Drizzt Lifts Things

[drizzt]

...

[drizzt]

11/01/10 - Legs

Interestingly, I've lost weight since New Years. Barring a bit of a blowout on Xmas day, I ate pretty well over the break even though I didn't exercise much at all, and the booze was kept well under control Probably a bit of muscle dropping off, but I was 89.6 when I left, and 89.6 when I got back - today I was 88.8. I'm hoping to get up around 95 by Rugby season, definitely doable :nod:

Picked up a small lower-right back niggle doing squats last week. Probably pushed myself a little farther (further?) than I should've for the first session back and felt it give out a little at the bottom of one of my final reps of the final set :roll: It was pretty painful for the rest of that day - carried on with the session but dropped the weights waaay back -however it seemed to disappear and I didn't really feel it for the next couple of days... until I got a bit cocky again on deadlift :oops:

It was feeling good on the warmup sets, got 100 for a set of 8 very easily without feeling the niggle, so shot for 140 and immediately felt it ping again. Wasn't as painful as the squat session, but definitely couldn't continue lifting 140, so dropped back to 100 again where I continued ok.

With the above in mind, I'm likely to take it easy on anything involving the lower back for the next couple of weeks, and gradually introduce heavier loads to test it and see how she goes :nod: I'm icing/wheat-bagging the area daily, and have thrown a couple of muscle soak baths in for good measure which seems to be doing well. I can still feel it vaguely every now and again, but I'm hoping it'll come right if I baby it a little.

ANYWAY, onto the workout! (at the shitty Jville gym )

• Leg Press* (sets, reps, weight) (weights in plates only unless Oly bar exercise)
  1 x 10 @ 120kg (warmup)
  1 x 10 @ 200kg (warmup)
  1 x 8 @ 240kg
  2 x 10 @ 240kg
  1 x 10 @ 120kg (cool down)
  1 x 10 @ 40kg (cool down, single-leg)
  Hacks*
  1 x 10 @ 40kg
  1 x 8 @ 60kg
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  Ham Curls
  1 x 10 @ 90 (lbs? I guess so)
  2 x 10 @ 130
  Seated Calf Raises
  1 x 15 @ 40kg
  1 x 12 @ 50kg
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  Squats* superset with Standing Oly Bar Calf Raises*
  1 x 10 @ 20kg & 1 x 20 @ 20kg
  4 x 10 @ 60kg & 4 x 40 @ 60kg

Comments

• *Leg press was in place of squatting as the main legs exercise, the back rest certainly helped out and I didn't feel the twinge at all doing this. Form was legs to chest. Last two cool down sets were short rests - as quick as I could unload the plates and jump back on the machine. Fark I hate the 10 different types of 20kg plates they have at shittyfitness Jville :roll:
  *Hacks - I wanted to try front squats to see how they were on the back, but a young guy was camped out on the machine so I went to hacks instead. I love hacks but feel I need to change it up a bit more and start front squatting more often. I also dislike the Jville Hack machine but ah well, it does the job in a pinch.
  *Final superset, I thought I'd throw squats in there to see how the back felt, could feel the area being a little tight when I got deep on the squats, but no pain so I kept at it. Got better and less noticeable as the sets wore on.
  *The calf raise thing I supersetted with? Kind of thought it up before squats, was mucking around before lifting ( :pfft:) and found that because the racking part of the squat rack was on about a 30degree angle, I could lean under the bar, straighten my body out and do a calf raise up the squat rack... if you get what I mean? The range of motion wasn't huge, but felt really good on the calves, something I might look at doing more of in future if I can find a spot to do it in Bodyworks :think: I did half of the reps before the squat set, and the other half after - was 20 calves/10 squats/20 calves for a full set. Worked up a very good sweat.

Cardio today was my first boxing class of the year. Did 11 x 2minute rounds on the heavy bag, found it not as tough as I thought it would be cardio-wise but the arm and shoulder muscles fatigued very quickly! Was great to be back though, and got a fantastic sweat going.

[Chillicat]

Fark I hate the 10 different types of 20kg plates they have at shittyfitness Jville :roll:

And I hate how half the machines are in kilos and half are in pounds, and some don't even tell you what they're in so you have to guess (which isn't always easy if they don't have the same machine at Thorndon so you don't have something to compare with, like the leg scissor machine).

Were you training at Thorndon on Friday with a friend around lunchtime? I was there 12-1 and thought I saw you (or who I think is you based on what you've said on here and your photos). Working out who forum people are is fun!

