Richard's Training Log

[arpeejay]

Actually, I post notes to my Facebook account but not everyone is on or wants to be on FB. Nothing special here other than a good bit of variety and some indication (hopefully!) that you can still make progress at 51 1/2 years old!

11/2/09: Legs

Arrived about 8:30 a.m., spent 5 minutes on the Stair Master, and then about an hour to do:

(1) Alternating single leg press and single leg pointed toe calf raises with the leg press machine; not much weight (258 lbs.) but I went a lot deeper than I normally do, so that was good. 4 sets, 10 reps each.

(2) Deep squats with the Precor Supersquat machine. Again, very light weight (just the machine, then 50, 70, 90 lbs.) but much deeper than usual, 4 sets x 10 reps.

(3) Hammerstrength seated leg extensions and standing alternating leg curls; 90, 140, 160, 180 x 10 reps each on the leg extensions, 45 x 10 reps (each leg) on the curls.

(4) Seated calf raises (90 lbs.) and alternating bodyweight single leg squats; 4 sets, 10 reps.

And, yes, my legs felt like rubber bands when I left. I went upstairs to peek in on Josh's Cabra Desmayos class but they were doing planks, for goodness sake, so I beat a hasty retreat. :-)

[Mdlftr]

PRetty impressive, House Dad!

Keep up the good work!

Let's bounce a quarter off those quads!

Mdlftr

[arpeejay]

11/3/09: Chest

I had a great workout with Josh today. Now that I have more free time, I'm converting (I think!) to a six-day-per-week workout schedule, something along the lines of:

Monday: Legs
Tuesday: Chest (with Josh)
Wednesday: Triceps and core
Thursday: Back (with Josh this week; normally on Friday...)
Friday: Biceps and core
Saturday: Delts and traps

We'll play with it. In the meantime, today I did:

(1) Flat bench with dumbbells: 10 x 60, 8 x 65, 6 x 75, 6 x 80, 4 x 90, 2 x 100. I've never done the 100s before (and I'm pretty sure I haven't done the 90s) so I felt like I was rockin'! :-)

(2) Smith machine incline press, 5 x 5 x 185.

(3) Hammerstrength decline press, 5 x 5 x 180.

(4) Flat bench db flyes, 10 x 25, 10 x 30, 10 x 35 (twice.)

All of which took about an hour and five minutes.

[Lucas88]

Nice workout, Richard. Bounce a pec for us!

BTW...if you're ever looking for an alternative leg workout just to shake things up a bit, I read somewhere a long time ago (ugh) that, to paraphrase, "because of the function of the legs (continuous repetitive motion, i.e., walking, running, etc.), the muscle might respond to higher reps with slightly lower weights in some people." I remember the recommendation being to shoot for sets of around 20 reps. I worked that into my routines for all leg exercises and my legs DID respond better both in size and strength improvement. I tended to get stalled at certain poundages a lot more frequently before I did this and now I can increase the weights pretty regularly (though I did start out lower for obvious reasons). I noticed the improvement in my gate and stability when hiking, too.

[arpeejay]

11/4/09: Triceps

I had a dental appointment first so it was nearly 10 a.m. before I made it to the gym. Spent about 45 minutes working triceps (and a little bit of core):

(1) Assisted dips; 4 sets, 10 reps each (50 lbs. for the assist.)

(2) Skullcrushers with the 65 lb. EZ Curl bar and bent over triceps kickbacks with the 17.5 lb. db; 4 sets, 10 reps each.

(3) Cable triceps pushdowns and overhead cable triceps extensions (with the rope in both cases); 4 sets, 10 reps each (50 lbs.)

(4) Single arm triceps push downs with Freemotion machine and then reverse seated dips (90 lbs.); 4 sets, 10 reps each.

(5) Leg lifts and Freemotion side twists; 4 sets, 20 reps each for the leg lifts, 10 reps each side for the twists.

Tomorrow I'll do back with Josh although I'm not quite sure when! Naoyuki is flying in from his conference this evening at 10:55 so I'm likely to be a zombie at 7:30 a.m. On the other hand, another great house husband perk: I can come home and take a nap, if need be!

[arpeejay]

11/5/09: Delts and Traps

I had to wait on the exterminator guy to show up to look at the woodpecker problem (I'm NOT joking!) and he didn't arrive until 2 p.m. so it was 3:30 before I made to the gym. In addition to five minutes (1064 meters) on the rowing machine, I did:

(1) EZ Curl press, upright rows, and front raises. 50 lb-bar for the press and upright rows, 35 lb-bar for the front raises; 4 sets, 10 reps each set.

