Long Weekend Pt II – Curls for the Girls

I felt like I had a lot of time in the gym to make up for, so I headed down Sunday morning for an epic gym session.

Got in the gym just as it opened, the plan was:  do legs for an hour, then do a spin class, then do arms.

Legs:

45 degree Leg Press (60 sec b/w sets):  180×50, 270×40, 450×30, 630×20, 810×10, 860×10, 900×8

superset – leg extensions and leg curls (no rest, back and forth 4 times):  150 x15/15, 15/15, 15/15, 15/15

Spin – 1 hr

leg notes: I am happy with the leg press, new weight for me!  I know I can do more, but I am getting used to it.  After 8 reps, I noticed my knees starting to track out, so  I called it quits there.  Hands stayed on the handles, gripping so tight it made my tendonitis flare up!  haha  I went deep as I could, meaning my thighs were pressed into my gut, which made it sort of like a rest, lol!  Don’t do that one on a full stomach, keep it empty cause your thighs will push into your stomach.

I was thinking of doing squats, but my neck was just starting to feel better, so I kept it simple.  No squats just yet.

The superset was fun, just light and a pump to get the blood flowing before spin.  My quads were quite tired though!  150 would normally feel much easier.

Spin was awkward, there was an older lady subbing in for Andrea.  I use the term older because she made fun of her own age at one point.  She said lots of awkward things, like shouting “how does that feel, baby?”  I cringed a lot.  But I got a good sweat in.

 

Then time for arms!  For fun, I decided to do something different – I tried a workout from Youtube!  A channel called Physiques of Greatness has a workout called “Curls for the Girls, Vol 1″, basically supersets of biceps and triceps, which I do anyways, but sometimes it is fun to switch it up.  By the way, PoG is a great channel, check it out if you are on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/PhysiquesOfGreatness

So I launch into “Curls for the Girls, Vol 1″ (there is a Vol 2 and 3 I will also try), and during my first superset, who shows up???  Leslie my trainer!  I guess Curls for the Girls works after all, a girl appeared 5 min into starting, damn!  Les was ALSO about to do arms, so I suggested we team up on this workout, take turns supersetting.  So off we went.

Arms:  (took turns supersetting, I did a superset, then she did, back and forth)

closegrip bench press & strict curls:  80 x 12/12, 12/7, 12/7

bench dips (feet elevated) & seated db curls (40 lb db’s):  12/12, 12/12, 12/12

reverse curls & French press:  40 x 12/12, 50 x 12/12, 12/12

one-arm preacher hammer curls (30 lb db’s) & v-bar pressdowns (150 lbs):  15/15, 15/15, 15/15

wrist curls and reverse wrist curls:  50 x 15/15, 15/15, 15/8

notes:  Les didn’t do the wrist curls, she went off to do her cardio.  I was really disappointed by the first round, 80 was WAY too light for the closegrip press, but my tendonitis flared up on the curls and I could barely do them.  I thought it would be cool to use the same weight and save time, but I really should have grabbed 2 different weights.

I don’t normally do dips, they mess up my shoulder, but the bench dips felt fine (Les used the dip machine).  After the press and curl debacle, everything else felt WAY light, my forearm tendonitis stayed quiet, even during the preacher hammer curls.  Next time I do this routine I will go heavier for sure.  I kept it light in case my arms groaned at me, but I was overly cautious; go heavy or go home!

Except for the wrist curls, my tendonitis popped up during the normal curls, but not the reverse ones.  By the third superset, my forearms were so tired, they gave out during the reverse curls.

 

Then I was done!  I looked at the clock, I had been at the gym 3 hours!!  Holy crap!  There might be something wrong with me, haha.  I must be sick in the head!  Long weekend, Sunday, gym for 3 hours.  I went home for some steak and a nap.

 

And that is my workout for the day!  How about you?  any good workouts this weekend?

Long Weekends in the Weight Room pt I

Oops, forgot to post this yesterday!  The day just gets away from you on a long weekend.

Neck was feeling ok, and the neighbour wanted to do some cardio (he has a trainer, and won’t do any weights outside of his training sessions, which breaks my heart, I need a workout buddy).  So I headed down on Saturday for some morning workout.

