Emerald City Judo: Intro

For our anniversary the Mrs. bought me a Gi. A good, heavy-weight, competition Gi. Since that time I've worn it but a handful of times. Mostly because I'd stopped playing Judo. I had begun lifting, and set Judo aside to focus on my lifting. I was under the impression that I could lift, and lose weight, and be healthy. I couldn't effectively lift, and play judo with any hope of recovering and avoiding injury.

So, the Gi hung in the closet. Every time I opened the closet it was there, pressed, hung, waiting.

Today, I took the Gi out of the closet, and decided to get back on the mat. Frankly, I'm 315lbs, my cardio for the past year has been almost non-existent. I'm strong, stronger then I've been in years, but after ten minutes on the mat I realized I was badly dehydrated and feeling ill. So, I took a few minutes, got my breathing under control, and got back to it.

Class ran for just under two hours. With two young students, and a number of black belts. With more black belts, then colored belts, it was an interesting class. We opened with between ten and fifteen minutes of warm-up. Jogging, sprints, high-knees, the usual. I sat out for the mat crawls, and shrimping to catch my breath.

We began by practicing an arm bar from mount, focusing on technique. One point I did find interesting is that  keeping the knee that's on the mat tight to the opponents body, and leaning slightly forward, made it much easier to swing the other leg over, to finish the arm bar.

Class then moved into techniques on the ground. We worked a turn-over escape from guard. You'd sit up, take a cross the body over-hook, then bridge. Alternating sides. The objective is to trap the arm, and roll the opponent onto his back.

We then moved into escapes from being mounted. The first, was a turn over. You bridge, bringing the opponent forward. They post, to keep their balance. You trap and arm, by cupping the tricep with both hands. Then, you'd pull the arm to your opposite ear. Opponent's right arm, to your right ear. You trap the shoulder, and the same-side leg, bridge, and roll into mount.

The second escape from mount involved shrimping. You start, by bucking the opponent forward. Your second bridge, you shrimp onto your side, gaining space. With your lower leg, you press their leg away. Then, using your hand, you pass their knee over yours, and shrimp the opposite way, taking half-guard, and working onto the back.

We then moved to breaking the turtle. The first was a turn-over into a pin. Head-to head, keeping pressure on the back, you work the right hand, under the arm, to take the near side lapel. You want to keep the thumb outside of the opponents Gi. This means that your right thumb will be pressed into their chest, and you'll have a fistful of their near-side lapel. You then cup the other arm, with your left hand at the tricep, push into the opponent, wait for them to push back, then you pull with the left hand, at the tricep, and roll into the hole on that side. Using the right hand, which is full of Gi, you roll them over, and come to your stomach.

Alternately, you can use the same movement, as a choke. Instead of taking the lapel in the right hand, come across the face, then come back until you can catch the lapel. Slide the thumb in, grab the tricep with the left hand, and roll through. Your left hand should come through to grab your own lapel, slide the right hand, under the opponents chin, and rev the motorbike for the choke.

The two hours flew by. I found the class to be easy-going, and friendly. The black belts teaching ranged in size from around 130lbs, to near my size, which was a welcome change. I'll definitely be back.

Stronglifts: Week 16

Day 1: B
Squat: 195lbs.
Press: 115lbs.
Deadlift: 225lbs.

Day 2: A
Squat: 200lbs.
Bench: 170lbs.
Upright Row: 115lbs.

Day 3: B
Squat: 205lbs.
Press: 115lbs.
Deadlift: 235lbs.

The Mrs. is out of town through the 25th. This gives me a chance to get in nine workouts, three per week, with minimal interruption. I intend to do just that.

Bachelorhood Day 1

The Mrs. is in Japan for the next three weeks. In order to stave off boredom, and depression I've decided I'm going to do the following:

1) Exercise. I'm going to keep lifting, three times a week, and if I can manage it, I might go swimming a few times as well.
2) Cleaning. I'm going to clean, and organize, the entire apartment. With the end objective of the Mrs. returning to a spotless house.
3) Cooking. While I'm no great cook, I need to eat. I also need to eat actual food. In that vein, I shall cook dinner, as often as possible, and pack my lunched daily.

