I could probably do some kind of loaded bar walks, but nothing like a yoke walk. My old gym had one before I moved, but the new place is sadly not neaaaarrrly as equipped. Maybe even some sled dragging would help, I could do that more in the coming months and see how that goes.
Cruising this week, hence the lack of posts. I’ve gone in MWF just to move around and make sure I’m not crippled from soreness when I start back up. Got my Golds membership so there will be some fresh exercises and better DC suited stuff in the mix. The lack of equipment at the other place was going to catch up real soon so for $10 a month it’s worth it.
Forgot to mention. Got my labs redone and everything came back fine this time. Even did my cholesterol levels. Only thing I didn’t get was thyroid but I’m really not concerned there is an issue so it’s not a test I’m worried about not having.
Test was 611 this time, where as it was under 300 last time
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Forgot to mention. Got my labs redone and everything came back fine this time. Even did my cholesterol levels. Only thing I didn’t get was thyroid but I’m really not concerned there is an issue so it’s not a test I’m worried about not having.
Test was 611 this time, where as it was under 300 last time[/quote]
Are you doing anything to get it up from under 300 to 611?
I actually haven’t done anything different than before. I guess I’m a little heavier but thats just a by product of eating a slight surplus for the last 2 years.
The reason I didn’t act on the “low T” reading last check up was because it was just a single reading and didn’t want to go on some life long hormonal program on the basis of one reading. Admittedly I should have gotten my blood work rechecked MUCH sooner, but based on every other thing in my life I was fairly sure I didn’t have chronic low T. I’m glad I didn’t start taking anything now as it appears my suspicions were confirmed.
I return to the heavy ass slag iron today, I’ll report back later with that.
Sounds like you made the right choice to just ride it out, glad your T levels are back up.
DC Blast 2, Week 1: Upper
Decline DB’s - Up 5 more pounds, same reps
Smith Press BTN: Up 5 pounds and same reps
Skulls: Up 5 pounds and 2 reps
Pull ups: Up 1 rep
Smith Rows: Up 10 pounds on the heavy set and down set, but lost some reps. This was the only exercise that felt heavier after the cruise, interesting to note.
Felt good, feeling very… worked the next day. Upper body is pretty sore and stiff but in a very good way.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
Sounds like you made the right choice to just ride it out, glad your T levels are back up.[/quote]
Yeah, really happy with the reading… Although I still have these love handles 
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
Sounds like you made the right choice to just ride it out, glad your T levels are back up.[/quote]
Yeah, really happy with the reading… Although I still have these love handles ;-)[/quote]
Sure, but we all know you can get rid of those no problem if you want to. : )
2 more sessions in the books, been a crazy busy week as I turned 30 (today actually, but festivities were yesterday) but things went really well except for I think the wide grip upright rows destroyed my shoulders this week. Weight was up 10 pounds and I got the same reps, but my shoulders just dont feel “in place” … which is not good. I think I might either switch these to the smith machine, or just sub some machine side laterals so I only have 2 “high stress” shoulder pressing days.
Happy Birthday!
Welcome to the 30’s.
Oh wait…those are over already for me. What the…
[quote]Serge A. Storms wrote:
Happy Birthday!
Welcome to the 30’s.
Oh wait…those are over already for me. What the…[/quote]
Wow, really?
I wouldn’t have guessed.
I’m 36, were a bunch of old farts.
I can vividly remember seeing the “over 35 lifters” forum and just thinking that being 35 was so far away I would never need that place… and now its a very close reality.
Yesterdays leg day went well
Machine Curls: up 3 reps at the same weight
Wrist Curls: up 5 pounds, down 4 reps
Stiff leg deads: up 10 pounds but down 2 reps on both the up and down set
Leg Press, up 20 pounds for the heavy set and the 20 repper. Hard but not super brutal.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
I can vividly remember seeing the “over 35 lifters” forum and just thinking that being 35 was so far away I would never need that place… and now its a very close reality.
[/quote]
Same here! I remember thinking “these old folks still keep an internet log…don’t they have kids and careers to take care of and beers to drink and lawns to mow and sitcoms to watch and all that stuff?”
