Found a good sleeping position!

Managed to find a decent position to sleep in that my shoulder didn't hurt much.  I can't imagine it looks comfortable but at least I didn't wanna scream as I pushed myself up out of the bed this morning so that's a bonus.  Gym this morning was nice and smooth.  Speed deadlifts with no weird catches/hitches in my obliques/lower back.  Also another plus.  Finally got the results of my blood work back.  I get to have more done next week.  So yay.  I'm going to try not to think about that too much, but at least my thyroid function is excellent, so I got that going for me.   Anyway, numbers!

Speed deadlift 315 8x2, did a hold pause on the first rep.
    at around set 3 it turned into cardio when me and my training partner decide to see which of us            would blow up first so we were plate switching stupid fast and not doing any chatting between            sets, just trashtalking the other one during the sets.
Standing Situps  100   4x12   2 stances wide 2 stances narrow.
Cable Side Bend 100   3x12 
Short stroke behind the neck lat pull down.  3x8 150, 170, 200.  That's one I'm not sure if there's an       actual name for, but fuck if they don't tear up my upper back, so I do them and continue to love           them.


I feel like I'm getting some core strength back which is nice, apparently when you leave a job where you regularly load large appliances it means you miss a lot of core work.  Anyway, that's enough for today, I'm getting kinda wordy.

I want a new shoulder.

My shoulder hates me apparently, even on days it feels good going in.  Anyway, not gonna dwell on that, just gonna post numbers and shut up.

Speed bench Slingshot  8x2 Paused the first rep.  315
Reverse Grip Bench      3x8 135, 185(shoulder started hurting bad) 135
Pec Deck                       3x8 140, had to put it on notch 2 so it wouldn't stretch me too much(shoulder)
Tricep Presses Long handles 3x8  52, 57, 62.

I done goofed

So my 4th training day this week was supposed to be Friday, however due to having to get blood work done, while getting vampired I mention that I have trouble sleeping, so my doc gave me Vistaril, it's an antihistamine that is off branded for motion sickness, insomnia, and anxiety.  So I was going to go in Saturday morning.  I took one that night because I hardly slept the night before, then I wasn't sleepy at all Friday night, took it around 12:30AM.  My alarm went off at 7:45am.  Tried to get out of bed and that didn't work, just fell back over.  Sent a text to my training partner "Dude, can we make it 9:30 today?"  "Yeah no prob."  Figured I'd sleep till about 8:30, reset an alarm.  8:30 comes around, "Dude, I still don't think I can drive."  "It's cool, I'm pretty open today so just let me know."  About noon rolls around and I finally wake back up.  I still felt kinda groggy/hung over the rest of the day.  Apparently you get used to that, but this is one of those meds you only take when you need it.  So I think I'll do my best to reserve it for the nights before non-training days.  Should get my blood work results on Monday, it's nice having all weekend to stress over that.  Anyway, I guess that's all for now. 

Interesting day...

So, I just hit hour two without eating.  I have to have blood work done in the morning so I'm having to not eat 10 hours before it.  I always make my appointment as early as possible that way I can eat right after.  I don't think I'd be this hungry two hours after eating, but I'm sitting here thinking "Man, there's some cold pizza in the fridge that's calling to me."  Anyway... I'm going to attempt to stop thinking about food.  Anyway, on to today's lifting...

Double arm landmines, 3x8 2-45s, 2-45s/1-25, 3-45s.

Tate presses  3x8, 70s, 80s, 100s.  I hate the 90s and 100s at the gym, the bars are a bit too thick with no contouring, so it makes holding them for Tates a bitch.

Uppercuts 3x8  20s

Lateral Machine Raises 3x12 140

Normally I'd do my squat day tomorrow, but pushing that to Saturday because of the blood work.  

That's enough for today.

A little behind... already...

So, second day this week was okay, about half way though my speed deadlifts I started getting that annoying pull in my rear right obliques, sometimes makes me think I'm getting old, then again just makes me work around that area and try to train that area harder.  Day was pretty simple.

8x2 315 speed deadlifts
3x8 135 Bent over rows underhand grip.  Would have went heavier but that pull was bugging me.
3x15 Cable side bends 100 pounds each side.
3x15 straight arm pulldowns, dunno how much weigh, was on the 15 stack.

This one is going to be short because it's late. 

Here we go again...

Okay, set up my programs for the next several weeks, right now if all goes according to plan I'll be back to shirt benching 500+ in about 6 weeks.  Seems like I've been a bit more ahead of schedule than I had thought which is nice.  Working on a modified conjugate method at the moment with more of a focus on my speed work.  I still need to figure out what's going on with my back and odd spasms I've been getting in my lower back, like right at the base of my spinal erectors when I'm doing squats.  Not that I squat that heavy, but even light ones cause it, so going to have to focus on some core and lower back work.  Going to keep my deadlifts for speed at around 315-365 for the next 4-6 weeks.

