The Oratory of Delphi

[Delphi]

Intro
I keep track of my workouts religiously with a program I wrote in, you guessed it, Delphi 5 Pro. I probably won't post my workouts here on a daily basis. I will post here some stuff about my workout scheme in general, equipment, etc.

Stats
age- 42
height- 6'3"
weight- 206
bf- 12-21% depending on if I set my wife's Tanita scale to Adult or Athlete- probably 15-16%
measurements- don't have em

Equipment
Bowflex Power Pro
410# of power rods (max available)
homemade squat attachment
leg attachment
lat pulldown atachment
Body-Solid VKR for chins, dips, leg raises

General Statements
1) I know freeweights are the ideal for lifting.
2) I don't have a schedule conducive to using a gym.
3) Wouldn't want to use a gym even if I could.
4) No spotter available for freeweight squats and bench presses- wife has Sacro-Iliac Syndrome.
5) I don't do the bull caca workout you see on the Bowflex commercials.
6) Workouts are focused on compound exercises- squats, deads, bench presses, dips, chinups, rows.
7) Can't do flyes, upright rows, lateral raises bacause of rotator cuff problem.
8) I can occasionally do overhead presses but they scare me.
9) Delts look surprisingly good, considering 7 & 8.
10) I'm aware that Bowflex poundages are 10-15% inflated over freeweight numbers.
11) I'm not interested in whether Bowflex exercises translate into the "real world." I stand at an O.R. table, drive A LOT between hospitals, and walk from patient to patient during the day. Freeweights don't translate to those activities, either.
12) Now that I've established my Don't-Give-a-Sh!t attitude toward Bowflex vs freeweights, I'll proceed with my workouts.

[Delphi]

General
I do a high-intensity, fairly low-volume workout. I'm almost a HIT jedi. I have a push-pull split. I work out every third day, sometimes every 4th, depending on my work schedule. I don't recover quickly enough to do a workout every other day. Workouts last 30-45 minutes.

Sets
I usually do 2 sets per exercise. Occasionally I'll do a third set on something if I want to work a little more on a body part. I try to rotate that around so that each part gets an extra set every now and then. I do the compound exercises first, then a few isolation exercises, then some ab work each workout.

Reps
squats and deads- work up to 20 reps, then go up 10# the next workout
other compounds (rows, bench press, pulldowns)- work up to 12 reps, then go up in weight
isolation (curls, pushdowns)- work up to 10-12, then go up in weight
chinups- work up to 8 reps, then add weight
abs- work up to 15 reps, then add weight

[Delphi]

Explaining the jibberish
I'll be cutting and pasting info out of my workout program. It stores data in two Ini files for each month- one for date, one for body part. The splits below show the body part, then the exercise. The = sign is there because it's an Ini file. I'm too lazy to delete all the = signs. I'll eventually have a web page set up so you can see what the program looks like. Will probably put the program there for download, if anybody wants to play around with it.

Push
Quads- Squat=
Pecs- Parallel Dip=
Pecs- Bench Press=
Calf- One Leg Calf Raise= (one-legged)
Delts- Overhead Press=
Triceps- Triceps Pushdown=
Abs- Side Crunch=

Push
Lats- Chinup=
Erectors- Dead Lift=
Traps- Shoulder Shrug=
Lats- Seated Row=
Lats- Pulldown=
Biceps- Curl=
Forearms- Wrist Curl=
Abs- Inclined Crunch=
Abs- Seated Crunch=


The Push day is fairly constant between workouts. On Pull day I'll mix up the order or selection of the secondary back exercises, depending on if I want to emphasize my back or biceps on that particular day.

[Delphi]

Here's my most recent workouts. The format:

[Date]
Group=(Push or Pull)
(Exercise #)=(Body Part)- Set #1, Set #2, Set #3

Each set is listed as (# reps)/(weight)

Here's my last 2 workouts. I got switched around on my ab workouts this week, so they're backwards regarding push/pull days. The Pull day was started at about 9:30 pm, so it's a little more abbreviated than usual.

