Rimduglep Gets Better With Age

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

Just happy to get back to the meat of the program. My heaviest set of OHP was not good and I ran out of gas toward the end of the 5 X 10s. Chin ups were what they were. Better than week one of last cycle.

OHP:

40 5
50 5
60 3
65 5
75 5
85 5
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10

Chin Up:

9
8
7
6
6

[shaneinga]

My energy has actually been pretty good. I suppose I needed the deload but yesterday was rough on the squats. I swear that carbing up has the opposite effect on me - it usually leads to my worst workouts and that was no different. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning's OHP/Chin Up session.

One thing I will say it that I feel like I'm seeing better visual results on this program and I don't really understand why at this point. We shall see.

That is interesting that you are seeing better visual results running 531. That is great news!

Nice lifting put in today. As long as you are progressing you are winning.

[rimduglep]

That is interesting that you are seeing better visual results running 531. That is great news!

Nice lifting put in today. As long as you are progressing you are winning.

That's the way I look at it as well. Progress is going to be slow and I'm nothing if not patient.

My next progress pics are probably going to wait until June 17, my 36th birthday. We'll see if I'm in a position to stop the cut or finish it off at that point. I'm guessing I'll still have a little bit to go before I'm comfortable with adding some calories. I'm looking forward to some sort of gains, though.

We shall see.

For now, I'm just enjoying the program. It doesn't look like much but it can be a rough one.

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

This went pretty well, except for the heaviest set of deads. The 5 X 10 got rough onthat last set but I'm developing a little more explosiveness. I added a rep to the ab wheel sets for this cycle. Doesn't seem like much, but hey... I'm doing ten percent more ab work this cycle, right?

Deadlift

120 5
140 5
170 3
180 5
210 5
240 5
140 10
140 10
140 10
140 10
140 10

Ab Wheel

11
11
11
11
11

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

This went really well, I gotta say. I felt really strong on my bench today and was a bit disappointed when it was time for the 5 X 10 as I wanted to stay heavy. That's okay though - trust the process. By the fifth set of 5 X 10, I was gassed.

Bench

65 5
85 5
100 3
110 5
125 5
145 6
85 10
85 10
85 10
85 10
85 10

Row

125 9
125 9
125 9
125 9

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

Well, I guess that's what they are talking about when they say that you will hit the wall on the 5 X 10. Ah well. I did what I could and I felt like I did it as well as I could.

Squat:

60 5
75 5
90 3
95 5
110 5
125 5
75 8
75 6
75 5

Ab Wheel:

11
11
11
11
11

[shaneinga]

Nice couple workouts! Keep it up man and you will knocking that wall down soon enough.

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

I had a pre-workout shake today as part of a new experiment. I don't know whether it helped or not, but what the hell. It's worth a shot. The workout went pretty well. Chin ups felt pretty good but OHP is feeling a little strange. I'm having trouble getting a straight up and down movement and as a result, I'm probably using too much tricep. I have been using a thumbless grip on these since it's supposed to make it easier to get better force but results are mixed. 163.6.

OHP:

40 5
50 5
55 3
65 3
70 3
80 4
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10

Chin Up:

10
8
8
8
7

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

I had a pre-workout shake today as part of a new experiment. I don't know whether it helped or not, but what the hell. It's worth a shot. The workout went pretty well. Chin ups felt pretty good but OHP is feeling a little strange. I'm having trouble getting a straight up and down movement and as a result, I'm probably using too much tricep. I have been using a thumbless grip on these since it's supposed to make it easier to get better force but results are mixed. 163.6.

OHP:

40 5
50 5
55 3
65 3
70 3
80 4
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10

Chin Up:

10
8
8
8
7

[shaneinga]

Nice work put in Michael. I have never tried the thumbless grip on OHP myself. Are you doing them seated or standing?

[rimduglep]

Nice work put in Michael. I have never tried the thumbless grip on OHP myself. Are you doing them seated or standing?

