Wed 3/28 - Upper

Workout: Club Fitness
(75#DBInc)3x8
(Pullups)3x10
(80#Shldr)2x8
(InvertRow)2x10
(75#OHTri)12,10
(35#HCurl)10,8
(Band)3x15
(30#Crunch)3x10
(Abs)3x10

45 + 7 = 52 mins

Upper WO after work today at Club Fitness. Started with DB Incline and Pull-up combo. Pullups were very controlled. Next I did machine shoulder press with inverted rows. Bumped the weight on shoulder press.  Next was overhead tricep extensions and hammer curls. Then band pulls and crunches with a dumbbell on my chest.  Finished up with some more ab work.  Decent WO, but better in light of my weight and diet this week.  Feeling good. Only 1 more biggest loser weigh-in.

Sarah's parents were in town for part of their Spring break.  They went out for sushi last night and despite really wanting to go, I stayed home because of this silly contest. I figure I'm in the last week and have a good shot at placing fairly high and didn't want to blow it.  Now, if I go backpacking this weekend, that's going to be a monumental challenge.  For the biggest loser contest, I'm down almost 19.4 pounds and 10% of my body weight through 7 weeks. I figure that's roughly 12 pounds of water loss and 8 pounds fat loss. Very nice way to head into Spring lean up.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 169.4 this morning. 

Sun 3/25 - Push Day

Workout: Snap Fitness
(80#DBInc)8,7,6
(65#DBInc)7,7,7+45x8
(120#Shldr)3x9
(Crunch)3x12
(190#FLy)10,8
(Abs)2x15
(80#Skulls)10,8+40x10
(Abs)2x10

54 + 6 = 60 mins

Push day. Started with incline and felt pretty good. Needed a small assist on 6th rep last set. Wanted it clean. Raised angle of incline and did 3 more set + a drop drop set. Next we did shoulder press and crunches.  Then chest fly with abs.  Finished up with 2 sets skull crushers plus a drop set and some more abs.  Good WO. Very pleased with weight and both WO's this weekend.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 172.2 this morning.

Sat 3/24 - Pull Day - Great weighted pull-ups!

Workout: Snap Fitness
(25#Pullups)9,9,10
(145#BOR)4x8
(130#PullDn)10,9
(60#EZCurl)10,30Hx9,15Hx15
(15#RDelt)2x10
(CaptChair)3x10
(Band)2x12
(Crunch)2x12

50 + 8 = 58 mins

Pull day. Got to the gym a little before Sarah this morning and warmed up and was ready to go. Since I had a few minutes I decided to try a muscle up. I haven't done/tried one in a long time. First attempt I got above the pull-up handles, but couldn't convert, mainly because I'm not used to the movement I think. Tried again and got it. Getting above the bar wasn't hard, but the transition to the dip is awkward and it's a power/strength movement, but it's also technical and I don't have the practice. Anyway, strained my left trap pretty bad and thought my WO for the day might be done. I stretched and worked it out by the time Sarah showed up and was good to go.

We started with weighted pull-ups and I went 9,9,10! Very pleased. Dropping weight has surely helped, but means strength is still there, or improving. Next we did bent over rows for 4 sets. These got heavy quickly after pull-ups, but felt good. Then we did close grip pulldowns for 2 sets with 3 sets of curls. Back was done by the 2nd set of these.  Curls were 1 set EZ bar curls, then a set of hammer curls with drop set of hammer curls.

Next we did rear delt fly's with leg raises in the Captain's Chair. Finished up with some band pulls and crunches.  Great WO! Feeling good. Going to be hard not to eat a lot today :)

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 170.4 this morning.

Wed 3/21 - Upper

Workout: Snap Fitness
(80#DBInc)8,7,6
(145#BOR)3x8
(65#DBInc)2x8
(Pullups)2x9
(80#OHTri)10,8
(Abs)2x15
(80#EZCurl)8,60x10
(145#Rdelt)2x10
(Crunch)2x15
(190#Fly)10

42 + 8 = 50 mins

Evening workout at Snap Fitness. Normally I back off the weight during mid-week WO's and try to go heavy on the weekend. But since we were camping this weekend, the last WO was on Friday, so there was an extra 1-2 days of rest. I felt good during warmups so I decided to go "heavy" this evening. Still dieting, although not real hard, weight is coming down slowly.  This WO showed I'm still maintaining strength very well.

Started with incline and bent over rows. Same reps on incline as last Friday. I bumped the weight slightly on BOR's and they felt good.  Then I raised the angle of incline and did 2 sets with 2 sets pull-ups. Last WO I went 8,7 on incline, but got 2x8 tonight. Good. Pullups felt good, controlled, fairly easy.  Good sign after already doing some decent back work with BOR's.

Next I did overhead triceps extensions and abs.  Then 2 sets EZ bar curls with rear delt fly's. Bumped to 80# curls for first set, then dropped. Finished up with 2 sets of crunches and a set of fly's that felt really good. Very pleased with this WO.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 172.6 this morning. 