Let's see how it goes.

Stronglifts: Week 15 Reboot

It's been a long time since I've been in the gym, specifically 12 days. I'd like to say I had an excuse, but truthfully, there is no excuse. I got lazy. I gave up. I was upset with the Pro Club, and let that frustration keep me out of the gym.

I have nobody to blame but myself.

I'm dropping my squat weight, again, to 185. I have, evidently, not been hitting parallel. So, I'm going in with the idea that I'm going to lift correctly. In order to guarantee that I can focus on form I'm basically restarting. Truthfully, it hurts. It upsets me, and I'm sure in the coming weeks it's going to be incredibly hard for me to get in the gym, and lift. Yet, this is something I feel I really need to do in order to progress.

Let's just hope it works.

Stronglifts: Week 15

Day 1: A
Squat: 235lbs.
Bench: 160lbs.
Upright Row: 110lbs.

Day 2: B
Squat: 185lbs.
Press: 110lbs.
Deadlift: 295lbs.

Day 3: A
Squat: 190lbs.
Bench: 165lbs.
Upright Row: 115lbs.


I started this week late, which seems to be the norm. I've had trouble keeping to a three workouts a week schedule. Between house hunting, work, and other issues creeping in I find it harder, and harder, to devote the time I need to lift, and stay sane.

Day 1 this week felt fantastic. De-loading on the upright row was the best decision I could have made. It felt fantastic. Squat feels good, bench continues to feel good, I'm looking forward to lifting. However, I've grown disenfranchised with the gym I'm at, and am looking forward to the first of the year when I can switch.

Contracts suck.

Stronglifts: Week 14

Day 1: B
Squat: 280lbs.
Press: 125lbs.
Deadlift: 275lbs.

Day 2: A
Squat: 225lbs.
Bench: 155lbs.
Upright Row: 140lbs.


Day 3: B
Squat: 230lbs.
Press: 110lbs.
Deadlift: 285lbs.

I had hoped that my squat weight would keep going up. I was pushing myself towards a goal, with nothing in mind except the weight. That's one of the dangers of lifting without a coach, or partner. You don't have anyone to keep you on the straight and narrow. I was lifting, but I'd lost sight of why. I had gone back to ignoring my body, ignoring the pain in my knees and back from poor form. I had stopped lifting for health, and enjoyment, and started lifting for weight. I should have de-loaded a few weeks back, across the board. My squat, form was falling apart, I was at my limit for bench press, and my overhead press hadn't been good since day one.

It's was hard for me to admit that I was pushing too hard, too fast. That I had drifted from my stated goals into something less healthy. I dropped my weights on squat and bench last night, and while my form for squat was still shaky it was easier to control the weight, and make sure I was lifting properly. Bench was a similar experience, the weight seemed incredibly light, even with only a 40lb difference.

I did not de-load my upright row, and I should have. I'll drop that weight next week as well. At present, the only lift I don't feel a need to lower is my deadlift. We'll see how that feels on Saturday.

Stronglifts: Week 13

Day 1: A
Squat: 265lbs.
Bench: 190lbs.
Upright Row: 130lbs.

 Day 2: B
Squat: 270lbs.
Press: 120lbs.
Deadlift: 265lbs.

 Day 3: A
Squat: 275lbs.
Bench: 190lbs.
Upright Row: 135lbs.

12 Week Experiment: Wrap-Up

14 weeks ago, I began a 12 week experiment. My goal was simple I wanted to see if I could prove, in practice, that I could lift, feel good and hopefully drop weight. I began with the following weights.

Squat: 95lbs.
Bench: 95lbs.
Press: 50lbs.
Upright Row: 50lbs.
Deadlift: 95lbs.

Now, 14 weeks. and 36 workouts later my weights are as follows:
Squat: 260lbs.
Bench: 185lbs.
Press: 115lbs.
Upright Row: 125lbs.
Deadlift: 255lbs.

My weight has gone up, but given that I haven't been doing much in the way of cardio, I really can't complain. So, given that I've at least doubled my weights across the board I think I can call the experience and unqualified success.

