Anaerobic curling

Apr02
by Duf on April 2, 2014 at 8:08 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts

gallery_1_4_47358[1]Today I managed to have curls get my heart rate up there.  I did so via a  curl ladder where the weight goes down each set but the reps go up.  I started with two reps at 110 pounds and dropped weight 10 pounds per set while adding 1 rep.  By the time I repped 20 pounds 11 times I was gasping for air and my forearms felt locked up.

Of course the object is to take as little rest in between sets as possible.

 

 

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

10 high pull ups

Following supersetted together

Fat gripz seated dumbbell curls – 25lbs x 10, 40lbs x 10, 50lbs x 3

Bodyweight tricep extensions on bench – 3 sets of 8 reps

Barbell curl ladder (no more than 10 second rest in between sets)

110lbs x 2, 100lbs x 3, 90lbs x 4, 80lbs x 5, 70lbs x 6, 60lbs x 7, 50lbs x 8, 40lbs x 9, 30lbs x 10, 20lbs x 11

3 x 1 muscle ups

4 minutes of A2G holds

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DEAD lifts

Apr01
by Duf on April 1, 2014 at 5:28 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Lifting Heavy Things

hqdefault[1]Today was squat and DL day.  Once again with my squats I tried to emphasize getting as deep as my hips and knees will allow me to go.  It’s not unusual that when I do this, weight that feels lighter when I do less ROM feels more difficult.

What is unusual is the point where the difficulty comes in. It isn’t at the  very bottom of the squat, it’s more mid-movement which is odd to me.  Regardless I plan to continue to sacrifice rep and weight numbers for depth and form tweaking.

My dead lifting today didn’t thrill me either.  I am trying to focus on keeping my back flat and shoulders retracted more.  For whatever reason this seems like a very difficult thing for me to do in tandem. The front of my shins are scraped up so that is a positive sign.

I went no higher than 315 pounds for 5 reps.  It was enough, after the first set I was feeling a little woozy.  It was bad enough that I grabbed a weight tree to help stabilize my world temporarily.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Deep squats – Bar x 10, 135lbs x 10, 185lbs x 6, 205 lbs x 3

Dead Lift – 225lbs x 10, 275lbs x 5, 315lbs x 5, 315lbs x 5, 315lbs x 5

3 minutes of A2G static hold

 

 

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+1, Today at the Gym

Mar31
by Duf on March 31, 2014 at 5:27 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Ray's Way, Today at the Gym

1067[1]Today at the Gym – older guy that is a new face to me.  The rear half of his head that has hair is combed straight back, finishing up in a straggly party in the rear.  His mustache is much more salt than pepper, so much so you can hardly see it.  His exercise machine of choice is the Cybex tricep extension.

The image to the left depicts a woman using proper form on the machine.  This man obviously never saw such a picture.  His elbows were in a locked 30 degree position and no part of his arms ever touched the large pad.  He simply lowered and raised his arms above the pad.  At the high point of this movement his elbows hovered approximately 8 inches off the pad.  At the bottom he got within 3 inches of contact.

Perhaps I have it all wrong and this guy was intentionally using the machine as a bastardized stiff armed front lat pull down device. I doubt it however.

I finally got around to adding +1 to my untimed Ray’s Way today.  Two weeks ago the 15-10-20 sets were hard but more doable than I like.  Adding a single rep may seem like no big deal and normally I would agree with you.  However if I add 1 rep to all three RW movements it winds up being 15 extra reps overall because the circuit is gone through 5 times.  It feels a lot more significant than it sounds.

I got through the 5 sets of 16 dips, 11 pull ups and 21 push ups intact, even observing the HOH only(hands on hips) rest periods.  It felt significantly more difficult, enough so that I can uncomfortably stay at this level for a few more sessions.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

Ray’s Way – Five circuits of 16 dips – 11 pull ups – 21 push ups

Totals – 80 dips, 55 pull ups, 105 push ups

 

 

 

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Hard for me. easy for you, Today at the Gym

Mar28
by Duf on March 28, 2014 at 5:24 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Today at the Gym

Today at the Gym – The closet exhibitionist.  I could do many, many entries about both men and women that wear inappropriate attire to the gym however today I’ll just focus on one.  This offender is typically male and on the plus side of 40.  They wear baggy shorts that are mid-thigh or higher and then proceed to do exercises, typically ab related ones, that have them laying in positions that offer any passerby a clear view up their crotch.  This offense is amplified several times over if the person is also wearing boxer shorts and even more if he is doing it on a bench facing a mirror.

Now of course I avert my eyes whenever I see this type of individual doing his thing.  I often wonder if these guys are doing this on purpose to give potential mates a thrill or if they just give little to no thought of the geometry of exercising in a public gym.

Weighted-Dip[1]Today I had a rather odd rotation of exercises, weighted dips, A2G squat hold and dragon flags.  I went as high as 90lbs with my weighted dips.  However I was not very happy only being able to squeeze out 1 rep two times since my buddy Ray just blasted out 20 of them at the same weight a few days ago.  Made me feel like a 98 pound weakling.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

10 high pull ups

20 dips

Weighted dips 45lbs x 10, 70lbs x 4, 90lbs x 1, 90lbs x 1

supersetted with

Dragon flags – 5x5x5

6 minutes of A2G hold

 

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Synchronized DL, Today at the Gym

Mar25
by Duf on March 25, 2014 at 5:32 pm
Posted In: Daily Workouts, Lifting Heavy Things, Today at the Gym

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Today at the Gym – Mr Momentum.  There was a younger guy in there that used tremendous momentum in every exercise he did, shrugs, bent over rows, you name it, he threw it.  You could tell he really thought he was kicking some major ass.

Using momentum to perform exercises is a trap many people fall into, including myself at times.  When you use a rolling start or a violent bounce for a movement it allows you move more weight than you could doing the same exercise in a controlled manner.  Moving more weight via momentum might prop up your ego but it retards functional strength gains as well as leaving you more susceptible to injury.

So today as I was finishing up my “deep as I can go” squats, which kill me by the way, some guy I never saw before started setting up for deadlifts at another spot on the gym floor.   I told him I was going to be deadlifting as well and he was welcome to join me.  He thanked me but said since he already had some weights set up he would just lift there.  Ok cool, no problem.

This guy had a compact build and was a much better deadlifter than I am so it was just as well he did his own thing.  I think he topped out pulling 455 with straps and a support belt.  He looked very solid with his form throughout.

Of course having someone else there pulling weight off the floor made me feel like I needed to get some decent one reppers up there.  I topped out pulling 375 pounds with a mixed grip with form that felt pretty lousy.

Today’s Workout

5 minutes cardio/stretching

10 deep prisoner squats

10 bar only deep squats

Barbell squats (deep as I can go) – 135 pounds x 10, 185lbs x 5, 205 lbs x 2

Deadlift – 225lbs x 10, 275lbs x 5, 315lbs x 5, 355lbs x 1, 375lbs x 1

30 push ups

6 minutes of A2G hold time

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