Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Deadlifts: more improvement

Weds, 30 Nov 16

Deadlifts: 225x10, 315x2x5, 365x5, 405x3x5

Short, sweet and to the point. Tonnage:  9250 lbs last week 13300 lbs this week.  The 405 went up so nicely that I decided to do a second, and third set.  I'll see what happens next week.  I'll likely drop one of my 315 sets and try the fourth, and fifth at 405.  We'll see, some days are bang on, others, meh.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Upper Body: Machines

Tues, 29 Nov 16

I did a moderately heavy upper body workout today with high reps, also incorporated some dumbbell bench pressing and smith seated incline presses.  My shoulder feels good and I'm thinking that next week I should try picking up the bench press again.  I'll likely try it out on Sunday and see how my body reacts.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Squats: Building Strength

Mon, 28 Nov 16

Squats: 135x10, 225x10, 315x2x5, 335x4x5

The squats felt pretty heavy today, but I had no real issues finishing them.  I'll see if I can hit 5x5 on Friday.

Friday, November 25, 2016

Squats: Building strength

Fri, 25 Nov 16

Squats: 135x10, 225x10, 315x5, 335x3x5

I kept it simple today.  No problem with speed or balance.  Even though the top sets were heavy, I powered through them pretty quickly.  I will shoot for 4x5 on Monday.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Upper body - machines

Thurs - 24 Nov 16

Still working the upper body with machines.  I've been looking into BPC-157 as a possible treatment.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Deadlifts - improving still

Wed, 23 Nov 16

Deadlifts: 225x10, 315x2x5, 365x5, 405x5, 435F

Went well.  Managed to go for a set of 5 at 405 where last week was 5 singles.  I was hoping to hit the 435 single, but couldn't break it off the floor.  Still, not upset though.

Finished up with a pile of kettlebell swings.

PS - Did upper body machine workout yesterday.  Still not benching as my shoulder is still day-to-day.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Squats - building strength

Mon, 21 Nov 16

Squats: 45x10, 135x10, 225x10, 315x5, 335x3x5

The squats were heavy, and I almost failed the last rep of the second set (of 335) when I sat back too far on the descent, and started to fall backwards.  I muscled it up and took a long rest before starting the last set.  I'll try for four sets on Friday.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Squats, 315x5x5 done

Fri, 18 Nov 16

Squats: 135x10, 225x10, 315x5x5

Straight into squats today, not a lot of warming up.  The 5x5 was about a 7-8 RPE.  Snappy, good depth, but definitely left me gassed in between sets.  I then finished up with a bunch of 25 lb kettlebell swings.  My quads were pretty fried after those lol.  I do them both hands, switch to single, switch to the other hand single.  So about 15 reps first each, then 10, then 8, then 5 and could only do one leg lol.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Upper body, machines

Thurs, 17 Nov 16

Another machine day.  I'm doing a few static hangs - I watched a video that suggested it may be helpful, and without anything else to do, I have nothing left to lose.

My right shoulder has been an ongoing issue since my early lifting days.  Every so often it flares up and starts being troublesome - usually on things like bench and OHP.  I even notice pain when raising my right arm above chest level.  It's pretty sucky.  Anyhow, I find the machine work lets me use really light weights for specific shoulder motions, and I can go really quite heavy on face pulls without discomfort.  I'm definitely much better at activating my pecs.  Before long I'll be doing those Terry Crews pec bops. (lol)  Oh yeah, I'll be also interested in seeing if I have any bicep/tricep growth.  I've been doing some cable and ez-curl bar curls, low weight, slow as hell tempo, mega pump.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Deadilfts - improving

Wed, 16 Nov 16

Deadlifts: 225x10, 315x2x5, 365x2x5, 405x5x1, 425x1, 445F

Deadlifts went really well today.  I started off sumo, but couldn't get above 365.  So for fun, I tried conventional.  I had no trouble moving 405 quickly for a bunch of singles, then hit 425 for a single.  Decided to go for broke and see if I could hit my old max, but couldn't break free from the floor.

All in all I'm pretty happy though since on the last deadlift day - 26 Oct, I was only able to hit 375.  That's a 30 lb increase for rep singles and a 50 lb increase to my 1 RM.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Squats - slow and steady

Mon, 14 Nov 16

Squats: 45x10, 135x10, 225x10, 315x4x5
Seated Single Leg Extensions: 70x10, 80x10, 90x10, 100x10

Squats went well, snappy and deep.  No discomfort.  Will add another set then some weight and drop back to 3x5.  Did some single leg extensions following to get a little extra quad work.  Kept it to medium weight.  All seems well.  Going to put off the diet another week as my wife isn't quite ready to start yet and I'd rather have her diet at the same time - makes it easier on me not to have a bunch of binge food lying around.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Upper body, machines

Thurs, 10 Nov 16

Medium-Heavy upper body workout on machines today.  30-40 light reps followed by two sets of 5 heavy reps.  Went well - watching out for my right shoulder as it's being testy - the way I'm sitting on the couch and sleeping is causing me pain.  I'll be happy once I have a recliner in the new place (whenever we move) and can recline rather than slouch in the couch. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Yay I squatted today!

Weds, 9 Nov 16

Squats:  135x10, 225x2x5, 315x3x5

I warmed up on the evil stair machine for 5 minutes, then had to wait a while for a rack.  I did a bunch of stretching and body weight squats while waiting.  I felt pretty good through the squats, although the 315 definitely felt heavy on my back after all this time.  No pain in my leg.  We'll see what it feels like in a few hours.

I should do some light benching tonight as well, I'll see how I feel.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Cardio - yuck!

Fri, 4 Nov 16

I thought I'd add some cardio into the mix since I'm getting ready to cut and still deloading.  I can't imagine what I'd do with a whole hour of lunchtime anyhow.  First I tried rowing.  Even on maximum I couldn't perceive any exertion from it.  So I tried what was recommended to me as the hardest cardio in the gym - the Powermill Climber.  After 5 mins on 10 out of what I learned was a max of 20 levels my quads were pumped to the max and I was barely hanging on.  That a machine!  To dial it back a bit and not die I went and did some 50-30-30 rep sets of kettlebell swings.  I did 20, 10, 10 both hands then switched on the fly to single hands for 10 each.  That put me in a little over half an hour with my heart rate well into the 130+ range.  I'll have to bring in my heartrate monitor next time to see the actual results.
My nemesis.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Full body, deload

Thurs, 3 Nov 16

Feeling pretty beat up this weak, left leg and right shoulder still acting up.  I've decided to take a couple of weeks to deload, light pumpy work, start some cardio.  I'm going to run a short cut in mid-Nov for about a month to drop a few pounds now that I've managed to actually carry around some extra muscle for a few months.  I've always had an issue with panicking following a growth phase where I add some muscle, and of course, being older and formerly obese, fat.  I would go from bulks right into cuts - no waiting, and no real growth.  I did some research which suggested my protein was too low and that I wasn't giving my body time to adjust to carrying more muscle and increased nutrition needs.