2 For 1 - 11/21 and 11/24
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bill Anders
As a fun aside, as soon as we finished watching your meet video, the suggestion (on Friday) was the live stream of the US Collegiate Powerlifting meet. They had two platforms, which meant two streams. We set them up split screen and could barely keep up with how fast they were moving through the competitors. We knew it was live, since we could hear the announcer from platform one bleed over into the feed for platform two. It was a smooth, almost flawless operation through the deadlift sessions.
Also, we saw some very, very, very interesting techniques to pull the bar off the floor. Some worked.
Wow, now I need to go look at some of those deadlifts. The way your phrased that is funny! I’m visualizing all kinds of goofy pull methods.
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I need to log 2 sessions in this post, so please forgive me for a longer entry.
Sat. 11/21 - A2: quads, hamstrings, calves, abs, triceps, traps/rear delts
I went to work on one of my off days. As we head into our busiest time of year, that’s probably going to be fairly normal in December. In this case, it didn’t feel too bad because I had been off on Monday, making this essentially the 5th day of a work week. Plus, I only had to deliver my route without part of another route tacked on.
Work: 8 hours, 7.9 miles, 17,485 steps, 4 flights climbed
Smith Machine High Bar Squat - weight notated as plate weight +Smith bar
bar/8
90+/8
180+/8
270+/8 - started using mouth guard
320+/8 @9 RPE (took 2 deep breaths after reps 4 and 6, never re-racked it)
Oxygen gave out before my quads on the top set. If I never mentioned it, or if you missed it previously, I have asthma and squats tend to make me remember that. High bar is not comfortable at all. I was seriously considering using that pad for the bar, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. 😁
Leg Extension
100/10
150/10
200/15 @9.5 RPE - used mouth guard
Prone Leg Curl - we weren’t at our normal PF, so I had to take advantage of having this available
75/10
120/10
Drop set: 140/6 + 125/4 + 105/6 - used mouth guard. The drop was unplanned. I overshot the starting weight by a lot. Chalk it up to not using this machine regularly. If I go back to this particular PF soon, I’ll top out at 125-130.
Weighted Calf Stretch - on horizontal leg press
100/45 seconds right, then 45 left, then 45 right, then 45 left, then 160/90 seconds with both feet
Triceps Press Machine
100/12
160/15
205/14 @9 RPE - used mouth guard
Rear Delt Machine
60/10
100/10
150/10 @9.5 RPE - should have used 135-140
Total Gym Abs Sled
3 sets of 12
Tue. 11/24 - B2: chest, delts, back, biceps, calves, abs
Work: 10.0 hours, 9.5 miles, 20,647 steps, 29 flights climbed
Torso Rotation Machine
50/25 right + 25 left
75/25 right + 25 left
100/25 right + 25 left
Calf Extension Machine - finally figured out how to use this. PF is the only place I’ve ever seen it.
70/10
130/10
Weighted stretch: 70/30 seconds left + 30 right + 60 seconds left + 60 right
150/15
Weighted stretch: 150/60 seconds both
Hammer Strength Shoulder Press
30 per side/15-18 (lost count)
50 per side/10
70 per side/10 - put on elbow sleeves, stayed on for the rest of the workout
90 per side/10 - added mouth guard
100 per side/10 @9.5 RPE
Hammer Strength Pulldown - underhand grip
50 per side/15
80 per side/12
100 per side/10 @8 RPE - added mouth guard
120 per side/11 @10 RPE - added Versa Gripps
Hammer Strength Chest Press
40 per side/12
80 per side/10 @7.5 RPE
Drop set: 100 per side/8 + 90 per side/3 @10 RPE - used mouth guard. Drop was unplanned. I just didn’t want to be under 10 reps on my top set this early in my new training cycle.
Hammer Strength Row - underhand grip
50 per side/16 - stopped after 6 to adjust seat and chest pad
80 per side/10 @7.5 RPE - added mouth guard
100 per side/12 @10 RPE - added Versa Gripps
Spent about 10 minutes at the end of this session doing DoggCrapp style stretches for pecs, lats, delts and biceps.
I’m still feeling a few things out on some of these exercises in my first round through these workouts. God willing, I’ll do A3 tomorrow and B3 on Friday. But Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. The last day I worked after a federal holiday (Veterans’ Day, 11/11), I didn’t get off until 10:30 pm. So I know there’s a chance that B3 won’t happen until Saturday. That’s fine if that’s how it goes. Next week, I’ll start this rotation again with an increased emphasis on driving my top set to failure on just about every exercise except squats, leg presses, deadlifts and abs. Also, I’m going to try to make sure I call the right weights for my top sets, because I don’t want to be doing drop sets yet. 😄
Tue. 12/1 - Start of 2nd Cycle
Weighed 211.4 yesterday morning, and 210.0 this morning. That’s a nice trend in the right direction (up from 206.8-207.4).
12/1 Work: 10.0 hours, 8.9 miles, 19,040 steps, 16 flights climbed
A1: quads, hams, calves, abs, traps/rear delts, triceps
Calf Press & Stretch - on Hammer Strength leg press, listing weight of plates + sled
90+/20 - 3 second negative on each rep
Stretch: 90+/30 seconds, bilateral
180+/25 - quick tempo, pump reps
Stretch: 180+/60 seconds
Leg Press - Hammer Strength, listing weight of plates + sled
90+/10
180+/12
270+/12
360+/10
450+/10 - added mouth guard, wasn’t sure how this would go
550+/4 - primer set
500+/15 @9 RPE
Seated Leg Curl
70/15
100/12
145/5 - primer set
130/20 @8.5 RPE - I don’t know if I would have failed within 1-2 reps or not. I just know I couldn’t tolerate the burn/pump any more.
