tobymax's training log

[tobymax]

Catching up for this week...

My workouts felt good this week, although the weights were significantly lighter than I'd been using before my 2 1/2 week break.  For this, my "comeback" week, it felt like a great big warm up for big things to come next week... 

Thursday 7/3

Lying leg curls:
70 lb x 10
70 lb x 10
90 lb x 8
100 lb x 5
100 lb x 5

Flat BB Bench Press:
warm up, bar only x 25
135 lb x 10
155 lb x 10
185 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
185 lb x 5

Cautiously testing the waters with some curls, just to get a little biceps pump...  so far so good; no elbow pain:
EZ Bar Curls:
40 lb x 15
50 lb x 12
50 lb x 12

Dumbbell Hammer Curls:
20's x 10
25's x 8
25's x 8


Saturday, 7/5

I'm embarrassed to even post these squat numbers.  Seriously.  I started over from ZERO, to test my ailing left knee.  After talking to another guy a the gym (a rarity for me) about how he started over due to knee pain, I felt if I could get the stance just right, get the form down right, and do a full-motion ATG squat, then maybe I could do it without the knee pain.  So far so good with these little girl numbers:

Squats:
bar only x 15
bar only x 15
95 lb x 8
105 lb x 5
110 lb x 5
110 lb x 5
95 lb x 8
No knee pain! 

Standing BB Overhead Press:
bar only x 15
95 lb x 8
105 lb x 5
105 lb x 5
110 lb x 5
110 lb x 5
95 lb x 8

Pull Ups:
Testing the elbows again, with pull ups.  So far so good, no elbow pain:
6 reps x 5 sets

Dumbbell Shrugs:
50's x 15, x 5 sets
Some of the best advice I've gotten off of a Youtube video lately is to dramatically drop the amount of weight you use for shrugs.  It really helps with that mind-muscle connection which can be hard to find on shrugs.  I dropped from 75 to 50 and I like it.

Machine Flys:
70 lb x 12
80 lb x 12
90 lb x 10
100 lb x 10
110 lb x 10

That was a good long workout, an hour and 15 min.

Sunday 7/6

A quickie, because the pool was calling my name this afternoon:

Deadlifts:
135 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
205 lb x 5
225 lb x 5
245 lb x 5
255 lb x 5

Flat BB Bench Press:
bar only x 20, twice
135 lb x 5
155 lb x 5
175 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
195 lb x 5
205 lb x 5

[sakustoms]

Toby, glad to hear you're back at it. Especially with no pain. Hopefully the knee and elbow won't be an issue anymore.

[tobymax]

Missed the gym on Monday.

Today, back into the swing of things, but doing embarrassingly light weight squats to figure out the right way to do them without hurting my knee.  As I said, I'm starting over from ZERO on squats.  My goal is to turn my hatred of squats into a love of squats by doing them right and pain-free.  I've done more reading and reading, and figured that a big part of my squat problem is probably weak hamstrings.  I'm going to start doing ham iso work every-other workout.

Tuesday 7/8 - Workout A (squats, OHP, +other accessory exercises)

Baby Squats:
45 lb x 10
45 lb x 10
95 lb x 10
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 5
135 lb x 5
135 lb x 5
All done ATG with a good pause at the bottom.

Standing BB Overhead Press
45 lb x 15
45 lb x 15
95 lb x 8
95 lb x 5
105 lb x 5
110 lb x 5
110 lb x 5

Hammer Strength Iso Lateral High Row:
90 lb x 20
160 lb x 10
160 lb x 10
180 lb x 10
180 lb x 10
180 lb x 10
I love the feeling of lat isolation with this HS machine.

Lying Leg Curls:
70 lb x 15
80 lb x 10
90 lb x 8
90 lb x 6
90 lb x 5

[sakustoms]

Missed the gym on Monday.

Today, back into the swing of things, but doing embarrassingly light weight squats to figure out the right way to do them without hurting my knee.  As I said, I'm starting over from ZERO on squats.  My goal is to turn my hatred of squats into a love of squats by doing them right and pain-free.  I've done more reading and reading, and figured that a big part of my squat problem is probably weak hamstrings.  I'm going to start doing ham iso work every-other workout.

Tuesday 7/8 - Workout A (squats, OHP, +other accessory exercises)

Baby Squats:
45 lb x 10
45 lb x 10
95 lb x 10
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 5
135 lb x 5
135 lb x 5
All done ATG with a good pause at the bottom.

