StrongerGeek’s BodyBlog

Shoulders, Arms, and Abs

I had a nice, solid workout today.  I didn’t increase the weights of any of the exercises from my last arm/shoulder workout, but I did get a few more reps in on a few of them.  I haven’t been doing standing BB curls or standing overhead presses, thinking that the seated versions would protect my back more.  As is usually the case for me, my back feels better after working out.  (Running that mile last week was the exception, and I’m not sure if I’m going to try that again for a while…)

This is by far my favorite workout in the 4 way split  I do.  (The split is 1-arms/shoulders/abs, 2-legs, 3-chest/back, 4-cardio).  My arms are my only real success story.  They are a lot bigger than when I started.  I notice my legs, chest, and back have improved too, but not to the same degree.  My arms are the only thing I’m truly proud of right now.  I realize they are fairly small compared to some of the guys I see on here and in the gym, but I love how that vein runs down the length of my bicep now.  I never had that before I started lifting.  Sorry, TMI I’m sure.  My vanity is showing today.
Tomorrow morning is the meeting with my GP about my back.  I’m dubious she will be able to tell me much, but I’m hoping I’ll get a referral to a specialist who can tell me something.

I’ve been away from the computer recently, so I have some catching up to do.  Nothing amazing to report on the workout front.  Friday was legs, Saturday was a day off, Sunday was chest and back day, and today I did cardio.

My back has not been good, especially in the mornings.  I finally made an appointment to have my back looked at on Wednesday by my (new) GP.  I’ve started searching the internet for all sorts of information and it makes me all paranoid.  There are lots of really bad things this could turn out to be, with words I can’t even pronounce.  I think it is not unlikely she will say I have some sort of arthritis in my back.  My symptoms do seem to match pretty well and it is something my mother has.  Ugh.
If I do, how does that affect my workouts?  Can I still lift?  If so, am I allowed to lift heavy?  So many questions.

Wish me luck.

Arms and Shoulders

My back was aching this morning.  The worst it has been in a couple weeks.  I wonder if this is from the running yesterday, or if it is just a coincidence.  Only one way to find out.  I’m going to run again next week.  I got to the gym anyway and actually put in a rather heavy workout.  Let’s see, what’s worthy of note?
I did 5 sets of seated dumbbell overhead presses with 50 lbs dumbbells, with 9 reps on the first set.  That’s the heaviest weight I’ve ever used for that exercise.  I remember when I started lifting in Feb 2008 it was hard for me to use 25 lbs dumbbells on this one!  I sort of went into my workout with a sour mood because of my back.  But after the first set of this exercise, when I recalled this simple fact, my mood changed instantly.  I have made progress AND my back was way worse back then.  Progress has been made…
I did 5 sets of seated dumbbell curls with 45 lbs dumbbells.  These were brutal today, but I was happy with them.

Everything else was good, but not worthy of note.   I normally do abs on this workout too, but the back was funky enough I decided just to do extra stretching.  If it calms down tonight, I’ll do them at home.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a leg day, but I might delay it one day and do cardio tomorrow instead.   We’ll see.

Mile Run

Well, I did it.  I "ran" a mile.  And I use the word ran loosely.  Somehow I managed to commit myself to trying this with Sharlott, so I needed to follow through.  There’s a measured mile in the park near my gym.  I walked to the gym, changed, and then hit the mile.  I timed it with my iPod’s stopwatch.  Oh how the mighty have fallen.  This former cross-country runner finished his mile in… drumroll please… 10 minutes and 40 seconds.

I wasn’t held up by cardio-vascular issues.  In fact, while I broke a sweat, I wasn’t really even breathing all that hard at the end.  But my back, shins, ankles, and the bottoms of my feet were all screaming by the time I stopped.  Oddly, my bad foot (the big toe has arthritis from an old injury) was fine.  So here’s the question.  If start doing this consistently, will those aches and pains go away?  Or will they become worse?  Interestingly I work a lot harder on the elliptical but don’t get these pains at all.
It seems to me there are certain things I should be able to do, just from a purely functional look at life.  Running a mile is one of them.  What time should I shoot for?

Alright, Sharlott, your turn…

Chest and Back

It was a good workout today, but I couldn’t help being disappointed with the bench.  I still only got 5 reps at 185 lbs.  In fairness, I didn’t have a spotter and I was too nervous to try the 6th rep.  That being said, I still don’t think I could have gotten that final rep.  I got 9 pullups today, which is the best I’ve done in a while, but again a bit of a disappointment.

I’ve lost a bit of weight since before Bermuda.  This morning I weighed in at 201.5 which is about 4 pounds down from my max.  I suspect I lost a fair bit of muscle and that’s why I’m having this frustration.  Diet.  Diet.  Diet.  I must eat more food!

That all sounds very negative, but that’s not a fair snapshot of my mood.  In fact, I’m pretty pumped.  While my back is still sore from time to time, especially each morning when I wake up, it is not longer preventing me from going to the gym.  This new stretching regimin is really been a positive thing for me.  I’m eager to keep working at it more and see if I can completely get rid of my back issues.

