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I hit the gym first thing this morning because I had a trip planned to the beach to enjoy the weather (upper 80's ) and soak up some vitamin D.

My workout went well but I expected to be able to lift alittle more than I did until I got home and realized the rep range was 4-6 and not 6-8. I increased the weight in all areas some. I increased weight on the bench and managed 4 and might have been able to get another if I had a spotter there for confidence. I will get someone to assist on the next workout. I increased the weight on squats as well by 20# and felt good about the lift. With the next workout rep range being 2-3 I will push myself harder.

Calories 2642
Carbs 221
Fats 131
Protein 211

Awesome update and great work. Great work!

Now enjoy that Vit D man, you earned it...

Today was an off day and I spent it at the zoo and the park with my kids. Being away from home made it difficult in regards to the diet. The zoo doesn't exactly had good food choices. So I settled on some pizza today. I'm looking forward to my workout in the morning.

Calories 2158
Carbs 204
Fats 93
Protein 119

Today was my 3rd workout on the feast. I had a good workout and saw some positive gains on my lifts. I finished bench with 215# with a spotter standing by to help if needed. I have not attemped this weight or anything over 200 for that matter since starting back in the gym. I'm already looking forward to my 1RM next week.

Now, I got really excited when I got to squats. I have been going light since I started squats so I can work on form but I have been pleased with my form lately and feeling better about my sets. Today I also used the power rack instead of the squat rack. It was much easier to use than the squat rack. I was having difficulty with height adjustment on the squat rack being either too high or too low but the power rack was a much better fit plus less backward walking. All that was needed was a good step backward. Well to the weight. I started light to warm up and began adding weight in 30# increments. I was hoping to do 225# but when I finished 225# I thought I could do more. 2 sets later I completed 4 at 275#. I noticed on the 4th rep I was loosing my form so I decided to stop. On my last workout I finished squats 205x3. Needless to say, I was happy with my lifts today.

Calories 2651
Carbs 230
Fat 79
Protein 257

On a side note I started E-bol and tbol trib at the beginning of the feast. I have been noticing some pain around my left nipple for the last couple days and thought maybe I dropped a DB on my chest too hard or something but I do not feel this is the case any more. I will be putting the tbol trib on hold to see if the pain goes away. I tend to carry alot of excess fat in my chest anyways and I don't need anymore help growing what I already have if you know what I mean I will continue the E-bol through the feast and then start cbol creatine with the cruise phase.

Wow. Two new PR's this early speaks well to your first run!

Good move on the tbol trib. Best to play it conservative. Keep running that other stuff though as it can only benefit you.

Awesome work. I love coming here. It's just raining PR's...

Had a pretty good day. Hit the gym this morning for my 4th workout on the feast (deload day). I felt strong and as I was warming up on the bench, I threw in some wide grip bench on the hammer strength machine as supersets to get a good stretch. My last set of 6 was with 195#, first 5 felt easy but #6 got tough so I ended there. Finished with pullovers 80x6. I did some db shoulder presses and then tried some cuban presses. I read about them in the shoulder rehab post and wanted to give them a try. I finished the workout with squats and worked up to 225x6 and stretched it out with a set of SLDL.

The rest of my day was spent cleaning a pool.

Calories 2300
Carbs 190
Fat 61
Protein 250


Ca

Excellent. Now rest up and prepare both mentally and physically for your new 1RM!

An extra day off here may be in order, but I'll let you be the judge. For many, it makes a big difference..

Today was an off day so I took it easy after the last few days of working in the yard and being in the heat. I have felt tired today. I am considering taking tomorrow off from the gym and going for my 1RM on thursday.

I am going to incorporate sled dragging into my training starting next week and need to know how to go about doing this. I'm thinking twice a week but I want it to also be my cardio.

I took some time today to stop by Spud Inc/South Carolina Barbell to check out some of their gear and will probably get some straps from them. I will make my own sled to same money. I'll post a picture when it is completed.

Calories 2200
Carbs 211
Fat 76
Protein 172

Good call on listening to your body! Can't over-state this..

