July 13, 2022
Weight: 236.8
Total Daily Steps: 7,039
July 14, 2022
Weight: 235.2
Total Daily Steps: 7,643
Didn’t get a chance to do any extra walking either day and missed the 10k target, but weight still dropped a bit. Pretty busy work week as I had to wrap a bunch of stuff up before switching teams, this shouldn’t happen the next week when I’m in the office 2x (which is now Monday’s and Tuesday’s on the new team).
July 15, 2022
Weight: 235.4
Weights: Chest, Arms
DB Incline Bench Press - 40x8, 60x6, 80x10, 5
Incline EZ Bar Triceps Extensions- 60x8, 70x10, 8
Machine Preacher Curls - 80x10x, 110x8, 140x8, 6
Cable Straight Bar Pushdowns - 60x10, 70x8, 86x6, 5
Cable Straight Bar Curls - 80x8, 65x6, 6
Total Daily Steps: 10,201
Solid day. I should be able to increase the weight on the incline DB bench next session if I want to.
July 16, 2022
Weight: 234.6
Weights: Back, Shoulders
Lat Pulldowns - 100x8, 130x6, 160x8, 5
DB Shoulder Press - 55x8, 75x9, 4
DB Lateral Raises - 20x10, 25x6, 35x8, 6
Machine Shoulder Press - 50x8, 80x8x 6
Cable Face Pulls - 70x10, 9, 7
HS Seated Rows - 160x8, 180x6, 200x7, 6
Total Daily Steps: 10,432
Other than the seated rows, good workout.
Still at it?
Hey, thanks for checking in! (And sorry for the late reply)
Yeah, I was still at it but was busy as I joined a new team at work and had to close off a bunch of stuff from my old job + train on the new one, but I was still training, just didn’t update the log much. That is, until 08/03, when I got sick.
In lieu of uploading all the workouts and stats for the last 3 weeks, I’ll just do a quick summary:
The two weeks to 08/03 I was consistent on the weights and steps, although food wasn’t as as consistent, so I got stronger on some lifts, but lost less than 2lbs. Then being sick put me out of commission until the 10th. I lost a couple of pounds then, but not in the good way, those are coming back now.
I got back to the gym yesterday and I’ll be back to updating this log regularly. This week might be weird on the scale as I am expecting to regain some lost strength and weight, but hopefully not too much of the latter.
August 13, 2022
Weight: 232.4
Weights: Back, Shoulders
DB Shoulder Press – 55x8, 75x10, 3,
Lat Pulldowns – 110x8, 130x6, 160x6, 4
Machine Seated Rows - 100x8, 150x6, 180x5, 4 [the HS Seated Rows were occupied]
DB Lateral Raises – 20x8, 30x8, 8
Machine Shoulder Press – 60x8, 80x8, 90x5, 100x7, 4 [less warn up sets next time]
Total Daily Steps: 13,605
First workout since I got sick and first workout in 11 days. Predictably, I lost strength on the DB Lateral Raises and Lat Pulldowns; these have never been exercises I was strong in and always took a long time to progress on. Also predictable, is not losing much strength on the DB Shoulder Press. Only a couple reps worse than 07/30 on the second set, so I might actually raise the weight there next time.
Today was leg day, will post those tomorrow with the step total.
August 14, 2022
Weight: 233.0lbs
Weights: Legs
Squats – 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x2, 205x1 [will go for reps on these next time]
Seated Leg Curls – 100x8, 145x6, 190x8, 5
Leg Extensions – 115x8, 165x8, 215x10, 6
Lying Leg Curls – 80x8, 115x6, 5
Leg Press – 180x8, 270x8, 360x8, 450x8, 6
Total Daily Steps: 12,702
Not too bad, no real drop in strength aside from the leg press, but that was probably from doing them last. (Note: leg curls and leg extensions might look like they improved but those weights are the same as what I did early August, just didn’t log those days here unfortunately).
August 15, 2022
Weight: 234.6lbs
Weights: Chest, Arms
Incline DB Bench Press - 60x8, 80x8, 5
Incline EZ Bar Triceps Extensions - 50x10, 60x8, 70x8, 6
DB Hammer Curls - 40x8, 55x6, 60x8, 5
Cable EZ Bar Pushdowns - 60x8, 70x6
Total Daily Steps: 14,115
I’m thinking of making a couple of changes to how I do things in the next few days:
I still think the goals of 220lbs be end of September and 200lbs by the end of the year are achievable but I’ll need to make a bigger effort from here on out, especially for that September goal (only 1.5 months to go!).
