Tonight's Double Header - Legs AND Arms!

So, as is probably obvious from the previous posts (or lack thereof), Matt and I missed legs on Wednesday. I think he had an exam, and he was too sleep-deprived on Thursday. So, we decided to go for the gold and have the Friday night combo. I'm sure we'll know in a day or two whether this was a folly-ridden decision.

By the end, I was pretty exhausted (in a good way), and felt like my arms were going to explode (in that REALLY good way).

As a side note, my gym is undergoing some changes, and I can say with certainty that I'm not a fan. The owners are opening a second gym in the neighboring town, and instead of having the financing completely in place, they seem to be cannibalizing the gym equipment from Ann Arbor (location I) and shifting it to Saline (location II). Every day, it seems that more equipment is gone. People are starting to have to wait extended periods for flat benches, ellipticals, and pretty much everything else. Really, it's become like "Gold's Montana - The Gym of Wide, Open Spaces." Seriously, you have to go on safari just to find clips for the free weights.

I wonder if there will be anything left when I get back in September. Hell...I wonder if there will be anything left by the end of the month.

The locker rooms are closed over the weekend for "repainting and maintenance." I hope that means "getting rid of the mold in the showers." Yuck. How hard is it to make spraying the showers and curtains with anti-mildew spray as part of closing duties?

Anyway - enough bitching. Here are tonight's numbers.

Friday, April 11, 2008 - Arms and Legs

Exercise	Cory	Matt
Tricep pushdowns	65 x 15 : 80 x 12	65 x 10 : 72.5 x 10
Skullcrushers	115 x 12 x 2	70 x 10 : 70 x 12
Overhead tricep extension	72.5 x 15 x 2	72.5 x 10 x 2
Preacher curls (M)	160 x 10 x 2	110 x 12 : 130 x 9
DB bicep/hammer curls	35 x 10 x (b/h) x 2	32.5 x 10 x (b/h) : 35 x 10 x b : 27.5 x 6 x h
Barbell bicep curl		60 x 12 x 2
Palm down wrist curl	45 x 20 x 2 (bar)	45 x 20 x 2 (bar)
Palm up wrist curl	45 x 20 x 2 (bar)	45 x 20 x 2 (bar)
Tricep pushdowns II	80 x 15 : 80 x 20	72.5 x 10 : 80 x 5
Preacher curls II	100 x 15 x 2	125 x 9 : 110 x 9
Torso rotation	150 x 20 x (L/R) x 2
Leg press	530 x 10 x 2	530 x 10 x 2
Leg extensions	190 x 12 x 2	190 x 10 x 2
Hamstring curl	190 x 10 x 2	190 x 10 x 2
Seated calf raise	180 x 10 : 180 x 5
Glute kickbacks	180 x 10 x (L/R) x 2
Hip abduction	250 x 20 x 2
Hip adduction	250 x 20 x 2
TOTAL	83,130	35,665

Legs

Wow....grueling leg day, but I loved it. This is going to hurt for days (but in the good way.) I've noticed (*knock on wood*) that my knee problem (patello femoral syndrome) has subsided. Perhaps the prescription strength naproxen worked!

Today's numbers:

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - Legs

Exercise	Cory	Matt
Squats (Smith)	275 x 10 : 315 x 10	185 x 10 : 225 x 10
Leg press	630 x 10 : 720 x 10	450 x 10 : 540 x 10
Leg extensions	170 x 10 : 190 x 10	230 x 10 : 230 x 9
Hamstring curl	135 x 10 : 140 x 10	190 x 10 : 170 x 10
Seated calf raise	135 x 15 x 2 (cramp)	135 x 25 : 135 x 22
Glute kickbacks	140 x 10 x (L/R) : 160 x 10 x (L/R)	140 x 10 x 2 x (L/R)
Hip abduction	220 x 10 : 240 x 10	215 x 10 : 240 x 10
Hip adduction	220 x 10 : 240 x 10	220 x 10 : 240 x 10
TOTAL	45,000	42,065

Legs

No Matt today. The flu caught up with him, so he'll be out for a while.

Today's numbers:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - Legs

Exercise	Cory
Squat (Smith)	225 x 10 : 275 x 5
Leg press	540 x 10 : 630 x 10
Leg extension	230 x 10 : 170 x 15
One-leg hamstring curl	120 x 10 x (L/R) : 120 x 7 x (L/R)
Seated calf raise	230 x 10 x 2
Hip abduction	240 x 10 x 2
Hip adduction	240 x 10 : 240 x 7
Glute kickbacks	130 x 10 x 2 x (L/R)
TOTAL	42,935

Legs ... and a guest

Today was a lot of fun. I had one of my Up With People friends, Aaron (who was my cast's dance captain), visiting from Colorado Springs, CO. Aaron was up for joining Matt and me in our leg workout, so that was a good time.

Here are the numbers for the day:

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - Legs

Exercise	Cory	Matt	Aaron
Squats (Smith)	185 x 10 : 225 x 10	185 x 8 : 135 x 11	135 x 10 : 185 x 10
Leg press	450 x 10 : 540 x 10	450 x 10 x 2	270 x 10 : 360 x 10
One-leg hamstring curl	100 x 10 x (L/R) : 110 x 10x (L/R)	110 x 10 x 2 x (L/R)	65 x 10 x 2 x (L/R)
Seated calf raise	180 x 10 : 225 x 15	180 x 10 : 180 x 14	90 x 11 : 90 x 10
Hip abduction	230 x 15 x 2	210 x 12	110 x 15 x 3
Hip adduction	230 x 15 x 2	230 x 12	150 x 15 x 3
TOTAL	37,175	25,965	25,690

Legs

How exciting. Finally, a leg day that at the end felt like it was an accomplishment. Much more focus on glutes, and I'm anticipating some difficulty walking over the next day or two. Most exercises put me at or close to failure on the last rep, which tells me I'm sensing the right range for weights and reps.

