This morning I woke up at 6:00 AM even though I could have slept in :( So, I hydrated and read more of Anathem by Neil Stephenson (very good book, but initially hard to get into) until the girl woke up, then we put on our gym clothes and headed down to do our work-out.
She started with 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, while I went over and kicked off with bench press, an exercise I haven't done first in my routine for awhile (been doing incline bench or dumbells for awhile trying to build up other muscles to hopefully get me through my plateau). I warmed up with 135 and 155, then went to 185 lbs. My first set was strong and I did 8 reps no problem. This got me excited until I did my next set at 185 and barely pulled off 6 reps :(. I did a third set and again barely did 6 (or was it 5?). Anyway, I was a bit bummed, so I threw myself into the rest of my workout.
I did incline barbells 55 lbs. next and did two sets fine. Then I did flat barbell presses at 65 lbs. for two sets, followed by one set of incline bench at 155, which I barely did 3 of. Oh, in between these I was jump roping to keep my heart rate up. I'm not tracking my jump roping yet in Gym Buddy... I need to figure out a good way to do this... I'll probably add them to each exercise and then time them. That's a good idea!
Anyway, the girl came over about this time and I started helping her through her leg workout. First she did seated calf raises at 40 lbs. which is 5 lbs. more than last. Then she tried to do the squat sled machine, but it hurt her knee too much (ballet injury) so we switched over to lunges. She did 5 lbs. in each hand for 5 reps on each leg, and I made her do three sets instead of just two since she skipped a squat set. Gotta get her in shape for snowboarding next week! Then it was on to some abs.
I pulled out the straps and after I did some hanging side leg lifts to hit my obliques first, she did her first set of hanging leg lifts. It was hard, but I remember my first time doing them, and that shit was hard! I jumped in to do 15 straight hanging leg lifts, and then she tried and barely did a second set (tummy muscles were already blown). That's fine for a first try. I'm going to do abs twice a week from now on, but since this is my first time to do them for a second time in a week, I went easy.
Next we went over to the hip abductor and adductor machines, which she did with no problem. I did some jump roping while she worked out, then started doing my cable cross overs once that machine finally cleared (it's a bit busy on Saturday mornings, so hard to get these machines). At that point, I said goodbye to her, she went home and I wrapped up my workout with flies (went up 10 lbs. to 200 lbs. - this is on a machine btw), dips (70 lbs. assisted... no increase there), skull crushers, v-bar pull downs and finally a few standing dumbbell extensions. Oh, and plenty of jump roping in between.
So all in all, not a terrible workout, but I really want to break through this chest plateau. It feels like I was a little stronger, maybe, but it's so slow. Next week I may try doing lighter weights for more reps, just to switch things off.
Forgot to weigh myself on the way out of the gym. Oh, and I need to start tracking the girl's workout better.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Tired but Went to the Gym Anyway
After two nights of going out past my bedtime and enjoying drinks, getting up at 6 AM this morning to hit the gym was pretty hard. I almost decided to sleep in and do my legs workout along with chest tomorrow, but in the end I got my ass out of bed. I checked with the girl to see if she was coming with me or not, and initially she was going to skip today, but after a few minutes I think she felt guilty enough to get up and get ready.
I was tired, and I didn't expect much from my workout, but it actually went well. I started with squats, doing a couple of warm up sets, then jumped up to 185 for my first heavy set, then managed to do 205 for two more sets of eight reps. Yay! I was a bit worried I might not be able to do 205 lbs. this morning, or that my number of reps. would be low, so when I pulled off 205 with eight reps I felt really good. Hopefully I'll be better rested next week and pull of more reps at that weight. When I am able to do 10 to 12, I'm going to switch up to 225 lbs., and that will be awesome and huge because I'll be lifting with two 45 lbs. weights on each side of the barbell... which is just very manly :P
The girl wandered over from the cardio area as I was wrapping up squats to start on her lifting, so rather than doing leg presses on the sled machine thingy next, I moved on to lunges, which I could do in the free weight area and between her sets. She was tired, but managed to get through her lifts, and I was happy because I did my lunge routine with 90 lbs. (two 40 lb. dumbbells) for 8 reps on each leg. I'm definitely getting stronger down there in every way.