Saturday chest:  (30 sec rest b/w sets)

flat db fly:  110 x 12, 12, 12

cable crossover:  160 x 12, 12, 10

decline bb press:  115 x 15, 15, 15

flat bb press:  135 x 12, 12, 8, 8

cardio:  Spin class

 

notes:  new weight for the flys, felt good, but left me tired for the crossovers.  First time doing decline press, ever!  Where have you been all my life!  They felt good, I know the weight isn’t much, but that is the weight I would do on inclines before my shoulder started groaning at me, and with these, no issues.  ding ding, we have a winner!  goodbye incline barbell press.  flat bb press has been stuck at that weight for a while, and I am tired of it!  I know db presses are going up, so it’s only a matter of time, and it’s probably a shoulder thing, but I see value in sticking with the barbell, even if I don’t have much to show for it.

Spin class was good, the teacher has a banter style I don’t much care for, but it seems the class does, so who am I to speak up?  It’s kind of “dad humour” style, real corny.  Oh well, makes the time pass.  Lots of races, some climbs, I don’t remember it being too hard, although my neighbour was flushed and sweating like mad, so I think he really pushed it, which is great!

 

Oh well, long weekend isn’t over yet!  How about you?  Get any workouts in this weekend?  Or are you enjoying the time off in a different way?

Working Out When Sick

I have been ill this past week.  Not a cold or a flu, not a runny nose or a wave of nausea, but headaches all day long.  A sore neck all day long.  Just worn out by headaches and neck aches.  So I took a few days off.  I slept in.  I went to bed early.  I took a nap when I got home from work.  I needed the rest and I took it.  I did that for 2 days, Tuesday and Wednesday no gym.  Well, Tuesday I did spin, but that was just cardio!  Wednesday I did nothing.

And I admit, doing nothing gets hard for me.  I got bored.  And when I got bored… I ate.  I didn’t pig out, but I ate food not on my diet plan.  Shawarma and chocolate milk, hooray!  If you don’t know what a shawarma is, just think a big donair.  After indulging my appetite, possibly out of restlessness, I decided I needed some gym time in, no matter what.

So Thursday, I slept in, I made it through work, then I went to the office gym… after office hours.  It was dark, quiet, no people, and I could just work out without distraction.  If I had gone to the public gym after work, it would be crowded and would make my headache unbearable.  So no distractions for me tonight, just iron.  I picked arms, which I figured would be less total stress on my body.

Sick Day Arms:  (30 sec rest b/w sets)

rope pushdowns:  150 x 12, 9; DROPSET A 150 x 8, 120 x 9, 90 x 13; DROPSET B 150 x 8, 120 x 4, 90 x 15

standing 2hand db extensions:  75 x 11, 10, 7

db skullcrushers:  50 x 20, 15, 15

low cable extensions w/ rope:  75 x 15, 15, 15

spider curls:  35 x 15/15, 15/15, 11/11, 10/10

incline curls:  60 x 12, 7, 8

ez bar curls:  80 x 12, 12, 12

notes:  I was about to finish off with a dropset of cable curls, but a security guard came in and told me the gym was closed, haha.  So I got out of there.  I was almost done anyways.  No post-weights cardio for me!  lol

Rope pushdowns felt good, as always, on the last set of the drop set I do a bunch of partial reps to finish off the pump.

I normally do skullcrushers last, but I just felt like skullcrushers third, so hey.  I might have been considering skipping one of the movements, but the skulls felt so good, I decided to do cable extensions anyhow.  Cable extensions feel crazy!  The pump in my arms was big time, after every set I wanted to stand up and run around, my arms felt so tight.

Spider curls weren’t full ROM, the bench got in the way.  3/4 rom maybe.

Even into the incline curls, my biceps felt pumped!  I think the pumped triceps had a bonus effect on my biceps.  Normally I would superset triceps and biceps, but I took the extra rest while I caught my breath (not feeling 100%,  still decent strength, just a head full of stormclouds)

My left forearm was a little sore after the ez bar curls, but it faded fast.

How about you?  Did you get a workout in today?

