Young Gotti's Journal

[Young Gotti]

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Tuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Peck deck 4 sets
Hammer strength press 4 sets
Hammer strength press superset w/ db high row 3 sets
Facepull 3 sets

Stretched out lower back on a hyper extension

Back to the same old chest/shoulder routine. This time though I've upgraded from the decline hammer strength to the regular one which is a step up imo. The regular machine was giving me problems but I was able to use it yesterday with very little discomfort. I did 4 normal sets but on the next three I dropped the seat pretty low in hopes of hitting my upper chest a bit more which was cool.

However possibly the best part of the workout was talking to 2 physical therapists that workout at my gym, they usually aren't there when I get there but today they were so I asked them about my quad pain in the middle of the night. They had me do some runway walks, some stretches for my hamstrings and such. They said my hamstrings were really tight but I also deadlifted the day before so to me it made sense that they would be. I've been stretching and foam rollers my upper back but they said it would be ok for me to really dig into my hams, quads, and hips with a lacrosse ball in hops to loosen some stuff up. They really told me to stretch the hamstrings really good. So last night that's what I did, I paid most of my attention to the lower body in hopes to get something to release. I still woke up with quad discomfort but was able to fall back to sleep, hopefully now that I keep focusing on the hamstrings everything will improve. But they also said I could have discs in my back causing the problem which I knew so I tried to really stretch my lower back at the gym using the hyper extension and free hanging to get things to decompress a bit.

[Young Gotti]

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Wednesday

Basketball

Wasn't the best night of basketball. I have two goals each game, score 10 points and overall feel like I played well, not many turnovers and giving effort. Well I scored way above 10 points but I was sluggish. I didn't feel sluggish or tired while playing but I wasn't moving as well as I would have liked. Mainly on defense it just felt like it took an eternity to shift from one player to another and on offense all my shots felt short. I'm wondering if I need rest or from really digging into my quads and stuff to release the pain that's been happening. I'm not sure. I wasn't in any pain playing which was good. I'm also wondering if it's from jumping rope the day before wore out my legs a bit. I've been alternating HIIT and jump rope, last week I jumped on Monday, HIIT on Tuesday, this week I switched which could be an issue since the jump rope is a bit more high impact than the HIIT I do. So I'll go back to the opposite next week and see.

I was thinking of taking Thursday off from the gym for an extra rest day since I workout 6 days a week but I decided I'll go on Thursday and since we may get clobbered with snow this weekend that I may not be able to get to the gym. Figured I didn't want to skip Thursday and then be forced to skip all weekend too.

[Young Gotti]

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Thursday

Ball slams superset w/ facepull 4 sets
Farmers walk 4 sets
Kettlebell swings superset w/ finger tip wall dribble 4 sets
Battleropes superset w/ seated calve raise 4 sets
Jump rope and hanging stretch 4 sets

My routine was thrown off when I walked in the gym. It was busy, not just busy for a Thursday which is usually dead but busy for any day at my gym. I've enjoyed getting in, doing the battle ropes, getting the heart rate up and then keeping it up the rest of the workout. I had to adjust the routine so I just went with it. Overall I think it was a fairly good workout. I end my workouts every time with 10 minutes on the treadmill walking. I've been doing it for awhile now but yesterday I felt like I had more in the tank and decided to throw one last set of farmers walks in. I went way lighter and went way further than I did in the early sets. I had a solid upper body pump going on which felt good.

Last night I was stretching again...wow my quad is either still super tight up around my hip or my IT band is stuck to the quad muscle. I really put some effort and pain into getting it to release. The leg didnt' seem to really bother me much last night, I felt it a bit but not like it has been.

[Young Gotti]

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Saturday

DB curl superset w/ rope extension 4 sets
Ez curl bar superset w/ under hand extension 4 sets
BB curl superset w/ overhand extension 4 sets

Chest press machine 3 sets
Chest fly machine 3 sets

I wanted to take a day off from the gym but we didn't get snow on Friday night so I decided to give it a go since I wasn't sure what was coming later Saturday or into Sunday. I tried to stay specifically to the upper body and give my legs a rest. Had an amazing upper body pump and the workout was pretty good overall. Everything felt really good and went well.

Sunday

Basketball

Snow shoveling

Woke up Sunday figuring it was going to be bad out and I wasn't leaving. It wasn't that bad and I had a text from two of my buddies saying they were going, so I figured I would go. When I got to the gym, the basketball court, or half of it was destroyed. Because of the weight of the snow/ice on the roof, the seems in the roof were leaking and it was like a lake on that side of the floor. Enough ppl showed up though that we played half court 4 on 4 with rotating teams. It wasn't the most intense workout but I was happy to get in a good sweat. Went home and shoveled snow, it got bad while I was in the gym though. When I left it looked like a soupy mess, the temp must have dropped and it all turned to ice.

