12/30/23

Standing plate loaded leg curl: 3x15x50
Adductor: 100x18, 18, 18
Hack squat: 225x8, 7, 6
DB Bulgarian split squat: 2x8x45
SLDL on DL machine: 240x8, 330x12, 10
Unilateral leg extensions: 95x12, 10+2, 8+4, 7

Incline treadmill: 21 minutes @ 10-15% / 2.8 mph

12/31/23

Cable press: 72.5x12, 12, 7
Lateral raises: 20x12, 12, 8, 15x12, 12
Incline DB bench: 50x8, 8, 7
Pec deck: 120x15, 10, 10, 10
NG unilateral tricep push down: 30x22, 18, 13, 13
Overhead tricep rope extension: 50x16, 15, 13
Candlesticks: 3x15, 10

1/2/24

Assisted pull ups: 4x10x-98
Seated calf raises: 65x22, 22, 25
Curls: 35x8, 9, 20x15, 12+5 (15 seconds rest)
Chest supported t-bar row: 90x18, 15, 14
Seated cable row: 105x22, 22, 180x6, 120x16
Mag grip lat pull down: 120x12, 12, 13
Rope lat prayers: 100x12, 11, 10+5 (20 sec rest)
Bayesian cable curls: 40x10, 10, 7, 20x10

Incline treadmill: 24 minutes @ 11%/2.8 mph

Wanted to tinker with higher rep ranges on some movements. Everything felt fine but I find it harder to get to muscular failure when doing higher rep work for whatever reason.

1/3/24

Seated leg curls: 4x12x120
Bulgarian split squat on DL machine: 110x12, 10, 10, 150x5
SLDL on DL machine: 3x10x240
Unilateral leg extensions: 100x12, 10+2, 8+4, 7+3
Ab wheel: 20, 15, 10

Incline treadmill: 23 minutes @ 8%/2.8 mph (132 avg HR)

1/4/24

Dip machine: 130x20, 140x20, 15, 155x12
Prone DB lateral raises: 25x9, 6, 20x10, 10, 15x11, 10
Incline DB bench: 50x8, 8, 6, 35x10
Cable press: 50x13, 60x12, 10
Pec deck: 120x18, 10, 7
NG unilateral tricep pushdown: 35x18, 14, 11
Overhead tricep extension: 2x12x55

Incline treadmill: 21 minutes @ 10% / 2.9mph (avg HR 125)

1/5/24

Curls: 30x12, 12, 9
Mag grip lat pulldown: 180x8, 6+2 partials, 4+1 partial, 105x20, 12
Seated row machine: 2 pps X 10, 10, 9, 9
Lat prayers with rope: 110x11, 10, 10, 8
Bayesian curls: 40x13, 10, 8
Seated unilateral calf raise: 50x18, 18, 16, 15

Treadmill: 22 minutes @ 10% / 2.9 mph (132 avg HR)

I've been thinking lately about switching up exercise order and moving at least one biceps exercise to the front of my workout. My biceps never get sore and I sometimes wonder if they're getting sufficient stimulus. I have no idea if this will make a difference in any meaningful sense, but I definitely notice I can move more weight on any given movement depending on its order. With curls, for example, I can do 30x12 with maybe 1 RIR if I do them first. No way I get that if I do them after ~10+ working sets for back.

I've also tried to consciously alternate starting back day with horizontal and vertical pulling.

I'm also tinkering with moving lighter loads with higher rep ranges of 15+ and alternating that with heavier sets with something in the 6-8 range. For higher reps, I'm finding that the burn or something other than muscle failure often (e.g., fatigued forearms on a lat pulldown) is causing me to quit the set before I reach true failure. I'll try and be better about fighting through it, but am enjoying it. I also think it's good to mix things up psychologically because doing the same movements repetitively ad nauseum with limited to no variation gets stale and boring. I also suspect higher rep ranges are going to be a little easier on joints and connective tissue.

