Start of A Cycle

Workout for Saturday, August 21, 2010

Body Weight: 170lbs

Body Fat Percentage: 18.8%

Start Time: 9:05AM

Not only did I forget my gym pass at home, but my notebook too. Luckily I don’t do a lot of different exercises and it wasn’t too bad trying to remember my load-outs, working backwards from what my top sets were supposed to be.

I actually did a lot better than I had set up for myself originally, which was suprising.

Deadlifts

(left-hand-under sets)

• 135lbs. X 5
• 155 x 3
• 185 x 2

(left-hand-over sets)

• 210 x 1
• 215 x 1

After loading 225 and looking at it, I decided I’d leave that try-out for another day.

Goal next workout: 225 x 1

Lateral Raise

• 45lbs. X 5
• 65 x 3
• 85 x 2
• 105 x 1
• 110 x half-way there, but no complete rep
• 95 x 1

Goal next workout: 105 x 3

Crunch Machine

• 45lbs x 6
• 65 x 4
• 85 x 3
• 105 x 1

Goal next workout: 110 x 1-3

Then I nearly shit myself, so after taking care of that I decided to hammer out what little cardio I could and call it a day.

@11:22AM, took 15mg yohimbine and 400mg caffeine. Then I hopped on the stationary cycle.

Stationary Cycle: 4.01 miles in 20:04”

I was just falling-asleep exhausted. So I finished my workout at 11:44AM, took a shower, and went out to check out the badass chalk artwerkz I had no idea were occurring on precisely this day. Win.

Workout for Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Weight: 172.5lbs

Body Fat Percentage: 18.4%

Start Time: 9:10AM

Started with chest/back strength work, moved onto mishmash depletion work.

Strength

Bench Press

• 45lbs x 5
• 45 x 5
• 55 x 5
• 80 x 3
• 100 x 2
• 115 x 3 (one still in the tank, I’m going to increase this)
• 105 x 5 (increase)
• 90 x 8 (increase

Incline Bench

• 45lbs x 5
• 50 x 5
• 90 x 2
• 105 x 2 (stay)
• 95 x 5 (stay, the reps were good but they just felt too difficult)
• 80 x 7 (stay)

ChinAss ~ 171.5lbs Body Weight

• 46.5lbs x 5
• 46.5 x 5
• 66.5 x 5
• 91.5 x 3
• 116.5 x 2
• 131.5 x 3 (increase)
• 121.5 x 4 (increase)
• 101.5 x 6 (increase)
• 91.5 x 6 (stay)

Depletion

I’m not going to bother delineating the exhausting method I chose to do the sets in to alleviate boredom. Suffice to say that in the future I will start with Leg Press, supersetting with two upper body motions, and then do the same for Leg Curl. I should probably start with Leg Curls from now on. We’ll let supercompensated deadlift results determine that.

• Leg Press 12 x 15 @ 50lbs.
• Leg Curl 6 x 15 @ 45lbs. (I may have to drop weight on this lift to get the correct volume it, it was literally painful at this point… in no small part due to pre-depletion yohimbine.)
• Lateral Raise 8 x 15 @ 20lbs. (I’m going to increase this, it was a little too easy.)
• Calf Raise 9 x 15 @ 45lbs. (General fatigue and unwillingness. This weight is fine.)
• Bicep Curl 12 x 15 @ 5lbs. (May jump to 8lbs and drop to 3 sets if I continue to chin at the beginning of the workout.)
• Pushdown 9 x 15, 1 x 10 @ 22.5lbs (Dropping this exercise if I continue to do benching at the beginning of the workout.)
• Crunch Machine 12 x 15 @ 40lbs. (Considering cutting number of sets in half due to twists, weight needs to be increased.)
• Twists 12 x 15 @ 30lbs. (Same note as Crunches)
• Wrist Curl 4 x 15 @ 15lbs. (Going to do one less set and increase the weight.)
• Reverse Wrist Curl 4 x 15 @ 10lbs. (Going to do one less set and increase the weight.)

Completion Time: 2:30PM

Popularity: 1% [?]

Post Bachelor Party

Spent the weekend eating and shooting at stuff with pistols/shotgun and eating.

Spent Monday sleeping it off.

Tuesday I got a half-volume partial depletion in before going to the dentist and getting my mouth raped.

I think tomorrow I’m going to sleep that off.

So I have to get this in now before I pass out.

Workout for Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Starting Weight: 172lbs.
BF%: 18.4%

Preworkout Supplements: Ephedrine/Caffeine (25mg/400mg), washed down with 12g Purple Wraath in 1 cup of water (fucking awful going down, but the grape Jollyrancher burps are ACE!)

