CPT Jeff’s BodyBlog

Arms day is one of those gym days that I always look forward to (like chest day), and today was no different.  Got to the gym at 5:30am with a healthy dose of Vasocharge in my system.  Started out with a 15 minute warm up on the eliptical, traveling 1.7 miles and burning about 280 calories (according to the machine).  Then jumped into the below arm routine (from the 3-S program).

• Close-grip bench -  195lbs/6 reps; 205lbs/6 reps; 215lbs/6 reps
• Barbell curls (30lbs cheater bar) - 110lbs/6 reps; 115lbs/6 reps; 120lbs/6 reps
• Skull crushers - 110lbs/12 reps; 110lbs/12 reps; 110lbs/12 reps
• Alternating DB curls - 40lbs/12 reps; 40lbs/12 reps; 40lbs/12 reps
• Next two sets were supersetted
• V-bar pushdowns - 200lbs/12 reps; 200lbs/12 reps; 200lbs/12 reps
• Incline DB curls - 35lbs/12 reps; 35lbs/12 reps; 35lbs/12 reps

It felt like a great workout and my arms were so tight that I had a small problem trying to take my shirt off in the locker room…  I love that feeling…

On a nutritional note, like I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to track what I eat on a daily basis to see what that looks like.  My sodium intake is still ridiculous, but I was able to drop it some.  I’ve also noticed that without supplements, it’s really difficult (if not impossible) to hit at least 200 grams of protein each day.  With protein bars, hard boiled egg whites, pistachios, low-sodium lunch meat, and normal dinners (either chicken, tuna, pork, or whatever), I’m still only hitting between 100 grams and about 120 grams…

So, I’ve ordered 16-sample pack of Optimum Nutrition’s whey protein (I’m bound to like one of the 16 flavors).  If I take that twice a day it’ll at about 50 grams to my diet, which will get me a lot closer to that magical 200 number.  I was doing some browsing through the GNC site yesterday and ran across some stuff called GNC Pro Performance AMP Amplified Muscle Meal.  Each serving has 50 grams of protein and it claims that it also has 25 grams of carbs, which I’m not sure that I’m currently getting enough.  But for what it offers, it seems to be very expensive.  According to what I’m tracking, I’m taking in about 300 to 350 grams of carbs per day (not sure what it should be yet).  Interesting exercise in tracking food…

Keeping the faith…

So I’m not sure what happened this morning, but somehow I managed to run out of time.  I made it to the gym in time to jump on the eliptical at 5:30am for about 10 minutes.  Managed to burn about 180 calories, traveling 1.16 miles averaging about 190 strides/minute at a resistance level of 9.  Normally I would shoot for 15 minutes, but leg days seem to take longer than the rest.

Got down to the squat rack with plenty of time to hit every exercise on the plan and started off with 295lbs.  But by the time we finished with the stiff-leg deadlifts we only had time left for leg curls and leg extensions…  Frustrating…  Here’s the full leg workout…

• Squats - 295lbs/5 reps; 295lbs/5 reps; 305lbs/5 reps; 315lbs/5 reps; 325lbs/5 reps
• Hack Squats - 380lbs/12 reps; 390lbs/12 reps; 400lbs/12 reps
• Stiff-leg Deadlifts - 155lbs/12 reps; 165lbs/12 reps; 175lbs/12 reps
• Walking lunges - Ran out of time, couldn’t get this in
• Seated Leg Curls - 135lbs/8 reps; 140lbs/8 reps; 145lbs/8 reps
• Leg Extensions (drop set) -  200lbs/15 reps; 190lbs/10 reps; 180lbs/7 reps

Not to say that my legs aren’t tired, but I really don’t like having to skip an exercise that I should have been able to work in.  Oh well, tomorrow is arms and I’ll attack that with a fury…

Made it into week six of the 3-S routine…  My gym partner and I agreed today that we’d switch to a new routine after two more weeks so that we’ve got a solid eight weeks of this…

Yesterday was day one doing chest and today we did back…   As much as I dislike doing pull-ups, I’m going to have to include them in future routines, they do a lot of good…  Today’s workout looked like the following:

Cardio on the eliptical - 16:27 minutes; 1.70 miles; 277 calories

T-Bar rows - 100lbs/6 reps; 110lbs/6; 120/6; 130/6

Pull-ups - 6 reps; 6 reps; 6 reps; 6 reps

V-Bar Pull-Down - 150lbs/12 reps; 150lbs/12

One Arm DB Rows - 105lbs/12 reps; 105/12

Super-setted the next two exercises
Underhand Pull-downs -  112.5lbs/15 reps; 125lbs/15; 125lbs/15

Pull-ups (assisted) - 10 (# plate in the machine)/8 reps; 10/4; 12/5

Super-setted the next two exercises

Bent Over DB Rows - 55lbs/15 reps; 60lbs/15; 60lbs/15

Reverse Grip BB Rows - 155lbs/12 reps; 165lbs/12; 175lbs/12

We had also included a couple of sets of situps in there, but that really wasn’t the main effort of the routine today (situps and cardio will be tomorrow).   I’m not really sure which is worse, back day or leg day (Thursday).  Either way I have no doubt that I worked the hell out of my back…

On a supplement note, I’ve cycled through a number of various pre-workout, post-workout supplements and have settled on SciVation’s VasoCharge for a pre-workout and currently using Optimum Nutrition’s Micronized Creatine Powder.  The VasoCharge (Lemonade) has a great flavor and I love the tingly feeling that I get from the Beta-Alanine.  The Micronized Creatine (grape) also has a great flavor.  We’ll see if it actually does anything for me…

I’ve also started to try and do a better job to track my calories, sodium, protein, and carbs using an application called MyPlate over at www.livingstrong.com and was shocked to see just how difficult it was to try and get my sodium intake down to recommended levels (almost impossible without going to low sodium foods).  It’s also very difficult (without supplements) to hit 200g of protein everyday.  Looks like I need to pick up some more whey protein…