‘Back’ at it

After getting my computer back from hp, in what I must say was record time, looks like it is time to start penning my “information” back into the blogosphere.

I’ll start off nice and lightly with my Valentines Day workout.  Which I must say, was surprisingly good.

After several cups of oatmeal, 6 pieces of pizza and breakfast pancakes over the last 12 hours, I was a big ball of potential energy and it made for a very good workout.

Started things off as per the usual with some weighted wide grip chins.  Warming up with body weight for a few reps and then 5 or so reps with 45 lbs. 

The meat and potatoes work included two sets of 6 reps with a 65 pound dumbbell.  This was followed with some close-grip chins with a 65 lbs for 6 and then 45 lbs for 8 or 9.  After the heavy weights, I always go for an all out set (of wide-grip chins) with no weight for as many reps as possible..got about 15 or so today.

Next on the menu was some barbell rows: 4 sets {135 lbs x 12; 185 lbs x 12; 205 lbs x 11; 225 lbs x 6}

Really getting a good burn today so all I needed to finish things off was some deadlifts. 

And boy did these finish me off.

4 Sets {225 lbs x 12; 315 lbs x 8; 365 lbs x 4; 405 lbs x 2}

Haven’t tried to do 405 lbs for a while (at least 18 months), but it felt good to feel some heavy weight again. 

Time to eat and recover.

Is chocolate a good post-workout meal?

Happy Valentines!

You Can Do It, Just Don't Put Your Back Into It

As leg day rolled around this week my back was feeling a little bit tired from the heavy deadlifts and back workouts over the last few weeks. 

Unfortunately, in order to get a thigh stimulation from squats it usually tires my lower back out a lot, so I quickly devised a plan and hit my legs hard!

Started off with some leg presses, and since I was doing them first, I was able to push a bit more weight than usual: 4 Sets {230 lbs x 30; 410 lbs x 20; 590 lbs x 20; 770 lbs x 12}

This got the ball rolling quite well, so went over to the squat rack and did some front squats, 3 sets {135 x 12; 175 x 12; 185 x 8}.  All the goodness of squats without any of the lower back stress.  Although, also a very good biceps workout.

Same rack, 2 sets of barbell lunges with 135 lbs x 8 reps.

I still did some stiff-legged deadlifts (although they involve a lot of lower back), but I kept the weight low and did them on top of a wooden box so that I could go extra deep and I only raised the bar up to my knees.  This helped keep the stress on my hamstrings and not my back. 3 Sets {135 x 20}

This was followed up with 3 sets of lying leg curls and some seated calf raises and quite a bit of stretching.

The legs were nice and pumped, and now "the back" feels good and ready for Saturday.

Have a good weekend!

No bowling balls here

Sorry about the slow posting rate over the last couple of days.  I have been in an all out battle with a virus on my laptop, a battle that hopefully I have won.

But that has not stopped me from having some very productive workouts over the last couple of days!

On Monday I had a chance to make it down to the school gym and use some more useful equipment for training my shoulders.

Due to my very long arms and short muscle bellies in my arms and shoulders, I have found it very tough getting my shoulder muscles to fill-out really pop!

Coupled with several shoulder dislocations and wear and tear from my short lived baseball career (which I am sure Canadutch can attest to) my shoulders have been somewhat of a disaster area.

But they are feeling good now, and it's time to see what they are made of!

Hopefully not Jell-O

The shoulder is a very tricky joint and one that demands stimulation from a multitude of angles as well as different set and rep schemes to hit all three heads (front, side and rear delts)and muscle types.

In order to put some bulk into my heads, I have added some more power movements to my routine after reading some excellent shoulder training advice from Got Built?

This weeks routine started off with some standing lateral raises, which actually got surprisingly heavy: 3 Sets (30 lbs x 20; 35 lbs x 20; 40 lbs x 12)

Then into the real meat and potato exercises:

Some Standing Overhead Push Presses (With barbell. Push meaning I used a little leg umph! when got tired to lift a little more weight): 3 sets (95 lbs x 12; 115 lbs x 12; 135 lbs x 8)

Seated dumbbell presses: 3 sets (50 lbs x 12; 60 lbs 12; 65 lbs x 8)

Hang Power Cleans (These Really made my forearms sore the next day!): 3 sets of 12 reps with 135 lbs. Really gassed at this point, almost cramping!

My training partner and I decided to see how many one arm chin-ups we could do (with the weight assisted machine). I got a few reps with 80 lbs of assistance.  Not bad considering I weigh 190 lbs now. Not really a shoulder exercise per say, but was tiring none the less.

