Oh my goodness this is so exciting! Thank you for sharing what you do — I may need to get your advice on future projects!
So relatable! These days, erring on the side of caution leads to better results for me. So I’m trying to go with that “less is more” strategy no matter how much it makes me feel like a sissy.
Consistent, good (or even average) workouts are better than inconsistent hard-core workouts.
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Upper-ish Body Day
Why -ish this time? I blame Mike. He’s the sweet 75+ year old who keeps getting me to lift heavier.
This time he got me to bench again. More on that below. But here’s what I did get done…
A1. Straight Arm Cable Rope Pulldown: 4x8-10
A2. Seated Neutral Grip Cable Row: 4x10-12
I got to the gym with some irritation in my right elbow, then did a light warm-up set of the first exercise, and it went away completely. But to feel the tension in the long head of the triceps you need to go lighter and play around with your form until it hits just right. So my warm-up set was super high rep (20+) just because I had to keep making micro-adjustments.
B. Seated Chest Press: 5x5
Here’s the weight for every set: 160, 170, 180, 180, 180
Back-off set: 90 pounds for 10 reps
So 180 is feeling easier little by little, but as I was doing this a thought kept occurring to me: could my strength gain on the seated chest press translate at all to a barbell bench press? And if so, by how much?
C. Machine Lateral Raise: 1x15 with partials at the end
I would’ve done more, but this was when Mike walked over and told me to add more weight. And then we started talking about the bench press. I told him it’s been years since I did it. And then he said, “let’s see what you can do!”
Oh my gosh you guys. My chest and anterior delts were already pretty exhausted from the seated chest press. But I’m not about to disappoint a flirtatious elderly man, so of course I said, “sure!”
And I think he noticed my trepidation so he only added a 25-pound plate per side. Thank goodness!
But let me tell you, I unracked the bar and it felt like a child’s toy. One of my shoulders gave me a bit of a warning sign, but I popped out five reps while talking to Mike enthusiastically. And he said my form was perfect. So there’s that.
It was just 95 pounds, but he re-introduced me to a big lift that I’ve been wanting to explore again. Yay Mike!
Fun fact: the grass in your neighborhood is full of dog urine and feces remnants. But if you ignore that thought, you can still lay in it without any noticeable repercussion!
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That’s my Instagram bio!
Nicely done! I actually think there’s a ton of value in doing our big lifts a little deeper into the workout, for those of us with hypertrophy goals and miles on our tires.
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“Pics or it didn’t happen.” Do people still say that?
Oh this is interesting! It makes perfect sense though. The further you are into a workout the more warmed-up your joints are. If I start benching again, I’ll keep that in mind! Great insight.
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It takes a little ego out too. You know what you “should” bench fresh, and maybe push too hard to get there, but you don’t have that same reference point for benching after you’ve already done machine press, pressdowns, and side raises.
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Same. Took me a long time to get a handle on this. Not that long ago, I was training 6 days a week and feeling guilty about taking Sunday off. And not long before that, I was training on Sundays too.
Part of this was because that Nietzschian attitude is what helped me get in shape to begin with, decades earlier. The other part was fear: fear of being the fat weak guy again.
Funny thing is, I don’t think I’ve lost anything by training less and skipping a workout when I just didn’t feel up for it. Heck, I was probably in a recovery hole for years.
There are still some days where I feel a little guilty or lazy for taking off. It’s a twisted form of discipline to just say, “Don’t sweat it; hit it hard tomorrow.” Same is true for cutting a workout short or just hitting deadlifts and calling it a day instead adding five more exercises to the workout.
Thibaudeau has talked a lot about how three or four days of full-recovered hard training beats seven days of under-recovered, CNS-fatigued training.
I do think we need to spend time finding out where our recovery limits are. And to do that, we have to exceed them… while having the insights needed to recognize that point and while tamping down our knee-jerk “don’t be a p*ssy!” inner dialogs.
But this upper productive limit can change with life stress, sleep “hygiene,” and aging. Oh, and time of the month for women. My wife taught me that.
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That’s a point I hadn’t considered! Good call.
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Oh it can be so hard to escape the “no days off” mindset. Especially when there are fit pros on social media saying things like, nobody’s ever built a great physique by skipping workouts when they didn’t feel like it.
Uh… maybe you need to meet more lifters?
I see this sentiment constantly repeated in a variety of ways. But it usually comes from people with whom I normally agree.
So, they’re not dummies; they’re just young men speaking to other young men.
