Jonathan (4/10) Shoulders, Lats, Cardio

Was late to the gym and only had 45 min to work with. So to punish myself, I went home afterwards and ran for 4.5 miles, half of that on the beach.

Dumbbell Shoulder Press (seated): 50*5*1, 60*5*2, 65*4*2
Smith Machine Shoulder Press (seated): 135*5*1, 155*4*3
Weighted Pull Ups: BW*8*1, (BW+25)*8*2
Pull Downs: 180*8*3
Shoulder Flys: 25*8*3
Abs:3 sets

Cardio: Ran 4.5 miles: approx 2.0 in sand along waters edge, 2.5 on paved path. Tide was coming in so there was no good "hard" sand, it was all dry or getting fresh waves, so it was very soft. My foot got hit by a wave and I ran home with a wet, soggy shoe.

Q- 2/19/11

Just messing around. Back/biceps assistance and "cardio"

chin ups: 8 x3
fat bar lat pulldown:
80 x8
100 x8
120 x8
140 x8
barbell curls:
45 x8
55 x8
65 x5 x3
Cardio:
Juggled 1lb dumbbells for a few minutes.

Carried 4 gallons of milk back from Shaw's to Baker without putting them down and did some curls and overhead press with them while walking.

becca (14-15.12.09): Peanut Weights (like a boss!)

14.12.09
After I ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill, I popped my deadlift and overhead press cherry. Gordon suggested I start deadlifting and doing overhead presses.
Press:
I started off with the normal bar and did a couple reps, but then I switched to the girl bar in order to get the form down. I did 3 sets of 5 reps with the girl bar.
Deadlift:
I started off with the 10kg plates on each side in order to get the form down. Then I did a few warmup reps at ~109 pounds (one 10kg plate and one 10lb on each side). My working set for the day was at ~129 pounds (and I do not remember how many reps of that I did, but I do remember that it was only one set =X)
Abs:
-2 minutes plank hold in normal position, 1 minute plank hold with right arm and left leg off ground, 1 minute plank hold with left arm and right leg off ground
-25 suitcases
-50 side crunches on each side


15.12.09
One of my goals is to compete in a triathlon. I hope to be able to compete in Iron Nerd (a baby triathlon) in late April/early May. With the triathlon goal in mind, I decided to swim and run for cardio today.
Swimming:
Total distance: 1100 yards (For Rene, this is approximately 1005.84 meters) = 22 laps
This was the sequence of swimming I followed:
-4 laps freestyle, 4 laps backstroke, 4 laps breaststroke, 3 laps freestyle, 4 laps backstroke, 3 laps breastroke
Running (on treadmill):
2.5 miles

I did weights in the evening.
Squats:
Warmup: 10 x 45, 8 x 65, 5 x 95
Working: 5 x 125, 5 x 125, 5 125
Bench: I'm trying to get used to the new form...
Warmup: 10 x 65, 7 x 85
Working: 5 x 95, 5 x 95, 5 x 95

Kik - Cardio and restaurative methods

When I got in and closed the distance to the Ellipticals, I suddenly encountered heavy rash, a paralyzed left half of my face, and uncontrolled tremor. I took this as a message that my body really did not want to do cardio, so I went for a mini-cycles of random stuff that I don't really care about.

4 cycles without breaks:
20 shoulder flies, 20 lat pulls, 20 leg presses

(I took a minute break between cycle 3 and 4)

20 mins Elliptical, low intensity

- stretching
- foam rolling
- sauna
- contrast showers

Kik - 11/20/2009 - Cardio and restaurative methods

Dedicated another 35 minutes of my life to the most boring activity in the world: Elliptical. However, this time there was a hot chick with a toned back and incredibly muscular glutes and thighs. I was so close to asking her to come home with me to see my stamp collection, but then it occurred to me that I need to re-sort the stamps again, and I did not want to disappoint her with with my stamps not nicely aligned in their albums.

- Elliptical 35 mins (15 medium high intensity, 20 medium to low int.)

- Stretching

- Foam rolling

- Abs

- Sauna

- Contrast showers

Kik - 11/11/2009 - Cardio

Elliptical 30 mins medium-low intensity.

No chicks, shitty TV program, no Ipod: mental burnout, you can't be far!

Afterward, I did around 30 shoulder dislocations for better flexibility in my chest/ shoulder area. It makes my elbow tendon feel better, so I will keep these thingies in my program.

