Back (lower chain)

Good Mornings with Safety bar

135 X 10
135 X 10
225 X 8
315 X 5 or 6 cannot recall
225 X 7

Pull thru's
130 X 8
150 X 8

reverse hypers with band
10 X 3

Pull overs
1 set both arms 150 X 8
1 set each arm solo
60 X 8
1 set both arms 100 X 15

Hammer curls
80 X 6 each side
immediately followed by strict dumbbell curls 32.5 X 12
75 X 8 each side
immediately followed by strict dumbbell curls 27.5 X 12

Shoulders Thursday Dec 27, 2007

Just did a recovery work out today for the old shoulders

Then did some recovery triceps work

It felt good to get the blood flowing over the triceps soreness.

Chest Wednesday Dec 26, 2007

Worked Chest today heavy.

Decline Bench medium grip.

Warm up
225 X 10
275 X 8
315 X 6
365 X 6

Hammer Bench
225 X 21
225 X 12

Dips
Body Weight only
12 X 3

Various triceps accsy work high rep

Christmas week, I will start updating again after xmas.

Friday Dec 14, 2007 Back

Safety bar Good Mornings
135 X 15
135 X 12
225 X 8
275 X 7
315 X 6
405 X 2

Speed Deadlift @ 40%

275 X 3 X 10 (30 second breaks)

pull downs
275 X 10 X 3

high pulls
100 X 8
110 X 8
130 X 5

glute ham raises with a 30lb dumbbell
10 X 3

abs 100 reps no crunches

Wednesday Dec 12, 2007 Bench!!

Heavy Tricep work

Bench lockouts 9th pin
warm ups
315 X 10
405 X 8
420 X 5

triceps extensions
130 X 8
140 X 8
150 X 7

triceps extensions on smith machine
4th pin X 10
4th pin X 8
3rd pin X 8

forget what else

glute ham raises 3 X 10 with hand resistance

Tuesday Dec 11, 2007 Cardio stamina

1 hour cardio on an incline at 3.0mph

drill work with Rileigh. She loves me picking her up and moving her around in different planes and the 15lbs she provides adds resistance to our playtime.

Monday Dec 10, 2007 Shoulders

Seated Military Press
135 X 15
185 X 12
225 X 8
225 X 8
275 X 4
275 X 4

Arnold Presses (light weight assistance reps focusing on anterior deltoids)
65lb dumbbells X 10
75lb dumbbells X 8
80lb dumbbells X 8

str8 bar lateral raises
bar (45lbs) X 15
55lbs X 10
75lbs X 8

rotator cuf work
100 reps light weight from different angles

farmers walk
150lbs X 100ft X 3

core work 100 reps no crunches (transverse plane)

Friday Dec 7 Back

Started with Rack pulls and worked up to 485 for 2 sets of 5.

I was a little hung over, so wasted a completely good workout in my opinion.

Pulldowns
250 X 8
275 X 7

Single arm dumbell rows
70 X 8
75 X 7

curls

Opps!!

Well I slacked off on updating for a little bit, but am back on track now.

Monday I did legs and have decided that I need to stay away from heavy glute and hamstring excercises for awhile as it is making it difficult in the apparel department.

So I did the following leg workout and it was pretty tough...

Feet close together hack squats
180 X 10
270 X 8
360 X 5 X 3

Single leg deadlifts
40lb dumbbell X 10 X 3

Single leg squats
10 X 3

bodyweight squats with a bar mostly for shoulder flexibility
50 as deep as I could go

hindi squats
50

leg extensions double and single leg
200 X 10 X 3

75 X 10 X 3

lunges twice around the track

Chest

Incline Bench alternating grip
95 X 10
145 X 8
145 X 8 speed
225 X 8
275 X 2
275 X 3

Dips
90lbs around waist X 2 X 8/6

fly's/j-presses
50lb dumbbells X 10/10
35lb dumbbells X 10/10

had to leave early.

