benjamminb6’s BodyBlog

Okie dokie.  So I had hoped and planned to get back in the gym yesterday or Monday, but I was absolutely exhausted after my trip to San Diego for the wedding!!!  We had planned on leaving by 10pm on Friday night after work so we would be to Heathers moms house by 2am, could get some sleep till 10am, then get up and go to San Diego with plenty of time for the wedding.  However, we ended up not leaving Vegas till almost 3am for some ridiculous reasons, so we didnt get to her moms house till 730am, I was falling asleep while driving.  Then we only slept for an hour cuz she had to get up and do some paperwork for her student loans and we had to make a stop in Brea to go to the mall and get a special bra for her dress.  After that, it was off to San Diego, but I forgot that the San Diego fair has started, so traffic was ridiculous all the way down and it took us forever!!!  We got there barely in time to get ready and go to the wedding.  The wedding was really beautiful and well done, and Brandon said that it was really reasonable for everything they got.  We were right on the water at Point Loma overlooking the bay with the sailboats and the San Diego city skyline as a backdrop, it was amazing.  I looked pretty damn good in a tux too haha!!  Anyway, after the wedding, we decided not to stay the night since I had to work the next day, so we left that night at 10ish and drove home and got here by 230.  So I was basically up for two days with only an hour of sleep and lots of exhausting driving and stress.  What a weekend, I felt like I could sleep for days, but didnt get the chance cuz I had to work!!!  Anyway, I made myself wake up and go work out today, and I am thinking about going back tonight to finish off my high volume week since I have the next two days off and I wanna be able to relax and recover from my week.  My workout today was pretty good.  I think that in the future, I am gonna do my laterals first and my overhead pressing last for my shoulders cuz I feel like the laterals are just too tought if Ive already exhausted myself doing heavy presses first, especially when Im supersetting my presses with heavy leg work and supersetting my laterals with each other.  Heres how it went:

Hammer Machine Shoulder Press: 90×10, 90×10, 140×8, 160×8.
Leg Press: 360×10, 450×10, 540×8.

Calf Raise: 255×20, 330×15, 405×10.
Shrugs: 270×10, 270×10, 270×10.

Front Raise: 20×10, 25×10, 30×8.
Side Raise: 20×10, 20×10, 20×8.

 I felt pretty tired and decided to skip rear lats and ham curls.  I may do them 2nite, but we will see.

Ok, so I am back to my high volume week which is always harder, takes longer, and wrecks my schedule more lol, but I seem to enjoy these workouts more than the rest pause ones, I dont know why.  Anyway, this will be the only workout I get in until monday I assume.  I am gonna try to do some marathon training this morning, the 22nd, and then I work all day till 10 tonight, then we are leaving after work to drive to California.  Tomorrow is Brandons wedding in San Diego, and we still have alot to do, so it should be pretty stressful, but Im staying positive and hoping that we have a really good time at the wedding.  So I certainly wont be able to get to the gym tomorrow, and then we havent decided if we are just gonna drive home tomorrow night after the wedding, or try to sleep and wake up early sunday to drive.  I would really prefer to just come home tomorrow night simply because I hafta work on sunday night, and I will feel better waking up here in Vegas and going to work rather than driving all morning, and getting to town and then having to go to work.  That seems like it will be more exhausting.  So I am planning on having these next 3 days off, just running today, and then getting back to my workouts on monday.  Starting monday, we are planning on being much more strict about our diet again.  I havent been eating poorly at all, but I also havent been eating every 3 hours like I want and need to, and I have been drinking soda and hot chocolate with whipped cream at BINGO, and that has to stop.  Its just empty sugary calories and carbs late at night that I really dont need.  So we will finally be having a more regular routine as of next week, and both of our work schedules are finally set in stone, so I can really get in a good routine of going to the gym in the morning, and eating properly, and Heather can go to the gym before or after she goes to work, etc.  I have been given more hours, more responsibility, and a raise at work, so finacially, things will be better, but I may still pick up like 10 hours a week somewhere in the mornings just to make a little extra money to help me expedite paying off all my debts.  Ok, so my workout last night went really well.  I tried to mix it up and do some stuff that I dont normally do, and do it all in different orders.  I superset everything and used drop sets on a few exercises.  I wasnt crazy, the weights at this gym are heavier!!  Heather has been going to a different gym closer to her work, and they have the same rubber weights that we were using back in California.  The difference is astronomical.  At the gym I go to, she couldnt lift the rusty old metal 25 pound dumbells for more than 3 reps on incline dumbell presses, but at the other gym, she can lift the new rubber ones for more than 15 reps!!!  Thats a big difference!!  Anyway, heres how it went last night.

