Friday, May 28, 2010

Day 4 week 12

Took the day off from work to get stuff and ended up working all day from home. Nuts. Got started training late and was struggling with lethargy (or maybe just plain laziness). By the time I wrapped my wrists, though, I was ready.

Started with AtLarge Results and the Shelby mix, elbow sleeves, wrist wraps, eventually knee sleeves. I wore Ace briefs for the squatting.

Lots of dynamic work and a lot of bar work to warm up before getting to it.

All exercises were 3 sets of 5-7 with 180s between.

Military press, seated, fat bar: 3 x 7 reps with last week's weight. Right shoulder barked a little, particularly since I was unracking slightly behind my head. No real pain, but a twinge and some feelings of instability. Tired of talking about this.

Seated french press: 3x7. Went up a few kilos with the straight bar in the rack. These were pretty good, actually, and I got good reps to positive failure with every set.

Squat
: 3 x 7 x 300 kg. Didn't feel good today. Depth sucked, felt like the bar wanted to come off my traps, etc. My knees and hips were solid, but everything just felt off. I pounded out three sets that left a bad taste in my mouth.

I won't belabor it today -- it just wasn't my day. Nothing hurt, nothing totally failed, but nothing totally worked either. Not satisfying, and leaves me a little unsettled.

Long weekend with my wife's b'day Sunday, so it should be a fun three days. I'll work on the training videos with my boy this weekend, too.

Hope everyone stays safe.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Day 3 week 12

Awesome day. It's getting warmer, usual bluebird San Diego skies, work cranking along. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, I guess. No sense in that.

Been slacking for a couple of days to let my right bicep heal a little. I was throwing with the boys on Saturday when they started asking for more serious throws. Now that I'm pushing 50 I find that when I think I've warmed up, I'm about halfway there. I yanked one hard from about 250 feet out and thought my arm had fallen off. Actually cried out, which got some attention. Embarrassing. I'd been throwing some good junk, curves and slurves, which the boys love seeing. Not sure why that one hurt, but that was it for throwing hard and I spent the next couple of days paranoid. Turns out it didn't matter or two days and a lot of Advil was enough, I guess, because it didn't hurt at all under tension today.

Started with AtLarge Results and the usual Shelby mix. Today is a super-high carb day and we've decided to add fats to my super-high days. Been struggling with reflux and some lethargy, so we're adding in 15g fats per meal too. I have to say, I enjoy the tinkering.

Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps today.

All sets 5-7 reps, 180s between, all to positive failure (or worse).

Rows: 3 sets x 7 reps. Bench incline was back up to 45 degrees. Bar had 140 kg and I concentrated on a good scapular squeeze at each finish. Super-wide grip. I set the pins so that it was about a 2/3 rep just because I wanted to concentrate on the squeeze rather than the break from the pins. I think it made a good difference.

Fly fat DB: 3 x 7 with 65 kg and ran them to positive failure. I did sets until I failed, held the weight against my chest for ten breaths, and then ripped off another set to failure. I did this three times, so three full sets and three minor sets. I'm determined to hit the pecs. Only time I wish I had a cable tower...well, not the only time.

Single-arm Scott curl: 3 x 7. Went back up on the weight for these and they felt good. Not sure why some weeks my biceps ache and others are fine, but so be it. Everything felt great today -- no bicep pain, no elbow or shoulder trouble, no nothing. Go figure, but everything was solid.

Calf: Mixed things up by putting 400# (180kg) on the SSB and doing standing sets of 12 on 2X4s. Pretty tough. I think I'll alternate this with the other mode for a while.

Ab twists: Used the 10" stone (45#) for these and did three sets of 50, same as always. Might have to do more or make a heavier stone -- if I add lead, I can get about a 65# stone at 10 inches, which would be pretty cool.

I'm still trying to figure out why everything felt so good. I'll be done with that figuring pretty soon and having a beer in honor of Bob, because it doesn't matter. Fact is, everything worked and weight went up. Thanks to Mom and Dad for the great genetics, I guess, because I'm managing to move a lot of weight almost halfway through my natural life without being totally jacked up. Not sure what'll happen ten years from now, but at least I should total elite by then.