[24]
Group=Push
01=Quads- Squat, 17/270, 10/240
02=Pecs- Parallel Dip, 8/7, 4/5
03=Pecs- Bench Press, 4.5/260, 4.5/220
04=Calf- One Leg Calf Raise, 21/370, 15/370, 11/370
05=Delts- Overhead Press, 11/90, 5.5/80
06=Triceps- Triceps Pushdown, 9/110, 7/90
07=Quads- Leg Extension, 7/250
08=Abs- Inclined Crunch, 17/160
09=Abs- Seated Crunch, 14/170


[27]
Group=Pull
01=Lats- Chinup, 6.5/6, 2.5/4, 1.5/4
02=Erectors- Dead Lift, 14/310, 13/270
03=Traps- Shoulder Shrug, 6/300, 9/280, 6/260
04=Lats- Seated Row, 12/260
05=Biceps- Curl, 7.5/104, 5.5/104, 7/90
06=Abs- Side Crunch, 13/160, 9/160


I am most disappointed with my chinups. Even with no extra weight, I cannot seem to do more then 9 reps. I decided to start adding weight, rather than trying to do more reps. I've gained 20# over the last 3 months, so the chinups are progressing, just not in terms of # of reps. This workout was the first time I had hung 6# on my belt. I add weight whenever I get to 7.5 or 8 reps.

[Tryska]

*clears throat*

you forgot to mention the fact that you don't have opposable thumbs in your general statements, doctor.

hee hee....right on! you created a journal so i can heckle you!

umm...question? why don't the hammies have fair representation?

i suppose squats will hit them a little, but i think you should overcome the fear of SLDLs.

[Delphi]

*clears throat*

you forgot to mention the fact that you don't have opposable thumbs in your general statements, doctor.

*flings poo*

umm...question? why don't the hammies have fair representation?

i suppose squats will hit them a little, but i think you should overcome the fear of SLDLs.

I've had lumbar strains in the past. I've had to get on a Medrol DosePack twice in the last year and a half. With either standing or driving most of the day I can't afford to have that happen again. I haven't had any problems since I started doing bldl's, but I'm too chicken to do sldl's. I have a leg attachment and recently started doing leg extensions after squats. I may start occasionally doing leg curls after bldl's.



note to self: Trash Tryska's journal sometime next week :evillaugh

[Delphi]

I bought this Bowflex thing in January and lifted 4-5 times a week, too many sets overall, too many isolation exercises. I've maxed out on two-legged calf raises and have switched to doing one-legged calf raises. The leg attachment lets me do leg extensions and leg curls. These alone are not sufficient for working out the legs, IMO. There is a way to do leg presses, but there's not enough resistance available to do any good. One-legged leg presses on this thing are dangerous.

I bought the squat attachment in late July and started doing squats and bent-legged dead lifts at that time. The BLDL's have been progressing steadily since then. The squat attachment has curled side edges which limit how wide a stance I can use. I eventually made a new squat attachment out of pressed wood that lets me use as a wide a stance as I need. I was immediately able to do squat heavier without discomfort in the knees and back. I'll eventually post links to some picture of my workout equipment and I'll show it then.


Here's my squats since I started doing them in July:

July
13=11/160, 11/180, 9/180, 8/180
20=13/160, 11/180, 10/180
(layoff due to back pain)

August (doing a whole-body routine at that time)
11=7/200
16=9/200
20=11/200
23=10/200
28=10/220
30=16/220

September (switched to a push/pull split, made the new squat attchment)
04=10/240, 6/220
10=14/240, 7/220
17=10/250, 6/220
23=13/250, 9/220
29=15/250, 8/220

October
06=20/250, 6/220
13=8/260, 8/230, 6/200
23=13/260, 7/230
31=16/260, 7/230

November
06=20/260, 7/230
11=5/270, 9/240
17=11/270, 9/240
24=17/270, 10/240

December
01=20/270, 10/240


Here's my deadlifts since August:

August (doing a whole-body routine at that time)
04=7/200
07=10/200, 6/200
11=10/220
16=9/240
20=11/240
28=15/240

September (switched to a push/pull split)
02=16/250
07=14/260
14=13/270
20=20/280
26=7/290, 8/290

October
03=20/290
15=10/300, 10/260
(stopped doing them to avoid overtraining, but noticed a drop-off)
(in progress on shrugs and some loss in gripping ability)

November
03=9/300, 7/260
14=14/300, 11/260
21=20/300
27=14/310, 13/270
(should be able to do 20/310 when I do deads again on 12/4)


I've found out that I can use DB-type grips instead of a bar for deads, which makes the lift more of a trap bar-style deadlift. I did this a couple of times when my back was tight. It works the quads more puts less strain on my lumbar area.

