Ludlum3k’s BodyBlog

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

This is the update for the past 3 workouts I’ve done. Starting with Tuesday’s arm workout, not much really worth going into detail about, just changed my first tricep exercise from overhead DB extension to triceps dips. Although, this time I didn’t feel the dips the same way that I normally do, so it was a little dissappointing. The other change was instead of supersetting preacher curl 21’s and DB kickbacks, I supersetted the preacher 21’s with reverse grip 1-arm tricep pushdowns. Again, I tried to really thrash the BB wrist curls to bring up my hand strength, and yeah, I’d say I gave it everything I had, because after the workout, I didn’t even have the strength in my hands left to open the door to the locker room without needing both hands lol.
Yesterday, Wednesday, was leg day, and after trying a new approach last week, I didn’t think it served its purpose, so I went back to my normal leg work. Heavier weights with lower reps seem to work better for me. I worked back up to 2 plate squats, which it’s been a while since I’ve done that much, and I tried to include bodyweight squats immediately following the weighted ones to get a better pump. Plus, since I have little-to-no muscular endurance, last week, after trying higher rep squats, I had nothing left to do the following exercises, but this week, I was able to continue properly. Heavy leg press again, always fun (yeah right). And the rest was normal.
Today, another great shoulder workout. I decided to do 5 minutes on the treadmill to get myself warmed up, so yeah, nothing really special. The rest was the same fashion as last week, was able to do a bit more volume this week. Nothing much to say about it. So here are my numbers

Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Shock Therapy
BB curls
12×50
10×60
8×70
8×80
Triceps dips
12xBW
2×10xBW
8xBW
Incline DB curls
2×12x25s
6×25s -> 6×15s
Superset
     Decline skull crushers
     2×10x70
     10×60
     Close grip bench press
     2×10x70
     10×60
Superset
     Preacher curls
     2 x 21’s x 50
     21’s x 40
     reverse grip 1-arm tri pushdown
     12×30
     12×25
     15×25
BB wrist curls
30×50
15×50
25×30

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Shock Therapy
squats
15×95 -> 10xBW
12×135
8×185
2 x (6×225 -> 10xBW)
Leg press
4×10x450
Seated leg curls
10×130
10×130 -> 6×100
10×100 -> 10×70
Leg extension
2 x (10×70 -> 10×55)
Standing calf raises
10×300 -> 10×160 -> 10xBW
10×200 -> 10×100 -> 10xBW
15×100 -> 15xBW

Thursday, September 20, 2007
Shock Therapy
5 minutes Treadmill
Smith Behind-Neck press
10×105
8×125
6×135
6×145
Overhead DB press
2×10x50s
8×50s -> 8×30s
7×50s -> 7×30s
DB front raise
10×20s
8×20s -> 8×10s
6×20s -> 10×10s
Seated bent DB laterals
10×20s
8×20s -> 10×10s
10×15s -> 10×10s
Seated DB side lateral
12×15s
2 x (10×15s -> 10×10s)
15×10s

Oh my God, never have I had such concrete evidence of the effectiveness of using supplements, such as Shock Therapy and Storm. Today was my first chest and abs workout since I’ve been back on the stack, and wow, I never guessed there would be this much improvement. Last week, I didn’t have the advantage of using Shock and Storm for my chest workout, because they arrived on Tuesday, so this week, I expected a little improvement, but was I wrong (in a good way). My first exercise again was decline bench press, where last week, I worked up to 225 for 4 reps, where I needed a lot of help from the spotter on the 4th, but this week, I expected about 6 maybe, but I somehow did 8, with little help on the final rep! Furthermore, normally, I struggle with dips when they are second in my workout, but today I had no problem. On incline DB press, supersetted with incline DB flyes, I didn’t expect to use 50’s for all 3 sets (for presses), and all for 10 reps each, but somehow I did. And for cable crossovers, last week I used 30’s on the stacks, this week I used 40’s for the same amount of sets/reps. As for abs, same applied, I had more muscular endurance to do more than ever. Here are the numbers, check last week’s chest workout to compare.

