...and that was a good day...

So, before I get into Wednesday's heavy pulling day, today was the last day of the month.  After checking my phone I walked 101 miles inside Sears for the month.  That's just soul shatteringly depressing.  Back to our regularly scheduled programming.  So Tuesday was the drizzled shits of a day at the gym.  Wednesday was the complete opposite, felt good, felt strong.  So anyway, started with rack pulls from the second pin while on 1.5" deficit to get the bar just below my knees.  It's where I've had a sticking point.  Anyway, ended up going to 550 and pulled it so nice and smooth.  Almost like I hadn't had trouble there so I was already pleased.   Followed up with 5x5 on chinups, then 5x5 on one armed rows off the seated row machine with 145.  My back was pretty toast at this point.  It was an all around good day in there, need more like that lately.  Been feeling like I'm just in there because it's what I do.

And that was a bad day...

So, Tuesday, speed bench.  It really wasn't a good day.  My stomach felt like crap most of the day at work so that didn't help the training.  Did banded speed work, 8 sets of 2, with 225 + my mini bands so around 100 at top.  For a shitty day it did get a little better.  My first four doubles I was like "Well, either my bench has gone to complete shit or I'm having a bad day or a combo of the both."  Sets 5-8 my speed picked up so I didn't feel as bad about it which was nice.  Accessory work was kept easy and simple.  Dips for 3 sets of 12.  Then triceps press downs.  Had the stack on there, think it's around 200 pounds.  Triceps felt nice and pumped, but still was kind of a shitty day.  That's really all I have to bitch about... well, I could go with more but nah.

Curls for the girls...

Okay, so my shoulder is still a bit wonky for shoulder stuff, but not bench oddly.  So, Mondays have basically become biceps days just so I get something in on a fourth day.  So, I don't really max out on curls like I do on bench or deadlift.  Meaning, while I'll go to something heavy that I might only get one time, it's not like I'll sit there and analyze, and work up to specifically a 1rm(one rep max).  On bar curls 225 has always eluded me.  I did 205 for a set of 3, then I was like "Yeah, no way I'll get 225 today"  Went to 215 got it for a set of 2.  Sat the bar down fired out "Son of a bitch I should have done 225"  At any rate, maybe in a few weeks when I do another heavy day for curls.  I gotta tell ya, after unloading a 400 piece truck with 30 fucking lawnmowers Monday I'm not entirely sure how I felt like doing heavy curls.  Pretty sure I've under-estimated the amount of dumb I have in me at times.  My forearms were cramping like mofos last night.  My weight is still staying right at the 303 mark which is amazing considering today I hit 96.3 miles walked inside Sears so far this month.  Thursday I work 11-7:15 and it's a truck day so I'll definitely go over 100 miles for the month.  Ugh, that's even more depressing now that I've typed it.

Squatastic

This will be kinda short and sweet.  Easter I went in early for my squat day.  Had the day off so that was nice, ankle wasn't hurting as bad since I was off the weekend and didn't end up walking 5+ miles at work on it.  Went to 265 plus 214 pounds of chains.  Lets go ahead and round up to the 480 at the top.  Didn't really have much trouble getting it for a single.  Think the next few squat sessions I might keep it at that weight and see if I can bust out doubles with it.  That would be nice, but not really expecting it yet.  Also will depend on if I have a spotter or not, only person at the gym that day left early but wasn't a big deal since I was only going 10 pounds over plus was in the cage.  Granted, the ankle was pretty much on fire today, but I did log 5.1 miles while at work today, and that's just basically in a warehouse, so a lot of back and forth, turning and stopping.  So yeah, enough for now.

Benching...

