???

I still have not weighed in this week. I can not be good but it has been so hectic, and will be so hectic all week the weight thing is taking a week off. So next week i will have to loose what i gain this week. Same old, same old. But i am not giving up damit!!
My grip sucks right now. I had to do the gripper workouts in one workout per day for Sat, Sun & monday and now i will do that today also. It makes the workout so much harder, and i can tell by how the strap holds go down in weight after the first set. Not good.
I tried some bending last night. Bad idea. I did a 5.5" x 5/16" stainless rod. I got it to 90 degrees in 20 sec but it never moved again. I even tried using my legs to brace bend it and it would not go anywhere. I would like to blame it on the fact that my whole body id still sore from the full contact basketball game on Saturday or the face that i slet for 6 hours the 2 nights prior to the bend or that i was up at 2 AM yesterday morning, but i still got the kink with no problem. I measured it and it is exactly 1/4" off center. But i think there is a sticking point at 90 degrees that is my problem area with DO bending. It is the 3 time something got stuck there at that same exact spot. Once with a 5" grade 5 bolt and once with a 6" bastard now this, hmmm
I gave up on my kettlebell workout last night. the press (1 L & L with the 32 kg) was way too hard, then i only got 3 pull ups with the rubber band. So i was obviously not having a good night.
Now in hind sight i should have just waited until Friday again. That seems to be my strongest nights for bending.

???

No weigh in because it is Saturday and i really pigged out last night. I will eat all weekend and get back on track on Monday.
Very strong the last couple of days. Thursday was the great blob workout that i already wrote about. Yesterday, my day off from grippers, was a great bending day. I know i shuld not have done it but i will be away today so i had to.
Only one bend but it was a good one. I killed the Huge Shiny Bastard! It is 6" x 5/16" Round Stainless Steel. Kinked it realy easy, sweep was good, crush was okay. On my last crush it just stopped and was going no further. Luckily it was under the 2" mark. Only by a 1/16" but it was under. The good part it that it only took just over a minute (maybe 1:15) so if i had to i could have kept on hitting it. It just felt like i wasout of power though. but considering i have 5 min to do it i could have rested and kept going.
I posted it on Grip board and i am getting a pretty good feed back. They all think i should go kill the Grand (5.5") next . Everyone seems to think i can kill it pretty easy but we will see. I was only the 9th person to ever finish the Huge Shiny. So that alone is a great feeling. It also puts me on the top 20 list for 6" steel, YES. I just need to figure out how that works next.

276.8

I finally got below 277, but i did not loose that much since yesterday! I was kind of pissed off but a little progress is still progress.
Grippers last night went okay. I added the magnet to the strap hold and still barely made it. My left hand is still so far behind my right hand. I can not even some close to closing the #2 with my left. It is over 10 mils easy. And on my right i got around 2 mils last night as my second warm up. I still think that is not bad considering it was the end of the week for the grippers so i was at my weakest PM workout. Considering at my best before this program i could close it 2-3 times but only with about 3-4 days rest.
We did our hard workout for presses last night and it went along pretty easy. (no sat workout this week so i skipped the medium day) and inbetween the presses i bumped my pull ups to sets of 5 with the think rubber band. i felt really strong again on pull ups. I think i can move down to the next size band real soon. If it goes good again next Monday, i may try it next Thursday. Just because how easy the first couple of reps feel, i'm ready.
We tried something new before the pullups this week. Bolb lifts. Yup and they actually kept on increasing during the work out. I started by juggling the 25. That was not bad until the chalk rubbed off, then there was no chance to grab it. Next round i did a full dead lift with the 37.5 with my right. My left actually broke it off the ground, barely!!! The next round i was feeling good so i did the 40 to a full deadlift with my right for the first time. Yes!!! So for the last round i tried the 42.5 and i actually got it to about an inch off the ground. OMG i can not believe how far i am progressing with these blobs. It must be from the Dynamic Thumb exercises during the gripper workouts. It's the only thing that makes sense.

