mongo1862’s BodyBlog

Well, my lifting partner and I just found out 2 weeks ago that our gym was being changed into a Planet Fitness.  I talked to the one manager at the gym and he told me that they were changing so they wouldn’t be overrun by all the bigger gyms.  Except, they were losing the basketball court, sauna and only keeping dumbbells up to 75lbs.  That’s all fine, if that’s what they want to do to keep the company going, then great.  But they’re making all these rules, like no gruntin when you’re lifting weights.  They don’t want people to be intimidated while they’re giving tours of the facility.  And, if they catch or hear you grunting they’re going to warn you and flip lights on at you and stuff like that.  First of all, I’m not one to make a huge amount of noise when I’m lifting anyway, but flipping switches and warning people about their noise when lifting.  I’ve never heard of that, that’s like telling someone not to push themselves or work hard in a gym.  So, Skippy1857 and I just joined a new gym called The Annex not far from our old gym.  It’s a pretty nice gym.  Dumbbells up to 225 (don’t need to worry about that yet for anything, but gives me something to strive for more than 75) and you can make noise in the gym…imagine that…you can work hard in a gym.  They also have a power lifting club, which is something that I might like to look into, still contemplating that.  And, there’s a basketball court, which is where I get the majority of my cardio in at.  All in all, I’m happy with the switch.  Looking forward to see what I can do in there.

This is the heavy week for my workout, also the first time I will do some actual benching since I started this workout split.  Have been doing mostly stabilization work with dumbbells the first 4 weeks.  Going good, but I’d like to see what I’m benching whether it has dropped off or not also.

Chest 3/12/07 - Week 5 - 4 exercises, 2 - 3 sets each, 3 - 5 reps each.

Bench Press - 245/3, 255/3, 255/5

Incline D. B. Press - 65/5, 70/5 x2, will try to go up next week.

Decline B. B. Press - 235/5, 255/5

Incline D. B. Flye - 40/5 x 2, seem to be stuck at 40, probably because every week when I think that I can move up, they move the flyes back down to the bottom of the workout and obviously, they’re harder than if I would do them at the beginning of the workout.

Triceps 3/12/07 - Week 5 - Three exercises, 2 - 3 sets a piece, 3 - 5 reps each

Close Grips Bench - 205/5, 215/5, 225/5

Assisted Tricep Dips - 60/5, 50/5

Tricep Pressdown - 110/5 x 2.

Pretty good workout today, chest felt ripped apart till I was done.  The bench press weight is alright for now, I’m anxious to get back into the "mass building" part of the workout again, to watch the weight go up, but that’s still a while off yet.

Had to shorten up this workout a little bit, no squats and no stiff leg deadlifts.

Legs - Week 4 - 3 exercises, 3 sets, 8 - 10 reps each.
Leg Extensions -  100/8, 120/8, 140/8

Lying Leg Curl - 140/8 x 2, 125/8 - Not comfortable doing leg curls on this machine may need to figure something else out.

Leg Press - 500/8 x 3

Calves - Week 4 - Alternate the calf exercises from middle, inner and outer.
Leg Press Calf Raise - 410/8, 460/8 x 2

Stairs - reps of 10 on each step, 15 steps.  May need to up my reps next workout to 12 - 15.

Pretty good workout, next week need to make sure that I get the Squats and Stiff Leg Deadlifts in to really work the hamstrings.

Shoulders - 6 exercises, 3 sets each for shoulders, 2 sets for traps, 8 - 10 reps each.

D. B. Lat Raise - 25/8 x 3

Two-hand Cable Front Raise - 70/8 x 3

Wide Grip U. R. Row - 95/8, 100/8

D. B. Shoulder Press - 50/8, 55/8 x 2

D. B. Shrug - 120/8, 125/8

B. B. Shrug - 285/8, 290/8

Back - 4 exercises - 2 - 3 sets each 8 - 10 reps each.

St. Arm Pulldown - 160/8, 170/8.  I started doing these kneeling on the ground so I could raise my arms higher for a full extension, seems to work pretty well.

Wide Grip Pulldowns - 160/8 x 2, 165/8

D. B. Rows - 60/8, 65/8 - Just started doing these again, need to find a good weight for me.

Seated Cable Row - 170/8 x 2

Biceps - 3 exercises, 2 -3 sets each, 8 - 10 reps each.

D. B. Concentration Curls - 30/8 x 3

Cable Curls - 120/10, 120/8 - I alternate my hands.  Started with the outside grip first.