August 18, 2022
Weight: 231.8lbs
Weights: Upper Body
Lat Pulldowns - 100x8, 130x6, 160x8, 6
HS Seated Rows - 160x8, 180x6, 200x8, 6
Incline Bench Press - 45x8, 95x6, 135x5, 185x5
HS Shoulder Press - 60x10, 80x10, 100x6, 110x6
Cable Rope Pulls - 60x8, 70x8, 8
Hammer Curls - 50x6, 60x7, 5
Cable EZ Bar Pushdowns - 65x8, 80x8, 90x8
Total Daily Steps: 10,091
Pretty good workout, increase weight and/or reps on a lot of lifts. Exception: I used a different cable station for the pushdowns that was easier hence the 20lb increase in weight. I didn’t suddenly get way better at those :P.
August 18, 2022
Weight: 231.2lbs
Weights: Lower Body
Leg Press - 180x8, 270x8, 360x6, 450x6, 500x8, 7
Seated Leg Curls - 110x8, 135x6, 200x5, 4
HS Leg Extensions - 120x8, 180x8, 200x6,6 [these were harder than the normal machine I use]
Total Daily Steps: 9,912
Added to weight on the first two exercises, although hopefully I get more reps on the leg curls next time. Super short lunchtime workout, but ok overall. I wasn’t expecting too much out of this workout given the time constraint and the fact that I’m hitting legs again on Sunday.
Speaking of which, going forward my new lifting schedule will be:
Saturday: Upper Body
Sunday: Lower Body
Monday: OFF
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Upper Body
Thursday: Lower Body
Friday: OFF
If my in-office days at work change in the fall I may move the days around, but it will still be upper/lower 2x a week. I think this is more efficient and also something I can stick to easier.
August 20, 2022
Weight: 231.0 lbs
Weights: Upper Body
DB Incline Bench Press - 60x8, 80x11, 6
DB Seated Shoulder Press - 55x8, 75x3
Incline EZ Bar Triceps Extensions - 60x8, 70x10, 8
Lat Pulldowns - 105x8, 135x6, 165x6, 4
HS Rows - 160x6, 180x6, 200x9, 6
DB Lateral Raises- 25x8, 35x8, 7
Machine Preacher Curls - 80x10, 110x8, 140x8, 6
Total Daily Steps: 10,459
I felt weaker on the DB Shoulder Press, probably because I’m not used to doing them right after the DB bench press. But other than that, very good day at the gym. Increased reps and/or weight for almost every exercise.
Feeling pretty good about my weight, too. I gained some back early part of the week, but now my bodyweight is lower than before I got sick (and during).
August 21, 2022
Weight: 233.2 lbs
Weights: Lower Body
Squats - 45x5, 95x5, 135x3, 185x2, 205x2, 1
Seated Leg Curls - 115x8, 160x6, 200x6, 5
Leg Extensions - 120x10, 170x8, 220x12, 8
Leg Press - 270x10, 360x8, 450x6, 500x10, 9
Seated Calf Raises - 90x20, 20
Standing Calf Raises - 110x20, 180x15, 15
Total Daily Steps: 10,008
Slept terribly the night before, and I’m guessing that is what cause the 2lb jump in weight. Yikes.
Workout went great aside from the squats, where I definitely had a rep (or more) on each set but didn’t go for it. I may up the weight on squats next time anyway. Other than that, rep/weight increases across the board on the non-calf leg exercises, pretty good.