Legs

zercher squats
235 X 10
325 X 10
415 X 10
505 X 6

ran out of gas and could not continue without risk of hurting myself. My hamstring got really tight.

single leg deads
70lbs X 3 X 10 each side

single leg squats
bodyweight X 3 X 10 each side

leg curls, leg extensions, adduction, abbduction

abs

Friday Nov 16, 2007 Back/Deads

Did Deads from the 8 inch blocks today

235 X 6
325 X 6
415 X 6
505 X 5
585 X 5
635 X 3
685 X 2
705 X 1

Reverse hamstring raises
3 X 10

pull downs
275 X 2 X 8

pull ups
20

single arm rows
70lb x 2 X 10 each side

abs

Free day

I didn't go to the gym tuesday because we had guests in town, so I did my accessory/free day today.

I ended up doing a full body workout that went like this....

First off everything was no more than 50% of my max for whatever excercise I was doing.

hack squat 180lbs for 50 reps
single leg stiff leg deadlift 70lbs X 50 (this was hard, balance is key)
50 calf raises
50 flat bench presses 2 sets of 25 at 135bs
50 dumbbell shoulder presses 45lb dumbbells for 50 reps
dumbbell curls 30lbs for 50 reps
tricep extensions 30lbs for 50 reps
50 crunches
50 ab wheels (8 sets)


left about to puke. I never do volume like this and it was a nice change. I was physically easy, but neroilogically and mentally it was fairly tough.

Chest Day 2 back from a break

Today went really well and I got 2 PR's on my heavy excercise today I think.

Started off with Decline bench
135 X 12
225 X 26 PR
315 X 8
385 X 3 X 3 PR

Incline 1.75 reps
135 X 8 super slow 8 second rep count
135 X 12 1.75 rep
135 X 12 1.75 rep

Dips
2 sets X 12 reps @ 90lbs + bodyweight

triceps extensions on the smith maching
3 X 7 bodyweight

kickbacks
3 X 8 X 30lbs.

Legs

Well today was my first day back after a week off and after a little warming up, it felt great.

I started with zercher squats and worked up to 485 for 3 singles then moved on to some different kind of work.

I did 100 bodyweight squats
2 minutes of step up work on a knee height box
3 sets of reverse hypers and then abs.

I figured I would only take 1 heavy excercise each day this week, so i don't overtrain, hopefully it works.

BUST!

Well last week was a bust. I think recently with all the PR's I have been getting and the forward progress, I was overtraining a bit. Last monday, I felt a slight pull in my hamstring and then tuesday I felt like crap in general. The rest of the week, I was sick.

I feel better finally, but am now in a general state of fatigue. This is normal for when I don't workout though and should pass quickly enough.

We'll see how this week goes.

Legs

went in to squat today and decided I was going to squat as deep as these old hips would let me.

I did really well until I got up to 315 and then I felt a slight pull in my hamstring, so I stopped and went back down to 225 and did 2 more sets of 6.

After that I just went and stretched, but ended up doing 60 bodyweight squats and doing some medicine ball throws with tiff while I did them.

I figured it would just be best to take it easy today.

Friday Deadlifts

Deadlifts from 8" blocks
Warm up 225 X 10
315 X 8
405 X 7
405 X 7
495 X 7
585 X 4
675 X 2 without wraps (PR)

Back extensions
300 X 15 X 2

Pull-ups
30

abs
did 2 sets of 8 with ab roller (PR)

stretched

shoulders girlde work

Machine military presses
180 X 15
270 X 12
360 X 8

lateral raises 3 sides
30 X 3

plate holds
10lb each side
15 seconds front
15 seconds side
15 seconds in
X 2

rotator cuff work
30 X 2 each side

abs

Monday Legs

Zercher squats skinny bar 8th pin
went for higher reps today.

225 X 20
315 X 12
315 X 12
405 X 6
405 X 6


single leg squats holding 2x25lb dumbbells
2 x 10 each side

adduction
50 reps

abbduction
50 reps

hamstring curls on calf machine
2 x 7

1 set of lunges around the track then puked.

