StrongLifts 5x5 (Part 2), Week 2, Day 2

Workout was good today. Nothing out of the ordinary really - other than the gym being crowded as all hell at 7:30am for some reason. Strange.

Once again I struggled with the backoff set on the benchpress. I also dropped the last rep on my 5x5 row, but I rested and then did it again - so no worries. I think I was just tired (not getting enough rest in between sets). I sorta tore through everything this morning for some reason. Not sure why I was being so impatient.

I think de-loading the weights was the right thing to. The 70kg squat today was tough, but not as tough as I remembered it. So, either my memory is goofy or I did actually improve in the last week or so enough to be able to handle it. We'll see where I get to when I hit 75kg again - that and the 90kg deadlift was where I started to hurt my back before.

Week 2
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	67.5 kg	Squat	5x5	70 kg	Squat	5x5	72.5 kg
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg
Overhead	5x5	32.5 kg	Bench	5x5	45.kg	Overhead	5x5	35 kg
Overhead	1x15	20 kg	Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15	20 kg
Deadlift	1x5	80 kg	Row	5x5	45 kg	Deadlift	1x5	80 kg
Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15	50 kg
Week 3
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Bench	5x5	47.5 kg	Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5
Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15
Row	5x5	47.5 kg	Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5
Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15
Week 4
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15

Tuesday Weigh-In, Start of Week 10

Day 62
Start Weight: 97kg.
Last Week: 93.5kg
Current Weight: 92.8kg (-700g)
Loss: 4.2kg

This week went pretty well. Food was good, exercise was good, it showed up on the scale. I was actually down a bit lower a couple days previous to this, no idea why it went up, I don't think it matters. I'm down from a 40-42 inch waistline in the pants to a 36. Not bad for 9 weeks of work.

My gut is folding in on itself from the belly button.

Slowly shrinking still... it's good to see.

I reckon I still have a significant amount of fat on me, especially around my mid section and chest, Probably in the magnitude of about 12kg or so, maybe more. The weight lifting is definitely helping me however in terms of achieving a better shape/physique than just merely dropping pounds, so I can't complain. It's all good stuff.

Anyway, onward to week 10.

StrongLifts 5x5 (Part 2), Week 2, Day 1

Week 1
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	60 kg	Squat	5x5	62.5 kg	Squat	5x5	65 kg
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg
Bench	5x5	40 kg	Overhead	5x5	30 kg	Bench	5x5	42.5 kg
Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15	20 kg	Bench	1x15	30 kg
Row	5x5	40 kg	Deadlift	1x5	75 kg	Row	5x5	42.5 kg
Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15	30 kg
Week 2
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	67.5 kg	Squat	5x5	70 kg	Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5	32.5 kg	Bench	5x5	45.kg	Overhead	5x5	35 kg
Overhead	1x15	20 kg	Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15	20 kg
Deadlift	1x5	80 kg	Row	5x5	45 kg	Deadlift	1x5	80 kg
Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15	50 kg

Monday workout went about as well as expected. Even though I managed it, I'm going to stall on the Deadlift intentionally for a week. I feel like I just don't have the correct strength and form for this exercise and that I'm simply "getting it up" instead of doing it right.

As usual, the Overhead press is giving me the shits on my backoff set. I can barely complete 1x10 @ 20kg after doing my normal 5x5 @ 32.5kg. This has got to be some sort of Jedi mind fuckery because it just seems that it's a physical impossibility that I can't do better than this after working this exercise for so long.

I'm going with my wife after work to the local sporting goods store. I'm going to look for another set of fractional 1.25kg plates for her as well as a pad for the barbell (the bar hurts her shoulder on the squats) and a jump rope for me.

That's right, I'm going to be a total poser/follower and start using the jump rope for HiT. Next thing you know I'll be rocking up to the gym in 500 dollar outfits and wearing fancy gloves and wraps and instead of sweat, I'll have pumpkin spice latte dripping from my pores.

Meal Prep, Week 10.

Can't remember if I did a post about this last week or not, but we're still doing meal prepping here at the homestead. This week isn't very exciting (probably because I did it all by myself) but we did go to Costco (we have one in our area of Australia) and pick up like five kilograms of AMERICAN BACON.

People who don't live down here probably don't understand the difference, but let's put it this way - American (streaky) bacon is delicious. Australian (middle pork rasher) bacon is not as delicious. It's that simple.

