Getting some work done!!!...nice slow progression and you'll be surprised in a few months what those numbers will look like...Keep up the great work
|
-
08-07-2017, 06:32 AM #31
- Join Date: Dec 2012
- Location: Santa Clara, California, United States
- Age: 66
- Posts: 13,001
- Rep Power: 41818
"You got soul and everybody knows that its alright".....Curtis Mayfield........"Eat to be strong weights and reps"....Me....."leave the gun take the cannoli".....Fat Clemenza
"Believin is alright just don't believe in the wrong thing"....Sonny Boy Williamson
"You know you're over the hill when your mind makes a promise your body can't fill"......Paul Barrere Little Feat
-
08-09-2017, 08:40 PM #32
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
OK, last night (Tuesday) was the end of my 4th week, and to me it marks the completion of the first phase of my comeback. I did a 5-rep maximum text at the very beginning, and then started week 1 about 10% below that. Week 4 was where I worked my way back up to that level as a working weight, so all my future workouts will be increasing progressively above those numbers.
Things did feel a bit heavy last night, but not so heavy as to be a strain or uncomfortable. And I added reps to my pullups and pushups!
Squats:
47x5
60x5
71x5
84x5
97x4
71x9
Bench Press:
54x5
66x5
79x5
92x5
109x4
79x9
BB Rows:
54x5
66x5
79x5
92x5
109x4
79x9
Overhead Press:
44x5
44x5
46x5
54x5
64x4
46x9
Accessories:
Pullups, 5+4+3, total 12. Pleasantly surprised myself a little, considering 5 weeks ago I couldn't do any.
Calf Raises. 10x32 + 10x30, each leg, 10lb dumbell in free hand. I'll increase to 20lb next session.
Pushups, 29+26+23, total 78. I was hoping to get to 30 on that first set, but couldn't quite do it. Next time for sure.“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
-
08-10-2017, 07:39 AM #33
-
08-10-2017, 07:42 AM #34
-
08-10-2017, 02:12 PM #35
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
Hey, a man can dream!
A year and a half ago I got as high as 18. Then a bout with elbow tendinitis followed by a bit of weight gain knocked me back to 15. That's where I was at when my world turned upside down. Making it to 20 would be a dream come true, but that's been my ultimate goal since I started this thing.“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-10-2017, 02:14 PM #36
-
-
08-10-2017, 06:13 PM #37
- Join Date: Oct 2010
- Location: Indiana, United States
- Age: 57
- Posts: 5,316
- Rep Power: 121557
I've struggled with this from time to time too. Not sure if its coincidence or not, but I've gone to ring chins done in the neutral position; I wear elbow braces; I'm not stupid with my volume (60-90 reps per week MAX); and I've started doing forearm exercises (I've heard a forearm/bicep imbalance can contribute to tendinitis) but of course YMMV
-
08-10-2017, 08:11 PM #38
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
I was doing 5 sets of split pullups/chinups on a crooked curl bar at the time. I was also adding a 35lb plate twice a week, with body weight once a week. I think it was the close-grip chinups that led to the elbow problems. I replaced the curl bar with a straight one, got elbow wraps, and switched to lower volume bodyweight pullups only until the elbows healed. After that I worked my way back up to 15 and then stalled there. I'm curious as to how far I'll get this time around, but I'm not too keen on trying the chinups again for a while.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-12-2017, 12:18 PM #39
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
Started week 5 Friday night, and the progress continues. I added another rep to the tail end of my pullups, and hit 30 pushups for the first time in eight months. I felt a bit of challenge from the weights, but its not serious yet.
Squats:
49x5
61x5
74x5
85x5
97x5
Bench Press:
55x5
67x5
82x5
94x5
109x5
BB Rows:
55x5
67x5
82x5
94x5
109x5
Overhead Press:
44x5
44x5
47x5
55x5
64x5
Accessories:
Pullups, 5+4+4, total 13.
Calf Raises, 20x30 + 20x30, each leg, 20lb dumbell in free hand.
Pushups, 30+27+24 total 81. This was the hardest work I did all night!
I'm actually starting to see the first hints of development in my chest, arms and shoulders and legs still have a long way to go.“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-12-2017, 03:12 PM #40
- Join Date: Dec 2012
- Location: Santa Clara, California, United States
- Age: 66
- Posts: 13,001
- Rep Power: 41818
Solid work...do you have fractional plates or a 20k bar?? interesting numbers
"You got soul and everybody knows that its alright".....Curtis Mayfield........"Eat to be strong weights and reps"....Me....."leave the gun take the cannoli".....Fat Clemenza
"Believin is alright just don't believe in the wrong thing"....Sonny Boy Williamson
"You know you're over the hill when your mind makes a promise your body can't fill"......Paul Barrere Little Feat
-
-
08-12-2017, 06:47 PM #41
-
08-12-2017, 09:40 PM #42
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
The smallest plates I have are 2.5 lbs, and yes, it's a 20kg bar, or 44.1 lbs. I disregard the .1, of course.
