Wow, I haven't updated in a while. A few things have happened since my last post. First of all, I moved to Austin, where I'm currently having a blast. Way preferable to where I was living. Second, I got deeper into the sport of weightlifting, and now consider myself thoroughly obsessed. We're talking, "staying up past bedtime to read lifting blogs even though the number one lifting rule is get TONS of sleep" style obsessed.
I joined an awesome gym here in Austin that's very no-frills, just tons of racks and benches, with everyday regulars lifting heavy. I think there's maybe one treadmill in the whole place. No music, no freezing air conditioning, no makeup-spackled Lululemon bunnies bouncing slowly on ellipticals for their "cardio". Everyone who works out there is really nice, too, and very willing to offer advice, help, or a spot if you need it.
I mentioned a while back that I was doing three sets RPT-style, but I've switched back to 5x5s because I was just feeling like I needed more work on form and more practice with the weekly toll of lifting before I tried a style that essentially has you starting the set with your max load. One of the sites I've come across in my gigantic lifting info-feast is Nerd Fitness, which has a great forum, and whose founder wrote an ebook called Rebel Fitness. I purchased and read the whole thing (it's sitting on my ipad alongside Starting Strength as my current most-read book) and have been scaling back the various lifting moves I was doing for a more streamlined approach that I think is going to build a stronger base of not only strength but skill on the bar. So right now, my lifting routine looks like:
Day A:
Push Press 5x5 (current load: 65)
Squat 5x5 (current load: 85 [I can definitely squat more weight, but my form requires a lot of work due to my tight hips and sway back, so I'm keeping it a little low]).
Day B:
Pullups 5x5 (currently: still cannot do a single one. Am doing a lot of negatives and one-foot assisted pullups.)
Deadlift 5x5 (current load: 155 [I will probably be doing 135 tomorrow, though, because my form on this one is also bad. My fireman friend at the gym helped me correct it last time and I need to scale back the weight to practice.)
I alternate back and forth every other day instead of defining "workout weeks", because I discovered that I just really don't like taking two rest days in a row (usually what happens when I do a MWF lifting schedule). On the off days, depending on how I feel, I'm either resting, sprinting, or doing a quick metcon with my sandbag, kettlebell, or hammer.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll say that I also walk River 2 miles twice a day, and have been throwing in a run with her in the morning lately, just because I need to get back into the habit of running for Tough Mudder--nothing long, just a couple miles. I'm going to start adding my niece in her jogging stroller into the running mix, too, because running while pushing an extra forty pounds seems like something that will help with TM training. Lastly, I also ride my bike, not daily, but probably something like three times a week. I mostly go short distances, and usually for utility, like going to the grocery store and hauling back my groceries, or buying dog food/cat litter, or riding to the coffeeshop to work, like I did today.
So, it's a much more active life here in Austin, which suits me fine.
Another great thing about lifting is that skipping a workout is not just unthinkable, it's a huge bummer when forces intervene to make me miss a workout (i.e. the gym closes earlier on Saturday, which I found to my dismay when I showed up at 7 to work out the other day). I enjoy it so much that I look forward to the gym--like, a LOT. So I've been really on top of getting my workouts done.
I'm going to try to be more diligent about posting, but I'm moving again in about a week, this time into the apartment where I will be living indefinitely, so I'll be pretty busy.
Showing posts with label Lifting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lifting. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Heavy Lifting Experiment
Forgot to update again, for more than a week! I suck. I did do all my workouts as planned. I was good. Just not good about updating.
Anyhoo-- 30-day challenge is (almost) over, and I felt like moving on to something more interesting (with goals, because I am insanely goal-motivated). Enter HEAVY LIFTING.
I'm not going to lie and say that youtubing Women's events at the Crossfit Games didn't partly inspire this. Those ladies just look so awesome lifting those bars. But also, I wanted to shake up my workout routine, as well as see the effects of such a different style of workout. In my time as a fitness junkie, I've done "typical" 30min steady state cardio/30 min light weight lifting; no results. I've done endurance training for the marathon; NEGATIVE results, and I'll probably never do that again unless I'm raising money for something. I've done HIIT workouts; good but not great results. So now I'm going to move on to a heavy lifting program and see what that does to me. I like experimenting.
After spending SHITLOADS of time scouring Leangains, reading Starting Strength, and lurking on the MDA forums in threads about lifting, I've come away with some good advice and feel confident in starting a dedicated program. However, I don't want to give up HIIT metcons completely, because I do have Tough Mudder coming up and I'll need that cardio conditioning. Doing HIIT while heavy lifting is basically sacrilege, so I'm definitely going AMA by retaining at least one HIIT session a week. Whatever, we'll see how it works out.
As far as diet goes, I'm not changing much; I already basically do the Leangains-style 16:8 fast-feed schedule, just naturally. The only difference is that I'll be adding in carb cycling on the heavy lifting days. So, on lifting days, I'll be eating around 200g of carbs (still no grains, though; this will be sweet potatoes, bananas, white rice, etc) and very low fat (below 50g), while on normal days I'll be doing my usual high fat-low carb deal.
I'm doing two lifting workouts (reverse pyramid style) and one HIIT + hill sprints workout per week, with two days of low level activity (walking and yoga), and two days of complete REST. That will probably be the hardest part--at first I devised a schedule of 5x/wk workouts, alternating HIIT and lifting, but the experts on the MDA forums shot that down REAL QUICK. Apparently with lifting, less is more, and rest is the most important part. Still, the idea of just 3 workouts a week, and basically no cardio, freaks the shit out of me.