1/6/24

Unilateral calf raises on leg press machine: 3x15x100
Candlesticks: 2x8
Incline treadmill: 35 minutes @ 11.5%/2.9 mph

1/7/24

Adductors: 3 sets of whatever
Seated leg curls: 120x18, 11+3 partials, 11+3 partials, 8+3 partials
Hack squat: 185x13, 13, 10
RDL on DL machine: 330x10, 380x10
Preacher curl machine: 70x12, 8, 8
Unilateral leg extensions: 110x6, 80x12, 10, 8, 8
DB curls: 35x11, 8, 7

Leg extension machine was taken so I decided I could sneak in some biceps. I don't do them again until Tuesday and they'll be recovered by then.

1/8/24

Dip machine: 160x18, 14, 12
Prone DB lateral raises: 20x10, 10, 7
Cable lateral raises: 30x4, 2x12x20
Y raises: 2x8x20
Cable press: 60x15, 80x8, 6, 60x8
Incline DB bench: 2x8x50
NG unilateral tricep pushdown: 3x10x40
Overhead cable tricep extension: 50x15, 12, 12
Ab wheel: 2x12

Incline treadmill: 25 minutes @ 11% / 2.9 mph (136 HR)

How does the incline db press feel doing it after all that other work?

You do a helluva lot of delt volume. I never needed to; just a strong bodypart naturally and I'm sure all the years of oly lifting and heavy ohping (standing incline benching) helped too.

Shoulders aren't giving me any issues at all, so that's good. Putting incline at the very end was a good call. I think I'm going to stick with this order for now.

I usually try and do 5 sets of side delts in a session. Went overboard today with 8 working sets because I wanted to try Y raises to see how I liked the movement, and I was messing with some cross body cable raises. Never seem to have an issue with delts recovering even when there's a little junk volume like today though.

My days of Oly lifting haven't carried over well, although I haven't done an Olympic lift in ~8 years(?) and anything overhead has always been a weak point for me. Even when I used to Oly, my snatch and C&J were weak. I don't think I ever did better than 91 snatch/110 c&j.

What did you weigh when you did 91/110 and what about now?

This would've been 2013 or so and I don't remember how much I weighed back then, but my best guess is I was around 100, give or take a kilo in either direction, so not even a BW snatch and just a bit over a BW c&j.

Now, I've been fluctuating between 103 and 106 since last March (after an all time high of 123 in 2019 and 116 when I ruptured my Achilles). I'd like to cut down to somewhere between 90-95, which is going to be a healthier walking around weight for me and will no doubt look much better, too. It's the new year, so perhaps I should get after it.

1/9/24

DB curls: 30x15, 10, 10
Seated cable row: 180x13, 9, 9, 9
Chest supported t-bar row: 145x8, 7, 90x15
Lat prayers: 110x11, 9, 8
Mag grip lat pulldown: 180x6+2 partials, 135x12, 8
Bayesian cable curls: 40x12, 11, 10, 20x20

Treadmill: 27 minutes @ 9.5% / 2.9 mph (129 avg HR)

I'm liking putting curls first and last. Getting 13 reps on seated cable row at 180 surprised me but I guess you can move a lot more weight when you're fresh.

1/10/24

Seated unilateral calf raise: 3x16x55
Unilateral calf raise on leg press: 110x18, 20, 20
Candlesticks: 15, 10, 10
Treadmill: 34 minutes @ 9% / 3mph

No real lifting today. Legs tomorrow. I have some tightness in my left hamstring. If it persists tomorrow, I'll skip leg curls/RDLs or, more likely, just go very light on them.

1/11/24

Seated leg curls: 120x19, 12, 11
Adductor: 85x20, 20, 12
BSS: 150x6, 8, 5, 110x14, 10
Unilateral leg extensions: 75x13, 11, 10
DB curls: 40x8, 6, 30x8

Incline treadmill: 20 minutes @ 9% / 3.0 mph (145 avg HR)

My left hamstring is still a bit wonky, so I skipped RDLs. Decided to try some lower rep Bulgarian split squats at 150. I left some reps in the tank on the first set, and probably 0 or near 0 RIR on the second and 0 on the last heavy set. The two drop sets were good but felt like hard cardio.

