Full body: Heavy weight

Man, did I overeat yesterday! We had our family Thanksgiving dinner at the Black Forest Inn (Conestogo) all-you-can-eat buffet. I'm not a big fan of buffets because the food tends to be overcooked or dried out under the hot lights, but the quality of this meal was top notch. For most of the evening I stuck to my Paleo-style diet. I had a slice each of turkey breast and prime rib, a little stuffing, some carrot bake (it tasted like pureed sweet potato, so it probably had butter and/or cream to make it so rich), roasted peppers and zucchini. Then I went back for another serving of everything except the beef. No apple pie on the dessert table - probably for the best! - so I had small serving of carrot cake, some grapes and strawberries. 

I always feel compelled to go back for more at a buffet, as do many people, so I went and grabbed a few slices of melon and a small oatmeal raisin cookie to finish off. So that's it, all washed down with a Diet Pepsi and some decaf coffee. Other than the carrot cake and cookie, everything was pretty much a healthy option. The problem was eating more than I needed to! Sure, it's Thanksgiving so I'm not beating myself up about overindulging for the first time in months, but I felt fit to burst when I'd finished. Still, it all tasted sooo good!

Katie Hogan

On to today's workout: I was eager to try some heavy deadlifts using the new bumper plates because I figured I could drop the weights from the upright position, rather than trying to lower it and keeping good form. I thought that would help me to conserve some energy that I could use to lift an extra round or two with more weight. Oops! Got that wrong...

Deadlift - 1 rep max:
135 (10)
165 (6)
185 (5)
205 (3)
215 (1)
225 (1)
235 (1)
245 (1)
255 (1)
265 (1)
275 (1)
280 (F)

I was doing fine up to about the 235lb set, dropping the bar after the lift (or after all the lifts in the early, multiple rounds). Then I found that the bar was slipping from my grip. There's something on the rubber bumper plates that leaves a greasy feeling on my hands - perhaps because they're new - so I started to use the wrist straps. Of course - and this is going to seem bloody obvious now - you can't drop something that's tied to your hands! I started to loosen my grip of the 235lb bar then went "Oh, shit!" and quickly tightened my fingers around it when I realised I'd probably dislocate my shoulders or wrists! From that point on I just did my regular style of deadlifts and lowered the bar slowly from the standing position. In the end I finished 5lb less than my PR. I just couldn't budge the weights at 280lb. On the plus side, I got some admiring looks for lifting the huge-looking 45lb weights, even though I've lifted narrower but heavier weight plates before!

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Drop set pull-ups (30lb db - bodyweight)
6-4, 5-4, 3-3, 3-2

It wasn't until I started typing this that I realised I should have done 5 sets, not 4. Oh, well...

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10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 for time:
Power clean and press @ 75
Dips
Time = 15:18

I used a 10lb bumper with a 5lb metal plate on each side of a 45lb bar, which I'd moved closer to the dip station. I could have used a standard 10lb plate instead of a rubber one, but I figured the latter would mean I didn't have to bend so far to grab the weight. That worked fine until the first time I threw down the bar and the thin, rubber 10lb plates buckled. I worked up a good sweat doing this routine and other gym users seemed to clear a respectful space around me because I was throwing the bar down from the top of the push press!

Sometimes when my workout doesn't go as well as planned I get frustrated or feel disappointed. However, even though I wasn't as successful as I could have been today - not hitting my deadlift 1-rep max and forgetting to do a set in the second routine - I still felt good about today's session. I had fun and felt relaxed, so perhaps I'm just in a holiday mood. Happy Thanksgiving!