Wimpy Friday morning workout

Brandon agreed to work lats today instead of shoulders since that is what I did yesterday. Here's what we did:

Pull Ups: 5 x bw, 4 x bw (+4 with help), 3 x bw (+4 with help), 2 x bw (+4 with help)
Bent over rows: 12 x 95, 8 x 145, 2 x 8 x 165
Upright Rows: 8 x 95, 8 x 125, 6 x 125, 8 x 115

Considering I'm going to the club tonight, I wasn't going to argue with Brandon about only doing three exercises. The last couple days workouts have been fantastic. I've been sore.

I've been able to patch things up with Mrs. G which is a great. One week left before I go on an awesome vacation.

Shoulders

Brandon conveyed his cancellation of this morning's early workout, so I did this at lunch:

Standing Stump Presses - 4 x 6 x (bar + 2 x 45 DB hanging from chains) = total @165#
DB Lateral Raises: 12 x 35, 10 x 40, 8 x 45, 6 x 50
Upright Rows: 8 x 115, 2 x 6 x 135, 3 x 155 (Crappy form), 5 x 145 (better)
DB Shrugs: 4 x 8 x 65
DB Front Raises (To overhead): 4 x 8 x 30 supersetted with
Machine Military Press: 8 x 3 stack, 8 x 4 stack, 8 x 5 stack, 8 x 6 stack

Did 50 crunches between exercises (200 total)

Today had a fair bit of rage built up. Last night was not a good one for me. I wasn't behaving well and earned quite a bit of negative vibes from Cathi. She spilled her side of the story to her Mom and a couple of friends so I'm not very popular in the neighborhood I'm sure. I admit I was a jerk and have a problem controlling my anger at times. Here is more information on the problem.

Feeling pretty depressed about the whole thing, but turned that emotion into energy for the workout today, so it worked to my advantage. Now to slow down and be thoughtful tonight. Need to mend things at home for a while. Cathi - if you read this post - "pardon me", I'll do better.

Triceps

Cable Tricep Presses: 10 x 70, 8 x 80, 8 x 90, 8 x 100
Dips: 12 x bw (240), 12 x bw + 25, 12 x bw + 35, 12 x bw + 45
Nosebreakers: 3 x 8 x 95, 10 x 95
Tate Presses: 10 x 30, 10 x 35, 2 x 8 x 40
French Presses: 4 x 8 x 115
Crunches: 4 x 50

Came in early to work and did this at work. I didn't lift with Brandon as he is doing legs. Since I did this early in the morning I can still take my lunch break to play Table Tennis.

Back

Deadlifts: 8 x 225, 5 x 275, 4 x 285, 3 x 295, 2 x 305, 1 x 315
Crunches between deadlift sets: 5 x 50
Pull Ups: 4 x 4 x bw (240)
Bent Over CG Rows: 10 x 90, 3 x 8 x 135

Used chalk and belt on last three sets. Forgot my camera so I couldn't video, but I'm sure my form isn't all that great. I think my legs push up too fast forcing my lower back to do more work than it's supposed to. Took an hour to do this, so it involved alot of rest. Lifting at Brandon's tomorrow.

Light and fast Chest

5:45 @ Brandon's:

Flat Bench: 25 x 185, 5 x 215, 6 x 205, 8 x 195, 8 x 185, 8 x 165, 8 x 155
Incline Flys: 4 x 12 x 40
Decline Flys: 4 x 12 x 40

I went light weight, and went with speed pushing, but the number of reps was probably more than is suggested for DE work. I noticed a muscle in my upper back on the far right side twitching several times today. It feels weird.

For lunch I wanted to lift more to supplement the lack of working hard, but was convinced by Bala to play table tennis. I was 3 and 1 the first four games, but over the span of probably a dozen games it was pretty even. It was fun and I learned some techniques to use and not use(at least on him anyway). Tomorrow I'm not lifting at Brandon's so I'm going to have to demonstrate some real will power to not play table tennis at lunch and lift instead.

Lifting tired

This morning I got up and started lifting at 5:30 AM at Brandon's. We did Shoulders:

Military Press: 12 x 95, 12 x 125, 10 x 155, 6 x 175
DB Front Raises: 4 x 12 x 25
Shrugs: 8 x 135, 3 x 8 x 185
DB Lateral Raises: 4 x 8 x 40
DB Military Presses: 4 x 12 x 40

Probably went too easy today. Not really pushing it much, but did work up a sweat. Played ping pong for an hour today and it was a good day, like Monday. Yesterday, Bala had his way with me. Today though I was the king. Sent in my Tournament entry form for me and Austin to the National Tournament in Las Vegas on December 14 and 15th. It's going to be fun and I'm hoping to improve my skills between now and then.

