Jenng's Journal

No problem...hope you feel better.

"Try and fail is the manner of losers. Try and learn is the way of the strong." -- Unknown

[image]http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8302/opensuse2oi.jpg[/image].

When is my week off? Oh yeah, after tomorrow. I need it. It has been a long 9 weeks of hard work.

Last day of this stinking bench press cycle we are on. I did 115 yet again, and just barely made the 3 sets of 3, with a little help. Now I just need to decide what to do for MaxOt reps when I come back after my week off. 110? 105? We'll see.

CHEST/TRIS 5/22

Flat BB Bench Press 45x8, 45x8, 85x5, 85x5, 115x3, 115x3, 115x3
Incline Bb Bench Press 75x12, 75x10, 75x9
Assisted Dips 130(assist)x8, 130x8
Overhead Tri Ext 37x12, 37x10
Tri Rope Pull Down 70x12, 70x10

I think I finally met my deadlift match. So far, I have been bumping the weight slowly and always left wondering if I could have done more. Today I did not even entertain that thought...

BACK/BICEPS 5/23

Warm Up: Deadlifts 85x12, 85x10, 115x6, 135x3

Working Sets:
Deadlifts 165x6x3
Cable Rows 120x6x3
Bent Over Rows 85x6x3

DB Curls 30x4, 30x5, 30x4
Hammerstrength Curl Machine 35x6, 40x6x2

Doing a great job just keep on Hanging& Banging Jenng.
How is your son doing?

Thanks, MrBig. He's doing well. We are introducing the meds very slowly (working up from 5g per day to 40g per day over 6 weeks). So far all I have noticed is a little extra drowsiness in the late morning. Nothing too big, thank goodness.

CARDIO (TREADMILL) 5/31

Back in the gym today! Woo hoo. And I had to start on a cardio day, yuck! But I felt great and decided to run a little longer than normal. I actually jogged for 1.6 miles straight. I feel confident that at a moderate pace (5.0-5.5 or so), I could get to 2 miles. I decided to stop today just so I could get my hill in.

2 min Warm up
1 mi - 10:33
Total Time = 35 mins (working up to 40 mins this month)
Total miles = 2.75
Total calories = 475 (wow!)

Aside, I took my son to the gym daycare at Golds for the first time today. At my last gym, he used to beg me not to go ("no gym, mama", which is saying a lot for a kid who could barely talk at the time). So I normally work around his sleep/nap schedule. But today we went and he did great. This is exciting as it makes it easier to get that extra cardio day in that I will need. Hopefully we can make this a Monday morning routine.

It felt good to put the gloves back on. (Yes, I am a wuss and I use lifting gloves.) But I did feel weak. I always seem to suffer a slight loss of strength after my week off, but this week it seemed slight. I used the same weight for the DB press, but had to drop back to the blasted 15s for the Side Raises.

I tried standing BB Military Press and it was awesome. Very hard. I am quite partial to good, full body type exercises and I like how this one challenges your core. I did have to struggle to keep my lower back from arching. It's amazing how your body just naturally tries to shift the work to the stronger msucle groups - in this case, arching my back to bring in the pecs. So my lower back is a bit sore, because I think I started too high on the weight. Will definitely try this one again.

SHOULDERS/TRAPS 6/1

Warm Up: DB Press 20x12, 20x10, 25x6, 30x3

DB Press: 35x5, 35x6, 35x5
Standing Mil Press: 70x5, 70x4, 65x4
Side Lateral Raises 15x6, 15x6
Shrugs: 145x8, 145x12, 145x12

Great Leg WO today. I was worried about doing squats after a week off and no hip pain. Well, alas, on my first warm up set, the hip pain was back with a vengeance. I mean, it is like a scraping and a popping of the hip joint with every squat. But by my second warm up set, it was much better. And by the time I got to my working sets, it was more of a dull ache. So while I would prefer to squat pain-free, it does seem to be improving.

(My chiro says its ok to keep up my WOs as long as I can, since that way we will know if things are indeed improving.)

I kept hearing CPLs voice in my head (weird, having never heard his actual voice) saying, "You body was made to do this movement" and just reminded myself that my barriers were mostly mental (and a little bit of the hip pain-related). So I went up to 165 and really concentrated on my form. It was great. I got much lower than I did 2 weeks ago, with 5 more lbs.

I'm still not sure what is up with my SLDLs. They are still holding pace with my squats and regular DLs. 165 for both types of DLs felt super heavy, so I just cannot imagine that I am understimating my DL by 30 lbs or something. Who knows.

LEGS 6/2

Warm Up: Squats 80x12, 80x10, 115x6, 135x3

Working Sets:
Squats: 165x6, 165x5, 165x6 (got a little distracted and wobbly on rep #5 in that second set, so I ended it early)
SLDLs: 165x6, 165x6, 165x6
Hack Squat Machine: 110x6, 110x6 (I am terrible at this machine. Not sure why it is so much lower than my squat)

I kept hearing CPLs voice in my head (weird, having never heard his actual voice) saying, "You body was made to do this movement"

Another sign you're addicted to DB!

