My BodyBlog

Last night’s workout was the best yet, I completed all sets and reps with weights higher than ever before!  This was the 3×6 workout for all exercises, so a lot of heavy lifting to get through!  Started with flat barbell bench press, did 3 sets x 6 @190 lbs.  These sets were easier than when I used 185 pounds on the last cycle.  Moved on to incline barbell, the exercise I find most challenging.  However last night I had little trouble nailing 3×6 @160, 5 pounds more than last time - cool!  Next exercise was decline barbell, my favourite of this program.  Must have been getting tired by this point because the sets were hard but I did all 3×6 @200.  Final exercise was flat dumbbell flyes, did 3×6 @65 and I had to really focus but I got through them!  Finally I did a burnout set of flat dumbbell presses, 28×30. Whew!  Mission accomplished!

I’ve completed 3 cycles of this program suggested by another bodyspace member, and I really enjoyed all the chest work.  I had gains in strength on all exercises during the program, and I believe I can see some changes in the mirror too.  I started this program as an experiment to see if I could increase my bench press max, so now it’s time to try.  I’ll rest chest for a week and then give it a go!

After the chest work I did 8 sets for traps, and I jumped rope 550 times for cardio.  This workout was a wonderful stress reliever too, I don’t know how I ever coped before I found bodybuilding -wait, I do.  I’d eat junk food to cope with stress.  Those days are gone forever!

Thanks to everyone who sent some kind words my way the last couple of days.  Your thoughtfullness really made a difference!

Our cat, Jasper, deteriorated quickly Sunday evening and overnight.  By the time Monday morning came we had decided enough was enough, no point in the head x-ray when treatment options were limited and nothing would give Jasper back his quality of life.  We don’t prolong a pet’s life when there is suffering or severely dimished quality of life, so early yesterday afternoon we made the dreaded but necessary visit to the vet.

My wife and I are big-time animal lovers and when we lose a pet it hurts so much I wonder why we put ourselves through it.  Then I remember that without our love Japer, who was a stray we adopted just like our other cats, would not have had the happy years he did have and that is what it’s important to remember.  So yesterday I was in no shape to concentrate on work or much else, and we just spent a quiet evening at home.  I feel much better today, I’m focused on getting through a bunch of tax returns and I’ve decided that I’m going to the gym tonight no matter what - I really need it.

Great workout Friday night - chest, biceps & abs.  Did housework and heavy yardwork all day Saturday as soreness set in.  Spent all day Sunday up to now doing tax returns as the month end filing deadline approaches.  One of our cats is very ill, the vet has ruled out everything except a growth in the skull - he’ll have to be sedated for an x-ray tomorrow morning.  Even if its a non-cancerous growth the prognosis is poor.  This cat has been my wife’s special buddy for 12 years and she’s all tore up over it.  We are going to dig the grave tonight in the field behing her Mother’s home where all of her pets and ours since we’ve been married are buried.  Don’t know if I’ll get my regular workouts in this week, I’ll just have to take it day by day.  Wouldn’t hurt to have a few extra days rest since I haven’t had an extended break since last September.

Decided to switch around the exercises to see if I felt any different.  I did decline barbell bench press first, and was amazed by how great I felt on each set.  I did the weights I had planned but could have handled more.  Working sets were 165×12, 195×8, 205×6, 215×4.

Moving on to incline, last time I felt I was at or near my limit, so I was very interested to see how it would go.  First set at 145 I failed after 10 reps.  Next 3 sets I did what I’d planned, 155×8, 165×6, 176×4.  Weird that I couldn’t get the first set, maybe I didn’t take a long enough break after decline.  But I’m more than happy with the other sets, I didn’t expect to lift that well since incline isn’t my strongest exercise.

Did some light dumbell rows and cable pull-downs for back, and my cardio was 15 minutes treadmill and 550 jump rope reps.  A great workout!

