Go with the flow!

[Espi]

Hello there!

Someone at another forum pointed me towards this forum, as this is the beehive where the New Rules of Lifting gets discussed most of all.
This was back in the summer when I had ordered the book and speedread through it.

Sofar I still haven't plucked up the courage to actually incorporate the workouts into my routine, except for some exercises that I've tried and abandoned, like T-pushups.
Yet, seeing others like Sona, who's way braver than me, venture in here and post up, made me pluck up the courage to start a log.

More about me?

Born in 1963 and raised in the Netherlands, I could be described as the typical 'klutz'. There are 2 physical traits that make sports a real challenge for me and frankly I've loathed sports with all of my heart up till 1994 until I discovered my 'niche' :
1 eye vision is not optimal (squinting & astigmatism): have major difficulty judging distances --> this rules out all ball sports which encompass over half of the school gym time
2 hearing deficiency somehow screwed up my sense of balance ---> rules out all balancing sports like gymnastics , which seemed to encompass 1/3rd of school gym time
3 weird feet.. but apart from running this never really bothered me much , yet again.. the last part of school gym

I did say 'until 1994'. Because that was a crucial year when things got turned around and I got hooked on..... cycle-touring. As of 1995 I became a 'randonneur'. A randonneur is a crazy cyclist. A cyclist who, just for the fun of it.. would go on an organized bike ride with a bunch of cyclists but not at your usual time of day, oh noes... while they might start at 6 or 7 am, they would continue cycling throughout the night. Oftentimes all on their own, left to their own devices and carrying their own repair kit, food items etc.

So.. to my astonishment, I discovered that while, slow as a slug, I could finish very long rides easily. And as lazy and unorganized as I am, mostly without food. The longest no-food ride was probably cycling from Paris back to Amsterdam (550K) in 40hrs (would've been less if I hadn't got lost in my own country so often). In hindsight it must have been the ketosis and high body fat levels that made me do so well on no food.

Been a randonneur until late 2003, when I DNFed for the second time on Paris-Brest , a 1200 K non stop ride. And then.. come around 2004 I got 'grounded' by an infectious disease that ruined my lower back cartilage. Haven't cycled more than 25K ever since because of cramping.. and actually lack of desire.

I've taken up weight lifting in the meantime and am seeing better progress re body composition than when I was still cycling. And, contrary to then, I'm now really 'anal' about food. Been tracking every morsel I ate since July 2004 and enjoying to analyze and re-analyze all the data involved.
And yet, I still don't know which way to go re carbs. My mind loves the mental clarity from low carbs, but hates the depression that comes with it. My gut loves the lack of digestive troubles, but my body hates it how easily I can get overtrained on low carbs.
One of the things I'm trying to unlearn right now is.. feelings of guilt. I just want to enjoy food. Period. No more 'you shall NOT eat this" or "you MUST eat that". Junkfood once in a while won't kill me.. too often and .. too many health problems to make it worth it. Oh, and the last thing I decided upon.. no more protein pushing here. 2-3g/kg LBM is good enough.

What are my goals?
Apart from health and body composition which aren't very interesting... the physical ones...

Actually, there's this voice in the back of my mind that wants me to go cycling again. Another voice says "nah, that was too much stress on the body and it will make you fat, ugly and overtrained again". Is it entirely possible to be an endurance cyclist without being 'skinny fat'?

Another goal: continually improve upon my lifts.. a dream that might be feasible in 2007 or 2008 : 1-arm pullup? 2xBW DL?

And... very modestly, trying out all these insane exercises from NROL that are so intimidating that it's only imaginable to do them one by one, rather than all integrated.. can't even fathom to think about pistol squats, burpees etc. but I'm surely salivating, drooling, dreaming about them when seeing them described in other people's logs.

Thanks for reading ...

Yvana

[Espi]

so, here's my plan for the upcoming month.

My current schedule is organized around my menstruation cycle. Since there's evidence that women tend to be more injury-prone at the start and end of their cycle and also a bit stronger around ovulation, I've organized a periodization schedule around that cycle.
The next one up , which started a bit earlier than expected, since the last cycle only lasted 24 days, started on Thursday.

