bradl’s weight training

Mon is supposed to be the first "heavy" chest and tris day, but because I see the trainer on Tues, so will only have a minimal workout that day, I’m moving the first half of the week up so I don’t waste Tues.

I was supposed to plan on 6-8 reps for the exercises today. I guessed a little light, but went long on reps on the first set where that happened, then increased the weight to a better value for the next set. It was a good workout. A few different exercises (inclines), so that mixed things up. It felt good to be pushing what I did. Seemed like a lot of triceps work, but they did get a good pump out of the deal.

Fri’s workout included a front cable pulldown. I looked it up on the BB.com supersite, but I can’t find it again today. It’s not my browser history either. Imagining things. Anyway, I think I did too much weight on them and much of my torso was sore yesterday. That was definitely an exercise I hadn’t done before, but it felt good.

I worked on my log sheets this morning for the next cycle. The trainer’s program was funky to me, so I fixed it. The problems were: 1) a long workout on light Mon with a three-day split and 2) deadlifts on leg day instead of back day. Moving deadlifts meant a little rearranging to even things out, to avoid another long day.

Now both the light week and the heavy week are four-day splits. She calls them light and heavy, but half the exercises on the heavy week still use 8-10 reps like most do on light week.

"Heavy" week is coming up this Mon. I didn’t make these up myself, just split them up "better", I may be wrong in doing that. I also replaced a few things like T-bar rows with seated rows and removed cable crossovers and leg press, cuz who has those machines at home?

Y’all are curious, so…

Mon
Incline bench
DB incline bench
DB incline fly
Tricep pressdown (bar)
Lying tricep extension (one-arm skull crusher)
Tricep rope
Reverse crunch
DB crunch
Back extension (superman)

Tues
Squat
DB lunge
Leg extension
Leg curl
Standing calf raise

Supposed to have seated calf raises in here too, but don’t have a machine at home.

Wed
Cardio stuff

Thurs
BB overhead press
Lateral raise
Front raise
Seated high row (like a shrug)
BB shrug
DB shrug
Back extension (superman)
Side bends
Wrist curl (pronated)
Wrist curl (supinated)

Fri
Deadlift
Pullup
DB row
Cable row (narrow V handle)
Pulldown (supinated)
BB curl (I’m using EZ bar)
DB curl

Light week is similar with a few substitutions.

This is my usual post-progress-pictures post.

When I went for the first visit to the gym down the street to meet with the owner about starting there, after he looked at my log sheets (for the last 8weeks) he asked if I had thought of (or tried?) increasing the weights I use. I was not amused. However, intensity is one variable that comes up. My lack of significant progress may be just the slow process of adaptation to exercise in an "old" man. I don’t expect big changes, but the changes from Jan to May are minor. I don’t feel any bigger, except around the waist. My pants are tighter, not in the thighs like a bodybuilder working on their legs, but in the waist, like someone who eats cake all day, except for Stu who has the metabolism of a teenager and has to eat cheat food just to maintain his weight.

What if it’s just me not pushing hard enough? I haven’t puked in the gym, had to crawl up the stairs from the garage on leg day, etc. Those are indicators that you’re pushing things in the gym. I have written before about my lack of soreness, even after changes. Was I sore after this week’s longer leg day? Not really. A little stiff in behind the knees for a day.

People write about how they add 5 or 10lb a week on their lifts. The training books say to do that. I’ve managed some small increases on squats and deadlifts over time, but am plateaued. Apparently I’ve paid too much attention to the caveat on increasing weight: only if your rep count doesn’t suffer. I’ve written about this before and y’all have commented about plateauing too. I haven’t experimented with the different methods, but have just focused on … pressing forward. I haven’t tried the trainer’s suggestion of a long eccentric on a stuck exercise, because they are all stuck and she has me on a new program, which is a switch up already. I’ll see if the alternating weeks of 8-10 reps with 6-8 reps does anything, but because I respond so slowly to everything else, I don’t see how an 4w cycle of that is going to make any difference. I will do it though.

I need to work on training harder and push the intensity, which sounds lame.

That or continue to be patient and be satisfied with the long-term effects of weight training that are working behind the scenes improving my health and all that crap.

I did the first shoulders and traps workout today. It went by pretty quickly, though if combined with the chest and triceps, that would make a really long one.

This four-day thing seems a bit excessive. I started with the ideas from McRobert’s books, where he stresses the big five compound exercises plus a few accessories, then I did Tony’s plan for eight weeks. Tony’s plan for me had some isolation work but still focused on the main exercises and that was good, but four days with more exercises seems to dilute the effort. Putting deadlifts (primarily a back exercise) with squats on leg day reduced my deadlift ability. Maybe I’ll see the wisdom of this layout in the coming weeks.

I finally took progress pictures this evening. Don’t bother looking, if you’ve seen one set of mine, you’ve seen them all It’s okay, I keep working at it.

I weighed myself too. Since I cut back on the protein powder starting this week, hopefully my weight and fat will come back down. I don’t need to be bulking, but need a good protein intake so I might have a chance of growing some muscle one day.

In the trainer’s split yesterday was leg day, though I had done legs on Sun from Tony’s program.