Now what?

Stronglifts isn't meant to be a 12 week and you're done program. I'm still seeing nearly linear gains across the board and I feel fantastic. I plan to continue, with one key change. I'm going to start rowing after my lifting sessions. I'm not yet sure how this is going to work, time wise, as the Missus is already upset at how long my workouts take, but I feel that some sort of cardio is critical if I want to keep lifting, and lose weight.

I'm going to keep the 12 week cycle. I like that, and I think it works. Basically, it gives me a concrete goal to shoot for, and helps keep me in the gym. With the added cardio, I hope to see my weights go up, and my weight go down. We shall see.

12 Week Experiment: Week 12

Day 1: B
Squat: 250lbs.
Press: 115lbs.
Deadlift: 255lbs.

 Day 2: A
Squat: 255lbs.
Bench: 185lbs.
Upright Row: 125lbs.

 Day 3: B
Squat: 260lbs.
Press: 115lbs.
Deadlift: 255lbs.

Trying to wrap up this 12 week program, I began March 13th and am now in my 14th week. While I'm not happy about having taken two weeks longer then planned, I'm very pleased with the results overall. I could make excuses, vacation, injuries, but in the end I chose to not go to the gym, time and time again. I could have finished last week, but with work, I chose to give in to the funk, as opposed to going and lifting.

That's one of the hardest parts about a self-directed program. Nobody makes you go to the gym. There's no incentive to go, there's no push. You have to get up, and you have to go. That's been hard for me. Even though I know it's good for me, even though I know I'm seeing results, and I feel fantastic, it's still hard to get up, and go.

Part of it is that I dislike leaving the Missus at home. Part of it is work, stress, and a lack of time. Part of it is in the later weeks my 25-30 minute gym time became a 60-70 minute gym time. Heavier weights, longer recovery between sets, and injuries, all slow me down in the gym. However, at the end, I chose to not go. I chose to fall behind.

I'm going to finish this week, and then take it easy till Monday, when I'll start over. I'm going to drop 50 or so pounds off my squat for the next 12 weeks, to work on my form. It'll take me three, or four weeks to get back to 250, but I hope in the long run it'll be beneficial. Ideally I'd like to see 315 in my next 12 weeks. It's totally doable, and it would certainly put a smile on my face.

12 Week Experiment: Week 11

Day 1: A
Squat: 235lbs.
Bench: 175lbs.
Upright Row: 130lbs.

 Day 2: B
Squat: 240lbs.
Press: 115lbs.
Deadlift: 245lbs.

 Day 3: A
Squat: 245lbs.
Bench: 180lbs.
Upright Row: 135lbs.

"Accumulating injuries are the price we pay for the thrill of not having sat around on our asses."
- Mark Rippetoe

Every now and again a quote, a quip, a bit of wisdom comes by at just the right time. Last week I ran across the quote above as I was rehabbing an injured hip, and feeling grumpy over a missed workout. For those who don't know, Mark Rippetoe is a national level strength training coach, and one of the pioneers of peer-reviewed strength training. His quote not only made me smile, it got me out of a slump, and back into the gym.

I've also been thinking a lot, as this experiment winds to a close, about the future. What comes after? Stronglifts isn't meant to be a 12 week program, then on to the next. Stronglifts is meant to be a long term investment, with a 12 week "intro" as I near the end of my 12 weeks, I feel strongly that I should continue, and that continuing would be beneficial. However, I spent some time asking myself why. I ran, a fair amount, to train for the Corporate Challenge, I've done Judo, and BJJ, on and off for years. Yet nothing has ever come as easily, or with the same enjoyment as weight lifting. In the end, after much consideration I've come to the following conclusions:

1) I'm not a runner, I never have been, Biologically I'm simply not built to be a runner. I loathe the activity, and only enjoy running when it's the final 100m kick to the end.
2) I'm a recreational martial artist. Simply put, the dedication required to be good escapes me. I don't want to train four, or five, days a week, for hours at a time. I don't want to be away from my wife for that long. On top of that, I'm too competitive to know that I'll never be good at my current involvement while at the same time knowing I'm not willing to give more.