1/12/24

Dip machine: 160x20, 15, 12
Prone DB lateral raises: 20x10, 10, 7
Cable Y raises: 20x10, 10, 8
Cable Press: 70x12, 12, 10
Cable flies: 50x12, 10, 7+3
NG tricep push down: 40x16, 12, 9, 9
Over rope extension: 2x10x65

Incline treadmill: 23 minutes @ 9.5% / 3.0 mph

1/13/24

Assisted pull ups: -56x8, 8, 8
Unilateral seated calf raises: 3x16x55
Chest supported t-bar row: 155x9, 6, 145x8, 90x13+7 (20 seconds rest)
Seated cable row: 180x6, 120x15, 13, 12
Lat prayers: 95x15, 110x10, 10, 8
Mag grip lat pulldown: 135x9, 8

This was a bit rushed and I tweaked my neck after t-bar rows, but this was otherwise fine. No time for curls, so maybe tomorrow.

1/15/24

Standing plate loaded leg curl: 25x12, 50x11, 11, 11
Adductor: 70x20, 85x20, 15
Hack squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x7, 7, 6
RDL: 240x10, 290x14, 10, 10
Unilateral leg extensions: 75x15, 12, 11, 10
DB curls: 30x15, 10, 6, 15x16
Bayesian curls: 30x13, 10, 10

Incline treadmill: 15 minutes @ 7% / 3.0 mph (127 average HR)

Played 2 hours of full court bball yesterday and am feeling pretty beat up, so today's session wasn't the best.

1/16/24

Cable lateral raises: 20x12, 12, 10, 10
Y raises: 3x8x20
Dip machine: 165x15, 15, 15, 12
Unilateral calf raise on leg press machine: 3x15x115
Incline bench: 40x10, 10, 8
Pec deck: 120x15, 8, 8, 6
NG unilateral tricep pushdown: 30x20, 17, 13, 12

Incline treadmill: 25 minutes @ 9% / 3 mph (127 average HR)

Slept terribly, so I took everything little easier today because was feeling fatigued.

About how long are your sessions and what's your average session RPE?

I think I need to lift further away from failure and have shorter easier sessions overall. The more advanced you are, the more taxxing each low RIR set is and I'd ideally like to train in a way where I never or seldom need deloads.

Actually lifting is usually in the 50-70 minute range. RPE is usually around 7 or 8 for push/pull. Legs is probably a 9 though because hack squats and split squats, especially in higher rep ranges, are super taxing for me. My rests between sets are usually pretty short, between 90 seconds and 2 minutes. But sometimes longer for squats, RDLs.

I've usually been keeping at least 1 RIR on most lifts lately. I'll lift till the bar won't budge, but won't grind out that last rep with a red face. This has helped a ton with overall fatigue management imo. Haven't had a deload since Thanksgiving and generally feel fine.

I know there are different schools of thought on the value of training to failure. I presume there are benefits, but the trade off is fatigue and some marginal increased risk of injury. Not worth it from my vantage point, but I'm just trying to be healthy and look halfway decent. Not sure if I'd be thinking about it differently if I were planning to compete.

1/17/24

Assisted pull ups: 2x7x-33
Mag grip lat pull down: 150x12, 11, 8
Chest supported t-bar row: 90x12, 12, 13, 12
Seated cable row (wide grip): 120x19, 15, 12+4
Lat prayers: 120x10, 9, 8, 70x17
Bayesian curls: 40x13, 10, 12, 10

Incline treadmill: 22 minutes @ 10% / 3.0 mph (134 average HR)

Decent workout. My right shoulder is hurting like 3/10. I got wacked playing basketball on Sunday and have a had persistent pain since when raising my arm laterally. Hasn't really interfered much with lifting but it's annoying. Hopefully it resolves on its own in the next few days.

1/18/24

Leg curls: 125x15, 12, 11, 8
BSS: 150x9, 8, 9, 8
RDLs with DBs: 3x8x80
Leg extensions: 75x16, 13, 11, 10
Ab wheel: 20, 15, 6
Unilateral seated calf raises: 3x12x60, 45x15

RDLs with DBs felt awkward. I might give it a few more goes and if I still don't like it, I'll return to my DL machine RDLs. I've tried cable pull throughs too but haven't loved those either.

I've only tried db rdls a few time and yeah it feels like its all lower back and lats with no legs or glutes. Uncomfortable and weird compressed feeling. But single leg db rdl felt okay, just takes too damn long to do one leg at a time.