Basketball went well, didn’t play a ton but felt decent physically and played less terrible than prior weeks.
Chest/tris today
Bench: 135 x 10, 225 2 x 5, 1 x 15
Back extension: 3 x 10
Abflexor: 40 2 x 10
Tri straight bar overhead: 50 3 x 8
Tri straight bar pushdown: 72.5 3 x 8
Hadn’t hit the barbell bench since the shoulder injury in November, felt a little rusty and didn’t think going heavier was a good idea but 15 out of nowhere is good enough, probably had a few more in me. Not sure i’m committed to chasing 405 again but i imagine i will at some point.
Weight was 269.x, gained a few lbs, not great, plenty of room to clean up.
Did a weak leg day on Friday, went to a Rapids game on Saturday, and had a weak shoulder day but I supplemented it quite well when I came home.
Weight was 268.8 this morning after droppings some post-binge bloat. Going to start adding in more Pelotons now that the garage isn’t freezing, should help with my conditioning and casual hiking season starts soon enough. Averaged 10k+ steps in February, the first time in a few months i’ve hit that, will likely be easier the rest of the year.
Shoulder chaos:
Machine lateral raise: 50, 90 x 10, 130 x 8, 150 x 8, 190 x 6
Rear delt flies: 15 x 10, 30 2 x 10 (first set left arm was actually 25 lol)
Back extension: bw x 10, 35 3 x 8
Side bends: 35 3 x 10 per side
Went home after that
DB hang clean pulls: 25 3 x 20
DB overhead carry: 25 x 30, 50, 60 steps per arm
DB Lateral raise: 25 3 x 10
Standing db press: 50 x 20
One day I am going to get back to logging regularly, maybe today is the day?
Been active over the past week, averaging ~11k steps, played basketball once. Finally tested out the road bike for ~5 miles too. Lifted 4 or 5 times, as well. Most lifting sessions are 40 min +/- 10 min.
Hit shoulders yesterday, legs today.
Abduction: 70 3 x 15
Adduction: 70 3 x 15
Lying ham curl: ? 2 x 15, 1 x 18 (small rest pause)
Leg press (quad focus): 360, 450, 540, 590 x 10
Glute bridge: 180 3 x 10
Leg press was heavy, tried to keep the descent slow and get as deep as possible, felt like hard work.
Hit a low point of 264.8 last week, this morning came in at a bloated 267.8. Trending in the correct direction again. Taking a bit off of drinking and significantly reducing other unhelpful intakes. Seems to be working for both the physical and the mental.
Ha! I don’t have any really compelling reasons as to why I shouldn’t get back into it, just some lackluster ones.
ramble about my current lifting ahead
Personal and work life are busy but realistically I think I am not logging because I am paying less attention to what I do in the gym.
I usually go into the gym with a rough plan. Sometimes that means “i’m doing legs”, sometimes that means “i’m doing dips and chest”, rarely more specific than that though. My current gym has 2-4 machines for every motion you could think of. There are probably 40-50 machines for legs in one room, the chances that I use the same machine more than 2x in a row isn’t super great so tracking progress isn’t really happening. I’d rather get a good workout in than a specific one. To that end, I’m going mostly on effort which isn’t really leading me to put numbers down on paper (or even in my head). It’s seemingly successful, the rare time I actually track an exercise (on the same machine) I see that i am making progress.
Aug 24 (first time using this setup)
Jan 28 (most recent time, I think?)
Parts of me want to go on a program but I am enjoying my short lifts, my style of lifting, and the progress it is bringing. None of me wants to deadlift, I get the urge to back squat about twice a quarter, overhead press about that often as well, and bench about once a month. Might do some DC style stuff at some point but I’ve taken some of the rest pause ideas from there and incorporated them into my regular work, which is proving effective.
On that note, most of my days have 2-3 simple movements, 1 (sometimes 2) compound movement, and some core. Depending on how i’m feeling I’ll take 1 or 2 movements to failure. Sometimes failure is not getting my 10 reps, sometimes it’s doing rest pause, sometimes it’s doing a dropset.