Post workout, I was sitting in the sauna like a spider waiting for prey - but nothing happened! I also contemplated how to bump up my bench to four plates by the end of this year. Nothing came to mind, though. Can you say "boring day"?

Nathan : 10/20

▼ 1. 10/20/09 - Tue - CARDIO

Weight: 218 (mit gym, before cardio), 218 (home, after gym). Time: 1:30.

  Took a while today because I spent some time helping Frank learn the power of bands.

• Cardio : bike 30 mins @ 140-150 bpm

Turn down the difficulty setting and peddle faster, seems easier on quads and harder on my heart, which is what I want.

  Hollah to Hil for donating a heart rate monitor to my cause so I can use the spin bikes.

• Flexibility - gastroc, adductor on leg press, soleus, hamstrings, seated groin, IT band

Hamstrings very tight today. Yay deadlifts.

10/6 : Nathan

▼ 1. 10/6/09 - Tue - CARDIO

Weight: 216 (morning), 223 (after gym). Time: 1:10?

• Cardio : bike 30 mins

Huge SHOUT OUT to Hil for getting me a refill on my water bottle.

• Flexibility : hamstrings, adductor on leg press, gastroc, soleus, seated groin, hip flexors, 

Nathan : 9/22 & 9/23

▼ 1. 9/23/09 - Wed - BENCH

Weight: 222 (after gym). Time: 1:30.

  Received word today about Holter monitor results. They were pretty much as expected (normal/benign), but my cardiologist is concerned that one benign condition might suggest that their original diagnosis was incorrect. I have yet another consultation with another specialist, but I'm not supposed to change anything about what I'm doing.

• 2-sec pause bench warm-up, 205x2x8 @ 7, 245x1 @ 8, 275x1x2 @ 9

Speed work.

• Incline bench warm-up, 225x5x5 @ 8

This was fairly easy. I wanted to keep it light because this the exercise that I believe originally pulled my lower back/side and caused all the problems.

• Dumbell press 50x7x4 @ 9-10

• Chest-supported row 80x8x4 @ 8-9

Wanted a movement that wouldn't stress my lower back at all.

▼ 2. 9/22/09 - Tue - CARDIO

Weight: 220 (after gym). Time: 1:15.

  Right side/lower back still killing me.

• Cardio - bike ~35 mins

I do a little warmup and cooldown so this was really 40 mins or so...

• Stretching - gastroc, adductors on leg press, soleus, hamstrings, seated groin, lying glute, 

hip flexors

Should do the lying glute more regularly.

Nathan : 9/15 - 9/17

▼ 1. 9/17/09 - Thu - CARDIO

Weight: 218 (morning). Time: 1:15.

  Adductors bothering me since Monday, so I gave them a little extra love.

• Cardio - bike 30 mins

• Stretching - gastroc, soleus, adductors on leg press, hamstrings, more adductors, seated 

groin, hip flexors, glute

▼ 2. 9/16/09 - Wed - BENCH

Weight: 217 (morning), 224 (after dinner). Time: 1:30.

• 2-sec pause bench 45x10x2, 135x5x2, 185x4, 225x3x3 @ 8, 235x3x2 @ 8-9, 245x3 @ 9

Going for 3x6. I'm not exactly sure about the number of sets at each weight, but this is roughly correct.

• Close-grip bench 135x8, 185x5, 225x4 @ 8, 245x4x5 @ 9-10

Going for 4x6. First set at 245 was quite hard. Got easier a bit from there, but last set was very hard again and I had absolutely terrible form, kind of twisting myself on the bench. My right arm tends to lag behind on these for some reason.

• Dumbbell overhead press 55x6,6,5,5

Going for 6x4.

• Band-assisted pull ups Green band x 15, purple x 10, 8

Really tired, wanted to do something easy. Decided to try these, and they were kind of weird. Not sure I like them, but it was interesting nevertheless.

▼ 3. 9/15/09 - Tue - CARDIO

Weight: 218 (morning). Time: 1:00.

• Cardio - bike 25 mins

• Stretching - gastroc, soleus, adductor on leg press, hamstrings, seated groin, hip flexors

• Foam roll - lower back, IT band

Nathan : 9/10 & 9/11

▼ 1. 9/11/09 - Fri - DEAD

Time: 1:30.

  Still keeping things light. Called it early so Dee and I could make Octoberfest.

