Drizzt Lifts Things

[rose]

Man, this is becoming quite the hassle.

Only because you procrastinated Captain :pfft: Heh :grin:

[drizzt]

That could indeed be the case :-$ They were closed today too, had the truck ready to go again as well...

25/01/10 - Workout B

91kg flat today.

• Squats (reps, weight) (weights in plates/single DB only unless Oly bar exercise)
  5 x 60kg (warmup)
  5 x 100kg
  5 x 100kg
  5 x 100kg
  5 x 100kg
  5 x 100kg
  Overhead Press (standing)
  5 x 30kg (warmup)
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  Rack Pulls*
  5 x 60kg (warmup)
  5 x 100kg
  5 x 120kg
  5 x 120kg
  5 x 140kg
  5 x 140kg
  Wide Grip Pull-ups
  5 x +5kg
  5 x +5kg
  5 x +10kg
  

Comments

• *Squats, OHP and Pull-ups were all good. Weights are getting harder but still managed them without too much effort, kept rests down around 1min between sets to keep the intensity up. Beginning to feel the Right hip more and more as the weights go up, tad worried about it, but I'm thinking it's because of the increased workload more than anything, and it possibly has a tad to do with the injury on the opposite side of the hip. It gets better in the latter sets.
  *The original workout had me doing Deads today - heavy session too - but alongside the heavy(-er) session of squats, I thought flag that :naughty: I learnt last week on lighter weights that it was a tough thing to do, so didn't want to push it this week. I also didn't have the lifting belt for backup, so decided to rack pull instead. 140 felt great, upper back came away quite toasted which made the pullups a bit harder, but was very good. Didn't feel any complaints from the lower back so I think it's finally beginning to come right \:D/ I think I'm decided on doing these for the weeks where there are 2 deadlift sessions. As I get more comfortable with my back, I'll start pumping the weight right up on them. Heavy deads session will be on Friday.
  

So that's about it, simple workout, in and out. Was going to do a calves exercise but as luck would have it both calf machines were in use at the end of the session. I'll do 'em on Weds.

[drizzt]

Rugby training tonight. Felt great, the trainer says the trainings should be getting harder but I'm not finding them as challenging as most of the others seem to, which makes me feel like my prep work has paid off

Feeling really fit right now, the coming weeks will show how the strength is coming along too :nod:

Back on the weights tomorrow, with either a boxing session (partner dependant) or tyre drags to follow in the evening.

[drizzt]

27/01/2010 - Workout A

91.8kg today.

• BB Bench (reps, weight) (weights in plates/single DB only unless Oly bar exercise)
  5 x 75kg
  5 x 80kg
  5 x 90kg
  5 x 95kg
  5 x 100kg
  Front Squats
  10 x bar (warmup)
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 70kg
  5 x 70kg
  Power Cleans
  5 x 45kg
  5 x 50kg
  5 x 55kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  Dips
  5 x +10kg
  5 x +25kg
  5 x +35kg
  Standing Calf Raises (machine)
  3 sets of 12 x 178 (kg or lbs? Assume kg, max weight stack)

That's it really. Another short, sharp workout.

Weights were still easy, technique is feeling REALLY good (if I do say so myself :roll: ). Power cleans in particular are feeling great now that I'm getting used to the movement again. Bench press I'm still pausing on the chest on each rep, 100 was clean and easy, setup is good. Front squat grip can improve but otherwise happy with depth. Dips depth is fantastic (almost as low as I can right down where chest is almost at the bars), 35kg felt eeeasy.

In saying all of that, I can tell these coming weeks are gonna be hard. Sure, the weights are still going up easy, but I can feel I'm not far from topping out on a few of them - which is the point of the program I guess? - so with that in mind I'm keeping technique downpat, and making sure most things are really explosive, which will hopefully help to get me through sticking points when it gets tough.

Looks like I'll have a boxing partner tonight, so that'll be my cardio 8)

[rose]

which makes me feel like my prep work has paid off

Girly swot :clap: 8)

[Grover]

If you have a weight belt use that for your tyre drags

tie rope to that and it doesn't cut into u as it does tying rope around you.

Good that your training is paying off, keep it up

[drizzt]

Aah good idea mate. I do have a belt but it's very old school and unforgiving (hand me down from my dad's powerlifting days) so not sure if it'll fix the issue or just shift it elsewhere :pfft: Worth a shot though.

I do like the idea, so if my lifting belt doesn't work I may look at getting a cheapy specifically for towing purposes

[teamfatboy]

Standing Calf Raises (machine)

3 sets of 12 x 178 (kg or lbs? Assume kg, max weight stack)

Was that at CityFitness next to the boxing ring - yep, kilograms. Nice :clap:

[drizzt]

Standing Calf Raises (machine)

3 sets of 12 x 178 (kg or lbs? Assume kg, max weight stack)

Was that at CityFitness Bodyworks next to the boxing ring - yep, kilograms. Nice :clap:

Fixed :grin: I'm still not gonna call it the dirty C-word haha, that's reserved for Jville

Cheers though mate, I think I was doing them for sets of 6-8 towards the end of last year so good to see they've come up a little. Have never done them on the Smith machine, but have seen a few people doing them (with those wooden stands) so may give 'em a try for a bit of a change/load.

