Oh yeah, did I mention the wifes going through the change!
O-dark 30. Weight day. I’m hoping to recover from a crappy workout Tuesday. The Barbie Gym was crowded Tuesday and I barely had the space or room to work with dumbbells.
So here goes. Its not sexy or scientific. Its just some exercises I enjoy. So if y’all see any real changes then shoot them at me. Order and amounts follow.
Dips - 12 @ BW I hate dips so I try to get them out of the way first. Hope I can loose some more weight and get the reps up!
Bench 135x5; 185x5; 2 sets 205x5 Just upped to 205 Sunday a week ago. Weight felt heavy this morning so I didn’t get the 3rd set in. I guess that is a disadvantage of working alone, and no one to spot in the gym
Decline DB press. 55x10; 55x8- No decline bench so I have to use the dumbbells on a slant board. Again the weight got heavy on the last set.
Incline DB press 45x10, 45x10.
Power clean 115 x5; 115x5 yes its kind of light but I am still working on my form. Don’t want to do heavy ass reverse curl. I worked up a good sweat doing these.
Standing mil press 70x10; 70x6.Getting tired now.
Close grip bench press 115x10; 115x10 I don’t know why I do these I just do.
Triceps cable pull down 70x12
Squat in the smith machine. (No rack at the Barbie gym. Of course as I write this the school teacher ladies have no racks either.) 145x10; 145x10
All done, had some whey on the ride home. Damn that felt good. What felt better was the old personal trainer guy, who was a football coach I had in my ear on more than one occasion during my officiating days. He looked at me during my power cleans and commented how I was training “old school”. I kind of liked that! Still, a poor night’s rest coupled with the wife and me having one of those “marriage moments” weighed over my performance this morning. Such is life I guess.
I like your routine. 12 dips is a pretty good start. I never do decline benchs. The way I bench seems to hit the lower part of my chest a lot anyway. Depending on how you do your close grip bench I’ve found them to be the best tricep builder (mass) there is. Good workout.
Thanks hel. I put together some stuff from my younger days, given the limitations of my work out facilities. I know I will be limited on the weight I’ll be able to work up with the power cleans. They get all freaky about dropping weights at the Barbie Gym.
I recently added the close grips. I rustled them up after reading a workout log I found from 1982. Seems I added them on my quest to the 300 lb bench years ago. If I can find a training partner I might shoot for that again.
Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed at 4:45 and travel 10 miles to the Barbie Gym for a cardio workout, especially on a Saturday. But I have to go to work as well so I grumbled, got up and slipped in the workout gear. I was off. My wife could snore in peace and between she and the cat the bed would be well covered.
So I staggered in the gym and began the walk. For some strange reason I opted treadmill over elliptical. For some reason I opted for The Weather Channel over ESPN. For some really STRANGE reason my brain started to work in a very warpped mode of reason.
Something happened at TWC when Hurricane expert John Hope died. The weather women got less hot and apparently less fertile. Back in the John Hope day all the weather mommas were HOT! They dressed frumpy as hell but they were damn good looking women. Then they were all pregnant, all the time! They would get on camera in a tight outfit for a week then 3 weeks later they were 8 months pregnant. 3 weeks later they were hot again. One lady had about 7 babies at 6 different times in 14 months…I think it was all John Hope. I believe that man had something going on at 157 years old. I wanna grow up to be like him too!
The other thing I realized while on my treadmill journey is this. While I want to get in shape the core reason is 2 fold. One is I am protecting my erection. I don’t want to be a fat, diabetic, hypertensive bastard who’s thing doesn’t work. The second reason is admittedly vane. I’ll be damned if I want to continue to be a pear shaped man while riding my Harley. I was watching the pear shaped Harley crowd on the way to Myrtle Beach yesterday. I look like that riding mine. I have to change!
So it was 45 minutes on the treadmill as my brain worked overtime at 5 A.M.
[quote]j_willy3 wrote:
The other thing I realized while on my treadmill journey is this. While I want to get in shape the core reason is 2 fold. One is I am protecting my erection. I don’t want to be a fat, diabetic, hypertensive bastard who’s thing doesn’t work. The second reason is admittedly vane. I’ll be damned if I want to continue to be a pear shaped man while riding my Harley. I was watching the pear shaped Harley crowd on the way to Myrtle Beach yesterday. I look like that riding mine. I have to change!
So it was 45 minutes on the treadmill as my brain worked overtime at 5 A.M.[/quote]
This is a great realization to come to j_willy! As time goes on think about different cardio stuff to do that may save your mind from TWC and may keep you more interested…
You are the voice of reason Soldog. Irreverent folks like me need that voice of reason. Believe it or not I have an occasional serious thought run thru my mind during the cardio stuff. But that stuff isn’t as fun to document.
Hahaha… Willy, you kill me!
And hey… at least you have a Harley! The wife said I could have one at 40… but with 2 kids in College, I just couldn’t see myself spending the money on myself.
Hopefully, in the next year or two… I will get one. Trouble is, up here I can only ride it 6 months of the year… maybe.
[quote]bunny7568 wrote:
Hahaha… Willy, you kill me!
And hey… at least you have a Harley! The wife said I could have one at 40… but with 2 kids in College, I just couldn’t see myself spending the money on myself.
Hopefully, in the next year or two… I will get one. Trouble is, up here I can only ride it 6 months of the year… maybe.[/quote]
My wife is a CRNA who does anesthesia on transplants. She told me she’d kill me before she would let me join the organ donor cycle crew (a high percentage of organ donations come from motorcycle accidents).
[quote]happydog48 wrote:
Cool deal!
