Begin...The Rest is Easy

Semi-deload is over, back to hitting some weights with intent, definitely did enough that i didn’t truly deload but gave myself some room

Legs quad focus
Abudction: 75 3 x 20
Adduction: 75 3 x 15

Hack squat: 90 x 10, 180 x 8, 270 3 x 12

Leg extension: 115 2 x 15, 1 x 18 (12 + 6)

Machine crunch: 60lbs 2 x 15

Smith squat (slant board): 135 x 8, 225 x 8, 245 x 8

Woof, this got the quads really well. I put on the weighlifting shoes today for the first time in months and that brought the focus and intensity up insane amounts on the hack squat. Barely stood up after that last set.

Quads were dying during the extensions so gave them a break by doing some abs before going for the smith squats. Fine in theory but when i went to bend over to pickup the slant board my upper abs cramped, not the first time but man that wasn’t fun. Gave myself a minute and powered through.

Going to buy a used bike in about an hour but probably won’t ride it until after it all gets serviced and checked out, might also need to buy an extra set of cleats if my Peloton ones don’t fit.

Went full binge mode on food yesterday for the first time in awhile, usually there is some binging but it’s limited to night time. Yesterday i got a quarter chicken with rice/beans and tortillas for lunch. Downed 3/4 of a bag of cheddar and sour cream ruffles, then a bag of popcorn and a few spoonfuls of peanut butter. Ordered pan-asian food and ate a bunch of that, was delicious. Then had 2 tillamook ice cream sandwiches to top it off. But actually got up one more time before bed and had the majority of a chicken breast and some more PB.

Didn’t really eat breakfast this morning and had a chicken breast, green beans, and 2 eggs for lunch so not going to worry too much and call it a refeed (despite being well fed).

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Went to a small venue and saw some local bands last night, had a few too many drinks and smoked some but feeling half decent today, except my quads which are absolutely smoked. Good workout yesterday apparently, think the weightlifting shoes helped.

Chest/bis

Incline db fly: 20 3 x 12
Incline db curl: 20 3 x 10

Dips: 3 x 10, 1 x 16
Hammer curl: 25 2 x 10, 1 x 16 (11 + 5)

Chest press: 135 x 15, 16 (11 + 5), 15 (9 + 4 + 2)

Machine preacher (dropset): 80 x 16, 60 x 10, 40 x 9

Solid pump all the way around, feeling like the rest pause/myoreps/whatever take things to the next level. Approaching failure at relatively low weights feels a lot better than with higher ones

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Back/tris

SA reverse pulldown: 90 x 8, 115 2 x 8, 90 x 12, 45 x 20

Seated machine row: 90 2 x 15, 1 x 18 (12 + 6)

Straight arm pulldown: 30 x 10, 42.5 3 x 10
Tri pull down: 30 x 20, 42.5 3 x 12

Back extension: bw x 10, 35 2 x 10

Tri overhead machine: 120 x 15, 180 x 12, 11, 150 x 5, 90 x 9

Did the 20 reps on pulldown with both hands at the same time, solid pump. Single limb work takes too long hit first set of rows single arm but bailed from there.

Forgot how I did my last set of tri pulldown but doesn’t matter too much, back extension give the nastiest pumps might try the GHR for a bit.

Hit the last set of 180 on tris and did the rest as a dropset, absolutely brutal pump. Not the most inspired session, slogged my way through it but did enough to grow a bit, hopefully.

Basketball tomorrow, probably nothing else

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That would’ve been wise but I was antsy during the day and did a peloton.

45 min @ 202 watts

Did a Power Zone Endurance class (zone 2/3 work) and stuck with the program, albeit at the top of my zones for the first half or so. Realized around the 60% mark that I could hit 200 watts for 45, which i hadn’t done yet, if i pushed a bit, so ramped the intensity up to zones 3/4. Honestly wasn’t too bad overall. That was 45 min PR and i hit 218 for 30 which breaks the PR i set like a week ago lol. None of those are really max efforts, definitely could get another 15-30 watts more on a 45 minute ride but that isn’t the goal here.

Basketball was fun, my legs felt like lead though. Luckily had a few guys come that missed last week, one of whom filled the center role well when I was dying hah. Still have no touch around the basket but scored a bit, had a lot of rebounds, and a few steals and blocks. Good enough, my competitive juices aren’t fully triggered by this but in the moment i’m locked in enough.

Took a bath last night, was nicer than I expected to submerge 40% of myself at a time in warm water but still pretty sore this morning. Left hip flexor and right oblique are a little tweaky but don’t think i’ll be any worse for the wear. Might actually take today off, we’ll see.

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Did not take today off.

Shoulders:
Prime lateral raise: 130 3 x 12 dropset off last set into 90 x 10, 50 x 10

Upright cable rows: 35 3 x 12

A few upright bb rows
Standing db press: 30 x 10, 40 x 10, 55 x 10

Face pulls: 35, 50, 57.5 x 15

Brutal pump from the lateral raise dropset, made the rest of this painful. Last rep on 55 was tough, especially on the left arm, still some imbalances to work out there. Going on a few more walks but not much else planned.

