lbdb18’s BodyBlog

So the new workout split and training began yesterday and I think it went pretty well.  It was chest and tris and the rep range was much lower than I was used to (3-5 for working sets).  Here was the workout: Incline Db Press, Flat Db Presses, Hammer Wide Chest Press, and Incline Flyes for Chest.  As far as Triceps go it was: Cable Pressdowns to warm up, Close Grip Bench, Wt. Dips, and finally Skull Crushers.  At the end of the workout I was pretty pumped, but not nearly as much as usual; I expected that because the reps are so low.  All in all I think I liked the change up, and I feel that my body just needs something to shock some new growth.  So I have 2 more weeks of these low rep things so let’s see how it goes.

So its Friday night and I just finished watching Invincible, a very inspiring movie.  These past weeks have been busy as hell for me, considering I didn’t even have time to post any of my usual workout blogs.  Luckily I have still managed to keep my intensity at an all time high, and have been able to get some great workouts in.  I have legs tomorrow morning, then starting Monday I’m going to try a totally new workout split.  I will be training every body part twice in one week, and my reps are gonna get lowered to around 6-8.  I just feel like my training was starting to get a little stale, so I figured what the hell lets try this out.  I found it in an old Muscle & Fitness, and its pretty interesting.  It’s a 12-week program, where you do 3 weeks hard and heavy, mainly BB movements (back to the basics), then on weeks 4, 8, and 12; those are pump weeks and you only train each body part once in a week and its higher reps, like 12-15.  So wish me luck, and I will let everyone know how Monday’s workout goes.

Today was back day, so time to go to work.  My shoulder was feeling great so I decided to start with some pull-ups.  After a couple of sets I thought I would try some weighted ones, b/c I’ve never tried them weighted before and I got 15 BW ones pretty easily.  Did the third set with a 25 and the last set with a 45, which was hard as hell for 8 reps. So I guess that’s what its gonna be like if I do gain another 45 pounds of muscle.  Next was one of my favorite back exercises, corner T-bar rows, got up to eight 35’s on the bar, but only managed 5 reps. So I immediately stripped three 35’s and got 12 reps. After that was neutral grip lat pull-downs for 4 sets, which I really feel more in my lats compared to the regular lat pull down bar.  Next was the pullover machine that Dorian Yates made popular, for 3 intense sets.  My back was full as shit and I actually had a V-Taper.  Then were some seated Hammer Strength rows for 3 sets and finally finishing up with 3 sets of Deadlifts.   I think I like doing deads at the end of my workout, as opposed to beginning with them.  I don’t lose all of the energy and I really feel the burn when I train that exercise last.  Also I don’t have to put as much weight on the bar, which is less stress on my shoulder, so I believe it just suits my body best to do Deadlifts last.

Luckily this past Saturday morning I got to sleep in because my training partner had church early, when we usually train legs.  Typically we meet at the gym around 8:30 am, and train the shit out of our legs.  But we had to move the time to 11:30, so I thought since I would get to sleep in a little bit and even get an extra meal in, that I would be some what stronger than normal.  Wrong, when I got under 315 on squats, it felt HEAVY!  So I thought today’s not gonna be a weight day lets do some light, high rep sets.  First we striped the bar down to 225 where we did 10 reps, hams to calves, with a 2 second pause at the bottom of the rep and then exploded up.  If you haven’t ever tried that, give it a shot, it makes the weight feel a lot heavier and the burn in you quads is unreal.  Next we dropped the weight to 135 and did 30 reps, which burnt like hell, then as soon as I racked the bar, I did a wall squat for as long as I could hold it, which was about 21.5 seconds.  Upping the weight to 155, I got 25 reps followed by another wall squat of 20 seconds.  Then came 185 for 20 reps, and a wall squat of 15.3 seconds.  And finally 225 for 15 reps, with a leg quivering wall squat for 13.4 seconds.  So with warm-up sets and working our way up to 315, back down to 135 and up to 225 again, it took my roommate and myself 48.5 minutes to complete squats.  Ari looks at me and swears he will never squat again and feel like I was about to faint.  But we manage to crawl our way to leg extensions for a few sets and then hit some seated leg curls for our hammies.  We actually did 6 sets of seated hamstring curls with the last set being a triple drop set, and that was all they needed.  Our legs are extremely tight and filled with blood, as it even hurts to walk to the elevator.  That’s right, definitely weren’t taking the stairs.  After another hard leg work out, I was off to get some lunch and down a protein shake.  Today I was off and tomorrow I got Chest and Calves.  Train hard fellas.