In 9 workouts I will increase weights starting at approx. the 12RM and finishing at approx. 4RM weights. After skipping weights for 1 training, I jump to 20RM weights and do 20 reps. Skip once more and then take the 15RM weights and do 15 reps. If the cycle is 30 days and over I'll repeat this again on day 30. Sofar haven't had cycles over 31 days (up till 2000 they used to be 35-42 days though).

Mostly I train every other day, except this month because gym will be closed.
Exercises:
A. LEGS
1 set 1-leg press OR 1 set step ups (this month I start using weights, it's more a balance thing)
1 set goblet squat
5 sets squats (normally in Smith machine) including 2 WU sets

B. POSTERIOR CHAIN
1 set goodmorning (RDL-style) OR db Bulgarian squat/lunge (again, more a balance, than a strength-exercise)
6 sets DLs, including 3 WU sets

A. and B. are preferably done as supersets, as squats feel harder when done after DLing and vice versa. Normally I'm only able to do back squats in a Smith. DB squats or goblet squats OTOH aren't heavy enough to make me work hard enough, though goblet squats have the major advantage of enabling me to go 'full' squat.

C. BACK
1 'set' of chins (mostly 2-3 singles, sometimes a double or even triple = failure)
1 set of supine rows (aka fat man pullups) in Smith
4 sets of supine grip bb row (Yates style, so more upright to alleviate stress on lower back, since DL already stresses the lower back), including 2 WU sets

D. CHEST
1 set of incline db press
4 sets of bb press*, including 2 WU sets , done with elbows 'tucked in' to alleviate shoulder trouble


* haven't done bb presses in nearly 8 months. DB pressing proved to be better for the shoulders and give more 'pec development' but tricep strength went 'down the drains' so want to build up more tricep strenght again.

E. small stuff
1 set of rope push down OR 1 set of cable biceps curl
1 set of lateral raise (side delts) OR 1 set of face pull (back delts)
1 set of exo rotation (rotator cuff work)
1 set of Bosu ball crunches w extra weight OR saxon side bends (1 db above head) ... must confess I often 'forget' those


F. remedial/floor work
done every other WO :
1 set of Swiss ball leg curl (SHELC ?)
several Mensendieck exercises to make the lower back & hip more flexible

G. cardio
#1: 10 mins treadmill @ 15% incline with 3-4 sprints
#2: 10 min of rowing , followed by #1 + 10 min speed walking added to it
#3 = #1
#4: same as 2, but now 30 mins of speed walking and no rowing
#5: same as 1
#6 : same as 2, but instead of rowing using step machine
#7 & #8 , same as 3 & 4.
etc.

NO elliptical or home trainer as this bugs my knees & hips. My own bicycles now all have 150mm cranks, best thing I ever did for these short & stumpy legs.

[Espi]

Friday Dec 29
TRAINING cycle 6 – day 2
Going for approx. 12 reps. This was in another gym than my usual one.
Pros: a real free squat rack (though without safeties) and a real plate-loaded leg press.
Cons: disks in American pounds.. when I trained here on Wednesday it took me longer to calculate the proper poundage and then find the proper disks coz' of the blurred numbers than the actual lifting itself.

chins
BW: 1x2

front squat
25kg x12

free bb squat
31kgx8-8
54kg x6
Work set: 49kg x13-13-10

plate loaded leg press , 1 leg
40kg + platform x 8 (L), 10 (R )


bb press
25x10
35x5
Workset: 30x12-8

incline db press
(12kg x2) x 12

DL
57kg x 8
62kg x 5
84kgx3
Workset: 80kg x 6 – stopped

Cardio
None indoor, walk to the gym

Comment
Quads : feeling a bit less timid today with the sumo squats, went fine . 1-leg legpress with 40 kg was heavier than I thought they’d be.
Chest: first real bench press in a long time.. feeling twinges again. Not so good.. wonder whether to lower towards abdomen or towards ‘throat’. Guess the former, as the latter feels bad on shoulders.