Back

Good mornings from a relaxed position
135 X 12
225 X 8
315 X 5
315 X 4

hamstring raises on knees
2 X 6

pull downs
250 X 8
275 X 6

2 arm dumbbell rows
75 X 8
80 X 8

got tired and went home. could not focus, probably had something to do with working 60 hours this week.

Heavy Chest/Tri's

8pin lockouts
225 X 10
315 X 10
315 X 8
405 X 5
405 X 5
425 X 3
425 X 3

Green band pressdowns
2 X 10

Triceps pressdowns
150lbs X 8
170lbs X 6

Single arm extensions over the head
70 X 8
80 X 6

Dumbell inner extensions
45 X 8
50 X 7

bodyweight dips
2 X 12

Legs

Zercher Squats in a conventional stance from the 7th pin
225 X 10
315 X 8
405 X 6
405 X 3
405 X 3
405 X 3

Hamstring curls 5 seconds eccentric phase
120 X 8
140 X 8

Adduction
300 X 20
300 X 14

Abbduction
300 X 14
300 X 10

Single leg Squats
3 X 10 holding a 25lb weight

abs

Deadlifts/BackFriday 10/19/2007

Speed Deadlift with chains
225 X 8 warm up
315 X 6 warm up
365 X 2 X 8 with 40lbs of chains

Finished work out with miscellaneous back work.

Shoulders Upper Chain

Military Press on the Hammer Strength Machine
90 X 20
180 X 18
270 X 8
360 X 6
360 X 5

30 second negative on the last rep

Seated Rotator Cuff work
1 X 8 @ 30lbs
1 X 7 @ 30lbs
1 X 7 @ 40lbs

Rear Pulley Pulls very strict
1 X 10 @ 40lbs each side
1 X 8 @ 50lbs each side

Lateral holds
10lbs each hand 2 sets of 30 seconds

Abs

Ab wheel
2 X 10 on knees

I tried doing it from a standing position and except for getting started off the ground I was able to do 2

Straight leg situps
2 X 20

Vsit
2 X 30 seconds

Walked for 25 minutes at 3.2mph and a 1.5 incline setting.

Monday Legs!

Started out with Zercher Squats again today, but I made it a bit more interesting.

I used the fat bar today and also lowered the pins down to pin 7. This puts me in a deep squat using a conventional stance and barely above 90 degrees in a sumo stance.

So I did conventional until it started getting heavy and then switched over to sumo, so I could keep going.

135 X 15 conventional
225 X 8 conventional
315 X 6 conventional
315 X 6 sumo
405 X 5 sumo
405 X 5 sumo
495 X 3 sumo
515 X 1 sumo

That pin change and the bar I used made a huge difference in the weight I could handle, but it is something to shoot for now. If I can get up to 600 or so at the pin settings I used today with the fat bar, that will be some nice progress.

Adduction
300 X 15
300 X 10 very slow reps

Abduction
300 X 15
300 X 10 very slow reps

Single leg squats holding 2 40lb dumbbells
2 sets X 10 reps each leg

Abs

Cardio
did 15 minutes of interval work on the bike.

MAN I WANT A SLED TO PULL!!!

Just a walk

Today Tiff and I went for a walk on the greenway to relax a bit. We ended up walking about 3 miles and it turned out to be a nice bit of excercise.

We are going to start doing it every weekend along with swimming this winter at the Sports*Com.

We cannot wait to get Rileigh in the water!

Friday Back day

Today we worked the posterior chain and upper back. I thought it might be good to give the old deadlift motion a rest for a week or 2.

Good mornings from the pins just above 90 degrees
135 X 12
135 X 8
225 X 7
245 X 6

Pull throughs
170 X 8
90 X 15

lateral holds
2 X 10 each hand

Abs

Poem I have always like

This poem perfectly defines how I feel when I am deadlifting. If I could only do one excercise the rest of my life it would for sure be pulling the weight from the floor!