Always standing.

[shaneinga]

Always standing.

You are probably having a hard time because of the position of your wrist while doing them thumbless. I will give them a try thumbless on my next workout and see how they feel. I am picturing having to hold my wrist back farther to balance the weight, thus keeping my elbows pointed more in and closer to my body, this would cause me to push the bar directly up almost through my nose to lockout.

Here is a good video from Mr. Rippetoe on the SOHP.



I am far from mastering this lift myself, but it is interesting the mechanics involved.

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

I felt pretty good this morning. I woke up at 161.8, whch is the lowest I have been about a year. My wife commented that I don't look quite as scrawny this time around. I'm guessing that is due to squats and the 5 3 1. As far as the workout goes, it felt good. Heaviest gets got to be a bit slow and draggy rather than explosive, but I did it. Ab wheel continues to be torturous in a good way.

Deadlift:

120 5
140 5
160 3
190 3
220 3
240 5
140 10
140 10
140 10
140 10
140 10

Ab Wheel:

11
11
11
11
11

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

I enjoyed this workout. I felt strong and wished there were more heavy sets. I ended up doing the 5 X 10 work and the rows supersetted and wow, yeah. Pulse rate way up. I got about three hours and forty five minutes of sleep last night, on account of the fact that I had to cover half of third shift at work last night. Overtime - the best perk of being a supervisor at an Interactive Voice Response call center.

Bench:

65 5
85 5
100 3
120 3
135 3
150 4
85 10
85 10
85 10
85 10
85 10

Row:

125 9
125 9
125 9
125 9

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

Blah. The 5/3/1 sets for squats went just fine, as did the ab wheel. The 5 X 10 section of squats was absolutely terrible. I'm so ****ing frustrated. I guess it's mostly the problem of conflicting goals and something has to give... But a large of it is that i just suck. Back at it on Tuesday.

55 5
75 5
80 3
100 3
110 3
125 3
75 5
75 3
75 2

Ab Wheel:

11
11
11
11
11

[Talltobig]

Don't beat yourself up about it if you just had a bad day!

What are your goals? Weight loss and strength gain?

Maybe you need some more volume at your working weight. Something like 100lbs 5x5 and then keep adding from there. This would allow you to put more work in each workout and hopefully cause more adaptation. Maybe also another squat workout per week. Your squat is lighter than your bench, so you should be able to gain fast with just doing more work. Of course you know your own situation better.

Maybe upload a video of your squat to let people give you some form feedback? You could put it on the main forum to get some more input.

Keep putting the work in! Bad days will come and go...

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

This went pretty well and I suppose I'll be ready to move up another five pounds next cycle. I wish I had microplates, but what the hell. I am itching to finally get to the point where I'm doing 5 X 10 on chin ups, but I'm not there yet. Fat loss has slowed quite a bit, and that's annoying. I'll continue to buckle down though.

I'm thinking about going to the commercial gym once a week with my wife and doing a bunch of leg stuff to supplant the squat troubles. i'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to make real progress on squats and I'm wondering if it might be time to still do them but to start doing leg press/leg extension/hamstring curls and whatever else as I know I can progress on those. We shall see.



OHP:

50 5
50 5
55 3
65 5
75 3
85 4
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10

Chin Up:

10
9
8
6
7

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

This happened. I ran out of gas on the 5 X 10 deadlifts and the two heaviest sets were draggy. Ah well. 162.2.

Deadlift:

120 5
135 5
160 3
200 5
230 3
255 2
135 10
135 10
135 5

Ab Wheel:

11
11
11
11
11

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

This went pretty well, in my opinion. It certainly kicked my ass. It's 70 in the house with the AC on and I was still sweating like crazy toward the end. I have been supersetting my all of my BBB work and the assistance for the last four weeks and I think I like it that way the most on Press and Bench. It's a little clunky on the leg lifts, though. I still wish that I had more heavy sets on bench, but I'm going to trust the program. Pretty good pump today.