Arms

Standing EZ Bar Curls: 10 x 95, 10 x 105, 10 x 115, 6 x 125
Preacher Curls: 8 x 95, 8 x 105, 8 x 115, 10 x 75
Lying EZ Bar Tricep Extensions: 10 x 95, 10 x 105, 10 x 115, 8 x 125
Lying DB Tricep Extnesions: 2 x 10 x 40
Tate Presses: 2 x 8 x 40
Alternating DB Curls: 4 x 10 x 40

Felt good about this morning's workout. Sweat a bunch and at the end of several sets was pushing it to get the last rep. Not difficult to get up this morning. Hoping that my body gets used to this amount of sleep. Traffic coming in was ugly again. Starting at 5:30 from now on. Hopefully leaving at 6:45 instead of 7:00 for work makes a difference.

Heavy Bench

Flat Bench with shirt: 3 x 225, 2 x 365, 5 x 1 x 375
Incline Bench: 12 x 175, 10 x 195, 8 x 215, 6 x 215
DB Flys: 10 x 40, 10 x 40 (with 10 bench reps), 12 x 40 (w 12 bench reps), 14 x 40
Pushups: 25, 20, 15, 10

These felt great. The 375's felt really good. One of them got help on just cause Brandon and Wayne were nervous for me, but I had it. Shirt arms are really tight.

I didn't go to lift with Stump cause of the stupid scout meeting that was all day Saturday. At least I'm official now and don't have to get nagged about getting trained anymore. I'll tell ya, If I'm ever in a position to tell people to spend an entire day in training, I'm not going to give them crap for not doing it. I didn't feel that it was all that productive.

Very busy week ahead of me. Hope to get everything accomplished. Will lift at Brandon's this week in order to keep my lunch short and get going on my other stuff.

Speed Shoulders

I read this morning in an old book I had on Fitness about speed work. I didn't learn anything new but it reemphasized the importance of working those fast twitch muscles. So I did the following exercises at a really light weight:

Cable Lateral Raises: 4 x 4 x 10

Close Grip Pulldowns: 4 x 4 x 100
supersetted with
PullUps: 4 x 2

Shrugs: 4 x 4 x 135
supersetted with
DB Lateral Raises: 4 x 5 x 30

Close Grip Upright Rows: 4 x 5 x 95
supersetted with
Seated Wide Grip Cable Rows: 4 x 5 x 100

Not much rest between sets and these were really easy. Seems counterintuitive to do such light weight so few times. Kept in mind that it was speed work and am hoping that it does something.

Triceps

Had a crappy morning at work. Didn't feel very motivated heading into the gym, but after the third exercise I started to get into it.

Close Grip Bench: 12 x 135, 2 x 10 x 185, 10 x 205
Dips: 12 x bw, 3 x 8 x bw (235) + 45
Standing Cable Tricep Extensions: 4 x 8 x 80
One Hand Standing Cable Tricep Extensions: 8 x 40, 3 x 10 x 30
Reverse Grip One Hand Standing Cable Tricep Extensions: 6 x 30, 3 x 8 x 20
Lying DB Behind Head Tricep Extensions: 4 x 8 x 65

Felt good about this workout. Movements were clean and deliberate. Yesterday worked through lunch and didn't lift. Back feeling much better, not ailing in any way.

Back and attempted DL PR

This morning I slept in, the alarm wasn't set to go off and I had a late night last night. My neck and upper back were really bad. I was considering getting an appointment for a massage today, but decided to work lower back and hope that might even things out a little.

Deadlift: 6 x 255, 4 x 275, 2 x 315, 0 x 365 (tried three times) ended up taking the quarters off and doing one more @ 315. I think my legs are longer than the average person of my same height. I got the 365 off the ground on the three attempts but my legs were way too bent I think. Next time, I'll post video for some pointers.

DB Chest Supported Rows: 3 x 10 x 45, 10 x 55
Midrack Pulls (notch 17): 8 x 135, 6 x 225, 4 x 315, 2 x 405, 1 x 485
Pull Ups: 2 x 4 @ bw

I also did 50 crunches between exercises (200 total).

Disappointed with the 365 attempt. That would have been a PR. I did 365 once before, but that was with wrist straps and knee wraps. I only had a belt this time (and some chalk). Will post vid next time. I need to research whether sumo style is for me.