Monday

Off

I finally got my day off from the gym. I had some painting to do around the house anyway and figured it was a perfect day to get in some rest. Near 4pm I finally sat down and tried to do a homemade recovery day. I stretched everything real good, then I sat down with a heating bad, a vibrating neck massager, and a heated foot massage. I was moving the neck massage around, putting it on my lower back, around my quad, under my calf. Then took a nice Epsom salt bath. I figured that would really help the recovery process added with the day off I'd be doing the right thing. Of course in the middle of the night I woke up and my quad hurt again. I was up like an hour or two. This is after I let myself fall asleep earlier last night, I just felt tired and figured I'd just let it happen. 2 hours later I'm wide awake in pain. Usually I wake up in the morning with no pain but I feel it in my quad, but it's also like 4 degrees outside so that could be why.

[Young Gotti]

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Monday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Face pull 4 sets
Flat DB press 4 sets
Hammer strength press 4 sets (last set was drop set)
Peck deck 4 sets
Cable high row superset w/ rope crunch and pull up hangs 3 sets
Low back extension 3 sets

Tried to switch things up a bit from the usual. Basically just a different order than I usually do. However I was able to use extremely light DB's to press. I did try the DB's on an incline bench and that didn't go so well but the press's on the flat bench weren't all that bad. The high cable row also felt amazing. The end of the workout I went with some rehab type things like just hanging on a pull up bar to let pressure off the spine. The lower back extension I basically just hung there, moved my arms around to really stretch the ham and lower back tie in.

Last night I didn't stretch the way I normally do, I did more static stretches to really just get the lower back and legs. I didn't use bands or any type of resistance stretches. I slept well, still woke up twice but was able to go back to sleep both times no problems, didn't seem to have pain in my quad even though right before bed I thought it was coming so I was thrilled to get a real nights rest.

[Young Gotti]

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Wednesday

Basketball

I don't feel like I played the greatest last night. Not sure why as I didn't do anything bad but I just never got in the flow of things. I made some real nice plays, I hit my shots but felt kind of not focused. The cardio aspect was good though and the other team was pretty physical which I'm ok with. Its all in my head but I feel like a physical game works more muscles than just a simple cardio session, not sure how true that is. But physical play usually seems to wake me up and get me in the game as I don't want to get pushed around so that was good but mostly on the defensive end.

My one night of good sleep ended last night. I never sleep really good on basketball night but last night was pretty bad, I fell asleep no problem but woke up in the middle of the night wide awake and had trouble falling asleep. That wasn't fun. Hopefully that improves soon.

[Young Gotti]

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Thursday

Trap bar farmers carry 4 sets
Battle rope 4 sets
Close grip cable row superset with fingertip wall ball dribble 4 sets
Seated calve raise superset w/ facepull 3 sets
Leg extension superset w/ seated leg curl 4 sets

I had furniture delivered to my house yesterday and they gave me a 3 hour window. My father was going to go to my house for first hour until I got out of work. I figured I was going to the gym because it's usually the end of the time period when they usually show up. But they showed up right at beginning of the window which was shocking. Of course because I anticipated the opposite I didn't bring my clothes to work. So I went home, got changed, and went all the way back to the gym. I didn't have the motivation where if I expected to go, I think my mind was already made up that I had the day off. However the workout was pretty good, something about going to the gym with no goals or no expectations I think sometimes makes for a better and more relaxed workout. I was happy I was able to get in there and get some work done.

[Young Gotti]

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Saturday

DB curl superset w/ overhand extension 4 sets
BB curl superset w/ underhand extension 4 sets
EZ bar curl superset w/ rope extension 4 sets

Conditioning work: jump rope, wall ball dribble, weighted side lunge, high steps, ladder runs, battle ropes

It was a lot of fun to be at the gym. I was really able to get back into the conditioning work that I really enjoy. I felt good and really went at it. I was sweating and breathing heavy trying to really press myself. The weighted stuff was good too, the weight finally felt like quality weight. Not to say I was using less weight before but this just felt better, maybe it was form or something but I attribute a lot to being able to sleep Friday night.

Sunday

Basketball

For part of the game we only had 4 on 4. I also knew I had a guy guarding me whose conditioning wasn't the greatest so I was running him all over the place to make him tired. I ended up getting myself tired but it was a lot of fun and good cardio for sure doing it. Had a pretty good game too. Now that I've been playing 2 times a week now for a month or two consistently I feel way more comfortable with the ball than I did when I first came back from the ankle injury.

[Young Gotti]

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Monday

Squat superset w/ pull up 4 sets
Squat superset w/ low cable rope row 4 sets
Chest pad t bar row superset w/ standing calve raise 4 sets
Jump rope superset w/ hip abductor machine 3 sets
Jump rope superset w/ straight bar pull down superset w/ seated leg curl 3 sets

I felt great working out yesterday. I did 8 sets of squats which was great, the first 4 were higher reps and the second 4 were higher weights. Everything else I went pretty heavy for most of the workout. I had the determination going. I wish I felt like this everyday I'm in the gym, it's amazing what some sleep can do for you. I didn't have any pain during the squats which felt really good, nothing in the ankle, nothing in the quad.