Bench:

70 5
90 5
100 3
125 5
145 3
160 2
90 10
90 10
90 10
90 10
90 10

Row:

125 9
125 9
125 9
125 9

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

Well, the main sets weren't so bad but by the heaviest set my form was falling apart and was different on each rep from there on out. It's a strange feeling - I feel ilke my muscles are strong enough to handle much more weight than I'm doing but I'm just not able to put it all together. I feel like form checks are kinda useless when it changes on every rep because I can't see to hold it together. I'm leaning more and more toward keeping to the basic 5/3/1 on squats and deads and then going to the commercial gym with my wife once a week for leg press/leg extension/leg curl/calf raise blowout day just so I can keep some sort of LP going with those muscles. Still, I refuse to ever give up on squats and deads because I know that they are absolutely integral. Next week is deloads, so we'll see.

My parent's visited yesterday and I got some food in me but that never seems to help, so what the hell. I'm kinda spinning my wheels on fat loss right now but I do feel like I'm getting some aesthetic results at this time. Gotta watch it though as I am still not lean enough to put feel good about putting on any sort of extra fat.

I'm thinking about starting a new account and migrating these older journal entries over just to get away from the bad old bodyspace entries - all of that evidence of start and stop from May '11 to Jan '14. I don't know.





Squat:

55 5
75 5
85 3
110 5
120 3
135 2
75 9
75 5
75 5
75 4
75 2

Ab Wheel:

11
11
11
11
11

[shaneinga]

If your form is breaking down, you should probably do a reset on whatever weight that is causing your form to break down. Right now you are cutting weight, and it is important to continue to push yourself, but not to the point where you can not maintain form on a lift. An injury now will set you back much further than resetting your working weights.

Your goal is 158.6 right? That is the direction you are headed, don't over think it. Knock that goal down, lift as heavy as you can until you get there. Once you hit goal weight, then you can put together a plan to add some muscle and bring your lifts up across your entire workout.

Patience, you have got this. You only need to drop another 5-6 pounds to hit goal. That is in the single digits. Push through and drop the weight, check that goal off and move onto the next one.

I have reset my bench press, stalled on a couple other lifts as well, it happens when you are eating in a deficit and is completely normal.

As far as getting a new account, I have like a 6 year gap in the time I joined from the time I started a journal here, I wouldn't worry about gaps and stop and starts. If anything, use it for motivation to not stop again.

Good luck.

[rimduglep]

If your form is breaking down, you should probably do a reset on whatever weight that is causing your form to break down. Right now you are cutting weight, and it is important to continue to push yourself, but not to the point where you can not maintain form on a lift. An injury now will set you back much further than resetting your working weights.

Your goal is 158.6 right? That is the direction you are headed, don't over think it. Knock that goal down, lift as heavy as you can until you get there. Once you hit goal weight, then you can put together a plan to add some muscle and bring your lifts up across your entire workout.

Patience, you have got this. You only need to drop another 5-6 pounds to hit goal. That is in the single digits. Push through and drop the weight, check that goal off and move onto the next one.

I have reset my bench press, stalled on a couple other lifts as well, it happens when you are eating in a deficit and is completely normal.

As far as getting a new account, I have like a 6 year gap in the time I joined from the time I started a journal here, I wouldn't worry about gaps and stop and starts. If anything, use it for motivation to not stop again.

Good luck.

Thanks for the post.

I'm going into a deload week so this could be a good time to work on some form issues. I'm getting impatient, but at least I know it.

I think what is bothering me is that you can't delete old lifting/weight values on Body Space... So if I want to look at a graph, it is dominated by the three years between when I started and when I got serious... It just annoys me.

[shaneinga]

I understand being impatient. I get that way as well. I then ask myself, what is the hurry? It is not like I am going to stop working out, this is my new hobby, so what is the hurry? Enjoy the process.