Work/life got busy again and wasn’t able to update this in a while, but the gist of the last 10 days has been:
Gonna just dump the #s from my workouts in the last 10 days below:
8/25: Upper Body
Lat Pulldowns - 105x8, 135x6, 165x6, 5
DB Incline Bench Press - 65x8, 85x9, 5
Seated DB Shoulder Press - 55x8, 75x5 (these were rough right after the DB incline bench)
EZ Bar Incline Triceps Extensions - 60x12, 12, 8
Hammer Curls - 50x8, 60x9, 6
8/27: Upper Body
Lat Pulldowns - 105x8, 135x8, 165x6, 6
HS Rows - 160x8, 180x6, 200x10, 6
Incline Barbell Bench Press - 45x10, 95x8, 135x6, 185x7, 195x3 (could’ve done more if I didn’t do more reps with 185 I think)
Cable Face Pulls - 50x10, 75x10, 8 (different, easier cable station than the one I normally use)
Seated DB Shoulder Press - 55x8, 75x11, 5 (these weren’t so bad after BB incline bench compared with after DB incline bench)
EZ Bar Incline Triceps Extensions - 50x10, 70x12, 10
Hammer Curls - 50x8, 60x10, 6
DB Lateral Raises - 25x8, 35x8, 6
8/28: Lower Body
Squats - 45x5, 95x5, 135x3, 185x2, 215x1
Leg Press - 270x8, 360x8, 450x6, 520x7, 5
Seated Leg Curls - 115x8, 160x6, 200x6, 4
Leg Extensions - 130x10, 180x8, 230x10, 8
Standing Calf Raise Machine - 120x16, 200x16, 16
8/30: Upper Body
Lat Pulldowns - 105x8, 136x6, 165x8, 5
HS Seated Rows - 170x8, 190x6, 210x8, 5 (kind of sloppy form)
DB Incline Bench Press- 65x8, 85x10, 6
DB Seated Shoulder Press - 60x6, 75x6
Machine Preacher Curls - 85x8, 115x6, 145x8, 5
8/31: Really Short Lower Body Day
Squats - 45x5, 95x5, 135x3, 185x3, 225x1
Seated Leg Curls - 115x8, 160x6, 200x7, 5
Leg Extensions - 140x10, 190x10, 240x10, 8
September 3, 2022
Weight: 231.2 lbs
Weights: Upper Body
HS Seated Rows - 170x8, 190x8, 210x9, 7
Lat Pulldowns - 105x8, 135x6, 165x5, 4 (not so great because I usually do these before the rows)
Incline Barbell Bench Press - 45x10, 95x8, 135x5, 160x3, 205x3 (benches for DB bench not available)
Cable Face Pulls - 70x12, 12, 12
DB Lateral Raises - 22.5x10, 30x12, 12 (all the 25s and 35s were in use; 40s are too high)
Cable Rope Pushdowns - 50x10, 60x10, 8
Total Daily Steps: 11,326
The gym was extremely packed today, affecting the order of the exercises (see the first two lifts), the exercise choice (see: barbell bench), and even the dumbbells I could use (see: DB laterals)…but this was a good workout. I still hit every muscle group I wanted to, and the weight/reps were solid enough.
September 4, 2022
Weight: 231.2 lbs
Weights: Lower Body
Squats - 45x10, 95x8, 135x5, 145x5, 160x5, 185x5
Leg Press - 360x8, 450x6, 520x6, 6
Seated Leg Curls - 115x8, 160x8, 200x6, 5
Leg Extensions - 145x10, 190x10, 245x10, 8
Standing Calf Raise Machine - 150x20, 200x20, 20~ (last two reps had short ROM)
Total Daily Steps: 10,983
Decent session overall.
I did something different on the squats, instead of trying to hit a weight PR or rep PR with last week’s weight, went with higher reps with lighter weight. I think with the squats I really need to get my form down, and today’s session was great for that. Way more reps (i.e. practice) than I normally get. More total reps will probably help me improve the squat more in the long run than what I was doing before. And I should nail the form for the sake of my lower back – last thing I want is to aggravate anything because of a poorly done heavy squat and have to skip days.
In general, I think I need to focus a bit more on Goal #1 (to lose body fat) and probably less on side goals like increasing strength. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been a little too accepting of slipping on diet, steps, as long as lifts are up, and my weight has shown it. I’ll expand on that in a bit when I put up a weekly recap. (I will get back to doing these).
Been lurking in here a while, @Dinsanity28, and I just want to say: I appreciate your consistency!
Keep up the effort and your goals will fall.
FWIW, I’ve found high-rep squats—20-rep sets or Widowmakers, specifically—to be an amazing tool for dropping body fat. Some might disagree, but I might even go so far as to say, “I find high-rep squats to be a magical tool for body recomposition.”
You can do Widowmakers with any of the main lifts, and that’s what I do when I’m looking to lean out a little. They’re as big a mental challenge as anything, but when I started tagging them onto the back end of my regular lifting workouts, I uncovered my abs for the first time in a long time—and maybe even the first time ever, haha!
Anyway, I started light and just decided I was going to push myself as hard as I could each time I setup for 20 reps. Took me several months, but I got bigger, I got stronger, and I got leaner.
