Picked up a sleep aid at the drug store, non prescription. Sleeping soundly has been a problem for a long while. Last night did pretty well.
Squat day. Did well. got up to
155 x 8
155 x 7
Albino was right, not so hard this time.
Leg extension, got up to almost the weight stack for 7 reps.
Leg curls,
180 x 9
200 x 4
Seat rows, went hard
This reminds me of a podcast I listened to last week. Worth a listen and could possibly help give you a new perspective about your perceived lack of gains. Good stuff starts around 29 minuinto podcast.
We are all doing better than we think. The fact we are going sure as hell beats sitting on the couch eating Cheetos.
Thanks for the podcast. I’ve heard of all the studies showing the variation of people responding to training. Obviously I must be way down at the bottom. However, where he says just train longer or different he gets pretty vague. He’s taking studies of aerobics and assuming the same thing happens with weight training, but he can’t show a study. Finally he gets to admitting I’ll never get it and the only way out is to just stop wanting it. If only. I never chose weightlifting, it chose me.
Okay, so tried bench. A few reps at 65 lbs showed my shoulder is still acting up. Shit. So tried dips instead. Had my belt, was intending to do some weighted dips. But my warm up set of no weight had me struggling and stopped at 6 reps.
Phooey. So did 5 or 6 sets of 6 rep dips. Very hard, struggling on the last ones.
Did some tri extensions. Seem to do pretty well.
Did some hanging. Got up to 25 seconds but pain so much in arms and back had to drop.
Okay. So got a sleep aid (over the counter) at the drugstore. Been using a low dose for a few days, does seem to get me some more deep sleep than before.
Tweaking the routine. Two things. One, more times. Still going to gym 3 times week, at home will add some band work on a couple more days. Two, taking intensity down. Not going to failure, keeping weight up but not taking it to the limit. So today-
Deadlift
215 x 4
225 x 1
225 x 1
205 x 3 felt good
weighted dips
25 x 2
25 x 1
25 x 1
25 x 1
25 x 1
Seated rows
got up to some decent weight, kept reps low
didn’t feel worn out
Squats
got up to
135 x 5
155 x 2
165 x 1 piece of cake, got all the way down
175 x 1 not quite, almost down
165 x 1 good
155 x 2
figured that was enough.
Shoulder feeling better, risked bench. Tried not to push it too far.
95 x 5
105 x 3
115 x 2
125 x 1
115 x 1
115 x 1
115 x 1
Did some bar curls at 60 lbs for a couple reps. Don’t know why 70 feels so impossible.
Leg press
Tri extension
Shoulder feeling better. Been playing around with the bands.
Made it to the gym. Wanted to do squats, but guy using rack I like. Waited 20 minutes, said screw it. Went to the standing calf raise and used it for a kind of squat. Got up to like 4/5 of the stack.
Did pullups.
x 3
x 3
x 2
x 2
x 1
x 1
straining so hard on these.
Leg press. Did several sets, got up to 3/4 of the stack for 2 or 3 reps.
Bar curl.
40 x 8
70 x 1
70 x 1
70 x 1
Bench day. Shoulder has been doing a little better. Absolutely determined to break through the plateau that’s been going for about 10 or 20 years. But will have to take it careful. Just take 135 down halfway and call it good.
65 x 8 some twinge, seems okay
95 x 5 form a bit off
115 x 2 little twinge at bottom
125 x 1 half down
Here goes:
135 x 1/2 sorta halfway
135 x 1/2 ah that was great
135 x 1/2
135 x 1/2 suddenly the bar spun a little, had to grip hard, by the time I got it steady it sank too much and couldn’t get it up, was coming at my face like a Mack truck
And then the bottom hooks on the bench caught it. Whew
Should have just pyramided weight down after one or two sets. Anyway, finished up with a couple of 95 lbs.
Tri extend machine
Could barely budge it, realized arms were toast from the bench. Got weight down a little and knocked out triples.
Shoulder press. Took it easy to try and rehab shoulder. Went good, went a bit higher weight.
Leg extension. Really went heavy on this. Did just fine, kept knocking out 8 reps. Got up to third plate from the bottom. Did 5 or 6 reps. Why not. So set the whole fuckin’ stack. Did 5 reps perfect.
Deadlift. Got up to
205 x 6
225 x 1
235 x 1
205 x 3
felt pretty good
Weighted dips
25 x 2
25 x 3
25 x 3
25 x 3
was surprised, would have been happy with singles
Did some leg curls.
Gym was only open half day yesterday and usually gets crowded, so I put off till today.
Squats got up to
135 x 7 felt pretty good
155 x 4
175 x 1
135 x 5
Did some pullups.
x 3 last one straining
Bench day, Shoulder feeling better, but still some twinging.
65 x 10 good
95 x 5 bit twinging at the bottom. Next sets will be halfway down
115 x 4
125 x 4
135 x 3
115 x 4
95 x 6
keep working at it
Tri extension did well, got up to one more setting for a hard single. Pyramid up and down.
OH press machine went well.
got something of a cough, pretty sure it’s just stress.
Deadlift. Will skip one rep max
185 x 7
215 x 5
185 x 6
felt good, can’t wait to do 225 for reps
did some assisted pullups
some weighted dips
25 x 2
25 x 2
25 x 3
enh, really hard. Guess the deads really wore me out.
Squat day
115 x 10
135 x 10
155 x 8
155 x 8
155 x 5
call 911, someone pumping oxygen out of the gym 
a bit surprised at how well this went. Was thinking of leg extensions, but this seemed enough
did some leg curls
Bench day. Shoulder still twinging, take the warm up sets all the way down, everything else halfway
95 lbs x 11
115 x 6
135 x 1
115 x 4
95 x 6
concentrating on keeping wrists straight, seems to work
some tri extension machine
some OH press machine
Deadlift. Decided to shoot for one more rep.
135 x 8
185 x 6
215 x 6 yay
185 x 8
decided to do some pullups. Well, as close as I can come. Two or three reps passable, the rest halfway or quarter way. Jeez they’re hard.
Squat day.
115 x 10
135 x 8
166 x 8
135 x 8
bit better than I expected
Some leg curl machine
Leg extension. Since I maxed out the stack last time, went to one plate over half and tried one leg at a time.
145 x 4
145 x 3
not full rep, but happy I could move it at all
Nice job on the squats.
Thanks, Albino.
Bench day. Shoulder twinging a bit, lower almost to chest.
65 x 11
95 x 6
115 x 5
135 x 2 damn, so hard
115 x 4
95 x 4
so frustrating. 45 years of lifting and bench just will not budge.
Tri extension went up to really hard double, pyramid down
Pec dec pushed hard, kept increasing until couldn’t budge it, backed off a bit, went hard to failure
OH press machine hard, hard, hard
So been busy, took off a week.
Back to deadlifts. Did 215 for reps, was hoping to do well for 225
135 x 8
185 x 6
225 x 3
205 x 5
good and refreshed from the break
Did some pullups