We wrapped up her workout on the assisted pull-up and dip machine where she complained that she wasn't able to do as many reps as last time, but I reminded her that we usually use that machine first, before the free weights, so the problem was not that she is getting weaker or not making progress, but rather that her muscles were already tired by that point. Next time I'll have her do the machine first and hopefully she'll be pleasantly surprised with her progress.
After she left, I went back to my workout and managed to pull of 495 lbs. on the leg press sled thingy for 10 reps, then went up in weight on all the other leg machines (leg extension, seated leg curl, lying leg curl, hip abductor and hip adductor), which was cool. Since I wasn't really using the machines before, I'm experiencing very rapid strength increases on them as my body gets used to them, which is quite satisfying. I wish I could get those kind of results on my pull-ups, bench and shoulder lifts!
So chest tomorrow, and I think I'm going to throw in an ab workout as well because the girl needs to do hers (along with legs). I'm also going to try and switch up my chest workout a bit to try and break through the plateau I seem to be at. My goal is to bench 225, and I haven't been making much progress towards that (not for a lack of trying though). I didn't use triceps during my last shoulder workout (I didn't do the Arnold barbell lifts), so perhaps giving them a rest this week will do the trick and I'll see some gains on bench. We'll see in about 24 hours!
I was tired, and I didn't expect much from my workout, but it actually went well. I started with squats, doing a couple of warm up sets, then jumped up to 185 for my first heavy set, then managed to do 205 for two more sets of eight reps. Yay! I was a bit worried I might not be able to do 205 lbs. this morning, or that my number of reps. would be low, so when I pulled off 205 with eight reps I felt really good. Hopefully I'll be better rested next week and pull of more reps at that weight. When I am able to do 10 to 12, I'm going to switch up to 225 lbs., and that will be awesome and huge because I'll be lifting with two 45 lbs. weights on each side of the barbell... which is just very manly :P
The girl wandered over from the cardio area as I was wrapping up squats to start on her lifting, so rather than doing leg presses on the sled machine thingy next, I moved on to lunges, which I could do in the free weight area and between her sets. She was tired, but managed to get through her lifts, and I was happy because I did my lunge routine with 90 lbs. (two 40 lb. dumbbells) for 8 reps on each leg. I'm definitely getting stronger down there in every way.
We wrapped up her workout on the assisted pull-up and dip machine where she complained that she wasn't able to do as many reps as last time, but I reminded her that we usually use that machine first, before the free weights, so the problem was not that she is getting weaker or not making progress, but rather that her muscles were already tired by that point. Next time I'll have her do the machine first and hopefully she'll be pleasantly surprised with her progress.
After she left, I went back to my workout and managed to pull of 495 lbs. on the leg press sled thingy for 10 reps, then went up in weight on all the other leg machines (leg extension, seated leg curl, lying leg curl, hip abductor and hip adductor), which was cool. Since I wasn't really using the machines before, I'm experiencing very rapid strength increases on them as my body gets used to them, which is quite satisfying. I wish I could get those kind of results on my pull-ups, bench and shoulder lifts!
