Monday (7-18-2011)
deadlift 295 lb 1x5
deadlift 265 lb 1x5
press 100 lb 1x5
press 90 lb 1x5
pull-ups 11, 8

Tuesday
deadlift 305 lb 1x5
deadlift 275 lb 1x5
press 105 lb 1x5
press 95 lb 1x5
farmer's walk 60lb kettlebells, 3 laps, 2 laps
chin-ups 11, 8

Wednesday
deadlift 315 lb 1x5
deadlift 285 lb 1x5
press 105 lb 1x5
press 95 lb 1x5
farmer's walk, 60 lb kb, 2 laps
pull-ups 11, 9
kb swing 35lb x15, 40lb x15

Thursday
deadlift 325 lb 1x5
deadlift 295 lb 1x5
press 110 lb 1x5
press 100 lb 1x5
chin-ups 12, 9

Friday
deadlift 335 lb 1x5
deadlift 305 lb 1x5
press 115 lb 1x5
press 105 lb 1x5
pull-ups 11, 8

Weight (Friday, 7-29-2011): 174 lb

Notes: So I decided to try doing a structured wave approach to scaling up my target weights, 4 steps forward, 3 steps back.  Of course, I just realized in going through my notes that I had screwed up and not advanced my press target weight on Wednesday.  Sadness.  Also, I overdid it a bit on Wednesday's random extra crap, so Thursday and Friday were a lot harder than they needed to be.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 04:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 204 words, total size 2 kb.

"The fact that we’re here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means ‘The buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit." -Senator Barack Obama, 2006

Nah, he's probably some kind of right-wing ideologue teabagger.  Y'know, one of those fringe types.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 08:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 98 words, total size 1 kb.

Monday (7-18-2011)
deadlift 285 lb 1x5
deadlift 255 lb 1x5
press 95 lb 1x5
press 85 lb 1x5
chin-ups 12, 7

Tuesday
deadlift 295 lb 1x5
deadlift 265 lb 1x5
press 100 lb 1x5
press 90 lb 1x5
pull-ups 10, 7

Wednesday
deadlift 305 lb 1x5
deadlift 275 lb 1x5
press 105 lb 1x5
press 95 lb 1x5
farmer's walk, 60 lb kb, 2 laps
chin-ups 10, 8

Thursday
deadlift 315 lb 1x5
deadlift 285 lb 1x5
press 110 lb 1x5
press 100 lb 1x5
pull-ups 10, 8

Friday
deadlift 325 lb 1x5
deadlift 295 lb 1x5
press 115 lb 1x5
press 105 lb 1x5
press 95 lb 3x5, 4
farmer's walk, 60 lb kb, 3 laps
chin-ups 10, 9

Weight (Friday, 7-22-2011): 174 lb

Notes: I'm liking this so far.  The workouts are only about 30-35 minutes, so I'm not left feeling voracious, which is helping me keep my portion sizes down.  I feel like I'm really making progress on both barbell lifts, too, even Friday's lifts felt challenging but well within my ability.  I definitely need a break from squats.  Even now, after more than a week, I still have a faint line on my upper back.  Speaking of my upper back, this week alone I've seen visible improvement in my lats, traps, and rhomboids.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 10:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 222 words, total size 2 kb.

I hit 175 lb this morning.  From my real start of 225 lb (my original scale was light by 5 lb or so), that makes 50 lb lost in just shy of 2 years.  Not as fast as I wanted, but I've made it this far.

That's all.  Just sayin', 50 lb.  Oh, and I can curl that one-handed now, so yeah.

Booyah.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 08:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.

I'm in a rut.  I've been doing some variation of the Starting Strength or StrongLifts template for about 8 months now, and it was all I was doing prior to the 12 weeks I spent on 5/3/1.  I'm hitting failure way too often, resetting too often, and generally regressing on strength.  Time for something a bit different.

Starting tomorrow, this is the workout:

Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday
Deadlift, target weight, 1x5
Deadlift, 90% of target, 1x5
Press, target weight, 1x5
Press, 90% of target, 1x5

That's it.  I'll be increasing weight in an unstructured wave: going up when I'm feeling strong, falling back when I'm fatigued or sore.  I might add in chin-ups and pull-ups if I have time and I don't feel like those muscles are getting enough work.  I'm going to aim for 5x a week, making it up on weekends if necessary.

This is basically the poorly-named "Power to the People" workout from Pavel's book of the same name.  It's different enough that I think it'll get me out of my rut, and I've been wanting to do something specific for my lagging presses for awhile now.  Plus, it'll give the line of skin on my back that screams "I squat a lot" a chance to fade a bit.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 02:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 211 words, total size 1 kb.

Monday (7-11-2011)
squat 265 lb 3x5
bench 195 lb 5, 5, 3, 3, 3
chin-ups 12, 7, 7, ... 7, 5
DB shrugs 70lb 3x10
lateral raises 25lb 3x8

Wednesday
squat 270 lb 4x4
press 110 lb 3, 2, f
press 95 lb 5x2
deadlift 325 lb 2x3

Friday
Skipped so I could be home for some deliveries.

Weight (Sunday, 7-17): 178 lb

Notes: I tried to get some extra shoulder work in on Monday, hoping it would help on presses: huge mistake.  I was still sore by Wednesday, and my press numbers show the dismal outcome.  I'm planning to switch programs on Monday (another post to follow), as I'm starting to really burn out at the moment, and that's bad.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 08:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 126 words, total size 1 kb.

Monday (7-4-2011)
squat 265 lb 5x3
bench 195 lb 5, 4, 4, 3, 3
chin-ups 11, 8, 6, 6, 7

Wednesday
squat 265 lb 4x4
press 110 lb 4, 4, 4, 3, 3
deadlift 325 lb 2x3 (crappy lockout)
prone bridges 3x60s

Friday
Skipped for a cross-state trip.

Weight (Friday, 7-8): 179 lb
Waist (Friday, 7-8): 32.5"

Notes: Weight crept back up a bit this week, I'll have to be more careful about that now that the weight is getting heavy again.  On the other hand, my waist is smaller than my targeted goal at the beginning of LACAMP, so I've got that.  Nonetheless, I'm not yet really at my desired level of leanness and strength, so I'll continue in this manner for the time being.  Received a needed correction to my squat form on Wednesday, I'd been bending over again on the rise out of the hole.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 01:10 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 153 words, total size 1 kb.

Monday (6-27-2011)
squat 260 lb 5x3
press 110 lb 4x4
chin-ups 12, 8, 6, 6

Wednesday
squat 260 lb 4x4
bench 190 lb 3x5
deadlift 315 lb 2x3
prone bridges 3x60s

Friday
squat 260 lb 3x5
press 110 lb 5, 3, 3, 4, 3
pull-ups 11, 8, 6, 5
hanging leg raises 3x20

Weight (Friday, 7-1): 177 lb

Notes: Good week, other than failed presses on Friday.  I got distracted talking to another guy in the power rack and might have tried to do set 2 a little early, though.  We'll see if I can pull off a 3x5 at 110 next Wednesday.  Wednesday's deadlifts hurt a little bit.  I might not have been warmed up enough.  No pain since the lift, but I probably ought to be more careful.

Posted by: leoncaruthers at 05:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 135 words, total size 1 kb.