Chest

Warm Up: 20 x 185

High Rep Flat Bench: 3 sets of 10 lower half fast, 10 upper half fast, 5 full fast (25 total) at 185 pounds, 2 more sets minus the 5 full reps at the end (20 total), last set 8 lower, 8 upper, 1 full rep.

Incline Press: 2 x 8 x 205, 2 x 8 x 175

Military Press: 15 x 95, 10 x 115, 2 x 8 x 125

Felt like I pulled something in my upper back on the left side that starts at the base of my neck on the left and extends to the top of my left shoulder blade. A tightness rather than a real pain. Same general area that was affected by last weeks intensive incline work.

150 reps of 950? Is this guy for real?

I was emailed an article by Critical Bench:

HIGH REP PARTIAL TRAINING
By Nick Nilsson

Gain strength and muscle mass! This training technique is one of the best kept secrets for sending strength and muscle mass through the roof quick! Learn why it works and exactly how to do it for best results.

The partial rep is one of the most effective training techniques for building strength quickly but how can you adapt partials for boosting muscle mass at the same time? The answer is simple: high rep partial training.

Partial training, in a nutshell, involves only moving the weight in a shortened range of motion. This can be anywhere in the range of motion of an exercise but for our purposes, we're going to use the strongest range of motion, e.g. the top few inches of the bench press. For a more detailed description of partial training,
please refer to the following article:

Partial Training For Full-Powered Results
http://hop.clickbank.net/? westy04 /betteru&l=1070

The reason conventional low-rep partial training is so effective for strength building is that you are using extremely heavy weight for low reps. This builds up excellent connective tissue and muscle strength.

Unfortunately for muscle gaining purposes, this type of training also results in a very short time under tension. Time under tension refers to the length of time a muscle is placed under continuous tension during an exercise. In order to stimulate muscle growth, your muscles need to be under tension for approximately 30 to 60 seconds (this is a rough estimate - it works out to about 6 to 12 reps in a
conventional, full-range set).

A typical partial rep may take only one or two seconds to complete. If you do 5 reps, your muscles have only been under tension for 5 or 10 seconds. This is not nearly enough time to stimulate muscle growth. Now imagine doing 30 reps instead. This puts you right in the middle of that optimal range. Not only will you be using extremely heavy weight (which is great for building muscle and strength), but you'll
be placing your muscles under tension for a long enough time to stimulate muscle growth. This is an extremely effective combination!

High rep partials can be used on their own or in combination with low-rep partials or even conventional full-range sets. I often use them after doing a few sets of extremely heavy low-rep partials. For example, I will do top range bench press partials with 600 or 700 pounds for low reps then remove a few plates and do a set of 50 or 60 reps with 315 pounds on the bar. I have also done sets of extremely high rep partial squats with extremely heavy weights (150 reps of 950 pounds). I've
found both of these techniques to be very effective for building both strength and muscle mass quickly.

Give high rep partial training a try in your next workout and don't be afraid to push yourself. You may be surprised at how many reps you can do with a weight you may not have even considered using before!

About the Author:

Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 16 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best
Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at :
(http://hop.clickbank.net/? westy04 /betteru).
He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

The theory sounds reasonable, but the claim that he can do 150 reps of 950 pounds has me now questioning the authors credability.

Man my lats are sore!

Surprisingly my chest isn't sore in the slightest, but my lats are very sore and a little in my upper back. Great work yesterday. Today I did th elliptical trainer for 25 minutes and then did some biceps work:

Preacher Curls: 8 x 115, 6 x 135, 2 x 135, 4 x 8 x 115
DB Alternating Curls: 12 x 30

Already spent too much time off work today so I went back to it. Going out to a team lunch tomorrow, so tomorrow is off. Very slack this week. Hopefully when Brandon gets back I can get back into it again. Spent alot of time looking for new pants today. Does anyone else have problems getting pants? (If you as big or bigger than me)

Incline work

This morning I noticed that I could use some more strength in the upper pecs so I focused on Incline today:

Incline Bench (45 degrees): 8 x 135, 3 x 8 x 185, 7 x 195, 6 x 205, 5 x 215, 4 x 225
Incline DB Press: 4 x 12 x 65 (Need heavier DBs at Tomax)

I had to rush through this. Only had 45 minutes. Brandon isn't able to lift this week so I'm on my own. The long weekend was fun and yesterday worked through lunch, so I have some pretty hefty guilt I need to work off.