tbisgrove’s BodyBlog

Well, there was some good and bad about the holidays.  The bad, I didn’t get a chance to workout for four days because of the hectic atmosphere for the holidays at work and different responsibilities.  The good, was I got a lot of turkey left over for sandwiches and I managed not to not put on any weight.  In the past two weeks, I’ve managed to lift for 5 days and do cardio for another 2.  Not the best of attempts, but not too bad.

 I managed to be pretty consistent in my lifting and after each session, did feel quite a pump, definately a good feeling.  Also managed to have some knee pain, not from any lifting directly, but I think from bad positioning while doing cardio and overworking it a bit.  Otherwise, not much new.  I plan to do my measurements before year’s end so I can see if any discernable growth happened, even though I managed to make some decent improvements in my lifting.

Well, after consulting with a surgeon, he said I can keep working out till the hernia presents.  He couldn’t tell if I had one or if I managed to just pull something really well with some swelling, but after two weeks, the pain and discomfort subsided, so its his conclusion to follow up again in the spring and just go a little easier during workouts.

That being said, I’ve seen some decent gains, but nothing to speak of in my biceps or calf/thighs.  I’ve talked to a few of the guys that workout at the gym with me and we’re coming to the conclusion that either a) I’m going to easy on those spots, or b) I need to mix up my workout on those points.  I tried one week like that and definately felt the "burn" and did notice some satisfying tightness almost like my biceps wanted to burst out from under my skin after the workout.  We’ll have to try through the end of the year and then do another measurement to see if its growing like it feels.  For those of you wondering, I’ve switched to a pyramid lifting approach with my biceps.  Currently, 20lbs at 10 reps, then 25lbs at 8 reps, and 30lbs at 6 reps, then back up.  Then I switch over to my current workout for back, then back to biceps doing a straight bar escalating from bar+20lbs up to 30lbs in 3lb increments order and then back down.  Once I can easily get through this, I’ll up the full amount by 5lbs each.  So far the nice result is constant vein popping, albeit not a lot, but enough to notice even when I’m not working out.  I’ve also managed to get my workout load to Back/Bi monday, Chest/tri on Tues, Wed is shoulder/legs, Thurs is off, Friday/Saturday is Bike/run for 30mins (1 one day, 1 the other) and sunday off.  So far so good and if I’m having an off day, I throw in 30-40mins of elliptical machine.