Just have one more to go. Think I destroyed my chemistry final today, and have been doing some good studying all day for my bio tomorrow. It's at night also, so I still have all day tomorrow to study some more even.
Regardless of all the studying, I still went to the gym today. I have to say, today's workout was very refreshing as compared to the most recent ones. I say this because taking the time-off my back and the stuff I have been doing to help it heal has really helped, and I felt significant progress today. It was shoulders today, and I was able to hit it hard. My lifts for it are also starting to catchup to where they were before I hurt myself (they went down when I took those two weeks off of lifting).
The best part of the workout today was at the end. After I finished everything, I saw a barbell on the deadlifting platform. The only thing in my mind was that I just had to do it. It might be a really bad idea, and I could easily make my back worsen and cause the pain to last longer, but I really just had to do it. So I walked over to the barbell already loaded at 135lbs, and without any warmup or anything, just deadlifted it up for a single rep.
It felt fine, actually amazing....I had missed deadlifting so much. My back didn't hurt at all and I continued to do a few more reps just for kicks and giggles. Impressed that my back didn't hurt (which I had a feeling it wouldn't because of all the mechanics and shit) I headed over to the power rack. This time I used just the barbell and tried front squatting it for a few reps. Again, no pain whatsoever however I felt that with this exercise the slightest mistake of form would hurt.
I figure I still need one more week of healing in order to start throwing in some of those exercises once again.
Press - 90lbs x 5
DB Press - 40lbs x 8, 40lbs x 7, 40lbs x 6, 35lbs x 8
Cable Lateral Raises
DB Rear Delt Flyes - 20lbs x 12, 20lbs x 12, 20lbs x 12
DB Upright Rows - 20lbs x 10, 20lbs x 10, 20lbs x 10
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Welcome Back
I took a break from blogging my workouts, mostly because of college, and instead decided to hand-write them. It was fine but I found it to be less convenient and annoying to follow through with at times. Anyways, I was going to do a large recap of the past fall but I'm pretty tired and should be studying for finals anyways, so I'll keep it short.
So I have good news and bad news...
The good news, which most of you already know, is that I have gained weight. I haven't been a fatass and not lifted either. I left college weighing in at 150 and am 158 now. Didn't quite reach my goal that I wanted but I'm not too upset due to the lack of discipline I had (but that was because of poor planning on my part and adjusting to the whole college life). My workout routine is pretty solid and the training was pretty tough, but my lifts did go up significantly. I definitely made some improvements in my back and legs which are definitely favorite things to train now. Along with that I have, in the past few weeks, been specializing my arms and shoulders, but more on that later...
The bad news is... that I fucked up. Due to many reasons - too many hours sitting/poor posture, lack of flexibility in glutes/hams, and adding too much weight to the bar - I hurt my lower back. At first starting off only as a mild pain, the severity became worse when I continued pushing through. One day when squatting, as I was coming up my torso leaned forward too much causing all of the weight to shift forward also. This, along with the fact that my lower back had to be rounded in that position, put a hell of a lot more stress on my back. That last mistake ultimately led me to the pain that I still have today. It got to the point where simply bending forward hurt it. I couldn't tie my own shoes, pick up books off the floor, nor sit-down. Lying down was the only thing that didn't make my lower back hurt.
After that day, enough was enough, and I decided to give my body a break before I caused more serious damage. I got a massage from mel's mom, which helped tremendously, and have been laying off the weights for the past three weeks. I probably strained my lower back, or even worse herniated a disk (hopefully not the latter).
The timing couldn't be any worse. Just as I was getting into the routine of balancing my lifting with college and work, this shit ends up happening. But this injury couldn't keep me away from the weight room, I literally missed it too much. So I had to change things up and started working on other things.
It was no longer about how much I could squat or deadlift. I couldn't perform any exercises that placed any load on my erector spinae. I started focusing on my weaknesses. I started working on my shoulders, an important set of muscles that I never really worked on. The past few weeks I have been specializing them and really hitting them hard with a bunch of stuff, and I am already starting to see some improvements.
I've also been working on arms, something that I usually don't do. I'm a more compound-exercise type of guy so my bi's and tri's usually get hit with the rows, pullups, dips, and bench. But rows, which were one of my main exercises that really made my back grow, is another one on the list that I can't perform due to my back.
So for now I guess you could slightly say I'm taking more of a bodybuilder route, by isolating certain muscle groups. It's not a bad thing either. Arms and shoulders have always been a weak-point, and bringing them up will actually help me look like I lift when wearing a shirt instead of just having the numbers to prove it.
Anyways, my diet has been pretty amazing and it's just going to get better during the winter. I contribute 90% of my gains this past fall to my diet alone, and I know that in order to reach my next goal I have to make sure it's even better. So there you have it folks, I'll be updating early this week (my last final is on tuesday) and hope you stay tuned in to watch some crazy shit happen.
And I mean it.
Take care, comb your hair.
Goal by January 24:
170lbs
So I have good news and bad news...
