[DrBdan]

This is my log to document my attempt at getting stronger. My main goal is pretty simple: increase my overall strength and power. This log is also going to cover my adventures in Muay Thai and conditiong.

A little background on myself... I've been pretty active my entire life but never at any highly competitive level. As a kid I played soccer and as a teen I played ice hockey, baseball and curling. In university I played ice hockey, floor hockey and inner tube water polo. Currently I play floor hockey and go to the gym. I've been training Muay Thai since January of this year.

Weights-wise... when I was 13 or 14 my Dad bought me a basic weight set: barbell, adjustable dumbells and maybe 70 lb of weights and about a year later I got a bench. I used the weights on and off for a few years, doing bodybuilder style workouts with little results. I really had no idea what I was doing. The weights were eventually sold at a garage sale when I left for university. In my last semester I got a membership at a chain fitness centre and started going on and off, until the Fall of 2006 when I started going regularly on my lunch hour.

Physically... I've always been pretty skinny. Early in high school I hit 6 feet tall and weighed around 130-140 lb. When I started university at age 19 I probably weighed around 160. After four years of drinking and crappy eating I graduated (in 2004) at 185 lb. As of Feb 2007 I was up to 195, which was pretty much all fat on top of the 160 lb I was at 19 , not exactly the good kind of gains. At that point I improved my eating habits and made my workouts more intense and by Fall 2007 I was down to around 175-180.

Currently I'm 27 years old, 6 feet tall, and around 170-175 lb, though it's definitely a much leaner and stronger 175 than last Fall. Back in the spring I found Sherdog and the S&P which opened my eyes to a better way of training. I started doing the Stronglifts 5x5 in May and have made pretty good gains since.

On a side note, if anyone is wondering about my screename... my name is Brendan. In first year university people were having trouble remembering if it was Brendan or Brandon so one of the guys (who ended up being a good friend) suggested shortening it to B-Dan and it stuck. I'm not a real doctor.

Anyway, on to the training....

[DrBdan]

My schedule in a typical week looks like this:

Mon: Workout A
Tues: Muay Thai
Wed: Misc. Workout at lunch, floor hockey at night
Thurs: Muay Thai
Friday: Workout B

I've been doing the Stronglifts Beginner 5x5 so the schedule is as follows

Workout A: Squats (5x5), Bench (5x5), BB Rows (5x5), Dips (3xf)
Workout B: Squats (5x5), OHP (5x5), Deads (1x5), Chins/Pull-ups (3xf)

I'm only doing it twice a week (instead of 3 times) because my body can't really handle it in combination with the MT and hockey.

The Wed misc. workout is basically a reason to get out of the office for an hour. I've been using it as a light workout and as time to try new things. I usually do a pulling exercise (inverted rows or chins) since I figure that will help even out all of the push-ups I do at MT. Lately I've been doing grip work (tried Smashius's levering stuff last week, good times) because now that my deadlifts #s are getting higher I realize my hands are weak. If the squat rack is free I'll do some light squats to work on my form. I also do shoulder dislocations usually. Any comment or suggestions on things to try would be appreciated.

[DrBdan]

Here are the numbers that I started with back at the beginning of May:

Squat: 125 lb
Bench 115
Rows: 95
OHP: 45
Deads: 145

Looking back I started too high on the bench because I stalled pretty quickly. My most recent numbers are:

Squat: 185
Bench: 130
Rows: 130
OHP: 80
Deads: 225

Here's a link to my goals on Smashius's mid year progress 2008 thread...
S&P Mid year progress check 2008

PR's

Deadlift
1RM: 245 lb
Reps: 225x5

Squats
1RM: ?
Reps: 185x5

Bench
1RM: ?
Reps: 135x5

[BlondeWarrior]

That's a lot of squatting, but then again, you're not maxing out either of those days. You seem to be improving just fine, so keep up the good work!

If you find out that your squats are going nowhere, take it out of Workout A, and squat only the day you pull. Just make sure that you're still feeling the routine that you've put yourself on. Too much redundancy makes me super bored and unwilling to train. Just find out what's best for you.

Welcome to S&P

[DrBdan]

Thanks for the welcome and for the advice! I think I might switch up the squats on one of the days soon, maybe do something like front squats or lunges.