[drizzt]

Were you training at Thorndon on Friday with a friend around lunchtime? I was there 12-1 and thought I saw you (or who I think is you based on what you've said on here and your photos). Working out who forum people are is fun!

Haha yep, that would've been I :nod: My mate and I both had the week off (he's a Jville Cityfitness-goer), and he asked if I could take him around Bodyworks for the week. I think I remember vaguely wondering if you were one of the ladies there on Friday (based on your photos), were you on the leg equipment at one point?

Was handy having a training partner for once, pushed myself past failure on a few exercises which the body was definitely not used to! It's been years since I've had workouts go that far :nod: Tried to make form the focus for him for the week (and got him to make sure mine was ok) but on the whole he's pretty good.

[Chillicat]

Were you training at Thorndon on Friday with a friend around lunchtime? I was there 12-1 and thought I saw you (or who I think is you based on what you've said on here and your photos). Working out who forum people are is fun!

Haha yep, that would've been I :nod: My mate and I both had the week off (he's a Jville Cityfitness-goer), and he asked if I could take him around Bodyworks for the week. I think I remember vaguely wondering if you were one of the ladies there on Friday (based on your photos), were you on the leg equipment at one point?

Was handy having a training partner for once, pushed myself past failure on a few exercises which the body was definitely not used to! It's been years since I've had workouts go that far :nod: Tried to make form the focus for him for the week (and got him to make sure mine was ok) but on the whole he's pretty good.

I was eyeballing the leg equipment wondering how to use some of it, but didn't use it - I was on the cross trainer then treadmill, probably looking like I didn't want to be there since I hate cardio so much!

[drizzt]

I was eyeballing the leg equipment wondering how to use some of it, but didn't use it - I was on the cross trainer then treadmill, probably looking like I didn't want to be there since I hate cardio so much!

Ha fair enough, I remember seeing TFB giving you advice on here about how to use some of it...

I just avoid it if I don't know it :pfft:

[Big john]

glad to see ya back into to the swing of it mate after the 2 week rest up, :nod: i think i managed 3 days rest (which seemed to feel like forever ) before going back, was good thou knockin PBs left right and centre now that ive put some kilos under my belt ....keep it up m8

[drizzt]

glad to see ya back into to the swing of it mate after the 2 week rest up, :nod: i think i managed 3 days rest (which seemed to feel like forever ) before going back, was good thou knockin PBs left right and centre now that ive put some kilos under my belt ....keep it up m8

Yeah couldn't stop thinking about training while I was away though :pfft: Couldn't wait to get back into it which is probably why I ended up giving myself a bit of a niggle first session back :oops: Cheers man.

[drizzt]

12/01/10 - Chest

At the crappy Jville gym again

• Bench Press* (sets, reps, weight) (weights in plates/single DB only unless Oly bar exercise)
  1 x 8 @ 65kg (warmup)
  1 x 4 @ 100kg
  1 x 2 @ 110kg*
  1 x 2 @ 115kg
  1 x 2 @ 120kg
  1 x 5 @ 100kg (cool down)
  1 x 15 @ 60kg (cool down)
  Incline DB Press superset with Incline DB Flyes
  1 x 10 @ 36kg & 1 x 10 @ 16kg
  1 x 8 @ 36kg & 1 x 8 @ 16kg
  1 x 7 @ 36kg & 1 x 7 @ 16kg
  Dips
  1 x 10 @ +20kg
  1 x 4 @ +40kg
  1 x 5 @ +40kg*
  1 x 6 @ Bodyweight (drop)
  Decline DB Key Press
  1 x 15 @ 26kg
  1 x 12 @ 26kg
  1 x 11 @ 26kg

Comments

• *Bench was fantastic, pretty much picking up where I left off last year All reps touched chest, very slight pause, and I'm happy with the way this has kept over the new year. One annoyance was the crappy hexagonal (didn't count the sides so that's a guess) grip oly bar that I loaded plates onto without checking it out first. Gave it a go for the first few sets, but it started to get really annoying when I hit 110 (rolling in my hand) so I ended up swapping to another bar which interrupted my flow a bit but made me more comfortable.
  *Dips were good, if I like one thing about Cityfitness it's their simple Dip station and great weighted belt that has just the right length chain on it :nod: Got nice and low, went for a 5th rep at 40 on both sets but failed both times, so on the last weighted set I rested a bit after 4 so I could nail that last rep Then dropped the belt off for a drop set.