The good news, which most of you already know, is that I have gained weight. I haven't been a fatass and not lifted either. I left college weighing in at 150 and am 158 now. Didn't quite reach my goal that I wanted but I'm not too upset due to the lack of discipline I had (but that was because of poor planning on my part and adjusting to the whole college life). My workout routine is pretty solid and the training was pretty tough, but my lifts did go up significantly. I definitely made some improvements in my back and legs which are definitely favorite things to train now. Along with that I have, in the past few weeks, been specializing my arms and shoulders, but more on that later...
The bad news is... that I fucked up. Due to many reasons - too many hours sitting/poor posture, lack of flexibility in glutes/hams, and adding too much weight to the bar - I hurt my lower back. At first starting off only as a mild pain, the severity became worse when I continued pushing through. One day when squatting, as I was coming up my torso leaned forward too much causing all of the weight to shift forward also. This, along with the fact that my lower back had to be rounded in that position, put a hell of a lot more stress on my back. That last mistake ultimately led me to the pain that I still have today. It got to the point where simply bending forward hurt it. I couldn't tie my own shoes, pick up books off the floor, nor sit-down. Lying down was the only thing that didn't make my lower back hurt.
After that day, enough was enough, and I decided to give my body a break before I caused more serious damage. I got a massage from mel's mom, which helped tremendously, and have been laying off the weights for the past three weeks. I probably strained my lower back, or even worse herniated a disk (hopefully not the latter).
The timing couldn't be any worse. Just as I was getting into the routine of balancing my lifting with college and work, this shit ends up happening. But this injury couldn't keep me away from the weight room, I literally missed it too much. So I had to change things up and started working on other things.
It was no longer about how much I could squat or deadlift. I couldn't perform any exercises that placed any load on my erector spinae. I started focusing on my weaknesses. I started working on my shoulders, an important set of muscles that I never really worked on. The past few weeks I have been specializing them and really hitting them hard with a bunch of stuff, and I am already starting to see some improvements.
I've also been working on arms, something that I usually don't do. I'm a more compound-exercise type of guy so my bi's and tri's usually get hit with the rows, pullups, dips, and bench. But rows, which were one of my main exercises that really made my back grow, is another one on the list that I can't perform due to my back.
So for now I guess you could slightly say I'm taking more of a bodybuilder route, by isolating certain muscle groups. It's not a bad thing either. Arms and shoulders have always been a weak-point, and bringing them up will actually help me look like I lift when wearing a shirt instead of just having the numbers to prove it.
Anyways, my diet has been pretty amazing and it's just going to get better during the winter. I contribute 90% of my gains this past fall to my diet alone, and I know that in order to reach my next goal I have to make sure it's even better. So there you have it folks, I'll be updating early this week (my last final is on tuesday) and hope you stay tuned in to watch some crazy shit happen.
And I mean it.
Take care, comb your hair.
Goal by January 24:
170lbs
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Procrastination Is Like Masturbation, All You Do Is Fuck Yourself
Know I haven't updated the blog in awhile, but I've been working out and made sure to record every one. I decided to go for a change in today's workout and incorporate some more higher volume, bodybuilding work. Will be trying to gain some extra mass in the upcoming weeks before I start to cut down on the body fat and get shredded for the summer.
Dips - 30lbs x 5 x 3, 40lbs x 5 x 3
Incline DB Press - 100lbs x 6, 100lbs x 6, 100lbs x 8
Cable Lateral Raise - 15lbs x 8, 15lbs 8, 15lbs x 8
Pinwheel Curls - 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10
Barbell Shrugs (2-Sec Hold) - 120lbs x 10, 120lbs x 10, 120lbs x 10
Dumbbell Flyes - 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10
Triceps Pushdowns - 50lbs x 10, 50lbs x 10, 50lbs x 10
Dips - 30lbs x 5 x 3, 40lbs x 5 x 3
Incline DB Press - 100lbs x 6, 100lbs x 6, 100lbs x 8
Cable Lateral Raise - 15lbs x 8, 15lbs 8, 15lbs x 8
Pinwheel Curls - 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10
Barbell Shrugs (2-Sec Hold) - 120lbs x 10, 120lbs x 10, 120lbs x 10
Dumbbell Flyes - 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10, 60lbs x 10
Triceps Pushdowns - 50lbs x 10, 50lbs x 10, 50lbs x 10
Saturday, March 27
Dumbbell Rows - 110lbs x 3
Dips - 30lbs x 5, 30lbs x 5, 30lbs x 5, 30lbs x 5, 30lbs x 5
Cable Rows - 140lbs x 5, 140lbs x 5, 140lbs x 5, 140lbs x 5
Natural Glute-Ham Raises
Leg Lifts - 15, 15
Hanging Leg Raises - 10, 10
Cable Crunches - 50lbs x 20, 50lbs x 20, 50lbs x 20
Wednesday, March 24
Close-Grip Bench Press - 160lbs x 3
DB Military Press - 20lbs x 10, 20lbs x 10, 20lbs x 10
Rear Delt Flyes - 20lbs x 10, 20lbs x 10, 20lbs x 10
Bulgarian Split Squats - 80lbs x 8, 80lbs x 8, 80lbs x 8
Bent Over Rows - 140lbs x 12, 140lbs x 12
Dumbbell Shrugs - 140lbs x 12, 140lbs x 12
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
