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

wtfcardio

Posted: December 2nd, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Body | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments »

That’s right.

Eric’s doing cardio…

I had filming on Tuesday. So. That’s my excuse. I didn’t do a depletion workout because I just lifted the day before and I like to space them out a bit more than that.

I also didn’t need to destroy another muscle group. I actually planned on just sitting in the sauna/hot-tub in alternating sessions until an hour before call time. But as it turns out I didn’t use the sauna at all except to dry out my shirt/socks/shoes between bouts.

Oh! And I finished reading The Princess Bride. I was sad to see it go, but I had to start reading my next book (which I brought with me) before Teh Neu Yeer. There were only a dozen pages left of Bride anyway so it didn’t take a lot of foresight to choose to bring the newbie along with. The new book, assuming you’re interested, is Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey. It’s a dreadful read for the first hundred pages or so, which is about double what I covered on that bike. Those pages are so boring that I committed myself to just staring off into the distance/asses of patrons at some points.

Workout for Tuesday, November 30, 2010

(…gods.)

Weight: 164lbs.
BF%: 15.1%

9:25AM- 15mg yohimbine HCL, 200mg caffeine (consider more caffeine…)

10:37AM- First session begins

12.37 miles in 65 minutes. I think the display said 337kcal… can’t really say I pay attention to that (I lock the display on TIME during the workout and it only flashes for a few moments during the workout summary.) Level 4 got  me up to 122bpm; goal is 130bpm for these “low-intensity” cardio “workouts.” I never exceeded 80rpm because that’s roughly the fastest I can go without disrupting the position of my fiction.

12:14PM- Taking a break. Only noted the time because I just habitually look at the clock before I enter the sauna (in this case, only to retrieve my now-dry garments) in case some asshole comes in and fucks with the sandclock (happens.) I try not to rest longer than half as long as I spend working out, I tell myself. I don’t know why I tell myself that.

12:20PM- Second session begins

11.97 miles in 65 minutes. Didn’t notice calories at all this time. Fuck ‘em. Level 4 got me to 130bpm by the time I reached the 5-minute cooldown. In regards to levels, by the way, when I start cardio I tend to check my heart rate every five minutes. I’ll check a few seconds after starting (having adjusted my nuts and such), then again at the five-minute mark. If, at the ten-minute check, my heart rate is THE SAME OR LOWER, I increase the level. If it’s increased AT ALL, even 1bpm, I keep the level set.

So every 10-minute check is when I decide to increase or keep at the present level. If (and this hasn’t happened) I go above 130bpm, though, I’ll probably just stop checking altogether and keep going at that pace/intensity. I’ll probably still check towards the end or as the cooldown begins, though. Just because I want to know what it’s gotten to by the time I’m finished.

I finish the second session and for some reason it doesn’t occur to me until about 2PM that I don’t have the time to do another full hour (though time enough to do SOMETHING, that point eluded me) so I began cleaning up. Showered, out of the gym, and sucking a Gladiator by 3:30PM. Aside from swishing my mouth and a couple gulps to wet my throat, this was really the only liquid I’d had. 32oz Strawberry Gladiator with Blueberry. Seems to make SHOOTS go well…

Got to the set a half-hour early. Wish I’d worn a scarf… and a hat. (Though the hood HELPED, fuck hoods.)

The shoot itself went fantastically, no muscle failure at all. But my shoulders/back were sore, so I’ll let you guess where I got grabbed and how I was slammed into a wall repeatedly.

Turns out they cast a guy I worked the Gaga show with back in September as the Big Bad. He fucking suits, I tell ya. (Not that he looks evil, but he towers over me and looks fit as fuck.)

The spotlighting they did dried my face/eyes out and it felt like I had sunburn when I got home, which is great considering we were supposed to be in a hideouty little shithole for vampires ducking the sun. Nevertheless, like sunburn, it kept me just awake enough to realize it was nearly 7AM.

75mg diphenhydramine and on the latter end of 9PM I awoke.

No muscle failings.

Thursday will see lunch with father at some location of his choosing. Friday will be a depletion workout if I awaken able-bodied.

And so the cycle shall repeat!

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Come Back Crying (P4C5A1D)

Posted: July 12th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Body | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

UD2 kicks my ass. I just do not have the balls for it.

So I’m going back to the lofty realm of cheesecake and BBQ ribs that is LeanGains. Also less volume work. Today was my last day of volume work. It’s fun, but, I really have no use for the pump.

Heh.

So I went back to my old A1B1 routine, starting with A1 today. Chest/tricep day. Monday. Fuck that worked out horribly.

