Calves/shoulders/trap day.
I got away from calves during the last shut down and they’ve been sort of forgotten the past month since the gym opened up again. I used to do them on chest day, but as I’ve been running that day, I didn’t want to put them there. Shoulder day seems to be a great fit - two days before and after any runs. I need to add a bit more volume next week.
Standing Calf Raises in Smith Machine: 15, 12, 12, 12, 10 with 90 on bar (not sure how much weight the bar in a smith machine counts as. Pause at bottom, mid, and top of each rep.
BB OHP: 8, 7, 5 with 115.
I’ve always been weak here. Even when my bench was over 300, my max OHP was only about 175.
DB Laterals: 15, 12, 10, 10 with 27.5
Hip Huggers: 11, 9, 7, 7 with 70.
I’m loving these for the rear delts.
DB Shrugs: 4x12 with 65. Strict with a pause at the top of each rep.
YWTs: 2x15
DB Laterals (5 sec neg) supersetted with DB High Pulls: 2x10 with 20.
Only had a couple minutes left in the gym, so did this for a quick burn.
I’ve gotten into the habit of listening to training related podcasts while training. Today I was listening to Jay Cutler on Fouad Abiad’s podcast. One thing I found really interesting is the topic of keeping a log book came up. I remembered something @The_Mighty_Stu told me last spring, about how he didn’t keep a log and couldn’t remember seeing any other pros writing down their weights. Jay mentioned he did keep a notebook, but he never actually referred back to it again for training. Fouad mentioned that many people keep one so they know how much they lifted previously, like if they benched 315 one week, they could try 320 the next. Jay’s response was great - he couldn’t give a s**t what he bench pressed. He really only looked back for other details that would help his coach, like for a specific day, how many carbs he ate, whether he trained chest or shoulders, how much he weighed, etc. Fouad said he didn’t keep one at all and Jay said he doesn’t think it makes a difference on the level someone can get to.
I think this actually reinforces what Stu said, because once you get to that level, the weights don’t really matter as much as how hard you’re making the muscle work and there’s more ways to do that than just increasing weight, so it doesn’t really matter what you did the last workout. Fouad and Jay both mentioned exercises where above a certain weight they’d get some tweaks or pain, so they just didn’t go heavier than that.
After getting Stu’s advice last spring, I did try to go without one for a bit. It was ok, but after >20 of using one, it felt weird. I could probably have gotten used to it, but figured there was no harm in the way I was using it. For me, I find the log book is mainly just to keep track of what I did that day, like marking off sets on a chalk board. I do look at the previous workout, but more to just get me in the ball park. From there, I tend to change exercises, number of sets/reps, maybe add a drop set, etc, depending on how I’m feeling that day. It keeps me from having to plan my workouts too much outside the gym or just doing random stuff when I get there.
Leg day tomorrow. I’m looking forward to see if the IMS last Friday had any effect. I have another this Friday and I’m expecting to need 2-3 sessions to get things right again, but my knees do feel better than they have in a while.
I’m still sitting around 214. I’m thinking of maybe going up towards 218 or so over the next 2-3 months and then somewhere around April, start to cut back down around 205 for the summer. I’m finding that 212-214 is a good “sweet spot” for me right now, where I would take my shirt off if I had to, but I can also have a piece of cake if I want. I’m far from “summer lean” and much heavier I start to get too fat for my liking and just don’t feel great, but when I’m down to 205, I really need to watch my calories. My problem is I’m working a desk job, so my NEAT isn’t terribly high. I remember 15 years ago, with a higher NEAT and a lot more training volume (running and weight complexes and circuits), having to eat pizza just to keep my calories high enough to keep from losing too much weight. Those were the times, lol.
