TDetroit’s ramblings and nonsense

no pump today.  just take it easy and go to the gym at 8:30 tomorrow.  2×9 deads and squats at 235 lbs.  plus the rest of a workout.  then it’s easter time and I’ll be too busy to get in to the gym.

I am talking to someone about using my squat gains to raise money for charity.  every pound increase in 1 rep max will earn money.  The chairty is a organic food grower who donates all of his food to the soup kitchens and homeless shelters.  they ahave 18 acres and several volunteers, but they need to upkeep their equipment, buy gas for the tractors, and buy seeds, plus some misc stuff.  It cost them a bit to do this.

 So we will work out a program to collect pledges, and I will torture myself for charity (ok,I do benefit from the higher highs of lifting

The lsolitary goose stands by the edge of the pond

The pond still frozen in the nearly spring weather

A layer of slush and water covers the surface

Is he a lonely goose returning from the south?

Does he have a mate he is waiting for?

Is waiting to find that special goosette?

Is he the same goose who has lived here for 5 years?

If he is, where is his mate?

Did she leave him?  Did she not survive the migration.

Honk, honk, honk

The solitary goose walks onto the pond

splash, splash, splash

The solitary goose walks on the water

Where is my mate?

Where is my love?

Why am I alone?

honk, honk, honk

Does anyone hear me?

Where is MY mate?

honk, honk, honk

Time to build my summer home.

it’s been over 40 degrees all week, and I still have over 18 inches of snow on both sides of the dirve-way.  Last year, my fellow Michiganians were golfing already.  (they did get a load of snow in the 3rd week of March - annual Michigan backstep)

The pond is still frozen enough to walk on it, but it is covered with a couple inches of water, so you better be water proof.  I can’t wait to get the fishing pole and and sit and cast.  there are no fish, but I don’t care, and no one watching me sit and cast will know that either, so it just looks like fishing, really it is people leaving me alone so I can smoke a cigar in peace.

When it warms up, I get to resume the block work on the sunk in patio.  It is going to be great when it’s done, finally a place to kick back and stare at the water while it does nothing.  Perfect.  what you don’t get it?  Obviously you don’t have a swamp/pond to stare at.  It’s awesome. 

Spring is here, that means us up north people can get outside and do sprints.  That’s right wind sprints.  Here’s the workout.

30 yards walk back

50 yards

70 yards

90 yards

100 yards

80 yards

60 yards

40 yards

 Rest

then shuffle

10 yards and back, then 20 yards and back, then 30 yards and back.  no stopping.  that should hurt lot’s.  when all done, I can lay in the front yard next to the lawn mower and scare the neighbors into thinking I had a heart attack while mowing.  Hahahahaha.  Maybe the crazy mean bitch will drive by and ignore me as I die.  (well, I not dying, but she doesn’t know that - she’s just crazy and mean)

Speaking of the crazy mean bitch, there is a lot for sale in the neighborhood.  I hope a black family buys it.  If that doesn’t get her to move, nothing will.  Lord knows we’ve tried.  Nothing offends her enough to get her to sell.  One neighber even shot a deer and chased it into her yard.  blood trail and all, she wouldn’t let him cross through, so he had to go around and it almost died without being found.  Even with all the murder, she wouldn’t leave.  

Maybe I should put up an American Flag.  Things like that scare of bajebas  out of people like her.  Could you imagine the audacity of an American Flag in your front yard - how insulting to all who view it.  Better yet, maybe I could put one in her yard.  No, then she’d have me arrested for vandalism…

30 in one set on the perfect pushup.  i was really feeling strong as i went passed 24, so I new I would get tp 29.  At 28, I new 30 was a shoo-in.  I actually got halfway up on number 31 - not enough to get up the last little bit.

 Almost a 50% improvement since I bought the thing.  the gains are fast with this.  It prob doesn’t hurt that I am lifting heavier with the arms too.

Short pump for the arms yesterday, so today, we’ll do some legs.  Flexibility is great, I can get nose to knee on the first or second try everytime.  but i have to grab my leg and pull.  once it get’s easy, I’ll move from a waist height bar to a high bar.

side lunges.  with 45 lbs.  2×10 (that’s 5 each side)

no workout tomorrow, then arms on Thursday (short pump), then big gym day Friday morning to make up for lost time on the weekend.

Just did a short pump this morning.

 3×10 db bent over rows at 45

4 x 4 hammer curls at 35, no pain in the right elbow, and the right wrist made it into the 3rd set before giving up.  gaining strength, but not mass. Oh well!

had to go in early this morning because of a funeral in the afternoon.

