Take care of yourself

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Twist my arm Joe. Bear with me because I'm not sure what the name is of every exercise so I'll try to do my best to describe them.

For each cycle I did one set with one body part, then went to the next three parts then began again at the top until I had done three sets for all four parts.
First cycle:
Back: Pull-ups: 10, 8, 7/ Last set, wide: 4
Shoulders: Arnold presses: 3 set of 8, 35 pound dumbbells
Tris: Overhead dumbbell extensions: 3 sets of 8, 50 pounds
Abs: I don't know what they're called, but 4 sets of 30 of sitting on a bench pulling knees into body (know what I'm talking about?)

Second cycle:
Back: Bench row: 3 sets of 8, 45 pounds
Shoulders: Again not sure what they're called, but basically curl/lift dumbbells up to shoulders while standing then press them up: 3 sets of 8, 25 pounds
Tris: Cable Extensions: 3 sets of 10, 130 pounds
Abs: Again not sure what they're called, a lot of ab stuff is things I just picked up, no idea on the names, anyways you lie down, hold onto something above your head (like the thing you use to stretch out with the cables) and make big circles with your legs (3 X 12 of those) and then after that 3X10 of something similar to the toe touches Flash referred to above

And finally:
Back: Seated row machine: 3 sets of 8, 120 pounds
Shoulders: Dumbbell shrugs: 3 sets of 12, 60 pounds
Tris: A twist on cable extensions, literally: single arm, pulling cable on an angle to work the outer head of the tri, 3 sets of 8, 45 pounds
Abs: Captain's chairs: 4 sets of 12

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Oh, I saw several. i saw one where some jack ass tied rope to his leather belt and made a pulley with some weight at the other end. Now that was some strange shit. Someone with much too much time.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Knee-ups, bench-ups, V-ups ...

Better of to not be holding onto something ... you'll engage your stabilizers more.

Those are weighted pullups, not assisted. I'm in awe of people who can do bodyweight pullups. People who can weighted pullups make my jaw drop.

If you have a way to stabilize a solid bar at about hip height, you can do good assisted pullups just by extending your feet in front of you. Horizontal pullups are a great way to hit the lats. Then you can elevate your feet on a bench or stability ball to target different areas of the lats.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Yeah, you're probably right. They are hard enough to do holding onto something I can imagine without. I'm no wimp on abs though, I'll give it a shot next time.

I have a few things that are just killer on abs. The best one I have: lie flat on the ground with legs and arms extended so you're body is a straight line. Hold a 25-pound spoked plate in your hands over your head. Take a medicine ball between your feet. With the plate extended in your arms above your head, lift the ball up with your feet, keeping your legs as straight as possible, until your legs are perpendicular to your body. Lower and repeat. Ten of those and your legs will be shaking and your abs will be ripped.

Careful not to drop the ball, especially because your first instinct will be to move your hands in front of your face to block it, and instead of the ball you'll whack yourself in the head with the plate (not that I'd know or anything).

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

So, Flash, do I make your jaw drop? I worked up to a 35-pound weighted pullup. Tough holding that dumbell with your feet.

Joe

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

That's just sick.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

You don't wrap the chain around your waist? That's the way I do it and see a lot of other guys try that. I have never tried the dumbbell. I may give it a go today, it's my arms day.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Arms Day? Is that a military holiday?

You people are sick. I'm feeling the flow here, but I'm not in the groove quite yet. I think I'll buy a chin-up bar and start doing some assisted pull-ups from the ground. But I really need spend a few days studying and tweaking stuff. I'm almost at my six-week mark, and I haven't got a plan for how to change things up. I'm thinking of focusing on my core for six weeks. The main thing is that I want to explore new exercises so that I'll be able to pick and choose more stuff in the future.

By the way, I'm having lots of fun. I think the muscle is really eating up the calories. I'm considering some sort of protein boost. I have a can of whey protein in the kitchen. I haven't a clue how to make use of it, but I know that I need more protein in my diet. And it's hard to get that without shoveling in hunks of meat all day.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

What flavour of protein powder do you have there?

With my vanilla powder, I toss a cup of boiling water, a half cup of oats, a tablespoon of flaxseed and a scoop of powder together and, wham, breakie.

Or ... a cup of milk, a scoop of powder, a tbsp of flaxseed and a handful of frozen berries ... into the blender for a post-workout shake.

Chocolate powder?
A cup of milk, a scoop of powder, a tablespoon of peanut butter ... Peanut Butter Cup smoothie ...

Trade the milk for a half cup of cold coffee and a half cup of water (drop the peanut butter if you like) ... Mocha Smoothie!

I usually throw a banana into each one of those smoothies, too.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

This is what I do with my whey:

Before workout -- 1 scoop whey, 1 cup water
After workout -- 2 scoops whey, 1 cup water, 2 raw eggs (blended)

Whey isn't made to be sipped and I can't say I mind the taste with the eggs.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

It's a little awkward holding the dumbells with your feet on the heavier weights, but it's pretty easy up to 25 pounds or so. There is one of those belts at my gym, but I didn't think to use it until I was done.

I did one rep of each weight up to my max that day of 35 pounds.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I did something like that today in the middle of my workout. I did a specific rep of pullups with the weight hanging between my feet and then I tried to do as many curls as I did pullups. So it went something like this:

10 X 15
8 X 20
5 X 25
4 X 30
3 X 35

I was dead near the end.