Progress Log: Week 08

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It was a high-rep, light weight week.

It was a special week. I had my son Tay with me for the Big Three. He happens to be my favorite workout partner of all time. We used to work out regularly together before he moved up to Washington. We’re both pretty close to the same strength and endurance levels, so change outs were super easy. In fact, our workout sessions were actually faster than my solo ones because I had help changing plates out.

Sunday’s chest and bicep workout went great. I think my kiddo was surprised that I set the pace that I did. We got through 9 exercises with 4 sets each in one hour and thirty-seven minutes, which is pretty quick for two people doing high reps…and when I say high reps I mean starting out with wimpy weight for a 25 rep warm up, then hitting a heavy weight for 10 reps, a lighter weight for 15 reps, and finishing off with an even lighter weight at 20 reps. The goal is to hit those rep numbers, but going to failure is fine as well, as long as the progressive drops stay within three-five reps at the lower end (for example, if I can only put up 5 reps for my heaviest lift, my weight is too heavy).

Monday’s leg and shoulder day left me clobbered. We finished out 10 different exercises, with 4 sets each in a smoking one hour and twelve minute session. I’m finally at the point where my legs aren’t chronically hurting like they had been for over a year, my endurance is up and my ability to push more poundage is as well. I start out with some really light cable external rotations superset with internal rotations for my shoulders, then move to bodyweight heel raises to warm everything up. After that I move into straight leg hell. My narrow-stance leg press weight stays fairly light – I top out, right now, at 440 lbs for 10 and drop down to bottom out at 310 for 20. I superset these with toe presses and no weight switch out. Single leg extensions and standing leg curls finish out my high rep leg days, and leave my legs pretty wobbly by the end. After that it’s all dumbbell shoulder work. I usually don’t interweave my muscle groups too much. I find that if I push through several exercises for a single muscle group, it takes me less weight to reach failure.

Tuesday was my last day with my kiddo, so we made the most of it on our back and triceps day. We hit 8 exercises for 4 sets each and finished in one hour and fifteen minutes. This is smashing it out, given the fact that, with the exception of our warm up back hyperextensions, every single exercise is a single arm variant…so that means, for an exercise like triceps extension, we do the right arm for 25 first, then the left arm for 25…our lifting time is actually increased. With the exception of hyperextensions and one-arm pulldowns on a leverage machine, all work is done on cables, so that helps speed things up a little bit.

We celebrated our successful workout session by eating our weight in sushi afterwards, which was fantastic. I then, sadly, had to drop him off at the train station.

I was pretty sore by Wednesday, so I took a break to recover. I came back on Thursday for an excellent 46 minute circuit training day (9 exercises for 4 sets through it all) and 20 minutes on the bike. Friday, which is usually a half day of work for me, turned into a full day of frustration that left me done with people for the week by the end of the day. The thought of encountering a crowded gym was not an appealing one.

And we finish off today, Saturday, with an hour of yoga and a 25 minute core session.

In terms of workout progress, this week scored an 8 for me. I’m pretty satisfied with it.

Let’s see if Week 9 can yield a 9 score.