274.0

I am down from last week, but i am not happy about it. I was at 272.6 yesterday and even though i did not go over on my points, i gained weight. Damit. I need to get to 269.8, i just want to be in the 260 for change. This 270+ weigh in's are getting old. I has 10 weigh in's in the 280's (9 in a row and one after i was in the 270's) and now this is my 7th weigh in that is in the 270's. It has really put me in a bad mood.
And not i have memorial day weekend so i will be eating ALOT on Sunday. So come Monday i need to get back to running, but more then 1 time per week. I will still run on Wednesdays but do them as man makers and start keeping time on them so i can see my progress. I will also get back to doing cardio / snatches atleast 3 times per week, some how, some way but 3 times min. Then i will also keep trying for the Saturday stair runs at the High School, but of course the next 2 saturdays are out already (fishing trip & then Rich's wedding).
I have rested for the last 2 weeks on my presses & pull ups and bending. So now i am ready to give it my BEST shot at the Grand Shiny today. I will have Paige video me when she gets home from school. Then i can move on to training for the Steel Slayer Showdown (SSS). If i can not get this bend after all this rest, i need to take a step back and bend other 5 1/2" stock first. And i also wanted to kill a 6" Edgin. I think that will be easier for me anyway, and it is rated higher on the Nailmans Top 20 list.
I got my 45 lb Bolb today. And it was the numbered side. That was a nice suprise. So i will know next Thursday if i can lift it. I'm thinking i will break it off the ground and thats it. But if i start there i will be happy. My 42.5 lb is easy because it really old and has a rougher finish (it almost brown instead of black).
Last night i did the 37.5 again with my left. I actually got it a couple of times to a full dead lift. Then i got the 40 # about 1" off the ground. That is the first time i broke it off the ground with my left.
In the pinch block, i only got 57# with my left (PR 60#) but it felt tough all night with both hands so i think it was ust an off night. That may also be because i did not do any presses to fire up the muscles. I think next week i will start the contrast baths as a warm up before workouts and see it that helps. Not all workouts, ust grip workouts.
Earlier in the week i got the 2HP up to 145. So that is gradually getting better. And the hub lifting is getting there also. I really need to micro load that 25# hub so we can work toward the 35 lb'r. We did try adding two 21/2" plates and Bruce did it with his right & left, but i had no chance because i did a gripper workout just prior to this workout so my grip was already fried.
Grippers. I got the #2 down to 4 mils with my left and the #2.5 to 4 mils with my right. I still have another week left on the KTA program and then i will rest for a week and i think that will be my best shot at closing them. I am so confident that i will get those attempts on video. Considering the most rest i have had from grippers in the last 2 months is 1 day, a full week should do the trick. I have definately gotten stronger doing the program, ust not as strong as i thought, but like i said it is not over yet. Some progress is better then nothing.
I just can not wait to get done with these grippers so i can get back to Dead lifting, ripping cards etc. Next time i will make sure i do not start in unless i have 2 months i can sacrafise my other training for. (like maybe never) I'm not saying i am going to give up on grippers, i ust want to see if i can still make gains doing them 2 times per week, thats all. If not, that should atleast maintain the strength i have gained and then i will try it again some time in the future.

274.6

Finally, i broke the 275 mark, Yes!!! Next is to get into the 260's. One step at a time, atleast it is still coming off. averaging 1.3 lbs per week.
Tuesday i did class at the gym. We finished up with 144 snatches with the 24 Kg. Hy hands felt great but my shoulders were kind of sore.
Wednesday night i did Man Makers at the track with he 16 kg. I finished all 5 sets & laps. So now i can start timing myself and get faster & faster. they are a good way to really burn fat. Now i just need to mix some 15:15 in the morning and i will be set to really start taking this weight off. But i can not start that until after i finish the KTA gripper program. And that has 2 more weeks to go. Then it is all snatches, deadlift and bending. Grippers will take a back burner for a while. I'm thinking just 1-2 times per week for grippers, that will halp me maintain my gains until i have 3 months again to really hit it hard.
My shoulders are really sore, i did not do presses past night either beause of it. They were sore on Wednesday so i really concentrated on driving my hips with ever rep during the man makers. But it has not gotten better, so i will take a coule of days off from lifting. Plus it could help me rest up for my Grand Shiny bend i want to do next friday. It's just hard not to bend this weekend but i have to hold off. I have had my best bends with long rest between.
So i need to do alot of running this week i guess, not a bad thing, i can only help.

