Well I'm finally starting a journal. I was pretty much at the point of calling it quits, but I'm not ready to do that yet. Hopefully a journal will keep me motivated.

Brief history (for myself and anyone that feels like reading along)

Started lifting weights when I went on parental leave in May 2007. I really enjoyed working out in the mornings. Bummer that I had to go back to work. A morning workout is not an option since I work at 8am and have a 30 min drive to work. I'm not getting up that early.

Anywho... started working out in the evenings Mon - Fri. Things were going pretty good, but I was struggling lifting weights and then playing hockey on thurs nights. So I dropped my thurs workout and made a 4 day split. Kept a log, kept track of my food on fitday and went from 187lbs to 191lbs. Booya! :tucool: Well that all went to hell... I got sick, went on holidays, remained sick after my holidays. i felt like crap and had no appetite. i dropped to 186lbs. All of that work down the tubes. :mad: I stopped tracking on fitday, starting eating like crap again (beer, chips... who cares right?) *sigh*

Well screw all that. I'm feeling better again and have my program written out for tomorrow. I'm not throwing in the towel. I'm going to get back to my fitday eating habits though I don't think I'm going to track the food since I had a food rotation the pretty much hits my daily needs. I don't know about shooting for 195 lbs anymore. I'm just going to lift and see what happens. I'm convinced that 185-188lbs is the weight my body wants to be. I've been hovering at it for years (I'm 34). I'm ok with that. If I slap on more weight, sweet. If not, I don't care.

Oh... besides just wanting this for myself, I also don't want to quit and have all of the people that never supported me going, "Told ya so..." Screw that. I'll think of that everytime I want to quit.

Tomorrow is chest day. :flex: Grrr.....

Had no pump when I got home. Baby is jsut getting over being sick so he's super whiney. Wife was not coping with it very well and was ready to snap. Made it through dinner, put the baby to bed and let her leave for a long walk with the dog. Figure I'm just sitting around... might as well get my @ss downstairs and workout.

Here's my current Mon routine - Chest
DB Bench (4-6 reps x 3)
Incline BB Press (4-6 reps x 3)
DB Fly (Ball) (8-10 reps x 2)
Dips (Max x 2)
Close Grip BB Bench (6-8 reps x 2)

After warming up, I felt great. I flew through my DB Press like I was doing 40lbs.

Incline was fine too. I'll be going up next time, but felt it in my shoulders a bit so just a small increase.

Workout was 40 min. I expect my chest to hurt bad on Wed.

I'd love to end it with a super mofo hot sauna, but I have to go watch Prison Break now.

Went pretty good tonight. I could hear a lot of crackling when I did my first main set of squats (after warmup). Wasn't doing it anymore on the third set. Didn't hurt or anything either.

Lunges are still difficult. I am going to have to work on my balance. It's awful. :(

Here's my current Tues routine - Legs

Squats (4-6 reps x 3)
Lunges (6-8 reps x 2)
Stiff Legged Deadlift (6-8 reps x 3)

Workout was 45 min. I need to take bigger breaks with legs. It just sucks the life out of me.

Well crap. I missed last night's workout. It was out of my hands. I've got nothing going on this weekend so I'll do it Sat or Sun.

Tonight's hockey aka cardio night.

Wow... When you miss a lot of days, it really shows on here. I'm giving up on the 4 day split. I simply can't dedicate the time. Hopefully the winter will be a lot easier so I can make another attempt. Until then... I'm just doing a full body workout on Mon/Wed/Fri.

I actually worked out yesterday. I just didn't update my log. The big gap from my last post was me being lazy. :o

Anywho... here's what I'm doing.

Warmup at 50%. One set 8-10 reps to failure.

Squats
Deadlift
DB Pullover
DB Shoulder Press
BB Rows
BB Bench
BB Bicep Curls
Overhead DB Tricep Press
Pullups
Dips
Calf Raises
Weighted Ball Crunches
Leg Raises

I can't remember the last time I did abs, but they are hurting today. I'm not going to failure with my abs. Everything I'm trying to. We'll see what happens.