277.4

Another 2 lb loss day, Yes!!! Now i just hope i can have another day like yesterday and i am good for the weigh in tomorrow. It is alot easier to be good with my eating on Thursdays knowing i have a chance to loose weight for the week. Ever since i started the protien shakes again, i have been loosing pretty steadily (so far) I was stuck in the mid 280's for ever, it was about 10 weeks i was in the 280 to 289 range. That was getting very tough to stay motivated but i got through it and now i am making progress again. I just want to get down to 269 soon, I think mentally to be in hte 260's is a big deal for me moving forward.
My grip training will make it through the week but next week will be a killer. The workouts have progressively increased in reps this week and then next week they will continue some more. I barely made the strap hold with my left (at 10 lbs) last night and missed it by 1 sec this morning. My right made it (@ 12.5 lbs) but not by much. So tonight i will add the magnet and next week start adding very small amounts of weight. I still could not close the #2 in the warm up again. It was a good 4-6 mils away even on the 2nd rep with my right. I think it is these Negative Crushes this week, they are a killer.

279.4

I still think i will make weight this week, not by much but i will make it. Yesterday was kind of tough for me, alot of stress at work so i snacked all day. Good thing is i only went over on points by 4 points so it was not all that bad. I just felt really fat at night. So i was very happy this morning when i realized i still lost weight and am still on track for the week. I can suck it up and make it today & tomorrow.
My grip seems to be recovering a little bit. I used tape on my palms last night & this morning and that really helped. I pushed my strap hold up this morning to where it was on Sat 10 & 12.5 lbs. I barely got the 10 and not much better on the 12.5. Now i need to start micro loading, somehow? I will start with the super magnit i have and then that can hold a plastic bad with coins in it i guess?
I did nothing with grip yesterday except for the gripper workouts, and i will do the same thing today. I think that will give me the best chance to make gains on the grippers.
My warmups have 2 reps with the #100, 200 & #2. It seems the 2nd rep with the #2 is my strongest rep. I take a brake between the reps on the #2 only. and night time is still the best results. Last night i almost closed the #2 (maybe 1 mil) on the second rep compared to this morning i did not come that close (maybe 4 mil). But with how fried my grip has been lately, i am not concerned at all. The next 2 weeks only get tougher, so after that i will see how much i really gained, if any!

281.0

Well, i am down in weight from Friday. I did a little better this weekend with my eating. Plus on Saturday i ran the steps at the Highschool. And last night i had 2 seperate kettlebell workouts. I think i will definately be down below the 277 mark by this Friday.
This new week with the grippers is really tough. There is now a spot on my right palm that is realy sore so i will have to start taping that spot starting tonight. Lastnight was the toughest workout i have had for the grippers to date. It did not help that i did 2 kettlebell workouts prior to the grippers. i could feel my hands being really sore before i even started. I made it throught the workout out but it was tough. And this morning was tough also, but not as bad as last night.
Saturday night i tried to rip a deck of cards but i failed. They seemed really slippery but i could barely get them started and it was a used deck, the same as the first deck i ever ripped. Now i did help a friend take off his pool cover earlier that day wich was tough on my grip, but come on!
Sunday i helped another friend take a eliptical out from his basement. And that killed my grip also, we used straps and it was really heavy. I just can not get away from using my hands and affecting my gripper workouts.
I did some bending Sunday night. I killed the 1/4" x 7" Stainless Square. It actually snapped in half. Then i did the 6.5" x 5/16" stainless round (Big Shiny). There was a problem with that video so i did it a second time after dinner also. So my non gripper workouts really tired me out this weekend. I need to do better in the future. I will not do anything today & tomorrow except for the grippers and see if that helps.

280.8

Okay, i knew my weight would be up this week. After i binged last Fri, Sat & Sun (Easter). I also ate real bad the rest of the week. The problem i had is Mon & Tues i got up at 4 am and the next day i got up at 3 am. So my schedule is really messed up. So considering that i still lost a couple of lbs since monday, i am not mad.
Grippers did really good this week. It was a back off week so the workouts were not bad. But last night i got the COC # 2.5 to 8 mils. I found that if i do the warm up as 1 rep each #100, #200 and the #2. Then i am just right to hit that #2.5. And actually i had the best result with the 2nd rep on the #2. I feel really good about getting the 2.5 closed by the end of this. Only 6 more weeks to go.Then i can take a break, maybe!!! Let me close the 2.5 first and then i will go from there.
Did the presses again last night. We are not ofically doing the 3 days a week so last night was the medium day. So we did 5 sets of 2 rung ladders (1/1, 2/2)with 5 min rest between sets. I am using the 32 kg. I want to get up to 5 sets of 5 rungs by the end of the summer. My best so far is 1 set of 4 rungs and 4 sets of 3 rungs.
My left pinky finger is still sort of tingly. It is not as bad as it was but it is not completely gone either. I did some "super joint" movements a couple of times this week but i think i need to do them every day to see if they would really help.
My pull ups last night are doing better also. AI did 5 sets of 4 with the big rubberband. I think i could have hit 5 sets of 5 but i do not want to push it yet. If i still feel strong next week i will go up to 5 sets of 5 the next week, or maybe even 5 sets of 1 with the smaller band? Now that may be worth an attempt!
So my goal weight next week is 276. That will be about 1 lb lower than last week. I can do it!!!

