StrongerGeek’s BodyBlog

Back, Biceps

Well Saturday I didn’t workout.  We were having a cookout at our house.  While I didn’t eat wonderfully, at least I didn’t eat all that poorly either.  I drank no alcohol, which is a victory for me, since that is the biggest temptation.  I did have a handful of potato chips and a diet rootbeer with my otherwise healthy meal.   I did okay.

Sunday, there was no time for the gym either, but there was a adults vs. kids soccer match for Thing #2’s team (Thing #1 was there too and played for the kids) and I have to say it was a workout in itself!  I’m not much of a soccer player, but I did make one spectacular diving save when I was playing keeper.  Of course Thing #1, who plays keeper, said I should stop blabbing about it because it wasn’t all that great.  (Let’s watch him make that move at almost 40 years old… then he can talk…)  The score?  The old guys won 20-19!  Of course, if we played again today, the kids would crush us, since they were all running around after the game as we all limped off the field.
After the game, we took the kids to a giant corn maze (yes, we live in the hicks…) at night and let them run around it in the dark (with flashlights) for an hour or so.  I must have walked 2-3 miles myself there too.  Before bed I did my abs work.  So overall I got some good stuff in even if it wasn’t an ‘official’ workout.

Today was back/bis days.  I tryed weighted pullups for the first time ever.  Uh… They’re hard…  Here’s what I did:

• +25 lbs : x6, x5
• +10 lbs : x5. x3
• Bodyweight : x5, x4

I TBDLed again today, with 100 lbs on the bar for 3 sets of 8.  Going easy and the back is happy so far.
Nothing else major to note.  I was a little off today because I was a bit sore from soccer, but overall the workout was decent.

Yesterday: Abs ad Cardio

Today: Legs

Well I can’t say either of these two workouts was hitting it all that harder, I’m afraid.  Blah.  Yesterday was lame, but I was in a major rush, so I could only do 15 minutes of cardio plus ab work.  Today was leg day and it was good if still a little light.  I kind of made it into a circuit training thing today with basically no breaks at all, except at the end when I squatted.  I certainly got a bit of cardio exercise out of today that’s for sure.  I just couldn’t squat heavy today (I did three sets at 185 lbs).  My back and I are in a state of détente right now.  I don’t go too heavy and it doesn’t lay me up for a week.

I saw the PT for it on Tuesday (I got a referal from my GP) and she told me the lowest part of my spine was incredibly inflexible and several of the support muscles down there (the quadratus lumborum primarily) are stiff as hell.  Of course she saw me at my worst time which is in the morning (my appointment was at 7:40 am) which is good, but things do loosen up by around 9-10 am every day.  I am going to figure this back thing out if it kills me… well actually I should say I am going to figure this back thing out or it will kill me.  It hasn’t been awful lately, but it is keeping me from going much further will my leg development.  I can do about what I do now, but I really can’t hit legs much harder without aggravating it.

That’s all I have.  Have a good one.

Back, Biceps

Today’s workout started out on a positive note: a pullup PR.  I hit 12 pullups.  Now I need to decide if I’m going Ledford’s route and try adding weight, or Al’s and try going for 20+ pullups (not that I’ll get there anytime soon, Al, so don’t worry…)  I think I’ll try the former for a bit and see what happens.

The rest of the workout wasn’t too exciting.  I did put a pair of 25s on the trap bar, and TBDLed 95 lbs for 3 sets.  I’m not going heavy on this until I prove to myself it won’t destroy my back my last dead-lifting adventure.  I did a comparison, and decided the trap bar weighs close to the same as an Olympic bar.  In fact, they may have made an effort to make the weights match, I don’t know.  I was surprised.  I could have sworn it was heavier last time… or maybe I’m just a wuss…

I suspect that this new split is going to positively impact my chest and back development, at the expense of (at least to some degree) of my progress with the arms.  Maybe that’s okay.  My arms are my strong point and my chest is weak.