Standing BB Overhead Press
45 lb x 15
45 lb x 15
95 lb x 8
95 lb x 5
105 lb x 5
110 lb x 5
110 lb x 5

Hammer Strength Iso Lateral High Row:
90 lb x 20
160 lb x 10
160 lb x 10
180 lb x 10
180 lb x 10
180 lb x 10
I love the feeling of lat isolation with this HS machine.

Lying Leg Curls:
70 lb x 15
80 lb x 10
90 lb x 8
90 lb x 6
90 lb x 5

Bingo. Same for me. I started doing RDL's. Hope you can keep squatting pain free.

[tobymax]

This evening I got back to making progress.  My workout "B" is supposed to be deadlifts + bench press + accessories (usually seated rows, face pulls, calves, etc.).  But I was having fun with the deads and bp, and didn't get around to doing anything else.

Wednesday 7/9 - Workout B

Deadlifts:
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
205 lb x 5
225 lb x 5
255 lb x 5
275 lb x 5
285 lb x 1
295 lb x 2
300 lb x 1 <-- Barehanded PR

Flat BB Bench Press:
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
195 lb x 5
205 lb x 5
205 lb x 5
215 lb x 3
215 lb x 3
185 lb x 6
135 lb x 12

20 total sets in 50 minutes.

[sakustoms]

That's a lot of sets for both. 

Congrats on the PR.

[tobymax]

Friday 7/11 - Workout A

Again with the minimal weight squats.  Very very slowly working my way back up, good form,  ATG, good pause at bottom.  Thankfully no knee pain.

Squats:
45 lb x 10
45 lb x 10
115 lb x 8
115 lb x 5
135 lb x 5
155 lb x 5
155 lb x 5

Standing OHP:
45 lb x 15
45 lb x 15
95 lb x 10
105 lb x 5
105 lb x 5
115 lb x 5
115 lb x 5

Lying Leg Curls:
70 lb x 12
75 lb x 10
80 lb x 10
90 lb x 6
90 lb x 5

And, again with my re-entry into the world of pull ups.  Slow going, thankfully with no elbow pain.

Pull ups:
5 sets:  8, 8, 6, 5, 5 reps.

[FLEX]

Again with the minimal weight squats.  Very very slowly working my way back up, good form,  ATG, good pause at bottom.  Thankfully no knee pain.

Good deal.  Onward and upward.

[tobymax]

Thanks for the support Flex.

Monday 7/14 - Workout B (partially, anyway)

Short on time tonight, we were meeting friends out for dinner.    35 minute quickie...

Deadlifts:
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 5
185 lb x 5
205 lb x 5
225 lb x 5
255 lb x 5
275 lb x 5

All three flat bp stations were in use, so I went to incline bench for the first time in a while.  Was feeling weak after rushing through the quick deadlift session, so went easy with it...

Incline bb bench press:
45 lb x 20
45 lb x 20
135 lb x 10
135 lb x 5
155 lb x 5
175 lb x 4
175 lb x 5
135 lb x 10

[sakustoms]

That's a lot of weight moved for what you consider a "short session" Toby.

I don't call 175x4 and 175x5 on incline light. Nice job.

[tobymax]

Thanks Eric.  It's been so long since I've done incline BP, I've forgotten what weight I've used on it before.  I'd have to go back and look at old journal posts.  Compared to flat bench, I thought I was going easy with 175 lb.

Today, I continued my super slow comeback on squats.  It was a step back from my previous squat session, because for some reason my legs felt very fatigued from the moment I stepped into the gym.  I wanted to stay 100% in control of form, so I kept it super super light.

Tuesday 7/15 - Workout A
Baby Squats:
45 lb x 10
45 lb x 10
95 lb x 10
115 lb x 5
115 lb x 5
135 lb x 5
135 lb x 5
Yep, that's all.

Standing BB OHP:
45 lb x 15
45 lb x 15
95 lb x 6
115 lb x 5
115 lb x 5
115 lb x 5
120 lb x 4 - PR
125 lb x 1 - PR
I'm feeling better and better about OHP, not arching my back near as much as I used to.  Felt like I could have done 125 for a few reps if I had jumped up to it quicker instead of doing those three sets at 115.  Next time.

