Hard work paying off!

[Kitzy]

Had a good day at the gym.  Its my favorite day, back and triceps.  Its a heavy day.  I've been struggling with deadlifts big time.  My form has been terrible.  So I've lightened up and focused on fixing that.  My max a couple of years ago was 405 lbs.  I'm nowhere near that lately.  I had a good day a few weeks ago and hit 345 lbs for 3 reps but they were good reps, good form.  Had a bad week last week but this week I pulled 385 lbs very clean for 3 reps and probably had another two in me had I not lost my focus.  With that out of the way, I moved on to close grip bench press.  255 racked on the smith machine, add whatever the bar figures to be and I managed 3 solid reps.  Four reps at 295 lbs for T-Bar rows.  And my personal best, weighted dips with 135 lbs chained to me for 2 reps.  I was very happy with that.  The rest is all whatever.  Tricep push downs 105 lbs/12 reps.  Lat pull downs 220/5.  One arm bent over dumb bell rows 140/6.  I hadn't done then much ever so that was just a test to see what I could do. I think I had 150 in me.  Weigh-in in a few days. 

[sscully]

Awesome day. you had, good on you mate.

After I got done sitting down to pee, I tried the battle rope that came yesterday.

I needed to find something other than the heavy bag, it was starting to be annoying after a decade, and I put it down for ~ 18 months.

30' 2" rope I only made 6 sets of 30 on, 60 off and it was very similar to when I started with the heavy bag.
- All I have to do is wave this rope up and down for 30 second. 
-- 21 seconds later..how long have I been doing this 2 weeks ?

This has nothing on the elliptical..

[Kitzy]

I can go all day on the elliptical.  I used to do 8 miles in 60 minutes with the last 4 being at level 15 or above.  Its boring though.  Mentally I just can't take much of it.  The heavy bag, when I'm in the zone its a blast.  Today... it was slow going and my head wasn't in it.  The ropes though... man, they are exhausting.  And there are so many different combos you can do with them.  Alternating, same time, side to side, swing, circles.  Do some circles and some some horizontals where your arms come in to meet each other and back out almost like a chest fly.  Brutal!  I managed a minute at a steady pace but the problem with trying to measure time wise is you're intensity has to remain the same to measure accurately.  So I just hit it hard and do what I can.

[sscully]

Elliptical is one of those things I can do at lunch with the tablet on the Pro-clip stand.
- I mounted a raised quick change plate so I can go from phone mount to tablet mount and get work done if I need to.

The other thing that helps is having the old Tivo up there, I have 30 episodes of NCIS at any time off USA network on it to watch. 

To time the ropes I got one of the new round timers for the heavy bag.
The new ones have more range for selecting the rest and round times.
- I use a 30 sec rest and 1 min round backwards for 7 rounds to get 6, 30 sec rounds out of it.

I am just starting on the ropes, I think I might have made a mistake going with the 2" instead of the 1.5" one.
- Figured I was 20' short off the usual 50' rope so I needed to make up the weight delta.

I have planned for vertical wave, horizontal wave, circles to the inside, circles to the outside and the body slam.

Once I stood up form peeing, I found out I could only get the waves done day 1. 

See what happens next round for them. 
I don't think I am getting back to them until TUE next week.  SAT is going to be weights, SUN is platelet donation and MON is packed with meetings all day.

[Kitzy]

I think its better to stick with the 2" so you have what you need even if its rough starting out.  What I meant by timing being difficult and hard to measure and compare is that one round/set may be of higher intensity than a previous or later round/set or even a round/set from a different day all together.  30 seconds of high intensity ropes is much different than 30 seconds of more casual, steady, laid back ropes.  You have to be fairly consistent in your approach to be able to gauge and compare.  Unlike an elliptical or similar where you set speed, incline, distance, yada yada.  That's why I tend to go until I feel like I can't pick up my arms for another second, and then I try to tap in to that mental state and push it for another 10 seconds.  Its not unusual that I fall to one or both knees upon dropping the ropes.

By the way, NCIS is one of my weaknesses. 

[Kitzy]

What a crappy week.  We got hit with two major snow storms.  I killed a work truck.  All in all I've had no time to make it to the gym.  I finally got there yesterday, 4 days late.  Yesterday morning I woke up and weighed in, a week and a half since last weigh in, to a measly one pound loss at 256.  I was very disappointed.  After spending most of the morning working out what to do with the work truck, I ended up staying at our shop and replacing all of my rotors, pads, putting the new wheels and tires on and changing the oil in my truck.  It was a little late in the day but with the weak weigh in and running out of time before I leave for Tennessee for five days or so, I forces myself to go.  The weigh in really motivating me, I got there, heart pounding with a definite elevated heart rate ready to burn some calories and move some weights.  Today I weighed in at 255, making me feel a little better, but man, my chest and biceps are FRIED!  Destroyed the shoulders today.  Shredded my hands doing shrugs and couldn't complete my last set, my max set, of 635 lbs.  Content with 585 lbs I kept on but my hands really hurt and mentally taxed me every time I grabbed a weight.  Let day tomorrow.  Bring it!

