StrongerGeek’s BodyBlog

Chest/Back
I took yesterday off.  My back was still pretty sore.  It still feels a little funky today, but good enough to hit the gym.
Today I did a medium-heavy chest and back day.  I did 170 lbs x 10 on the bench and only (sigh) 8 pullups, both which I was disppointed with.  The only other thing of note is I decided to do light one-arm rows, but I did them superslow (with 5 second up phase and 5 second down phase).  I’ve never really tried that before, and believe me it’s a whole new challenge!

Yesterday: Shoulder, Arms, Abs

Today: Cardio

Yesterday I did a medium-light shoulder and arms workout, followed by some ab work.  Today was just cardio.

My back is still sore.  It’s getting better, and certainly isn’t killing me anymore, but I’m taking it easy for a bit.  The diet has been good lately, except I’ve been drinking a lot of caffeine.

Legs

Well this workout was supposed to be yesterday, but I woke up Sunday with a really sore back.  The day before I had had a fairly heavy workout and then I had done a lot of hard work around the house.  Ugh.  Today I was still pretty damn sore, but I went to the gym and did a pretty light leg workout.  My back frustrates the hell out of me.

So I was too nervous to do anything heavy so I did a slumpbuster sort of workout.  I did 10 sets of 10 rep squats supersetted with one-leg bodyweight-only calf raises.  The squats started with 45 lbs and were incremented 10 lbs each time.  The ten set was finished with 135 lbs on the bar.  I then did supersets of leg-extensions and calf-raises with a similar incremental scheme.

As usual a light workout always help it feel better.  I’m glad I went.

The trick for me is to not throw out the baby with the bathwater.  I was very tempted yesterday to throw my diet to the wind and gorge myself on everything I’ve been "missing" the last year and a half.  The only weakness I showed, however, was I had a bowl of my wife’s "Go Lean".  Funny how now I view that as junk food (although I realize it is far better than most of the cereals out there) while for a long time I view that as a fairly healthy snack.

Chest/Back

I got 165 lbs x 13 today on the first bench press set.  I think I’m going to move up to 170 lbs next time, instead of waiting to get 15 reps which was my initial plan.  That’s just a few too many reps for this exercise, I think.  I supersetted these with pullups again and got 10 on the first set.  (I’m in awe of Al’s recent reports of 17 pullups.  Wow!)

Nothing else of real note.  It was a good workout.  I had a little extra time today after the workout, so I soaked in my gym’s hottub.  I’ve never done that before.  It’s a nice way to end a workout.

Abs and Cardio

I took yesterday off.  My body just needed a break.  Today, I did abs and 20 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical.

I read a book recently that estimated that 30% of people born in 2000 will eventually have type 2 diabetes.  Good lord that’s a lot of people.   Thing #2 was born that year and his diet leaves a lot to be desired.  (Things #1 and #3 seem to natually eat much heathier for some reason).  It’s a constant stuggle to keep him from loading up soley on bread, fruit, and sugary carbs.  We are slowly trying to move him towards a healthier eating pattern, but it’s been very difficult.  Over the last year, we’ve at least gotten him to eat carrots and lettuce in very small portions at dinner.  But his food of preference is still a bagel loaded with cream cheese or a piece of pizza.  He’s going through withdrawal as we gradually are removing some of the worst offenders (frozen waffles for example) from our grocery list.  I don’t want to make him change things instantly just because I decided to go on a health kick last year, but on the other hand, I am sort of worried about him.

Shoulders and Arms

Today was a very successful workout.  I finally got 5×5x100lbs on the overhead press.  Woohoo.  I had been stuck there for a while.  Also, I got 85 lbs x 13 on the barbell curl.  I had decided to lower the weight and raise the rep count on this one since I had gotten stuck on my 5×5 there, and it’s been paying off with slow and steady progress.  I’ll be raising the weight on both these exercises next time.  Everything else was good, but not noteworthy.

Tonight I need to get some abs work in.

Legs

The back was feeling pretty strong today, so I squatted a bit heavier with less reps, just to see what I could do.  Here were the results:

• 185 lbs x 8
• 205 lbs x 8
• 210 lbs x 8
• 215 lbs x 8
• 220 lbs x 8
• 230 lbs x 5

That’s the heaviest I’ve squatted in a while.  I supersetted calf-raises in between these sets.  Next my normal supersetted leg-extensions and curls.  Then finally, I finished up with some box jumps like I did last time.

Yesterday there was a little pansiness in the diet, I’m afraid.  I had a bowl of ice-cream with the kids.  Oops.

Chest/Back and Abs

I didn’t go to the gym Sunday, but I did get in 15 minutes of swimming in my home pool, followed by a vicious game of softball.  It was an end of the season parents vs. kids game, and I consoled my children on their loss by telling them that they would win if the game were played again today, since most of my teammates wouldn’t be able to move now.

Today was a chest/back abs day.  I got 165 lbs x 12 on the bench.  Better than last time, but I’m still struggling through this plateau.  I again supersetted bench with pullups (I only got 9 on the first set today, darnit!).  I decided just because it was hard to superset or just because it hurt my numbers didn’t mean I shouldn’t do it.  These two exercises are my main focus on this workout, and by supersetting them I can really cut down on how long I spend at them, and thus don’t need to rush through the rest of the workout to get back to work.

I really cranked on volume today.  After 5 bench/pullup sets, I then did 5 seated cable row/pushup supersets, then 5 sets of one-arm rows supersetted with assisted dips.  My chest was nicely worked, but I’m really feeling my lats now.

I had a little time extra today, so I hit the abs at the end of the workout and then did 5 minutes of intense cardio before hitting the shower.

It’s funny how different people have to work hard for different things.  There are many people at my gym who need to lose some BF (they’re in the 20-30% range) but who are impressively strong.  One guy today worked in on my cable rows and he was killing me, by lifting twice what I do.  Their strength comes somewhat naturally, but they stuggle with their weight and CV fitness.  I’m exactly the opposite.  My BF% keeps falling without me doing much more than eating well and hitting the elliptical.  But it is a constant struggle to get stronger.  We each have our challenges I guess.

Legs

I supersetted squats and calf-raises today.  I kept the squat weight light, but went for medium high reps 185 lbs x15, x14, x12, x10, x9.  I also kept the rest between the sets under a minute, which made them a challenge.  I followed these up with supersetted leg-extensions and leg-curls.  Finally, for kicks, I did some box-jumps to finish things off.  It was a quick in-and-out workout, but a good one.
Diet was good yesterday.  My wife wants to take the kids out for ice-cream tonight to celebrate the end of baseball season.  I will be strong!

Abs and Cardio

I was in a funky, foul mood last night because of crap at work, so I asked my wife if after dinner she minded if I went back to the gym.  I did fifteen minutes of ab work and then hit the elliptical for 20 minutes of HIIT.  I then took a long hot shower and went home.  I was in a much better mood after this.

I have a leg day coming up today.