Anyway, no vids today because I'm a lazy bastard. I bribed the boy to help me set up for vids this weekend just so I'd have to do it, so I'll follow through with that promise someday. Stay tuned.

Great day, guys.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Day 2 week 12

Trained yesterday before the boy's baseball game. Once again, the boys beat themselves, which pisses me off. Can't tell him that, though.

Started with Results and the Shelby mixes. Ran out of malto, so I'll have an order in to TrueProtein today. Best thing in the world, particularly because they're just up the road and I get my orders next day. Love that.

Wore knee sleeves for the squats and elbow sleeves for the upper work. Wrist wraps for upper as well.

Warmed up with dynamic work and bar weight before each.

All exercises were 3 sets of 8-10 with 180s rest between, all to positive failure.

Gironda swings: 3 sets of 10 reps with 30#. Kept the weight the same. I need another set of fat DB handles, I think, so I can have multiple setups around. Now to convince the wife. These were smooth and good -- no shoulder pain at all, no lurching, toasty shoulders after.

JM Presses: 3 sets of 10 reps with the straight bar. Went up a little on the weight and took them super-slow to make sure I kept my elbows solid and high. Really pounded my triceps. Good stuff.

Front squat: 3 x 10. Did my funky SSB squat again leaning back, hanging from the rack. I used a Spud DL belt for stability and knee sleeves, but no briefs. Feet were a little wider than shoulder width and depth was to my heels. I worked the SSB up to 200kg and banged out three sets of ten. Pretty good, though I felt like I was in a hurry.

Did the usual stretches after and called it. It took about 90 minutes all told, and was a pretty good effort. Nothing to set records, but I got it done.

Today's a low-carb day, so lots of peanut butter and cashews today. Love that. Everyone have a great day.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Day 1 week 12

I actually trained yesterday, but this is the first chance I've had to post.

The boy had a baseball game late so I had to train a little earlier than usual. No big deal -- just a timing issue.

Drank the Results and Shelby mix as usual and got to it.

Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps and did a fair amount of dynamic work. Then warmed up with the bar.

Pull-ups, fat grip, wide: 3 x 8 smooth. All sets were +45kg. Biceps were good, though there was still a lot of forearm pump. Not sure why that is, but pretty easy to deal with. I still hate pullups just because of the biceps paranoia/strain/whatever. They are coming along well, though.

Incline bicep curl: 3 x 10 with 25 kilos on the skinny DBs. Same as last time. Biceps still felt great.

Bench press, regular bar: 3 x 10. Stuck with the same weight as last time and concentrated on form again. I gripped extra-wide this time, as wide as my rack would allow, and focused on the chest. Not sure whether full ROM makes sense, but I'm a little sore today -- must have worked. All reps were smooth and tough.

Standing calf: I did them as usual, hitting all 100 reps in one set.

All in all, it was a good session. Worked hard, felt good about it. The boys lost their game due to poor fundamentals, which sucked badly. They sucked, for that matter, and still almost won it. They didn't deserve to win it. Last regular season game is tomorrow, and I think I'm glad.

I realized in this session that my bench weight has been very nearly matched by my military press weight. There's something fundamentally wrong about that, I think. I need to think this through.

Thanks for looking.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Day 4 week 11

I'm Mr. Mom again this week and didn't have a lot of time to fit training in, particularly knowing today was Day 4. Squat takes time, if just to warm up to the proper weight. I usually jump 10% each warm-up set, but today made it 20%. It seemed to make a difference.

Started with AtLarge Results and the Shelby mix, elbow sleeves, wrist wraps, eventually knee sleeves. I wore Ace briefs for the squatting.

Lots of dynamic work and a lot of bar work to warm up before getting to it.

All exercises were 3 sets of 5-7 with 180s between.

Military press, seated, fat bar: 3 x 7 reps with last week's weight. These felt heavy and my right shoulder was a little balky again. I got all my reps and felt stronger on the last set, but I'm tiring of questioning my right shoulder. I need to run an assessment to figure out whether I'm just whistling in the graveyard on this, because there's no substantive pain. It's probably just between my ears.

