TweetTuesday

Basketball

Basketball might have been the hottest day of basketball yet. The air was super stale and you can tell no one was at the school the whole day because there was no air traveling through the basketball court at all. What made it worse was we get there at 730, then start at 745. So we have 15 minutes to warm and get a sweat going before we start. However the person with the key got to the gym, forgot the key and had to go back and get it. So we basically started right from the start and breaking a sweat for the first time during the game is rough.

Anyway I was sweating worse than I had before. Basketball on Tuesdays is over though, the person in charge had to take a job at night so we wont be able to play unless something changes. He mentioned still playing on Sunday but I already have a game on Sunday which is a bummer. I've enjoyed playing twice a week but on a good note it allows me to get back in the gym and lift on a normal schedule again.

TweetTriple up on those fluids and keep on having fun.

Tweet

Originally Posted by BABY1

Triple up on those fluids and keep on having fun.

haha oh yeah this morning I'm in the restroom every 5 minutes....my supervisor was making fun of me for having to go so often..but I need to replenish

TweetThursday

Leg press 4 sets
BW pull ups superset w/ db curl 4 sets
Wall balls superset w/ close grip lat pulldown superset w/ goblet side steps 3 sets
Rope leg pull thru's superset w/ EZ bar curl 3 sets

Jumprope superset w/ high cable close grip row superset w/ outside hip machine 3 sets

I wanted to do some extra volume on my legs. I feel like I haven't hit most of my aspects of my legs in awhile. It's been a big movement and more quad/ham work. But I got to the gym and both squat racks were taken. I went with the leg press and my knees were sore, the leg press didn't help. I'm not sure if the angle of the seat played a role but my knees didn't feel great while doing the press. After that the rack opened and I did some pull ups. I was able to tell I didn't do pull ups in a bit because it was a struggle. After that the workout was great, yeah it was lighter and supersetted but I got my heart rate up and did some things I've wanted to do. My goal for basketball is to get my hips to open a bit and get my side steps quicker. So that's why I used that hip machine and did the side steps. No problems there and I went real heavy on the lat pulldowns since the pulls ups were less than stellar.

I feel and look a bit more lean. Nothing mind blowing but I think the Iconogenin is really kicking it. They say laxo products are great for the joints, I take a joint supplement already but hasn't really helped the knees. I do have (spelling) osgoof slaughters so I think I can take all the products in the world and it still wouldn't really help that type of pain.

TweetThursday

Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Hammer strength press 4 sets
Close grip bench 4 sets

Jump rope superset w/ Chest fly machine, push down machine, and side lateral raise 3 sets
Jump rope superset w/ rear delt flys, db kick backs

I saw on a site where they were talking about unbalanced bars and lifts. It looked like they had plates clipped at the end of the barbell instead of in the middle. I tried that on the last set of shoulder press and it was the same but different. The weight itself didn't feel any harder and in some aspects easier. From the chest up until my nose it felt really easy and the movement felt more explosive but at the top it felt like a regular standing press. The rest of the workout was good though, the hammer strength numbers were up a lot from the last time I used the machine, extra weight and extra reps. I had a decent but not great pump throughout my whole upper body. When I was done with a movement the pump felt real good but it wasn't a lasting feeling.

TweetSaturday

Arms

Farmers walks

Sunday

Basketball

Saturday was a rough day for me. I woke up with a pounding headache, I got out of bed with intentions of the gym and fell back to sleep on my couch. I just felt like crap. I did end up getting to the gym later in the day but it was tough. I did some arm work but nothing crazy and ended up doing a bunch of farmers walks. I figured it was slow, steady, and still pretty tough. I threw in some facepulls and YTI's incase it was tightness in my neck causing the headache. I'm usually the first person at the gym on Saturday, right at 8am when it opens but I didn't get there until almost 11am this week and it sort of threw the rest of my day off as well.

Basketball was good, hot and good. I was able to get in some swimming afterwards which felt nice as well

TweetHope that headache is gone for you today?

Tweet

Originally Posted by BABY1

Hope that headache is gone for you today?

Yeah it sort of went away later that day a bit. I think a good nights sleep mixed with foam rolling and lacrosse ball rolling really helped

TweetMonday

Squat 4 sets
Box squat 3 sets
T bar row close grip 4 sets
T bar row wide grip 3 sets
Wide grip BB curl 4 sets
Close grip BB curl 3 sets

Jumprope superset w/ wall balls, straight bar pulldowns, and weighted crunch machine 3 sets

Quality workout, started off a little slow but got going. My knees were bothering me with the squat so even though I went a little heavy the reps weren't what I wanted. That's why I started doing box squats. After that I figured I'd keep the same movement for 7 sets and just switch up hand positions or whatever in order to change it up a bit. I enjoyed the workout and was happy with what I got done. It was super humid so I was sweating like crazy as well which felt nice.

So I continue to think I look better. Someone made a comment on Sunday about looking sort of fat but I think I was just bloated because yesterday and even this morning I look a lot better. But that type of comment alone sort of refocused me to increase intensity.