[Tryska]

leg curls are an excellent idea......although, wouldn't getting your core muscles up to par lessen the chances of suffering lumbar strain again?

those are sme nice numbers for squats and deads...do you know roughly what the conversion would be from bowflex to iron?

[Delphi]

My spinal erectors have gotten better since I started doing bldl's and squats. I've always had some degree of low back discomfort and this is the first prolonged period of time where I haven't. I'm afraid of pushing my luck. To tell the truth, I've never actually seen anybody do sldl's and don't have any real access to people that do. I'm a LONER, you see. LOL There's a good deal of hip extension that occurs with bldl's and that's about as far as I'm brave enough to go for now. . Call me a wimp. I'll look in my Stuart MCRobert book and see if he describes it. If he does I might reconsider.

The official Bowflex line is that the resistance is roughly equal to freeweights. They're FOS on that, as they are on LOTS of things. (I plan in the near future to post some pics showing how they recommend doing OHP's and how I found is a safe way to do it. Their way causes you to pull from behind your back. I'm convinced now that that's how I fried my rotator cuff.)

Back to the subject, I estimate that the Bowflex numbers are inflated up to 10-15% over freeweights, depending on the exercise. I have no hard evidence, but I noticed that much discrepancy when I used a gym in the hotel we stayed at in Washington DC this spring. Triceps pushdowns are probably about the same, while bench pressing with the pec bars extended out have the largest discrepancy. On the latter exercise, extending the pec bars causes the rods to be bent from a less severe angle. One day I might post pics of that, too.

They're showing a Bowflex commercial on TV as I write this. Those commercials are completely FOS. I like my machine and my workouts, but I can't stand the company or the commercials. See, I'm not brainwashed.

[Tryska]

la la la la.....

Do SLDLs like a Girl.....

click on workouts, the the kompleat kompendium then scroll to one-legged deadlift, and click the link for proper deadlift form......

[Delphi]

Dork and Diva- I love it. I want a girl to come SHOW me how to do them.

[Neil]

If you don't mind me asking, what is Sacro-Iliac syndrome?

[Delphi]

Originally posted by Neil
If you don't mind me asking, what is Sacro-Iliac syndrome?

There's a relatively immobile joint on each side of the sacrum where it attaches to the back of the pelvis. Very tough ligaments hold it in place. If the ligaments get torn or stretched it causes lots of pain, especially when the body is flexed forward at the pelvis. Laura did hers in on the left side by arching her back while trying to do incline situps. Hers has been screwed up for over a year now. She's tried PT, chiropractic manipulation, and steroid injections.

Here's a link to a good page on it.

[Neil]

thanks doc, good info.

[Delphi]

Did my Pull routine tonight. Fairly disappointing workout- first one of those in quite a while. Did the Push routine Saturday and didn't follow up with the usual protein powder shakes and creatine. Also didn't eat very much over the weekend. Hopefully the next workout will be better.

[04]
Group=Pull
01=Lats- Chinup, 6.5/6, 3.5/4, 6 neg- no progress from last time
02=Erectors- Dead Lift, 15/310, 10/270
03=Traps- Shoulder Shrug, 8/300, 9/280
04=Biceps- Curl, 6/124- really sucked
05=Lats- Pulldown, 6/200, 4/160
06=Lats- Reverse Grip Pulldown, 5/160
07=Abs- Seated Crunch, 16/170, 11/170

[Delphi]

Last workout was Friday. It was most excellent, Garth.