Seated french press: 3x7. Went up a few kilos with the straight bar in the rack. I liked it, but it's hard not to be paranoid about having a lot of weight supported by shoulders and elbows behind the head. Or maybe I'm just whining again. I'd still like a cable pushdown.

Squat
: 3 x 7. Went back up on the weight and repped out with 300 kilos. These felt super-solid, with depth quite good and the weight came up fast. I felt a little back twinge at the top, but I think it was from bouncing the weight from coming up quick. I pushed through it and felt no residual problems. I feel great about these. The walk-outs and re-racks sucked rotten eggs, though.

There's a used monolift in Huntington Beach for $2200 that I might have to go look at. I'd need a truck and maybe a beefy friend, but I'm not sure how I can pass up a mono for two grand. On the other hand, what will I do when I move if I don't have room for a home gym? Store it? My wife would have kittens. Might be worth it.

Great day -- thanks for looking.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Day 3 week 11

Cloudy day and I'm dragging from all the carbs.

Started with AtLarge Results and the usual Shelby mix. Today is a super-high carb day (I'm at five/week now), so I've been dragging all day. Baseball this afternoon, too, so I may have to Spike later to get up.

Wore elbow sleeves only today.

All sets 5-7 reps, 180s between, all to positive failure (or worse).

Rows: 3 sets x 7 reps. Bench incline was back up to 45 degrees. Bar had 100 kg and a bunch of chains, and I concentrated on a good scapular squeeze at each finish. Felt good, though I was sucking wind again by the end.

Fly fat DB: 3 x 7 with 65 kg and ran them to positive failure. I started with decline chain flys to failure with focus on hard squeeze at the finish. I did three sets of them to toast my chest a little before hitting the heavy fat db flys. This helped a lot, actually, and I got no more than 10 reps, no fewer than 8. Great effect.

Single-arm Scott curl: 3 x 7. Went back up on the weight for these and they felt good. Not sure why some weeks my biceps ache and others are fine, but so be it. Getting old.

Calf: Ironmind super squat belt and did standing calf raises with a bunch of weight on the pin. Legs a little wide to clear the plates, same weight as last time, got all 100 in one set. Very tough.

Ab twists: Used the 10" stone (45#) for these and did three sets of 50, same as always.

Great day's work today. Things are improving again even though my body weight is creeping.

Thanks for looking. Posted a video today and will publish my channel soon.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Day 2 week 11

Days here are all about the same temp -- it's the night temps that change primarily. Nights are starting to warm up, which I like. Another gorgeous day here. The room was hot.

Things are starting to work again. Maybe taking a week to deload was a good idea -- go figure.

Started with Results and the Shelby mixes. We're still struggling for every pound, though my body continues to recomp. I'm not going to be doing any BB contests any time soon (read: ever), but things are moving around. After three months, I expected something different; still, I'm not disappointed and will stick with it for another go-round at least.

Wore knee sleeves for the squats and elbow sleeves for the upper work. Wrist wraps for upper as well.

Warmed up with dynamic work and bar weight before each.

All exercises were 3 sets of 8-10 with 180s rest between, all to positive failure.

Gironda swings: 3 sets of 10 reps with 30#. Felt great, actually, and got all reps smoothly without flinging. I was tired but felt no structural pain. Good stuff.

JM Presses: 3 sets of 10 reps with the straight bar. I concentrated on keeping my elbows at chest height and not making it a narrow-grip bench press. These are tough and I like them. I'll keep exploring weight until I hit the sweet spot. I only used about 70kg on the bar today, but it felt like plenty.

Front squat: 3 x 10. Rather than front or pin squats, I got a wild hair to try something. I used the SSB outside the rack with the front j-hooks and set the straight bar inside the rack. I loaded the SSB, held the straight bar against the rack, and sat back. Only thing I can liken it to is the idiots using the Smith Machine to squat, though I was unassisted. I used a Spud DL belt for stability and knee sleeves, but no briefs. Feet were shoulder width and depth was to my heels. I worked the SSB up to 200kg and banged out three sets of ten. These were rather tough, and I was sucking wind like a hoover by the time I hit the #8 rep of each set. As I type, my quads are fried -- just what I wanted. I'll keep tweaking these, maybe adding some weight hanging from my waist with the pin. We'll see.