What does this have to do with lifting heavy things? I guess, when you find something you're good at, and makes you happy, do it. Even if that thing is lifting heavy things, then putting them back down.

12 Week Experiment: Week 10

Day 1: B
Squat: 225lbs.
Press: 110lbs.
Deadlift: 225lbs.

Day 2: A
Squat: 230lbs.
Bench: 170lbs.
Upright Row: 125lbs.

Day 3: B
Squat: 230lbs.
Press: 115lbs.
Deadlift: 235lbs.

The second day this week went poorly, to say the least. I've hurt my hip, and I'm finding it hard to lift significant weight. I aggravated the injury on Monday, when I attempted to squat 230lbs. I dropped the weight, and considered scrapping the entire session. In the end I finished, but my form on the forth, and fifth sets was so poor as to be almost not worth considering.

I took several days off, to let my hip recover, and I'm going back tonight to pick up where I left off. Unfortunately, with being out of town this weekend that means that I won't finish this week until Tuesday of next week.

This pushes Week 11 out through when I should have been finishing the program. It's not terrible, just a little frustrating.

12 Week Experiment: Week 9

Day 1: A
Squat: 210lbs.
Bench: 160lbs.
Upright Row: 115lbs.

Day 2: B
Squat: 215lbs.
Press: 105lbs.
Deadlift: 215lbs.


Day 3: A
Squat: 220lbs.
Bench: 165lbs.
Upright Row: 120lbs.

Had my first hiccup at the tail end of week 8. As a result both my squat, and overhead press won't go up for the first lift of this week. I'm confident the squat was just a hiccup, but the press worries me. It's not a lot of weight, but my shoulders have always been a problem for me.

Part of me is shocked that I've kept this up for 8 weeks already and have only slipped one workout behind. I keep telling myself that I'll catch up, but I guess it doesn't really matter. I'm lifting, I feel fantastic, and I've started to include cardio in my off days. This should help me lose some weight.

All in all, I feel good. I'm lifting, and I'm curious to see how this all turns out.

12 Week Experiment: Week 8

 Day 1: B
Squat: 200lbs.
Press: 100lbs.
Deadlift: 195lbs.

 Day 2: A
Squat: 205lbs.
Bench: 155lbs.
Upright Row: 110lbs.


 Day 3: B
Squat: 210lbs.
Press: 105lbs.
Deadlift: 205lbs.

Not much to say, keep adding weight, keep lifting. Form is improving, and I'm feeling fantastic. Not much of a visible change, but I'm ok with that. I hit 200 last night (Day 1) and am looking forward to the start of week 10, where I should hit 225.

Two Inch Difference

It's common knowledge that the squat is one of the best, if not the best, exercise for your lower body. Executed properly a squat works your legs, hips, and core muscles. Helps to strengthen your back, and generally will make everything below your belly button bigger, firmer, and sexy as hell.

The Squat, done properly, is also a great exercise to rehab your knees. Have knee pain? Stiffness? Then squat. Build up the weight slowly, and you'll see a sharp reduction, to complete elimination of knee pain. For the past six and a half weeks I've been squatting regularly. For the first six weeks I had no knee pain, and at worse a twinge in my lower back. However after my workout last Saturday my knees were on fire. Absolutely screaming. I stretched, and babied them over the weekend and tried to figure out what I had done wrong. My previous workout, at 180lbs itself shouldn't have caused the amount of pain I was experiencing, so what had gone wrong?

As I was stretching, and doing a few Hindu Squats, I realized I was compensating for the pain in my knees by rolling forward as I came up out of a squat. Imagine this, when you're doing a full squat your knees shouldn't come forward of your toes. You should drop your butt backwards, drop into a squat, then drive your hips forward to stand. This motion engages the muscles in the legs and keeps your knees from having to support the weight. This is the major reason why squats, done properly, are good for your knees. You don't lift with your knees, but with your legs, and hips strengthening the muscles that support your knees. By rolling forward I was, in effect, lifting with my calves, and knees. A recipe for disaster.

