Chillicat's journal

[ThePman]

I did a draft of my 5x5 last night - but I suspect that I'll have to revise the starting weights again before I start doing it in a few weeks, if my current increases continue.

Are you being a procrastinatrix, CC?

[Chillicat]

I did a draft of my 5x5 last night - but I suspect that I'll have to revise the starting weights again before I start doing it in a few weeks, if my current increases continue.

Are you being a procrastinatrix, CC?

Depends how you look at it - the current thing I'm doing I wanted to do for 6 weeks, and I've still got a week and a half to go on that. Part of why I want to wait to get started is because I'm going away for a nice long weekend for WOMAD at the end of next week - so it'll get in the way of my gymming. So it just seems like a good bookend to programmes - finish one just before I go away, and start the new one when I get back.

[Chillicat]

Heh, yeah, or later lunches. Although I've never tried early to be fair.

Tried "actual" lunch period once. Never again :?

Yeah, could also do later lunches - but I reckon slightly earlier is better for me, as it fits in well with my eating times, especially since I'm a 7.30am starter at work, so about an hour ahead of everyone else.

[VampireChick]

So...where's this snowboarding forum at?

[Chillicat]

So...where's this snowboarding forum at?

It's actually a British one so not really very relevant for most Kiwis. I only got onto it because my friend was living over there 7 or so years ago and found it when she was looking for people to board with as she didn't know anyone (I didn't even board at the time and just nipped in a few times to see what all this forum nonsense was all about :pfft: ). I ended up meeting my husband and a bunch of other great people through it - but as a snowboard forum it's not much use for us as they're always going boarding while we're in our bikinis in the sun, and moaning about the lack of snow while we're in the middle of our season!

[VampireChick]

You met your hubby through it? That's awesome! I thin snow.co.nz have a forum but it's not that great.

[Chillicat]

You met your hubby through it? That's awesome! I thin snow.co.nz have a forum but it's not that great.

Yeah - I went over to England for a friend's wedding, met a bunch of my friend's internet snowboarding friends, and one of them went on to be my husband (after 3 years of to-ing and fro-ing to UK/NZ!).

I checked out the NZ forum before too - probably the snow.co one, but much as I enjoy snowboarding, I'll never be very good at it, and just do it for fun, not really to spend ages talking about it on a forum. I tend to stick to the 'bar' section of the UK forum (similar to our 'general chit chat') rather than the actual snowboarding bit - more to stay in touch with all the people I met on my various trips to see hubby than for any huge interest in talking about boarding!

[Chillicat]

SLDLs today. Previous high was 47.5kg last week, which I managed for 3x5 after building up, so I knew I had a decent increase in me today. So today I built up to 52.5kg rather than stopping at one increment of 50kg. Only barely managed 5 reps at 52.5kg, probably 3 if I'm honest or a possible 4 but can't really claim the full 5, but pleased with that being a higher increment than usual.

Did my calf raises as per what I thought was the 5x5 prescription today and tried to work out the appropriate weight to use for 2x15. Tried 133kg and managed 12 with a big effort, so dropped to 124kg and managed 15. Now I've just got home and looked at my 5x5 programme and see that it's meant to be 2x30, not 2x15, so I'll have to drop that down a wee bit more if I'm going to manage 30 reps at a time!

So with one more week of this current 6 week programme to go, my increases have been as follows ('from' number = weight at end of Jan):

Bench press - from 32.5kg to 40kg

Squats - from 40kg to 52.5kg

SLDLs - from 35kg to 52.5kg

Bent over rows - from 32kg to 47.5kg

I'm feeling very Amazonian and ready to wear my shorts in public all weekend next weekend at WOMAD to show off the legs that I'm finally starting to like!

[Chillicat]

I did a draft of my 5x5 last night - but I suspect that I'll have to revise the starting weights again before I start doing it in a few weeks, if my current increases continue.

Are you being a procrastinatrix, CC?

Depends how you look at it - the current thing I'm doing I wanted to do for 6 weeks, and I've still got a week and a half to go on that. Part of why I want to wait to get started is because I'm going away for a nice long weekend for WOMAD at the end of next week - so it'll get in the way of my gymming. So it just seems like a good bookend to programmes - finish one just before I go away, and start the new one when I get back.

