Ugh.

I ended up contracting some nasty bug my daughter brought home.  Fever, body aches, lack of hunger, hacking cough, full sinus.  Ugh.

Tonight's weights

1x5 Squat @ 140lbs
1x5 Bent Row @ 110lbs

1x5 progressive warmup to these weights

About 30 minutes

Weight update

A week and a half ago I went on a trip with friends and ended up being sick the entire time.  I couldn't keep food or liquids in me.  This went on for a solid four days and even still I sometimes still feel it.  Anyways, I was 213 lbs before leaving and dropped to 203 lbs on the fourth day.  I'm now up to 208 lbs after a big Easter dinner and generally not giving a shit about my diet.

Program design - Dealing with injuries

In my previous post I mentioned that I'm still dealing with a shoulder injury.   I first discovered my shoulder issue overhead pressing in January, it was an intense pain in my supraspinatus at lockout, even at low weights.  I knew I had an issue.  I fucked around with an injury already by trying to power through it and did nothing but harm, so I need to take it easy on that shoulder which means cutting movements out of my routine that involve the shoulder until I heal.  This means no bench press, no overhead press, no deadlift.  I'm probably playing it safe here, but I want to get better not worse.

While my impingement heals I really want to focus on my squat and bent row.  I've pieced together elements from other programs and come up with this:

Week 1

Day 1

   Squat 5x5

   Bent Row 5x5

Day 2

   Squat 5x5 + 5 lbs of Day 1

   Bent Row 5x5 + 5lbs of Day 1

Day 3

   Squat 1x5 + 20lbs of Day 2

   Bent Row 1x5 + 10lbs of Day 1

Week 2

Day 1

   Squat 5x5 + 5 lbs of Day 1, Week 1

   Bent Row 5x5 + 5lbs of Day 1, Week 1

Day 2

   Squat 5x5 + 5 lbs of Day 1, Week 2

   Bent Row 5x5 + 5lbs of Day 1, Week 2

Day 3

   Squat 1x5 + 20lbs of Day 2, Week 2

   Bent Row 1x5 + 10lbs of Day 1, Week 2

Progression continues on, you should get the idea.  One rest week is programmed in every 5th week.  I have this laid out for 5 months of sessions, which should give me enough time to not feel like I'm stagnating and allow my shoulder to heal.

Tonight's session was:

   Squat 5x5 130lbs

   Bent Row 5x5 100lbs

Light weights, I know, but I want to start low to leave enough room for progression while avoiding stalling and resetting.

First Post - Hello World

It was my 36th birthday today.  I have a loving wife, a 1 year old daughter, another child on the way, a satisfying job, and a roof over my head.  I'm by no means rich or poor.  I'm an average joe, and that's exactly the reason behind this blog.

I AM an average joe.  

A huge driving factor in my life is my daughter.  Your priorities shift dramatically when you have a kid.  Everything you do is for them.  Things that were important slide.  You get soft and doughy, your belly is a bit bigger than you remember, and you get weaker.

I want to be a superhero dad.

I have done my fair share of learning about fitness and weight training, but put little to practice.  My efforts have been spotty at best, with my best success being a good 8 month stint where I made little compromise and I saw appreciable gains in strength and positive changes in my body.  Then I got injured (tendinitis - both tennis and golfer's elbow) - holding the baby too much in one arm and took a hiatus.  I got back on a schedule for another two months and got injured again (rotator cuff impingement) - again, holding the baby too much in the other arm, again taking a break.  I'm still dealing with my shoulder injury.

I've drunk the kool-aid of 5x5, linear progression, Rippetoe, Starr, Draper, etc. and am a believer.  It's a great way to build a solid base of strength of which to work with.  I love these programs.  They're easy to understand, you know where you're going (or supposed) to be in a month's time, three month's time, a half year.  They're simple - focussing on big compound movements - making the workouts short but intense.  My favourite of all the movements is the deadlift.  Lifting heavy weights off the floor gets my endorphins going and destroys my body (in a good way).

This blog is for me, but my hope is that other people in my position can get inspired or share stories.

Time to get started!