Con Ganas

[Dedicated]

Restarting my journal, today is the 31st day of my workout. I won't put my meals and stuff on here it's a hassle and it's why I stopped keeping an online journal the first time. I use a free spreadsheet program to keep track of my meals called gnumeric. I eat 1200-1800 calories a day(usually about 1500), some carbs, and plenty of protein. I take EFA's and vitamins also. The only thing I could possibly improve in my diet is taking a pre-workout shake, and buying some of that dextrose stuff, and eating more vegetables. Other than that, I eat extremely healthy and balanced meals. When I started I was avoiding carbs and this was a mistake, I was also under-eating(like 900-1100 calories), and even possibly overtraining slightly. I never went more than 9 days without cheating(pigging out) because of this and I cheated on an average every 2-5 days. My goal is to be as lean and strong as possible. Btw I'm like 5'10 or so, I only use freeweights and I workout at home.

This was todays workout, and my first workout 4 weeks ago.
4 weeks ago
Bodyweight - 180-195lbs(estimate)
Bench
85 X 12
135 X 10
155 X 5
165 X 4
Decline
135 X 9
145 X 7
155 X 5
Incline
135 X 9
145 X 4
like 8 sets w/low weight

Today
Bodyweight - 168.5 pounds
Bench
85 X 12
135 X 10
165 X 5
195 X 1
185 X 1
Decline
135 X 10
155 X 6
165 X 5
Incline
135 X 10
155 X 4
165 X 3
Flys
20 X 15
20 X 15
20 X 15



Jogging - 1.7 miles 8.5min/per mile, total 14.5 minutes
Stomach - 5 minutes of continous weighted crunches, leg raises, ab-roller

[Dedicated]

166.5 pounds

4 weeks ago
Bent Over Barbell Rows
85 X 12, 10, 10
65 X 12, 10, 10
45 X exhaustion, exhaustion
Deadlifts
135 X 10, 10, 10, 9, 7

Today
Pullovers
45 X 10, 10, 10, 10
Bent Over Barbell Rows
125 X 10
115 X 10, 10
105 X 10, 9
Deadlifts
135 X 12
155 X 10
175 X 7
185 X 6
205 X 1

[Dedicated]

165.5 pounds

Jogging - 25.5 minutes, 2-3 miles prolly
Stomach - 5 minutes continous ab roller, weighted crunches, leg raises

Squats
105 X 10, 10, 10
95 X 10, 9, 8
Lying Leg Curl
10 X 10
20 X 10
30 X 10
45 X 6
Seated Calf Raise
95 X 20, 20, 100

[Dedicated]

167.5 pounds

Military Press
105 X 8, 7, 6
Upright Rows
85 X 10, 10
Lateral Raises
10 X 10, 10
Seated Rear Lateral Raises
10 X 10, 10
Shrugs
135 X 20, 20
Curls
60 X 10, 10
Reverse Curls
40 X 10, 10
Concentration Curls
20 X 10, 10
Wrist Curls
20 X 20, 12

[Dedicated]

168 pounds

Jogging - 1.7 miles 14-15 minutes

[volcamp]

Ded...Good shoulder work man. Looks a lot like mine. God I love workin' shoulders the most. I think you sed before you're a garage sweathog like me. Man, mine has been runnin' about 92 degrees in there at nite. By the time I get done, I'm drenched. The wife and kids run from me when I come back in the house. Wouldn't trade it for the best healthclub in the land. Later.

[Dedicated]

Hahaha yea I come in the house and I'm soaked also. I get yelled at for putting my wet clothes in the laundry basket lol. Yea actually my military press has suffered a bit cause I had been overtraining slightly and I always do it first without a warmup. I think next week I might do the lateral raises first, then hit the militaries to see if that helps improve it. Also next week when I do shoulders I shouldn't be so sore, past 2 weeks I've done them while still recovering from back day.

92 degrees at night is hot lol. I workout early in the mornings cause it's the best time for me to do it. And yea, screw the gym, no way I would actually start my car to drive somewhere to workout, can't do it I'm just too lazy lol.

[JustinF]

Are you going to be putting in your weights to keep track of your progress?

Oh yeah,

[Dedicated]

164.5 pounds

Bench
95lb X 12
135lb X 10
165lb X 5
185lb X 2
Decline
135lb X 10
155lb X 6
175lb X 3
Incline
135lb X 10
155lb X 4
175lb X 3
Flys
20lb X 15, 15, 15

Arm Shocker!
Arm stuff below done in order with 10-30 second rest if even that, almost continous
Curls
50lb X 10, 7, 5
Concentration Curls
20lb X 6, 5, 4
Wrist Curls
20lb X 10
Curls
50lb X 5, 4
Concentration Curls
20lbs X 4, 4, 4


I added the arm stuff cause I had a real good pump going today, it isn't part of my routine. I did it so hopefully when I do arms thursday or friday I will see some improvement. Plenty of time to heal I was gonna do some leg work like squats but I'm doing deadlifts tommorow so that was out. I didn't do any stomach or shoulder work cause I feel that will hinder my lifting tommorow. Also reverse curls were intentionally left out but they are part of my normal arm routine, again this was because that would interfere with tommorows back workout, in particular they would have affected performance on bent-over barbell rows.