Squats 2×12 at 225

laying leg curls 1×10 at 110, 1×8 at 130, 1×2 at 150 (that twinge in the left came up again - it might be because of doing deads only 2 days earlier)

lungs 2 sets of lunges doing forward each, side each, transverse each all by 3 in rotation (yeah, you understood all of that)  anyway, holding 20 lbs db’s each hand.  prob will do this with a plate next time

calf raises 1×5 w/70, 1×10 w/100, 1×10 w/ 130, 1×10 w/155

short but to the point

I just realized that I have a scheduling conflict with my program to hit new highs on deads and squats.  Next weekend is Easter weekend (Cheaster to us Catholics).  Since I work out on weekends because keeps me out of the gym Mon through Thurs, I will have a prob.

I am thinking about maybe Friday morning early.  I can slip out and hit the gym.  it will be tough doing 2×9 at 235 for both squats and deads in the same workout.  I’ll have to do them near the beginning of the workout just to be able to do it.

Or if that doesn’t happen, I’ll have to do a mid week sneak out at some point to move up the schedule and get it back on tract.  But that has the same problem in that I would have to do both excercises in the same workout.

I have 5 days to think about this.

In the mean time, after 6 months of trying with ever increasing effort to increase arm size, I meaasured them this morning.  14" Bideps, and 11.5" forearms.  So how much bigger are my arms? 

They are the same size.

Yes it is possible that I gained muscle and lost fat - let’s be realistic.  It’s been 40 years of trying to gain muscle mass, I think it will be a very slow process. 

I am becoming convinced that the pain in the right elbow is old man disease (bursitus).  My thinking comes from the pain not being in one place all the time.  sometimes I cannot localize it at all.  sometimes it is right on the tendon behind the funny bone, sometimes it is more in the forearm.  So it is prob not a tendon, ligiment, are muscle tear.  it must be the bursa - just an area pain.   the goods news is that bursitus is just an inflammation.  there is no real damage.  it just hurts from over use (in the case of bursa, it has been smashed between bones a lot).  the best thing is rest, but use (as long as you are careful) will not cause additional problems.

arrived at about 7:30.

stretched

deadlifts warmup 135×5, then 2xs12 at 225

preacher curls 7×4 at 35, the first 5 sets, i had the 2 lbs weigth tied on the right side, but couldn’t go the distance that way.

3 min on the arc trainer

bent over db rows 3×10 at 45

inclined bench 1×10 at 135, 2×3 at 145

lat pull downs 1×10 at 100, 2×7 at 115

3min  on the arc trainer

assisted chin ups 1×10 at -30, 1×9 at -20, 1×7 at -20

straight legs lifts with twists 1×7 (21), 1×6(18)

steam room

protein shake

going in tomorrow night.  I had appointments and meetings every night this week (except Monday, but that was Karmanos cancer center all day and then we ahd to get home before I could go back to gym, and it was too late to do that).  so Friday is the day. 

Same as last week, deadlifts and everything above the waist on Friday, and squats and legs on Sunday.  this week for deads and squats is 2×12 at 225.

As I understand physiology, I understand workout programs.  this program of starting at lower weights and higher reps and then increasing the weights and dropping the reps weekly is designed to build all the muscle strands and make gains in 12 weeks.  the high reps low weights workouts build the endurance strands of muscle, then when you are at high weights and low reps, you build the flinch strands of muscle.  now that you’ve built both types of strands, you can retest your 1 rep max, and it should be higher.

also the 12 week schedule gives you time to also build up the supporting muscles.  imagine putting 300lbs on your shoulders and not having the core muscles to support your spine.  we call that the accordian crush.  it just won’t work, you can’t lift big in just one muscle group, all big lifts have to rise together to be able to do just one. 

you can’t bench if you have no arms, and you can’t deadlift if you have no quads (yes the quads, remember you have to be able to stand while holding 300 lbs in your hands, it takes quads to do that, the hammies come in when you bend down and then stand back up)

it is all connected.  so work all of it.  I’ve seen too many big guys with thier shoulders pulled forward, they look like hunch backs.  they can bench 3x what i can, but they can only row what I can.  how is that?  they over did the pecs and paid no attention to the back.  now they are failures in the looking good naked thing (let alone the looking good clothed)  these guys look like knuckle draggers and firestarters, but they do not anylonger look human.  learn a little will ya!  it is not girly to work your back, it is numbnutted to not work your back.

and have a plan…

so that’s what I have, A plan!

gains to be posted in 11 weeks…

I am blogging between sets.

35 lb db’s hammer curls

1st set x4  no pain yet

2nd set x4 no pain yet

3rd set x4 no pain yet, but the arms are wearing down

4th set x4 no pain yet, it was a longer rest so ok (got distracted by the job)

5th set x4 no pain yet, but the right really had a hard time with the last rep

6th set x4 no pain, same as 5th as far as the right arm

perfect pushup - 28, i think i psyched myself out of the 29th (how shall i punish myself for that?)

bent over db rows at 45 lbs  3×10

db squats 45lbs  2×10