Pantlegz's Workout Journal

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
Bench: 200x5x5
push ups: 3x20
lat pulldowns:150x3x10
reverse crunches: 3x12

My lower muscles have been tensing up after squatting. I thought it was my form but I had a few people check my form and everyone said it was ok, my feet were too close together but it didn't change much. Someone said I might be dehydrated which I didn't think was possible drinking over a gallon of water a day. But I know creatine makes you retain water, is there a chance I need to drink more water? Or could it be something else? It doesn't hurt while lifting and it's not my spine it's all the muscles in my lower back, it makes it painful to walk let alone lift.

 

[brikis98]

Post a form check video of your squats and deadlifts. It's possible you are rounding your back or have some other form issue. Alternatively, perhaps you tweaked your back in some way playing football?

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Squats: 315x5x5
Bench: 200x5x5
push ups: 3x20
lat pulldowns:150x3x10
reverse crunches: 3x12

My lower muscles have been tensing up after squatting. I thought it was my form but I had a few people check my form and everyone said it was ok, my feet were too close together but it didn't change much. Someone said I might be dehydrated which I didn't think was possible drinking over a gallon of water a day. But I know creatine makes you retain water, is there a chance I need to drink more water? Or could it be something else? It doesn't hurt while lifting and it's not my spine it's all the muscles in my lower back, it makes it painful to walk let alone lift.

No, you don't need to drink more water. If your urine is clear, you're likely to be more than fine. However, you do need a form check. It might be beneficial for you to try a wider stance and see how that feels. You may be having to drive up too hard with your back to prevent yourself from folding. If you get a wider stance, you might be able to find a more comfortable position in the hole. If that doesn't help, it might be time to switch to front squats.

 

[Pantlegz]

Post a form check video of your squats and deadlifts. It's possible you are rounding your back or have some other form issue. Alternatively, perhaps you tweaked your back in some way playing football?

At first I thought it was something from football, but I took off Tuesday and Monday was a light day do I don't think it had anything to do with that, I could be wrong tho. I'll get a video up as soon as I get my new phone at the end of next week.

No, you don't need to drink more water. If your urine is clear, you're likely to be more than fine. However, you do need a form check. It might be beneficial for you to try a wider stance and see how that feels. You may be having to drive up too hard with your back to prevent yourself from folding. If you get a wider stance, you might be able to find a more comfortable position in the hole. If that doesn't help, it might be time to switch to front squats.

yea urine has been clear or mostly clear. If I go much wider it hurts my hip/thigh area.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
OH Press: 135x5x5
Dead Lift: 225x5 275x5 325x5
Chin ups: 5, 5, 4
Prone bridges 2x60 1x75 seconds
reverse crunches 4x8

I added in reverse crunches today because it really helps with my lower back after squats/DLs. I felt fine after doing the reverse crunches. 325 was killing my hands, but the lifting itself was cake... going to work in farmers walk and hyper extensions to work my lower back and glutes.

 

[Pantlegz]

an hour and a half of 7 on 7 doing 2 minute offense followed by suicides was hell. Line went both ways, we had a full O and D line just switched it up with each possession. Hell of a workout I haven't sweated that much it a while.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
Bench: 205x5x5
push ups: 3x20
lat pulldowns:150x3x10
reverse crunches: 3x12

Squats were a lot better today, no lower back tensing up or anything. Should have added weight. Had 2 hours of football practice tonight too. Over all a decent day.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
OH Press: 135x5x5
Dead Lift: 225x5 315x5
Chin ups: 5, 5, 5
Prone bridges 3x60 seconds

My arms hurt BAD. I'm not sure what happened but about 1/2 through this workout I also quit. They're still almost throbbing it hurts to move them, there's noticeable busing around both elbows on top of all the bruises along my forearm and bicep from football this past week. I'm going to ice them tonight and apply some biofreeze and see if they feel any better tomorrow. Aside from my arms the exercise was easy, squats were cake, should have DL'd more... OH press was kind of a pain with my arms hurting but I managed to make it through it.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 325x5x5
Bench: 205x5x5
push ups: 2x20 1x25
lat pulldowns:160x3x10
reverse crunches: 3x12

I don't know what I did to my arm, benching hurt bad on the outside of my forearm, kinda by my elbow. it only hurts when I lift, so I may take it easy of it doesn't go away in a week or 2. Over all today was good, squats didn't bother my back at all. I guess I must have done something to it in football. I dunno, sucks I keep getting hurt tho... this has gotta stop.

 

[Pantlegz]

Just got back from 3 hours of football

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 325x5x5
OH Press: 135x5x5
Dead Lift: 225x5 315x5
Chin ups: 5, 5, 5
Prone bridges 3x60 seconds

Workout went good, squats seemed easier today. I wasn't looking in the mirror like I normally do and it seemed to help. Hurt my arm, again, playing football afterwords tho. it's not too bad just caught someone with my arm rather than my shoulder.

 

[Pantlegz]

only did 1.5 hours of football today. My arm was hurting so bad I had to stop. If I can't make it through my workout tomorrow I'm going to see a dr. I don't think anything's broke just sore tendons and muscles from the way I got hit but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[Pantlegz]

decided at the advice of pretty much everyone I know not to go to the gym tonight. My arm feels a million times better, I think it was just my tendons hurting last night. I just want to give them a little longer to recover so I'll be going to the gym tomorrow and Sunday and skipping football on Saturday.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 335x5x5
Bench: 215x5x5
push ups: 2x20 1x13
lat pulldowns:160x3x10
reverse crunches: 3x12

everything went really good today, until the push ups. bench was pretty easy and squats weren't too much trouble. but I think my arm hurting has been a tore or pulled tendon because it was acting up again today. So I'm going to take a week or 2 off and let it heal then get back into it slowly.

