StrongerGeek’s BodyBlog

Well I got to the gym and put in a rather lame upper body workout.  It was the first workout in my new program for 2009.  My shoulder is still sore, but still better than it was last workout.  I need to be patient, I guess.

I benched 5 x 5 x 150 lbs.  I was planning on doing 165 lbs, but after a warm-up set, I decided I shouldn’t push it with the shoulder.  I was really disappointed I could only do 7 pullups today, seeing as I managed 10 just a few weeks back.  I can see a few factors that hurt me here.  One, I put them later in the workout, where previously they were the first thing I did.  Second, I slept terribly last night.  Third, I haven’t been doing my daily one set of pullups (à la Diver_Dave) for over a week, trying to just let my shoulder rest.  I also tried doing some dips today.  I’ve never really done them before.  It was okay, but I’m not sure the shoulder liked them too much.  I could only do 7 of them, but it wasn’t the pecs that stopped me, but rather my shoulder.  Maybe I’ll do these with the Gravitron for a while with less weight and more reps until the shoulder is happier.

I’m making it sound like the shoulder is really bad here.  It’s really not.  I’m just being very cautious.  I messed it up once before and I’m paranoid about a repeat.  On a brighter note, I did overhead shoulder press (with absolutely no pain at all) 40 lbs dumbbells x 13.  That was a PR.  Then I DB curled 40 lbs x 10, another PR.

It wasn’t a horrible workout, but it wasn’t the best either…

My wife sent me out grocery shopping, and I decided to go get my abs/cardio workout in before hitting the store.  The workout was good, and this means that tomorrow I can do my upper body workout…

When I got home tonight I proceeded to eat… everything… It was all good food, no garbage, but there was a hell of a lot of it.  I do want to gain weight, so I’m not all that upset about this really, but I was sort of shocked at the sheer volume of what I ate tonight.

Today was the last leg workout of 2008 and it wasn’t too shabby.

I squatted 5×5x190lbs.  5×5 is a weird thing.  I’ve only done it a few times, but each time so far, I’ve had the sensation that I’m being wimpy on the first couple of sets, and being insane on the last set.  I don’t know how I feel about the whole 5×5 scheme yet.  I will say it does something very good for my form.  I can maintain excellent form for 5 reps.

I also hamstring curled 80lbsx13 (a PR).  I will feel like a man when I can put two 45lbs weights on that machine like I see the big boys do.  I was also planning on doing some light dead-lifts today, but all the stations were occupied (sigh) so instead I did two sets of leg presses.  I did 400lbs x 10 on each set.  That’s a PR too.  I can not believe that one of my BodySpace friends here can leg press 1000lbs.  I can’t imagine lifting 2-1/2 times this weight!

My shoulder is continuing to get better.  I’m itching to get in the gym and do an upper body workout.  So much so that I was tempted to ditch the planned leg workout and go for it today… No, I will keep the schedule I planned out.  Today was leg day and the legs needed the workout.  Tomorrow is a abs/cardio day and the abs and heart need that workout.  And New Year’s Day (they gym is open until 1:30 that day, which is very very cool…) I will start my new upper body program with a very well rested shoulder ready to bomb and blast, as Dave Draper likes to say.

I got my first workout in, in four days.  It was supposed to be a cardio day, but I decided to do upper body instead.  My schedule is all whacky anyway due to traveling and the holiday etc.  I went super easy.  Not only was I just plain tired from the travel, I wanted to baby my right shoulder a bit.  It’s a lot better than Tuesday when I hurt it, but it’s not 100% that’s for sure.  I went easy on pretty much everything, lifting about 25-30% less weight than usual.  I felt wimpy on one level, but it was probably the smart way to go.  It actually feels better now than before the workout.  I love that.
I think I will go to the gym again tonight and do that abs/cardio workout.  While I didn’t eat horribly over the last 3 days, I didn’t exactly eat well either.  I need to jumpstart myself to get back on track.

