BeckieA’s BodyBlog

today I decided to do things a little differently. Instead of doing set numbers of reps and sets I chose 3 exercises and aimed for 150 reps total from those exercises.

squats 60 reps

Hack Squat 30 reps (first time i’ve done these in about 5 years and it wasn’t too bad on my back or knees! )

Seated Leg curl 45 reps-boy did these burn,but I find them so much better than lying ones,and because they support my back I feel alot safer too.

I can only imagine what my legs will feel like tomorrow!

I’m off on holiday for 10 days so I’ll try and pop in when I can-you all train hard and eat clean!! xxx

For those of you that don’t know-its summer Downunder and these past few days the thermometer has been getting a good workout-90+% humidity makes it awfully difficult to train even with my beloved Xtend! You sweat without doing anything and stick to the machines and benches like no tomorrow!

My most recent workout:

Reverse seated lat pulldowns behind neck 5 x 12

Straight arm lat pressdown 4 x 12

seated lateral raises 4 x 10

seated cable row 3 x 12

I thought I’d try my shoulder out today and see how it felt-I really should have done it away from back because it was quite fatigued and it was hard to tell the difference between the fatigue and soreness. Its fine with the lat pulldowns so at least its making progress! woohoo

Tomorrow is leg day-last one before I go on holiday-can’t wait-but I guess I’ll be travelling with sore legs lol,won’t that be fun!!

Tried something a bit different today-even though I hate squats I had this peculiar urge to do them so that was what I did.

5 x 12-felt a slight pinching in my right hip-think its to do with that being my shorter leg and the pelvis rolling slightly. Will just have to make sure I keep the motion nice and smooth and not try to go too deep in the future.

single leg hammer presses 5 x 10-this is one of my favorite exercises now because it really hits the VMO nicely

seated leg curl-this was a different machine and I really didn’t like it,even though the seat was as far forward as possible,my back still arched and madde things difficult…3 x 15

Swiss ball leg curls 3 x 15-if you want an exercise that burns out those hammys,this is it! They were well and truly exhausted by the end of these! A real case of rubber legs lol,try walking down 4 flights of stairs after a leg session like this,I really got a bad case of the wobbles and had to hold onto the railing to stop myself falling…

Warmed down with 8 mins on the crosstrainer

Today I hit back and tri’s-more back than anything else because the tri’s do alot of work as stabilisers for the back and I still have shoulders to do this week,which also use alot of triceps.

12 sets in all for back-7 sets of 10 close grip cable rows with less than 1 min between sets. Could really feel my rear delts working hard as well as my lats-this is why I like this exercise,because by simply changing the handle you can change the emphasis from one part of yuor back to another.

Next I reverted back to a different variation on a lat pulldown I used to do many years ago.Nowadays most trainers including myself don’t recommend lat pulldowns behind the neck due to the stress on the neck and shoulder,when bringing the bar behind the head, but what I do is face away from the bar and pull it  down behind-that way I’m not craning my neck forward unnaturally and it keeps everything in perfect alignment. I did 5 sets of 10 of these and I think I’ll keep these going for a while!

Finished off with 4 x 15 of tri pressdowns-and my arms were burning like crazy,I seem to get sore from doing higher reps than from lots of heavy weights and I’ve recently discovered that my tri’s seem to like the higher reps because unlike the heavy weights,they tighten up faster.. Only wish they would lean up the way they tighten up though…hmmmmm

Still drinking the Xtend whilst I train-don’t think I’ll ever go back to regular water again after trying this stuff…

After doing my most recent leg session I ended up with DOMS in my hamstrings for FOUR days after! The culprit was of course the Stiff Legged DB Deads,one of my favorite all time exercises-I actually prefer these to using a BB as they put much less stress on my lower back(which is a good thing). you don’t have to use alot of weight either to get the desired effect

I talked to my trainer today and he suggested I pull my shoulder blades slightly together before going down,that way it stops me overstretching the lower back and focuses more on the muscles that need to be worked-the hams,glutes and mid back.

This week I plan to continue with the volume training of legs and back because those are the 2 body parts that seemed to respond best to it. Given that i have a history of shoulder problems(tightness,injury etc) I’ll train the delts and chest with less volume at least for the meantime.

Tomorrow its back and triceps

Well it was a hot and sticky day today here in Wellington and I literally stuck to some of the gym equipment! It was a bit unpleasant but I managed to get through my workout by condensing it down to a bit more volume and less rest between sets.

I did the same sequence on the Hammer leg press as last week- 10 reps both legs,10 reps right,10 reps left for 1 set. All in all I did 5 of these and I think I can do a bit more weight next workout.

next I did some DB SLDL-my back was playing up from doing alot of vaccuming this morning so I dropped the weight down and did 6 sets of 10 reps. These always make me sore so no doubt I’ll be feeling it tomorrow!

Finished off with 3 x 15 on the seated leg curl machine-stuck to the machine good and proper but despite that I gritted my teeth and pounded out the reps..

Had a good ham stretch to finish then back out to the sunny day!

Once again the Xtend is proving its worth-I feel like its keeping my energy levels up during workouts and reducing my DOMS although once I up the intensity a few more notches we shall see!

I am also going to start Primaforce Nitrocharge shortly-its been sitting here a while so its about time I gave it a go!!

 :)

Well I had a fantastic workout on Monday-Triceps and back and I’ve really been able to feel my tri’s the past 2 days.

I pumped out 5 sets on the tri pressdown,got close to my former PB of 70lb and 6 reps-woohoo….

then i hit the straight arm pressdown and really pummeled those lat-tri insertions. Those babies were burning after 3 x 15

My last exercise for tri’s was incline DB extensions aka skullcrushers and whacked out 3x 10 with minimal rest-my tris were well and truly smoked after this! If you haven’t tried dropping your rest intervals for a while,I highly recommend you try it!!!

Onto back: I just did one exercise but did it more volume based-parallel bar cable rows 7 x 12 with 1 min between sets. I really like the volume style of training but find it burns me out if I do it too frequently. So what i’ve decided to do is hit one bodypart per week with volume and the rest my usual way.

On a final note-I’m really enjoying the Scivation Xtend-I feel its giving extra oomph to my workouts and is helping decrease the degree of DOMS I get PWO. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a recovery supplement!

Legs tomorrow!