To Carry A Keg - Workout Log

[ElfIsTired]

Just hit the tail end of a real rough flu, so I figured now is a good time to log my workouts somewhere public as I ease back into the routine. Maybe it'll guilt me into logging properly, maybe a random passerby will point out something stupid I'm doing, maybe it'll just be a digital record I can reference if/when I lose my paper journal... it's all good!

I've given up losing weight/sculpting an attractive physique. My only, very obtainable*, goal is to lift a keg onto my shoulder. I'm an out of shape, tiny girl and on my own**, but this is doable. I love lifting and have for years, but... Life, Effort, Excuse, Excuse, Excuse. Ugh. I do full body every time (rather than Leg Day, etc.) because I'm dumb and lazy. It's just easier to keep track of when I do the same thing, 5x a week.

*For reference, Anchor beer lists a full beer keg as 140lb, well under a bodyweight bench.
**Progress is slow, because I have no spotter and am terrified of overlifting/injury.

- - -

Current numbers, as of 2 weeks ago:
(exercise - pounds, sets x reps)

10min walk to gym + dynamic stretching (warmup)
Standing Toe Raise - bodyweight, 3x10 (warmup)
Front/Lateral Raise - 10, 3x10
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Leg Curl - 60, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 3x10
Arnold Press - 20, 4x5 or 3x10
DB Extension - 20, 3x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 3x10
Upright Row - 30, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10 ***
Deadlift, standard - 148, 3x1 ***

***This is all my plates! Once I build up to pull/chinups, I'll replace Lat Pulldown/Rows with them and free up some plates for deadlifting.

Pathetic, I know, but I'm getting back into things after a solid year off + flu.
I work out in the evenings, so the day's results should be up around 7PM MST. Tue & Wed are my usual rest days.

[PhDPepper1111]

Welcome - looking forward to seeing your progress!

[ElfIsTired]

10min walk + stretching
Standing Toe Raise - bodyweight, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 10, 3x10
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Leg Curl - 60, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 4x10
Arnold Press - 15, 4x5 (shoulders sucked today)
DB Extension - 20, 3x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 3x10
Upright Row - 25, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 3x1

Total time: 1hr 10min (a bit slow, old routine was 45min)

Lungs burned halfway through each set and I puked a little in the corner like a chump, so I guess I'm not 100% well yet lol. Right shoulder had a weird click and left was a bit stiff. Otherwise, a good day! : )

Welcome - looking forward to seeing your progress!

Thanks! It feels great being back already, hopefully DOMS doesn't punish me too badly. ;P

[ElfIsTired]

Tuesday & Wednesday are my rest days!

I would have done Thursday/Friday since this is my first week back, but yesterday suggested that I could maybe use the 2 extra days to recover. Still walked to the gym and back twice today and was a little out of breath. Lame.

The good news is that my DOMS was extremely low, so either my 2 week flu didn't do as much damage as I was expecting, or tomorrow is going to be ROUGH lol.

[GrouchyUSMC]

Go to a local beer store and ask for an empty keg. You can usually get a nonfunctional one for free or very cheap (I think I paid $20 for one when I had one). Learn how to take the valve out on YouTube or it's time consuming but you can fill it with a hose and something to keep the valve open. Fill it up about halfway and now you have the perfect thing to start training with.

[ElfIsTired]

No deadlifts today, it was so hot I was getting light headed lol. All my numbers could use some adjusting, but I'm too lazy to change plates, so I'm doing supersets until they get too easy. (toe raise & lats to warm up, then everything after in trios) No DOMS and shoulder click is gone. Churned out my lats better than literally ever, so that was cool! (unlike my no AC gym...)

10min walk + stretch
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 10, 3x10
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Leg Curl - 60, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 3x10
Arnold Press - 20, 3x10
DB Extension - 20, 3x10
DB Curl (mix) - 15, 3x10
Upright Row - 20, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10

- - -

Go to a local beer store and ask for an empty keg. You can usually get a nonfunctional one for free or very cheap (I think I paid $20 for one when I had one). Learn how to take the valve out on YouTube or it's time consuming but you can fill it with a hose and something to keep the valve open. Fill it up about halfway and now you have the perfect thing to start training with.