Time to take it easy??

My neck was real sore on Monday, so I took it easy all that day.  In the late afternoon I went to the massage acupressure dude for a session, and had him focus exclusively on my neck.  He suggested there were lymph node blockages in my neck, and lymph node blockages where my skull meets my neck, so when he worked on my upper neck, it didn’t drain properly out my lower neck.  I… guess it makes sense???  Welcome to Chinese medicine!  So this time around he worked a lot on little internal lumps in my lower neck to clear the way before moving up to my upper neck and base of my skull.  I won’t know if it took hold really well until Tuesday, once I sleep on it and let it recover.

I told him about my schedule, and he seemed concerned for me.  He suggested I “take it easy” in the gym this week.  I don’t know… I NEED this.  It bores me to tears when I don’t do it.  So, I told my trainer about this advice, and made a pact that if I feel worn out, I will take a rest.  So if I feel out of it, I skip training that day, I don’t force it, otherwise I go at it with the same gameplan as if I was feeling 100%.  That is my definition of “light”.  It is my hope all this nonsense is behind me by June, so I am free to dial it up to a new level.

But now I was done with my massage, my neck felt pretty good, and I was ready for some back and biceps!   I met with the trainer, and off we went!

Back and Biceps (30 sec rest b/w all sets)

cardio:  20 min elliptical, variable resistance

assisted pullups:  widegrip 15, underhand 15, hammergrip 5, widegrip 10
widegrip cable row:  240 x 12, 12, 12

closegrip pulldown:  210 x 15, 15, 15, 15

hyperextension w/ a 50 lb dumbbell:  12, 12, 12

spider curls:  35 x 15/15, 15/15, 10/10, 8/10

incline curls:  60 x 10, 9, 8

EZ bar curls:  75 x 12, 12, 12

cable hammer curl with handles: DROPSET  90 x 8, 70 x 10, 50 x 10, 40 x 15

notes:  With the pullups, we used a giant orange rubber strap to support me, but it made the hammergrip sort of awkward, it wrapped around those handles, so when I tried to use that grip and pull up and into my lower back, it just wasn’t happening.  I tried though.

Unfazed, I applied some good intensity and aggression into the rest of my back work.  When it was time for biceps, I wasn’t feeling the aggression any more, so the first few movements I did were sort of lacklustre.  I mean, they were hard, but I gave up right when they got hard, which is the point where aggression should take over, but I just had none prepared for the moment.  I was able to get some going for the EZ curls though, and I feel like I busted those out with intensity.  Maybe not picture perfect tempo or control, but I was trying to get myself psyched up to carry me through.

Unfortunately, this left me totally spent when it was time for the hammer curl drop set.  It was heavy as heck, felt heavy as heck, and I whined and bitched and moaned the whole time, lol.  I need to work on my intensity!  I had it for about 70% of the workout, I need it revvin and buzzin fulltime!

After the workout we still had 2 or 3 min, so we did some upper chest stretches to keep me loose and work on that front imbalance.

And that was my day today?  How about you?  Any good workouts?

Mother’s Day Weekend

As I sit here typing this, I think these carrots I bought are no good.  Do you know how depressing it is to buy a bag of baby carrots because you are so damn lazy you won’t buy normal carrots, then open up a bag and see that they are all kinda slimy???  Last week I bought some organic celery, and as I was peeling stalks off, I found an adult fly, frozen solid in between the celery stalks.  It kind of makes you sad, and has left me a little hypersensitive to veggies that don’t fit my ideals of taste and texture.  I think that once I eat my way through this jar of hummus I bought, I am throwing the rest of these game-y looking baby carrots out.

When I woke up Saturday, I was in a world of hurt.  I was worn out from 4 days of weight training, and my neck was aching pretty bad.  I went for groceries (where I bought those damn carrots), and then came home and pretty much slept all day.  I watched a few episodes of Hemlock Grove on Netflix, which NEVER fails to put me to sleep (no idea what’s even going on in that show), and took painkillers as needed.  Basically reset my body, went into emergency stasis.

