Fri 10/31 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness (Rep/Goal)
(85#Inc)8,8,8,7 (31/32) - Very good
(55#DBShldr)8,8,8,8 (32/32) - PR
(10#DeclineCrunch)4x15
(65#Inc)10,9 (19/20)
(40#IncFly)10,10,9 (29/30)
(80#OHTri)12,8,8,65x10,10 (28/30)
(25#LDelt)3x8,10#x12,12
(50#Rope)2x12
66 + 10 w/u = 76 mins

Progression on almost every main lift today! Heavy incline again today with goal of beating 30 reps from last WO and got 31. Very nice. First set of DB shoulder press felt heavy with not a lot of rest after heavy incline. I thought reps would drop quickly and dramatically but I got 8 reps across sets. Awesome. I asked for a spot on the last set hoping to get 7, but didn't want to get stuck because that's really hard on my R shoulder. Blew through 7 and grinded out the 8th rep on last set. Met rep goal of 32 here.  Supersetted decline crunches with these.

I increased the angle of the incline and got 19 reps out of the goal of 20. Right into incline fly's which were really good. I skipped decline today to give my R shoulder a little break. But since I skipped decline, I hammered overhead triceps extensions. Really good. Pushed a little too hard (to failure) on the 1st set and paid for it, but still great work. Finished up with lateral delts (heavy and light) and some tricep rope pushdowns. Excellent WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.6 yet again this morning.

Thu 10/30 - Pull Day

Workout: Work Gym
(205#SmUhBOR)4x8,135x20
(175#VbarPull)4x8
(60#PallofPress)3x10/10
(75#DBRow)2x14
(35#IncCurl)2x10+10
(150#PullDn)2x8
(50#RDelt)12,10,9
(73#PushDn)10,9,8

56 mins + 7 w/u = 63 mins

Hit the work gym today so BOR's were in Smith Machine. Went heavy and they felt good. Back-off set of 20 was brutal. Bumped up the weight on vbar pulldowns and they were good. Supersetted w/ pallof presses.  Next I supersetted DB rows for AMRAP with incline curls + pinwheel curls.  My back must've been fried because I barely got 8 reps on two sets of pulldowns. Finished up with rear delt and some tri work.  Very nice workout after an unplanned day off yesterday. I was happy to get back in the gym.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.6 again this morning.

Tue 10/28 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(85#Inc)8,8,7,7 (30/32)
(55#DBShldr)8,8,8,6 (30/32)
(LyingLegRaise)4x20
(65#Inc)10,8 (18/20)
(155#Decline)10,10,9
(40#IncFly)3x8
(OHTri)80x9,8,7 (24/30)
(25#LDelt)3x10
(65#PushDn)3x10
71 + 10 w/u = 81 mins

Decided to bump back up to 85#DB's today and had a goal of 30 reps. Hit it! Felt great. I'll probably switch between 80's and 85's going forward for a while. Shoulder press was good. Thought I'd get more than 8 reps on first set and thought I'd drop reps from there but was able to hold on until the 4th set. Supersetted lying leg raises with these.  Then I increased the angle of the incline and did 2 sets.

Decline was great today. One shy of goal reps (29/30). My R shoulder was feeling a little wonky and "burning", so I decided to go ahead with incline fly's, but didn't push for 10 reps/set. Still plenty hard today actually.  Overhead tri extensions were good. After the 2nd set I put the 80# DB back on the rack and grabbed a 75#DB. Then I felt like I was taking the easy way out, so I went back and grabbed the 80#er again and did my last set w/ it. Good heavy tri work here (and with decline).  Finished up with some delt and more tri work.  Awesome WO. Getting quickly back to the numbers I was hitting at the end of my last "bulk", and I'm hitting them after really only eating in a surplus for a couple week. Very pleased with progress on incline, and especially with my shoulders.

Nutrition:
I weighed 177.0 this morning.