282.2

Only lost 1 lb but it was not a great eating. Plus i weighed in at 5am so i usually weigh when i weigh myself before 7am. I passed on lunch yesterday and had some leftover movie popcorn. As soon as i saw it i just had to have it. And like usual after i ate it i was pissed off for not having any self control. So i did not eat lunch to help make up for it. Then because of the holiday weekend we did not have a dinner plan because we were not around to go food shopping, so i grabbed 3 slices of pizza on my way back from the gym.
I did the TSC workout at the gym and then did another workout with Bruce at 8pm. The TSC wass a good workout. Brian has a new schedule for the deadlifting. And the snatches we just did 5&5 every 1:00 for 7 min. Pretty basic, but it is giving me the urge to start doing more snatches again. With Bruce we switched to the 3 times per week rotation for the presses so we did the easy day last night. I still used the 32kg. I felt a little pain in my right wrist on the lockout, but it was where the bell was pressing against the wrist so it could have just been tender after i did my wrist movements. Then we did the swing walk. My grip started to feel a little sore after 5 min so i stopped. My lower back was fine which is a good sign, i just need to save the grip for the gripper training.
No grippers because it was another day off according to the program. But i did some bending. I did the Shiny Bastard. (5/16" x 7" Stainless Steel) it went pretty good. It took 2 hits on the kink but after i kinked it it was done. The kink is still my weak point and i need to work on it. I noticed that this morning that my left shoulder is sore so i need to remember to start doing the shoulder exercises more often. Atleast after EVERY bending secession. And i do have a sre spot on my right palm. I think that was just from the bending, it will go away.

283.2

Yeah, it's Monday and i gained weight. But atually not as much as i thought i would gain. I only need to loose 6.2 to break even. I really think i will go lower this week. I drank & ate Thursday, Friday, Sat & Sun. So 4 bad days in a row and only up 6.2, thats not bad. I did not do the protien on Fri, Sat or Sun either. But i am back on track today
This is the 4th week on the grippers and it is doing okay. I closed the #2 on Sat & Sunday in the first part of the workout. Today is a day off and tomorrow i may try the 2.5, why not. I would love to close that by the end of this secession anyway. I may as well consider that to be my goal gripper for now.
I plan on doing some bending tonight. I want to get that shiny real bad. Then i will feel like i am am still moving forward.
Bells tonight at the gym, TSC challange class and a second workout at 8 when Bruce comes over. I still need to run too bt i do not think that will work until maybe tomorrow. Maybe i'll do manmakers tomorrow, yeah, thats a good idea, to see if i can finish the 16 kg workout this time.

277.0

That was my official weigh in, and i still lost .2 lbs from last week and i still had a day to go. We have friends staying over tonight so between dinner & drinks there is no way i could weigh in tomorrow. And with Easter on Sunday, next week will be really hard to go lower, but i will do my best.
I ran 2 miles last night at the track. I did not time myself but it felt like a constant 10 min mile the whole time. And on the last lap i picked up the pace at the half way point and went all out for the final 100 meters. This extra was also because i lost count while running so there is a chance i only ran 7 laps instead of 8!
Grippers are still moving along okay. The tape is still helping and i can close the #3 easier against my leg. So i feel alot stronger. I will know on Saturday if it working so far because the beginnisg of the workout is doing 2 reps of the #3 as the workout. And i will not get upset if i can not do it on Sat AM but the PM workout better close easily.
I had Jen come over yesterday to do some "Body Work". She basically worked on my arms, shoulder & neck trying to loosen me up and get rid of the numbness in my left fingers. I still have a tingly feeling today but it does not feel as bad. It is hard to judge, i need to give it a couple of days to really tell.