"Try and fail is the manner of losers. Try and learn is the way of the strong." -- Unknown

[image]http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8302/opensuse2oi.jpg[/image].

I dragged my sorry butt to the gym for cardio today. I want a good weigh in tomorrow. But did not have anything left for abs. My poor, poor neglected abs.

CARDIO - ELLIPTICAL 6/3

5 min warm up
5 30/30 sprints
2 min recovery
3 30/30 sprints
3 min recovery
2 30/30 sprints
5 min hill
5 min cool down

30 min = 400+ calories

The good news is that this routine had me slightly less on the verge of death than I was last time I did it. One of these days I will be able to do all 10 sprints in a row, with no recovery time in between. I hope...

Went swimming today. Just did not feel like going to the gym to run and I am not quite ready for outside running yet. I planned to swim for 20 mins, but after I did a couple laps, I felt like I was going to die. I looked at my watch - 3 mins. I talked myself into going for 10 mins, when I got to 10, I decided to do 15 and then finally went for the whole 20. I alternated 2 laps of freestyle (1 lap=2 length of the pool) with 2 laps of backstroke. It was a relief when I switched, I guess it was a relief to be working different muscles. But after a lap, I was dying no matter which one I was doing. I cooled down with 1 lap of the breaststroke.

Then I come home and enter my swimming into fitday - 168 lousy calories. That's enough to make me cry. But I guess we all need to start somewhere. 13 laps in 20 mins is my official baseline.

I would like to try to swim twice a week, and work my way up to 30 mins at a time. I would also like to try swimming in the morning, so I am dodging less kids in the pool.

Me and my weak upper body are gonna have to have a few words. I'm not liking this at all. Chest day is rapidly becoming my least favorite workout. We went back to MaxOT style lifting after the 9 week bench routine we were doing, I cut back to 105 and still struggled a lot.

Oh well, no sense griping, all I can do is keep trying.

CHEST/TRICEPS 6/5

Warm Up: BB Bench Press 55x12, 55x10, 70x6, 85x3

BB Bench Press 105x4, 105x4, 105x4 (and they weren't pretty)
DB Incline Press 35x6, 35x6, 35x6
Tricep Dips 0x10, 10x9 (added weight on the second set)
Overhead Tri Ext 47x5, 37x6 (second set was better form)
Triceps Pushdown 90x6, 90x6

Ahh, it felt great to do deadlifts. The rest of my workout just reminded me how weak the rest of my upper body is, but I can always go back to my beloved DLs and feel invincible.

BACK/BICEPS 6/6

Warm Up: Deadlifts 85x12, 85x10, 115x6, 135x3

Working Sets:
Deadlifts 170x6, 170x6, 170x6
Bent Over Rows 95x6, 95x6, 95x6
CG Lat Pull Down 140x4
Hyperextensions (no weight) 2x12

DB Curls 30x4, 25x6, 25x6
EZ Bar Curls 53x4, 53x4
Hammer Strength Machine Curls 40x6

Great cardio day today. I ran a whole 2 miles. Just a few weeks ago I was thrilled to run 1 mile. It was definitely tough and I wanted to stop a lot, but I just kept on going. Good music helped. I just wish there were 8 days in a week, so I could lift for 4, cardio for 3 and have a mental health day.

CARDIO - TREADMILL 6/7

2 min warm up
2 miles = 22 mins
Hill, Cool Down

Total Time: 38 mins
Total Dist: 3 miles
Total Calories: 500 (!)

nice.. I'm on the cross country team and i die... 3.1 miles takes me 19:30 to finish... Keep up the good work :)

After a morning dealing with insane traffic (including an illegal U-turn in the middle of the intersate, but everyone was doing it...), a trip to the zoo, getting rained on and then a terribly fattening lunch of chicken wings, I was not in the mood to go to the gym. I wanted to nap. I did drag myself there, but could not decide whether to do shoulders+abs, or shoulders+1 mile of cardio.

So what the heck, I got there, felt great, so I did all three. Now I am ready to conquer the world. Love those endorphins!

SHOULDERS/ABS/CARDIO 6/8

Warm Up: DB Press 12x20, 10x20, 6x25, 3x30

DB Press (with twist at top) 35x5, 35x4, 35x5
Standing Mil Press 65x6, 65x5, 65x5
Side Lateral Raises 20x4, 20x5, 20x5

Cable Crunches 120x12, 120x12
Incline Crunches 0x12, 0x10 (I suck at these)
Weighted Oblique Crunches 25x12, 25x12

Cardio: Treadmill
2 min warm up
1 mi = 10:50
3 min cooldown

Total Dist: 1.33
Total Calories: 200