(2) Arnold Press (20 lb. dbs), side lateral raises (12.5 lb. dbs), and front raises (10 lb. dbs); 4 sets, 10 reps each. I was forgetting that it's been a LONG time (before the pinched nerve at the end of July) since I've done any serious delt work.

(3) Machine rear delt flyes (75 lbs.) and Lunge machine shrugs (180 lbs.); 4 sets, 10 reps.

(4) Cable upright rows and cable shrugs; 2 x 10 x 80 and 2 x 10 x 90 for the upright rows, 2 x 10 x 100 and 2 x 10 x 150 for the shrugs.

(5) Bradford Press with the short bar (which is what, 30-35 lbs.?); one set until failure (about 20 reps.)

I got the EZ Curl exercises (and the Bradford Press) from Lee Hayward's Youtube site:

YouTube- 3 Shoulder Workout Exercises

A chat friend suggested the Arnold Presses (I was looking for rear delt exercises), which are demonstrated by Brad Aubry at the Expert Village Youtube site:

YouTube- Bodybuilding Exercises : Bodybuilding: The Arnold

Back with Josh tomorrow, bis (by myself) on Saturday.

[arpeejay]

And some new pix (same as posted in another thread this evening):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...6&l=5b6bc792d9

Public link, no login required.

[arpeejay]

11/6/09: Back

Five minutes on the Stair Master, then my session with Josh, which included:

(1) Trap bar dead lifts. I think the standard trap bar is 75 lbs., in which case I did 4 sets x 3 reps x 255 lbs. and 4 sets x 3 reps x 275 lbs. And, yeah, I like trap bar deads a LOT better than the regular kind.

(2) Wide grip seated low rows and close grip lat pull downs; 5 sets, 5 reps for reach.

(3) T-bar rows (3 sets, 15 reps each set, 5 narrow grip, 5 wide grip, 5 medium grip) and hyperextensions (20, 15, and 10 reps.)

(4) Supported t-bar negative reps. We started with 90 lbs. (1 rep!), then when down to 80 lbs. (2 reps), and finished up with 45 lbs. (3 reps.) I was a total wuss!

And I think that was it.

Biceps / core tomorrow on my own.

[arpeejay]

11/9/09: Legs

I had zero energy this weekend so biceps / core didn't happen Saturday or Sunday. << sigh >>

I managed to get in a fairly decent leg workout today, however. Five mintues on the Stair Master, then:

(1) Bench squats, 4 sets x 10 reps x 135 lbs.

(2) Precor Supersquats and Precor Hack Squats, 4 sets x 10 reps x 180 lbs. (plus whatever the sled weighs.)

(3) Hammerstrength leg exstensions (180 lbs.) and seated machine leg curs; 4 sets x 10 reps each.

(4) Seated calf raises (90 lbs.) plus bodyweight squats (butt to ankles), 4 sets x 10 reps each.

All of which took just about an hour, so not bad I guess. I need to look over my notes and see what I'm leaving out (lunges, obviously!)

Chest tomorrow with Josh.

[arpeejay]

11/10/09: Chest

Five minutes on the Stair Master, then an hour with Josh:

(1) Flat bench. 12 x 135, 10 x 155, 8 x 165, 6 x 185, 2 x 225.

(2) Incline dumbbell press: 5 x 5 x 60 each arm.

(3) Freemotion flyes: 6 down, 6 middle, 6 up, 3 times.

(4) Dumbbell pullovers; 10 x 50 lbs., 3 or 4 times.

(5) Flat bench with light dbs (35 lbs. each arm) to failure (24 reps.)

Tomorrow I'll work on triceps again.

[arpeejay]

11/11/09: Triceps

It was a busy sort of day but I managed to make to the gym (it was a zoo, thanks to the holiday!) to do five minutes on the rowing machine (1000 meters) and then about an hours worth of triceps work, including:

(1) Assisted dips; 10 with 50 lbs., 8 with 40 lbs., 6 with 30 lbs., 4 with 20 lbs., 4 with nothing. Plus one set of kneeling torso twists on the machine.

(2) Skullcrushers (65 lbs.) and dumbbell triceps kickbacks (25 lbs.); 4 sets, 10 reps each.

