Wed 6/29 - Upper

Workout: Golds
(75#Inc)14,9,9
(Pullups)3x12
(65#IsoInc)8,55x10
(160#SeatRow)2x10
(70#IsoShldr)10,8,45x10
(160#VbarPull)2x10
(65#TriExt)10,10,58x12
(30#Crunch)12,10,BWx12
(35#Curl)12,10
(35#HCurl)10
(35#RDelt)2x10
(20#SideInc)2x10
(25#LDelt)2x12
(30#FacePull)2x10
(20#FrontRaise)2x10

72 mins

Started with DB incline and was shocked with first set of 14 reps. I’m still working on only going to parallel with these, which I found more difficult the first couple of WO’s. I’m either getting the hang of it, or making some good adaptations and maybe a little strength gains. I did 3 sets of pull-ups while warming up on incline. Next I did iso incline supersetted with seated rows. After DB incline, I had to lighten iso incline after the first set. Then I supersetted iso shoulder press with vbar pulldowns. I was surprised to get 10 reps on shoulder press first set. Very good.  This was the meat of my WO.

Then I did a bunch of accessory work. I’m not going to bother with the detail, other than that I did triceps extensions with a straight bar instead of a rope today and I liked it. Plenty of other delt and arm work.  Very nice WO. Pleased.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 173.6 this morning. Feeling meh. Not lean, not chubby. Been in this in-between spot for a while. On the positive side, I’m really only a couple weeks away of a serious cut from being pretty lean. Weekends have just kept me in a perpetual stall.

Sat 6/25 - Twenty Mile Ranger Station to Gregory Bald Hike (pictures)

Sarah and I did the hike from Twenty Mile Ranger Station to Gregory Bald and back. 7.5 miles uphill, lunch, exploring, picture taking, 7.5 miles downhill.  Tough hike on my knees. Wonderful views.

We took a blanket, laid it out on the bald and had a nice lunch. Wonderful day and weekend.

On Sunday, we hiked around Clingmans Dome. Then we drove from the Smoky Mountains to Ashville, NC on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Incredible views.  Incredible weekend.

Fri 6/24 - Upper

Workout: Golds
(75#IsoInc)11,9,8,50x10
(180#VbarPull)3x10
(70#IsoShldr)9,8,9,45x12
(140#SeatRow)3x10
(65#RopeExt)8,58x11,10,10
(Crunch)3x10/10
(20#SideInc)2x10
(30#LDetl)2x10
(35#Inc/HCurl)10/10
(30#RDelt)10

47 + 6 = 53 mins

Wanted to get a WO in before the weekend so did this one early before work. Since I’ve done DB incline the last couple of WO’s, today I went back to Iso Incline, supersetted with heavy vbar pulldowns. Next I did shoulder press with seated rows. I bumped the weight up on shoulder press and got good reps. Started at 160 with seated rows and dropped after first set.

Next I did rope extensions with crunches and side incline. Had to drop the weight on rope extensions, I think mainly because of short rest times today. Finished up with lateral raises, incline/hammer
curl combo and a set of rear debts.  Good WO.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 172.0 this morning. Feeling good.

Wed 6/22 - Upper (Golds)

Workout: Golds
(75#Inc)12,11,8
(180#PullDn)8,8,140x12
(115#IsoRow)2x10
(65#IsoShldr)2x9
(160#SeatRow)8,140x10
(20#SideInc)3x10
(10#CrunchTwist)3x10
(80#Skulls)11,9
(30#Rdelt)2x12
(35#Curl)2x10
(40#FrontRaise)2x10

55 + 5 = 60 mins

Started with DB incline and heavy pulldowns. I did the pulldowns while warming up on incline. Then I did rows with shoulder press. Then seated rows with side incline and crunches. Finished
up with some arm and delt work.  Good WO.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 173.2 this morning. I was 178.2 yesterday after graduation weekend in NoVA.