Triceps Pressdown - w/rope attachment, flaring ends of rope out at the bottom of each rep
40/15
65/7 @8.5 - probably too hard to consider a primer set
Drop set: 60/10 + (no rest) 50/5 + (3 deep breaths) 50/3 + 1 cheat rep w/slow negative
Rear Delt Machine
70/12
100/10
115/10 x 2 sets
Torso Rotation Machine
70/25 left + 25/right x 2 sets
Also did DC-style stretches (60 seconds+) for quads and hamstrings (both after leg press) and triceps (after the rotation).
1 hour, 12 minutes total
Back To Back Days, Plus An Update
BACK TO BACK DAYS
I was more tired than normal on Thursday, so I decided to skip it and train on consecutive days Fri/Sat. This way, I could stay on my normal schedule as far as the week goes, and I would have off two days before a planned session on Tuesday.
Fri. 12/4 - B1: chest, delts, back,abs (skipped abs, biceps)
Work: 9.0 hours, 7.7 miles, 16,439 steps, 19 flights climbed
*Reminder: Smith Machine exercises are listed with plate weights + bar*
Smith Machine Decline Bench Press - low decline, foot of bench was elevated by 2 10-lbs plates
bar/15
90+/10
140+/10
180+/8 @7.5 RPE - last time, my heaviest set of this exercise was 180+/11 @10 RPE
220+/3 - added mouth guard; primer set, but probably a little heavier than necessary
rest-pause: 195+/9+2 - took 10 deep breaths after the 9 reps; static hold after the 9 and the 2
Smith Machine BB Row - doing these much more strictly than normal, so weights are down from last time
bar/10
90+/10
140+/10 - added Versa Gripps
180+/7 @9 RPE - added mouth guard; felt hips rise on last rep, so I shut it down
160+/10 @10 RPE - stopped once I felt I couldn’t keep my low back from rounding
Smith Machine Standing Overhead Press - started each set/rep with a negative
bar/10
50+/10
80+/8
100+/4 - primer set; added mouth guard
90+/8 @10 RPE
Pull-ups - left the bar locked at the top, and did these on the Smith machine
BW/10 wide overhand
BW/10 medium overhand
BW/10 medium underhand
Done in 55 minutes.
Sat. 11/5 - A2: quads, hams, calves, traps/rear delts (skipped abs, triceps)
Last cycle, I did squats on A2 and deadlifts on A3. I switched them this time, so I could have an extra day off of training after deadlifts. I’ll do squats on A3. I also did this session at a PF with a prone leg curl, so I did those, and will plan to do RDL on A3 after squats.
Calf Press & Stretch - on horizontal leg press (Life Fitness machine)
Stretch: 100/60 seconds left + 60 seconds right
Press: 205/20 - controlled, 1 second negative on each rep
Stretch: 205/60 seconds both
Smith Machine Deadlift - standing on a pair of 25 lbs plates (per foot)
bar/15 - first 10 on floor, then added plates; also did 10 squats before standing on the plates
90+/8
180+/8
270+/8 - added Versa Gripps
320+/8 - added mouth guard
360+/10 @9.5 RPE - 2 more reps than I got with this weight last time
Prone Leg Curl
60/12
90/10 - hamstrings were pumped - I wasn’t sure I should go up on the next set
drop set: 120/12 + 105/7
Standing, unilateral hamstring stretch: 45 seconds left + 45 right + 30 seconds left + 30 right
Leg Extensions
90/15
130/12
165/20 @10 - added mouth guard; had to pause for a deep breath after reps 17 and 18
Standing, unilateral quad stretch: 60 seconds left + 60 right
Done in 60 minutes.
UPDATE
So... I may have mentioned that I have asthma in this log before. Earlier this week (Tue/Wed), my chest was feeling tight when I woke up. That’s unusual for me in the morning, but my inhaler seemed to give me some relief. I also started coughing a bit with the tight chest - normal when my asthma flares up. By yesterday, I also had this odd feeling of being congested and coughing, but never coughing up anything. I also noticed that I was a little light-headed and getting out of breath even more easily, like from going up or down the stairs. I said that I thought I should go to an urgent care center, and my oldest daughter (15) who has worse asthma than me asked if she could go with me, because she had been feeling similar symptoms for a few days. I didn’t know that until she told me yesterday.
So with 2 of us experiencing respiratory problems, you can imagine what I was thinking. Sure enough, we went and both of us got tested for Covid. I also got an x-ray because I started feeling a pain in my chest, just right of center. The x-ray was fine, but we won’t have our results for a few days. My wife, who had started feeling bad herself, said that while we were out, she had developed a sore throat as well, so she went after we got home, and they tested her too.
For the time being, we’re all quarantined at home until we know our status. Needless to say, I won’t be at Planet Fitness this week. I suppose this is a good time to assemble the rack and bench I’ve purchased, and organize the basement so I can eventually train at home, at least part time. I don’t have enough plates to do what I need to do here, and I’ve actually come to like some of the equipment at PF. I can see myself splitting my training between here and there. But first, I need to find out whether I’m dealing with coronavirus or just some random respiratory illness. I’ll update once I find out.