I'm a 53 year old guy who likes picking heavy things up, and putting them down. I'll blog about my progress here.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Push day, good.
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!
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
Monday, June 19, 2017
Legs, odd patellar pain
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
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
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
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Paused, high rep upper body push
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
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.