Sun 6/19 - Upper (Gym at Ida Lee in Leesburg)

Workout: Ida Lee Gym
(75#Inc)10,10,9
(160#PullDn)3x10
(ShlderPress)3x10
(95#StandingCableRow)3x15
(90#Skulls)8,80x8,8
(40#FrontRaise)3x10
(40#Curl)9,35x10
(25#L/RDelt)10/10
(DecCrunch)20,10,10
(Plank)3x60

61 + 5 = 66 mins

Sarah and I were up in Leesburg for Gregg’s High School graduation. I got together with Pete for coffee at 7am and then we met up at the Ida Lee gym for a quick WO before meeting the boys for brunch. Elena was sick and couldn’t make it.

Started with DB incline and pulldowns. On incline I asked Sarah to make sure I stopped at parallel. I think going too deep on my pressing movements has been a factor in my shoulder problems. This is hard to get used to, AND it makes the movement harder. There’s no stretch reflex or momentum from going deeper. These were good, and the pulldown machine was awesome. Great movement pattern.  Next we did a machine shoulder press and standing cable rows.

Then we supersetted skull crushers with front raises. Next we did some curls and delts (lateral raises and rear delt fly’s). Finished up with some fast supersets with no rest of crunches and planks. Then off to eat pancakes and an omelet.

Nutrition: 
No idea what I weighed today, but I’ll be eating a lot over the entire weekend.

Fri 6/17 - Upper (trying new chest movements)

Workout: Golds
(75#Inc)11,9
(Pullups)15,12
(45#RevDBInc)2x10
(115#IsoRow)2x10/10
(20#SideInc)3x10
(40#RDelt)10,10,30x10
(65#RopeExt)11,10,58x11
(10#CrunchTwist)2x12,BWx12
(35#Curl)12

53 + 2 = 55 mins

Started with DB incline and pull-ups today.  Incline was good, paused reps. Very happy with 15 pull-ups on first set. Next I tried a new movement for chest - I did reverse grip DB incline. It felt a bit awkward, but I’ll try it again. It certainly worked the chest and triceps well. I supersetted these with iso rows.  Then I did another new chest movement, side/cross-chest incline. Hard to explain, but you sit sideways in the iso lateral press machine, and press the weight across and “up”.  Really works the upper chest. I supersetted these with heavy rear delt fly’s. I finished up with some rope extensions,
decline crunch twists (great) and a set of curls.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 170.6 this morning, but a weekend away coming up so we'll see what happens.

Wed 6/15 - Pull Day

Workout: Golds
(115#IsoRow)2x10
(DecCrunch)2x12
(180#VbarPull)2x8
(160#SeatRow)8,140x10
(DecCrunchTwist)2x10
(140#PullDn)2x8,120x10
(35#RDelt)2x10
(35#Curl)10,8
(10#RDelt)2x12
(35#HCurl)10

32 + 3 = 35 mins

Quick Pull WO today. Started with triple-set of Iso Row, decline crunches and v-bar pulldowns for 2 sets each. Crunches felt good and I went heavy on pulldowns. Next I did another triple-set of seated rows, 10# decline crunch twists and pulldowns. Rows were good, crunches got real hard and pulldowns were good. I did a 3rd drop set on pulldowns.  Next I supersetted heavy rear delt fly’s with curls. Finished off with light rear delt work and a set of hammer curls.  A lot of work in 35 minutes. Fairly short rests on everything.  Enjoyed this WO very much. Liked the quick pace.  I can hammer my back with more volume and shorter rests than push/chest.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 172.6 this morning.

Tue 6/14 - Push Day

Workout: Golds
(75#Inc)11,8,8
(LegRaise)3x12
(55#IsoInc)10,8
(65#IsoShldr)3x9
(Crunch)3x10
(65#RopeExt)10,8,58x11
(145#Fly)10,130x10
(LDelt)2x10

39 + 6 = 45 mins

Quick Push WO today. Started with DB incline. First set was fairly good but pushed/grinded that last rep and all I could get was 8 and 8 on next 2 sets. Supersetted it with lying leg raises. Then I did 2 quick sets of iso-incline with fairly short rest.  Next I supersetted shoulder press with crunches.  Finished up with some fly’s, triceps and delt work. Decent WO on short time.

