Fri 2/28 - Upper

Thu 2/27 - Rest
I weighed 183.2 this morning.  Tight nutrition day.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	242	154	25	1,808
	Calories	970	616	224	1,809
	Percent	54%	34%	12%	`

Fri 2/28 - Upper
Workout: LA Fitness
(85#Inc)7,7,7,70x10 Good
(65#SeatRow)4x9
(LegRaise)4x15
(75#Bench)10,9
(40#IncFly)2x10
(155#PullDn)3x8
(90#OHTri)8,7,7 Good - heavy!
(40#Curl)2x10
(20#LatDelt)2x10
(30#Rope)3x12
(105#Crunch)10,8,6
(10#RDelt)3x10
71 min + 10 w/u = 81 mins

Sarah and I went to they gym after work for an upper WO. Started with incline. I did my normal warmup which is generally shoulder hyper extensions holding a stretching rope, some other shoulder mobility rotations w/ the rope and then start ramping up w/ DB's. My general progression here has been 45#x12, 55#x8, 65#x4, 75#x2-3 and then start working sets w/ 85#'s. I weighed 180.2 this evening before going to the gym, which is down almost 8 pounds from Monday. Dropping too fast, so I wasn't sure if, or how much, it would affect this WO.

Incline went well. Last WO I got reps of 7,7,8. Tonight I needed an assist from Sarah on the 8th, so it's 3x7. All reps were paused (as usual). The drop set was brutal. Sarah started w/ her normal 35# DB's and it looked pretty easy so I suggested she bump up to 40#'s. She did 2 sets w/ them and got 5 good reps. Good work. Next was seated rows supersetted w/ leg raises. I was already feeling spent. Not near enough to eat the last 2 days. Huffing and puffing, hurting.

I bumped up the weight on DB bench because it felt good last WO. Tonight it didn't feel as good adn I was only planning on doing 2 sets, so stuckw/ that. I added 2 sets of incline fly's which felt great. Sarah did 4 sets of BB bench. I bumped up the weight for her after the 2nd set and she handled that well. I started first set of pulldowns and it felt a little light, so I bumped up the weight from last WO. I "made" Sarah do the same. She needs a nudge now and then :)

Someone was on the decline bench, so we did overhead tri extensions. I stuck w/ 90#'s. These are HEAVY for me. I would've like to get 3x8, but good heavy work here.  We finished off the WO with some fluff work (tri's,curls,delts) and a couple heavy sets of crunches. Sarah got mad at the cable crunch/pulldown machine. I guess it offended her or something tonight.

Great WO. We both pushed hard and bumped up weight where possible.

Nutrition:
I weighed 182.0 this morning. Dropping too fast so we went to Sweet Frog to splurge a little bit. I'll probably cut/maintain next week and see where I'm at. This weekend will be off skiing. It'll be a nice break and I'll try to keep weight under control.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	267	312	37	2,629
	Calories	1069	1246	334	2,649
	Percent	40%	47%	13%	`

Wed 2/26 - Pull

Workout: LA Fitness
(35#Pullups)8,7
(225#RDL)2x8,275x8
(65#SeatRow)4x10
(LegRaise)15,15,12,12
(150#PullDn)4x8
(Crunch)3x10
(70#BBCurl)3x10
(10#RDelt)3x10
(90#IsoRow)4x12
(70#Shrug)10,8
(50#BackShrug)2x10
68 mins + 10 w/u = 78 mins

Sarah and I hit the gym after work for a pull WO. Weighted pullups were decent, but 2nd set really bothered my L elbow. Sarah got frustrated w/ number of reps. We hadn't done RDL in a while so I wanted to hit a couple sets tonight. Only did 1 heavy set. Sarah had some grip issues. OK, 2 "heavy" movements out of the way (not entirely successfully) and into the meat of the WO next.

Seated rows were good, but I actually lightened the load for last 2 sets. Pullups and RDL took a bit out of me apparently. Supersetted leg raises which felt good tonight. Pulldowns were good, but started to get pretty heavy last 2 sets. Supersetted lying crunches. Wanted to do t-twists here, but someone was using the steps we normally use for them.  To give back a quick rest we did curls and rear delts, then hit the iso row machine. Wanted to superset some more abs here, but again, equipment was being used. Sarah wanted to superset leg press, but they were used and she was too short for the hack squat machines. That was just kind of how the workout went tonight. Some decent work, some frustration Sarah's part w/ first 2 movements, frustration on my part w/ equipment availability.

We were going to finish off the WO w/ some more core work, but I had just had it. I grabbed some DB's and did shrugs while Sarah did some ab work. I actually liked what I'm calling "back shrugs".  Basically a shouler shrug, but bent over at the waste a little so it's more an upper back shrug instead of straight up and down with the shoulders.  Decent WO. Some good work in there, but it was just kind of overshadowed by a few frustrating things and Sarah and I just didn't have the normal light-hearted chemistry working. They can't all be great.

Nutrition:
I weighed 184.0 this morning.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	240	221	29	2,083
	Calories	959	884	260	2,103
	Percent	46%	42%	12%	`

Tue 2/25 - Push (great incline and OHTri)

Mon 2/24 - Rest
I weighed 187.8 this morning. Whoa! Need to cut.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	227	288	34	2,381
	Calories	910	1150	308	2,367
	Percent	38%	49%	13%	`

Tue 2/25 - Push Day
Workout: LA Fitness
(85#DBInc)7,7,8,70x8
(115#OHP)2x7
(105#Crunch)12,10,10
(75#Bench)10,8,6
(OHTir)90x8,85x8,7
(40#IncFly)2x10
(30#Rope)4x10
(10#RDelt)2x10
(10#LDelt)2x10
62 mins + 10 w/u = 72 mins

Sarah and I went to the gym after work. Started a mini-cut yesterday and ate very few carbs all day before evening WO. I've never done that before becuase I used to work out exclusively in the AM, or over lunch at the latest. Wasn't sure how I'd feel working out late in the day on restricted carbs. I was pleasantly surprised and it went very well.