Hey, best of luck :tu:

I don't really track calories as such either, but you may want to track them roughly speaking, and then just tweak them (again roughly) if results aren't going as planned. I wasted a lot of time trying to bulk when I thought I was eating a lot, but was actually eating nowhere near enough.

Thanks Buster. I was tracking on fitday, but stopped.

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=cramp11 is my journal. I really should start using it again. I was doing pretty good getting the calories in with just the occasional screw up. I'm pretty much following the same schedule daily.

My problem is/was missing a lift. If something came up, I'd miss my leg night and then be discouraged, skip my back workout and then chalk the week up as a writeoff and say, "I'll start fresh next week." That was killing me. with the full body program I won't be able to do that. I hit everything at once. I thought the program might take too long, but I did it in 45 min.

I'm going to try and stick with it for 6 weeks and then change it up. Not sure if I'll just change exercises or try doing a split routine again. I just have to keep motivated.

Ah I see, kind of the 'all or nothing' attitude? I'm a bit like that in some way too I guess. Full body workouts are a good idea in that case, or you can do 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days per week. Good luck anyway.

^^ Yep... All or nuttin'. Too bad I got nuttin' most of the time. I see too many threads saying that's a big mistake. Live and learn.

I like the idea of an upper/lower split. Gotta finish this routine first.


Workout 2 was tonight. Felt good, but am going to add a 5 min elliptical warmup at the beginning. I feel so cold going in. Hoping that'll help. 40 min tonight. I'm very happy with the time it takes.

Got my huge order of protein powders today as well. Got tubs of whey isolates for after workouts, casein protein for bed and some other slow digesting protein powder for the day. 20 lbs total. That'll last awhile and when I see the jugs in the kitchen everyday, I'll be wanting to lift or my wife will kick my ass for buying so much stuff and not doing anything. I still bring a chicken breast and bowl of brown rice to work everyday for an afternoon snack too. Feed the machine. :flex: :D

Hockey tonight at 10:30 (aka cardio night)

I have about a 45 min drive both ways. We usually get to stay on until close to midnight as well. Up at 6am tomorrow.

I only have to do this until April. Then hockey is at an earlier time again. I figure that getting 6hrs or less sleep one night a week can't be that bad for me. I don't think work will let me come in late on Fridays. I can see my boss pretending to play the violin now if I asked.

Hockey tonight at 10:30 (aka cardio night)

I have about a 45 min drive both ways. We usually get to stay on until close to midnight as well. Up at 6am tomorrow.

I only have to do this until April. Then hockey is at an earlier time again. I figure that getting 6hrs or less sleep one night a week can't be that bad for me. I don't think work will let me come in late on Fridays. I can see my boss pretending to play the violin now if I asked.

Hey man, if you're getting six hours sleep a night with a baby in the house, you doin' alright! Our youngest (5 now) would only sleep upright for his first ten months. Chronic ear infections that eventually led to four sets of tubes! Anyway, by only sleeping upright, that meant that my wife or I had to sit in the recliner and hold him. I guess Nieztche was right! I had to have spelled that wrong.

Good luck on your program. Sounds like a full plate!:tu:

^ That's rough cnjlakes. My little guy's molars are coming in now, but he's been sleeping through the night since he was 3 months. I'm very thankful. Apparenlty that's not the norm.



Hockey was good and bad last night. We only had 4 players show up so I was on the ice the whole game. My legs feel like jello this morning. I might have burned a few calories.

I'm also up to 189.5 lbs. Scale still says 21% BF. At least it's not going up. I just started taking creatine so I'm guessing that's why my weight is going up.

Gotta get to work. Another full body blast tonight. :tu:

So much for last night. Inlaws showed up early for thanksgiving weekend so I was kind of behind the 8-ball there. "Welcome. I have to go workout now." Wasn't going to happen.

I managed to get down this morning though and do the full body I should have done last night.

