Some Random Friday Links

It's Friday!  No gym yesterday.  Instead, here are some interesting links on stuff that ranges from infuriating to somewhat interesting.  Enjoy.

A story of a teenager in highschool who had an asthma attack - but the school wouldn't let him use his inhaler b/c of zero tolerance rules.

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/05/25/apparently_the_1.html#comments

An opinion piece about how low pitch counts may be contributing to pitching injuries.  I lol'd when he called today's pitchers panzies. 

http://bigapplemetstalk.com/?p=5002

And some tips from professionals in their prime.

http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/05/22/pro-tips/

Enjoy the holiday!

Deadlifts and quasi-pain

Ahh... pain.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I've been feeling pain lately in my lower back, upper right buttocks area.  Not soreness, or muscle pain.  It's more like sharp, occasional shooting pains that probably have something to do with a nerve in there.  I "feel it" when deadlifting or last week when I did RDL's.  It doesn't particularly hurt, but I "feel it."  Same when I'm doing squats and rows too.

I'm only mentioning it because I've been feeling it for a few weeks now, and it hasn't gone away.  I felt it during my last deadlift session earlier this month too.  I also feel sharp, shooting pain sometimes randomly when walking if I step funny, or if I'm bending down or shifting weight from foot to foot.  In other words, somewhat random.  Not crazy pain, just short and a little sharp.

Now that THAT's out of the way, onto my hamstrings.  I did RDL's on Tuesday last week, and my hammies were sore for over a week afterwards.  This means, going into Sunday's softball game, my hamstrings were still sore.  I was OK, and able to sprint with no problem.  But, Monday through even still today, my hamstrings are still sore.  I went into this deadlift session last night expecting to have some problems.  Either I wouldn't be able to deadlift at all, or I'd be really weak.

I had problems alright.  But not with my hamstrings, and not with the silly pains in my right ass-cheek.  My GRIP was failing.  Repeatedly.  Talk about frustration.  My back was loving 295 and wanted me to go to 305, but my hands and wrists were just dying.  I was practically dropping the 4th reps of every set, including the last one where I took 20lbs off.

The only reason I can think of is maybe because I've been doing random bodyweight chinups throughout the week... but I do this often, it shouldn't have any real impact.  I don't know, but it was a little frustrating.

5/23/12 - Wednesday
Deadlifts - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
295x4
295x4
275x4

Upright Rows - 4 sets
45x8 (warmup)
65x8
85x7
85x7
65x8

Barbell Bicep Curls - 3 sets
45x8 (warmup)
75x8
85x6
65x8

Deadlifts, while my hands were failling, I felt much better on form.  Despite hammies being sore, I was still using them correctly in the lift, instead of my quads.  I usually tend to use my quads to almost squat the weight up, instead of using hamstring tension to pull it up.  I used hamstrings much more yesterday.

Upright rows, the weight may be a little light, but my reps are more "complete" and I feel like I'm getting the most bang for my buck if I keep the weight lighter.

And finally, I was the jerk curling in the squat rack.  I've officially done it twice now in the past few months.  At this point, my hands and forearms felt like shit.  I'm glad I pushed it up to 85 for a few reps though.

If I don't post before then, enjoy your Memorial Day!

No Weekend Workout

I planned on going to the gym on Saturday, but no dice.  Instead, I spent 5 hours at a Hyundai dealership on Saturday.  I traded in my 2008 Mustang and some cash for a 2009 Hyundai Accent and 2009 Kia Rio.

What a deal! Psyyyyyyyyych!

Google images for the win

My wife's car was a 96 Sentra and has seen better days.  We figure with a baby on the way she needs a more reliable car, and I need a more baby friendly car.  So I traded in my Mustang for both the Accent and a 2009 Kia Rio.  Both are used, but in good shape.  Of course, nobody wants to give away a Mustang, but after a (very) long discussion, we both agreed that it's the best thing.

And while this absolutely puts our house hunting on hold, it's well worth it.  We get rid of a huge car payment, and can save faster in the long run to buy a house.  Next, we're thinking of paying off our student loans so we can save another 200 each month.  It's a tough decision because if we get too dedicated towards paying off loans, we're not dedicated towards saving for a house.

Sunday morning I played softball and we lost both games again.  It sucks to lose, but we're having a lot of fun playing anyway.  I love that I'm getting my ass kicked every Monday morning.  Getting out of bed today was rough.  I'm sore all over, and my shoulder hurts bad from throwing through an injury.

I'll be honest, I probably won't go to the gym tonight.  I'm feeling like an old man lol.

Here's something funny to keep you happy in the meantime...

Continuing with incline bench

I'm sticking with incline bench.  I don't like it because I'm just ridiculously weak in my shoulders, but I think it's what I need.  I haven't worked out my shoulders in a long time, and it's a problem. I have practically no upper body strength.

It shows when I can flat bench for 205, but can barely get up 165 on an incline.  Shitty.