Menu

• Breakfast : Bacon & 2 Boiled Eggs.
• Lunch: Broiled Chicken Thighs + Vegetables.
• Dinner: Pork Rissole + Vegetables.

I did great last week not eating out, I'm going to do just as well this week. I need to "conserve my calories" to sort of speak since I know there will be a few events coming up in December.

Also, on that note, since my time off of work is increasing (contract ended), I will be increasing my workout schedule as well. I'm planning on sticking to the StrongLifts 5x5, but I'm going to drop the back off sets and instead do 2x a day at the gym, once in the morning and once in the evening. The only trick will be that I will do the same weight both sessions, only increasing it on the next scheduled day. 

I don't think this is something I could sustain, but every thing I've read insists that for short term gains, you can train twice a day so long as you make sure each session is relatively short (under an hour) and StrongLifts is basically perfect for that.

Anyway, because of this, I may be increasing my calorie consumption on workout days slightly. I'm going to want to eat protien after those workouts after all.

StrongLifts 5x5 (Part 2) Week 1, Day 3

Week 1
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	60 kg	Squat	5x5	62.5 kg	Squat	5x5	65 kg
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg
Bench	5x5	40 kg	Overhead	5x5	30 kg	Bench	5x5	42.5 kg
Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15	20 kg	Bench	1x15	30 kg
Row	5x5	40 kg	Deadlift	1x5	75 kg	Row	5x5	42.5 kg
Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15	30 kg
Week 2
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	67.5 kg	Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5	32.5 kg	Bench	5x5	45.kg	Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15	20 kg	Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5	80 kg	Row	5x5	45 kg	Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15

It was a pretty decent Saturday workout. I mostly crushed everything, but I wussed out on the backoff set on the Bench Press. Not surprising as my arm strength is pretty bad I guess.

The wife came with me to the gym today. That's her second time in a week. I'm hoping that she will stick with it as it's kind of fun to go together!

In other news, I'm also looking at an alternative workout plan right now since I will be off of work starting from the end of the next week until after the holidays, giving me a good 6-8 weeks likely of either free time or mostly free time (other than the odd hourly consulting job).

The ideal plan will have me going to the gym 5 days a week, probably using some sort of bro-splits style programming to make sure I can work out every muscle group twice a week. That's right, I'll be looking at a body building program instead of a strength program. I figure since I won't usually have the time to invest so much at the gym, I might as well make the best of the situation.

StrongLifts 5x5 (Part 2), Week 1, Day 2

Week 1
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	60 kg	Squat	5x5	62.5 kg	Squat	5x5	65 kg
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg
Bench	5x5	40 kg	Overhead	5x5	30 kg	Bench	5x5	42.5 kg
Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15	20 kg	Bench	1x15	30 kg
Row	5x5	40 kg	Deadlift	1x5	75 kg	Row	5x5	42.5 kg
Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15	30 kg
Week 2
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5	32.5 kg	Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15	20 kg	Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5	80 kg	Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15

Things came together better today than on Tuesday. I was able to complete almost all of my exercises and back-off sets. The one that is giving me the problem is the Overhead Press (as usual). There's just nothing for it - my upper arm strength takes a long, long time to build.

I think I'm going to buy a jump rope and start doing HiT training with it. I'm going to go look after work today at the sporting goods stores.

My current contract at work ends fairly soon (right before the holidays) and since it's unlikely that I'll find a new contract until after the new year, I think next month I might try to spend more time at the gym. At the very least I can add in some more exercises on every day, like lunges and dips and on the alternate days I should try to do some HiT. Jumping rope, maybe swimming.

We'll see, but it's bound to be interesting.

StrongLifts 5x5 (Part 2), Week 1, Day 1

Week 1
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	60 kg	Squat	5x5	62.5 kg	Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15
Bench	5x5	40 kg	Overhead	5x5	40 kg	Bench	5x5	42.5 kg
Bench	1x15	30 kg	Overhead	1x15	30 kg	Bench	1x15	30 kg
Row	5x5	40 kg	Deadlift	1x5	75 kg	Row	5x5	42.5 kg
Row	1x15	30 kg	Deadlift	1x15	50 kg	Row	1x15	30 kg
Week 2
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15

This is the "First week" of my second part of the Strong Lifts program I am doing. I ratcheted back the amount of weight I was pushing and I'm trying to focus on increasing the weight and reps on my back off sets. 

