Darth Pooh, Sith Lord of the Honey Pot

Steve said:
Most gyms don't have bumper plates unless they have a olympic lifting core of members.

It sucks.

Bumper plates are phenomenal in the training setting namely for things like deadlifts and such. With the deadlift, a full sized plate is best as it gives you the right height from the floor to start the lift. Problem is, most women and children (and some guys) can't deadlift 135 lbs from the floor immediately. You can get bumper plates as low as 5 lbs (maybe lower) that are the same size as regular 45s.

But gyms don't care about that sort of stuff and it's rare to find a trainer teaching something such as the deadlift nowadays anyhow.
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Ok, I am stupid. I thought bumper plates were something COMPLETELY different.

Rubber coated is what I was thinking...

I researched it and found out differently that BUMPER plates are exactly how Steve described it above... plates that are the same size as normal 45 lb plates, so if you had 3 plates on the bar it would look like 135 but could be as low as 15 (some as mentioned are 2.5's now!).

So, no, my gym does not have bumper plates. Wow... I suck.
 
Oh yea, sorry, haha. I should have explained knowing how rare it is for gyms to have them nowadays. Unless you're involved in olympic lifting anymore chances are you aren't going to know what the hell these things are.

Gordy and I actually have some that we use to train our clients with. They are pricey but awesome.
 
Steve said:
Oh yea, sorry, haha. I should have explained knowing how rare it is for gyms to have them nowadays. Unless you're involved in olympic lifting anymore chances are you aren't going to know what the hell these things are.

Gordy and I actually have some that we use to train our clients with. They are pricey but awesome.
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Yeah I saw a complete set for $899.99. That included two of each: 15,25,35,45.

Insane!

I think I should be able to handle the 135 though. As you have seen most of my weight this week has been conservative (I mean, not all of it though, some if it got me sore and I was sweating).
 
My suggestion IF the 135 is too heavy would be to do deadlifts inside of a squat rack with adjustable pins. That way you can use a smaller plate on the bar (say 25s or 35s) but instead of pulling from the floor, pull from the pins that you adjust to mimic the normal height of 45s as best you can.
 
Haven't posted much lately, kind of been having a crisis of motivation, but I'll be interested to see your progress during your bulk. I'm down to 210 now still with a goal of 190, so hopefully I can start the same process soon enough.

Keep up the excellent motivating work!
 
leshric said:
Haven't posted much lately, kind of been having a crisis of motivation, but I'll be interested to see your progress during your bulk. I'm down to 210 now still with a goal of 190, so hopefully I can start the same process soon enough.

Keep up the excellent motivating work!
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I was very nervous about the bulk to be honest. That feeling has really gone away altogether now... I wouldn't exactly be in a rush to get to that point if your in crisis mode, those tend to lead to binges (well for me anyways), so I'd get your brain straight before you try a new program.
 
Oh yeah, definitely getting back on track and getting down to 190 before even thinking about bulking. Just saying that hopefully by the end of summer I can be at that point.
 
Updates from Friday Workout and Weekend Stuff:

-Front Squat- 5 x 3 @ 95 lbs. Not as difficult as I thought it would be due to Steve's comments... however, I am sure he wasn't doing them with 95 lbs either.
-Deadlift- 5 x 5 @ 135 lbs. Great exercise!
-Split Squat (Dumbbells)- 2 x 10 @ 25 lbs. I had ZERO balance with these. Gave one set a shot on the barbell, couldn't keep my balance (and I didn't have a ton of weight on it either).
-Seated Calves- 6 x 10 @ 60 lbs.
-Decline Situps w/ Med Ball- 2 x 15 @ 20 lbs.
-Captain's Chair- 2 x 15 - Next week add 15 lb dumbbell.
-Crunches on Exercise Ball- 2 x 15

So my weekend involved me taking my fiance and her sister and HER fiance to my trailer out in Lancaster. The reason for all of this is to get the girls away from Philadelphia so we can throw them a wedding shower (we are actually have a double wedding, it's much cooler than it sounds, trust me)... so the guy has a little A.D.D. and can be very cool, except when he is being completely annoying and grating on your nerves. Lancaster is a "Zen" place for me... very chill, it's my one place where I can decompress. I don't take MANY people up there, at all. However, my fiance's wedding girls asked if I could do this and I obliged... Let's just put it this way, I felt like God himself was testing me this weekend. The guy thinks I have a short fuse... he has made comments OPENLY to people about how I get short with him (in which I do), however, they aren't shocked that I do because they realize his comments are totally based on the idea he doesn't realize he might be the trigger. I digress...