I hate to always whinge about this gym, but another annoyance with Cityfitness Jville - NOBODY puts their weights away! Walking through the dungeon is like navigating a minefield! You see guys finish a set, drop their dumbbells and then head up the stairs without a pause :roll: When I went to do bench, every bar had weights on it, and there was a bunch of 20s scattered all over the floor.

Another slight annoyance is their DBs go up in even numbers which puts me off a bit - not to mention half of the DBs aren't actually labelled so you have to pick them up to see if they feel right :pfft: OK, done with whinging about this gym! Promise :pray:

Will look at some short sprints for some cardio tonight.

[Chillicat]

But on the bright side, it's now free to go there if you don't feel like heading into town!

But yeah, J'ville definitely has its drawbacks, but on balance as a secondary gym, it'll do. I'm trying to work my training programme so that any weight work I do at J'ville is weights that I know aren't too problematic, and do the rest (like anything involving a Smith machine for example) at Thorndon.

I've got into quite a good routine of weights for lunch at Thorndon and pre-dinner cardio at J'ville :nod:

[Chillicat]

But on the bright side, it's now free to go there if you don't feel like heading into town!

But yeah, J'ville definitely has its drawbacks, but on balance as a secondary gym, it'll do. I'm trying to work my training programme so that any weight work I do at J'ville is weights that I know aren't too problematic, and do the rest (like anything involving a Smith machine for example) at Thorndon.

I've got into quite a good routine of weights for lunch at Thorndon and pre-dinner cardio at J'ville :nod:

[drizzt]

But on the bright side, it's now free to go there if you don't feel like heading into town!

But yeah, J'ville definitely has its drawbacks, but on balance as a secondary gym, it'll do. I'm trying to work my training programme so that any weight work I do at J'ville is weights that I know aren't too problematic, and do the rest (like anything involving a Smith machine for example) at Thorndon.

Yeah I know, I should really be grateful I've got the option at all, otherwise it'd be a commute into town on my days off (got tomorrow off too so it'll be another Jville session). So I love ya Cfit Jville (but secretly, I still hate you :twisted: )

How do you find the cardio equipment at Jville? I don't mean to complain (again!) but I can't run on the treadmill without disrupting the whole gym :pfft: I try to run quietly but the buggers make me sound like an elephant!

[Chillicat]

How do you find the cardio equipment at Jville? I don't mean to complain (again!) but I can't run on the treadmill without disrupting the whole gym :pfft: I try to run quietly but the buggers make me sound like an elephant!

To be honest, I rarely break into more than a brief trot on the treadmill (old lady knees don't like much impact), so I can't say I've noticed any elephant sounds.

I don't like the majority of their cross trainers, but they have 2 like the ones I use at Thorndon, so I either use them or use something else.

Bikes are mostly ok, but there is at least one which has broken up/down buttons for time and level, so you can't change your intensity once you've started or increase your time if you decide you've got more left in you. I prefer to do cycling on manual and change up or down when I'm good and ready rather than using the programmes, so that's annoying if I find myself on one of those bikes.

[Big john]

I hate to always whinge about this gym, but another annoyance with Cityfitness Jville - NOBODY puts their weights away! Walking through the dungeon is like navigating a minefield! You see guys finish a set, drop their dumbbells and then head up the stairs without a pause :roll: When I went to do bench, every bar had weights on it, and there was a bunch of 20s scattered all over the floor.

Another slight annoyance is their DBs go up in even numbers which puts me off a bit - not to mention half of the DBs aren't actually labelled so you have to pick them up to see if they feel right :pfft: OK, done with whinging about this gym! Promise :pray:

Will look at some short sprints for some cardio tonight.

i have the same prob at my gym, you get a horde of singlet boys around the bench and they litter the floor with dumbells and plates then after theyve finished there sets they buggeroff , kinda feel for the trainers and co

[Peachy]

Its funny how you don't appreciate your own gym until you go to a different one. Well i didn't anyway :shifty:

Does anyone else feel like they are not getting as good workout just coz they are not on their same machines?? :-s Or is it just me.....

[ThePman]

Does anyone else feel like they are not getting as good workout just coz they are not on their same machines?? :-s Or is it just me.....

Ma-chin-es?

[Draft]

Nice to see another journal from you Drizzt given how much effort you put in to yours last time (by the way I never got to tell you how much you shouldn't have been underwhelmed with your results but I guess you don't want to revisit that). How'd beach season treat you?

Hows your search for a giant tyre going/when are your pre-seasons for footy kicking off?

