GodsHonestTruth’s BodyBlog

I may be working out less frequently (like 3 times a week, to ease up on the ole’ tendons) but I sure as heck make up for it with intensity. Today was back day. At first.

Deadlifts, with straps, a belt, and all the fixin’s.
135×10
225×10
315×10
365×8
405×2

T-Bar Pull
3 Plates x 10
3 Plates and a 25 lbs plate x 10
3 Plates x 10

Sitting Cable Lat Pull:
120 x 10
130 x 10
120 x 10
120 x 10

Reverse Flyes (on machine)
Weight x 10 x Like 3 sets.

Did lots of dips (for fun)
Lots of Pull ups

Single DB Preacher curls
40 x 10
45 x 10
45 x 8

Worked out forearms

Rope Pull Downs (Triceps):
The whole stack x 10 x 3 or 4 sets

Curvy Bar Bicep Cable Pull:
110 x 10
120 x 10
130 x 10

Took about an hour break, then proceeded to work out legs and chest just for fun.

On smith machine (crappy gym)
135 x 10
225 x 10
245 x 6
275 x 1

Leg Press machine

Crunches

Cable Pull downs (Pull-up imitation)

More forearms

And after all, inflamed joints, muscle tears, exertion headaches, etc all feeling fine. All systems go, green across the board. Feeling good feels good, so can you blame me for working out like an idiot? No, you can’t.

I’m done for a couple days.

After a good warmup of elbows and shoulders (the problem joints):

BB Flat Bench Press:
15 Slow reps of 135
10 x 185
6 x 205
6 x 225
4 x 245 (with minimal help on second 2 reps)

DB Incline Neutral Close Grip Press:
60 x 10
65 x 10
65 x 8

Pec Deck:
145 x 10
160 x 10
160 x 10
145 x 10
130 x 8

Dips:
15
15
10

Not quite back up to speed, but I’m doing OK. Still pushing some weight around, and my joints feel OK…a little inflamed after workout but still improving.

Worked out today with Austin (my newly inducted Marine brother).

Bench:
135 x 15
185 x 10
225 x 6
245 x 4
135 x 25

Did some DB Rows with 100 lbs, BB Rows with up to 185, curls, etc. But it was primarily a bench day.

Geez. I take a week off and lost almost 5 lbs. Not good. Note to self: don’t get migraines ever again.

Today was leg day.

Back squats:
225 x 15
295 x 10
315 x 8
365 x 6

Front Squats:
225 x 10
265 x 8
275 x 6

Straight Leg Dead Lifts (on small, 4 inch platform):
135 x 10
165 x 10
185 x 10

Calf raises x lots

Just for fun:
Clap Pull-ups x 10 x 2

Medicine ball sit-ups: 30 x 2

Did some DB bench press just to stay warm, light weight, high reps (70’s for sets of 10), followed by machine press.

When I go to the gym, I give the kids a show. The kids like to see things they never seen before, like a small guy doing dips with 135 lbs hanging from his waist. Like a guy rowing their max as a warmup. Kids like to be impressed, and that’s what I’m here for. You mad cuz I’m stylin on everybody?

Bent Over BB Rows:
135 x 10
155 x 10
175 x 10
185 x 8

Cable Lat Pulls (close grip):
135 x 10
150 x 10
150 x 10

Deadlift/Shrug Machine:
180 lbs each hand x 10 shrugs, 10 deadlifts for 3 or 4 sets

Pull ups:
10 slow wide grip
8 neutral grip (45 lbs added) x 2 sets
6 slow wide grip (45 lbs added)

Now the good part, Dips:
25 Unweighted Dips
15 (45 lbs added)
15 (90 lbs added)
10 (135 lbs added)
8 (135 lbs added)
10 (90 lbs added)
15 unweighted, holding body horizontal

Because of the exertion headaches I had been experiencing, I decided to cut back on any supplements that might affect vascularity and thereby induce migraines, and so I cut out Animal Pump. I was out of Animal M-Stak so I stopped that, too. I’ve worked out about a dozen times without any products at all, not even caffeine before workouts, and I’ve been amazed. The drive and energy that I’d previously attributed to supplements I have discovered to be internal. My workouts have been at least as intense as when I was using those supplements. I’ve been eating a lot of food and eating well, and I’m sure that helps.