Sunday when I woke up, I felt a lot better!  As it was Mother’s Day, the first thing I did was spend the morning on the phone with my mother (she lives far away).  I am always concerned about her health, and I hope now that winter is over, she gets out a lot more, enjoys the weather and goes for lots of walks.  My mom has been through a lot, multiple knee surgeries, major whiplash, chronic pain, breast cancer, and she is in a place right now where she can enjoy her retirement, and I want to make sure she stays active so she can enjoy it more.

She is also very happy for my recent weight loss, and talking to her got me pumped to go to the gym!  I went to the gym for some chest and triceps action.

Chest & Tri:  (30 sec rest b/w sets)

incline db fly:  warmup set, 90 x 12, 12, 12

low cable crossover:  60 x 12, 12, 12

incline db press:  120 x 15, 15, 15

flat db press:  130 x 12, 12, 7, 6

rope pushdowns:  60 x 12, 10; DROPSET a.60 x 8, 40 x 6, 20 x 12 (partial reps); b.60 x 8, 40 x 6, 20 x 12 (partial reps)

two hand db extensions: 75 x 12, 8, 8

low cable extension:  50 x 15; 60 x 15, 14

dumbbell skullcrushers:  50 x 20, 12, 11

cardio:  35 min on the elliptical, variable resistance

 

notes:  this particular gym has a reputation for some sticky cables, so I knew I had to bring the weight down on the cable movements.  Instead of cable crossovers, I thought I would try some low ones, meaning my arms start low and I bring the cables up high and in front of me.  They felt great!  Hard too.

Incline press went quite well, although I BARELY made it through the last set.  This meant of course I was fried for the flat press, and sure enough I barely made it through the second set, so the third and fourth beat me up pretty hard.

Then those rope pushdowns!  What a blow to my ego.  That sticky cable feed made me drop the weight by about HALF.  And they felt heavy as F.  It was all good though, it’s still work, no matter what the weight says.

 

How about you?  Any good workouts?

End of the Week!

Ugh, 4 days in a row of working out.  I am thrashed.

Got up at 5 am, had a grapefruit.  stared at the computer screen for a minute then realized I was almost late for spin.  F*ck!  I hadn’t had any protein or yogourt or anything for breakfast, just the fruit.  I poured a shot of pre-workout (Assault, in honour of Danabolic’s blog!), ran to Spin. I only realized when I got home about 13 hours later that the full glass of Assault was still sitting there – I had poured my pre-workout drink, then just turned around and walked out of my house.  How fried was my brain???

When I got to Spin, I quickly realized I had ZERO energy, that Spin was murderrrrrr….. no surprise I guess, I hadn’t had any protein that morning, hadn’t eaten my usual foods, no quick fats, not even a glass of pre-workout pep… I was running on empty and I felt it hard.  So I grunted and sweated my way through that ride, showered, felt the hunger kick in like a BEAST, then went out for my Friday cheat day breakfast.

Pretty much right, crepe wrapped around eggs and cheese and ham, fruit, coffee, water, side of bacon.  They brought me an orange juice as well, but I couldn’t wait to get a pic of it all at once.  I soon realized they used a banana crepe for my ham omelette… WTF!??! A banana crepe?  That ruins it!

First-world problems, right??

So whatever, they were busy and I didn’t have forever, I just poured syrup on it and ate it anyways, my banana ham sandwich.

 

Work was real busy, I saved my energy for my workout after work!  My chest is still sore from my Wednesday workout!  Crazy!  I like DOMS in my chest, that means I am doing something right.

After work I headed to the studio, Leslie the trainer is back from her vacation!  Yay!  I realized I hadn’t trained arms in 10 days… where did the time go??  So we did arms.

Arms:  Supersets!  back and forth, minimal rest

5 min warmup on elliptical

dumbbell curls & dumbbell skullcrushers:  50 x 12&12; 60 x 12&12, 12&12

rope hammer curls & V pushdowns:  90&120 x 15&15, 15&15, 15&15

hammer curls

no V-bar so we used the rope

 

incline dumbbell curl & dumbbell kickbacks:  40&30 x 12&12; 50&30 x 12&12, 12&12

kickbacks

double concentration curls & overhead two-hand dumbbell extensions:  50&45 X 12&15; 60&55 X 12&15; 60&65 x 12&15

cable curls with the straight bar & closegrip incline pushups:  100 x 12; 120 x 10, 12 & 12, 15, 15

back soaked!

