The big oak (Quercus) needs to drop some dead limbs!

Quercus said:
I also did 2 sloppy curls each arm with a 65 pound dumbbells at the sporting goods store today. I still like to show off to the wife.:blush5: I'm pretty sure that got her hot!
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Loved this comment, haha :)

So good to see you're starting your lifting routine like you wanted! And you've got all the equipment you need right at home? That's such a plus.
 
Thanks Tru, it's a start.

Laura, I have accumulated everything I could possibly need over the years. I have about 1600 pounds of olympic plates, a power rack, a home made lifting platform, 3 oly bars, and a bench with a home made top.

The cost of a gym membership in Seattle made buying my own equipment a good deal. I got most of it through Craigslist. The power rack is the only thing I bought new. I have a gym membership now, but I have to make a space to deadlift, and there is only one rack for the entire gym. I hate going to the gym and having my own stuff makes it easier to do my scheduled lifts regardless of what's going on.

I also have a large tire for flipping and dragging, a keg filled with water, and a log. I like to mix things up by doing strongman style workouts, but I need to regain some of my strength before I mess with any awkward implements.
 
just catching up on your diary, wow you are doing awesome.
Good on you with getting in to the lifting.
Makes me feel tired just reading about it :p
 
Great job on the lifting! Good idea that you write everything down...I don't know the names of half of what I do -not even in my native language - let alone in English!

I saw your goals for May - pretty challenging!! Good luck!! I hope you can make it!
 
catching up on a few of your entries and wanted to pop in and congratulate you on the progress and the lifting. Smart move to ease back into the lifting as it's important that you are able to go on impressing the wife week after week :hurray:
 
Quercus' next workout involves kicking sand in the face of a scrawny guy at the beach. :D

The flipping the tire over stuff always looked absolutely exhausting to me. Of course there were times that getting up and walking to the kitchen sounded exhausting so...

Anyhow, good job dropping down into the mid 310s. You'll be cracking 300 before you know it.
 
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I got lazy yesterday and laid up after work. I only did my jumping jacks. I'm rather sore today. DOMS from the first lifting session are always killer even though I took it easy other than on deadlift. The bike should work some of that out tonight.
 
THANKS EVERYONE! The encouragement means so much!

I did my 40 jumping jacks and 1 hour on my spin bike. I was considering lifting afterwards, but my legs are still sore and now jello-y. I had to up the resistance to keep my heart rate at the upper end of the aerobic spectrum. I question the ceiling on my aerobic rate if I can maintain it for an hour and read a book. Maybe I'm just not used to being in good shape. The shirt was soaking wet in a 67 degree house with the ceiling fan on high so that seems sufficient.
 
Hey Q! It sounds to me like you're doing the right things. Your heart rate is up where it should be, you're sweating a lot, and you're sore afterwards. To be honest, I've been looking to change up my own regimen just because I'm NOT seeing some of those same results. The cardio bike ride doesn't get my HR up like it used to (was getting 140s, now barely reach 120 even on the highest tension and going for an hour plus). I don't even break much of a sweat until 30 minutes has passed. IF I do a HIIT routine (pedal like a madman for 2 minutes, then rest for 2, then repeat) my HR goes up and I sweat more, but that's it. I do get sore from my yoga, but not from riding.

Today I picked up a weight bench, 200 lbs of weights (plates), 2 dumbbells, and a barbell off Craigslist for $40. It's basic, but at least I can do some benching now. I'm very excited to start soon. You inspired me, Q!

Keep up the great work, man. I see 300 lbs coming soon.
 
Thanks Don! Sweet that you got a weight set. That's a great deal too. You can do a lot with 200 and dumbbells and you can just buy some more plates when you are too strong for that. Start light and focus on good form. Is it a standard set or olympic? If you don't know olympics are fatter on the ends than the middle (opposite of me).
 
I overate last night. I had a smoothie for breakfast, pozole (hominy with pork soup) without cheese for lunch, and veggie juice for dinner. I was doing great, but after the hour on the bike I was starving and ate nuthins (crackers made from nuts), hummus, and cheese. Lots of it. I should have had a light snack and went to bed. The TV/couch is a habit I have to break. That's where all my screw ups happen.
 
That has historically been my den of iniquity. It has taken me 5 months to stop eating crap after dark, while plopped in front of the tube... and I still struggle with it if I go into subconscious mode. It's life and we just have to keep trying. My take on it is "yeah, maybe it was a screw up, but at least it's not the norm anymore!"
 
45 jumping jacks and an hour on the spin bike. My sciatica wasn't up for lifting. I think I went to heavy on deadlifts.

I would like to thank Fugazi's song Epic Problem for a furious 3:59 sprint resulting in a hr peak of 167 bpm, an average 144 bpm and a recovery of 29 beats in 1 minute. I knocked the keyboard to the floor and had to catch the monitor to keep it from taking a dive. I'll need to secure my peripherals better if I'm going to listen to Ian Mackaye.

Right on track with calories today (3,150).
 
Another 40 lbs lost and THEN I'll start doing some jumping jacks. I really want to add them, but I'm still just too damn fat.
How goes the battle today, Q?
 
Hey Don, I guess I'm doing fine. Great so far on the calories and just doing paperwork all day wishing I was outside.

Jumping jacks are overrated in my opinion. I get wanting to be able to do them, but they don't do much for you. I don't intend to keep doing them after the mini challenge is over. I may do a butt load of them tomorrow just to see what it does for me. I need to get back to doing pushups as it will help with my lack of bench pressing strength.

I've been at the weight you are and 30 pounds more. Unfortunately I still have moments that make me feel too fat and weak. I have more moments that make me feel good, strong, or just normal and that continually increases. You've obviously hit a big tipping point and that momentum will accelerate your weightloss and fitness even more.

I'm setting some looooong term fitness goals that I have been thinking over for a while now.

1 pullup:

I've never done one. I have giant rubber bands to assist me on the pullup bar and I can remove them one by one to work up to a real pullup.

50 pushups in a row:

I need to get on that starting today.

30 min 5K run:

I want to work up to a level of fitness that allows me to run a 5K multiple times a week. 3 consecutive 3 minute miles is doable. I haven't even reached a weight where running is a good idea so this is way out.

The cycling equivalent to a 30 min 5K run:

I don't even know what that would be. Maybe a 15K? I can figure it out once I'm doing both with my heartrate monitor.

1,000 pound big three (Squat+Bench+deadlift=1,000):

I hope this is doable even while losing weight. Bench is the weakest link, but pushups should help in initial gains. I've been above 1,000 a few times before.
 
I love that you've set goals. I need to do some of my own. Not sure "sexing with the lights on" will count though. And it's all my tired, tired brain can come up with. Yours sound fab. Especially the pulls up one. The guy who lived in my house before me attached a pull up bar to the doorframe into the kitchen--Friday night parties around mine usually ends up with some idiot injuring themselves trying to impress the ladies ;)

Have a lovely day xx
 
50 pushups in a row
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I'm thinking my career total might be under 50.

My trainer does have me doing pushups though on a Smith machine with the bar starting out fairly low, and then as I reach failure moving it higher up and thereby making it easier. I figure if I keep doing this I'll be doing real pushups fairly easily.

I have done a pull-up though. Granted it was almost 20 years ago, but I do remember being able to do one using a sturdy tree branch.
 
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