281.2

Okay, i gained again over the weekend but what's new about that. I will take it off again and then some. I need to break 275 this week, some how. But i need to figure out my lunches again. I have been slacking lately. Time to start making an extra meal just to pack up for lunches.
Grippers are still moving along, just 3 more weeks of this and i will see if it worked, more like hom much it worked. Because i know it is working but i still can not close the #2.5 Anyway, i am now using the #3.5 for the Negative crushes with my right. Now that is a challange. And i started using the #2 for the overcrushes with my right. I am so fried with my grip i can not quite close the #2 right now but it is within 1 mm so i use it anyway and just help it closed with my left.

276.0

It is okay but not a great weigh in. Yesterday i was 275.2! So i tried to experiment with having the wings at lunch again. I guess it did not work this time. But the other thing is that i did no cardio last night either. There is always another damn variable that messes me up. Bottom line is i need to just pay attention to what i eat all the time, and thats that. Hey, it is coming off, slowley but it is coming off and that is all that counts.
Last night was the hardest night for the whole 10 week gripper workout. bar none. Bot because i did pinch work before the workout. Just the amount or reps total i needed. Plus i just got my #3.5 so the negative crushes really sucked. I had my palms all taped & chalked and after every rep it hurt to stop more then it hurt during the rep itself. And i kept on questioning why i ever wanted to do grippers in the first place. I still did not get any closer to closing the #2.5 but lets see after i have some time to rest up. I'm thinking 2 weeks after the program is done will be my best shot.
Bruce and i set up a board with our workouts on it so we can follow our progression with the KB's & grip training. It lists our PR's and our current workouts. It will be very helpfull for the future. We decided to split up the grip and do it during the rest for our presses (with the pull ups) So Monday's are 2 HP & hub lifts and Thursdays are pinch block & blobs. Then when we get the rolling thunder & 2" V-bar we can mix them in if we can or just add them to Saturdays workout. We will see how it goes
We also did some ripping last night, another thing that fried my grip before my gripper workout. I did 1 deck of cards, 2 small 1/2" books and the tool catalogue (with colored glossy pages).

276.4

WTF? That is 2 days in a row that i ate 20 wings at Whistlers (near my office in NJ) and 2 days i lost ALOT of weight. Lets see how i do for the rest of the week but i would be happy if this weigh in was on Friday. Maybe not because it is only .6 lbs below my lowest, but to get this far already this week is a big suprise. If nothing else, i know what i am eating when i go out to eat when i am at the office. It tastes great (i got the wings extra crispy this time) and i is just the right amount for lunch. Not too much, just right.
The question is why is this working? i would love to try it for a 3rd day in a row but i am working from home today. I still think it is because i am motmixing any carbs with all that protien! I am doing the protien shake in the morning and all that protien for lunch abd only a couple of carbs at night.
I did class last night at the gym. It was a great workout. We did some overhead holds (with a 24 kg) and also some farmers walks with the 32kg. the farmers walks were for 3 sets of 1 min with a plank inbetween. Killer. I barely made the last set. I mean barely.
We finished up with a bunch of snatches, my favorite. We just did 5/5 every min for 4 min then rested for a min (actually 1:30 rest) and repeated 4 times. So the last 2 sets i did the last set straight through so i did an extra 10 reps per last 2 sets. The best i did was 5/5 3 straight times with no rest. So i am getting there again. The best part is the fact that i did not wear any gloves and my hands felt great. I mean i did not have any pain at all. It is the new style i figured out (not letting it hit my fingers, just the tips by closing my fingers more). It went so well i am thinking i may try messing around with the 32 kg soon. If it works for that, i am going after the SSST in both the 24 & 32 by the end of this year.
Grippers went okay. I am feeling stronger but i still think i need alot of rest before i actually close that #2.5. I got to 8 mils today. Nothing great, but i am getting there mentally. I bet i could close it if i rested for a week before i tried again. I will know more when i am done with this program in a couple of weeks. I am still not close to the #2 with my left. It's sad because i am about 16 mils away. My strap holds are even sad with my left. I do them for 7 sec but a can barely make it with 10 lbs for my left but my right starts at 12.5 lbs and finishes at 15 lbs. IDK
I did learn a new exercise from Brian for my thumb strength. It is doing presses but hanging the bell off of my thumb. It is tough. I started with 3/3 at 20 kg's. I think as i can max out this weight my thumbs will really explode with strength, which will really helb the grippers and pinching work. Nice.