Start Time: 8:55AM

Strength Work

Bench Press

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 45 x 5
3. 55 x 5
4. 75 x 3
5. 95 x 2
6. 110 x 4 (increase)
7. 100 x 5 (increase)
8. 85 x 8 (increase)

My goals for the last set was lower, but I decided to just go for eight so I could increase all three sets next workout. Huzzah.

Incline Bench

1. 50lbs x 5
2. 90 x 2
3. 100 x 5 (increase)
4. 90 x 6 (increase)
5. 75 x 9 (increase)

Same story.

ChinAss (Weight: 174)

1. 44lbs x 5
2. 44 x 5
3. 99 x 3 (DAMN IT)
4. 129 x 3 (didn’t lose a rep thankfully, and I probably could have made the fourth that I wanted, but I left it at that and will increase next workout)
5. 114 x 5 (increase)
6. 94 x 9 (increase)
7. 85 x 12

One of these days, I’m going to load my chins properly, and it’s going to MATTER! Ugh.

Strength Finish: 11:05AM

Volume Work

Block One

Leg Press: 6 x 15 @ 60lbs
Leg Curl: 4 x 15 @ 45lbs
Lateral Raise: 1 x 15 @ 20lbs

Ten minute break.

Block Two

Lateral Raise: 3 x 15 @ 20lbs
Calf Raise: 3 x 15 @ 30, 30, 45lbs
Bicep Curl: 4 x 15 @ 5lbs
Pushdown: 4 x 15 @ 22.5lbs

8 minute break.

Block Three

Crunch Machine: 4 x 15 @ 35lbs
Calf Raise: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs

5 minute break.

Block Four

Cable Twist: 4 x 15 @ 30lbs

Volume Finish: 12:35PM

Body Weight: 174lbs

Cardio “Work”

Stationary Cycle: 35min, 6.62miles, level 2

30 minute break, then Yohimbine/Caffeine 15mg/400mg

Stationary Cycle: 35min, 7.08miles, level 2

Cardio Finish: 2:34PM

I was having trouble walking before I did the cardio, so I opted out of doing the treadmill in favor of something where I wouldn’t have to support my own weight.

Didn’t take any insulin until around 4:30PM.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Almost-Fast Training

I have restructured my eating habits once again after an irritating set of circumstances led me to a wasted refeed.

Thursday I refed, Friday I missed my workout, Saturday I fasted, Sunday I worked out and refed again.

Refeeding before a workout has been my intention as I am always strongest the day after a refeed. Furthermore, since I spend most of the day not eating following a workout while I wait to be picked up, I just integrate that as the beginning of my fast. However, this has not proven to be the most flexible way of working things. If I miss a workout, I wind up in caloric excess, as I’ll wind up redoing the refeed. I could just pay better attention (thus solving a variety of problems at once) but I’m trying to condition responses so that I can automate/habitualize this nonsense so I don’t have to think about what I’m doing as often.

I think I’m just going to cut out refeeds from my plan, they are too much of a hassle.

I’ll just re-evaluate my maintenance needs and configure them so that they are more satisfying, and be more vigilant with my dedicated fasting days.

Workout for Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Popularity: 1% [?]

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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Thanksgiving Damage

So. Let’s see the damage Thanksgiving did.

Weight: 159lbs. – Pretty smoothed out from the carby fare lately.

I’m not really liking how much less I’m eating on would-be maintenance days. I’m losing weight too quickly. On maintenance days I don’t really care too much about my macronutrient split, but on fasting days I’m thinking of bumping up the amount of protein I’m having.

Today I’ve officially stalled on deadlifts, misloaded my chin assists, and regressed on my rows. The weights I’ve lifted today are what I am considering my functional ability. I will not be expecting these numbers to go up much, if at all, through the rest of the diet.

If they go backward, though, then I’ll know I’m doing something wrong and I will be officially risking lean mass. Which honestly, I don’t care about, but I want to maintain STRENGTH and drop FAT.

Here are today’s numbers:
Deadlift

1. 200lbs. x 2
2. 180lbs x 3
3. 160lbs x 5 (the only improvement this workout)

Chin Assist

1. 60lbs. x 6 (felt suspiciously easy, checked the stack, was supposed to load 50lbs.)
2. 40lbs. x 1 (just pissed off because I screwed up my reverse pyramid, so I overcompensated by the same amount I undershot. Surprisingly good form despite not being able to do another one.)

Horizontal Rows
3×5 @ 55lbs. – This one irritated me the most. Down from 85lbs. I couldn’t do 70lbs. either. I maybe could have, barely, but I’m trying to do this exercise explosively so I had to bump it down another plate. Saddens me.

A PROPS, though, go to my new friend Jake. He is the first person to use the squat rack next to me for something that was not only NOT curls, but POWER CLEANS! I shook his hand and told him to continue the good work.

Popularity: 1% [?]