Pressing

Aug07
by Duf on August 7, 2014 at 6:30 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

0[2]Today was a shoulder/bicep/tricep day.  Nothing all that exciting to report although my 145 lb overhead press felt pretty good.  Doing preacher curls at heavier weight did not feel good.  I had the strength to handle curling 90 pounds but something in my left bicep/elbow felt unstable doing so.

 

 

 

 

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Seated overhead barbell press – 95lbs x 10

Standing alternating dumbelll curls – 25lbs x 10

Bodyweight dips x 10

Weighted 45lbs dips x 8

Seated overhead barbell press – 115lbs x 8

Standing alternating dumbelll curls – 40lbs x 10

Bodyweight dips x 15

Seated overhead barbell press – 135lbs x 2

Standing alternating dumbelll curls – 50lbs x 5

Weighted 45lbs dips x 8

Seated overhead barbell press – 145lbs x 1

Preacher bench ez bar curls – 50lbs x 10

Tuck front lever pulls x 5

Preacher bench ez bar curls – 70lbs x 8

Skin the cat scalpula retracted 30 second static hold

Preacher bench ez bar curls – 90lbs x 3

Tuck front lever pulls x 5

Skin the cat scalpula retracted 30 second static hold

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Minus 9

Aug06
by Duf on August 6, 2014 at 5:34 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Endurance activities

Untitled1[1]Today I upped my pace slightly on the treadmill portion of my brick to 6.7 mph.  The .1 mph speed increase dropped my per mile pace below the 9 minute mark to 8:57.  The last 2 minutes of the run I bumped to 7 and then 8 mph which added up to a total of 2.22 miles for the 20 minute session.

I found a replay of a Marlins/Pirates game to watch.  I found that watching baseball is better option than trying to watch SportsCenter with no closed captioning.  The time passed by easier it seemed.

On the bike I did the same sweaty level 6 difficulty as I did last week but covered less virtual distance, 2.62 miles.  The amount of sweat and effort did not seem any less than last weeks effort.

Today’s Workout 

20 minute run / 10 minute stationary bike brick

Run – 2.22 miles covered

Bike – 2.62 miles covered

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Inside the machine

Aug05
by Duf on August 5, 2014 at 5:46 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Lifting Heavy Things

69[1]The Wellness Center has an interesting squat machine that I wanted to try out.  It is named the “Freemotion”.  Since today was squat/dl day I figured it was good as time as any, especially since some gym novice was again curling in the squat rack.

I have done standing squat machines in the past and have liked them.  Having the weight distributed perpendicularly across my shoulders is just more comfortable and with their design you can lock your body into the platform and push hard without jeopardizing your back.  Yes, I realize that from an overall body benefit a real barbell squat will always be better but this is a nice change of pace.

The machine is a bit odd and progressively more difficult to get started as you jack up the weight.  The reason it is it has a one way safety.  When start your reps your initial descent has no weight at all, you are simply clicking through the various detentes on the safety.  Only once you start to press up does the safety lock in, suddenly placing the entire weight load on you, which you must press up from a dead stop starting at the bottom.

It wasn’t a big deal when I had 140 pounds on the machine.  When I had 240 pounds on the machine it was a much bigger deal.  I had to start up one hole higher at the heavier weights or I would stall out.  It felt like a very effective machine effort-wise.  I’ll have no problem hopping on there if the lone squat rack is occupied in the future.

There is another nice thing about NCH that I have forgotten to mention.  Each side of the gym has a large, easy to read digital clock complete with seconds, meaning timing your rest periods, static holds and timed circuits are all much easier to do, not requiring me to bring in an auxiliary timing device.

I cut my DL reps a bit short due to a few callouses on my hands starting to tear off.  My 1000 pull up series (which I did another 60 reps for last night) is doing a number on my hands.

