Ludlum3k’s BodyBlog

Yesterday’s shoulder workout was a good one. Although I always seem to be confused on what to do for my shoulders, as they seem to be my weakness, I always manage to put something together that is highly effective. This week, I swapped out the Smith machine upright row for seated DB front raises. Other than that, the only changes were in weights/reps. Todays back workout was great as usual. Since it was my second week doing deadlifts again, last week was to get my body to remember how deadlifts work, and this week I was able to improve. However, I was a little tired today, so I had a little less stamina, I was able to complete the full workout. This week, I took out seated cable rows, and went straight to lat pulldowns, then I added hyperextensions at the end of the workout.

Thursday, October 25, 2007
Shock Therapy
Smith Behind-neck press
10×105
3×8x125
Seated DB lateral raise
2×10x25s
10×20s -> 10×10s
Seated DB front raise
2×10x20s
6×20s -> 10×10s
Standing bent cable lateral raise
2×10x25s
10×20s -> 6×15s
Standing side lateral raises
2×10x15s

Friday, October 26, 2007
Shock Therapy
Deadlifts
10×135
10×225
2×6x315
6×275 (wide)
10×225 (wide)
BB rows
3×10x135
BB shrugs
3×10x315
25×225
Lat pulldown
12×120
12×110
12×100
Hyperextensions
3×10xBW

Today was a great leg day. Due to the fact that I seemed to have more energy today, especially compared to normal leg days, because whenever I know I have that painful, exhausting, not fun workout to not look forward to, it just doesn’t sit with me. However today, I don’t know why, but I just seemed more energized, and didn’t get that "throw-up" feeling that I normally get, even though I was completely exhausted from the workout, since I increased the weights this week. Went back to normal squats, as opposed to front squats that I’ve been doing the past few weeks. This week, I added a 10 on each side to go with the progressive overload that is needed for growth. Also, my last set of leg press, I threw on an extra plate, however, even though I did them with proper form, I think I’ll stick to the norm. To prove that I felt better today, normally, after those two exercises, I have to do calves, which as strange as it seems, is more like a break for my legs, so that I can continue with leg extensions. But this week I went straight to the extensions, with decent performance. I tried for the first time to do leg press calf raises, however, the leg press we have at my gym is not suited for that. Rather that simply following a track in a straight line like most normal leg presses, ours has more of a curved motion, so it makes it difficult to do them, as the machine comes into contact with the back of your legs at the top, limiting you in this exercise. I still tried two sets, but then went to the standing calf raises, where I finished off my workout.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Shock Therapy
Squats
15×95 -> 10xBW
10×135
8×185
6×245
6×245 -> 10xBW
Leg press
2×10x450
10×540
6×630
Leg extension
2×12x100
12×100 -> 5×55
Leg Press Calf Raises
25×180
20×270
Standing calf raises
10×300 -> 10×200 -> 10xBW
12×200 -> 10×100 -> 10xBW
15×100 -> 15xBW

Today’s BodyBlog outlines the workouts from last Wednesday, up to today.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Shock Therapy
5 minutes treadmill
Front Squats
2×10x135
2×8x155
Leg Press
2×10x450
2×10x540
Superset
    Donkey Calves
    3×15x270
    Seated Calves
    3×15x90
Leg Extension
2×15x100
12×100

Thursday, October 18, 2007
Shock Therapy
Smith Behind-neck press
10×105
3×8x125
Seated DB laterals
8×30s
10×25s
12×20s
Smith Wide-grip Upright row
12×65
12×75
12×85
Standing Bent cable laterals
12×25s
10×25s
10×20s -> 5×15s
Standing Side cable laterals
2×10x15s

Friday, October 19, 2007
Shock Therapy
Deadlifts
10×135
10×225
2×4x315
6×275 (wide grip)
10×225 (wide grip)
BB rows
3×10x135
BB shrugs
3×10x315
25×225
Wide seated cable row
2×10x130
15×85
Lat pulldown
3×12x100

