December 4, 2012

November 29, 2012 Upper Body


  • Incline Bench Press: 230*4 240*3 250*3
  • Pullups: 80*3 80*2 80*2
  • Rope Pullups: 7, 7
  • Standing Press: 115*5 135*5 145*3
  • DB Rows: 115*9 115*9
  • DB Flat Bench: 90*9 100*5
46 Minutes

People reading this probably don't know much about me, but I can get quite nostalgic.  So as I entered this workout into the little green notebook I bought at I think it was CVS, I felt a bit of that wistfulness.  The final page in the notebook has been filled.  The first workout in it was from November 19, 2007.  I had only been in Boston a little over two months at that point.  My life was so different; no masters degree, I hadn't even done my first bulk or cut yet.  I was probably about 173 lbs at that point, at about 11% bf.  So here it is with the first page folded out, and the last page on the left.  The little perforated parts ripped a bit on both of them so they're loose leaf now, but they'll go into my folder with all my other old workout logs/sheets/plans.  It's great to see the progress; if you look at the workout on 11/19, my incline bench peak was 145 lbs. for 7 reps, and I peaked at 210 on bench pressing.  I was wondering at the time I started that notebook, if I would ever get to push the big big weights.  I had improved my diet, and gained some strength but didn't see it explode. It wasn't until about a year after this that I did my first bulk and started to grasp truly how to gain strength, power, and speed.  What a great 5 years it's been in the gym.  I always wondered as I carried this little notebook around with me, would I ever lose it before I completed it, and should I just pull out the completed pages.  Now that it's done, I'm glad I didn't.  I have plenty of loose-leaf pages from the years in the gym, documenting probably about 90% of my workouts going back through the nearly 14 years I've been doing this, but this is the first complete bound volume.  I think for my next log I'm going to do one workout per side of a sheet, maybe 2, and take more notes about how I'm feeling, what I'm doing, why I failed a rep, etc.  



The workout was good, I like mixing up the pullup types.   Progressing on standing press as well, and my body is rapidly adapting to the increased volume with the DB work on the end.  Energy levels feel good, as does my strength.  

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