I’m still feeling very rushed on my workouts, I need to use smaller rest periods than I have become accustomed to.  It would be a good thing anyway to pump up intensity.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Squat machine – 140lbs x 10, 180lbs x 8, 220lbs x 4, 240lbs x 3

Barbell deadlift – 225lbs x 10, 315lbs x 5, 335lbs x 3

Split leg curl with 1 sec pause at top – 50lbs(per leg) x 12, 60lbs(per leg) x 10

4 minutes A2G hold

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240 no touch

Aug04
by Duf on August 4, 2014 at 5:41 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Lifting Heavy Things

09[1]So today was the first time I ever benched at the Wellness Center.  The bench press rigs they have are also the TechnoGym variety.  I wasn’t nuts about their configuration.  First the bench surface isn’t a bench at all.  Instead it is a series of smaller pads stuck together instead of one continuous flat surface.  I didn’t really like the way it felt across my back.  The bench also has an awkward, curved cross brace which looms across the top of your field of vision when doing reps.  It’s poorly designed.

The bar on there felt/looked almost brand new, it was all chrome.  Again there were some oddities about it.  The knurling on the grip part was not very deep and the spacing on the grip felt off as well.  When I do a bench press on a normal olympic bar my middle finger naturally wraps around the small thin strip on the outer part of the bar.  With this bar I felt like I needed to put my index finger on that same spot to achieve similar grip width.

Now with all of this complaining you would think I was setting up to use it as an excuse for a poor performance.  I actually did well, pushing 240 lbs once again, this time without any spotter hands touching the bar for even a microsecond.  Jim, my buddy whom I followed to NCH from Royal Fitness, was my spotter so he knows I don’t like any hands on the bar unless I groan for help.  The rest of my pressing work out went smoothly as well.

Yesterday I knocked out 80 more reps in my 1000 pull up challenge.  Check out the video at the bottom.

My upward climb on the scale continues.  Last night the number flashed up at me was 187.6.  I am going to have to either swear off Cindy’s good cooking or start taking Ex-lax for desert.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 5, 225lbs x 1, 235lbs x 1, 240lbs x 1, 225lbs x 1, 205lbs x 4, 185lbs x 8

Barbell incline bench press – 135lbs x 10, 155lbs x 8, 185lbs x 3

30 Push ups

30 Push ups

3 minutes A2G hold

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Hand over hand

Aug01
by Duf on August 1, 2014 at 5:47 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

VLT.90232724[1]Today I continued my exploration of the Wellness center.  Again I found some positives and not so positives.  On the negative side, I am disappointed they don’t have many good places to do pull ups.  The two options are an awkward power tower split bar set up and a Smith Machine.  Neither option is great.  I don’t know why more gyms, outside of Crossfit style venues, don’t have a simple good old fashioned pull up bar.

I also had a surprisingly hard time finding a place to do dragon flags.  I wound up having to use a cable machine handle wedged into the corner of the frame of one of the cable machines.  Even with the 295 pound weight stack, the machine slid a little bit from the torque created when doing the movement.

I took my first shot at the VMX endless rope machine.  Since I consider myself to have above average pulling strength I put the resistance to the max level of 7 and started pulling down in a hand over hand manner.  At first it didn’t feel all that difficult. Look at me, burning through the rope at max level!  Well it didn’t take long for the discomfort to set in followed shortly thereafter by plain old pain.  My scalpula and back were burning.  I pushed to hit the 200 feet of rope climbed mark which only took 1:11 to reach.  I followed up with three more shorter 100 foot pulls to give me 500 for the workout.

I am looking forward to see how I can progress on the machine.  It should be a great way to enhance my pulling strength and endurance.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

30 push ups

20 hanging knee raises

20 dowel trunk rotations

30 push ups

20 hanging knee raises

20 dowel trunk rotations

30 push ups

20 hanging knee raises

20 dowel trunk rotations

30 push ups

VMX rope pull  max resistance level 200 feet climbed

Dragon flags x 2

VMX rope pull  max resistance level 100 feet climbed

Dragon flags x 2

VMX rope pull  max resistance level 100 feet climbed

Dragon flags x 3

VMX rope pull  max resistance level 100 feet climbed

 

 

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