March to my own Beats

Jul03
by Duf on July 3, 2014 at 5:39 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Today at the Gym

MjAxMi0xZTdlYjlkODIwZWM0MzBl[1]A more and more regular sight at the gym is somebody (almost always 25 or younger) walking around wearing a pair of the $300 Dr Dre Beats headphones.  beats_2647973b[1]Most people have seen these headphones, they buck what was a long running trend of small, ear bud type head phones.  Instead these things are very large and prominent, designed to let the world know you plunked down $300 to have premium headphones  to play back compressed, poor quality mp3 files. They are sort of the new Air Jordans.

Yesterday there was a pack of three young guys doing the Cybex circuit.  Two of them had Beats head phones, one did not.  I am sure the Beatsless guy felt a little worse about himself. I have also seen guys wear these in an odd way, such as rotating the wide, flat headband forward on their head in such a way that it looks like either a head bracelet or a woman’s hair band.

Personally of course from my 46 year old perspective I think it looks silly to be walking around a gym with big set of Beats slapped on your cranium but what do I know…

Today my workout was rushed due to getting to the gym a bit late followed by excessive jaw warm up time.  Once I got going I tried to jam in what I could, hitting bi’ tri’s shoulders, chest, and back to varying degrees.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

20 pull ups

25 dips

30 push ups

2 sets of 3 reps skin the cat reversals

45 second wall hand stand

2 sets x 8 reps 110 pound cable machine curls

30 bench dips

10 body weight tricep extensions

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Cruise control to pedal faster a-hole

Jul02
by Duf on July 2, 2014 at 5:39 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Endurance activities

4bc56faf[1]Despite having sore glutes and hamstrings from yesterdays plentiful squat session I pushed ahead with a lunch training brick.  I had some ideas before starting of using my lower body pain as a reason to tone things down, a dumb thing.  Giving yourself an excuse to under perform before starting something is a very bad habit to fall into.

Once I started running the soreness was annoying but tolerable.  I did the first 18 minutes at a 9:05 pace.  For the last 2 minutes I cranked it to an 8:00 pace but when I hit the 20 minute mark I was only a few hundredths from 2.25 miles so I put in an extra 30 seconds to get there.

I had my best 10 minute stationary bike ride to date, covering 3.31 miles in 10 minutes, almost exactly a 20mph pace.

Doing this brick is an interesting contrast.  When you are running on a treadmill you aren’t thinking about maintaining your speed since the moving belt does it for you.  All you have to do is make you don’t drift off the back of the machine.  On the bike I am constantly on an annoying plus or minus 1 mph roller coaster where I need to be constantly checking the LED display to make sure I am keeping my virtual pace above 20.  If I don’t pay attention my speed quickly drops into the low 19’s.

Today’s Workout

Training brick

.25 mile walk warm up at 1% incline and 3.5 mph

2.25 mile run at 1% incline in 20:30 – first 18 minutes at 9:05 pace, last 2:30 at 8:00 pace

.125 mile walk cool down at 1% incline and 3.5 mph

3.31 miles on stationary bike in 10 minutes

 

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Caught up to bench

Jul01
by Duf on July 1, 2014 at 6:57 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

170873_orig[1]My back was still sore from a weekend of bent over water sealant application so I decided to just stick with squats primarily.  I had some good numbers, including all the way down and up with 235 lbs across my shoulders, meaning my squat and bench press numbers are now running neck and neck, like they should be.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Barbell squat ITB – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 8, 225lbs x 3, 235lbs x 1, 205lbs x 5, 135lbs x 10

Seated leg curl – 130lbs x 12

Seated leg extension – 130lbs x 12, 150lbs x 8

Standing calf raise – 295lbs x 8, 295lbs x 8

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Push your own weight

Jun30
by Duf on June 30, 2014 at 5:20 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Weight Training

img_107297_bench-press-challenge-bodyweight-x-reps[1]Today at the gym I decided to keep most of my bench press reps right around my current bodyweight of 185 pounds.  I felt like I cranked out some decent numbers. Once again I had one of my trusted spotters to make sure I was able to work into the muscle failure zone which pays dividends down the road.

I supersetted the bench reps with sets of 10 pull ups which resulted in a pretty solid push pull work out. The bench press reps were chest to full extension instead of the chest to 8 inches off my chest reps I used to do a decade ago.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Barbell bench press – 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 10, 185lbs x 9, 185lbs x 8, 185lbs x 6, 135lbs x 15, 135lbs x 15

Pull ups 10 reps x 6 sets – total of 60 reps

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Pot luck

Jun26
by Duf on June 26, 2014 at 5:18 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

potluck2[1]Today I threw all sorts of stuff together at the gym.  I started off with a set of 20 pull ups, a number of reps that is getting very hard to pull off lately.  I need to either get stronger or lighter.

I also did seated dumbbell shoulder presses, something I haven’t tried in years.  My first set with 40 pounders could be felt in my right shoulder, much like my first set or two of bench pressing will do.  If more severe or permanent pain starts developing in my right shoulder my bench pressing revival will be ending as quickly as it started.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

20 pull ups

25 dips

Seated overhead dumbbell press – 40lbs x 10, 45lbs x 10, 60lbs x 5

Standing curl bar curls – 110lbs x 2, 90lbs x 8

25 push ups

30 bench dips

10 dead hang pull ups

4 minutes A2G hold

 

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