[07]
Group=Push
01=Quads- Squat, 12/280, 8/260
02=Pecs- Bench Press, 10/260, 5/200
03=Pecs- Parallel Dip, 4/10, 3/6
04=Calf- One Leg Calf Raise, 22/370, 18/370, 10/370
05=Quads- Leg Extension, 12/250
06=Delts- Overhead Press, 9/100, 8/80
07=Pecs- Front Downward Fly, 10/120, 7/100
08=Abs- Side Crunch, 11/170, 10/170


Squats
A new revelation hit me. My center of strength on squats lies between my heels. If I concentrate on "pushing down" on this area with my heels I am Superman. Instead of feeling strain in the quads and back, it becomes a whole-body exercise. I just stand up and it's my entire body doing it. Friday was the first time I had tried 280. Usually I would have had trouble getting into a standing position and completing the first rep. No problem at all. The last two times I went up in weight I made 8 and 5 reps. This time it was 12.

Bench press
Moved this in front on parallel bar dips for two reasons:
#1) Had been doing dips first since 11/11 and my triceps were fried by the time I did bench presses. I had made no progress on benches since then. On the other hand I had gone from 9/5 (reps/weight) to 10/7.
#2) Wrists are usually sore the day after doing dips. The last week they've been sore every day. Thinking about laying off dips for a week or so to let the soreness go away. Bench presses don't bother them. I'm making sure my wrists are not hyperextended, but there is some abduction (radial deflection) that I cannot avoid.

overhead press
Loving getting back to these. Found a way to do them on the Bowflex without the resistance coming from behind me. I'll post pics of this soon, I promise. *puts check in the mail* No shoulder pain AT ALL. Next step is to reclaim doing flyes!

calf raises
These are one-legged. Trying to get up to 25 reps on the first set. At about 20 reps the calves are getting pumped and I'm having trouble maintaining full ROM. Oh well, I've added a third set. Hopefully I'll gain more mass.

[Delphi]

Did my Pull routine tonight. Several interesting things happened:

Deadlifts- legs were weak and lower back didn't feel right. Quit after 1.5 reps on 1st set. Will try them again in 6 days.

Chinups- I've been trying to add weight since I don't seem to be able to do more than 8 reps no matter what weight I use, including none. Currently stuck at 7 reps with 6 lbs on belt. Overtraining? Next workout I won't do any chins or pulldowns.

Hammer curls- made some grips for them, using old broken grips I had for the Bowflex. Enjoyed doing them. I may actually start doing them instead of supinated grip curls for awhile.

BTW, I've ordered Captain of Crush grips from IronMind. Ordered the Trainer and #1. Plan on doing grip work at the end of Pull days.



[10]
Group=Pull
01=Lats- Chinup, 7/6, 2.5/4, 5 neg
02=Traps- Shoulder Shrug, 12/300, 8/280
03=Lats- Seated Row, 8/270, 8/240
04=Traps- Scapular Retraction, 12/270, 10/250
05=Lats- Pulldown, 7/200
06=Forearms- Hammer Curl, 9/90, 7/70, 7/50
07=Abs- Inclined Crunch, 20/160, 15/160
08=Abs- Seated Crunch, 11/180

[PowerManDL]

IronMind has the coolest training stuff. Soon as I get some cash, I'm going to go on a frenzy.

[Delphi]

I'm keeping track of my workout with a program I wrote in Delphi Pro 5. I had previously posted a link to a very ugly webpage that had some shots of the program's main screen and some pop-up windows. Now that I've loaded my HTML editor on my laptop I've redone the webpage. The links:

The main screen...

With a pop-up date log...

With a pop-up graph...

A page with all the pics at once...



If anybody wants to download a zip file containing the program with some data files (600kb) send me a PM with your email address in it. If you decide you want to use it I can tell you how to customize it for your own use. I've only tried it at 1024x768 resolution so I may have to tweak it for use at other screen sizes. It's only for Windoze. If you have a Mac, then GET A REAL COMPUTER.

[Delphi]

Push day today:

[13]
Group=Push
01=Quads- Squat, 16/280, 9/260
02=Pecs- Bench Press, 12/260, 5.5/200
03=Pecs- Parallel Dip, 6/10, 3/6
04=Calf- One Leg Calf Raise, 18/380, 12/380, 7/380
05=Delts- Overhead Press, 10/100, 10/80
06=Quads- Leg Extension, 7.5/260, 8/200
07=Abs- Side Crunch, 13/170, 10/170
08=Abs- Russian Twist, 10/10

Had a new personal best on *every* lift today . Push days have definitely been going better than Pull days lately. I think the main reason for that is the fact that I'm doing very few isolation exercises except for calf raises and leg extensions. Haven't done any triceps isolation exercises for several workouts. By the time I've done bench presses, dips, and overhead presses I don't need to do any additional triceps work. I need to find a way to do the same on Pull days.