[Blown F-150]

Keep at it Mike!

The Wife and I have been getting back to the Gym. I find it tough with travel to keep on top of things, but really I just have to suck it up and do it.

[Kitzy]

That's it man.  That's what it is.  Just gotta suck it up.  It gets easier.  Getting started is always the hardest part for me.  Once I'm in to it, I can't wait to keep going.  When you see results, you want to go even more.  I love it.  It is hard with travelling.  Its even more important to keep the diet on track since you're not burning many calories and then getting back go the gym is like starting over again, so it feels anyway.  Its hard just get there some days when I've been off for a while.  Once I step foot back inside though I'm good to go.  Go get it!  Use this thread as motivation.  Post up anything you want.  Other people can be a great motivation.  You can motivate me just as well.  Steve, too.  Everyone.  I like to read some of the stuff on bodybuilding.com forum because seeing others results and others exercises and stuff gets me pumped up and motivated. 

This thread kind of serves as accountability for myself.  Keeps me honest and pushing myself because I don't want to post up anything stating I'm going backwards in my progress. 

[Kitzy]

Leg day today.  During my stretches I did some body weight squats trying to loosen up and discovered some knee pain I was previously unaware of.  I kept the weights light and focused on my form, especially on squats where I'm trying to increase my range of motion and improve form.  After legs I moved on to the heavy bag for a bit, focusing on little combos and my footwork, circling the bag and what not.  The high point of the day was hanging the battle ropes from the rings hang from and creating my own climbing rope.  That was a good workout.  I was pleasantly surprised I was able to do it using only my arms and at my body weight.

[Blown F-150]

Wife and I did OK over the weekend. We always do 20-30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill or the thing that is kind of like an eliptical, but more of a step machine???? Saturday was legs, various weight machines and then free-weights with squats and such. Yesterday was arms after the treadmill.

Today will be an hour of solid cardio.

[Kitzy]

I have no idea what that machine is called.  I don't like it.  My girlfriend loves it.  Its nice because unlike the treadmill, there is no impact on the joints.  However, my stride seems to long for the machine so it feels awkward. 

I'm waiting out the 3-5pm crowd right now so I can go kill my back and triceps today.  Tomorrow is chest and biceps.  Its a little screwy because of trying to cram one more day in before my little vacation but oh well.  I'd really like atleast a day or two between these two days but I just don't have it. 

Look in to pre weight training cardio.  I'm a believer of cardio following weights.  Cardio first burns off too much of your energy levels and zaps you for moving weight.  Not to mention you burn off most of your sugars and not so much of your fat.  Lifting first will give you full energy to blast the weights, burning through your sugars so when you jump to cardio is will target mainly what you want it too.  Some people like cardio to warm up.  I guess I can understand getting the blood flowing and whatnot but I'd keep it shorter.  5 minutes or so.  Personal thing I guess. 

[Kitzy]

Check out my rigged rope climb.  This was two days ago.  I'm curious to see if it was taken down or not.

[Kitzy]

Well my rope was taken down.  Haha.  Oh well. 

Had an overall good day.  I put a lot in to my deadlift.  I was feeling good at the time but it zapped me.  Ended with 395lb@3 reps.  Close to my personal best of a couple years ago of 405lbs.  I couldn't get in the mental zone for dips but I did have 3 sets of 135lbs@2 reps on the dip belt.  It makes me wonder if I can drop down to about a 225lb (currently 253) body weight if I can add a 4th plate for 180lbs total.  I know the math doesnt work out but given steady strength progress, by the time I get to that weight...

[Kitzy]

I had a terrible day the day before I left for Tennessee.  Just awful.  The day prior I had done back and tris and it completely zapped me.  Usually I follow that day up with Saturday and Sunday off.  However, the snow and the time crunch had me attempt to squeeze as much in as possible before I left.  That meant chest and bis the very next day.  Terrible idea that will. Ever happen again.  I had nothing.  All of my weights were waaaay off.  After a week I hit it hard today again for the first time back.  Chest and bis.  Didn't miss a beat.  The best part was I tried out my new heart rate monitor that my girl got me for vday.  Its a Polar something.  More info can be had if wanted.  After entering all of my info... height weight age... I hit it.  This was the result. Time over calories....


Time to get this diet in check and see where I really stand.

[sscully]

I do the same stupid stuff, in a hurry and don't listen to the schedule due to XYZ Excuse ( I like to think it is a reason, but we know better ).

Don't kick yourself, I just did the same thing last week with 2 days in a row that should have been every other day.
- Top it off I tried some rope work on the 2nd day, I didn't do any good with that idea.