Chest

Main thing to note about the workout tonight is that Matt pointed out that he thinks we're doing too much shoulder work on different days. We had discussed before that we would split shoulders over back and chest days, but it's crept into more of the workouts, and he's beginning to feel burned out on shoulders. I'm not to that burned point yet, but I'm probably not far behind. As a result, we're going to consolidate the shoulder work onto chest days. That will make for a bit longer workout, I think, since I don't want to cut back on chest work for the sake of shoulders. We'll see how it turns out in practice.

Tonight's numbers:

Monday, January 21, 2008 - Chest

Exercise	Cory	Matt
Decline bench (F)	155 x 10 x 2 : 185 x 10	155 x 10 x 2 : 135 x 10
Incline DB press - 45º (F)	60 x 10 x 3	55 x 10 : 55 x 9 : 55 x 5
Flat flyes	30 x 10 x 2 : 35 x 10	30 x 12 : 27.5 x 10 : 30 x 10
Decline press (M)	180 x 12 x 3	180 x 10 x 2 : 140 x 6
Incline flyes - 60º (F)	35 x 12 x 3	35 x 10 x 2

Chest/Shoulders

Tonight's numbers:

Monday, January 14, 2008 - Chest/Shoulders

Exercise	Cory	Matt
Decline bench (F)	135 x 10 x 3	135 x 10 x 3
Incline DB - 45º (F)	55 x 10 x 3	55 x 10 x 2 : 55 x 6
Flat flyes (F)	30 x 10 x 3	30 x 10 x 3
Superset: Shoulder press (M)	75 x 10 x 2 : 75 x 4	70 x 10 x 3
Superset: Lateral raise (M)	75 x 10 x 3	70 x 10: 50 x 8 x 2
Incline flyes - 60º (F)	27.5 x 10: 35 x 10 x 2	27.5 x 10 x 3
Decline press (M)	180 x 10 x 2	180 x 10 : 90 x 10

Back/Shoulders

Tonight was back night, and we were in and out quickly. After the workout, Matt and I sat down (having a shake...gotta have SOME reward) and talked about our upcoming goals. I'm putting together workouts for the next 12 weeks. Some of the more recent workout are leaving me...well...I'm not sore the next day or two, which says to me that I'm not working hard enough. So, we articulated the following as aspects we would like to incorporate into the new routine.

• Stick with four days per week: Chest/Shoulders, Legs, Arms,
  Back/Shoulders
• For each body part, two strength days and two mass-building days per month
• For legs: more work on glutes, less on calves, and stay intense
• For back: keep things relatively the same, since this workout is working well for both of us, but add the Roman chair to strengthen lower back
• My arm workout from last week was GREAT, so we'll stick with that
• Split shoulder work between back day and chest day
• Shorten rest times between lifts. Aim for 45-60 seconds (except for big leg lifts, which just take more recovery time.)
• Try adding in clean-and-jerk. I'm not convinced of this one, and am afraid of it. I can just see the bar flying up into my face and knocking out all of my teeth.

When I get something put together, I'll put it up here (though likely as a link to a file download.)

Tonight's numbers:

Sunday, January 13, 2008 - Back/Shoulders

Exercise	Cory	Matt
Wide pulldown (M)	120 X 12 X 3	120 x 10 x 3
Close pulldown (M)	100 x 12 x 3	120 x 10 x 3
Wide barbell row (F)	135 x 12 x 3	135 X 12 x 2 : 135 x 10
Close DB row (F)	45 x 12 : 50 x 12 : 55 x 12	45 x 10 x 3
Shrug rack (F)	180 x 12 : 270 x 12 : 360 x 10	180 x 13 : 180 x 10 : 270 x 10

Chest/Shoulders

Again, trying something new tonight. I found a chest and shoulder series on bodybuilding.com that focuses on supersetting. What Matt and I found is that this workout really hits the chest well (but we'll have to add in some more shoulder work), and gets us in and out of the gym in record time. We both said that we wouldn't want to do supersets every time and need some variation. We also want to see how we feel tomorrow and the next day to see if the chest is sore.

So, for tonight:

Monday, January 7, 2008 - Chest/Shoulders

Elliptical	3:58 / 0.5 miles
Superset #1: DB flat chest press (F)	65 x 6 x 3
Superset #1: Wide grip barbell row (F)	135 x 8 x 3
Superset #2: DB incline press (F)	55 x 8 x 3
Superset #2: DB chest fly (F)	30 x 10 x 3
Superset #3: Medium grip bench press (F)	115 x 10 x 3
Superset #3: External shoulder rotation (M)	25 x 10 x 3

Chest/Shoulders

Good day yesterday. Hard day today. I think that celebrating New Years Eve was the culprit for making today difficult. I didn't drink, but the combination of not sleeping a lot and eating pizza (which was burning a hole through my chest an hour later) put me in a bad spot today.

At any rate, here's the details for yesterday (December 31, 2007) and today (January 1, 2008)

*For future reference, (F) denotes freeweights and (M) denotes a machine

Monday, December 31, 2007 - Chest/Shoulders

Elliptical	7:31 / 1.0 miles
Decline bench (F)	135 x 10 : 205 x 10 : 225 x 5
Low dumbell flat press (F)	60 x 10 : 60 x 10 : 60 x 5
Seated dumbell shoulder press (F)	25 x 20 : 30 x 20 : 30 x 12
Seated incline dumbell press 45º (F)	45 x 10 : 45 x 10 : 45 x 10
Shoulder press (M)	50 x 10 : 60 x 10 : 65 x 6
Lateral raise (M)	50 x 10 : 60 x 10 : 65 x 10

Tuesday, January 1, 2008 - Cardio

Eh...I didn't go. Between getting over the major upset stomach and the lack of sleep, I decided that it would be better to not stress out my body, eat a little and be gentle to my stomach, and try to put my sleep cycle back on track. (Thank you, melatonin.)