Smith Machine Bench Press: 135×10, 185×10, 195×7, 195×4 with dropset.
EZ Barbell Curl: 50×10, 60×10, 75×8, 85×6 with dropset.

Hammer Machine Incline Press: 135×10, 185×9, 185×7, 185×7 with dropset.
Dumbell Curls: 25×10, 30×10, 35×8, 35×6 with dropset.

Peck Deck Fly: 50×10, 80×10, 110×10, 140×8.
Preacher Curl Machine: 50×10, 70×10, 90×6, 90×6 with dropset.

Incline Dumbell Chest Press: 35×10, 45×10, 55×8.
Concentration Curl: 15×10, 20×10, 25×10.

Cable Crossover: 40×12, 60×10, 75×8.
Front Double Biceps Cable Curl: 25×10, 35×10, 40×8.

Finally!!!  I was exhausted from work and such a long week, but I managed to get into the gym late last night around midnight and had a pretty good workout.  I really wanted to spend some more time doing cardio after my workout, since I havent done marathon training the past week, but I only did 10 minutes since it was so late and my legs were hurting anyway.  So now, I am relaxing today, but I am gonna be back in the gym tomorrow for my high volume week, and hopefully can work out 2morrow and Friday before heading down for the wedding on Saturday.  Heres how last night went:

Dumbell Curl: 50H, 11 reps.

Reverse Grip Curl: 100, 10 reps.

Standing Calf Raise: 405, 15 reps.

Standing Hamstring Curl: 50, 10 reps each leg.

Leg Extension: 165, 10 reps.

So today marks exactly one week since I was able to get into the gym and work out, and we havent even been able to do our marathon training this week.  I am working until 9 or 930 tonight, then I am determined to go to the gym and lift and do some running.  We had a few people quit at work, and so they changed my schedule so that I am permanently working the night shift till 9 or 10.  That is perfectly fine with me, but it has taken me a few days to adjust to waking up at different times and being at work later.  I think that it is actually going to be better once Im on a better sleep schedule cuz I can get up at a decent time, and go to the gym and do my workouts, cardio, and even take an abs or yoga class if I want before work.  Mayah and my mom were both here this week too, which was stressful, and we spent some time at my aunts house.  With work changes, family visiting, and fighting with Heather all week, I just had soo much going on that I didnt find much time to do anything.  Also, I have had continued numbness in my left leg above the knee ever since I tried to squat last week.  Im afraid that I may have pinched a nerve or something.  It doesnt hurt, but it always feels numb, or like pins and needles like my quad is asleep, and its annoying.  I dont really know why Heather and I have been fighting so much this week, but she seems to be really emotional.  Shes at "that time of the month" and it was fathers day, and she has real dad issues, plus she misses her grandpa, who basically raised her, but is now passed on, and she had a dream about him, so that made her sad.  She has threatened to leave and go back to California a few times, and I told her to go ahead, which made her more mad and upset, but if thats what she needs, then Im ok with it cuz I dont want her here if she is unhappy and going to always be in a shitty mood and trying to bring me down with her.  Im trying to be all about positivity, and this week, she has been all about negativity, so who knows what will happen.  Anyway, I am going to the gym tonight, and then will try to be more consistent the rest of the week.  We are going to Brandons wedding in San Diego on Saturday, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be stressful and exhausting for me, but after this weekend is done, I should finally be able to have a more regular schedule and really get some good work done in the gym.  On a side note, the Angels have been doing amazingly well, and last nights game was spectacular.  I dont see how anyone will be able to keep them from winning the World Series this year, they are just too solid.  Ok, off to work.  Workout update hopefully tonight or in the morning when I wake up.

