Begin...The Rest is Easy

[heretolog]

Did a few KB swings, some band work, and core throughout the week but didn’t get a real session in.

Body feels pretty shitty, probably a combination of fighting through a cold last week (had a few rough days) and all of my other issues. PT tomorrow morning.

Back

Low row: 100,120,140,160 x 10

ISO lateral row, one arm at a time: 70, 115 x 8, 160 3 x 8
Split squat: bw 5 x 10

Try to get the hip flexors really involved in the split squats, felt decent.

lat pulldown: 100 x 10, 120 3 x 8

Quad extensión: 90 x 15, 150 x 12, 190 x 10, 230 x 8

Hadn’t done quads in a few weeks so threw a bit in there for them. Glad to not be fully sick anymore, probably >90% now. Have good food in the house for the upcoming week and we’re going to get some grill weather, thank god

[heretolog]

PT this morning then snuck in for about 15-20 min of shoulders/tri work.

Seated db press: 35 x 10, 50,65,80,90 x 6
Lateral raise: 15 x 15, 20 x 12, 25 x 10, 15 x 15

Rolling db press: 30,35,40 x 12

Tri pushdown: 70 x 20, 100 x 15, 140 x 12

[heretolog]

Weighed 263.4 yesterday, calling that my official start weight.

Whelp, I’ve gained 1.6 lbs since then. I didn’t need a huge cut to call this transformation a success but my commitment hasn’t been consistent. I’ve been much more busy and been dealing with 19342x more physical issues than normal but I’ve just not committed to working hard enough and eating well enough.

I’m going to Jazz Fest in New Orleans in a few weeks, which will throw things off but should be pretty clean and clear until the end of May after that. Going to be in the 250s when I leave for New Orleans and going to be in the low 250s/upper 240s by the end of May. Time to get serious.

Good news is that my pressing, arms, and upper back are moving in the right direction. Should be able to put together a side by side that shows progress

[heretolog]

As often happens in Upstate, NY the clouds won! Still cool when it went totally behind and the sky got dark. Planning on getting some kind of work in today.

[boilerman]

I’m jealous you got to see anything at all, haha. It was complete cloud cover where I am. It just ended up being dark and then light again. Still a very cool thing to witness, but I imagine it would be so much more impressive being able to sneak a peek.

[heretolog]

Just ended up doing core, grillling, and a lot of walking yesterday. First really nice day of the year.

Did some DC style work this morning following the template laid out in this link (shared by @T3hPwnisher) How to Build 50 Pounds of Muscle in 12 Months

Slight incline db bench: 100 x 14 (8,4,2)

Plate loaded shoulder press: 180 x 21 (12,5,4)

Tri overhead: 80 x 21 (12,4,5)

Wide lat pulldown: 230 x 20 (12, 5,3)

Chest supported row: 70 x 12,11

I liked the rest pause stuff, definitely felt like hard work. Kind of awkward with dumbbells, definitely need to read more than just that article and probably need to reread that a few times to get the patterns and rests fully ingrained. Going to do a mini blast for 2 weeks until vacation then start a full one a few days after I get back. Really appreciated having some structure in the gym, instead of saying “nah rows sound awful I’ll just hit some biceps” I had the model to hold me accountable.

[T3hPwnisher]

Glad it worked out for you dude! You get that loaded stretching in as well?

[heretolog]

Not in any meaningful fashion, held the bottom of the bench for 30s during a warmup. Am not quite sure how to program that in, plan on reading a bit more but if you’ve got advice I’d like to hear it.

[T3hPwnisher]

Do them after the movements are done. So do your chest exercise, then the chest stretch. Shoulder, then shoulder stretch. Etc. That’s the ideal time to hit them.

[heretolog]

Perfect, that’s easy enough to remember but sounds brutal. Do you do them for each movement?

[T3hPwnisher]

For each muscle, yup. It’s key to the protocol. You pump, and then you stretch.

[heretolog]

Gotcha, so after hitting my 2 back movements, to follow protocol, I should’ve done a loaded back stretch like this?

Extreme Lat Stretch for Optimal Growth | DC Training by Dusty Hanshaw

Dusty Hanshaw has a series of 6 or 7 of these videos which is awesome, already afraid of the quad stretch haha

[T3hPwnisher]

Dusty has some great videos. You’ll see me using a hanging stretch in my own workouts as well.

[heretolog]

Few cold “before” shots.