Yeah, I don't have much local anything out here in the boonies, so my best bet would be getting like a rain barrel from Tractor Supply. There's a winery down the road I meant to ask about barrels, but a neighbor said they asked (for their wife's garden) and they wanted like $300 for the old dirty ones. I'll stick to barbell and/or sandbags in the meantime lol.

[ElfIsTired]

10min walk + stretching
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 10, 3x10 (great again, woo!)
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Leg Curl - 60, 2x10; 55, 1x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 2x10; 30, 1x10
Arnold Press - 20, 2x10; 15, 1x10
DB Extension - 20, 2x10; 25, 1x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
Upright Row - 25, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 5x1

[ElfIsTired]

10min walk + dyn.stretching
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 10, 3x10
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 1x10; 30, 2x10
Leg Curl - 55, 3x10
Arnold Press - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
DB Extension - 20, 3x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
Upright Row - 25, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 4x1

<- idk why it says I'm 52 here, my profile is correct as 32 lol

[ElfIsTired]

Moving Tuesday's rest day to today.
It was over 100 all day... the sun is about to go down and it's still over 90.
Might be time to cannibalize some plates to load up some free weights, in case my machines end up unsable. : (

Alternatively, I could see if I have enough extension cords to set up a fan out there, lol

[ElfIsTired]

10min walk + stretching
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 10, 3x10
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 2x10; 30, 1x10
Leg Curl - 60, 3x10
Arnold Press - 15, 3x10
DB Extension - 20, 3x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 2x10; 15, 1x10
Upright Row - 30, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 2x1*

*shouldn't have done these, probably... it was hot af again and the first one made me dizzy, second almost fell over lol

[ElfIsTired]

10min walk + stretching
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 10, 3x10
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 2x10; 30, 1x10
Leg Curl - 55, 3x10
Arnold Press - 20, 2x10; 15, 1x10
DB Extension - 20, 3x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
Upright Row - 25, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 3x1

[ElfIsTired]

[Rest day yesterday]

This week has really drilled into me:
<99*F = uncomfortable, but I can work through it if I take it slow
>99*F = too hot, working out is a dangerous idea, and I'd rather be un-alive
Nowhere that gets over 80 is habitable imo

10min walk + stretching
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 14, 4x5
Leg Extension - 80, 1x10; 85, 1x10; 90, 1x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 1x10; 30, 2x10
Leg Curl - 60, 1x10; 55, 2x10
Arnold Press - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
DB Extension - 30, 1x10; 25, 1x10; 20, 1x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
Upright Row - 30, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 5x1

[ElfIsTired]

Feelin' good, almost sprained my back flexing! lmao
I'm too fat for progress to be very apparent, but my shoulders look nice. : )

10min walk + stretching
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 14, 4x5
Leg Extension - 85, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 1x10; 30, 2x10
Leg Curl - 60, 1x10; 55, 2x10
Arnold Press - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
DB Extension - 25, 2x10; 20, 1x10
DB Curl (mix) - 20, 1x10; 15, 2x10
Upright Row - 30, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 5x1

[ElfIsTired]

Thought I was lucky today: it rained, ALL DAY.
Nope, it made my gym humid af and I had zero energy, bleh.
Did sets of 15 instead of 10 to get done faster and lol what a mistake...

10min walk + dyn. stretch
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Leg Extension - 80, 2x15
Incline Bench Press - 30, 2x15
Leg Curl - 55, 2x15
Arnold Press - 15, 2x15
DB Extension - 20, 2x15
DB Curl (mix) - 15, 2x15
Deadlift, standard - 148, 4x1
Crunches - 3x10
Plank - 1 min x2

[ElfIsTired]

It was only 80 today, but I was lethargic af again. Probably just forgot to take my allergy pill at lunch (+200mg caffeine). Still, I took "no" rests between supersets, doing super-supersets, with the only breaks being adjusting a plate and/or writing down numbers. Made me a lil dizzy lol. Almost caved in my teeth benching 40 lbs... my arms are GARBAGE.

