Spud's record of soreness
 

Starting a Gym Log. I've been exercising regularly since March with the goal of adding muscle weight. It'd be nice to get back up to 210 lb, this time with muscle :) Comments are welcome!

Yesterday's workout (off today):

Decline pushups 3 sets of 10
Dips 8,6,4
Dumbell pec squeeze 30x8,6,4
Flyes 30x8,6,4

One arm dumbell row 70x10,10,8,6
Forgot to do shrugs!

Crunches 3 sets of 15
Reverse crunches 20,20,25
Crossover crunches 3 sets of 15
Side bridges 3 x 1 min, 30 sec
Ab Roller - face to the floor and back up 10,10,10

DOMS in the outer pecs, abs and lats today (tris too!) - good stuff!

Hey there :wave:

Ta for the comment on my pic you silver tongued devil :lol: Got a ways to go yet- about 38lbs actually *sigh*

Anyhow I'm not equipped to comment on your gym doings, other than to say it all looks mighty impressive :) What are DOMS? Other than the opposite of SUBS :lol:

Have a great day :)
:wave:

Hey man, thanks for the comment in my gallery! Good to see ya' starting a gym log here. I just saw YOUR latest pic and you're lookin' real good dude, keep it up.

Chip

Hiya Jec - I've been called many things in life, especially when I was a sailor, hahaha, but never a 'silver tongued devil' :devil: And you *are* looking really fit! Good for you and congratulations. :thup: DOMS = Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness - the muscle pain you get after a hard workout. OK now you need to help me out - what in the heck is SUBS? :confused: :)

Hi again Chip! Thanks for your comment. It's been a while since I did more than glance at the forum, but I did recently and you've come a long way. Nice, and keep up the good work amigo! :thup:

Today's workout - Legs and Back (Cutting - w/ECA)

Full Squats 3 sets 200x10 Note to self: Buy more plates and go lower reps!
Dumbell Lunges 80x10,8,6
Straight Let Deadlifts 3 sets 200x10

Glute pushups (aka pelvic lifts) knees together 3 sets of 15 w/80lb plates
Glute pushups knees apart 3 sets of 15 w/80lb plates
Side leg lift 3 sets of 15 w/10 lb ankle weight

Single leg calf raises 4 sets of 10 w/80lb

Good Mornings 3 sets of 140x10

Did the deadlifts last of all, which was good because they made me feel like hurling. That's not been a problem before... Maybe I didn't eat enough before workout. Good workout! 1 hour later and I can barely walk.

Bought more plates today for squats :)

Tonight's workout (8:00 PM)

Barbell upright rows 3 sets 90x10 Burnout 90x9
Dumbell Front raises 20x10,8,8 Burnout 15x8
Dumbell Lateral raises 20x8,6,4 Burnout 15x8
Bent over Dumbell Lateral raises 20x10,8,6 Burnout 15x10

Curls 70x8, 50x8,6
Hammers 30x4, 25x6, 20x6,4
Preachers 50x10,4 40x3,8
Burnout: set of 21s at 40 lbs

Flat narrow grip bench press 160x6,6 140x5
One arm extension 20x6, 15x8,8
Cross face extension 20x8, 15x10,8

Forearm Curls 50x10, 70x8,6, 50x6

Abs: Still a bit sore from last go around, so only one set tonight.
15 Crunches
20 Bicycle Crunches
15 Side sit-ups
10 Ab roller extensions

Cardio tomorrow! A run if my broken toe can take it.

*Sigh* No cardio last night. Came down with a really nasty stomach ache that stuck with me through the night. Ended up sleeping in until 1:00 PM. Major cramping pain and a major bummer.

Nothing last night either. Stomach still twinging a bit. Tonight hit the chest. Gonna try shocking the chest on bench presses.

Temperature was 90 degrees F (that's 32 degrees C in the rest of the world) when I began tonight's workout. Set up the fan and the wand with the water misting nozzles to blow on me.

Tonight's experiment: Shock the chest muscles into growth through extreme bench presses.