Sat/Sun - 3/17-18 - Hiking/Camping

Sat 3/17:
 Drove to a campground in Pisgah and grabbed the last spot. Quickly set up tent to save the spot and get on trail to hike up to John Rock and then a quick drive over to Looking Glass Falls. It was a damp, foggy, still morning. Didn't think to stake out the tent since we were in a hurry to get hiking. MISTAKE. Big mistake.  Had a great hike, weather cleared up, Salem behaved really well.  Got back to camp to unpack our gear and head into Brevard to walk around and get something to eat. The wind had picked up during the day and our tent had blown off the tent pad and was dragged across the gravel. It now has several holes in the rain fly. 
7 miles, 3.5 hours hike time.

Good thing there's only a 10-20% chance of rain tonight.  Got into the tent around 10:15pm. It started to drizzle around 11pm.  Not problem. Just a passing rain cloud.  Or not... It POURED for a while.  Luckily, any rain that made it through the tent fly must've dripped down the inside of the fly rather than straight down onto us and our quilts.  Sarah's quilt got damp, but for the most part we were ok.

I will always bring extra heavy duty tent stakes when car camping from now on.  About a year ago, with our larger car camping tent, the same thing happened, at the same campground.  You'd think we would've learned our lesson from that trip.  The bad part is we didn't take our larger, heavier, CHEAPER car camping tent.  We took the ultralight Big Agnes Fly Creek tent that was fairly expensive.  I'll need to repair the fly or send it in to Big Agnes to see if they can fix it.

Sun 3/18:
Trail head for the Southern terminus of the Art Loeb trail is just outside the campground we stayed at.  It starts by meandering along the river.  We thought it was going to be a fairly leisurely hike. NOPE. It turns away from the river and goes up, and up, and up.  Climbed from about 2,000' to 4,000' over 5-6 miles.  We did an out and back and did about 11 miles. Felt good to get a good strenuous hike in.  Much needed.  Hadn't had a good one in a while and we need to get in shape for our trip to Utah in May.
11 miles, 4:45 hours hike time.

Fri 3/16 - Upper

Workout: Snap Fitness
(80#DBInc)8,7,6
(Pullups)10,10,12
(65#DBInc)8,7
(190#Fly)9,6
(InvertRow)4x10
(40#HCurl)8,30Hx10
(CaptChair)2x10
(140#Rope)10,120x12
(145#RDelt)2x10
(Crunch)2x15

48 + 7 = 55 mins

Going camping and hiking this weekend, so I wanted to get some work in Friday since I won't be able to work out next couple of days.  Met Sarah and Snap Fitness after work. Thought we'd do a quickie and feel good about getting a WO in. Turned into a solid WO.

Started with incline and felt pretty good, so I stuck with 80#DB's for 3 sets. Supersetted with pull-ups. Just wanted to do sets of 10 with body weight. Felt fairly easy, so I did 12 on the 3rd set. Then we raised angle of incline and did 2 more sets, 2 sets of chest fly's paired with 4 sets inverted rows.  I should've dropped the weight on 2nd set of fly's.

Then we did hammer curls and leg raises.  Next was triceps, rear delt fly's and crunches.  Good WO.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 172.4 this morning.

Wed 3/14 - Upper

Workout: Club Fitness
(70#DBInc)3x8
(135#BOR)3x8
(70#Shldr)2x10
(Pullups)2x8
(40#HCurl)7,30Hx10
(Abs)20,15
(75#OHTri)2x11
(15#RDelt)2x10
(Crunch)2x12

33 + 5 = 38 mins

Had a headache all afternoon and really wasn't feeling up to this WO, but did it anyway. Turned out OK. Didn't go heavy on pressing by design. Started with DB incline for 3x8 and BOR for 3x8. Doing bent over rows again felt good. Think I'll try to work these in as main back movement every other WO or so and keep pull-ups or weighted pull-ups as the other main movement. Next I did machine shoulder press and pull-ups. I was planning on doing pulldowns, but machine wasn't available so I did some pull-ups.  Elbows barking at me a bit during these.

Then I did curls and abs. 35#DB's weren't available so I did a set with 40#"s and then dropped to 30. Finished up with overhead DB triceps extensions, rear delt fly's and some crunches. Decent WO.

Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 172.0 this morning.

Sun 3/12 - Pull Day

Workout: Snap Fitness
(25#Pullups)4x8
(125#BOR)4x8
(135#PullDn)10,9
(Abs)2x20
(65#EZCurl)13,10,30Hx8,20Hx10
(145#RDelt)10,10,130x12
(CrunchTwist)3x10
(Band)2x15
(Crunch)2x10

60 + 5 = 65 mins

Started with weighted pull-ups and wanted to get 4x8 (instead of going to failure on 1st set and dropping from there). First set wasn't bad, but they got a lot harder. Had to work hard for last couple of reps on each set. Barely got the 8th rep of 4th set up...Sarah gave it to me though :) Next we did 4 sets of BOR. Not real heavy weight, but I don't do this movement frequently any more and it felt HEAVY after pull-ups. I should really do these more often. Then we did 2 sets close grip pulldowns. These were supposed to be fairly light, with good form and a good squeeze at the bottom. These felt heavy quickly. Supersetted pulldowns with 2 sets abs.

