New PR on Raw Deadlift

The last couple days I had a muscle in my neck that was really troubling me. I took yesterday off so I could rest it completely. Its totally fine now and no hint of problems anymore thank goodness.

Today I was way past due in doing some Deadlift work.

Deadlifts: 8 x 245, 6 x 275, 4 x 295, 2 x 315, 2 x 335
SLDL: 4 x 8 x 245
100 crunches slow and steady

New raw 1 rep PR for deadlifts and I did two! Should set me up nicely for doing a 1 rep next week of 345. I did one and paused at the top for about 5 seconds and on the way down figured I could go back up so I went for it, and made it up fairly easy as well. Very happy with that! The only problem is that I take so much rest between sets that I don't get to do as much lifting as I would like. Its nice to have weights in the basement at work, but 1 hour just isn't as much time as I'd like. Wish I could take 2 hours.

From now on I won't be doing SLDL on the same day as deadlifts. I'll seperate them by a few days in the week. I can't expect to have much stamina for SLDL when I max on the Deadlifts.

High Rep Chest

Flat Bench: 18 x 215, 16 x 215, 10 x 215, 4 x 15 x 155
Incline Smith Press: 4 x 15 x 135
DB Flys: 4 x 15 x 40

Good burns today. Early morning workout (5:15 am), still bad commute (over 45 minutes from Syracuse to Salt Lake). Expected to be worse coming home and tomorrow morning due to bad snow storm.

Two workouts today

With this week being Thanksgiving, I figured I really should push it the first part of the week as I won't be lifting Thursday - Sunday. So at lunch I did the following:

Deadlifts: 8 x 235, 6 x 265, 4 x 285, 2 x 305, 1 x 325 (New raw PR)
Cable Good Mornings: 4 x 8 x stack (@ 200 + @15 pounds of chains)
Seated Close Grip Cable Pulls: 4 x 8 x stack (@ 200 + @15 pounds of chains)
SLDL: 4 x 8 x 235
100 crunches (Slow and deliberate)

I almost gave up after the first set of SLDL. The second set and fourth set were great. Third one I had to regrip after the sixth rep. I did the SLDLs with a double overhand grip as well as the Deadlifts, until I got to 305, then switched to alternating grip.

Tough workout. Hoping each week I can increase 10 pounds on the deadlifts. Anxious to get a new PR on the deadlift. The 360 PR I currently have is with wrist wraps and knee wraps. I'm not going to use those again, just a belt and chalk. Hoping to beat the 360 PR at the virtual meet without wraps.

Chest

Flat Bench:
12 x 245
8 x 275
6 x 295
6 x 295
6 x 275
7 x 245 (Hold 2 sec on bottom, then press)
8 x 185 (Hold 2 sec on bottom, then press)

Incline Press:
12 x 185
2 x 8 x 205
8 x 135 (hold at bottom and speed press up)

DB Flys: 4 x 20 x 40

Decline DB Press: 20 x 40, 2 x 25 x 40, 30 x 40

Fairly good workout. 295 felt heavy and didn't feel very strong with it so I went back down and focused on form. Wayne's form was very good and I thought I should do better myself.

Custom Shoulder Lifts

Today I did:

Stump Presses (Add 50 pounds from two x 25 lb dumbells hanging with 10 pound chains): 8 x 95 (@145), 85(@135), 75(@125), 10 x 65(@115), 12 x 55(@105)
Jason Paris' One Arm Presses: 4 x 8 x 45
Gords' lateral DB Rows: 4 x 8 x 40
Arnold Presses :4 x 8 x 40
Upright Rows (Ok this isn't custom, just frosting for the workout): 10 x 95, 8 x 115, 8 x 125, 8 x 135

Felt good about this workout. Was really hungry for a good workout. Did this right after getting a flu shot.

Upper Back

I didn't prescribe a workout today so I played it by ear which is usually a bad idea as I don't usually push myself as much but I ended up doing fairly well I think:

DB Incline Rows: 10 x 50, 2 x 8 x 55
Lat Pulldowns: 10 x 150, 2 x 8 x 170
Midrack Pulls: 8 x 135, 225, 315, 6 x 405, 4 x 480 (All the weight we have)

Next time I need to make sure to set the rack at 18 instead of 17 on the midrack pulls. Had a pretty good knot in my upper back to begin the workout right underneath my right shoulder blade. The workout seemed to help it just a little, but not much. It's still there and I wish I had the time and money to get Kristyn to work it out.

5-10-20 Arms

Today I wanted to really mix things up so I decided to do three sets of exercises, with the first set 5 reps, second set 10 reps and third set being 20. This would require varying levels of strength. Stamina being most important for the last set.

Here is what I did:

Preacher Curls: 5 x 135, 10 x 115, 20 x 75
Dips: 5 x bw + 90, 10 x bw + 45, 20 x bw
Concentration Curls: 5 x 45, 10 x 35, 20 x 25
Skull Crushers: 5 x 115, 10 x 95, 20 x 75
Incline DB Curls (21s style): 15 x 45 (5 lower half, 5 upper half, 5 full), 30 x 30, 60 x 20

I had to take three small breaks (20 - 30 seconds) on the last set of Incline DB Curls to let the intense burn subside for a bit. I still held on to the weight, just put it in a static position. Stayed with the prescribed workout this time as well. Felt great. Hoping to have rubber arms for a couple days.

Mid-day Bench

Slept in again. Getting full night's sleep becoming more of a priority lately.

