Beefcake!

The past 2 weeks have been pretty busy.

Both weeks, I’ve taken the kids to the Y on Monday night for "Family PE".  This is basically a PE Class for parents and kids together.  There’s an exercise period, which consists of calisthenics or running, then there’s a game period (which is the majority of the class) which generally consists of variations of tag.  When you’re not used to playing like that, it’s actually a little hard on you.  After the games, we stretch. All in all, it’s really good exercise.

During my 2 training sessions last week, I did shoulders on Tuesday and chest of Friday.  This week, I did back / triceps on Tuesday and chest / biceps on Thursday.  I’m pretty tired today.  I’m gonna be sore in a major way, I can tell.

I’ve worked hard this week.  On Sunday, I cleaned up the gym and got in 20 minutes of cardio.  On Monday, I did a 20 minute cardio warmup and followed that up with my interval training:

(Iso-Lateral Rows, Bent Over Rows, Narrow Grip Pulldowns, Narrow Grip Rows, 3 minutes treadmill) x 3
(4 sets increasing bicep curls, overhead tricep extensions, tricep pushdowns (rope), tricep pushdowns (bar), 3 minutes treadmill) x 3

That was a good workout, I felt.  On Wednesday night, I took my son to the Y for his workout and got in a good 45 minutes of recumbent bike.  The plan for tonight was to go in and nail my 1 rep max.  I did so much stuff wrong… didn’t get enough sleep for several days, didn’t eat right today, didn’t warm up enough… basically I flamed out on my max attempt.  Here’s how it went…

20 minutes treadmill
Stretching
Bench Press
- 10 reps at 135
- 1 rep at 225
- 1 rep at 275*

*This was supposed to be the set before my max attempt at 300.   However, I got stuck about 6 inches off of my chest and couldn’t get it up until my spotter got me past the sticking point.  Mike showed me a powerlifting body position and I made another attempt.

- 1 rep 275*

*Again, I got stuck and couldn’t get it up without the spotter’s help.  I’ve done this weight for 5-6 reps before, so I don’t know what was wrong tonight.  I’m thinking it’s just that it was a short warm up.  After that failure, I practiced the position and execution with a light weight (135) for a little while, then I decided to just do a chest workout.

3 x Incline Press (10) / Incline Screws (10)
3 x Flat Bench Press (10)
3 x Flat Screws (10)
3 x Pec Dec (12)

Now, coming out of this failure, I’ve got some work to do.  Do I continue to do my interval training to drop fat, do I start some 5×5 training to increase my bench strength, or do I go back to my Big Beyond Belief plan?   Guess I’ll think on it for a couple days.

This week, I did some damage.  My time was limited, because I was oncall at work, so I didn’t get that much exercise time in.  On Tuesday night, I went to the gym, but I had a band practice, so I only did a 30 minute treadmill session.  On Wednesday, I opted for a leg / arm workout.  Started with legs…

Stretch / Leg Extension / Lying Leg Curl / Seated Leg Curl

I performed this superset 3 times, then it was off to the leg press machine.  I don’t do legs that often, so we weren’t doing that much weight, but after my second set, I noticed that something was just wrong.  I’d noticed a muscle in the back of my leg trying to cramp during my stretches earlier and apparently it had gotten worse.  A real tight pain in what I later discovered was my Semitendonosis pretty much shut down my leg workout.  So, we did arms… did… we… ever…

EZ Bar Curls /  Seated Inclined Dumbell Curls / Hammer Curls / Tricep Pushdowns (Bar) / Tricep Pushdowns (Rope) / Bodyweight Dips (15 reps of every movement, no rest between movements)… then 3 minutes on the treadmill at 10% incline / 3.5 mph.

I did that circuit 3 times around and went home with sore arms and a jacked up inner thigh.  Ice and rest were in my future.

On Thursday, I rested everything.  I was at work late, due to being the oncall and things deciding to break right at 5pm, so I wouldn’t have had time to work out anyway.

On Friday, I hit the gym early, so we could go out.  The target was chest chest and more chest and we hit it hard.  I opted for no interval training to give my hammies a break.  I did bench presses, which I hadn’t done for several months.  I did 4 sets (135, 225, 275, 135).  I managed to get a solid 7 reps of the 275 and I was asking Michelle what she thought my 1 rep max would be.  She said rather than guess, we’ll just find out.  However, we had done too many reps to find out right then.  Next week, when I’m fresh, we’re going to test to see where my 1RM really is.  So, next Tuesday, I’m going to do back or shoulders and on Thursday, I’m going to plan for a big lift day.  I’m going to eat impecably that day, every 2 hours.  I’m going to take my Spike and PowerDrive an hour before the lifts.   I’m guesstimating that I’ll get 325.

This week, I had my 2 big training sessions with Michelle and they were zingers.  I also managed to get 2 morning cardio sessions in.  It wasn’t the 5 that I’m aiming for, but it’s a start.