B. B. Curls - 75/8, 75/6 - Never did these at the end of the workout before, really forced the biceps to failure.

Chest - This week is 4 different exercises, 3 sets each of 8 - 10 reps each.

Incline D. B. Flye - 40/8 x 3

Peck Deck Flye - 200/8 x 3

Inc. D. B. Press - 70/8, 70/7, 65/7 - Chest was pretty well shot after the flyes.  Pretty disappointing, but all the lifts can’t go as expected…unfortunately.

Decline B. B. Press - 205/8, 225/8 x 2.

I really need to bring up my upper chest and get some separation, so all the incline and flyes should help.  Hopefully it’ll show results after the 3 month cut-down.  Have to wait and see.

Triceps - 3 different exercises of 2 - 3 sets each with 8 - 10 reps.

Tricep Pressdown - 100/8 x 3

Seated Overhead D. B. Extensions - 95/8, 100/8

Assisted Tricep Dips - 70/8, 70/7

My goal is by September to be able to do 5 dips unassisted.  I used to be able to do a bunch of them before I got injured.  It gives me another goal for working out too.

Shoulders - Week 3 - 3/1/07

Today was 6 different exercises for 2 - 3 sets of 8 - 10 reps each.

B. B. Press - 135/8 x 2, 145/8

Wide Grip U. R. Row - 85/8, 95/8, 100/8 - I like to bring the bar all the way up to my chin for these, I feel like I get a better workout rather than just going to my chest or something like that.
D. B. Lat. Raises -  30/8 x 2 - I keep my arms straight rather than bent.  I think it works my shoulders more.
Reverse Pec-Dec - 120/8, 130/8 - I have to be careful when doing these, because I’ve separated my shoulder a bunch of times and if I go too heavy with it I can feel my shoulder coming loose.  Hopefully the raises are helping stabilize it.
B. B. Shrug - 275/8, 285/8

D. B. Shrug - 110/8, 120/8

My wife’s been in a competition at her gym to see who can go to the most workout classes in a month.  She didn’t get the most, because some of the women live in that gym and can go to 4 - 5 classes a day.  I thought it was impressive how she stayed dedicated, so I thought I’d create our own competition between the two of us.  We’re going to see who can lose the most weight and body fat percentage by July 1st.

So, tomorrow, we’re going to go get a scale to keep at the house and a body fat meter.  This will keep me motivated to drop fat because I’m competitive and hopefully keep her motivated to workout, just so she can brag that she beat me.  Also, the winner gets to pick a weekend vacation that we’ll take in August, September or October depending where the winner wants to go and when my weekends off are from the prison.
We’ll see how it goes.  So, hopefully, I’m going to get to post some starting progress pictures in the next couple days to track how my appearance looks too.

2/28/07, since I’ve had to write 3 blogs on the same night, I can’t seem to stay on top of this, but I’m working on it.

Today’s back was all rowing motions pretty much.  Hopefully it’ll make the lats come out, guess we’ll have to see.

Back:

Assisted Wide Grip Pullup - 3/8-10

90/8 x 3

Barbell Row - 3/8-10

135, 155, 165/8.  I’m still trying to master my form on this exercise, since I just started doing these recently.  I’ve hurt myself too many times in the past worrying about weight rather than form to do that again.

Seated Cable Row - 2/8-10

160/8, 165/8

Straight Arm Pulldown - 2/8-10

160/8, 165/8

Nautilus Pullover - 2/8-10 - This exercise wasn’t in my workout, but I tried it last week and my lats were sore for days, so it’s getting added again.

170/8, 185/8

Biceps:

Barbell Curl - 3/8-10

80/8 x 2, 75/8

Preacher Curl - 2/8-10

75/8 x 2

D. B. Concentration Curl - 2/8-10

30/8 x 2

Felt pretty good after the workout, tried some new ab exercises, tomorrow going to hit the elliptical before doing shoulders, trying to jam more cardio in there.  Definitely need it.

This new workout that I’m on, has me doing different workouts everyweek, or at least different reps or sets.

Chest: 

Bench Press - 3 x 8 - 10

185, 205, 225 all for reps of 8

Incline DB Press - 3 x 8 - 10

65/8, 70/8 x 2

Incline DB Flye - 2 x 8 - 10

35/8, 40/8

Lying Cable Crossovers - 2 x 8 - 10

70/8 x 2

Triceps:
Close Grip Bench - 3 x 8-10

185/8 x 3

Assisted Dips - 2 x 8-10

70/8, 60/6

Tricep Pressdown - 2 x 8-10

100/8 x 2