Did Russian twists for the first time today. Seemed to go OK, but I definitely don't have the form down yet. Did twists with 10 pounds and will keep it there until I'm sure I'm doing them correctly.

Legs are definitely weak and fatigued tonight. Went to see Behind Enemy Lines afterward and had trouble sitting in a chair for that length of time. People behind me must have hated me for shifting around as much as I did. Now if I can just get some sleep tonight without my legs being all jumpy.

[Tryska]

hehe....how are your legs feeling today?

congrats ont he personal bests...great work!

[Delphi]

5:30 workout
6:30 supper
7:30 Behind Enemy Lines
9:30 surf the net
11:20 go to bed
11:30 paged by the ER
1:30 to the OR for an appendectomy
3:00 back home in bed
3:30 paged by a nurse
5:20 alarm goes off



Eight hours of sleep a night? Yeah, right.


Legs feel thick. So does my brain.

[Tryska]

ahh..ya gotta love being on call.

look at it this way....you saved somebody's life last night.

[Delphi]

Pull day once again.


[16]
Group=Pull
01=Lats- Chinup, 9.5/0, 3.5/4
02=Erectors- Dead Lift, 9/310
03=Traps- Shoulder Shrug, 7/310, 7/280
04=Lats- Seated Row, 11/270, 10/240
05=Forearms- Hammer Curl, 10/90, 8/70, 8/50
06=Abs- Inclined Crunch, 20/160, 17/160
07=Abs- Seated Crunch, 13/180, 12/170



Chinups
Really thinking about what I can do to perform better on chinups. I've thought about the possibility of overtraining. I've never done more than 3 sets, but I have done some rows and pulldowns afterwards. I said last time that I wasn't going to do chinups today, but I did anyway. It's not a matter of being tired by the time I get to them because I've been doing them as my first exercise since Sept 7. I thought of other ways to change up my routine, and I decided to do the first set with no weight and then add weight for the next set. I also did not take 3-4 seconds to do the eccentric phase like I usually do. I was suprised to do 9.5 reps on the first set. I may stick with a faster cadence for awhile to try to develop different muscle fibers.


Hammer curls
I made the workout more abbreviated than usual, as well. I did do 3 sets of Hammer curls. I promise I'm not turning into a curl jockey. This was only the second time I got to use the new grips I made for doing them. I'm really enjoying doing them, and I couldn't resist doing a third set. At least I'm enjoying something on Pull day.


Deadlifts
Last workout my back hurt on the second rep of deads so I quit doing them. Today I did better, but far shy of the 15 reps I had done two weeks ago. This will pass. My back is a little tight. Past experience has taught me to not try doing a lot of stretching when this is going on- just makes it worse.





Overall I'm still quite frustrated with Pull day. I'm currently not doing too much work. My diet isn't anything to get below 10% body fat on, but it's adequate for building muscle. Lots of protein, adequate calories, taking a multivitamin. Maybe I can get more sleep at night. Yeah, and maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.

[Delphi]

After cogitating on it overnight, this is what I'm going to do to improve my chins:

1) Faster rep cadence. Not ballistic, not bouncing off the bottom.
2) First set bodyweight only, second set with weight. Will do this for several weeks, and then go back to the other way around.
3) More sleep. Got 7 hours last night, 1:45 POWER nap this afternoon. Gotta love Mondays.
4) Examine diet. This is gonna be painful. During the day it's usually a burger and diet Coke as I drive between Cleburne and Granbury. I'll post later what kind of damage I do on a typical day. ? EFAs?

Questions for the peanut gallery:
1) Should I do a set of negative reps? If so, then every workout? As pulllups or chinups?
2) I can do all the exercises "real" people do. How much should I be doing of deads, shrugs, rows, pulldowns?
3) Diet recommendations?