Decline Wide Grip Bench Press 160x8,6,4 130x6,6,6 110x8,10,10
Pec Squeeze 35x7, 30x8,7
Flyes 35x6, 30x8,8
Dips 6,6,4
Attemped Decline Push-ups, but Triceps were wasted from the bench press... Would have supersetted these, but my spotter for bench presses had to do laundry, so I got the bench presses out of the way and let her go :)

One arm dumbell Rows 80x10,10,6 Burnout 6
Barbell Shrugs 160x12,12,12 Burnout 8
Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns 120x8,6,6

Crunches 20,15,20
Reverse Crunches 30,30,30
Crossover Crunches 15,20,20
Side Bridges 3x90seconds (ouch)
Ab Roller face to the ground and back up 12,12,12 I've got a bit of a love-hate thing going with that Ab Roller.

Cardio: Ran intervals for about 1.25 miles (2km) after lifting. Was already burning up from workout, and it was still really hot. It's supposed to hit 100 degrees (35C) all week long too, darn the luck. The price you pay for not having to shovel snow I guess :)

Hi Idaho. Thanks for stopping by. Wow! You seem to be very ambitious. My workout seems so small compared to yours. Hehe.

Thanks for stopping by my gym log, and have a wonderful LC day. :)

Hi Akasha - Don't worry about comparing our workouts!!!

Sure, I work pretty hard at it, but we have way different goals. I've also been at it a while and also have some difficult (for me) goals to reach.

Based on your signature, you are making terrific progress. Way to go!!!

Re: Shocking the chest with Decline Bench Press...

Don't seem to have much DOMS in the pecs. Declines are supposed to work the lower pecs, and I don't feel a lick of soreness there. In fact I feel less soreness than with a normal chest workout.

Have a bit of soreness in the anterior delts, upper outer pecs, and the triceps feel like they're going to break out through the skin. Not exactly what I was hoping for...

Tonight or tomorrow night, I'll go crazy on full squats. I *know* that'll blow out the quads! :)

Blazing hot again as I started working out. About 90 degrees at 8:45 PM. Must've sweated a bucketful.

Tonight's Experiment: Shocking the quads with lots of squats

Full Squats 210x8,8,8, 190x8,8,8 170x10,8,8
Lunges 80x8,6,6
Leg Extensions (Blasting session) 70x10,10,10,10 Quads were on fire!

Good Mornings 140x10, 150x10,10

Glute Pushups (aka Pelvic Lifts) knees together 90x15,15
Glute Pushups (aka Pelvic Lifts) knees apart 90x15,15
Straight leg Deadlifts 210x8,8,10
Hamstring Curls 70x10,10,7 - a recent addition to my routine, and quite a bit of weight at this point. Hammies felt like quivering banjo strings afterwards, hahaha.
Side leg lifts off bench to floor 20,20,20

Single calf raises (body weight 170 plus 90lb) 10,9,9

Oddly enough, after nine sets of squats, my quadriceps aren't wasted today. Ran up several flights of stairs at work, and didn't note much soreness at all.

Seems the major soreness is in the synergistic muscles. Glutes and inner hip muscles are really sore. Low back is also stiff and achy, likely due to the added 10lb on the Good Mornings.

Once again, not quite what was anticipated (although my Pecs are still slightly sore from the workout Aug 30). I'll keep trying this shocking experiment, with a different exercise each session, to see if it leads to growth.

I realize that muscle soreness after exercise is not a very good measure of how effective/productive an exercise is, but it seems to be the only low-tech measure available.

EDIT: It seems I was a little sore... As I was sitting down to lunch yesterday one of my co-workers asked why I was moving around like a little old man :)

Thanks. I'm using the doctors scale at the gym (one of those evil scales), so I had to readjust my stats by 9 pounds. Oh well, at least now I am getting a more acurate reading, right? Hehe.

Hiya Akasha,

Gaining 9lb in an instant - now that is a serious bummer! Too bad it didn't go 9lb the other way... Yeah, now at least you know the *truth* of the matter. Hang in there, it'll come off!

Today's workout: Arms and Shoulders. Burnout muscle - biceps, of course!

Lateral Raises 20x10,7,3 15x6,4
Front Raises: 20x10,10,10 15x7
Bent over lateral raises 20x10,10,7 15x6
Upright Rows: 90x8,8,8

The Owwie set! :)
Curls: 60x10,5 40x10
Concentration Curls 20x10 15x10,10
Hammer Curls 20x10,10,10
Reverse Concentration Curls 15x10,10,10
Reverse Curls 40x10,9,5
Finish: Set of 21's at 30 lb

Forearm Curls 40x10,10,10 50x8

One Arm presses 20x10,10,9
Cross Face presses 20x10 15x10,10
Dumbell French Presses 20x10,10,10

Crunch 20,20,25
Bicycle Crunch 20,20,25
Side Situps 20,20,25
Ab Roller, face to floor and up 12,15,15

Post-workout soreness assessment:

Biceps are a little sore right now, about 18 hrs afterwards. Again, not as much as I would have thought, given the effort and number of contractions they were put through. I took them to failure on several exercises at several different weights. It's no fun being an ectomorph everywhere but in the gut, hahaha.