Oh, and another thing - the more I read about 5x5 programmes, the more confused I get :roll:

I thought I had a handle on the Bill Starr stuff you posted in Vee's journal, and I picked one of the two sample plans suggested (the one with the most things I actually know how to do!), and worked out a draft based on heavy, light and medium weights using my current weights.

Thought I was all ready to go - but then I saw a spreadsheet someone posted somewhere else, so I plugged my stats into it and found it telling me that I'm meant to start off lower, even on my heavy days, and won't actually get to my current weights (5RM) til about week 4 (or 3 with rounding).

I'm tempted just to do my normal thing of giving what I thought was right a bash and see how it goes, which seems to have worked for me the last 6 weeks - though I realise that I won't be able to make such steady gains long term. But then again, I don't want to charge ahead when I'm not meant to and end up impeding my progress.

So if anyone can tell me for sure what I'm meant to do, I'd appreciate it - do I drop back for a few weeks and build back up, or do I just start where I finish with my current programme and continuing increasing week by week?

That's the problem with all this weight lifting stuff - everything I read seems to either contradict what I've read previously, or kind of adds another layer that just muddles me :? Feeling very blonde right now :oops:

[ThePman]

Ignore the spreadsheets. Seriously. Forget they existed. The spreadsheets are approximations made up by folks that thought they were a good idea.

The whole point of Starr's programming is to get away from those planned-out numbers. You're not in a position to benefit from overthinking; stick to the simplest approach you can get away with.

[Chillicat]

Excellent - thanks Pman - back to Plan A it is then!

[Chillicat]

Bench press day today. Stayed at 40kg max today, but whereas last week I managed 2x2 at this weight, today managed 3x3 (though last ones were probably not really countable if I'm really really honest).

Wee bit of a gain on the CG bench press - up from 35kg last week (2x4) to 37.5 this week, though only managed 2 reps - went for the third but totally failed, no spotter, so had to roll the bar onto my thighs then put it on the floor as just couldn't rack it :oops:

[runveerun]

Wee bit of a gain on the CG bench press - up from 35kg last week (2x4) to 37.5 this week, though only managed 2 reps - went for the third but totally failed, no spotter, so had to roll the bar onto my thighs then put it on the floor as just couldn't rack it :oops:

eek! Dangerous stuff CC!! :shock:

[Chillicat]

Squats today. Previous last week was 52.5kg, so worked up to that again this week, then added a wee bit more - but struggled to reach parallel at 55kg. Did 5 partials, but just didn't feel as though I'd get back up again if I tried to reach parallel, so after yesterday's fail, thought it best just to stick with partials!

52.5kgs weren't really perfect either so I think I need a bit more work on these.

[teamfatboy]

struggled to reach parallel at 55kg. Did 5 partials, but just didn't feel as though I'd get back up again if I tried to reach parallel, so after yesterday's fail, thought it best just to stick with partials!

For what it's worth (and I know I arrived late!) there's a lot of folks who'd have called those reps with the 55kg load "parallel" - so don't be too harsh on yourself, I'd have said they were 90% of the way there!

But yes, we all have a small concern about having to dump the bar on the rack if we get stuck :shock: :nod:

Next time, you'll nail them for sure!

[Chillicat]

struggled to reach parallel at 55kg. Did 5 partials, but just didn't feel as though I'd get back up again if I tried to reach parallel, so after yesterday's fail, thought it best just to stick with partials!

For what it's worth (and I know I arrived late!) there's a lot of folks who'd have called those reps with the 55kg load "parallel" - so don't be too harsh on yourself, I'd have said they were 90% of the way there!

But yes, we all have a small concern about having to dump the bar on the rack if we get stuck :shock: :nod:

Next time, you'll nail them for sure!

Haha! Well, I'm trying to be as honest as possible with my efforts, or I'm only cheating myself.