I just found out there’s a Crossfit place that just opened up in my town.  They offer free workout sessions every Saturday morning at 10am to rope you in to their program.  I don’t think I can make it the next two Saturdays, but I’m itching to give it a try.  Of course my wife will kill me, You want to pay more money to another gym besides the one we already pay a billion dollars a month to?  My wife is fairly tolerant of my obsession, but she does have her limits…

But you don’t understand honey, they can teach me how to do muscle ups…

Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

Today is the first workout using a new split and with a new commitment to hit things harder.  I’m generally a lower weight, many reps sort of guy, but for this cycle, I’m going to try kicking things up a few notches and see how I do.  My guess is that the upper body will do fine.  I’m a little nervous about legs, however, since my back tends to complain if I go too heavy.  We’ll see how it goes.
I’ve never split up arms in to bis/tris before, so it should be interesting to see how it all works out.  The main motivation for me is to divide the bench from the pullups and see how they do separately.

It started out well with a new bench PR of 190 lbs x9.  That’s the highest weight I’ve ever attemnpted on the bench.  The secondary sets were x6, x4, but I only gave my set 1 minute of rest between sets.  I did one set at 155 lbs x10 and one at 135 lbs x10 to get a little volume in there.
I then decided to do some incline db presses.  I haven’t done these in forever.  To break myself in I decided to do a "rack-walk", keeping the rest between sets minimal.  I did

• 30 lbs x5
• 32.5 lbs x5
• 35 lbs x5
• 40 lbs x5
• 42.5 lbs x5
• 45 lbs x5
• 47.5 lbs x5
• 50 lbs x5
• 55 lbs x5
• 60 lbs x10

I would have gone another notch higher, but my right shoulder (the one I injured late last year) felt a little funky when I hoisted the 60 lbs dumbbells, so I decided just to do as many reps as I could do and end the sequence.  It was a little ridiculous to do all these mini-sets, but it kept things moving along, and I didn’t feel bored, a big plus.

I then did three sets of body-weight dips supersetted with cable-crossovers.  I could only do 6 reps on the dips.  I think I exhausted myself a little on the incline bench.

I took a couple minute break and then did some overhead pressing:

• 45 lbs x5
• 65 lbs x5
• 85 lbs x5
• 105 lbs x2

Again I just ran out of gas at the end.  I think I’ll need to play a little bit to figure out the reps and sets for everything in this new split.

I finished up with some tricep work : overhead tricep extension and then drop-sets on the tricep pulldown.

It was fun to try something new.

Legs

Saturday was leg day and the last day in my "Fit for Forty" workouts.  It wasn’t the best workout.  I increased my walking lunges for 5 sets carrying 50 lbs, super-setted with calf-raises.  These were hard!   Then I hit the supersetted leg-extension and leg-curl machines.  Nothing exciting there.  I did tweak my right knee a little on the last set, unfortunately, so I had to go easy on the squats.  I just got up to 185 lbs before I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and called it a day.  The knee is mostly better today…

Shoulders, Arms, (and some Traps too)

I really didn’t want to go today.  It seemed like it would be absolute drudgery.  And today is my arm workout, something I’ve been really enjoying recently.  I had convinced myself I wasn’t going, but when lunchtime rolled around I made myself a deal.  I would go, but I wouldn’t follow my normal shoulder/arm workout plan.  I was just going to completely wing it and see what happened.  This turned out to be just what I needed today.
I started out with 3 sets of seated dumbbell shoulder presses supersetted with upright rows (something I almost never do).  I set a one rep more PR on the shoulder press doing 50 lbs x15, which was cool.  I am now allowing myself 55 lbs dumbbells on these, god help me.  I went easy on the upright rows, making sure not to hurt myself on a new exercise.  This is part of my new mission to figure out how to work my traps.  I also did three sets of reverse flyes and some standing barbell overhead presses (45 lbs x6, 65 lbs x6, 85 lbs x6, 105 lbs x5).

Next I did some light preacher curls supersetted with some overhead tricep cable machine that I don’t know the official name of.   Then I hit the barbell curls supersetted with tricep pulldowns.  The curls went 45 lbs x6,  55 lbs x6, 65 lbs x6, 75 lbs x6, 85 lbs x6, 95 lbs x5, 105 lbs x2, 115 lbs x1.  The triceps were drop sets.  These were a little lame, but the curls felt fantastic.

The only thing I didn’t hit today that I normally do is my forearms.  Maybe I’ll hit them with a little mini-workout in my basement tonight.

I talked today with one of the trainers in my gym that I actually think knows what he’s doing.  I’d never really talked much with him before.  We were discussing ‘muscle ups’.  He said he knows in theory how to do them, but he’s never actually accomplished it.  He’s in pretty awesome shape, but he said there’s a whole technique side of it he’s never really mastered.  I really want to learn how to do these.  We both tried them today without much success.  There’s a whole grip you need to get down first.  Chadder (a friend here on BS) sent me a link for how to do them with rings.  We don’t have rings at my gym, but I’m going to pick up a set for my garage.

