Evening Lifter BodyBlog

My back went out over the weekend. Sore all the time though with the right range of motion, I am frozen and have to go through a terrible pain to get to full extension to be upright. Today was the best out of the last four days. I stretched at work all day and did not lift any 200 pound kids onto the exam table. My mood has gotten progressively worse this week not working out so I just had to.

I did chest and back. Incline DB press 4-0-2-0 tempo for ten sets of ten at 521/2 this week heading to 55 next week.  I alternated with lat pull downs with same tempo at ten sets of ten at 95 lbs. Went easy given the back. I want to get some bands so that I can do assisted pullups on my new tower for ten sets of ten until I can hit it unassisted. Best so far is 5 sets of 6 -7 reps. Goals are good.   I finished with flat flyes at 40 lbs for three sets of ten alternating with seated rows at 110 for  three sets of ten. The workout was great.

I am up 4 lbs so far. Calories are off today with a  hectic schedule so we will see in a few days whether we keep it or not.  The back is all warm and a bit tight right now. I hope I can get up in the am.

Take care and hit it.

I started week four of German Volume Training today. I tried my new hack squat set up and loved it. I have focused on the medial quads and can now say I have a tear drop. The outer quads loved the attention today. I did 135 for the ten sets of ten at a 4- 0-2-0 tempo, again this tempo can make a light weight seem heavy by the 5 th set. I alternated with DBSLDL with35 lbs each arm for ten sets of ten. My back has been acting up so went easy. It hit the hammies good and the back is fair. It is better than last night though has had the catch a few times that takes the breath away. Moving with caution. I then did calf raises on the sled set up for hacks. I took the platform normally used for leg press and hooked it over the hack squat platform for a 2 1/2 inch toe raise.  That was awesome. Hit the calves in a different way than when I do them on the leg press. I alternated with leg raises. 90 sec rests on legs and 60 sec rests on calves and abs. Feels good. I cannot believe I am already in week 4 and somehow it has truly been 3 calendar weeks to now. So I am happy with my ability to stay consistent despite a crappy work schedule lately with call nights.

I am up to 182lbs so a total of 3 lbs in 3 weeks. The abs are starting to show so I know this is lean mass. Feels great. I have not seen steady gains like this with prior efforts. I look forward to cycling to this from time to time to plateau bust. I am thrilled as my diet has been compromised by my schedule making it less than complete for a bulk. Happy as can be. Have a great week.

Arms and shoulders today. I have  new power tower so did dips in that station rather than in between two barbells with knees bent. Wow that isolates the tris so much better when legs straight and going up and down without forward lean. Again 4-0-2-0 tempo. I alternated 10 sets of 10 with incline hammer curls at 25 lbs this week. Will try to go up again next week though the 4- 0-2-0 tempo makes 25 lbs feel pretty heavy by the tenth set of ten.  Take some swallowing of pride to launch in to ten sets of ten with a lighter weight than feels right though by th 5 th set it is plenty heavy. I ended with 3 sets of ten of seated rear laterals and 3 sets of ten seated side laterals. Great workout. Protein today over 225 gms so feeling like I ate pretty well.

I some how tweaked my back earlier while down on my knees with my kids a bunch. Settled for the workout but tonight it is killer. I am fine lying down, sitting bent over, but coming up from bent over is a killer with a definite sticking point. Hope it settles by tomorrow. I want LEGS.

Tonight was chest and back. I did Incline DB bench at 50 until the tenth set of ten and added plate mates to go to 52 1/2. will increase next time. I alternated this with BB rows again 95Lbs for ten sets of ten with a4-0-2 tempo. Last set went to 100 and will increase next week. The ten sets of ten with the 4- 0 - 2 tempo was much easier tonight. No where near tossing cookies as in weeks 1 and 2. I finished with Flat Flies 35 by 10, 37.5 by 10 and 40 by 10, alternating with Seated rows 110 for 3 sets of ten. Great workout. Not eating as much this week so off on the weight. I have not been as good about planning ahead for long work days. Need to restock. I am excited to be on week 3  with only arms and shoulders left to go. I have only one call this week, tomorrow, one next week and then over two weeks without call. I am so psyched as call is the biggest impediment to workouts of all for me.

German Volume training has been great. I can see the whole 12 weeks now where after the first week I thought no way.

I was dead dog tired today. Came home after 10 hrs at the office and replaced our over the range microwave, a two man job per instructions.  It went pretty well though got my low back tight. I was going to workout tonight regardless. I did leg press at 245 lbs for ten sets of ten with 4-0-2 tempo, will go up next time. I went high and wide to get the tear drop.  I alternated leg curls for ten sets of ten and then did leg press calf raises 245 for three sets of 25. Then leg raises on my new power tower I just picked up for 40 bucks. I also got four new 45 lb plates that just sit on the leg press.

