Wednesday, 7/14

LB only:
4 minute warm up
squats, 1x7
Plie squats, 1x7
Standing leg curls, 12~1.5, 12~1.5, 12~3.5
Stretches

I got the bright idea to strap in a 2 lb weight with the ankle weights for the last set of the leg curls. It worked.

I'm having trouble telling if I'm really parallel on the squats. I think I am... if I go any lower, my knees complain, so I'll just continue with it and see how it goes.

Not much of a workout tonight, but I got in an unofficial work out last night tearing down my waterbed and hauling it to the garage. Figured I'd better wait a day on the UB, since that durn muscle under the right shoulder blade is sore tonight. Can anyone tell me which muscle that is... it's real name?

If I decide to keep these separated out, I'm going to have to add something else to LB or do as Built suggests and just divide it up by muscle. I'd rather keep it by LB/UB if I can. This is just not enough of a workout, though.

Thursday, 7/14, started at 10:30pm

warm up: 4 mins
Side latteral raises, 12~5, 9~7, 6~8
Upright rows, 12~4, 9~5, 6~7
Seated shoulder press, 12~13, 9~14, 6~15
Seated forward flyes, 12~4, 9~5, 6~7
Seated one-arm curls, 12~13, 9~14, 6~15
Bent-over kickbacks, 12~12, 9~13, 6~15
One-arm rows, 12~17, 9~20, 6~23
2 arm overhead extensions, 12~13, 9~15, 6~17
stretches

I meant to do the one arm rows first and missed it on my printout. Duh.

I can feel it in my arms, but they aren't shaking like a nerve problem. Tells me I didn't work as hard as I have in the past. I don't like working out this late for lifting, but wanted to wait 3 hours until dinner was digested some. I'm just too tired from the day's activities this late. I have to do this before dinner to make it more effective.

Took 1 scoop of L-glutamine and ate a few pieces of pepperoni. I know, not the best source of protein. I don't have any cottage cheese in the house.

Edited to add: When I looked at fitday, I had eaten only 62 gms of protein today, so I forced myself to drink a serving of whey protein mixed in water. Yuck. But it brought my protein up to 87 grams. I can't figure out out to get my protein up to the 130s and still keep the calories at a reasonable level. Maybe I'll drink this twice per day.

There's worse things than glutamine and pepperoni!

Good work!

Friday, 7/16, 30 minutes

LB
4 minute warm up
squats, 1x8
Plie squats, 1x8
Standing leg curls, 12~3.5, 12~3.5, 12~3.5
1 mile WAP, light stretchy band~medium, HR up to 119

I took the L-glutamine. I got up to 107 gms of protein today, so better.

Still having trouble with the knees during the squats. I may have to wait until I lose more weight. I'll keep doing this for another week or so and see how it goes. I don't think there's anything I can do to improve the strength of the knees. I'll have to research that.

Seated leg extensions, not too heavy, done slow. Concentrate on the negatives, one or two long sets of 12-15 every few days, fairly light.

Saturday, 7/17

Drank 4 oz cranberry juice & 6 oz water, mixed w/1 scoop (28 gms) of Whey Protein and 1 scoop (2 gms) of L-glutamine. This gave me 18 carbs and 25 protein before the work out. Needs ice mixed in next time.

warm up: 4 mins (first part of the 2 mile WAP video)
One-arm rows, 12~18, 9~20, 6~23
Side latteral raises, 3 sets of 8, 5 lbs
Upright rows, 12~5, 9~7, 6~8
Seated shoulder press, 12~13, 9~14, 6~15
Seated forward flyes, 12~5, 9~7, 6~8 (stay here next time too)
Seated one-arm curls, 12~13, 9~14, right arm 5~15, left arm 4~15, then another 4~15 for each arm
Bent-over kickbacks, 12~13, 9~15, 6~15
2 arm overhead extensions, 12~14, 9~15, 6~17
10 minutes of the 1 mile WAP

Ate 7 beef bites afterwards (5 gms protein).

I need to remember to start with the left arm - it's the weaker arm. If I start with the right, then I go higher on one side than the other. Need to have the left side catch up to the right side. That's what I get for being right handed.

I was really dripping with this workout today. Was it the result of drinking the shake first? Maybe a better workout?

Good job on the workout! Looks like you got the pre-lifting snack worked out well!
Next time: at least 15-25g slow protein after lifting, okay?

Oh, so much to learn. I guess I'm really switching gears now from the old concepts of "just eating low carb" to "excited about working out". Feels good (and very strange for me). Now that I'm beginning to get this, I don't really think I'm as much of a carboholic as I once was...I was just not exercising enough.

I bought Arnold S.'s Encyclopedia of body building . I'm finding some very good stuff in this book. I really didn't have the concept of lifting to failure for each of the 3 sets I'm doing. For the first set I've just been lifting 12 reps and then stopping because I hit the 12. Same for the 2nd set of 9.