 

[Pantlegz]

went for a 30 min jog last night since I'm not going to be able to lift for at least this week. My calves were on fire by the end of the run.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
OH Press: 125x5x5
Dead Lift: 225x5
Chin ups: 5, 5, 5
Prone bridges 3x60 seconds

Went in Friday afternoon and did this, just didn't get around to posting over the weekend. My arm felt ok but I'm still taking it easy, will be in the gym again tomorrow and see how it handles bench and push ups. hopefully it's ok so I can get back into the swing of things again.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
Bench: 215x5x5
push ups: 3x15
lat pulldowns:140x3x10
reverse crunches: 3x12

took it a little easy today on the arm with the push ups and lat pulldowns as they're what seemed to cause the most issues last week. Everything went fine, going to try football tomorrow and see how it goes. Hopefully everything's pretty much back to normal. I backed down the weight on the squats to focus more of form because I thought I was slacking some and I think I was as today my back doesn't hurt any and I feel like I got a much better workout in my legs. If the gym weren't dead I would have gotten a video for a form check I'll try again Thursday, or maybe just make my girlfriend come along to record my squats.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
OH Press: 125x5x5
Dead Lift: 225x5x2
Chin ups: 5, 5, 5
Prone bridges 3x60 seconds

My legs were shot today, the squats were hard for the first time in a while which is odd since I'm going lighter than I was and on Tuesday they were so freaking easy. I think I may not have been resting enough between sets just because it was so easy on Tuesday.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 315x5x5
Bench: 225x5x5
push ups: 3x25
lat pulldowns:160x3x10
reverse crunches: 3x12
Farmers walk: 130x3x35seconds

One goal for the year down I'm sure the squats will come along a little later. I guess I need to update my weight goal, for now it's getting up to 250 and I'm almost there. Then I'll be cutting down to ~220 and seeing what I want to do from there.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I'm a bit confused... Why are you at the same weight in squats today as you were nearly a month ago? And why the 5x5? A 3x5 would work just as well, allow you to maintain a heavier load, and would save you time in the gym.

 

[Pantlegz]

I was moving up(was at 335), but my lower back was hurting so I dropped back down to focus on my form a little more. I plan on adding weight again on Tuesday. I'm doing the 5x5 more for endurance for football and possibly as prep for some MMA if I decide to go that route. I may switch it up because I'm not so sure about football this summer I'm going to be missing about 1/2 the games due to other plans I've had so I'm not sure whats going to happen there and I haven't really made up my mind on the whole MMA thing. So there is a chance I may be changing my routine up a little here before too long.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 320x5x5
OH Press: -
Dead Lift: 315x5x2
Chin ups: 5, 5, 5
Prone bridges 3x60 seconds
Farmers walk: 3x35 seconds

Didn't get to OH press today because the gym was packed. It's never like that hopefully it was a fluke and it's not like that all summer, if it is I'll be pissed. bumped up the DL weight to see how it felt and it wasn't too bad, aside from having to put the weight down every other rep to re-grip the bar. I think the farmers walk is already helping tho seemed not as bad today but it could be because I haven't DL'd that much in a while and mu grip has improved from doing lighter DL's. the added weight obviously didn't feel any different, at that weight even adding 10-20 lbs doesn't effect it very much.

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats: 325x5x5
Bench: 225x5x5
push ups: 3x15
lat pulldowns:-
reverse crunches: 3x12

I feel like I'm falling apart, just had no motivation today. My right arm hurts but not really I don't know how to describe it. Squats felt good other than that today was shit. bench was hard, had to get a spot for the last set and needed just a slight bit of help to get the last rep up, compared to last time where it was easy. push ups were a chore and I didn't bother doing lat pull downs because the gym was once again packed and I didn't feel like sitting there waiting for the guy doing 1000 supersets of whatever... not happy with my performance today, hopefully Saturday will be better.

 

[Pantlegz]

Didn't want to derail the other thread so I'm posting this here...

With the exception of beginners to weight training, you really won't ever gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Normally I agree with you, but this is something that isn't true. For me anyway. I've gone from 220-245 and both lost fat and gained muscle. I'm wearing smaller pants, with more ab definition(not much but it's there dammit) at 245 than I had at 220. And honestly at 220 I wasn't all that fat. that said, I'll see how I feel about this over the next 6 months since once I hit 250 I'm going to be cutting down to 220 and hopfully keep most of my muscle mass. I'll be posting before/after pics. Before pics should be up soon as I'm about 5 lbs from my goal.

 

[brikis98]

Normally I agree with you, but this is something that isn't true. For me anyway. I've gone from 220-245 and both lost fat and gained muscle. I'm wearing smaller pants, with more ab definition(not much but it's there dammit) at 245 than I had at 220. And honestly at 220 I wasn't all that fat. that said, I'll see how I feel about this over the next 6 months since once I hit 250 I'm going to be cutting down to 220 and hopfully keep most of my muscle mass. I'll be posting before/after pics. Before pics should be up soon as I'm about 5 lbs from my goal.

IIRC, you started up weight training fairly recently after a long time off and are doing a beginner strength training routine. So if you are gaining muscle & losing fat (have you done a body fat % test?), you are just experiencing beginner gains, which is exactly the exception that I mentioned in my post. Unfortunately, these gains don't last for ever. It varies from person to person, but anywhere from 3-12 months after starting, it becomes nearly impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. I'm sure the occasional genetic freak can pull it off, but for the average person, it is impractical, and you'll have far more success alternating bulk & cut cycles.