Being super consistent is necessary when you’re a beginner who hasn’t made lifting a routine. But there are tons of people with great physiques who take time off spontaneously. These lifters are experienced enough to know their bodies, and to know enough about catabolism that they don’t worry about losing gains.
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@Chris_Shugart @Dani_Shugart I’m totally with you both on this. It’s hard to justify “bailing” because it feels like a betrayal of the very discipline that made you successful in the first place.
What I’ve done over the last year or two is I have a mandatory push, pull, and leg workout every week. After that, if I feel like it, I can do an arm day and/ or run through light PPL; the second day would always be easier. So my week can be 3-7 days, but it’s typically 4-5 and no more than 3 are really hard. Schedule tends to dictate more than me really being that dialed into my recovery, but that leans into @Chris_Shugart’s point about the upper limit changes based on real-life variables anyway.
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So true.
It sounds like you’ve got your routine dialed-in just right.
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Ehhh
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This is why I log stuff like the 2-4 hours of yard work. I’m sure people think I’m an asshole for including that but for me it all adds up. It’s to remind myself that I may more more fatigued than I think. Ya know, because I am old. 
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Yard work counts! Logging it is a great idea.
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I think that’s pretty smart. I don’t log any of the extra (softball, cardio, etc) and you’re right: it does add up and I do forget to account for it.
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This is really smart. Dani and I factor in long tough hikes: maybe don’t do a lower-body workout the day before or after! I’ve screwed that up before.
We also joke about house chores being “cardio.” We have three floors to vacuum plus carpeted stairs, and if you drink a Spike first and do a 3-2-1 CrossFit countdown, I’d say it damn sure counts as something!
I wonder how many people drive to the gym to get a little active recovery work or NEPA when their house needs cleaned or their yard needs cleaned up? 
I have a manual lawnmower - no motor. It’s not a big lawn but let that grass get deep enough and it’s a WOD.
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I started logging all activity in minutes, then add it up at the end of the week. I should have done this sooner.
Looks something like this:
| Date | Weights | Cardio | HIIT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26-Apr | 53 | 0 | 0 |
| 27-Apr | 0 | 50 | 0 |
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Incidentally, I’ve noticed a correlation between general leanness and house tidiness. I’m not sure if it’s just the amount of movement involved in keeping the house cleaned up or if there’s something about disorganization that causes people (me) to consume more calories. Maybe both are at play.
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Full Body
I kinda wanted to hit some lower body and do the upper body lifts I’d missed when Mike delightfully interrupted my workout on Wednesday. I wasn’t really revved up for it. But once the workout began, it felt better and better.
I credit peppy 80’s music. It’s an ergogenic aid.
A. Leg Press: 5x10
Knees needed a lot of coddling today so I kept weight light/moderate and just went higher rep with a controlled eccentric. I added this banded knee exercise between sets, and it actually made the aching stop. By sets 3-5 knees were completely pain free.
B. Smith RDL: 4x10
I wanted to do barbell RDLs but the platform/barbell area was occupado, but this was fine. My upper hams and glutes got completely smoked on this!
C. Adductor Machine: 4x15 with partial pulses at the end
D. T-Bar Row: 4 x 8,6,5,10 (pyramid up in weight, then back down)
E. Lateral Raise: 2 x 15, with a drop in weight
F. EZ Bar Bicep Curl: 3x10
For the curl, I’m using the weight Mike had me start using a few weeks ago. I can’t do every set unbroken yet. So on sets two and three, I have to pause at the bottom on the last few reps. It’s tough!
Also, what’s the consensus on women with muscular arms? When I did figure, I was told not to train them directly because biceps aren’t a feature people (or the judges in that case) like to see on women.
I’m not sure I’ll curl consistently. I’ve gone through seasons of doing it a lot and of not doing it at all. FYI, my arms have a propensity to blow up with very little attention. They’re like my traps: big even when I don’t isolate.
Sometimes I feel torn between wanting to emphasize my femininity and wanting to see what happens if I grow a muscle group to its greatest potential. Are these at odds? I have two thoughts on that:
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It depends on the musculature. Glutes, abs, and delts are all the rage among fit women on social media. Biceps and traps aren’t so much.
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It depends on who you ask. There’s a lot of nastiness out there from the general population (who doesn’t lift) directed at women who’ve built amazingly strong, jacked bodies.
So I occasionally have to remind myself to just do what I want in the gym and enjoy whatever results come out of it.
Anyway, this is an otter not enjoying his watermelon.
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