Monday, October 22, 2007
Shock Therapy
Incline Bench
10×135
10×155
6×185
4×205
4×225
Flat DB press
3×8x80s
12×65s
Decline DB flyes
2×12x40s
15×30s
Machine chest press
3×15x130
Pec-Deck flye
3×15x55

Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Shock Therapy
Close grip EZ curls
12×50
10×60
2×8x70
Smith Close-grip bench
12×105
10×155
10×175
8×175
Incline DB curls
8×40s
10×30s
10×25s
12×20s
Overhead DB extension
2×12x75
10×75
Superset
    DB hammer curls
    2×12x30s
    12×25s
    15×20s
    Striaght-bar pressdown
    4×15x145
Superset
    BB wrist curls
    20×50
    15×50
    20×30
    Behind-back wrist curls
    15×50
    10×50
    15×30

I’ve been way too lazy when it comes to these BodyBlogs recently, and since this update includes 6, count em, 6 workouts, I will be brief, and not bother with the analysis.

Friday, October 5, 2007
Shock Therapy
Reverse grip Pulldown
2×12x80
3×8x160
6×160
Reverse grip BB row
2×8x185
2×10x135
BB shrugs
3×10x315
20×225 -> 20×135
Close grip cable row
10×115 -> 8×115 -> 6×115
10×100 -> 8×100 -> 6×100
Straight-arm pulldown
3×15x40

Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Shock Therapy
5 minutes tread
Front Squats
2×10x135
8×155
4×185
Leg press
2×10x450
2×10x540
Seated calves
3×20x100
Leg extension
3×15x70

Thursday, October 11, 2007
Shock Therapy
Incline Bench
10×135
10×155
6×185
6×205
3×225
Dips
3×10xBW
Incline DB press
10×50s
2×10x55s
Incline cable flye
12×40s
12×30s
15×25s
Straight-bar pressdown
15×130
12×145
12×160
10×160 -> 8×115 -> 10×70
DB kickback
2×12x15
12×10

Friday, October 12, 2007
Shock Therapy
Reverse grip BB row
2×10x95
2×10x135
8×185
6×205
Reverse grip Pulldown
2×8x145
2×12x115
Close grip cable row
8×145
10×115
15×85
1-arm preacher
10×40
10×35
10×30
12×25
High cable curls
2×12x40
12×30s

Monday, October 15, 2007
Shock Therapy
Incline Bench
10×135
10×155
6×185
4×205
4×225
Flat DB press
3×8x80s
10×65s
Decline DB flyes
2×12x40s
15×30s
Incline Cable crossover
2×12x40s
15×30s
Hanging knee raises
3×10xBW
Crunches
3×15

Tusday, October 16, 2007
Shock Therapy
Close-grip BB curl
2×12x50
2×10x70
2×6x80
Bench dips
12xBW
10×45
2×10x90
10×90 -> 5xBW
Incline DB curls
10×35s
8×30s
8×25s
10×20s
Superset
    Skull crushers
    4×10x60
    Close-grip bench
    4×10x60
Superset
    DB hammer curls
    2×12x30s
    12×25s
    15×20s
    straight-bar pressdown
    4×15x145

Omg, today was one of the greatest arm workouts ever. I don’t think I’ve ever felt a pump like this. Even though today was supposed to be leg day, I just felt that my legs weren’t up to it today, and besides, I missed yesterday’s arm workout, so I went ahead with that. Started with EZ curls, the main staple. For my main triceps mass builder, I did close-grip bench press with heavy weight. Proceeded to machine preacher curl 21’s. Followed by a new variation of a favorite; I did overhead DB extensions, but with dumbbells in each hand, to do them simultaneously, but I think the traditional way is better. Finally, I supersetted high cable curls with tricep pushdowns. The end result was what I think was the greatest arm pump ever.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Shock Therapy
5 minutes treadmill
EZ curls
12×40
10×60
3×8x70
close-grip bench
10×155
10×175
9×175
6×175
Machine preacher
3 x 21’s x 65
Bilateral DB overhead extension
10×35s
2×8x35s
Superset
High cable curls
3×15x30s
Cable pushdown
15×85
15×100
15×115

