From Fatass to Badass - A Journal of Change

[Big_Turtle]

What do you mean by 'appropriately'? IMHO, I'd increase it mildly, according to whatever plan you have established, rather than throwing on a big jump b/c today was easy. It'll help string your run of PRs out further and further if you take small conservative jumps even though you felt great today. That's just my approach. Some people stall b/c they'll make aggressive jumps. You can do that, but usualy only briefly.

By appropriately I mean I'll increase it to something closer to what I should've been doing today (a triple for 210 rather than 195). Maybe by this time next week I'll have that one under my belt. I didn't plan on piling on 30 or 40 pounds though, no way. While I want to push myself, I also know that it's way too easy to get hurt right here at the beginning. Thanks for looking out for me though.

 

[Big_Turtle]

Week 2 Day 1

Squats
5 x 75
5 x 115
5 x 135
5 x 185
5 x 205

This was kind of big for me, mentally, breaking 200 again. It's not a true PR, but it is the most I've hefted in 4 or 5 years.

Bench Press
5 x 75
5 x 115
5 x 155
5 x 185
5 x 200

Same thing, really. A lot tougher than the squats, especially unracking the damn thing, but I think this is a bigger mental victory for me than anything.

Rows
5 x 75
5 x 105
5 x 135
5 x 155
5 x 175


Overall, I would say that I had a good workout. Nothing amazing, but I am definitely getting back into the swing of it all.

I haven't checked on my bodyfat % lately, but as of yesterday morning I was down 15 pounds. I've been eating like a freaking horse, so I'm actually kind of surprised. I've been eating fairly clean with lots of tuna, brown rice, eggs, etc., but I've still be eating some big servings. Honestly, I figured I wouldn't worry too much about the whole weight issue for the first month or two. I just wanted to get back into the habit of lifting and then after that pattern was established I would start to work on my diet. Shoot, if this keeps up I'll need to add calories in rather than take any out.

 

[Big_Turtle]

Week 2 Day 2

Squat
5 x 75
5 x 115
5 x 155
5 x 155

Military Press
5 x 55
5 x 75
5 x 95
5 x 105

Deadlift
5 x 145
5 x 185
5 x 225
3 x 265 Miss, damnit!

Today was not a very good day. I got close to 9 hours of sleep, but I felt like I could've easily gotten another one or two hours. My nose was really stuffed up, I felt tired, groggy, just not much energy at all. I'm blaming that for the miss on the deadlifts. That's all right though, I still enjoyed myself. I love the looks I get from other people when I'm deadlifting. Usually a confused twist of the head, like a dog might do when you talk to them. I have yet to have a run-in with anyone about it though. I'm sure it will happen though, I haven't seen anyone else up there doing anything that makes too much noise, certainly no deadlifts. In fact, today was the first time I've seen anyone else using the squat racks. Some girl was in there squatting just the bar and going almost halfway to parallel. Other than that, it's just been me.

Good times.

 

[Big_Turtle]

Today should have been day three of week two, my PR day. However, I did not work out today. Yesterday I was not only rear-ended, but when they hit me it slammed the front of my car into another car. I got sandwiched, basically. The car in front of me and I were both completely stopped and the girl that hit me was doing probably 40 or so. It was the first time I've ever been involved in any sort of accident and I have to say I was surprised by how violent the impact felt. It really rung by bell.

My lower back, my left shoulder, and the right side of my groin were all pretty sore yesterday and this morning as well, so I skipped the workout and just tried to rest as much as possible. I feel fine now, but I have a ton of crap to deal with in the next couple of days. Tomorrow morning I have to go to the police station and get the accident report and start contacting the insurance agency so I can get my car repaired.

I'm pretty much planning on getting in some cardio Friday morning, but as for lifting I'm just going to wait until Saturday and completely repeat this week. I really don't see that I have a lot of other options. Really sucks. If she had just gotten on the brakes a few seconds sooner!

 

[SquirrelGirl]

Go Big Turtle.....


hehe...Turtle Sandwich...

 

[al420]

So how are you feeling? Workouts this weekend?

