Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Push day, good.

Weds, 28 Jun 17

Bench: 135x10, 185x5, 205x3, 225x2x5
CGBP: 135x2x10
Smith Machine OHP (each for close, med, wide): 50x15, 70x10, 90x3
Machine Incline Bench: 40x15, 50x15
Machine Delt Raise: 30x15, 50x15, 70x10

Pretty good session.  I could definitely see my triceps and delts popping while walking back to the office.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Heavy legs day - felt heavy, and no more BP meds!

Tues, 27 June 17

Squats:  135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 365x2x1, 315x2x5

I've been dealing with a bad outbreak of acne for the past few months on my back and chest.  I am on testosterone cream for replacement, but it shouldn't have been enough for this level of breakout.  In any case, I saw my doctor and he put me on 2 months of doxycycline, which is supposed to be a good treatment for acne.  I've read some people are on it for a year or more.

Anyhow, why do I mention acne?  Because it really hurts to low bar squat when you have cystic acne being crushed under hundreds of pounds.  Anyhow, my most recent zone is right along my squat areas of the upper back, and it's just miserable to squat.  So - I quickly worked up to my max, backed down for two more sets.

I then did leg extension working at sets of 10-15 up to the entire stack for a set of 3.  No leg discomfort today with this movement.  (last week my right knee was causing me grief).  The leg press machine was down, so I finished up with 2x20 reps of kettlebell swings with a 35 lb bell.

Dieting is going good, and with the cardio I've actually managed to get off of my high blood pressure medications.

Friday, June 23, 2017

Extra upper body day

Fri, 23 Jun 17

I decided to do an extra upper body day today, focusing on my arms and shoulders.  I started with narrow, medium and wide Smith machine seated presses. I did 25x3x10, 35x3x10 and 25x3x7.  The last set of three was using rest pause. So, down, hold for 3-5, then up, hold, and repeat.

Next I did seated cable row for 3x10 paused at the max pull.

Next I did high pulley pull downs supersetted with low pulley curls.  Slow tempo.

Lastly I did a few one arm dumbbell curls, seated, and called it a day.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Pull day

Thurs, 22 Jun 17

Deadlift : 225x5, 315x5, 335x5x1
Chin Ups: bwx3x10
Barbell row : 135x2x12, 135x7
Preacher Curls: 50x2x20, 40x12, 40x8
Cable Crossover high: 22.5x20, 17.5x20
Cable Crossover middle: 22.5x20, 17.5x10

I did some light, high rep chest work at the end to push to exhaustion.  By the end of the curls I couldn't curl another rep, and I just pounded the chest with the crossovers.  I kept the tempo really slow on everything but the deadlifts as I really wanted to get a nice, hypertrophic workout.

In addition, I'm down 45 lbs from my start weight of 243 (198) and hoping to get down to the 180's as I'd really like to lean out while I'm on a roll.  Turns out the few weeks I was off with bronchitis actually gave me the will to get back on the diet and lose more.  I had gained from 203 back up to 211 during that period - granted a lot was glycogen, food in the gut, etc. but it was still disheartening.  I saw a few pictures of myself from a conference just before I went back on diet and I was really surprised at how bloated and fat I looked.




Monday, June 19, 2017

Legs, odd patellar pain

Mon, 19 Jun 16

Squats:135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 365x1, 315x2x5
Hyperextension: 25x2x20

Squats were heavy, but I managed the 365.  Then I tried the leg press - no go, my right kneecap hurt under pressure. (even at only 4 plates total)  I felt no discomfort during squats though.  So, I decided to move on to the leg extension, same thing - pain in the knee.  Decided not to mess with that anymore, and did a couple of sets of reverse hyperextensions for the lower back, glutes and hams.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Push Day, pretty decent

Thurs, 15 Jun 17

Bench:  135x11, 185x5, 225x3x5
BTN Presses: 40x15, 50x15, 60x2x10
OHP: 95x10, 115x5, 135x1
Lat Shoulder Raise: 30x15, 40x15, 50x15
Machine Shoulder Press: 90x15, 115x2x10

