BeckieA’s BodyBlog

Boy can I feel my delts today! When I flex up it hurtssss….

Here’s the workout:

 Superset of DB lat raises and seated Smith Military presses

1 x warmup 12 of each

1 x 8(lat raises) and 5 (mil press)

3 x 8(lat raises) and 7 (mil press)

3/4 incline bench raises(seated with bench 2 from upright position,arms halfway between side and front raise)

3 x 8 (this is deceptively hard and you can’t use much weight at all)

DB row 1 x 10 (start with weakest side) 2 x 8 2 x 6 (PB with weight!! ) I did these pulling slightly higher up the ribcage than traditional rows so it hit my rear delts harder.

Reverse pec deck machine 3 x 12  I still can’t get the ‘feel’ of this machine right so I may end up going back to my old favorites,the Swiss Ball reverse flye or the reverse incline flye.

 Tomorrow is leg day-first time I’ll be hitting legs since my migraine last week-ouch!

Parallel bar cable row 12 10 3 x 8

high Pulley cable rope pulldown 4 x 8

straight arm pressdown 3 x 10

Underhand bent over cable bb row 4 x 8

DB row 3 x 8

My back felt good doing this-I seem to get the most benefit from rowing in terms of development so I’m going to stick with this mode for the meantime.

Christmas Day tomorrow so I’ll take the day off and be back in the gym Wednesday!

I ended up doing more than I intended but it was all good and my shoulders came through ok. Just felt a wee pinch in my neck towards the end so might just pull back on volume a wee bit next time.

Rack Military press 9 8 8 9

3/4 lat raises-this was done on an incline bench with my arms positioned halfway between the side and front raise,really hard 3 x 8

Machine shoulder press(facing in) 3 x 8

Reverse pec deck machine 3 x 12

Seated DB lat raises 3 x 10

My rear delts were quietly sore the next day-its good the gym has got some new machines because they really needed this one imo. I find cables a bit irritating and bent over raises on the ball are wearing a bit thin!

Happy Holidays everyone!

today I hit legs but for some reason my right quad failed completely on my last set so I had to strip off weight off the leg press and go to failure instead.

Hammer leg press (unilateral) 10 8 8 7 failure

Leg extension 4 x 10

DB wide stance deadlifts 10 3 x 8 (grip strength getting better)

Swiss ball leg curls 4 x 13

I did this workout at the end of the day when I was quite tired so that may be my my weaker leg failed on the leg press. Normally I train legs in the morning so I will endeavour to do that again next week.

Even though I didn’t get the PB’s like I did last time my legs are still tightening up nicely and quicker than what I expected. I think this is to do with me doing more ‘quality’ rather than ‘quantity’ and staying focused on my form rather than the weight I am lifting.

Having said that I managed 80kg(176lb) on each leg for the leg press and my goal is 200lb within 4-6 weeks  time

Cable row-close grip  10 8 10 ,then 4-3-4 rep drop set

Straight arm rope pressdown 4 x 10

 Machine low row 15,12 2 x 8

high pulley close grip pulldowns(seated on floor)

PB in weight! 1 x 10 3 x 8

Finished with cable curls 4 x 8

Need to focus on grip strength more-it is improving but if I’m going to pull some heavier rows my forearms need to catch up fast!!

My back generally responds faster than any other bodypart so I don’t want it to get too far ahead of everything else because as we all know,its not one bodypart that wins a show!

Since I need more shoulder mass I decided to add in an extra day of training this week:

Seated Military press 8 10 9 7

Standing lat raises 3 x 8

standing lat bar pressdown (really made the rear delt/lat insertion burn) 3 x 15

High pulley close grip cable pulldown 4 x 10 (really hit the rear delts nicely again!)

:)

I feel like my old strength is returning quite rapidly,which is pleasing and my time between sets is definitely helped by the Xtend!

PS got my friend to take some before shots todays so hopefully I will be able to get them up sometime this week. My back looks good for 9 months out and my lats have definitely added a bit of length which is pleasing

standing lat pulldown 10,3×8

DB row 6, 3 x8

Seated Military press 4 x 8

DB lat raises(standing) 4 x 8

straight arm rope pressdowns 3 x 10

It was really humid in the gym today but I added a little more Xtend to my water and was able to mostly power through my weights. Everything is going well so far and I will be taking some pics this weekend and hopefully getting my skinfolds done next week.

I did a great leg workout early this afternoon-despite the heat and humidity in the gym

Warmed up with pre-exhaust leg extensions 4 x 12

Unilateral Hammer strength leg press 65 kg each side (10 reps) followed by:

70 kg 10 reps(each side)

75 kg 8 reps(each side)

80kg 8 reps(each side)

My goal is 100kg each side and I KNOW that will help my quad conditioning immensely. I can really feel my quads working hard on this exercise..

DB wide stance Deadlifts 1 x 12 then 10,8,8

Followed my 4 x 12 Swiss ball leg curls

This was short but very intense!

The Xtend came in very handy and I can’t wait to try the new Apple flavor

70 kg

Today I trained shoulders and back..

Standing lat pulldowns-you really can’t cheat with these or you hurt your back!! 2 x 12 21 x 8

Paramount Low row 4 x 8

Technogym low row(seperate handles) 4 x 10

Machine shoulder presses 2 sets facing out(seated) and 2 sets facing in(standing) 8 reps of each

Lateral raises(standing) 3 x 10

Front raises 3 x 10-these were really hard and my shoulders burned after!!

I really need to focus on building my front delts as they are a bit ‘fat’ or nonexistent to my other delt heads-I got some good suggestions over on the OCB board,so thanks guys!!

 Next workout either tomorrow or Weds-LEGS…

I have completed 2 workouts this week,upper body on Monday and Legs yesterday. My legs feel pretty good despite the weights I gave them so that is really pleasing.

I’m still doing the unilateral leg presses on the Hammer Strength leg press and I find that hits my VMO much better than both legs together,when the stronger leg tends to take over..

I’ve found I can also do 1/2 ROM leg extensions and since thats really all I need,thats pleasing..

I haven’t actually lost alot of strength on my leg presses since my break,maybe only 20lb each side but I know the muscle memory will kick in and I’ll be back to my old weights within a couple of weeks

:)