Not the P word! (PotD + State of the Union)
by codemonkey on Mar.10, 2010, under Dave's Rants, Workout Logs
Todays Pain of the Day (PotD) includes a bit more bloggage. My workout went fine, but, weight loss has stalled, and I’ve even started gaining a couple. Now, there are several possible reasons for this — I have not been on my “A” game. So, I thought this would be a good place to list the reasons I think I could be stalling, and what I can do to remedy it.
But, before we get into the “plateau” discussion, here’s today’s workout:
Workout Logs
Warmup: 5 mins on the treadmill.
Stronglifts 5×5: Squat: 65#, Bench: 145#, Power Clean: 55#, Bardips: 12/7/6
Cooldown: 5 mins on cardio machine.
Calories Burned: 384
Squats are still REALLY light. But, I didn’t even have to think about form today. Knees were wobble free. The unload is really helping get my form right. Bench is getting REALLY slow on the 4th and 5th sets. I may have to start making sure I get enough rest. Power clean is starting to get tiring . . which is good. I can’t wait to see how my form behaves as it gets heavier. For now, the form looks ok, but, since I can reverse curl the weight, it won’t really be a clean till it gets a bit heavier. And, finally, the bar dips are still improving. I did the same total number of reps as on Friday, but I managed to get 12 on the first set, versus 10 last week. I did notice that the picture on the machine had the guy only going down till his arms were parallel to the floor. I usually go down until my range of motion stops me. I’m not sure which way is right.
Plateau Busting
I’m not sure if this is the start of a plateau, but, I want to be sure I don’t end up in the sam hell I was in last fall, so, I want to nip it in the bud, quickly. First, I think it is best to recognize what I’ve been doing wrong, that could be contributing to the gain / lack of weight loss. And, I won’t ignore things that could have been contributing that are not necessarily bad:
Problems / Symptoms
- I’ve been cheating on my diet, a little. My protein portions have been getting progressively larger. If I am at a steakhouse, and I feel like a strip, then I get it, and typically eat all of the 10 oz, instead of cutting it in half, and getting my 5. I have also not been weighing protein at home.
- I have been substituting in meals . . adding a little protein here and there, playing with recipes.
- Last week, I had a bad cheat day.
- Last week, I also went snowboarding, where I had two redbull vodka’s (sugar free, but, the alcohol calories didn’t help)
- I started doing stronglifts 5×5. I tried to up the weights a little, and add harder exercises to compensate for the fact that I’m not really a beginner. But, it is still a MUCH easier workout than my previous one.
- I could be gaining muscle. My %bf is slowly lowering, so, this little gain could be muscle related, but I really don’t think so.
- I started actually doing hard cardio yesterday. We’ll see how that pans out doing running Tuesday & Thursday.
The Plan
- Follow diet plan religiously. So, get more anal. Weigh meats, and start logging food for a few days.
- Log exercise, including calories burned. Compare numbers to my previous workout. If they are less, supplement with cardio.
That’s actually about it, plan wise. Start logging, and see if anything jumps off of the page. Wish me luck!