And yet here I am at 40, still doing it! And yes, I have all those other things going on.
Notable training from this week.:
- Almost all exercises are up in weight and/or reps. DC Seems to be working. I have had 3 people tell me I’m starting to look bigger, or just generally commenting on my size these last 2 weeks… Interesting.
-Got to try out some new Hammer Strength machine and Golds. Swapped out my Decline Smith press for the HS Bench and the Dumb Bell Shoulder Press for the HS Shoulder Press. Not sure if it was the weight, the way the machine locks you in, or the height of the seat but my front delts were absolutely tore up the next 2 days. Not in the good way either. Will have to keep an eye on this moving forward and might go back to the decline smith.
-Squats were alright today, instead of pushing the top weight I’m trying to get in some volume on the way up and just hitting a crisp 225 before dropping back down to the down set, which was 185x15 today. It wasn’t a death set, but my form started going to crap around rep 13, grinded out 2 more reps and called it. Going to work this up to 185x20 over this Blast is the goal.
DC Blast 2 cycle 2: Was feeling a bit beat today, but I have to work tomorrow and would rather not cram a session in before hand so I just bumped up the training session a day to give myself all the time I needed… Worked out well
Decline DB’s: Up 5 pounds and only lost a rep
BTN Smith Shoulder: Same weight, up 2 reps… Compromised ROM here a bit I think, will stay at this weight the entire blast I think just really making sure its solid and that I “own” this weight before moving up.
Skull Crushers: Same weight, up 3 reps. Almost at the rep ceiling here, gonna stick with it one more week though to milk it. I have heard so many guys say heavy skulls mess their elbows up that I’m not in a huge hurry to chase weight here.
Pull Ups: Gained a rep… Although I’m starting to think that RP Sets might not be the best way to do pull ups.I could get way more reps out of doing non-failure sets in between pressing warm ups or something… Not sure where to go here
Rows: Gained a few reps on the heavy and light set… Again, will likely end up staying here the whole blast and just making sure I own this weight
I think I’m at that point where the easy “gains” have passed from trying a new lifting style, and now its truly and officially in “the grind” where the gains will be hard fought because my body is used to the RP sets now.
Blast 2 Cycle 2
Legs/Arms
Machine curls, up weight AND reps, not bad
Leg Curls, up weight and same reps
Hack squat, up 20 pounds on both sets and got 2 more reps on the heavy set
Upper
Inc Press: Only got 1 more rep, gotta keep grinding here
Shoulders: Just did a bunch of laterals, shoulders still not feeling great and didnt want to stress them
Tricep: Up 5 pounds and down a few reps, feel good about improving it though
Deads: 275x3x4
Pull downs, up 2 reps but didnt feel like I really controlled the weight, will stay here
Blast 2 cycle 2 Week 2
Lower:
Arms: nothing spectacular, for more reps on each
Up 20 pounds on the heavy set with same reps, only got 15 on the WM… Will stay here and make it 20 next time
SLDL: Up 2 reps on the heavy set, and up 10 pounds on the down set with same reps. Felt great
Upper:
HS Chest press: up 3 reps
Shoulder Press: Up 20 pounds AND more reps, great increase
RGBP: Same weight but 2 more reps
Rack Chins: 10 more pounds, 1 less rep
DC Shrugs: got to the same weight but it felt much more solid. Will likely do it one more time to really “solidify” the weight
One more session this week… Squats
Lower/Arms
Arms improved by a few reps again, nothing to log about but they are up
Squats were meh, but I did get an extra rep with 185, bringing it to 16. The over warm up to 225 was rough, everything felt heavy heavy heavy, then when I went back down to 185 it felt great. 2 more cycles here and I should be able to bring this up to 20 is the plan
Notes from the week:
The exercises that have been around for a while are all starting to slow down in terms of gains, and the ones I’ve subbed in recently are climbing fast. Nothing ground breaking really.
I decided to move my deadlift from the 2 set model to sticking with 275 pounds x 3 reps, and adding a set every week. Up to 5 sets this week. Probably stay here and build it to 8 before adding weight. Really dont want to rush this as it seems to plateau so easily when i add weight.