Taking a small trip from Thursday-Sunday to go to a friend’s birthday party, should be debauchery defined but hopefully just for a night or two.

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Actually took an off day yesterday, mostly because i got a few last minute things dumped at me on work. Extremely ready for this project to be over, absolutely god awful project management and coordination. An MVP is going out the door but it has been a nightmare getting it in place.

Woke up early this morning and got some work in

Glute/Hams

Glute drive: 180 3 x 10

Hamtractor: 215 2 x 12, 1 x 19 (12 + 7)

Leg press (glute focus): 4pps 2 x 15

Squat press RDL: 3pps 2 x 10, 4pps 2 x 15

Decent enough work, probably will cause a bit of soreness on the backside. Have to get on a plane in a few hours which probably isn’t going to help that but whatever, see y’all next week when i’m back at it!

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Couldn’t unwrinkle the brain so ran 1.4ish miles at a ~9:50 pace, best mile split was 9:10. Wasn’t working too hard and considering i’m running at 5400’ i feel okay about that.

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Got back from Seattle feeling like I was well on my way to catching a cold on Sunday. Definitely had one, kicked my ass Monday and Tuesday, took those days off activity and work.

Came back to work today to have my ass handed to me, I swear taking time off is worse than working end up immediately burning myself out fixing people’s mistakes and reviewing people’s work. One of these days I’m actually going to quit, seems more likely now that i’m financially more free. We’ll see.

Just signing off now after 13ish hours online except for a 70 min gym/pick up the dog break.

Shoulders:
lateral raise: 150 5 x 8, 90 x 8, 50 x 10

rear delt flies: 20 x 12, 25 3 x 10

Upright rows: some
Face pulls: a bunch

20 min treadmill

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Alright. Still somehow not 100% but tired of not being in the gym and over working so much so I got in this afternoon for a high heart rate session. To be clear, it shouldn’t have been one but here we are.

Back/triceps

Lat pulldown: 140 x 12, 200 x 10, 220 x 7 (guesstimates)
Straight pulldown: 35 3 x 12

Wide pronated machine row: 180 4 x 10

Face pulls: 45 x 15, 50 x 12, 55 x 10
Tri pulldown: 45 x 12, 50 x 10, 55 x 13 (8+5)

Close grip bench: 135 x 15, 185 x 10, 225 2 x 8

Tri machine extension: ?? X 10, drop set with ~20 more reps

This felt like a lot more work than it was.

My weight is higher than it has been in quite a bit, 274ish this morning, I’m not going to fret too much about it but I figure while I’m higher in weight I might as well see how a push towards 405 on bench feels. I’m not using an arch for close grip and probably won’t use one for regular until I get into the mid 300s to save the lower back.

I hit 315 x 5 a month or so ago, probably somewhere around there now so some work to do but imagine 350-370 is in the bag at the moment. Just need to stay healthy.

Also am going to push cardio when my cold finally disappears, which is going to drop my legs from 2x a week to 1. Might just remove that session altogether or might add in a second back day with a little bench assistance work.

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Back in the gym today, still not 100% but slowly getting there. HR and lungs weren’t great but did some work, at least.

Legs:
Hip abduction: 105 2 x 15
Hip adduction: 70 2 x 15

Pendulum leg press: 4pps x 15, 5 pps x 10, 12

Hamtractor: 240 x 12, 255 x 10, 270 x 15 (9 + 6)

Quad extension: 130 x 15, 170 x 12, 130 x 9, 90 x 8

Was gassed at that point and bailed, good enough, hopefully I actually recover at some point.

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Still not quite where I want to be in terms of health but feeling maybe a bit better today, functioning at like 85% with dayquil in me, worse without.

Chest/Bis
Plate loaded fly: 35, 45, 55 x 12

Incline chest press: 210 3 x 10

Cable straight curl: 30, 35 x 12

Plate loaded preacher: 70 x 10, 12 (8,4)

Rope hammer curl: 40 3 x 8

Still don’t have much to give but that should do something

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30 min peloton @ 145 watts

Didn’t feel great but got it done. Going to play pickup basketball tomorrow night so hopefully the cold further recedes by then!

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Got in back workout 2 of the week, not all that impressive but i’m recovering muscularly despite being sickish still, so might as well.

Neutral t-bar row (i know): 135 3 x 10

Pullups: 3 x 5 (oof)

Back extension: bw x 10, 35 3 x 10

Machine crunch: 57, 74, 87 x 10

Incline walk 23 min

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Played about 1.5 hours of pickup last night, was pretty cold in the building which was great, wasn’t super competitive but good enough and fun.