To get smaller than 5 lb weights, I use the spring clips, which I've weighed as 1 lb for both of them, and a "weight on a rope" pair that I can drape over the bar, weighing 1 lb each for 2 lb increments.
Since the weights I'm starting with are pretty light, I really need something small to have meaningful 2.5% increments.“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-12-2017, 09:42 PM #43
-
08-13-2017, 05:03 PM #44
-
-
08-13-2017, 10:53 PM #45
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
I figured since this was hard to explain, I'd try a picture.
Here's the bar at 87 pounds: 44 pounds for the bar (20g), 1 pound for the spring clips at .5 pounds apiece, and you can see my dangling rope thingy, which is 1 pound each for 2 pounds added. Add in the 4 10lb plates, and you get the results. I've weighed everything, BTW -- the spring clips and jury-rigged weights on a food scale, the bar and plates on a pretty accurate bathroom scale. Everything is as it should be.
I know a lot of people don't care too much about exact poundages, but to me it counts when I'm trying to measure my progress.
small_weights.jpgLast edited by ElrondHubbard; 08-13-2017 at 11:18 PM.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-13-2017, 11:11 PM #46
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
Tonight was the midpoint of week 5, and overall it felt really good. My only real problem was with the pushups -- not that I couldn't do them, but I was suddenly taken with this intense reluctance to do them. As I said earlier, pushups feel the hardest for me of all the exercises I do, so maybe the reluctance was just my fundamental laziness coming out. On the other hand, in the past I've been bedeviled by "scripts", as I call them, negative self-talk that seems to want to undermine my efforts and make me fail. I'm not sure where they come from , but they were a serious problem a couple of years ago, when I was still in the early months of my programming. Eventually I learned how to overcome them, and although they never went away, they never held me back either. Tonight was the first night since my restart that I felt them with any kind of strength, and I'd almost forgotten how to handle them. Now I'm forewarned, though, and knowing that they'll come back will allow me to prepare for them and defeat them.
Squats:
49x5
61x5
74x5
74x5
Incline Bench:
55x5
65x5
76x5
87x5
Deadlifts:
100x5
120x5
140x5
160x5
Overhead Press:
44x5
44x5
47x5
55x5
55x5
Accessories:
Pullups, 6+5+4, 15 total -- Pleasantly surprised again, I wasn't sure I could make 6 on the first set, and wasn't even planning on doing 5 for the second... it just happened!
Pushups, 31+28+25, 84 total -- Once I passed the 15th rep, something in the back of my mind kept telling me to quit, that I'd never make my goal. I had to just block it out and continue.
Body weight this morning was 159.5, calculated body fat (U.S. Navy method) is ~13%. Not convinced that's accurate, but I have to start somewhere.“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-13-2017, 11:16 PM #47
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
-
08-14-2017, 07:08 AM #48
- Join Date: Oct 2010
- Location: Indiana, United States
- Age: 57
- Posts: 5,316
- Rep Power: 121557
I borrowed an accurate calibrated scale from work one weekend and was SHOCKED(!!!) to see the variability in cheap weights. Something like a York or Eleiko should be on-the-money, but the cheaper "Standard" plates etc can vary a lot. The 35's and 45's could be off more than one pound, and I had an "oly" bar that weighed just 40 lbs. I sold all the underweight plates and modified any overweight ones by cutting off portions of them until they weighed true.
That was an eye-opening experience and provided one new reason why years ago when I had a gym membership that I experienced both days of unbelievable strength and weakness perhaps due to truly having too little or too much on the bar.
-
-
08-14-2017, 07:37 AM #49
- Join Date: Dec 2012
- Location: Santa Clara, California, United States
- Age: 66
- Posts: 13,001
- Rep Power: 41818
"You got soul and everybody knows that its alright".....Curtis Mayfield........"Eat to be strong weights and reps"....Me....."leave the gun take the cannoli".....Fat Clemenza
"Believin is alright just don't believe in the wrong thing"....Sonny Boy Williamson
"You know you're over the hill when your mind makes a promise your body can't fill"......Paul Barrere Little Feat
-
08-14-2017, 12:25 PM #50
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
One more reason for being happy with my home gym. The weights may or may not be accurate, but at least they're consistent from day to day.
