Lifting when you don't wanna

It wasn't that I was sick or anything. And it wasn't like I really was dreading going to lift. No, it was just that I wasn't really fired up to lift. I usually am, so that was sorta weird. And it was a "heavy" day, a day that I usually love. But I was just a little low on energy. I still lifted, finished the whole workout, but I took longer in-between sets as a means of compensating.

It probably didn't help that this is a ridiculously tiring workout. The first superset was chin-ups and DB decline bench press. That is just a warm-up for the deadlift and single-leg standing calf raise. On the deadlift I did 25 reps of 290 OTB (335 total). It took me 8 sets with 3 of the last 4 sets being doubles. Boy was I tired. And on the 25th deadlift I tore a huge callous off the middle finger of my left hand. Ouch. It was going to be the last rep no matter whether it was my 25th rep or not — I wasn't lifting any more with that hand.

On that topic, I just ordered Lynx Performance Grips. They're recommended by Eric Cressey as being easier on the hands. I guess I'll find out if they work.

Tightness abounds

I am so tight today. Especially my hamstrings. I'm thinking it must be a result of the 50-reps of squats yesterday (combined with dog walk/runs every day and basketball 3 days a week). I'm always quite happy when Sunday rolls around and I can rest my body. This is the result of having two different exercises that I like to do too much to skip. I just need to keep doing my mobility work every day before I exercise and get better at doing my stretching afterwards. I also am looking forward to getting a massage sometime this week (my massage therapist is getting back in town after an extended trip to Central America). It's gonna hurt.

Third day of Get Big

Today's protocol was to lift "light", which means lift a weight I can lift 20-22 times (quickly and under control) and do each exercise for a total of 50 times. The book says to do 25 reps but I'm assuming this was a typo since every other "light" day had 50 reps. Here are the exercises:

• Superset
  • High pull, 50 lbs OTB
  • DB incline press, 35 lbs
• Superset
  • Squat, 90 lbs OTB
  • Hammer curl, 20 lbs

(BTW, when I write "OTB", I mean "on the bar", meaning that the weight of the bar isn't included in the weight that I'm recording.) I'm sure that I went too light on a couple of these, but I find it really hard to figure out what weight to use for these high rep days. Even when I'm done I'm not sure whether I could have done more. I'm always so tired aerobically that I have a hard time figuring out if my muscles could have done more. So next week I'll be doing more on each of these exercises.

Today's program only took me 32 minutes. I'm sure that I will be able to do this more quickly next time. I took a lot of time between the two supersets. I wasn't really into it this morning — real tired from getting up with one of our dogs who wasn't feeling very good last night — so I struggled a bit with energy. That's okay. I know it'll be better next time.

Second day of Get Big

Today was much different than the first day. Today was exclusively unilateral work. I did all of the following as one big giant set (that is, exercise 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, and then start back with 1 again) with minimal rest in-between. I had to go take my daughter to school for a club meeting (before school) so I had to finish quickly:

• 1-arm bent over row, 65 lbs
• 1-arm shoulder press, 40 lbs
• Bulgarian split squat, 2x40 lbs
• Standing 1-arm triceps extension, 20 lbs

The first exercise was supposed to be a 1-arm seated cable row, but the cable machine is still out of order. This substitution seamed to be fairly reasonable. I will increase all of my weights next week. I tend to underestimate the weights that I can do during the first week of a new program. That's going to be especially true with programs from this book with its emphasis on lifting speed.

I finished all of these in 28 minutes. Pretty amazing. With the combination of giant set protocol and unilateral work, I could basically eliminate the rest time in-between exercises. The benefit of unilateral work is basically two-fold. First, it reduces the overall weights that can be lifted and thus is easier on the body (at least, that's my experience with it). Second, it also naturally takes more time to complete the exercise since you have to do it separately with each side; this extra time can be counted as "rest time" between exercises although you're actually working out.

Starting the "Get Big" program

Today I completed the first workout in the "Get Big" program in Huge in a Hurry by Waterbury. It was a killer. The protocol for today was 25 reps of a heavy weight (a weight you can lift quickly and under control for 4-6 reps). Here's what I did:

• Superset
  • Chin-up, 35 lbs (on my belt)
  • Deadlift, 315 lbs
• DB Decline Bench Press, 2 65 lb dumbbells
• Single-leg calf raises, 140 lbs (Smith machine)

The program calls for barbell decline bench press, but we don't have any kind of set-up where that would be easy to do. So I had a buddy load me up for the 5 sets. Next week I'm going to go up in all of the lifts.

