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Yesterday was arm day. Nothing super special about it, training wise. I blasted bis and tris and got a great pump. Since it was the first time I’d trained arms specifically this cycle, I didn’t want to overdo it and have wasted arms come Monday, which is chest day. Need to be strong for bench.

I was going to start out with ez-curl bar curls, the bars that are bent into different angles for your hands, but someone was using all the weights that I wanted to use, so I just went over to the squat racks and used the Olympic bar. I started out with just the bar, which weighs 45 pounds, for the first set. Then, since it was the squat rack, the ten pound plates were as large in diameter as the 45 pound plates – just really skinny. It looked kinda funny when I slapped two tens on the bar – I’ll take a picture next time so you can see.

Anyway, I did four more sets at 65 pounds before heading over to the cable machines to do triceps press downs. I keyed in 60 pounds there and cranked out five sets. I had a good pump going, my arms were pretty blasted but I wanted to do just a little more bicep work so I grabbed some 20 pound dumbbells and did three sets of hammer curls.

Weight: 217.2

Arms

Barbell curls – 45 x 10, 65 x 8/8/5, 45 x 8
Triceps press down – 60 x 10/10/8/6/5
Dumbbell Hammer curl – 20 x 12/9/7
Medball twists, 16# – 25/25/25
Soak – 10m

Leg day. Largest muscle group in the body, and therefore the most painful to train. Major lactic acid coursing through my thighs, screaming bloody murder at me, begging me to stop. But I pushed through. My head wanted to stop after each set, but I forced myself to do all five sets of squats. The first set was pretty easy, a good warmup, nowhere close to failure. But with each successive set, my legs screamed a little more, recovered a little less between sets, and generally complained.

After five sets of squats, eight reps per set, I could barely walk. Not content to leave well enough alone, I hobbled over to the leg extension machine to continue the torture. I squeezed out five sets of extensions, and my quads were literally throbbing after.

A great leg workout! As much as I complain about doing them, I love lifting legs. (If I keep saying that, eventually I’ll believe it!) When I’ve been at it a while, I can really push some serious iron – I used to leg press 800 pounds in high school, for reps. Of course, I’m no high schooler any more, and by the fifth set of squats, I was approaching failure. 135 was a good weight for me to do today. After I have a few more weeks’ worth of consistent effort under my belt, I’ll go heavier and maybe even go for a one-rep max, to see how I do. Not yet tho. 🙂

I’m going heavier, but still not going “heavy.” My strength is returning, as is the mental toughness it takes to sit in the gym and crank out rep after rep, ignoring the body’s signals to take a break, pushing through and forcing growth. Your muscles don’t respond if you don’t tax them beyond their limits, and it’s important to keep good form and not go too heavy. Listen to your body, and know the difference between pain and injury.

Weight: 217.2

Legs

Warmup – elliptical, 10m
Barbell Squats – 135 x 8/8/8/8/8
Leg Extensions – 70 x 10/9/8/8/8
Soak – 10m



Today was shoulder day – one of my favorite muscle groups to train. It seems like no matter how weak the rest of my body is, my shoulders have always been strong. They are also pretty defined, with clear straitions when I’m lifting and oh how they burn with lactic acid during hard efforts.

I started off with dumbbell shrugs and decent weights. I don’t think I’ve held 75 pound dumbbells much before and, while my shoulders had no problems with the weight, my grip strength was tested. After blasting my traps with the shrugs, I switched to a superset of front and side dumbbell lifts, with vastly lighter weight – 15s – and strained to get many reps per set. Total training to failure, maximizing stimulation and facilitating growth. I ended the session with some medball twists and a quick soak. A good day at the gym!

Weight: 219.8

Shoulders

Dumbbell shrugs – 55 x 15, 75 x 10/10/10/10

SS dumbbell raises, F/B – 15 x 10/10, 8/6, 8/6, 6/5

Medball twists, 16# – 25/25/25