As expected, I completed all of the 5x5 lifts at the reduced weight (duh). I did notice some defects in my squat which I am trying to correct. Surprisingly it wasn't as easy to squat 60kg as I thought. Was I really planning on doing 80kg this week? Hmm.

The only thing I am lacking right now is duration/reps on the back off set. I did 10 reps of each exercise at the backoff weight. I want to 15. I really, really, want to do 30. That's the goal.

Tuesday Weigh-In, Start of Week 9

Weird week, you'll see in the pictures.

Day 56
Start Weight: 97kg.
Last Week: 93kg
Current Weight: 93.5kg (+500g)
Loss: 3.5kg

Yep, evidently I put on weight this week. At least on the scale. I sure don't feel like it however. Just check out these pictures, particularly the side and how far my stomach is (isn't) protruding.

Ignore the dirty mirror please. I even tried to clean it but it still streaked!

I swear I am not sucking my gut in.

Body shape wise, I'm feeling good, like I am making a lot of progress. If I look back at the first weeks pictures, 2 months ago, the difference is stark... if that's what losing only 3.5kg looks like, then I'm happy. I'll do it again in the next 8 weeks.

My StrongLifts 5x5 Plan for the Next 8 weeks.

As of this week, I now have 8 weeks of weight lifting behind me. I've had time this weekend to take stock of what I've done so far, what's worked and what hasn't and to imagine what I need to do going forward.

The most important thing I think that I am going to do is to take a step back in terms of how much my working weights are. I feel like I am starting to injure myself on the squat and deadlift due to bad form and I'm worried that if I keep trying to lift heavier and heavier weights without correcting the problem then I will do some serious damage to myself.

Remember, I'm an old guy, so safety first.

That being said, I think the below table will summarize my training for the next 8 weeks:

Week 1
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5	60 kg	Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15	40 kg	Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Bench	5x5	40 kg	Overhead	5x5	40 kg	Bench	5x5
Bench	1x15	25 kg	Overhead	1x15	25 kg	Bench	1x15
Row	5x5	40 kg	Deadlift	1x5	75 kg	Row	5x5
Row	1x15	25 kg	Deadlift	1x15	45 kg	Row	1x15
Week 2
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15
Week 3
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5
Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15
Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5
Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15
Week 4
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15
Week 5
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5
Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15
Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5
Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15
Week 6
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15
Week 7
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5
Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15
Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5
Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15
Week 8
Day 1			Day 2			Day 3
Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5		Squat	5x5
Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15		Squat	1x15
Overhead	5x5		Bench	5x5		Overhead	5x5
Overhead	1x15		Bench	1x15		Overhead	1x15
Deadlift	1x5		Row	5x5		Deadlift	1x5
Deadlift	1x15		Row	1x15		Deadlift	1x15

StrongLifts 5x5 2 Month Roundup Stats

I thought this might be interesting - I put all of my gains through the last 2 months into an excel document and then charted them as a stacked bar graph. Now, you can marvel at how much progress (or how little?) a middle aged guy can make doing a basic weight lifting routine for 2 months.

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 8, Day 3

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (77.5kg)	Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5
Bench press 5x5 (50kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)	Bench press 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5 (50kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (100kg)	Barbell Row 5x5

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (72.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (75kg)	Squat 5x5 (75kg)
Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)	Bench press 5x5 (47.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)
Deadlift 1x5 (90kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (50kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (95kg)

Saturday workouts are always the best. The gym is nice and laid back, I can take my time because I don't have to rush to work. I really enjoy it.

The results today were actually really good. Even though I didn't pass the Overhead Press today, I really only missed it by one rep, so I'm almost certain to get it the next time I try. I also managed to do all my backoff sets and after the workout I didn't feel too sore (just a tad).

Next Wednesday I'm supposed to try my 1st 100kg lift. I should be able to do it,

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 8, Day 2

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5 (70kg)
Bench press 5x5 (50kg)	Overhead press 5x5	Bench press 5x5 (45kg)
Barbell Row 5x5 (50kg)	Deadlift 1x5	Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (72.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (75kg)	Squat 5x5 (75kg)
Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)	Bench press 5x5 (47.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)
Deadlift 1x5 (90kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (50kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (95kg)

Well, I guess we can add my squats the now growing list of sets I am starting to fail at. There are a couple of things going on here, or at least I think so.