Abs!

single leg raise and crossover touch x 12, 12, 12

double crunches x 12, 12, 12

abdominal pendulum:  bent knee x 15, we tried straight legs and that didn’t happen at all LOL, so the third set we did side planks

 

notes:  been too long without arms! I don’t think I was able to get 100% back into the intensity, I was too distracted with being social and witty and clever with my friends, but I will try and fix that for next time   After the abs, we also did some chest stretches.  Taking what my massage dude said seriously!  Gotta fix that front imbalance.

We also took some time before the workout to talk about my goals.  I want to lose more weight, obviously.  I am still in the 300s, I want to break into the 200s so bad!!!  Very close!  I want to get my body fat below 20%, I want to put on another 10 pounds of muscle, I want to build a lot more strength in the basic compound exercises, I want to take on another hot yoga challenge, etc!

I also need to hit my back harder, if I have to choose I will lighten up on chest and do more back.  I don’t want my front to grow too fast and overpower my back, I need to balance to what is lagging.

I am happy with my diet, I am happy with the 3 on 1 off body parts twice a week split, I am happy with the morning cardio.  I just need to tweak the exercises a bit, and put yoga back in the mix.

 

I am excited for the summer, aren’t you?  I can’t wait to do more hard work and have it show!  Already everyone I know can see I have put on muscle, it is plain to see.  I want more of that, more muscle.  Maybe it’s a guy thing, but it feels good

But when I left the studio and came home, the back workout from Thursday hit me, and my arms are ALREADY sore from tonight, so I am about to crash hard.  4 days in a row is brutal!  I need a rest day like crazy.

Good night all!

Back Day

Hadn’t fully escaped the insomnia yet.  I took a melatonin, took a hot shower, everything started off great Wednesday night.  Then Thursday morning I woke up about 2:30.  Tough time getting back to sleep, my body felt like it was time to up and at ‘em!!!  You know when you want to sleep, but your body has so much energy that when you toss and turn you flop around like fish, practically flip yourself over doing these high-energy barrel rolls.  Basically it was hopeless.  By 3:45 am I said oh well, and got up.  Had some breakfast, started my day.  I didn’t exactly feel RESTED though.  Just not in the mood to be still.  So I decided no gym in the morning, I caught up on some tv, then went in to work as per usual.

At lunch I slipped out for some back work at the office gym.

Lunchtime Back:  (30 sec rest b/w sets)

widegrip pulldowns:  warmup set, 195 x 15, 15, 10, 12

widegrip t-bar rows:  115 x 12, 9, 8

one hand db row:  70 x 12/12, 12/12, 12/12

 

notes:  I had WANTED to do some assisted pullups, but the assist function was broken on the machine today, and I’m too fat and weak to do a regular pullup, so to hell with that, hahaha!   The pulldowns were really heavy though.  For the t-bar rows, I couldn’t stay bent over like I wanted to, I kept trying to stand up.  So whenever I felt myself standing up too much I stopped the set, so that is why my reps were kinda low, just wasn’t comfortable with the form.  db rows went well enough though.

I wanted to do hyperextensions but there was no handy half-platform for that at this gym.  I could try to hang off a bench, but I needed some way to keep my legs pinned down.  So I tried hanging off the t-bar platform, but it wasn’t low enough for my torso to hang clear.  I tried to do hyperextensions off the prone leg curl machine, but I crushed my nuts trying to do that, haha,  So I just gave up and went back to work.

It was a heavy back session for me but low volume, and pretty quick.

After work I came home, and just felt WORN OUT.  I was beat.  I couldn’t bring myself to go to the gym again after work, I was tired as heck.  I think everything caught up to me: sore neck,  the really heavy chest and legs session yesterday, 2 nights of insomnia, heavy back work.  I came home, ate some food, then passed out on the couch for 40 minutes.  I need lots of rest, time to rebuild, and profit from all this hard work.  Rest is the foundation of fitness, never forget that.

