TweetGo get em!

TweetWednesday

Cardio 35 minutes
Romain chair leg raise sets of 30

A bit of a wacky cardio day. I ran around the building all day at work, up and down steps and all over the place. I was a bit tired by the time work was over. But I kept telling myself only 10 minutes of HIIT cardio and then it's basically walking, not to hard. Then I got to the gym and someone was using the elliptical I do my HIIT on and everything changed. I started on a treadmill and said "once he's done i'll switch", well that never happened. I didn't do HIIT training so I what I did was farmers walks on the treadmill. Didn't go super heavy with the weight but played with it a bit, I put in incline up and also did minute and a half walks before putting the DB's down. I also did a few minute intervals with the dumbells held up around my ears. I didn't do farmers walks this way but I did some intervals of walking backwards. So I really just did a whole bunch of different variations. I also tried to focus on my lower abs for the ab training side of things. I like doing crunches because I can just do 60, get a good squeeze and burn and back to cardio, leg raises are a big more difficult and I never get a crazy burn from them but figured they needed to be done.

Still about 3lbs under my goal weight as I head into my birthday weekend. I have reservations with my friends at a place that cooks the crazyiest meat I've seen so I'm going to pig out but I'm piecing together a plan for next week to really sharpen things up before I leave.

TweetThursday

So Wednesday I did legs back and bi...yesterday I did chest, shoulder, tri

last workout before vacation and I didn't go super heavy or do many compound movements, in fact my shoulder was in a lot of pain for pressing movements. Maybe because I'm dried out? not really sure but either way just a day to get a good pump and do some extra cardio but its time to ship off

in total I dropped closer to 15lbs for this vacation, maybe more weight but I don't recall off hand....happy with the progress and forming a plan to go into winter....I will enjoy some pizza when I get back from vacation but my diet overall isn't going to change much....I will start adding some carbs back in post workout first and slowly increase carbs in other areas....last year I went too high carbs right out the gate and the results sucked....oh well time to go on vacation

TweetBack from vacation....going to start this journal back up, i'll be going back to the gym this week, next week is hectic again so its going to be a bit before I'm in the full swing of things

I'm happy with the results I had for vacation and I enjoyed food again while on vacation but I'm not going to adjust my diet all that much off the bat now that I'm back....I'm going to add a bit of carbs post workout and slowly add carbs to more of my meals by the middle of the winter, last year I was on a keto style diet and someone wanted to do my diet and didn't really pay attention to me being on low carbs and just threw carbs at me from the start, it didn't work out to well as I got fat and stomach discomfort from it...so this year I'm doing it myself which should workout much better and taking it slowly

only supplements I'm really adding is pump juice extreme and hemo max....of course i'll keep it updated when I add more things or change anything

TweetMonday

Flat Bench 5 sets
Incline Bench 4 sets
Cable Crossover 4 sets

Underhand reverse extension 3 sets
Rope Extension 3 sets
Dips 3 sets
Underhand extension 2 sets

Felt good to be back in the gym and doing things. I've noticed after a week off that the first week back is a bit weak and sluggish but I felt good yesterday. I didn't kill any PR's or anything but I was happy with my workout. The pump was amazing. I haven't had a pump in awhile, probably because of low carbs but it felt good. I'm not exactly sore today but I can def. feel that I worked my chest and tri's yesterday, tight would be the word to describe it I guess and I did some extra stretching this morning.

TweetTuesday

Deadlift 5 sets
Lat Pulldown 4 sets
T bar row 3 sets

Barbell curl 4 sets
Alt DB curl 3 sets
DB Hammer curl 3 sets

Got a new lifting belt for my birthday so I put it to the test yesterday. It still needs to be broken in really bad. I had it tied up and reversed for about 10 days hoping it would help break it in at my house but yesterday I whipped it out. I can't get it tight enough and it's really difficult to get it off but I expected that. Other than that the workout was ok. My deadlifts felt pretty powerful for a week off but my grip was ehh at best. I'm also still trying to put together a routine for the winter bulk...so if anyone has any insight, I usually like hitting each bodypart twice a week but I don't usually deadlift when that happens because I'm trying to squeeze in 3 muscle groups for a workout. I'm thinking about doing a chest/shoulder/tri day, a back/bi day, and a legs day....which would leave me one day to work another muscle group or alternate muscle groups, or do a full body type workout. Still in the air, we will see.

TweetWednesday

Fresh back from Mexico, so my grandmothers grass needed to be cut badly, so did my aunts who lives next door. So for my cardio on Wednesday I cut both of their grass and then went home and cut mine. Lots of grass cutting. My grandmothers house is tough to cut and I have to drag the lawnmower up and down a hill but lots of walking and pushing.

Wasn't that hot out but I was sweating pretty good so I'm happy to help her and still get some activity in.

