CPT Jeff’s BodyBlog

Last week went by pretty quickly and it was over before I realized it.  While I did manage to post something last Monday, I completely ran out of time after that.  On Wednesday I checked my max for Squats.  I was able to get up to 330lbs before I decided that I just wasn’t feeling stable enough to go any higher.  I finished that day with several sets of sit ups, the first set was weighted and my arms were still sore from Monday’s workout.

On Friday I went for my max with the barbell shoulder press.  I was able to hit 205lbs before I needed some help.  I just couldn’t get up to 210lbs by myself.  It’s amazing how much different the barbell shoulder press feels as compared to using dumbbells.

After doing the shoulder press, I moved on to a that arm workout that I’ve done for the last couple of weeks now.  It’s a killer.  On the preacher bench, it’s 8 reps with 35lbs dumbbells followed by 3 half-reps, then without any rest, switching to a 75lbs straight bar and doing 8 more reps followed by 3 more half-reps, then again without any rest, going back to the 35lbs dumbbells and doing 8 hammer curls followed by 3 hammer curl half-sets…  Those last ones are where you really feel the pain.

From there I went over and did kneeling cable tricep extensions at 180lbs (according to the stack) for 8 reps, then stood up and turned around and did 8 push downs at the same weight.  Then moved back over to the free weight area and did some weighted dips with an 85lbs bar on my lap.  I have to admit, my triceps felt like rocks and after the shower, my arms felt like jello…

Today I had another good workout.  I won’t be able to workout Thursday or Friday, so my gym partner and I decided to take it easy for anothe week (maybe two), then kick into the 5×5 routine.  We started out with the bench and I tried to follow the day one portion of the 5×5 for bench.  I warmed up some with some pushups, did some stretching, then did 5@195, then 5@225, then 5@255, then 5@285 and realized that the bar was getting pretty fricken heavy…  I decided that I’d go down some weight on then next one instead of going up to 300lbs.  I dropped the weight down to 185 and did 12 reps.

After hitting the bench we decided to go check to see what our max is on bent over barbell rows.  Following the same kind of ramp up that we did last week to attempt a 1RM, I was able to work up to 290lbs.  I was feeling pretty good at 280lbs and had to add on 10 more.  When I did that last rep at 290 I started to feel myself using other muscles to perform the exercise and decided that 290lbs was enough.  The problem with this was that there was still more than 30 minutes left before I had to even consider hitting the shower and going to work.  So…

I suggested that we do some flat bench dumbbell flies and then some skull crushers (can’t work out Friday so I’ll be missing arms).  I hit 3 sets of 12 at 45lbs for the flies trying to focus on form and trying to go slow.  Then I did 3 sets of 12 at 75lbs for skull crushers.  I think that I could have gone higher on the weight for them, but I made up for it.  Still with some time left, I then suggested that we do some wide-arm push ups.  i got 45 knocked out before I fell flat on my face.  I got up, walked around a little, stretched and tried to shake it off…   Then my gym partner suggested doing some more.  Needless to say I was a little surprised and thought to myself "oh, shit", but got down and did 25 more (and fell flat again).  Ow…  Yeah, I’d say it was a good workout…  And I was worried that I didn’t have a plan for working out this morning…  Next stop, more squats on Wednesday and maybe some dead lifts…

I finished the eight weeks…. Last Friday I did legs, getting all ten sets of ten at 225lbs, then did calves and abs.  Saturday afternoon I did shoulders and arms.  I was able to knock out ten reps for all ten sets of the dumbbell shoulder press at 65lbs.  This was the fourth week in a row that I made an attempt for this and the first week I was able to get it.  Then I finished up with standing ezbar curls and overhead dumbbell tricep extensions.  It was a good workout and I’m glad it’s over.

Today I hit the gym with the goal of checking my 1RM on the bench and, if there was time, finding out my 1RM for bent-over barbell rows. As it turns out I ran out of time and couldn’t get to the rows, but I was able to hit 325lbs one time unassisted.  I did try to get 335lbs, but  I needed assistance with that one.  I followed a new warm up routine that I read about to try for my 1RM.  I started using 315lbs as my estimated 1RM, then started by doing eight reps of 145lbs, which is about 45% of my estimated max.  Then I went to 185lbs for five reps, then 215lbs for 3 reps, taking two minutes of rest between each set.  Then I went to 245lbs for one rep, followed by 275lbs for one rep, then 295lbs for one rep, but resiting three to five minutes between each set as they got heavier.  Then I hit 315lbs for one rep, rested for another five, then hit 325lbs for one rep, rested for about 10 minutes, then tried to hit 335lbs.  Like I said, I needed help with this one.

Wednesday I’ll try the same approach to checking my max on squats.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get through them a little quicker and check my max on something else as well.  I’ve got a feeling that I’ll be feeling pretty sore come tomorrow…