Week 12 Day 1: 12/12/11
Unfortunately had around 5-6 hours of not so good sleep.
Think this was my downfall as I didn’t have the proper rest and I did not have full capacity in my energy level today.
Because of that I believe my form was crap and I ended up hurting my lower back.
So after my bench press I decided to call it quits and just go home.
I think I may have strained my lower back during squats so decided to end Mad Cow 2 sessions early and just relax and recover for a couple of weeks then start 5/3/1 on January 2nd. (I was planning to end Mad Cow after my 12th week anyways.)
Going to find my starting max for 5/3/1 most likely on December 28th and hopefully I am fully recovered by then and gives me a couple of days of rest before 5/3/1 start.
Had a good run setting some nice personal records for myself so happy with the outcome in the long run.
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Back Pain, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Squat, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up, White Flood
Week 11 Day 1: 12/5/11
Had around 6-7 hours of sleep of poor quality sleep.
Did not have the same energy level I was used to on today’s workout and it showed.
Was hoping for a better session considering today was just a repeat of last week.
Did not even do any of my accessory exercises after my lifts due to fatigue.
Hopefully this will be my last bad workout session.
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Squat, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up, White Flood
Week 10 Day 1: 11/28/11
Think I had about 6 hour sleep again. Felt really tired and groggy and due to expecting a heavy session of squats decided to take 1.5 servings of WF instead of just my regular 1 serving. I was so hopeful of making 3 PRs today too!
Bad idea! I was awake and focused but my energy level was not as high as it was last session. Too much stims just didn’t do well for me.
Had this happen before but I guess I should have learned my lesson. 1 scoop of WF is the magic serving for me, no more or I just don’t get that same magic effect!
If I stuck to 1 my usual serving of WF I probably would have a stellar session.
Also was running out of time so I decided to skip the weighted incline sit-ups.
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Personal Record, Squat, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up, White Flood
Week 9 Day 1: 11/21/11
Slept early to try to get proper rest and succeeded in having at least 7 hours of sleep.
Somehow my right bicep/tricep area feels like it was pulled and have a weird soreness since the day before.
I may have messed it up a bit doing bicep/tricep extensions last Friday.
Other than that, I was able to push through all my lifts with not much of a problem.
Started feeling a bit tired while doing my foam rolling, mobility drills and pre-workout warm-ups but warmed up and energized once I started doing squats.
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Personal Record, Squat, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up
Week 8 Day 1: 11/14/11
Another 4 hour sleep session before lifting. Had plenty of time to sleep but the second I woke up I could not get back to sleep.
Wife was wondering why I am still pushing myself to lift when I am obviously fatigued. I say Dedication and Consistency!
But she was right though, I was tired as hell during the workout.
I think I could probably have performed better if I had more rest.
Also skipped all my accessory work due to fatigue and time.
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Personal Record, Power Cage, Rippetoe, Squat, Starting Strength, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up
Week 7 Day 1: 11/7/11
Actually had 7 hours sleep and woke up as if I partied earlier that night! (Actually I partied a little bit the night before but that’s a different story.)
Lifted right after I dropped my son to school and had a great workout!
Continuing to progress real well on most of my lifts doing Mad Cow so far.
Even had another bench press PR and in 2 weeks I will be reaching my bench press goal of 230 lbs 1×5 much earlier than expected if I don’t stall!
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Personal Record, Squat, Starting Strength, Strength Goal, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up
Week 6 Day 1: 10/31/11
Started my workout after a VERY long day. Still somewhat tired from getting mandated at work the other day then feeling like crap the rest of the time afterwards.
Today’s session unfortunately have started with my energy level lower than usual. Happy I was able to push through it all but almost felt like I was going to crap out each time.
A weird that I noticed is that my hamstrings are somewhat sore immediately post-workout. Does not hurt but just sore as if I was sitting on them for a while.
Maybe it’s from the squats and maybe I am activating them more the way I am doing now?
Hoping the next workout is better because I did not have fun on this workout at all. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Personal Record, Squat, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up
Week 5 Day 1: 10/25/11
I usually do Day 1 sessions on a Monday but was unable to due to my wife getting sick. So I did today’s workout on a Tuesday right after I dropped my son at school after having a long night at work.
I surprised myself because when I workout after work I tend to have a craptastic session. Add to that the fact that I actually partied and got drunk this weekend for the 1st time in months and still somewhat sore from the last session on Friday!
Started off feeling a bit off when I was doing my pre-workout warm-ups but picked up from there.
Amazingly enough I had one of the best sessions today!
I learned and fixed some issues that have troubled me for a while and even achieved a PR on my bench press!
This just shows that even though you may think and/or feel like its going to be a bad session, you need to push yourself and do it anyway and it may actually be one of your best sessions ever!
Also added seated good mornings as part of my pre-workout warm-ups again in hope of fixing some of my squat issues, which I think it is.
PS:
Got myself a pair of shorts I used to wear back in my USMC days. They are called “Green Silkies” or “PT Shorts” and found them to be AWESOME for squats! You can get them here: Soffe.com
Also decided to start wearing my Rippletoe shoes again for a while instead of my Vibram KSO’s.
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Tags: Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Personal Record, Rippetoe, Squat, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up
Week 4 Day 1: 10/17/11
First workout after missing 5 sessions due to catching an infection and taking a few recovery days off from it as well. All I could think about all weekend is getting under that bar and I guess I was so excited I was only able to get 4 hours of sleep! I tried to sleep a bit more but was unable to.
All weekend I was debating how I should start today’s workout. Should I go by week 2 or week 3 schedule or act like I didn’t miss anything and continue with the week 4 schedule. The weight was feeling fairly unchallenging for me the first few sessions of Mad Cow so I decided to risk it and do week 4 as scheduled. I think it was a good call so far. I did fairly well despite not getting enough rest in my opinion.
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Tags: 5x5, Ab Pull Down, Bench Press, Bent-over Row, EliteFTS, Foam rolling, GHR, Mad Cow Intermediate, Mobility Drills, Rippetoe, Squat, Weighted Hyperextension, Weighted Incline Sit-up