Failed straight sets here
Last shoulder session I did
130 x 8, 150 x 7, 170 x 7, 190 x 7, 90 x 15 (including some partials)
end ramble
Anyway, enjoying lifting, trying to physically prepare myself to enjoy hiking some 14k mountains out here too but we’re a bit further off that hah
Just grabbed an endurance class out of the bag, happened to be high cadence. Lots of soreness in the legs but nothing but zone 2 work so not too hard. Need to do more of these and actual bike rides.
I think it’s actually related to the day i joined, which was apparently 10 years ago. I had an account I’d previously used which is more than 3 years older. Spent 13 years on this site, ha.
Birthday is still a few months out, thank you though.
Pretty much center of zone 2 for me but my FTP is definitely higher than I could hit right now
Chest:tris
Dips x 10
Bench: 135 2 x 8, 225, 245, 275 x 5, 295 x 6
Tri rope pulldown: 35 3 x 12
Face pulls: 35 3 x 10
Woodchoppers: 35 3 x 10
Tri overhead: 35 2 x 12
Stairmaster: 2000’ in 48:58
Not a ton of lifting, bench felt okay ish, technique needs work but that’s not surprising given I’ve benched 2 or 3 times in the last 4 months after my shoulder injury. Probably had 1-2 more reps at 295 but let them go.
Cardio is feeling awful but not as awful as it might, so that’s good
Took yesterday off, was pretty roasted. Did a solid amount of yard work that counts as something but good to give myself a bit of room.
6.8 mile bike ride, 33 min
Still trying to figure the bike out, will do a few more rides and make some small adjustments and then see if I want some wider tires and/or a fitting.
Legs:
Abduction: 90 2 x 12
Adduction: 90 2 x 15
Laying ham curls: 40kg 2 x 20, 25 (few partials at the end)
Glute drive: 225 3 x 12
Quad extension: 100, 115, 130 x 10, long rest 85 x 21
Back extension (GHR): 2 x 10, 1 x 15
Easy leg day, focused a bit more on the back side than normal, quads are exhausted from the massive increase in cardio this week. On that note, I’m actually physically tiring myself out again, which is great, sleep has been better because of it.m
Going to need to continue to focus on core strength for longer bike efforts, might make another run at some daily work that includes planks or similar.
Tomorrow will probably be shoulders and maybe a slightly longer bike ride, not sure if indoor or on the actual bike.
I’m sorry if I missed it somewhere, but where are you at? If it’s Colorado, I can talk 14er’s with you. I’ve been to the top of all of them out there at least once! I LOVE all things mountain!
I am in Denver! Right next to the 70 so I can get into the foothills in ~15 minutes, haven’t really done any serious hiking since moving here late summer but plan to get moving on that front soon!
Tell me all the things!
What 14er should I do first?
Any that you specifically recommend?
Am i going to die?
Am I going to freeze to death?
I assume you lived in CO at some point, whereabouts?
I’d suggest starting with an easy one. Mt. Bierstadt would be what I would consider an easy walk-up. You could do that one right now without an issue. Pike’s is another one that’s not too bad and Grays and Torreys are good ones too (you can get both of them in one day!)
My favorites were Holy Cross and Crestone Needle, but these are a little tougher - so get a few under your belt before you take them on.
I mean, there’s always the possibility but if you prepare, start early and are careful - the odds are pretty low.
Not if you don’t go in the middle of December or January and even then, if you dress correctly, absolutely not. I summited quite a few of them in the winter and I’m still here to talk about it.
I went to college in Fort Collins and then moved to Boulder, all said on that “tour” I was there for about 10 years. I also did about a 6 month stint in the Springs a few years back. I love that state. If my family wasn’t here, I’d be there!!
Awesome, thanks for all the info! I looked at bierstadt yesterday and it seems too snowy for me for the next little bit will probably knock out some lower elevation mileage then get a few 12ers in before starting my 14er journey.
My wife did part of her schooling in Fort Collins too, small world.
If you ever come back out and want to be slowed down on a hike, let me know