I couldn't get the smith machine today, so I tried standing OHP.  The numbers speak for themselves, pretty crap.  At the very end I thought I'd throw in some db OHP, but I couldn't even press a 20 by then lol.  I was OK with the bench - I need a bit of heavy work as my bench has been sliding.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Pull day

Wed, 14 Jun 17

Barbell row : 135x3x5
Deadlift : 225x5, 405x,F,  315x3x5, 345x 2, 365x1
Chin Ups: bwx3x10

Not to bad. Disappointed in the Deadlift, but that will come back.

Monday, June 12, 2017

Dieting a bit more, leg day

Mon, 12 Jun 17

Squats: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3
Leg Press (plates): 3x4p x15
Leg extension: 4x130x15
Kettlebell swings: 4x20x25

I'm trying to knock a few more pounds off now that I'm getting accustomed to my routine.  I am at 203 right now, down from 243 in January.  I'm closing in on getting rid of the love handles and little pouch of gum in the front.

It's demoralizing to lose strength though - I know it's only transitory, but it gets inside my head and freaks me out.  I found the 315s really hard - part of it is that my back has broken out with bad acne and it really hurts.  The skin where the barbell has sat on my shoulders over the years is quite tough and the acne gets cystic.  I have no family doctor at the moment, so I don't even know how I'm going to get it treated.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Pull day

Thurs, 8 June 17

Deadlift: 225x5, 315x2x5, 365x5x1, 405xF, 385x4x1, 365x2x2
Rows: 135x3x12
Upright EZ Curl Rows: 50x2x10
EZ Bar Curls: 50x4x15
Seated machine rows: 50x2x15

I didn't feel like doing chin ups today after what seemed like a super heavy deadlift session.  Took it easy on all the other work, concentrating on form and really getting the muscles engaged.  

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Paused, high rep upper body push

7 June 17

Bench:  135x3x8 (one set each of wide, medium and narrow = 90 reps)
Behind the neck press: 50x15, 60x3x12
Seated smith press: 25x3x7, 35x3x7, 45x2x7
Lateral del raise: 30x15, 40x15, 50x2x10
Chest push tricep thing machine:  50x2x8

I wasn't feeling very strong today, and had trouble with my shoulder.  Rather than risk injury I did a bench of rest pause work.  So, on the bench I would stop about an inch or two above my chest after descent, hold it for 4-5 secs, then explode up.  These REALLY hit my chest hard.  I could feel the strain in the muscles.  Behind the neck presses were normal tempo, just hitting the triceps.  Seated smith was painfully slow, once again using rest pause just before the bottom of the movement, and exploding out.  Once again, while hard on the triceps, this really hits my chest and lats quite well.  I never see my lats flare as much as when I do this movement.  Lateral deltoid raise normal tempo.  I couldn't remember what the chest thing was at the end - might have been a seated bench, but it hit my deltoids and triceps considerably.

I'll have to start doing a little more bench work as it's slowly slipping away from me.  Not that I should care too much, but I'm still somewhat paranoid of losing muscle.

In addition to all this - I started my diet back up on Sat at 211 lbs.  I'd like to see if I can get into the 190's so I can not have any muffin top and dial in the abs a little better.



Monday, June 5, 2017

Heavy leg day

Mon, 5 June 17

Squats: 135x10, 225x2x5, 315x5, 365x1
Leg extensions: 100x15, 130x15, 160x15, 190x15, 220x10, 265x10, 295x5
Leg press (plates): 8x15, 10x15, 12x15
Kettlebell Swings: 25x3x20

Not a superb day - with the conference, poor nutrition, poor sleep, giving blood, etc. everything EXCEPT leg extensions was a little bit off.  I don't know how I managed to do a leg extension of the whole stack, there was just something clicking in with my muscle activation in that regard.  When I moved onto the leg press I was pretty tired, swings buried me.