmill is one of the easiest dunks for me (on a much shorter rim ), so I know you can do it.

[talldude84]

April 21, 2004

Height - still 6'8"

Weight - 222lbs

Lower body day workout:


Squats - 5x5 @ 225lbs

Romanian DL - 5x5 @ 205lbs

Standing Calf Raise - 5x5 @ 360lbs

Hang Cleans - 3x5 @ 135lbs

Abs - 20, 10 w/25lbs plate

Trunk twists - 2x15 w/25lbs plate

I felt pretty good during this workout. I played 2 hours of b-ball before lifting - not exactly the smartest thing to do - but my legs weren't too tired from that so I had no problems lifting. On my very last squat, I lost form at the bottom of the lift so I had to bail...bummer. Romanian DL felt strong, going to be adding some poundage to it. Also, next lower body day I will be adding regular deadlifts to my routine. My arms were SUPER tired from gripping the damn barbell for so long...gotta work on that. Calf raises were kinda weak today, must have been because I played so much b-ball beforehand.

I will keep adding poundage to all my lifts. I'm feeling a lot stronger, and I've gotten my body accustomed to the movements again so it's time to crank up the weight. Also, i'm contemplating of doing a set of 20 squats for my last set. Putting enough weight on there to make me have to rest after about 10, then squeeze out a couple more, repeat. That's supposed to build up strength real quick.

That's pretty much it for now. Next update will be on saturday or sunday (unless someone posts in this thread).

[talldude84]

April 25, 2004

Weight: 225lbs

Upper body workout day:

DB bench press - 60lbs 5x5

BB row - 115lbs 3x5, 135lbs 2x5

DB military press - 45lbs 3x5, 40lbs 1x5

Cable row - 115, 130, 145, 160, 175 all sets of 5.

lat raises, front raises - 15lbs 5x5

dips - 5x5 bodyweight

Cable pushdowns - 130lbs 3x5

abs - 25lbs plate incline, 3x10

Back extensions - 45lbs, 3x10

Cuban rotation - 25lbs, 5x5


Workout went well...I really felt the pump afterwards. The cuban rotation was something I've never done before, and I found out how weak those little external rotator muscles really are. I've had a tiny bit of shoulder probs in the past, hopefully this will take care of all of that.

Triceps got blasted, felt really great. I'm looking for an effective chest excercise though. I need something that will really hit the pecs hard.

My back has gotten a whole lot stronger...I'm finding that BB rows and cable rows are a heck of a lot easier than when I started. I can finally start putting some good weight on there.

[talldude84]

I'm loving the results!!! I'm getting more and more ripped. I can see clear striations in my shoulders now, back is coming very nicely, abs are ok (I got that damn roll on there that doesn't ever want to go away), feeling REALLY damn good.

Tommorrow is leg day again and I'm looking forward to dominating the weights tommorrow.

Bodyfat percentage is going down all the time, but my weight is still around 225lbs. Gaining muscle, losing fat. It's taking a bit longer for the gains/loss since i'm on a very mild cutting diet. Since I haven't lifted seriously in a long time, it's noob gains for me, but that's fine since i'm losing fat at the same time. Gonna be in killer shape for the summer.

Will update tommorrow.

[talldude84]

April 28, 2004

Weight: 220lbs

Lower body workout:

Squats - 135x5 warmup, 225x5, 245x5, 245x5, 225x5, 225x5

Romanian DL - 225x5x4

Hang cleans - 135x5, 145x3x5

standing calf raise - 360x5x5

Incline situps - 35lbs plate, 15x3


Wow...today was GREAT. I was screaming on the last 2 squats I did. Those 2 sets of 245 really got me working. I was about to puke up my breakfast during those. Once again though, my forearms were tired as hell during/after the romanian DL. I had to go 5 sets of 3 reps on hang cleans because my arms just couldn't handle it. I was trembling after I did my squats, so I definitely got a workout from those. Next time i'll try to go a warmup set, 1 set of 225, and rest at 245lbs. Also, would it be good to switch up the romanian DL and hang cleans? I think that my arms would be able to handle it better that way. The only prob is doing hang cleans right after squatting, since my legs quads/glutes would be blasted already so I wouldn't possibly get the explosiveness I need for the cleans. Any advice on this?

I am moving to a 3 day split after school is over (1 week to go) and I think that'll help to alleviate my gripping probs as well.

[talldude84]

May 1, 2004

Weight: 220lbs

Upper body workout day:

Bench press - 165x5x5

BB row - 135x5x5

BB military press - 95x5x2, 85x5x3

Cable row - 155x5, 165x5, 175x5

dips - 5x5 bodyweight

wide grip pulldowns - 145x5x4, 160x4

abs - 35lbs plate decline, 3x15

Cuban rotation - 25lbs, 5x6


Good workout. Bench went really well today, I could muster 165x5, from 155x5 just 3 weeks ago. I've never been good at bench press, and it's been really hard for me to move up in weight in it. Feels good to be making gains. Dips went awesome today too. I went down REAL far, no probs getting back up like I would have before. Definitely getting some more upper body strenght!

[Heisman]

Nice workouts bro.

The cleans probably wouldn't be that smart to do right after the squats.

Do you have straps? If not, you could get some until your grip got better. Only use them if absolutely necessary.

[talldude84]

I don't have any straps...the problem has been that I have only a 2 day split because of time constraints (which will be done with in 4 days when I go back home). I have to cram in all these excercieses into 2 days which is really taxing on some of the smaller muscles because they get hit so many times in one workout. I'll probably switch up my routine, do cleans before squats, then romanian DL after squats. That way my arms get a break between the torture.

[Heisman]

Don't think about this too much bro. In four days you can go back to a more normal split and all will be well.