[bigdogbob]

Good on you for your honesty...getting low enough in the squat is my problem point too..but good form beats the weight factor in my book

[Chillicat]

Good on you for your honesty...getting low enough in the squat is my problem point too..but good form beats the weight factor in my book

Yeah, well I figure I'm not going to get the results I want (hot legs!) without doing the exercise properly, so there's no sense in trying to fool myself that I'm lifting heavier than I really am.

[Chillicat]

Bent over rows today. Worked up to 50kg, which is 2.5kg up on last week, and which I'm very pleased about given that today I have that kind of floaty 'might be coming down with something which is just bloody typical given I have Mon and Fri on annual leave' feeling.

So only did some bicep curls after that as don't want to overdo things when feeling all weird. Managed to work up to 15kg 5/5/3 on the EZ bar, which again I'm pleased with, as previous best effort last week was 15kg 5/2/2.

[bigdogbob]

50 kg bent over rows...wooohooo that's an impressive weight chilli well done \:D/

[steak]

Youve got a consistent journal Chilli :clap: :clap:

Re squat depth: have you tried front squats at all. I find these pretty helpful for some of our crew (incl Bar-belle) for establishing that depth can be reached and getting the motor patterns happening to allow it as habit. It may mean ditching a bit of weight off the bar but who cares if your getting a better squat eh. The "squat stretch" is also very helpful if done daily...a helpful tip Rose put me onto. Its on the stronglifts site under squats :wink:

[teamfatboy]

50 kg bent over rows...wooohooo that's an impressive weight chilli well done \:D/

:ditto: What she said - great effort.

I liked your comment this arvo about how "Forty is the new twenty".... can I quote that ? :grin:

[Chillicat]

50 kg bent over rows...wooohooo that's an impressive weight chilli well done \:D/

Thanks! Form not quite perfect, but getting better each week!

Re squat depth: have you tried front squats at all. I find these pretty helpful for some of our crew (incl Bar-belle) for establishing that depth can be reached and getting the motor patterns happening to allow it as habit. It may mean ditching a bit of weight off the bar but who cares if your getting a better squat eh. The "squat stretch" is also very helpful if done daily...a helpful tip Rose put me onto. Its on the stronglifts site under squats :wink:

No I haven't tried front squats, nor the squat stretch - I'll look it up. With my squat depth, I'm fine for the most part, it's just whenever I increase it takes me a couple of weeks to hit parallel on them at the new weight. Like when I first started doing proper squats last month (not just Smith ones), I was absolutely fine at 40kg with depth, but just couldn't manage at 45kg - but now I have no trouble at all with 45kg, and was fine with the 47.5 and 50kg increments - just a tiny bit iffy with 52.5 and 55kg. Perhaps jumping too high too soon? But I do find that even though form is iffy one week, the improvement by the next week is very noticeable.

I liked your comment this arvo about how "Forty is the new twenty".... can I quote that ? :grin:

Of course!

[Chillicat]

Today marks the end of the 6 week programme I've been working on to gain strength, and I'm very pleased with the results.

Today was SLDLs and I managed to build up to a set of 5 at 55kg, up from 52.5kg last week.

Also did some calf raises - I've been trying to work out what weight I should use when I start my 5x5 in a couple of weeks. The programme says 2x30, so I've been dropping each time I do them to see how many I can manage at a given weight, and I still haven't managed to do single full set of 30 yet, nevermind 2x30. Today I dropped back to 106kg and did 20, but it was so hard that I dropped again to 97kg for the second set but only managed 15. Previous PB was 133kg for 2x12.

Next week is a kind of lazy week in between programmes - I'm away for a long weekend from tomorrow, and want to do my 5x5 programme on a Sun (heavy)/Tue (light)/Thur (medium) cycle, so that I've got plenty of time in the gym to focus on the heavy day. So since I won't be back in the gym next week til Tuesday I'll just fit in a couple of easy workouts next week and I'm keen to throw in a pump class just for a change. Then I'll be all refreshed and ready to start the new 5x5 - very excited about that!

[runveerun]

Yay for 5x5 Miss Chilli! Welcome to the club! Have a great LOOooooong Weekend! :grin:

Which 5x5 are you going to do?