Short arms workout

This morning it was just Brandon and me. We had to cut it short as it's really a Friday with the long weekend and taking tomorrow off too.

Here is what I did:

Standing Preacher Curls: 12 x 75, 10 x 85, 8 x 95, 6 x 105
Nosebreakers: 12 x 95, 10 x 105, 8 x 115, 8 x 125
Preacher Curls: 12 x 95, 10 x 105, 8 x 115, 3 x 125
Lying DB Tricep Extensions: 4 x 8 x 80

Today the President of the United States came into town and traffic was again a nightmare. It took me an hour and a half to get into work today. That is more than double the normal time it takes. Can't wait for him to leave.

Light and fast - Chest

Flat Bench: 12 x 135, 6 x 6 x 225 (All focusing on elbows in, tight chest and explosive movement from lower portion with distinctive pause)
Incline Bench: 10 x 135, 3 x 6 x 185
Flat Bench DB Flys: 4 x 8 x 40 (pause at bottom then explode up)
Pushups: 40, 20, 10, 5

Met at 5:45 am at Brandon's so that Wayne and I can not get stuck at the worst part of traffic. Still took me an hour to get into work today. Arms tomorrow.

Back and Lats

Pullups: 6, 6, 5, (1 assisted) 6 (2 assisted help)
Bent Over Rows: 4 x 8 x 155
Lat Pulldowns: 12 x 85, 10 x 125, 6 x 185, 6 x 175

My left hand has a pretty decent callous just below my ring finger. I think my ring makes it worse. I've cut it off before, but it comes back and it appears to be more painful. Definitely not happy with the quantity of the morning's workout, so I'll be lifting at lunchtime.

Lunchtime lift:

Midrack pulls: 12 x 135, 12 x 225, 5 x 315, 5 x 405, 3 x 485
Upright rows: 8 x 95, 8 x 105, 8 x 115, 8 x 125
Seated Shoulder Wide Cable Rows: 12 x 180, 3 x 8 x 200
Good Mornings: 2 x 8 x 95
150 crunches

Dug out the wrist straps which really came in handy for the last couple sets. Felt much better about the day's lifting by including the lunchtime lift.

Shoulders

Seated Military Press: 12 x 135, 8 x 155, 6 x 175, 4 x 175
Shrugs: 4 x 10 x 175
DB Front Raises: 2 x 6 x 40 (alternating), 2 x 12 x 20 (synchronous)
Standing DB military Press: 4 x 12 x 40
Lateral Raises: 4 x 8 x 40

Brandon mentioned that his shoulder wasn't hurting. When I got home I noticed a little tenderness in the top of my left shoulder, but didn't last more than just a few minutes. By the time I left for work, it was fine.

Something's missing. Although I wasn't slacking, I didn't feel that great about the quality or quantity of today's workout. Doubtful that I'll be sore. Lats and back tomorrow, yeah!

New PR - 1 rep dip

Today I was curious what I could do for a 1 rep dip. I put two x 45's on a chain and wrapped it around my weight belt and did a few of them, then put one more 45 on the chain (135 pounds total) and did one rep nice and slow going down and strong back up. So that means that including my bodyweight (235) I can dip 370 pounds. Not an exercise you usually do a 1 rep max on, but there you go.

I then did a small workout:

French Presses: 4 x 8 x 115
Tate Presses: 4 x 8 x 40
Captains Chairs (legs straight): 5 x 8

I was getting ready to do cable tricep presses when Cameron came in and asked to play table tennis. I caved in since yesterday I used my old paddle and he beat me pretty bad. The paddle I'm used to isn't a whole lot better. He is just getting better. I used to slaughter him. Now they're pretty close games. Today's record was 3 wins 1 loss, which I was disappointed with.

Heavy Bench

Flat Bench:
20 x 135
6 x 315 (4 block)
6 x 365 (6 block)
6 x 365 (6 block)
6 x 315 (4 block)
6 x 245 no block
4 x 275 no block
7 x 225 no block

Focused on setup and keeping elbows in on the downward movement. Felt quite a strain on my lower triceps as the groove was much lower than I'm used to. Stopped early due to the strain. I'll do triceps tomorrow.

Going to Cabin & Bear lake this Weekend with my brothers and sisters and parents. Should be fun.