So, I think for the next UBW I'm going to try this. Maybe that's why I'm not feeling the workouts so much the next day. So, for example, on the one arm rows, I did 12 reps at 18 lbs for the first set. I could probably go on up a couple more reps and then really know that I need to switch to 19 lbs the next time (I'll probably go ahead and go to 20 lbs, though since I don't have a 19 lb dumbbell). If I do it this way a few times, I should be able to work up to the real weight level for each of the sets. I've been pushing myself very well on the 3rd set, though, so I'm comfortable with where I am there.

I'm still a bit leery about blatantly increasing to point of failure on the LBW, though. I just still have sooo much excess fat in my core and thighs that I'm afraid I'd get hurt again.

I had DD take some pictures of my back and arms yesterday. I won't post them until I'm get some of this fat off, though. Then I can post them right along with my much better looking "during" photos. Ok, off to go do my LBW.

Sunday, 7/18, 35 minutes

Drank 4 oz cranberry juice, mixed w/1 scoop (28 gms) of Whey Protein, 1 scoop (2 gms) of L-glutamine & 4 crushed ice cubes. 18 carbs, 25 protein.

Afterwards I ate 2.5 oz of canned tuna w/ 1 TBS mayo. 0 carbs, 33 protein. A bit high in calories, but until I get to the store, this will do. Ok, Built?

LB
4 minute warm up
squats, 1x9
Plie squats, 1x9
Standing leg curls, 12~3.5, 12~3.5, 12~3.5
Seated lex extensions, 3 sets of 15~3.5
20 minutes of the 2 mile WAP, no stretchy band, HR up to 118

The leg extensions are a great addition. I started at 3.5 lbs and that feels a bit light, but I'll stay there for a little while, focusing on going slowly down. I can tell those are really going to help. Thanks for suggesting them Built.

Squats felt better today. I spread my legs just a bit little bit further apart, which kept the weight from being directly over the knees at the low point. I am not yet parallel, but am listening to my body and going down to the point where the knees just start to feel it. I think this is better than giving up doing the squats altogether.

I still don't feel like I'm doing enough for lower body, so that's why I did a bit more on the WAP... it's really a LB workout for me, especially the knee lifts.

Took my stats today...95 lbs FM, 41.8%BF, 132.0 LM. This is a .9 lb of LM loss in the last 7 days, and 2.0 lbs of LM lost in 14 days. I know this is normal, but I was hoping I would be building enough muscle to stay more constant for LM. I wasn't getting enough protein in the past, so maybe the change I'm making there will help. Yesterday, I got in 121 gms of protein, well above my previous average of 88 gms.

That'll help!

Plus, you are still building up your ability to lift. As you can lift more and more, you will preserve and build more and more lean mass.

And of course, if you're using a Tanita, they are NOT accurate enough to be able to tell if you have lost less than 1% of your lean mass.

If your strength gains are increasing, then don't worry about it. At all. Just keep up the good work, okay?



- Built

Thanks Built!

I'm actually using the Omron HBF-300 to measure BF. I suspect any of these are going to be off some...it's more the trend I'm looking for. I always measure first thing in the morning so that I'm getting a consistent reading. Sometimes I do it 2 or 3 times just to test the monitor and it seems to be consistent each time.

I'm really enjoying reading Arnold S's encyclopedia of body building. I'm learning all the things I've been doing wrong. I guess it's better to learn them now while I'm just starting out. I'm so glad I bought this book...I've learned a few things already that I can apply next time I work out.

Oh, today is my no exercise day.

Any of the electronic analyzers are only ball-park generators. They're far from accurate.
The only way to have an accurate measurement is post-mortem dissection. This, of course, kills the patient.

What have you learned that you were doing "wrong", by the way? I haven't read this book. Do keep in mind, that Arnie's a man, and he used AAS. These factors most CERTAINLY impacted upon how he trained.

Just my .02

Oh, for example, resting too long between sets and not going the full range of motion for each exercise. I was just "doing" the exercise, but not understanding all the fundamentals about how and why to do the exercise. Understand that I have *never* been athletic, so don't have a clue on a lot of this. (I was always the last one picked for teams in gym in school. )

I think the best part of this book is the lengthy explainations he gives. For example, he spends 10 paragraphs just talking about warming up. Really goes into why and what it does, oxidation, etc. (probably stuff you already know). He spends a lot of pages on each exercise with lots of pictures, clearly showing each muscle. For example, the first area he covers is the shoulders. He shows the muscles, how many heads the deltoids have (I didn't know muscles had heads ), how to look at the shoulders and rcognize the muscles (has drawings, too), how to train the deltoids, basic training, advanced training and competitive training. He does this for each muscle/muscle group.

Now, admittedly, there is a lot in here I won't use, but he seems to cover it all. He could go a little further and include some pictures of women. He writes a bit about women and training, but you can tell the whole book is geared toward the men.

And there are lots of hunk pictures...course I don't think I like the real musclely (is that a word?) men.

What kind of warming up does he suggest? I don't do any, myself, other than things like I never do sissy squats before leg press, and I always start shoulders with lateral raises.