With the source of the pain located, my bad form, I set about rectifying the problem. For years I've squatted high bar. Where the bar rests across the top of my traps, at the base of my neck. This is how I learned to squat back in High School and I've never taken the time to re-learn. High bar squats are easy to do, it's a fairly natural position for the bar, and it's easy to control the bar. However I was finding that at higher weight two thing were happening. First, the bar was rolling forward as I squatted putting pressure on my neck. While not painful this certainly wasn't comfortable. As I looked into the cause of my bad form I found that high bar squat, as it placed the bar higher on your body, and forward of your center of gravity caused two issues. One, you were more prone to arch your back, which would explain the back pain I was feeling, and two you took more of the weight on your knees. I figured something had to change.

So, I went back to StrongLifts.com and looked at how they suggested you squat. I figure the program I was following might have some suggestions. Their suggestion, was to squat low bar. In a low bar squat you don't place the bar on top of your trapezius where I had been squatting, but instead on top of your deltoids. In layman's terms, if you run a finger down the back of your neck you will find a bony bump, right at the base of your neck. Just past that is where you squat high bar, and it's the bar pressing on that nub of bone that causes pain. For low bar, imagine you're squeezing a pencil between your shoulders, Your arms back, elbows pointed behind you at a roughly 30-45 degree angle. If you're holding this posture, and roll your head back you'll feel a shelf of muscle. Those are your deltoids. Large slabs of muscle that cross your shoulders onto your back.

When squatting low bar you place the bar on this shelf of muscle. The difference is a matter of inches. The difference in the lift is incredible. Having the bar further back forces you to squat with a straighter back, and more upright posture. This eliminates back pain. Having the weight behind you forces you to drop back under the bar, in a good squat form, and makes it difficult, to nearly impossible, to come forward onto your toes to engage your calves. This further protects your knees.

In short, I did five sets, or five reps, at 185lbs and have no knee pain, and no back pain. Though I will admit my butt is a little stiff.

12 Week Experiment: Week 7

Day 1: A
Squat: 185lbs.
Bench: 145lbs.
Upright Row: 100lbs.

Day 2: B
Squat: 190lbs.
Press: 95lbs.
Deadlift: 185lbs.


Day 3: A
Squat: 195lbs.
Bench: 150lbs.
Upright Row: 105lbs.

Squat form has degraded a little, I realized last night, as I wrapped up week 6, that as I was coming out of a squat I was coming forward to engage my calves more. While this will help me keep up the linear gains I've been enjoying it's not good for my knees. I need to be mindful of my form in my later sets.

Deadlift is getting heavy too, even though it's less weight then my squat, and I have no trouble getting the bar off the ground my grip isn't quite up to par. Something else to work on I guess.

I was shocked I completed my push press last night as well, 90lbs doesn't seem like much but pressing that much over your head gets heavy quick.

The objective is to start running this week as well, to see if I can't cut some weight while lifting. Let's see if the weather cooperates.

12 Week Experiment: Week 6

Day 1: B
Squat: 170lbs.
Press: 85lbs.
Deadlift: 165lbs.

Day 2: A
Squat: 175lbs.
Bench: 140lbs.
Upright Row: 95lbs.

Day 3: B
Squat: 180lbs.
Press: 90lbs.
Deadlift: 175lbs.

I'm still off track, I meant to get back to a normal schedule last week, but life conspired against me. In short, I finished week 4 last night, and will hopefully get all three lifts for week 5 done during week 5. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll try week 6.

I got through my first Bench milestone. 135lbs, and it went up smoothly. Frankly, it was the only thing that went well last night. Rows hurt, squat hurt, everything hurt. I'm at the point where I need to do warm-ups for all of my lifts, and that means spending more time in the gym then I'm used to. While this isn't a bad thing I'm used to in, and out, in thirty minutes or less. With the added lifts, and rest between sets, especially on squat, I'm not getting out of the gym until 45 minutes. While that's not terrible, it's a pain.

In better news all my lifts continue to go up. Let's see how long it lasts.