Great day, no pain, things working/progressing again. I feel some gains coming on.

Thanks for taking the time.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Day1 week 11

Happy Mother's Day. It's gray here, but still a great day.

Needed some time in the rumpus room today. Been feeling like my skin was tight lately, but haven't been sleeping well. Last couple of nights have been awesome for sleep, thank goodness. Finally.

If you haven't tried AtLarge Results in fruit punch, do yourself a favor and try it. Their best flavor yet. If you don't know what Results is, look it up; it's essentially creatine and other stuff and it ain't cheap, but it yields results I don't get with creatine alone.

Drank the Results and Shelby mix as usual and got to it.

Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps and did a fair amount of dynamic work. Then warmed up with the bar.

Pull-ups, fat grip, wide: 3 x 8 smooth. All sets were +45kg. Biceps were ok this time. Not great, but not aching like my arms were going to fall off like last time. I'll take it.

Bench press, regular bar: 3 x 10. Stuck with the same weight as last time and concentrated on form. Nice and slow, trying to hit the chest most of all. Right shoulder was balky today for unknown reasons, but the elbows were fine. In fact, I never even thought about my elbows. I worked the bench, ruing how awful my total is, and tried to hit them hard. I finished with some one-armed band work, sort of like a reverse Cuban rotation with my elbow in my ribs and closing across the chest. Not bad.

Incline bicep curl
: 3 x 10 with 25 kilos on the skinny DBs. Same as last time. I'm ready to move up here a little bit, I think. Biceps felt great.

Standing calf: I did them as usual, hitting all 100 reps in one set.

Wrt the weak right shoulder, I need to go through Assess and Correct and figure it out. It wouldn't do to hurt myself at this point.

All in all, I didn't clobber anything, which is ok. I walked away feeling strong and good and uninjured, so I call it a good day. As I type this, the sun is coming out, so it'll be a beach evening for the wifey and boy -- picnic with Thai, I think.

Hope everyone has a great evening.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Day 4 week 10

Very warm day today, so the rumpus room was downright hot. Good stuff for a hardy sweat.

Feeling a little lethargic again this week. Been sleeping poorly, worrying about a couple of things, ... life.

Started with AtLarge Results and the Shelby mix, elbow sleeves, wrist wraps, eventually knee sleeves.

Lots of dynamic work and a lot of bar work to warm up before getting to it.

All exercises were 3 sets of 5-7 with 180s between.

Military press, seated, fat bar: 3 x 7 reps with last week's weight. These felt heavy and my right shoulder was a little balky. Not sure why they felt so heavy, but they did.

Seated french press: 3x7. Stuck with last week's weight though on a straight bar. Finished with dumbbells loaded with 20kg, still doing a french press. Did all sets to positive failure, no yanking. I feel virtuous if not exactly blasted. I need a pressdown of some sort.

Squat
: 3 x 7. I backed the weight off about 20% and went full raw-dog today. I also squatted narrow-stance rather than my usual superwide, so lots of change today. I pounded out seven per set. My low back barked a little, but I'm sure the narrow squats ATG pitched me forward a little, so it's not surprising. No sweat and no residual pain or stiffness.

A little less strenuous than my usual Days 4, but good nonetheless. I take this week as a sort of deload while I figure a few things out. My strength continues to improve -- strength genes great, size genes suck -- but I look no different from my view. Odd.

Hope everyone has a great Mother's Day weekend. Give your honey an extra hug.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Day 3 week 10

I wanted to spark something today, so I backed off the weight on most exercises and did extra reps just to light things up. We'll see if it starts anything. I'll go back to the heavy weight next time.

Started with AtLarge Results and the usual Shelby mix. Today was a super-high carb day, so I've been dragging all day. Good day, though, which often translates to good things under the bar.

Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps.

All sets 5-7 reps, 180s between, all to positive failure (or worse). Extreme stretches afterward except biceps (yet again).

Rows: 3 sets x 7 reps. I kept the bench incline low to hit higher on the back and I dropped the weight and did sets of 20. I kept the weight just over half of usual, so it was around 100 kilos. I was sucking wind big-time by the end.