279.6

The weight is still coming off!! i did good on my points yesterday and todays weigh in was actually at 5AM so it is probably about 1 lb high but thats okay because it is still 2 lbs lower then yesterday. Fridays weigh ins are the only ones that count and they are at 7 AM which is usually my lightest weight (from past experiences)
I did not run last night or do any Kettlebells so this weight loss this week is all the protien shakes. And also maybe the fact that my body finally released from that 285 platform. I can only hope i can consistently loose weight now until i break 250. Thats when the real challange starts!!!
Grippers are still moving along okay. My palms are starting to really hurt during the static crushdown holds. I am going to try using tape on that upper part of my plam today and see how that helps. I am looking forward to the backdown week next week. I'd like to see how i do with closing that #2 and maybe see how close i can get on the #2.5

281.6

The weight is still coming off. I have not been running since last Thursday but i am still doing the protien shake every morning. Maybe it is the protein, I don't know. Either way i am making progress. And yesterday i ate 30 large wings for lunch, and still lost weight for the day. I think thats because i did not mix it with any carbs, Because i have done that before and still lost weight even though that was supposed to be over 2 days worth of points on Weight Watchers, Hmmmm
Grip still going strong. I seem to be closing the #3 on my leg easier for the negatives. I guess it is almost time to buy the #3.5 and maybe the #4. I have to see how the credit card bill looks first. I could still hold off another month if i had to but i really would like that #3.5
I missed calss for the TSC last night. It is 6-7 and i am not used to that time slot. I did speak to Brian and he has a Deadlift program broken out. He said he will better explain it to me next week. So after he does i can put it my computor and start doing that instead of my PTP program. Maybe this will work just as good, we will see.
Still no delivery of my steel order from FBBC. It has been since the 15th of last month, WOW. I just want it so i can bend the shiney & the golden bastard this weekend. I am tired of trying that hexabastard, even thought that is supposed to be easier than the shiney, we will see.

283.4

My weight is up after the weekend, but it always is. I'm not too worried about it. As long as i can get back close to Friday's weight by Wed/Thurs. I don't need to loose much this week, just something so approx 6 lbs is not bad at all. I had a bad eating day on Sunday too because of the Wedding shower we went to, and i was too tired to run last night. I did not run Friday or Saturday either so i need to get moving!!
Saturday night i had a better gripper workout. I tried the #2 again before that workout and i closed it. Finally!!! so that tells me that my hands are stronger after lunchtime than when i first wake up. Maybe it is the blood flowing better or they are just warmed up better throughout the day? I don't know but i need to see if this is a trend. I'll know more after next Saturdays workout.
My hands are sore again today. I never thought that just by adding that 1 extra rep per workout would really make that big of a difference but it does. Even though they are sore, they feel stronger. It is hard to explain but they do.
I have the TSC workout tonight at the gym, then Bruce coming over after that so a double workout tonight, nice. Let's see how my grip holds up this time!!!

No weekend weigh in

Bad morning in every way. I tried the COC #2 and i could not close it, not even anycloser than last week. It is making me still wonder if this will ever work for me. I need more rest. When i did my own workout i was only doing it 2 times per week and thats it. Now i am at 6 per week (actually 12 because i am doing 2 smaller workouts each day) And back then i could only close the #250 (same as the COC #2) if i had enough rest. I am not going to give up yet, i will follow this all the way through the 12 weeks and then make a decesion. It is not fair to judge too early. Week 4 is a back down week so the start of week 5, i better be able to close that damn gripper.
So i moved on to bending a couple of hours later. I know Bill said to stay away from bending during his KTA because of the workload but i figure 1 time per week should not be that bad. Maybe i was wrong!! I could not move the hexabastard (5/16" x 7") at all. I hit it atleast 7 times and even tried holding it longer and nothing. It just pissed me off even more. This was about 3 hours after the gripper workout so i thought i was rested. But thinking back to Thursday night, i had a hard time with the easy cards that i was able to rip into 4's before i started the KTA, now i barely ripped them in half. So i am done with cards until after the KTA. And i will not bother trying the edgin (5/16" x 7" grade 5 bolt) yet either.

