Today’s workout was all about lats. First I’ll say that although I increased weight in a couple of exercises, I felt weak throughout. Not sure if it was because of yesterday’s low carbs, or more likely, going to bed late and only sleeping around 6.5 hours.
5 AM Workout
A.Supine grip pull-ups.
body weight, 4 sets of 6-8
B1.Straight-arm pulldown
42.5 lbs, 3 sets of 12
B2.Rope pulldown
62.5 lbs, 3 sets of 10
C.Bent-over seated row
70 lbs, 3 sets of 12
D.Straight-arm arc row
5 lbs, 1 set of 100
My wife got back in town and wanted to go to the gym after work, so I decided to join her. I worked my skinny calves till I couldn’t walk anymore.
Seated calf raises, Leg curl calf press, standing calf raise, and then 10 minutes of tip-toe walking on the treadmill at a 10 degree incline.
I figured since it was a low-intensity (but still hard) workout that I wouldn’t need all of the carbs I would need in a regular workout, so I just drank half of a gatorade during and the rest after the workout. Later I had my protein/fat dinner.
I wonder if I should’ve had carbs instead…not sure.
The funny thing about going after work is that this is the time when the gym is completely packed with people. I’m not used to that since I always go at 5 in the morning. It was great to see all of the socialites taking about 30 minutes between sets, the ladies (and some guys) going nuts on the leg ad/abductor machines like just like Suzanne Somers taught them. And even the guy with the back belt while doing arm curls. Really? A backbelt while you do biceps? I don’t think that a couple of 30 lb dumbbells are going to snap the vertebrae.
And then there are the people with poor form. It’s funny cause it seems like that’s the status quo of the bigger dudes in the gym. Lift heavy, f**k the form. It’s just frustrating to watch because, is this how you get big? Disregard form and just lift like you’re trying to get out from under a passed out drunk Loue Anderson? Or is it that these guys are just naturally big and all they have to do to get big is think about lifting weights.
Just a thought…
Morning workout was a little tough, not sure if it has anything to do with the lower carbs/higher fat. I’ll keep the trend going for the rest of the week and see how it feels.
Workout:
A.Power shrugs. 5 sets of 6 reps. 90/6, 140/6, 140/6, 140/6, 140/6,
B1.Haney shrugs. 3 sets of 10. 50/10, 55/10, 55/10
B2.Standing calf machine shrugs. 3 sets of 12. 125/12, 125/12, 125/12
C.Old-time standing row. 3 sets of 10, plus drop 10 pounds and rep out.
D.rack pull from mid-thigh. 1 set of 100 reps. (only did 40 lbs at 50 reps since forgot strps.)
Today’s weight: 177.5
Workout this morning was :
A1.front squat. 3 sets of 6. 90 lbs for all
A2.Leg extensions. 3 sets of 15. 55 lbs
B1.Sumo deadlift. 3 sets of 6. 110 lbs
B2.Leg curls. 3 sets of 6. 65 lbs
*Question. What would be the reason for not being able to increase weight in the squat?
I have a very hard time increasing the weight in the squat, especially the front squat.
Almost every time that I do a regular deadlift, I can increase the weight or reps from a previous time, but squats just completely drain me when I perform them. And no, nothing hurts when I do them. Would appreciate any input on this.
Well, its my understanding that its harder to put weight on your max front squat than on your max back squat. I could definitely be wrong, though.
Standard questions follow:
–Do you have proper form?
–Are you adding weight incrementally?
–Are you resting well after leg workouts?
–Do you warm up with no- or low-weight reps first?
There could also be a flexibility issue here…I found that I needed to stretch my hips and quads between warm-up sets, and that kept me moving up.
Today’s weight: 176lbs
It’s been up and down this week, not sure if it’s because I’ve lowered my carbs or what, but I’ll give it another week and see how my body reacts. I know it’s not truly “low carb” as in under 100 grams a day, but it’s lower for what I’ve been used to.
Today’s workout felt great as I went up in weight in all movements.
a)Back squat - 5 sets reps 7/5/3/5/7
b)Romanian DLs - 5 sets
c)Deadlift 5 sts- 7/5/3/5/7
a) 90/7, 140/5, 160/3, 140/5, 110/7
b) 110/7, 140/5, 160/3, 140/5, 110/7
c) 140/7, 160/5, 190/3, 160/5, 140/7
Last night the wife and I went to our next door neighboor’s party. Not surprisingly enough, their table was chock full of sweets, cakes, chocolate-covered chocolate balls, peanut balls, cheese balls and every other kind of ball that’s bad for you.
I was a little surprised that I didn’t get any cravings whatsoever. I’m not typically a sweets person, but when I see others pig out, I’ll think of a good steak or hamburger full of badness and a loaded potato or fries as a sidekick.
When it was time to eat my evening snack, I ran next door and put together some yogurt, flax and protein and put it down right away. I was very happy with that.
[quote]breakz wrote:
Well, its my understanding that its harder to put weight on your max front squat than on your max back squat. I could definitely be wrong, though.
Standard questions follow:
–Do you have proper form?
–Are you adding weight incrementally?
–Are you resting well after leg workouts?