So chest tomorrow, and I think I'm going to throw in an ab workout as well because the girl needs to do hers (along with legs). I'm also going to try and switch up my chest workout a bit to try and break through the plateau I seem to be at. My goal is to bench 225, and I haven't been making much progress towards that (not for a lack of trying though). I didn't use triceps during my last shoulder workout (I didn't do the Arnold barbell lifts), so perhaps giving them a rest this week will do the trick and I'll see some gains on bench. We'll see in about 24 hours!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Lost
The two hour season premiere of lost was on last night, and it ran past our bedtime, so I'm up and getting ready to hit the gym for shoulders, abs and calves split day, but she is still fast asleep.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Gym Buddy and New Dead LIft Personal Record
Today's workout was the first using my new iPhone application, GymBuddy. Basically in GymBuddy you can create a series of custom Exercises in three classes:
1) Weight lifting
2) Cardio
3) Supersetsthen
Then within any of the above three, you can break down the type of exercise into various forms, like under Weight lifting there is:
a) Regular
b) Body
c) Assisted
and under Cardio, you can break down the results of whatever you're doing into:
a) Distance
b) Duration
c) Calories
d) Avg. Heart Rate
and for Supersets, well, these are more complicated and I'm not using this one, so I can't comment on them right now.
Then, you can tie any combination of Exercises into a Workout, and any combination of Workouts into Groups.
Me, I've setup a bunch of exercises into four workouts that make up a Split Routine:
Back & Arms - Tuesday
Shoulders, Calves & Abs - Wednesday
Legs - Friday
Chest & Triceps - Saturday
Each one of these Workouts is on a calendar in the program, and as I do them, I enter each item. For instance, today I started with Dead Lifts and entered them after each set:
1. 145 lbs. - 7 reps
2. 195 lbs. - 7 reps
3. 235 lbs. - 8 reps
4. 255 lbs. - 8 reps
5. 275 lbs. - 8 reps
On the screen you enter the weight and reps above, there is even a timer that you can run if you like to wait an exact amount between sets.
And for all the stuff above, there is a field to enter a note, so for each exercise I have what my previous work-out weight was. So for Dead Lifts I had 255 in the note, but today I had no problem doing that, so I up'ed it to 275 and although it was hard, I managed to still do 8 reps. So I've now changed the note to 275, my new person best! :)
Eventually, when I switch from this current split Workout routine, I'll create a new set of Exercises and Workouts (probably a full-body workout), then file the old split Workout under it's own Group and the new routine under it's own Group. That way, if I want to come back to the split Workout Group, I can, anytime. Very cool.
You can also track your weight, height (not sure why this one) and various measurements in the program and track them overtime with fancy charts. It also calculates your 1RM for each set of each weight lifting exercise and your record 1RM for each as well. For instance, it claims my Dead Lift 1RM would be 341 lbs. wow! honestly I'd be scared to try this much!!! For other exercises the 1RM is more reasonable, like my Reverse Barbell Curl is only 74 lbs. based on what I've done so far, but that's not surprising because that's one of the last exercises I do in this back & bicep Workout, so my biceps are already pretty blown by the time I do these (I'm only doing 60 lbs. at 6 to 8 reps.).
There are more features, but the final one I'll mention which I love is that I can back-up the program's database onto a computer on the same Wifi network if it is running a stand-alone (no install) free application called SyncDocs. This is awesome for me because I have two iPhones, one 3GS that I use everyday and an older 3G with a cracked glass face (but otherwise working perfectly and still readable) that I use at the gym (hey, it's already kinda broken, so if I accidentally drop... say 275 lbs. on it while Dead Lifting, oh well :P), and I can backup the database from one and restore it on the other so that they always match! Okay, maybe this makes me a geek, but I think that's really cool, if only because if I'm traveling and forget my workout phone, I will still have the latest on my everyday phone. Oh, and I can e-mail the database too, which is another way to get the database off the phone.
So basically, I'm super excited that I have a new non-paper way to track all my workouts and progress. And I'm also excited because of my new personal best on Dead Lift. Oh, and I also did 8 pull-ups versus my regular 6, went up five pounds on Rope Hammer Curls and in general had a pretty damn good Back and Bicep day!
Hope your workouts are going as well as mine!
