TweetMonday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Flat bench 4 sets
Incline bench 4 sets
Cable crossover 4 sets

Chest press machine superset with shoulder press machine 3 sets

A solid workout. Everything felt good and pretty smooth. Weight and reps were where I wanted them to be. Felt like I could of kept going but I'm doing chest and shoulders again on Thursday so I figured I wouldn't overdue it and did some abs instead. Also did HIIT on a treadmill. Sprinting is so taxing wow. I was breathing heavy head hanging after just a few bouts. I prefer elliptical because of low impact but the machine I use was taken.

The plan I'm coming up with is chest and shoulders day is HIIT cardio and Leg and back day will be farmers walks.

TweetTuesday

Squat w/safety squat bar 4 sets
Weighted Bulgarian split squat 4 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Weighted Pull ups 4 sets
Straight bar pulldown 4 sets
T bar row 4 sets
Lat pulldown 3 sets

So the other night in the mirror my quads looked smaller than they were a few months ago. I think it's because I've been having pain during squats and haven't been able to go all out. So I went to the gym yesterday and told myself if I was in pain during the squats that I wouldn't do them and just do other movements like lunges or whatever rather than go 50% on a squat. The only cage open already had the safety squat bar set up so I figured I'd give that a shot, to me the movement is a squat but it's way different than a regular squat. To my surprise it didn't bother my groin until the very bottom of the movement so I went with it. Actually went pretty heavy because it's been awhile. I've also made the decision to let me calves go and focus on the quads and hams for a bit. The back workout was a big iffy just because I felt spent after the leg work. I also hurt my leg somehow, I was doing pullups and after a set let go of the bar and when I landed the bottom portion of my quad hurt, it might have been a slight crap or the pump but it had me walking with a limp the rest of the night, nothing injury related, probably a cramp type issue.

TweetWednesday

20 minutes treadmill (farmers walk intervals)
60 crunches and 15 leg raises
5 minutes treadmill (farmers walk intervals)
60 crunches and 15 leg raises
5 minutes treadmill

Still playing around with what weight is best for the farmers walks. This time I went with less weight than last week but did 40 second intervals. I did 6 intervals at 40 seconds but also threw in a few 20 second ones towards the end of my first round. The next 5 minutes I went lighter and did a minute on and a minute off. I was pretty happy with the cardio this way. It was easier to unload the weight from the cup holders and still offered a challenge and towards the end made my grip feel challenged.

TweetThursday

Flat DB press superset with side lateral raise 4 sets
Decline hammer strength superset with facepull 4 sets
Underhand bench superset with wide grip high row 4 sets
Peck deck superset with rear delt fly 3 sets

I was fairly impressed with my workout. The weight I was moving was right up there where I was in the middle of the winter if not a touch more. I swear I was able to get 3 or 4 more reps on the decline hammer strength than I'm used to. As you can see I didn't do any presses for the shoulder and that was the plan I figured I've been getting enough front delt work from benches and presses that I wanted to focus more on the rear delt. I did have some tightness in my right shoulder during the workout but nothing enough to stop me from going full force.

Woke up this morning, top abs are showing more detail, I was hoping to get that look in February but 3 days late isn't too bad either. Pretty happy with where I am this early. Last year I was no where close until like June.

TweetSaturday

DB curl superset with rope extension 4 sets
BB curl superset with BB close grip press 4 sets
Underhand extension superset with rope cable hammer curl 4 sets
Dip machine superset with double cable high curl 3 sets

Solid workout here. Felt good the arms got pumped real quick. It's also a mind thing but I had a basketball jersey on under my hoodie so when I got warm I took the hoodie off. Something about training arms without sleeves just makes you want to keep working the arms all day because you get that pump and see the roundness. It's like a silent motivator. I am happy with the way my arms seem to have come up over the winter a bit. Wish my forearms would grow but I never really train them directly, farmers walks will help as I continue to use heavy weights.