Not really. I came in early. I finished the heavy portion of this day looong before the benchbros. came to town. I finished up entirely around the same time that Ken11 did. I don’t know if I’ve talked about Ken before or not (I know I’ve cited him as one of the strongest people in my gym) but today we’re christening him because I accurately determined his bodyfat percentage. Woot.

Workout for July 12, 2010

Bench Press

  1. 45lbs x 5
  2. 60 x 3
  3. 80 x 2
  4. 100 x 3 ~ increase
  5. 90 x 6 ~ increase

This felt really good, honestly. I’m flirting with the idea of increasing the top set by ten pounds instead of five next workout.

Incline Bench

  1. 55lbs x 3
  2. 70 x 2
  3. 90 x 6 ~ increase

This I’ll probably still only bump by five. Too much shoulders, though I found out I can use my legs to help me get to the low pins (failed my seventh rep…)

Horizontal Press, Hammer Grip

  1. 65lbs x 3
  2. 85 x 2
  3. 110 x 1 ~ Actually failed the first attempt but refused to mark down a zero…

I’m ditching these. The machine’s starting to hurt my wrists because of the awkward angle of them to the grips. I could probably fix this. And I am, by switching to close-grip benching.

Pushdown

  1. 42.5lbs. x 3
  2. 47.5 x 2
  3. 52.5 x 5 ~ INCREASE!

Gosh. I almost didn’t EXCITED over this because of the Ryan Reynoldsalike Douchebag who spit LORDLY GOBS OF PHELGM into the water fountain. I wanted to see him fail his 315lbs bench. I didn’t see it from here.

In retrospect: FUCK YEAH! That much closer to lifting the whole stack, HAHAHAHA!

Asschin ~ bodyweight 171.5

  1. 51.5lbs x 5
  2. 76.5 x 3
  3. 101.5 x 2
  4. 126.5 x 4 ~ Increase.
  5. 61.5 x 6 (misread my log and set the pins to the weight I intended to lift rather than the proper offset, I’m not counting either drop set today)
  6. 96.5 x 6

I’ve basically decided that, for top sets, 3-5 will be the rep range of increase. If I get at least three reps at a given weight, I’ll increase it next workout.

Cable Twists

  1. 30lbs x 5
  2. 40 x 3
  3. 60 x 2
  4. 80 x 5

Not doing drop sets on core work of any kind.

Weight (preworkout): 169.5
Body Fat %: 17.1%

This is bad. I haven’t been able to properly keep a lid on my appetite following the refeed. I’m going back to UD2, with cardio on off-days to help with the deficit I’m behaviorally incapable of properly achieving through diet.

Start: 10:20AM
Finish: 11:48AM

I took about a half hour break to rest and reflect on my approach (yes, again, another post on planning coming up. Sorry I suck at adhering.) before returning to the floor to do volume-centric work. I cut out some sets based upon the above workout as well. This was from my INTENDED UD2 depletion workout, and I only managed to get one round in before I checked time and blood to decided to do some cardio. Here we go.

Superset: Leg Extension / Leg Curl: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs / 25lbs

Cable Rows: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs

Superset: Lateral Raise / Calf Raise: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs / 45lbs

Dumbbell Curls: 2 x 15 @ 8lbs (no rest, alternating arms)

Pushdown: 2 x 15 @ 27.5lbs (probably should have just skipped these, but I had planned to do the ENTIRE depletion workout, and I cut the extra sets from the back-end.)

Cable Twist: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs (I almost just skipped them because somebody had the pulleys, but he was all “Nah man! I only have one more set on each one!” so I hung out.)

For the single-exercise portions I just waited 2 minutes straight between sets. On the supersets, I did the first exercise, started my timer, walked over and did the second exercise, walked back, and waited for the timer to hit 2 minutes before I did the next set of the first exercise. Seemed to be the least-bothersome way of organizing the rest periods, to me.

Start: 12:35PM
Finish: 1:30PM

I didn’t check time as to when I did the cardio. I think it was around 1:40PM after I called my dad to secure a ride home (I would otherwise be stuck until 7PM, and as I’ve typed this my mom called to tell me she was running late besides… but this was why I figured I’d have time to do the entire depletion routine.) Once sure, I hit the bike for 5 miles in 14 minutes. If I keep biking, I’ll work on speed and try to get to 7.5 miles in 15 minutes, before I work on duration.

Realistically, though, I don’t give a shit about my cardio performance. I’ll probably drop the intensity and go for calories in the future.

I got out of the gym at 2:55PM, after showering/shaving etc.

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