Fly fat DB: 3 x 7 with monster weight. Dropped the weight to 60 kilos and did sets of 15. Got all three. My right shoulder was a little balky, but nothing bad. I kept my elbows flared to be sure to hit the pecs hard. These were quite good.

Single-arm Scott curl: 3 x 7 x a bunch. I left the weight the same as last week and stayed with sets of 7. I'm still paranoid about my biceps tendon(s), so I figured it would be wise.

Seated calf: Ironmind super squat belt and did standing calf raises with a bunch of weight on the pin. Legs a little wide to clear the plates, same weight as last time, got all 100 in one set. Very tough. and my calves still look like toothpicks. Comical.

Ab twists: Used the 10" stone (45#) for these and did three sets of 50, same as always.

Pretty beat now and extraordinarily hungry. More later.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Day 2 week 10

Hot day today for Sandy Eggo, which around here means upper-mid-70s with no humidity. San Diegans are such whiners.

Quick entry today -- just the biz. Started with the usual elixirs and some dynamic work. I wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps, but no other support gear.

Warmed up with bar weight before each.

All exercises were 3 sets of 8-10 with 180s rest between, all to positive failure.

Gironda swings: 3 sets of 10 reps with 30#. These were very tough by the last reps. I'd love to go up in weight, but need to feel out my shoulders to see how happy they are with that idea.

Skullcrushers: 3 sets of 10 reps with the EZ curl bar. Raised the weight again a little, took the reps super slow, and elbows and shoulders still felt great. Again I used the angle bench set at it's lowest setting, so my angle was maybe 30 degrees -- just enough so I was looking up a little. I realized in mid-work that these have become a JM press with an EZ bar, except that I finish higher, up above my eyebrows.

Front squat: 3 x 10. Set up the pin with six 50-kilo plates and ran them to the floor below parallel from a pair of six-inch platforms. Feet are fairly wide. I added two inches to each platform, so I'm about 8 inches off the ground and go down until the weight touches -- maybe an inch below parallel. Still no pain.

Off to play with the PS3 with the boy until the wifey returns home from work.

Have a great night.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Day 1 week 10

Warm day today. Spent the morning yelling at the boys in their baseball game. They remain tied for first with only one loss, but they decided to make today's game interesting. I'm too old for that.

Needed the iron today, though I'm still dragging a little. Today's a super-high day, and I always seem lethargic on them. So be it.

Did no dynamic work today (stupid) and a fair amount of weight work, but never did work up a really good sweat. Not sure why. Goodness knows it was hot enough in the rumpus room.

Drank the Shelby mix as usual and got to it.

Wore elbow sleeves and wrist wraps and needed them today.

Pull-ups, fat grip, wide: 3 x 15 smooth. All sets were +40kg. Biceps tendons were barking badly, and the attachment at the top of my right forearm was downright bitchy. Not a good sign for the rest of the session (read: curls).

Bench press, regular bar: 3 x 10. Added 5% and pounded through the first ten; stayed with the weight and cleared 8 reps next set, but they felt heavy; dropped five kilos and grunted out 10 for the last set. Elbows barked at the bottom, off the chest. Probably biceps tendon attachments, honestly. Extreme stretches were a pink-clad, high school deb bitch.

Incline bicep curl
: 3 x 10 with 25 kilos on the skinny DBs. These felt great and caused no additional elbow or biceps issues. Same as last time, I think -- no improvement. Biceps screamed at the end, making the extreme stretches a little slice of heaven again. I might have wept.

Standing calf: I did them as usual, hitting all 100 reps in one set. I used the Ironmind squat belt with a bunch of weight on the pin and just worked through it. I was not happy. Funny thing about calves for me, aside from the fact that I have toothpicks for lower legs and always have, is that once they're done they're done. I don't hurt for a long time after, even though I walk funny.

I've been throwing hard with the boy lately -- he always wants to see me throw junk hard like I did when I was 20. When I throw breaking balls, man, I've got to be warmed up really well. Problem is, I almost never am and I feel it in my biceps afterward.

Anyway, good day. Arms and elbows are fine now. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Thanks.