Sun 10/26 - Upper

Workout: LA Fitness
(80#Inc)11,10,7,8,65x8 (36/35) Great!
(115#SeatRow)3x12
(10#Crunch)3x10/10
(DBShldr)60x8,55x6,45x9,9 - First time w/ 60#DB's.
(160#PullDn)3x8
(40#IncFly)2x10
(RopeExt)73x8,65x9,9
(50#FacePull)3x10
(50#Rope)12,10
54 + 11 w/u = 65 mins

This was my 6th workout of the week and they've all been hard/heavy WO's, so I wasn't sure what to expect this morning. On incline, I was thinking about just doing 4x8 and get some decent pressing. Warmups felt good and first set I just decided to push for as many reps as possible and got 11 and felt good. 2nd set I got 10 but had to grind a bit for last rep. 3rd set I should've taken a tad more rest and dropped to 7 reps. Still on pace to match my best reps and then got 8 on the last set. Awesome, and beat rep goal from last WO. Added a back-off set w/ 65#'s that got real heavy, real fast.

I used the chest supported seated row machine again. It's great and I can really feel the contraction in my back. Supersetted with crunches. Since incline was so good, I bumped the weight up on DB shoulder press to 60#'s for the first time. First set was good, but knew I needed to drop for the 2nd set. Dropped weight and still lost reps. Dropped again and got 2 more real good sets.  Pulldowns felt heavy for this light a weight (160#s) and I guess it's just because I haven't been focusing on this movement at all.

Incline fly's were good. Finished off the WO w/ some triceps and delt work.  Great WO! Getting stronger for sure.

Nutrition:
I weighed 178.8 this morning.

Sat 10/25 - Full Body

Workout: LA Fitness
(135#Squat)1x10
(8PlLegPress)4x12
(Dips)3x15 - Felt great!
(35#PallofPress)3x10/10
(Inc)65x10,60x10
(40#DBShldrPress)2x12
(55#LegExt)3x10
(Crunch)12,12,10
(30#IncCurl)2x10+10
(58#Rope)2x12
56 mins + 12 w/u = 68 mins

I wanted to do a lower body day today, but my L glute is still bad so I did what lower I could and added in some other things to make it a full body. The leg press machines were taken so I decided to do barbell squats. These felt terrible warming up and I did one "working" set and thank God a leg press machine opened up. I did 4 good sets on leg press and supersetted with 3 sets of dips. I hadn't done dips in probably a year. They felt great. Tells me that my shoulder problems have gotten better. I may want to try some light barbell pressing sometime soon.

I bumped the weight up on paloff presses and they were HARD, but felt great. Then I did 2 sets of fairly light incline and shoulder presses. I did some leg extensions supersetted with crunches. Crunches were not weighted, but they were tough after heavy paloff presses earlier. Finished up with some bi/tri work.  Felt great after this WO. Not spent, but got some good work in.  Hiking at Great Falls Park with the kids in the afternoon, then evening with Sarah. Great day!

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.6 this morning. Huge Mongolian BBQ dinner with the kids.

Fri 10/24 - Pull Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(185#UhBOR)3x7,135x16
(205#VbarPull)3x9,160x12
(25#Crunch)15,7/7,6/6
(SeatRow)115x10,100x12,12
(150#PullDn)3x8
(80#BBCurl)10,8,8
(80#UprightRow)3x8
(95#DBRow)2x12
(115#RDeltFly)11,9,9
(43#FacePull)2x10
63 mins + 7 w/u = 70 mins

BOR was good. 3 heavy sets and one back-off set. Got more reps on heavy sets than last WO. V-bar pulldowns were good. Same reps as last WO. Supersetted crunches w/ a 25#DB on my chest. I did the chest supported seated row machine again and supersetted them with pulldowns. Rows were good, pulldowns were heavy as heck combo'd with rows.

Curls were supersetted with upright rows. Both felt heavy but good. DB rows were good and I got 12 reps. Thought they'd feel heavier this late in the WO. Finished up with rear delt fly's and face pulls. Awesome pull WO. Very pleased. Wish I were progressing and growing w/ push as well as pull.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.4 this morning.