I’ve been really excited lately about the whole slew of PRs I’ve been setting.  They’re all in the upper body, though.  I’ve worked myself back up to squatting to 230 lbs (my all time record is 250 lbs) and I want to get some new PRs there too.  I’ve been gaining weight again.  I should be.  I’ve been really forcing myself to eat a lot!  I may sacrifice a little bit of my BF improvements, I know, but I’d really like to gain a little mass right now.

That’s all I have.  Go lift something heavy.

Abs, Cardio

Nothing too exciting today.  A boring abs and cardio workout.  Is it me or is cardio getting old?  My enthusiasm for lifting is still pretty strong, but my enthusiasm for the &@&*$ elliptical has faded, let me tell you.  Ah the things I am willing to do to get abs..

I am pretty sore today in the upper back!  The only thing I can think that did it was that light trap bar deadlift (henceforth TBDL).   I think there may be a muscle or two I’ve been missing on back day…  I read that TBDL gets you in the traps too, which is something I’ve never explicitly worked.

Chest/Back

Today started out on a positive note.  I again added one rep to my bench press to get 185 lbs x 9.  One more rep to go before I increase the weight.  I feel like I’ve broken through some sort of bench press barrier because every recent chest workout I’ve managed to improve a little.  This is after months of being stuck at the same place.  The negative was that I only got 9 pullups.  I think I just wiped myself out on that bench lift before hitting the pullup bar.

I was planning on keeping this workout plan until my 40th birthday, but today’s workout has me itching to shake things up and separate the pullups from the bench.  I’ve never done the split I see many here do with chest+tris on one day and back+bis on another.  I think I’m going to try that soon.  I may not wait for my birthday, which is in like 2 weeks.  (Can you say midlife crisis?)

I cut down the number of sets of dips, cable rows, and back-extensions to three each, so I could make time for a new exercise : deadlifts with a trap bar.  If you’ve followed this blog at all you know I’ve had some back issues that have been exacerbated by deadlifts.  But my gym just bought a trap bar and I’ve been eager to try deadlifting with it and see if it’s any easier on my back.

I went super light.  I’m not exactly sure how much the trap bar weighs.  It’s certainly more than the 45 lbs Olympic bars.  With the 20 lbs I put on the bar, I’m guessing I deadlifted only 80 lbs for three sets.  Just enough for a test to see how I feel tomorrow.  I have to say the bar was comfortable.  Certainly easier on the back and much nicer on the shins than the Olympic bar.   But it felt like I was sort of doing a half-squat, half-deadlift.  I think I’ll go read up some more on lifting technique with this thing.

Legs

I couldn’t make it to the gym at lunchtime yesterday so I went at night instead.  Leg day.  I did my normal routine, but I did go a little heavier on everything.  I finished with 225 lbs x 5, 230 lbs x 3 on squats.  I wanted 5 reps on that last set really badly, but I just couldn’t do it.  It wasn’t pain, but just that my legs refused to move anymore.

I really feel positive about this moving squats to the end of the workout thing.  In the past I have always put them first, wanting to maximize the lifts I could do.  Yes, I sacrifice numeric results when I put them at the end, but I feel like overall I’ve gotten a much better workout this way.

My diet was fairly lame yesterday.  Stress played a major factor.  I couldn’t leave work yesterday for the gym or for lunch or anything, so I just ate what I could find around the office.  A bad choice.  I normally am much more prepared with food I bring from home.  But it just wasn’t happening yesterday.  I was feeling lousy until last night’s workout and hopefully now I’m back on track.  I tend to be an all-or-nothing guy.  I need to remember that one day of bad eating is not going to lose all the gains I’ve made over the past year and a half.

Today is chest and back day.  I’ll let you know how it goes…

Shoulders, Arms

So I dragged myself to the gym and was happy I went.  I set no PRs, but I put in a solid workout in any case.  I had good breakfast, a good workout, and now I’m eating a good lunch.  I’m starting to feel back to normal.

I’m convinced that half the trick to this lifestyle is ignoring your body or mind’s initial reactions.  How many times have I wanted to eat garbage, but been happy I refrained later?  How many time have I not wanted to go to the gym, but been psyched I went halfway through?