Last night was a different story. Had trouble sleeping last night, my quad was a little sore and my knee actually hurt a bit when I went down the steps. My quad kind of hurts even as I type this but that's all to be expected since I really haven't squatted this heavy for extended sets like this in awhile.

[Young Gotti]

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Tuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets (last set drop set)
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Hammer strength press 4 sets
Decline hammer strength superset w/ ez curl bar high row superset w/ face pull 3 sets
Peck Deck 3 sets
Battle ropes 3 sets

Another good workout. The afternoon at work was slow which basically gave me the time to really prepare and get amp'd up for the workout. I've been trying to do 1 free weight movement per chest day just to test how the shoulder feels but we had snow so I got to the gym late mixed with it hurting a bit even on the hammer strength that I didn't even mess with it. I was really concentrating on the stretch of the chest movements, not that I don't anyway but sometimes you just hit a point and do the movement, it was almost like I hit the normal point and let me chest open up even a little more.

[Young Gotti]

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Wednesday

Basketball

It wasn't a great night on the courts. I could tell early in the day it was going to be rough and almost didn't go. My legs/groin felt real tight and painful all day. When I was rolling and stretching before I left for the game my hamstrings were extremely tight. So all night again my shot was short and a few times on defense my legs just weren't getting me to where I need to be and when I really focused on sliding, my feet just didn't seem smooth at all. I still got in a good cardio session of course and had some good moments but not as good as I would normally want.

Not having legs is super frustrating during the game. I don't know what if anything I need to do to my training session to not only work my legs but also be ok to play basketball on Wednesday. I may lower my volume on leg day and add a little volume on Thursday in order to save my legs but get the needed volume overall. Back to the lab.

[Young Gotti]

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Thursday

Farmers Walk 6 sets
Battle ropes superset w/ weighted ball shots 4 sets
Kettlebell swing superset w/ weighted ball wall dribble 4 sets
Seated calve raise superset w/ straight bar pull down 4 sets

I was so tired all day that I didn't know how it was going to work out at the gym. My legs felt dead all day and I wanted to skip the gym but I went and it wasn't too bad. I did extra farmers walks because when I got there the gym was empty so I was able to walk the length of the gym but after a few sets a few guys walked in and my space was taken. So I went heavier than usual and did a shorter distance. The last 2 sets I went light again and walked out straight, then walked back backwards. Not sure if that adds to any benefits but in my head it sounded good. The workout wasn't too bad by the end.

I need to get this sleep issue under control.

[Young Gotti]

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Friday

Massage

Saturday

DB curl superset with reverse underhand extension 4 sets
BB curl superset with rope extension 4 sets
DB hammer curl superset w/ bw dips

Sunday

Basketball


I finally decided to see my massage therapist for my leg pain. I called Thursday, no answer, no call back. Friday at work a lady I work with goes to her and texted that I called her. at about 3:30 I found out I had an apt at 5pm. Anyway she really worked on my ankle, lower back, and quad. Felt amazing and I think I may have fallen asleep for a bit because it was the first time I was comfortable in awhile. I was able to sleep that night too which was amazing. Saturday I had a good workout, normal arms and then a bunch of agility work. Again though I slept like a baby. Basketball on Sunday was rough. I played fairly decent but wow was the game exhausting. I felt good after the game but everyone wanted to keep going and that second game I felt drained. But it wasn't just me, I texted my brother after and said I was worn out and he said he felt the same way. Not sure why I would of ran more than normal but I was beat down. Sunday night I didn't sleep really well and my quad hurt just a bit, nothing like it has and not anywhere close to how it does on basketball nights. I also didn't really wind down like I normally do at night because of the Super Bowl so hopefully tonight I can sleep.

[Young Gotti]

Re: Young Gotti's Journal

Update:

Last week was a tough week. We were super busy at work and I had an interview at work. So that's why it was a lack of updates.

I did go to the gym Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and basketball Sunday.

My interview was on Thursday so I took Tuesday and Wednesday off from the gym after work to concentrate on it. Workouts were pretty good and hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things this week.

[Young Gotti]

Re: Young Gotti's Journal

Monday

Squat superset w/ pullups 4 sets
Leg press superset w/ t bar row 4 sets
Farmers walk superset w/ wall dribble 3 sets
Straight bar pulldown superset w/ seated hamstring curl 3 sets

Jump rope superset w/ low back extension 3 sets
Jump rope superset w/ lat stretch 3 sets

Went very light and very few reps on the squats. I think I pulled a muscle in my butt playing basketball and wasn't sure how the stability would be on the squats. They didn't feel good, not really painful but my balance didn't seem all that great, I also didn't want to destroy my legs for basketball on Wednesday. I did go high reps on the leg press though and they burned real bad which I really liked. However something is going on with my legs. It wasn't really the leg with the sprained ankle, now it's the other one. While I was jumping rope my left calve seemed to tighten up. Not a cramp but I got super stiff for whatever reason. I have another massage coming up and I might tell her to just focus on both legs. Ankle hasn't been bothering me though.

I went home and rolled my calve really good but before bed it felt tight again and this morning it was pretty tight.