Countdown to 21: First Workout (Part One)

So I’ve set a goal to eat an entire cheesecake for my birthday. I didn’t just set it as I was writing this, I’ve known for quite a while now that this is something I have to do. It’s part of who I am, and it needs to be done.

I can fit a lot of the white stuff in my mouth, given the opportunity.

The event will occur on Friday, January 28. The first day of prep: January 16.

I may be parodying my over-drama tone here, but I am really fucking serious about this.

Workout for Sunday, January 16, 2011

Body Weight: 165.5lbs.
BF%: 17.8%

Pinches (skinfold measurements)
Chest: 12mm
Belly Button: 38mm (the goal is 4mm, long way to go; taken an inch to the right)
Thigh: 22mm

Pre-workout: 50mg ephedrine/200mg caffeine

START TIME: 9:00AM

Squats

I haven’t done squats in well over a year. I don’t think I’ve recorded a workout on this version of the blog containing an honest-to-god Squat-fronted (as opposed to front-Squatted, which is a different thing) workout. It’s been so long that I decided to set this up, as I often do when incorporating a new movement, by doing a rep test. I’ll be following a linear periodization scheme with this exercise as I move forward, so the reps performed reflect how many I’ll be doing at this phase.

I kept the rest periods to about 3-5 minutes. They were actually longer at the beginning, once I decided that 135lbs. was going to be my working weight I cut down to three minutes of rest.

1. 45lbs. x 10
2. 65 x 10
3. 85 x 10
4. 95 x 10
5. 115 x 10
6. 135 x 10 (starting to get heavy, and I don’t think if I increase it I’ll have the stamina to do another two sets)
7. 135 x 10
8. 135 x 6 (form was falling apart)

I will probably still increase this lift the next time around, as it’s going to be a few weeks before I squat again. I’m just not patient enough, but if I don’t make ten across after the jump, I will stick with THAT weight.

Leg Curl

1. 40lbs. x 5 (was intended to be a warm-up set of 25lbs, but I screwed up how I wrote it down.)
2. 40 x 8
3. 40 x 8
4. 40 x 8

Two minutes of rest. Definitely going to increase this next time around.

Calf Raise

1. 30lbs. x 15
2. 30 x 15
3. 30 x 15

Two minutes of rest. Increasing this as well.

I am probably going to not be including further warm-ups for leg exercises following squats. I only had one, on leg curls, and it wasn’t even necessary given that I screwed it up and still can bump the weight for next time.

Crunch Machine

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 60 x 3
3. 80 x 4 (forgot it was warm-up, did two extra reps until I realized)
4. 90 x 10
5. 90 x 10
6. 90 x 10

Two minutes of rest. Increasing load.

Cable Low Row

1. 45lbs. x 6 (did one extra just for form’s sake)
2. 75 x 3
3. 90 x 2
4. 105 x 8
5. 105 x 8

Two minutes of rest. Workout’s going great so far. Increasing this as well. Two minutes of rest.

Concentration Curl

1. 5lbs. x 5
2. 10 x 10
3. 10 x 10

Another worthless warm-up set. Increasing. Two minutes of rest between sets (all of these have been for between sets, but I do also rest for two minutes before starting the next exercise.)

Romanian Deadlift

1. 60lbs. x 3
2. 85 x 2
3. 100 x 10

Because of how much I was supposed to de-load from my working Deadlift weight for this lift, it would have been impractical for me to do conventional deadlifts. So I didn’t.

I will be increasing this, I just am not sure by how much, yet. I might just keep it at a set percentage, so that if my conventional deadlift doesn’t go up, neither does this.

BREAK TIME: 11:11AM (I wished I could keep working out, HAH.)