Posterior chain: stopped after 1st workset of DL as the weight felt waaaay heavier than I remembered. On the bright side, upon rechecking the data I saw that I was doing 7 reps for 80 kg DL until I started DL with the smaller bar and using 2 disks to stand on = The Optimal Position for pulling the heaviest weights.. which is why the weights flew up in the weeks afterwards. So this 80kgx6 was actually not so bad at all! General: went home after the 1st DL set.. it was not to be ‘my’ day. Probably combination of TOM-related weakness as well as being too glycogen-depleted and probably just not used to late-afternoon lifting anymore.

Training statistics
Rep index: 219 reps/hr (45min)
Volume: 7067kg
Total gym time: 45 mins.
# of sets: 18 - # of reps 164 - avg reps/set : 9,1 - kg/rep 43,1 kg

[Espi]

Tomorrow the gym is open again, after it's been closed for a week. I bet there'll be lots of people in there, wanting to exercise away the excess food. I've done pretty good damage control by working out elsewhere 2 times and trying to not let things go out of control. Yet.. too many carbs, especially on New Year's Eve.

Resolutions for 2007?

exercises
- making time for stability exercises like Bulgarians
- do more stretching & rehab exercises for back and shoulders
- decrease training volume but increase quality and intensity
cardio
- be consistent with cardio: do high intensity, but not overdo it = NOT do it every workout but only 2x/wk
- as of March (or Feb) lift weights only 3x/wk but do 1 extra cardio session, be it treadmill, Body Pump or perhaps even my old & beloved spinning class (if knee permits this)
- finally buy that Tacx bike set up for doing indoor cycling
- do a century (100K) again this year on my own bicycle (haven't cycleed >100K since late 2003 when I was doing brevets and PBP.

food
- dare to enjoy foods in moderation and savour every bite
- continue the eating pattern of low vs high calorie eating and even get into the real intermittent fasting (24hr fast, 24hr overfeeding, starting after the workout)
- not let myself suck into the dieting 'religions' but simply eat within my calorie allowances as well as avoiding allergy-causing foods (soy, dairy, gluten, molds on fruit/nuts)

[Espi]

Originally Posted by Espi

food
- dare to enjoy foods in moderation and savour every bite
- continue the eating pattern of low vs high calorie eating and even get into the real intermittent fasting (24hr fast, 24hr overfeeding, starting after the workout)
- not let myself suck into the dieting 'religions' but simply eat within my calorie allowances as well as avoiding allergy-causing foods (soy, dairy, gluten, molds on fruit/nuts)

Forgot one more:
- enjoy more choices of fats by lowering protein intake to 25% (approx. 2g/kg BW) instead of 30% (2.5-3g/kg BW)

Reason: I don't see any difference re fat loss with lower protein intakes and it makes a WORLD of difference in being able to enjoy a vast range of wonderful foods. More nuts, more fatty fish (herring, anchovies), more ... (soy-lecithin free) chocolate

[Espi]

Tuesday Jan 2
TRAINING cycle 6 – day 6
Going for approx. 10-12 reps

step ups
BW+(5kgx2) x 10

Bulgarian split squat
BW+(6kgx2) x 8

chins
BW: 2-1 in 10s

goblet squat
26kg x12

A Smith squat
35kgx8
60kg x5
Work set: 55kg x10-10

in slow SS with
B DL
62,5kg x 7
75kg x 5
87,5kgx1
Work set: 77,5kg x 9-9

incline db press
(11kg x2) x 19

C Yates supine bb row
40kgx14
50kg x 7
Work set: 45 kg x 13-13

in slow SS with
D bb press
27,5kg x10
47,5kg x 2 (F) : oops! 10 kg too heavy!
Work set: 32,5kg x 10 - 12

C supine (overhand) row
BW x 8

cable biceps curl
11,25kg x 17

face pull
18,75 x 21
exo rotation
3,75 x 21

Cardio
Concept II rower : 10 mins
79 kcal - 474kcal/hr (-12)
1576 m - 9459 m (-201)
51 ave W (-14)

Treadmill HIIT+SS cardio:
5 min WU to 5km/hr @ 15%,
3 min: 3 sprints @ 13km/hr
10 min speedwalking 5-5,8 km/hr @ 15-10% incline
2 min cooldown
249kcal – 747 kcal/hr (+24)
2,00km – 6,00 km/hr (+0,15)