If you’re ready to work HARD, I’d be willing to bet they’d be something that could help you out—and I’m not a betting man.
Anyway, keep after it, my friend. You’re doing well in here!
@SvenG Thanks for the kind words and the tip!
Yeah, widowmakers look like they would fit right into my lower body days. I was actually kind of trying a 5/3/1-ish thing with the rep scheme on squats last lower body day, and I know that some variants of 5/3/1 use the widow maker too. I will add this to the next lower body day I do (Wednesday). I think it will help me burn some extra cals + gets me some extra practice reps on the squat too.
In the interests of better tracking, I am adding some details and weekly summaries again like I did at the start of this log. This should help me troubleshoot better as things stall (which, at least by weight, you could argue happened last few weeks)
Week 10 (Sept 5 to 11) - Beginning Stats
Weight: 233lbs (although, have been closer to 231 last few days)
Waist Measurement: 43"
Week 9 Average Daily Steps: 9,079 (missed 10k on 3 out of 7 days)
2 Key Adjustments for This Week:
Refocus on losing body fat and lowering scale weight: The last few weeks I have gotten complacent with the scale not moving, and without noticing it until a couple days ago, I had been more focused on beating the logbook at the gym. Time to refocus on goal #1: fat loss.
Track Calories and Macros: I said I’d do this a couple weeks back but didn’t get around to it. Well, I have for the last few days, and it’s pretty clear why the weight loss has stalled – I eat over 3000 cals a day on a normal day. That’s probably too high. Saturday was around 3600 cals, Sunday was 3100. This week I will try to keep cals at or below 3000 on lifting days, and below 2500 on non-lifting days. If the weight loss is not fast enough this week, I will adjust.
Points 1 and 2 both go hand in hand – this week, I will make sure to focus on losing scale weight, and if the numbers at the gym don’t go up, that is fine.
September 5, 2022
Weight: 233.0 lbs
Weights: OFF
Total Steps: 11,740
Nutrition
Calories: 2435
Protein: 148
Carbs: 204
Fat: 114
September 6, 2022
Weight: 232.4 lbs
Weights: Upper Body
Incline DB Bench Press - 65x8, 85x10, 5
Seated DB Shoulder Press - 55x6, 75x3 (yikes, didn’t bother with a second set)
Incline EZ Bar Triceps Extensions - 50x12, 70x12, 10
Lat Pulldowns - 105x8, 135x6, 165x6, 5
DB Lateral Raises - 25x12, 35x8, 8 (last couple were kind of sloppy)
HS Seated Rows - 170x8, 190x6, 210x7, 5
Cable Face Pulls - 70x12, 10
Machine Preacher Curls - 85x8, 115x8, 145x7, 3 (…)
Total Daily Steps: 10,545
Nutrition
Calories: 2558
Protein: 170
Carbs: 220
Fat: 111
Good workout. I shortened the rest periods on all lifts and moved pretty quickly between them compared to normal. This led to me breaking a healthy sweat by the middle of the workout. Reps on the last works sets on some of these exercises were a bit lower, but expected given the shorter rest periods.
September 7, 2022
Weight: 231.8 lbs
Weights: Lower Body
Squats - 45x10, 95x8, 135x5, 145x5, 165x5, 185x5 (had 1 or 2 more in me), 115x20 (the widow maker)
Seated Leg Curls - 115x8, 160x8, 200x6,4
Leg Press - 360x8, 450x6, 520x10, 8
Leg Extension - 145x8, 195x6, 245x6 (didn’t bother with second set)
Total Steps: 9,725
Nutrition
Calories: 2740
Protein: 153
Carbs: 214
Fat: 141
I liked the widow maker set! I think I could up the weight next time I do these, as I didn’t really start feeling the pain until rep 15 (struggling began after rep 12), but I played it safe the first time. Those last 5 reps were interesting to say the least LOL. I don’t think I’ve felt like that lifting before, it was kind of similar to suicides in phys ed class. I’m gonna keep doing these on my lower body days.
Great workout overall. I may also continue to do a 5/3/1 kind of rep scheme on the squats (so this would be week 1 with the 5 rep work sets). I could do that on the Wednesday Lower Body Day and then just do some higher rep sets on the Sunday lower body day (something like 4x8 or something with a good enough weight). This would help me get a lot of practice reps on the squat, which I still need. I’ll make a decision for sure by Sunday’s workout.