My BodyBlog

I’ve decided to do a 12 week workout program, I’ve never stuck with any structured program that long before, so I’m curious to see how my body responds and what results I get.  But what program to do?  There are so many options out there it’s hard to know what would be best.  I have goals I’m trying to accomplish so the program will have to help with those goals.  It also has to be fun.  Fun for me means heavy lifting and compound exercises.  I’ve gotten this far because I love what I’m doing, I’m not going to change that now!  Broadly stated, my goals are to get stronger and get leaner.  I’ve often read how difficult it is to accomplish both of these at the same time.  It’s a balancing act to take in all the good quality food you need for energy and muscle growth while at the same time burning more calories than you consume so as to lose body fat.  I’ve been moderately successful at doing both, but it’s taken a long time, especially the leaning out part.  I can feel my abs hiding under that layer of belly fat, and I’m starting to get impatient waiting for them to make an appearance!  So I have to recommit to more HIIT cardio so I can get closer to defined abs.  After thinking about all my goals I’ve decided that the best program for me would be one that I come up with on my own!  I have the knowledge and I know what I’m capable of, so why not?

So here’s the program, designed by me for me.  It will alternate between upper/lower body workouts.  Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Upper Body Workout #1:  Primary Exercises - Barbell Bench Press (Incline & Decline) heavy sets of 12, 8, 6, 4 reps.  Pullups, 3 sets for as many as I can do.  Next, 30 minutes HIIT cardio.  Remainder of workout is open to doing whatever upper body isolation exercises for tri’s, bi’s, chest, shoulders, back, traps, that I feel are appropriate that day.  These will be moderate weight, higher rep sets.

Upper Body Workout #2:  Primary Exercises - Flat Barbell Bench Press & Machine Flyes, heavy sets of 12, 8, 6, 4 reps.  Pullups, 3 sets for as many as I can do.  Next, 30 minutes HIIT cardio.  Remainder of workout same as #1.

Upper Body Workout #3:  Primary Exercise - Bench Press (Flat, Decline, Incline), 3 sets of 6 reps, heavy as I can go.  Pullups, 3 sets for as many as I can do.  Next, 30 minutes HIIT cardio.  Remainder of workout same as #1.

REPEAT UPPER BODY CYCLE!

Lower Body Workout #1: Primary Exercise - Squats, 3 sets of 10 (I’ll start at 195 and try to add weight each time), followed by a few partial squats at heavy weight.  Next, 30 minutes HIIT cardio.  Remainder of workout is some calf work and some leg extensions, lunges, or other quad/ thigh exercises, keeping weight moderate and reps high.

Lower Body Workout #2:  Primary Exercise - Deadlift.  I’ll do some regular lifts and mix it up with deadlift variations (sumo, romanian, stiff-leg), all light to moderate weight in the 8-12 rep range.  I’ll do some rack pulls, going as heavy as I can on the final set.  Next, 30 minutes HIIT cario.  I’ll end by doing some hamstring isolation work, light weight/high reps.

Lower Body Workout #3:  Same as #1 except I’ll do squat sets with reps of 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, & 1, increasing the weight as much as possible while keeping good form.  I’ll still do a couple of partial squats to finish off.

Lower Body Workout #4: Same as #2 except I’ll stick to regular deadlift and work up to some heavy lifting, hopefully a new PB will be possible during this workout, if not then at least some heavy weight for reps.

REPEAT LOWER BODY CYCLE

Goal is to workout at least 3 times a week, I may be able to do a fourth workout some weeks but this is a lot of heavy lifting and I need enough recovery time so I’ll have to just see how I feel.  Abs will be worked directly at least once a week, at the end of one of the workouts or another day at home.  I’m not overly concerned about ab work during these 12 weeks because all the compound exercise work will be great for my core strength and development.

This program will help me with all of my strength goals.  Upper body workouts emphasize chest and bench press.  Lower body workouts focus on squats and deadlifts.  I’ll do pullups with every upper body workout, a nice compliment to the bench pressing and it will help me towards my goal of 5 sets of 10.  I’ve put HIIT cardio in every workout, after the primary lifting but NOT at the end of the workout.  This will help me avoid ‘pansying-out’ ;) of doing the cardio that I MUST do every week to lose some body fat.  HIIT will be treadmill sprints on upper body days, and a combination of arc-trainer, ellyptical, and/or jump rope on lower body days.  I will get low-impact cardio on non-lifting days thanks to garden work, walking and swimming (when the public pool opens).

There is nothing new in this program for me, it’s just putting a lot of different things I’ve been doing into a structured approach.  It’s a lot of work but I intend to do my best to stick with it for the 12 weeks!

What does it say about me when, for my 44th birthday, I don’t plan a big cheat meal, big party, or a day of total relaxation?  When instead I plan a workout to include trying to lift more weight off the ground than I ever have in my life?  I hope it says that I am just a man who loves this bodybuilding lifestyle and I’m serious about sticking with it for the rest of my life.  I wanted to make my 44th birthday extra special knowing I attempted to reach the milestone of a 450 deadlift (five more pounds than my previous PB).  Going in to the workout I knew I may or may not get the lift, but as with every workout, it’s giving it your best effort that’s most important.