Scaping Shoulders out of the bottom

Not much motivation today either. I got in there and scraped together a workout from the bottom of my barrel.

Military Press: 2 x 8 x 135, 2 x 6 x 155
DB Shoulder Rotating Shrugs: 4 x 8 x 65
Upright Rows: 8 x 115, 8 x 125, 6 x 135, 3 x 165 (cheated and ugly), 8 x 115
DB Lateral Raises: 4 x 8 x 40
Wide Grip Cable Pulldowns: 8 x 150, x 6 x 170, 5 x 190, 4 x 200

The fourth upright row was way too heavy. I got one close to my chin, but it was ugly and the other two weren't even close, so I did one more set with lighter weight and went with form and quality.

Went over to Brandon's again to find a darkened house, so I went to work early. Work this morning sucked (couldn't get answers from people, and discovered code that isn't very well organized) so I believe that affected my attitude at lunchtime. I'll email Brandon right now to make sure I get a good chest workout tomorrow morning at his house.

Lost the drive after a couple exercises

This morning went to Brandon's where a note was left on the door saying that he stayed up all night with a sick child. I took advantage of the opportunity to go to work early.

At lunchtime I did:

SLDL: 8 x 225, 5 x 275, 3 x 285
Ham Curls: 2 x 12 x 45, 8 x 70

On SLDL: Had to do an alternating grip on the last one as my grip on the second started to wane and was lucky to get five without hurting myself. The last one was tough (mostly on the first one), but able to get all three.
Lost motivation when doing the ham curls. Very hungry and didn't have much emotional energy for lifting so I left to go have lunch and get back to work.

On Sunday I was asked to consider shaving my beard to maintain the respectable "missionary image" which goes along with a small influential position in my ward. For the longest time I had murmured when my dad told me about his workplace not allowing beards at his work and told him that I would rebel if asked to do so. The rebel in me is disappointed that I just turned over like a wet little dog. But at the same time glad that I didn't let my pride get in the way of obedience. That's all it really affected this time. It could have been worse.

No more hiding the double chin behind some facial hair. Now I have to lose more weight.

Early morning exercise

This morning Cathi's running partners backed out so she and I went on a nice 8 mile bike ride this morning along the new trail. It was a little cool (59 degrees) and was quite refreshing. I won't be lifting today at lunch.

Today is another evening of heated dueling at the table tennis club.

Heavy Back workout

Deadlift: 3 x 275, 2 x 295, 1 x 315
Pullups: 3 x 4 (Last set included 10 pound weight)
Rack Pulls: 3 x 225, 3 x 315, 0 x 405, 1 x 385
Good Mornings: 5 x 95, 3 x 115, 3 x 125
Seated Close Grip Cable Rows: 8 x 180, 2 x 3 x 200 (Whole stack) + 30pounds of chains

I left my wrist straps in the back of my car which would have been nice for the last set of rack pulls. I couldn't get the 405 because of the grip (All sets were double overhand grip), so I opted for alternating grip and went down to 385 which was much easier. The Good Mornings were also surprisingly enjoyable. Good workout.

2nd half of today's lift

Chest

DB Flys: 2 x 10 x 45 immediately followed by DB Presses (2 x 10 x 45)

Floor Press: 3 x 225, 3 x 3 x 275

Decline Press: 3 x 275, 3 x 285, 3 x 295, 3 x 305

Pushups (feet on bench): 4 x 25

Core: 4 x 50 crunches

Those decline presses were putting a strain on my shoulders. Not too bad, but I'm sure glad I didn't go heavier, or more sets/reps. It was perfect. The pushups also put a nice strain on my lower triceps. Will take two glucosamine/chondroitin tabs tonight rather than my normal one tablet.

Felt good about today's workouts.

Chest - first half of today's lift

Flat Bench with 2 boards: 12 x 225, 6 x 3 x 315, 3 x 335
Incline Bench: 8 x 215, 2 x 6 x 225, 5 x 235
DB Flys with DB Press: 2 x 10 x 40

Brandon's shoulder was really hurting so we quit there. We must have transitioned slow because it was already an hour into it and had two more sets of Flys and pushups to do. I'm going to lift at lunch today to compensate and to work the chest even more than a normal day. Happy with the 315's. I've never done a workout higher than 300 for the entire flat bench session (except warm up) before, so I was happy there.

