Thoughts on last week

I hate 12 rep week. Its just frickin' hard. I'm wore smooth out by the time its over. I like 10 and 8 rep weeks much better. Last week was 12 rep week, and it sucked as usual. It just sucks cuz if I have a good 12 rep week it totally sets up the rest of the month to be successful so I have to push. I will say, though, that my saturday upperbody workout wasn't one of my best. I just didn't have the energy. Sunday's lower body workout went...ok. I've been having a bit of a problem with my calves cramping lately while doing leg extensions. Theoretically the calves aren't used at all during leg extensions so the cramping is a bit of a mystery. We kinda changed things up on sunday, and for whatever reason my calves didn't cramp.

I also made it out to Memorial park to "run" twice this past week. I say "run" because I'm, embarassingly, incapable of making a single lap (~3 miles) without having to stop. Not because of lung capacity, but because of shin splints and lower back pain. Fucking beautiful. At the moment I'm putting the blame on some of the supplements I'm taking. One of the side effects of this particular supplement is better/bigger "muscle pump" which is essentially how quickly and fully the muscles fill with blood when you beat on them. So my lower back and shins get stiff faster and are more stiff than they would be were I not taking this stuff. So I'll be getting off this stuff fairly soon (just trying to use up what I have left cuz its expensive) and hopefully I'll be able to put in a better showing at the park.

Oh, I also threw in some shoulder shrugs on lowerbody day (technically an upperbody exercise, but that workout is plenty long enough already), and my traps are SORE today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

week of 1/19/2009

Image
This is 10 rep week. Exercises: Incline dumbbell press: 60 lbs dumbbell curl: 25 lbs seated row: 150 lbs bench press: 125 lbs assisted dips: 120 lbs (less weight requires more effort) assisted pullups: 165 lbs (less weight requires more effort) decline bench press: 125 lbs lateral raises: 15 lbs tricep pulldowns: 50 lbs overhand ez-bar curls: 40 lbs ab work squats: 155 lbs deadlift:115 lbs leg curls: 165 lbs leg extensions: 80 lbs seated calf raises: 17 reps@115 lbs ab work Measurements: arm: 14 chest: 42.5 gut: 42.1 waist: 38.5 thigh: 23.5 BF%: 23.5 weight: 223.5 (I'm starting to think my scale is retarded
Read more

oh yea...

I guess a description of my actual weights program might be useful. The program I follow is called linear periodization although I've modified it to suit my needs. Linear periodization involves decreasing reps, and increasing weight each week in order to keep the body guessing. So for any particular exercise the program looks like this: Week 1: 12 reps, 3 sets@ x lbs Week 2: 10 reps, 3 sets@ x+5 lbs Week 3: 8 reps, 3 sets@ x+10 lbs Week 4: 6 reps, 3 sets @ x+15 lbs I call this a "cycle." At the end of a cycle you start over using the previous cycle's week 2 weight as your week 1 weight like: Week 1: 12 reps, 3 sets @ x+5 lbs Week 2: 10 reps, 3 sets @ X + 10 lbs etc, etc. You keep increasing the weight until you can't complete the third set completely. If you CAN'T complete the third set, you carry that weight over to the next workout or even week until you CAN.....then you go up weight. In print it looks a lot more complicated than it actually is, but...
Read more

Settling in

Despite what may or may not be happening elsewhere in North America, Houston is still hot.  Not just hot, but fucking hot.  Why make the distinction?  Because fucking hot requires a/c always.  Regular hot means I can drive the jeep around with the doors off, and not look like I swam to my destination.  The change from fucking hot to hot is coming, though, and I'm trying to find time to get the leaf springs on the jeep replaced in time for it.  So far, have after 6 weeks, I've found time to replace 2.  On the bright side: she no longer sits lopsided.  I'm starting to settle into the job and parenthood.  Getting out of banking was the right call both for me from a phyiscal and mental health standpoint as well as for my family.  My kid will actually know who I am.  He's growing fast, and is hilariously mega gassy. The olympic lifting is coming along.  It's such a slow process.  There's no breakthroughs, it's just tiny i...
Read more