Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Cheers Bob

Today’s workout felt like a chore. I hadn’t had enough rest and I was a bit pushed for time so I couldn’t really focus on my training as well as I should have done. Whatever though, all my targets were reached in a sluggish sort of way and it’s another workout in the bag.

Wednesday 14 August 2019 Routine #2: 1hr.10mins.
(All weights in kgs)

UPPER BODY

DB press, 15° incline bench:
10x24’s (48kg), 8x28’s (56), 6x32’s (64), 5x34’s +1 (68)
*Notice I’ve added the total weight of both dumbbells. I’m rather pleased with the weight I’m pushing solely from the triceps.

Single arm Low row, alt. arms:
12x80, 10x90, 8x100, 6x110 +2
*Pulling an surreal final set of 110kg on each arm for 8 total reps, this exercise did go astoundingly well, the most effective of the day.

Bicep stack curl, standing:
15x15, 10x20, 8x25, 6x30 +2
10x15 +5, +5

Triceps pulldown, close grip bar:
15x25, 12x30, 10x35, 6x40 +2
15x20 +5, +5

Fly delt dec:
12x95, 12x102.5, 10x110, 8x117.5 +2, +2
15x65 +5, +5
*Reaching almost 120kg (and then some) on the heaviest set was pretty satisfying. I seemed to get a new lease of life on this apparatus on the earlier low row.

Arm curl (machine), alt.:
12x25, 10x35, 8x40
*I'll be ditching this machine from next week. I get far more tension and muscle usage from the free weight curls.


LEGS

Extensions:
20x40, 15x60, 12x80, 8x100, 6x100 +3
15x100 ‘bounce’ reps
12x60, 25x35, 3x100

Adductor:
25x50, 20x55, 12x60, 10x60 +2

Abductor:
25x50, 20x55, 12x60, 10x60 +2


Actually in hindsight it wasn’t too bad a session after all when I look at my previous week’s figures.
I’m now giving things a three-day rest, my next visit to the gym will round-up routines 3&4 as a double session. From next week I’ll be tweaking my programme a little to fine tune a few glitches which can be improved.


Thanks for reading

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

You're doing better than me, Floydy! I feel unusually tired and must be a bit run down with something, so I haven't been to the gym since Saturday. I just seem to want to sleep all the time, although I do go through baffling periods when an 18 hour sleep is not unusual and a couple of times I have slept for over 30 hours. I haven't done this for months now and thought they were a thing of the past...

I intend to go tomorrow afternoon though, as I am getting twitchy because of my missed training.

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

I'm sure that it's just your body telling you have a rest, Tachyon. An extra day away from the gym won't hurt at all and to the contrary, you will put in a more substantial session with the extra break.
It happened to me last week while I was off work all week. Come Wednesday I think it was, I was absolutely shattered and did nothing all day (I used it to spend looking for jobs on my PC). I was worn out!

In fact, one of the changes I'll be making from next week is consolidating my training into three days, not the current four as it is now. More recovery time will be better for my body to adjust to the quite intensive new routines I'm doing at the moment. But I'll be sorting all that out after Saturday's double session...unless I manage time to do half of that on Friday night!

I'm sure you'll be raring to go in your next session bud

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Yes, I think I needed a rest from activities for an extra day or two. I did get to the gym today but only for just over an hour as I had a couple of errands to do this afternoon. As it happens the data system didn't record anything whatsoever from my workout - sod's law, eh!

I was doing the up/down the stacks routine on the chest press and the pec deck and it's getting easier now. It does seem to help with strength and seems to be helping the muscle definition too. That was a top tip from you, Floydy.

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Why thank you, Tachyon It does help my own motivation too when somebody thanks me for any advice I may be able to give.