I need to look up leg curl vs extensions again, because even though I know curl is supposed to be like 65% of you extension weight, mine doesn't seem to be improving. +5 lbs feels like a HUGE increase, but my ext. can easily break 100 (assuming I had the spare plates), but I don't want to get more unbalanced uping ext.'s at all...

10min walk + stretch
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 15, 1x10; 10, 2x10
Leg Extension - 85, 3x10; 80, 2x10
Incline Bench Press - 40, 1x10; 30, 2x10
Leg Curl - 60, 1x10; 55, 2x10
Arnold Press - 15, 3x10
DB Extension - 20, 3x10
DB Curl (mix) - 15, 3x10
Upright Row - 30, 3x10; 25, 1x10; 20, 1x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 5x1

[ElfIsTired]

Monday was garbage enough that I didn't record it (bad day in general)

Today & tomorrow are rest days!

(I would have written Monday off as one, but I did do work... just poorly. Also, I'm dumb and don't want to confuse my schedule, lol)

[ElfIsTired]

Yesterday (Thursday)

10 min walk + (really quick, poor) stretching
Deadlift, standard - 148, 10x1

visited the parents and dug postholes for a couple hours...

- - -
Today

10min walk + dynamic stretching
Arnold Press - 15, 2x10
DB Extension - 15, 3x10
Lat Pulldown/Row - 60, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 12x1

I need to start working out at like 11pm-2am again lol. It is entirely too hot! Today rained all morning, was overcast all day, with a nice breeze... so ofc the gym was humid and ~75 felt like 90. Attempted to do at least half my routine, sweat like a pig, so gave up and just did deadlifts again. My back is going to hate me in a few days, but my shoulders look nice. : )

[ElfIsTired]

10min walk + stretch
Standing Toe Raise - bw, 3x10
Front/Lateral Raise - 15, 2x10
Leg Extension - 80, 3x10
Incline Bench Press - 30, 3x10
Leg Curl - 55, 3x10
Arnold Press - 15, 2x10
DB Extension - 20, 2x15
DB Curl (mix) - 15, 3x10
Deadlift, standard - 148, 4x2

Dug a 3'x3'x3' hole in mostly rock "soil".

Mom wanted to plant a tree, but whoopsie doodle, the auger is still broken... we have a pick and shovel though! It was a legitimately nice day today, luckily. Thankfully I had already taken it easy in the gym, but I'm going to be in pain tomorrow. (I am already lol)

[ElfIsTired]

So this week is super fun. Road flooded out and the power has been on/off at random. One day is dry and hot, then the next cold with SO. MUCH. RAIN.

When I can make it down (don't feel like wading to the gym in rain boots lol) I've just been doing deadlifts and calling it a day.

It is SO HUMID. I have no energy and everything is gross. :T

[ElfIsTired]

Haven't been keeping track of my numbers, because I've been super annoyed about the heat and inconsistent power. It's 10pm and still 80 out ffs. Still been hitting the gym whenever I can, though that's been as touch and go as the power outages...

New 1RM for deadlift is 188
(need to retest once I'm consistent again; my back has been acting like I took a month off, rather than a week)

New baseline for deadlift is an easy 158
(168 if I feel like changing more plates... lol)

Everything else is mostly the same. Lats and pulldowns have been pretty good, could probably stand adjusting.

[ElfIsTired]

Just got back from loading/unloading for a convention and lol the monsoon rages on. I don't know why I thought attempting chin ups was a good idea after moving boxes & tables, but my wrists/forearms feel like they have minor nerve damage. Like they aren't sore, feel like they should be, but just feel half numb? Still loving my lifting hooks and my shoulders look great. : ) It'll be fantastic when literally anything else catches up to them lol

[ElfIsTired]

Still not recording numbers, since it's just been tiny variants and no measurable improvement. Regular deadlift is now 168.

No luck finding a barrel (rain/water/wine/keg) for under $100, but I found a 5 gallon camping barrel lost in a corner of the garage! Weighs 46 lbs full and is a real nice size & shape in the meantime. It's the same weight as my bulgarian bag, so zero change to my carry weight, but the shape is more important as far as my main goal is concerned. : )

[GrouchyUSMC]

You should look into Steve Justa and his Barrel Lift workout.