A young guy came up to me on 3 separate occasions with questions.  I’d seen him once before and knew he was just starting out.  He was asking me about some of the machines, then about different shoulder exercises with dumbbells, then he asked me why I use that ‘powder’ he saw me using last week.  I thought he meant protein powder, but then he mentioned calluses on the hands and I knew he was asking about the chalk I use when deadlifting!  He told me that he’s been working out for a month and he comes six days a week for an hour or more.  I told him I workout 3 or 4 times a week and that is plenty once he learns how to make sure he is working each muscle group every week.  I hope he keeps up with it.

Feels great that a complete stranger picked ME out of a crowded gym to ask questions to! 

I was sitting at my desk late this afternoon when without warning it hit me…a hard cramp in my right hamstring!  I reacted by straightening my leg, trying to stretch it out.  I started to try to massage it and it was rock hard!  After about a minute it started to ease and I was able to stand up and walk it off.  I stretched and massaged it some more, and finally it was gone.  I’ve had some cramps before while doing leg curls, but I’ve never had such a bad cramp hit me 18 hours after a workout!  Must be my body thanking me for last night’s deadlifting! :-) 

Last night I pulled a new PB 435 deadlift!  I came close last month, just wasn’t able to finish.  For this lift I warmed up with 135×10, 225×5, 315×2, and 381 x1.  I felt strong on the 381 lift so I knew I had a good shot at the 435.  I’ve been working on exploding out of the bottom and I put that in practice last night, I was a little off balance at one point but I corrected that with no problem.  I stood straight and locked out with little difficulty, which is what I couldn’t do last month.  435 is in the books and the way I did it gives me confidence that 440 (or even 445?) will be there for me next month.

I lifted 405 in September which was a huge goal achieved for me.  It made me feel so great about myself and all the work I’d put into lifting.  After that I took a couple of months off from heavy deadlifts, and during that time I decided that I would take the next step of trying to deadlift 500.  I’ve increased my lifts by 30 pounds in almost 4 months, that’s an everage of 7.5 pounds per month.  IF I continue improving at this rate I’ll lift 495 by December….is it possible?  Only time will tell.  

The last workout of this routine is the hardest - flat, incline and decline barbell bench press plus flat bench dumbbell flyes all done heavy 3 sets x 6 reps.  I get tired just typing it!  Warming up for flat bench I didn’t feel all that strong, which was a surprise since I’d had 5 days rest on upper body.  I took the weight down a notch to start off, and did tough 3×6 @185.  Moving on to incline, the one I find the hardest, I wasn’t optomistic I’d have clean sets at my planned weight of 155.  I somehow found the strength to finish the first set, but just barely.  Then, on the second set, I felt a lot better for some reason and to my amazement the final set was the easiest of them all!  Next exercise was decline, and once again I found this easier than the others.  I lifted a solid 3×5 @195!  Finally I did the flyes using 60 pounds, hard but I didn’t get to failure.  The chest portion of the workout finished off with a burnout set of 30 reps of flat dumbbell press, I used 25 pounds and by the 25th rep I was straining to get it done!  But I pushed through, and it felt great to get in all the sets and reps I wanted.  A definite improvement from the first time I did that workout!

So, after two cycles of this program completed, I can honestly say I’ve never worked chest as hard before.  I’m getting a burn, pump, DOMS, you name it.  But whether I’m getting what I want, increased strength for bench press, remains to be seen.  I’ll do one more cycle then rest chest for a week or so before testing my one rep max.  I’ll start the next cycle Tuesday, but it’s deadlifting tomorrow, if I’m feeling good I may go for that new personal record that eluded me last month.

If I ever needed evidence, besides my own experience, of the critical importance of regularly changing something about one’s workout to ensure continued progress, I got it during a workout last week.