Yes, the up-down exercises are great and work very well. It's all to do with "shocking" the muscles. When you're training normally, i.e. three sets of 10, slight increases in weight etc, it becomes rather sedate and mandatory for the body to do and so there is little improvement other than 'going through the motions'. Mixing things up a bit very suddenly is excellent for our fitness levels.
For instance, look at people who do the same thing day in day out: Meal times always at the same time, same meals on the same days, going to the same shops, doing everything in the same order every day...invariably they become set in their ways and their health can suffer. The body and mind need to be challenged every now and again and that is essential for the heart keeping pumping - as well as out muscles!

Anyway, back to the training and your doing some great work at that gym. Shame about the computer side of things throwing wobblers but you know what you have achieved and that's the main thing. Keeping a mental note (or even writing it down like I do?) keeps your progress in check. Well done bud


Like yourself Tachyon, I needed a rest for a couple of days and feeling raring to go, I'll be rounding up my last three weeks' 4-day programme today with a combined Routine 3&4, which will see me introduce a different aspect to my training. More of that later in my write-up.

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

To round-up the first three weeks of my new programme, I combined Routines #3 & #4 and added a new version of my ‘tension training’ formula to include an extended 7-second pause which will take place of the previous 2-3 seconds I normally utilise into my workouts. What’s more, the pauses take place at the most strenuous point of the rep, mid-way through the lift, which actually makes my muscles go into spasm briefly until I carry on with the rep.

Now that I’m used to this kind of training I’ve found that I am getting stronger again and the 7-second idea is an old one dating back to the 1950’s when bodybuilders found out that holding the weight in mid-position without dropping the set actually increases muscle mass better than even adding more weight to a further set, so I tried it out. By golly it works! It’s hard and you need to get the breathing right but after each set the muscles are contracted so much that they feel very tight and are harder, thus stronger, even with fewer sets. I have come up with a plan to revise my template from next week onwards, but for now the ‘practice’ session is noted below.

Also from next week I’ll be doing three routines instead of four to give me more rest time. That’s not an excuse for doing less work because all of my exercises are still present spread across the three routines, except for the arm curl machine, DB press and one or two of the smaller sets I normally do.
So take note of the new “7s” (seven second) pause annotations in my write-up and you get the idea.

Please note that I have left out any leg work from today to concentrate fully on this new programme. The legs will get their airing tomorrow in a separate full session before splitting the programme into its new 3-parter from Monday (or Tuesday).


Saturday 17th August 2019: Upper body round-up. 1hr.40mins.
(All weights in kgs)


Lat pulldown (hammer Bar):
12x40, 10x50, 6x70 – 7 sec pause – 2x70
*I’ll up the weight on this and most of the other exercises from next week as there are less sets for each.

Smith shoulder press, 60° incline bench:
12x30, 8x35, 5x45 – 7s – 3x45

Smith flat bench press, close-grip:
6x40 – pause - 6x40 – pause - 6x40 – 7s - 4x40
*Not dropping the bar at all between sets throughout the exercise. The 7-second pause before the final set was a killer! Up to 50kgs next week just for more torture!

Chest press:
15x60, 12x70, 10x80, 6x90 – 7s – 2x90
15x40 +5

Standing DB curl, alt. (diagonally across chest, swap over):
8x14 – pause - 8x14
5x16 – pause – 5x16
4x18 – pause – 4x18
*No extra seconds on this exercise but I did the reps very slowly to contract the biceps fully on each rep.

Standing barbell curl (paused):
6x25 – pause - 6x25 – pause - 6x25 – 7s - 3x25

E-Z preacher curl, seated:
10x38, 8x43, 6x48 – 7s – 2x48
4x53 – 7s – 2x53
5x58
25x18 – 7s – 2x18
*This was amazing. The pauses in these sets were truly battering my arm muscles and for some added effect, I didn’t load the bar with the usual extra 5 or 10kg weights. I took them all off and put on a 25kg plate on each side – to the amusement/gasps of people standing nearby lol! Normally a weight you’d do as a deadlift, not curling on a bar seated.

