Doesn’t mean I’m abandoning this cycle. Far from it! I just wish my curiosity would have been satiated having found something that’s working for me on many levels. Not just progression but in flexibility and simplicity. If you care to look at the original workout, you’ll notice what I’ve modified: lat pulldowns for lack of chinning ability, more machine work overall, and focus on side delts rather than overhead pressing movements.

I’m now going to give a shortlist of stats from those workouts, mostly so that I can setup the workouts to come much quicker than trying to locate those individual posts. In actuality I’m probably spending more time putting this together than I would have with individual setups in my notebook… but hey. Whatever.

Remember that the last three exercises of A1 and A2 are the same, so the progression there is linear and I’ll only actually be listing the numbers under A2.

Also noted is the intended (set x rep-range) for given exercises.

A1 – April 27, 2010

163lbs. ~ 16.9% fat

Bench Press 8RM = 80lbs. (2 x 6-8) ~ This is free weight.
Incline Press Machine 5RM = 105lbs. (1 x 6-8) ~ I let this one slide because this machine only operates on 15lbs. jumps.

B1 – May 1, 2010

163lbs. ~ 16.3% fat

Deadlift 3RM = 135lbs. (2 x 2-3)
Lateral Raise Machine 8RM = 80lbs. (1 x 4-6)
Leg Curl 10RM = 55lbs. (1 x 8-10)
Leg Extension 10RM = 65lbs. (1 x 8-10)
Pulldown 8RM = 105lbs. (1 x 6-8)

Keeping in mind that single-set exercises are to be done to failure.

A2 – May 5, 2010

161lbs. ~ 15.6% fat

Incline Bench 8RM = 70lbs. (2 x 6-8) ~ This is free weight.
Wide-grip Horizontal Press Machine 8RM = 80lbs. (1 x 6-8)
Hammer-grip on the same machine as above 8RM = 60lbs. (1 x 6-8)
Pushdown 12RM = 32.5lbs. (1 x 10-12)
Pulldown 10RM = 105lbs. (1 x failure)

TAKING A BREAK DUE TO ILLNESS

B2 – May 18, 2010

169lbs. ~ 17% fat

RDL 3 Reps @ 80% = 105lbs. (3 x 3)
Pulldown 4 Reps @ 80% = 85lbs. (3 x 4-6)
Lateral Raise 4 Reps @ 80% = 65lbs. (3 x 4-6)

That’s 80% of projected 1RM.

I’m not going to bother listing my sauna stats. That’s going to be such a subjective, personal, as-needed thing that I only need the record from one session to the next rather than over time.

First session, 34 minutes total, 2.5 lbs. (There, that’s plenty.)

Second Cycle A1 Workout Date: May 24, 2010.

I did something yesterday while I was working out that I have never done since I started training five years ago. Rather, I didn’t do something.

I didn’t time my rest periods.

In the past I’ve certainly NOT RECORDED my rest periods, or been NOT ANAL about them (oh my god, I’ve rested thirty seconds over two minutes, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE DOWN!?) but I’ve never been totally unaware of generally how long it was since my last set.

When my dad got me started with lifting when I was fourteen, he didn’t lord over me on the machines. He was right next to me working antagonist groups, but he never said: GO NOW. DO THE SET RIGHT NOW. END OF THE WORLD IN FIVE MINUTES AND YOU STILL HAVE THREE SETS.

Nope. Just “when you’re done with your set, look at the clock. After two minutes, do your next set.” So I did.

Sometimes a set would take longer than another because I recently bumped weight, or whatever. He had his own workout going on and would peek over from time to time to make sure I was using my biceps and not my ass when I did curls, but he didn’t count my reps for me. He didn’t count my rest periods for me. He kept it simple and chimed in if I was doing something horribly wrong.

In all my recent efforts to reduce complexity in my program, I’ve just found that I’m still programming my rest periods as though they really mean something. So I decided to leave the watch in the locker and just go whenever I’m ready.

Just as I thought I would, I recovered from warm-up sets quickly (in many cases, significantly less than the two minutes I prescribe myself on my workout tearsheets) and needed an undetermined longer amount of time to recover from the top sets on down.

What was once pushing three hours to do got knocked out in about an hour-and-a-quarter. Accounting for the additional 30 minutes of steady cardio I tacked on as part of a “moar srs” fat loss effort and it’s still roughly an hour of time saved.

I’m certainly feeling the after-effects of the workout now, more than I did when I took those extra minutes, but I LIKE that. It’s not a debilitating level of soreness, just “hey man, take it easy.” Which is what I want to feel on my rest days!