I guess I was lucky with my gear. I read all the warnings about inconsistencies among off-brand plates, then I went ahead and bought cheap plates from several sources, but my scale shows them all at the proper weight. I'm pretty confident in my scale, since I've tested it against items of known weight, so I'll attribute my plates consistency to pure dumb luck. I'm not proud...“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-14-2017, 12:51 PM #51
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
-
08-14-2017, 01:08 PM #52
- Join Date: Oct 2012
- Location: United States
- Age: 50
- Posts: 7,996
- Rep Power: 6740
OK....Just caught up. IM IN!
Great story going on here. Its just awesome to see you lifting now! Like Ron said, i am sure your going to see these numbers progress quite quickly over the next few months. Keep up the great work and stay strong!"Never Give Up. Great Things Take Time."
- Frank Zane
IG: the_macro_mechanic
-
-
08-14-2017, 04:07 PM #53
- Join Date: Oct 2008
- Location: United States
- Age: 41
- Posts: 21,942
- Rep Power: 49953
Same here, weighed them all when I got em, came out damn near perfect. If I hadn't weighed them I'd probably never sleep again worrying about it.
I picked up some 1.25lb fractional plates from Rogue and they are extremely useful when I get stuck and a 5lb jump is just too much. I think they have 1/2lb ones too.Current PRs:
Bench Press: 200x1
Deads: 315x1
Back Squats: 275x1
*Team Amazon* - Sisterhood of Iron
*Log - There's a Ham in the Power Rack, Part II http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=167311531
-
08-14-2017, 09:15 PM #54
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
Much appreciated, Doc! It's fascinating how you and I have experience of different sides of the coin, but we end up in essentially the same place. I'm being driven by curiosity as much as anything. There are two tracks occurring simultaneously here, the inevitable age-related deterioration, and the effort-related improvements. Someday they will intersect, but it is not this day! I have no idea where or when that will be, but I plan to be there when it happens. I have seen too many inspiring stories of guys lifting happily and well into their eighties and even nineties for me to hold back.
I'd love to actually be able to eat food rather than carry this feeding tube around with me, but I've found it doesn't really interfere much, and it doesn't seem to be hampering my progress. It'll happen eventually.“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-14-2017, 09:17 PM #55
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
-
08-15-2017, 06:14 AM #56
-
-
08-15-2017, 09:37 AM #57
- Join Date: Aug 2007
- Location: Oneonta, Alabama, United States
- Age: 61
- Posts: 2,097
- Rep Power: 803
What a great 30 minutes of reading I've just had. I'll enjoy continuing to follow your journey.
I'm glad the mystery of the strange poundages was cleared up. It was the first thing I noticed. Smart, though...
So, are you a Jetero Heller fan? If you get my question, I'll understand a couple of other things...Paul
Getting lean and clean
"If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit - you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards."
Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
-
08-15-2017, 01:48 PM #58
- Join Date: Mar 2015
- Location: Nevada, United States
- Posts: 10,047
- Rep Power: 96555
I had to look up the name, since I was unfamiliar with it. And I guess that means I need to clear up a couple of things:
I'm not associated with or a believer in Scientology in any way. "Elrond Hubbard" is an inside joke between me and a friend of mine, it's actually the name of my car, and refers to L. Ron only in a parody sense. My real name is Dave, but that's true of a lot of people. As far as I know, there's only one Elrond Hubbard.
Maybe I should explain my rather idiosyncratic weight progression as well. My program is a version of Madcow, 3 days a week full body. It's presented as an intermediate program, although I don't consider myself an intermediate lifter, its slower progression pace seems suited for an older lifter. It also has a spreadsheet you can download from the Stronglifts site.
At the beginning of the program, I do a strength evaluation by determining the heaviest weights I can lift for 5 reps for each exercise. I enter this number into the spreadsheet, and it calculates my progression to the nearest whole number for the next nine weeks. It doesn't go by 5-pound increments. When the weights are light, as they are for me at this early stage, they go up by one or two pounds a week, leaving me to figure out how to get those in between poundages. Once my totals are heavy enough, I'll most likely be able to round it to the nearest 5 pounds, but for now, I'm trying to keep it close to the numbers on the spreadsheet.“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire
-
08-15-2017, 01:52 PM #59
-
08-16-2017, 07:55 AM #60
- Join Date: Aug 2007
- Location: Oneonta, Alabama, United States
- Age: 61
- Posts: 2,097
- Rep Power: 803
Bookmarks