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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

My progress

I am currently in week 4 of Bill Starr's 5 x 5. I am both pleased and discouraged. I have progressed in each lift, though struggled with my bench this week. I am still having a nagging shoulder issue so I have had to make some adjustments. I find most of the pain when doing military style presses so I am subbing those with Standing Dumbbell Arnold Presses.

I am also using Pendlay (Pendley) rows instead of Bent Over rows. You can see a video below. While I am feeling every day of my 45 years, I am looking forward to increasing each of my lifts. If I could get this diet/nutrition stuff all worked out on our budget, I would be happy.
I am still praying about seeking certification for Personal Training. I have narrowed my search down to ISSA and WITS. I see this as a cool and different way to be able to reach out and minister to people who I would not ordinarily be able to contact. Pray for me as I seek the Lord's will and search for the funding.
Posted by David at 4:43 PM
Categories: 5x5, Encouragement

How to do a Pendlay Row

I have been doing Pendlay Rows instead of the traditional Bent Over Row. I like the feel of this style and it is definately a more difficult move.

Posted by David at 4:28 PM
Edited on: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 4:30 PM
Categories: 5x5

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Bill Starr 5 x 5

I have loved my time working through Baby Got Back. I enjoyed the gains, physically and experimenting with routine design a bit. I will go back to the routine in the future. One issue that began to glare at me was my lack of overall strength. While I was seeing body composition changes, I was not seeing the strength gains I would like to see. I was also finding my form was breaing down or horrible on the main lifts. As I have been dealing with some shoulder pain since I started the routine, I thought it might be good to take some time to work on form and strength. I decided to work through 12 weeks of Bill Starr's 5x5

Here are my first two days.

8/3/09

Heavy Day Squats
1 x 5 x 70
1 x 5 x 95
1 x 5 x 115
1 x 5 x 135
1 x 5 x 150
Bench Press - Form actually felt pretty good. I am really trying to get these down right
1 x 5 x 55
1 x 5 x 70
1 x 5 x 85
1 x 5 x 95
1 x 5 x 115
Pendley Row- While I couldn't lift as much weight as a normal row, I felt a lot better about the form with these. I did over estimate my weights a bit, so had to back off.
1 x 5 x 85
1 x 5 x 105
1 x 5 x 125
2 x 5 x 135
Reverse Hyper Extension
2 x 8 x 20
Kneeling Cable Crunch
3 x 10 x 40
Day two was like this
Light Day
Squats
1 x 5 x 75
1 x 5 x 90
2 x 5 x 110
Military Press
1 x 5 x 55
1 x 5 x 65
1 x 5 x 75
1 x 5 x 90
Deadlift
1 x 5 x 90
1 x 5 x 110
1 x 5 x 130
1 x 5 x 150
Standing Cable Crunch
3 x 10 x 40
Swiss Ball Russian Twist
3 x 10
Posted by David at 10:55 AM
Edited on: Thursday, August 06, 2009 11:00 AM
Categories: 5x5, Training

A Whey to Try

With things tight around our house, I had to sacrifice my usual protein supplements and go cheaper. I purchased some whey concentrate from BuyBulkWhey . Now I am not going to get into the concentrate verses isolate debate, I will say give this a try. You have four choices to purchase:

  1. Unflavored, unsweetened whey
  2. Vanilla flavored
  3. Chocolate flavored
  4. Strawberry flavored

I have tried them all. The unflavored is just that. There is a slight milky taste when mixed with water. If you are into making protein bars or using protein in food, this would be a great product to use. I ordered the Vanilla 5 lb tub and asked for samples of the other flavors.

Vanilla is good, a little too sweet for my taste, but not bad. It is not a strong flavor, more of a traditional vanilla flavor than a French Vanilla flavor. They all mix well in milk or water, with a spoon or shaker. The vanilla is nice and mixed with lowfat or no fat chocolate milk gives a nice blend of flavor and carbs vs protein for PWO.

I tried the strawberry with some skim milk last night. The smell when the package was open was light and fresh. The taste was good, light and not the slightest bit over powering. It was not as sweet as the vanilla, in my opinion, but was nice. I am not a big strawberry flavored fan, I prefer the real berry to flavors. I probably will not order strawberry.

I just tried the Chocolate mixed in water, the ultimate test of protein flavor. WOW! Even in water it reminded of the nesquick or chocolate syrup milk we made as kids. It had the best taste of all of the chocolate proteins I have tried. It maybe that it was chocolatey but not too sweet, I am a dark, bitter chocolate fan. I recommend giving this a try.

5lbs is $29.99 plus shipping. They are pretty quick with the shipping and communicate really well with the customers. The macro break down per serving using water is as follows:

Calories 124

Fat 2g

Carbs 6g

Protein 20g

While this will not be my primary protein supplement source, I am still hooked on the At Large  products, this will be a secondary source for my protein needs. If you are seeking an inexpensive source for whey, I encourage you to check them out at BuyBulkWhey dot com .

Posted by David at 10:35 AM
Categories: Nutrition