Speaking of rest days: I’m reconsidering my approach to frequency as well, meaning the number of times per week I work out. I can get by on one or two workouts a week, and it really isn’t a broken or horribly rigid scheme to begin with.

But MAYBE I could do more, and I’d like to allow myself the opportunities to try, should they present themselves.

Simply, my approach to rest intervals, both between sets and between workouts, is this:

“Wait until you’re comfortable, without getting RELAXED, and go again.”

That was my subvocalization yesterday, talking to myself so I wouldn’t feel obligated to check the clock.

Workout for Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Body Weight: 160lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 17.4%

Lat Pulldown

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 45lbs. x 5
3. 55lbs. x 5
4. 70lbs. x 3
5. 85lbs. x 2
6. 100lbs. x 5 (not too bad; increasing!)
7. 95lbs. x 6 (head felt like it was going to do a cartoony ‘POW!’; increasing)
8. 85lbs. x 7 (increase)

Need to keep in mind that I’m switching to a 3-5 rep range on top sets.

Time check: half hour in.

Lateral Raise Machine

1. 20lbs. x 5
2. 20lbs. x 5
3. 30lbs. x 3
4. 40lbs. x 2
5. 50lbs. x 5 (my goal was three; definitely increasing. Started to feel some tummy rumblin’.)
6. 45lbs. x 6 (this was the hardest set; still increasing.)
7. 40lbs. x 7 (easiest working set this entire workout; increase!)

Time check: fifty minutes in. Whoa.

Low-High Twist

1. 20lbs. x 5
2. 30lbs. x 7
3. 40lbs. x 7
4. 40lbs. x 5
5. 40lbs. x 5

I’m just doing straight sets on abs/obliques from now on. I don’t think I have form right on these as I felt it too much in my shoulders and not enough in my obliques; I will probably stick to doing high-to-low twists. It could have just been the fact that I did shoulders this day, but, I’m not going to risk it. It had been a while since I did twists so I retested my 7RM and let the laddering up effect as my warm-up. Worked in with two different people so this took slightly longer than it should have.

Time check: hour and fifteen minutes in.

Cardio

30 minutes: Level 1 recumbent bike; 5.91miles; heart rate ranged from 120-127. Increasing to level 2 next workout.

Then I spent my leftover time in the sauna and showering, hahah~

MY STUFF

I’m going to concentrate on upping my core lifts. I started with what is traditionally the “B” workout of starting strength, simply because I did some volume-level deadlifts on Monday and I just was not up to doing it again in the  same week. The Monday workout was sort of a send-off to the end of my program hopping. I’m going to commit nine weeks of twice weekly work, on non-consecutive days and days that aren’t Tuesday or Thursday (see JFIN STUFF below)

I don’t have the means to get to the gym on my own on the same days every week, so it’s to the mercy and schedule of my father. My next workout looks to be Sunday, actually.

So here was the Friday Workout, simply testing my 5RM.

• Squat: 3×5 @ 135lbs. (I felt like I could have lifted heavier, but I decided to just leave it at 45lb plates and just do bigger incremental jumps)
• Overhead Press: 3×5 @ empty bar
• Assisted Hammer-grip Chins: 91.2lbs (used an 85-pound offset)

My bodyweight Friday was 176.2lbs. Later that day I weighed 169 on my buddy’s bathroom scale. This is only significant in that I am personally training him in lifts and eating to help him bulk up.

He’ll be posting his progress here as “jfin.” Be nice guys.

JFIN STUFF

His stats are 137.2lbs (using the aforementioned bathroom scale) and standing a flat six feet tall. He wants to put on some muscle, and I’m putting him on a high volume hypertrophy-specific split. He’ll  be eating 2200-3200 calories per day if he puts the effort in, with 140-175g protein throughout the day. I was trying to give him a reasonable “floor” for calories and protein, because he just gets full way too fast, and he seems to think he doesn’t have enough time or opportunity during the day to eat more than twice.

He says he’ll try to get three meals a day. It’s a start. I don’t want to push him too fast and risk him giving up due to perceived futility.

Our common goal is to be ripped for spring next year. The difference is that I already have the lean body mass to match his overall weight goal for the next three weeks or so. I have to strip some fat and gain strength, he needs to eat a lot more and (partially due to his desire for visually larger muscles, but more due to the fact that his weight total in his home gym equipment is rather low) will be following a twice-weekly upper/lower body split on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Essentially, in between days I’m training myself, I’m training him. He’s my best friend and I’m not going to let him slack when I’m around.

I’ll ask him about taking some progress pictures with me on Tuesday.

[In case anyone is curious: My caloric range is 1800-2200, with 100-300g protein, and 100-200g carbs.]