Started w/ incline and I got that elusive 8th rep on the 3rd set. I can't really call it a PR because these weren't paused as much as they should have been. Very good work. The drop set at 70#'s felt so heavy. I spent it all on first 3 sets. Sarah got more reps w/ 35#'s than she's ever gotten tonight I think. I only did 2 sets of OHP to save the shoulder and I went way to close to failure on the last set. Really stupid. Since today was a push day, we threw in 3 sets of heavy abs here for a "break" before more pressing.

Bench felt OK. R shoulder a little funky and short rests so reps dropped quickly. Tried to keep these to parallel, but it's hard for me to tell. I tried to do the drop set on incline to parallel too. Sarah gives me queues when I got too low. My left arm always drops too low. Next I did overhead tri's while sarah did CGBP. I bumped up to 90#'s today. Felt good, but only got 8 reps so I dropped to 85#'s for last 2 sets. Then we did 2 sets of incline fly's and finished off the WO with some tri and delt work.

Great WO. Sarah hit some rep PR's and bumped up the weight on CGBP I think. I got a rep "pr" on incline and bumped the weight on overhead tri's and went heavier on crunches than I have in a long time.

Nutrition:
I weighed 185.0 this morning. I was 182.4 before I went to the gym. That's down from 188 on Monday, so I was fairly depleted prior to the WO. Good nutrition day. Not super strict cut, just low carbs prior to WO, then ate the majority of my cals post-wo (which is what I think I'll keep doing).

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	222	229	28	2,045
	Calories	890	916	248	2,054
	Percent	43%	45%	12%	`

Sun 2/23 - Upper

Workout: LA Fitness
(75#Inc)10,10,10,8 Very good
(185#BOR)2x8
(150#PullDn)4x8
(70#Bench)3x10
(35#IncFly)2x12
(65#SeatRow)4x10
(LegRaise)4x15
(85#OHTri)10,8,8,8 Great
(40#Curl)10,8,8
(20#LatDelt)3x8
(30#Rope)15/+5,5,5,5
(T-Twist)15,12,12
(90#Crunch)3x10
(10#RDelt)3x12
(70#HighRow)3x10
97 min + 10 w/u = 107 mins

Sarah and I went to they gym in the AM for a standard upper WO. I went lighter on incline today and tried to keep reps at parallel. I'm hoping this is going to help let my shoulder recover a bit w/o having to take complete rest. These felt good and looking at my log now, I believe these were higher reps with 75#'s than I've gotten before. We did 2 heavy sets of bent over row and I miscalculated the weight for Sarah and she started too heavy. I bumped the weight on pulldowns and got good reps. Next up was bench. Sarah did barbell and I decided to try DB and see how the shoulder felt. Surprisingly, it didn't feel too bad so I did 3 sets. Chest was feeling good, so we did 2 sets of incline fly's.

Seated rows were ok. I noticed today that after focusing on wide grip pulldowns and seated rows, my mid back is showing progress. That's exactly the intent of the form/movement change, so I'm glad it's working. We supersetted w/ leg raises. Next sarah did decline close grip bench. I think this might be her favorite movement, and she's strong at it.  I skipped these because of my shoulder and did overhead tri extensions. I used a 85#DB which is heavier than I've ever gone and was surprised that I got as many reps as I did for 4 sets.

We finished up with some bi/delt/tri and ab accesssory work. When I was putting away my plates for rear delts I walked by the high-row pulldown machine and there was 70#'s worth of plates set up on it. I jumped on and did a set. Then another.  I hit the locker room to change, and because I'm an OCD idiot at times, when I came out I jumped back on the machine and did a 3rd set because I didn't want 2 in the log book. Sarah hit a couple sets of leg press while I was doing this nonsense.

This was quietly a really good WO looking back on it, though it was quite the opposite of my short-intense WO on Friday. I bumped the weight on a couple things and am happy with my pressing and that it wasn't too terribly bad on my shoudler.  I think a few extra days off because of the day of sharing and another un-planned day off really helped. If only I can remember that this week.  It wasn't really a "fun" WO. Sarah and I didn't have the normal fun, joking, keeping it light conversations today, but that's alright. We drove out to Winchester and walked around downtown, ate sushi, mexican and sweet frog. Then I binged on a couple more bowls of FROYO when I got home late-night. I'm a pig :)

Nutrition:
I weighed 184.2 this morning. Ate a ton today and the scale won't be pretty tomorrow. So much for anything I lost this past week. The good news is I still seem to be making gains.