My legs sprawled out from the bench where I sit
While I soak in my sweat and tongue out the grit
From my molars and savor each second of rest
Before I return for a personal best

I imagine each subsequent part of my set-up
Chalk my torn palms before stooping to get up
Trudge back toward the bar across the gym floor
A dejected ex-lover who's come back for more
I step to the weight as if starting a fight
My body resilient, my fists clenched tight
Lower myself in a humble bow
To a weight never moved-at least until now

I push back the caution and doubt that I've felt
Unleashing Hell as I fasten my belt
Seizing the bar with resolute hands
Eschewing stares from those who don't understand
Look up and tense through my heels to the ground
Pulling with madness, head up and butt down
The bar flexes upward then cracks off the floor
The weight lumbers, slumbers, encumbers me more

And as I strain through the physical strife
I loose sight of time and the bland chores of life
For this is my passion, though extreme in degree
And yes most wouldn't guess, as the bar clears my knees,
That I'm feeling such joy by my own grace
Behind this beat-red frown on my face

And with every inch the bar crawls up my thighs
With every groan and pain-laden cry
With every moment the iron yields to me
Without a doubt, I am truly free.

Bench ME Workout

Worked heavy tris and short range today

Lockouts 1/3 movement
warm up 30 reps
315 X 2 X 10
405 X 3 X 5
425 X 2 X 3

Dips
1 X 8 @ 70lbs
1 X 7 @ 95lbs

Triceps pressdowns
1 X 22 @ 80
1 X 18 @ 90
1 X 12 @ 120

Push ups
30 close hands

lying triceps extensions
1 X 8 @ 50lbs
1 X 7 @ 47.5lbs strict form

DONE!

Monday Lower Body Posterior Chain

Worked Deadlift accessory lifts today

Zercher Squat from the bottom just above paralell (pin 8 or 9 I cannot recall)

warm up
315 X 12
315 X 8
405 X 8
495 X 4
495 X 4
585 X 2
600 X 1
600 X 1
605 X 1

Pull thrus
120 X 15
170 X 8
180 X 4

Single leg squats holding a 45lb plate
3 X 10 each side

abs
2 X 6 roller wheel
2 sets straight leg situps X 15

stretched

Something I read today that made a ton of sense to me...

Not enough kids these days free play on a daily basis, and they focus constantly on one sport year round. Too often I encounter 8 year old kids playing soccer 7 days a week with multiple game tournaments every weekend. This is detrimental to youths in two ways: it not only leads to incomplete general movement skill development and coordination issues, but also creates overuse injuries.

My advice: play as many sports as you can growing up, and when it comes to training for both youths and advanced athletes, incorporate a healthy dose of movement, mobility, and dynamic flexibility exercises into your workouts.

Friday Back Deadlifts

Worked off of approximately a 6" step today.

Did 30 reps total after warming up.
These are all at the least singles with a reset in between each rep.
315 X 5
315 X 5
405 X 4
405 X 4
405 X 4
485 X 4
500 X 1
500 X 1
500 X 1
500 X 1

Pull thrus
170 X 12
180 X 8

Pull downs
275 X 6 X 2

Pull ups wide grip
15 total with bodyweight

back extensions
300 X 15
300 X 12

2 arm bent over rows
65 X 8
75 X 7

Wednesday Chest workout

Today was a heavy regular bench day, so we choose either flat close grip bench or decline bench. We like decline best, so that is what we did.

Decline bench
warm up
225 X 10
295 X 5 easy
345 X 4 not too bad
385 X 2 or 3?
405 X 1 was fairly easy. Normally when I go this heavy there is some pain in the joints etc, but I think the training method we have been using has started to pay off and if we keep it up will result in less injuries and a better overall long term strength gain.

Hammer Strength Decline bench
225 X 15
225 X 16

Push-ups with one hand on medicine ball to work shoulder stabilizers
4 sets total of 10 reps (2 sets on each hand)

abs
3 X 15 straight leg situps
2 vsits 20 seconds

got home and walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes with Rileigh.