Prescribed the following:

Floor Presses: 8 x 225, 6 x 27, 4 x 295, 2 x 315, 1 x 335
DB Floor Flys: 4 x 8 x 50
Incline Press: 4 x 8 x 185
Pushups: 30, 20, 10 (clap), 20, 35

Almost talked myself out of doing the last two sets of pushups before I even started them. Ended up doing them (+5 extra on the last set as punishment for considering it)

Felt really good about this workout. The last set on Floor Press (335) I started to cramp up in my right hamstring. My legs kicked out and went flat on the floor and was able to muscle the weight up. Close one without a spotter.

Need to mention Alex before I forget his name again

Back in Fall of 1990 when I was attending Ricks College, there was a guy lived in Ensign Hall who influenced me to get into the gym and got me addicted to working out was a guy named Alex Olsen. He was from Boston Massachusetts. He was a nice guy and at times fanatical about his diet. I remember he convinced me that wheat bread was full of estrogen and to avoid it.

It took me half a day to remember his first name, and I tried Googling him, but couldn't find him. So Alex Olsen, if you ever google yourself and come across this let me know. I'd love to find out what you have been up to.

Deadlifts

Deadlifts: 8 x 225, 6 x 255, 4 x 275, 2 x 295, 1 x 315
Cable Good Mornings: 4 x 8 x stack (@ 200)
Seated Close Grip Cable Pulls: 4 x 8 x stack
SLDL: 4 x 8 x 225
100 crunches (Slow and deliberate)

Wanted to give up half way through the SLDL's but pushed through them. Kept to the prescribed routine and felt good. My right wrist was really sore this morning and I was extremely tired at 5 am so I slept past the alarm (skipping Brandon's chest workout) and slept in an extra hour planning on lifting today at lunch. I need to make deadlift the priority for Monday's that way I am guaranteed to get them every week. Will move Chest to Tuesday or Wednesday and do another Deadlift routine on Thursday or Friday.

The weekend's Table Tennis Tournament was a little disappointing. Didn't do as well as I had hoped. One thing I like better about powerlifting is I feel that my only opponent is myself, whereas with table tennis its all about beating the other guy.

Shoulders

Seated Behind the Neck Military Smith Press: 15 x 105, 10 x 125, 2 x 8 x 155
DB Front Raises: 4 x 6 x 40
Shrugs: 3 x 10 x 185, 10 x 65
DB Lateral Raises: 4 x 10 x 40
DB Standing Military Presses: 4 x 12 x 40

Pushed it pretty good on this work out. The front raises were brutal. Taking the next couple days off to make sure I'm not sore for the Table Tennis Tournament. My new paddle came in and hit with it yesterday a couple times. It was worth it.

Arms

21s: 2 x 21, 18, 21 (Seated on Incline Bench, Curl bottom half for 7, top half for 7 then full curls)
Skullcrushers: 12 x 95, 3 x 8 x 125
Preacher Curls: 2 x 95, 2 x 115
Standing Cable Tricep Extensions: 12 x 85, 8 x 115, 2 x 8 x 135
Standing EZ bar Curls: 4 x 15 x 75

Got quite a good burn in the biceps. Very happy with today's effort, especially the 21's. I was going for 18 and got 21. Starting earlier to miss traffic a little. (5:15 am) Still had a little traffic to deal with, but not too bad. Took Cathi in to the car dealership to pick up the van. We were there before it opened so we had breakfast together which was nice.

Benching on Monday

DB Flys: 4 x 14 x 40
Decline Smith Press: 12 x 225, 2 x 275 x 10, 5 x 275
Flat Bench: 5 x 8 x 225, 8 x 215, 8 x 205

Did this at Brandon's. The Flat bench at the end sure makes it tougher to get the weight you want, but that's OK. I wanted to lift at lunch, but because of car swapping with Cathi and having to leave early for Anger Management Session I didn't have enough time to get my eight hours of work in so I scrapped lunch today. Need to make up a couple hours over the next few days.

Some back

Pull Ups: 2 x 4 x bw, 5 x bw, 4 x bw + 2 with help
Deadlifts: 12 x 135, 8 x 225, 4 x 275, 1 x 315
DB Rows: 4 x 12 x 40
Lat Pulldowns: 12 x 85, 8 x 140, 2 x 8 x 155

The form on the last deadlift was terrible. I'm just glad I didn't hurt anything.
Last time I'll do deads in Brandon's basement. Deads for me really bring out the gas, I also don't feel like I can be rough with the weight. The floor pads don't cover the whole room and don't want to mess up his carpet or the cement beneath it.

There is a table tennis tournament tonight, but for the age divisions which I didn't sign up for. I brought Austin with me to work today and he will be in the 17 and under division. We will be practicing at lunch time. I bought a new Nittaku paddle yesterday with some quality rubber which hopefully will take my game to a new level. The open division starts next Friday so I won't be lifting after this coming Wednesday to make sure I'm not sore for the tournament. Last Friday was awful as I was still sore from the deadlifts last week.

Heavy and Light Arms

EZ Bar Curls: (Cheat) 3 x 4 x 150, (Light) 3 x 20 x 75
Dips: 2 x 6 x bw + 45, 2 x 3 x bw + 90, 2 x 12 x bw
Alternating DB Curls: 2 x 4 x 55, 2 x 8 x 45, 2 x 12 x 35, 2 x 16 x 25
Cable Tricep Extensions: 2 x 6 x 100, 2 x 10 x 60
50 crunches between exercises (200 total)

This workout took just over an hour to do and it was good. I was able to follow this predefined workout to the T without any alterations and that is a good thing (unless it is to exceed it). Hoping to be sore tomorrow. My chest still is from Monday.