Monday, September 17, 2007
Shock Therapy
Decline bench press
10×135
8×185
6×205
8×225
Dips
2×8xBW
2 x (6xBW -> 4 x Negatives)
Superset
     Incline DB press
     3×10x50s
     Incline DB Flyes
     3×10x20s
Cable crossover
3×20x40s
Hanging knee raises
3×10
Decline crunches
3×10
Superset
     Crunches
     3×10
     Lying leg raises
     3×10

Despite being down in the dumps for various reasons, I was able to pull off a crazy back workout which left me more pumped than ever. Thanks to my Shock Therapy, which always gets my mind set right for the gym, I was able to temporarily forget about my troubles and work my back harder than ever. Rather than attempt some terrible pullups like I did last week, I decided to go about it a different way; by doing heavy lat pulldowns that will hopefully help bring me back up to standard so I can do pullups in the future. I was able to do a few straight heavy sets, but on my last set, once I reached failure I did a rest-pause and then flipped the grip and banged out a couple more reps. Next was bent barbbell rows, which were great. I forgot to mention that in almost every exercise today I used the rest-pause technique, as I’ve discovered it works well for my back. Barbbell shrugs were next as usual, followed by wide-grip seated cable rows and finally straight-arm pulldowns.

Friday, September 14, 2007
Shock Therapy
Pulldowns
2×12x80
6×150
2×6x160
4×140 -> 4×160 (r.p)
Bent BB rows
2×10x135
2 x (6×135 -> 4×135)
BB shrugs
4×15x225
20×135 -> 20×135 (r.p)
Seated cable rows
2 x (10×100 -> 8×100 -> 6×100)
Straight-arm pulldown
3×15x40

I’d like to just say a little bit about how I feel about things right now. Although I’m in a very depressed mood right now, I find comfort in the fact that I can always count on the gym to help me out. I know it’s corny, but even when I’m feeling lower than ever, once I enter the gym, I feel like it’s my temple, where I can forget my troubles of the outside world, where all I have to worry about is completeing my sets, getting stronger, getting better, feeling better about myself, clear out my aggression, and feel like I belong. Many people don’t understand it, they just think I’m a gym rat who just wants to get bigger to support an ego, they think that of everyone in the gym. But I don’t give a ****, I’ve learned to leave the ego at the door, I don’t care what others think of me there. When I’m in the gym, it’s just me and the weights, the other people there are just obsticles, some who wanna judge me, but I don’t bother caring about that. The weights are my friends, the ones I can always count on. I can slam em down, do whatever, and they sit there waiting for more. Like the sayin from the famous YouTube video "Bodybuilding: A Life Style" ‘friends may come and go, but two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds’ - Henry Rollins. I believe this, and it’s why I never want to quit this lifestyle. No matter how much pain I suffer from it, how much time it takes, how much money it takes, or if people close to me don’t like it, I LOVE IT!!! And I wanna thank the whole bodybuilding community, including everyone here at BodySpace, for giving me this feeling, and especially those who know how I feel, Thak You all…

Holy sh*t, I have not had a shoulder workout that good in a long time. I was so spent, that by the time I went to the locker room after, I had to struggle to lift my arms when changing my shirt! It’s not like there was too much different, just the intensity level was a lot higher than normal. Again, I started with the behind-the-neck press at the Smith machine, followed by seated DB shoulder press. Next, I did seated DB front raise, which I havn’t done in a little while, which always hits my shoulders hard. Next was seated bent over lateral raises, and finally seated side lateral raises. As usual, lots of drop sets were used to thoroughly pump the muscles.