Fri 2/21 - Upper

Thu 2/20 - Rest Day
I weighed 185.6 this morning. No idea how I gained weight. Sodium and water I guess.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	244	339	32	2,619
	Calories	974	1356	285	2,616
	Percent	37%	52%	11%	`

Fri 2/21 - Upper
Workout: LA Fitness
(85#Inc)7,7,7
(65#SeatRow)3x9
(115#OPH)8,7,6
(150#PullDn)3x8
(80#PushDn)11,10
(30#Rope)2x12
(35#Curl)12,10
(95#Crunch)3x10
(10#RDelt)3x10
42 min + 10 w/u = 52 mins

Yowza, what a surprise WO. I went to bed at 6am this morning, woke up at 9:15 had a work meeting and decided to go to the gym for just a quick WO. I'm busy all day tomorrow and probably won't be able to work out, so I figured I'd get a little blood moving, but still rest up for a good workout sunday.  Well, I was feeling pretty good and just kept everything as heavy as I could and kept volume moderate. Not a lot of farting around or long rest periods today. Finished the WO in 42 mins, add 10 more for a good shoulder warmup and I was in an out in under an hour. That's awesome for the amount of work I did.

Incline was good. I wouldn't have gotten another set of 7 today, especially w/ short rests, but great work. Shoulder was a little tender, but not too bad.  After the heavy sets I went to grab the 70#DB's for a drop set or two. Then I remembered that, A)my shoulder is still pretty ferked up and B)this wasn't supposed to be an exhaustive WO. Thankfully, I moved on.  Seated rows were good - less than 2 minutes between sets here.  First set of overhead press felt pretty easy, but with short rests, they got hard fast and I dropped reps.

I bumped up the weight on pulldowns and they felt good. Really worked the 3rd set. Again, short rests.  Then I supersetted tri extensions and curls.  Finished up the WO w/ some heavier-than-usual crunches and rear delts.  Just a great WO.  Really hard, but short enough where it wasn't totally exhausting and I feel really good sitting here afterward as I write this. I'm sure I'm going to crash super hard later. Dinner with the  kids tonight for Elena's bday. I still need to wrap gifts and do a little prep for my fear and resentment discussion tomorrow morning.

Nutrition:
I weighed 183.0 this morning. I don't want to drop too rapidly on this mini-cut, but feeling good. Not so bloated.

Wed 2/19 - Upper

Tue 2/18 - Rest day
I weighed 185.2. Time to trim down a tad.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	219	347	30	2,506
	Calories	876	1389	269	2,534
	Percent	35%	55%	11%	`

Wed 2/19 - Upper
Workout: LA Fitness
(85#Inc)7,7,7,6,70x9
(65#SeatRow)4x9
(LegRaise)4x12
(115#OPH)3x7
(145#PullDn)4x10
(10#T-twist)4x12
(185#DecCGBP)10,7
(80#OHTri)2x10
(35#Curls)3x12
(10#RDelt)3x10
(30#Rope)3x12
(Crunch)12,8,8
93 min + 12 w/u = 105mins

Sarah and I went to the gym after work for an upper WO. Incline was good, but I really wanted 4x7 reps. I didn't even attempt the 7th rep on last set. Last set w/ 70#'s was killer. None of these sets were "easy" tonight.  Good work though. I bumped up the weight on seated rows and thought maybe I'd have to cheat a bit, but form was solid and got good reps. We supersetted leg raises with these. We're going to start working abs into the WO earlier so we aren't always spent when doing them.

OHP was next and I almost wanted to skip it...because it's hard. It's especially hard after already doing a bunch of incline pressing. 115#'s was the right weight and good work. Sarah started off heavier than I thought she'd be able to handle for tonight and did great; worked hard. Pulldowns were next supersetted with torture twists. I bumped the weight on pulldowns and still got really good reps. My back just seems to respond, grow and get stronger faster than chest. I should mirror volume and reps for chest that I've been doing for back. I think I do significantly more volume, but with "lighter" loads than for chest. Maybe that would work better than always trying to push the numbers up on chest and sacrificing volume.  That might be easier on my shoulder too?

I was tempted to skip close grip bench because of my shoulder, but decided to do a heavy set or two. First set was great. R shoulder bothered though. I shouldn't have done a 2nd set, but I'm a glutton for punishment. R shoulder really sore after 2nd set. I switched to 2 sets of overhead tri extensions w/ 80#'s and got 2x10. Never close to those numbers before. Sarah did 4 sets of CGBP. The WO called for bench next, but since my shoulder was already really hurting, I decided to try chest fly's. I grabbed DB's and started first rep. Dropped the DB's. Grabbed lighter DB's and tried again. Not happening. I did 3 sets of curls while Sarah did 3 sets of bench.

Finished up the WO with rope pushdowns, rear delts and some crunches. Glad my shoulder was able to hold up for incline and OHP. It's not good for much else right now. It needs rest.

Nutrition:
I weighed 183.8 this morning. Ate just below maintenance yesterday and probably about the same today. No hard cut yet. Going to just reduce a bit and see how that goes before I do something drastic like RFL.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	234	343	29	2,541
	Calories	936	1373	262	2,571
	Percent	36%	53%	10%	`

Mon 2/17 - Upper

Workout: LA Fitness
(75#Inc)4x8,70x10
(57#SeatRow)5x10
(LegRaise)4x12
(45#Fly)10,8,8
(130#PullDn)4x10
(SeatedDips)2x12
(OHTri)75#x12,80#x9,8
(40#Curls)3x10
(LDelt)2x15
72 min + 10 w/u = 82mins

Sarah and I went to the gym this morning for the 3rd straight upper WO. We started w/ incline and I went lighter (yesterday was a heavy push day). I did reps only to parallel rather than really deep paused reps. I almost feel like these are "cheat reps", but they're not. The ROM is shorter, but the tension stays on the pec and they become very difficult. I started w/ 70#'s and it felt light so I bumped to 75 and did 4 more sets there.  Good work.