Thu 10/23 - Push Day (work gym)

Workout: Work Gym
(75#Inc)12,11,10 (33/35)
(55#DBShldr)9,7,8,6,6  - solid work here
(10#T-twist)3x16
(65#Inc)10,9 (19/20)
(40#IncFly)10,10
(75#OHTri)12,10,8 (30/30)
(25#LDelt)3x9
(73#PushDn)9,9,8
57 + 10 w/u = 67 mins

Incline was good. Beat reps by 1 from last WO w/ this weight. The goal here is really just as many reps as I can and try to beat the previous WO. The DB's at the work gym only go up to 75#'s so I can't increase the load here.  DB shoulder press was good. After the 2nd set I was going to drop to 45#'s and do 3 more sets, but I stuck with the 55#DB's and glad I did. Good shoulder work. I supersetted the last 3 sets of these with weighted torture twists.

Next I increased the incline and did 2 sets. Good pressing. Incline fly's were good. Was going to do a 3rd set, but R beck was tweaked a bit so I stopped there. I met rep goal on OH tri of 30 and did "heavy" lateral delt raises. Finished up with a couple sets of heavy pushdowns. Very solid WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.0 this morning.

Tue 10/21 - Pull Day (work gym)

Workout: Work Gym
(185#SmUhBOR)4x8,135x20
(163#VbarPull)4x10
(60#PallofPress)3x10/10
(75#DBRow)3x12
(70#BBCurl)3x10
(150#PullDn)3x8
(25#Crunch)3x15
(50#RDeltFly)12,10,10
(73#PushDn)10,8,63x10
60 mins + 5 w/u = 65 mins

Had doc appointment about my knees today. They took x-rays and will hear something by Friday. Have an appointment with the PT on Thursday and a referral for an orthopedic.  So, onto the WO. I didn't go as heavy on BOR's today because I wanted to keep form a little stricter. I feel there's a time for heavy w/ a little body English, and a time for strict form. Very good rowing. V-bar pulldowns were good. I got more reps than last WO. I superstted these pulldowns with Pallof Presses, and I bumped up the weight on Pallof presses today and they were really difficult. I think I re-aggrivated my L glute issue doing these.

Next I supersetted DB row's w/ barbell curls. Then I did pulldowns superstted with crunches with a 25# plate on my chest. Finished up the WO with rear delt fly's and some triceps pushdowns.  This was a pull day, so the pushdowns are obviously out of place, but I wanted to add a little work there because my lock-out is weak on my pressing movements. I think some extra tri work will help with that. Good WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.0 this morning.

Mon 10/20 - Push Day (Inc Rep Goal Met)

Workout: LA Fitness
(80#Inc)10,10,8,7 - Rep goal of 35 met! Took several weeks, but got it!
(55#DBShldr)8,7,45x8,8,8
(LyingLegRaise)30/4x10
(65#Inc)12,7 - Completely died on 2nd set
(155#Decline)9,8
(40#IncFly)9,8,7
(OHTri)80x8,75x8,8
(25#LDelt)3x9
(50#Rope)3x12
72 + 10 w/u = 82 mins

Warmup felt OK, first set of incline felt a bit heavy. Didn't think I'd attempt 10 reps on 2nd set, but felt ok so got it. This is where I hit a major wall last WO. I got 8 reps 3rd set and 7 on last. Pushed every set hard. Hit goal of 35 reps! Woohoo! With rep goal system, this would mean time to add weight. But, since I can't add only 5 pounds to the bar (given these are fixed weight DB's) I'm going to stick with 80#DB's for a while until I can get a few more reps and/or 35 reps is a bit more "comfortable". I'll still keep pushing for as many reps as possible, but I want to hit 35+ reps a couple times before bumping up the weight. My form wasn't the best and I'd like to get some paused work in at this weight. 85# DB's are not THAT much heavier, but they're significantly harder on my shoulders. I'll bump up to that weight now and then, but probably not start a rep-goal protocol there yet.

Next I did DB shoulder press. Didn't get quite as many reps as last WO, but great work with 5 sets. I gave my chest/tri's a break before more pressing with a myo-rep set of lying leg raises. They were great. Next I increased the angle of the incline and did 2 sets. My goal reps here are 20 and I've only been getting 17. First set I got 12 reps! I thought this goal was going to be smashed. Then I shit the bed and died. Only got 7 reps on next set. Progress, but holy cow, that got heavy fast!

Decline was OK. Only 2 sets. I bumped the weight on incline fly's and it was heavy, but good. Finished up with tri and detl work. Great WO! Very pleased with the progress.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.2 again this morning. Didn't eat great yesterday, but lots of walking at Kings Dominion for Halloween Haunt. A great time with Sarah!

