Workout: What did you do today?

[Mindy]

A friend of mine motivated me to stop making excuses and focus harder on working out. She is smart and suggested the St. Jude Children's Hospital 1000 push-ups in November challenge. So I signed up to keep me going every day no matter what. The fundraising goal is $250 but I figured I would give $10 each Friday going until the end of the challenge.


It's like 34 push-ups a day but I figured I would just get started ASAP tonight and tomorrow so Im not sore on Nov.1. They are giving me a t-shirt which is nice. I understand maybe 35 a day is easy but it's honestly just to keep me focused longer than two weeks. I never know what to share on Facebook anyway other than my photography photos every once in a while. 

They have lots of fundraisers I saw after creating the St. Jude's Children's Hospital one, so maybe I do a December challenge after this November one goes well. I might create some other exercises here to go along with the push ups because if im going to go all November doing something, maybe create a routine like with sit ups or planks or something. We'll see how this all goes though.

[grindy]

The scenarios I imagine in my head to get me angry and force the final rep out 

Well done Big G.

I had my scenario right there. Wannabe intermediate can't complete five reps with 80 kilos? Fuck that!

[/quote]

That's a great rep, though, grindy 🙂 I love the ones that feel like they really count.

Looking forward to an exercise session tomorrow! I thought I'd try out a small gym available through work.





Gots lotsa manuals, squat rack, bench press and this thingy you can do various cable pushes and junk on.

Edit:

Hey, dips too!

This looks cool! Don't think I'll ever stop training at home but it's so cool to train in a gym, especially a new one, from time to time!

[Guybrush]

I had my scenario right there. Wannabe intermediate can't complete five reps with 80 kilos? Fuck that!


This looks cool! Don't think I'll ever stop training at home but it's so cool to train in a gym, especially a new one, from time to time!

Yeah, this is just a backroom without windows (and kinda hard to find) at a place where I don't really work, but I'm part of the same extended organization, so.. I thought I could borrow it a bit.

I have the security card for the door.

I okayed something similar in my previous job 🙂 setting aside a small budget each year, small enough to hopefully slip by unnoticed, and just buy some equip each year. That's where the smith machine I've been using is.

I thought I'd try this program from Nippard and just expand on it a little:

It's got two days and I think they look like this:


Day 1:
Dumbbell presses (might alt with dips)
Romanian deadlift w/dumbbells
Lat cable pulldown (varying grips)
Overhead cable curls
Dumbbell step-ups
Overhead tricep cable extension
Lateral raise
Hamstring.. uh.. toe press?


Day 2:
Some kind of machine squats (have to trade for normal squats)

Superset:
Incline bench press narrow grip
Incline dumbbell rows

Seated hamstring curl (not sure I got equip for this)
Bicep barbell curls
Cable crunches (12-15 reps + drop)


Might've forgotten an exercise, but something like that.

He has a suggestion for doing these three days a week with an upper/lower body split, but I thought I'd perhaps try just alternating between day 1 and 2 instead and always do 48 hours rest. From my experience so far, I think I would prefer that.

I'll also toss in some isolation stuff and up the amount of sets.

[Guybrush]

Seems my security clearance doesn't grant me access during weekends, so I'm back to my old workplace's gym. I've been having one of the hardest workouts of my life 😅 started with squats and added a rep to my sets, so that's 4 x 10 with 70 kgs total. Not much to you guys, but man I was beat. No failure, but the last two reps in the final two sets came close.

Them dumbbell press. Not stronger. Instead of doing 4 sets, I turned the third set into a drop set to milk those failures that were coming. Hard!

I've then done 8 x 3 pendlay rows, but still am not liking them. I'm at 60 kg. Might be too heavy, so thinking of doing high reps next time and focus more on form

Now I'm knackered already! But gonna try some resistance band workouts before I go home.

[jimmy jazz]

Can't wait for the first progress pic from Tore. How long has it been now? 10 weeks? When you hit 6 months I say you bless us with the physique shots.

