Hello everyone,
I’ve been lifting on and off for about twenty eight months. I started at a weight of around 130lbs at 5’11" and am now at about 170. I made the number one gymgoer mistake and pretty much ignored leg training, so if my numbers on leg day seem low, they are. I hurt my back hauling cement about 3 years ago and it still acts up from time to time, and i think i have either a tear or a seriously weak infraspinatus in my left shoulder (part of rotator cuff).
Anyway, on to the lifting:
Day 1 Chest/ Tri’s
Flat DB Bench
70’sx6
75’s x6
80’s x 6 (PR)
DB Flies
30’s x10
35’s x10
35’s x10
Skullcrushers
75x10
80x10
80x10
Upwards Cable flies (holding two low pulley cables and raising your hands to head level in front of your face)
40lbs/pulley x10
50lbs x10
50lbs x10
Tricep Pushdown Machine
150x10
170x10
190x6
All in all, a pretty good workout. I’ll post 3 more workouts, including tonights, once i get back from the gym.
Leg Day:
Front Squats- taking advantage of working with lower weights to learn a new exercise.
These were tearing up my collarbone though. Still have to get the form down
135x2
135x3
135x5
155x2
155x3
155x5.
HS Hamstring Curls
25 and a 10 per leg x8
same x8
25,10 and 5 x8
Leg Press
sled weight (don’t know how much)+200lbs x20
Leg Extensions
25 and a 10 per leg x10
x10
25, 10, and a 5 x10.
Back/Biceps Day
Pullups
3x8 wide grip
2x8 narrow grip
HS Pulldown-2 plates per side
2x10
Seated Cable Row (V grip)
150x10
170x10
190x6 PR
HS Chest Supported Row (each arm done individually)
2 plates x6
2plates+25 x6
3plates x6 PR
Biceps:
Standing Curls
65x8
65x8
85x4
85x4
Preacher Curls
60x8
60x8
60x8
Cable Curls (individual arms)
40x6
40x6
A really good back day, a decent bicep day.
Tonight- Traps and Shoulder/Rehab and a little triceps
Hang Cleans
135x5
155x5
165x3
HS Shrugs
1 plate/side x10
2 plates/side x10
3 plates/side x10
3 plates+25/side x10
Shoulder Rehab-
some external rotations,
standing, with arm at 90 degrees parallel to ground, rotated to perpendicular.
laying on side with arm at 90 degrees parallel to ground, rotated to perpendicular.
HS Military Press
1plate/sidex6
1plate+10/side x6
1plate+20/side x6
HS Chest Press
2plates/sidex6
2plates+25/sidex6
2plates+25+10/side x6 PR
My shoulders feel fine after the workout and my traps are pretty pumped. Weighed in tonight at 172.
Chest/Tri’s
Incline Db press
60’sx10
70x2
70x3
70x5
HS Incline
1 plate 10/side x6
1 plate 25/side x6
1 plate 25 10/side x5
Incline fly’s
3x10 with 30’s.
Went really deep here and really felt them right under my collarbone. My shoulder started to hurt here, though.
Skullcrushers
75x8
80x8
90x6 then 1 more forced rep.
Close Grip Bench
2x5 135lbs
Finished with some ab exercises. Decent chest workout.
Last week’s leg workout
Front Squats
135x6
155x4
I can’t get front squats to feel anywhere close to comfortable.
Box Squat to parallel
135x10
185x6
225x6
Lunges (I hate theses, which is why i’m making myself do them)
95x6/leg
95x6/leg
96x5/leg
no joke, my glutes started to cramp up at this point.
Hamstring curls
25 10/side x8
samex8
samex6
last week’s back
pullups
3 sets of 8 wide grip
2 sets of 8 narrow grip
Tbar row
2platesx8
3platsx8
3.5 platesx8
HS row
2plates
3x6 single arm
at this point my lower back started to bother me, so i finished up and left.
Last week bodyparts missed
Traps Bi’s
plus rotator cuff work
Smith Shrugs
225x10
225x10
225x10
275x10
Snatch grip smith shrugs
2x10 225
Straight bar curls
70x10
80x10
90x6 PR
Grip work
Held 75lb db’s for about 3 increments of about 40 seconds per hold. forearms got really pumped.
I finished up with about 20 minutes of cable external rotations to hit my shoulders.
Yesterday’s Chest workout
db bench
30’s x12
50’sx8
75’s x6
80’sx6
85’s x4 PR by default ( haven’t done 85’s before)
HS bench
2plates/sidex8
samex8
2plates 25/side x6
Incline flies
30’s x10
30’s x10
30’s x10
Skullcrushers
70x8
80x8
90x8 PR
Kickbacks
20lbx10
20x10
25x8
Felt pretty pumped and tight everywhere, all in all a good workout. I’ll post how my leg workout goes in a few hours.
Leg workout went suprisingly well.
Box Squats
135x12
185x10
Then i went for 225 for 6, but I was still feeling decent after six and pushed on until 10. PR since starting legs again.
Lunges
95x6
115x6
115x6 PR
these were still pretty damn hard. It felt like it was my quads giving out more than my glutes though.
Smith calf raises
135x15
225x10
225x10
135x6 w/ 3 second squeeze at top.
Leg press machine
150x20 (going to keep this as a finisher and try to go up 10-20lbs per week.)
Threw in some neck training because i never really do any and would like to thicken it out.
