OVER 40 MUSCLE

I had a pretty brutal arm workout yesterday. Even this morning my arms are tight and I can still feel the workout. Just like I like it.

I am typing this at work and I do not have my log with me so I will have to do this from memory. I did increase weight in the bb curls so that was the one plus for the day. I was very conscious of my form and made sure to keep my elbows in tight to my body and not swing my upper body for momentum. I think the stricter form, along with the increased weight, accounts for the sore arms today.

BICEPS (performed as a tri-set with 1 minute rest between sets)
Standing BB curls – 4 sets
Preacher curls – 4 sets
Concentration curls – 4 sets

TRICEPS
Rope Pulldowns – 3 warm-up sets of 25/20/15, 3 working sets of 12
Skull crushers – 3 sets of 12
Overhead DB extensions – 3 sets of 12
Bench Dips – 12/12/10

Taking the weekend off from the weights as I have to work. Monday I will come back and hit a back routine to get the week started off right.

I had decided that I was going all out on legs today. I have been slacking some in the leg workouts so I told myself it was time to get my stuff together. Today I didn’t go for a ton of weight. I was concentrating more on sculpting the quads and calves more than setting any personal records. Today I was concentrating on the teardrop muscle in the quad (or whatever the proper name for that thing is).

I was going to start with a pre-exhaust move (leg extensions) followed by leg presses but some guy was hogging the machine so I adjusted accordingly. I started off with a couple of sets of squats (bar, then 135 for 15 reps) then went straight to leg presses.

Leg Press – 8 plates @ 15 for 2 sets, 10 plates at 10 for 2 sets (toes pointed in on all 4)
DB Step-ups – 4 sets of 12 reps with 45’s in each hand. I could have done more weight here but my grip was off today. I had to use straps on the last two sets.
Leg Extensions – 20 @ 100 for 2 sets and 20 @ 110 for 2 sets (toes in on all 4)
Standing Single Leg Curls – 15 @ 50, 12 @ 75, 12 @ 75 and 10 @ 80
Standing Calf Raises – 12 @ 230, 12 @ 250, 10 @ 300, 10 @ 300

Abs – 80 decline crunches (with 35# plate on chest) and 50 side crunches on each side.

No cardio after that workout. Spent a few minutes in the sauna doing body weight squats and then hit the whirlpool for about 10 minutes to prevent a little pain down the road. I followed that with a PWO drink of RecoverX and then went home and ate a chicken breast and baked potato.

Tomorrow is delts, abs and hopefully some cardio.

I think I like doing chest early in the week (especially on Tuesday). I did not have to wait for anything this morning. However, I did get a late start and did not have time to do my mile run afterwards. I just could not get out of bed. I had only gotten 4 hours sleep the past two nights and it was beginning to take a toll. How often am I supposed to yawn during presses?

I have made a decision to start listing my weights on my updates. Some of you have emailed me and asked why I did not. The answer is simple…they are not where I want them to be. Compared to a lot of you my numbers are low. But, I remembered that I have only been back at it 6 months after a 5-year layoff and my numbers are supposed to be down. The good thing is I see them moving up (ever so slightly but up is up). So, from now on, I will do my best to list the weights for each exercise. I will also use this as a way to track my progress (or lack of) and to keep me on the ball. So here goes…

I warmed up for 5 minutes on the elliptical and then hit the iron. Here’s how it went.

UPPER CHEST
Flat DB Press – 12×40, 12×45, 10×50, and 8×55
Seated Machine Flyes – 10×90, 9×90, 8×90 (this is the one exercise that I was not able to increase the weight and still keep the form).
DB Pullovers – 12×50, 12×60, and 12×70

MIDDLE CHEST
Incline Bench Press – 12×100, 8×100, and 6×100
Incline DB Flyes – 12×20, 12×25, and 10×30

LOWER CHEST
Decline DB Press – 12×30, 10×35, and 8×40
Cable Crossovers – 12×40, 10×40, 10×50

Tomorrow will be leg day. I have slacked off the last few weeks on leg workouts but I am going to hit it hard tomorrow to make up a little ground.

