benjamminb6’s BodyBlog

Ok, so I worked out this morning because I felt good, and didn’t get to work out last night.  Also, tonight we are running an easy 4 miles for our marathon training, so I wasn’t planning on working out tonight.  The workout went well, and I feel like I improved in some way on every exercise.  After the weight, I put an H if it was hard, an E if it was too easy, and nothing if it was sort of in the middle.  This lets me know if I need to up the weight next time, or keep it the same.  Once a weight gets the E, I always go up next time, if its an H, I do the same weight and try to increase the reps, and if its in hte middle, it just depends on how I feel that day, but I will probably do the same weight and hope that the 2nd time it earns an E.  Here are the numbers:

Incline Dumbell Press: 75, 11 total reps.

Machine Shoulder Press: 120E, 17 total reps.

T-Bar Rows: 115H, 7 total reps.

Hammer Pulldown Machine: 230, 15 total reps.

V-Bar Pressdowns: 150E, 18 total reps.

In comparing this week to last week, last week I used a regular machine for the lat pulldown as someone was already using the hammer machine, so this week I went back to the hammer, which explains the difference in weight.  Also, the v-bar pressdowns are easy enough that I can use the entire weight stack, so I may switch to rope pressdowns next time, or the other pulley which requires the cable to go through 2 pulleys, which makes it more difficult and u can only lift about half the weight.

Ok, so like I said before in my workout plan area, I switch off from week to week between a high volume, 2 bodyparts per day superset workout one week, to a doggcrapp inspired high intensity, one work set, rest pause routine.  So as I am still pretty beat up, sore, and tired, from Saturday’s marathon training in the morning, plus a grueling back and triceps workout at night, I have not yet decided if I am going to try to lift tonight, or wait another day or two.  If I dont lift tonight, I probably wont lift until Wednesday because tomorrow I have to run for the marathon training.  So this week will be the RP training, so Im going to list my results from the previous RP week here, and I will update the new results after each subsequent workout.  I forgot to write down total reps last week on day A1 for some odd reason, so I dont have that information, but I will remember this week so that I can track my progress better.  Also, I havent been doing rest pause, or going too heavy on my legs since I need to save them for my marathon training.  Anyway, here is the last RP week stats:

A1: Incline Dumbell Press 75H;  Machine Shoulder Press 120H;  TBar Rows 115H;  Lat Pulldown Machine 170H;  Tricep Pressdown 150.

B1: Barbell Curls 75, 14;  Rope Hammer Curls 140, 18;  Standing Calf 250, 14;  Lying Hamstrings 90, 7;  Squats 95, 8.

A2: Incline Smith Press 225H, 3;  Hammer Shoulder Press 110E, 17;  Deadlifts 145H, 6;  Cable Lat Pulldown 140, 15;  Skullcrushers 70, 12.

B2: Preacher Curls 80E, 18;  Dumbell Hammers 42.5, 12;  Standing Calf 250, 15;  Seated Hamstrings 90, 10;  Hacks N/A.

A3: Flat Machine Press 220E, 14;  Smith Machine Shoulder 120E, 14;  Bent Over Row 130E, 16;  Pullups 130, 8;  Dips 130, 10.

B3: Dumbell Curl 50H, 8;  Reverse Grip Cable Curl N/A;  Standing Calf 250, 15;  Hamstrings N/A;  Leg Extension N/A.

Ok, so the week has gone well, and I have worked fairly hard, but was a little disappointed in myself for not doing a 5th exercise for each bodypart on my previous 2 workouts.  So I went in today with the mindset that I was not doing less than 5 exercises per bodypart, and was shooting for more than that depending on how I feel.  I wanted to push harder because I am not happy with my triceps or back.  My triceps are fairly strong, they always have been, but they have never been very defined, and it always bothers me to see people who lift half the weight that I do, with triceps that stand out much more than mine.  It could be excess arm fat covering them up, or maybe they just dont have the proper genetics to truly pop out, but my goal is to work hard on them to see if I can see a noticeable difference by the end of summer.  As for my back, I have always wanted a muscular defined back because that is my favorite bodypart to look at in the magazinges, and I feel that a great back is what distinguishes amateurs from pros, and good pros from great champion pros.  I have never really worked my back too hard tho, and I think that it just doesnt look good, so I really want to improve the quality and appearance of my back, so Im striving to work really hard on it.  The workout went great, I had plenty of time to do everything because the gym was basically empty, and Heather was doing her workout plus an hour of cardio since she couldnt run with me in the morning.  So heres how it went:

Lat Pulldown: 90×10, 110×10, 130×8, 150×6.
Skullcrusher: 65×12, 65×10, 75×8, 85×6.

Deadlift: 55×10, 95×10, 145×10, 195×6.  The last set was tough, and form was uneasy, go a little lighter next time.
1 arm cable reverse: 30×10, 35×10, 40×10, 50×8.

