2/13/11 Workout + Guy Throwing Weights

Sundays are my favorite days to lift because before 3PM all the meat heads are still snuggled up in bed or hung over from the night before.  The people that are there are finishing up their 57th minute on the Elliptical and generally there’s no one around to bother me.  I’m in my little corner at the squat rack, everyone else is doing curls or cable flies on the other end of the weight room.  It’s perfect.

Every once in a while there’s a shit head who didn’t party hard enough and thus drags his ass into the gym to ruin my day specifically.  These shit heads come in all forms.  The one that prompted this topic actually started out promising.  He was in the squat rack actually squatting.  When I walked in he had 315lbs on the bar.  I was excited to finally see someone strong put up some weight.  I decided to watch to learn some tips to improve my own form and strength.

Oh, how disappointed I became when he unracked the bar, went less than 1/4 of the way down and then came back up 5 times.  Each rep made him produce a weird guttural sound.  I know 315lbs is a lot of weight but when you’re barely bending your knees is it really necessary to make a noise usually associates with real, heavy lifting?

He super-setted his squats with dumbbell curls which were so tough he had to make the same sounds and at the end throw the 45lb barbell on the ground and then pace around the room.  So I wasn’t wasting time I decided to start benching which I usually hate because I prefer squatting first.  I had completed my entire bench workout before the guy was finished sauntering and staring down the bar.  I got to witness something epic, though.  Sometime while walking around like an enraged inmate in a prison yard he managed to shed the first layer of his clothing, revealing an awesome gut in a wife beater.

He finally relinquished the squat rack after his 8th superset.  I was beginning my first work set when I  noticed him offering advice to a very young lifter doing curls with poor form.  The irony.  Some people that  know their ass from a hole in the ground might suggest that someone starting out maybe focus on the big 3 lifts (squat, dead lift, and bench) instead of spending time doing isolation exercises.  Nope, he recommended doing 4 different curl variations to hit “every part” of the bicep to “really work on its shape”.

Do I even need to go into him doing calf raises in a Smith Machine?  I could, but I think I’d just be belaboring the point.  On to my workout.

Bench

Warm-up

3 x 5 150lbs

Squat

Warm-up

3 x 5 185lbs

Dead lift

1 x 5 250lbs

Dips

2 x 6 Bodyweight

1 x 7 Bodyweight

2/9/11 Workout – Terrible!!!!

Holy shit, was this workout terrible.  I’m not used to this.  For the first two months I enjoyed making at least 5 pound gains each and every session.  Now I’m struggling.  The confusing thing is I’m still in my newbie gain period so why have I stalled out so early?  I think the culprit is my diet which has helped me lose a ton of fat and generally feel healthier.  The problem is I’m not sure if it’s optimal in a muscle/strength gaining weight lifting program.

I don’t want to begin binging on cakes and pies, though.  I’m going to start introducing carbs — in any and every form — but still maintain my high meat and protein consumption.  Instead of 15-35 carbs a day I will be ingesting almost 100 and maybe even a few grams over on some occasions.  This is still probably 200 carbohydrates lower than the average American consumes on a daily basis, though.

Bench

Warm-up

1 x 3 150lbs – Failed after 3 reps.  Dialed it back 5 pounds.

3 x 5 145lbs – I completed all reps but the last 2 of each set were very slow.

Dumbbell Shrugs (while waiting for the squat rack to open)

2 x 10 60lbs

Squat

Warm-up

3 x 5 175lbs – I really focused on opening my legs and squatting between my quads as opposed to on top of them.  This makes sense, I swear.  The last set of 5 about killed me.  I had to do a rep, wait 4-5 seconds, do another rep, wait 6 seconds, etc.

Dead lift

1 x 5 250lbs – Woohoo, I actually added weight to the bar.  I figured since I didn’t progress in the squat or bench so I put in extra effort in the dead lift.  I knocked out the first 3 pretty quickly, then had to take a quick rest (5 seconds) and complete the last 2.

Dips

3 x 5 BW – I’m not going super deep on these.  I’ve had shoulder issues in the past and don’t want to ever go through it again.

And a quick note about this blog: When I’m in the gym I people watch…  A lot.  I think I may take some time to write some funny and not-so-funny anecdotes when I have time.