Hey! Congrats on the 20th anniversary with your wife. My 4 year anniversary was August 24! Many happy returns.

More congrats on the 365lb deadlift! Amazing improvement. Hopefully you can break the 400lb barrier that I could not.

*runs off crying*

Thanks Matt & Cord.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Got home from work and like I thought, way too tired to work out. Ended up staying up 41+ hours as I kept getting second winds but decided I should get to bed and at least lay there.

Saturday, August 26

Was up at 8:00 and layed in bed until my wife left at 9:00 and then got up and mowed the lawn and did a little putzing around and picking up stuff for when the people from my class come over to watch the UFC tonight. Otherwise did nothing; an actual rest day.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Another rest day. Went shopping with my wife for a TV stand that fit into the corner and matched the new flooring. Found it finally and paid for it and will pick up tomorrow. Came home and went for a motorcycle ride with my wife and then we had an awesome supper; BBQ chicken, fresh garden corn on the cob and fresh garden potatoes .... fantastic.

Monday, August 28, 2006 - Week 411, Day 1086

Very stressful day and then had to go pick up the wall unit. Got it home after work and had my friend help bring it into the house. Hooked back up the TV and components and good to go. Had a quick supper and then headed to the basement to prepare for the workout.

Barbell Bench Press = 237 lbs = 6/5/4/5/5
Barbell Seated Military Press = 145 lbs = 5/6/5/5/5
Barbell Upright Rows = 110 lbs = 5/5/4
Dumbbell Bent-Over Single-Arm Kickbacks = 79 lbs (per arm) = 10/8/8

The Bench Press ... just not seeing the results I want. I am at my wits end with this exercise and am open to comments of where or what to do????? Did actually increase the reps by a total of 3 which isn't too bad I guess but this used to be my bread and butter and I am so far away from what I used to do. Perhaps it is because I just am not that hungry to eat so am not eating enough. Perhaps I've lost that fire for doing it, which I've found for Deadlifts now. Perhaps I'm getting old ... no way, I'm still young and almost 38 and still kicking butt. This is a work in progress.

I'm figuring that it may have something to do with my Shoulders as they seem to bother me and so will put more work into them. For the Military Press I upped the workout by 5 lbs and still did pretty decent and I'm okay with that. Also upped the Upright Rows and did okay but I did not push for the 4th and 5th set as I went down a rep due to fatigue as well as I felt my wrist twist which I have done before years ago ... no biggie but why push it.

Kickbacks, now that is my bread and butter and love them. The 10 I did just did not feel right and probably did them because I did them before and didn't want to make it look like I was regressing or something. Then I realized who cares and it is my workout so did only 8's for the next set. Felt better and the Tricep felt worked. I love watching this muscle work in the mirror.

Finished off and took a shower. Muscles pumped and that glistening look ... that is what I want to look like all of the time and why I can see that many get the attraction to steriods and growth hormones. This is why I work out, to be bigger, stronger and faster ... and I want to look like this all of the time. However drugs are not my path and I don't need them so will keep plugging away even when I hit plateaus.

Made myself a horrible tasting strawberry protein shake (2 scoops; 60 grams) and 22 ounces of milk. Like I said it tastes like crap but packs 54 grams of protein (1 gram of saturated fats) ... which to be honest may be too much but I'm trying to gain some weight as well ... though I will be the first to admit there are better ways of doing this. I'm lazy for sure especially at 10:47. (Note: Those amounts do not include what the milk itself has, just the protein itself.)

Taekwondo tomorrow and then will help out on Thursday for the color belt tests.

Saturday

weekend night shifts are 12 hours long, and I was pretty tired today so rested ready for the long haul.

Sunday

Stuck my weighted vest on and rather than do circuits, did press ups, slow deep squats and wide chins, 4 sets of each, but with 15 seconds recovery only between sets. This is a killer way to induce fatigue in a quick blast. A total 'tick over' for an exercise junkie tied up in a busy schedule.

Monday

Bank holiday monday, so helped out in the family pub all day- bit of bar work and a bit of watching the door. No training and no trouble. Did lose a few games of Darts.

Tuesday

Today is my wife's first proper visit to the gym! I am going to train with her, so will do my thing inbetween getting her set up on various bits of equipment. Should be fun- will give the details later

Den was amazing!
she is 4 months post spinal surgery, with an enforced sedentary lifestyle of 5 years pre op. In the last 4 months she has been working on bodyweight box squat, pelvic tilt exercises, and 'daily mobility' (increasing walks to the shops, hoovering, carrying the washing, that sort of stuff).

Today she has done the following:

10 mins stationary bike level 9 (level 10 for last minute!-her doing, upped it without telling me)
3x10 prone back arches/extensions
3x10 full stomach crunch
(never been able to do these pre op)
10 mins stationary bike level 9
Seated row 3x10 50lbs
Leg press 3x10 130lbs (!)
incline dumbell press 3x10 22lbs
Stretching.

Incredible First time in a gym and she had more focus and instinctive 'savy' for how things should be done than many more able people in there. She is a natural, and that is not a biased verdict, she just 'got it' right off the bat.

As for me, I left my ego at the door and played sensibly, and it felt even better than last week.

Leg press worked from 205kg up to 240kg over 4 sets- really worked on form and range of motion- 6 reps on 240 and my quads felt like they were going to burst

Smith flat bench press. Went straight to 95kg and kept it there. 12,9,7,4 reps respectively.

Seated row. 200lbs 14,10,8,5. Really worked on the squeeze.

Dumbell shoulder press Kept with the 30kg 'bells for 3 sets 10,6,5.

That was it. Crisp and concentrated.

I am thinking of doing my own high frequency take on HIT soon- it gave me great results a few years back, and the equipment I have access to is well suited to it.

High Frequency HIT? Now that sounds interesting... Not to mention downright paradoxical!

either 5 on 2 off, or 3 on 1 off, full body one set max workouts. If I decide to play with it i will give you the gory details

Tim ... let's welcome Cord to the dark side.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Class started with a 10 flights of stairs (up and down is 1), then 10 sprints (there and back is 1) and then 1000 skips. I wasn't the first to finish but certainly wasn't the last and finished in about 20 minutes. The last 500 skips were easier then the first 500 skips.

Stretch on our own and then into kicking drills with slammer shields. Step side kicks across the gym with one leg and then back with the other ... and continue till he says stop. Then back kicks in the same fashion followed by step back kicks and then 360 back kicks. Then I held boards for the red belts to do their 360 back kicks. With class finished I came home and had a protein shake and then rested. Big Brother, Rock Star Super Nova and The Contender ... all recorded on the PVR so I was able to skip commercials and finish them all in 2.5 hours.

Dang long and stressful day at work. I was on the go all day and did not get a chance to pop in here after 11:45. Life has been a little stressful at home to as my wife is thinking of a new career change so this is a work in progress. Not to mention all of the money I've spent on the deck, flooring, BBQ and Corner TV Wall Unit. And I still need to do the pad beside my house to regrade it.

Also as of lately I have been experiencing more pains then I'd like to admit. The neck, the knee, my eye and my butt (hamstring). I can abuse this stuff during the day or in class or working out but at night or just out of the blue I will start aching or feeling sharp pains. No, not because I'm getting older ... though I don't heal as fast ... but because of all of the abuse I've done to myself. I'm doing this with only over the counter medication now and very limited with that as well and only take it when I cannot handle things at all, like a night or so ago I woke up with sharp pains in my butt (top of the hamstring I tore 3 years ago ... get your mind out of the gutter. )

Tonight is PULL night so I will drop by later with that.