1) Weight lifting
2) Cardio
3) Supersetsthen
Then within any of the above three, you can break down the type of exercise into various forms, like under Weight lifting there is:
a) Regular
b) Body
c) Assisted
and under Cardio, you can break down the results of whatever you're doing into:
a) Distance
b) Duration
c) Calories
d) Avg. Heart Rate
and for Supersets, well, these are more complicated and I'm not using this one, so I can't comment on them right now.
Then, you can tie any combination of Exercises into a Workout, and any combination of Workouts into Groups.
Me, I've setup a bunch of exercises into four workouts that make up a Split Routine:
Back & Arms - Tuesday
Shoulders, Calves & Abs - Wednesday
Legs - Friday
Chest & Triceps - Saturday
Each one of these Workouts is on a calendar in the program, and as I do them, I enter each item. For instance, today I started with Dead Lifts and entered them after each set:
1. 145 lbs. - 7 reps
2. 195 lbs. - 7 reps
3. 235 lbs. - 8 reps
4. 255 lbs. - 8 reps
5. 275 lbs. - 8 reps
On the screen you enter the weight and reps above, there is even a timer that you can run if you like to wait an exact amount between sets.
And for all the stuff above, there is a field to enter a note, so for each exercise I have what my previous work-out weight was. So for Dead Lifts I had 255 in the note, but today I had no problem doing that, so I up'ed it to 275 and although it was hard, I managed to still do 8 reps. So I've now changed the note to 275, my new person best! :)
Eventually, when I switch from this current split Workout routine, I'll create a new set of Exercises and Workouts (probably a full-body workout), then file the old split Workout under it's own Group and the new routine under it's own Group. That way, if I want to come back to the split Workout Group, I can, anytime. Very cool.
You can also track your weight, height (not sure why this one) and various measurements in the program and track them overtime with fancy charts. It also calculates your 1RM for each set of each weight lifting exercise and your record 1RM for each as well. For instance, it claims my Dead Lift 1RM would be 341 lbs. wow! honestly I'd be scared to try this much!!! For other exercises the 1RM is more reasonable, like my Reverse Barbell Curl is only 74 lbs. based on what I've done so far, but that's not surprising because that's one of the last exercises I do in this back & bicep Workout, so my biceps are already pretty blown by the time I do these (I'm only doing 60 lbs. at 6 to 8 reps.).
There are more features, but the final one I'll mention which I love is that I can back-up the program's database onto a computer on the same Wifi network if it is running a stand-alone (no install) free application called SyncDocs. This is awesome for me because I have two iPhones, one 3GS that I use everyday and an older 3G with a cracked glass face (but otherwise working perfectly and still readable) that I use at the gym (hey, it's already kinda broken, so if I accidentally drop... say 275 lbs. on it while Dead Lifting, oh well :P), and I can backup the database from one and restore it on the other so that they always match! Okay, maybe this makes me a geek, but I think that's really cool, if only because if I'm traveling and forget my workout phone, I will still have the latest on my everyday phone. Oh, and I can e-mail the database too, which is another way to get the database off the phone.
So basically, I'm super excited that I have a new non-paper way to track all my workouts and progress. And I'm also excited because of my new personal best on Dead Lift. Oh, and I also did 8 pull-ups versus my regular 6, went up five pounds on Rope Hammer Curls and in general had a pretty damn good Back and Bicep day!
Hope your workouts are going as well as mine!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Long Overdue Update
It's been awhile, but only since I've updated. I've actually continued to hit the gym, although I've been on a spit routine for the last five weeks rather than HST. Also, after taking a break from my diet for awhile (during which I put on a lot of fat), I'm back on low carb, but this time around I've tweaked it in that I'm eating a lot of slow absorption vegetables that allow me to stay in ketosis but still give me lots of good nutrients. I also have a cheat night once a week (I was kinda doing this before, but it was more like a cheat weekend, and that was too much cheating!) to give myself a break and keep my body from getting too comfortable with ketosis.
