Progress Log: Week 25

Details

Mode

It’s a high rep/low weight week.

Sunday

Father’s Day snuck up on me. I caught a case of the lazies in the morning, then Alicia took me out for a Father’s Day brunch where I may have consumed half my body weight in chicken fried steak.

The rest of the day is a blur. I do know that the gym did not happen.

Monday

Chest and Biceps – So these high rep bench days are weird. They both tear down my ego and build it up in weird ways as well.

I’ll be the first to say that I’m kind of beating myself up on the flat bench. When I came to the new gym, I decided that, after my warm up set, I would not take the big wheels off the bar. I’ve slowly crept up with the reps: 45×25, 150×8, 140×12, 135×10. My rep goals for each set are 25, 10, 15, 20. As you can see, I still have a ways to go. I foresee myself hanging there at 135 on my final set for probably the rest of the year. Usually I would not bump my weight up until I hit the mark on all sets, but I’ll make an exception here. Really, there should be about a 20 lb difference between sets (so, for example, after my super light warm up, if set 2 were 150, set 3 would be 130, set 4 would be 110). These will be unfolding a little bit differently however.

Barbell Incline Press I bumped up 5 lbs on each set.

On this day I do my Decline Presses on the iso-lateral machine simply because it’s much faster than setting up the Smith Machine and the adjustable decline bench. I’m kind of kicking ass on this machine. I bumped up another 10 lbs on all sets and hit the mark on all reps.

My Dumbbell Flyes are really kind of taking off. I’m lifting more weight for more reps than I ever have, both for flats and incline.

Biceps are going strong. I’ve been focused intently on keeping a very slow, strict full range of motion in my form and it’s paying off nicely. I’ve also started working my weak (left) arm first on all single arm movements and things are starting to balance out between my two arms.

I spent 20 minuts on the bike after the weights, then went home and did a bunch of lawn work. In total I had 12,598 steps in.

Tuesday

Legs and Shoulders – my shoulder workouts on these days is very typical and straightforward. I start with a Cable Internal and External Rotation superset. I started doing these religiously when I returned to the gym from my rotator cuff injury. I’m now at the point where the weight is getting heavy (55 lbs at the heaviest of my progression). As simple as this is, it makes me sweat right out of the gate.

I then move to what’s become one of the most grueling sessions out of all my workouts. It’s just simple Dumbbell Front, Lateral, and Reverse Raises. There’s nothing special here. They aren’t supersets. Doing these movements for progressive high reps, however, clobbers me. It actually makes me happy to move on to the leg portion of my workout.

I actually really enjoy this leg workout, even tho everything is high rep. I do include some Narrow Leg Presses and superset them with Toe Presses. I keep the weight light here, however, and really get a full range of motion for both exercises. The focus, on this day, is more on detail however: calf work with Ankle Circles, Single Leg Extensions and Standing Leg Curls, Hip Adduction and Abduction. I’m pretty positive that paying attention to these details is what’s really helping see the gains I’m seeing on my heavy days.

Wednesday

Back and Triceps – good, solid day. This whole workout is actually pretty quick for me. I’m able to do eleven sets on just six machines, all of which require only seconds for set up.

I hit four personal bests, however these were on new equipment that I’m still feeling my way out on. It feels good to make progress however, especially for the body parts that I’m especially strong in, such as Back and Triceps.

I also got in over 11K steps from roaming around downtown during Make Music Day.

Thursday

And here is where things start to crumble. I returned to work today.

I don’t have anyone to back me up on most things. This is frustrating. It means that if I take time off, I pay for it, doubly, when I return. I had to spend the day digging myself out of the avalanche. I was glued to my chair for 10 hours. No movement at all other than my fingers typing and my head banging against my keyboard in frustration.

Friday

Man, I felt lousy today. I had a headache that wouldn’t go away and a complete lack of energy. I spent the first half the day at work (like I normally do) and had all intentions to go get in a CT day at the gym, but by the time noon hit I was completely wilted.

Saturday

Alicia and I went kayaking today together, for the first time. We went to Willamette Mission Park and had a blast. In total, I probably only did about a mile on the lake, but did get over 9K steps in and had a lot of set-up (we have inflatable kayaks).

The sun really did me in, however. By the time we got home, I was zonked.

Diet

Y’know, when I put it all down in a table, it doesn’t seem so very terrible, however, it really was pretty terrible.

One thing that I’ve known about myself for decades now is that I’m best when I’m on a set schedule.

The fact of the matter is, tho, that life often is *not* on a set schedule. Interaction with other humans, special occasions, unexpected crises, or just being exhausted and not wanting to cook…all of these things can disrupt that tidy little house of cards that is a plan.

This is where behavior modification comes into play. Finding the healthy options to eat at your favorite restaurant (and choosing them over your favorite gut bombs), keeping healthy snacks or quick meals to throw together or microwave, recognizing your triggers and learning how to talk yourself through them…all of these are strategies.

I failed at most of them this week.

I’m surprised that Wednesday is any kind of deficit at all. It was Jeremiah’s 18th birthday, summer solstice, and Make Music Day (my favorite day of the year). I ate all the wrong things…General Tso’s with fried rice for lunch and too many Crab Rangoons, a ridiculously good strawberry shortcake from Epilogue, and then a massive slice of Barney’s Blackout cake from Gerry Frank’s Konditorei.

The only thing that saved me on this day was the fact that I went to the gym earlier in the day and got nearly 10K steps in. I have a strong feeling that all the sugar I consumed is a large part of what left me feeling really crappy on the following Thursday.

What it all boils down to is that I need to make better choices regarding what I consume, and how much of it.

Day	Caloric Deficit/Gain	Protein	Water
Sunday	-468	79g	48oz
Monday	-1117	149g	96oz
Tuesday	-69	129g	72oz
Wednesday	-117	114g	72oz
Thursday	didn’t track but ate poorly	?g	72oz
Friday	Use as cheat day
Saturday	-824	98g	72oz