Posted: December 14th, 2010 | Author: ERIC | Filed under: Body | Tags: ball, cardio, deadlift, failure, glycogen, miss, pussy, reset, water weight, workout | No Comments »
I was really starting to worry I was going to have to look up how to deal with a stall, if I’d failed another attempt at a 260lbs. deadlift.
But, to kill any attempt at building drama: I fucking did it!
To the credit of the fag who unloaded my bar when I stepped off the floor to take a leak. I was pissed, and after loading the 260 I wasn’t NOT going to lift it after clanking around and slamming plates about in a hissyfit. Princess loaded 300+ on the bar for a quarter squat afterwards and my world was mended.
Workout for Wednesday, December 8, 2010
This update is sorely tardy due to a busy weekend including: final day filming for Nocturnal; audition for So Dramatic; winter formal at Carroll College; cousin’s wedding reception; tuxedo photoshoot.
It’s actually thrown my cycle into a clusterfuck as well, so I’ll be greatly surprised if my stats on the next power workout are much improved upon.
Those stats are:
Body Weight: 168lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 15.9%
JUST BARELY under 16%. Edging my way there! Fuck yeah!
Deadlift
- 135lbs. (double-overhand) x 3
- 155 (d-o) x 3
- 220 (left-under) x 1
- 260 (left-over) x 1
I had nearly twenty minutes of rest before my top set. I’ve decided to cut drop sets from deadlifts, both out of impatience/fear, and a desire to eek out as much top-poundage as I can while I attempt to lose fat.
Incline Bench
- 45lbs. x 5
- 45 x 5
- 50 x 5
- 70 x 3
- 90 x 2
- 95 x 6 (increase)
- 95 x 4 (goal was 7, stay)
- 85 x 8 (increase)
I didn’t feel like I was going to be able to push 100lbs. today so I decided to legitimately make my top-set rep ceiling rather than pretending I “could have gotten another rep,” and it seems like I was right. There were at least two more reps in there on that set and I proved THAT to myself in the following set… which unfortunately cut out short because I decided to be a wuss.
Chin Assist (bodyweight = 173lbs.)
- 113lbs. x 3
- 138 x 2 (goal was 3, but I’m changing the goal to 2 now, so I will be increasing this set)
- 118 x 4 (increase)
- 108 x 7 (goal was 5; went to failure and hung around for a bit after)
Lateral Raise Machine
- 45lbs. x 5
- 60 x 4
- 75 x 2
- 90 x 3 (goal is 6; stay)
- 85 x 5 (goal is 7; stay)
- 75 x 7 (goal is 8; stay)
I really need to look up better form (still do, that is… PROCRASTINATING…) on this. I think I’m working my traps more than my delts, just on a visual indication. Perhaps that was just because I did deadlifts today. But maybe not.
Crunch
- 45lbs. x 5
- 65 x 3
- 90 x 3
- 120 x 2
- 135 x 3 (increase)
- 125 x 4 (increase; goal is 3)
Reverse Concentration Curl
- 12lbs. x 5
- 25 x 1 (too much)
- 20 x 5
- 20 x 5
- 20 x 5
Going to try to get seven on each set of 20 before I bump the weight to 25.
Machine Chest Fly
- 35lbs. x 8
- 70 x 8
- 70 x 8
- 70 x 8
Increase.
Machine Delt Fly (whatever it is for posterior delt)
8-rep test:
- 25lbs
- 40
- 55
- 60 (got it, but form struggled)
- 55
- 55
55 it is, next time!
The Stall Count
Because I was so worried about having to reset Deadlifts, I decided to keep a running tabulation of “failures” in this workout. Failures are progressive resistance failures: failures to increase either the weight being lifted in a given exercise or the amount of reps performed toward a preset limit.
Deadlifts, obviously, not lifting more weight is the only gauge. I only do one balls-out rep, so either I lift more weight or I’m a failure. Pretty simple.
Everything else, well… I write down how many reps is the “goal” for each set. If I miss my combined rep goal by 3 or more, that lift is a FAILURE in that workout.
So, for this workout, I’ve FAILED: Incline Bench (three reps missed in the second set) and Lateral Raise (missed SIX reps overall.)
Three FAILURES, time to reset that lift.
Cardio for Friday, December 10, 2010
I had an audition and a ball to attend over the weekend. Thought I’d sweat some water weight out beforehand. I had initially intended to simply sauna/hot-tub it out, but when I got there I decided to at least TRY to do some cardio… and soon enough found myself doing the entirety of my sweating on the stationary cycle.
Yay for caloric burn, I suppose!
Body Weight: 170lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 14.6%
Clearly the glycogen-filling portion of the program does indeed continue post-power workout…
11:15AM- START
12:22PM- Completed 11.94 miles in 65 minutes. Heart Rate topped at 133bpm while at level 3, but when HR came down later I boosted the level up to 4 all the way to the five-minute cooldown.
1:07PM- 168.5lbs
2:24PM- Completed 12.96 miles in 65 minutes. HR topped @ 136bpm, also boosting from a starting rate of ~90bpm a lot quicker. Level 2 was sufficient, but RPM had to near 90 more often.
3:16PM- 166.5lbs.
4:31PM- Finished 10.1 miles in 65 minutes. HR topped at 126bpm, starting around 113bpm; never exceeded level 1, nor more than 70rpm. My butt HURT at around the 20 minute mark. Leg tension and a teaspoon of willpower saw me through the duration.
5:05PM- 165lbs. and to the shower!
Verdict, of course, that this is the incredibly slowest way of three for me to drop some water.
But it was sufficient! I found myself wishing I had sized-down my tux trousers.
