Starting from scratch...

[Ian Duggan]

No, you're not reading those numbers wrong, I really am lifting that little. After a year of cycling where I broke both my ankles and one of my knee caps, I decided I should concentrate my energies elsewhere, so basically for the first time in my life I'm doing some regular lifting. Any advice or comments are welcome, regardless of how insulting...

Doing three days a week uper body, two a week lower.

Today was an upper. Felt pretty good after it, got a nice little sweat going. Shaking slightly now though and I feel like I could eat for Scotland. To the kitchen!

Shoulder Press 5x5 @ 90lbs

Bench press 5x5 @ 110lbs

Bicep curls 5x5 @ 55lbs

Chin-ups 2x10 @ 172lbs body weight

Bent over rows 5x5 @ 100lbs

I'm literally starting from scratch here, so any comments or advice will be taken on board. I've been at this since just after new year. I tried doing lower weight and higher reps for a few weeks, but I didn't enjoy it as much so I went back to lower reps.

[Nicolette L.]

Ian- Update us! Any new numbers?

[Ian Duggan]

Damn, I was hoping nobody would notice that I hadn't updated this since the first post. In fact even I had had forgotten about it. That'll teach me to waffle about cycling on your thread...

:M:

I had a day off today, slight pull in my right shoulder that I wanted to give a bit of rest. I'll post tomorrow's workout once I'm done.

But after nearly two months I'm up to -

OHP 5x5 @ 100lbs

Bench press 5x5 @ 120lbs

Hammer curls 5x5 @ 60lbs

Chin-ups 2x10 @ 180lbs body weight

Bent over rows 5x5 @ 100lbs

Deadlift 5x3 @ 140lbs

Pretty sure I'm going to have to start working out in public (gulp). Either that or buy more weights, I'm using everything I've got for the deadlift. I'd like to see if I could deadlift my bodyweight, I'd be pretty happy with that at the moment I reckon. My aim by the end of the year (at the latest) is to be lifting my bodyweight overhead. I don't know why, it's just something I'm aiming for.

[Nicolette L.]

WOW! Some great improvments. Thanks for the update. I will have to keep a closer eye on your journal now.

[Ian Duggan]

So after saying I would like to try and dead-lift my body weight, I thought "screw it" and popped out and bought some more weights. Once home again, I popped them on my old bar and had a wee play about and straight away I knew something was up. Every lift felt harder than it had before. When I did a heavy-ish (for me) military press I could even come close to locking my arms.

Of course, being a panic merchant, my first thought was that I'd done my shoulder a serious damage. Luckily, a buddie who was with me tried lifting them as well and said they were definitely heavier than my old ones. I whipped out my bathroom scales and lo and behold, my old weights were nowhere near the numbers they had printed on them. In fact they weren't even consistent, one 10kg was closer to 8kg and another was just under 9kg. I double checked my new ones and they were spot on. So, in short, my previous numbers (brief as they were) are all off. Here's my latest workout, which should hopefully be correct.

That's what I get for not joining a proper gym I guess...

Bench press - 105lbs x 4 and 116lbs x 2

Wasn't very happy with my form, couldn't really get comfy.

Military press - 70lbs x 5 x 5

Shoulder still a bit achy, but it was only sore between sets. I decided to skip a few things just to give it a bit more rest.

Hammer curls - 50lbs x 5 x 5

Quite happy all in all, except I've been robbed of numbers. Robbed I tells ya!

[Russell Selcho]

Saw a reply of yours on my training log and thought I would see where you were at, then I noticed your last post was the end of Feb. Hope everything is working out and you are still making improvements. Let us know what your current lifts look like.

[Nicolette L.]

What is the latest IAN?