So I finally broke down and bought a fat burner to help me lose some of my bodyfat a little quicker.  I had hoped that by doing cardio every day, and our marathon training, that I wouldnt need anything like that, but since the move and the fact that we are so far from the gym, we havent been doing cardio every morning or getting to the gym everyday so I needed a boost.  I bought Lipo6 from Nutrex since it seems to be getting rave reviews and won the award on here for best fat burner two years in a row.  We will see how I like it.  Anyway, today was a good workout, and we did it quickly and efficiently while still working hard, and we even left enough time to do a 12 minute tempo run on the treadmill afterwards for our marathon training.  In other news, the deli/restaurant that I am working at has decided to make me the manager.  The place just opened last week, and the 3 owners have been running everything, but they all have other jobs at night and have been exhausted from working so much, so I am now gonna be helping them run things which is cool, plus they are giving me a decent raise which is also cool.  My brother is getting married in San Diego on the 23rd of this month, and I am in the wedding, but I have absolutely no desire to go.  I dont want to drive the 4 hours there, I dont want to miss work, I dont want to waste a saturday doing wedding crap when I have a 12 mile marathon run to do that morning, the Angels are on in the afternoon, and I could be playing bingo or going bowling, or doing something fun that evening.  I have contemplated skipping the wedding, but I would basically be disowned by the family, and it would really hurt my moms feelings alot, and she does so much for me that I wouldnt want to do that.  Anyway, the workout today was uneventful, I switched up some of the exercises as planned.  I have never in my life done flat bench dumbell presses for chest, I have always done strictly the inclines, so that was interesting.  And with the rest pause on the last set, I didnt know what to do with the dumbell during the rest parts.  I also havent done much overhead dumbell shoulder pressing, so I was unsure about the weight, but I think it worked out ok.  Heres how it went.

Flat Dumbell Bench Press: 75, 11 reps.

Seated Dumbell Shoulder Press: 50, 11 reps.

Seated Low Row Hammer Machine: 120E, 18 reps.

Pullups: 76H, 11 reps.

Dips: 76E, 15 reps.

So I have been a little disappointed with our schedule and out ability to get to the gym regularly.  We have been swamped with work and other things going on, so we have been tired, plus we have been trying to be really good about our marathon training, so that cuts into our workout days as well.  But to me, the biggest problem is still the distance.  We live 9.5 miles from the closest gym, and it takes 15 minutes or more depending on the traffic lights to get to the gym, and again to get home.  So it makes going to the gym an hour and a half to a two plus hour affair, which seems so long.  In california, we were at the gym in 4 minutes, out of there in an hour and home in 4 minutes, so it was basically an hour of our day, and now its like we have doubled that.  I need to figure out a regular schedule for the gym because my RP weeks are taking alot longer than I would like them too.  The original plan was to go 2 days on and one day off, but with marathon training, its been more like every other day, or sometimes every 3 days between workouts.  So what would be an 8 day RP week with 6 on days and 2 off days has become closer to an 18 day RP week, and thats just too long.  Im gonna hafta start working out more frequently on marathon days and just use my long saturday runs as off days for lifting.  My workout this morning was good, I went at 4am since I had to be at work by 7.  I have decided that squats, smith machine squats, and hack squats just arent for me.  I cant seem to get the form correct, they make my knees ache, the make my hips hurt, and I never feel balanced, even on the smith or hack.  I can use the leg press for probably about 700 or 800 pounds with no problem, but on the squats it hurts me to just use the 45 pound bar, and if I put any plates on it at all, it is a real struggle, and that just seems silly.  There shouldnt be that huge of a discrepancy between my leg press and my squats, and I shouldnt be feeling as much pain in my legs, knees, hips, and back when I do squats, so Im either doing something very wrong, or my body just isnt suited to them.  Im the worlds least flexible person, so I imagine that has something to do with it.  I have tried using the smith machine facing both directions, used the free squat rack, and used the hack squat, and they all feel the same.  I feel unbalanced, and it feels like one leg is pushing with the heel of the foot and the other leg is pushing with my toes or ball of my foot.  I have tried different foot stances, widths, and keeping my toes straight and pointed outward and nothing helps.  I have also always been under the impression that squats were more or less an exercise for your quads, just like leg presses, but when I squat, my quads feel nothing and seem to do nothing.  I only feel it a little in my glutes and hams, and alot in my knees, ankles, and shins.  I have had other guys and trainers at the gym watch me and critique my form and they all say that I have perfect form and am doing it right, but if thats true, then I have no explanation as to why 90 pound squats are nearly impossible and I can only do about 4 reps, while I can do 600 pound leg presses for 10 to 20 reps easily.  It doesnt make any sense, and as I have tried so many different things, with different stations, weights, and variations on technique, form, etc., and they all feel the same.  I am just not going to squat or attempt to squat anymore, at least not for a while.  Im pretty disappointed about it, I dont like to feel like Ive failed at something or am incapable of doing it correctly, but I dont like the aches and pains, they arent normal, and I dont want to risk injury or be doing 45 pound squats that are extremely painful on my legs, knees, hips and joints, when I can be pushing some real weight doing heavy leg presses with absolutely no pain at all.  Anyway, heres how the workout went.