Sun 10/19 - Rest/Kings Dominion

Sarah and I went to Kings Dominion for Halloween Haunt. It was a blast! Here are some pics.

Kip Owens & Sarah Gottlieb

Sat 10/18 - Pull Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(UhBOR)135x10,185x6,6,6,135x16
(205#VbarPull)3x9+160x10,11
(10#Crunch)15/15,10/10,10/10
(95#DBRow)3x10 - Weight bump
(100#SeatRow)3x10 - New machine - liked it a lot
(150#PullDn)2x8
(35#IncCurl)10/10,9/9,8/8
(UprightRow)90x8,80x10,10
(FacePull)58x10,50x10,10,43x10
(100#RdeltFly)12,10,9
75 mins + 5 w/u = 80 mins

Left glute still bad, so I gave deadlifts a break. BOR were good and were v-bar pulldowns. Form begins to break on pulldowns with this weight later in sets so I added the 2 sets of ligther work to get a real good squeeze at contraction. I supersetted pulldowns with crunches. No pallof press today because that also puts a lot of stress on my glutes.

I bumped the weight on DB rows again today. These were a lot of work. Used straps today to help hold the DB's. I supersetted chest supported seated rows and pulldowns. The seated rows were on a machine I haven't used before and I really liked it. I'll definitely do these again because they felt good, and it's gives my lower back a breack (unlike BOR's). My back was fried because even these light pulldowns got really heavy, really fast.

I supersetted incline curls + pinwheel curls with upright rows. I bumped the weight up on upright rows, and it bothered my shoulders, so I dropped weight back down.  I finished up with a lot of rear delt/upper back work with 4 sets of face pulls and rear delt fly's. Very good back/pull WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 174.8 this morning.

Fri 10/17 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(80#Inc)10,10,7,7 (34/35)
(65#Inc)9,8 (17/20)
(100#Crunch)3x10
(55#DBShldr)9,7,45x8,8,8
(165#Decline)8,8,7
(35#IncFly)12,12,10
(OHTri)80x8,75x8,8
(25#LDelt)2x8,20x10,10
(50#Rope)2x13,35#x15,15
80 + 10 w/u = 90 mins

Incline started off very well, but I faded badly. Pushed 2nd set a bit too hard maybe? Had the 8th rep all but locked out on 3rd set. Really wanted to hit goal of 35 reps today. So I matched my reps from last WO and almost had 1 more. I'll keep at it. Increased the angle and did 2 back-off sets. These felt heavy. First 4 sets took more out of me than I thought. Took a break from pressing with cable crunches. Hadn't done these in a while.

Shoulder press was good. 2 heavy sets, then backed off and got 3 more good sets. I bumped the weight on decline and had Max spot me. He helped a touch on last rep of 3rd set, so I'll call it 7.  I added a set of incline fly's from normal. Felt really good. Since I'm getting stuck right before lockout on presses, I think I've got to do some extra tri work. So I did  sets of OH tri's, heavy rope extensions and rope pushdowns. Bumped weight on lateral delts for 2 sets and did 2 lighter sets.  Very good WO. A tad disappointed I didn't get an extra rep on incline. Just something to keep pushing for. I've got to remember not to push too hard on early sets. I pay the price for that in latter sets.

Nutrition:
I weighed 174.2 this morning.

Wed 10/15 - Pull Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(185#UhBOR)4x6+135x15 - Weight bump
(205#VbarPull)9,8,8+160x10,10 - Heavy, good back-off sets
(90#DBRow)3x10 - Weight bump
(30#PallofPress)3x10 - Weight bump
(150#PullDn)3x10
(Crunch)15/15,12/12,10/10
(80#UprightRow)3x10 - Added reps
(65#BBCurl)3x8+45x20 - Wow, heavy!
(RDeltFly)115x12,10,100x10
(SeatRow)73x8,58x10,50x10 - Done
77 mins + 5 w/u = 82 mins

My L glute has still been bothering me, so I didn't deadlift today. I'll see how it feels and maybe try this weekend. I bumped the weight on BOR's and was happy with 4x6. Dropped and did a max rep set really strict form. Good rowing. V-bar pulldowns got heavy real quick. I did 3 heavy sets and 2 back-off sets. I bumped the weight on DB rows and supersetted with Pallof Presses, which I also bumped the weight on. Pallof presses were REALLy hard.