Tuesday free workout

Well got to the gym today and was a bit stiff, so I just decided to mess around a bit.

I did a quick full body circuit on the machines, just to loosen up the old bones and then hopped on the bike for a ride.

Bike ride
10 miles in 34 minutes 47 seconds

Abs
60 straight leg situps
20 ab wheels
3 vsits at 20 seconds per.

Monday Oct 1, 2007 Lowerbody

Started off with Horizontal squats.
230 X 12
320 X 10
410 X 5
530 X 3
530 X 2

Single leg squats holding a 45lb weight
3 X 8 each side

Abduction
300 X 15 X 2

Adduction
300 X 15 X 2

Leg Curls
175 X 8
200 X 6

Abs

Walked for 15 minutes

Friday DEADLIFT DAY!!! YEAH!!!!

Pulled from the rack today what I felt was going to be a dud turned out to be a great workout.

Pulled from the 4th pin, top of the chin. Turns out to be almost all back lift.

warmed up.
315 X 10
405 X 8
485 X 8
575 X 3
675 X 1 PR. I have never picked this much up without wraps and it was fairly easy.

Pull thrus
130 X 8
150 X 8

back extensions
300 X 15
300 X 15

abs

Partner did well today too, he took 315 in the rack and made it look rather easy. Nice and easy wins the race, he'll be doing this with 405 in no time.

Workout 09/25/2007

Went in to just play around today, because tommorow is heavy chest, but ended up having a really good shoulder/stabilizer workout workout.

Seated Military Press
180 X 15
270 X 10
270 X 8
360 X 6
360 X 5

Lateral Raises
1 set 10 to the front 10 to the side 10 teacups

Rear Delt work on the cable machine
3 X 10 @ 40lbs

Seated Rotator Cuff work on the double front cable machine
3 X 10 @ 40lbs

Front Raises with Barbell all the way up
3 X 10 X 75

3 sets of Static Holds 10lb plate X 60 seconds

Rode the recumbent bike for 20 minutes.

Leg Workout 09/24/2007

Good workout today.

So far my odd training style of doing doubles for heavy weights on the horizontal squat seems to be paying off. Leg circumference is up .5" and strength continues to rise.

All reps are deep enough to hear the sled touch the bottom except for the last set. I keep this one to just below paralell.

Horizontal Squats
230 X 15
320 X 10
410 X 7
410 X 6
520 X 2 X 3

Single Leg Squats (only held a 25lb weight today, but I added 2 steps to the board today)
3 X 8 each side

Box Jumps (about broke my neck trying to use the aerobic steps for this, but did it any way)
5 X 8 X 3

1 set of lunges around the track

Chest 09/19/2007

Today was a free workout in our chest cycle, so we did close grip flat bench and some other fun stuff for a change.
Flat close grip bench
135 X 10
225 X 8
225 X 8
275 X 5
280 X 4
280 X 4

Decline Hammer Strength Bench
225 X 15
315 X 10
365 X 7

Pec Deck
220 X 10
240 X 8

Abs
Crunches
25 X 1
Roller Wheel
8 X 1
V Sit
2 X 30 seconds

Workout Tuesday 9/18/2007

Heh already I am missing daily updates. Anyways Monday I only did cardio for about 30 - 45 minutes. It was a hectic day.

Tuesday I did legs and it went like this...

Horizontal Squat (heavy) I don't like squatting anymore and this seems to be a good lower body replacement.
230 X 10
320 X 8
410 X 6
410 X 6
560 X 2
560 X 2
560 X 2

Brazilian Squats holding 45lb dumbells (90lbs total)
10 x 3 each side
Adduction
300 X 15 X 3
Abbduction
300 X 15 X 3
lunges
around the track twice bodyweight only
abs
roller wheel
8 X 1
crunches with medicine ball (10lb)
25 X 1
V sit
30 seconds X 2

MY ABS!!