I talk regularly to a fellow gym rat, I’ve seen him at the gym for several years.  He has a great upper body, with a wide back, big arms and a decent chest.  I was impressed with his results first when I started to see him and I admire his dedication to working out regularly.  But as the months and years have passed I began to realize that in spite of his continued workouts, his body is not changing.  It’s not changing for the simple fact that he does the same exercises using the same weights and reps week in week out, month in month out…you get the picture.  He works his upper body the same way every week and his muscles have adapted to the stresses he is placing on them so they’ve stopped growing.  He asks questions about how I workout and I’ve even come right out and said my approach to keep progressing is to regularly change what I’m doing and challenge my muscles in different ways.  I don’t know if he doesn’t believe me or if he’s just happy with where he’s at and doesn’t want to change.  Another thing is he never works legs, but that’s a whole other story.

What happened last week is that I was working on my decline barbell bench press, one of the exercises of my chest program.  He was there, doing his usual thing, and he came over to me to talk about the exercise.  Said he hadn’t tried decline for years, barbell or dumbbell.  I asked if he wanted to do some sets, he said he’s give it a try.  He regularly does flat bench press doing sets of 10 or more with a 135 pound barbell (never goes higher) so I thought he’d have no trouble doing some decline presses….but I was wrong.  I helped him liftoff with 135 and he couldn’t put the bar in a position where he was comfortable to press at that angle.  We bumped down the weight to 95, we adjusted the position and angle of the bench…didn’t help.  He couldn’t do it, I think it was partly a lack of confidence but also partly a lack of strength in the part of the chest that works hardest on decline.  I encouraged him to try with just the bar and he wouldn’t be long getting used to the range of motion, but by that time I think his confidence was nil and he just gave up.  When I was ready for my last set I asked him to spot and help with the liftoff.  He asked what I had on the bar, I said 210 he laughed and said ‘I can do zero.’  I did my set and as I racked the bar he said ‘you’re an animal!’ (That’s off the topic but it made me feel good!)

He knows that I have worked chest with plenty of variety in terms of exercises, weight, sets, and reps over the years, and he has seen my results.  Why he isn’t motivated to do something different with his own workouts I just don’t understand.  I hope what happened the other day doesn’t lead to him shelving the exercise but motivates him to work at it.

So the moral of the story is, if you’re in a rut or have reached a plateau, make a change!

Last night at the gym I had to wait for the power rack to do squats, two teens were using it.  As I warmed up with some cardio and stretching nearby, I took notice of what they were doing.  Teen #1 was fairly short, Teen #2 was perhaps a foot taller.  They were both squatting to the same bench - Teen #2 was getting almost to parallel but Teen #1 was barely doing a 1/4 squat!  I commend them for squatting but it looked a little odd!

Soon the taller one moved on to something else while Teen #1 one kept squatting.  He did fewer reps as he added weight and his squat kept getting shallower - a few to about 1/4 but most not even that far down.  When he got to 225 he called another friend over to spot him.  After one false start he did a few shallow reps.  He then added another 44 pounds to the bar and was telling his friend he’s going to squat more than twice his body weight.  He had about three false starts, having to re-rack the bar, before he could stand in position to start the squat.  He did three reps, these being the shallowest so far.  I could tell he was very happy with this, and I was happy for him on one hand, on the other hand I wanted to tell him to take most of the weight off the bar, get rid of the bench, and start squatting deep!  But it wasn’t a situation where he was looking for advice, I didn’t know him at all, the odds are he wouldn’t have liked me telling him he could do it better there in front of everyone.

I’m not making fun of him.  What he’s doing is a common from what I’ve seen.  I have done lots of squats that weren’t as deep as they should have been for the sake of having heavier weight on the bar.  But I came to realize after awhile that I was cheating myself in terms of potential leg growth.  Last night I squatted one set of 135×10, then 3 sets of 155×10.  Nice deep squats that got me breathing heavy by the end.  I noticed Teen #1 watching me.  I wonder what he thought when I had to move the safety rods one position lower than what he had them positioned at because I started to touch them at the bottom of my squat.  In an ideal world, he would have thought ‘Look how deep that old guy is going, he had to put the rods lower, and look how big his legs are!  He must know what he’s doing!  Maybe I should start squatting like him!’