Day off today; FST-7, Massive Pump Tomorrow

Day off the gym today - went for a lunchtime walk down Smack Alley, or Albert Street as Dundee City Council prefer to call it.

Gym tomorrow with a chest and triceps session on the cards:

Triceps

• Close-grip bench press 3-4 x 8-12
• Raised bench dip 3 x 8-12
• Overhead cable extension 7 x 8-12
• Skull crushers 7 x 8-12

Chest

• Incline dumbbell press 3-4 x 8-12
• Incline dumbbell flye 3 x 8-12
• Flat Hammer dumbbell press 3 x 8-12
• Cable crossover 7 x 8-12

I guess much pain shall be had, especially the flat hammer press - not a great fan.

Chest and Back today

Still in pain from yesterday's leg workout.  Still went to gym for back and chest workout.

Narrow grip lat pulldowns, seated chest press, bench press, incline bench press, alternate rows and wrapped it up with some front barbell deltoid raises (should really be in Friday's workout) and .

Regarding Doms from yesterday, I reckon it's Maddy being up during the night and a lack of sleep.  Not feeling particularly stiff tonight on chest or back, but shoulders are sore.

Get to the whirlybird

Legs today

Another lunchtime visit to the gym today, which was preceded by an almost prophetic quip to a colleague that I was 'off to rupture my hamstrings'.

Started with my usual weighted squats/calf raises supersets on the Smith Machine and midway through my third set of squats the top of my right bicep femoris started feeling tight, then somewhat weak.  After a couple of minutes of dynamic stretches I performed another set with 45k on the machine to test it out and the tightness had mainly dissipated, but the weakness was still there.

Still had split squats, leg curls and more calf raises to do.  wtf?

I blame not walking around enough at work and that's going to be my excuse for the next few days for wandering around a lot (tight hams can lead, in the long term, to back trouble and I guess my work wouldn't want that).

Anyway, back to the choppa, erm, gym...

More stretches, a bit of walking about and the leg was feeling good, so it was right onto three sets of ten split squats (on each leg).  Man, these are painful, but good at working the legs - my left leg was wiped out on the last rep of the third set and I had to just plonk myself back onto the bench for a good couple of minutes before heading through to the other room for leg curls and leg presses.

New leg curl machine at the gym that you lie face down on and perform the reps in a rather prone position (at least it feels prone when Dorian is about ::shivers::) seems to work well and is more natural feeling than the old seated one.  3x10x28kg on this machine before having a blast on the leg press (not in my schedule for today, but always good for finally killing the legs off).

Leg pressing 225lb, 285lb then 315lb for 15 reps each set did indeed kill them off.

In pain, but in a good way, I decided that a few k on the bike should loosen the legs up and work some lactic acid out, so the session was finished off with 15-20minutes of Archer viewing whilst pedalling at level 6.

Back at work, I nearly fell going up the stairs, where I tend to take the first three steps at reception in a bound, I barely cleared the first step and was thankful for the banister (not to mention that nobody was there to witness my stumble) to grab onto.

Get to the choppa

Long Time, No Posts (and this one is short and pointed)

Been working on the plan I posted a couple of weeks back and have noticed some differences:  my squat weight has gone up to 80kg for full sets, my chest/bench press has gone up to 79kg and my own weight has dropped to just marginally over 16st (two and a half stone lost since July last year)

I have to say also that the PhD Pharma Whey is fantastic - great flavour, mixes well and is relatively cheap, which leads me to my next point...

5-egg omelette for brekky today and a day off the gym, which is good because, as everyone knows, rest and refuel are equally as important as the work you do in the gym.

A couple of guys from work have started going as well, so I'll maybe have a spotter for the bench.

'tis all good.

Run!  Get to the Choppa.

New workout

Time for a more regimented approach to my gym sessions.  It's been too easy of late to just swap workouts around, which can obviously lead to forgetting what I've done and when I did it, so....

I'm doing a three-day split over five days in the week with Wednesdays (as per) and Sundays (also as per) off.  Unfortunately this means Saturday walk/run now becomes a gym session.

My three workouts will consist of Chest and Triceps; Back and Shoulders; Legs and Biceps - which will be cycled through 1-3 as my workout days arrive (starting Monday).

This means I'll do each workout every 4 days (Chest and Triceps on Monday, Friday, then Tuesday, Saturday, etc), reducing the likelihood of DOMS affecting performance when I mix workouts (has been known to fire some lat-pulldowns and a quick set of arm curls into every visit).

The workouts
Chest and Triceps
Bench Press, heavy weights, 5 sets, 5 reps
Incline Bench Press, moderate weight, 3 sets, 8 reps
Cable Flyes (sp?), low weight, 3 sets, 10 reps
Cable/Rope Pushdowns, moderate weight, 3 sets, 8 reps
Bench Dips (raised feet), 3 sets, 10 reps
Flat Bench Alternate Dumbell extensions, light weight, 3 sets, 10->8->6 reps each arm

Back and Shoulders
Barbell Bent-over row, moderate weight, 5 sets, 5 reps
Lat Pull-down, heavy weight,  4 sets,  6 reps
Seated row, heavy weight,  3 sets,  6 reps
Shoulder shrugs, heavy weight, 3 sets, 8 reps
Standing Barbell Press, moderate weight,  5 sets, 7 reps
Dumbbell Lateral Raises, light weight,  3 sets, 10 reps