In terms of a home-built sled:

https://www.rickmayo.com/2009/07/homemade-sled.html

https://www.ehow.com/how_5644709_make-we ... -sled.html

In terms of ways to drage the sled:

Forward Walking
Backward Walking
Forward Ankle Dragging
Backward Ankle Dragging
Front Shoulder Raise Dragging
Rear Shoulder Raise Dragging
Walking lat Pulls
Walking Chest Presses
Walking Triceps Extensions
Walking Pull Throughs
Forward Walking with Hands on Straps


I like to start as follows:

Total of 6 trips of 100 feet in the following fashion;

First trip, forward dragging with straps held behind you.
Second trip, backward dragging with handles held low in front of your
Third trip, forward drag mimicking a bench press type movement
Fourth trip, backward drag with an upright rowing type movement
Fifth trip, forward drag with a tricep extension type movement, elbows above head
Sixth trip, backward drag with a low cable type rowing movement

Obviously, you'll need to experiment with the weight a bit but you'll get the hang of it. Gradually add weight OR consider heavy/light sessions with the heavy days focusing on pulling mostly with the entire body/legs and the lighter days for shoulder rotations/upper body work.

The beauty of this is that not only do the heart and lungs get a workout but also your work capacity jumps. In many respects, this mimics another weight trianing session but does so without damaging the muscle. The movements are purely concentric (no lowering of the weight). With the eccentric component removed, there is no muscle damage. Therefore, recovery/blood flow is actually improved and you should find yourself feeling fresher for the next session with the weights. As an added bonus, waste products (lactic acid, etc) are removed while fresh new blood is brought in to accelerate healing.

It's a slam dunk.

I am going to hit the landfill this weekend the have an entire trailer full of tires.

Beach I didn't realize spud was right there in Cola, did you happen to notice if they had a loading pin for hip belts? It would be a good excuse to head down there and hit Riverbanks with the girls

I am checking your logs frequently as you are about 10 days behind me

Rob I like that blog you linked to

Hank,

South Carolina Barbell is not too far from me and I used to be a member of the gym about 10 years ago before Mark "Spud" Bartley bought the place. As long as I have known the place it has been a powerlifting gym. Even when I was there, it was common to see someone in the parking lot dragging a sled or pushing a wheel barrel around. They definitely have some out of the box equipment that you won't see in any of the big commercial gyms. I wonder what Gold's would say if I lugged a bunch of chains in the gym.

I'm not sure what you are looking for in a loading pin but I'm thinking about going back over there sometime this week and I can ask them. Have you seen their website?

https://www.southcarolinabarbell.com/sal ... ewhome.asp

Look through the site and see if they have what you need.

I am going to build my sled out of wood since I have some laying around the house. It should be completed today.

Awesome, please post some pics i may copy your idea

I just got back from the gym after doing my 1RM on bench and squats. I was alittle disappointed but that's ok. I now have a starting point for the German Loading pattern #1. I took my time warming up on both and felt pretty good going into the heavier weights. I hit 215 and it felt good but attempted 235 and failed. My spotter had to help me with this lift. I decided to attempt 235 instead of 225 to get past any mental issues of adding the 2nd plate to both sides. Probably should have stuck with 225. Since I felt 215 was a good lift and failed at 235, I will split the difference and go with 225 for my 1RM.

On squats I had a different problem. Waming up was good and once I got to 275 I began to have some difficulties getting the weight off and on the rack. I stopped at 305 and thought if I could get the weight off the rack easier I could do more. Due to this difficulty my 1RM is 305. I kinda wish I was still a member of South Carolina Barbell. They have swing bars on their squat rack so there is no stepping backward or forwards.

I completed my sled yesterday and had my kids sit on it so I could pull it around. I don't have my straps yet for pulling it so I grabbed a big chain and wrapped it around my waste. I had some problem with overall design and I will attemp to fix that today. The sled wanted to tip forward as I got going. I am going to flip the connection ring to the botton of the platform and shave down the runners alittle to see if that will help. I stopped by SC Barbell again today and the straps will be in tonight.

Here are some pictures of the sled I put together. It is made out of a 2x6, and a 4x4. I had room to squeeze a 2x4 on top so I put it in the middle and anchored the loading pin to it. As stated earlier I was having problems with the sled tipping forward so I remounted the shackle to the bottom and the it works fine now. I will be dragging this on grass so I will need to play with the weight some. I'm sure it doesn't slide as smoothly as a metal drag sled but it will work.

The sled weighs almost 35# and the weight on it is 50#, the biggest one I have.







If I get a chance this evening, I will be picking up the straps to pull this thing.