Ordered myself a new pair of basketball shoes to try to keep things happy

Shoulders
Machine lateral raise: 150 3 x 10, 190 x 6,7 (5,2)

Rear delt raises: 20 x 10, 30 x 8, 35 2 x 8

Upright row: 70 x 10, 80 2 x 10

Arnold press: 30,40,50 x 10

Face pulls: 2 x 15

Stairmaster: 30 min, 1217 feet

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Took a 3ish mile walk with the dog this morning, still a lot of snow about but it’s going to be upper 50s for the next bit so should be gone soon

Chest/bis

Seated incline curl: 15, 25 x 8, 35 2 x 8, 1 x 9 (6,3)

Close-ish grip bench: 135 x 15, 225, 245, 265 x 10

Chest fly: 35 2 x 10

Hammer curl: 25 x 10, 35 x 10, 40 x 8

SA preacher: 35 x 6, 7, 9 (little assist from off arm on the last few)

Woke up stiff and sore this morning, thought I’d skip the gym then realized my chest and bis were feeling fine, so made it in. Back to back basketball is going to be tough the next two days

Bench felt fine, had a pretty loose setup which seemed to avoid bothering the low back. Not near peak strength but those are decent enough numbers for how little I’ve put into it

Flies started bothering the right shoulder so stopped a bit early

Loaded up at Costco after so gains should keep coming

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Played basketball the two previous nights.

Was at the desk by 7:30 this morning, have a service that reads hundreds of millions of records, puts them through an enrichment pipeline and inserts it into an OLAP. Thought more shit would be broken when I woke up because someone scheduled it for 8:30am (UTC) but it went better than expected, which was nice.

Felt like hell, HR was high, got hot quickly, and didn’t have much burst night one but we won pretty easily anyway. Felt much better last night, played all but maybe 8 min of the game, best offensive game (read: didn’t miss a bunch of layups), scared people out of the post defensively, and got a normal amount of boards. 1 for 2 from the free throw line, i’ll take it lol.

Woke up this morning feeling like i had underslept by 3 weeks, got out of bed and from my knees up to my lower back was creaky. I grabbed a board last night and landed a bit weird while getting bumped, right knee got a little inward push but it feels pretty much fine. Made it to the gym about an hour ago and things warmed up nicely, still pretty fatigued and still a bit stiff through the middle body but better than expected.

Back/tris:

Standing chest supported row (SA): 115 x 15, 150 x 10, 185 x 8

Lat pulldown (wide, neutral): 160 3 x 10 (last set involved a little cheating and a few extra half reps)

Tri pulldown: 30 x 20, 50 3 x 12
Straight arm pulldown: 30 x 10, 50 3 x 8

Back extension: bw 3 x 12 (miserable pump)

Tri overhead machine: 105 x 15, 150 x 15, 15 (10 + 5)

One of those days where everything is hard but it felt decent muscularly and got a decent amount of blood flowing, especially in the lower back where it is most needed, so happy with that. Going to take a walk in a bit after I figure out some work stuff.

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Got annoyed by the day so did a harder peloton than was probably advised on sore legs.

60 min @ 200 watts (PR)

Pretty gassed by that, cord that records the data also got unplugged for about a minute which made the last few minutes tougher because I was absolutely hitting 200 one way or another.

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Legs:

Abduction: 105 2 x 15
Adduction: 70 2 x 15

Hack squat: 90 x 10, 180 x 6, 270 x 6, 360 2 x 6, 1 x 10

Quad extension: 90 x 12, 15 , 20 (some rest pause, some longer breaks between sets)

Hamtractor: 150, 210 x 20, 270 x 12

Hard ab machine: 30 2 x 10

Need to do some glute work but given how dead my legs were/are this was a solid effort. Going to clean up diet and start shedding some fat after a few months of fucking around and eating everything

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Back/tris:

Reverse pulldown: 180, 200, 220 x 12

Wide pulldown: 180 2 x 10

Seated neutral row: 270 2 x 10, 11 (8, 3)

Close grip bench (feet up): 135 x 20, 225 x 10, 245 x 8

Facepulls and tri pulldown

Cable crunch and tri overhead

Forgot weights for the last two supersets but got a solid pump in the tris. Shoulder felt iffy on the wide (circular) pulldown so bailed a bit early. Everything else was solid, having the feet all the way tucked in on bench made stabilization hard but that’s to be expected, worth saving the back for

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Took yesterday all the way off, first time in a bit. Lower back was feeling iffy and most everything else was fatigued, tight, sore, or some combination thereof.

Shoulders:
Rear delt fly: 35 3 x 10

Lateral Prime raise: 130 2 x 15, 15 (10, 5)

Machine Shrugs (seated): 180 2 x 10
Machine Shrugs (standing): 180 2 x 18

Stairmaster: 25 min, 107 floors

Lungs and heart were working hard toward the end of the stairmaster but cardio is gradually getting into a more reasonable place. Going to keep that going and try to do some long/hard hike this spring/summer.

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