[grindy]

Seems my security clearance doesn't grant me access during weekends, so I'm back to my old workplace's gym. I've been having one of the hardest workouts of my life 😅 started with squats and added a rep to my sets, so that's 4 x 10 with 70 kgs total. Not much to you guys, but man I was beat. No failure, but the last two reps in the final two sets came close.

Them dumbbell press. Not stronger. Instead of doing 4 sets, I turned the third set into a drop set to milk those failures that were coming. Hard!

I've then done 8 x 3 pendlay rows, but still am not liking them. I'm at 60 kg. Might be too heavy, so thinking of doing high reps next time and focus more on form

Now I'm knackered already! But gonna try some resistance band workouts before I go home.

Those are actually some nice numbers. Took me way longer. Props!

[jimmy jazz]

Agree that's why I want to see the physique.

Tore has that viking strength!

[Guybrush]

Agree that's why I want to see the physique.

Tore has that viking strength!

Haha, hardly 😄 but alright, come february, I'll post some progression pics.

I ended up finishing with some skullcrushers and bicep curls instead yesterday.

I've tweaked Nippard's program a little and have noted some alternatives where I won't always have the right equip, so now it looks like this:


Day 1

• Flat dumbbell press (Alt: dips)
• Romanian deadlift w/dumbbells
• Varying grip lat cable pulldown (alt: wide grip pullups / narrow grip chin-ups*)
• Overhead cable curls (alt: bicep curls)
• Overhead cable tricep extension (alt: skullcrushers)
• Lateral raise*

Day 2

• Squats
• Toe press
• Superset: Incline bench press narrow grip & Incline dumbbell rows
• Bicep barbell curls
• Cable crunches (alt: weighted decline situps)

*Might drop this

Because I love squats, I might add those to both days if my legs aren't jellied. Plus, there's a lot more upper body than lower atm. Also more arms than back.

If you see improvements in my alternatives suggestions, feel free to fire away 🙂

[grindy]

It's ridiculous how easy it is to get into ego lifting. When I started my current program, my rule was that I have to squat all the way down and be relatively upright when rising. I was really eager to finally get to a working weight of 100kg during the last weeks but yesterday, at 97,5kg, I realized that I was cheating myself, not going completely ass to grass and doing a very slight "squat morning" when rising. Not bad form by any means but not what I had decided to do. So now I am again at 90kg. Still hope to go to three sets of 5 with 100kg by the end of the year. Let's see what happens. Not gonna play myself though.

[Guybrush]

It's ridiculous how easy it is to get into ego lifting. When I started my current program, my rule was that I have to squat all the way down and be relatively upright when rising. I was really eager to finally get to a working weight of 100kg during the last weeks but yesterday, at 97,5kg, I realized that I was cheating myself, not going completely ass to grass and doing a very slight "squat morning" when rising. Not bad form by any means but not what I had decided to do. So now I am again at 90kg. Still hope to go to three sets of 5 with 100kg by the end of the year. Let's see what happens. Not gonna play myself though.

The way I've been doing this is I've started at 8 reps per set, then progressed to 12 and if I can do 12, up weights and back to 8.

But I've been a little hesitant to up weights because it ofc ups injury risk, so when I've arrived at 12, I'll typically also redo like 4 sets of 12 one or more times making each squat as tough as I can including pausing at the bottom before going up and getting a deep squat - although I try to avoid going so low as to cause butt wink.

So that also means there are many sets where I focus less on form, although that doesn't mean I think my form is bad. But I do believe progressing by adding reps, like adding a rep to sets, will lead to quicker progress than perfecting form. At least on average and according to Nippard. So this way, I have quicker progression in terms of adding reps and then check form properly before upping weights.

[DJChameleon]

A friend of mine motivated me to stop making excuses and focus harder on working out. She is smart and suggested the St. Jude Children's Hospital 1000 push-ups in November challenge. So I signed up to keep me going every day no matter what. The fundraising goal is $250 but I figured I would give $10 each Friday going until the end of the challenge.


It's like 34 push-ups a day but I figured I would just get started ASAP tonight and tomorrow so Im not sore on Nov.1. They are giving me a t-shirt which is nice. I understand maybe 35 a day is easy but it's honestly just to keep me focused longer than two weeks. I never know what to share on Facebook anyway other than my photography photos every once in a while. 