I have decided to rearrange my workouts a little. I have noticed that in doing delts on Monday and Chest on Tuesday has really taken away from my chest workout. My delt routine is so strong that it has taken some power away from my press moves for chest. With chest being one of my weaker body parts I feel I need to get all I can from it. However, everyone at my gym does chest on Mondays so I feel I would be defeating the purpose to move chest to that day (seeing as how I would have to wait in line to do what I need to do). So, for the next couple of weeks I am going to do back on Mondays and move delts to Thursdays. I am not sure if this is going to work but it is worth a try.

With that in mind, I worked back today and really had a good workout. I was able to do 3 plates for a full set on T-bar rows for the first time. I was able to do the entire stack (150#) on cable rows and 60# DB rows, both personal best.

Here is the rest of the workout:

Reverse grip pulldowns – 2 warm-up sets of 15/12, 3 working sets of 15/12/12
DB Rows – 4 sets of 12/10/8/8
T-bar rows (Olympic bar wedged in corner) – 2 warm-up sets of 12, 3 working sets of 12/10/8
Cable Rows – 3 sets of 12
Straight-arm pushdowns – 3 sets of 12/10/8
Straight-bar cable shrugs – 3 sets of 15

No cardio today due to time constraints.

I did not feel the pain and tightness I felt last week and I am glad. Tomorrow is chest day.

After dropping of the oldest (and heir to the over40muscle empire) with my mom, I headed out to do a rugged arm workout. I alternate arm workout each week between a tri-set routine and straight set routine for biceps. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I got the bicep workout from an article on Lee Haney. This week was the straight set week for biceps. The tricep routine remains the same each week for now.  Immediately after the workout I was able to get some pics in the locker room using my new digital camera (thanks to our tax refund). They came out ok but I am still getting used to the settings. You will still be able to see some progress. Check out my progress pics if you want to see them.

Then, I headed to the cardio room and knocked out a 30-minute interval session on the elliptical. In that time is logged 5067 strides and burned 401.0 calories (or so says the digital know-it-all display on the machine). I have my doubts as to how accurate those things really are.

BICEPS
Standing Barbell Curls - 5 sets of 8
Preacher Curls - 4 sets of 12
DB Concentration Curls - 3 sets of 15
Incline DB Curls - 2 sets of 12, 1 set of 8
*This was the first time in a long time I had tried this move. It really works the arms and I had to drop down a few pounds from what I wanted to curl to get the reps. I’m glad I only have to do these every other week.

TRICEPS
Rope Pulldowns - 3 warm-up sets of 25/20/15, 4 working sets of 10-12
Overhead DB Extensions - 3 sets of 12
Close-grip bench press - 4 sets of 15
Bench Dips - 3 sets of 10

Will try to get in another cardio session tomorrow.

A good meal and a good magazine just kinda go together.

Sliced CajunTurkey Breast
Vegetable Medley - green snap peas, red potatoes and roasted red peppers
Latest issue of Ironman Magazine

First of all, thanks for all the well wishes for my son. He was doing much better today. Must have been one of those 24-hour things. He was back to his old self today.

I got in a pretty good back workout this morning. My energy level is still a little low but I managed to get through it ok. I felt a little discomfort in my back during the workout so I skipped a couple of exercises. I have learned over the years how to tell good pain from bad. If it hurts while I am exercising that is usually bad. Pain after a workout is acceptable and usually a sign that I did something right. I do not want to get in a position to where I am going to have to sit out any length of time to recuperate so I listen to the old body when it screams at me. I still got in a good hours worth of work.

Regular Grip Pulldowns – 2 warm-up sets followed by 3 sets of 10
DB Rows – 4 sets 12/10/8/8
T-Bar Rows – 3 sets 12/10/8
Seated Cable Rows – 3 sets 12/10/10
Straight-arm Pushdowns – 1 warm-up set and 1 working set. This is where I felt the pain so I stopped after one set.
Cable Shrugs – 3 sets of 10

No time for cardio today as I had to go to work. I am off this weekend so I will hit arms tomorrow followed by a cardio session. I also hope to get in some cardio on Saturday.

