TweetTuesday

Flat bench and side lateral raise
Facepull 4 sets

Similar to the day before I just picked two exercises and supersetted them for the time I had. Started off thinking it was too easy but around set 8 or 9 I was toast. The pump was so crazy my shoulders almost felt numb. It sort of reminds me of GVT in a way with all the sets and rep on a specific movement. And today I am shuffling like an old lady because my legs are supersore, my lats are also very sore. I don't think I've had lat soreness like this in a very long time. Assuming there is no more overtime I'll get back to the schedule next week.

TweetWednesday

10 minutes treadmill
sit ups superset with leg raise
5 minutes treadmill
sit ups superset with weighted side dips
5 minutes treadmill
rope crunches superset with leg raises
10 minutes treadmill

I was really sore so I didn't push it during cardio. My legs felt like they were ready to fall off. That coupled with running all over the building at work yesterday and I just felt worn out. However I was pretty happy with the amount of time I got in for cardio. I'm down about 2lbs in the last week or so which is also good as I'm trying to transition into leaning out a bit, wasn't sure how the weird schedule I've been on was going to effect my weight

TweetThursday

no gym for me

I woke up to about 10 inches of snow. Shoveled myself out and headed to work, we opened late. Later I found out the gym owner never opened so I was at least happy I got to shovel some snow. So after work I decided to go and do my taxes since I had the night to myself and not many ppl were traveling around. The opening late at work really threw my meal timing off. I was in a funk most of the day because I ended up shoveling when I should of ate breakfast and everything got pushed back, when we got to work we were told no lunch break. It was just a disaster and I was hungry and irritable all day.

TweetSaturday

Barbell curl 4 sets
Ez curl preacher curl 4 sets
Preacher machine 4 sets
Skull crushers 4 sets
Rope extension 4 sets
Underhand extension 3 sets
Tricep extension machine 3 sets

Stayed at my girls on Friday so I went to her gym Saturday morning and her gym has way better equipment than mine does. Everytime I'm there they have new things I want to try. For example they got a rack of those mini barbells that already have the plates attached to them. I've seen them in videos but none of the gym I go to have ever had them. Tons of strongman/crossfit type stuff and a lot of really nice attachments for cables. Anyway that's why I tried to throw some of the machines in there because they aren't anything like what I have at my gym. If you've been following along you also have heard me mention they have this stretch chair thing, I don't know the name of it but you sit on it and your feel curl behind you then you can push the chair back with the handles and I really enjoy it for stretching my back/hamstrings/shoulders. It felt awesome using it.

However I did wake up that morning with a crazy neckache. I don't know if it's her pillows or something but the last few times I stayed there I wake up the the whole backside of my head throbs. The stretching seemed to really help for alittle but then it went right back to pain. So I've been dealing with that this weekend, hopefully I can get it loosened up and taken care of today.

TweetMonday

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

Cable crossover 2 sets high, 2 sets low, superset with straight arm lateral raise 4 sets

Back to the normal routine. Still had the mindset to work quickly from the last few weeks and I'm sure that will go away once I get back in the groove. What I can say is it felt good to do multiple movements and more compound movements but tbh the straight set training didn't seem nearly as intense as the supersetting and moving quickly. I'm sure it's better for muscle mass but I found myself waiting to feel my heart beat super rapid and it never got to that point. Either way it wasn't a bad workout. At the end I threw in 2 sets of YTI's for my neck as well.

TweetTuesday

Squat 4 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Standing Calve raise 4 sets
Pull ups 4 sets
Rope pulldown 4 sets
Close grip lat pulldown 4 sets

Leg extension superset with seated leg curl superset with cable row 2 sets

Pretty good workout, still had groin pain on the squats which is BS but it wasn't as bad as it has been. Towards the 4th set it started to feel much better but I also did less reps and really slowed things down. The leg press had my lower quads burning like crazy which was nice. The back workout was good as I really paid attention to my pull ups. If at any time I felt my body sway during a pull up, I lowered back down took a pause and did another rep in order to get proper reps in. All in all I was pretty happy with the workout, feels good to be able to spend more time in the gym than I have been too.

TweetListen to your body and I am happy for you that you are starting to get back to your routine

TweetWednesday

Stationary bike 25 minutes
Treadmill 5 minutes

Had to wait for a lady I work with in order to leave yesterday so I got out of work later than usual. I decided to head to the gym and not really worry about abs. Hopped on the bike and just went, I was playing with the tension on the bike the whole time trying to mimic a HIIT style. Afterwards my legs were numb, but was so my glutes. The seats on those bikes leave a lot to be desired. It's weird because I grew up riding BMX all day everyday yet the seat is what was bothering me at about the 18 minute mark. I decided to get my legs in a different motion at the end so just did a light walk on the treadmill. Not bad for getting to the gym later than I normally would of, still got a solid half hour cardio session.

