Heavy Day

For a change of pace yesterday I tried a good old-fashioned "heavy day". My plan was simple:

1. Work the whole body with big compound exercises.
   
2. Warmup with 1 x 8, 1 x 5, then keep adding weight until 5 reps became a maximum set. Attempt a second set of 5 at that weight.
   

I managed the following:
Squats - 195 x 2x5
Standing Press- 105 x 2x5
Chins- 45 x 2x5
Dips - 65 x 2 x 5
Deadlift - 255 x 2 x 2 (bailed out early - back was feeling tweaked)

When the workout was over, I felt pretty good. I'm used to being totally wiped out from fast paced, higher rep workouts, so in a way I felt I "cheated"; I wondered whether I'd worked hard enough.

By that night I got my answer - soreness of a type I never felt before settling in all over. This definitely taxes the muscles in a different way, and its fun to put up (relatively) big weights. No doubt I will try this again!

Front Squats

Ever try front squats? I got really charged up about them watching the videos at Crossfit, including their Front Squat demo. Last Sunday I decided to give them a try.

I figured I better do a lot of warmup sets to get the groove since I had never really tried them before. As a result, my sets went something like:

45 x 10
75 x 10
105 x 10
125 x 10, 8

The last few sets I supersetted with moderate weight leg curls. I wasn't quite sure if I had worked my legs hard enough, so I decided to tack on two sets of regular back squats:

165 x 15, 10

A couple of sets of calf raises and leg raises later and I was almost done. Sensing that I could do more, I setup my shrug bar and knocked out one light (175 x 20) set of shrug bar deadlifts.

This workout left me sore for days, so of course I'm going to try more front squats next time!

New State, New Gym, New Routine

It's been a while since I've posted. I been out of the gym for a few weeks with one of those lingering chest colds. I was able to sneak in a couple full-body workouts over the past few weeks, but nothing above minimal maintenance. In addition, I have also been busy with relocation and moving activities, as I have relocated to another state with my job.

So now I am finally settling in. I looked at a few gyms in the area, and ended up joining the one with the most squat racks, which is good since all of my recent routines revolve around multiple Squat workouts each week. My latest routine is no different. It's the most basic yet, but I think it will be the most effective.

Tuesday: Squat, Bench, Row, Tricep Extensions

Thursday: Squat, Standing Press, Deadlift, Curls

Saturday: Squat, Bench, Row, Tricep Extensions

Sunday: Calf Raises, Leg Curls, Standing Press, Shrugs, Curls

Basically it's a modified A/B routine with Sunday consisting of only accessory leg exercises, and also replacing Deadlifts with Shrugs. (Deadlifting twice a week would be a bit much considering the 3x per-week Squat frequency).

This routine was inspired by many of the squat-centric routines I have been reading about lately, like Supersquats, HST, Bill Starr's Rippetoe's, etc.

Getting back into the groove

Boy, it feels good to get your workouts back on track.

After a nasty cold set me back a week, I finally started hitting the weights again last weekend. The real surprise, however, was how today's workout turned out.

All that I had planned today was a simple 30 minute spin on the stationary bike at the fitness center at work. It turned out that I forgot to pack a towel, so I decided to do something that would cause less sweating - a whole body weight workout.

I started with legs:
Dumbbell Deadlifts: 70's x 10, 85's x 20
Leg Curls: 100 x 15
One Leg Calf Raises: 10 x 20

Then I decided to do two circuits of the following:

Standing DB Press: 35 x 15, 8
Pull ups: 13, 9
Dips: 15, 9
Upright DB Rows: 30 x 10, 8

Doesn't sound like much, but at the pace I worked it almost flattened me. Great change of pace and really felt like I accomplished something!

Still Tweaking, But Always Squatting.

If you have read my training routines this year, you will have noticed that I've been doing a lot of tweaking with the upper-body portion of my workouts. The consistent feature of all my workouts have been Squats. With my 3-times a week frequency, I have had more squat sessions in the past month than I normally have in a 3-month period. I'm liking it a lot. I am getting stronger and more proficient in the movement, and my legs and whole body seem to be getting thicker. I currently do 20-rep squats on Saturdays and Mondays, then on Thursdays I switch to a heavy 5-rep squat workout. My current bests in Squats are 210 x 20, and 250 x 6.

As for upper-body, I've found that my elbows and shoulders don't like having a pushing movement 3-times a week, so I've switched to an A-B push/pull routine for the upper-body portion of each workout. I'm liking it a lot so far.

Workout A
Squats
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Bench Press
Standing Press
Dumbell Kickbacks

Workout B
Squats
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Seated Row
Shrugs
Barbell Curl

Corporate Fitness

As of Monday, Jan 22, 2007, I started a new job at Hartford Life. This is a bit longer commute than I used to have (55 minutes vs. 25 minutes) so I decide that if only for the purpose of time management I should take advantage of the fitness center they have onsite. I submitted my paperwork and was processed and ready for my first workout by Wednesday.

Its a typical corporate fitness center - small, with an adequate array of machines and aerobic equipment but precious few free weights. The bright spot was their dumbbell rack, going all the way up to 85 pounds.

After surveying the equipment, I decided to stick with the basics, take advantage of the dumbbells, and shoot for a whole-body workout:

• Dumbbell Deadlifts: 50 x 10, 80 x 20
• Leg Curls: 50 x 15
• Hip Abduction and Adduction: 50 x 15
• One Leg Calf Raises: bodyweight x 25
• Standing DB Press: 35 x 12, 10 supersetted with
• Chins: 12, 10
• Flat DB Press: 50 x 10, 8 supersetted with
• One Arm DB Row: 65 x 10, 8

It got the job done, but was somehow not quite satisfying. Tweaks will be needed!

Today's Workout

• Squats (210 x 20)
• Calf Raises (200 x 20)
• Leg Curls (85 x 13)
• 10 minutes of stretching for legs
  
• Incline Bench (185 x 11)
• Seated Row (135 x 12
• Tricep Extensions (80 x 13)
• Barbell Curl (85 x 10)
• Standing Press (95 x 13)
• Shrug (260 x 12)
• Ab Machine Crunches (65 x 30)
  

As you may notice, I have thrown arms in to make a true full body routine. I gave up the notion of having a separate arm day. The more I tinker with the program, the more I find myself migrating towards the original. It works.