DB standing preacher curl (leaning forward over bench), alternate arms:
8x18, 4x20 – 7s -2x20
3x22 – 7s – 2x22
*Going for it big time by doing a starting weight of 18kg I managed it, piece of p!ss. To celebrate I upped the final set to use a 22kg dumbbell.

Hi-pull bicep cable curl:
12x25, 8x30, 6x35 – 7s – 2x35
12x15 – 7s – 7x15 – 7s – 5x15
*No stopping me on these double bicep curls today. The final lighter set was mainly for pumping up the biceps as far as they could peak and it worked a treat.

Tricep extensions (paused):
15x50 – pause - 15x50 – pause - 15x50 – pause - 15x50
25x30 – 7s – 10x30

DB concentration curl, alt:
6x16 – 7s – 2x16
12x10 – 7s – 5x10
*I had to curtail this final exercise as my arms were just about dead with all the curling today and simply gave up when I tried the 18kg weight. So a few very light 10kg reps sealed the muscles in place for this week.

Loved all that! Tomorrow, legs.

Thanks for reading

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

I had a lot of fun in the gym today and can't wait for the nest session, but I'll wait until Tuesday to give me a rest. I'm feeling pretty good though, but I will be looking forward to a lie-in tomorrow. Scored 99/100 for the workout (aw, so close to 100!), session lasted 4hrs 3mins, 1579 calories burnt, Upper body weight lifted 41,400kg, Lower Body 46,550kg, Trunk 10,725kg with a total of 98,675kg lifted in total for the session.

Stomach crunch: 90x55kg
Leg Curl: 40x30kg
Leg Extension: 35x30kg
Hip Abduction: 60x35kg
Hip Adduction: 120x35kg, 50x40kg
Back Extension: 90x67.5kg
Peck Deck: 30x30kg, 61x35kg, 60x40kg, 40x45kg, 40x50kg
Chest Press: 45x30kg, 32x35kg, 30x40kg, 22x45kg, 20x50kg
Leg Sled: 300x120kg
Pulldown: 30x60kg
Shoulder Press: 15x15kg
Low Row: 40x50kg
Cable/Pulley: 220x14kg, 60x18kg, 160x23kg (mix of single arm moves, with the 23kg weight being a standing pulldown with both arms from head height to waist level)

The "up/down the stacks" is really working for me Floydy and I did more "up and downs" than I thought I would on both the Pec Deck and the Chest Press!! I didn't get as many crunches and back extensions done as I would have liked but the time flew by and I actually thought I'd done 3 hours until the Gym Console told me I'd been in for 4 hours.

I passed your "up/down" tip on to a guy called Harry, who is about 10 years older than me, because like me he was 'stalled' at a certain weight and couldn't seem to improve his reps or start showing a bit of muscle definition. That advice was a godsend for me and I hope Harry gets some of the same benefits too.

You really do shift a LOT of weight in a relatively short time, eh! I love the curls, chest press and tricep stuff you do, in particular. I have to plod along at lower weights but try to stay in the gym longer to make up for it. I'm like your "Mini Me".

Take care all, and enjoy your training, whatever it is you do.

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Yes it is nice to know that somebody is benefiting from advice whether it be in the gym or in any walk of life. Always happy to oblige
A new tip: Do the up-down sets and then go up again. Now that is a killer workout! I'll do some of that on the sled press today to give you an idea what a nightmare it is!
Oh and a four hour training session You are an animal bro!
Keep up the good work mate

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

I've also taken on some of your advice Floydy, the bit about doing the same things day in day out.

So this morning I shook it up a bit and turned my usual Sunday eight into a Sunday Ten with a detour alongside the canal....Felt great right to the end......We'll see how quickly I recover.....

Re: Post your daily exercise routine

Ten miles is a great achievement Bob, for anyone. Well done bud

I didn't make it to the gym by the way, too much to do at home. But it's no sweat as it was an extra session anyway, so my legs routine will stay amalgamated with the usual upper body training during the week