More later, this workout hasn’t ended yet…

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Thems Beach Muscles

Workout for Friday, October 1, 2010

Incline Dumbbell Bench

1. 40lbs. x 5
2. 50 x 3
3. 70 x 2
4. 80 x 7 (too heavy)
5. 70 x 7
6. 70 x 7
7. 70 x 7

Dumbbell Curl

1. 5lbs. x 3
2. 10 x 2
3. 15 x 7 (too heavy)
4. 10 x 7
5. 10 x 7
6. 10 x 7

I should note, I’ve yet to record a rep of dumbbell curling on this site that wasn’t performed lying against that incline bench. Smashing my back against something is the only way I can easily tell if I’m shoulder-cheating or not.

The way I’m going to implement weight increases is, next time I do this workout, the second set will be with the increased weight but probably not for all 7 reps. So for the benching it may be something like this next workout:

1. 80 x 7
2. 80 x 2
3. 70 x 7
4. 70 x 7

Cardio

1 mile in 20 minutes, 149 calories, on the treadmill. I just hit the fat burn button and plugged in my info. Not really a whole lot else to say because everything kept changing automatically. Shot for a 130bpm and was surprised at how much of an effort it took to get to it.

Other than I told some dude I was doing volume work so I wouldn’t have to do cardio, and then twenty minutes later he gave me the queerest look as he walked past me on a treadmill.

MY BACK IS KILLING ME I HATE REPPING DEADLIFTS OH MY GOD.

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Back to Shoulders

I am going to have to either stop chinning or lateral raising.

Chinning: Compound movement that has realistic utilitarian purpose.

Laterals: Makes my shoulders bigger and I like that.

Tough call.

Workout for September 26, 2010

Body Weight: 172lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 20%

Fed/Fasted: Fed. Fasted ten hours before working out, but the day prior I ate a LOT.

Pre-workout EC taken at 9:15AM.

ChinAss

1. 42lbs. x 5
2. 42 x 5
3. 82 x 5
4. 117 x 3
5. Bodyweight (172) – 4 negatives.

Did some lat activation stuff from a dead hang that I didn’t count, after.

Lateral Raise

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 55 x 5
3. 70 x 3
4. 85 x 2
5. 105 x NOTHING. Got a fourth of the way up and wouldn’t budge.
6. 95 x 1 – and ow, man.

In retrospect, pretty foolish thinking I could handle post-deadlift poundages after doing something already stressful to the shoulders.

Crunch Machine

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 70 x 3
3. 100 x 2
4. 120 x 3 – increase.

Finally getting somewhere.

I really shouldn’t have done any vanity training and just got to the cardio that I wound up too sapped to do at all, but whatever. My caloric deficit hasn’t been that great (in more ways than one) so while that is definitely an argument for increased cardio… it also meant I felt capable of DOING the lifting.

If I can lift, I’m going to lift. End of story.

Twist

1. 40lbs. x 5
2. 50 x 3
3. 70 x 2
4. 90 x 5 (increase! Grunted like a boar though…)

Calf Raise

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 75 x 5
3. 75 x 5
4. 75 x 15 – increase

Dumbbell Curl

1. 15lbs x 5
2. 15 x 5
3. 15 x 9 – increase

I just alternated arms, was starting to feel tired and I wanted to finish up. No idle rest.

Pushdown

1. 27.5lbs x 5
2. 32.5 x 5
3. 32.5 x 5
4. 32.5 x 5 – could have done more, but stopped short. Increase.

I don’t want to risk over-fatiguing my triceps, even though the rest before my next incline bench session is probably sufficient.

TIME: 10AM – 12:22PM

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Lats Are Like Your Back (P3C4P1)

Really, all I remember from yesterday that I didn’t note down was the “I’m such an exercise geek” broski next to me when I was working delts.

