Exercise Log 1.8.14 (Dev Day + Cardio)

Alright Development day was a bit up and down because the gym was super packed and busy so gym equipment was not open. Still I had a fantastic workout, which is good because I also took two days of rest off after (in a ROW, holy balls) to let my poor worn out and tired hands rest. They’re beat up from moving freight at work, from fighting with cats, from gripping a bag wrong during my last home workout and the torn calluses never fully healed… sometimes it’s just good to let your body recoup and it seemed like a good excuse to relax. This workout was light on the weight side so I went for more volume with most of these exercises.

Goblet squats: 5 sets 10 reps @ 60lbs (light weight to warm up my body)

Seated rows: Sets 1-3) 10 reps @ 135lbs. Sets 4-5. 6 reps @ 150lbs.

Angled Leg Press / Calf Raise supersets: 6 sets 10 reps pressing/10 reps calf raises @ 360lbs.

Preacher curls (at the curl bench not the machine): 5 sets 10 reps @ 50lbs.

Standard Push-ups: 5 sets of 20 reps (100 reps total)

Overhead Barbell Trap Shrugs: 5 sets 12 reps @ 95lbs

Chin-ups: 5 sets of 8 reps. Jumped to start and did not have to break in the middle of each set.

Deadlifts: This is what I came in for initially but it took the whole workout to find the time to actually get at a rack where I could rack the weight. So two things I learned tonight, I’ll share real quick before listing off sets.

Scott Herman demonstrates hip drive during the deadlift

First, here Scott Herman illustrates how to produce hip drive and load up. Since my last workout where I had the issue of the gym patron giving me pointers, I wanted to learn more about the loaded position. This is a nice full illustration, but one thing I want to point out that was especially important to me to learn. At 3:35 Scott gets ready for the lift, and as he gets into the loaded position, you’ll see he stands his hips up while holding the bar, then dips down briefly to drive the legs up. This I feel helps a ton.

The second important deadlift point I learned, is that if you grip the bar and then twist your hands slightly while holding tight, it tightens your grip a bit and the bar slipping is less of an issue (I was having bad callus tears as I’d mentioned before due to slipping). So this is a nice little way to “cinch up” before pulling upward and encourages a little tighter grip which is all the difference in the world, really.

All said I did not pull the new max I’d been trying to pull, but I felt very comfortable with what I did pull and felt great in general. Anyways onto the sets.

Sets 1 & 2) 10 reps @ 135lbs. Sets 2 & 3) 5 reps @ 185lbs. Sets 4 & 5) 5 reps @ 125lbs. Set 6) 2 reps @ 245lbs. Could’ve done 5 but instead I tried for 265, but failed 3 times and ended there.

For cardio tonight I did 3.3 miles on the treadmill at a decent run/jog pace. That’s it! Pretty simple but man, it was a full body workout if there ever was one.