ProfessorFoo's Log

[ProfessorFoo]

I figured it might be a good idea to start a log to keep myself honest. I'm in terrible shape right now (can almost do a single pull up and maybe 8 push ups in a row) so if I keep it up this log should be a good indicator of how quickly other young males in terrible shape might expect to improve.

L1D2 - Completed 3 sets in 20 minutes

I know, you're supposed to do 5, but by the time I stopped I couldn't do girly push ups anymore, my pull ups were pretty much the alternatives with all the effort coming from my legs, and my legs are already killing me from squats. Going to go do some Couch 2 5K now.

Also it gave me a beginning-to-workout-again headache. It is a good pain... but not good enough to stop me from taking Advil.

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D3 - ~30 minutes

My muscles were too weak/sore to even do a regular negative pull up, so I pretty much did only leg assisted pull ups. I did manage to do all the push ups and squats correctly, though (and it was close for push ups).

A couple of questions to anyone reading this:

1. For day 3, are you supposed to do them in order? For example, if you stall after doing a few pull ups, is it ok to go do some push ups and squats and come back later, or is the program designed for all the pull ups to be done straight in a row (which is what I've been doing)?

2. When doing alternatives, the guide says 3 alternatives is equal to 1 regular. Does this mean I should be doing 30 alternative pull ups (which is also what I've been doing) or 10 (the official guide number)?

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D1 - 9 sets

Came really damn close to doing a pull-up today. Doing a full rep on Thursday is seeming likely. Also can anyone answer the questions in my second post? I know you guys are looking at this thread. Don't make me go to the discussion forums.

[iamme]

Welcome. I'm also fairly new here but here goes:

1. For day 3, are you supposed to do them in order? For example, if you stall after doing a few pull ups, is it ok to go do some push ups and squats and come back later, or is the program designed for all the pull ups to be done straight in a row (which is what I've been doing)?

I believe you should be doing them together in a set and it might even be less effective if you don't. That being said it's about making progress more than following a program. Maybe for you breaking them up into smaller pieces can get you started until you progress to doing whole sets of them. If that is the case then I say go for it.

2. When doing alternatives, the guide says 3 alternatives is equal to 1 regular. Does this mean I should be doing 30 alternative pull ups (which is also what I've been doing) or 10 (the official guide number)?

That is correct.

Overall, it's about making progress. The program is a guide and it was designed by someone who knows more about this stuff than either you or I but If you are making progress then you are doing good. You'll get better as you go along.

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D2 - 3 sets in ~14 minutes (had to stop early unfortunately)

L1D3 - skipped (woke up at 3pm, was too angry that I woke up at 3pm to do anything, but ordered a new $100 alarm that will hopefully get me up on days I have no reason to get up)

L1D1 - 8 sets

And thanks for the reply iamme. It's good to know I'm doing things right.

Also I am already getting some of the benefits from this program. I still can't quite do a pull-up (I get stuck around nose height), but I can do way more negatives than I could when I started. When I started I could only do 2 or 3 of them after attempting some full range pull-ups, but this time I did them for the first 6 sets or so (treating as an alternative pull-up with 3 alternatives as 1 regular).

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D2 - ~28 minutes

I actually finished the whole workout this time! Still can't quite do a pull-up but I'm getting damn close.

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D3 - completed

Had to do couch 2 5k (running program) in the middle of my pull-ups due to lack of pull-up bar availability so I didn't really get a time to completion. I'm surprised I even motivated myself to do this at all considering it was 10:30 pm when I started.

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D1 - 10 sets

Still using all substitutions for pull ups. For some reason I wasn't even able to do as much of a regular pull up as normal. Oh well.

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D2 - 26 minutes

Still 100% alternative pull ups. A little trouble with push-ups but not enough to have to do girlie ones.

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D3 - 23.5 minutes

Did two full pull-ups today! Well... one was kind of debatable... but still! Now on to getting to the point where I don't have to do any alternatives.

[iamme]

WTG! When I started I could only do one pullup. Now (about two months in) I can do eight in a row without going to failure. If you stick with it the results will come quick.

[ProfessorFoo]

Thanks for the encouragement iamme. Just checked through your workout log. Some very impressive results there! Keep it up

L1D2 - 24 minutes

This time managed to do 8 out of the 10 pull-ups with 1-2 minute breaks in between reps. The time I get doesn't even really mean anything at this point since I'm just kind of guessing when I'll have enough strength to do another one. Either way I already feel WAY better than when I started. I especially feel a whole lot stronger at the top of the bar.

Now to do Couch 2 5k I think the squats from simplefit are killing me there.

edit:
I just realized I forgot to post day 1. It was kind of a screwy day but I think I managed around 10 sets with 3 non-alternative pull-ups.

[ProfessorFoo]

L3D1 - Maybe 24 minutes, but was just doing lat pull downs at 200 lbs instead of pull-ups (counting as alternatives) so it was kind of a weird day

L1D1 - 13 sets, 8 with legitimate pull ups and 5 with alternatives

[ProfessorFoo]

L1D2 - 20 minutes, 6 out of 10 full pull-ups

[ProfessorFoo]

Damn I haven't posted in a while.

L2D2 - 15 minutes with all 10 full pull-ups!

I missed a couple of workouts due to finals and other stuff. I should resume regular posting now. Hey at least the same thing didn't happen like last time I started working out where I gave up permanently after missing a workout for an exam.