Forearms are definitely smarting. They are also beginning to get ropy-looking and vascular (calves too). The EC is definitely helping in this cut. I wish the stomach region was as far along as they are!

Delts are extremely sore. Probably was working them during most of yesterday's exercises, as synergizers.

Abs are a little tender. That ab roller thing... it pretty much sucks to use it, but wow! I can feel some rock-hard abdominal muscle under that last bit of fat. Must increase cardio. It's just so difficult for me to motivate on that when it's this hot.

Still eating maintenance-level calories. Lots of fruits and protein. Not much dietary fat.

Happily, body fat is disappearing, yet the scale is holding steady at 170 this past month. That means I must also be adding a bit of muscle mass.

Okay, I broke down and did a little cardio. It was only 76 (24C) degrees this morning, so I did some stair climbing.

I ran up one of the boilers at work, two stair steps at a time, until I reached the top. Did an about face and ran back down. Did that four times. It's about 110 feet (33m) to the top. Kind of an HIIT cardio workout, catching a little breath on the way back down.

Pathetic endurance though... I only lasted 10 minutes, and at the end if felt like my heart and lungs were about to explode. Before slacking off on cardio for the summer I could go twice as long. Ah well, it'll cool down in another month!

Update: Biceps are stiffening up quite a bit, and getting sore. Can't fully extend the elbows. Looks like that did it!!!

Rest day today for weights. I may do some cardio very late tonight after it cools down somewhat. It's supposed to hit 100 degrees (34C) today, and it'll still be pretty hot even if I run after 10:00 PM. We will see...

Cardio earlier tonight. Did a bit of running. It was still pretty hot, about 86F (30C), so for the first time ever, I ran bare chested. I was pretty self-conscious about that, even though it was dark and this is Bakersfield :)

I ran my usual course: 2-1/2 miles (4km) in 19:20 minutes, a personal record. Previous best time was 20:05 back in May, before it got too darn hot to be running. Guess those runs up the boiler yesterday improved my capacity for a fast run on the flats.

Oh yeah - biceps are *still* hurting from that shocking session. I'm keeping my blood plasma saturated with protein and carbs. Grow babies, grow! :cheer:

One more thing: I *think* I am beginning to see striations on the pecs. I'm not certain, 'cause I'm pretty hairy there. I am *not* going to shave my chest in order to find out, hahaha! Besides, if I did, my wife would think I was behaving strangely - well... more strangely than usual!

Hi Galatia!

Thanks for stopping in, and thanks a lot for the compliments. I've been checking out your pix in the photo gallery for a while now, and you are yoked! Wow! Keep up the good work!

The weighted glute push-ups seem to do a really good job blasting the butt area. Just take it easy at first or you'll be wishing you had a wheelchair for a couple of days, at least! :)

Hey ya Spud.. ya made me laugh.. :lol:


I think I know a few folks who might agree.. rofl.. I'm really not pushing it too hard though. 5 days a week - 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes on the weights, but I can say I wasn't anywhere ready to hit it like that when I started. Luckily for me though I think I crossed the threashold and now it's more habit than anything else. As long as I don't put my foot on the brake I'm hoping to stay on cruize..

Anyway - thanks for the visit! Hope you have a rockin day. Best of luck with your program.

And cheers! :thup:

Time to break down and lift some iron again tonight. I'm off shift right now, and so I've been doing home improvement stuff that's taken a lot out of me. Plenty of blood and sweat, even if it's not a real workout.

I've been re-leveling the floors in the living room as well as installing baseboards and chair rails the past two days. Got a few nasty cuts from the carpet tack strips while working on the baseboards.

Anyway, *that* unpleasantness should be over with this afternoon, shortly after the little one wakes up from her nap. And tonight... I'm gonna do flyes until my chest splits open on the one of the negatives, hahaha.

That was *not* my best workout... I was tired and unmotivated, and it was hot. Still managed to accomplish my shocking goal, although I skipped the ab work. Hey, it was 11:00 PM and that's late enough!