280.6

I ate really bad yesterday but i still lost weight because the 20 wings i did for lunch was not mixed with any carbs. I really think that is the trick. Every time i do that for lunch, i still loose weight!!! I will have to keep an eye on this, i think i found the trick to my body, or atleast one of them.
The workout last night was alot of fun. After the presses (easy day - 5 sets of 1 w/ 32) I also did 5 sets of 1 with the 1-3/4" rubber band. It seems like it took me forever to get to this but i am here. I made all 5 sets but it was not easy. I think it was more of a mental thing, i'll get there
We also did a bunch of pinch work. I did not have to worry about grippers so we had at it with pinching. I got a bar and set up the 2 hand pinch devise. It was real cool to finally do it. I maxed out at 115 plus the bar. there was no collars so the br was only about 5 lbs. i will weigh it once i get the collars all set up.
I also did the blobs toward the end and i did the 42.5 again with my right but even better is i did the 37.5 with my left hand. We also did 2x4 pinch blocks. I think we maxed out around 65 lbs. I did it only with my right but Bruce did it with both hands. My left was not even close. We really need to get a board so we can start keeping track of this stuff. It would be alot easier.

???

I went out for sushi last night, and followed up at the American Bar & Grill with appetizers, Martini and Bannana Fosters for desert. So it was a great eating night for me. We actually had a Kettlebell Group outing so that it made it that much better. There is something about being part of that "team". They are all great and i think now that there is such a great group that is always there week after week, i can use them as kinda like a support group. We are all working out to get in shape or be in shape after they lost a bunch of weight (Dianna). So considering we all have dieting & exercise in common, i feel like i would be letting them down if i started putting weight back on.
Anyway i went to the HS this morning and we did the hard day for presses. I did 1 rung of 4 and 4 rungs of 3 all with the 32 kg. We do 1/1, 2/2 rest about a min then 3/3 etc. Then we rested 5 mins between sets. So during the rest we sprinted the stairs for 3 sets. That was a killer but by the tme my heart rate came back down it was time to press again. After the last set we jogged a lap at about 10/mile pace.Now that was really a killer. I would like to be able to job after the sprints between every set but it will take some time to get there.
After that i took my daughter to the gym for another kettlebell workout with Brian. That was a killer too. So i can only hope i burned off what i ate last night.

278.2

OK, i am up from last week, but only by 1.4 lbs. Considering i ate real bad all week, that is great. I had a box of pizza for lunch on Wednesday and a box of Pastina on Thursday. So it is a good confidence boost for me. I will do really good next week and i will be down around 275.
Grippers are still moving along. I did all single workouts this week and they were a killer. The strap holds on my left kept dropping in weight during the workout. the first set was 10 lbs, then 7.5 lbs and finally 5 lbs and each set barely made it. actually the first set last night missed by 2 sec. But my right hand stayed steady at 12.5 lbs straight through.
I still do not know how far i am really progressing with the grippers. I will know more in a couple of weeks.
I ordered the COC 3.5 & 4. So i can start using the 3.5 in my workouts for the NC. that is what i am supposed to use anyway considering i am going for the 2.5 close. They will be here soon.
We did the medium press day and it was actually pretty easy. Because last week was only a partial week we are still sticking with the 5 sets of 2 for the medium day.
For my pullups i did 5 sets of 5 with the wide band and they were real easy. So easy that i put on the next size down band and got a single rep at the end of the workout. YES. So now next week i will start with my 5 sets of 1 and see how it goes from here.
I had a great night with the blobs also. i just started last week adding them inbetween the sets of presses. I maxed out with my right hand by doing the 42.5 to a full Dead Lift for the last 3 reps. My left only did the 35 lbs each rep, i never could get the 37.5 all the way up. It broke the surface but that was it, maybe 1/8". But considering last week the best with my right was getting the 42.5 about 1/2" off the gound, to do 3 full reps (1 per set) this week was incredible. I think that shows doing it once a week is good for me. Even with the gripper workouts.