Now I have to haul my butt upstairs, shower, shave and start getting the turkey ready. We have 14 coming for dinner tonight. Mmmm turkey. I'm going to try to go easy on the desserts, but it'll be hard to do. :drool:

Tomorrow is 18 holes of golf and hockey. That'll help burn some of it off.

Happy thanksgiving to the canadian folk on here. :eat: I'm outta here until Mon.

Bummer... I missed my Mon workout. Had another dinner to go to and it just didn't work out timewise. That's ok though. I was going to do a 2-day split tonight and tomorrow to make up for it, but the people had a dog at the house we were at. I'm a mess. Allergy hell. I can't breath out of my nose at all and am at the point of wanting to stick ear plugs in my nose to stop the dripping.

I'm going to take it easy tonight and have a hot sauna. I'm shooting for three 15 minute sessions at 90C.

Sauna seems to have done the trick. I feel a heck of a lot better tonight. Almost got lazy on the couch. I managed to convince myself to get downstairs and lift. :bb:

Glad I did. I dropped about 10lbs off my squat because my lower back has been bugging me a little. I felt fine with the lower weight. Even pumped out a few extra reps. I'll try my normal weight on Fri and see what happens.

I flew through the deadlift tonight like I was just doing 95 lbs. No idea what's going on there, but I'm happy.

Bent over row still a bit weak. I start off great and just run out of gas so fast. I guess I'm suppose to be going to failure on this routine and I am def failing. 3 workouts stuck on the same weight. Hopefully Fri I'll move up.

Going up on Fri for Bench, Shoulder Press and Dips.

Gotta go have a shake with marshmallows. Then and some popcorn and TV :cool:

Oh yeah... forgot to add in my weight. I'm up to 190lbs and the scale says 20% BF. I still weigh myself in the morning after using the bathroom.

Crappy feeding day today. Wasn't that hungry at lunch so didn't eat a lot. Was too busy late afternoon for my rice and chicken. :( I had a big bowl of whole wheat pasta for dinner.

Cardio tonight. HOCKEY! :tucool:

Was baked Fri night so decided to lift Sat. Since there isn't a Sat journal you can tell I missed Sat too. :o I did get a good workout though. I shovelled and moved about 13 wheelbarrows of gravel and then dug a new garden. I'm feeling it today. Ouch.

Even though I missed my workout, my diet was still good. No cheat meals this weekend. Fish, chicken and low fat turkey burgers.

I would love to workout today, but I can't because then I can't workout tomorrow night. (full body program) I don't want to throw my week out of sync because of hockey on Thurs. I have no interest in working out and then playing. I did that before after doing just legs... to say the least... I was a pylon.

Hockey tonight. Hopefully that'll stretch everything out. Lower back is tight from so much bending.

What a crappy week. I didn't get to do nuttin'. Oh well... Mon is a new week. Going to look forward.

I think I have gotten the craziest cardio workout today. I just stepped out of the sauna and got called to play hockey for a team short players. We played 5on5 with 2 subs. By the end, I was baked. The team playing after us only had one guy show up so I decided to stay. The other team split their team up and we ended up playing 4on4 with 2 subs. I played for 3hrs straight.

I'll be warmed up for my league game tonight at 9:20. :tu:

I do feel bad about having a crappy lifting week last week, but at least I'm staying active and eating right. I have no excuse for not lifting though. Gym is in the basement. :o

Started Chad Waterbury's Strength Focused Mesocycle tonight. I didn't go very heavy because I've never done Good Mornings or Front Squats before. I found the front squats very uncomfortable and (of course) now my lower back is bugging me. I'm hoping it's nothing, but anytime my back gets the slightest tingle I start to freak out thinking I reinjured myself. *fingers crossed* that it's nothing.

I surprised myself skipping rope. It said to go 5 min. I managed to do 3 min. I wasn't out of breath, but my calves were screaming!

Day 3 calls for Glute Ham Raises. I've never done these before. I tried doing one and found it impossible. Just don't have the strength to control my bodyweight down slowly. Not sure if I can sub this with SLD or something else. I read the article on T-nation and it said to suck it up and find a way. Guess we'll see. I'm going to see if I can find a way to assist myself until I can do them with no help.