I’ve been designing my goals for the new year, and I think I will have 4 strength based goals, plus my ever-elusive quest for nicer abs.  So for the record, here are the goals for 2009:

• Bench Press 225 lbs
• Barbell Curl 150 lbs
• Squat 275 lbs
• Deadlift 300 lbs
• Killer Abs

Of course I’ll still work on doing more pullups, but I reached 2008’s goal of ten, so it’s no longer an ‘official’ goal. I’ve purposely left off any rep count on the lift based goals.  In general, I generally think of a ten-rep set as a success, but I’m not going to be so inflexible.  I plan on doing 5×5’s for all four of those lifts, at least at first.  So if I master a 5 rep set at the target weight, I’ll count that too.

I’ve never really done real dead-lifting before, so I don’t know how hard 300 will be.  That number is pretty arbitrary.  But I wanted a goal of some kind for it.  I reserve the right to change this weight (or any of the others) as I get a feel for the lift at heavier weights.
I’ve designed my new workout schedule for 2009 and each one of these lifts : BB Press, BB Curl, Squat, and Dead-lift each have their own day where I will do a 5×5 for that lift.  Of course there are other exercises for these days as well, but the focus of the workout is the 5×5.

I had today off from work.  The gym was only open until 1:30 today, and I managed to get my leg workout in before it closed.  It was a good workout and I shook things up a bit.  I figured my schedule is shot anyway because of the upcoming holiday, so why not try some new things.
Today should have been a squatless day, but I honestly felt like I wanted to do squats.  Trust me, this is a rare occurrence.  I’ve been toying with the idea of doing 5×5 squats, so I tried 5×5x185 lbs.  I’ve never done a 5×5 before, so I wasn’t sure how much weight to use.  I finished with this weight handily, but by no means easily.  The last set was pretty hard.

I did my standard calf-raises, leg-extensions, and curls.  The latter two, I set PRs on with 180 lbs x 11 on the leg-extension and 80 lbs x 10 on the leg curl.  I was wrong, by the way, when I said 180 was the max weight on the extension machine.  I forgot about using the 100 lbs weights, which are stored on the leg-press machine.  Doh.  I’m a dimwit.  I’m not quite ready for those yet.  I think my knees need to get accustomed to this heavier weight for a while.
I was going to skip the leg-press today since I did squats, but I wasn’t in a rush and I know I’ve got extra rest coming up, so I put on 380 lbs and did two sets of 10 reps each.  That’s the most weight I’ve ever done on that machine.

I then did two sets of 70 lbs dead-lifts for 7 reps.  Here I’m not trying to accomplish anything except work on my form.   I am going to add weight here oh so slowly.  If you were as tall as I am, you’d understand my caution here.  I will be setting a (moderately light) dead-lift goal for 2009.

Another good leg workout.  How on earth did legs end up being my best body part?  It’s a complete reversal from six months ago.

Well I’ve been nervous about this happening.  My right shoulder is hurting a little today.  Not terribly bad, but not good either.  I think my failed attempt to get those 70 lbs dumbbells into position was the culprit…  That shoulder has given me trouble before, but it has been rather calm lately, even with the heavier benching, much to my delight.

I’ve been doing some research, and I don’t think it is actually the dreaded rotator cuff.  It just doesn’t have the right symptoms.  It may just be a strained tendon.  That is the good news.

I also saw this : http://www.orthomd.net/medInfo/BenchPress/Shoulderpainwtlifting.htm

which says you shouldn’t bring the dumbbells together to touch them at the top of your flyes.  I do that all the time…

My next bench day was supposed to be Friday, but because of the holiday, I won’t be able to lift until at least Sunday.  I’m hopeful that with 4 days of rest, it will get better.  In a complete turnaround from my previous plan, I’m thinking of dropping the dumbbell presses entirely in favor of the barbell press.

Well damn, I could only do 9 pullups today.  I sort of have an excuse.  At rep #6 or so, my grip slipped a little, and I ended up swinging side to side quite a bit for a couple of reps.  I plan to be back at ten next time.