Next I did pulldowns, supersetted with crunches. Abs were absolutely on fire. Doing these after heavy Pallof's were hard, and really good. I did upright rows again today and got more reps than last WO. I supersetted with what I thought was going to be light barbell curls. I thought I'd get sets of at least 10-12. Nope. Only got sets of 8. My bi's were worn out from all the pulling. After 3 sets of curls, I dropped to just the bar and did as many reps as possible (AMRAP), and got 20. Bi's were on fire.  Finished up with rear delt fly's and seated rows. My back was completely done. Had to drop weight on each set of seated rows. Last set I paused on contraction and relt a big pump in my back.

Despite not being able to do DL's, this was an awesome WO! Pushed weight and reps everywhere I could. Hard work. I'm spent.

Nutrition:
I weighed 174.6 this morning. Lighter than I thought I'd be and lighter than I wanted to be. Will try to up the calories today.

Tue 10/14 - Push Day (work gym)

Workout: Work Gym
(75#Inc)12,10,10 Very good
(65#Inc)10,9
(10#T-Twist)20/5x6
(55#DBShldr)10,8,7,45x9 Very good
(35#IncFly)2x12
(73#PushDn)10,10,9
(20#LDelt)2x12
49 + 11 w/u = 60 mins

Push day at the work gym. DB's only go to 75#'s, so did 3 sets AMRAP. Three really good sets. Increased angle and did 2 sets w/ 65#'s. SOO close to getting 10th rep on last set but couldn't lock out my right arm.  Good pressing. Weighted torture twists were great today. I was tempted to use 50#DB's for shoulder press after incline, but stuck w/ 55#'s and glad I did. Got better reps than last WO and did a drop set. Again, VERY close to getting 10th rep but right arm wouldn't lock out again. I know better than to really push this to failure. Risked messing up my R shoulder further pushing this one. Despite the mental lapse here, I was very pleased with shoulder press today, especially after pushing incline really hard.

Incline fly's were good. More reps on both sets than last couple of WO's. Finished up with tri/delt work. Was going to do some more core work, but ran out of time. Very good pressing today. Short, but intense WO. Nice.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.6 this morning. Down 5 pounds from yesterday - shedding all the water from Monday.

Sun 10/12 - Upper

Workout: LA Fitness
(115#OHP)8,7,7,6 (28/30) Very good
(Chinup)13
(195#RevPullDn)10,8,8
(LyingLegRaise)3x20
(75#Inc)10,9,6+65x9
(25#Pallof)4x10/10
(75#OHTri)14,12,11
(InvertRow)15,12,11
(LungeMatrix)2x5
(Stretching)Ham/Quad
80 + 5 w/u = 85 mins

Worked out with Sarah this morning, which has kind of been our "schedule" lately where we work out together on Sundays. I look forward to it eachtime. Started with OHP today and bumped up the weight. I was happy with these reps (28/30 rep/goal). Sarah did 2 sets of pullups. I did 1 set of chins (bothered elbow) and we did 3 sets of pulldowns. I did reverse grip.  We supersetted pulldowns with lying leg raises. Felt great.

Incline felt heavy after starting with OPH, but had great sets for first two and then just died on the 3rd. Dropped wieght, increased the incline angle and did a back-off set.  Next we supersetted paloff presses for 4 sets with Overhead Triceps extensions. Still loving paloff presses. They are almost a full body movement. Got great reps on OHTri's. Finished up with inverted rows, each set to failure. Then we did two circuits of lunge matrix and some stretching/mobility stuff.  very nice WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 177.2 this morning.