It took me just over one hour to complete this workout, not including the mobility warm-ups before or the stretching afterwards. I was absolutely whipped after completing it. I had my protein shake before, a protein shake right after I got home, and then I slept for about an hour. I was wiped out. I had a meeting at 10am that I almost slept through. I'm okay now, as I write this, but I'm glad I was able to take that nap.

I'm also surprised that it took that long. Let's see why it took that long. Assuming that there's 4 minutes of tear-down and set-up time between the exercises, and that each set takes 2 minutes including rest, and each 25 reps took 6 sets, then that would be 4 exercises x 6 sets/exercise x 2 min/set + 3 breaks x 4 min/break = 48 + 12 = 60 minutes. Wow, I didn't know I would be that close. I also don't think it should have taken that long. I could probably get 15 seconds off the time for each set and maybe 1 minute off the break between exercises. Both of those would save 9 minutes total. I'm going to set a goal of finishing this program in 52 minutes by the end of this program (if not before).

Substitute exercises

The lat pulldown machine at the rec center is broken; actually, the lower cable is broken and they are replacing both cables. Why it takes a week to replace the two cables, I have no idea... Anyway, a lady that I have been helping navigate through the world of lifting was there for her usual Thursday morning lifting (before her kids get up and while her husband is still at home, I guess). She was a little befuddled as to what to do for lat pulldowns and seated cable rows since the machine was out of commission. This is a common issue with most lifters — what to do when a machine is broken, or a piece of equipment is unavailable, or you're working out at an unfamiliar location? It can definitely throw new lifters a curve that is difficult to handle.

I guided her to try pull-ups and barbell bent-over rows. She could only do a couple of pull-ups so I had her do another half-dozen let-downs (or negative pull-ups). She did a great job considering she couldn't even remember the last time she had tried to do a pull-up. She noted how hard the pull-ups are — understatement of the day! Then I coached her through the barbell bent-over rows. She had a hard time understanding the position of the back (ramrod straight and close to parallel to the floor) but, after that, she worked at them real hard and did a great job.

So, here she was, a newbie who wasn't going to be able to do a couple of the exercises she had hoped to do during her precious time lifting. But she asked around, kept a good attitude, kept an open mind, and learned two seriously good exercises. There's a good lesson here for all of us.

My wife's lifting program

I was talking with my wife the other day about her lifting program that I designed for her. No, I'm not certified in any way as a personal trainer, but I know some things, and I know the issues she has with her body. Also, for whatever reason she didn't make any real progress with her previous personal trainer so what did we have to lose?

The program that I designed is highly influenced by New Rules of Lifting, New Rules of Lifting for Women (both by Schuler, Cosgrove (plus Forsythe on the second)), and Eric Cressey. As such, every day there is some kind of multi-joint, complex lift involving heavy weights. The adaptations I have made for her involve her bad knees (seriously in need of second surgeries on both joints) and her weak hand strength. To address the first we (at least for now) don't include lunges or deep squats but we do include Romanian deadlifts and limited depth squats. To address the second we include farmer's walks almost every day as well as other lifts that involve her holding suspended weights.

Nancy (that would be my lovely wife) was commenting both about how much she enjoys all of the back and core work, and about how different all of this is than what she has done before and what she has observed other ladies doing in the gym. She said that she hasn't ever done anything like the volume or weight we are doing in working her midsection — seated cable rows, wide-grip cable pulldowns, bent-over rows, push-ups (incline, for now), Pallof presses, planks, woodchops, reverse woodchops, and more.

In addition, she is doing these in different configurations, 3x15, 4x8, and 5x5. She had never done more than two sets of any exercise before and, further, had always done nearly a dozen different exercises in any one session. She's doing 5-7 exercises each session but doing them multiple times. She's also never done anything other than sets of 10-12 before. I'm trying to build strength, not muscle, so we're trying to get her body used to lifting heavier weights. This is going to take time, but she's in no rush. We'll just take the progress slow and steady like the turtle.