As far as the OL Tr1umph. Nothing crazy to note yet, I've used the main ingredient in the product which is soy lecithin before and experienced more fullness and maybe I have noticing a bit more fullness but nothing to write home about yet, however I am doing more intense cardio than before so maybe I'm offsetting things a bit. I have two jugs and I'm not done with the first one yet but hopefully the fullness will come soon and carry me into the second month of the product.

TweetMonday

Squat (safety squat bar) 6 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Standing calve raise 2 sets
Weighted pull ups 4 sets
Straight bar pulldown 4 sets
T bar row 4 sets

Lat pulldown superset leg raises 3 sets
Vertical leg press superset leg raises 3 sets


I don't know what to do. Last week I used the safety squat bar and felt good enough to get intense again on the squats. This week my groin was in pain. I got to the 4th set and thought it was starting to feel better and maybe got fully loose but the 5th set I had a lot of pain again, the 6th set I went light to just make sure I extended the time under tension but it wasn't great. The leg press on the other hand was really good and the burn I was getting after the set was awesome. However between sets on the leg press I could feel my groin in pain. I may have to stop squatting for a bit and find some other big leg movements because when the pain happens it feels like I either end up loosing out on reps or weight and I could be doing other movements with more intensity.

Did farmers walks again with heavy weights and it's tough at the end to get the weight back into the cup holders but it felt intense. It's a different type of heavy breathing than sprinting but it is difficult nonetheless

TweetTuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sts
Flat bench 4 sets
Incline Bench 4 sets
Decline hammer strength 4 sets

Incline DB flies superset with straight arm side laterals 3 sets

Run of the mill in terms of exercises performed but odd workout. Standing shoulder press felt really unbalanced for whatever reason. I unhooked the bar and it didn't feel right but it's odd because the weight was flying and I had no problem handling the weight, I just felt the form was a little weird. However I ended up going fairly heavy and probably matched my best 8 rep weight total. On the other hand the flat bench was not so good as I kept getting left shoulder pain. I played with the bar placement and found if I lowered up higher on my chest the pain wasn't as bad but it seemed to hamper the strength. Incline press I didn't have pain so I went pretty heavy there to make up for the flat bench being weaker. Wanted to do some cable crosses at the end instead of DB flies but all the handles were missing. We have a million handles for single arm cable movements and I couldn't find a matching set to save my life so I just went with the dumbbells.

TweetWednesday

10 minute farmers walk (40 seconds on, 40 seconds off)
Rope crunches superset weighted side dips
5 minutes farmers walk (30 seconds on, 30 seconds off)
Rope crunches superset crunches
5 minutes farmers walk (20 seconds on, 40 seconds off)
60 crunches
5 minutes walk

Again I'm just trying something new for cardio to shake things up a bit. I went with lighter weight and decided to do longer than a 20 second interval. I used the same weight the whole time and decreased the time I was holding the weight each time. The part I wasn't thrilled with was my forearms and grip were giving out before I was feeling any type of intense breathing or burning from the cardio itself. I need to find an effective way to do farmers carries. I enjoy doing them but the heavy weight isn't great on the treadmill and the light weight even at longer distance doesn't feel intense enough. I used to walk back and fourth in the gym but the gyms been more busy than it used to be so if I was to do that I would just be getting in everyones way since our gym is pretty small. Back to the lab.

TweetThursday

Deadlift 7 sets
Leg press superset with chest pad t bar row 3 sets
Standing calve raise superset with straight bar pull down 3 sets
Leg extension superset with seated leg curl superset with lat pull down 4 sets

Deadlifting felt pretty good. After having overtime a month ago and other things I haven't been deadlifting all that much but it felt solid and my form felt good. The first two sets I went 10-12 reps, then the next two sets I did 5-7, I figured at that point to test my strength to see where I was and did 3 sets of 1 rep but it kept being fairly easy until the last set where it was a struggle but I was happy with the weight I ended up with. I also feel like I got a lot of work in other than just the deadlifts.