Sat 10/11 - Pull Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(Deadlift)225x3,275x3,325x5,225x15
(165#UhBOR)10,10,9,9+135x13 (38/35)
(205#VbarPull)9,9,8,8+145x10 (34/35)
(Crunch)15/15,10/10,10/10
(85#DBRow)3x10
(80#UprightRow)3x8
(150#Pulldn)3x10
(85#BBCurl)8,7
(IncCurl)35x9+9,30x10+10
(50#FacePull)2x10
(RDeltFly)115x10,100x10,9
85 mins + 6 w/u = 91 mins

My L glute has been really bothering me since last heavy DL WO. I was hoping to get 1 top-end set at 345-355, but the real heavy stuff wasn't going to happen because of my glute. I was tempted to give it a go, but glad I didn't. I could've done some real damage I think. So, I did a heavy-ish set of 5, then dropped to 225#'s and repped out 15. Went right to bent over row and got more reps than last WO, and beat rep goal of 35 with 38 reps. Then I dropped weight and did a very strict form set. Felt great. Awesome pulling.

I bumped the weight on v-bar pulldowns and beat reps from last WO. Dropped weight for a 5th controlled set just like w/ BOR. I supersetted crunches here today.  I added 2 exercises. DB rows, which were really good and upright rows.  The upright rows bothered my R shoulder like they always have, but I didn't push too hard here.

I did wide grip pulldowns on the lighter side, but they got heavy real quick. Back done at this point. I supersetted barbell curls with these. Finished up with incline curls + pinwheel curls, facepulls and rear delt flys.  Despite not being able to move up on DL, this was a fantastic WO. Pushed weight and reps as much as possible. Very pleased. Now time to eat :)

Nutrition:
I weighed 175.2 this morning. I had to eat a bunch of calories late at night. I was way too low for the day because I just got busy and didn't have time to eat.

Fri 10/10 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(80#Inc)10,9,8,7 (34/35)
(65#Inc)9,8 (17/20)
(LyingLegRaise)30/4x9
(55#DBShldr)9,6,50x7 (22/30) - 55#DB's too heavy after incline
(155#Decline)11,9,8 (28/30)
(35#IncFly)2x10
(63#RopeExt)11,9,8 (28/30)
(25#PallofPress)3x10/10
(43#Rope)3x12
(20#LDelt)3x12
70 + 10 w/u = 80 mins

Incline focus today, and I learned my lesson from last WO..don't go to failure on the first set. Great reps. Pushed each set just short of failure and had grinders on the last 2 sets, but kept form. 34 reps, 1 shy of goal of 35. Better than last two WO's where I got 32 and 31, and that's all I want to see is progress. I was going to skip the steep incline, but did them anyway and they felt good. Same reps as last WO. Lying leg raises were very good and I did a lot more reps than last WO. Quickly running into an issue here where these take a LONG time because the number of reps, even when using myo-reps. I may have to try to find a way to weight them. Perhaps a DB between my feet, but I would risk dropping it on my face which wouldn't be pleasant.

I stuck with 55#DB's for shoulder press. That's what I did last WO, but I also did them before incline. Great reps first set, but it was too heavy to maintain, so I dropped weight for the 3rd set. Still struggled there. Will stick with 50#DB's for now when these are after incline. I bumped the weight on decline and got 3 good sets. Incline fly's felt heavy, but good. Good weight. Really work pretty hard with these.

Finished up with core/tri/delt work. Paloff presses are making a noticeable difference just after a couple weeks. Even though I'm trying to put on weight, my abs are tight and my obliques and seratus are noticibly more pronounced. Awesome WO. Very pleased.

Nutrition:
I weighed 174.8 this morning. A bit too much of a drop from yesterday. I don't think I ate enough.

Wed 10/8 - Lower/Core (work gym)

Workout: Work Gym
(200#LegPress)25/4x7 Weight bump
(110#RDL)3x12
(50#PallofPress)4x10/10
(LungeMatrix)3x5
(Crunch)3x12/12
43 mins + 5 w/u = 48 mins

Bumped leg press up from 185#'s last WO at work gym and did myo-reps again. Worked hard on these in a short time. 10 seconds between mini-sets of 7 are tough. The work gym has a few fixed-weight barbells with the heaviest being 110#'s. I decided to use that today instead of doing them heavier in the smith machine. Went down slowly, got a good stretch and then up quickly. I thought this weight was going to be way too light, but it was actually good. I supersetted RDL's with 4 sets of Pallof Presses, 10 reps each side per set. Loving these.

Finished up with 3 circuits of lunge martix, supersetted with crunches.  These were really controlled and felt really good after already doing core work.  Good WO. Short, intense, great core work.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.2 this morning.

