Squats: 3x5xBar + 3x65 + 3x75 + 5x5x90 Bench: 3x5xBar + 5x5x65 Rows: 5x5x80
Preacher Curls: 2x10x40** ***Incline DB Press: 10x20 + 10x25 *Standing BB Curl: 2x10x30 **Tricep Rope Pulldown: 2x10×15
What. A. Monday. I hit a little hiatus with the gym going and hadn't been there for a week. Thanksgiving and all. Excuses.
Squats were good, bench was ok and rows were good.
Squats: 3x5xBar + 3x65 + 5x5x85** ***Seated Plate Raises: 3x10x25 *Seated Lateral Raise: 8x15 + 2x10x10 **Seated DB Shrug + Clean + Half Press: 8x15 + 2x10x10 Deadlift: 5x95 + 3x115 + 5×135
Standing BB Curls: 10x30** Preacher EZ Bar Curls: 10x40 **Standing DB Curls: 10x20 Tricep Pushdown: 2x15x30 Tricep Rope Pulldown: 10x30
Day 9? Thought it was day 10? A nope. Unfortunately, last Friday my company had its annual luncheon event spanning an unnecessary 5 hours from 12:30pm to 5:00pm. I probably could have opted to go super early in the morning, but I most likely wouldn't have been able to get any work done since the day ended early at 12:30pm. Stronglifts guidelines by Mehdi are pretty strict and I honestly do respect that. Missing 1 workout right now, I think, will be ok and won't be affecting me much with the lighter weights. Down the line, however, with my lifting history in mind, I know I have the tendency to start becoming inconsistent as I start failing on lifts a lot. The combination of fatigue and disappointment are big players on discouraging me from wanting to lift at these later stages. It's also at these limits that the chances of injuring myself is all the more possible. Having the right state of mind and preparation for PR lifts is crucial to remaining injury free and getting through these walls. In conclusion: 1) don't make missed workout sessions a habit, 2) easy days do not equal I-can-skip-it-day.
So, workout summary for today: solid. Left work earlier today, around 10:50, compared to the usual 11:45 departure. I managed to swing back to work around 12:20 which was nice. Did the usual leg swings, static squat stretches and right shoulder band work. I'm thinking of upping the band resistance for one of the strengthening exercises (green to blue)- it's getting too easy. The legs felt very loose today which was nice. Still using high bar position. Shoulder is getting better, will start narrowing grip and inching the bar position down lower from the traps down to the shoulder blades. I'm starting to breath a little harder much sooner with the weights going up. I'm going to full 30 second rests between sets now. Shoulder shocker sets weren't too bad. I think it felt ever so slightly easier today. Someone was using the 10lb dumbbells so I was doing the lateral raises and shrug-clean-half-presses with a 10lb plate. Deadlifts were pretty good, heaviness is getting there.
Squats: 3x5xBar + 3x65 + 5x5x75** ***Seated Plate Raises: 3x10x25 *Seated Lateral Raise: 3x10x10 **Seated DB Shrug + Clean + Half Press: 3x10x10 Deadlift: 5x95 + 5×125
Standing BB Curls: 10x30** Preacher EZ Bar Curls: 10x40 **Tricep Pushdown: 20x25 + 20x30
Tired. I'm not sure if it's the lack of sleep or the workout, but I am pretty drowsy typing this right meow. Didn't get home until 11:00pm last night and was up until 1:00am for a 6:00am wake-up. Procrastinating to wash dirty dishes and cooking something up real quick for a very late dinner kept me up. But, gotta keep chuggin' along.
Squats were interesting today. I was trying to pay particular attention to my left knee. Even when doing the static squat stretches, I felt like my left knee wasn't where it was supposed to be when I was in the hole. Typical of people new to squatting is, once the weight gets heavy, their knees will buckle inwards because the body is trying to compensate by falling back on the quads. I don't think I have this issue, although I do think that my knee is not in line with my foot when I'm in the hole. I've noticed this subtlety before when I was focused on form, but never really took any action on it. A previous consultation from an orthopedic doctor evaluated my left knee as potentially having a partial meniscus tear. My left knee has felt, for lack of a better word...strange for some time now and the tear may or may not be attributing to that feeling. It's not a painful sensation, but rather a feeling of instability. I don't consciously think about it, but I do feel that even something simple like walking sometimes doesn't feel normal. Anyhow, picture taking is in order! Must find out what's going on. End rant on squats.
Shoulder shocker sets were preeeeetty brutal. I don't know why they were so difficult today. The first time I did the shoulder shocker routine, it was a breeze! Deadlifts were pretty easy. Weight is going up fast. I forgot how aggressive SL is on the deadlift weight progression, but 10 lbs increase every workout is definitely adding up fast. I'll be pulling with 45 plates next B day session, woot!
Finished off the session with some curling and tricep push downs. I've heard both arguments of straight bar vs. EZ bar curling for optimal bicep isolation. And so to cover all grounds, I did 1 set straight bar and 1 set EZ bar, no brainer there! The 40lb preacher curls were grinders, but still finished them off. By way of triceps isolation, I did two high (20) rep tricep pushdown sets, the first with 25lbs the second with 30lbs. The second set was killer. I need to find something else I could do in addition to the triceps pushdown. Dips are the first thing that come to mind, but I'm not doing them until I'm confident with my shoulder so that's off the table. In the past, I've also done overhead triceps extensions which did wonders for targeting the triceps, but anything overhead is a no no, so that's also off the table. So, a little research is in store for shoulder friendly exercises to isolate the triceps.