My goal is to be able to someday squat 3 plates per side. Will I be happy when I can? I doubt it, when that happens it will be time for 4 plates per side. It is just the nature of the beast. That is why there are people here who are doing squats at over 500 pounds and dead lifting over 600 pounds.

Point is, being impatient is a good thing, just stay within your limits and keep progressing. If you do it right, you won't ever get "there".

I don't record my workouts on bodyspace so I can't speak to that. Back when I did I was running a Bodybuilding.com routine so it made it easy. If it bothers you, start a new one.

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression: Deload week begins. Sorta boring but it went well. I kept the pace up and got a good pump out of it. I forgot to limit the "heavy set" to five reps - was thinking AMRAP and when I had banged out ten I realized I should take it easy. Chin ups went alright, but I'm still struggling to add reps. Not sure when I'll make it to 5 X 10 there. We shall see.

OHP

40 5
45 5
55 3
35 5
45 5
55 10
45 10
45 10
45 10
45 10
45 10

Ab Wheel:

166 10
166 8
166 8
166 6
166 7

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

Getting through the deload week. I have begun taking a caffeine pill with my morning shake and I think that it's kicking in when I get to the 5 X 10's. All in all, this went pretty well. I was able to keep it explosive through the whole thing. I did notice that my hamstrings seem to be further along than my quads at this point, but then again... I don't know what I'm looking at or what I'm talking about. Not qualified to make that judgment. Regardless. I'm looking forward to adding reps on the ab wheel next week.

As far as the diet, I have to watch it on the incident calories. As healthy as my sunflower seed kernels and pepitas are, those calories add up. Midnight spoonfuls while taking the dogs out may be eating into my deficit. Same thing with the two or three Jolly Ranchers I eat per day. If I can cut this stuff out I should be able to keep losing and finally finish off this silly cut. I'm a bit scared about when it's time to add mass - I know I've said I'm going to go slow - but more and more I'm reading that surplus is best from carbs, and carbs scare me at this point. Well, choosing to increase them scares me. Part of how I've been successful losing weight so far is that I've been undereating to give myself a bit of a cushion for when real life happens and my wife surprises me with something tasty. If I'm already planning on hitting/exceed maintenance and that happens... Well, yeah. Same issues everyone deals with, balancing life with their diet I guess. We shall see.

Deadlift:

120 5
135 5
160 3
110 5
135 5
160 5
135 10
135 10
135 10
135 10
135 10

Ab Wheel:

11
11
11
11
11

[rimduglep]

Ab Wheel:

166 10
166 8
166 8
166 6
166 7

These were chin ups, not Ab Wheel.

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

This kept my heart rate up and I finished all of it. I went ahead and did AMRAP on the final "heavy" set of bench, because I felt like it.
Almost through this goofy deload week. Don't worry - tomorrow's squats will kick my ass.

Bench:

70 5
85 5
100 3
70 5
85 5
100 10
85 10
85 10
85 10
85 10
85 10

Row:

125 9
125 9
125 9
125 9

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

This was fine. Deload, but instead of 5 X 10s I decide to work on some singles and then backed off a bit for a set of five. Felt fine.

Squat:

55 5
85 5
100 3
70 5
85 5
100 5
140 1
145 1
150 1
155 1
120 5

Ab Wheel:

11
11
11
11
11

[rimduglep]

Newest goal...

Good squat form.

[rimduglep]

Overall Impression:

Progress is going to be slow on OHP, especially since I'm still in a deficit. This felt alright, though some parts of my form are still clunky. As far as chinups go, I added a final set with the number of reps it will take to continue making some sort of linear progress. Sick of being stuck between 39-41 reps total for two cycles, and I doubt the extra two reps will cost me progress anywhere else.

Overhead Press:

40 5
50 5
60 3
65 5
75 5
85 4
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10
50 10

Chin Up

10
8
8
8
7
2