Then we did curls, 2 sets EZ bar and 2 sets hammer curls, supersetted with rear delt fly's and crunch twists. Finished up with band pulls and crunches.  Good WO. Pleased with pull-ups.


Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 176.8 this morning. Had to eat a couple bowls of cereal last night which spiked weight this morning.

Sat 3/10 - Push Day

Workout: Snap Fitness
(80#DBInc)9,6,5,75x6
(65#DBInc)8,6,6,50x8
(120#Shldr)7,7,100x10
(CaptChair)3x10
(190#Fly)9,175x8,7
(Abs)3x10
(80#Skulls)11,8,40x11,13
(100#Rope)10
(Crunch)3x11

64 + 6 = 70 mins

Calling for rain most of the weekend so there won't be a lot of opportunity to be outside, so we decided to do a push/pull split on Saturday and Sunday.

Started with incline. First set was good, then faded. Stuck with 80#DB's for 3 sets, then dropped to 75#DB's. Top end strength felt like it was there, but hit the wall quickly on 2nd and 3rd sets. I didn't have the ability/energy to really push through a tough rep. Solid effort, but normally I can push through another rep but needed an assist from Sarah. Then we raised level of incline and did 3 sets plus a back-off.

Next we did shoulder press. Volume on incline definitely impacted this exercise. Worked hard on all 3 sets, supersetted with leg raises in the Captain's Chair.  Then we did chest fly's with abs. Bumped the weight for the first set of fly's and it felt good, but dropped the weight for 2 more sets. We finished up with a bunch of triceps work and more abs. More triceps volume than normal.

Pretty solid WO. Wish I could've pushed through a couple more reps on sets 2-3 on incline, but good effort.


Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 172.0 this morning.

Wed 3/7 - Upper

Workout: Club Fitness
(70#DBInc)3x8
(140#SeatRow)3x10
(60#DBInc)8,6
(140#PullDn)2x8
(LegRaise)3x10
(75#OHTri)10,9
(75#EZCurl)10,30Hx10
(Band)2x15
(CrunchTwist)3x15

38 + 6 = 44 mins

Evening WO after work. Started with incline and seated rows. Didn't go very heavy on incline because I think I'm only good for 1 heavy effort a week while dieting, so I'll save that for the weekend when I'll eat a bit more for recovery. Seated rows were good. Then I raised angle of incline and did 2 sets with pulldowns. Next I did handling leg raises for 3 sets with 2 sets of triceps. Handling on the bar really bothers my elbows so I actually did 2 sets hanging and 1 set of leg raises in the Captain's Chair. Next I did 2 sets of curls with 2 sets of band pulls. Curls was 1 heavier set of EZ bar curls and a set of hammer curls. Finished up with some 2 sets of crunch twists and a set of crunches.  Decent WO.


Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 171.6 this morning. Feeling good. Visibly leaner than I've been in a while. There's 4 or 5 more weeks in the biggest loser contest and I don't know if I can/should diet for another 4-5 weeks w/o a break. We'll see how the next 1-2 weeks go and decide if I take a small diet break.

Sat 3/3 - Upper

Workout: Snap Fitness
(80#DBInc)9,8,6
(25#Pullups)10,8,7
(65#DBInc)8,5,60x7
(InvertRow)3x8
(120#Shldr)8,7
(135#PullDn)2x8
(175#Fly)10,7
(80#OHTri)8,65x10,10
(65#EZCurl)10,30Hx8,25Hx11
(CaptChair)2x10
(145#RDelt)12,10
(Abs)3x12

62 + 8 = 70 mins

Morning WO before heading to Murrow Mountain State Park for an overnight camping trip with Salem to see how she does.

Started with incline and weighted pull-ups. Really good first two sets and faded on 3rd set of each. Then we raised the angle of incline and did 3 more sets with inverted rows. Next we did shoulder press with close grip pulldowns.

Then we did chest fly with overhead triceps. Died on 2nd set of both these.  Then we did curls and leg raises in the Captain's chair, finished up with rear delt fly's and abs.  Good WO. Weight has been dropping and didn't eat much before going to the gym which might explain fading in later sets of exercises.


Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 173.6 this morning.

Wed 2/28 - Upper

Workout: Club Fitness
(75#DBInc)2x8
(Pullups)15,11
(60#DBInc)9,8
(140#SeatRow)2x9
(130#Rope)2x10
(35#HCurl)10,8
(CaptChair)3x10
(15#RDelt)2x10

34 + 6 = 40 mins

Quick WO after work at Club Fitness near the office. Good thing I planned on doing this because it looked like traffic was a nightmare had I tried to get home right after work. I've been dieting moderately so I reduced volume this evening. Incline was OK, 2x8 with 75#'s felt harder than I expected. Pullups were great though. Then I raised angle of incline to almost a shoulder press and did 2 good sets with seated rows.  Then I did rope extensions and hammer curls. Finished up with 3 sets of leg raises and some rear delt fly's. 


Nutrition/Weight:
I weighed 174.8 this morning. Starting to notice a bit of a difference in the mirror and how clothes fit.