In fact, I have a new goal.  Don’t laugh please.  I want to run a mile.  I haven’t run a mile since the summer of 2007 when I injured my foot.  My foot plus my back problems basically have prevented me from running at all since then.  In fact, that is the major reason I took up weight training in the first place, because I couldn’t run anymore.  Now with the back improving, I’m excited to try again.  I’ll never run long distances because my foot injury is, unfortunately, permanant.  However, I think it could handle a mile once a week or so.  I might try running in a trail near my house this weekend.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes of all time by Richard Bach : Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.  I love this quote because I constantly must remind myself of its profound truth.

Legs

I went a little harder on the legs today.  Still nothing fantastic, but it was a big step up from my last leg workout.  My last set of squats was at 185 lbs, which is a far cry from before Bermuda, but I must respect my lower back as it heals.  I did hammer hard on the leg extensions and curls, and I finished with a set of walking lunges that I had trouble completing.  I will ramp it up again next leg workout again…

Arms, Shoulders, Abs

I will be forty in a month and a half.  Wow.  That went fast.  In honor of this event, my next cycle of workouts will be named, Fit for Forty.  Actually, I liked my Bermuda workout plan so much that this one isn’t going to be all that different.  About the only changes I’m making are:

• I will try to hit my legs a little harder on leg day, back willing.  I’ve been struggling with progress on my legs lately.  I seem to be able to hit the intensity on the upper body lately, but I wimp out on the legs.  Funny, it used to be exactly the opposite.
• I want to get three cardio sessions a week in, instead of two.

Today I worked arms, shoulder, and abs.  Nice, solid workout.  My diet has been relatively weak over the past week and today I have made a commitment to get it back on track.  I ate very well today and plan on continuing that this coming week.

I will be in the best shape of my life when I turn forty.  That is my goal.

Chest/Back

This is the first chest/back workout I’ve done in forever and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I decided on the bench press to try my hand at 185 lbs again.  Several months ago I managed 4 reps at this weight.  I was very disappointed I only got 5 reps today.  I was expecting a two week break to really let me blast it today.  In a sense 5 reps at 185 is a PR (it’s the most reps I’ve done at the highest weight I’ve attempted) but a rather hollow one.  I did get 3 sets in at least, each with five reps.  Then I dropped the weight down and did some higher volume stuff at 135 lbs.  Sigh.  The bench press is my nemesis.  Next chest workout, I’m going to attempt this weight again and see if I do any better.
I did pullups supersetted with that bench press.  I only did 8 reps on the first set, but I did them super slow today.  I read somewhere someone suggesting you do that to protect your lower back, and indeed they did feel more comfortable that way and gave my lats a great workout, but there was no way I could hit 10 reps.  I am jealous of Al and his 23 reps!  Al, that’s almost 3x what I can do…

I’m slowly progressing on my assisted dips on the gravitron.  I did 5 sets of 10 with 40 lbs of assistance.  I’ve slowly been reducing the assistance and am hoping to do them without help soon.

My back continues to feel really good.  I’ve really been religious/obsessive about stretching this week : in the morning when I get up, before and after my workout, in the exercise room at work in the middle of the day, and before bed.  It’s a lot of time, but it’s really making a huge difference…  And it’s making me a whole lot more motivated in the gym.  In fact, the biggest motivational hurdle I have at the gym is when my back is funky.  If I can really figure this out, I may even try my hand at deadlifting again…

That’s all I have.

Cardio

I’m not normally one to get too excited about a simple cardio workout, but today’s was just great.  I only did 20 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical with a 30 second on, 90 second off cycle.  But what a 20 minutes it was!  I pushed it with everything I had.  I was absolutely drenched in sweat when I finished… and it felt great.  I haven’t had a really good cardio workout like that in a long while.

I try not to be too judgemental of other people in the gym…  Hell, we all start somewhere…  But, I couldn’t help but criticize (in my head) the people on either side of me.  They had been on their machines long before I started my workout and they looked like they were going to be there long after I finished, but I didn’t even see a drop of sweat on either person.  The guy on my left was reading a magazine.  The woman on my right was talking on her cell phone.  Now I know HIIT isn’t for everyone… but still… if you can do either one of these activities during your workout, you might consider kicking it up a notch.

My back is really starting to feel a lot better.  This new piriformis stretch has really given me a lot of relief.  In the past I haven’t been a big stretcher, mainly because it takes a lot of time, but I think I’m going to need to reevaluate this.  If this one little stretch makes such a difference, I’m starting to wonder how a well-thought out stretching program could improve my workouts, and my overall well-being.

Arms, Shoulders, and Abs

Nice quick and dirty workout today.  Nothing fancy, but it went well.  My lower back feels okay today.  Right at the end of the workout I tweaked something in my upper back though.  Not too bad.  It’s already feeling better, but I did go easy on my last sets of tricep extensions…

I’ve lost about 3 pounds over the last two weeks, I’m afraid.  Sigh.  Funny how when most people go on vacation, they gain a bunch of weight.  I always have to concentrate hard to eat enough food, and so when I relax on vacation, I tend to lose weight.