• The last couple of days of squatting have been really hard on me. I've been able to get the weight up, but it's been a damn struggle. I may have just pushed myself past the my actual strength limit, or close to it to the point where I'm at a weight that is above what should be a decent working weight.
• I was really, really, really off my game this morning. I went out the night previously and had some beers (broke my no carb rule, more about that later).
• I wasn't fully recovered and rested because of a combination of the two above events.

Ultimately I was able to move the weight, but I failed towards the end of my first set. I decided at the time to just deload 10% and then carry out the workout at that point. Something is better than nothing.

The bench press was fine, I wasn't really struggling with it - so that's fine, for now.

The barbell row is as you'd expect. Strong towards the beginning, weak towards the end. My back-off set is 30kg on this exercise and I can breeze through it. That was my starting weight of this exercise, which is kinda funny.

Honestly, after a day like today I'm looking forward to the rest tomorrow. I'm also pretty happy that my last workout for the week falls on a Saturday. I'm going to REALLY enjoy being able to take my time in the gym on that day. 

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 8, Day 1

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5 (70kg)
Bench press 5x5	Overhead press 5x5	Bench press 5x5 (45kg)
Barbell Row 5x5	Deadlift 1x5	Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (72.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (75kg)	Squat 5x5
Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)	Bench press 5x5 (47.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)
Deadlift 1x5 (90kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (50kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (95kg)

Today went about as well as you would expect - which is to say, once again I have bombed on my Overhead Press. I barely made it to the third set before I dropped the final rep and then sets 4 and 5 were an utter disaster. Not only that, but my arms were in such garbage shape today that I couldn't even complete the back-off sets for the exercise. 

It felt like a complete disaster. Hopefully this weekend when I go to attempt it again I'll be able to get further along. At least it'll be a Saturday so I'll be able to take my time and rest a lot in between sets. 

Finally, I almost lost it on one of my squat sets today. Went down so far that the bar touched the safety pins and then tried to push it up and for a moment there I was wondering if I could. Super fucking scary :)

Shitty Barbell row is next. I totally expect to fail it like I did the Overhead press. I wish there was something I could do (other than taking steroids lol) to get past these road blocks. 

Tuesday Weigh-In, Start of Week 8

Finally made some progress after slowing down massively last week.

Day 49
Start Weight: 97kg.
Last Week: 93.8kg
Current Weight: 93kg (-800g)
Loss: 4kg

Personally, I wish that figure was 6kg instead of 4kg, because that'd mean I was right on track for my goal of 12kg in 100 days, but I think at this point in time both you and me know that this isn't going to happen. Now, I can't really get away with any self recriminations over failing to meet this goal considering that when I look back at what I've done, it's all been pretty great. Stuck to the diet, stuck to the exercise. No cheating.

It just didn't come off as fast as I would have liked. That being said, so far I'm averaging over 0.5 kg a week loss, and that's with going to the gym and doing weight lifting 3x a week (which is actually starting to have a noticeable effect on my build, slowly, but surely).

Anyway, the pictures tell most of the story. Compare today (7 weeks down) to the 1st picture in this series. You'll see right away that my stomach has shrunk by a fair bit. That's only to be expected since most of my weight is there... but still, it's nice wearing smaller pants now.

Need to comb that hair!?

Not sure what I'm doing here.

So there we have it. (almost) 50 days down and another 50 to go.

Weightlifting Delayed until Tomorrow

I need to push my StrongLifts plan back a day.

Last night I had some some pretty bad stomach pain. Even now, I don't know what it was, but it started last evening and lasted throughout the night. It was so bad that it kept waking me up. Eventually I was able to get some sleep, but it wasn't enough for me to feel like I wanted to get up at 6:30am and run go the gym.

So, because of this, I'll push my routine out by a day and start it on Tuesday.

Anyway, while it seems to be mostly gone now, there is still some small lingering pain in my stomach. I wonder what the hell this could be? Maybe something I ate from last night?

Meal Prep Update, Week 8

Still doing Meal Prep, but this week my wife did all the cooking (yeah?!?)

Meal menu is pretty simple and actually seems like what we had a couple of weeks ago (Oh well, I don't mind).

• Breakfast: Bacon/Eggs
• Chicken Pizzas (Chicken thigh with pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, bacon, etc)
• Beef Rissoles w/veggies.