I guess I'm gonna become a curl jockey! BTW all my curls are done very slow with 100% PERFECT form. Before I was curling the bar with 85lbs but my form was a little off, so I dropped the weight and now I use flawless form and do them very slow. I do not cheat on any rep and I feel that is more important especially when doing an exercise like curls.

My diet has been very strict, very low calorie intake, until yesterday. Yesterday my diet was about 2300 calories but no junk food. I had lots of nuts, 2 sandwiches on whitewheat bread with ham, salami, and swiss cheese, protein drinks, whole and skim milk, and tuna. Sounds very healthy I know but it exceeded my normal caloric intake hehe. I don't feel guilty cause of what I weighed in today at, an all time low and yet my lifting is slowly improving. My cardio has been cut drastically also.

I'm a little dissapointed in my bench, I might hit bench another time this week IF and only IF I'm recovered fully and I feel I can do it. Like today I was recovered completely and I really felt I could do a little more so I did.

[JustinF]

Good to see the weights posted bro. Good form, good diet, adequate rest=big results. You keep that dedication you'll be good to go bro!

[Dedicated]

Thanks man!

[Dedicated]

Resting today.

[ectx]

How did working in arms with chest work for you?...and why all bi work and no tricep work? Just curious.

keep up the good work...

and

cuz every journal needs it!

[Dedicated]

It worked ok heh, I'm really sore. This morning my left shoulder was killing me, I could barely drive to school! It's feeling much better now though. The soreness was caused from the fly's I bet, those really hurt me.

I only do skullcrushers normally to isolate the tri's cause I think benching works my tri's pretty hard so I didn't do those. But yea it wouldn't have hurt to throw a set in there I didn't think of that hehe.

I'm considering starting HST, still doing research on it. Btw thanks for visiting, always cool to see people reading my journal

[Dedicated]

163 pounds

Resting today.

I woke up and my left shoulder hurts again now, but not as bad as yesterday morning. I'm gonna be starting an HST routine so as soon as my shoulder is recovered 100% I will find my maxes then start Strength Deconditioning. I don't have my routine set in stone yet, but I've gotten several good ideas. Still thinking on it.

[Dedicated]

Wooohooo I got a squat rack and pullup bar FINALLY. I also got some real dumbells to use now, a pair of 5, 8, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35's. VERY happy. Shoulder is feeling much better and tonight I might test some maxes on some exercises, I think I will test the maxes for all the exercises I'm considering to see how they feel, this will give me an idea of how intense the workouts will be. Still not feeling 100% in the upper body though but my legs feel good might test out squat maxes will see hehe.

[volcamp]

If you are not feelin' upto par and shoulder is bothering you, I would delay the maxes for now. Get in a good one, yeah. But I wouldn't be pushin' the envelope right now from the way you say you feel. JMO

[Dedicated]

Yea definitely, it's actually feeling much much better today. I'm gonna go start my maxes right now, although I might hold off on the shoulder maxes, will do other exercises first and see if it starts hurting. I don't think it will, it was just muscle soreness me thinks and it's gone now, will see

[Dedicated]

Shoulder is 100% now no problems while working out. This is my last workout, strength deconditioning has begun. This workout took me several hours because I had to test several different RM's and I had to rest alot inbetween sets.

These were done randomly and in no particular order, my main focus was testing RM's. I'll post all my RM's later.

Lateral Raises
20lbs X 15
30lbs X 5
Seated Lateral Raises
15lbs X 5
12lbs X 10
Barbell Shrugs
205lbs X 5
Flys
35lbs X 5
Bent Over Barbell Rows
135lbs X 5
Deadlifts
195lbs X 5
205lbs X 3
Barbell Bench
185lbs X 2
155lbs X 10
145lbs X 12
Barbell Curls
70lbs X 5
Concentration Curls
35lbs X 5
25lbs X 15
Squats
115lbs X 5
Standing Calf Raise
115lbs X 5
Leg Curls
55lbs X 5
35lbs X 15
Pullups
4
Chinups
4

[Dedicated]

These are my RM's. These are also the exercises I will do, still need to work on sets and alternating exercises. I'm very happy because I set some new records for myself, I didn't know I was this strong.