T-Bar Row: 45×12, 90×10, 90×8, 115×4.
Pressdown: 100×12, 120×12, 140×10, 150×8 with dropset.

1 Arm Hammer Row: 45×10, 90×10, 135×8, 135×6.
1 Arm Dumbell Overhead: 20×10, 25×10, 30×6, 30×5.

Bent Over Row: 95×10, 95×10, 145×8.
Dips: 100×10, 80×8, 80×8.

Serratus: 50×10, 60×10, 80×10, 100×8.
Bottom Cable Rope Overhead: 50×10, 60×10, 80×10, 100×8.

Hammer Machine Lat: 90×10, 180×10, 180×8.
Dip Machine: 170×10, 220×10, 270×6.

So May 1st was our marathon training, so I didn’t lift weights, and May 2nd I was supposed to work out, but we decided to make it our cheat day for this week and relax because the Lakers game was on, the Angels game was on, American Idol was on, and Baskin Robbins had 31 cent scoop day.  So I moved shoulders and legs to this morning because tonights marathon training is relatively easy and will be just like doing normal cardio.  So this mornings workout went well.  I once again planned on doing 5 exercises per bodypart, just like I planned with chest and biceps, but once again only did 4.  I decided to leave off hack squats at the end simply because we are marathon training tonight, and then doing our long run on Saturday, and I didn’t want to kill my legs and not be able to train well for the marathon.  And as for my shoulders, I left off the hammer strength shoulder press that I was planning on doing.  My shoulders have always seemed to be my weakest body part in terms of strength, and if I try to lift too heavy, I get pain in my left shoulder.  So I had a little pain during my machine shoulder press today, and more pain in my front raises, and since I superset everything and had already decided to leave out hack squats in order to save my legs, I decided to just leave off the final shoulder press exercise too in order to go easy on my shoulder and because there wouldn’t be a superset with it.  So with that said, here is the workout numbers:

Machine shoulder press: 80×10, 100×10, 120×10, 160×8.
Leg Press: 180×10, 220×10, 260×10, 340×10.

Front raise: 17.5×10, 25×10, 27.5×8, 30×6.
Leg extension: 100×10, 110×10, 120×8, 130×8.

Rear delt fly: 70×10, 80×10, 90×8, 100×8.
Lying hamstring curl: 40×10, 50×10, 60×8, 70×8.

Machine side delt raises: 50×10, 65×10, 95×8, 110×8.
Standing calf raise: 170×10, 190×10, 210×8, 230×8.

I took it fairly easy today because of my shoulder and my marathon training, plus I dont usually lift in the morning.  So for next time, the goal is to increase the weights on anything that I could do at least 8 reps on my last set, and to add in that 5th exercise for each bodypart.

So today was the chest and biceps day for my higher volume week.  I feel really good after the workout, and look really pumped.  I went into the gym planning on doing 5 different exercises for each body part, supersetting a chest exercise with a bicep exercise every time, with 4 sets for each exercise, and a few drop sets to really fatigue the muscles.  I ended up being pretty tired, and really pumped and fatigued by the time I was finished with 4 exercises for each, plus Heather was already almost ready to go.  So, I just did one set of my 5th exercise for each instead of 4.  In hindsight, I certainly couldve, and shouldve just sucked it up, and made her wait 5 minutes while I finished my last 3 supersets, but I was tired and it was almost midnight, so we headed home.  I need to figure out when I’m going to do ab training, because right now, I basically just do it randomly on days when I dont feel overly fatigued.  I also need to come up with a more solid ab routine in terms of exercises, reps, and sets, so that I know when I’m finished rather than just half assing it and quitting after 1 or 2 sets of 2 exercises.  So for today, here is my workout:

Smith machine incline chest press: 135×10, 155×10, 185×8, 205×5.
Barbell curl: 55×10, 65×10, 75×8, 85×6 with dropset.

Incline dumbell press: 50×10, 60×10, 70×6, 70×6.
Dumbell curl: 30×10, 30×10, 32.5×8, 40×6.

Machine flat press: 140×10, 180×10, 220×8, 240×4 with dropset.
Preacher curl: 40×10, 50×10, 60×8, 80×8 with dropset.

Machine flyes: 90×10, 100×10, 110×8, 120×6.
Low cable curl: 60×10, 70×10, 80×8, 100×8.

1 set cable crossovers: 80×8.
1 set hi cable double biceps: 30×8.

I forgot to bring my gloves, which always makes my grip feel weak and it may have affected some of my rep ranges.  Also, I have never really done much with straight bars such as the smith machine bar because I have a really poor range of motion in my wrists, and the straight bar hurts them.  I need to work on the flexibility and range of motion in my wrists, and figure out if my grip is wrong somehow and if that is possibly adding to the pain.