Happy New Year!
It's the first day of 2012 so I've decided it's definitely time to get back on my training journal! I've been training this entire time and keeping a detail workout notebook, but going from paper to digital hasn't been happening enough. I love looking through all my old routines on here, it really is great to have this resource! It's great to be able to compare my contest prep for every contest I've ever done, especially since I am now 7 WEEKS OUT from my next show! Our baby is due on March 21st, so I'm going to get one show in on February 18th before having an extended off season to be a papa
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My training:
I had been keeping with the same program and split give/take until mid November, at which point I decided my core and joints were feeling good enough that I wanted to try a 2-a-day split again. I used to love these before my most recent injury - I'm addicted to training and with 12 workouts a week you get plenty of it! Here is the program I drew up and had planned to follow for 5 weeks:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkmOcUtqsvw6dFdIT29QSVd0VmVyRWFjNl9ldDNTdlE&hl=en_US#gid=0It went really really well at first. I started taking creatine again after not using it for 6 months, and my strength went way up and I was recovering great. I was even able to train abs lightly almost every workout. Some highlights while I was on this routine were:
Squats (405x7 for 4 sets), Bench Press (265x5), Db Lunges with 100lb dumbbells for sets of 8 on each leg, and Deadlifts (405x5 for 5 sets). I've been really happy to get back up to these weights after struggling with my abdominal strain since August of 2010, but lo and behold after my heavy deadlift workout listed above I re-injured them! SO bummed and limited in my training that I was close to dropping the idea of competing, but I decided to go to a local chiropractor who uses soft -tissue techniques such as Active Release (ART), Grosten Technique, and keniso taping. If anyone reading this hasn't tried these technique I highly recommend them! It's been 3 weeks and I am almost back to training at that level again, with my only real limitations being no ab training and no deadlifts for at least 2 more weeks. I've gone back to my original split training each muscle group once per week and am keeping the weights lighter and the reps over 8. My weight is up to 193lbs at 9% BF, which is tied with the biggest I've ever been. Not 200lbs like I've been shooting for, but I figure I am where I was prior to this injury, so now after this show I can forge new ground! Here is my workouts from yesterday:
12/31: Hams/Calves AM Arms PMAM
41 inch box jumps: 10, 10, 10
Superset with Power Step ups on a bench: 15, 15, 15
Romanian Deadlifts: 135x20, 155x20, 155x20, 155x20, 155x20 (short rest)
Prone Leg Curls: 70x12, 80x12, 80x12, 80x10
Seated Leg Curl FST-7: 90x12
Smith Calf Raise (1 second assent, 6 sec descent): 225x10, 315x10, 315x10, 405x10
Seated Calf Raise: 135x15, 135x15, 160x15, 160x15
Leg Press Calf Raise: 190x 100 (needed 4 or 5 rest pauses - wicked burn!)
PM
DB Hammer Curl: 30x10, 40x10, 50x10, 60x6, 60x6 (with lots of body english)
Superset Cable Press Down: 20x15, 20x15, 50x12, 50x12, 70x12, 70x12
EZ Barbell Curls (with band attached): 105x5, 105x5, 105x5, 105x5, 105x7
Superset Close Grip Bench (with band attached): 185x5, 185x5, 195x5, 195x5, 195x6
Seated DB curl with unevenly loaded Db (love that trick!): 40x10, 40x10, 40x10, 40x10 - arm-splittingly painful!
Superset Weighted Bench dips: 45x12, 45x12, 45x15, 70x10 drop 45x5 drop bodyweight x 7 - complete failure!
So I'm working as intensely as possible to see if I can build muscle while dieting for this show. Pics from my arm workout:
