kd's log of........ something

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King Damager

King Damager

King Damager

Soldato
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Swimming in a lake
Ok, this is a slightly different log.

No idea where to start, so let us start with aims and things, all hopefully achievable in the next few months :)

Aims
The current aims are to increase strength, for both, increasing strength for strength's sake, increasing speed in the swimming pool, and aesthetics! :D

Training will generally include swimming, weightlifting, and eating :) Yeah, I'm definitely counting the eating as part of training. Oh and sleep. They seem like important components :p

Let me explain some of those I guess.

Strength. Well, I still feel woefully weak. Mind you, the strength aspect for strength's sake isn't a massive goal really. I have no ambitions as yet to lift huge amounts of weights. I have certain goals, but mostly so that the average weight etc... causes me no issues.

Strength for swimming. Ok, so, I'll be swimming a reasonable amount as part of the training, but this isn't a weight loss thing. It's a, I like swimming thing. So unfortunately for you guys, this bit is going to stick :p The strength for swimming part of it is really to improve my swimming times. I'll obviously be working hard to swim, but a bit of weight training should help speed that up :)

Aesthetics. You're going to be 'mirin.

Goals (values)
As of 22/11/12 said:
Ok, so this is the current aim:
From a lifting perspective:
Deadlifts: 2X BW
Squats: 1.5 BW
Bench: BW
OHP: 0.5BW
(I have no idea how correct these are in terms of relation to each other, so feel free to point out the issues here - for reference BW is about 65kg)
Click to expand...

Goals changed as of 1/1/2013 to be:

5x5 50 OHP
5x5 75 Bench
5x5 100 Squat
5x5 125 DL

3x8 Dragon Flags (currently 0)
3x8 Pull Ups
3x8 Dips - Achieved 12/1/2013

From a swimming perspective:
Short term goal is to get back under 30 seconds for 50m FC, part of it is also getting up to a pace where my training is at a similar point to what it used to be, (30x100m's off of 1:30)

Diet, Training regime, and the such like
Ok, so let us start with the one most of you will be interested in:

Gym work:
I'll be doing Stronglifts 5x5. It seems like a reasonably good beginning plan, and will get most of the core lifts/muscles up to a reasonable level, so that hopefully, after the twelve week program, I can either do something a bit more specialised for my goals, or continue with 5x5.

Diet:
Got this one checked and Steedie approved :) (Thanks Stoodles)
a6Od6.png


Obviously there's some nutritional information missing at the moment, that's just how the spreadsheet works, and me not quite having moved over to the new diet yet. I'll move over to this diet full time in the next couple of weeks.

Swimming:
Ok, so I've put together my own 8 week plan to get my swimming down from it's current point (16x100 off of 1:45), down to (30x100 off of 1:30). It sounds like quite a challenge, but hopefully, it should work out. To be honest, if I get to the end and can do 16x100 off of 1:30 I'll be happy really. The real aim is to finish it in the 12 weeks (in line with the Stronglifts time frame). My schedule is 8 weeks, so hopefully I'll definitely have it done in 12 :D


Time frame wise, I'm currently thinking:
Monday, Wednesday, Saturday - Gym
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday - Swim
Sunday - Rest

The current schedule is optimistic. But hey-ho. Let's hope I can achieve it :)

Part of this log is to encourage me too.

I know it's not quite your standard log. But it should hopefully allow me to meet my own goals, which ultimately is what it's all about. Our own individual goals :)

kd
 
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I'll get some pictures taken soon :)

So, the plan to start 'proper' is Monday, as that allows me to start at the beginning of the week. (Plus whey doesn't turn up until Wednesday xD)

This week however, I'm doing the first sessions as such, so as to see how I feel and such like...

Today (Friday) is a swimming day... Sooooo despite having done my gym induction, and a small amount of stuff in the gym yesterday (nothing too strenuous, but enough to create some DOMS), I dived in the pool. God the cold water on muscle has never felt so good xD

Anyway, having already done what is effectively 'Day 1' on the swimming plan rotor yesterday (it's what I've been doing for the last few weeks/months with little progress, as I haven't stepped up difficulty), I figured today would be a good day to try 'Day 2'.

Went alright, shoulders were certainly suffering, but weren't too bad. I'm really not looking forward to any day where swimming follows shoulder work xD

Anyway, swim for today:
Warm Up
(Plenty of stretching)
1L Underwater/1 Back
4/3/2/1/1/2/3/4
8x2 ketchup/drag (60s)

Main set
20x100 FC (1:45)
100 back (relaxed, warm down)

Drills
8x2 IM Drill. [2 lots of (Fly/Back, Back/Breast, Breast/Front, Front/Fly)] (60s)
4x2 Fly (60s)
4x2 FC (One length hard, with strong turn, one length easy)

Warm Down
100m Back
1L underwater, 1L back.
(plenty of stretching)

Felt good to be fair. Whilst yes it was hard, it was hard in a good way, and I didn't feel at any point like I was going to drown.

I'm well aware that the might not make sense to some of you, so feel free to ask if you want clarification?

kd
 
Right,

Day 1 has begun.

Decided to take today as my first day as I'll get and take an extra rest day today.

Found out nicely that the Smith bar is about 16kg, so can add that to any of the weight stuff I did today.

Today was Stronglifts, but I'm putting in some extra ab work.