Important notes:
Hair is a mess
Back shots are impossible
How do bodybuilders do this

[heretolog]

B1

Preacher curl: 60 x 31 (16,8,7)

60s biceps stretch, ouch

Hammer curls: 35 x 12 (probably too heavy)

70s forearm stretch

Seated calf raise: 90 x 10

50s calf stretch

Barbell RDL: 245 x 11

45s ham stretch

Hack squat: 140 x 8, 100 x 20

45s quad stretch

Arm stuff felt solid, calves were boring until about rep 7 then the long ass negatives and static holds started adding up.

Didn’t bring my lifting bag, so no straps or belts, which I would’ve liked, in retrospect. My plan went a bit off the rails because I went to the gym at an insanely crowded time, RDL should be behind the quads but alas it didn’t work out that way.

I’ve never really liked hack squats but got in a solid groove there, haven’t done a widowmaker in forever, going to be sore as shit tomorrow. At the end of my quad stretch I let out a groan and some kid who had just walked up to the side of the rack was like “you good?” Think that means I did it right lol

[heretolog]

Did a 45 min peloton today and a 30 min one I forgot to log on Wednesday. Both were what should’ve been low intensity but felt like medium. Body seems to be holding up to the greater workload (through 4 days), feeling pretty good

[heretolog]

A2

Incline dB bench: 85 x 27 (15,7,5)

Slight incline fly hold: 30lbs x 45s

Added 2 sets of facepulls between warmup sets, my shoulders are happier with them.

Chest pump was brutal

Seated db shoulder press: 75 x 13 (7,3,3)

Shoulder stretch 30s (fack)

Seated dip: 270 x 24 (13, 7, 4)

Did wide grip, was a mistake got too much chest in there

Triceps stretch: 60s per arm holding 25lb behind head

Medium width neutral pulldown: 140 x 23 (11,7,5)

Single arm ISO-lateral hammer row: 160 x 12

Hang x 90s

Pushed much harder here and did harder movements than A1 and I’m feeling it. Everything felt good except my right shoulder got a bit excited after all the upper work, not worried but need to keep track of it.

Stretching the chest and shoulders was brutal, didn’t get the triceps very well, will have to keep playing with that. The hang felt fine until my grip started failing (despite straps), whole back had a very weird sensation when I let go. Will probably add 5-10lbs next time.

Was planning on hitting B2 tomorrow morning but I might push it to Wednesday, legs are still pretty fatigued.

[heretolog]

30 min peloton @ 141 watts

Medium ish effort, cardio will get there, not there yet though.

Hitting B2 sometime tomorrow morning, have an early meeting that is throwing my plans off but I’ll sneak it in sometime. Curse you European colleagues

[heretolog]

B2:

Seated bicep curl: 30 x 25 (12,7,6)
60s bicep stretch

Reverse EZ curl: 70 x 12
30s forearm stretch

Cybex Eagle calf machine: 130 x 11
90s calf stretch

Lying ham curl: 130 x 31 (14,9,8)
60s ham stretch

Leg (squat) press: 610 2 x 8, 480 x 20
65s quad stretch

Woke up a bit after 6 thanks to the bladder, laid around for awhile then figured I might as well get after while I could.

Solid session, did it fasted, which isn’t regular for me but not weird enough that my body was thrown off by it. This style of training really makes it so the muscle you trained is the only focus. During my leg press if you asked me what I’d done before hitting it, I’d probably have forgotten arms.

Loving it so far, only spending 40-50 minutes in the gym. not quite sure what I’ll do for my B3 quad work, might try some form of lunge or split squat. Might drop calf work once I start another blast, not sure what to sub it with but I have been fat my entire life, so I already have nice enough calves.

[heretolog]

A3

Hammer curls: 25 2 x 10 (not part of the routine)

Incline barbell bench: 205 x 20 (10,6,4)
Chest stretch 45s per side

Seated Smith shoulder press: 185 x 15 (8,4,3)
Shoulder stretch 45s

I’m pretending like the smith bar weighs 45

Dips: bw x 27 (15,8,4)
Tri overhead stretch 60s

Narrow lat pulldown: 150 x 23 (11,7,5)

Medium neutral cable row: 120 2 x 10
Hang 50s + 25ish

Man I don’t know why but the rest pause on the back movements seems to be crushing my lats, best I’ve ever felt them.

Hadn’t done much in the way of dips since DW over a year ago, wasn’t sure I could do 10 with bodyweight but it wasn’t too bad, triceps just didn’t recover enough in 15 breaths. Overhead stretch worked better for them.

Both incline barbell and smith presses are not normally in the rotation, some gains will probably be made just as I get technically better at them. Chest and delts were pretty toasty after incline, felt real weak on the shoulder work but that’s fine.

Going to go eat something, low on calories today, this gassed me.