Legs and Biceps
Squats, heavy weight, 5 sets, 6 reps
Dumbbell Lunges, light weight, 3 sets, 8 reps or
Bulgarian Split Squats (with dumbbells), light weight, 2 sets each leg, 8 reps
Leg Curls, heavy weight, 3 sets, 8 reps
Alternate Seated Arm curls, v/light weight, 3 sets, 10->8->6 reps each arm each set
Standing Hammer Curls, moderate weight, 3 sets, 8 reps
Barbell curls, moderate weight, 3 sets, 8 reps

Some Notes
The flat bench alternate triceps extensions and alternate seated arm curls are very high rep (cardio-esque) exercises that involve hitting each arm with 72 reps each (24 reps per set), so need light weights - typically 5-7.5kg for myself.
Bulgarian Split Squats are painful when you do them and for a couple of days after.  After first doing them, I had a go on the leg extension machine - where I normally work the full stack, I struggled with a quarter of the weight, not even managing a full set.  Legs utterly trembling on the eccentric drop.
I will alternate Split Squats with dumbbell lunges for my leg sessions.


With thanks to Adam Campbell at monstersupplements.com

Holiday time - bonus Arnie

Off on holiday for 6 (working) days.  Alex off school 'til Wednesday and has taken ill.  Maddy is being a pain - par for the course, tbh.  Pam's in bed.

So, what to do?

Well, the East coast of Scotland has, apparently, some of the best salt-water mussels going, so tomorrow's run will somehow involve a carrier bag and a route that goes down toward Westhaven harbour.

Free food - cannae whack it.  Rich in protein too.

Talking of which, I have a new tryout coming tomorrow - PhD Pharma Whey.  Will report on it's efficacy and all-important taste and mixability.  Cancelled my CNP flapjacks this time; might order them on payday though.

Stick around. I'll be back.

Another day, another workout

Hectic day at work with a millionty pages needing audit log stuff added, so...

Lunchtime gym for biceps, forearms and back was a much welcome break from the monotony of it all.

Gym's still busy at lunchtime with all the 'New Year Resolutioners', but I can't complain too much as I was one of them this time last year.

Back on the slow drop sets for preacher curl, dropping from 45kg to 11kg thru 39, 32, 25, 20, 16, working to failure each set.  @25kg, the burn was deep, 20kg deeper, 16kg the burn was phenomenal.  11kg was a piece of piddle, so broke off from the set at 15 reps - waste of time by that point.

Day off tomorrow, thank fook - shoulders took a decent amount of punishment between yesterday and today and need to be rested for Thursday's leg and shoulder session.  Ah, split squats, I cannae wait.

Get to the chopper.

Triceps and Chest

Regular lunch-time slot at the gym was cancelled due to meeting overrun, so had to settle for a short stint at half four.  No cardio warm-up, just straight to weights focussing solely on triceps and chest.

I thought the gym would be pretty much empty with it still being in regular working hours, but it was mobbed to hell; I suppose it is in Dundee - would did I expect?

I hogged the smith machine for bench presses and incline bench presses before hammering the triceps from a few angles: tricep press behind the head/neck, tricep rope pulldown and tricep extension on the preacher bench.

Back onto chest with cable flies and finish off with seated chest press.

Damn fine workout, washed down with more stuff and nonsense (this time from Dymatize) en route to catching the 5.55 bus to Carnoustie.

Baked tattie with Chicken Korma for tea.  Handful of mixed fruit and nuts for snacking.

All in all, a good day given the change of workout from my usual Monday leg and shoulder session.

Since Starting

Ok, so I've decided to record my progress on losing weight and getting fit.

First of all, the reasons for getting fit.  Do you need a particular reason to lose weight and get fit when you're over 18 stone?  I think not, although I do have several concrete reasons: both my in-laws passed away before they were 60 due to complications arising from diet and general ill-health, my mother passed away before she was 55, I have two kids who I do not wish to see the same of their parents and also: I would rather like to see a lengthy retirement.

So, at lunchtime on 25th January 2010, I nipped across to the Dundee International Sports Centre, grabbed an application form and signed up.  By 5.30 that night I was on the cycle machine 'peching' at level 6 after only 5 minutes.

I changed my diet and had lengthy alcohol free periods - both have been an immense struggle, especially when the football is on the telly or I head up to Brechin to take in a game at the Glebe.

Within a couple of months of starting, I'd moved on to take in some more weights work, with a start point of 32kg tricep extension and similar for seated chest press and lat pull-downs.  I struggled to do more than a handful of body-weight squats, was stuck on 10kg dumbell arm curls and struggling with 25kg on the preacher curls.

I kept up a regular regime at the gym until early June 2010 when I tweaked a nerve in my lower back, resulting in several weeks away from the gym.  This unhappily coincided with going away on holiday; my weight rocketed to 18 and a half stone by the middle of July.

Back to the gym in July and some hard work on the cardio was once more required to quick shift some weight.  By September I was again hitting the weights, this time fuelled with USN's superb Muscle Fuel and some cheap-ass Creatine from Holland and Barrett.

Roll on a few more months and despite a two week cheat at Christmas, I'm now down to 16 and a half stone, have almost doubled (59kg) my tricep extension, 39kg on the preacher, 86kg on the lat pull-down, 72kg on the seated chest press and can comfortably work sets of 17.5kg dumbell arm curls.  Rather than do basic squats, my current trend is to do two sets of Bulgarian Split Squats on each leg, first with two 7kg dumbells in hand, then body-weight only.