(3) Close grip bench press and two-handed behind-the-neck db triceps extensions; 4 sets, 10 reps each. The dumbbell was 50 lbs. For the close grip, I did one set with just the bar (45 lbs.), two sets at 65 lbs., 1 set at 85 lbs.

(4) Lying down dumbbell triceps extensions and Zotmann's (aka Zomboids!); 4 sets, 10 reps each. For the extensions, I used 17.5 lb. dbs, for the Zotmann's 15 lb. dbs.

(5) Cable rope triceps push downs and overhead triceps extensions; 4 sets, 10 reps each set / exercise.

Pretty good workout, overall. I was pleased I managed 4 dips without assistance on the asisted dip machine. Maybe before Xmas I can manage a decent set totally unassisted. Also, I think I can go up on weight with the skullcrushers; seems like I was doing 75 lbs. before I had the pinched nerve in my neck. I imagine I could do more on the two-handed behind-the-neck extensions, also, but for some reason that movement bothers my left wrist. Oh well!

Tomorrow delts and traps, Friday I'll do back with Josh.

[arpeejay]

11/12/09: Traps and Delts

Mostly traps, actually. Five minutes on the Stair Master, then:

(1) Seated converging plate overhead press and inverted shrugs; 5 x 5 on the presses, 3 sets at 180 lbs., 2 sets at 140 lbs. 5 x 10 with 30 lb. dbs for the shrugs.

(2) Standing military press and barbell shrugs. For the presses, 10 x 65, 8 x 75, 6 x 85, 6 x 95, 6 x 105. For the shrugs, same weight(s) x 10 reps each set.

(3) Smith machine shrugs and barbell upright rows. 10 x 105, 10 x 125, 10 x 145, 10 x 165 for the shrugs; 4 sets x 10 reps with just the bar for the rows.

(4) Angled db front raises and seated side lateral raises. Very light weight (10 lb. db in each arm), 3 sets x 10 for the laterals, 3 sets x 7-7-7 for the front raises (palms down, palms in, palms out.)

(5) Freemotion rotator cuff twists plus side lateral raises. Again, very light weight. With the twists, chest to straight out, straight out to side, 10 reps for each movement for each side, three sets. Ditto, three sets x 10 reps x each side for the side laterals. (I need to ask Josh what these are actually called. Ditto for # 4!)

Tomorrow I'll work on back with Josh, biceps and core (as God or Scarlett O'Hara is my witness) on Saturday.

[arpeejay]

11/13/09: Back

I was running late so I didn't have time for the Stair Master. My session with Josh included:

(1) Bent over single arm db rows. A warm set (20 reps) with 30 lbs., then 8 sets x 3 reps x 80 lbs., each side.

(2) Lat pulldowns with the strap-handles; 4 sets, 10 reps each.

(3) Old school t-bar rows, 5 sets x 12 reps x 75 lbs.

(4) Freemotion standing single arm rows and inverted Smith machine pull ups; 4 sets, 10 reps each arm on the rows, about 7-10 reps on the pull ups.

(5) Assisted pull ups; 4 sets, about 6-7 reps per set.

[arpeejay]

11/16/09: Legs

Five minutes on the Stair Master, then:

(1) Leg press. 12 x 478, 10 x 568, 8 x 658, 6 x 748, 6 x 838, 6 x 928, 6 x 1018.

(2) Hack squat. Just 2 plates (90 lbs.) plus whatever the sled weighs but I went deep: 20 reps, 3 sets.

(3) Leg extensions and standing alternating hamstring curls; 4 sets, 10 reps each.

(4) Pointed toe calf raises on the leg press machine; 20, 15, and 10 reps.

[arpeejay]

11/17/09: Chest

Five minutes on the Stair Master and then an hour with Josh and the new trainer, Jeff:

(1) Incline bench with a half rep for each full rep (cor blimey if I know what these are called); 8 x 3 x 105?

(2) Incline dumbbell flyes; 4 x 10 x 35 lbs. each arm.

(3) Cable combo flyes / push downs; 5 x 5 x 40 lbs. (Again, no idea what these are really called!)

(4) Single arm dumbbell floor press; 4 x 10 x 40 lbs. each arm.

(5) Combo push up / side plank movement; 3 x 5-6 reps each side.

Tomorrow I'll do triceps / biceps, Thursday I'll do shoulders with Josh.