Nutrition:
I weighed 175.4 this morning.

Fri 6/10 - Upper

Workout: Golds
(155#BOR)3x10
(80#Inc)8,7
(30#Crunch)2x12
(55#IsoInc)10,10,8
(95#IsoRow)3x10
(60#IsoShldr)3x10
(160#PullDn)8,8,140x10
(LegRaise)3x12
(35#Curl)3x10
(80#PushDn)2x10
(8#LDelt)2x10
(58#Rope)2x10
(35#FacePull)2x10

60 mins

Had a full body WO written out and then scrapped it when I started thinking about how my hamstrings and lower back felt last weekend after my FB WO. This weekend is going to be a lot of yard work, so I’m sure plenty of bending over and squatting down to pull weeds.  So…I scrapped that when I got to the gym and did an upper WO.  I hadn’t done DB incline in a couple of weeks so I wanted to do a couple of “heavy” sets to see where things stood (both my shoulder pain and strength). While I warmed up on incline, I did 3 working sets of Bent Over Rows. Incline was OK. First set with 80#DB’s felt pretty good at 8 reps. 2nd set bothered my R shoulder and I only got 7 reps. Mildly disappointed it wasn’t at least 2x8, but decent work considering I hadn’t done any heavy DB incline in quite a while. I supersetted incline with crunches.

Then I did iso incline for 3 good sets, supersetted with iso rows. Then I did shoulder press with pulldowns and leg raises.  Next were curls, heavy pushdowns and cable lateral raises. Heavy pushdowns felt good. Finished up with some rope pushdowns and face pulls.  Good WO. Going to try to eat at maintenance today, or slightly over.


Nutrition: 
I weighed 170.2 this morning.  Feeling pretty good about that. We’ll see how the weekend goes :-D

Wed 6/8 - Upper

Workout: Golds
(75#IsoInc)10,9,7,50x10
(160#SeatRow)3x10
(65#IsoShldr)3x8
(140#PullDn)3x8
(25#Crunch)3x12
(65#RopeExt)2x11
(35#FacePull)2x10
(35#Curl)10
(40#HCurl)10
(25#LDelt)10

40 + 5 = 45 mins

A lot going on at work today, so a fairly quick WO over lunch. 45 mins in and out the door. No shower :-)

Started with incline/seated row superset. I got one more rep (on 1st set) than last WO on incline. 3 working sets and a back off set with short rest. Next I did shoulder press with pulldowns and crunches. I was disappointed with sets of 8 on shoulder press until I looked at last weeks’ WO and noticed that I dropped weight after two sets. So, now I’m feeling better about this. For pulldowns, I started with a set at 160#’s, but that was too heavy after rows so I dropped the weight to 140#’s.

Next I did 2 sets each of rope extension, face pulls and curls (1 set regular, 1 set hammer). Finished up with a quick set of lateral delt raises. Decent WO.

Work has been super busy, and moving into the house has been a part-time job (maybe full-time) on top of work so I’m just trying best I can to maintain some semblance of WO routine and not lose too much mass while trying to cut…not super successfully, I might add.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 170.2 this morning.  Weight isn’t too bad, but hope I’m not losing much mass. My protein tends to dip lower than it should during the week when I’m in a big deficit lately. Gotta keep an eye on that. I think refeeds (pig outs?) on the weekends are keeping me from getting as lean as I want, but they’re also helping me keep mass, I think/hope.