So, not sure if it was a bad day or I'm noticing being 35 pounds lighter has caused a bit of bench drop.  I'm going to chalk it up to a bad day for today.  500 pound bench lockout was a bitch.  It went, but it wasn't easy at all.  After I hammered my triceps pretty hard.  Weighted dips with a 25 pound chain for 3x6, floor skull crushers 115 for 4 sets of 6, close grip bench 225 3x6, and finished with the pec deck for 3 sets of 12 with the stack, don't remember what the weight on it is, I think 250.  Anyway, went much earlier than normal and wanted to end with a burnout set of 225 but what looked like some newbies were in there benching 135 and I decided not to because I didn't want them to think I was doing it to be a dick since I'd have knocked it out over 30 times, but the good thing is my triceps were kinda toast so if I had done this I would probably be cramping tonight so I'll chalk it up as a plus.

So then I come home and my butthead of a dog is asleep on the sofa, so I go plop down next to him and start giving him belly scratches because he's mental for them.  Anyway, I happen to glance down and I've got veins popping in my calves.  I'm still not even used to seeing them in my forearms but this is strange and scary to me.  Anyway, I guess that's enough for tonight.

Anal prolapse...(got your attention yet?)

The past two days days at the gym have been interesting.  The days have started off with talk of anal prolapse and full boar throat gagging.  So I'm gonna go ahead and say that counts as the warmups.  Monday was pretty basic biceps work.  Going to start throwing some side laterals and front raises in next week.  Might keep overhead presses off the menu until May.  Nothing particularly impressive, 135 for 3x6, some Phillips curls, machine curls, then static bar holds.  Nice pump.  However, that being done on a Monday sucks.  Mondays at work is when we get our RRC truck which means it's like generally averages around 400 pieces of smaller stuff, not big crap like fridges/washers.  So I get a lot of arm/biceps work just picking the stuff up and throwing it on the roller out to my guy to be picked up.  So last night my brachioradialis cramps so bad I can't straighten my arm.  At least the forearm pain from the CTS has stayed away thus far.  Okay, now to the more fun stuff.

Tonight was my speed deadlift night, normally I do 8x2 but I decided to mix it up a bit and do a 5x5 with 315.  Holy shit, that was like cardio.  At any rate, I was done with those fast.  Then finished with 4x4(wanted 4x6 but I was wiped the fuck out) on chin/pull ups.  I was pretty wiped.  Fortunately that was all I had programed so I was out in less than an hour.  Tomorrow will be a heavy bench day, feeling lockouts tomorrow but we'll see.  It'll also depend on what time I get in there.  Anyway, that's enough rambling for now.  

Lazy about posting...

Oops, missed a few days on here.  Gonna try to condense it a tad.

Sunday, first time I've felt like doing squats in a long time.  My ankle was hurting like a mofo, but for some reason I was happy and in a good mood to squat.  That was odd to me.  Ended up doing chain squats singles working my way from 105+214 pounds of chain all the way up to 255+214 pounds of chain.  So that's right at 470 at the top.  My depth looked good, form felt/looked good so I was pleased with that.

Monday, still not doing shoulders directly because of the wonky feeling when I do overhead presses so I made it a biceps day.  So really nothing to talk about except I did use the FatGrips a lot, which which came back to haunt me a bit.

Tuesday, Tuesday was a damn good day.  Actually had someone to train with which was nice, speed bench 315+50chain for 5 sets of 2, incline dumbbells 80s for 3 sets of 10, dips bodyweight(303.8) for 3 sets of 10-12, and ended with the pec deck, stack again 3 sets of 10-12.  Chest was pretty pumped up and I'm not noticing any size loss in my shoulders because I'm hitting the inclines and pec deck a bit more.  Training with Christian really helped push me a bit harder than I felt like going so that was a good thing.

Wednesday, it was my heavy pulling day, first time I've decided to go over 405 since the meet, did rack pulls from the 2nd pin which puts it just below my knee and that's where I was losing the 550+ before the meet, so good area to work.  Worked up to 535 and it moved fast and easy, easier than I had expected.  After that I did several sets of pull/chinups kept alternating.  5 sets of 6, 1 set of 5, and 1 set of 3.  This is where I wish I hadn't used the FatGrips on Monday, because holy fuck my forearms were burning.