Tomorrow I committed to helping a co-worker pull power cable through underground conduit to his cabin. His cabin is at 8000 ft (2400m) of elevation, so it'll be interesting to see if I have any wind up there. Perhaps I should have a sherpa carry oxygen up there for me? I'm kind of a sea-level guy these days.

Anyway, tonight's experiment was to blast the chest with as many flyes as I could do. I also hit the lats harder than normal - just because they often don't hurt afterwards.

Incline Bench Press 160x2 (too much!) 140x6,5 130x6
Flyes: 35x10,6 30x8,8,8,10 25x10,9,7
Decline Push-ups: 10,8,5,6
Dumbell Pec Squeeze: 30x8,8,6

One Arm Dumbell Row 90x8,8,7 70x8,7,10
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown 120x8,8,8
Shrugs 160x12 180x12,10 160x8

I hated missing the ab workout. Tomorrow night, plus a run!

Update on blasting the pecs with flyes...

Ouch! They really are sore! Everywhere. Flyes and decline pushups seem to really do the trick!

Today (yesterday, it's just past midnight as I write this) I got some unintended exercise pulling heavy power cable. OMG was that tough! Had to pull several cables through an underground pipe using a rope. The rope exited the pipe at chest level, so it was all arm work.

The more cables we had in the conduit, the harder it got. At the end, we stood on some lumber and had to wrap the rope around a gloved hand and do a squat just to pull a couple more feet of cable. Over and over. At high altitude. Talk about wheezing! :)

Got home and gobbled two double hamburgers (so much for eating clean) and just wanted to go to bed. But... I'd promised myself that I'd get yesterday's ab workout in, and some cardio too - like pulling heavy cable at 8000 ft elevation isn't cardio...

Tonight's ab workout:
Crunches 20,20,20
Reverse crunches w/10lb ankle weights 30,30,30
Cross-over crunches 20,20,20
Side bridges 3x90sec
Ab roller face to floor and back up 15,15,15

Run: 12 minutes. Wimped out. Didn't run the entire 2.5 miles. It was blazing hot (and I was streaking again - running w/o a shirt). It's also a stage II smog alert, so maybe that had something to do with the loss of stamina. I'm *sure* it had something to do with my throat getting raw.

Maybe I should just break down and join a gym? Exercising at 65F in clean air sounds soooo nice! :)

No workout tonight. I stayed up all last night to get ready for going on night shift, and didn't sleep well during the day.

The value of rest should not be underestimated!

Tomorrow night, legs and tons of lunges!!!

Legs tonight... It was a pretty brutal workout - felt like puking again after two sets of deadlifts. Wanted to do a serious shocking session of lunges, but didn't get the entire 9 sets in. Got a neat photo though - I'll post it in the exercise section. Thanks to Tholian8 for the cool idea :)

Squats: 215x10, 235x10, 245x10
Lunges: 80x8,8,8 60x10,6,6 40x8 (failure)

Straight Leg Deadlifts: 215x10,10,10
Glute pushups w/weights knees together: 80x15,15,15
Glute pushups w/weights knees apart: 80x15,15,15
Side leg lifts w/weights 10x10,10,10

Single leg calf raises, body weight 170+80lbs, 15,12,10

Good Mornings 165x10,10,10

Tomorrow night is shoulders and arms. Blast the delts. Any specific free weight exercise suggestions for that would be welcome. Built? Galatia? Chip?

Update on blasting with Lunges: Major soreness and stiffness in the glutes, inner thigh, and quads. Walking with a bit of swagger today - it hurts too much to walk normally! :) I *hate* doing lunges, but they seem to be an excellent lower body exercise.

Tonight's workout: Arms, Delts & Abs. Blasting the delts.
Curls: 50x10,10,8
Hammer Curls 25x10,8,3 20x10
Reverse Curls 50x10,6 40x10
Set of 21's at 40. Got an excellent pump on the biceps and triceps tonight.

Wrist Curls: 60x10,10,10

Hands together Push-ups: 10,15,15
Cross face extension 20x5, 15x10,6 (with major rotator cuff pain)
Skull Crushers: 40x10,10,10

Arnold Presses - blasting experiment (thanks for the advice, Chip!): 15x10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10

Crunches: 20,20
Bicycle Crunches 20,20
Side Sit-up: 20,20
Ab Roller: 15,15

It was kind of a painful and demotivating workout. Didn't finish the abs, which were still sore from last time. Also the weights were a bit lighter than I'd like.