Hers is squat, lunge, leg extension, leg curl, deadlift, standing calf raises, and seated calf raises. I didn’t have time to do the seated calf raises, but not sure how to do them anyway. I attempted a few with dumbbells on my knees, to check it out, but I don’t think I’ll generally have time even if I do figure them out. My dumbbells are the normal rods, not terminated ones that can be held standing up.

Anyway, it was good. I haven’t done lunges since last year when I was doing a number of different exercises, each with 10-lb DBs, so I had no idea what would be a good weight. With the plates I have, I can configure one DB with up to 50lb, but not enough plates for two. The limit for two is 30lb. Need more plates These are standard plates from a 110-lb set that I bought 12-15 years ago. I’ve never used that barbell. It’s up against the wall in a closet. The barbell as part of the rack and bench I use is Olympic. I could scrap the standard DB bars and those plates and get Olympic DB bars, but, I think, would still have to get more plates. I haven’t thought about that option seriously.

Over the weekend I’ll figure out the four-day splits from the long Mon list I wrote about yesterday. It’s not an issue until Mon, but that long list has to go.

I called the trainer and left a msg. She called back left one of her own: she doesn’t expect me to do all the sets, but all the exercises. That still leaves a lot of exercises. Lots of breadth with little depth.

She said with practice and adaptation I’ll be able to do them faster and add more sets. Hmmm. Two or three seconds up then down, 8-10 times, with a one minute break between sets adds up to a certain amount of time, which doesn’t change with experience. The time dilation thing leaves me scratching my head.

I do like the idea of making a four-day split out of that lopsided three-day split and felt stupid calling her about it.

I had a session with the trainer yesterday afternoon. She gave me a program then had me do one set of a number of exercises from the program. When I had time in the evening, I started typing the exercises into the spreadsheet template I use for log sheets. The program consists of two splits: one is three days (MWF) and is 2-3 sets x 8-10 reps and the other is four days (MTThF), 3-4 sets x 6-8 reps. The lists are similar, but not exactly the same. However, the Mon list for the three-day split has 36 sets. The four-day split divides that UNREASONABLE number of sets into its Mon and Thurs, with some variation, and that Wed list becomes the Tues list. I don’t get it. I don’t have time to do 36 sets at a time. Why not just use two four-day splits and even out the work load? I either have to pick a subset of the long Mon list or break it down into a four-day split.

The three-day split has:
Mon: chest, shoulders, traps, triceps, abs
Wed: quads, hams, calves
Fri: back, biceps, forearms

The four-day split has:
Mon: chest, triceps, abs
Tues: quads, hams, calves
Thurs: shoulders, traps, abs
Fri: back, biceps, forearms

Because I supposedly have a training appt on Tues (a non-lifting day), I moved up leg day from Mon to this morning, so chest, shoulders, and triceps will be on Tues. It’s my worst lifting day, so stands to have the most benefit from a critical eye. I did it this morning because our daughter was sleeping in.

When I was doing squats, our daughter came down to say good morning. She sat down on the bench, which was moved away from the rack for squats, and started talking to me and asking questions, "what’s that thing on your knee?" (The wrap) I did the set, but was distracted. On the next set she commented that my legs turn white when I’m lifting. Interesting to know, but I don’t need to know it when I’m under the bar LOL

She said she’d be quiet after that, but was still a distraction.

She was bored by the time I finished the 3 sets.

I finished the workout, but was still kind of distracted. Normally I’m the only one home and I have a peace while I work. When I’m in a gym, I can tune out the other guys lifting, but at home it’s harder with the wife and daughter doing their activities.

Haven’t had much training related to write about.

Wed includes standing dumbbell overhead press. When I was doing them this week, I forgot that the trainer’s had a correction for me on that one: don’t lower the upper arms below parallel to the ground. That exercise is a hard one for me. My shoulders burn and start to fail easily. After that first set, it’s all downhill. It may be just that the weight is too heavy, but I haven’t been able to increase it in the eight weeks on this program. For a few weeks in the middle, I upped it two pounds, but had to drop back again.

That Wed workout is my worst performance day. I have a (real) training appt next week and I’d like to do that workout with her.

Today was supposed to be a cardio day, but instead it was another appointment with the trainer. In the first session we mostly talked and she demonstrated a few things. Today she had me demonstrate all the exercises I currently do, or have done, to check my form on them (using light weights). Aside from some tweaking of form on triceps exercises, she said I’m good and should continue reading what I’m reading because I’ve learned them well. The form books I’ve read so far are McRobert’s. I have only just started Rippetoe’s. Of course, I demonstrated my new, narrower squat stance.

One exercise was lat pulldowns. When we were talking about the different grip widths and pronated v. supinated, she said that the wide grip is on her list of pretty exercises for men. Men want to do them to get the wide, "pretty", cobra lats. I thought that was amusing. She added that narrow or the V-grip handle, which Tony has me doing, is better for me for spinal-muscle strength.

We haven’t talked too much about a new exercise program. As I wrote yesterday, she liked Tony’s plan, but thought I should try alternating heavy (6-8 reps) with a light (10-12) week. I don’t know if she’s thinking I’ll continue with Tony’s selections, but until she does, I’ll go with those.

We couldn’t do a real workout because she forgot that I needed a signed medical clearance from my doctor before I can train at the gym. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have agreed to schedule something today. I faxed that to the the doc’s office this morning, but they didn’t turn it around yet.