–Do you warm up with no- or low-weight reps first?
There could also be a flexibility issue here…I found that I needed to stretch my hips and quads between warm-up sets, and that kept me moving up.[/quote]
As for your questions:
I believe my form is decent. I go down below parallel, knees don’t budge
I add weight slowly and don’t try to do max reps right away
I believe my rest is good. By the next leg workout, my legs don’t typically feel tired or fatigued
I try to warm up the legs quite a bit beforehand. What I haven’t been doing is doing no-weight squats as part of the warm-up before hand.
Today felt much better in the squat rack. I didn’t feel that “draining” effect after doing them which was a nice change.
Monday’s morning weight: 178.5 lbs
This weekend’s meals were poor in the fact that I didn’t eat all meals I needed to. With that in mind I’m going to try cooking twice a week so I have enough to carry me through Sunday.
Workout:
A.Pullups, neutral grip. 4 sts of 6-8
B1.Straight-arm pulldowns. 3 sts of 12, 303 tempo
B2.Rope lat pulldown. 3 sts of 10, 3 sec squeeze @contraction
C.Seated rope rowing, torso forward. 3 sts of 10
D.Straight-arm arc d.b. row. 1 st of 100
A.No weight, 7 reps for all
B1.47.5/12, 52.5/12, 52.5/12
B2.62.5/10, 67.5/10, 72.5/12 **Somehow, every week I try this one, I keep increasing weight)
C.70/10, 85/10,85/10
D. 5/100
**Question, what’s the best way to increase weight in the pull-up?
For lats, every exercise that I do I increase the weight week to week, except for pull-ups. In fact, it seems that it gets harder to do them week to week.
Today’s weight: 177 lbs
Got out of bed late today so instead of doing my regular traps workout, I did 20 minutes of cardio HIIT…Holy shit, did it kill me! I alternated between a treadmill @3 mph and a 4 degree incline and snatch dumbbell pulls from the floor. 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.
There were probably people looking at me like I was crazy, since most everybody in there sticks to the basic machines. But it was well worth it when I finished and was completely drenched in sweat.
I’ll have to see if I can incorporate this into the next workout.
C.Old time standing row. 3 sets/10 reps + drop set 'til rep out
50/10+ 45/5, 50/10+ 45/5, 50/10+ 45/5
D.Rack pull from mid-thigh. 1 set of 100
40/100
Good day overall, increased weight in two out of the four exercises.
Diet
As for food intake, I’m not feeling so hot on the higher carb intake compared to last week, so I’m definitely going back to a protein and fat mostly and carbs in and around the workout times.
For today’s nutrition: tigrvision - free online diet and fitness journal
Today’s workout sucked!
It was all single leg work.
Leg curls: 5 reps each leg until reaching 25 reps. 4 sets of this
Leg extensions: as above
Bulgarian squat: as above, except for the fact that I only did 3 sets and then felt nauseous for about an hour.
As for diet, I was seriously under-nourished today because of projects at work. So in all, not good.
Will try again tomorrow…
Back from the holiday break.
Today’s weight 177. Went down by a pound due to lack of calories over the weekend. I kept mostly to my diet, except for 1 bad meal for 3 days. The lower calorie intake was because I didn’t have enough food from going to different relatives’ homes.
This week’s workout is a little different just because I was getting bored with the previous workout. I know I need to finish the prescribed number of weeks, so instead of switching workouts preemptively like I normally do when bored, I’m taking a week off and doing something fun.
“BB Bent Over Row x 2/ RDL x 1/Shrug Pull x 1
3 sets, 3 reps”
“D.B. RDL x 5/High Pull-Clean x 5/Squat-Press x 5
3 sets”
“DB RDL x 5/Bent Over Row x 5 (2rps) :|High Pull x 5 :|Alternating Lunge and Press
3 sets”
It definitely kicked my ass, especially since I’m not used to olympic lifts. I’ll keep doing this kind of stuff throughout this week and resume the regular workouts next week.
Diet for this week will be lower carb and high protein/fat.
today’s weight: 177 lbs. strange because I thought I ate pretty well yesterday and that it would stay at 178.
sleep: awsome! I used some ZMA last night and when I woke up it felt like I slept 10 hours.
Today’s workout same as wednesday’s just with more intensity:
“Power Clean 1/Hang Clean-Front Squat 1/Push Press 1
3 sets, 2 reps”
“Hang Clean & Jerk x 2 :|Front Squat x 3
3 sets”
“BB Bent Over Row x 2/ RDL x 1/Shrug Pull x 1
3 sets, 3 reps”
“D.B. RDL x 5/High Pull-Clean x 5/Squat-Press x 5
3 sets”
“DB RDL x 5/Bent Over Row x 5 (2rps) :|High Pull x 5 :|Alternating Lunge and Press
3 sets”
Updates, updates!
So it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped working out. I haven’t made gains as fast as I would’ve liked but there are some small signs. So far, I’ve gone through CT’s HSS workouts of Back, Chest and just started Shoulders.
My weight is currently at 180 and it’s been extremely hard to get to this point. But I’m still fighting to get to at least 185 in another couple of months. Pics to follow…