So I step on the scale today (this morning) and it's at 177 (last weigh in was 172 I believe and that was on Wednesday or something). I am in NO way upset or shocked... I know a few things are going on here. This weekend I went to the Smorgasbord around Lancaster (a few posts above you can get a link to it), however, I didn't go overboard to the point where I had stick fingers in my throat to get relief. I enjoyed myself, half small tastings of bad things and then moved on to my fan favorites (like egg beater omlette with veggies), washed it down with a piece of apple fritter, but stuck to Turkey Bacon. It was quite amusing when I came back to the table (for breakfast no less) with a quarter of a belgium waffle with No Sugar Added Ice Cream on top :)

I estimated (VERY VERY roughly) my calories for that meal to be about 1500 - 1800 easily. After that, I didn't really eat anything until dinner time, 3 hot dogs (low fat ball parks are 50 cals each, slice of low cal bread, mustard, relish 300 cals total). Then I had strawberry shortcake, popcorn, and pringles (all low cal shit but ended up having about 500 more calories from that). So my cals were very high on Saturday, I'd say about 2600-2700 for the day (about 500-600 over my "goal"). Nothing nasty or major really... especially for a bulk period it isn't going to set me physically or mentally back.

Yesterday, I ate a nice hearty breakfast at The Windmill Diner up on Route 23... good place. Estimated my breakfast around 800 or so... I am very good with my calorie estimations btw. Came home, the girls were totally shocked, I played them like a crap hand in Hold Em... I picked at foods really. Veggies here, Crab dip there, salad here, a brownie there... I will say I had about 800 calories there (that might be a bit high, but for arguments sake). Before bed I ate 150 cals of Strawberry shortcake (again, my own concoction, it works very well, I posted about it before), two slices of PB and jelly (200 cals), and cereal go lean w/ 1% (200 cals there). My day was pretty much breaking even at 2150 or so, nothing nuts.

Today I am going to take in 2200. I won't worry about the extra calories over the weekend, I was relaxing and it was my way of trying to live a "normal" dietary life at some point. I still weighed out food a few times and I didn't mind it.

The extra 5 pounds? Oh, water weight. Lots of salt this weekend... barely any water. Maybe a half a liter to a liter a day. I am used to drinking a gallon+ a day. So you can believe with the 98 degrees and this water weight, I will be drinking a shit ton of water. Again, no worries... feels nice.
 
leshric said:
Oh yeah, definitely getting back on track and getting down to 190 before even thinking about bulking. Just saying that hopefully by the end of summer I can be at that point.
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I am doing it kind of ass backwards, most people do NOT start bulks in the summer before beach time. I personally do not care at this point... my abs can be seen and I look healthy enough.

I will be going back into a caloric deficit after I get back up to 190 lbs or so (a "cut", whatever you want to call it) just to take off some of the fat that you put on during a bulking phase. I might get into that whole rinse and repeat thing too... who knows.

I usually find that getting back on track isn't so much a physical thing but more a mental struggle. My turning point was probably END of december when I knew I got lax with my dieting and saw the scale creep. It was a planned thing though... I knew I was going to do it to give me the kick in the ass I needed. So when I saw I got back into the 2-teen's again, I knew it was water weight and all that, but still a shock to the system. I knew what I had to do to get on track... so I did it.
 
Well, been MIA, got busy on Monday and yesterday on my way to the gym I got rear-ended . I was stopped at a light and she just came barreling into me... so far 2600.00 to my rear plus my GPS went flying off my dash and got smashed up (so that's another $500.00).

Anyways, Monday and Tuesday's workout logs:

Monday - Upper Pull Emphasis
-Pullups - 5 x 5 @ 25 lb dumbbell.
-Barbell Rows - 3 x 8 @ 125 lbs.
-Dumbbell Flyes - 3 x 8 @ 40 lbs. (45's?) Dunno yet.
-Cable Row - 2 x 20 @ 80 lbs.
-Preacher Barbell Curls - 5 x 5 @ 80 lbs.
-Dumbbell Curls - 5 x 5 @ 30 lbs.
-Kickbacks - 3 x 8 @ 25 lbs.
-Skullcrushers - 3 x 8 @ 30 lbs.


Tuesday - Lower Squat Emphasis
-Full Squat - 5 x 5 @ 115 lbs.
-Unilateral Leg Press - 3 x 8 @ 20lbs. each leg.
-Leg Press Calves - 6 x 8 @ 270 lbs.
-Planks - Front & L,R Sides 2 sets of 30 seconds each.
-Leg Lifts - 2 x 20.
- Situps with 15 lb Med Ball - 2 x 20.