This was week 3 of German Volume training four days behind schedule secondary to the weekend on call and nothing left of me monday night after 50 plus hours. I spent last night getting my new equipment. Still looking for the power cage to replace my smith and then I will try to be satisfied except for adding more dumbbells.

I did my second week of ten by ten German Volume training for arms and shoulders. I got all ten sets of dips with a 4-0-2 tempo unassisted tonight. Had to assist on set 7, 9, and 10 last week. I added 2 1/2 pounds to my incline hammer curls as well. I finished with 6 sets of shoulders and the shoulders were week though hit them directly with absolute pre-exhaustion from the arms. I love this workout. I had to take my shirt off toward the end from the pump causing the shirt which is normally not tight to be uncomfortably tight. I love the feeling of the pump from the ten by ten.  It is awesome. If you are at a plateau this one will surely kick you into growth mode. I am up 2 lbs in two weeks and pants are fitting the same or looser in the waist though the legs are filling up. Good luck with your training.

..said my son tonight just before bed. He then pointed to my lateral triceps and biceps peak. Wow. I was happy as could be. Two of my sons worked out, while I did, tonight and have made progress on form. Fun to see them progress.

I continued the assault German style. I did bench press for ten sets of ten reps and started conservatively at 135 and did just fine. Did not feel desperate and did not attempt to throw up. The 4-0-2 tempo is what makes the deal a hard one. I will go up next time though, tonight was my first attempt at 100 reps of bench in ten sets.  I have gained respect for how heavy the bar gets after the 5 th or 6th set and then lightens somewhat at the 7th and then heavy by 9 or ten again. It has been fun. i alternated bench with wide grip lat pulldowns - only one olympic bar.  I  did 100 for ten sets of ten with strict 4-0-2 form. Then incline flyes 3 sets of ten, 35,35, and 40 for the last, alternating with seated v bar rows with 115 for 3 sets of ten.

Great workout. Truly limping from yesterday. I either pulled an intrinsic foot muscle or bruised the ball of my left foot. Ouch. the rigors are setting in the legs today. Will take tomorrow off and then Tues night do arms and shoulders to finish week 2 of German Volume training. Weight is up 2 lbs in the two weeks so far. Will see where this leads. Pretty psyched.

I continued with week 2 of German volume Training and killed it today. I tried squats this week. Did leg press last week and gained respect for ten by ten. I tried a conservative 135lbs and thought I had way undershot for the first four or so sets. By the 9th I was almost puking. I did 90 sec rests alternating with leg curls ten by ten as well. I had to loosen the 4-0-2 tempo to a 3-0 -2 tempo for the last set or so. The 4 second downs are killer.  I ended up getting all ten sets of both squats and leg curls. Almost hurled.  I then did 3 sets of calves supersetted with abs.  I had a great workout and have been eating the house out of food since. Hope to be able to walk tomorrow. I love the ten by ten. I have already seen an amazing amount of progress in just 4 workouts.

Hope to hit chest and back tomorrow. Day with the family as well. Take care.

I was to do GVT on the arms and shoulders today though had to squeeze it in between 4 yr old’s karate and 7 and 9 yr olds karate and include dinner. I did supersets of body weight parallel dips and incline hammer curls per the GVT guide on BB .com. I thought body weight dips why not add some weights though thought of the ten sets so went without. I understood why no weight after the fourth set at a tempo of 4-0-2. This is the hard part, the tempo adds to the work. At set 4 I thought ten would not happen.  I ended up getting 10 each set until 7 and then did 7 with 3 assisted with a light band, set 8 was 10 unassisted, set 9, 9 with 1 assisted and set 10, was 8 with 2 assisted. It was killer. I did not rest between incline curls and the dips and only took a 90 sec rest in between the supersets. It was killer. I did not recognize my arms when I was done. I did not get to do shoulders though may squeeze them in tomorrow.

I am sold on the German Volume training. I cannot wait to see what this leads me to. Take care to all and good luck with training.

I did back and chest today. First time for chest and back on my German Volume training trial      and I love it. I did incline DB press and BB row in supersets and then flat DB flyes with Vbar lat pulldowns in supersets. I did 10 sets of inline DB bench at 45 for ten sets of ten and then 95 lbs for ten sets of ten for BB row. The tempo of 4-0-2 makes a 45 lb db heavy and a 90 lb BB heavy as well. I will go up on both next time. I did not think much of my weight choices until about the 4th to 5 th sets and then got nervous though around 7-8 had some BH and Bando psyche that helped make it lighter again. I was about to vomit however. 20 sets in 23 minutes with strict 90 sec rests. I then went for three supersets of flat flyes and vbar pulldowns though only made two supersets as the desire to throw up exceeded the desire to do another superset.  Yikes. I barely could sip the post workout shake and took about an hour to get back to normal.

Short version– workout kicked ***.  I had a great time. On call tomorrow (rest day, LOL) and then shoulders and arms on Tues.  I cannot wait. Doms from the legs has me limping some today though not as bad as I expected. We will see what I feel like in the am.