That Log that will INSPIRE!

Training Logs
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I’ve looked at T-Nation for a long time. I’ve often found encouragement and advice in the articles and the things that are talked about. I’ve been in the military almost 15 years. I started regularly lifting approximately 2 years ago on a deployment. I’m a runner by trade. I wasn’t anything before the military. I tried to lift but was more of an ego guy than anything else. I got that first taste of runners high and man I went for it. I’ve been running consistently for over ten years. The longest I’ve ever ran is 15.5 miles. I’ve done some marathon training but family and injury has always gotten in the way. Last injury from training was about six years ago. It was a mild inguinal hernia. Jan of this year I was in a bad car accident that gave me a concussion and took a while to recover from. I’m deployed now, been at it for around 3 months. I’ve lifted approximately the entire time here besides one week I took off to rest.

So…the goal here is to obviously be a part of the community and have a training log. I run 3-5 days a week. I lift 4 days a week. I do yoga 5-6 days out of the week. I also do walking and biking to cross train.

You say why do you do this? Ultimately, being 38 and a dad of 4 boys, I want to be able to set the tempo for the rest of my life. I’m truly in the best shape of my life. I only want to continue that.

Current PRs for big lifts are the following:
235 on the dead lift
205 on the bench
215 on the squat

Now I’ve seen the best results with the hex bar dead lift, flat bench, and back squat.

I’m really working on my form for the back squat but I’m thinking in the time I have left for my deployment at a minimum I can increase the weight by 50-100 lbs.

Anyway, my split is going to be Chest & Tris, Back and Bis, Legs, Shoulders and Traps.

I’m open to all feedback and excited to be a part of this community!

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10 October 2024
Okay, so I’m officially on the nightshift. That’s 12-13 hours of darkness. Well…Maybe not full darkness, but you get the point.

So I did Chest and Tris. I have to say Chest is one of my favorite muscle groups to work. I would love to take a varied approach to this but I also want to lean on what I have seen as effective. On all of these I was aiming for 30 seconds of rest but it really ended up being about a minute of rest in between sets.

Dumbbell Flat Bench (I’ve moved to this after doing 2.5 months on the barbell just to change it up and work those stabilizers a bit.) I think I’m going to spend one more week with the dumbbells and then alternate barbell and dumbbell.
75 x 6
75 x 6
75 x 3
70 x 3

Tricep Overhead Extension (this is a cable extension with the cable being planted on the ground and lifting arms straight overhead)
37.5 x 8
42.5 x 6
42.5 x 3
37.5 x 2

This was the first time I had done this exercise this way so I was feeling out the weight. Looking back it’s a great overall tricep muscle builder.

Dumbbell Incline Flat Bench
50 x 6
50 x 6
45 x 3

I thought I had that 50 for one more set but I was blown.

Skullcrushers
30 x 10
50 x 8
50 x 7
50 x 3

Dumbbell Pullover
40 x 10
40 x 8
40 x 8

Tricep Pull down (single arm focus) So this one was one a buddy of mine suggested. I use a bar for the cable like you would for the bicep cable curl. I pull the cableout with my back facing the machine. I bend over and then have the cable over my shoulder for one focus on one side and then switch shoulders for the focus on the other side.
46 x 6
46 x 6
46 x 6

Machine Chest Fly
61 x 8
61 x 5
61 x 5

I was really blown at this point. I was going to do a last tricep cable kick back finisher but decided not to.

Standing Leg Raises
30 x 3 resting a minute in between each set

Abductor machine
160 x 6
130 x 15 x 3

Adductor machine
130 x 15 x 3

Overall I think the shift change played a part into how well this work out went but I’m excited at the progress.

I’m planning to do Back and Bis today.