My Monday workout was a high rep shoulder blast.  Every movement was 20 reps with 3 movement supersets (so, 60 reps per superset).  Then, it was to the treadmill for 3 minutes of 3.7 / 6% incline.  That workout hit my shoulder from every angle and I was sore as hell, probably due to the fact that I went through the superset 4 times.  15 pounds isn’t heavy… until you lift it 240 times.  Here’s how it went:

30 minutes treadmill
Overhead Presses, Side Lateral Raises, Upright Rows
3 minutes treadmill
Side lateral Raises, Front Raises, Overhead Presses
3 minutes treadmill
Upright Rows, Overhead Presses, Front Raises
3 minutes treadmill
Front Raises, Upright Rows, Side Lateral Raises
3 minutes treadmill

On Thursday, it was Chest / Biceps.  For chest, it was back to the supersets of destruction.  I had sets of 15 x 4 movement supersets:

20 minutes treadmill
(Inclined Dumbell Presses, Inclined Dumbell Flyes, Flat Dumbell Presses, Flat Dumbell Flyes, 3 minutes treadmill) x 3 times around
Dumbell Curls (15 x 3)
Hammer Curls (15 x 3)
Concentration Curls (15 x 3)

I received my nutrition plan.  I mentioned Precision Nutrition in an earlier blog entry.  I’m very excited about getting on the plan.  John Berardi has formulated an awesome plan and I’m going to be respectful of his wishes that the plan not be shared for free.  He did post a boiled down version on T-Nation, so I’ll link to that here…

7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs

I got the basement cleaned up and my treadmill area set up again.  I got up yesterday and got in 20 minutes of cardio before work.  Last night after work, I had another session with Michelle and she worked me over pretty good:

Inclined Dumbell Press + Dec. Push Ups + Pec Dec (sets of 15)
3 Minutes on the Treadmill (3.7 & 6% incline)
EZ Bar Curls + Seated Incline Dumbell Curls + Hammer Curls (sets of 15)
3 Minutes on the Treadmill (3.7 & 6% incline)

She had me do that 3 times.  That was a HARD workout.  It was lighter than the weight I’m used to lifting, but the combination is totally different from what I’m used to.  My usual workout has been: 1) lift really heavy, 2) rest for a while, 3) repeat.  I’ve mixed in supersets here and there, but this pace and combination was downright grueling.  It’s a heart-pounding, heavy-breathing, sweat-pouring, lactic-acid-painy good time.  Thank goodness for post-workout carbs!  I drank my Surge then went home and pounded a plate of pasta, meat sauce and corn and didn’t feel bad at all about it.

Speaking of diet, I picked one.  Precision Nutrition by Dr. John Berardi.  I ordered the books yesterday and got access to his forums.  I’m looking forward to learning the things in his plan.  His work on metabolism boosting sounds very promising.

I also got my supplement order in yesterday.

Okay.  Got the training plan for the fat burning push.  This is gonna be a tiring couple of months.

First off, morning cardio.  I’m planning to do a half hour to 45 minute non-panting cardio session every morning before breakfast.  I know, it’s nothing groundbreaking, just consistent.  100 straight days, as indicated in this article by Dr Lonnie Lowery:

100 Workouts from Ripped City

I’ll also be adjusting my evening workout sessions.  Instead of the bodypart split I’ve been doing with my trainer Michelle, she’s going to have me doing some pretty intense interval training twice a week.  Any other evenings when I have a chance to get to the gym, I’m going to mix in an additional 20 cardio minutes and a full-body workout.  My plan centers on taxing my whole body as much as possible to maintain the muscle gains I’ve already gotten.

I performed the first of my interval sessions with Michelle tonight and I’m absolutely dead now. She had me perform back supersets (narrow grip rows + wide grip rows + lat pulldowns) and follow that up with 3 minutes on the treadmill at a decent pace and incline.  I went through that progression 3 times, then did 3 supersets of narrow rows and bent over dumbell rows with 3 minute treadmill bouts in between each superset.  Then she had me do some very high rep tricep work and I was done.  I guarantee my heartrate was in the fat-burning zone for a good 40 minutes.

Gonna sleep well tonight.

Welcome to my blog.  First, a little history… I started working out early last year.  The first few months, I did mostly cardio to drop some of my excessive body fat.  During Summer 2006, I worked primarily on gaining strength in my shoulders and chest.  I made a lot of progress during this time, working through the Big Beyond Belief phases.  Last Fall, I started working with Michelle Baker at Mike’s Main Event, who’s been working on my overall muscular conditioning.  I haven’t really been doing the amount of work on my cardio that I need to be doing.  This is primarily because my home gym / cardio area has been in disarray.

So now it’s 2007 and it’s time to turn over a new leaf.  I’ll clean up my basement, get a plan together and post it here soon.