So recently I have been worrying about ab development, yet I have been on the fence about it. I do enough heavy legs, deadlifts and other core work to where my abs are very strong and developed under my winter coat.

I finally found something from a well respected person in the strength arena to back up my ideas against crunches.

Here is Charles Poliquin's take on ab training...

Q: Is there a best overall abdominal exercise? Is there ever a need for an athlete to specialize in ab training?

A: The best ab exercise? Squatting. Next is deadlifting.

Abdominal specialization for athletes? It could happen, but the abs actually have very little potential for strength increases when compared to other muscles like calves. Along with the grip, the abdominals are the least likely to improve with training. Some of these guys can claim all these poundages used in ab training, but it's actually the psoas doing the work.

If you truly isolate the abs, after six to eight weeks an athlete will plateau the rest of his life. Research has shown that the most coordinated athletes master the most difficult abdominal exercises in six to eight weeks. The only things that increase abdominal improvement are squatting and deadlifting.
Have those guys into core training ever trained anyone strong? Bring me someone then. I find that it's just a con job and a disgrace to the strength coaching community.

I tend to agree with him in that I get very little out of my ab workouts, but find my abs toasted after a hard posterior chain workout or squat work out.
We'll see....

Today's Workout

DEADLIFT DAY YEAH!!!

Worked deads from 100lb 4" plates. I was standing on them.

warm up
315 X 6
405 X 6
495 X 5
505 X 5
525 X 2
540 X 1

Hip Pull thrus
I am still having trouble with these. The weight pulls me back towards the stack, so I do not think i am doing near what I should be weight wise. But I suppose it will simply take a bit of time for my body to get used to the movement, since I have not been doing them very long.
130 X 8
140 X 6
170 X 6

Back Extensions
3 X 300 X 15 or so

Pull ups X 25

Rode the bike for 20 minutes.

Was a good day, except I forgot to load my MP3 player and did not have my mood music. Got 3 PR's in the deadlift and cannot wait until Brady is born and I can remove the plates and pull from the floor. Everything I have read in regards to pulling from plates on some of the more popular powerlifting sites say this will boost my floor deadlift bigtime!

Ugh! Yesterday was a tough workout to get through. Having a newborn and taking classes that require studying in the evenings is not conducive to good sleep and lots of energy for workouts.

I made it through though after taking a little longer than normal to get moving.


Workout for Wednesday September 12, 2007

Chest/Triceps (Push)

Lockouts in the power rack
7th pin
275 X 10
315 X 8
8th pin
365 X 6
410 X 7
Dips
10 reps with 70lbs around my waist
7 reps with 95lbs around my waist
Pushdowns (1 hand)
80 X 10
100 X 10
Overhead tricep extension
60 X 12
80 X 12
Pushups
30
Crunches
1 X 25
V-sit
1 X 30 seconds
Ab-wheel
1X6

I have been meaning to keep up with my workouts for years...

I have been meaning to track my workouts and success for years and I have finally gotten around to doing it.

I cannot carry a book around and cannot remember to write it down when I get home, but since I spend alot of my time at a PC I am thinking this will work for me.

I will only be putting work sets on here, so don't think I don't spend enough time there. Warm ups don't count. Only the time I am "at work" counts.

My current workout schedule is as follows.

Monday -- Shoulders
Tuesday -- Legs
Wednesday -- Chest
Thursday -- Free day accessory work
Friday -- Back (DEADS!!!)

So lets also go ahead and put yesterdays workout up here.

Horizontal Hack Squats (feet together almost)
300 X 6
390 X 6
430 X 6
Brazillian Single leg squats holding a 45lb plate
3 sets X 6
Adduction work
2 X 14 @ 260
2 X 10 @ 260 using 6 second lowering of weight on each rep
Abduction work
2 X 12 @ 300
2 X 10 @ 300
Crunches
3 X 20
V Sits
3 X 30 seconds
Ab-Wheel
2 X 6
Rode the bike for 20 minutes.