I need to start thinking and planning around exercises and weights that will stimulate Type IIa, IIb, and IIc muscle fibers. As we get to the middle of the 12-week cycle, I'll start introducing that more.

Lifts for tonight...

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - Legs

Exercise	Cory	Matt
Leg extension (M)	80 x 10 x 3 (single leg)	170 x 10 x 3
Standing hamstring curl (M)	100 x 10 x 2 : 100 x 8	100 x 10 x 3
Glute kickbacks (M)	30 x 10 x 3	30 x 10 x 3
Leg Press** (F)	440 x 10 x 3	440 x 10 x 3
Calf extension (M)	250 x 10 x 3	250 x 20 x 2 : 250 x 24 x 2
Hip abduction (M)	210 x 12 x 3	290 x 15 x 2
Hip adduction (M)	210 x 12 x 3	290 x 15 x 2

** For the leg press, we dropped the weight far below our normal numbers, and took the lifts very slow, and all the way down through the entire range of motion, bringing the knees all the way to the chest. MUCH harder.

Legs

Tonight was definitely an "in and out" kind of night. I'm not so sure that I'm liking the super-fast visits to the gym, since I find that it's an environment that I enjoy. Plus, I'm not convinced that all of the limited (though superset) exercises are achieving the same kind of muscle fatigue and micro-tearing that I want. Matt and I are planning to sit down on Sunday after the back workout to plan the next 12 weeks of workouts with concrete goals.

Here's the leg workout tonight. No nausea and getting sick like last week. Besides the better nutrition, I attribute this to a two things (which I like). First, pre-fatiguing the muscles by putting the big lift (squat, in this cast) last. Second, Only including one big lift (i.e., only squat instead of squat AND leg press.) I'll probably experiment more with this in the future.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - Legs

Elliptical	6:59 / 1.0 miles
Single leg quad extension (M)	70 x 10 x 3
Single leg hamstring curl (M)	100 x 10 x 3
Calf extension (M)	210 x 20 x 3
Hack squats	140 x 10 : 280 x 10 : 100 x 25

Legs, sort of...

Today was the first leg day back after the holidays, and the first leg day after an absence from the gym always involves pain and suffering (or is that fear and loathing? I doubt Kierkegaard hung out in the gym a lot, but you never know.)

Yes, there was pain. Matt (my lifting partner, who will be a regular co-star in my blog) abdicated first and smartly stopped. I wasn't so wise, and pushed on. After the first round of leg press, Matt mentioned that he was not feeling well (that familiar feeing of "If I hold still, maybe the nausea will pass."). He stopped after one light round of squats. I pressed on, but stopped after the third exercise. I held it together until I got to the locker room, but just had to succumb. I haven't lifted until I vomited for a LONG time. Typically, this can be a source of pride ("I lifted so hard I threw up!") among hard-core lifters. I didn't feel that swell of pride today.

I have a strong suspicion that sudden sickness was the result of poor nutritional planning today. I loathe keeping close track of what I eat, and I hate counting calories, but I think that for a while, I need to buck up and write everything down.

So, how many calories? I decided to do a Google search on "calculating caloric need" and chose several of the top results, each of which was a calculator specifically for adult needs. I used the same information for each calculator: Male, 35 years old, 5'10", 218 pounds, heavy activity (defined as approximately 1 hour of vigorous activity 5-7 days per week). Here are the results for my daily intake to maintain my current weight.

• About.com: 3527


• ahealthyme.com: 4045


• Baylor College of Medicine: 3494


• International Sports Science Association (ISSA): 3720


• American Cancer Society: 4955

Hmmmm....wide variation there. Some of the sites give actual formulae, but not all. There seems to be (surprise!) a lack of standardization here. I need to do some more exploring about the history and derivation of these systems of measurement.

For now, though, I think I'm going to go with the ISSA measurement, which is laid out clearly on the bodybuilding.com web site. The helpful part here is that it gives caloric breakdowns based on goals. Using my stats, I get:

• Maintaning weight
  
  
  
  • Protein: 163g/652Kcal
  
  
  • Carbohydrates: 628g/2510Kcal
  
  
  • Fat: 62g/558Kcal
  
  
  
  


• Building mass
  
  
  
  • Protein: 196g/784Kcal
  
  
  • Carbohydrates: 595g/2378Kcal
  
  
  • Fat: 62g/558Kcal
  
  
  
  


• Losing weight
  
  
  
  • Protein: 218g/872Kcal
  
  
  • Carbohydrates: 573g/2290Kcal
  
  
  • Fat: 62g/558Kcal
  
  
  
  

I'll go for losing some weight first, and then adding muscle mass when I get to a happy point.

Enough of that. Here's what I did for leg day today. Remember, this was cut short by the vomiting. Grrrr.....

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - Legs

Elliptical	8:03 / 1.0 miles
Linear leg press (F)	530 x 10 : 620 x 10 : 710 x 10
Squat (M)	160 x 10 : 220 x 10 : 260 x 10
Calf extension (M)	350 x 15 : 365 x 15 : 365 x 15