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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

GANKUTSUOU (P2C3B1)

Going to Lynyrd Skynyrd today.

Here’s yesterday’s workout.

My legs are very, very sore, even though I skipped the direct ham/quad lifts. I didn’t over-use my back in deadlifts today, finally, so it’s only barely feeling it. I think sprinting after a bus to get to Jeanette’s house fully failed my legs.

Workout B1 for Monday, June 28, 2010

RDL

1. 65lbs x 5
2. 100 x 3

Hook-grip for both.

Deadlift

1. 135lbs x 2 (hook-grip)
2. 170 x 3 (left / right grip)
3. 150 x 3 (right / left grip)

Increasing by 10lbs next workout.

Lateral Raise Machine

1. 35lbs x 5
2. 55 x 3
3. 70 x 2
4. 90 x 2

I was just GASSED by the time I got to my work set here. Side-effect of proper deadlifting, or just not resting enough because of time crunch. Dunno. This usually comes after the legwork of curls and extensions, so possibly that as well.

Asschins – Bodyweight 167lbs

1. 42lbs x 5
2. 72 x 3
3. 92 x 2
4. 120 x 3

Preworkout Weight: 165.5lbs

Body Fat Percentage: 15.7% (does anyone just want to buy me a caliper or something? FML.)

9:15A-10:10A ~ Then entirely too much time shaving in the shower. Yep.

Good day, though. I hate leg curls anyway.

Gankutsuou is a fun show, also :D

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Happy Princess (P1C2B2)

Went to the gym yesterday morning, finally having a dollar for the soda machine.

Fucker was shut off. Logic’d my way into walking across the parking structure under the assumption that, hey, they probably have these for fuckers heading to work. Bam. There it is.

Dollar was too crinkly. I smooth it several times before hoping I have a dollar in my wallet. I try THAT dollar, twice, before the machine lolquits at me (the dollar-accepting thing turns off if you try too many times to prevent sodahax.)

Top floor of parking structure is the one that leads to my gym. I give up my sodaquest and take this loop-way of getting to the gym. There’s one soda machine on this leg of the journey, and it too is shut down.

I make my way in, put my bag on a chair, and dig out my keys (login badge thing is on it) front desk lady is ALWAYS unfailingly nice to me. She asks me how I’m doing and I lie blatantly. She says she’s doing good too.

In the locker room. I’m already wearing gym clothes so I simply deposit my bag. I get some nail clippers out, clipping nails at a counter. I finish, I hear my phone, I go back to the locker. Check messages, okay whatever, back to the counter…

WHEN SUDDENLY, A DOUCHE APPEARS:

D- “Are you going to pick those up?”
Me- “…Why, do you need a snack?”
D- “That’s disgusting.”
Me- “Don’t judge me by what YOU put in YOUR mouth.”
Another guy comes into the locker room, puts a shaker-bottle thing on the counter, goes to his locker.
D- “Don’t use that counter, this kid put his nails all over it.”
Me- “Nevermind that bro, this old fart leaves cocks in his mouth and forgets to swallow.” I sweep the nails into a trash bin that’s put under the counter FOR THIS REASON “Are we happy, princess?”

I got shitty looks from him for the next hour or two I was in the gym.

Day was significantly improved.

Workout B2 for Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Romanian Deadlift

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 70 x 3
3. 90 x 2
4. 115 x 3
5. 110 x 3
6. 105 x 3

5% drops from top set because I didn’t want to increase reps from set to set. Took a note that I was stepping forward to rack the weight with my left foot.

Pulldown

1. 40lbs x 5
2. 55 x 3
3. 75 x 2
4. 95 x 4
5. 85 x 5
6. 75 x 6

10% drops, since this exercise is a 4-6 rep range anyway.

Lateral Raise Machine

1. 30lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3
3. 60 x 2
4. 75 x 4
5. 65 x 5
6. 55 x 6

10% drops, which are HUGE here since I round up. It’s supposed to be a back-off day.

Torso Rotation Machine

1. 30lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3
3. 60 x 2
4. 75 x 4
5. 65 x 7
6. 55 x 10

I actually had this load setup for doing weighted crunches, but I felt myself in a twisty mood. My obliques haven’t been worked lately and I was surprised that I just-as-barely got through them without altering the weights. 15% drops are harder to manage with such low weights. I piled on reps which, in retrospect, is an ass-backwards way of tackling that problem.

Cardio: 20 minutes, 3 incline/ 3.3mph; Heart Rate @ 135bpm @ finish. The ceiling is 150bpm so I can keep increasing the speed… whenever I manage 40 minutes.

Weight: 162lbs.

I was going to test body composition by the personal trainer dwarf snatched up the handzapper. So I’m going to save that for Monday.

Also Monday: I will be deciding how I’m going to progress with this diet. It’s been two cycles, so roughly four weeks. Typically I see folks have their diet phases lasting anywhere from 4-8 weeks unless they’re horrifyingly fatassed. I’m going to fast tomorrow and do some carb-depletion stuff over the weekend to try and dry-out before measuring on Monday.

Body Fat Percentage Results

• 13%+: I’m just going to continue the diet for another cycle. No-prob-bro.
• 11 – 13%: Diet break for one training cycle, then continue the diet and training as I have been.
• <11%: Diet break for one training cycle, then I’m going change everything around to resemble Ultimate Diet 2.