Bro1: Nah man I don’t do direct ab shit, that’s all about fat loss y’know?
(I’m quiet.)
Bro2: Yeah I guess, but once the fat’s gone there has to be something under it to show off right?
(I nod to myself, I might have smiled but my shoulders were screaming.)
Bro1: I’ve been cuttin’ up for a while. I’mma hit some lats in a minute next to mah man here. My arms’ been leaning up real nice.
(Do what? Whose man? He sits in the lateral raise machine next to me and pounds out a set, lots of reps. I’m moderate reps so, even though he started his set before me, I still finish sooner.)
Bro1: Damn man, you liftin’ pretty light huh?
Me: (I actually didn’t say anything, but I mistakenly managed to acknowledge him.)
Bro1: You trying to build up your lats?
Me: Not at the moment.
Bro1: What are you doing then?
Me: My… shoulders.
Bro1: You should lift more if you wanna build ‘em up.
Me: (I look over at his stack. He really did a lot of reps. I didn’t count him, but he wasn’t lifting anywhere near as much as me. I still ask.) How much do you lift?
Bro1: Every day. (err’day?)
Me: I don’t see you here every day.
Bro1: That’s cuz you ain’t here every day.
Me: …Yet you are?
Bro1: Yeup.
Me: Do you work your lats every day?
Bro1: Sometimes.
(Head explodes.)
Me: You do rows or chins?
Bro1: For my lats or my back?
Me: Silly question, where are your lats?
Bro1: (he taps his shoulder)
Me: Oh.
Bro1: They compound exercises (ezzrsizes?) though. Hits my back and my lats. AND MY ABS. (Bro2 flips him off.)
Me: They… sure do…
Bro1: I’m kinda an exercise geek, you know?
Me: Oh, I know man. I got you. I also got a set, hang on.

Conversation doesn’t resume as I make my way through the drop sets. I fortunately don’t have to explain the concept to him.

Power Workout for July 9, 2010

These are all straight sets. I have tiiiime~

Romanian Deadlift

1. 75lbs x 5 (hook grip)
2. 110 x 3 (hg)

Deadlift

1. 145lbs x 2 (hook grip is slipping now)
2. 185 x 3 (right / left) ~ Increasing.
3. 165 x 2 (left / right) ~ Questioned my form on the top set but the red flag didn’t shoot up until this set. Staying this weight.

I think I might eliminate RDL and do solely DL. I need more practice, and I’ll put more warm-up sets in if I have to in order to get that.

Incline Bench

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 55 x 3
3. 75 x 2
4. 95 x 3 ~ increase
5. 85 x 4 ~ increase
6. 75 x 6 ~ increase
7. 65 x 8 ~ increase

The range for the top set is 3-5, adding one rep to the range each drop set at least. This exercise went surprisingly well.

Lateral Raise

1. 55lbs x 3
2. 75 x 2
3. 95 x 2 ~ stay
4. 85 x 3 ~ stay (I almost forgot that Always was playing during this set. I make a note of it whenever I get HARMONY’d or RickRoll’d….)
5. 75 x 5 ~ increase
6. 65 x 7 ~ increase

I just don’t have it in me to do pulldowns after deadlifts on the same day, I guess. So I skipped working my lats.

Or did I?

Pushdown

1. 32.5lbs x 3
2. 42.5 x 2
3. 52.5 x 2 ~ stay. I’m officially past halfway to pushing the entire stack, haha!
4. 42.5 x 7 ~ stay.

I almost was going to increase the drop set, but then I realized that the range for the triceps-isolation work is 5-7 not 3-5. Which means the top of the drop set is 6-8. One more rep!

I decided on this exercise that if the drop-10% is not exactly 5lbs or less, I won’t round it to 5lbs. I’ll round it to the next highest increment and try to make it to the top of the rep range first.

Dumbbell Curl

1. 5lbs x 5
2. 10 x 5
3. 15 x 5
4. 20 x 1
5. 15 x 5

I wanted to have a fifth movement in for the workout but I didn’t know what to do. I did a 5 rep ceiling and just went along to see where I’d end up. Turns out I have really weak biceps. Who knew? Well, I guess that’s a good sign for my lats, I know my arms aren’t pulling THAT MUCH weight, hahaha…

Oh well.