In other news, I really dug that chili from last week and so did the wife. I made is pretty spicy somehow (added a lot red peppers to it, but seemed spicier than normal). I'd make it again.

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 7, Day 3

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (65kg)	Squat 5x5 (67.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (70kg)
Bench press 5x5 (42.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)	Bench press 5x5 (45kg)
Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (85kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (72.5kg)	Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5
Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)	Bench press 5x5 (47.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5
Deadlift 1x5 (90kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (50kg)	Deadlift 1x5

I'm not quite sure how, but it seems that I managed to pass all my lifts again. Of course, the Overhead and Row keep giving me heaps of problems, but I was able to get them done this week. In fact, today I felt really good at the gym, which surprised me considering when I started I really was at low motivation and energy.

I had taken Friday off due to lack of sleep the night before, and then I didn't feel fully rested this morning, but despite all that it seems I was actually physically in fine shape.

The squats were difficult, but that's to be expected as I'm getting close to my own body weight, but the benchpress wasn't so hard at all. Even the Barbell Row was a lot more fluid and a lot less tiring this time. In fact, I managed to rachet up the number of reps in my backoff set on both of those exercises from 1x10 to 1x15, just like my lower body. 

It really feels like I made some sort of breakthrough recently. I wonder what it is/was?

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 7, Day 2

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (65kg)	Squat 5x5 (67.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (70kg)
Bench press 5x5 (42.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)	Bench press 5x5 (45kg)
Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (85kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5
Overhead press 5x5 (35kg)	Bench press 5x5	Overhead press 5x5
Deadlift 1x5 (90kg)	Barbell Row 5x5	Deadlift 1x5

I almost forgot to make this post today, but who can blame me with the total shocker of the US elections that happened! What a surprise, huh?

Anyway, as for my workout today, it went pretty well. I managed to finally clear that Overhead press, but only after failing on the final rep of the final set. What I did was simply cool my jets, take a proper break and then repeat the last set... and I was able to get it.

I may have to take longer breaks than I am used to going forward. I feel that in order to increase my strength  I really need to get out all of my sets every time and if I'm capable of lifting the weight, then what I need is a longer rest so that I can get it up and work those muscles again.

Some of my exercises are starting to get into the "real" area in terms of difficulty. I feel like I still have a lot of room to grow on several of them, but I also know that I'm going to start bumping up against more "fails" and not just on my problem exercises, but overall. Even the dead-lift today - I gave it a test jerk off the ground and realized it was actually bloody heavy today. I had to set my feet, push out with my gut against my belt and give it a proper effort to move it.

It certainly drove home the point that I was actually doing exercise and not just fooling around!

Tuesday Weigh-In, Start of Week 7

Wow, I guess I plateaued again. I lost barely any weight this last week. It's been kind of freakish. It doesn't matter what I do, how much sleep I get or even it appears how many calories I eat in a day, every day this last week I've weighed exactly the same. However, that being said, I do believe that I've "shrunk" a tiny bit.

Really, who know's what's going on with my body these days, but I guess I can say that my 12 kg in 100 days goal is pretty much out of the question at this point. I'll be lucky to get 1/2 of that at this rate!

Day 42
Start Weight: 97kg.
Last Week: 93.9kg
Current Weight: 93.8kg (-100g)
Loss: 3.2kg

The look on my face says it all.

I think... it looks slightly slimmer? MAYBE?

Sayonara nihongo kyōshitsu! (さよなら日本語教室)

Well, good bye at least for now. I'm going to go and see if I can get signed up for a second term. It's probably a bad time of the year for this now because the holidays are starting up soon (Christmas, New Years, etc) but I'm still keen to keep going for now.

We went out last night for our final class. I shared a bottle of sake with Masako-sensei and had a plate of sashimi for dinner. It was a nice jovial atmosphere. I'd be nice to continue with the same group of people if possible.

Our class.

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 7, Day 1

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (65kg)	Squat 5x5 (67.5kg)	Squat 5x5
Bench press 5x5 (42.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)	Bench press 5x5 (45kg)
Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (85kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (57.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (60kg)	Squat 5x5 (62.5kg)
Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)	Bench press 5x5 (40kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)
Deadlift 1x5 (75kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (45kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (80kg)

Another rough day at the gym. I failed on my last two sets of the Barbell Row. This isn't a surprise, as this exercise and the Overhead Press have given me the most trouble during this workout routine. In fact, I could barely finish even a full 10 reps on the backoff set at a much lower weight - that's how exhausted my arms were. 