Seated rows were good and we got some video of both Sarah and I. We supersetted leg raises here. I'd like to start working abs into the routines earlier rather than always doing them if we have time and/or when we're already pretty spent from a hard WO.  Next I did flat bench fly's and Sarah did barbell bench. Fly's were good and I bumped up the weight today. Next we did pulldowns and they were good. So far, WO had been really good.

Instead of doing decline close grip bench for tri work, I decided we'd do the seated dip machine so there'd be a little less pressing and strain on my shoulder. Of course, dips aren't exactly easy on the shoulders, but hoped the different pressing ROM would be easier on the joint. Part way through, I forgot that I'd wanted to superset these with curls. This is where the WO took a turn for the ugly. Combine miscommunication and two stubborn people and you get a WO that blows up. I moved to overhead tri extensions and did 3 sets. I don't think I've ever done 80# DB's for this movement, but 75#'s felt easy. Really good work here. I did superset them w/ curls which felt good too.  But, the WO was done a tad early at this point.  It was an unfortunate situation/argument that I feel bad about. I acted like a child.  We kissed and made up, ended up having a good open conversation and some good came out of a bad situation.

Nutrition:
I weighed 185.6 this morning. Time for a mini-cut. Nothing too drastic yet.  I'm going to be heavy and bloated tomorrow, so I'll cut to maintenance cals for a few days and see where I stabilize.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	232	476	59	3,339
	Calories	928	1904	527	3,360
	Percent	28%	57%	16%	`

Sun 2/16 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(85#DBInc)7,7,7
(65#DBInc)9,9
(105#OHP)7,7,6
(165#DecCGBP)10,9,7
(40#IncFly)12,10
(80#PushDn)10,9
(30#Rope)12/+5,5,5
(10#RDelt)15,12
50 mins + 10 w/u = 60 mins

Sarah and I went to the gym early this morning because Griffen and Kane were wrestling in the regional tournament nearby and were planning on going after the WO. We needed to keep it "short", but we wanted a good WO too so we kept the intensity up and didn't fart around.

Incline was good. We did 3 heavy sets and then 2 lighter sets. My heavy sets were paused and lighter sets were shorter ROM, trying to only come to arms parallel with the ground. These lighter one's start of feeling pretty easy, but due to the ROM it keeps all tension on the pecs and they become brutally difficult quickly.  Sarah worked hard on these too and it affected our OHP. We both went lighter than normal and still had a hard time keeping reps across sets. Still good work though. Not a lot of rest.

Sarah had a great decline session. Me, not so much. My first set I hit the safety catches on the way up on 2nd rep and almost lost the weight. It's hard to control the bar if it gets knocked out of normal bar path when using a close grip. I tried a couple more reps and racked the weight. It was also bothering my R shoulder, so I lowered the weight and still struggled a bit w/ 165. Still worked hard though :)  Next Sarah did barbell bench and I did incline fly's (to save shoulder). These actually felt great today. Gotta bump to 45#'s.

We finished up the WO with some pushdowns and rear delts (for shoulder health). As coach Labazetta used to say, SBS.  Short but sweet.  Good WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 184.0 this morning. Ate a lot late at night so weight is going to be high in the AM despite being where I wanted/needed to be on cals today.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	226	486	63	3,382
	Calories	903	1945	571	3,419
	Percent	26%	57%	17%	`

Sat 2/15 - Pull Day

Fri 2/14 - Rest day
I weighed 184.4. Decent nutrition day. Made salmon and broccoli for Sarah and I for dinner.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	209	347	65	2,772
	Calories	835	1388	586	2,809
	Percent	30%	49%	21%	`

Sat 2/15
Workout: LA Fitness
(35#Pullups)3x7
(185#BOR)4x8+135x10
(135#PullDn)2x8,120#3x10
(57#SeatRow)5x10
(90#IsoRow)5x10
(25#BackExt)2x20
(40#DBCurl)10,9,9
(10#RDelt)4x10
(LegRaise)12,10,10
(10#T-twist)12,10,10
(90#Crunch)12,10,10
94 mins + 10 w/u = 104 mins

Sarah and I did a pull WO this morning. Our last WO was full upper WO, but was pull focused. So, today would've been time for a push or push focused upper, but I figured my shoulder could use the extra rest. I woke up at 4:30 this morning because my shoulder and elbow were so painful so I didn't know what I'd even be able to do today.

We started off with pullups. I was only going to do pulldowns, but decided to do weighted pullups. My "theory" here is that even though this is heavier than body weight pullups, it will be less reps so hopefully lower volume will be easier on my elbow. I don't know how valid this is, but that's what I did. I was actually quite pleased with 3x7 with a 35#DB between my legs. I was doing sets of 8 when I was focusing on them, so this isn't too huge a drop off, especially given I haven't been focusing on pullups at all. Sarah was frustrated w/ her pullups today. She didn't get as many reps as she's used to getting. I think it's been that way for a couple WO's. I wish I could help her. I'm fairly good at adjusting my WO's for things that need improvement.  I'm not as good at programming for another person. TOday was probably just a down day and not fully recovered form our last pull WO on Thursday, but I'd like to see her progressing the way I know she wants and expects to.  We'll get there.

Bent over row felt heavy and I needed some body English. Last set at 135 with strict form felt good (and even light). We did a lot of volume today on pulldowns, seated rows and iso rows. On pulldowns and seated rows I really tried to pause at contraction for a good squeeze.  It meant starting heavy and lightening the load the last set or two. Some really good rowing/pulling today.

