Just as I anticipated my back is very very sore today.  I woke up sore and it got progressively worse as the day wore on.  I had personal training clients up until 2pm today and by the time I was training my 1pm client I was starting to worry if I would be able to train shoulders at 2:30.  My traps are super-sore.  Actually my entire back is sore from my neck down to lower back.  I like it!!!

At about 2:15 I took several extra strength tylenol gels and headed over to meet Tricia for our workout.  The first few sets of overhead presses were really painful, but after I got warmed up it wasn’t bad.  We got a good workout, but I didn’t push my shoulder exercises to the limit.  I felt it was best to back off the intensity a little today.  I’ll crank it back up next week if everything feels good.

After biceps I did calf raises, which I didn’t do on Monday.  I also did some bonus quad work.

Shoulders:

Overhead DB Press 7 sets 12-15 reps

DB Lateral Raise 4 sets 12 reps

Rear Delt Machine Fly  4 sets 12-15 reps

Arms:

Tricep Pressdowns  4 sets 15, 12, 10, 10

Skull Crushers  4 sets 15, 12, 12, 12

DB Curls 4 sets 10 reps

Cable Curls 4 sets 10, 6 (went too heavy), 10, 8

Calves:

Donkey Calf Raise  6 sets 300X12, 400X12, 450X12, 500X12X10X10

Single Leg Extensions 5 sets 10-12 reps

Trisha was out of town today, so I decided to do some seriously  heavy deadlifting (it’s heavy for where I am right now)  in my back workout today.  I struggled a little on my heaviest deadlifts off the floor, but on the sets I did for reps it went very well!  I’ve  slept very poorly  the last two nights, so I’m pretty sure that was a factor.  But, I still worked up to a 435 single (not a max single) which is good for right now.  My hamstrings are still sore from leg day.  I even debated (with myself) on whether or not I should even deadlift.  But my crazy side said that not deadlifting would be a major wimp-out, so I loaded up the bar and got after it.  I followed the regular deadlifts with some partial deadlifts in the power rack from the knees up.  I went heavier than I’ve gone in a very long time.  After all the deadlifts were done I did pullups.  I haven’t been able to do pullups for a number of years because my shoulders hurt so badly.  This year I’ve been working them in sporadically and they’re feeling really good…with no shoulder pain.  On the last rep of each set I held myself in the contracted position for 15 seconds.  I’m going to be sore tomorrow!

Deadlifts off the floor 135X10X10, 225X8, 275X6, 315X3, 365X2, 405X1, 425X1, 435X1, 405X3, 315X10

Box jumps between deadlift sets 16″X5, 18″X5, 20″X5, 24″X3, 26″X3

Partial Deadlifts 315X10, 365X8, 405X6, 455X5

Pull ups  4 sets 10, 10, 8, 6   all were to failure with a 15 second hold after the last rep

High Pulley Rows  6 sets  10, 8, 8, 8, 8, 6

Straight arm pulldowns  3 sets 10 reps  very controlled, flexing the lats hard on each rep

For me, two things are pretty certain on Tuesdays.  One, my legs are going to be sore.  And two, I’m doing a chest workout!  My legs, glutes, and back are growing more sore (from my squats yesterday) as I write this blog entry.  It’s a good thing that tomorrow is a rest day.  I’m going to need it!!!

Tricia met me at Hyde Park Gym today for our chest workout.  I love working chest at Hyde Park because the bench press rack is low enough that I can actually get the bar racked by myself if necessary, and I love the angle of the incline press bench!  Add to that, I don’t have to listen to any lame-ass music here, so I can concentrate better.  I love bench pressing, but I’ve kinda been struggling with the bench lately.  In my first few warmup sets my left pec was hurting and my shoulders were really stiff and sore.  On my third warmup set my right elbow popped on every rep.  I don’t know what that was all about!  On my fourth set it popped for about the first 5 reps then stopped and didn’t bother me the rest of the workout.  Thank God!!!

As I said, I’ve been struggling a bit with the bench press, but my incline presses have really been improving.  That’s very encouraging!  I’ve been getting significantly stronger on my pec machine flys too.  I followed my chest workout with some “bonus” lateral raises and hammer curls.  I’m really liking the feel of doing the lateral raises after chest.  I’m so much stronger than when I do them after overhead presses on shoulder day.