I did some rows too, and absolutely felt sharp pain in my lower back.  I've kind of been getting this pain every once in a while, but it hasn't been bad.  I felt it a little last week when I deadlifted, but it didn't impact my session at all.  I think I even posted that I felt great.  Needless to say, I felt it last night and kept the weight lower as a result.

Anyway, here are the sets.

5/18/12 - Thursday
Incline Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
115x5 (warmup)
155x6
155x6
145x6

Cable Rows (universal machine) - 3 sets
90x10 (warmup)
120x10 (warmup)
150x8
150x8
150x8

Bent Barbell Bicep Curls - 1 set
80x10


It's friday.  I found a funny video of a dog who skateboards and surfs.  Seriously.  Evidently it was on an iphone commercial, but I never saw it.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

A positively "eh" session at the gym

Had a weird day at the gym.  Absolutely sucked at squats, but the rest of my workout went really well.  I'll get the sets out of the way first, then I'll talk about how bad the squats were.

5/15/12 - Tuesday
Squats - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
185x5 (warmup)
225x3
215x4
185x4 - failed on 5th rep

Upright Rows - 4 sets
45x10 (warmup)
85x8
105x5
105x5
85x8

Romanian Deadlifts - 3 sets
135x7
135x7
135x7

Straight Barbell Bicep Curls - 2 sets
75x8
75x7


As you can see, my squatting was terrible.  I don't know what it is with my legs, but I'm having a lot of trouble finding power when I come up.  I don't feel confident under the bar at all.  I literally was doing 20 rep squats with 185 a while back, and now I can barely squeeze out 5 reps.  The only redeeming thing is that I'm going the deepest I've ever gone.  No joke. At 185, I actually went so deep that I hit the crossbars in the squat rack on my 5th rep... which was partly why I couldn't get it up.  I bounced around and then ended up just dropping it.

Rows went very well.

RDL's were intense.  I haven't done them in a long time, and my hamstrings were crying like a little girl.  Felt really good though.  You should really, really do RDL's.  Here's my post on them:

http://takeittothedepths.blogspot.com/2011/12/some-information-on-rdls.html

Here's the original post on 70's big which I highly recommend you read:

http://70sbig.com/blog/2011/06/the-rdl/

And biceps were....well biceps.  Nothing new.

I'm pissed about squats, but happy about the rest of the workout.  And BTW, I did the entire thing in 1 squat rack.

Exhausted

This weekend was a little rough, physically and sleepily.  Most of it was my own fault, staying out too late or just not going to sleep when I should have.  It all started Thursday.

Thursday night has become the weeknight that I go out with a few friends, have a few drinks, and play some cards.  This Thursday ended up being a few more drinks, a few more cards, and went a little later.  I got home early Friday morning around 1:30, and had to be up for work at 6:30.

While I lasted alright through the day on Friday, the afternoon/evening was another story.  My wife and I planned all week to spend this weekend rearranging some furniture.  When I got home from work, Anna was already getting started.  We spent the rest of the night moving dressers, a couch, a bed and 2 closets around.  When we were finally done, we ate some dinner and immediately went to sleep.

Saturday morning, I woke up somewhat refreshed, and went to the gym.  I'll post my sets later, but suffice it to say I did some more incline bench (which I sucked at, btw) and weighted chinups.  And bi's and tri's.  Went home, ate some eggs and headed out to my friends place to help him move.  After about 5 hours, we finished up.  I ended up having a few friends over for dinner.  Afterwards, we had a repeat of Thursday night: cards and some drinks, and most importantly, another late night.

And Sunday?  Well, Sunday was mothers day.  Brunch, then a BBQ dinner, and a visit with my mother in law. All topped off with a ridiculously huge chocolate ice cream cone with crunchies.  Man, that was good.  And stupid.  Last night I was asleep by 9:30.  This morning I'm feeling much better.

What a weekend.  Fun, tiring, and totally worth it. Here are my sets from the Saturday gym session.

5/12/12 - Saturday
Incline Bench - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x5 (warmup)
165x3
155x4
145x5

Weighted Chins - 5 sets - 22 reps
25x5
25x5
25x4
25x4
25x4

Tricep Rope Pulldown - 3 sets
60x7
50x8
50x8

Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 1 set
70x10

My thoughts and feelings afterwards?  Incline bench sucked.  Sucked bad.  I think it's because I haven't worked out my shoulders in something ridiculous, like 3-4 months.  Either that, or I just suck.  Happy with weighted chins.  The triceps thing was a different pulley system than the regular universal.  One one side I can do like 120 lbs on triceps, on the other I can only do 50.  And finally, by the time I started doing biceps, I was feeling so tight in my forearms, I knew it was a bad idea.  And then I was having visions of dropping my friends couch later that day because my grips were too tired.  I made the wise decision to just go home and eat.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

My Wife is Pregnant

In the relatively short time I've had this blog, I 've done my best to keep it focused mostly on lifting, and occasionally mention things like my diet and some general things that are going on in my life.  Like softball, or the shoulder injury.  I try not to get TOO personal.  I know this blog isn't even really read by too many people, but it's still public, and I don't like to put myself out there too much.