Held a 25lb plate against forehead, laying on a bench and straightened to parallel to ground 10 times
Smith ball bridges 4x4 seconds ( more my legs than my neck giving out here)
Then i put the smith ball against the wall at head level and pushed as hard as i could against it for 10 seconds on front, back, left, and right side of head. It means I can’t really determine progression, but I think that it worked my neck pretty well.
Weighed in at 173.5lbs. Back workout tomorrow. Feel free to comment with encouragement, criticisms, or just tips. Helps me feel I’m not wasting my time here. lol.
Had a really good back workout, and a decent biceps workout.
Pullups
3x8 wide grip
2x8 narrow grip
I don’t feel like these are getting any easier. I think next week I’m going to lower the reps and sets and make my form super strict, and maybe do HS pulldowns too.
Bent over underhand rows
These made my back hurt, I got a belt, and it still wasn’t feeling the best
135x8
135x8
155x8
I felt like these were mostly biceps and not much lat. I’ve never been good at these.
HS rows (single arm)
1 45,& a 25 x10
2 45’s x6
2 45’s & a 25x6
3 45’sx6 (previous PR)
3 45’s & a 25 PR
3 45’s a 25 and a 10x6 PR
These felt really good, I just powered through them. Form was a little sloppy on the top two sets, and grip felt weak, but hey, a pretty big PR.
Seated Cable rows (V handle)
150x10
170x10
190x10 Previous PR
200x10 PR
220x10 PR
Standing BB curls
70x10
80x10
90x1 *biceps gave out, I think the Bent over rows are to blame)
Preacher curls
65x6
65x5
65x5
Back extension machine
150x10
170x10
190x10
210x10 easy, only goes up to 300. will probably max it out soon. These hit my erector spinae without bothering my spine or w/e my lower back problem is…
Shoulders and shoulder rehab-Thursday June 17th
90 degree angle arm raises
This is my first not-just-rehab day of training shoulders in over 6 months.
Military Press w/ slight jerk
95x8
115x5
125x5
Hammer Strength Military
1 plate/side x6
1 plate/sidex6
1 plate + 25/side x5
Reverse flies
10lb db’sx3x10
Drawing the sword rehab exercise.
Shoulder height cable straight arm reverse fly rehab
arm parallel to ground upward rotations rehab
Today- my shoulders feel fine, and the click that my left shoulder has always made when i bring the arm above 90 degrees relative to my body is a lot less distinct. I’m thinking that the rotator cuff/bringing up in strength of the rear delts is def. helping.
Monday June 21st
Chest/Tri’s
Incline DB’s
65’sx6
70’sx6 PR
75’sx4 PR
Hammer Strength Incline
1 plate/sidex10
1 plate 25/side x2x6
Incline Flies
3x10 with 30’s.
Skullcrushers
70x8
80x8
80x8 ( my left wrist made a pop and started hurting kinda bad partway through)
Tricep pushdown machine
150x6
170x6
190x6
Weighed in at 172. I think I’m going to start a half GOMAD diet, and start drinking half a gallon of whole milk a day in an effort to spur new growth.
Legs went…decent. My lower back started hurting on the top sets of squats, even with a belt.
Box squats
135x10
185x6
225x10
245x5 (back wasn’t feeling the best) PR
Lunges
105x6/leg
115x6/leg previous PR
125x6/leg PR (almost couldn’t finish these)
Hamstring Curls
25/leg x10
x10
x10
These suck. Im pretty bad at them.
Leg press machine burnout
180x20
I then looked and realized the ROM was smaller due to the seat being set differently than last week. Thus, I made the ROM smaller and redid the set for another twenty. pretty difficult after everything else
Side lunges with bodyweight halfway down a basketball court and back.
My knees tend to want to tuck in as I rise on squats, and apparently that’s a sign of tight adductors, which side lunges work. I could tell, these hurt like hell and i had no flexibility here. lol.
Pretty Decent Back/Bicep Session
Wide grip pullups (super strict form, 3-5 second pause at the bottom of each rep)
6
6
4
HS pulldowns
2plates/sidex6
6
6
Seated hammerstrength rows
1plate/armx6
2plates/armx6
3plates/armx6
3plates,25,10/armx8 right arm x6 left arm(grip was giving out)
Straight arm cable pressdowns (stretch lats)
80x10
90x10
90x10
Seated Cable row (V handle)
190x10
190x10
190x10
These were pretty hard after everything else.
Preacher Curls
75lbsx6
65lbsx8
55lbsx10
Hammer preacher db curls (single arm)
20x6/arm
30x6/arm
30x6/arm
biceps were suprisingly tired by this point. I called it a day.
weighed in at 174. One day of half gomad and weight is up already.
Shoulders/rehab/ neck and abs
Rotator cuff warmups
Push press
105x5
125x5
135x4
HS Military
1 plate 5/sidex6
1plate 10 5/sidex6
1plate 25/sidex6
rotator cuff work
body cable crosses
upwards rotations
Cable Face pulls
27.5kgx10
32.5kgx10
37.5kgx10
Reverse Lateral raises
3x10 10lbs
Front Lateral raises
3x10 10lbs
Side Lateral raises
3x10 10lbs
Shoulders felt decent after the workout. I’m still taking it easy laterals so I don’t irritate my shoulder. It felt like my traps were doing a lot of the work on the laterals and face pulls though. I’m wondering how to focus solely on the rear delts…
