Exercise Log 3.28.14 (Back Day, Bouldering!, No Cardio – Deload Cycle)

Okay today is back day, and I’m continuing my deload cycle so lower weights. This was a very fun and effective exercise day today, and despite the lower weights I still felt every exercise really engaged me the right way. I could probably even work out at these levels and still get good gains, honestly.

Deadlifts: 6 sets of 5 resp @ 225lbs. Focused in extra good form and full intensity, pretended each set was a heavy one although this weight is a little light for me now.

Bent Over Rows (w/Barbell) / Pendlay Rows: A good superset, I did 5 sets of 8 reps BOR’s and 5 reps pendlay rows @ 115lbs. Focused on form and good back contraction.

Seated Rows: 5 sets of 8 reps @ 120lbs. Slow tempo again and focused on contraction in the target upper back area.

1-Arm Dumbbell Rows: Haven’t done these in a while need to start getting back in the habit. 4 sets of 8 reps each hand @ 55lbs. Focused on real tight contraction at the top of the movemention and slow eccentrics.

Part of back day I’ve been neglecting, somewhat due to the shoulder soreness, is my reverse deltoids. I believe rehab requires a little training, so I went easy but added some reverse delt exercises to today’s workload. It’s a good time I think given I’m doing a deload cycle and lowering weight across the board.

Body Rows: 4 sets of 8 reps.

Reverse Dumbbell Flys (standing, bent over): 4 sets of 8 reps @ 20lbs. Tried my best to make every fly pull even on both sides, initially had poor luck with each pull.

Reverse Fly (Delt Isolation Machine): 3 sets of 6 reps @ 105lbs.

I had intended to do some swimming today, to keep my cardio varied, but the swim pool was too full to justify it so perhaps next time. My cardio goal this weekend is to run a long run (9-10 miles) and to get some swimming in, we’ll see how it goes!

ALSO, can’t forget tonight is bouldering, and I’m going to log that as yet another physical activity for today (unless something happens and I wind up not going, in which case I’ll come back and chop this out). Bouldering is usually a couple hours of climbing around in the open climbing gym, so it should be a good arm/back exercise as well. Going to take it easy though, as I feel I’ve expended quite a lot of that energy in the last couple workouts.