Wednesday is my next (3rd) shot at the Overhead Press. if I fail this one I am going to knock it back down to 30kg for the next group of sets on next Monday (Deloading). I don't really think I need to start switching to a 3x3 on this exercise yet - I feel like I just need to build stamina, the muscles are certainly capable of lifting the weight. 

In fact, there hasn't been anything that I can't lift yet - which hs been good. I wonder however if I am going to be approaching that with the squats fairly soon or not. They are getting progressively more difficult and uncomfortable to do. Of course, lifting heavy weight shouldn't be "comfortable" but I don't know how else to describe it. One thing I did notice today is that when I was doing my backoff set (15x1 @40kg) on the squat that my back got really really sore there for a couple of minutes afterwards. I think my form was good and I had no lasting effects (I'm sitting here in my office almost 4 hours later and feeling fine) but it was the first time that's ever happened either.

Anyway, one word of advice I can give everyone - Don't lift in the morning before eating breakfast. Today my breakfast wasn't ready (wife was going to prep it when she woke up as part of our division of labor on the meal prepping). I felt tired and out of sorts even an hour after I finally did eat. 

Tomorrow is the weigh in day. I don't think I've lost any weight this week. I'm not really sure why, but so far the scale hasn't budged a single gram. On the flip side, I'm fairly certain that my body is "smaller"  and given how much I am working out, even if my calories are in excess of what I am burning off, shouldn't it just be going to fuel muscle growth? It's not like I'm even approaching 2,000 calories a day.... oh fudge it. I have no idea. We'll just have to see what tomorrow brings. I should also test my ketones to see what's up with that.

Meal Prep, Week 7

Wow, six weeks under the belt (no pun intended) and we're still going strong here with the meal prep. This week I have a dinner out with my Japanese class as a social event (thankfully sashmi is low carb!) but I'm sorta regretting it because I made some awesome looking chili and vegetables for dinner.

Menu:

• Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs.
• Lunch: 2xPork Sausage, Sauteed Vegetables
• Dinner: Mega spicy chorizo and beef chili with vegetables.

This is going to be a good one, I can tell already. The taste of the chili was fantastic. It's still a little soupier than I would normally like, but I can deal with it. I think the difference in the spicy flavor this time is that I didn't rely on off the shelf spices but instead put in actual hot chili peppers and jalapenos into the crock pot. 

Hey, didn't someone say spicy food is good for weight loss?!?!

Anyway, not much else going on here. Another work week begins and my last Japanese class is tomorrow. I'll have to look into what I'm going to do next on that front.

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 6, Day 3

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (65kg)	Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5
Bench press 5x5 (42.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)	Bench press 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (85kg)	Barbell Row 5x5

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (57.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (60kg)	Squat 5x5 (62.5kg)
Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)	Bench press 5x5 (40kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)
Deadlift 1x5 (75kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (45kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (80kg)

I delayed this workout till today (Saturday) because I didn't get enough sleep on Thursday night in order to feel rested enough to make it to the gym on time Friday morning. I have no idea if this was good or bad, but it probably didn't matter too much. My workout today more or less went as expected.

I completed all reps except for the final couple of the last bloody set of the Overhead press. This is a pretty good improvement from Monday where I couldn't even complete the reps in sets 3, 4 and 5. Maybe the addition of the backoff set is helping, or maybe this is just natural progression? In any case, I should complete the exercise on my next attempt (Next Wednesday).

Everything is more or less going okay. The scale so far hasn't really gone down this week, but I've gotten stronger, I've cut back on some unnecessary stimulants to try and improve my sleeping, I've picked up some extra cardio in the form of really long walks with my wife, I think things are going forward on a lot of levels. 

Oh by the way, from here on out I am going to use the squat safety pins on my lifts. The weights are starting to get too heavy for me to feel confident that I won't drop one in a set. Safety first.

Anki Update

Decided to post another Anki update since it's been a few days. For people who are wondering how much can one completely obsessed person pour into a hobby like "learning Japanese" in a short period of time - here is my personal figure:

1,525 minutes in the last 23 days.

That doesn't of course count the 2 additional hours of Japanese class I take every week.

Anyway, in the last 14 days (2 weeks) I have managed to progress fairly well.