Despit my elbow, I got 3 sets of standing DB curls in. These felt pretty good, which was surprising.  We did weighted back extensions today. They felt easy at first. Then I bent over to pick up weights for rear delt flys and my lower back reminded me I hadn't done these in a while. Yowza. Kept these to 2 sets.  Finished up the WO with an ab circuit. I was done. Time for sushi at our favorite restaurant - Dolce.

Nutrition:
I weighed 184.4 again this morning.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	198	405	59	2,925
	Calories	790	1618	531	2,939
	Percent	27%	55%	18%	`

Thu 2/13 - Upper (pull focus)

Workout: Golds
(135#PullDn)4x9
(60#Inc)15,15,14,10
(70#T-bar)4x10
(40#IncFly)2x10
(70#IsoRow)3x12
(LegPress)1.5PL,3x50
(195#Crunch)12,10
(140#PushDon)2x12
(10#T-twist)2x10
64 min + 8 w/u = 72mins

We got 16+ inches of snow last night but amazingly, the streets were really clear. Sarah and I went to LA Fitness, but the parking lot was still covered and it was closed, so we went to Golds for our WO.  My R shoulder is in pretty bad shape, so wasn't sure what we were going to do today. We started with pulldowns (Sarah did 2 sets pullups). I did them wide grip, lying back as per usual lately. Felt good. I wanted to do a little pressing, so we did incline and both kept it on the light side. I did 60#'s and tried to make  sure I only let my upper arms come down to parallel w/ the floor. This didn't seem like a large ROM (range of motion), but it kept tension on the pecs the entire movement. This form, plus high reps resulted in an unbelievable pump/burn. I'll keep this form for now for less stress on my shoulder, and use it frequently even when it's better. It felt really good.

Next we did t-bar rows (LA Fitness doesn't have one of these). Felt OK. Then we were going to do cable fly's, but it was too much on my left elbow (I'm falling apart). I did DB fly's and Sarah stared at her pecs as she did cable fly's in front of the mirror :) She loves this exercise. I still love the Iso Row machine at Golds so we did 3 sets of that and supersetted it with leg press. We hadn't done leg press in a couple weeks so we kept the weights light. I did sets of 50 reps and my legs were absolute jello after these. It also showed that my cardio sucks right now because I was huffing and puffing big time.

Finished up with abs and some tri work.  This WO wasn't long, but damn it was some good work with not a lot of fluff.

Nutrition:
I weighed 184.2 this morning. Almost time to start stripping off some fat.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	235	457	49	3,183
	Calories	941	1828	439	3,208
	Percent	29%	57%	14%	`

Wed 2/12 - Upper

Workout: LA Fitness
(RDL)225x8,275x8,8,8,225x12
(115#OHP)8,8,7
(155#BOR)4x10
(70#Inc)2x8
(10#T-twist)3x10
(Crunch)3x10
(10#RDelt)2x15
59 min + 8 w/u = 67mins

Hit the gym w/ Sarah after work. Was at a loss honestly as to what to do. My shoulder makes pressing bad (turned out to be REALLY bad) and my elbow makes pulling bad. Lower body? Nah, knee is still fucked too. Something is strongly suggesting I need time off, or at least not hitting upper body 5 times a week.

Anyway, cobbled together a decent WO. RDL was actually really good. Hadn't done it in a little while and felt good to pull something a little heavy. OHP was good. Wanted 3x8, but not happening. Surprisingly, this really bother my left elbow, and not my shoulder. Bent over row was good with some decent volume. Incline was a bust. Shouldn't have done it at all. I got through 2 sets, but my right shoulder really hurt during, and for the rest of the WO and is throbbing as I write this.

We were running out of time, so we hit some abs and called it a night. If we can make it through the snow to the gym tomorrow, the plan is to work out. No idea what I'll be able to do. I should take the day off, but...

Nutrition:
I weighed 183.8 this morning.

Tue 2/11 - Upper

Mon 2/10 - Rest
I weighed 184.4 this morning.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	210	390	43	2,780
	Calories	839	1558	386	2,784
	Percent	30%	56%	14%	`

Tue 2/11 - Upper
Workout: LA Fitness
(85#Inc)3x7+70x8
(135#PullDn)3x8
(70#Bench)10,9
(40#Fly)10
(58#SeatRow)4x10
(185#CGBP)8,7
(75#OHTri)10,10,8
(25#Rope)3x10
(10#RDelt)2x10
(10#LDelt)2x10
67 min + 10 w/u = 77mins

Sarah and I worked out after work. Started w/ incline and I did my heavy stuff as planned. 3x7 was all was getting tonight. I did add a lighter set for some volume (probably not necessary, honestly). Sarah bumped up to 35#DB's and got sets of 5, maybe 6 on the last set. Great job. I think she thought we were starting a deload week this week. I think she was happy when she realized we were staying heavy for a while longer. When pushed, she generally does better than she thinks she can.

Pulldowns were good tonight. Did them lying back a bit again.  Good article by Lyle helped reinforce some better form. I could really feel it in my mid-back, which is what I've been trying to hit hard lately. Next was bench. Sarah did barbell, I did DB's. I actually tried Sarah's weight to see how it felt, thinking I might just put 135#'s on and do some real easy controlled reps. I couldn't even do Sarah's weight w/o pain. Did 2 reps and racked the weight. Shoulder is fucked. I did 2 sets of DB's and a set of fly's. Sarah did 3 sets of bench after bumping the weight.