 

How about you?  Any good workouts?

Insomnia, then a Monster-Sized Lunchtime Workout

I had a massive bout of insomnia Tuesday night.  I have been off the melatonin for about a week, but the side effect is that the littlest thing can set me off and then I can’t get back to sleep.

I went to sleep nice and early, woke up an hour later, had a sharp pain in my hand, outside and below my thumb.  I was convinced I had been bit by a spider… there was no red mark on my hand, so it was all in my head, but in the middle of the night you aren’t being rational… and I was reliving old world travels in my head where I HAVE been bit by some bigass spiders.  Whatever.  So now I had zero chance of going back to sleep.  Well, after 2 hours of trying, I caved and took some melatonin (and some advil for my sore neck), and felt it wash over me and gently take me back to sleep…

Of course now the next morning trying to wake up at 5 am… not happening.  I slept in and tried to catch up on sleep, could not make it to the gym this morning, barely made it to work on time, haha.

I made a deal with my boss, let me have a long lunch and I will work late.

So I headed off to the office gym for a monster-sized lunchtime workout!

Lunchtime Chest & Legs (30 sec rest b/w sets unless noted)

flat db fly:  warmup set, 100 x 12, 12, 12

cable crossover:  180 x 7, 12, 9

smith machine incline press:  2 warmup sets, 110 + bar x 15, 15, 13

flat bb press:  135 x 12, 12, 12, 7

45 degree leg press:  270 x 50, 30 sec rest, 360 x 40, 45 sec rest, 540 x 30, 60 sec rest, 720 x 20, 75 sec rest, 810 x 10, 90 sec rest, 860 x 10

leg extensions:  195 x 12, 12, 12, 12

prone leg curls:  120 x 15, 15, 15, 15

notes:  the crossovers was a small jump in weight for me, and it felt heavy as HELL, haha.  The weight actually slipped during the first set, so I stopped it there, counted it as 7 reps, and regrouped.  I had a spotter for the inclines and the flat presses, but he wasn’t much of a spotter, lol.  By the time I got to the flat barbell press, my chest was fried, so I KNOW the weight is not impressive, but bear in mind I pre-exhausted myself on purpose, so don’t laugh at me!  *cries*

I felt hungry for more so I went right into legs.  I quickly found out during the leg press that I was worn out from the chest sets!  270 felt heavy and tiring!  well yeah I did 50 reps, but harder than usual.  It might have been also that I wasn’t adequately rested.  That insomnia threw off my whole energy flow for the day, I wasn’t on top of my game.  I normally also do legs first, since it is such a taxing thing to train, but today I was stubborn, so I had to suck it up, haha!

To compensate (I was sweating and gulping for air between sets) I pyramided up on my rest periods as the weight went up.  As you see, I would add a few plates and increase the rest by 15 seconds.  It worked out, I pushed a new weight for me!  860 is the most I have ever done, and I was grunting like a shameless beast in that weight room!  Kept my hands off my knees too, clean reps the whole time.

I couldn’t walk right as I staggered over to the isolation machines, but to my credit I had a really strong solid series of sets with both the extensions and the curls.  By the time I was done though I could feel my legs giving out on me so I skipped calf raises and hit the showers then went back to work.

I had taken about 90 min to do that workout, so to compensate, I stayed late after work and caught up on some projects.

 

And that was my day!  Didn’t let insomnia kill my day.  Super crazy office workout!  I almost had to crawl out the door.  How about you?  Any good workouts?

Back in the Saddle

Woke up Tuesday morning ready to get back in the gym!  3 days is too long.

Made it to the gym at 6 am, spin wouldn’t start until 7, so I did some shoulders.

Shoulders:  (30 sec rest b/w sets)

half-kneeling landmine presses:  (no rest, back and forth arm to arm) 35+bar x 15/15, 15/15, 12/12, 10/10

cable lat raise:  40 x 12/12, 10/12, 8/12

cable reverse fly:  77 x 12, 12, 12

cable upright row:  135 x 12, 12, 12, 12

notes:  my shoulders and traps and neck muscles had taken a beating on Monday, so I wanted to work them, but not with a heavy weight, just lots of reps and not much rest.  So no shrugs and no military press.  For the lat raise, my left shoulder was getting tired fast, no big surprise.  No soreness though.  Reverse flys I still had the masseur’s voice in my head (reverse fly as much as you fly)… wtf bro, doUevenlift??  so I managed to pull a decent weight for me, worked to keep it smooth and controlled.