I just felt really nauseated about the prospect of doing chins (I really pull my abs in hard when I do them) so hopefully on my next carb load I’ll have enough time to digest more of the food before the power workout. It’ll be at least a 24-hour refeed this week.

I don’t really know if I want to do creatine for all my loads now or not. It seemed to have really help me put water in the right places in such a short span. I remember reading that one day of creatine loading is like two days of carb loading, which convinced me to try it given my time limitation. I might try this next refeed without, though, just to see if I have similar results with two-day-carb vs. one-day-carb-with-creatine.

Weight: 169lbs
BF%: 16.6%

I thought it was pretty amusing that the bodyfat % was largely unchanged despite the fact that weight went up so much. Goes to show the accuracy of bio-impedance. I’ll use it as indicative of a successful carb load.

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REFEED ME (P3C4T1)

My computer has been down for a while.

As such, I’ve totally blanked on all the flavor text I was going to post with this workout.

Tension Workout for Thursday, July 8, 2010

Superset: Leg Extension / Leg Curl

1. 30lbs x 5 / 25lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3 / 40 x 3
3. 60 x 2 / 55 x 2
4. 75 x 6 / 65 x 6
5. 70 x 7 / 60 x 7
6. 65 x 8 / 55 x 8
7. 60 x 9 / 50 x 9

Pretty straightforward superset. Throughout the workout I’d usually rest a minute, so that it would be two minutes of rest for the same exercise (Extension, rest a minute, Curl, rest a minute, Extension, etc.)

Superset: Chest Press Machine / Cable Row

1. 30lbs x 5 / 30lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3 / 45 x 3
3. 60 x 2 / 60 x 2
4. 75 x 6 / 75 x 7
5. 70 x 7 / 75 x 8

The cable row was in 15lbs. jumps so I just… didn’t do a drop set there. I should really look up better form on them as well. This was the first time in a LONG time… I fucking HATE rowing.

Superset: Incline Press Machine / Pulldowns

1. 45lbs x 2 / 50 x 3
2. 60 x 12 / 65 x 2
3. 60 x 6 / 85 x 8
4. NA / 70 x 11

Superset: Calf Raises / Lateral Raises

1. 15lbs x 5 / NA
2. 30 x 3 / NA
3. 45 x 2 / 40 x 3
4. 60 x 6 / 55 x 2
5. 60 x 7 / 65 x 6
6. 60 x 8 / 55 x 8
7. 60 x 9 / 45 x 10

I started the Lateral Raises a little later because my calves recover quickly and because I wanted to end the superset together rather than trailing off with increasing reps on calf raises…

I do a lot of thinking while I’m sitting in the Lateral Raise machine. I decided that if Depletion workouts are going to be against the clock (rather than increasing the weights on them), and the Power workouts are going to be the opposite of that (increasing the weights regardless of how long it takes me), what do I do to mark progress on the Tension workouts?

I’m just going to try to get 12 reps on every movement (the rep range is supposed to be 6-12.) I’m not going to be doing this workout plan for very long, but 12 is where I’m going to go “okay, time to increase the weight a little bit here.”

Training to failure isn’t the point of this workout anyway, it doesn’t NEED to be HEAVY, it just should be challenging.

Superset: Dumbbell Curl / Pushdown

1. 10lbs x 10 / 32.5 x 12
2. 10 x 12 / 32.5 x 12

So, for example, I’m going to bump both of those on my next tension workout and just try for about six reps.

Weight: 160.5lbs
BF%: 16.7%

Those measures were taken before this workout, and will count as my ‘depleted’ scores.