Tue 10/7 - Upper (work gym)

Workout: Work Gym
(55#DBShldr)10,10,8,8 (36/35) Great!
(215#UhBOR)3x8,135x15
(75#Inc)8,8,7,7 Very good
(150#PullDn)4x8
(35#IncFly)2x10
(70#BBCurl)2x10
(75#OHTri)3x10
(88#cableCrunch)3x10
(50#RDeltFly)3x10
57 + 9 w/u = 66 mins

Upper day today with DB Shoulder press as primary push movement and Smith Underhand BOR as main pull movement. Bumped up the weight on shoulder press from 50 to 55#DB's. I beat the rep goal by 1 (36/35) so can bump the weight again next time. I bumped the weight on BOR and will stick here for a while. It was HEAVY. These two movements were supersetted.

I went as heavy as I could on incline and 75#D's felt heavy after 4 tough sets of shoulder press. Was very pleased with these reps. I supersetted with pulldowns here.  I did low-inclne fly's with thumbs facing each other today based on a tip from Lyle McDonald. They felt awesome! Supersetted with barbell curls.  Finished up with tri/ab/delt work.  Very good WO.

Nutrition:
I weighed 177.4 this morning.

Mon 10/6 - Yoga!

Sarah invited me to go to yoga at Ida Lee tonight. We met there and it was great. Really enjoyed it and feel like it's something that would really help with mobility and recovery.  And I loved being able to do this w/ Sarah and I think we'll do it again.  A fun "date".

My feet kept cramping up in certain poses. Some of the poses really hurt my knees (sitting Indian style - not sure the yoga name for it) and I noticed my hips are really tight and inflexible. All things that I'm sure would benefit from doing more of this.

Nutrition:
I weighed 181.0 this morning. Whoa! Gotta reign this back in a bit.

Sun 10/5 - Upper (w/ Sarah)

Workout: LA Fitness
(85#Inc)7,6,6,6*
(65#Inc)10,8
(190#RevPull)10,10,9
(95#OHP)11,8,8
(25#PallofPress)3x10/10
(65#RopeExt)11,10,9
(73#SeatRow)3x10
(35#Inccurl)2x10+10
(LyingLegRaise)25/9,9,9
(LungeMatrix)8Station-2x5
77 + 8 w/u = 85 mins

Got to work out w/ Sarah this morning.  After heavy push/pull days the last 2 days, I was planning on a lighter "pump" upper day. I felt great during warmups though so I decided to push the weight on incline. I haven't used 85#DB's since a while before going to Hilton Head (mid-August). I didn't get the reps I was getting before, but it felt good to have some "heavy" DB's in my hands again. Was pleased with the reps.

Heavy reverse grip pulldowns were good despite doing heavy back yesterday. OHP was good after 5 sets of incline. Sarah and I did some awesome core work today with Pallof presses and lying leg raises. Finished WO with lunge matrix.

Great WO and great working out with Sarah again.

Nutrition:
I weighed 177.4 this morning.

Sat 10/4 - Pull Day (Great Deadlift)

Workout: LA Fitness
(Deadlift)225x5,275x3,335x5,5,345x5,225x12 Great! 345x5 is a PR
(165#UhBOR)8,8,9,9
(200#VbarPull)4x8
(Crunch)15/15,10/10,10/10
(135#IsoRow)2x15/4x5
(150#Pulldn)3x10
(85#BBCurl)3x8
(100#RDeltFly)12/4x4
74 mins + 10 w/u = 84 mins

Heavy pull day today. Tried to bump just about every movement up in weight.  Great DL today. Bumped up 10#'s from last weeks' top-end sets of 2x5. That should've been it, but it felt good so I added 10#'s more and did another set of 5. That's a PR! Then dropped to 225#'s for a set of 12. That was brutal. BOR was good and I added a couple reps there. I bumped the weight on v-bar pulldowns and worked REALLy hard for 4x8. It was actually more like 8,8,8,7 because I had to cheat the last rep down pretty bad.