TweetThursday

Leg extension superset with lying leg curl 3 sets
Squats 6 sets
Stiff leg deadlift 3 sets
Seated calve raise 3 sets
Leg press 3 sets

Wow legs felt like I haven't worked them in over a week. Squatting was poor. Hips felt tight and even as I loosened up it was tough going. I did what I could with the weight and decided to do 2 extra sets just to torture myself and hopefully get back in the groove. I did enjoy the leg press though. I didn't go heavy but stayed around 20 reps and the burn was amazing. I fully expect to be sore as today goes on.

TweetSaturday

Standing shoulder press 5 sets
Face Pull 5 sets
Side lateral raise 5 sets

YTI 4 sets

I woke up Saturday morning with a crazy headache. I was all amp'd up for the gym the night before but I must of slept wrong but my trap was really tight and radiating around my eye. I was hoping I would get to the gym and it would loosen. It did but if you notice, that's why I did some extra movements in there like more sets of facepulls and YTI's for sets instead of just for warmups. I wanted to really get this thing worked out. I thought it was a pretty good workout considering I was in pain. It did loosen up which was good but a few hours later tightened right back up and my energy was zapped for a few hours that day until I decided to take some Tylenol or whatever.

The weekend was rough though. My whole plan after vacation was to stick to my normal diet I've been doing and throw in a bit of carbs. I was running around and my diet wasn't the greatest. Then I had a fantasy football draft last night, tonight, and tomorrow so I won't be at the gym and expected the diet to go off the rails for those 3 days but I'm disappointed in myself that I let it slip on Saturday and Sunday. I can't wait to get my fall/winter program started. Then I can get back to my normal diet and hopefully minimize the damage from these 3 days and go full steam ahead.

TweetThursday

Squat 6 sets
T bar row 4 sets
Rope pulldown 3 sets
Barbell curl 6 sets

Felt amazing to be back in the gym. Muscles felt fresh and ready to go but my mind was also clear and just thrilled to break a sweat and get some blood flowing. It looks like I didn't do many different exercises and I didn't. I started squatting and my goal was to do back and biceps but squatting felt so good I just went with it. I still got some back and bicep work in and just went with the more sets idea of the training. Saturday I'll hit my chest/shoulders/tricep work and hopefully just prime myself to really start killing it again next week.

I will get together a list of supplements I'm currently taking or will add in on Monday and the training routine I'm going to use. I've been tossing around different ideas when it comes to training and I think I found one but we'll see.

TweetSupplement List to start:

Mr Supps Whey Isolate
ALRI Humapro
ALRI Chain'd Out
AST Multi Vitamin
Premium Powders Creatine Monohydrate
Premium Powders Triple Omega 3-6-9
APS Carnisport
Gaspari Aminomax
Premium Powders Agmatine
Mr Supps Pump Juice Extreme
I Force Hemovo2 Max

I also have some GSN Phytofuze left

As you can see I'm not running any crazy cycles or anything to start. Most of the supplements are related to protein and aminos. Then the staples like creatine, fish oil, and multi vitamin. I'm also basing my preworkout towards pumps as you can see and I'm hoping the pumps fit well with the type of training I'm going to implement.

TweetTraining Breakdown:

Monday: Legs and Back
Tuesday: Chest and Shoulders
Wednesday: Cardio/Abs
Thursday: Legs and Back
Friday: Off
Saturday: Arms
Sunday: Off

The following week:

Monday: Chest/Shoulders
Tuesday: Legs/Back
Wednesday: Cardio/Abs
Thursday: Chest/Shoulders
Friday: Off
Saturday: Arms
Sunday: Off

Last year I hit every body part twice a week and saw good results but what I didn't like was that I didn't get to deadlift because I was trying to fit in 3 bodyparts into a workout. So this year what I'm going to do is work a set of bodyparts twice a week and the following week do them once and alternate. Each workout with consist of a major lift: Bench, Squat, Standing Shoulder Press, Deadlift, or Pull ups, after I do my main lifts I will go with higher volume on accessory lifts for the remainder of the workout to work on increasing overall volume. My goal for the winter is also to grow my arms. Since I started working out I've followed the path to not train like a regular bro at the gym and probably haven't done enough volume for my arms. This winter I want to make my arms a focal point for growth finally. That's why I am giving them their own day plus they will get indirect work with the major lifts during the week.

TweetSaturday

Hammer strength decline press superset with hammer strength shoulder press 3 sets
Cable crossover superset with side lateral raise 4 sets
hammer strength press superset with facepull 3 sets

Rope extension 3 sets
Underhand extension 3 sets
Dip machine 3 sets
Underhand behind the head extension 3 sets

Just a workout, nothing special, used more for a primer to get some blood flowing and my muscles ready for upcoming training. The cable crossovers though were excellent, instead of doing the normal cable and stopping when my hands meet I'm really crossing over my hands and once I feel the burn I switch the letting my hands meet but turning in my pinky's and wow the squeeze is intense. My chest has been sore since Saturday and I didn't need to use huge movements. Just some smooth movements with a good squeeze.