Fri 6/3 - Full Body

Workout: Golds
(75#IsoInc)9,9,7,50x10
(90#IsoRow)3x12
(180#VbarPull)8,8,140x10
(65#IsoShldr)9,8,55x10
(4PlLegPress)3x12
(135#SLDL)3x10
(65#RopeExt)11,10
(35#FacePull)2x12
(8#LDelt)2x10
(25#Crunch)2x15

49 + 6 = 55 mins

Quick WO at lunch. I was just going to do something light and 2 sets of everything. Iso incline felt good warming up and I bumped up to 75#’s today. First 2 sets felt good so I decided to do a 3rd set, then a back-off set. I stuck with 3 sets of rows since it was higher reps. Then I did heavy vbar pulldowns for 2 sets + a back-off set with shoulder press. Shoulder press felt heavy so I did 2 sets + a back-off set here as well.

Then I did a leg press and SLDL superset for some lower body work. Going to try to work in legs slowly, but hopefully consistently. Then I did rope extension and face pull superset. Finished up with some cable lateral delt raises with crunches.  Good WO.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 171.6 this morning.  Will try not to go hog wild with food this weekend.

Wed 6/1 - Upper

Workout: Golds
(70#IsoInc)11,10,7,45x11
(160#SeatRow)4x10
(65#IsoShldr)9,9,8
(PullDn)160x8,140x10,10
(65#RopeExt)11,10,9
(LegRaise)15,10,10
(Crunch)3x7
(40#Curl)10,8
(35#RDelt)2x11
(40#HCurl)10
(25#LDelt)12

53 + 5 = 58 mins

WO over lunch today. Started with incline/seated row superset. Incline was going well and I wanted to beat 9 reps on the 2nd set from last WO. I got the 10th rep, but it was a grinder so I paid the price on the 3rd set. I shouldn’t have tried for 10 on that 2nd set. I’m hard headed and don’t learn easily.  I did a back-off 4th set on incline and stuck with the weight for 4 sets on seated rows. Next was iso shoulder/pulldown superset.  Shoulder press was OK, wide grip pulldowns felt heavy after 4 sets of rows so I had to drop the weight after the first set.

Next I did triceps rope extensions with abs. For abs I did lying leg raises followed immediately by crunches (I couldn’t do very many after leg raises). Very good ab combo. Tough!  Then I did curls and rear delt superset. I went up to 40#DB’s on curls. Finished up with 1 set each of hammer curls and lateral raises.

Nutrition: 
I weighed 172.0 this morning. Still stuck in this terrible cycle of cutting all week and then eating a TON each weekend and making no downward progress. At least I've been able to keep things in check with hard cutting during the week.  Hopefully things will stabilize in a couple of weeks once we're more settled in the new house.

Sat 5/28 - Upper (condo gym)

Workout: Condo Gym
(65#Inc)16,12,11 - Great 1st set
(SeatRow)3x12
(50#DBShldr)3x8
(PullDn)3x10
(PushDn)12,10,10
(35#Curl)3x10
(LegRaise)3x15
(35#RDelt)2x10
(25#LDelt)2x10

45 + 5 = 50 mins

Quick early morning WO before finishing up moving out of the Condo and into the new house in Mint Hill.

Started with incline & seated row superset. Incline was good, and I think 16 reps with 65# DB’s was a PR (of sorts). Next we did DB shoulder press & pulldown superset.  Next was triceps pushdowns, DB curls and lying leg raise triple-set. I did 2 sets of curls with 35#DB’s and 1 set hammer curls with 40#DB’s. Finished up with some rear and lateral delt work. Real good WO in the amount of time we had. Spent rest of the day moving and cleaning.  Actually, we spent the Memorial day weekend moving and cleaning (just updating my log 4 days late).

Nutrition: 
I weighed 172.0 this morning.

Fri 5/27 - Deadlift

Workout: Golds
(Deadlift)135x10,225x5,275x3,3,3,3,3

Yep, that was the full WO. I hadn't deadlifted in a LONG, LONG time. I wanted to do it last weekend when we were in Williamsburg, but I started the WO with leg press and my legs were kinds of trashed already from that.  So, I wanted to get a little work in today so I warmed up to 275#'s and did triples with 1min rest between sets.  It was fun and felt good.

Nutrition:
I weighed 171.0 this morning.