Bench Press 135X12X12, 185X12X12, 205X12, 225X8

Incline Press 135X12, 165X10, 185X10, 205X8X10

Pec Fly Machine  3 sets 12-15 reps

Lateral Raises 4 sets 15, 12, 12, 10

Hammer Curls 3 sets 15, 12, 12

This morning I had a client cancel and was able to do my “split” leg workout. By the time I finished my 9am client, got my workout drink mixed, got changed and got my gear together I had 40 minutes to do my super-heavy squat workout. This workout consisted of half-squats and “just above” parallel squats in the power rack. I’m still trying to get used to the feel of really heavy weights on my back, but I’m definitely improving weekly on these squats. During the execution of both exercises I was feeling more strain in my back than in my legs. But, as I performed the reps I concentrated on perfect technique and contracting my quads hard on the way up. Within 10 minutes after I finished I was really feeling the fatigue in my vastus lateralis…..exactly what I need! Three hours later I was at Gold’s for the rest of my leg workout. I wanted to do my deep squats first, but all of the squat racks were taken. I thought I would warm up with leg presses until a squat rack opened up, but every time somebody left, someone else stepped in the rack before I could finish my current set of leg presses. I ended up going very heavy on leg presses (up to 810 lbs). I felt very good about being able to go this heavy after the heavy squat workout in the morning. After leg presses I did super-deep squats and was definitely feeling the fatigue. By the time I finished squatting and doing leg curls I was totally out of gas, but cranked out a couple sets of leg extensions for good measure.

Heavy Squat workout (10:20am):

Half-squats 135X10, 225X10, 275X5, 315X5, 365X5, 405X5, 435X5, 455X5

Just above parallel squats 315X5, 365X5, 385X5

Regular Leg workout (2:45):

Leg press 10 sets 20 reps

Squats 135X10, 185X10, 225X10X16X10

Single leg Leg Curls 4 sets 15, 10, 10, 10

Lying leg curls 3 sets 12, 12, 10

Leg Extensions 2 sets 15, 20

Once again, I’m sitting here amazed that it’s already Friday.  It’s been another busy week!  I’ve been busy training my clients and and crankin’ out hard workouts.  Tricia and I adjusted our workouts up a day this week because she anticipated being gone today.  But, she didn’t leave town until this afternoon so we squeezed in an extra leg workout this morning.

With the workout adjustment we trained back on Wednesday.  Eli Kaplan from The Daily Texan (UT’s student newspaper) wanted to photograph our workout, so he met us at Hyde Park Gym shortly after noon.  It seems that being photographed or filmed during a workout always gets my adrenaline going and Wednesday was no exception.  I was extremely sore from my heavy squat workout on Monday and my chest workout Tuesday.  But, with the workout being photo-documented I was able to summon the strength to knock out a Herculean training session.  On Thursday we met at Gold’s and even though I was sore all over, we still got a great shoulder and arm workout.  Maybe it’s the extra carbs I’ve been eating but my bi’s and tri’s were so pumped that they felt like they were about to explode!  While I sometimes complain about the intense burn, I love that feeling!!!!

Wednesday Back:

Lat Pulldowns  5 sets 12, 12, 10, 8, 12

Seated Cable Row  4 sets 12, 12, 10, 8

High Pulley Row  3 sets 12, 12, 10

One Arm DB Row 3 sets 10-12 reps

Partial Deadlifts (my back and legs were still very sore from squatting.  These were hard!)

5 sets 15, 15, 15, 12, 12

Thursday   Shoulders/Arms

Seated DB Press 7 sets 15, 15, 12, 10, 10, 10, 6  (85 lb DB’s for my final set)

DB Lateral Raise  4 sets 12 reps

Rear Delt Flys  4 sets 12-15 reps

Skull Crushers  4 sets 15, 15, 15, 12

Pressdowns  4 sets 15, 10, 8, 4 with a drop set additional 6 reps

Friday Legs

Single Leg Press 6 sets 15-20 reps each leg

Single Leg Extension 5 sets 12-15 reps each leg

Lying Leg Curls  4 sets 10-12 reps (these still hurt my hamstring tendon a lot.  And, it’s been 14 full months since the surger)

Calf Raises on the Hack Machine  5 sets 12-15 reps