As to the second point about how she's doing stuff different than other ladies, just the other day we watched a lady do (I bet you can guess) triceps extensions, curls, and cable-pushdowns with little tiny weights. And this was while Nancy was supersetting wide-grip lat pulldowns and barbell bent-over rows. She pointed out how it just made sense to work the big muscles in her body and not the tiny auxiliary muscles if she wants to see any real change. Makes sense to me.

Managing my energy level

The last few days I have had trouble with my energy. I'm fairly sure this is linked to my new basketball habit. My body is a bit sore, but the main problem is that my energy level is just not where it should be. It feels like I did when I started lifting. I got through that by simply continuing to work through it and giving my body time to catch up. That's the strategy that I'm going to use this time. I'll give it a couple of weeks and then re-evaluate. I'll also be sure to eat enough every morning before and after my lifting and hoops so that I maintain my muscle.

I'll report back in a couple of weeks.

Losing max strength

I haven't done heavy bench pressing for a couple of months. I'm not doing any serious tricep or chest work this week (or next) so I decided to get a few sets of heavy bench in this morning. I did a few reps at 90+bar just to warm up. Then I put another 50 on, so that was 185 lbs total. Since my max is 225 (tested back in December), I wasn't too worried about it. Well, maybe I should have been. I got a set of 3, then 2, then 1. I could probably have done more in the second and third set but I didn't have a spotter and didn't want to push it. But still. Hmmm.

I'm surprised. It's not like I'm weak or anything. And it's not like I'm worried about getting that strength back. But I'm still surprised at how heavy that weight felt in my arms. I'll just have to keep this in mind when I start to lift heavy again. I'm going to need to build a base up before I start pushing for a new PR.

Sets and reps or just total reps

I'm just starting to follow the programs in Chad Waterbury's Huge in a Hurry. I'm only on the second week of the "Get Ready" program, so I can't comment too much about the effectiveness of the program. (Though I will later.) But what I am going to comment on is emphasis on total reps done in varying "chunks" (my term) versus the usual sets and reps prescription.

In short: I like it.

Okay, you probably want a bit more details out of me.

Waterbury's method feels like it will enable faster progression or, at least, more fluid progression. Let me explain with an example. Right now, using the standard sets/reps specifications, I am using 2 70 lbs dumbbells on the incline chest press (that's not me!) when doing 5x5. But, problem is, I can't do 5x5. I can do 5, 4, and then I drop to 65 lbs for the last 3 sets of 5. That's not bad, but doing this I have been stuck at 70 for 6 months. I can do 5x5 of 65 lbs without much problem but I haven't been able to get even 2 sets of 5. Not good. I haven't been able to figure out how to progress.

Let's see how Waterbury's method would work. I am supposed to choose a weight that I can normally do from 4-6 times and get 25 reps in. That would be 70 lbs. So I do 4, and then 4, and then 3, and then 3 (that's 14 so far), and then a couple sets of 2, and then drop to 65 to finish up. That allowed me to do 18 reps at 70 which has simply got to allow me to progress faster than I would otherwise. I'm a big believer in stress making the body adapt, so this just feels right.

I'll report back on how this actually turns out, but I'm hopeful.

Duuuude,what were you doing?

Yeah, that's what she said to me. Funny.

I had just finished doing dips. I had a dip belt loaded up with 65 lbs and had done 25 total reps. It's not that this is a weird thing to do (in my opinion), but certainly I don't see anyone else at the rec center at that time of the morning doing dips with additional weight.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" Smiling, shaking her head. She's one of the ladies who does spinning in the next room a couple days a week. I see her and wave and smile every time we pass because she always has a smile for me. We've talked a couple of times but she's usually behind a glass wall or running on the treadmill when I see her so we don't talk too much. She usually only comes into the weight room to get a couple of light dumbbells. I haven't ever seen her use them so I don't know what she uses them for. But this time she was dressed to leave since she had finished her workout.

"No, not really. Just trying to do dips, make them a little harder than just my body weight." I explained how I use the dip belt instead of the chain that the rec center provides because at least it doesn't leave bruises on my hips. She wondered if it hurt my back. I said, no, the weight hangs from my hips and is actually fairly comfortable. I ran over to the dip station and showed her what I did. She just shook her head. "Wow, duuude..."

Fun conversation.