Jettisoned Ponderings

I’ve really liked how I’ve been feeling and the results I was seeing from the 2 day routine I did a while back. However, now that I’m doing it with a training partner and am able to go heavier and more intense, by the time I get the appropriate rest times in it’s taking 2 hours to get it all done. Now, I don’t mind spending that much time in the gym, but there have been days that I go so intense that I’m feeling sick by the end of it and the toxin buildup is quite potent. So I took the routine and went back to the drawing board and made it into 3 days instead of 2. I tried to be more conscious of how many sets were being done on each muscle group and to set goal rep ranges more specific to what that particular exercise should hit. It’s a hybrid of what I see the best results from. Some muscles grow when taken to failure and pumped out to 20+ reps. Others have started to respond more to 2-6 reps and heavier weight, which wasn’t the case even six months ago. I do know that my body responds well when it’s trained to exhaustion or partial failure. With this in mind, I’m going to start making it more of a conscious effort to also hold and squeeze for a moment at peak contraction more often. I also changed up some exercises to better fill out the different days. The result is as follows:

Chest/Shoulder/Abs
Exercise - Sets - Reps
Wide Grip Bench Press - 4 - 10/8/6/4
Incline Press - 3 - 12/10/6
Decline Bench Press - 3 - 12/10/6
Seated V DB Front Raises - 3 - 12/10/8
Seated DB Lateral Raises - 3 - 12/10/8
Wide Grip Upright Rows - 3 - 15/12/10
Smith Behind Back Shrugs - 3 - 12/10/8
Peck Deck (Drop Sets) - 3 - 10-12 (per drop)
Abs Circuit - 3 - 20 Per Exercise, 4 exercises in circuit

Legs
Exercise - Sets - Reps
Deep V Hack Squats - 4 - 10/8/6/4
Standing Leg Curls - 3 - 12/10/8
Adductor - 3 - 15/12/10
Abductor - 3 - 15/12/10
Seated Calf Raises - 4 - 15/12/10/8
Seated Leg Extension - 3 - 20/15/12
Leg Press - 3 - 10/8/6
Kickback Machine - 3 - 12/10/8
Deadlifts (Once/Wk) - 3 - 8/6/4

Back/Arms/Abs
Exercise - Sets - Reps
Parallel Grip Front Pulldowns - 4 - 12/10/8/6
Seated CG Cable Rows - 3 - 15/12/10
Bent Dumbell Rows - 3 - 12/10/8
Rev. Grip Front Pulldowns - 3 - 12/10/8
Cable Rev. Flies (Rear Delt) - 3 - 15/12/10
CG Preacher Machine Curls - 3 - 12/10/8
Decline Tricep French Curls - 4 - 12/10/8/6
Shldr Wide Prone Mach Curls - 3 - 12/10/8
Seated DB Overhead Tri - 4 - 12/10/8/6
Revese Grib BB Curls - 3 - 12/10/8
Abs Circuit - 3 - 20 Per Exercise, 4 exercises in circuit

With the date set now, more planning for our upcoming wedding is falling into place. I think what’s made me smile the most is tha my fiance is going to bring some weights with her to make sure she can get pumped before the wedding ceremony! That and she ordered her dress just a little large in the upper body with the intent of filling it with more muscle! Seriously, I have the best girl ever! She’s so much more than I could’ve ever hoped for!

Came off the bulking diet about a month ago and I’m starting to see the results of it now. Keeping the protein high is of course a given, but no gainer shakes and generally speaking fewer, or at least better, carbs. More granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, etc. and a lot more greens whenever they’re conveniently available. I’m so thrilled that the cafeteria at my work actually has fresh made healthy food and not just sandwiches in plastic wrap. I can get steaks, chicken breasts, salmon fillets, etc. for less than $5 each. That’s hard to beat. They’re not open all the time though, so I need to start packing more than just extra protein to take with me so I’ve got a little more to keep me going when I get a break and can eat something. I’m also really liking that my strength is being maintained and I don’t feel like I’m losing any muscle. This could very well be from taking at least 9 BCAA caps a day, something I hadn’t done previously. The only downside is that I’m always on a phone all day and only get to leave my desk about every 90 minutes or so, which makes it hard to get down as much water as I’d like without having to get up to go to the restroom. I’m sure I’ll figure out something to solve that problem soon enough since I’ll be finding out my new shift in a couple weeks. Back to a note on lifting, the workouts have been running about an hour and a half to two hours. I’m actually really liking how it’s feeling. Since I’m doing more heavy sets, I’m not rushing the pace and giving my muscles enough time to recover between sets. I’m breaking a sweat and my heartrate is staying sufficiently above it’s resting BPM. I might tweak a couple more things on it (like doing stiff leg deadlifts every other time I do that day’s routine and on days I don’t do them instead do standing leg curls or something along those lines), so we’ll see. I’m liking that I can noticeably push myself a little more each workout, be that from weight, number of reps, or how long I can go before I start to feel ill and crash on energy. Still have 3-4 more weeks to go on this program, but I’m quite anxious to see how the results are at the end of it.