Lying Leg Curls:
80 lb x 10
80 lb x 10
90 lb x 8
95 lb x 5
95 lb x 5
God, I hate these.  They feel useless since the hams aren't exactly a "show" muscle, but I know I gotta do them to improve ham strength for squats and deads.  I'm gonna start experimenting with RDL's next week.

Pull Ups:
3 sets:  10, 8, 8
I love pull ups.  Hard to believe it's been almost 2 years since I quit doing them due to elbow pain.  Before the tendinitis set in three sets would have been something like 18, 15 and 12.  So far, no elbow pain.  At the first twinge, I'll stop doing them.  Don't wanna go through that again.


If I make it to the gym tomorrow, I'm just going to do some accessories that I've skipped lately.  Face pulls, calf raises, flys, lateral raises, and shrugs.

 

[tobymax]

Not much to journal about today.  I did various isolation/accessory exercises instead of the usual compound lifts.  I didn't even log the amount of weight I used, but I sort of remember...

Wednesday 7/16 - Misc.

Lateral dumbbell shoulder raises:
20's x 12
22.5's x 10 - yes, my gym has dumbbells in 2.5 lb increments.
25's x 10
25's x 10
25's x 10

Seated calf raises, plate loaded:
115 lb x 15
115 lb x 15
140 lb x 10
140 lb x 10
140 lb x 10
140 lb x 10

Face Pulls:
I usually do these on the floor, pulling from a high position towards my face.  This time I used a seated row machine and pulled from a low position.  It was a lot harder!
5 sets - 8 to 12 reps each - played around with different weight settings, don't remember what they were.

Cable Machine Pec Flys:
5 sets - 10 to 12 reps each - played around with lower and higher starting points and various weight settings.

That's all.  20 sets in a quick 45 minutes.  Didn't have time to get to shrugs as planned.

[tobymax]

This should have been a Workout B day deadlifts + bench + some other accessories.  But my back is wonky from some wierd twist I did while moving furniture around on my job Thursday,  so I skipped the deads and went for a big bench session...

Friday 7/18

Flat bb Bench Press:
Warm up, 45 lb x 50
135 lb x 15
185 lb x 5
195 lb x 7
205 lb x 5
215 lb x 5
215 lb x 5
220 lb x 2
220 lb x 2
135 lb x 15

Continued the chest work with...
BB pullovers:
(Lying on flat bench, using pre-loaded barbells)
60 lb x 15
70 lb x 15
80 lb x 12
70 lb x 12
60 lb x 15

Dumbbell Shrugs:
50's x 15 ... x 5 sets.

[tobymax]

My back still felt weird this morning -- not in pain, but feeling like it needed to be popped, know what I mean? --  But I wanted to do those deadlifts that I should have done on Friday.  So I did a few sets, not too heavy.  And guess what -- now my back feels fine!

Sunday 7/20 - Quick & easy workout before hitting the pool

Deadlifts:
135 lb x 10
205 lb x 5
225 lb x 5
255 lb x 5
275 lb x 2
275 lb x 2

After that I decided to do something I haven't done in almost two years:  Get a crazy-ass pump in the arms, you know the kind where it feels like you can't bend your arms enough to pull off your shirt or comb your hair afterwards.  Now that my elbows are pain-free, I decided to go for it.  Light weights, high reps for the pump.  I threw in some pec flys to pump up the chest a little too before going to the pool. 

Cable/Rope Triceps Push Downs:
60 x 15
70 x 15
80 x 12

Machine Preacher Curls (super light, testing the elbows):
40 x 15
50 x 15
60 x 12

Cable/Rope Overhead Extensions:
60 x 15
60 x 15
60 x 15
70 x 15

Curls holding a 45 lb Plate:
4 sets, 12 reps each.

I've seen others in the gym do those 45 lb plate curls, and decided to give it a try.  The exercise seems to hit the forearms and work the grip strength as well, even though it's a pretty light curl.  Just be careful not to punch yourself in the throat with the plate. 

Machine Flys:
90 x 15
100 x 12
100 x 12
100 x 12

It doesn't sound like much of an am workout, but my arms did get that beastly swollen feel.  Then I felt sufficiently pumped to hit the pool (they gym's outdoor pool) for some sun.


 

[sakustoms]

Toby getting his swole on before hitting the outdoor pool. lol  Nothing wrong with that.

Looks like a good workout overall. I could use some super pump arm days myself. I hope you didn't learn that "don't punch your throat" tip the hard way.