Start: 10AM
End: 11:30AM

OBSERVE THE CARB LOAD

1. Smoothie King’s Strawberry Hulk w/ Muscle Builder (or whatever the creatine+glutamine stuff is), used fat-free yogurt instead of pecan ice cream, sized @ 20oz
2. 3 chocoloate chip cookies from The Chocolate Factory
3. Chicken Chalupa w/ baja sauce + bacon club chalupa and an order of cinnamon crisps at Taco Bell
4. 59g Baby Ruth bar (grabbed it in the gas station when I was buying milk, $0.69!)
5. A gallon of milk and a box of raisin bran crunch, the 56oz box. Whichever one is the bigger one because that happened to be on sale at Sentry. (Didn’t finish the box until Friday’s breakfast, and finished the remaining cup or so of milk after I got home from Friday’s workout.)

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BigGame

Still sick. I wanted to start fasting today, but it just didn’t happen. I ate pretty much the entirety of my maintenance calories for breakfast and then slowly adding on top of that throughout today. Blah.

Tomorrow will probably be my last day of over-maintenance eating, if I go above maintenance at all.

I just got my Yohimbine HCL in the mail, too, so I’m going to begin taking that tomorrow. Probably before I work out.

I’m going to write up my workout for Saturday so I don’t have one of those annoying doubled-up posts. I don’t get to yammer as much about nothing when I do those. So I don’t like them. Saturday I did a couple sets of direct arm work: triceps, biceps, and wrist extensors. I’ll probably only do direct arm stuff every other workout, though, to sidestep worries of overtraining them.

I might work wrist flexors next time. My hands seem to finally be in line with my forearms so I can try adding a bit of mass there without worrying about my hand idly slapping the white part of my arm.

Workout for Saturday, March 20, 2010

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Moving the Blood Around

I haven’t been feeling so well lately, though I haven’t missed workouts because of it, it’s been making me feel obligated to eat a bit more, and this is bothersome.

Especially combined with constipation.

I have this mental habit of not allowing myself to vomit. I used to eat competitively (derp) and it’s just reflexive. Like those girls who deepthroat for a living get over their gag reflex, I can put a lot down my throat for the win.

So I’m just going to post up two workouts and leave it at that.

Workout for Thursday, March 4, 2010

This is a sequel workout to the one from “Show Prep.” I designed a full body workout for myself of moderate intensity for those days I’m just not feeling it. Those days I can’t lift heavy as a bitch nor have the stamina for a legitimate depletion workout.

After lifting poorly on Tuesday my deadlift muscles (lol, mostly lower back) were killing me and I decided to do some cardio at the end as well. So I skipped direct leg or ab work, aside from calf raises. I figured maybe getting the blood moving would relieve some soreness and make me feel okay about having more carbs that night.

Which I did.

• Calf Raise: [Warm-up: 2x5@15; 3@20; 2@45] 4×12 @ 60lbs. (increase) ~ left foot hurt like crazy afterward, but went away ten minutes later

• Chest Press: [Warm-up: 3@20; 2@25] 2×12 @ 30lbs. (increase)

• Pulldown: [Warm-up: 3@15; 2@25] 2×12 @ 40lbs. (really easy but felt GREAT; increase)

• Incline Chest Press: 2×12 @ 30lbs. (I didn’t make a note of difficulty, I’m going to increase it though)

• DB Curl: 2×12 @ 8lbs. (pretty easy until the last four reps; increasing)

• Cable Extension: 2×12 @ 7.5lbs/arm (significant effort on the last reps; not sure I want to increase it, given the exhaustion from pressing. I’m going to, though.)

Cardio: Bike, level 3, 25 minutes. Ending heart rate was about 123. I forgot to write down kcals or distance, but it actually started feeling like I was riding a bike. I’m going to go for increased time at the same level, next workout.

My body weight was 165lbs. Jesus. I need to poop.

I didn’t bother checking my body fat percentage.

The workout in total took just over an hour.

Workout for Tuesday, March 2, 2010

I felt absolutely horrible on Monday, and Tuesday was only just enough better to convince myself that I have no excuses to be missing workouts.

I paid for that.