Seated rows were good for both of us. We both tried to pause at contraction. My mid-back was throbbing by the end of these. Next was decline close grip bench. I did 2 sets and then did overhead tri extensions because it bothered my shoulder quite a bit. OH tri's were really good.  Finished off the WO with some tri pushdowns and some delt work.

I was actually fairly pleased with this WO, despite the frustration w/ my right shoulder. I didn't want this WO to be real high volume. Wanted to keep it heavy though and accomplished both those things. Great back work tonight too. Sarah is still progressing and worked real hard tonight, especially on incline and bench.  Gotta rest my shoulder at some point. Pretty soon I'm not going to be able to do much pressing at all.

Nutrition:
I weighed 183.0 this morning.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	250	453	55	3,291
	Calories	1001	1811	496	3,308
	Percent	30%	55%	15%	`

Sun 2/9 - Upper (Another Incline PR)

Workout: LA Fitness
(85#Inc)4x7 Great! Rep PR!
(140#Pulldown)5x9
(OHP)115x8,135x5,5,105x8
(65#SeatRow)4x9
(185#DecCGBP)8,8,10
(73#PushDn)10,8
(25#Rope)12/+4,4,4
(LegRaise)3x12
(10#T-Twist)3x12
(10#RDelt)3x10
(130#PeckDeck)15/+5,5,5
90 mins + 10 w/u = 100 mins

Picked Sarah up bright and early for my 3rd full upper WO in a row. I wasn't sure what to expect on this 3rd on, but wrote it up to be more push focused. Yesterday was more pull focused. Warmed up on incline and was feeling OK so went ahead up to 85#'s. It's going in the log as 4x7, but Sarah helped me on the last rep of the 3rd set. Pretty sure I had it. My previous best was 6,6,6,7, so 4x7 is a great improvement. Pleased. Sarah did well w/ 30's today and is going to bump up to 35#'s next WO and see how she handles that.

Video of 1st set of 85# x 7 reps. Normally I pause a little more on each rep. You can see that I notice I'm not pausing long enough and get better through the set.

Tried to upload a set of incline for Sarah, but keep getting an error. Mabye 2 are too large?

Next up was pulldowns (a couple sets of pullups for Sarah first). I did wide grip, laid back pulldowns again. Really liking these. Sarah did well on pullups but gets frustrated when she doesn't match or beat her previous best every time. Maybe she should stay away from pullups for a couple WO's and just focus on getting stronger and give them another shot when she's fresh. Overhead press was a mixed bag for both of us today. Sarah had to drop from initial weight she tried and then got good reps. I bumped up in weight to 135#'s and it was just too heavy today after heavy incline. i did one good set at that weight, but the 2nd set at that weight it was a push press (with leg drive), not an OHP. Too heavy. Dropped for the last set and had a good one.

Seated rows were good. I'm really liking the wider grip attachment. Sarah's still kind of getting this movement down, figuring out form and weight combos. Decline felt really heavy today, even thought I got 8 reps on first 2 sets and then ALMOST 10 on the last set. I stalled on the last rep and started coming back down. Sarah had to help quite a bit after I failed and I felt my R shoulder give. It hurt bad (I think more than let on). Sarah had 3 great sets here. Next was flat bench. Sarah did barbell. I was stupid and tried a set w/ DB's. Got the weight half way through 1 rep and dropped the DB's to the
floor. Not happening. Not even close. R shoulder dead. Hoping it's not a small tear.

Finished the WO with some tricep, ab and delt work. Added more weight to torture twists today. Hit a myo rep set of peck deck fly's on the way to the locker room.

Really a very good WO. I was just a little down after my shoulder gave out. Really don't want to have to take time off while I'm still making such good progress. We'll see how it responds in the next day or two.

Nutrition:
I weighed 184.8 this morning. Ate a lot yesterday. Will eat a lot again today :)

Sat 2/8 - Upper

Workout: LA Fitness
(Pullups)2x10
(130#Pulldown)3x10
(75#Inc)10,10,8
(65#SeatRow)4x10
(70#Bench)11,10
(DBRow)85x10,80x10
(90#IsoRow)15,12,12
(8#T-twist)12,12
64 mins + 10 w/u = 74 mins

Had write up done for this WO and overwrote it by accident. Anyway, decent full upper WO today. A friend, Mark, joined Sarah and I for our WO this morning. We didn't have a lot of time for it, so trying to get three of us through it in a short time was going to be challenging. Not much of note, just a solid, "making the donuts" WO. I wouldn't call it "going through the motions", but just getting the work and volume/frequency in.

I did get some video of seated rows I'll try to add here later.

I think Sarah had an argument with the cable crunch/pulldown machine at the end of the WO because she seemed reall annoyed by it. :)

Nutrition:
I weighed 182.8 this morning. Will eat a lot today I'm sure. Ihop for brunch, Jasmines for chinease and sushi for dinner, etc. Probably 4,000-4,500 cals.