Before I get into my description of my chest routine, I’d like to congradulate my idol Ronnie Coleman on his Mr. Olympia performance. Even though I was cheering him on from home, hoping he’d be blessed with a 9th Mr. O title, I was amazed with how he performed and how he said farewell to the Olympia stage with such grace and dignity. I won’t really get into my reasons for me thinking Jay shouldn’t have won (Victor Martinez should have) but that’s how I feel. We’ll miss you Ronnie, you were the greatest to ever grace the sport of bodybuilding.
But on to my chest routine. A couple tweeks as usual: elliminated DB pullovers, included the chest press machine, and put my incline DB press/flye superset second in the routine. Since the inclines were now second in the routine, there was greater weight used, for a better feel. The chest press machine is good towards the end of the workout, as it doesn’t burn out my tris like the DB pullovers or dips do, so I have some energy left in my tris for tomorrows arm workout. And yeah, I did abs too today, where I took out hanging knee raises and put in weighted decline crunches and incline reverse crunches.

Monday, October 1, 2007
Shock Therapy
Decline bench
10×135
8×185
6×205
9×225
Superset
Incline DB press
10×70s
10×60s
10×55s
Incline DB flyes
3×10x25s
Machine chest press
3×12x130
10×145
Cable crossover
3×20x40s
Decline crunches
3 x (10×25 -> 5xBW)
Incline reverse crunches
3×10xBW

I finally reached 100 BodyBlogs. That’s a lot of time taken for these, and I’ll continue to do it because I like doing it. Today’s entry is the log of today’s back workout. It was amazing, I don’t think I’ve been able to get a pump in my back like that in a while. I had a good, tight feeling, like my skin couldn’t stretch any farther when I’d flex my back. This week, there were a few changes. First of all, I switched to reverse grip pulldowns, still heavy. My next exercise was one arm DB rows, nice and heavy; it’s been quite a while since I’ve tried those. Next, I upped the weight for my barbell shrugs, felt good. After that, I moved to seated cable rows, where I used a close grip this time, which felt awesome, I think it’s what gave me such a good pump. And Finally, I finished with straight-arm pulldowns as usual.

Friday, September 28, 2007
Shock Therapy
5 minutes treadmill
Reverse grip pulldowns
2×12x85
4×6x160
DB rows
2×8x100
2×10x80
BB shrugs
3×10x315
15×225 -> 20×135
Close-grip seated cable row
2 x (10×100 -> 8×100 -> 6×100)
Straight-arm pulldown
3×15x40

Two great workouts to log today. First, Wednesday, which as usual was leg day, and a good one at that. My first two exercises, squats and leg press, were done the same as before, but for some reason felt better this week. After these, instead of moving on to leg curls, followed by leg extension, where I’d be too exhausted when I got to the extensions, this week, I skipped the leg curls and went straight to leg extensions. This I think was a good idea, because I felt a better pump in my quads, and I can feel the after-effects today. To make up for skipping the leg curls, I did two calf exercises. First, I did seated calf raises, nothing really spectacular there. Next, I went to do standing calves, but there were about 5 guys using the standing calf machine at the time. But the machine that I guess is supposed to resemble a sort of donkey calf machine was not being used, and I’ve never even touched it before, so my curiosity made me give it a try. What I found is that I felt nothing, I only performed one set and gave it up, and I think I won’t bother touching it again. Fortunately, the 5 guys left the standing calf raises, so I moved in and finished my workout there.
Today, I just got back right now from a good shoulder workout. Not much changed, except I swapped seated bent over lateral raises for the incline bench variation, which was my old favorite. Although, now I think I prefer the bent over version. Other than that, just a few tweeks to the weights/reps today.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Shock Therapy
Squats
15×95 -> 10xBW
12×135
8×185
2 x (6×225 -> 10xBW)
Leg press
4×10x450
Leg extension
2×15x70
12×70 -> 5×50
Seated calves
25×100
2×15x100
Standing calves
2 x (12×120 -> 15xBW)