Then Spin!  It was someone’s birthday I think, so they brought in mini-muffins (which I avoided), and Courtney played all 90′s music… ugh.  Lots of Mr Vain and Whoomp there it is, Haddaway, KLF, something off the Bodyguard soundtrack, hahaha!  Kill me now.  Mostly races.  Good to get back in the saddle though!  Busted out a quick hour, headed to work.

 

I was intending to work out at lunch, but work was wall to wall busy, so that didn’t happen.  I was going to go to the gym after work, but… there was a bomb scare downtown where I work, so I said FUCK THAT and just came home instead, lol.  Well, I should modify that:  a “suspicious package” scare.  that they blew up.  no further info that I have found.

http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/662816/ottawa-police-close-mackenzie-king-bridge-due-to-suspicious-package/

 

So, I am glad I got in the gym time in the morning!  How about you?  Get any workouts in today?

Finding Balance

So I was going to work out, with a bit of trepidation, but then I got a great last-minute session in with the acupressure guy.  Bittersweet because I think he put me out of commission to begin with!

So he works on my traps, upper back, middle back, shoulders and neck.  I told him straight up, ever since my last session with him I have been sore, and trying to take extra rest, but now enough is enough, I need him to fix this.  (no pressure!)

While he is working on my neck, his style sort of “gets to me”.  His style is to press in deep with his knuckle, elbow, whatever.  But on my neck… pressing down hard into the soft part of my neck and throat just really agitated me.  I found it… threatening.  You know?  Like, if someone started gently prodding your eyeball over and over, it would start to freak you out, right?  Instinctively, you get very defensive.  So after 5 min of him pressing into my throat (he wasn’t squeezing my windpipe or anything, just digging into my neck muscles), I finally had to tell him to STOP – this was bothering me.  He switched sides and worked on the other half of my back.

After it was over, he offered up his thoughts.  He thought my upper chest was very tight.  He started to ask if my workouts were too chest-heavy.  He asked me, “do you bench more than you row?”  (paraphrasing)  I responded that no, my back is generally stronger than my chest.  I also told him I love back day, don’t skip it, and tend to keep a pretty tight parity in my chest/back working sets, and in fact I tend to hit the back from more angles and with heavier weight.  So yeah, I row more than I bench.

He said “hmmm” to himself for a second, and then asked if I can chest fly more than I reverse fly.  I raised my eyebrow.  Well… yeah.  He said there you go!  Your chest is overpowering your back and dragging your shoulders forward and down, creating an imbalance.  I should instead strive to rear delt fly as much as I fly.

Ok, in my mind I am going WTF.  The pectoralis major is a MUCH bigger muscle than the posterior deltoid!  Of course it can lift more!!  So now I think he’s full of shit.

Taken more generally, however, I must admit I am worried about becoming imbalanced.  I think one of the reasons I sprained my shoulder to begin with was that a year or two ago, I LOVED hitting chest, and frequently missed back day.  On top of that, we humans have a lot of genetic potential to build up our chests.  We used to walk on all fours, those gorilla chests came in handy.  Even though we have puny bird chests now, the genetic potential for a huge chest is still there.  so it’s easy to grow faster in the chest than the back.  So maybe my chest is just growing faster?  My back feels great to me, but maybe it’s lagging?

So, leaving behind his piss poor examples, what if my front is unbalancing my back?  I need to stretch out the chest a lot more.  To be safe I will do more chest stretches after a workout.  I will go over my routine and my split with my trainer.  Personally, I feel I hit the antagonists a LOT, I do rows and pullups over and over!  But we will go over it.  I don’t feel right in lessening the volume on my chest, I just love it too damn much, but maybe I can add more volume to my back.

 

What about you guys?  Have you faced any muscular imbalances before?  Leave a comment below!