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Totentanz said:
I'm using tactics like that right now just to maintain... haven't been getting to the gym that much, only about once a week the last couple weeks. Working 50 or more hours a week currently. Sort of regretting taking the promotion right now but it will get better with time. I'm just impatient when it comes to fixing things.
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I'm right there with you. I had every intention if starting a fullbody 5x/week program inspired by the Borge Fagrerli thread, but instead I worked about 60 hours, on top of wife and kids and made it to the gym a whopping two times all week, after extraordinary effort... Ahhh..... Life
 
Yeah I wish I didn't have to work a full time job to get by. Oh well, maybe I'll finish my sci fi novel some day and make some money off of it. Yeah right. I don't know about you but there are a lot of times I wish I had chosen to get into a different career path way back when I was young and just entering the work force. I hate management, it sucks.

I have even less time because after my son's request to help him get in shape, etc, I put him and the other kids in a children's martial arts class which they love and that's taking up a bunch of my time outside of work.
 
Really hope you do get time to get that novel completed. You'll never know how things might turn out otherwise. I know, I know! So easily said; so hard to do! But stretching is usually worth the pain.

At 185 it's so much easier for me to maintain; and if I have a bad day, I can usually make it up the next day. Sometimes, I'm actually quite happy I'm not a big guy! I'm sure, once you're settled in to your new job a bit more, and the dead wood is out of the way, things should get easier. All the best with maintaining.
 
I hate being a plumber... Long hours, wet crawlspaces, cranky customers... Ugh. I think most people get burned out at their careers, if I was a mailman or a dentist, I'd probably hate that too, etc,etc.
If I could somehow only do plumbing about 25 hours/week and still support my family...that'd be awesome, but it ain't gonna happen, so I suck it up and try me best to have fun at work.
 
I don't want to muck up Tot's log with business talk... I make a good living, I was just empathizing with his career frustrations...it's pretty common.
 
Sci said:
I don't want to much up Tots log with business talk... I make a good living, I was just empathizing with his career frustrations...it's pretty common.
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Fair enough.

If you ever move to Oz, I have work for you :D.
 
Lol said:
Really hope you do get time to get that novel completed. You'll never know how things might turn out otherwise. I know, I know! So easily said; so hard to do! But stretching is usually worth the pain.

At 185 it's so much easier for me to maintain; and if I have a bad day, I can usually make it up the next day. Sometimes, I'm actually quite happy I'm not a big guy! I'm sure, once you're settled in to your new job a bit more, and the dead wood is out of the way, things should get easier. All the best with maintaining.
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The novel will probably be finished by the time spring comes around. I'm hovering around 200 pages right now, but I keep having to revise stuff from earlier chapters when I come up with new ideas for stuff. I'm not expecting to become rich off of it or anything. It would be nice to be able to make a comparable income to what I do now from writing alone though. I have sixteen other unfinished stories that could easily be fleshed out into complete books if I had enough time to write.

Work is getting a little better already. I'm making bonuses already, so it's not all bad. Another month or two and I should be back down to only 45 hours a week. Once I get to that point, I'll attempt another bulk.

On the bright side, waist is down to 32 inches which is small for me. It seems only lifting once or twice a week seems sufficient to maintain while slowly losing fat, for me at least. I tried to take a picture earlier to post but I haven't managed the bodyhair in a while so you can't really see anything.
 
Still not following a set routine. Just going to the gym, doing fullbody-ish depending on what is available. Strength is good. The machines they have there are inadequate. I row the whole stack, I can curl the whole stack, the leg extension machine they have I only use one leg at a time and still do the whole stack. I've started doing one handed rows on the seated row machine so that it is a challenge. Not losing any strength, not gaining any size, very very slowly leaning out more and more even though weight if essentially remaining constant throughout the weeks. It fluctuates day to day, but is almost always 225 - 230 lbs lately. It's pretty clear that when I set up a real routine again, I'm going to have to go with freeweights as much as possible though.
 
I have been doing one-armed cable rows too. I really like them for the whole upper back, there is better ROM using one arm. The machine at my gym goes up to 260 pounds, and currently my 5RM is 125 for one arm, so I am pretty sure I will never have to worry about maxing out the cable-row with only one-arm!
 