Until Wed... :wave:

Standing BB Military Press (A1)
Box Squats (A2)
Glute Ham Raise (B1)
Seated Rows (B2)
Jumping Jacks

Went pretty good tonight. I've never done box squats. I used my bench, but it's too high so I couldn't get parallel. Still was pretty neat and you don't have the fear of going to low and not getting back up.

I can't do Glute Ham Raises. My god! I'm either really weak or those are hard to do. I tried ham curls on my bench, but my bench is pretty cheap and the padding felt like a knife in my quad and my lower back felt the bulk of the reps. I'm just going to go back to SLD. I like 'em and they don't hurt my back.

I skipped the jumping jacks. I got called to play an extra game of hockey tonight.

Got my ZMA today too. I think I'll start on Monday though. I'm hoping it gets me going, but it also has me a bit freaked out.

Gotta go eat. Tuna Suprise tonight. :eat:

Met with some co-workers after work. Had some wings and a few pints. :o

I've got hockey again tonight so I'll burn it off.

I'm off work tomorrow too. Not sure if I'll workout during the day or wait until the evening. I'll play it by ear.

After reading that post about ZMA I decided to start it last night. No funky dreams yet.

Tonights workout wasn't that great.

Power Cleans (A1)
Pull Ups (A2)
Rack Lockouts
Lunges

I guess I shouldn't say it wasn't that great. I just can't do Power Cleans. I have no problem getting up, but it's getting down that's the problem. My wrists hurt like a mofo when I flip it back down and since I can't drop it, my lower back or shoulders are feeling it until it's at my hips. I just don't feel comfortable doing it so I'm just going to substitute DL's and Shrugs.

Rack Lockouts are cool too. Never done them before. Hoping it'll help my press when I'm done the program.

The only other thing I couldn't do was cycle between Rack Lockouts and Lunges. I'd have to strip the weights off, move the bar to the outside and put the weights back on between every set. :nope:

I'm starved. Gotta get me some vittles.

Halloween party last night. Happy to say that I decided not to drink. I had a sip of my wife's wine just because I've never tried it before. Party was fun. Met some new people. The best part was the pinball machines. The guy hosting has about 12 of them. :tucool:

2 games of hockey today. On the ice at 10:30am and then 7:00pm. No need to post later how it went. I always play hard. To quote an old hockey coach when I was a kid, "Skate hard or get the @#$% off the ice" Not a very nice thing to say to a kid, but it stuck.

2nd week of program. My lower back is still hurting from last Monday so I just did very light weights for Good Mornings and Front Squats. I just wanted to do the motion and some stretching. Didn't feel too bad, but I'm not pushing my luck. I picked up my 25lb son earlier tonight and it felt like I was trying to do a back extension with 200lbs on my chest. Hockey was a bit rough on Sun too. I ended up upside down in the corner in a few scrums for the puck. Ice is hard. :(

Dips and chinups went well. I actually used weight and managed the min reps for all the sets. That's a first.

As for the ZMA... no idea how long before I should start to notice anything or feel different. So far I feel the same. I'm not even a week on it yet though so maybe it takes time. Then again, maybe I managed to do the above because of the ZMA. Who knows. I know it's a mental battle, but I still look at myself in the mirror and see a skinny kid. I'm 192 lbs now. I shouldn't think that way, but that's the image branded in my brain.

Missed last night due to Halloween, inlaws, getting the pumpkins carved, etc, etc... I really was trying to fit it in, but it just didn't happen. Inlaws drove all the way from Sudbury just to see the wee guy trick or treat. I didn't think it was appropriate to go workout.

I was going to make it up tongiht, but then I couldn't lift Fri night. Hockey tonight as well. I'll chalk yesterday up and sh1t happens.

Man... I hate being on the sideline. I haven't lifting now in awhile. I go in next Fri to have my back checked to see if it's screwed up again.

