Weekly Workout Log: July 18th through July 24th

Today marks the end of another week of exercise. I’m still dealing with some pain in my back but I’m convinced that it is a pulled muscle. Stretching followed by keeping active helps a great deal. The more I sit, the worse it feels.

To try and protect my back I’ve been replacing heavy (for me) conventional deadlifts with considerably lighter Romanian deadlifts. That change, as well as the adjustment to my squat form, has helped with the pain.

I missed a workout on Friday so that I could go to my daughters 1 month checkup after work. Rather than make it up on Saturday, I stayed home and did some cardio and yoga in my basement. The cardio kicked my ass but it was a nice change of pace.

Looking back over the past 8 weeks, I’m not entirely happy with my results. In regards to weight loss, the scale hasn’t budged. Actually, it dropped a couple of pounds but has since rebounded. My body fat percentage, on the other hand, has dropped about 1.5% (I’m using a Fitbit Aria Scale so I’m looking more at the trend than I am the actual number).

While the drop in body fat percentage and increase in strength has been great, I think it might be time to reevaluate the plan and make some adjustments. I’m going to switch over to Wendler 5/3/1 for strength training because I think it will give me a structured plan to follow and ultimately lead to better strength gains.

The strength training program will keep me in the gym 4 days per week. I’d like to add in at least one more day to work in some conditioning (my conditioning sucks) and possibly do a home based yoga program on the side (my mobility also sucks).

I’m going to stick to that plan for about 12 weeks and then take a look at my results. While losing weight isn’t the driving factor in all of this I’d really like to drop down a shirt size.