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%	`