Unfortunetely my diet has gone to sh1t because I'm depressed about the whole thing.

It's the worst feeling in the world having to wait wondering what the deal will be. I might get the green light to carry on, be sidelined for awhile and do some physio or cut from the team and not be able to lift or play hockey again.

:blank:

Going to start working out again on Mon. Got the good news that I'm not broken. :D Haven't figured out a program yet. I have a few weeks with no deads, squats, etc so my workouts should be pretty short. I guess I could really pound my chest, back and shoulders, but I haven't lifted in awhile and don't want to kill myself. I'll just ease back into it.

I'm going to skip Thurs night hockey until the new year. I'll still play my 2 games on Sun. That'll also give my back some more rest.

I have been very lazy with my diet. I have to get that back on track. I have an Xmas party tonight so I might as well give'r since I've been eating like crap for the last 3 weeks. The sad part is that I lost weight. I'm down to 186lbs. I don't think I'll be reaching my goal of 195lbs by Jan 1. It's so weird. It's like my muscles slid off my arms, chest and shoulders and settled in my gut. Yet I weigh less. :bang:

I'm debating about an inversion table too. Not sure if it's a gimmick or would be helpful. They're a bit pricey, but heck, I'd pay $2000 for one if I knew it'd help me out. I'm just keeping my eyes open for a used one

My last post was misleading myself. I went to lift last Mon and my wife said I wasn't supposed to start again until Dec 10th. I thought last week was the 10th. So I took last week off and recouped. My back feels good. I've been doing some ball exercises to work my core and playing hockey just twice on Sun gives my back a bigger rest.

It felt good to workout tonight. I'm actually sick, but I wanted to workout anyways. Nothing heavy and I skipped the deads.

Deadlifts (10-12x3)
Pull Ups - Palm down (MAXx3)
Cable Rows V-Grip (8-10x3)
Upright Rows (8-10x3)
Tricep Cable Pushdowns (8-10x3)

Late getting home tonight so I got in the basement late. I missed my afternoon chicken and rice as well. I need to make up some calories. I know I'm lacking again on my daily intake.

Tonight's workout:

BB Bench Press (8-10x3)
Military Press (8-10x3)
Dips (MAXx3)
Db Side Laterals (10-12x3)
Hammer Curls (8-10x3)

Not sure if I should be doing upright rows the day before I do this. My shoulders felt spent today. Could be that I just haven't done anything in a long time and I'm out of shape. I felt weak and pathetic tonight. Hoping my body will kick in after the week. I dropped my weights a lot hoping I'd fly through it. Motivation level drops a few notches since I crapped out at the lower weights.

wow, you blink and time flies by. I can't believe how long it's been since I'e been on here. I'm not dead, I never gave up, but my back was still bothering me so I haven't been lifting. I've also been lazy so I can't use my back as a total excuse.

I got my wife to commit to working out like she used to so she was in the basement with me tonight. She rode the elliptical while I lifted. I lifted extremely light. I was content just to do the motions of the exercise again. Heck, I only did 95lb deadlifts. Sad part is, my legs were jello like I just did my personal best. :o

Anywho... to anyone that remembers me or read along... I'm back. I'm 187lbs and seem to have developed a small beer gut in the last 3 months. The goal is to burn off the gut and put on some muscle. :cool:

I made it down again tonight. Woo hoo... :D Wife is teaching so I was solo. Got down a little late because the baby was being fussy.

Man was I sore this morning. No lower back pain though or it's masked by my sore legs and traps.

Diet is still weak. I'm having problems getting the required food per day down. I had the same problem last time, but after a week, I got used to it. The morning oatmeal shake was the toughest. Let's just say I had a few burps that made me nervous. :lol: By my mid morning snack, I wasn't even hungry, but I wolfed everything down. I just finished working out and I'm dying for something to eat. Gotta get some grub.

I'm off tomorrow night to play hockey. That's one thing I never gave up. I've been playing 3-4 times a week and in march I have 3 tournaments so I'll get lots of cardio.

Cheers...