 

[ck2006]

I am sorry to hear about your accident and hope the sorness goes away!

 

[Big_Turtle]

Hey guys, been awhile. The soreness is all gone, now I just have to get all of the insurance stuff squared away and get my car repaired. A headache that I didn't need.

Something interesting happened on Sunday evening. I was walking out of Wal-Mart (don't all great stories involve Wal-Mart?) and I see an older lady walking out infront of me with a t-shirt on from the local fire department. So I speed up a little bit and get up beside her.

"Excuse me, ma'am, are you a member of the fire department?"
"Yes, I am."
"I have an odd question to ask you. Would something stupid like this," I hold up my hands, which have tats on the backs of both, "keep me from being accept to the fire department?"
"As long as they don't mean anything bad, I don't think it would, no."

I've always wanted to have a job doing public service of some sort. I wanted to join the military after high school, but I was too fat and didn't really have any drive at that point to lose weight on my own. For the last few years I've wanted to either join the police department, or the fire department. All of the police officers that I spoken too, which include my brother in law and a good friend, both say the tats would probably exclude me from getting on. I just assumed that the same would hold true for the fire department. Turns out, maybe not.

I haven't called to ask the actual recruiting office, and I'm not going to right now. I've looked up the requirements, and basically I'm going to try to gear my training towards those goals, which really won't be that difficult. I'm still going to run a basic 5x5, I'm just going to up the cardio a little on the off days to try and drop some extra weight. The fire department starts accepting applications again next August, so basically I have 10 months to train my ass off and get in good enough shape to be acceptable. Lots of heavy lifting and plenty of cardio. In 10 months, I think I should be able to drop down to 275 at least, and really I would prefer to be about 20 pounds lighter. However, 275 on me ain't bad. I actually stop looking fat at that point and just look like a big solid guy.

Ten months, average 10 to 12 pounds per month, completely doable.

I need to work on being able to job a mile again, which shouldn't be too tough. I'm also thinking of doing some exercises that resemble what I'll have to do on the agility test. For example, the fireman carry where you have to run forward 75 feet, grab a body that weighs 170 lbs, and carry the body back 75 feet in less than a minute. So I was thinking of setting up a barbell and working on that, starting lighter and getting heavier and heavier. Or the hose carry, moving 50 pounds of hose up and down 54 stair steps in a minute in a half. Just substitute a dumbbell and get on one of the stair masters. Things like that.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to kick my buddy's ass for our bet and completely out lift him, that's still a goal that I want to achieve. But this is more important to me. If there's a chance that I could be accepted onto the fire department, that would be a long time goal being met for me.

I'll post up my workouts later. Gotta get to work now.

 

[fortunatesun]

Turtle,on that fireman's carry I think you'd do a lot better using a sandbag. You can make one using an army/navy bag. It'd be more realistic as it would be similar to the action of carrying a human, irregularly shaped with the weight moving around as you carry it. This technique is common in strongman training because their feats require lifting and moving unusual objects. Another way you could do it would be to use a beer keg half-filled with water. As the water sloshes around you have to build balance and strength in your stabilizing muscle while you are carrying the object forward.
Same with the hose. Go to the hardware store and get some chains. Same principle.
I know some gyms are fussy about this stuff but they might cut you a break if you tell them you're training to be a fireman. You can always work outside on 'Cardio' days.
There's a short article I like over at elitefts.com called Blue Collar Strongman Training. It's a no b.s. approach to this type of training w/o using alot of specialized equipment. You may not want to use the entire program but it'll give you some ideas you can use. Here's the link:
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/blue_collar.htm

 

[ZGzaZ]

Week 2 Day 2

Squat
5 x 75
5 x 115
5 x 155
5 x 155

Military Press
5 x 55
5 x 75
5 x 95
5 x 105

Deadlift
5 x 145
5 x 185
5 x 225
3 x 265 Miss, damnit!

Good times.

You should not be failing a lift in week 2 of a 5x5, the goals of starrs 5x5 is making small progress each week, he recommends 2.5% increase to the lifts. Your 5 rep max when you started the program on day 1 shouldnt have even happened until week 3.