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Posted: February 20th, 2010 | Author: ERIC | Filed under: Body, Love | Tags: blame, cold, deadlift, failure, falling, fuck it, ice, incline bench, past, walking | No Comments »
You know when you look back at when you stopped doing something, and blame whatever it was around that time that influenced you to stop, as the reason you’re presently unsuccessful in whatever you do?
Been feeling that a lot lately.
Anyway, I did a lot of walking this week. More than I am metabolically adapted to, anyway, which I suppose is… any at all… but then it was quite a bit more than that. I believe I have at least three hours of “walking a little faster than what’s comfortable, because that’s more comfortable than being out in this temperature.” I also got quite a bit of oblique work, sliding around on the fuck-ice. I slid down two concrete blocks (squares-in-the-sidewalk.)
As I stepped out of that slide, I very nearly did a Home Alone style fall-on-ass. But I reversed it halfway and torqued the shit out of my right oblique and left shoulder (left arm carrying a shopping bag with a two-liter diet cola in it.) Then the streetlight came on overhead, I got a cheery “fuck yeah bro!” from a gas station across the street, and went back to my Oma’s in a sorely optimistic mood.
Sadly, all this walking and especially this slippery episode led to a weak workout. One of less reps and skipped oblique work.
I mean, my obliques are an isolation exercise, and if I skip them then only that part doesn’t get worked. But only my left shoulder hurt and I still needed to get some pressing in for my chest; unfortunately it’s a compound movement. That means shoulders are along for the ride. It sucked because I could have definitely squeezed out reps to at LEAST MATCH my previous workout, but that shoulder probably would have exploded, and I’m not training to failure anyway.
Even though I haven’t been counting my calories (except on Monday,) I’m pretty sure I’ve been eating near-maintenance. Or just a little bit above what my body is telling me I need. I’m going to fast throughout Sunday and hope for the best. Hopefully by Monday I’ll be recuperated in whatever relevant dimensions and get in a solid depletion-style workout.
Workout for Friday, February 19th, 2010
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Posted: November 7th, 2009 | Author: ERIC | Filed under: Body | Tags: bench, cardio, chest, CNS, failure, fitness, fly, hurt, jog, low volume, muscle fiber, nipple, overconfidence, overstretch, overtrain, pec, physiology, physique, plan, rep range, reverse pyramid, sore, split, treadmill, v-taper, volume, walk | No Comments »
So Thursday was Chest Day.
I’m really thinking about doing a chest/back split and not having a “leg day.” The most leg work I’m going to do are deadlifts on back day and the obligatory cardio work. I have to figure out how to work my squats in, or perhaps I’ll just… abandon it for a while… ugh. Any time I drop squats entirely from my plan is the time I know I’m going to fuck myself. I have to do more thinking/reading on the issue, but for now I just need to log my workout.
It’s pretty low-volume, relative to what I’m used to seeing in local programs, but at the same time relative to my own conditioning this was quite a lot of work outside of my normal rep range. It’s been a while since I last benched, so I decided to work for an additional rep rather than adding weight to the bar. This turned out to work out beautifully.
Flat Bench
- 95lbs. x 5
- 65lbs. x 6 (I wasn’t paying attention, this should have been 85lbs.)
- 75lbs. x 7
Incline Bench – 5RM test
- 45lbs.
- 55lbs.
- 65lbs.
- 70lbs. (failed at 4 reps)
Incline Fly – 8RM test
- 5lbs.
- 10lbs.
- 12lbs.
- 15lbs.
- 20lbs. (failed immediately, couldn’t even hold the bells out)
Here’s what it’s going to look like now that I have definite numbers to play with, next week:
Flat Bench
- 100lbs. x 3-5
- 90lbs. x 4-6
- 80lbs. x 5-7
Incline Bench
- 65lbs. x 5-8
- 55lbs. x 6-9
- 45lbs. x 7-10
Incline Fly
- 20lbs. x 5-8
- 15lbs. x 6-9
- 10lbs. 7-10
I’m basically working strength-volume on flat bench, as it mostly functions to me as a warm up for incline benching. I would just do a max-single and move onto incline, which sounds like a fantastic idea on paper, but I’m too much of a pussy to actually attempt a single. So the volume: is for warming up more, and… balance. I don’t want to really increase the size of my lower pecs but I don’t want it to look neglected, either.
My goal with the chest workouts is firstly strength, of course, but from the standpoint of aesthetics I’m trying to also increase mass of the upper chest to achieve the ‘square pec’ look. Some evidence that I may be on the correct path is the tenderness I feel from armpit to armpit between collarbone and nipples. My lower pecs are not experiencing any soreness whatsoever. The reverse pyramid scheme allows me a set in which I can push the muscle hardest while it’s freshest, and then further volume to fully exhaust the muscle.
My only real concern is that perhaps the incline flies won’t be possible to reverse-pyramid. I don’t really know how to tell the difference between nervous and muscular failure, other than muscular failure is probably when it hurts and nervous is probably when my arms aren’t doing what I tell them to. If this is indeed the case, my failure with 20lbs. dumbbells was a nervous failure, and I may have to approach it with more simple volume than I would originally intend.
Finally, following the lifts, I spent 20 minutes on the treadmill alternating in 30s/90s jog/walk (convenient to have these labeled on the machine at 2 and 4 mph.) Though it was fairly easy, I want to do four more sessions at this intensity before I progress to doing 30/30, as I don’t want to overextend or overtrain myself through overconfidence. Slow progression is all I seek in regards to cardio.
I think next post I’ll detail some of the things I’m considering as far as diet. Right now I’m hovering around 2000 calories and doing a haphazard ephedrine/caffeine stack, which is probably only a 300 daily calorie deficit now that I briefly think about it…
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