I wasn't planning on going quite as heavy on iso rows, but the guy before me had 3 plates on each side, so I kept them on and went with it. Pulldowns felt pretty heavy at this point despite the lighter weight.  Went heavy on curls and was pleased. I did rear delt fly's today instead of face pulls and they felt really good. I'll try to remember to mix these in.

Great WO and pushed the weigts up wherever I could.

Nutrition:
I weighed 176.2 this morning. Went out for Vietnamese last night and at a lot. Really yummy!

Fri 10/3 - Push Day

Workout: LA Fitness
(80#Inc)11,8,6,6 (31/35)
(65#Inc)9,8 (17/20)
(LyingLegRaise)25/4x8
(50#DBShldr)12,9,8 (29/30)
(145#Decline)14,10,9
(35#IncFly)2x10
(58#RopeExt)13,12,10 (35/35)
(10#DecCrunch)20,15
(25#PallofPress)3x10/10
(43#Rope)12,11
(20#LDelt)2x10
73 + 11 w/u = 84 mins

TOday was incline focus (as opposed to OHP first). Goal was to beat reps (32) from last WO where sets went 10,8,7,7. I started off 11,8 and then fell off to 6,6 for a total of 31, a rep lower than last week.  Lesson learned here is to NOT go so close to failure on the first set. I was hell bent on beating the reps from last WO that I pushed the first set too hard. Not quite to failure, but last rep was a bit of a grinder. I paid for that the last couple of sets. I'm fairly certain I could've at least matched last WO, if not beat it had I been more prudent about pushing first set to max. I bumped weight on steep inclines and got good reps. Goal here was 20 reps and I got 17.  Disappointed a bit, but really good pressing. Gotta be happy with the effort.

Lying leg raises were good. The racks were all taken so I couldn't do OHP as planned so I did DB shoulder press instead. Goal here was 30 reps and I got 29. One more than last WO. Again, I pushed too close to failure on the first set. But not as bad as on incline and I was able to recover and not have a massive drop-off.  I bumped the weight on decline and first set was awesome. I didn't take real long rests and had Max spot me the last 2 sets. I got 11 and 10 reps on last 2 sets, but needed just a slight touch to get locked out, so I'm calling it 10 and 9.

Incline fly's were good. I almost dropped weight for the 2nd set, but stuck with it and still got good reps. These were heavy after a lot of chest work already. I finished up with some core, tri and delt work. I did Pallof Presses again today. This time I paused them for a count of "4" on the extensions. This makes it more difficult (obviously). Really works the core.  Great WO despite the slight disapointment on incline.

Nutrition:
I weighed 174.0 this morning. Trying to add wieght slowly and eating about 3,000 cals a day and dropped a little weight through the week. Guess I'll have to up the cals a bit more.

Wed 10/1 - Lower/Mobility/Core

Workout: Work Gym
(185#LegPress)25/4x7
(185#SmRDL)10,10,11,11
(RollingPlank)3x20
(LungeMatrix)8station-3circuits
(75#OHTri)3x12
(50#AntiRotationStaticHold)3x15/15
47 mins + 5 w/u = 52 mins

Legs weren't feeling up to a heavy WO today and as it turned out, somone was benching on the smith machine when I got there.  That's the only place to squat at the work gym.  So, I started with leg press with myo-reps. Pushed these fairly hard. Then I supersetted RDL and rolling planks. RDL was good, so were planks. The problem I'm having with rolling planks is that they bother my feet from all the rolling back and forth and on top of one antoher. Hard to explain, but it's not pleasant and I have enough problems with my PF already. I did sets of 20 and could do a fair number more but my feet really start to hurt.  So, I like these, but not sold that the juice is worth the squeeze.

Then I did 3 circuits of an 8-station lunge matrix. I was working fairly hard by the 3rd circuit. I did overhead tri extensions between circuits. Finished up with some anti rotation static holds (also called Pallof Press). These are hard to explain, so here's a link to a picture/description: Pallof Press 1 or this one Paloff Press 2

Anyway, I enjoyed this WO. A little different than a normal "lower" day, but some "building" movements with leg press and RDL, some good mobility work with the lunge matrix and a bunch of good core work with rolling planks and Pallof presses.

Nutrition:
I weighed 174.6 again this morning. Ate 3,000 cals yesterday so I'll target about that again today. Perhpas a little more.