We then finished it off with some barbells shrugs (3 sets of 20 or so with 225 lbs) and some reverse peck deck flyes.

If that doesn't put some bowling balls on my shoulders I don't know what will!

Squats, you make me weak in the knees

So leg day rolled around again today, as it seems to every Tuesday. Things started off slowly, as it was the end of a long day.

The squats weren't as good as would have liked them to have been.

Nonetheless, I pressed on and found myself pouring buckets of sweat with a great leg pump that I'm sure will be the cause of much soreness on the morrow.

Exercise order of the day:

Warmed-up with a 400m run

Back Squats: Sets {135 lbs x 15; 225 lbs x 12; 265 lbs x 6; 225 lbs x 8}

Wide Stance Squats: 1 Set of 135 lbs for 12

Front Squats: 135 lbs for 12 reps, also only one set

Stiff-Legged Deadlifts: 4 sets {135 lbs x 12; 225 lbs x 12; 275 lbs x 12; 315 lbs x 6}

Barbell Lunges: 2 Sets {135 lbs x 8}

Leg Press: 3 Sets {320 lbs x 30; 410 lbs x 25; 500 lbs x 25}

Lying Leg Curls: 3 Sets of 12 reps with 90 lbs or so (Not really sure with those machines)

Some standing calf raises and then some light stretching.

Phew!

Quite a bit of volume, but I am eating a tonne right now so hopefully I'll be able to recover well enough.

Perhaps I'll get a massage from Mrs. Oddbody (hopefully she is reading this)

Off to bed!

Squattin' Some More

Oh goodie, it's another leg-day...

Hooray!

And at the end of a long day of work, who doesn't look forward to a workout that requires more effort than pushing a marshmallow through a key-hole.  I'm not really sure where that came from...

Luckily, the joints were feeling good, I had eaten well and plentifully (2 chicken breasts, 2 cups of rice and 2 cups of steamed veggies over the last 4 hours go a long way!) so my energy levels were quite high going into the gym.

Started off with the usual, deep back squats: 5 Sets (135 lbs x 12; 225 lbs x 12; 265 lbs x 7; 285 lbs x 4; 225 lbs x 12). Got a good pump with these, very little rest between sets almost turned it into a cardio workout!

With no break went right into some stiff-legged deadlifts for three sets (135 lbs x 12; 225 lbs x 12 and 295 lbs x 10 or 12 not quite sure, was kind of light headed at this point...but in a good way)

Did a couple sets of barbells lunges (135 lbs x 8) while I waited for the leg press machine to be open where I did three sets of 30+ reps with 320 lbs.

I actually got a cramp at this point so I did some deep breathing and it seemed to go away (probably a little too much food in the tummy)

A few sets of lying leg curls including a final set drop set got my hamstrings sufficiently fried.

Last was seated calf raises and 15 minutes of stretching/lying on the floor followed by yet another wobbly walk up those darn stairs.

Going to try to do some yoga tonight for some more stretching which will hopefully ease the oncoming sore legs.

Chin-ups Galore

Workout: January 17th 2009 @ the Gritty Grotto from 12 PM- 1 PM

Today's workout was pretty crazy, I decided to see how much weight I could hold between my legs while doing a chin-ups. This is because I had drank more coffee than I would care to admit and was feeling especially energetic.

Warmed up with a "feel set" of 6 reps of wide grip chins (no-straps) followed by several working sets with added weight. Started off with 45 lbs, this felt especially easy today so I stopped at 6 reps to conserve energy.

I grabbed a 75 lbs dumbbell, figuring that this would be my max but I ended up doing 3 reps! So I tried the 85-pounder and blasted through 2 reps (the second of which was very slow!).

I finished off the wide-grip chins with another set of 7 reps with the 45 lbs dumbbell followed by 15 reps with just my body weight (186 lbs today).

Not bad for the first exercise :)

Next up, Barbell Rows: 3 Sets {135 lbs x 12; 185 lbs x 12; 185 lbs x 11}

Deadlifts (No Straps): 4 Sets {135 lbs x 12; 225 lbs x 12; 315 lbs x 12; 365 lbs x 3 (Ended this set early, wasn't feeling the groove anymore so I didn't want to risk injury)}

Reverse Grip Pull-downs: 3 sets of around 200 lbs for 8-12 reps

Last exercise of the day was several sets of barbell biceps curls. My arms were already quite tired and this finished them off nicely.