Deadlift

1. 70lbs. x 5; hook-grip hang
2. 70lbs. x 5; h-gh
3. 105lbs. x 3; h-gh
4. 150lbs. x 2; from floor, hook-grip. Grip slipped though and became barely-overhand. Should have taken this as a sign. Thought nothing of it at the time.
5. 185lbs. x 1 (goal was five); fml right hand under

This coolbro doing squats next to me chatted about leg power with me. He was half-squatting 405lbs. for reps (I asked, and he said it felt like a house, which is absolutely true) so I didn’t really, you know, argue with him. I was also dying. Apparently he felt the same way, but we shitgrinningly optimistic’d through it and shook hands and introduced ourselves.

His name is Keen, and he’s apparently been seeing me come in consistently for a while. Good for him! I’ve never seen him before.

Nice guy though. I saw him leaning on the stick I use for shoulder dislocations and told him that “if you can’t walk on your own, man, you’re pressing too much!” (He had moved o nto doing bropressive amounts on that machine.) He laughed it off and proved he was okay.

Incline Bench

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 45lbs. x 5
3. 45lbs. x 5
4. 60lbs. x 3
5. 80lbs. x 2 – started to feel ‘wrong’
6. 90lbs. x 1

I definitely got the weight up, but I didn’t feel right about the form I was using. I might not have been entirely wrong, or it could have been right, but I had my suspicions and I wasn’t about to make a bad thing worse. I proved to myself that my maximal strength is there, felt uneasy, and I stopped.

I think if I had done less warm-ups on my incline and rested a little longer I could have gotten all four of the reps I set up for myself today.

I did not fiddle with my loading to account for feeling unwell, I just loaded as usual and… essentially: if the way I’m feeling is just in my head, well, it’s infecting my confidence under the bar, too.

Hi-Lo Twists

1. 20lbs. x 5
2. 20lbs. x 5
3. 30lbs. x 4 ~ ugh, someone snags the other pulley. I like to check form in the mirror!
4. 40lbs. x 3
5. 50lbs. x 5 (excellence; increase)

I did more warm-up reps than I should have, but I was determined to get at least one of my exercises right today.

Which I totally did. Rawksome.

Cardio: Bike, level 2, 30 minutes, 5.12miles, 145kcal, average HR 120-125, even easier than the previous workout.

Weight: 160lbs.; 19.3% body fat (full of shit)

Workout took about an hour and a half of my life.

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Show Prep

I had a workout on Friday evening around 5PM, to prepare for a walking audition (I still don’t know what to call the modeling interviews) for a show to benefit a school in India in May.

I don’t think I’m even being considered. I’m overweight, oversize, and my posing sucked. I HAD TO TURN LEFT.

Nevertheless I did what I could to prepare for it, which was also sabotaged by a ‘fuck it I’m with my buddy’ attitude. I went to the YMCA with him to show him where to go to do the exercises I laid out for his routine (it’s a machine program and you’d think that it’d be no-brainer material. And it is.) while I joggy-walked to the opposite end of the gym to get a very low volume/low intensity workout in myself.

I would have loved to have done a six-setted depletion torture session, but I wanted to be done when he was done (he drove, of course) and I had limited physical resource anyway. I was still torn up from Wednesday’s workout, which felt easy-balls at the time, but which was now mocking me mercilessly. I had no problem skipping my legs this workout. He had no such luxury, and it feels good to find out he was barely even half-squatting, making him go below knee with the same weight, and watching him stumble around afterwards.

Mean, yes, but totally worth it.

I had him take conservative loading parameters nonetheless as I checked for form. I also threw in direct arm work at the end for both of us, him because I want him to get his compounds in with the best form possible, and still be able to do his favorite bro-lifts. I didn’t harass him on form for his curls. He did preacher curls with good-enough form, and he needs to feel like he’s at least a little bit competent so he doesn’t give up the second I’m not around to badger him.