Kk, enough questions!

[drizzt]

How'd beach season treat you?

Hows your search for a giant tyre going/when are your pre-seasons for footy kicking off?

Cheers mate (thought I had posted a reply before but must've lost it :-s)

Beach season was great, all of my mates that I went away with were impressed (a couple have asked me to sort workouts and eating plans for them - I have enough trouble with my own! :pfft:), had quite a few guys come up to chat about what I did to get into that sort of condition, and for tips etc which I found an interesting outcome of the cut haha. Also had a few approaches from the ladies which the Mrs took an odd sort of pride in It wasn't the goal but was good for the ego I guess :oops: Still, more approaches from guys than girls which was funny, but at least I didn't get shown any hostility - as I have been shown when I've been in ok condition at things like the 7s in the past :roll:

As for the tyres, I found a bit of a goldmine of them at Beaurepaires Kaiwharawhara. They even offered to deliver them for free! Only trouble is it's taking a little while. Still, can't complain as they are doing me a massive favour, and I'm grateful to have found a source anyway. Probably should've got the ball rolling end of last year but I'm Captain Procrastinate so I put it off :x

Aaand Pre-season training begins this coming Tuesday, and my first pre-season game is the last week in Feb! Earlier than I had expected, but plenty of time to prepare for. Weeks are going to start looking busy now, with 3-4 gym sessions, 2 rugby trainings, strongman circuit (probably 1 per week), 1-2 boxing sessions, possibly 1-2 SHIIT sessions and then also working regular jogs around it all - not to mention a game a week heading into March. So rest/recovery and nutrition are going to have to be massive aspects of my training leading into the season, I'm going to really try hard to nail it :nod:

[drizzt]

14/01/10 - Back

Woot, back at famililar old Bworks after a rest day yesterday 8) Weight is back up at 90 - about time too, I've been eating like Steak lately :pfft: (well, not quite haha)

• Deadlifts* (sets, reps, weight) (weights in plates/single DB only unless Oly bar exercise)
  1 x 8 @ 60kg (warmup)
  1 x 10 @ 100kg
  3 x 10 @ 110kg
  Bent BB Rows
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  1 x 10 @ 70kg*
  1 x 10 @ 65kg
  Hyperextensions*
  1 x 20 @ Bodyweight
  1 x 18 @ +10kg
  1 x 20 @ +10kg
  Wide Chins
  1 x 6 @ Bodyweight
  1 x 5 @ +5kg
  1 x 4 @ +5kg
  1 x 2 @ Bodyweight (drop)

Comments

• *Deads felt great, but I learnt from the session last week that I probably don't want to push it too far, so upped it 10kg after the set on 100 flew up and it still felt great going at 110. Didn't use the belt, and I couldn't feel the twinge one iota which was promising. Kept the volume lower than I have been doing lately to baby it a little more, and I came away nice and tight afterwards but not "sore" at all. Outlook for the next couple of weeks is promising, I'm doing some light squats tomorrow which will hopefully help it along a little more.
  *Bent BB rows - I faded a bit late in the 2nd set and form started to deteriorate, so I backed off to 65kg for the final set. I like to really concentrate on the lats when doing these, so I don't like to get too sloppy with form
  *Added Hypers in to target that lower back area - I figure injuring it in the first place was a combination of pushing myself a tad too far which was poor judgement on my part, and probably also a deficiency in strength there, so I'm going to hopefully keep this around alongside the deads.
  *Wide chins were ok, first time I've tried weighting them (so I guess technically the +5kg is a PB :pfft:) but I'm keen for them to improve, so I'm going to slowly continue incrementing the weight here. Probably could've got 2-3 more on that first set, but I wanted to leave some room for the weighted sets to come. I was beginning to fade at this point (first lunch-hour session for the new year, so not yet used to the higher intensity now that I have a time limit again on my workouts) so these were a bit tough, especially on the grip.

So today wasn't especially challenging, but still wary of the back niggle before I start upping the intensity and weight too far. Thanks to some advice from Pman I'm currently reading up/deciding how best to attack my gym sessions from here on out so I'm looking for a bit more structure to what I do come Monday :nod: Learning a bit while reading up on his (and Rippetoes too) articles which is great, it's giving me a fresh outlook on things :nod:

[Big john]

I think steak would agree if u kept up the cals bro u should be ok, shovel,inhale or plough to get those cals in 8)

[drizzt]

I think steak would agree if u kept up the cals bro u should be ok, shovel,inhale or plough to get those cals in 8)

Heh, I'm well ahead of ya mate Still keeping the diet pretty clean as I'm wanting to limit the fat gain as much as I can (although I realise it's pretty unavoidable when gaining muscle), but not worrying too much about calorie intake or anything too specific unless it's a particularly dormant day for me (which is becoming less and less common).