Concentrating on the squeezed shoulders, elbows in, big breath, feet pushed into the mat all at the same time was difficult. I guess I'm a simpleton, but there were a few sets there were at least two of the reps were with all of the above techniques used at the same time. Still need to focus and keep all of those things in mind through the entire set.

Deadlift and Back

Deadlift: 8 x 3 x 225
Seated Cable Good Mornings: 4 x 3 x 150
Close Grip Cable Pulldowns: 4 x 3 x 150
Bent Over Rows: 4 x 3 x 135
Core: 8 x 10 situps followed immediately with 25 crunches. 80 Situps and 200 crunches total.

All exercises were done with weight at about 50-60% or so but with explosive movements. Weight felt really good and the movements were strong. Felt like a slacker actually with the low number of reps and low weight, Hopefully this speed training stuff does something.

Shoulders

Military Press: 15 x 95, 10 x 115, 8 x 145, 7 x 165
Lateral Raises: 4 x 8 x 40
Smith Shrugs: 4 x 8 x 185
Arnold Presses: 4 x 8 x 40
DB Military Press: 4 x 8 x 40

I pulled something on those shrugs. It was tougher doing it in a smith machine, than I've done before at Tomax. Trying to rotate the shoulders while in a smith was putting a strain on my neck which I didn't really discover until after the sets were over. Its getting worse throughout the day. I'll have to put some heat on it tonight.

Tomorrow I'm going to skip working out with Brandon in the morning and do some deadlifts and back work.

Kris is putting together an International Bloggers’ RAW and Natural Open Virtual Powerlifting Meet. This will be a meet which anyone, anywhere can participate in given that the events are done raw and natural and the lifts must be completely visible using a digital camera. Stinn will either be participating or be the judge. I think this is a grand idea and am excited to see if we can get a bunch more people to participate.

Benching at 7800 S. Redwood

This morning I talked Cathi into letting me go to meet with Steve at the Gold's Gym at 7800 S. Redwood at 8 am. I met Kyle (Moosie) and Mike Cordova, and Manny(sp?) who was the veteran of the group.

All very nice guys and gave lots of tips and encouragement. The few biggest things I took away from the session was all about setup:

1) Shoulders tight! - When I lay down my arms used to be outstretched with my shoulders blades relaxed. Instead I learned to squeeze my shoulder blades together before I take the lift off.

2) Once I get the lift off and I'm at the top I need twist my elbows inwards towards my body, get a massive breatch of air and come down with my arms down instead of flared out to my side.

3) When I hit the bottom and do the pause, I EXPLODE!!!!!! popping the weight up (and down towards my feet). Since my form before has been so bad, I need to change my groove lower. It is higher than it should be because of the lack of getting my arms in. With my shoulders tight and my arms in (along with keeping my feet solid on the ground) it should force my back to get the arch that I keep hearing about and have never been able to get.

The equipment is also better. The bench at Tomax is too high and not wide enough. Brandon's bench is much better so I will for sure be doing my ME days at Brandon's and my DE days at Tomax.

Stump also traded me bench shirts. He had a 50 Fury (called the grape because of the purple back) which was much tighter and felt better than my 52 Fury. I gave him my 54 as a trade which I was glad to do as 54 is like a seatshirt anymore.

I was most impressed with Kyle's workout. He was putting up 580 (4 boards). Here is what I did:

Bench (4 boards with shirt): 8 x 315, 3 x 365, 3 x 385, 3 x 385, 1 x 405, 1 x 425, 1 x 425

On a couple of these my body was so far up to the pins and I'd sometime brush against them on the way up, or get stuck underneath them and had to get my spotter to push me out away from them so I could get them up. Some of that was that I was setup too high, and some because I did get my elbows in enough and my groove was higher. Kyle said to make sure that when I push, to push the bar towards my feet instead of up above my head. I'm really hoping that over the next few weeks that I get all these techniques down and go down for another session early September.

Mike is going to the Elko WABDL meet and I know David Edgell is going. I'd like to ask about a mock meet that David Edmundson could judge to get some good feedback before I go to a real thing. My goal is to really push my bench and deadlift so that next year when they have a meet that I'm fully prepared with enough confidence to get what I'm capable of with the amount of experience that I have (Which is still relatively small).