I'm actually enjoying single arm/single leg movements. None of the machines at the gym I go to have independent handles for using only one at a time, but I just do it anyway. You should see the looks people give when doing leg extensions with one leg or calf raises with one leg and doing the whole stack. You'd think they've never seen anyone move serious weight before. I don't get it, they have a powerlifting team there, maybe they are only used to seeing people go superheavy on squats and deads.
 
Totentanz said:
I'm actually enjoying single arm/single leg movements. None of the machines at the gym I go to have independent handles for using only one at a time, but I just do it anyway. You should see the looks people give when doing leg extensions with one leg or calf raises with one leg and doing the whole stack. You'd think they've never seen anyone move serious weight before. I don't get it, they have a powerlifting team there, maybe they are only used to seeing people go superheavy on squats and deads.
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My current gym is pretty hardcore as far as catering to bodybuilders with machines and stuff. You'd have to be a serious MR Olympia contender to max out the leg extension or the calf raise machine with one leg there! It's the best gym I have ever been in yet. Now that I have been seriously spoiled, I will always be a member of hardcore bodybuilding gyms from now on.
 
Well, I decided to start squatting and stuff again last Sunday (the 22nd) and there were all these 20 something guys huddled around the monolift, taking turns squatting 225 for 5 rep sets. They are all working on getting into powerlifting, I guess. I was using the squat rack next to them to do shrugs - worked up to a set of 495 w/out straps using a mixed grip, been trying to avoid straps lately just for fun. Anyway, one thing lead to another and I ended up doing squats too. 225 x 5, 315 x 5, 365 x 5, 405 x 5, 455 x 3. My inner thighs especially were so sore that I couldn't lift my foot much more than knee high. Getting into and out of my car was excruciating. My legs just finally recovered yesterday so I did the same today except stopped at 405 x 5.

My gym membership is up on the 5th, and I can't renew it this month. I added my girlfriend to my checking account a while ago so she could pay bills for me and stuff. Apparently she owes some money to some people so last pay day, five days before christmas, right after my check got deposited, these people she owes money to went into my account and took my entire check plus the rest of the money I had in my account. So I'm a little behind for the next few weeks, since that was the check I was going to pay rent with. It sucks, but oh well. We will live. Just kinda wish it hadn't happened right when my daughter was in the hospital and right around christmas. I had already bought all the gifts for my kids though, so at least there was that.

I'm going to hit the gym hard again later this week then see if the free fitness center at my apartment complex at least has DBs that go higher than 50 lbs. Last time I peeked in there while I was in the office, it looked like a pretty piss poor "fitness center" but it's probably better than nothing. I might shop around for a better gym anyway. This one is nice enough and the people are alright, but they aren't equipped for heavy lifters, aside from heavy squatters and benchers. No deadlifting platform. They have barbells for curling that only go up to 115, all their cable machines don't go high enough, etc etc. There is a powerhouse gym between my place and where I work that supposedly is really awesome but I take people's gym reviews with a grain of salt. So we will see.
 
Dude ... All my sympathies.


If you want impartial advice; get other people off your accounts' access - it's the 21st century, and you're too vulnerable if anyone else has access.

Best of luck sorting that out.
 
What a horrible time for something like that to happen... I'm really sorry, man. I hope your daughter is ok. When it rains, it pours... Thankfully, the sun eventually comes out after the rain.

Your squat workout here was incredible! 455x3 is very impressive especially after all of the other work you had done during that workout. I'm guessing you are able to break your current squat 1RM PR.
 
It's been almost a month without any lifting and it's definitely taking it's toll. Apparently, not lifting is bad for my body. My back is aching and my shoulders don't feel all that great. I've been doing what I can at home and working hard to maintain my weight, but it seems I need to lift relatively heavy on a regular basis. The good news is that I should be caught up on everything soon financially and should be able to get back in the gym. I still want to run the cycle that mikey and I discussed back in September. After so much time off from lifting, it will be interesting to see if that improves my cycle.
 
Hope you get everything sorted soon dude! You'll be back in the swing of things in no time, and I for one am looking forward to seeing your progress!!
 
Aw Tot. I missed the financial stuff when you first wrote about it, and to say that I get it is an understatement. I'm so sorry that your financials were exposed but I'm glad to hear that things are improving. When you get back into the gym, you may want to take a couple weeks to ramp up; muscle memory will kick in but until it does, form may be kinda tricky. Regardless, the cycle that you discussed with Mikey looks great and should be something that absolutely makes an impact on your training. Good luck, sir.
 
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