[drizzt]

15/01/10 - Shoulders

Cityfitness Jville again...

• Standing Overhead BB Press (sets, reps, weight) (weights in plates/single DB only unless Oly bar exercise)
  1 x 10 @ 50kg (warmup)
  1 x 10 @ 60kg
  2 x 10 @ 65kg*
  DB Rear Delt Raises
  3 x 10 @ 12kg
  1 x 9 @ 8kg (drop, fail)
  Shrugs*
  1 x 10 @ 100kg
  1 x 10 @ 140kg
  1 x 6 @ 160kg
  1 x 6 @ 170kg*
  Squats*
  4 x 10 @ 60kg

Comments

• *Saw the stupid hex bar again when going for my OHPs, thought surely it can't be that bad... it was. It just feels really awkward to hold. I'm sure there are people somewhere who enjoy using that type of bar, but I realized today that I find it incredibly annoying. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and loaded it up (because I was lazy and it was conveniently on the rack I wanted to use) but regretted it in the latter sets. Body english was in full force in the final set as I struggled a bit so used the legs to get a bit of momentum to shunt the bar up, but thought it was alright for my first set of standing overheads for quite some time.
  *Shrugs - finally got a good(ish) set of straps so was keen to load up the bar. The final set wasn't quite to my usual form standard - if I'm being honest it was too heavy to do properly - but it was good to be able to move it and the traps were certainly feeling it afterwards.
  *Squats - after reading an article by Mark Rippetoe on squatting, and more specifically taking out of it the bar position on your back and how it effects your lift, I decided to try a lower bar position. My position isn't usually "high" as such, but not as low as he recommended. So I dropped it to the base of my traps and found a pretty good groove to sit the bar on. It felt really awkward at first (wrist placement was hard, and wrists were sore afterwards) but came more and more naturally as the sets wore on. I felt a LOT more involvement out of the posterior chain and hips in particular (may have something to do with doing Deads yesterday though...), but found I couldn't quite get as deep. This will come I reckon, so I'm going to try and at least do my light weights with low bar positioning until I'm more comfortable with how to do it.

All in all, a bit of a short session, but unfortunately had a funeral to attend so had to cut it a bit short. Feel I got enough done anyways, was happy with OHP in particular.

Cardio (actually did this last night too as well as this morning). Went for a bit of a different jogging route this time, I was kinda tired of the usual 2.5k one so I went in a different direction - was keen for some flat running for once! 8)

Mapmyrun reckons it was 2.8km, and I got it in just over 10mins on both occasions which was fantastic I thought considering I've not been keeping up with the jogging much for quite a while. Also, I was so used to running the hills that I found the flats incredibly easy, and was going at a decent clip along them (which was 75% of the route). It's at least a good alternate route to my usual one, and can be for days when I'm looking at going fast on the flats. I also found the first part of the run a bit jarring on my lower back niggle but that disappeared quickly thankfully.

[VampireChick]

Oooh new journal!

Are you still at the same boxing club Drizzt? I'm allowed to go back in a month...whoop!!

[drizzt]

Haha yeah, the last one is slowly fading into the wilderness of old, discontinued training logs It was only for the 30 day cut, so thought new year and new goals should = new log

And yep, will be back at Gloves. Had one session on Monday, she pushed us a little bit harder than usual because it was our first session back, was very tough! Might see ya there soon then 8)

May be joining a club in Newtown in the not too distant future though, as I might be looking to do it competitively in the Rugby offseason... see how I go I guess.

[drizzt]

16/01/10 - Cardio/Rest

Rest day today, and was thinking of throwing in the towel for cardio too due to the HUGE winds outside, but toughed it out and did my normal jogging route. It was a heck of a lot more challenging than usual, as the winds were swirling a bit and were so strong I found that when they stopped I almost toppled forward :-s :pfft:

I've gotta say, these are some of the strongest winds I can remember Wellington producing (I've lived here for about 14-15 years). I know it has a reputation for being bloody windy, but I usually brush it off and think it's not too bad, but it's farkin horrendous today!

Still, good to get some form of exercise in I thought, the wind just made the hills a little bit more challenging which was fine by me! 8)