The split routine I'm doing now is:
Tuesday: Back and Biceps.
Wednesday: Shoulders, Calves and Abs
Thursday: Rest or cardio
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Chest and Triceps
Sunday: Rest or cardio
Monday: Rest or cardio
So far in the last five weeks I'm mostly rested on my days off because my legs usually need to heal, even on Thursdays because I kinda hit them hard on Mondays when I do Deadlifts for Back.
What I'm enjoying:
1. Getting leaner. It's slow, a little over a pound of bodyfat per week, but it's still nice.
2. Getting stronger in almost all my lifts.
On HST I was doing full body workouts three times a week, so I never really hit any one muscle group super hard, or I wouldn't be able to do my next workout two days later. On a split routine, you really put each muscle group through its paces, and while that was rough for the first two weeks (I was pretty damn sore), it's been awesome in terms of getting stronger. My favorites so far have been:
1. Dead Lift - I went from three sets (after a warm up) of 185 lbs. with 8 to 10 reps to 255 lbs. with 8 reps this last week. My goal when I started doing Deadlifts (around a year ago?) was to be able to train with my body weight, and now I've blown pass that, yay!
2. Squats - I went from training at 185 lbs. to training at 205 lbs. I'm going to be excited when I'm training at 225 lbs. because it just looks cool having two 45 lb. weights on each side of the bar :P Oh, and I discovered something recently that I wish I'd known before. It's better to squats with no shoes on so you are flat on the ground. My training shoes have a bit of a heel on them, which was causing me to want to lean too far forward during the later parts of my sets. Taking off my shoes allows me to stay more centered and focus on powering up instead of not leaning forward.
3. Leg Presses, and basically all the leg machines - These have been fun becuase I've been adding weight ever week like crazy! Like leg presses, I went from 6 45 lb. weights the first week to now using 11! Seated hamstring curls I went from 130 lbs. the first week to 205 lbs.
4. Biceps - These are getting stronger slowly. Not dramatic gains, but they look good and I'm adding a few pounds here and there.
Now the annoying areas:
1. Chest and Triceps - I just don't seem to be getting stronger with these. I keep trying to mix up the exercises to hit my muscles differently, but I don't feel like I'm getting stronger. The muscles look fine, I have no complaints about size, but I want to be benching 225 lbs. someday, and I'm no where close to that while training. I've been doing more incline sets recently to try and hit a different part of my muscles in the hopes of making some gains, but so far it's not doing much. I suspect my weak link is the triceps, which I'm working on too... hmmm... writing about it now I wonder if maybe my shoulder day is hitting the triceps too much and not allowing them to heal. This week perhaps I'll not do Arnold dumbbell raises on Shoulders day to see if that helps let them fully heal.
2. Calves - I get complements mine when I wear shorts, but I'm only doing 160 lbs. in the standing calf raises and 135 (three 45 lb. plates) on the seated calf raises. I saw a guy doing four 45 lb. plates last week, so that's my new goal (note: I rarely see people doing three plates like I do, but I still want to be stronger than I am and see gains).
3. Pull-ups - Man I just suck at these. I'm doing different grips now to try and work the muscles differently and allow for a break through. I suspect my weak link on this exercise is my biceps, so maybe as they get stronger (which they slowly have been), these will go better.
Dietary break-through! When I'm working out hardcore regularly I find myself teetering on the edge of getting cramps all the time. Increasing my vegetable intake helped, but even though I was taking a potassium supplement once a day, I was still getting cramps if I worked out hard for more than a couple of days in a row, or even sometimes if I took a day break here and there. Then I noticed the RDA of the potassium supplement... 3%. That's it? I was worried about taking more than one out of concern of taking to much but 3%?!? So I started taking about 10 per day to get up to 30% of my RDA and that has helped a LOT! Now I only get muscle cramps rarely, which is nice.
So yeah, things are going well. I'll try to get on here to track my progress.