Preacher Curls: 100, 13 reps.

Dumbell Hammer Curls: 45H, 10 reps.

Seated Calf: 90, 10-20 reps.  On the seated calf, I did about 10 good full stretch reps and did a few other quick up and down, almost bouncy reps, and did a few long slow reps to get a good stretch at the top and bottom, so Im not really sure how many total reps there were, but I just did it till I felt a really good burn in the muscle.

Seated Hamstring Curls: 125, 10 reps.

Squat/Smith Squats: 45, 10 reps.  I tried to use just the bar on the regular squats, and also on the smith machine facing both directions, and had pretty bad pain on all 3 sets.  This was my last attempt at squatting, at least for a while.

I have been keeping the smith machine incline at the same weight, and have been continuously struggling with it, so Im either going to replace it with something new next week, or go down in weight and try to build up.  I will probably ditch it and switch to the hammer machine inclines.  I also am not always certain as to what incline I should have my benches at when doing incline presses.  Too steep and I feel like my shoulders will be doing the bulk of the work, but too low and I feel like it takes away from the desired effects of the incline and I might as well be doing them flat.  So I need to figure that out a little better, and the hammer machine takes the guess work out of it for me as the seats are set.  The deadlifts felt good, I think that I can do more weight, but Im nervous to go too big too soon, I dont want to hurt my back, so Im taking it slow and easy and progressing slowly.  I am also not doing rest pause on the deadlifts, again simply in an effort to not strain or injure my low back.  When I am more comfortable with the exercise, I may go heavier or add the rest pause, but for now, they feel good and Im happy with the progress.  Heres how it went.

Smith Incline Bench Press: 225H, 5 reps.

Hammer Machine Shoulder Press: 140E, 14 reps.

Deadlifts: 155, 10 reps.

Lat Pulldowns: 150E, 17 reps.

Skullcrushers: 80, 15 reps.

Had a great workout today.  Really felt strong on the leg press, probably couldve done alot more weight but didnt wanna kill myself haha.  Didnt finish the rope hammer curls, somebody commandeered the cable I was using, but I wasnt terribly worried about it.  I dont seem to feel the rope hammers that much, it seems too easy, I feel the dumbells better, but Im not terribly certain that any of them are doing much for me, who knows.  Anyway, heres how it went.

EZ Bar Curls: 80E, 15 reps.

Rope Hammer: 150, 18 reps.

Standing Calf Machine: 405, 10 reps.

Lying Hamstring Curl: 100, 10 reps.

Leg Press: 495, 8 reps.

So it has been a little difficult adjusting to this new gym since we moved to Vegas.  The distance from home is my biggest complaint, but as far as working out goes, the equipment is all very different and seems to be much older than the equipment that I used at the old gym.  I dont know if Im just crazy lol, or if the free weights are heavier.  The old gym had all new rubber weights, and I could easily lift 80 pounders for 6-8 reps on incline chest press on a good day, and had even used the 85’s one day when I was feeling really strong.  But this gym has these old, rusted metal weights, and some of the different increments are missing, especially on the barbells.  I have really struggled with these weights, they feel different, balancing them is different, and they feel heavier.  I used the 75’s today, and it felt like 100 pounds!!  I was only able to do like 4 reps or so before I failed.  I suppose its good though, because we have decided that we have been doing the same exercises for a few weeks now on our RP days, so we are going to switch up some of the exercises and start fresh since we are starting fresh at this new gym.  So next week, I wont be using the incline dumbell on day A1, but instead will switch to a flat barbell bench press or something.  I think using new exercises will be good, since our old stats dont truly translate across to this new gym.  So although I may be looking and feeling stronger, my numbers may be lower or different at this new gym as a result of different equipment.  Anyway, I am going to adjust all the exercises for all the days now, but heres how today went anyway.

 Incline Dumbell Press: 75H, 5 reps.

Machine Shoulder Press: 130, 11 reps.

Tbar Rows: 115H, 10 reps.

Hammer Pulldown Machine: 230H, 7reps.

V-Bar Pressdown: 160E, 16 reps.

Tomorrow will be our long run for the marathon training, I believe that we are going 9 miles, so that should be interesting, we havent tried that distance in a while.  I am anxious to get my paycheck, as I need to go grocery shopping and I need to buy some new supplements.  Getting my diet back in order will go along way towards helping me regain my abs and get into the shape that I want.