I am going to evaluate this coming Sunday (with my pictures) and see if I am upping or keeping 2200 calories at this point. Problem is... I don't know what my "deciding" factor is going to be. I know for a fact that I went up in weight... maybe 2 or so pounds, nothing major, probably has something to do with just introducing more calories over time and my body leveling off. So, if I need to make a decision on how to listen to my body, and considering this is the first time around for it I should probably read into it more.
 
I never up calories if weight goes up over 2 weeks. Also gauge off measurements, if they go up, no point in bumping up either.
 
Steve said:
I never up calories if weight goes up over 2 weeks. Also gauge off measurements, if they go up, no point in bumping up either.
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Alright... sounds fair enough. Problem is, I think the last time I took measurements was about a month ago. So the weight / measurements are off in time... which probably isn't a "problem" at all. It is what it is...

I do have some light cardio planned for tomorrow and Saturday, I am thinking a 3 mile jog and some racquetball (just for CV health purposes).

How have you been man? I see you had an extensive weekend... you catch up with sleep yet?
 
Exactly... it is whatever it is. Be more consistent with your measurements. When I bulk I try and measure every 2 weeks... same time, same place, same settings, etc. I also took monthly pictures. I never saw progress from them though. It came to slow.

And progress is a little strange in the sense b/c it's represented by a loss of leanness, lol, which goes against what most would deem progress.

I'm good. Real good actually. Just extremely busy with work at the moment so I haven't been getting my usual time on here.
 
Steve said:
Exactly... it is whatever it is. Be more consistent with your measurements. When I bulk I try and measure every 2 weeks... same time, same place, same settings, etc. I also took monthly pictures. I never saw progress from them though. It came to slow.

And progress is a little strange in the sense b/c it's represented by a loss of leanness, lol, which goes against what most would deem progress.

I'm good. Real good actually. Just extremely busy with work at the moment so I haven't been getting my usual time on here.
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I noticed you've been MIA too... last night I was just catching up with some of your old posts (was searching Glucosamine and Chondroitin, I starting taking it for some joint pain along with the fish oils), I am glad things are good for you. It is interesting to see your progression here in the forums... how you've grown to be a leader and a good friend to the majority of people. It's also weird to see people who have come and gone (wonder where that puts me in the equation of things too, just another username yano?). It's all about perspective...

I noticed a bit of leanness loss in the midsection this morning in the mirror. I wasn't worried really... I figured, thats the bad with the good. I hope. We will see with measurements... I am hoping for a few inches in gain overall (chest and arms especially).
 
maleficent said:
awww come on -- we know yuo want to the plastic surgeon - 2600 for a butt lift is pretty good -no implants though please :)
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Hah!!! The sucky part is... the adjuster couldn't get a quote on one part that might run another 700 - 1200 dollars. It's just crappy that my car is practically brand new (2007, not even 10,000 miles on the fucker).
 
Darth Pooh said:
I noticed you've been MIA too... last night I was just catching up with some of your old posts (was searching Glucosamine and Chondroitin, I starting taking it for some joint pain along with the fish oils),
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I used to take it and it led to some cushioning from the pain. Then I stopped and started it back up and it had no effect. I've seen similar things where it works for some people and not others.

Knock on wood my joints have been great. Plenty of fish oil and plety of stretching is what I attribute it too.

Plus paying real close attention to recovery.

I am glad things are good for you. It is interesting to see your progression here in the forums... how you've grown to be a leader and a good friend to the majority of people.
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Thanks Keith.

It's been a ride, that's for sure. I've really enjoyed my time on this forum. That's probably why I'm so 'protective' of it at times... it's like a home away from home. Or my home in 'cyberspace' if you will.

It's also weird to see people who have come and gone (wonder where that puts me in the equation of things too, just another username yano?). It's all about perspective...
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I think about this a lot too. I've seen a lot of people, some whom I was very close with, come and go.

TomO comes to mind. He and I were very close. I did a lot of programming and diet manipulation for him and he was a fighter. Towards the end of his stay here he had a pretty gnarly six pack and he was an old guy.

I actually emailed him a few weeks back and he just got back to me. It was nice to hear from him but he mentioned his fitness did slip a bit due to various reasons.

It makes me wonder if people are as successful after the leave the forum. It seems to be a source of accountability and motivation for many.

Shery (msghettobooty) seems to be another lost member who I was very close with.

It's to be expected though. I, myself, have come and gone on various forums.
 
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