TweetTuesday

Basketball

So basketball was supposed to end but it was due to work. I don't know if the guy who has access to the gym found a job where he doesn't have to work nights or whatever but it continued. I jammed my thumb twice in 2 weeks ago about a month ago. It hurt real bad but was getting better, sometimes when I grab something it still hurts. Well last night I jammed it again. The palm section under my thumb felt like it was going to get super swollen. This morning it's not swollen but it's still pretty painful.

We had 7 players per team last night so we had to take more breaks than I would of liked. But my buddy wore a fitbit and it said he turned 830 calories. So assuming I moved in a way that was close to him, I'll take that calorie burn everyday.

TweetWednesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 3 sets
Flat bench 4 sets
Decline hammer strength 3 sets
Alternating underhand/overhand extension 7 sets

Jump rope superset w/ cable fly, seated machine press, single arm underhand extension 3 sets

Not good not good. Like I mentioned I jammed my thumb the night before playing ball. My thumb is fine, the pad/palm at the bottom is purple and in pain. Some of the movements, it didn't really affect but others was extreme pain. Flat bench because of how the bar was laying really hurt and had an impact on the weight. Because of this I did go lower in weight but also slower in tempo. Overall it wasn't a bad workout but sort of zapped the motivation to really put the workout over the top. I made the best of what I could based on my purple palm.

TweetThursday

Trap bar deadlift superset w/ DB curl 5 sets
Leg extension superset w/ seated leg curl 4 sets

Jump rope superset w/ knee down lat pulldown and vertical leg press 3 sets
Jump rope superset w/ close grip lat pulldown and bb curl 3 sets

Wanted to see how the deadlifts felt on the hand and it was nice. I couldn't really force my palm into the bar which was fine. I got a little messed up when a young gun asked to work in with me. I wouldn't usually superset with a deadlift but he was taking awhile between sets so I didn't have the long rest I was doing the curls. But because he was working with me, we went pretty heavy, especially for the trap bar. I feel like the trap bar is super stable at lower weight but at heavy weight becomes unbalanced a bit and that's probably my grip strength but the nose starts to dive down a bit. The rest of the workout was good though, I was glad to isolate my quads and hams on a machine since I haven't done that in awhile.

TweetSaturday

DB curl superset w/ reverse underhand extension 4 sets
BB curl superset w/ bw dips 4 sets
Double high cable curl superset w/ ez bar behind head extension 4 sets

A lot of cardio/accessory work. Farmers walks, jump rope, ball slams, and ladder runs.

It was a real enjoyable workout. It all felt good, I felt good and in the zone. The most fun part was after the lifting. I can't get away from the lifting but doing stuff like ladder runs and trying to mix it up is challenging and sort of makes the workout more creative. I was really enjoying coming up with different ways to use the ladder or ball slam then run the ladder, whatever it was.

Saturday afternoon my buddy had a party at this lake house. It was raining but we still went swimming, the swimming wasn't the problem. Once I dove off the dock, my foot slipped on the water that was on the deck. I hit the water fine but my legs sort of flipped over my head and tweaked my lower back. It hurt at first but sort of felt better as the night went on. Sunday morning though it was super tight and foam rolling, stretching, running a tiger tail over it didn't help.

Sunday

Basketball

Not many people showed up. It ended up 4 on 4 so we did a lot more running than a 5 on 5 game which was nice. However along the way I got a deadlegger and on the last play bent my bad thumb back and hurt it again. What else is new. My lower back hurt the whole day as well.

Last night my Epsom salt bath really was needed and hopefully will help.

TweetMonday

Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 3 sets
Flat bench 4 sets
Decline hammer strength 3 sets
Rope extension 4 sets
Underhand extension 3 sets

Jump rope superset w/ cable side lateral raise, chest press machine 3 sets
Jump rope superset w/ straight bar extension 3 sets

I crashed hard after lunch yesterday. I was at work feeling like a straight zombie and I didn't know why. Even my coffee wasn't doing a thing for me to wake up. Right at the end of the day I started to feel a little better. The gym workout was good though. I felt more awake and better than I did at work. I didn't break any PR's or anything but the work still felt good and solid.

I'm running low on creatine powder so I opened up some creatine nitrate caps I had in my stash and wow the pump was crazy. I'm a big fan of potassium nitrates because I feel like other nitrates just don't give me that same pump but I guess going from nothing to creatine nitrate, I felt the balloon effect.

TweetTuesday

Basketball

Ran again last night. It wasn't that much fun. I have to remember it's for the calorie burn more so than anything and I def got some good calorie burn. I had a heavy sweat going on and I was out of breath very often. However I feel like my legs need a break. There were times when I had to shift on defense, I knew I had to shift but my legs didn't want to. I'd get over in time but it didn't feel like a smooth movement, it was more like moving in wet cement. I also was on a team with some guy who thinks he's James Harden and dribbles too much and really only passes when he has to, he doesn't move the ball to create a better shot for someone else.

Anyway I'm finishing this week of workouts and probably taking next Monday off. It's my mothers birthday anyway and I have some family coming in to visit so I'll most likely use that as a rest day.