Anyway, today was bench, it was fun.

Speed bench with SlingShot 315 8x2
Half bench(not sure what else to call it, press from the chest to half way up, basically working what the SlingShot doesn't work)  225 3x8
Triceps pressdowns 57.5 3x10
and finally cable flies with an upward motion to hit the upper chest a bit for some blood flow, 50 3x15.

Felt good, but I gotta tell ya, one thing that sucks is going to the gym when it's 14 degrees out.  I've never been one to change at the gym, plus I don't really like wearing sweats at the gym.  So a tshirt and hoodie for warmth, but those gym shorts with the baggy leg holes that flutter so carelessly in the breeze were not fun walking into the gym.  There's your mental image for the day.

Recent fun...

Training has been going very well except for sinuses, which creeps up this time of year for me.  Fortunately we've had some cold and rain which seems to have minimized some of the ragweed pollen.  Been doing a lot of work with chains on bench and squat.  Block pulls for deadlifts.  Still not where I want to be but it's getting close again.  Feels pretty nice.  Did 405+150(approx) of chain reverse band bench this morning and it went up like a champ.  Decided to end it there with a win instead of adding 30+ more and ending with a fail.  Was a little shaky with that much weight in my hand but it's getting better.  Just needed to do a quick update before I go partake in some Halloween fun.  More and more frequent updates soon.

It's been a while...

And with that title I now have a Stained song stuck in my head, and I'm not happy with that.

My training went to shit, plain and simple.  We were closing the store which sucks, might blog about that at some point, but I dunno.  But anyway, when you're working 60+ hours a week about all you have time for is sleep and it never was enough.  Since we've closed I've started training right again.  That's been pretty nice.  Fortunately my job always required a lot of lifting and moving stuff so I don't feel like I lost much off my deadlift, going to do heavy rack pulls tomorrow and see how that goes.  Today I was pretty please.  I have had a lot of issues with my shoulder, so much that I got a second gym membership to a place with a lot of machines so I could bench without as much of the stress on my shoulder.  It seems to have paid off a bit, it does take a while to get my shoulder warm in the mornings(yes I 'm doing AM training and I don't like it).  So today, started off on the the incline machine of course I warmed up without any weight, then went up plate, plate and a quarter, two plates, two plates and a quarter, and so on until I hit 4 plates on each side of it for a set of 6.  Then my plan was to flat bench, started out with 225, for a set of 6, nice and smooth, reps felt good, so went to 275, same as before.  For my third and final set went 315 for a set of 6 once again, all nice and smooth, felt good.  Then I was like "Eh, lets do 365 for a single and see how bad I fail"  Well, brought it down, paused waited for the mental press command, pressed it up.  Didn't go fast, but it did go nice and smooth.  Completed the rep.  Got up, no shoulder pain.  Felt pretty good about that considering I had done 10 sets before that.  Made me realize that I should still be able to knock out 405 raw if I was just going in and working up to a heavy single.  We'll see about that in another week or two.  Tomorrow will be heavy rack pulls.  This should be a fun journey, not really looking at any specific meets, just going to enjoy the journey.  Have a thought in my head that I'd like to try a Highland game.  Just gotta find a place to train for a caber.  We'll see how things go. 

Dual gym specialization!

Yay, now I only have -2/-2 to hit with my gyms!  Okay, if you got that joke, you're a fucking geek.  And for that I love you.  If you didn't, play D&D with me sometime.  Anyhoo, this commercial gym opened in my town at the first of the year.  I went by checked it out.  Decided it'd be a great place for accessory work.  So, I'll be doing most of my accessory work there, and my primary lifts at my usual place just because they're set up better for each.  I will say they do have some pretty nice eq and the staff is nice.  It was pretty sweet to see women getting to train without being hit on.  Also saw a couple of guys who had switched there which was nice to see.  Oh, I can bring someone with me so if anyone wants to train with me, give a shout.  Now, man, I have been excited to train and about training again.  It feels nice.  It's like I'm not going through the motions right now.  I hope it continues.  Like, today I tweaked my shoulder a bit, no biggie, but I was like "Oh man, I get to do a contrast shower tonight to help this!"  not my usual "Shit, I hurt so bad everywhere I have to do a contrast shower."  So... yeah... feels good man.

4/32/17

So, kinda let this thing die out with everything that was going on.  Finally getting the itch back.  Getting my mind a bit more right when it comes to training so I'll end up posting a bit more here.  We'll see how it goes.