Day 1 - 25/11/2012
Squat - 5x5x36kg
Bench Press - 5x5x36kg
Barbell Row - 5x5x20kg
Dips - 5 5 5 (BW)
Reverse Crunch - 3 x 12
Plank - 3x30s

So, having issues with dips, I'm almost certain that my forms not right, but the biggest issue was that the soft tissue on my palm (kind of thumb area), really wasn't happy.

And, for all to check:
Squat form:


First real squats, so, looking at it, I'm not too unhappy.

I know there's some issues with me pushing from the balls of my feet rather than from the heel. Apart from that, any tips, advice etc?

I know on everything, weights is a bit low, but that should hopefully ramp up fairly quickly if I manage to keep up with the Stronglifts progression path.

kd
 
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Nowhere in the gym that I can actually squat apart from in there :s

Mind you, benching in the smith was just down to sheer laziness, well, and a lack of spotter.

kd
 
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If you're not benching to failure, the spotters are just an ego boost. :)

Regarding squat form, you're too upright and need to stick your bum out more. This might make balancing with the smith machine interesting, but that's because it's messing with the bar's line of travel anyway.
 
That's my fault, I told him to be as upright as possible to avoid any SSSS (Stupid Smith Spine Sheer).

KD, try having your feet 2 inches wider and a little bit further forward. A video from the side as well will help.

It looks ok so far (you have crazy ankle flexibility!), but we can make it better so that you use more of your posterior chain.

Do not bench on the smith though, if you're that worried about getting stuck under the weight, switch to DBs. There is a certain amount to be said for manning up though ;)

Another important point: smith machines vary in their resistance. Expect the weight you can comfortably move to be different on a free bar. Not such a big problem when you're ramping up the weights, but don't do what I did when I first started and get stapled by 140kg :p
 
mrthingyx said:
If you're not benching to failure, the spotters are just an ego boost. :)
Click to expand...

Issue is more that I don't quite know where failure is :p

icecold said:
That's my fault, I told him to be as upright as possible to avoid any SSSS (Stupid Smith Spine Sheer).

KD, try having your feet 2 inches wider and a little bit further forward. A video from the side as well will help.

It looks ok so far (you have crazy ankle flexibility!), but we can make it better so that you use more of your posterior chain.

Do not bench on the smith though, if you're that worried about getting stuck under the weight, switch to DBs. There is a certain amount to be said for manning up though ;)

Another important point: smith machines vary in their resistance. Expect the weight you can comfortably move to be different on a free bar. Not such a big problem when you're ramping up the weights, but don't do what I did when I first started and get stapled by 140kg :p
Click to expand...

Ok, I'll try the feet positioning slightly different, and I'll get another video up, (probably come Wednesday). Ankle flexibility probably comes from years of turns swimming, god knows where else it would come from xD

I'll move over to a proper bench away from the smith though. It was something I knew I should have done at the time, I was just being a bit lazy really, as I said. But I'll sort that out for next time.

kd
 
What sort of swimming are you doing? Freestyle? Etc?

What are your times as well? 16x100 @1:45, is that 1min 45sec per 100metres?
 
Matutu said:
What sort of swimming are you doing? Freestyle? Etc?

What are your times as well? 16x100 @1:45, is that 1min 45sec per 100metres?
Click to expand...

Bit of everything, as you can see. Focussing on Freestyle at the moment, but only for a few weeks, once I've got the times down I'll be doing something more mixed up, with probably two Freestyle orientated and one IM/Fly orientated session per week.

Yeah, those are the current times. Bit slow compared to what I used to do, but have to start somewhere.

God knows what my PB's now a days are though. The whole idea behind the freestyle focus at the moment is to get my 50m time back under 30s (again, relatively slow, but it'll do for short term goals)

I can go pretty much constant at a 100/ 2min pace without really thinking about it.



On a different note, does anyone happen to have a good link for single arm overhead press form?

kd
 
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Either is fine, and you might find that one reveals weaknesses that the other doesn't. I'd go for half-knealing, personally.

No problem :)
 
Deception said:
Good luck with those.. I'd probably tip over .. tiiiimber! :p
Click to expand...

Haha,

Well I don't have any way to do a overhead press in the gym, I could probably get the base weights up there on my own, but it wouldn't be long before I had to do single arm anyway, so I might as well just start one arm.

kd
 
Zefan said:
Why not :(?
Click to expand...

How do you suggest I get the weight above my head? :p I wouldn't be able to power clean the weight eventually, and we don't have a power rack :s

Anyway, today's swimming regime:
Was day one of the swim plan:
Warm up
Small amounts of stretching
4,3,2,1,1,2,3,4
200m ketchup
200m drag

Main set
16x100 FC 1:45

Drills
4x2 [IM Split]
10minutes kick - HIIT style
5 minutes vertical fly kick, kick hard every fifteen seconds (these hurt abs :s)

Warm down (100 back)

It was a pretty good session, bit busy mind. That said it was a very standard session for me, and nothing too strenuous.

In other news, I've been having some friction issues between drag shorts and my leg, so today some hammers turned up. Hopefully will solve that issue.... We shall see.

In other news, diet mishaps of the day were that I had to grab two shop bought sandwiches for lunch, as I had a out of schedule lecture, nothing major, but a bit annoying. Did manage to turn down a pack of flame grilled steak crisps (for free) mind, which I absolutely adore, so that's a plus I guess....

kd
 
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