[teamfatboy]

You can do them on the Smith, or any of the leg press machines - I've seen some of the serious bodybuilders put one of those wooden things on the incline-press sled, but I've done them with toes on the edge of the sled, if that wooden gizmo flew out, it could get messy :shock:

[drizzt]

Yeah, I've done 'em on the Leg press before, but I feel a different dynamic when I'm standing which I don't seem to hit when on the press machine... If I do calves I usually throw in Leg Press for load, and then either seated or the standing machine.

All good options though, haven't seen the wooden thing used on the Leg Press before :shock: Can't say I have an urge to try it either

edit - Have also seen a lady doing calf raises on the hack machine - saw her loading up the plates and thought chrrrrrist! If she can hack those I'll be mightily impressed... and then she started calf raising it. Interesting variation I thought, suppose it could be another option.

[teamfatboy]

Oh, and the other place I've seen them done is on the Hack Squat... face towards the machine (opposite to if you were doing squatz).... toes on the edge of the platform. I knew there was another option...

[drizzt]

Haha darn, too late to edit (still using iPhone for internet )

[Chillicat]

Standing Calf Raises (machine)

3 sets of 12 x 178 (kg or lbs? Assume kg, max weight stack)

Was that at CityFitness Bodyworks next to the boxing ring - yep, kilograms. Nice :clap:

Fixed :grin: I'm still not gonna call it the dirty C-word haha, that's reserved for Jville

I'm struggling with that too! I've taken to referring to it as 'Thorndon' or 'town' but I can't get used to it being City Fitness.

[drizzt]

Ha, yeah I'm the only one of my mates who goes to Bodyworks, but they're all calling it "the Cityfitness in town" now. I can't (and don't want to) make the adjustment, I'm still calling Jville "Cityfitness" and the Thorndon gym "Bodyworks", partly due to habit as opposed to a conscious choice though I suppose.

And I've left my Bodyworks sticker on my car as a show of defiance :pfft: Guess I'll have to stick a crappy blue one somewhere near it soon though

[Chillicat]

And I've left my Bodyworks sticker on my car as a show of defiance :pfft: Guess I'll have to stick a crappy blue one somewhere near it soon though

I have 3 of the small black Bodyworks towels (each given as an apology for an instrutor not turning up to a pump class!), and I never used them before - but I find myself needing to use them at J'ville. It's like my gang patch

[drizzt]

Heh, come to think of it, I wore yellow and black last time I was at Cityfitness Jville... maybe I'm subconsciously "reppin" Bodyworks? :think: :pfft:

28/01/10 - Rugby

Actually a bit of a pathetic turnout today to be honest. Numbers have steadily been declining as people have realized how tough the trainings are :roll: Had about 50 people at the first one, and it's gone down about 10 per training, until today where we had 12 people turn up - 2 of whom were newbies. These trainings are open to all ages/grades/weights/people/religions too, so it's a bit disappointing tbh. Especially for a club that has just been promoted to the top division, you'd think guys would be a bit more committed! [/rant]

Maybe I'm being harsh and we just have a lot of closet bogans who were drinking up for ACDC tonight :pfft:

Anyway, the training itself was good. Because there were less people we had less rest on the circuits we did so it was a bit more intense, but it's coming along really nicely. I'm actually enjoying it a lot.

Tomorrow, back in the weights room, and likely follow it with some tyre drags in the afternoon.

Such a nice day today - had 3 Pure Blondes over a BBQ after training in the sun (and didn't feel so guilty because I'm not cutting anymore ) - hope it's like this tomorrow! 8)

edit - forgot to add, boxing last night. Was good, lots of ducking and weaving with focus pads, but I'm finding that boxing and rugby are kind of mutually helping each other. The agility training I'm doing in rugby is helping with my movement in boxing, and the explosiveness/short sharp bursts in boxing is helping with what we're doing at rugby too

[Pseudonym]

I'm thinking of trying the Anabolic diet. Any opinions?

I like it. It's not getting me as ripped as I'd hoped, but it's nice not having to think about rice, etc with every meal. I never was good at the multi-tasking required in cooking both meat and rice at the same time! I think the no-carbs means less water retention too, which is cool. No loss of strength either - in fact it went up with the protein increase.

I'd be very interested to see how you go on it, since our stats are very similar (you've got a couple of kilos on me). But I warn you - I won't be impressed if you get shredded on it, and I couldn't. That wouldn't be fair!

[drizzt]

I like it. It's not getting me as ripped as I'd hoped, but it's nice not having to think about rice, etc with every meal. I never was good at the multi-tasking required in cooking both meat and rice at the same time! I think the no-carbs means less water retention too, which is cool. No loss of strength either - in fact it went up with the protein increase.

I'd be very interested to see how you go on it, since our stats are very similar (you've got a couple of kilos on me). But I warn you - I won't be impressed if you get shredded on it, and I couldn't. That wouldn't be fair!