I weighed myself last night and I gained a pound, I'm not trying to gain weight, I'm hoping to start losing some fat but the mirror says I look better. By that I mean I'm a tad leaner and maybe a tad bigger but my shape is noticeably better than where it was just a month or so ago, which at the end of the day is what I care more about than a number on a scale.

TweetHaven't been to the gym since Thursday. Had a death in the family that I found out about Friday afternoon. Friday was my day off anyway, Saturday I had to drive to pick up my quarter of grass fed beef then ran around that town all day trying to pay the people for the beef. Got home and had to split it up with people so by the time I was done it was kind of late.

Monday we had the funeral and I could of wen to the gym later in the day but I sat down and passed out. Tuesday and Wednesday I was snowed in. It was unlike any snow storm I've ever had to deal with, also the first huge snowstorm in my house. So I guess I got in a few workouts just shoveling. Spent a good 2 hours shoveling on Tuesday, then walked to my parents to get a snow blower, however the snow blower isn't huge and the roads were not plowed so it took like 45 minutes both ways even though they live like a block from me. It was basically a sled push the whole way. Went back out at night for an hour or two. Then Wednesday I did more shoveling for a few hours. Thinking I was done shoveling I went outside to see a plow truck covered my driveway with huge ice chunks so another hour crushing ice and moving the blockade.

I'm sore all over from the shoveling. My wrist and shoulders hurt from when the shovel got jammed up. My back is sore from pulling the snow blower and from deadlifting snow for 2 days. I've also been dealing with a groin injury from squatting and walking on uneven ice and snow didn't help, a few times I slipped and had shooting pain from the grown. Oh what a winter wonderland.

TweetThursday

Hit the gym and my body was in pain. As the day went on yesterday my body started to have more aches and pains. I decided since most of my body felt drained to do some chest training since it probably got hit the least from shoveling. I also did some light shoulder work, most side and rear. I didn't really pay attention to sets and mostly used hammer strength machines or cables for my chest. The weight actually wasn't that bad. I got a nice mind/muscle connection and really good squeeze on the movements.

My groin was also hurting really bad when I left work so I did some walking on a treadmill which doesn't really bother it, I was hoping to narrow down what movements would cause pain and I could tell it was sore but nothing gave me a shooting pain while on the treadmill.

After all of that I thought to myself I feel like I have some energy, my body's worn out but I could of stayed at the gym a little longer. Until I got home and realized I was plowed in....again. So I spent a good half hour unshoveling my driveway so I can park my car. At that time is when I realized how sore my legs and back were, also my forearms were on fire.

We were joking at the gym because you were able to tell who spent the last 2 days shoveling as we were all moving pretty slowly vs. the guys who didn't shovel still going at full speed. Either way today is a welcomed day off.

TweetWOW, sorry to hear about your loss and all you have going on... I think you nailed it on your body needing rest. Do what helps you feel calm and relaxed so you can be ready for a full blown training session soon. As far as groin pain, I can tell you for me that any type of stairs (movement) or too much sitting aggravates the Hell out of it!

TweetSaturday

DB curl superset with V bar extension 4 sets
Incline DB curl superset with behind the head ez bar extension 4 sets
Dip machine superset with double high cable curl 4 sets
Underhand extension superset with DB hammer curl 4 sets

Started off really slow. I thought I was getting sick as I drove to the gym, my throat was itchy and I didn't feel right. But once I got moving the workout was great. I had really good concentration and went pretty heavy on the all the movements. Turned out to be a good workout. I would of kept going if I didn't have some other things to do during the day. As I did my cardio my arms felt like balloons and I could tell they were going to be sore the next day. I was right, Sunday I was pretty sore in my arms. Between the training and the snow my forearms and arms in general got a lot of work last week which I'm pretty happy about since it was a weak part going into winter.

I don't know how but overtime is being offered at work once again so I'll be working that. I'll have to go back to supersetting and doing quick workouts to get in an out of the gym before the owner kicks me out. Part of me wants overtime to last for a few weeks but another part of me knows it's this time that the gym is so important to get ready for spring and summer.