Deadlift workout for today went good. As you know I was out last week because I had a strain in my back from increasing weight too fast on the squat and not holding my breath at the bottom of the squat in order to create a strong stable core. At least that is my own analysis. Fortunately, and for this I am very grateful, I have not only gone back to the gym, but I did both squats and deadlifts today and felt good. I am very conscious now about keeping my feet shoulder width apart on the squat, resting the bar right on top of the traps which means not on my neck, taking a deep breath before each squat and filling my stomach with air and tightening my core and visualizing that I am going to spring up once my hips go slightly lower than my knees.
I think continuing to study proper deadlift form is important because these are not exercises to play around with. The deadlift and the squat are both powerful exercises and with their transformative power does come danger, so respect the deadlift and respect the squat.
Deadlift workout as usual begins with squats.
Squat using 45lbs 5 reps, 65lbs 5 reps, 75lbs 5 reps, 85lbs 5 reps, 95lbs 5 reps and I did it once more at 95lbs for 5 reps.
Deadlift workout started with warm up of 135lbs for 5 reps and a working set of 150lbs for 5 reps.
I have gone down in weight a bit because I have read recently that bouncing the bar off of the floor in the deadlift is not considered a good practice or a good form. So where did I originally pick that up from? The gym, watching a guy deadlift over 300lbs. I guess it works for him but I am working on doing a deadlift and setting the bar down and then again doing a deadlift from a position where it really is dead weight on the floor.
After deadlift workout with squats, I did a walk/run of 2 miles for 30 minutes. Walk for a few minutes at 3 mph and then run for 1 or 2 minutes at 5 miles per hour.
Meal plan
Drink alot of water, shoot for 10 glasses
Spinach, chick peas, egg omelete
apple
Mushrooms, salad, tuna fish
apple
Broccoli, sweet potato and chicken or replace chicken with cottage cheese
Oh, and you ask why I have pictures of mountain climbers sometimes for my posts? Because they inspire me to keep going. Look, nothing would be easier than forgetting about all of this stuff, sitting down, having pancakes, watching tv, getting doritos and a coke, having mac and cheese, pizza and avoiding the little aches and pains and sometimes bigger pains that I have felt from lifting weights and running. However, I feel alot better about myself when pushing myself to focus on building rather than contributing to my own body's destruction. I have done enough of that, some unknowingly and some knowingly once I knew how bad processed foods are. Just yesterday I saw that Panera is doing us a favor and removing tens if not hundreds of artificial ingredients that we have been unknowingly putting into our bodies for years. The miracle is that our bodies somehow processed some of these chemicals and hopefully if we keep fueling our bodies with the best foods possible, our bodies will rebuild new and healthier cells.
We all have challenges in our lives and I have found that nothing has helped me more in my own hurdles than focusing on doing the best that I can to get into better physical shape, because that has helped me more than anything cope with the other situations in life that had brought me down so far.
When I see the mountain climbers, I think of how they cross the bridge from where they are when they begin their ascent, to where they want to be, which is at the top of the mountain. Everything we speak about here is how to cross the bridge from where you are now to where you want to be, and I see the mountain climber taking one step at a time, gradually ascending what appears to be an absolutely impossible mountain face, what can be more inspiring than that, they are climbing sometimes completely vertical, one grip at a time. We can do the same.
Have a great day!
Rich is a certified personal trainer-AAPT and the author of