Now, for the part where I have to talk about the people I consider a part of my gym crew.  And it's a large crew(in both senses) So, I go in Monday and one of them, first time I'd seen him in a while, with the most sincere look of concern he could muster "What's this I hear about you becoming a bodybuilder?" So I was like "I'm gonna kill them."  He laughed "So what are you down to?"  "303.8 this morning."  "I'm worried, are you depressed?  Are you not eating?"  This of course lead to a discussion on eating, training, then another guy popped over as we were in awe of what the fuck we were seeing going on in the squat rack.  This goes back to the whole "If you don't know what the fuck you're doing, maybe the gigantic people who you hear talking over a variety of topics ranging from masturbation, to Taco Bell, to the conjugate method of training aren't such a scary group, maybe they wouldn't mind giving some advice" thing I often bitch about.  I guess that's enough for tonight, I need to attempt to not put a full week in one post.

Clever benchpress related headline

Lifting stuff first, ranting second.

Tonight was good, heavy bench night.  Still not doing heavy singles and liking it.  Tonight I did pin presses for bench, used 405 for 5 sets of 4.  Felt good and man, my triceps and shoulders were about ready to explode when I was done.  After that did some incline for reps, just 135 for 4 sets of 10, I still feel awkward doing inclines, I guess it's from all the years of not doing them, could also possibly be the bench from what I can only imagine is the late 70s.  At any rate, next time I do them I think I'm going to do some dumbbells and see if that feels more comfortable, I'll probably do them heavy so chances of it feeling more comfortable are going to be low.  Ended the direct chest work with the pecdeck, had the stack on there, dunno how heavy it was but fired out 4 sets of 10, on the last rep of the last set did a static hold with it until it forced my hands apart lowering it.  Did a little more triceps work then I was out.  I've got to add back in weighted dips, that'll come Monday.

Now a little rant.  I hate seeing good people doing stupid stuff in the gym.  Problem is, it's one of those things where you're friendly enough with them to say "hi, how ya doing?" but you're not friendly enough to go "Hey, you do know if you keep doing those like that you're gonna herniate a few disc right?"  I guess I should be used to it by now and hope one day someone just goes "Hey, am I doing these right?"  Granted, then I'm going to be like "No, first off you're squatting in the smith machine.  Second you're using the pad.  Third your knees are going really far in front of your feet.  Ect..." Then at that point you realize you'd basically have to retrain their squat because they had an idiot showing them stuff when they first joined.  Okay, I guess that's enough of a rant for now.  

Deadlifty goodness

So, I'm just gonna kinda gloss over Monday, it should have been shoulder day but because of that pain from doing overhead work I just turned it into a biceps/triceps day which makes me feel like I'm bodybuilding and while those guys are awesome, it's just not what I like.  It was a decent day and my arms felt huge after, but that's not where I like to focus.  Today I did my speed pulls from the floor.  That first double felt like complete crap, I felt weak and tiny.  The second one flew up, ended up doing 10 sets of 2 in about 10 minutes with 315, seemed like each one came up faster.  Contemplating on making the rest of March be nothing but speed pulls, I need to go up a tad on them, probably around the 330-345 mark.  Then did 5 sets of 5 on pull/chinups.  Alternated, set 1,3,5 was pull, 2 and 4 was chin.  I always wear relatively baggy shirts to the gym but I think I'm getting a bit more of a V shape towards my lats since I've started(being able to) doing pullups which is nice.  After that I just came home and did a lot of standing ab work with my bands since it felt pretty good outside.  I guess that's it for now, I'll do a weight check in the morning but I seem to be staying right around the 305 mark which is a mark I think I enjoy.