I’ll probably round the results down if I have a convincing decimal or something, but that’s generally where my mind’s at.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Pretty Fast (P1C1WB1)

Yeah, I settled on the silly notation.

I spent most of the day extremely pissed off because I was without a ride to the gym. Typically, when my mom goes to work, I go with because my gym is literally across the street from where she works. I had taken my now-typical preworkout power nap… and she left without me. It wasn’t a matter of fatigue, though. While I did sleep two hours past when I was supposed to be awake, I was ready to workout when I laid down. There was certainly no lack of motivation… just a lack of communication.

Anyway, she made up for it (kinda) by taking me to the gym an hour and a half before close.

This meant two things:

1. I hadn’t eaten since roughly 7AM by the time I got to the gym. I don’t know how long I have to go without eating to become fasted (makes me want to re-read Eat Stop Eat, though) but it’s been at least 12 hours since my last meal. (Had I been there on time, this meal would have been just about three hours prior to workout.)
2. I didn’t get to enjoy gratuitous amounts of rest between sets. In this whole workout, I essentially skipped rest for warm-ups (taking only time to change the weight or catch my breath) and only took a full 5 minutes of rest in preparation for deadlifts. I lingered a bit on the last warm-up and work set of pulldowns, just because I wasn’t in any danger of missing a lift due to closure. (Just gimme one more set, bro!) That also turned out to be, as expected, the hardest lift, and the only one I didn’t meet my rep goal for.

Workout B1 for Friday, May 27, 2010

Romanian Deadlift

1. 60lbs x 5
2. 90 x 3
3. 120 x 2

Deadlift (overhand grip)

1. 150lbs x 3
2. 150 x 3 (If one thing made me happy this workout, it was this.)

This exercise took me 33 minutes (remember that I use RDL as warm-up for DL.)

Lateral Raise Machine

1. 35lbs x 5
2. 50 x 3
3. 70 x 2
4. 85 x 6 (Had to really grit my teeth and push for the last couple reps.)

This exercise took 8 minutes.

Leg Curl

1. 25lbs. x 5
2. 40 x 3
3. 50 x 2
4. 65 x 10

8 minutes again.

Leg Extension

1. 30lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3
3. 60 x 2
4. 75 x 10

10 minutes.

Pulldown

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 65 x 3
3. 85 x 2
4. 110 x 7 (FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)

Missed a rep. 16 minutes for this exercise. I zoned out before the third set. Wasn’t TIRED, just had trouble SEEING THINGS.

Nevertheless, I’m going to increase all lifts for next B1. I had no reason to miss that 8th rep and I was very close, but very close doesn’t count.

Workout Time: 75 minutes (budgeted for 90, so I was happy with this)

Body Weight: 164.5lbs
Body Fat Percentage: Didn’t have time.

Condition: B-. Smoldering, smoldering rage.

Timing of Stuff
7AM – Last meal. PB&J sammich (and a peanut butter one on one slice), some organic corn chips and salsa.
12:40PM – EC1
5:20PM – EC2
7:50PM – EC3
8:27PM – Workout
10:30PM – 2 scoops EAS Premium Protein (in water)
11:45PM – 2 scoops EAS Premium Protein (in water)

I just really do not feel like stuffing myself full of carbs… yet.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Berkhan Workout B2, end of a cycle

Illness layoffs are a bitch.

I mean: more rest > less rest. But still. That sucked.

Fortunately this is, by far, the easiest workout of the cycle and the timing for it was perfect. Gets me back into the swing of things.

Workout for May 18th, 2010

Romanian Deadlift

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 60 x 3
3. 85 x 2
4. 105 x 3
5. 95 x 3
6. 85 x 3

No complaints anywhere. Only a half-hour into the workout here.

Alternating Sets: Pulldown, Lateral Raise Machine

1. P- 35lbs. x 5; L- 25lbs. x 5
2. P- 50 x 5; L- 40 x 3
3. P- 65 x 2; L- 50 x 2
4. P- 85 x 4; L- 65 x 4
5. P- 75 x 5; L- 55 x 5
6. P- 65 x 8; L- 50 x 8

Kinda weird to look at. Again, pretty easy.

Body Weight: 169lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 17%

Condition: C. Minor sore throat/fever, come & go stuffy nose. Didn’t feel like lifting. Felt fat (seriously thought I’d log 20%+) Hating life, etc.

I decided to hit the dry sauna and slowly build some endurance there so I can drop water weight in a pinch in the future.

• 168lbs. @ start
• First session lasts 20 minutes. I towel off and weigh in at 166.5lbs. I took a fifteen minute break before the next session (this includes the toweling off time and weigh-in)
• Second session lasts 14 minutes. Towel off and weigh: 165.5lbs.

I rest another fifteen minutes, but going back in I just lacked the constitution to continue and took a cool shower to rinse off and wash up a bit. My goal next workout is to have the second session last 20 minutes and at least get somewhere with the third. I only dropped 2.5lbs this way on my first try, so I’d like to get that number up to 3 pounds next session. Ultimately I’d like to be able to drop 10% of my weight in the sauna whenever I want.

The ceiling for my weight is 170lbs. so if I could drop 17lbs. in the sauna that’d be great. But, I’ll set the goal for 10lbs. I’ll try to drop an additional half pound every session over the previous session, until I can shed 10lbs. on a whim.

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