Honestly, I had been hesitant to work out without any preworkout supplement based on the fear that I simply wouldn’t have the energy or endurance to do it without anything. Thankfully, I have found this to simply be untrue. I guess the Animal really is inside me.

I’ll probably start on a creatine supplement again soon, but right now, I’m doing just fine by myself.

1 week after my first exertion induced migraine, I hit the gym again. And damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.

My research and doctor’s various advice led me to believe that I ought to try to keep my blood pressure from jumping around. To that end, I warmed up on a jump rope and kept "warm" between each set by jumping rope. I watched my breathing, and it all worked out.

Flat bench:
135 x 15
185 x 10
205 x 8
225 x 6
245 x 3

Did some pull ups, forearm curls, and some other fun stuff.

Kind of a wimpy workout, but the docs said to come back slow and easy. And I don’t want more migraines.

I’ll do my best to make a long story short:

Didn’t eat well yesterday. Worked all day. Left work at like 8:00 PM to go to the gym. Started my back routine:

Bent over BB Rows:
135×15
155 x 10
175 x 8
185 x 6
135 x 10

Trap Shrugs (On DL machine):
20 x 90 lbs per side
20 x 90
20 x 90

Weighted Pull-Ups (+25 lbs):
10
10*

At this point, something strange happened. After first set of pullups, I got an excruciating headache near my neck (sort of brain-stem area). It hurt to bad I thought it was a muscle cramp in my neck, but it wasn’t. I kind of fell over and got disoriented. I sat down for like 3 or 4 minutes. Headache subsided. Not being a pansy, I strapped up and went for set number 2. Powered through it no problem, but as soon as I dropped off the bars, I passed out. Woke up several minutes later, slumped against the wall where I fell with a headache unlike anything I’ve felt before. No one even noticed, which is weird. There were people all around me but nobody noticed that I had passed out against a wall. I gave myself about 10 minutes of rest to regain my balance, and I called it a night. At some food, almost threw up, took some painkillers (Simi forced me to) and I was out. Slept for like 11 hours, and now I’m good. So I guess I’m re-doing back day today.

Besides, I’d rather school you all than teach you. So here’s how tonight went down: I wanted to do big exercises tonight. I wanted to do some nice deep squats, some front squats, some deadlifts, you know, fun things like that. I ate a 4 lb burrito today specifically for this purpose. When I arrived at the gym I was greeted with the unfortunate sight of the power racks surrounded by kids trying to max out on bench. I mean they were swarming. There had to be like 20 of those little guys. No go.

So I loaded up the deadlift machine with all the plates that weren’t in use by the bench bunnies and did a couple of sets and it was just enough to frustrate me by the lack of plates. Seriously there aren’t 8 plates in the whole gym and 4 of them were being used by the swarm.

So I decided that today was going to be an arm day because I never do those, and there isn’t enough weight in that gym for me to sufficiently work anything other than arms. So here’s what I did:

Started with Dips.
Unweighted x 50
+90 lbs x 20
+90 lbs x 15
+90 lbs x 12
Unweighted x 30

Supersetted Dips with Unweighted Wide Grip Pull Ups:
5 sets x 10 reps x very slow, from locked elbows to chest touching the bar. Feels good man.

Hanging planche x 30 seconds
Planche Pull Ups x 2 sets x 10 reps

More Shrugs on Deadlift machine. Lots of weight x lots of reps

Concentration curls:
35 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets

Standing Alternating Curls with zero sway/momentum:
45 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets

Triceps Cable Pull-Downs (using rope, squeeze apart at bottom of rep):
165 x 10
185 x 10
185 x 8

Back day.

Started out on the wide grip pull ups.
Unweighted x 15
+25 lbs x 10
+25 lbs x 8
+25 lbs x 10 (on neutral grip)
Unweighted x 10 (neutral grip)

Sitting Cable Pull Down (for lats)
140 x 10 Wide Grip
130 x 10 Very narrow grip
130 x 10 Narrow (chin up grip)
130 x 10 Narrow

Sitting Cable Lat Pulls (Wide grip, high pulls…pulled to collarbone)
80 x 15
80 x 15
80 x 15
80 x 10

Did Nautilus machines for a bit…I don’t know the numbers but I worked hard…

Did some arms and abs and called it a night.