Progress Log: Week 11

Details

Mode

It was a low rep/heavy weight week.

Sunday

Sundays are normally my big high-calorie burning days, where I’m able to take the time I need for an hour of yoga, a complicated weight session in the gym, and 20+ minutes on the bike.

This past Sunday was a fail. I need to be better about planning breakfast dates with friends, especially during the daylight savings cutover. The whole mix-up spun into me missing my morning workout, having brunch at 11:00 am, and then being so full on a huge steak and eggs that I was pretty much functionless for hours afterwards.

Boo me. Do better.

Monday

It’s weird for me to try to cram a chest day into a Monday time slot. My weekday workouts usually look like this:

I buy myself some time by working from 6 am – 8 am and exchange it for a more reasonable workout block later in the day. This usually works out just fine for my non-chest day workouts because I can get it all squeezed in to a 2-hr block. Most of my weight routines take about 1.5 hours. Chest day, however, usually takes closer to 2 and I like to get some bike time in there as well.

I managed to get the weights in, but wasn’t able to do any time on the stationary bike.

I had some strange popping action that happened in my right trap/neck while doing my incline benching. It didn’t really hurt, but it left the area kind of tender. The best way I can describe it? Well…sometimes on my guitar, when I restring things, the new strings take a little bit to get seated. Sometimes a coil might slip off the tip of a tuning key and it kind of goes SPROING. That’s the closest way I can explain it. I think it may have been an adhesion that finally broke loose?

I had been feeling some extra tightness, like my upper back needed to pop, for a few weeks. It wasn’t really painful, just annoying and tight. I kept trying to get it to pop during my yoga sessions, but my back is really stubborn.

I’m overdue for a session with an LMT.

Tuesday

Leg day was good. It just keeps getting better and better. Where I’m at today compared to a year ago in regards to leg strength and endurance is really kind of amazing to me.

I got a Geezer Best of 710 pounds for my wide-stance leg press. Just for clarity’s sake, a Geezer Best is the most weight I’ve pushed since the age of 40. (It’s also something I just made up.)

In my youth, I would regularly load up 16 plates, for 720 pounds in added weight, but I never knew the starting weight of the sled, which could be significant. The point here is that I’m chasing numbers from my youth and I’m not that far away from it.

My shoulder workout could have been better. It may have been more psychosomatic than anything. I have a tiny bit of soreness in my right trap/neck that only presents itself when I extend my arm overhead. It’s not crippling at all, however the right side is the side that my neurosurgeon entered on for my neck fusion back in 2011. I won’t lie, there are times when I worry about popping a screw, and the thought entered my mind briefly, but I don’t think this is what happened.

The upper, middle part of my back feels looser than it has in quite some time, which is quite welcomed.

Wednesday

Got that Back and Triceps day in. My right shoulder was a little futzy, but manageable. I actually got in two reps on unassisted dips. I could have probably done more if I weren’t worried about my shoulder giving out.

I made sure to make the most of my warm up sets. The weights were super light, I moved slowly, and got a full range of motion through everything.

I was feeling good by the end of the session.

Thursday

Got my Circuit Training day in and some time on the stationary bike to make it four days in a row again.

Things felt really good today. My energy is up. My shoulder is feeling better.

I find that I’m really enjoying these CT days, in large part because they’re completely no hassle. The only real issue I encounter is when I end up with some inconsiderate jackass who decides to camp out on a machine I need for a 30 minute text conversation. But that there is another post entirely.

Friday

I had a weird, split up four hours of work that kind of messed with my day.

We had folks coming in this afternoon/evening for Alicia’s party on Saturday so I spent quite a bit of my non-work time getting the guest room ready, straightening up my office, and tidying my bathroom (which share a floor with the guest room).

All of this kind of worked together to interrupt my usual Friday flow. Typically Fridays are “just do some kind of physical activity” days. I managed to squeeze in an hour of yoga, which my shoulders and back thanked me for, afterwards.

Saturday

I’m sitting here with my coffee this morning thinking about everything that needs to still be done today.

Alicia’s 50th Birthday party is this afternoon and it’s going to be fun. We have folks coming in from out of town and several of our favorite Salem people will be popping in as well.

We rented out Taproot Old Mill from 4;00 – 6:00 pm this afternoon and yours truly has to pick up a teenager from the train depot at 1:40, candles for the cake and the actual cake at 2:00, then hustle over to our destination to get the decorations set up while the ladies are having a Gowns n Crowns photo shoot, before the party starts.

There will be charcuterie and decadent chocolate cake. Fortunately it’s my cheat day. I plan to make the most of it. 🙂

Diet

I managed to stay in caloric deficit all week, even on Wednesday night, when Alicia and I went to Lively Station for a quiet birthday dinner. I had a light lunch that day to balance out the Bacon Mac and Cheese and insane caramel brownie a la mode that I had for dessert. The macros were definitely off, but I kept it all under 2200 calories for the day.

I hit my goal of at least 72 oz of water every day, and took in 96 oz on a couple of days.

Ready for Week 12…and now that we have the major celebrations done for this time of year, I’m going to start tightening my diet up and getting serious about fitting in at least a half hour of cardio daily (walking or biking).