What an enjoyable morning! I noticed that I was thinking about the shoulder blades and the tightness involved that I was driving home with my back against the seat with my shoulder's and upper back all tight as if I was getting ready for a big lift. What an awesome experience it was today. I'm looking forward to next time.

Arms

Standing Curls: 4 x 12 x 95
Preacher Curls: 12 x 75, 4 x 10 x 95
Tricep Extensions: 4 x 10 x 80
Tricep Cable Extensions: 4 x 8 x 85

Fighting the traffic in the morning isn't fun and Brandon had to take off a little early and since he's the glue to the morning routine, we cleaned up and took off.

Going to focus on DL tomorrow.

More Chest work

Flat Bench: 15 x 185, 12 x 215, 10 x 225, 10 x 235, 8 x 245, 8 x 255, 8 x 265
Decline Bench: 10 x 215, 10 x 225, 10 x 235, 8 x 245
Flat DB Flys: 4 x 10 x 40 with 4 x 10 x 40 Speed Presses
Smith Squats: 2 x 8 x 185

Went to failure on the last set of Decline benches. Wayne had to help me on the last rep quite a bit, but its the first time I've gone to that point of failure in a long time. I think I need more of that. The other guys are going to failure just about every time, and many times I've got alot more fuel in my tank.

Isaac was sick last night so I was only getting short periods of sleep between comforting him. I also get off early today to go help Josh move, so I'll be wasted by the time I get home and ready to hit the sack.

Going for new Bench PR

This morning I was late to Brandon's. I had to haul all my gear over there including two x 45's (which I weighed this morning and they are actually 47 pounds).

Bench: 3 x 315, 1 x 345, 1 x 375, 1 x 385, 0 x 400. Here is video
Pullups: 2 x 8 (4 with help)
superset with Military DB Press: 2 x 15 x 40
Military Press: 15 x 115, 12 x 135, 10 x 145, 10 x 155

I wasn't as mentally focused on this attempt. I'm surprised I got 385 with the mental condition I was in. Wayne talked me into just putting on 2.5 pounds more on each side and go for 400, but it didn't go up. My breathing was off, I didn't focus on getting my shoulderblades squeezed together, and the weight was wobbly coming down (which also contributed to my legs not staying steady). Next time I'll attempt 385, 395 instead of messing with 375. This is my fourth time doing 385.

Arms with Austin

Today Austin spent the afternoon with me at Tomax. He and I play ping pong every Friday at the Wasatch Front Table Tennis Club. Before going to the club I did arms with Austin:

Preacher Curls: 3 x 8 x 115
Dips: 3 x 8 x (bw (240) + 45)
Alternating DB Curls: 3 x 8 x 45
Tricep Cable Extensions: 3 x 8 x 80

Austin lifted with me real light (he's 10 years old). It was fun teaching him a little. I'd love to lift seriously with my boys when they get older.

Table Tannis went well again. I was 3 and 1 again this week.

Last time for legs at the Bubble

During the kids swim lesson I did:

10 min bike
SLDL: 8 x 225, 6 x 245, 4 x 245
Leg Press: 12 x 14 plates, 8 x 15 plates, 8 x 16 plates
Calf Raises: 12 x 100, 8 x 200, 6 x 300, 4 x 400

Didn't have much time or enthusiasm for a killer workout, but better than skipping today.

Backed off doing Max - did DE Bench

Flat Bench (Legs Up) - 25 x 135, 12 x 185, 12 x 205, 12 x 225, 12 x 205 (Oops didn't get the right weight, no wonder it was easy), 12 x 225, 12 x 225
Incline Smith Press: 12 x 135, 3 x 8 x 185
DB Flys 21s: 3 x 40, 30
Pushups: 4 x 15 (Diamond, fist, fingertips, clap)

I didn't do a max, cause my shoulders and upper back are even more sore than yesterday. Brandon and Wayne tried a max, but they didn't get what they wanted. I told them Monday is the best day for attempting a max cause you automatically get 2 days off (if you take weekends off). So we are going to try maxing on Monday.

Sore from yesterday - getting ready for tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to build up to 395 on the bench. I'll video it.

1st attempt: 365
2nd attempt: 385
3rd attempt: 395

Today I only did 10 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Lazy sucker.