After a weekend on the go I was a little tired when I finally made it to the gym 8:30 Sunday evening.  It showed up in my strength level as the warm-up felt heavy.  I did 135×10, 225×2, 315×1.  I decided to do a lift at 365 and it was harder than usual for me at that weight.  It was just one of those nights where I didn’t have ‘it’.  But I wasn’t about to quit.  I loaded up the bar to 450.  Did the best I could on the attempt but as soon as it left the ground I knew it was going nowhere.  At least it got off the ground!  I was disappointed…but only for about 5 seconds!  It would have been amazing to do that lift, but it’s just as amazing to know I had the confidence to make the attempt.  I’ve learned that the workouts where you don’t make the lifts are just as important in the long run as the workouts where you do.  It’s all part of the process.  Thinking back to when I started deadlifting 20 months ago, I have come a long long way and it feels great to have accomplished so much.  After deadlifting I did 5 sets of light power cleans, 6 sets of barbell shrugs, and 7 sets of lying legs curls.

Sunday’s workout marks the end of my latest phase of training.  I’ve been lifting however I felt like, and it was a blast!  But now I’m motivated to do something more structured, I’m starting it on Tuesday and I’ll post about it tomorrow.  It includes deadlifting about once every 8-9 days, so I’ll have plenty of opportunities to have another go at that 450 lift soon!

I did do other things to celebrate my birthday, spent lots of quality time with family and had a special meal (as clean as Chinese food can be - meat and veggies only!)  Having the workout to end off the weekend was the icing on the cake (no birthday cake for me though - I just didn’t want one!)

I was expecting this to happen.  Outdoor work in the evening all week long really hampered my strength for Friday night’s workout.  Lifting, pushing, pulling, I did it all as we tried to finish a landscaping project before the really hot weather of summer sets in.  I wanted to do some heavy bench pressing but it just wasn’t in the cards.  Upper body was stiff and tired and as soon as I started my warm-ups I knew I had to change my lifting plans.  I still did chest and arms and abs as planned, but avoided heavy weight and instead went for volume.  Turned out to be a great workout all the same! 

Have to cut this post short, altough I have more to say.   I have to prepare for a picnic at the beach!  Talk to you all later. 

Thought I’d have major lower back soreness after pulling that 493 rack deadlift Sunday night.  But it’s almost 48 hours later and I feel fine.  The only soreness I had was in forearms, which is understandable.  Tonight’s workout will be legs, sans squats.  I’ll substitute leg presses instead.  This is part of my diabolical plan to punish my body by lifting heavy in the following two workouts.  I want to rest my back (why I’m avoiding squats, just in case), chest, shoulders and arms until Thursday at which time I want to do some of the best bench pressing I’ve ever done.  Then, for the workout after that I’ll have had 5 days rest on lower body in preparation for some more heavy deadlifting.

When that’s done I’ll be starting a new cycle/strategy/program, call it what you will, that I will stick to until the end of August.  More about this later.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been aiming for intensity during most of my workouts - lots of heavy lifting for all muscles.  Overall it’s gone really well, the lifts have included two new PB’s, a 445 deadlift and 260 bench press* (with an asteriks since spotter may have pushed a little - but I’ll take it for now - I’ll repeat the lift again soon).  Yesterday my goal was to lift heavy on standing barbell shoulder press and rack deadlifts.

I hit shoulders first, warming up with dumbbells and then setting up the barbell in the power rack for some heavy presses.  Turns out the mind was willing but the flesh was weak!  I couldn’t lift near my previous best of 165, I settled for a lift of 140.  Oh well.  Maybe my back was still tired from the heavy partial squats three days ago?  I finished off my shoulder workout with several more dumbbell sets (front raises, lateral raised, presses).

Next on the agenda was pullups.  Hadn’t done these for awhile, and I did sets of 8,7,6,5,6.  Pretty good I think.  Time to do some rack deadlifts.  Didn’t expect much considering how shoulder pressing went.  But sometimes bodybuilding can be unpredictable, as I was soon to find out.  Turns out lower back wasn’t tired at all!  I found a better way to set up for these than I had before.  I stood on two plates to get in the perfect position in the rack - bar just above the knee caps.  I did a warm-up of 135×12.  First working set was 225×10.  I was surprised at how good I felt!  Added two more plates and did 2 reps at 315.  Still felt strong.  Added two more plates (44’s not 45’s - these were closest) for a total of 403.  I did one solid rep.  My previous best on these was 435 and I wanted to try at least 450 - but then that little voice in my head started talking to me again.  It said ‘you’ve never had 10 plates on the bar, wouldn’t it be great to at least give that a try?  If you can’t move it then you can go back down to 450.’  I had to go across the gym to find the plates I wanted, and after loading up I took a litte longer rest to make sure I had the best chance of doing the lift.  So there I was, standing over a bar with 10 plates, total of 493 pounds.  A position I didn’t think I would find myself in for many months to come.  And the great thing was - I could visualize myself doing that lift.  My confidence has rarely been so high.  So I got into position and I did it!  Sure, it was incredibly hard and it took all of the strength I could muster, but I did it!  Another gym rat working out close by yelled out ‘Holy s**t, Tony’s gone crazy!  If that’s what going crazy feels like, call me Mr. Insanity.  What a great feeling.

It’s been a lot of lifting to get me to the point where I could accomplish this.  I’ve loved every minute of it and I’m going to keep working at it to see what other things I can accomplish down the road.