They have lots of fundraisers I saw after creating the St. Jude's Children's Hospital one, so maybe I do a December challenge after this November one goes well. I might create some other exercises here to go along with the push ups because if im going to go all November doing something, maybe create a routine like with sit ups or planks or something. We'll see how this all goes though.

Good job starting Mindy. I did a St. Jude's push up challenge back in May. It was 3000 pushups for the month of May and I have my shirt as well. Really great material. I did all kinds of push up types so I didn't get bored. Inclines, wall, diamond, regular, etc.

I've been going hard at the gym with the extra free time I have. The last two weeks I have gone every single morning during the week. So five times a day except for when I went on vacation over the weekend but now I hit up chest day twice a week and alternate the last session. So coming up I'm going to focus on back exercises because I did arm last time.

[grindy]

The way I've been doing this is I've started at 8 reps per set, then progressed to 12 and if I can do 12, up weights and back to 8.

But I've been a little hesitant to up weights because it ofc ups injury risk, so when I've arrived at 12, I'll typically also redo like 4 sets of 12 one or more times making each squat as tough as I can including pausing at the bottom before going up and getting a deep squat - although I try to avoid going so low as to cause butt wink.

So that also means there are many sets where I focus less on form, although that doesn't mean I think my form is bad. But I do believe progressing by adding reps, like adding a rep to sets, will lead to quicker progress than perfecting form. At least on average and according to Nippard. So this way, I have quicker progression in terms of adding reps and then check form properly before upping weights.

This is certainly a good scheme to progress. It is a bit slow, I can't imagine having to go four reps down, although it depends on the weight added.
But if it works for you, you get stronger and bigger and you feel great, who cares about some minor details.
Also I wouldn't obsess over butt wink, although it depends.
Here's a deep dive into the butt:

[Mindy]

Good job starting Mindy. I did a St. Jude's push up challenge back in May. It was 3000 pushups for the month of May and I have my shirt as well. Really great material. I did all kinds of push up types so I didn't get bored. Inclines, wall, diamond, regular, etc.

I've been going hard at the gym with the extra free time I have. The last two weeks I have gone every single morning during the week. So five times a day except for when I went on vacation over the weekend but now I hit up chest day twice a week and alternate the last session. So coming up I'm going to focus on back exercises because I did arm last time.

thats cool, I should be getting a shirt too, this is just 1000 push ups but Im going to track how many I do in excel and just do a bunch

[Guybrush]

This is certainly a good scheme to progress. It is a bit slow, I can't imagine having to go four reps down, although it depends on the weight added.
But if it works for you, you get stronger and bigger and you feel great, who cares about some minor details.
Also I wouldn't obsess over butt wink, although it depends.
Here's a deep dive into the butt:

I typically add 10 kgs. It is a bit slow and going back to 8 typically isn't much of a challenge, even with the added kgs. For that reason, I've jumped ahead a bit in the past if 4 x 8 felt way too easy.

This time, at 70 kgs, I'm just adding a rep at a time because every squat sesh has felt tough. 4 x 11 is up on Friday. I could skip to 4 x 12 and am considering it, but judging by my soreness last time, I think I'll just keep going nice and slow.

Do you guys do warmup sets before hitting your target weight on squats?

[grindy]

I typically add 10 kgs. It is a bit slow and going back to 8 typically isn't much of a challenge, even with the added kgs. For that reason, I've jumped ahead a bit in the past if 4 x 8 felt way too easy.

This time, at 70 kgs, I'm just adding a rep at a time because every squat sesh has felt tough. 4 x 11 is up on Friday. I could skip to 4 x 12 and am considering it, but judging by my soreness last time, I think I'll just keep going nice and slow.

Do you guys do warmup sets before hitting your target weight on squats?

I wouldn't recommend upping the weight that much. I typically use 2,5kg and it is the usually recommended jump.
And yeah, I warm up for all big lifts. Starting with the bar and adding weight while decreasing reps until I'm at my working weight. Very important to not get injured.