Thursday, September 13, 2007
Shock Therapy
Smith behind-neck press
10×105
8×125
6×135
6×145
Seated DB shoulder press
2×10x50s
8×50s -> 8×30s
6×50s -> 6×30s
DB front raise
10×20s
8×20s -> 8×10s
6×20s -> 8×10s
Seated bent over laterals
10×20s
8×20s -> 8×10s
10×15s -> 8×10s
Seated side laterals
12×15s
2 x (10×15s -> 8×10s)

On Tuesday, for the first time in a looong time, I was finally able to devote an entire workout entirely to arms, and what a feeling it was that I’ve been missing. It was a pretty straight forward arm workout consisting of: barbbell curls, Overhead DB extension, Incline DB curls, Decline skull crushers supersetted with close-grip bench, a superset of preacher curl 21’s and DB kickbacks, and finally some brutal BB wrist curls. My focus on the wrist curls was to try and improve the endurance and strength within my grip, which was done by really trying to work the hands more than the upper forearms. I did this by doing them in normal fashion letting the bar roll to the ends of my fingers and curling the bar all the way up, but when fatigue in the forearms set in, I continued to just do the first portion of the movement, bringing my wrists to parallel with the floor. And let’s just say it was a struggle to open my combination lock in the locker room after.
As for Wednesday, after FINALLY recieving my shipment from BB.com, I was ready for a brutal leg day. And since it’s been so long since I’ve had a stack to work with, when I took the Shock Therapy, it was as if it was my first time all over again, I was AMPED. The proof of its effectiveness was in the total amount of work I was able to do compared to last week, and I didn’t have to sit in the locker room for 30 minutes trying to keep from passing out (this time it was only 10 minutes lol). I changed the plan for squats because I’ve been doing a lot of reading to find that many people benefit from higher rep work for legs, and realized that I’ve never given it a try. So I warmed up with 15 reps with a 95 lb bar, immediately followed by 10 reps with my bodyweight, and let me say, it felt more like a working set, due to my lack of muscular endurance, so it was burning! This was followed by 4 sets with 12 reps (which is high reps for me) with only 135. And boy was I dead, I don’t know how I mustered up the strength to do the rest of the workout, but I did. Next was leg press, where again I lowered the weight a bit, and worked a total higher amount of reps. Seated leg curls were the same, done with relatively heavy weight for an isolation move, but with drop sets to achieve a huge pump. Leg extensions were next, where I did more than last week, and I did them until I couldn’t even get complete reps done with a little 55 setting on the machine. Finally, I did standing calf raises, kind of self explaining below.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
BB curls
12×50
10×60
8×70
7×80
Overhead DB extension
15×40
3×10x75
Incline DB curls
2×8x30s
5×30s -> 5×20s
Superset
    Decline skull crushers
    2×10x70
    10×60
    Close grip bench
    2×10x70
    10×60
Superset
    Preacher curls
    3 x 21’s x 40
    DB kickback
    10×15
    12×10
    15×10
BB wrist curls
25×50
20×50
25×30

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
SHOCK THERAPY
Squats
15×95 -> 10xBW
4×12x135
Leg press
4×10x360
Seated leg curls
10×130
8×130 -> 8×100
10×100 > 8×70
Leg extension
10×70 -> 8×55
10×70 -> 8×55
Standing calf raises
10×300 -> 10×160 -> 10xBW
10×200 -> 10×100 -> 10xBW
15×100 -> 15xBW

Just finished an insane chest and ab workout. Kind of strapped for time right now, so I’ll be brief. Started with decline bench, working the weight up each set. Next I went to do incline DB press, yet all of the incline benches were in use, so I did a set of flat DB press, but after my first set, the incline bench next to me became available so I took it and did 3 sets of inclines. Then it was back to the flat bench for some DB flyes, first set with just heavy weight, next two sets with heavy weight and a drop set. Followed by chest press machine, nothing special. To finish my chest, I built upon my experiment from last week with the cable crossovers. After noticing that the bent over portion of last week’s 3-part-set had no feeling, I eliminated it and this week I simply would do 10 reps upright immediately followed by 10 reps leaning forward, and this worked much better. For abs I simply did hanging knee raises and crunches.

Monday, September 10, 2007
Decline bench
10×135
8×185
8×205
4×225
Flat DB press
10×60s
Incline DB press
10×60s
8×60s
10×45s
Flat DB flyes
8×40s
2 x (6×40s -> 6×25s)
Chest press machine
10×130
12×115
15×100
Cable crossover
3×20x30s
Hanging knee raises
3×10xBW
Crunches
3×12xBW