Thursday, September 27, 2007
Shock Therapy
5 minutes Bike
Smith behind-neck press
10×105
2×8x125
10×125
Overhead DB press
2×10x50s
10×50s -> 6×30s
8×50s -> 8×30s
DB front raise
10×20s
8×20s -> 8×10s
7×20s -> 8×10s
Incline rear laterals
10×20s
8×20s -> 8×10s
10×15s -> 10×10s
Seated side lateral
12×15s
2 x (10×15s -> 10×10s)
20×10s

Well, there were lots of changes to this week’s arm workout, including trying a new exercise. But let’s start from the beginning. First of all, I was glad to see that my gym finally bought a new EZ curl bar, because we’ve only had 1 for about a month. Yet I was surprised, that sucker is HEAVY! Plus the bar feels thicker, and has a slightly different curve (just on the wider portion of the grip). Anyways, I’ve been wanting to use the EZ curl bar for BB curls for a while, since I like them better. Next, I did weighted bench dips, which felt great, not much more to say about them. After that, I went to the preacher curl bench to do 1-arm DB preacher curls, two heavy sets, then two lighter sets. Followed by two sets of 1-arm reverse grip tricep pushdowns and two sets of heavy regular tricep pushdowns. As for the new exercise, I finally tried spyder curls (lay on an incline bench, let bar hang and did curls with that). I did a couple sets with just the bar, and for my last set of those, I used the bar, followed by drop sets using dumbbells. And finally, finished with BB wrist curls.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Shock Therapy
EZ curls
12×50
10×60
8×70
6×80
4×80
Bench dips
12xBW
10×45
10×70 -> 5xBW
10×90 -> 8xBW
1-arm DB preacher
2×8x40
2×12x30
1-arm Reverse grip tricep pushdown
12×25
10×30
Tricep pushdown
12×70
10×85 -> 10×55 -> 15×25
Spyder curls
12×50
10×50
10×40 -> 8×15s (DB) -> 15×10s (DB)
BB wrist curls
30×50
15×50
10×50
20×30
15×30

I guess I’m still experiencing the increasing effects of being back on creatine, because the numbers keep getting bigger, but they’ve slowed down now, so I guess I’m almost fully "loaded" by now. Last Friday’s back workout was just like the week before, except for the fact that I took 5 minutes on the treadmill to warm up, and there were more reps and higher weights used. So, there’s really not much to say about it. Today’s chest workout, I was able to increase the reps on my decline bench by 1, always good, and I swapped dips for DB pullovers. Unfortunately, just like dips, the pullovers seem to fatigue my triceps, so I hope they’ll be fine for my next workout (arms), but I think they’ll be in good condition by then. And today, I didn’t do as many ab exercises due to time constraints, but still hit em hard.

Friday, September 21, 2007
Shock Therapy
Treadmill 5 minutes
Pulldowns
2×12x80
3×6x160
6×160 -> 4×160 (r.p.)
BB rows
2×10x135
2 x [8×135 -> 4×135 (r.p.)]
BB shrugs
4×12x275
20×185 -> 20×135
Seated Cable rows
2 x (10×100 -> 8×100 -> 6×100)
Straight-arm pulldown
3×15x40

Monday, September 24, 2007
Shock Therapy
Decline Bench
10×135
8×185
6×205
9×225
DB pullover
4×10x60
Superset
     Incline DB press
     3×10x50s
     Incline DB flyes
     3×10x20s
Cable crossover
3×20x40s
Hanging knee raises
3×10xBW
Decline crunches
3×10xBW