Squat day

Lately, I've been feeling burnt out on training.  It sucks, huge.  For the past 18 years in a lot of ways it's been the only thing I've had, it's what I am, simply put it's my khakis(that's an amazing reference and if you don't get it then shame, SHAME!).  Anyway, I'm trying to push past it but it's been harder and harder.  I noticed it today.  For the first time in a long time my ankle was just hurting instead of painfully hurting, so I was kind of excited to do squats.  Get in there, and all the excitement was gone.   Maybe it's the day I go on and there's really no one in there except for first few sets so I can't at least fake it.  Maybe it's the lift, after the accident I've never been able to squat heavy, mentally blocked from it I guess, but I keep going in and doing squats.  Maybe I'm just bored with them, maybe I'm bored with lifting.  Sad thing is, if I don't do it I hurt more than if I do.  So I guess it's the kobayashi maru of pain for me.  Damn, this is full of great references.  Just did chain squats, standing leg curls, and some pull ups(for fun) tonight.  Numbers are logged, no since in doing it here.  Gonna put this one to bed and see if I can get some sleep myself.  

Curling...

No, not the amazing winter sport.  Curling of weight, but before that.  Got an answer I didn't want but I needed tonight.  So that's one less thing to have on my mind so that'll be good.  Anyway, back to the only thing that matters, training.

Normally tonight would be shoulder night and on shoulder night I usually do one biceps exercise.  However, my shoulder is bugging me for overhead stuff so I just decided to make it all biceps tonight which was odd.  Can't remember the last time I isolated one muscle and worked it.  All my other training involves training everything for a movment(squat/dl/bench), so it was kind of a fun change.

Started with bar curls, didn't really keep track of reps on lower weights but... 95, 135, 155, 165, 185x4 205x3, 225 which I got 2 partial reps, but not enough to count as a full rep. Could have cheated more to get it up but I wanted it to be at least a tad bit strict.  After that did some hammer curls, 80lb dumbbells for 3 sets of 8.  Then some Phillips curls which damn near put tears in my eye.  Finished with a static bar hold for a couple of holds.  Didn't really time them.  But it was a pretty good night.  I guess I'll end it here for tonight.  Gotta figure out how I need to set my days up from here out soon.

RIP SHW

So, been a bit, stress level is back to being way too damn high which sucks, but I'll live, it's what I do.  The promotion at work is in effect.  So still have to learn a bunch of crap about that.  We'll shut up there with the randomness.

Monday was "heavy" bench night, I'm still not going over 405 on anything but heavy bar shrugs.  My plan was 3 bar press for a few sets/reps of 405, however I think I might have been a bit dehydrated because I could not get my triceps to stop cramping.  So instead of like 3-5 sets of 3-5 I got 1 set of 3 and 1 set of 1 before I knew I had to stop because I was done.  Kinda sucked but those days happen.

Tuesday was "heavy" deadlift night.  I was feeling better coming in the gym tonight.  Decided to pull from just below my knees, that's the 2nd pin while standing on a 3/4" piece of plywood.  Went to 405 and did it 5 sets of 4.  My back was pretty toasty after that but... did bar shrugs 3 sets of 8 with 495.  Finished up with 3 sets of pullups to failure, was hitting 6-7 reps on those.  That was it, back was tight from work and tonight had to do a little bit more rolling than normal but it felt good.

Since I'm pretty much off every Wednesday I'm going to redo my heavy days have them alternate again so that way I can pull heavy on Wednesday one week, then bench heavy on the next.  That should work nicely and give me a bit more rest before.  Now, as for the weight loss, as of Sunday morning I was 306.2 pounds.  Once again that's still kind of terrifying, last time I was this small was probably around 2004 so I still have that nagging voice telling me I'm getting small and weak.  The loss has been slowing a bit over the past few days, 306.0 this morning, which makes me think I'm about to plateau out.  If it is right at the 300 mark that'll be a nice area to plateau in.  That way I could switch up weight classes pretty easily.  Still gotta keep trying to shut that voice up that's telling me I'm smaller and weaker.