• Warm-up bike x 10 min

• Conventional deadlift 135x5x3, 225x3x2, 275x3, 315x4 @ 8, 335x4x5 @ 8

Main deadlift movement. It has been a very long time since I used this as a primary movement, so I thought I would rotate it in. Since I had grip issues at my last meet, I decided to go with double overhead, no chalk for all of this. I think I am capable of 4x6 at 405, so this was definitely light.

• Squat w/ chains 45x5x3, 135x5x2, 225x3, 225+80x2 @ 7, 275+80x2x5 @ 8

Lockout squat movement. I have seen great success from Dave and Brent using chains on their squat, so I decided to give it a try.

• Sumo rack pull from 2'' below knee 225x5, 335x5, 365x5x4 @ 7.5

Deadlift assistance. This tends to be my weak point with a real deadlift bar, not sure that working this as-is will help much, but its the best I got. On most of these sets, I only got 3 reps before having to switch to alternate grip for the remainder.

▼ 2. 9/10/09 - Thu - CARDIO

• Bike 30 mins

• Flexibility - gastroc, soleus, adductor on leg press, hamstrings, hip flexors, seated groin

Nathan : 9/8 & 9/9

▼ 1. 9/9/09 - Wed - BENCH

Time: 2:00. Weight: 222 (after dinner). Happy that I did not lose weight on vacation.

  First day doing a full RTS-style template. It is my first day back in the gym after going to the ER with heart palpitations, so I decided to keep things light. This will continue until next Monday, when I will wear a 24-hr heart monitor to make sure that nothing funny is happening during workouts.

  Saw general practitioner and cardiologist today (same-day referral, awesome). Diagnosis is supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). This is a non-life-threatening condition where my heart rate suddenly increases or starts acting funny, in my case during exercise. It is apparently caused by a "short-circuit" in the nerves that control the heart muscle. There are treatment options available, but since my case is fairly mild, the side effects or potential side effects of those treatments are worse than the condition itself. So unless things change, the plan is to just deal with it.

  Also, since my "attacks" last only a couple minutes at worst, drugs that break the tachycardia are useless. I was shown a couple things to try that can possibly help by inducing reflexes that drop the heart rate. To help with prevention, I will do a semi-long warm-up (for me, at least) and make sure to stay very well hydrated. Ultimately, this is the diagnosis I was hoping for and there is really no way that it isn't good news.

  It was a big relief to be back in the gym. Nothing worrying happened at any point in the workout, and it was cool to see how concerned many of the people were.

  With all of that out of the way, it was a fairly easy workout except for the stupid stuff at the end. We'll see if RTS gives me results. I didn't exactly follow recommendations for RPE in RTS because I am keeping things light for the short term.

• Warm-up bike x 10 mins

• 2-sec pause bench 45x10x3, 135x5x2, 185x5x2, 205x5x5 @ 8

This is my main raw movement. A regular-grip bench press with a 2-second pause counted out by the spotter. Will move up weight on these.

• Close-grip bench 135x5, 185x3, 225x3x6 @ 8

Raw assistance movement with full ROM. I was surprised at how easy this was, but it felt a little awkward after not doing any close-grip presses for over a year.

• Dumbell military press 50x8,8,8,7

I can't believe how terrible I am at overhead pressing after the long lay-off. 50 was supposed to be a warm-up. I was sitting up without any support from a bench and my stabilizers were firing like crazy. That still doesn't explain how terrible this was, though.

• Pull-ups BWx8,8,6,5

Also disappointing.

▼ 2. 9/8/09 - Tue - CARDIO

• Bike 30 mins

• Flexibility - soleus, gastroc, adductor on leg press, hamstrings, hip flexors, seated groin

Not stretching for a week makes me really inflexible.

9/5 : Nathan Cardio

▼ 1. 9/5/09 - Sat - STUPID VACATION CARDIO

• Bike while watching TV light x 30 mins

Nathan : 8/25 Cardio

▼ 1. 8/25/09 - Tue - CARDIO

Weight: 216. Time: 1:00.

  Hamstrings super sore from random shit on Monday.

• Cardio - bike 30 mins

Actually went pretty hard on this, got tired.

• Hip abduction 80x60

Don't really know why I did this.

• Flexibility - hamstrings (a lot), soleus, gastroc, adductors on leg press, seated groin, hip 

flexors, prone glute

Veronica: Aug 22 - Cardio

saturday, 8/22: elliptical - 25 mins low/med; running - 5 mins @ 8.6 / 1.0 incline, stopping once in the middle.
sunday and monday rest.