Back at his house we had a camerafag posedown. I still don’t have abs, and he’s skinny enough to have them be visible if he understood (despite multiple explanations) the concept of progressive overload. Which he will soon enough now that he has starting weights for all his lifts and a program that doesn’t change other than “bump weight when you hit the rep ceiling.”

So by no means is my workout from Friday worth shit. I’m just recording it so I understand where my gym frequency is at. I have, over this week, probably overate again. Tomorrow (Sunday) marks Day One if I decide to look at this from a “Fifteen Weeks Out” perspective. Which I am.

I wish I had those pictures, my shoulders look ridiculous and I love it.
EDIT: Pictures are here.

Workout for Friday, February 12th, 2010

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I Am The Master of My Fate

Saw Invictus last night; been feeling pretty motivated overall.

Not that it helped the fact that I lost some muscle over the holidays. Evening workout on the wrong day didn’t really help matters, either.

And I was called back for an interview with p.i.n.k tomorrow. Go figure right?

Onto the numbers:

Weight: 156lbs.
BF%: 18.8%

No excuses today. Just going to take it for what it is. I’ve got roughly six pounds of fat I want to lose before the easy part of the diet is over.

Flat Bench

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 50lbs. x 5
3. 70lbs. x 3
4. 100lbs. x 1
5. 95lbs. x 3
6. 100lbs. x 1

I had to sneeze; still didn’t get my reps though.

Incline Bench

1. 85lbs. x 4 (seat was too high, did the set anyway)
2. 75lbs. x 5 (three holes = good)

Skipped incline fly today. Had some upper-depletion work I wanted to get in, and I wasn’t budging the 25 DBs tonight.

Round 1

1. Row: 10 & 2 @ 55lbs., 15 @ 40lbs.
2. DB Curl: 2 x 15 @ 5lbs.
3. Cable Extension: 15 & 11 @ 7.5lbs.
4. Lateral Raise: 3 x 15 @ 5lbs.
5. Crunch Machine: 3 x 15 @ 40lbs.

Round 2

1. Row: 3 x15 @ 40lbs.
2. Crunch Machine: 1 x 15 @ 40lbs.

Cut short because mom was picking me up; she was visiting my cousin who had flown in from Cali to celebrate the holidays. I’ll see her this summer. Can’t be missing workouts!

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

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DOMS Day

I had a pretty long workout yesterday. I was tired when I got home, and though I stayed up rather late I wanted to enjoy some non-DOMS time. I knew as soon as I woke up I’d be sore and ache all over. I am.

From a pure-strength perspective, yesterday’s workout was a little… meh. I still had a belly full of Christmas foods, and I think this compromised my benching form. When I activated my pecs I think it interacted unfavorably with this food, and I subconsciously began benching with my arms. It wasn’t until my second set of incline benches (incline bench is always where I really start to feel my chest anyway) that I realized my elbows were tucking in. I dropped the weight and did a third set and deliberately jutted my elbows out. I felt like an idiot for not having caught this sooner.

Wasted session.

After the strength maintenance work I went about the depletion routine. I’ve been eating a lot of carbs in the latter half of the week (though surprisingly few at the beginning of, which nearly balances me calorically.) I either wanted to burn the sugar already saturating my muscles, or I hoped that if I hadn’t fully digested all of that food yet that I could get some tardy partitioning on my side.

Onto the numbers:

Body Weight: 159lbs
Body Fat%: 18.6% (fully loaded; still made me a little grouchy with myself.)

Flat Bench

1. 45lbs. x  5
2. 60lbs. x 4
3. 80lbs. x 2 (machine) ~ end of warm-up
4. 100lbs. x 3 (machine)
5. 95lbs. x 1

I moved to the machine because the first two warm-ups seemed unusually difficult. I attribute this to lack of adequate rest between warm-ups which I ordinarily afford myself. Lack of patience lead to lack of reps, though I did hit my goal of three reps on the top set. My elbows always do what they’re supposed to on the machines but I had two major problems which led me back to the bar for the final set: hand spacing is horrendous/hurts my wrists; nasty sweaty prick stole the machine while I was getting a drink of water.