Fri 2/7 - Upper

Thu 2/6 - Rest day
I weighed 183.2 this morning. Reigned the cals in a bit since it was a rest day.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	215	386	38	2,728
	Calories	861	1542	341	2,744
	Percent	31%	56%	12%	`

 
Fri 2/7 - Upper
Workout: Golds
(80#Inc)3x8
(185#BOR)3x8
(115#OHP)3x7
(70#SeatRow)3x10
(70#Bench)2x10
(40#IncFly)2x10
(75#OHTri)2x10
(195#Crunch)3x12
(Rope)3x12
54 mins + 10 w/u = 64 mins

Went to Golds at lunch for a WO and to close out my membership. LA Fitness is a better gym, except for the fact that it gets really crowded in the evenings.  Anyway, I decided to get a solid full upper WO in today, but not kill myself on volume.   Good solid work all around and not a lot of farting around. Loved this WO for its simplicity and that I got the work done in under an hour.  Need more WO's like these. Nothing really stands out other than crunches. I used 195#'s today at golds. I'm not sure if I ever went that heavy there before, and if I did, I know for certain I didn't get 3x12 w/ it. This is good; all the ab work is obviously paying off. Once I strip the fat off after this bulk, things should look good.

On the down side, my left elbow was so bad I almost left the gym during warmups. It's been bothering me for a while now, but today it was REALLY bad. Kind of weird considering yesterday was a day off, so I thought it would've felt better. My body in general is feeling pretty beat up too. Shoulders waking me from my sleep because they are painful, etc.  Going to push through this weekend and then I'VE GOT TO LISTEN TO MY BODY and back-cycle weights before running back up at top-end weights.

Nutrition:
I weighed 181.8 this morning. Weight still up and down more than normal. Weird.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	243	446	45	3,150
	Calories	972	1785	408	3,165
	Percent	31%	56%	13%	`

Wed 2/5 - Pull Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(185#BOR)4x8
(Pullups)2x10
(130#PullDn)4x10
(225#RDL)2x10
(57#SeatRow)4x10
(90#HighRow)3x8
(35#IncCurl)3x10
(10#RDelt)3x10
(T-twist)25,12
(Bicycle)40
60 mins + 10 w/u = 70 mins

Pull WO w/ Sarah tonight after work. Bent over row was good, but having a hard time progressing here w/o really throwing my whole body into the movement more. Pullups felt hard tonight after heavy BOR. Followed up 2 sets of pullups w/ 4 sets of pulldowns. These felt GREAT tonight. I did the wide grip, leaning back at about a 45 degree angle. Could really feel it working mid/upper back, which is what I want.

We decided to do 2 sets of RDL (video above). We didn't have a lot of time, but I wanted to get a little mid-back & trap activation that these do better than other movements. Will go heavy on these this weekend and w/ more volume.  Seated rows done again wide grip for same reason as above.  By the time we got to high rows and the rest we were short on time. Probably a good thing because my left shoulder and elbow were getting really bad during high row and curls. Finished up w/ a little bit of abs and rear delts. Decent WO. Nothing stands out. Making the donuts.

Nutrition:
I weighed 183.2 this morning. Weight kind of all ove the place the last couple days.

Tue 2/4 - Push Day

Mon 2/3 - Rest Day
I weighed 158.6 this morning after ballooning up to 190.2 last night. Whoa! Cut cals down a tad today to reign things in just a touch, but it was by no means a day-long cut.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	237	358	31	2,652
	Calories	948	1431	282	2,662
	Percent	36%	54%	11%	`

 
 Tue 2/4 - Push Day
Workout: LA Fitness
(85#DBInc)6,6,6,7 Great. Progressed 1 rep, and was happy to get it!
(70#DBInc)2x10
(115#OHP)3x6
(185#DecCGBP)3x8
(65#Bench)10,9
(40#IncFly)2x10
(80#PushDn)10,9
(30#Rope)2x12
(10#LatDelt)3x15
(T-twist)20,15
(Crunch)12,10
67 mins + 10 w/u = 77 mins

Sarah and I went to the gym after work tonight. I'm really adjusting better than I thought to working out in the evening and still really enjoying having a great WO partner in Sarah. She was under the weather today, but still did a great job.

We started with incline and I went heavy again and got one extra rep on the last set. Funny how that one extra rep meant a lot, and I worked for it.  But that's how progression goes. Sometimes it's a 10# jump, sometimes it's  grinding out 1 extra rep w/ a heavy weight.  Felt pretty heavy tonight (as I guess it should). Dropped weight and did two more sets. These were brutal, tough. Next we did OHP and both went a bit lighter given the heavy incline and the volume there. It was OK. Felt really heavy for it being "light".

Decline was good. Sarah had to help me on the last rep, but went in the log as 3x8 anyway :)  At this point we were running out of time. Instead of cutting out an exercise, we just picked up the pace and dropped a set off bench and incline fly's.  Then hit some tri's, detls and a couple sets of abs.

Great WO. Still very pleased with progression. Not sure how much longer I can keep it up, and I know Sarah's not going to like it, but she's overdue for a deload week or two as well.

Nutrition:
I weighed 182.0 this morning. Shocked I was that low after being 190#'s Sunday night and 186#'s on Monday morning. Guess I was holding a ton of water after over-feeding on Sunday.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	247	461	42	3,209
	Calories	988	1843	377	3,208
	Percent	31%	57%	12%	`

Sun 2/2 - Upper (OHP PR!)