Practice every other day, 3 days a week, weekends off. Practice no longer than 90 minutes per session. Each exercise is for 50 reps. Pick a weight you can do at least 50 reps with for Exercise #1. Every Sunday you will add a few pounds to your barrel (he recommends 5 but you can do less). Still maintain the 50 reps each session. If you don't meet your 50 reps during one of those sessions, you don't add any weight that week.

#1 - Shouldering. Stand erect with barrel on shoulder, lower to ground, stand erect again. 50 reps each side. Lower the barrel in the same position as you lift.

#2 - Squat. Shoulder the barrel and perform 50 reps of squats on each side.

#3 - Deadlift. Grab barrel by rims and lift from the ground to your waist as many reps as possible. One set only.

#4 - Bear Hug. Set barrel on the end, bend down, and bear hug it. Stand erect and hold it in the bear hug position as long as possible. One set only.

[ElfIsTired]

Just had a crisis at home AND got sick again. Finally back in the gym again, though like 5000 daddy longs legs spiders have since claimed the space since I was away.

Redistributed all my plates to just my deadlift, bench, and pulldown machine to focus entirely on the barrel goal. DL is 118, pulldown is 90 (or 110?), bench is 40-60.

Feels good to be back, but these weights are bonkers! My biggest problem is that 90* curl... 118 is hilariously easy to deadlift, then (very obviously) impossible to curl. 40-60 wears my shoulders down quick, but feels about right for now. Then I move over to pulldowns and they def need more plates (I'm out!), so they can obviously be improved... until I switch to rows and hit that same 90* curl wall and I'm like wtf?! Everything is probably fine where it is until my clean(?) improves some. I'm just an idiot and get annoyed when all my highly varied lifts don't magically blend into a perfect single move lol

[ElfIsTired]

You should look into Steve Justa and his Barrel Lift workout.

Practice every other day, 3 days a week, weekends off. Practice no longer than 90 minutes per session. Each exercise is for 50 reps. Pick a weight you can do at least 50 reps with for Exercise #1. Every Sunday you will add a few pounds to your barrel (he recommends 5 but you can do less). Still maintain the 50 reps each session. If you don't meet your 50 reps during one of those sessions, you don't add any weight that week.

#1 - Shouldering. Stand erect with barrel on shoulder, lower to ground, stand erect again. 50 reps each side. Lower the barrel in the same position as you lift.

#2 - Squat. Shoulder the barrel and perform 50 reps of squats on each side.

#3 - Deadlift. Grab barrel by rims and lift from the ground to your waist as many reps as possible. One set only.

#4 - Bear Hug. Set barrel on the end, bend down, and bear hug it. Stand erect and hold it in the bear hug position as long as possible. One set only.

-SNIP-

Yeah, this is exactly what I'm going for! Just haven't had much luck finding a useable barrel/keg. Someone pointed out the easiest way to get a literal keg... just rent one for $50 and never return it, like a dumb college kid... too much like stealing a library book, the guilt would put me in the grave XD

I've got a family member who's upgrading their tack barn this weekend and they're ripping out some water barrels they've been using to hang saddles, throw stuff in, collect spiders... I'm helping haul away some of the junk, fingers crossed they want to recycle the barrels (and they aren't too busted up to use) :3

[ElfIsTired]

BEHOLD:
👍👍👍[image attached hopefully] ✨🔥💯👌
(if not: imgur-Pv1ns9A)

It's only 15 gallon, so a little on the small side, but so am I so it's perfect lol!

100% rust, but still solid and the only one without holes busted in it. Weighs about 10 lbs maybe, didn't weigh it, but supposedly should weigh 120 when full of water. I'm no where near that yet, but I can probably chuck a rock or cinder block in there to hit 140 (full keg weight). Still, wouldn't trust it to be water tight, so I double bagged about 40 lbs overnight to see if THOSE will leak. Floor was dry this morning, but I haven't done any more than some test lifts and moving it aside, so no telling how it takes a good jostle yet.

No sharp edges, no random bolts, even a lid if I feel like hammering it on! I'm crazy stoked :3