As I write this Sunday morning, I am quite sore and can assure you that this will truly be a day of rest!

sleeping kitty found here

Road to 405: Leg Day # 7

Location: Gritty Grotto

Time: 1:00 PM- 2:00 PM

Good leg workout today.  My body seems to do well when when my workouts are just after-noon. Warmed up today with a 400m run at a good pace.  Not a very long warm-up, but it seemed to do the trick. 

It was very busy at the gym today {new year's resolutions still being followed I guess}.  Therefore, I ended up skipping the leg curls and extensions to warm-up my thighs because one of the squat racks was open, so I jumped on it!

Back squats were first on the menu today.  5 Sets {135 lbs x 12; 225 lbs x 12;  255 lbs x 8; 275 lbs x 4; 225 lbs x 10} plus one set of front squats with 135 lbs x 15 to really feel the burn.

Still at the rack.  Time for some stiff-legged deadlifts: 4 sets {135 lbs x 12; 225 lbs x 12; 275 lbs x 12; 315 lbs x 6}

To finish of my quads I did 3 sets of 20 reps with 400 lbs.  Great Burn with this.

Next up, a few sets of hamstring curls with a drop set at the end.

Finished off with some seated calf raises and leg press calf raises.

Did a good 10 minutes of stretching at the end to help prevent the inevitable soreness that is sure to follow.

Although it didn't prevent me from barely being able to make it up the stairs at the end of it all.

Until next time!

Road to 405: Another Back Day

Location: Gritty Grotto

Date: January 11th 2009

Time: 10:20 AM to 11:20 AM

I don't usually make it to the gym on Sunday's as it is more of a recovery type day that involves a lot of sleeping.

But I was feeling my rolled-oats today, so I decided to get it done.

Today's back workout was a little slower and more heavy-duty than the last one, although I did set a couple of personal bests with chin-ups.

This is what I started off with: some chin-ups while holding a dumbbell between my legs {25 lbs x 8 reps; 45 lbs x 8; 60 lbs x 4; body weight x 20}

Next up was barbell rows, nothing crazy just 3 sets {135 lbs x15; 185 lbs x 12; 205 lbs x 8}

Good ol' deadlifts were next, three straight sets {135 lbs x 12; 225 lbs x 12; 315 lbs x12}

Finished the middle back off with some T-Bar Rows 3 sets with 100 lbs for as many reps as possible with very little rest to get a good pump.

Last exercise was some back extensions {35 lbs x 12} to finish off the lower back

Now it is time for sleeping and eating...I love Sundays

Ode to Recovery

I would just like to take a few minutes to let you all know about my favourite part about hard training...The rest and recovery days!  There is nothing like training hard all week, both at work and in the gym and then coming home to relax, get a few extra hours of sleep and a few more nutrient packed meals.  These are the days that you usually start to see the fruits of your labour, you body has a chance to rebuild, soreness starts to go away as your body begins to recharge for the next hard week of training.

Here are a few ways to make these rest days as productive as possible:

1) Do some light cardio.  By light, I mean very light, like going for a nice slow bike ride around the neighbourhood or walk with the dog.  Just enough to get the blood and nutrients flowing to help speed recovery and ease soreness without further breaking down the muscles any further.  Although if you are really sore it may be very tough to get moving but this is the best thing for you to do.

2) Some light stretching. This speaks for itself and some yoga would be perfect!  Perhaps go to that class that your girlfriend has been bugging you to go to for the last 10 months.

3)Get a massage.  If you get these regularly from a loved than you are in luck.  But if you have the extra cash or an excellent health plan; then having a therapeutic massage or some muscle therapy will do so much for any stress from the last week. Muscle soreness or any bad feelings at all that you have will be a thing of the past.  A bit of an exaggeration, but not really.

 

[This very gentle massage picture found here]

I recently received one of these as a birthday present and I must say: I do not think that I could have felt any better.  I could not wait to get back out and train because all sorts of little aches and pains that I had all over my body had been viciously worked out [although some parts were very sore from my very powerful masseuse! In a good way.]

4) Eat well. This doesn't mean that you have to forgo all of your favourite foods. Just make sure that you are getting enough nutrition and you can still enjoy some of the very tasty treats that tend to appear at BBQ's and other weekend functions, just don't go overboard.  Eat the good stuff first!

5) Don't party too hard. Get some sleep otherwise all the hard work you put in during the week is going to go down the drain.

Easy tips, the more of these you are able to add as part of your active recovery the more productive your workouts are going to be week in and week out. 

How do you like to relax after a hard week's training?