You may not know that fat produces estrogen and aromatase. As you drop the fat, your testosterone levels will automatically go up. After you get lean, get retested and then see where you’re at.
Don’t underestimate the difficulty of what you’re doing. Changing your lifestyle is literally impossible for the vast majority of people. You will have setbacks and doubts (I know because I’ve been there) so just keep the faith and when you fall, get back up and keep plugging away.
The man who will not accept defeat can never be defeated.[/quote]
I’m 52. Wasn’t that long ago that I was 265, 5’5" tall and had trouble moving 40 lbs on a weight machine. I was 188.8 this morning and by the end of the year I’ll be ready to start moving to free weights from the machines.
Keep the faith, one day at a time.
Bunny, the wife is 100% non-bike. She was mad for a year after I got it. But I was able to bide my time and find a good late model used bike. It’s fun, I don’t ride very aggressive and live in a low traffic rural area. It’s more therapy for me than anything. I’ll agree getting the kids thru school in this day and age is a damn sight more important than a Harley. I know I want mine a way more educated so she doesn’t follow her daddy in the family business.
Elaikases, my wife isn’t a nurse but share’s your wife’s views. But what a journey you have undertaken. I hope you tell your story. I’d like to know how you did it.
Amazing what you’re mind comes up with in the wee mornings all alone. Really pullin for you. You’re on your way.
Dateline:5:15 AM Sunday, Weight day
I will save the idle commentary until the end
Dips : BWx13
Bench: 135x5, 185x5, 205x5, 205x5, 205x5
Decline Bench (barbell): 135x10, 135x10 (found the weight hooks that fit on the front of the smith machine…ok I lied about the idle commentary)
Incline DBell press: 45x10, 45x15
Power Clean: 115x5, 115x8
Standing Mil Press: 75x10, 75x10
Close grip Bench: 115x10, 115x12
Triceps pull down (cable) 70x12
Squat: 135x10, 135x12
I had a really good workout this morning. I always do on Sunday. Of course no one is up at 5 a.m. The Barbie Gym is all mine. I am half way considering moving on from the Barbie gym. The alternative is a glitzy place in town with more room and more equipment. Hell the have 3 benches! But it seems everyone gets squirrelly when you start pulling weight from the floor. So I’ll go talk to them and see how they feel about that. I’d really like to incorporate some more power moves in my routine.
If the business was healthier I’d build an old school gym a the plant. Power racks out of 8x31 wide flange beam, benches out of drill stem, and weights cut from plate. OK I’ll buy some nice bumper weights. But I would have me a big T Bar for some rows and a damn nice power rack / squat rack! Y’all need to build some houses or at least get your wives to buy some furniture!!
Since its Mother’s Day, I’ll take the Wifey to brunch at the beach and see my Mom. We had a dance recital last night. The daughter was in a tap routine. I had a chance to go for a put-put on the scooter too. Of course all the riders were headed south to Myrtle Beach. The ones I passed this morning on the way home from the gym are in for a wet ride later today!
Oh and it was Boston, Traffic, Head East, and The Connell’s on the I pod today.
Good work today Willy!
[quote]bunny7568 wrote:
Good work today Willy![/quote]
Second.
Like your avatar too. Got to do stupid things in groups.
You got your 3rd set of bench @ 205 in this time. You’re improving.
Though I love my workouts with the regular crew I do enjoy the real early morning, gym all to yourself workouts. Also gives you a chance to try those things you ain’t goona do in front of no one. There’s this thigh thingy all the women use…
Someday I’ll tell you about how I eneded up in jail in Myrtle Beach when I was 17 years old. Ah, fond memories.
Hel, I spent an afternoon at the hoosegow just up the street from Myrtle Beach. My MB experience was bailing out my fraternity brothers. You know how the frat boys can be at spring break.
It was pretty cool getting the 3rd bench set in. Also the decline with the barbell was pretty cool too. There were a lot of forces involved in controlling the rep. I like that effect, more of that for sure!
If I can get all the sets / reps for a couple of weeks I’ll up some weights. I’m thinking I really need to set some specific goals but I guess I am having too much fun moving the weight.
Monday 5 a.m. elliptical battle. I jumped it up a level and after 37 minutes I was a dead man ellipticing. had to stop. But I’m happy with that, because that was 7 minutes longer than I had been doing at the lower resistance. I’m trying to keep the good attitude on the cardio work; and approach it like I do the weightlifting.
So I didn’t think about the weather mommas or how to make a really nice low carb shrimp and grits, (other than substituting grits for quinoa.) But I was thinking about an old high school teammate of mine. A High School All American Football Player who went to an ACC team and had a breakdown at 19. He collected himself had a stellar career in a state law enforcement department but suffered from another mental episode. He ballooned to 340 lbs and pretty much damn near “fatted” himself to death.
Once again he gathered himself together, got in the weight room and has dropped 120 lbs. he is lifting more weight and is in better shape than he was in college, as well as serving as the strength coach at the local high school. I need to learn from him and maybe train with him. He might be the answer to the Barbie gym conundrum.
See I am capable of mature thought… Tomorrow I get to play with the iron again!
I enjoyed reading your thread J_willy. Two years ago I was just like the title to your thread.
After 18 months things are much different, no longer fat, still bald and soon to be 52.
Keep up the hard work as it will all pay off handsomely in the long-term.
Willy… awesome work!
This guy sounds like a good influence for you… and perhaps you for him as well!
Sir Tris… just looked at your profile, you are truly an inspiration! What a transformation… and in 6 months!
Man, I can’t go on this site anymore on my “days off”… 'cause all I want to do is go back to the gym immediately!