Comment
Balance stuff: first time with extra weights on the stepup.. a lot more difficult. Wont’tax myself too much.
Quads : 1 week break and I have to search for the best position to squat in the Smith.. free squatting definitely feels better after the initial scary feeling… that’s why I mostly don’t push myself in the Smith.. too easy to ‘fuck’ up.
Posterior chain : so that 100-102,5 kg DL was a ‘glitch’ and I really have to go back to lighter weights for the work sets. So backed off here to 77,5 kg instead of 82,5 kg but will still keep the heaviest WU set leading up to 105kg in the last heaviest training.
Chest: failed at the 2nd rep with bb presses and had to be liberated.. I was sooooo disappointed, until I noticed to have calculated the 2nd set with a 10kg bar instead of the 20kg bar… geez, 47,5kg x 2 isn’t too bad if this is the 2nd time in over 6 months I’m bb pressing! Yeehaa! Still searching for the ‘right’ form & trying to avoid shoulder abuse by lowering towards & even lower than chest.
Light stuff:nothing noteworthy.

General: decided to stick to low volume overall and keep to only 2 work sets from start to finish… general task is to NOT EXHAUST/ OVERTRAIN myself! And I felt good going home.. always can feel it at the way I cycle home. When I can't push the pedal down I'm in dire need of extra carbs. When everything goes just fine, I'll have no more carbs. Nowadays my sports drink provides plenty. Even today when I hated the drink so much, I only drank half. (Fig jam is not going to be a favourite, unless the other brand is better).

Training statistics
Rep index: 243 reps/hr (70min)
Volume: 10902kg
Total gym time: 110 mins.
# of sets: 28 - # of reps 283 - avg reps/set : 10,1 - kg/rep 38,5 kg

[quick_scoot]

Hi Espi

[Espi]

Hi quick scoot! Nice to see you here!

[Mahler]

Welcome, Espi,
Interesting reading. Good luck with your training.

[UConnJulie]

Welcome Espi! The NROL workouts certainly are difficult/intense, and if you aren't familiar with the "moves" I can see why that would be intimidating ... just pick one move each week and practice it a few times several days per week and in no time you will have them mastered!

[Espi]

Yes, thanks.. as I said elsewhere to Sona yesterday :

While in the gym I was thinking about all the cool exercises that I want to try out thise year. There's been a whole series at T-nation called: Exercises you never tried before, first volume : http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=218exer

That and the NROL will give plenty of fun things to try out...

One of them is the 'Inch Worm' that you seem to do yourself. I'll try to make a list of exercises that I want to try most of all and group them in categories.

I'll probably only do one more month of the current lifting routine of training every other day according to the menstruation cycle and then go to 3x/wk + 1x cardio + 'cool' stuff' = weird exercises
Can barely wait!

It seems there's still room for decreasing volume for the basic compound lifts and a bit of room for increasing weird 'stretching' & 'balancing' stuff.
Generally the balancing stuff is all at the front of the workout as this requires the utmost attention and the stretching at the end (but currently only done every other workout ... and not even all the time as I'm happy to leave after my mostly strenuous workouts.

Guess that it's no longer a surprise why I would massively overeat in the past when I routinely did 40 sets in 1 workout and volume would average over 10.000 kg. However, mostly though I'd still maintain which is not really a bad thing if you like eating a LOT.

[sona]

Hi, hon!

Nice to see you in here--and good luck if you decide to take on any of the NROL WOs. You're so strong, Espi, and so determined: I think you'd find them easier to handle than you think. You have a lot of lifting experience, and your background is good for this sort of thing.

Another good thing about NROL: the sets/reps are prescribed, so you can't overtrain. Follow the instructions, and you'll get a hell of a WO, but you won't overdo yourself.

And as strong as you are, you can play around with weights to your heart's content! ('Course Juls has the copyright on strength in NROL, as far as I'm concerned!)

Happy New Year to us all!!

[Espi]

Thanks for the encouragement Sona.. but really, NROL scares me!
It's not only the balancing stuff that scare me, like
- overhead Bulgarians? Cripes!
- push press? Cripes!