Thanks Pseudo. After suggesting it I forgot all about it :pfft: So I'll look into it again today should I get a chance. I've had a bit of a peek before and thought it looked alright :nod:

Haha, shredded would be a bonus! But we'll see

[drizzt]

29/01/10 - Workout B

Weighed in at 90.2 today :shrug:

• Deadlift* (weights in plates only unless oly bar exercise)
  5 x 100kg
  5 x 120kg
  3 x 130kg
  5 x 140kg
  5 x 140kg
  
• OHP
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  5 x 60kg
  
• Squats
  5 x 60kg (warmup)
  5 x 85kg
  5 x 90kg
  5 x 95kg
  5 x 105kg
  5 x 115kg*
  
• Wide Pullups
  5 x +5kg
  5 x +5kg
  5 x +10kg

Comments

• Deadlifts felt f**ken fantastic! I think today was finally confirmation that I've shaken the back niggle, the 140s went up like it was 60 :grin: Didn't use the belt until the last set, and even then it was just as a precaution. I decided to peg it back to 2 working sets with the 3 sets prior being of fair weight, but not so much that the volume is too large to handle. I think I may have to keep managing this, not sure what I'll do next week on 155, may build up to the one working set on it, we'll see what frame of mind I'm in come Weds.
  
• Squats were good, weight is finally beginning to creep up. There was a bit of a mental barrier on the last set due to that being the weight which I injured myself on a few weeks back (granted, it was at about rep 10 of a 12 rep set, so I still wasn't quite doing as much). Was great to overcome that hurdle, so I'm looking forward to next week's lifts :nod:

OHP was really good, 60 felt like peanuts. No push presses 8) The pullups are feeling great too, the weights I've got hanging off me don't feel like a lot anymore, might start chucking another 5 on as of the next session, maybe go +5, +10, +15.

I'm liking how short and sharp these workouts are. They're really intense and taxing on the muscles, but they seem to fly by (even though I'm probably in there as long as I was on the last program).

Tyre drags tonight, hope to drag a couple of brave souls from Rugby along with me :twisted:

[drizzt]

Beaurepaires still hadn't contacted me by this afternoon, so I called and asked if I could pick them up myself after hours and the guy said i could help myself :grin:

Crap thing is that my brother is on the booze tomorrow for Wellington races, so can't use him for the truck. So me and a mate are gonna head out with a trailer and give it a try tomorow arvo.

Woohoo, almost sorted, finally.

[drizzt]

Tyre drags were ace, ended up wrapping the tyre up in a tarp to give it a bit of a surface to slide on. Reasons for this were a) because my mate (who is quite a bit smaller than I am) was having difficulty pulling it on his own - I had to push the tyre a little so I didn't really get a rest between my sets :pfft: - and b) because the grass had grown a bit since I had last been there, so was proving to be a bit tougher to pull the tyre through.

I ended up doing 6 lengths again. Unfortunately my mate recently acquired a hip flexor niggle which flared up after his 2nd run, so it was up to me to complete them solo 8) Was very tough in the sun, felt beat up afterwards but I love these types of sessions where you know you've put in the hard yards.

OH and brought the belt with me, but it went into hiding (read: I couldn't find the damned thing in my car and assumed I'd left it at home :oops:), so didn't get a chance to use it. Thankfully had a towel which I wrapped around the rope, and that was really effective :nod:

Probably do a "vanity" session tomorrow if I get some time

[drizzt]

Wow, what a long day! Got the tyres finally sorted and delivered to where we're gonna use 'em.

A mate and I went around in his 4x4 with a trailer and made two trips, the following is what we came up with:

Ok looking at the first picture, the big tyre on the left is probably the lightest one of the big 3, the one it's leaning on is the mid-sized one, and the one at the bottom with others stacked on it is the BEHEMOTH. We were having second thoughts about taking it when we were struggling to get it on to the trailer (it wouldn't fit width-ways!), but we commandeered a nearby pallet and managed to set it up as a ramp onto the trailer. Should've videoed it, but we took a huge run up with the tyre and managed to get it up on to the trailer with our makeshift ramp 8) Ingenuity for the win.

The smaller tyres are likely going to be used for drags, or maybe even carries. The one immediately on top of the behemoth is fairly heavy, so that may be used for flipping by the halfbacks :pfft:

I think getting the behemoth was important, because it's something that we can work towards as I'm not sure we can quite flip it ourselves yet (didn't try, was too exhausted after moving them!).

Might be doing the first session with them tomorrow :grin:

Anyway, by the time we'd finished it was about 4pm (started around 12), so had no time for my vanity workout. Don't really want to do it tomorrow as I'm worried it'll effect my Monday workout... but we'll see.

[drizzt]

Hmm, not sure if those pics displayed properly (still using iPhone as internet). Lemme know if you can't see them well (the tyres should all be in shot) and I'll just upload them normally instead of linking externally.

edit - duh, or just right-click the pic and select "view image", should show up in all it's glory.

[teamfatboy]

Let there be tyres - and there were tyres, and they were good!

Yep, pics all good. That behemoth looks HUGE - something to aspire to!.