It's been tough to talk about anything here without mentioning this huge change in my life.  So, here it is.  We have a baby on the way!  We've known for a while now, and she's about 13 weeks along, just into her 4th month. We've done multiple sonograms, we've seen the baby moving around, and she's taking the giant sized prenatal vitamins.  I'm feeling really excited, happy, and yes, a even little scared too.  But I think that's normal.

Look, I can even make a joke about how it's "obviously" a boy! ::wink wink::

My wife, Anna, is handling it very well.  She's eating right, and she's still going to the gym.  She's been lifting heavy for a while now, and she doesn't want that to stop.  She's just using common sense with her workouts.  She'll squat, but she's not going for PRs.  Same with deadlifts and the other big exercises.  We've read that it's no good to bench press because of the pressure while laying on your back, so we've switched to incline bench.  (Hence, my incline bench post the other day)  And even then, she's not going too heavy.  On top of all that, she's doing rows, shrugs, and a few chinups here and there.  Nothing too crazy, but she's making sure that she stays active, which is great.

She's taken to walking more often, and while her diet hasn't been perfect, she's been doing a fantastic job.  Getting lots of protein and fat from meat and dairy, and she's been staying away from grains for the most part.  She is eating some carbs, mostly from potatoes, fruits and vegetables.  Did I say she's been loving dairy?  Anna's been having lots of cravings for milk, cheese and greek yogurt.  Dark chocolate too.

All in all, we're both tremendously excited, and we can't wait to see what's next!

A good deadlift session

Worked late on Tuesday, so I wasn't able to lift.  I still worked a little late on Wednesday, but I got out in time to slip into the gym and sneak in some deadlifts.  Gotta say, I felt great.  Had no trouble pulling 295 for 5 reps, and almost had to force myself to back down to 285 for the sake of patience.

As I've said, I'm trying to go slow and steady upwards so that I can blow through my deadlift PR of 325 for 5 reps.  It's slow going, b/c I alternate deadlifting and squatting each week.  With softball on Sunday's, my legs are always a little sore for a few days afterwards.  It's tough to squeeze in both squats, deadlifts, and a day of crazy sprinting all within 7-10 days.  In just a few more weeks I should be back up

Here are the sets/

5/9/12 - Wednesday
Deadlifts - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
295x5
285x5
285x5

Bent Bar Bicep Curls - 2 sets
80x7
70x8

That's it!  As usual, I was rushed.  The final game of the Knicks vs Heat was on, and I wanted to watch.  Even though I knew they were gonna lose.  I wasn't dissapointed!

In other sports news, the Mets are killing it right now.  5 in a row!  Lets go METS!

Incline Bench!

Saturday I did some incline bench for the first time in a long while.  In fact, according to this blog the last time I benched at an incline was 11/14/11.  That's almost 6 months ago!  Either way, I was not impressed.  I barely got up 165.

Maybe I can blame some of that on my shoulder.  It's still injured, and it still hurts a lot when I try and throw (which I've been doing every Sunday).  After getting an MRI done, the doctor I'd been seeing had good news and bad news. The good: he doesn't see anything wrong with my rotator cuff, or really even my shoulder in general.  The bad news: I'm still in pain, and he can't figure out why.

The result is that I need to see a shoulder specialist (who he recommended).  I just don't want another copay.  At 40 bucks a pop, out of nowhere I've spent 160 bucks on doctors visits in the past month or so.  Something needs to be done, so I'll be making an appointment sooner rather than later.

Here are my sets from the gym.

5/5/12 - Saturday
Incline Bench - 4 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x5 (warmup)
155x5
165x4
165x3
155x4

Upright Rows - 3 sets
70x8
80x8
80x8

Bicep Curls - 3 sets
70x8
70x8
70x8

If all goes well today at work, and I get out on time, I'll be at the gym deadlifting tonight.

Wednesday Night Squatting

As the title suggests, I squatted last night.  Legs were actually still tired from softball on Sunday.  In and of itself, that's ridiculous, but I guess I'm relatively out of shape when it comes to sprinting around for a few hours.  I didn't do as many reps as last time, but I felt really solid on my form and depth.

5/2/12 - Wednesday
Squats - 3 sets
135x8 (warmup)
185x5 (warmup)
225x3
225x4
225x3

Weighted Chinups - 5 sets (22 reps total)
25x5
25x5
25x4
25x4
25x4

It was a short workout, but felt good.  I'm pleased with the progress on chinups.  Since I can do them at home now, it might be a good idea for me to increase the frequency.

Friday I have a Biometric Screening at my office, related to my health insurance.  I'm actually kind of excited to see how it turns out.  They're doing a finger prick cholesterol test, blood glucose, and a blood pressure test.  Also measuring height, weight and BMI.  And I have to fast for 8 hours, which is nothing new to me.

What I'm REALLY interested is afterwards, a health coach is going to meet to discuss the results and provide dietary and exercise advice.  I want to ask his or her opinion on my diet, and see what they say.  It's always interesting to get other people's opinions on that kind of stuff, regardless of what I think.

Anyway, Friday is bench day.  I'm gonna do incline bench with my wife.