12 Week Experiment: Week 5

 Day 1: A
Squat: 155lbs.
Bench: 130lbs.
Upright Row: 85lbs.

 Day 2: B
Squat: 160
Press: 80lbs.
Deadlift: 155lbs.


 Day 3: A
Squat: 165lbs.
Bench: 135lbs.
Upright Row: 90lbs.

I get to be a little creative this week. The Easter festivities threw me off week 4, so my third workout for last week is happening tonight. Then, week 5 will be Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. I'm going to be so sore by the end of the week.

I've also started playing with Fitocracy. (http://www.fitocracy.com) Basically, it's a website to track exercise. While that's certainly nothing new they have a few nice features. First, a really clean interface. It took me less than five minutes to log in, and enter my first workout. As you exercise, and track your workouts, you gain points, and can complete quests. There are achievements, discussion lists, and groups. Think social networking meets exercise. Achievements, and quests, are there to convince you to try new things. Ranging from free weights, to swimming, sports, and running they run the gamut from trivially simple, to asininely hard. However, the points awarded scale. So, if you're a nut-job cyclist, and you complete the 2,000 mile bike achievement you'll gain a suitably impressive number of points.

All in all it's provided me with a fun way to brag about my workouts.

Soapbox: Fat

I've tried to move away from letting things on Facebook bother me. However, in spite of my best efforts, something drags me back. Something is posted, or said, or referenced that simply gets my blood boiling. So, instead of ranting, and screaming, at the offending individual I'll retreat to my little piece of cyberspace and rant and scream here. If you don't wish to listen, or care, then that's just fine by me.

I've written about health, fitness, and my issues with viewing weight as a protected status. I thought I had buried that hatchet. I thought I had moved past that. I guess not. My latest blood-boiling bit of internet lunacy is as follows:

"Activism works! We pointed out a problem to Planned Parenthood, asked them to fix it and suggest how, and they did what we asked! They've removed "obesity" from their list of health problems facing Alaska on this press release. Thanks to everyone who wrote e-mails and participated in this, another little step."

Before I get to why this sent me into hypertensive hell let me explain the "cause" that Ragen Chastain of Dances With Fat champions. She is a dancer, and admitted "fat person" she follows, and preaches a philosophy of "Behavior-Centered Health" in which the choices you make, and the lifestyle you lead are the important parts, not a particular weight or size. That all sounds great, right? No need to complain about people making healthy choices. However, she goes on to explain that her goals are as follows:

1. Accepting and respecting the diversity of body shapes and sizes
2. Recognizing that health and well-being are multi-dimensional and that they include physical, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional, and intellectual aspects
3. Promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes
4. Promoting eating in a manner which balances individual nutritional needs, hunger, satiety, appetite, and pleasure
5. Promoting individually appropriate, enjoyable, life-enhancing physical activity, rather than exercise that is focused on a goal of weight loss

Again, nothing here really screams "blood-boiling rage" does it?

I'll go through her points one at a time.

Accepting and respecting the diversity of body shapes and sizes

Ragen's idea of respect goes something like this, if you're fat, GREAT! Nobody can tell you you're fat, or charge you more for insurance, or not hire you, or anything else, simply because of you're weight. Respect is never having to lose weight, or conform to an evil negative-body image. When you do that, it damages your self-esteem, and you're a fragile delicate flower.

Recognizing that health and well-being are multi-dimensional and that they include physical, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional, and intellectual aspects

I'll be the first to admit that health is not black and white. That weight is hardly the last word on fitness. However, physical health, and emotional health are two entirely different animals. You can love your job, and yourself, and still be completely physically unhealthy.

Promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes

No issue with this one. Except that she has to tie it back to size.

Promoting eating in a manner which balances individual nutritional needs, hunger, satiety, appetite, and pleasure

There's nothing better then a 20oz prime rib, medium-rare, with a loaded baker, and a salad, with cheese, onions, and ranch. That's pleasure on a plate. Guess what? That's not healthy. If I'm going to eat like that I'm going to pay for it, either in the gym, or on the scale. That's life. Health, and "culinary pleasure" are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but one can't feel good by eating nothing but ice cream, until sated, and then get mad when they gain weight. When they are not healthy.

