Swami Vivekananda:
"Strength is Life. Weakness is Death."

Panda Bull

Posted: March 9th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Body | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

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.)

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