Military Press
15RM = 95 pounds
10RM = 105 pounds
5RM = 115 pounds

Lateral Raises
15RM = 20 pounds
10RM = 25 pounds
5RM = 30 pounds

Seated Lateral Raises
15RM = 10 pounds
10RM = 12 pounds
5RM = 15 pounds

Barbell Shrugs
15RM = 185 pounds
10RM = 195 pounds
5RM = 205 pounds

Flys
15RM = 25 pounds
10RM = 30 pounds
5RM = 35 pounds

Bent-Over Barbell Rows
15RM = 115 pounds
10RM = 125 pounds
5RM = 135 pounds

Deadlifts
15RM = 185 pounds
10RM = 195 pounds
5RM = 205 pounds

Barbell Bench
15RM = 145 pounds
10RM = 155 pounds
5RM = 175 pounds

Incline Barbell Bench
15RM = 135 pounds
10RM = 145 pounds
5RM = 155 pounds

Barbell Curls
15RM = 50 pounds
10RM = 60 pounds
5RM = 70 pounds

Concentration Curls
15RM = 25 pounds
10RM = 30 pounds
5RM = 35 pounds

Pullups
4 or 5 reps forgot
Chinups
4 or 5 reps forgot

Squats
15RM = 95 pounds
10RM = 105 pounds
5RM = 115 pounds

Standing Calf Raise
15RM = 95 pounds
10RM = 105 pounds
5RM = 115 pounds

Leg Curls
15RM = 35 pounds
10RM = 45 pounds
5RM = 55 pounds

[Dedicated]

This is my new HST routine.

1 X Military Press
1 X Lateral Raises
1 X Seated Lateral Raises
1 X Barbell Shrugs
1 X Barbell Bench
1 X Incline Barbell Bench
1 X Flys
1 X Barbell Curls
1 X Concentration Curls
1 X Bent-Over Barbell Rows
1 X Deadlifts
1 X Pullups/Chinups
1 X Squats
1 X Standing Calf Raise
1 X Leg Curls

15 sets every Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Pullups on Mondays/Friday
Chinups on Wednesday only

I decided to deadlift and squat 3x a week because I think I will be ok if I keep everything at 1 set. I'm gonna be sore for days after todays workout perfect time for strength deconditioning heh. I'm gonna pick up some 2.5 pound plates before I calculate reps, I calculated them alrdy but things would be smoother with some 2.5 plates. Anyways no working out for 9-12 days, it's gonna SUCK when I'm recovered and I can't workout.

[Dedicated]

162 pounds

Resting, Day 1 of strength deconditioning.

[Dedicated]

162.5 pounds

Resting, Day 2 of strength deconditioning. I wanna workout.

[Dedicated]

I've decided to use my own perveted version of HST instead of the one off the website. Now that I have all these cool maxes I can break them lol. When I first lifted weights years ago I saw amazing results with such high frequency. After reading everything I've read I think I know why I made gains, so hopefully I can do it again by keeping the frequency high without taxing my CNS. I will post my workout later.

[Dedicated]

Full Body High Reps 15's

Bodyweight 162.5 pounds

Legs
Squats 95lbs X 15
Leg Curls 35lbs X 15
Standing Calf Raises 95lbs X 15 these felt AWESOME
Chest
Bench 145lbs X 12 couldn't get 15
Incline Bench 135lbs X 11 couldn't get 15
Flys 25lbs X 15
Back
Bent Over Barbell Rows 115lbs X 15 these were hard
Deadlifts 185lbs X 12 Chose not to get 15, hard
Shrugs 185lbs X 10 lost grip on these
Pullups 1.5 reps
Chinups 2 reps
Shoulders
Military Press 95lbs X 11 couldn't get 15, was pretty spent at this point
Lateral Raises 20lbs X 15 bad form near the end
Seated Reverse Lateral Raises 8lbs X 15 these felt good
Biceps
Barbell Curl 50lbs X 15 form bad on last rep
Concentration Curl 25lbs X 15 after 12 cheated
Stomach
5 minutes of nonstop situps, russian twists, crunches, leg raises etc

Overall great workout, I basically tryed to hit all my 15 rep maxes. It's apparent that I overestimated a few but it's no big deal. Not sure if I will do 15's again next workout, but I will keep these exercises, this is fun and it's definitely enough exercises. There is no direct tricep work in this routine, maybe something to think about, will see. If I start to feel overtrained which I highly doubt instead of skipping a workout I will just tone it down, I think the frequency will bring big gains. Feels really good to be doing fullbody again. It's like going back to my roots or some **** I dunno, feels great. I told a few of my friends who lift I was gonna start doing fullbody again and they're all like "welcome back" rofl. The only difference is that this time my exercises are more varied, it's way more fun this way though hehe.


Oh the Standing Calf Raises Felt GREAT. When I tested these I only tested my 5RM and it was really uncomfortable. It was bugging me but today I got my form down with these and they really burned! I use two 45lb plates and set the front half of my foot on the edge of each and just go up on my toes. Thanks to the squat rack I can do these, squats, and even militaries easier now. I don't have to actually bring the weight up to my shoulders now, just grab it off the rack.

My diet sucked last night, I went out and got trashed(not with alcohol though) and then came home and ate everything in the house. What's funny is that this morning I weighed in at 162.5lbs, it's like where did the food go LOL. I had healthy foods though like cheese, sandwiches with deli cuts, tons of milk with protein powder, oh and a frozen pretzel heh.