I experienced a little bit of paradise last night when I got to train at gold’s gym with my buddy after hours.  We were the only ones in the gym and it was glorious.  We finished chest in like 40 minutes b/c there was no waiting or talking to people and let me tell you it was nice.  I warmed-up with flat Db press, and then moved on to incline BB press, which I am now paying for b/c my shoulder is killing me.  From there we went to Wide grip Hammer flat press, where we worked our way up to four plates a side.  I was proud of myself because I ended up getting 8 reps.  For some reason these past two weeks have been great in terms of being able to move more weight than usual.  Following that we did high cable crossovers.  Next we did a drop set of flat flyes and finished up with pec-dec.  Today I’m taking off and gonna do back on Wednesday night. 

Leg day came and went again this week, with me doing some heavy weights.  On squats I got 335 for 8 ATG and did lunges for 20 steps with 100 pound Dbs.  For some reason my adrenaline just gets pumping and I turn my music up, then next thing I know its hard to bend my legs.  Without a doubt legs, especially quads, are my favorite body part to train.  Here was the workout:Leg extensions  3 sets 15 reps (warm-up)

Today was shoulder and traps day with my friend who is a personal trainer.  It’s always nice to be training with an expert and not having to pay for it.  We started with seated Db presses, I did my forth set with 80’s for 9 and my fifth with 90’s for 5 reps (they were slow as hell, not b/c I wanted to but b/c they were heavy as shit).  From there we moved on to seated side laterals, it was a giant set.  35’s for 5 reps, 25’s for 10, 20’s for 12, and 10’s for 25, three sets like this and our shoulders were on fire and I could barely even raise my arms.  That’s 156 reps of side laterals, thanks to Melvin Anthony for that little treat.  Then we did Db alternating front raises working our way up to 40’s for 10 reps. Next was a superset for rear delts, Incline Db rear raise superseted with Reverse Pec-Dec.  That’s it for shoulders, and then it was BB Shrugs with 315 for 10 reps per set.  We finally moved onto Slow and Controlled reps on Db Shrugs, working up to 80’s then back down to 60’s for 12 reps each.  The pump in my shoulders and traps is ridiculous, another solid workout.  Tomorrow morning is arms and then Sunday and Monday off.

After a long day of work, I trained chest and calves. My shoulder was feeling a lot better and I thought it was time to start pushing some weight again. I started with Db Flat Bench; still worried that BB bench will hurt my shoulder again. I got up to 110 lbs. Dbs and got 9 reps on my own and a forced rep to 10. I was extremely excited b/c it felt great to get under some weight and be able to push that shit. Next was Incline Db Press, since I had a strong push on flat I thought I would do heavy weight on incline as well. I worked my way up to 100 pounders and actually did 8 reps on my own. After that I did flat flyes, then incline flyes superseted with dips. My chest was full of blood and it was time to move onto calves. Started with the Flex Lewis calf routine (Leg Press Calf Raise superset with standing calf raises, superseted with heel raises) four sets there, Exercise 1 uses slow controlled reps to 15, then the others are normal speed for 30 reps. Finally I finished up with Hack Squat calve raises, 3 sets of 12 and called it a day. Great Workout and glad to be on Christmas Break.

It’s been a while sense I have posted one of these, busy with school, work and more school.  My training is going well, but this last week was hectic with finals, I had to squeeze a lot my workouts in.  Also my intensity wasn’t there for the first three workouts because of the stress over my exams.  School always gets in the way of my lifting.  My shoulder is almost fully healed so maybe I can try BB flat bench in a week.  On a positive note my weight is still around 195 so I’m very happy about that.  Last week for legs I tried that Milos Sarcev’s hardcore leg workout, its ridiculous (check it out on bodybuilding.com).  Saturday was arms and today I was off.  Tomorrow has a chest and calves workout with a buddy of mine, so wish me luck, big chest.  Anyways, not long till Christmas and I finally will get an Xbox 360!  Fjnally, im just glad to be home where i dont have school work to worry with and can focus on eating and lifting.

Yesterday I did some rotator cuff exercises since it was sore all of last week.  Thought I would wait till Friday to try and train chest.  So in addition to the rotator cuff stuff, I hammered calves and abs.  But today I was going to attempt and have an intense back workout.  Started with a warm up with pull-ups, and then moved on to heavy BB rows.  Had a great day there, first time ever trying 315 and I got it for 6 reps.  Next was Deadlifts, followed by neutral grip lat pull downs.  Then we did seated cable rows, and there I tried the most I ever done, 250, only 50 pounds away from the stack.  I actually got 9 solid reps, maintaining good form.  We finished up with some close grip lat pull downs super-seted with some close grip rows, and my back was spent.  Tonight I hit two new personal records and had an excellent workout.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the same when I hit shoulders and traps.  Off to eat some red meat and watch the Victoria Secret Fashion show.  Holla