TweetThursday

Decline bench 4 sets
Hammer strength press 4 sets
Underhand flat bench 4 sets
Standing shoulder press machine 4 sets
Face pull 4 sets
Side lateral raise 4 sets

Cable cross over (2) high cable (2) low cable superset with high row 4 sets
Side lateral drop set and then side lateral pyramid set

The gym was packed for the first time in a very long time. I didn't want to start with decline but I also figured I haven't done a free weight decline movement in a very long time. The decline bench at my gym is too big for me. I almost have to pull the bar forward to get it in position and it just doesn't feel right so I don't tend to go heavy on it. However the rest of the workout I was pretty happy with the weights I moved. I didn't get a good pump in the chest but the shoulder pump was really good, that's why I just grabbed some light weights and banged out some side laterals at the end to further the pump. Surprisingly I had a nice sweat going on during the session, maybe the heat was up? The plan is to hit the gym on Saturday morning but we are doing the "Third Annual Pizza Tour" that day, it's a fat day to drive around and try a bunch of pizza places in surrounding cities. I'll have to report back on the outcome.

TweetSaturday

Arms training

I don't really remember the exercises I did, I know I did a reverse incline curl which felt good. But the real excitement came from the pizza tour after the gym. We went to 6 or 7 pizza places in a small city about 45 minutes from where I live. This is the third time we did it and this time probably the worst one in terms of pizza quality. It was still fun to be out with the friends though. I would put my area's pizza against any area in the country but this town we went to just didn't have the amazing quality that all the places the last 2 years had.

Monday

Squat 4 sets
Reverse hack squat 4 sets
Leg extension superset with seated leg curl 4 sets
Straight bar pull down 4 sets
Lat pulldown 4 sets
Close grip cable row 4 sets

I was not thrilled with this workout. Not sure if it was because I went in the morning and wasn't awake or what but the squats weren't great. Each rep was a struggle even with smaller weights. I had a rough time, that's also why I skipped calves in favor of doing movements that would hit the quads and hams. Back work was a lot of cables which kinda sucked but the squeeze was solid and got a pretty decent lat pump.

Today I add some fun back to my supplement regime. It's been the basic protein, bcaa, creatine, vitamins, fish oils. Today I'll start OL Triumph which is a soy lecithin based supplement. Hopefully I can recomp a bit over the next month or two.

TweetTuesday

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

Really good workout. Weight I was moving was pretty good and there no way pain or tightness anywhere, felt really good. I wish I could of fit more volume in but a friend of mine joined the gym who I haven't seen in awhile so him and I were discussing diets and supplements which slowed my fast pace down a bit. I also reintroduced HIIT into my workout. During the winter I haven't really been doing traditional HIIT. I've mostly been doing farmers walks or stationary bike with alternating resistance. Damn I was winded after like 3 sprints but I kept pushing to finish.

TweetWednesday

10 minutes farmers walk
60 crunches
5 minutes farmers walk
60 crunches
5 minutes farmer walk
10minutes walk on treadmill

Since I'm starting to ramp up time and/or effort on the cardio I went heavier on the farmers walks the first bout. I did them similar to my normal HIIT, 6 rounds of walking with weight for 20 seconds, 40 seconds regular walking. The next round of cardio I went lighter and did a minute on a minute off. The third round I was pretty beat so I did 1 minute with the lighter weight on an incline. Overall it was a pretty good workout, the heavy weight was definitely challenging. I need to figure something out with it though, I use the cup holders on the treadmill to hold the weight when I'm not carrying it and getting it up into the cup holder and out of the cup holder became difficult. Other than that I enjoyed the challenge.

TweetThursday

Deadlift 5 sets
Leg press superset with close grip lat pull down 4 sets
Standing calve raise superset with straight bar pulldown 4 sets
Goblet box squats superset with DB row 3 sets

Wow I haven't deadlifted in awhile. It was a poor performance in the deadlift, the weight felt pretty heavy and I was gassing out earlier in my set than usual. It didn't really bother me because I was just happy to be back in the gym deadlifting which I haven't done for what seems like more than a month. I was half tempted to just keep deadlifting with light weight for more sets but decided because I wasn't thrilled with my Monday workout I would try and get more leg and back variations in. I worked pretty fast and it was warm yesterday so I was sweating and had to pause between sets a few times and really catch my breath.

Today I have a massage scheduled, I almost forgot about it but I'm thrilled to have a massage the day after deadlifting, there is no doubt that my neck that hurts a little right now will flare up between now and the massage so that'll do me some good.

TweetSunday

DB curl superset with straight bar extension 4 sets
Reverse incline db curl superset with reverse overhead rope extension 4 sets
Ez curl bar curl superset with reverse under hand overhead extension 4 sets
Dip machine superset with cable hammer curl 4 sets

As you can see I put Sunday. I didn't make it to the gym on Saturday. Lets take a step back though, got a massage on Friday and it was awesome, they let me sit in a hot tub for about a half hour before the massage to loosen things up a bit. During the massage we found that I had crazy knots all around my right shoulder blade. She was going over my blade with her elbow and stopping at tight spots to get them released but on my right side a few times she had to stop on the knots and really shake her arm and clench in order for it to release. The left side wasn't nearly as bad, makes me think it's time for an adjustment. Saturday I had to tend to some family stuff that was out of town and didn't get back until later in the day/night so I didn't make it to the gym, I was super sore though. My back felt like it was destroyed from the massage.

So Sunday I made it to the gym. It didn't feel like the best workout, mainly because I never really got a good pump. I was waiting and it never really showed up in full power. The pump was ok but not what I wanted. Either way I did my thing and last night noticed my arms were getting sore. I don't really get sore arms from workouts so I was surprised, and I know soreness doesn't mean a good workout but made me feel like I might have at least do some good.

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.