Veronica: Aug 21 - squat (retry)

--squat: 13 sets of 5, some empty bar, some 25lb (practice) bar
--cardio: running outdoors, 2 miles
--stretching: 1 yoga class

I am still trying to learn correct form for squats, and today's attempt went much better than yesterday's! (I didn't give up and leave.) Once I got over the geekiness of having a webcam at the gym, it was excellent to be able to review each rep in slow motion. I took "Starting Strength" with me and tried to follow those instructions word-for-word.

There must be some mistake in my form, though, because tonight I am lying down with a bunch of lower back pain. Fortunately, icing my back, ice cream, and good music on the internet can distract me from this.

Here are the last 3 reps with the empty bar:





Tips, anybody?

My next task is to brainstorm about which style to learn, and whether to go back to a trainer who I met in April (she's kind of pricey & far away but a great teacher).

Nathan: 8/17 thru 8/19 Meet Prep

▼ 1. 8/19/09 - Wed - SHEIKO#29

Weight: 221. Time: 0:45.

  If this weight keeps up, I'm going as 242. I'm not about to diet down at this point.

  Murph said since its an IPA meet, I should just 'throw on a canvas suit and a double denim shirt and do the real thing.' I think it requires more planning than this, but its certainly an interesting thought.

• Foam roll - lower back

Dee went first on the monolift today, so I tried to warm up my lower back a lot.

• Squats 135x5x3, 225x3 (50), 275x3x2 (60), 315x2x3 (70)

These felt pretty good, actually. Dee checked depth on last set and said I was "clearly below parallel", which is a problem.

• Bench 155x3 (50), 185x3x2 (60), 215x2x3 (70)

This felt really stupid. Murph said my ass was clearly off the bench on the last set, although I felt my ass clearly in contact with the bench. Carlos has said the same thing previously, then watched me from the side and said I looked fine. So we'll see if I get red lighted on meet day.

▼ 2. 8/18/09 - Tue - CARDIO

Weight: 222. Time: 0:45.

  Really light cardio day.

• Cardio - bike 25 mins

• Stretch - soleus, gastroc, adductor on leg press, hamstrings (lots, feeling weird + lower back 

bothered), seated groin, hip flexors

▼ 3. 8/17/09 - Mon - SHEIKO #28

Weight: 221. Time: 0:40.

  This week is stupid workouts to get ready for meet.

• Bench 155x3 (50), 185x3x2 (60), 215x2x2 (70), 225x1x4 (75)

• Deadlift 275x3 (50), 335x2x2 (60), 385x2x4 (70)

Left side of lower back doesn't feel great. This bothered me all weekend and for the next couple days too. I hope it isn't an issue on Saturday.

Kik -Aug19 - Cardio

Elliptical, 20 min medium/ high, then 10 mins low intensity.

Stretching, foam roller, sauna, legs tired.

Veronica: Aug 18 cardio/hips and Aug 19 cardio

Aug 18
Yesterday, my plan was to do mostly hip exercises, to try to "rehab" some recent knee achiness from running outside. This routine below has helped in the past, and today my knees felt pretty good.

Hips/core:
--Standing cable sideways hip ext: 30x12, 35x8, 40x5 (not sure of weight, might have been more)
--Lying-down sideways leg raise: 30x3
--Side plank with leg raise: 10x3
--One leg hip raise from lying on back: 24ish
--Leg sled - plié style: 60x20, 80x20, toes pointed inward: ??x20
--Hip abductor machine: 50, 60, & 70 x a bunch
--Incline situps: BWx30, 15lbsx24, 20lbsx10
--Sideways knee raises on leg-raising-ab-machine (don't know what it's called): 24x3
--Standing hip lift - 40 reps x3
--Sideways situps on inclined bench - 10lbs x??, 20lbs x12

Cardio:
--15 minutes swim
--Green building - 3x (3:20, 3:33, 3:45)

Aug 19
I would like to try squats again soon, so took it easy today. I'm picturing a squat rack appointment for tomorrow or Friday.

Cardio:
--Running outdoors: 1.8 miles
--Running on treadmill: 2 mins @ 7.4, 10 mins @ 7.5, 1 min @ 9.0 (all at 1.0 incline)
--Erg: 10 mins @ level 4, 2:30-2:40 / 500m. Last minute was 2:40-2:45 / 500m.
--Swimming: 10 mins
48 mins total.

Stretching: 1 yoga class

Veronica: Aug 17

55 mins running outdoors, slow pace
10 minutes climbing across MIT chapel wall
1 yoga class

Felt good today. I stopped climbing when the insects started to bite too much...