Friday's Workout A (July 18, 2008)

Squats - 170 lb, 5x5
Bench - 125, 5x5 (stalled at 130 so I deloaded and am working my way back up)
Rows - 125 5x5 (dropped the weight a bit on these and I'm trying to use less hip pop)
Dips - 8/6/4

After deloading I really concentrated on my bench form and now I feel a lot more stable and much stronger.

[DrBdan]

Monday's Workout (July 21, 2008)

Squats 175 lb, 5x5
OHP 85 lb 5/5/4/3/2
Deads 225 lb 1x3 (was aiming for 5 reps but felt a twinge in my back on third rep so I stopped)
Chins - 6/6/5

I was feeling tired going into the workout and it showed. The last set of squats was pretty sloppy and I didn't have much juice for the OHP. Chins felt surprisingly good, usually I do 5/5/5. Also, I dropped the weight on my squats a few weeks ago because I felt like my form was getting pretty bad with the heavy weights (don't laugh, heavy for me!). Now I'm almost back up to my previous max but my form feels a lot better.

I'm gonna miss the next two Thursday Muay Thai classes plus the Friday workouts due to my sister's wedding and then a short vacation. Oh well, maybe I'll do some GPP stuff on the beach... haha yeah right. More than likely I'll sit in the sun, read and drink beergaritas (Corona + margarita = awesome) and won't miss the gym one bit.

[DrBdan]

Back to work and the gym after a brief vacation for my sister's wedding. Was a great weekend, everything went smoothly and the wedding was a blast. Went golfing the morning of the wedding and managed to shoot under double-par. Heh, not bad for the first time out this summer. Anyway on to the workout.

Workout A (July 28, 2008)

5 minutes on the elliptical

BB Rows
warmed up with dumbbells
130 lb 5x5

Squats
bw squats x8
45 lb x 6
95x5
135x3
155x2
175x5x5

Bench
45x6
65x4
85x3
125x3
135x5
135x3
125x5x2

Felt great. I got to the gym later than usual and the workout was taking longer so I skipped Dips 3xF. The squat rack and barbell flat bench were in use so I started with rows. I should've been doing 130 for the bench but I felt good and wanted to try 135. By the time I got to bench I was feeling like I was taking too long (the one drawback to hitting the gym at lunch) so I only took a short rest (30 seconds) between sets. I think with longer rest (usually take 60-90 seconds) I could've done a few more sets of 5 reps at 135. Next time, next time....

[DrBdan]

Did the July conditioning challenge today, Suicides. Took 15:15. It was humid as hell, not really the most pleasant day to do it. I wish I had done it earlier in the month because I feel like I could have done it faster.

Also, my right knee is now feeling stiff and a little sore but I'm off on a short vacation so hopefully it will feel fine when I get back.

[DrBdan]

Back from vacation, time to get back into the swing of things. Since I hadn't lifted weights in over a week I decided to do a few less sets. Also I'm going to see NIN in concert tonight and since I have GA floor tickets I didn't want my legs/back to be tired for all that standing.

August 5, 2008

4 minutes on the elliptical + dynamic stretching

-Squats
bw squats x8
45 lb x 6
95x4
135x3
155x2
180x3x5

-OHP
45x2x6
65x2x3
85x3x5

I actually failed on the last rep of the 3rd set at 85 so I push pressed it up. Meh, close enough.

-Deadlifts
135x4
155x3
175x2
205x1
225x1
245x1
255 (failed)

I would usually do 225x1x5 but instead decided to try some heavy singles. I tried 255 and it barely moved. I'm quite happy with 245 as that's a PR for me, though I'd never really tested my 1RM on deads before.

Chins - 7/6/4

Overall, felt good. My right knee was stiff and a little sore after doing the July conditioning challenge last Wednesday but it feels good now and it didn't affect my workout at all.

[DrBdan]

Today was my misc. light day. I decided to try out the C2 rower in preparation for the August conditioning challenge.

August 6, 2008

Did 10 minutes on the C2 rower on level 10. First 5 minutes were slow, warming up and getting used to the motion since I've never rowed on a rowing machine before and it's been a long time since I've rowed a real boat. Second 5 minutes I went faster. Took a short break and then did two 500m sprints, 1:50 and 1:55. Next time I'm at the gym I'm going to try it on level 8 and see if that makes much of a difference.

Wrist Levering
forwards 3x5 each arm
backwards 3x5 each arm
side-to-side 3x5 each arm

Shoulder Dislocations
3x10

Also did some lower body stretching and that's it.