277.2

Finally i got below 280 for an actual weigh in. I think it is partially because i started jogging and also that i started the protien shakes. The problem in i started them at the same time so i can not narrow it down but either way it is working so i will keep up with both of them.
I did the Art Museum last night, it was alot of fun. My cardio was okay the kettlebell part was too easy but the stairs killed me. I ran until i could barely make the next step. It took all my strength to take each step. And once i started to realize each step was a slightly different height, it was all down hill from there. I had a couple of close calls and almost did a face dive but i made it for 2 full sets. 1 set was 5 swings, 5 presses run the stairs to the front door, 10 swings, 5 presses, run to the door, 20 swings and run the steps suicide style. So 2 sets was good for me. But now i want to start going to the museum every so often to get used to them.
I met Dave Whitley SRKC. We had a chance to rip some cards and talk about bending. Then he also ripped a phily phone book in front of the Rocky statue. Phil Scarito RKC brought Dave a box of new bicycle cards and i had a couple of decks also. He tried one of my easy sets and they were close to the same difficulty level as the bicycles. he did bikes in the pack and then behing the back. He is just incerdible. I tried the bikes and got them ripped. Not as good as i wanted but i think my grip is still fried a bit from the KTA, because i tried the easy deck that Dave said was the same and that deck was kind of hard too, and i usually ripped them into 4ths!
Now i just want to do my attempt on the #2 tomorrow morning and see if i am really making progress with the gripper workout
I still did not get my order of steel from FBBC so this weekend i will attempt to bend the 7" x 5/16" hex, 7" x 5/16" grade 5 bolt and maybe even the 6" x 5/16" bastard, but only if i can get the other 2 bends first. And even if i do attempt the bastard it will have to be on Sunday so i can rest up.

279.6

Finally under 280 lbs. Wow, it has taken a long time, almost 2 months to loose 10 lbs. Now i just have to hope i can be good tonight and have a good actual weigh in tomorrow morning
Grippers is still doing okay. I do not feel much stronger but i guess it will show up on Saturday when i take the test as part of the warm up. I have been doing exactly what it says to the letter so it better work. Actually i think my right thumb is getting stronger, IDK.
My nephew Kyle showed me how too rip an apple in half on Tuesday. I still need to buy a couple of apples and try it but i think i can do it. He showed me basicaly how to shear it, but when i mentioned to him about twisting it at the same time it seemed to work out pretty good but the apple was kind of soft. He tried it again at home on a fresher apple and he said the combination of the 2 ways works out the best.
I tried the wrist curl on a straight bar the other day, and i barely got 135. And the benchmark starts at 200 so i have a way to go. Now i just pick it up and let it hang so it stretched out my wrist. My right wrist still will not go back that far and is really painfull, that is why i think if i stretch it out exery day it will help.
My left pinky is still partially numb and as of last night it also moved too my ring finger, just the side near the pinky but if it is moving, it is getting worse. I need to go see a doctor soon, besides it is affecting my grippers because i do not think i get that much strength out of it at all now. Damn injuries
Talking about injuries, my left shoulder has not felt this good in a long time. I have no idea why but i am not going to complain. I need to be healthy for tonights Art Museum Puke Fest anyway.

280.2

Weight is slowly coming down, but atleast it is moving. I had a bad night last night so i ran a mile when i got home to try and burn it off. (A mile is alot for someone my size). I did good all day yesterday but we went to a birthday party at night for dinner and i had 3 pcs of pizza and a half of cheese steak (plus 2 small pcs of candy). But after i weighed in this morning i really think i will finally go below 280 this week. (as long as i am good after the Art Museum workout, if they go for drinks i can't just go home!)
Grippers were fine last night and i had no problems this morning. Jimmy closed his HG250 yesterday so i really wanted to try mine (same as the COC#3) but i want to stick to the workout and try it as part of my warm up on Saturday.
Looks like i am going to the Phily Art Museum on Thursday. It will be a killer workout running up & down those stairs as an active rest to doing some kind of killer kettlebell workout. But it is worth it to get a chance to workout with Dave Whitley SRKC. Besides, after the workout i can talk to dave about bending & ripping cards too. I'll have to remember to bring some stuff with me.