The split routine I'm doing now is:
Tuesday: Back and Biceps.
Wednesday: Shoulders, Calves and Abs
Thursday: Rest or cardio
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Chest and Triceps
Sunday: Rest or cardio
Monday: Rest or cardio
So far in the last five weeks I'm mostly rested on my days off because my legs usually need to heal, even on Thursdays because I kinda hit them hard on Mondays when I do Deadlifts for Back.
What I'm enjoying:
1. Getting leaner. It's slow, a little over a pound of bodyfat per week, but it's still nice.
2. Getting stronger in almost all my lifts.
On HST I was doing full body workouts three times a week, so I never really hit any one muscle group super hard, or I wouldn't be able to do my next workout two days later. On a split routine, you really put each muscle group through its paces, and while that was rough for the first two weeks (I was pretty damn sore), it's been awesome in terms of getting stronger. My favorites so far have been:
1. Dead Lift - I went from three sets (after a warm up) of 185 lbs. with 8 to 10 reps to 255 lbs. with 8 reps this last week. My goal when I started doing Deadlifts (around a year ago?) was to be able to train with my body weight, and now I've blown pass that, yay!
2. Squats - I went from training at 185 lbs. to training at 205 lbs. I'm going to be excited when I'm training at 225 lbs. because it just looks cool having two 45 lb. weights on each side of the bar :P Oh, and I discovered something recently that I wish I'd known before. It's better to squats with no shoes on so you are flat on the ground. My training shoes have a bit of a heel on them, which was causing me to want to lean too far forward during the later parts of my sets. Taking off my shoes allows me to stay more centered and focus on powering up instead of not leaning forward.
3. Leg Presses, and basically all the leg machines - These have been fun becuase I've been adding weight ever week like crazy! Like leg presses, I went from 6 45 lb. weights the first week to now using 11! Seated hamstring curls I went from 130 lbs. the first week to 205 lbs.
4. Biceps - These are getting stronger slowly. Not dramatic gains, but they look good and I'm adding a few pounds here and there.
Now the annoying areas:
1. Chest and Triceps - I just don't seem to be getting stronger with these. I keep trying to mix up the exercises to hit my muscles differently, but I don't feel like I'm getting stronger. The muscles look fine, I have no complaints about size, but I want to be benching 225 lbs. someday, and I'm no where close to that while training. I've been doing more incline sets recently to try and hit a different part of my muscles in the hopes of making some gains, but so far it's not doing much. I suspect my weak link is the triceps, which I'm working on too... hmmm... writing about it now I wonder if maybe my shoulder day is hitting the triceps too much and not allowing them to heal. This week perhaps I'll not do Arnold dumbbell raises on Shoulders day to see if that helps let them fully heal.
2. Calves - I get complements mine when I wear shorts, but I'm only doing 160 lbs. in the standing calf raises and 135 (three 45 lb. plates) on the seated calf raises. I saw a guy doing four 45 lb. plates last week, so that's my new goal (note: I rarely see people doing three plates like I do, but I still want to be stronger than I am and see gains).
3. Pull-ups - Man I just suck at these. I'm doing different grips now to try and work the muscles differently and allow for a break through. I suspect my weak link on this exercise is my biceps, so maybe as they get stronger (which they slowly have been), these will go better.
Dietary break-through! When I'm working out hardcore regularly I find myself teetering on the edge of getting cramps all the time. Increasing my vegetable intake helped, but even though I was taking a potassium supplement once a day, I was still getting cramps if I worked out hard for more than a couple of days in a row, or even sometimes if I took a day break here and there. Then I noticed the RDA of the potassium supplement... 3%. That's it? I was worried about taking more than one out of concern of taking to much but 3%?!? So I started taking about 10 per day to get up to 30% of my RDA and that has helped a LOT! Now I only get muscle cramps rarely, which is nice.
So yeah, things are going well. I'll try to get on here to track my progress.
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