Workout: LA Fitness
(135#OHP)5,5,5,4,105x8 Great! Another PR!
(Pullups)15,10
(145#PullDn)4x10
(75#Inc)4x8 Good
(50#SeatRow)4x12
(LegRaise)3x12
(185#Dec_CGBP)8,8,9 Good
(90#IsoRow)3x10
(10#LatDelt)3x15
(115#RDelt)3x9
(PushDn/Rope)4x10
(T-Twist)20,15,15
(85#Crunch)3x10
115 mins + 10 w/u = 125mins

Another PR! Getting a lot stronger.  Sarah and I went to the gym this morning and it was my goal to do 135#'s for OHP. 125#'s was my heaviest before, and I'd only done that once or twice. I was thinking I MIGHT get one set of 4 or 5 and then drop to triples. Hit another big PR today and got sets of 5 reps. Felt great to have 45# plates on the bar for OHP! On the 4th set I almost had the last rep up, but just couldn't lock out. I push-pressed it up to get the 5th and final rep, but I'm calling it 4. I then dropped to 105#'s and got a set of 8, which felt REALLY heavy.  Awesome work. Didn't think I'd be strong enough for this weight to get effective reps. Sarah bumped up her weight too and did a great job.

I did 2 sets of pullups and got 15 on the 1st set, then 10 and then moved to 4 sets of pulldowns (some reverse wide grip). Sarah did 4 sets of pullups and 2 pulldown. Damn, that's some solid work 36 mins in. We did incline next and 4x8 at 75#'s was a LOT of work after heavy OHP. Really happy with these today.  We did wide-grip seated rows next, supersetted with leg raises. WOW, spent already, 65 mins into WO.

Next we did decline close grip bench. We both went heavy and both got really good reps. At this point, we decided to cut a few things out of the rest of the WO. We did iso row, delts and some tri work. Did a quick, but effective ab circuit and called it a day. Time for sushi!

Nutrition:
I weighed 182.0 this morning. Sushi post WO, chili and salmon for super bowl. 

Sat 2/1 - Pull (RDL PR!)

Workout: LA Fitness
(RDL)185x10,225x8,275x8,295x5,5,5,7 Great work. PR!
(155#BOR)5x8
(155#PullDn)3x8
(50#SeatRow)5x10
(90#HighRow)3x8
(35#IncCurl)4x10
(10#RDelt)4x10
(73#PushDn)MyoRep
(25#Rope)2x10
74 mins + 10 w/u = 84 mins

And the PR's just keep coming...sweet!  Went to the gym this morning before meeting up w/ Joe for lunch and hanging out. Wasn't planning on going this heavy with RDL, but it was feeling good so I bumped up the weight heavier than I've ever gone. I did reduce reps to 5/set, but got 7 on the last set. This was a LOT of RDL volume for me. Awesome work! I would've liked to gone heavier on BOR, but doing them right after RDL, 155#'s was plenty, and I did 5 sets. Whoa! That was a lot of back work in the 1st 2 exercises and 32 mins into the WO.

I was smart today and just did 3 sets of pulldowns instead of pullups (easier on the elbows for some reason). I hammered seated row with 5 sets again today and they were good. High rows were good, but kept it to 3 sets just like pulldowns. The meat of the WO is done at this point in 56 mins. I did 4 sets of incline curls because they were feeling great. Supersetted with rear delt fly's. Just 10#'s, but these were hard today. Back was completely done. Finished off the WO with a MyoRep set of pushdowns and 2 sets of light rope pushdowns.  Awesome pull WO!

Nutrition:I weighed 181.8 this morning. Joe and I went to mongolian BBQ. Great post WO meal! We had a good time together today. Estimated lunch out macros, but should be in the ball park here.

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	226	458	73	3,398
	Calories	904	1831	659	3,394
	Percent	27%	54%	19%	`

Fri 1/31 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(85#DBInc)4x6,70#x10 Very good
(115#OHP)3x6
(155#DecCGBP)3x10
(40#IncFly)2x10
(10#RDelt)2x10
(75#OHTri)2x10
(80#PushDn)10,8
(25#Rope)3x10
(LegRaise)3x12
(85#Crunch)3x10
62 mins + 12 w/u = 74 mins

Went to the gym at lunch today for a push WO. Next 3 days (Fri/Sat/Sun) are going to be push/pull/upper so I didn't want to go too hard today. Plus my R shoulder was really bad on Wednesday and didn't know how it would feel today.  I warmed up real well and was starting with incline DB bench today. I did my normal shoulder w/u routine and then started incline specific warmup. It went something like 45#x12, 55x5, 65x3, 75x3. Then I did 85# 4x6 again. My shoulder felt OK, and I felt really good about getting 4x6 at this weight again for the 2nd time.  Very nice work. After the heavy sets I dropped and did 70#x10. This was a lot of work after the heavy stuff!  I wasn't planning on going this heavy again because of my shoulder, but weights felt good progressing up and it was nice to see the other day wasn't just a great WO, an outlier.

OHP was pretty good. Tri's were tired already from incline, especially that last set of 10. I decided to skip flat DB bench to not stress my shoulder too much. I went lighter on CGBP and it still bothered my shoulder a bit, so glad I didn't press the weights up. 3x10 at 155 was still solid. Incline fly's were good and I did them w/ a pause at the bottom for a good stretch. Surprisingly, these felt fine on my shoudler. Supersetted with rear delt flys.

Then I finished up the main WO with some good triceps work. Finished the day with leg raises and crunches supersetted for abs. Solid WO, and didn't go overboard so I can still get in 2 more solid WO's this weekend...hopefully :)  This is probably about where volume should really be for my WO's anyway.

Nutrition:
I weighed 182.0 this morning. Weight hovering around 182 this week, up from ~181. Want to keep progressing slowly up to 185. We'll see how the weight looks after this weekend :)

		Prot	Carb	Fat	Cal
TOTALS:	Grams	245	478	49	3,325
	Calories	979	1910	440	3,330
	Percent	29%	57%	13%	`