Anki Stats

	Day 9	Day 23
Time	526 minutes	1525 minutes
Reviews	2077	5986
Cards	180	459
Correct %	58.60%	69.52%

So, as you can see, I have a lot more cards in my "learned pool" (459?!?!) and my accuracy at getting them right has gone up substantially over the last two weeks.

Part of that is going to be due to the fact that as time progresses I will have seen some cards several times over the period of these weeks and so I will likely be familiar with them. The aggregate of that past history will start to slowly "stack the deck" (pun intended) in my favor on this percentage.

Another part of this is that I am slowly, and I'm not quite sure how, figuring out how to read kanji correctly. That is to say I'm able to make fairly good guesses at both the pronunciation as well as the meaning of the word I am looking at by examining the individual kanji characters that make it up.

It's still a horribly inefficient writing system - and I mean that in every sense of the word. While it at first seems "neat" to have a system based on pictographs, you start to quickly appreciate the simple elegance of the Latin alphabet and punctuation. Oh sweet kami-sama do I miss punctuation.

Anyway, I can totally understand why countries like Korea and Vietnam have mostly ditched this system of writing in favor of their native scripts. It's extremely cumbersome to learn and I can see why it takes most students in Japan 10 full years to obtain the high school level literacy. I pity these poor kids - it must be an extremely draining experience,

Of course, then there are idiots like me - middle aged people who decide that they're going to go and take this beast on long past the point when their brains should have calcified. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I'm using my brain and hopefully staving off the dementia that comes with old age...

StrongLifts 5x5, Week 6, Day 2

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5	Squat 5x5
Bench press 5x5 (42.5kg)	Overhead press 5x5	Bench press 5x5
Barbell Row 5x5 (47.5kg)	Deadlift 1x5	Barbell Row 5x5

Week B

Monday	Wednesday	Friday
Squat 5x5 (57.5kg)	Squat 5x5 (60kg)	Squat 5x5 (62.5kg)
Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)	Bench press 5x5 (40kg)	Overhead press 5x5 (32.5kg)
Deadlift 1x5 (75kg)	Barbell Row 5x5 (45kg)	Deadlift 1x5 (80kg)

Passed all my lifts again today and did 1x15 and 1x10 backoff sets on squats, press and rows. I seem to really struggle doing more than 10 reps on the backoff set on all of the upper body exercises for some reason, but this is only the third workout doing this. Hopefully I will gain some endurance over time and be able to get up to 30 reps on each backoff set.

The overall weight progress felt okay. Squats and press were both not easy, but not horribly hard. Squat maybe is starting to get into the difficult range, but I'm also starting to actually approach my real weight. A decent level of fitness I believe is squatting 1.5x your bodyweight and pressing 1.1x your bodyweight - if I can do this then I will feel quite accomplished with my training.

I've had a little bit of a headache for the last couple of days. I don't know what is causing this, it could be related to my blood pressure or to dehydration. Other than that I feel fine. Still having trouble sleeping however - I don't really know what to do about that at this point.

On the cardio front I managed to go on a walk last night (day off from gym) with my wife. She didn't want to go at first, but changed her mind after a while. It was actually quite nice and we held hands and walked in the evening (the air was cool for a change and there was a nice breeze coming off the river).

Hard to believe this week is almost over. I have no idea where the time is going.

Tuesday Weigh-In, Start of Week 6

Phew!

It seems that my despair from yesterday didn't materialize into any stalling on the scale like I had feared. That being said, the results weren't quite as good as I had tracked a couple of days ago when I looked but all together I can't say they are bad...

Day 35
Start Weight: 97kg.
Last Week: 94.6kg
Current Weight: 93.9kg (-700g)
Loss: 3.1kg

After 5 weeks.

You can perhaps notice it better from this angle?

Anyway, 65 days left to lose 8.9kg. This is probably **the last** week where I have a realistic chance of hitting my 12kg loss in 100 days, based on an optimal 1kg a week loss. Currently I am averaging losing about 620g a week, so at this current pace I will likely lose 9kg instead of 12kg in 100 days.

In an effort to keep or surpass that current projection I think I am going to make the following alterations to my diet/activities:

• I will only eat "snacks" (basically almonds or protien bars) on the days where I go to the gym. Other days I will stick to the 3 meals I have prepared (1,600 calories). 
• On my days "off" from the gym I will do an evening walk.

I'll do two weeks with these kinds of changes, starting today and track my progress.