He was really gross. He didn’t offer to let me work in or anything, and I probably would have barfed on him if he had. Ugh. He came over while I was using it, asked me how long I had on it (“about three more sets, I just got here”) and after one set I put my workout log on the seat and went to the nearest water fountain to sip some water. Come back, he’s dripping all over the seat. Notebook’s on the floor. I grab my book, snicker at his calves, and go back to the floor.

Incline Bench

1. 85lbs. x 4
2. 70lbs. x 5
3. 65lbs. x 5

The top set I arguably shortchanged myself on. I don’t know where the failure was coming from, arms or chest (I didn’t know under stress of the bar, I didn’t think about it on the spot while I was writing in the log, and I can’t remember besides) but I could have probably screamed out a fifth rep on the top set. I had a lot more working out to do, and my goal was 4 reps for today, so I just left it to that.

Second set, as I said, was the “oh shit I’ve been doing it wrong” set, verified by the light final set I used solely to check form. I’m a doofus.

Incline Fly

25lbs. x 4, 4, 2

Nothing changed from last week.

I didn’t have my glasses on, so I got to play “who’s that look like?“:

• Had Alton Brown doing strict curls and rear lateral raises
• Pee-Wee Power Curls (with calf raise)
• My ex standing above my head (if you look at the mirror from the bench I was on) doing whatever she was doing. She had cool yellow short shorts, though, so I knew it wasn’t actually the ex. Still couldn’t look at her directly though. MIRRORS ONLY, COWARD!

Nautilus Abs

3 x 5 @ 60lbs.

I checked the other machine, it’s a “Life Fitness” brand ab worker. I love my gym. It has abs, biceps, and triceps in its own “wing” of the gym, near the pool, squash, and basketball courts. It’s also the closest section of machines (though to be fair it has benches with the vertical handles so you can do reverse crunches, and a mat with medicine balls) to the locker rooms. Presumably so you can pump up your abs/guns and run to the mirrors/pool as quickly as possible.

Speaking of, still playing the celebrity lookalike game: Alec Baldwin was doing some combination of limited ROM shoulder press + tricep extension with a cable machine, further down the line than the Life Fitness ab destructinator.

Oh, and I finally heard that “Poker Face” song while I was working abs. I was not amused. But, abs were the only thing I progressed on for-reals this session. So whatever.

RELATIVELY HIGH VOLUME TIME, GOOO~!

Round One

1. Horizontal Row: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
2. Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 13 @ 10lbs; 2 x 15 @ 5lbs.
3. Squats: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
4. Standing Calf Raise Machine: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs.
5. Dumbbell Curl: 2 x 15 @ 8lbs. (Pee Wee came by and did his power curls to show me how to lift 65lbs. Thanks bro. This weight was perfect for me, though.)
6. Cable Tricep Pushdowns (w/rope): 2 x 15 @ 30lbs. (Could have done 35, but probably not 40lbs., but the station didn’t have 5lbs. jumps.)

7 minute rest. Each numbered item was done straight through, so all the rows and then all the raises, and then all the squats, etc. 30-60 seconds between sets, no more than 2 minutes between exercises.

Round Two

1. Horizontal Row: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
2. Squats: 2 x 15 @ 45lbs.
3. Calf Raise: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs.

My shoulders are fried. I was starting to feel mighty nauseous before my second set of squats this round, and on the ninth rep vertigo hit me. I completed the set but decided not to risk a final one.

Overall, it was a good workout. Took me a total of about three hours to complete. Went to Barnes & Noble afterward and read some comics for a few hours. My arms were all pumped, and it turns out I have traps. I got some interesting looks when I took my coat off. Should have worn a bigger shirt.

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