My BodyBlog

All soreness and fatigue seemed to be gone (except those darn calves) as I started the workout.  After 5 minutes on the bike and a little jump rope I did a couple of light sets to warm up hamstrings and lower back.  Then I was ready for some deadlifting.  I set up the bar at 135 and did 2 sets of stiff-leg, 2 sets of romanian, 1 set of regular and 1 set of sumo, all for 10 reps.  Between these sets I was chatting with a guy I’d seen often but hadn’t spoken to before, he’s usually there with friends but was by himself last night.  When you get him going he’s certainly not shy!  We talked about how we train, eat, do cardio, and supplements we’ve tried.  He started asking me about deadlifting (he’s never tried those) and training legs (which he rarely does but knows he should).  His upper body development is great, lower body, not so great.  I encouraged him to try deadlifting and give lower body equal attention to upper body.

I increased the weight to 225 and started a set of 10.  It was then I heard the Rrrriiip!  Another pair of gym shorts bites the dust, third time this has happened to me.  The tear was not large and not noticeable, lucky for me since I had no back-up (I finished the set, nothing was going to stop me!)  I then did a set 225×6 sumo style, followed by a single sumo lift, 315×1.  Heaviest I’ve lifted sumo style.  At that point I had planned to break for HIIT cardio but the machine I wanted was in use and I don’t think my sore calves would allow me to sprint.  So instead I did a couple more sets of jump rope x 100.  I was feeing good, time to set up the power rack for some heavy rack deadlifts!

Since I was well warmed up I went right to 315, did a set of 5.  Then I went to 405, did a single lift with no problem at all.  Confident, I loaded up to 500.  Only 7 pounds more than I’d lifted before on a partial but hey, it’s 500 pounds - a big difference psychologically.  As I set up I noticed it was going to be one of those ‘everyone pause and watch what he’s doing’ moments.  The 3 guys left in the gym were doing just that.  I prepared myself and did that 500 rack pull!  It was very hard, but dare I say I still had a little bit of effort left to give?  I’ll keep pushing and add a little more next time!

Time for me to wind down, I did a couple of sets of back extensions and a couple sets of lying leg extensions to finish up.  I did another set of jump rope before heading upstairs to see if I could get the machine I wanted.  Then I felt it….a cramp was starting in my left hamstring.  I get these occassionally after working hamstrings so considering all the work I’d just done it was no surprise.  When they hit they are extrememly painful, but luckily I was able to head this one off by stetching it out for a few minutes.  I decided not to press my luck so I ended it there without doing more cardio.  An interesting workout, a great new personal best!  Upper body next time. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 7:43 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.