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.

Unexpected New Bench Territory

I wasn't planning anything special for yesterday's workout except to go a little heavy on bench, but afterwards I realized that I definitely moved into new bench territory. My previous best bench was 155 x 8, and I beat it by a good margin:

95 x 6
135 x 6
165 x 7
155 x 7
145 x 8

Notice I used drop sets for a change.

The rest of the workout included:

• One arm DB Rows (3 x 8 with a 75# db)
• Standing Barbell Press (10 reps x 75, 70, 65)
  supersetted with
  
• Standing Barbell Curls (10 reps x 70, 65, 65)
  
• Dips supersetted with Chins (just one set each)

Super Squats: More Tweeks, more weight.

I have to admit I was quite impressed with Rich's new Squat PR. After my second warm up set, which was 185 x 5, I was feeling pretty strong. I remembered my own words to Rich about "only 20 lbs". So I slapped on a 10 on each side and had at it. Here's how it went:

Squat
135 x 7
185 x 5
205 x 20

I rounded off legs with Standing Calf Raises, and Lying Leg Curls, then about 10 minutes of stretching.

I have still been tweaking the upper-body portion of the workout a little. The result is sort of a combination of my first two ideas. I decided to do all core compound movements on the 3 supersquat days, and still have my fun weekend Arm-day. After my stretching, I did Incline Bench, Barbell Row, Standing Press, and Shrugs. Incline Bench will be alternated with Flat Bench, and Barbell Row will be alternated with Lat Pulldowns every other workout.

Challenge results in new Squat PR

It started at lunch time yesterday. Frank said "When you work out today, try squatting with 190 to see if you can match my PR of 21 reps". I told him he was nuts, especially since I had trouble getting 2 x 10 with 175 at my last workout. He reminded me, however, that I had previously claimed 170 x 25 with "gas in the tank" (which was true) and that 190 was "only" 20 more pounds.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. I felt well-rested, strong, and ready for a challenge. I finally settled on trying 185 - a nice looking weight, with a 45 and a 25 on each side. The result?

Squat:
95 x 10
135 x 7
165 x 5
185 x 20

I finished the routine with:
Leg Curls - 30 lbs x 25 reps (I was in a high rep mood)
One Leg Calf Raises - 20 lbs x 18, 12, 10
Stiff Leg Deadlift - 135 lbs x 12, 12
Side Bends - 40 lbs x 15 reps
Hanging Leg Raises - 10 reps

This was a major new PR for me, and it felt great. Thanks for the challenge, Frank!

Frozen Berry Protein Shake

Here's a simple protein shake I've been making lately as a treat after a hard home-gym workout.

In a blender, add:

• 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (available in frozen food section of the supermarket)
• 2 scoops protein powder
• 1 teaspoon honey
• lowfat milk to make a total of 2 cups of stuff in the blender (about 1 1/2 cups)

Blend until smooth. Drink.

I highly recommend using a protein blend(with casein) such as Met-Rx Protein Plus instead of a pure whey protein. This has nothing to do with the nutritional benefits of casein vs. whey - its simply that casein (but not whey) adds body to the shake, making it much more thick and smooth. Personally I 've also found that the Met-Rx protein is far less likely to give me gas than whey.

High Rep Bench, Supersets, Thick Bars

Whenever I am able to report an "interesting" workout its almost always because I trained with Matt. Last night's workout added to the legacy...

Matt showed up at my house for the home-gym training effect at 6:30. We were set for an "upper body" workout. After some warmups we decided to start with the Good Old Bench Press, seeing how many reps we could get with a "measly" 135 lbs. Frank has written about his experience with this last month. It went like this:

105 x 8 (warmup)
135 x 18, 10, 7

Man these were hard! The pump even after just the first set was incredible. The second two practically wiped us out - - but not quite. We had a lot of work left.

The next surprise was dumbbell rows with my home-made thick-handled dumbbell. This is a very unique experience - the pain in the hands and forearms towards the end of the set feels like nothing else. We managed something like:

60 x 8 (warmup)
70 x 12, 10, 8

Still more to go. My thought was to superset standing dumbbell presses with pronated chins, but after I finished my first set of presses Matt announced he wanted to work in wide grip upright rows somehow. No problem, I thought - lets emulate the great Dave Draper and do a tri-set of presses, chins, and upright rows. We quickly setup the bar for the rows and continued:

Presses: 35 x 10, 7
Chins: 10 , 8
Upright Rows: 65 x 10 , 8

Matt kept yelling at me not to rest between the sets, so by the time I finished the upright rows I was gasping for air, needing 3 breaths between reps! We managed two cycles of these, trying to save a little gas to bring my thick-handled barbells out of retirement, which I had acquired several years ago when I was in my "Dinosaur Training" phase.

We started with the 2 1/2 " bar. This is made from hollow steel tube, so it only weighs about 30 lbs. We loaded it up for a total of about 60 lbs, not being sure how bad the "thick handle" effect would be. It was pretty bad. With the 2 1/2 " grip its very hard to hold on to the bar, and your "groove" is thrown way off. We each managed "only" a set of 10 and a set of 8. Matt remarked that this was "barbaric". I noticed I had a pump in my wrists from this bar!

Still not done. We did a couple of sets of incline skull crushers for some tricep work and a little break from the forearm torture. Then I brought out my home-made 2 " thick barbell, which is perfect for reverse curls. This we loaded up to 50 lbs and did a single set of 10. Matt kept saying "ouch" with each rep, so we finally decided to call it quits.

First Workout of 2007

My New Year's Day workout was Legs/Chest. I hit the gym late morning, and it was surprisingly busy, considering I went to the "casual" gym, and not the "hardcore" one. Must be the "New Year's Resolution" folks that show up for the first 3-weeks of the year.

It's good that Chest is the second part of my workout, because being a Monday, every single bench was occupied when I got there. I headed over to the squat racks, which were empty of course. I usually warm up with front-squats of just the bar for about a dozen reps. Then I usually do a couple warm-ups of 135 before moving on to my working set:

Squats - 190 x 21
Calf Raises - 180 x 19
Leg Curls - 80 x 12

I have also been doing a lot of stretching for legs. After training legs, I usually do about 10-minutes of stretching before moving on to the upper-body portion of the workout. After my stretching, a couple benches were finally available.

Bench Press - 185 x 12
Incline Smith - 185 x 10

My weights on bench are definitely down when following a leg workout, as compared to starting fresh. But endurance is one of the things that this routine will help to build.

Streamlining Frank's 20-rep Squat Program

I am forging ahead with my 20-rep squat program. After cycling through my original training plan, I have tweaked the upper-body portion of the program. I am splitting upper-body more, so I only have to bang out one upper-bodypart after each brutal leg session. This way I don't have to split my focus as much when I am already pretty exhausted. It also gives a little more individual attention to each part. The schedule now looks like this:

Monday
20-rep Squats
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Bench Press
Incline Smith Machine Press

Wednesday
20-rep Squats
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Seated Rows
Lat Pulldowns

Friday
20-rep Squats
Calf Raises
Leg Curls
Standing Press
Side Laterals
Shrugs

Saturday
Seated Alternate Dumbell Curls
Standing Barbell Curls
Dumbell Kickbacks
Overhead Rope Extensions

.......yes, I have a separate fun arm day now!

As you can imagine, squatting 3 times a week, has my legs sore pretty much all the time. This amount of frequency requires a break from time to time. My plan is to have scheduled lower-body breaks at 6-week intervals. After 6-weeks, I will take 1-week off from lower-body training, and do only the upper-body portion of the routine for that week before entering another 6-week cycle. I also think its good to take a week off from all training once a year.