I'll be really interested to see how this new style of eating/working out affects me. I know from experience that I tend to build muscle and strength really quickly, but I've never really done much in the way of real lifting, nor allowed myself the carbs to make recovery/strength building really effective. So, we'll see. It'll be an adventure.
Yesterday's workout was my first lifting workout. I following Starting Strength's A workout, which was squats, deadlifts, and presses. I was quickly told by MDA peeps that this was wrong and very ineffective and actually dangerous, doing squats and deadlifts same day. So that won't happen again. But anyhoo, here were my loads:
Squats: 60, 60, 80, 80, 80 (as you can see, I wasn't RPT'ing yet. Also, I think I could have done more weight, but I don't have a squat rack so I'm basically limited to what I'm physically able to lift into squat position. That'll change as soon as I get to Texas and have gym access.)
Deadlifts: 80, 90, 90, 100, 100
Presses: 50, 60, 60, 50, 50 (60 was my fail point; I outright failed the third rep on the third set).
Today is a rest day. Woo! Fasting till noon, then low carb/high fat rest of the day.
Tomorrow I'll be starting the lifting schedule for real, with squats, bench press, and curls, all done RPT-style. Then next Monday I'll be doing deadlift, shoulder press, bent rows, and lateral raises. That'll remain the split from here on out unless I decide I don't like it for whatever reason.
I actually have not yet eaten today. I need to go get food. I've been too busy. RESTING. Haha. No but seriously, I'm already a sore monster from yesterday. And it feels different from my usual soreness. It's like full-body OW.
Anyhoo-- 30-day challenge is (almost) over, and I felt like moving on to something more interesting (with goals, because I am insanely goal-motivated). Enter HEAVY LIFTING.
I'm not going to lie and say that youtubing Women's events at the Crossfit Games didn't partly inspire this. Those ladies just look so awesome lifting those bars. But also, I wanted to shake up my workout routine, as well as see the effects of such a different style of workout. In my time as a fitness junkie, I've done "typical" 30min steady state cardio/30 min light weight lifting; no results. I've done endurance training for the marathon; NEGATIVE results, and I'll probably never do that again unless I'm raising money for something. I've done HIIT workouts; good but not great results. So now I'm going to move on to a heavy lifting program and see what that does to me. I like experimenting.
After spending SHITLOADS of time scouring Leangains, reading Starting Strength, and lurking on the MDA forums in threads about lifting, I've come away with some good advice and feel confident in starting a dedicated program. However, I don't want to give up HIIT metcons completely, because I do have Tough Mudder coming up and I'll need that cardio conditioning. Doing HIIT while heavy lifting is basically sacrilege, so I'm definitely going AMA by retaining at least one HIIT session a week. Whatever, we'll see how it works out.
As far as diet goes, I'm not changing much; I already basically do the Leangains-style 16:8 fast-feed schedule, just naturally. The only difference is that I'll be adding in carb cycling on the heavy lifting days. So, on lifting days, I'll be eating around 200g of carbs (still no grains, though; this will be sweet potatoes, bananas, white rice, etc) and very low fat (below 50g), while on normal days I'll be doing my usual high fat-low carb deal.
I'm doing two lifting workouts (reverse pyramid style) and one HIIT + hill sprints workout per week, with two days of low level activity (walking and yoga), and two days of complete REST. That will probably be the hardest part--at first I devised a schedule of 5x/wk workouts, alternating HIIT and lifting, but the experts on the MDA forums shot that down REAL QUICK. Apparently with lifting, less is more, and rest is the most important part. Still, the idea of just 3 workouts a week, and basically no cardio, freaks the shit out of me.
I'll be really interested to see how this new style of eating/working out affects me. I know from experience that I tend to build muscle and strength really quickly, but I've never really done much in the way of real lifting, nor allowed myself the carbs to make recovery/strength building really effective. So, we'll see. It'll be an adventure.
Yesterday's workout was my first lifting workout. I following Starting Strength's A workout, which was squats, deadlifts, and presses. I was quickly told by MDA peeps that this was wrong and very ineffective and actually dangerous, doing squats and deadlifts same day. So that won't happen again. But anyhoo, here were my loads:
Squats: 60, 60, 80, 80, 80 (as you can see, I wasn't RPT'ing yet. Also, I think I could have done more weight, but I don't have a squat rack so I'm basically limited to what I'm physically able to lift into squat position. That'll change as soon as I get to Texas and have gym access.)
Deadlifts: 80, 90, 90, 100, 100
Presses: 50, 60, 60, 50, 50 (60 was my fail point; I outright failed the third rep on the third set).
Today is a rest day. Woo! Fasting till noon, then low carb/high fat rest of the day.
Tomorrow I'll be starting the lifting schedule for real, with squats, bench press, and curls, all done RPT-style. Then next Monday I'll be doing deadlift, shoulder press, bent rows, and lateral raises. That'll remain the split from here on out unless I decide I don't like it for whatever reason.
I actually have not yet eaten today. I need to go get food. I've been too busy. RESTING. Haha. No but seriously, I'm already a sore monster from yesterday. And it feels different from my usual soreness. It's like full-body OW.
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