Promoting individually appropriate, enjoyable, life-enhancing physical activity, rather than exercise that is focused on a goal of weight loss


On paper, this is just fine. But how do you track exercise if not through caloric expenditure? I can walk on a treadmill, at 0 incline, for hours, but it doesn't really do anything. I can say it's "life-enhancing" till I'm blue in the face, but it doesn't make it exercise, any more then a Milky Way is diet food.

So, let's go back to the quote above, I'll re-post it, to save you scrolling up:

"Activism works! We pointed out a problem to Planned Parenthood, asked them to fix it and suggest how, and they did what we asked! They've removed "obesity" from their list of health problems facing Alaska on this press release. Thanks to everyone who wrote e-mails and participated in this, another little step."


They "pointed out" that obesity isn't a health problem in Alaska. Guess what? Just because PPH caved and took obesity off the list doesn't mean that the obesity epidemic goes away, or that all the obese people in Alaska are suddenly fit, and happy. All it does is hide the problem. Congratulations, you're "activism" has buried a segment of the population, preventing them from getting help. Feel good?

I'm sure it does.

12 Week Experiment: Week 4

Day 1: B
Squat: 140lbs.
Press: 70lbs.
Deadlift: 135lbs.

 Day 2: A
Squat: 145lbs.
Bench: 125lbs.
Upright Row: 80lbs.

 Day 3: B
Squat: 150
Press: 75lbs.
Deadlift: 145lbs.

I went back and cleaned up Week 3, there's a new Blogger interface, it's slick, but it likes to add random blank lines. It's not too bad if I remember to go back and clean everything up but when I forget you have random lines where they shouldn't be. Anyway.

Finished up Week 3 last night. At present I'm one quarter of the way through this little experiment. Frankly, if we take away the fact that my lower back is sore, I've managed three weeks of fairly solid lifting without injury. I received my first compliment at the gym the other day. Generally I show up, lift, and go home, yet in the middle of my Day 2 workout a younger guy came up to me and complimented me on my squat form. It was odd, to say the least.

Anyway, I wanted to get up on my soapbox and rage a bit, but I think it's better I keep my training, and my politics separate. For the good of all.

12 Week Experiment: Week 3

Day 1: A
Squat: 125lbs.
Bench: 115lbs.
Upright Row: 70lbs.

 Day 2: B
Squat: 130lbs.
Press: 65lbs.
Deadlift: 125lbs.

 Day 3: A
Squat: 135lbs.
Bench: 120lbs.
Upright Row: 75lbs.

I had my Day 1 workout last night. Evidently 125lbs is the point where squats start to "feel" heavy. I was still able to do my full routine with minimal rest between sets. However, there's that moment when you square up, with the bar across your shoulders, and a little voice in your head says "Hey buddy, this shit's heavy!" I got that voice last night.

It's funny, The Mrs. once yelled at me, while I was lifting, saying that I was thinking about it too much. She, at the time, was right. But last night the one point I had on my side is that I knew the weight on my back was only 5lbs heavier then the previous workout. So, I could logic through that if I had easily gone 120lbs only a few days earlier then there was no reason I shouldn't be able to do 125lbs today.

I think that's the biggest advantage of an incremental program. Even if you don't see the same results that you would with a more traditional split program you have the emotional safety net that it's only 5lbs more than last time in the gym. That, for me at least, is a huge help when I hit mental hurdles. Certain weights, regardless of my ability to lift them, always pose a problem. 135lbs, 225lbs, and 315lbs are huge hurdles, mentally.

There's something about that first, second, and third set of 45lb plates that makes my knees weak. Even if I know I can lift a given weight, seeing those plates makes me doubt myself. That's another big gym hurdle. Getting out of your head enough to lift, and lift heavy, but not losing your focus, and the knowledge that the weight on your back isn't much scarier then the weight was two days ago.

Saturday morning, I'll hit one of those milestones. I feel good, let's see if I'm overconfident.