Day 244

Whelp, I've finally started a new program to makeup for the slow progress that I was getting with 5-3-1. This will be working alongside what I was doing for 5-3-1 for my bench and overhead press...especially since I have no real desire to have massive man-arms! I like my skinny, yet muscularly defined arms and I want to keep it that way. Any way to fight that dreaded 2 wave goodbye...aka the flappy, fatty arm old women get...is what I'm looking at maintaining.

This new program is great, but I am also only making my way into week three as of right now. I keep getting told that it's going to get much harder, but right now I would like to remain positive. So far so good...minus the soreness, but hey it hurts so good!! 

5-3-1 Round 2

Since 5-3-1 is doing it's job of healing up injuries, this workout is staying for a little while. I haven't had problems with my hip in quite a while which makes for great lifting days. Unfortunately, I'm not getting the fast progress I was seeing with Starting Strength; so, this is creating a bit of frustration for me on this end. 

Everything seems to be healed up and a new program is in the works for my squatting and dead lifting days. The next post will best show what I've got going on these days and where I'm at in regards to progress. Thankfully I am injury-free and hope to remain this way!!

Buh Bye Starting Strength, Hello 5-3-1!

From Starting Strength came 5-3-1 starting on the last day of February. I was dealing with a hip flexor problem, and this was going to be my golden ticket to getting back in the game. It was meant to regain the strength I had gained, especially in terms of my squat, by starting me off at a much lower max for healing.

5-3-1 has been a decent program, especially when dealing with injury, but I am getting a bit frustrated weekly due to the fact that I only squat 1 day a week. On Starting Strength I was handling 3 times a week, so this is easier, but very irritating.

The End of an Era!

I've been terrible about updating this thing over the past few months, but I have been keeping track of all my progress through excel spreadsheets. I have an accurate depiction of what I have done since late December until the beginning of March on this chart. This information is the exact same as what those previous blog updates stated, but now its much easier to see what I did, when I did it. 

Progress is a great thing, but eventually the starting strength program had its toll on my hip flexors. I since moved onto a program called 5-3-1 to heal up while still gaining strength. It's progress wasn't as grand as that with starting strength, but backtracking was necessary. I'll have that program in my next post!

Day 191

Whelp, I've missed several posts over the past month. I got a little sick somewhere in there, celebrated a 22nd birthday, had several midterm exams, but still managed to workout. My deadlift is around 185 lbs at 3X5, with a max at 205 lbs YAY! Bench is right around 75 to 80 lbs at 3X5. Overhead press has stalled around 65 to 70 lbs at 3X5. And poor squats have also stalled at 150lbs for 3X5 due to hip flexor problems. So the program is getting a change up.

Day 155

Finally made the move up to 150! The squats actually felt really good, and my hip flexor is doing well. It took a while to warm up and get full flexibility in it, but once I did the weight went down and up pretty smoothly.

Squats:
45--1 set, 5 reps
65--1 set, 5 reps
95--1 set, 5 reps
115--1 set, 5 reps
135--1 set, 5 reps
150--3 sets, 5 reps
Bench Press:
45 lbs--1 set, 5 reps
75 lbs--3 sets, 5 reps


Things are looking up!! I'm hoping I can keep moving up in weight for a little while longer!! 

Day 153

We kept my squat at 145 lbs this workout again just for safe measure. Wouldn't want to hurt myself when I'm making so much progress :) I got to deadlift today as well. That is steadily moving up too. I enjoy deadlift for the most part, aside from the hook grip.


Squats:
45--1 set, 5 reps
65--1 set, 5 reps
95--1 set, 5 reps
115--1 set, 5 reps
145--3 sets, 5 reps

Overhead Press:
45 lbs--1 set, 5 reps
67 lbs--3 sets, 5 reps


Deadlift:
142 lbs--1 set, 5 reps


There are a few warm up deads I lifted, but its just tedious to list them all. But yahoo my dead is almost up to my squat now! Ready to move up to 150 lbs on squat Saturday!