Panda Bull

I woke up on my own in time to check my email and get my stuff for the gym ready. I went out, made my protein shake, and as I was drinking it noticed that my mom (ride to the gym) had left without me.

Mother…

So I called my dad and we ran a side errand and he dropped me off at the gym.

I get into the locker room, open my bag: didn’t put my notebook (workout log) in the bag.

…Fucker.

I decided to strike a balance between volume and intensity by testing my 5RM. I figured that today I’m ‘primed,’ carb-loaded but not weighed down, not tired, and only a little stressed/pissed off… which may have actually helped my cause anyway. I beat the shit out of myself in lieu of being capable of kicking anyone else’s ass.

I basically did straight sets until I couldn’t perform five reps. Then de-loaded for the following two sets as though I was reverse pyramiding as usual.

The top set weight is what I’ll be striving to MAINTAIN as I go further into my diet.

Workout for Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Pulldown

• Sets of 5: 45, 55, 70, 85, 100lbs.
• Set of 3: 115lbs. (form not so good, but adequate, I got it below my chin without curling it)
• Set of 5: 105lbs.
• Set of 7.5: 95lbs. (5-second hold on the half-rep)

Incline Press (Nautilus)

• Sets of 5: 20, 25, 30, 35, 45lbs.
• 1 rep: 60lbs.
• Set of 3: 50lbs.

I didn’t like the way my shoulders were feeling on this machine. It felt like I was activating too much of my lateral delts and not my pecs. I switched over to the machine next to it, which looked more like a wide-grip incline press setup. The weights weren’t as minutely customizable (no 5 or 10-pound jumps) but, form is key! The whole reason I’m switching over to machines is so that I can let form concerns be less on my ass than they otherwise would be.

Incline Press (Star Trac)

• 8 reps: 45lbs.
• Sets of 5: 60, 75lbs.
• 3 reps: 90lbs.
• 7 reps: 75lbs.
• 12 reps: 60lbs.

And so you see, only my top set can stay where it is. However, being that the jumps are only in 15-lb increments, the two deload sets have nowhere to go. I guess I’ll just rep it out like a madman, hah.

I decided to do some crunch machine to give my shoulders a bit a break. I don’t think that I’ll be doing abs on a regular basis, or, if I do, I want to see if I can find that ‘twist’ machine so I don’t just work this part of my core, and so that I don’t totally rape my shoulders trying to do them with cables.

Nautilus Crunch

• Sets of 5: 20, 35, 50, 65, 80, 95lbs. (the last set I noticed that the handgrips were too high and caused too much of my arms assist in the pull, so I raised the seat)
• Not even a rep: 100lbs.
• 5 reps: 95lbs.
• 6 reps: 90lbs.
• 11 reps: 85lbs. (WHEW!)

Lateral Raise

• Sets of 5: 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70
• 1.5 reps: 75lbs.
• 3 reps: 70lbs.
• 4.5 reps: 65lbs. (held at halfway for a bit, didn’t count the length of the hold)

I skipped cardio for today. I was pretty beat and the workout already took about two hours. I don’t think I want to spend longer than two hours at a time in the gym if I don’t REALLY have to.

Weight: 164lbs.
Body Fat: 17.6% (I’m starting to get irritated by trying to get my hydration levels right!)

Condition: PRIMED! (new factor I’m recording, I don’t think I could have felt more ‘ready’ to work out than I did this morning.)

Popularity: 3% [?]

Sans Bullshit

I received an ankh for my birthday; I've wanted one since I was very young.

Lots of horeshitastic nonsense in January, I mean ta tells ya!

But rather than get into all of that, suffice to say I’ve been binging rather orgasmically. The only record I’m obliged to place at the moment, is Thursday’s workout.

Depletion workout on Monday, with a return to fasting as well.

Birthday Lifts

Deadlift

1. 65lbs. x 5 (from hang; hook grip)
2. 65lbs. x 5 (hang-hook)
3. 95lbs. x 3 (hang-hook)
4. 140lbs. x 2 (from floor; hook grip)
5. 165lbs. x 5 (from floor; left hand under; increase next week)

Incline Bench

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 45lbs. x 5
3. 60lbs. x 3
4. 80lbs. x 2
5. 90lbs. x 3 (stay-at next week)
6. 80lbs. x 5

Hi-Low Twist

1. 20lbs. x 5
2. 30lbs. x 5
3. 40lbs. x 3
4. 50lbs. x 2
5. 60lbs. x none! half-way, static hold (staying the weight)
6. 50lbs. x 1 (keeping in mind the goal of the de-loaded sets is to get one more rep than the previous set…)

Weight: 161lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 15.8%

Obviously, I didn’t make my birthday goal. My goal by the end of May is sub -9% body fat. Let’s get to it.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Goal Revision

I’ve been spending more time away from the gym than I ordinarily would like, but my immune system has been taking hell lately and I’d rather not take more stress than I absolutely have to. I seem to have an inverse gym-to-thinking ratio; the longer I stay away from the gym the smarter and more introspective I become. I have to fix that.

Optimal health over the long-term is the only real goal, after all.

However, I do have three major goals over the next eleven weeks:

1. 10% or lower body fat percentage.
2. Run continuously for 20 minutes.
3. Squat 300lbs.

They’re in a specific order, too. They’re in the order of effort I’m putting in, in order of likelihood to occur, in order of what I’d like to have and INVERSE order of what I would really enjoy doing.

A lot of people get mixed up. Yes I would like to HAVE sub-10% bodyfat, but I don’t really enjoy DOING WHAT IT TAKES to have it. Important distinction. Though honestly I enjoy squatting and also would enjoy having a BW-multiplied-by-whole-number PR.

And to be honest I don’t really care a whole lot about running one way or the other, so sticking it in the middle is accurate. I don’t really care about running, I don’t really think I enjoy doing it, but just having some aerobic fitness couldn’t hurt, and certainly contributes to my caloric deficit for fat loss. Family has a history of heart problems and diabetes, and I’ve already neglected the latter, so might as well take care of a problem before it can happen, you know?

Optimal health over the long-term.

Popularity: 2% [?]