But also anything that involves heavy shoulder work, because of the RSI that comes back rapidly as soon as I don't respect the limitations I have here.

One of the exercises that seem intimidating as well is something like
- snatch-grip DL! Cripes!

Let's not forget the wrists either... that was why I gave up on the front bb squat. Frankly I'm probably cheating with the goblet squat by not heaving the db up to my chest but let my arm dangle down so that the db touches the floor in the lowest position.

But anyways.. I guess that if I don't hurry myself and do those intimidating balancing exercises one by one, I might even get to do the 'real thing' viz. an actual NROL routine after a couple of months. Promised!

[Espi]

A post that's not about training strictly, but not about diet strictly.

Here's my pride & joy..

Two pics say more than a 1000 words. In this pic, it's approximately 1000 days of food intake vs maintenance and now also predicted expenditure.



And weight + LBM vs lifting volume (100% is weight in fat/LBM on Sep 2001 , first bf% measurement)

[Espi]

Thursday Dec 4
TRAINING cycle 6 – day 8
Going for approx. 10RM, counting to 20 reps

1-leg press
19kg x 12

chins
BW: 4x1 in 20s

goblet squat
28kg x11

A Smith squat
37,5kgx10
Counting to 20 from here
62,5kg x5
Work set: 57,5kg x9-6

In slow SS with B DL
65kg x 8
Counting to 20 from here
77,kg x 5
90kgx1
Work set: 80kg x 8-6

RD style good morning
37,5kg x 14

incline db press
(12kg x2) x 14


supine (overhand grip) row
BW x 9

C Yates supine bb row
42,5kgx10
52,5kg x 5
Counting to 20 from here
Work set: 47,5 kg x 12-8

In slow SS with
D bb press
30kg x10
40kg x 5
Counting to 20 from here
Work set: 35kg x 12-8

cable triceps rope pushdown
16,25 kg x 13

lateral raise
(2x4kg) x 18

mosquito dance w dumbbells or OH ‘farmer’s walk’
(2x4kg) x approx. 6 circles of 8

Saxon side bend
4kg x 26

Cardio
Treadmill HIIT+SS cardio:
5 min WU to 5km/hr @ 15%,
5 min: 4 sprints @ 13km/hr
8 min speedwalking 6 km/hr @ 10-15% incline
2 min cooldown
254kcal – 762 kcal/hr (+15) (near PR of 768kcal/hr)
1,97km – 5,91 km/hr (-0,09)

balance stuff
Mensendieck exercises, including
- SHELC, Swiss ball leg curl x 16 reps
- Inch worm (if that’s what it is = walking towards hands)


Comment
Quads : going better again.. 28 kg goblet squat was quite taxing!
Posterior chain : OK
Chest: churned out 12 easy reps with heavier work set weight after a ‘normal’ heavyish WU sets.
Light stuff:for rotator cuff I did an oldie again, that makes me look like a fool but which is a truly excellent exercise.. walk in circles of 8 with 2 light dumbbells overhead. The gentle stabilizing works miracles for the rotator cuff. I also did the ‘inch worm’ if that is what I think it is.. So: 2 of the ‘weird exercises’ done.
Cardio: had only planned 10 mins but wanted some afterburn so I went for it. Nearly hit a PR and coming only 6 cal/hr short of old PR. Shouldn’t do that so often! Naughty me!

General: feeling very good about the decision to count to 20 reps again, but not doing it the overcomplicated way of 20 singles, but just having a cut-off in the last set and leaving ‘gas’ in the tank. Now if I only could restrain myself when doing cardio.. another near-PR! Sigh!
A few hours later, when having had a visitor and not eaten on time, I was trembling and feeling very cold from (probably?) too low blood sugar.. just hours after feeling great. As I still had an errand to do, I weighed out 30g of candy and took it with me during the walk, so that I wouldn’t get the normal sugar crash. And it didn’t happen. Still waited till late at night with eating more carbs. Can’t have a carb-induced coma in day time.

Training statistics
Rep index: 244 reps/hr (70min)
Volume: 9713kg
Total gym time: 95 mins.
# of sets: 31 - # of reps 285 - avg reps/set : 9,2 - kg/rep 34,1 kg