I did 70 lbs x 12 on the dumbbell press.  I was happy with that PR.  On my third set, however, I couldn’t get the dumbbells into the position.  My arms just were not able to do it!  So I pressed some lighter weight on my 3rd set.  I guess I could ask some guys in the gym to help me ‘get it up’, but I figured they might get the wrong idea.  I still am struggling with how to get the dumbbells going when I start this lift.  I was easy back in the days when I was pressing 40 lbs, but 70 is a whole other ballgame.
I barbell curled 95 lbs x 7 today, which is a one-more-rep PR for this lift.
A good workout I guess, but I was a little disappointed with the pullups…

Cardio and Abs Day today.  Nothing exciting.  Cario went well.  After finishing I realized I was working out next to Thing #2’s school teacher, who is on break now.  Woah, she keeps up a mean elliptical pace…

After getting a quick shower, I realized (Doh) I forget a change of underwear.  I had to then choose between Scylla and Charybdis.  I could either go commando, or else turn my rather sweaty pair inside out and make the best of it.  I walked to the gym, and it’s damn cold outside, and I didn’t like the idea of a cold zipper getting stuck to the happy zone..  So you can infer which choice I made.

Maybe I shouldn’t have written this entry.  You all really didn’t need to know this, did you?

What a leg day!  I love my Saturday workouts.  During the week, I rush through everything, trying to get it all done so I can get back to work on time.  On Saturday I take my time between sets and really just concentrate a whole lot better.  That’s why I put squats on Saturday.  Squats should not be rushed.

Speaking of squats, they were nice today.  For the record, here’s what I did:

• 45 lbs x 15
• 95 lbs x 15
• 135 lbs x 12
• 185 lbs x 9
• 200 lbs x 3

Still not pushing the squats at 100%, but it feels good to do some heavier weights again.  My form is a lot better than it was even just a month ago.
After squats, I did three sets of calf-raise drop-sets with 250 lbs then 180 lbs.  My ankles were a little sore afterwards.  I had this problem once before many months ago and I backed off the weight for a couple weeks and everything was happy.  If they are sore again next leg workout, I make need to do that again.
Next, I decided to throw caution to the wind and I put on four 45 lbs weights (180 lbs for those with math phobia) on the leg extension machine and did 8 reps with it.  I proceeded with a drop-set of 135 lbs x 7 and 90 lbs x 7.  I did two sets of this nonesense.  God my legs were sore afterwards.  180 lbs is the most weight that machine can take, so once I get the rep count at that weight up a little higher I’m going to need to start doing one leg at a time, oh joy.

Last, but not least, I’m continuing to make good progress with the leg-curl too.  Today, I did 75 lbs (one leg) x 13 today and I’ll increase to 80 lbs next time.  Amazing that only just two months ago I was way back at 40-45 lbs!

I didn’t do leg-presses today, since I did squats, but I’ve recently ramped up my weight on these too.  Of course, I’m not pressing half a ton like I just read Tony did.  I’m doing around 350 lbs these days, but I’ve got 500 lbs in my sights for the near future.

Unbelievable.  Legs and back used to be my worst areas and now they have come so far.  Especially the legs.  Woah.  When I started this game, I couldn’t even leg-curl 35 lbs on one leg.  I’ve now well over doubled that.  Originally I was doing 45 lbs x 10 on the leg extension machine, and now I’ve quadrupled that!  Hell, I remember at the very beginning when I was working out at home, I couldn’t squat just my body weight and a broomstick 20 times.

I told my wife to start calling me "Quadzilla", but she isn’t going for it.

I wish I could make these gains in my upper body too.  There the struggle is harder.  I’ve made some good progress with my upper back recently, but nothing like what has happened with my legs.

Gadzooks there’s a lot of snow out there.  I really didn’t want to go to the gym today.  I finally went, allowing myself the luxury of driving instead of walking through the snow.  My workout lasted a little less than an hour.  When I came back out, there was over and inch and a half of snow on my car.  Good lord, that’s a lot of snow for an hour.

The workout was overall uninspiring.  I set a one-rep PR on the barbell benchpress doing 165 lbs x 8.  That lift is making me work for it, one rep at a time.  Chest is my weakest area, by far…  And that is why it will get the most attention…