I also started taking Xyience NO-CG3 today. Honestly, I felt and saw nothing. I am thinking I need to cycle off for a month or so and then try it again. I have been on NO products for several weeks now and think I need to deplete the supply from my body and then reload. Any suggestions or ideas?

I was up all night with a sick kid and had to take him to the doctor this morning. The doctor seems to think it is alergies but I have never heard of anyone running a 100+ fever with alergies. Anyway, after a night NOT filled with sleep, and spending almost $100 for an "opinion", we came home and crashed. Currently watching the Red Sox beat up on the Pirates. I’m so glad baseball is about to start.

Tomorrow I will hit the back. I hope that workout is as good or better than last weeks. I am starting to like back worikouts.

PS - this is especailly for Maddi…

A study at the University of Missouri shows that the type of facial features that a woman finds attractive can differ, depending upon where she is at in her menstrual cycle.

If she is menstruating or menopausal, she is more prone to be attracted to a man with scissors shoved in his temple and a bat jammed up his butt while he is on fire.

L8TR

Chest day was the best one so far. I still have not gotten a huge pump on chest day but I did push through some barriers today and I feel good about it. I increased weight on all the exercises and that is awesome. I ran out of steam during cardio and could only do 15 mintues. That wall came up fast and hard. Better luck next time.

UPPER CHEST
Flat bench DB press – 12×35, 12×40, 10×45, 9×50
Seated Machine flyes – 12×80, 10×90, 8×100
DB Pullovers - 12×45, 10×50, 8×60

MIDDLE CHEST
Incline Bench – 12×95, 8×95, 8×95
Incline DB flyes – 12×20, 10×25, 8×25

LOWER CHEST
Cable Crossovers – 12/10/10×40
Decline DB Press – 12/10/8×30

CARDIO
15 minutes on the elliptical, 2808 strides and 230 calories burned.

Posted some progress pics this afternoon. They were taken with a disposable camera so the quality is not the best. However, we got our income tax back today so I talked mama into getting a digital camera. I will try to get some better pics up soon.

Tomorrow is leg day followed by 12 hours at work.

I love shoulder day. That and arms are probably my most favorite body part to work right now. The exercises I am doing really gets a good pump going and it looks good. When I see those side and front delts start popping that just fires me up to hit it a little harder. I do not know why but I have never been able to get a pump going on my chest and hardly ever on back. I am not sure why but that seems to be the way things are right now.

I did not have a lot of energy this morning. I really crashed over the weekend. Not sure if it was blood sugar (I am hypoglycemic) or the reduced carbs, or the change in time or what but I was really dragging over the weekend. Not up to 100% today but I busted my tail anyway. Got in a good shoulder workout with some abs then hit the treadmill for a 23-minute interval.

Here is the workout. (Sets of 10+ mean that I did a minimum of 10 reps. I stopped when I felt I had a couple of reps left. Not going to failure. Warm-up sets were anywhere from 12-15)

SHOULDERS
Standing DB Press – 3 sets of 10+ (plus 2 warm-up sets)
Standing Side Laterals – 3 sets of 10+ (plus 1 warm-up)
Rear DB Flyes (45° bench)  – 3 sets of 12
Superset #1
Reverse Machine Flyes – 3 sets of 10+
Seated side laterals – 3 sets of 10+
Superset #2
Upright Rows – 2 sets of 10+, last set drop set 8/6/7
DB Shrugs – 3 sets of 10+

ABS
Weighted Crunches – 2 sets of 25 with 25# plate, 1 set of 20 with 35# plate.
Side Crunches – 3 sets of 20 each side

CARDIO
Knocked out a 23-minute interval on treadmill at a constant speed of 4.5. 2 minute warm-up at 0.0 incline then up the incline by 1 each succeeding minute up to 4.0 then back to 0.0. Cycle through this 4 times and on the last cycle go from 4.0 to 5.0. This was followed by a 2-minute cooldown.

Will probably do legs tomorrow followed by some very light cardio. I think doing chest following delts is not going to work for me. Chest day will go to Wednesdays.