Jump to content

Gaia's workout log


Gaia
 Share

Recommended Posts

It has been awhile since I was last on this forum.

 

I have found a workout partner that is really supportive and inspires me to lift heavy, and get big.

 

Lately, the shows around here have gone to the physique/fitness and the um.... ugh.... bikini girls. There has only been one girl this summer that has scooped up the female BB first place trophies. The last show that my partner and I went to, if we had the $$, we would have just stripped down to our undies and got on stage and got a 2nd/3rd place trophy at least (though I am not that much of an exhibitionist, but my partner is!).

 

Today was Back and Triceps. It was a casual 3 hour workout between us (we love to talk in between sets, and a couple of friends showed up to help us talk more between sets). We have our little logbooks this week (last week we just saw where each of us was at and mentally marked it down) and so we pushed it with more weights than last week. We will be going heavy for another week, and then cycle to a high rep/set for the last week in October.

 

I will enter the exercises next time. Just thought I would put something on the forum for now and come back later with specifics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 171
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I am so glad today is a rest day. My back is so sore, and actually getting more and more painful as the day goes on. Mmmmm...good back workout yesterday!

 

Since it was a Saturday, we decided to meet around 10:30 and get the workout over with, so we could enjoy the rest of the weekend! My new workout partner was already doing some cardio, so I warmed up on the elliptical next to her for a little over 15 minutes (usually it is only 5-10 minutes for warmup, but we began talking as usual and forgot the time - till I notice that I was sweating - but my workout partner does not sweat - and have yet to see her really sweat).

 

On to Back:

 

Started with the Machine Row: warm-up 90/25, 150/15, 180/15, 210/12, and I pushed it for a new weight of 225/8!

(There was alot of rest in-between the last heavy sets. I had a good 5 minute rest before I tried the 225)

 

Cable Lat Pulldown: warm-up still 75/25, 100/15, 120/8+2 (+means with the help of my partner I was able to manage a couple more reps in the set)

(tried the straps this time and they either really help me physically, or it was just psychological - but it made me feel stronger to pull down the bar)

 

Deadlift (focusing on the lower back): 35 (plates on each side of the MaxRAck, so really 70)/25, 45 (90 really)/15 for 3 times (four sets total)

(do not like to push heavy for this exercise as I have a protruding muscle in my lower back from this exercise, and it just looks misproportional to the rest of my back)

 

Front Barbell Cable Pressdown: 30/15, 40/15, 50/6+2

(I do this for thickening the Lats)

 

very fatigued after this Back Routine, so we rested for about 10 minutes and went on to Triceps

 

Our triceps are pretty well established already, so we just had the two basic exercises for our routine for triceps

 

Pressdown: 70/25, 90/15, 100/10 for 2 times

 

Tricep Extension (lower angle, over the head extend):50/25, 70/15, 80/10 for 2 times.

 

These were kind of supersetted, in that we did one set of one of the exercises, and then went right next to each other and did the other exercises' set. After 2 sets, we rested for a good 5 minutes, and then finished the last 2 sets.

 

Quiet in the gym, so we smoothly got thru our routine. It was raining when we entered the gym, but sunny when we left. Good workout overall (especially how I am feeling today).

Edited by Gaia
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even though I am sore, I wanted to at least go for my 3 mile walk on the trail, but thought against it. This is where discipline comes in. My back is sore, the shoulders are a little sore from the day before. But what really is worrying me is my legs. Tommorrow is Leg day, and they are still twinging from the last workout (and the super duper massage I got from my bodywork massage therapist, who had to put her knees into my hamstrings just to get the knots out! I always feel so beat up the day after my massage, but my range of motion improves dramatically with her magic knees and elbows). So I have been a good girl staying calm and not utilizing my leg muscles (except the stairs in the house - and doing laundry today for everybody is a little bit of a workout since the machines are down one floor).

 

Restraint from exercise is hard, but so is this eating every 2-3 hours again. I just came off a Raw Vegan/Raw 80-10-10 diet for the past 7 months. I feel so bloated eating cooked vegan food again. Sleepy at times also. I am still doing raw smoothies, and eating apples and grapefruits as always. I only know how to build my body with brown rice, oatmeal, and legumes added in my diet. I did lose alot of weight (bodyfat) this past 7 months going Raw, and the weights I was lifting stayed the same. Plus my skin has never looked so good! I can see going Raw for my diet for a comp next year. No bloating, and the skin just sucks right to the muscle. Vascularity did not happen to me on the diet, so I will have to figure that out (though my bodyfat was probably not low enough).

 

Till tomorrow! Eat, sleep, lift!

Edited by Gaia
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The showboating Leg day as one of my friends called me that when he saw the plates I was racking up on the Leg Press! Even though my legs were OK this morning during a level 1 yoga workout, I could feel some soreness during the Warrior 1 pose. Oh well. I still did reach a new PB on the Leg Press. And Matt was even there to see it! He is someone in the gym who I am in competition with (in my own head that is). When I saw him put 11 45's on each side of the Leg Press, and then was adding a stack in the middle of the Press, I shyly asked him if he could do 1000lbs, and he said no. But when I counted the 11 45's, that was 990, and the 45's in the middle made it go over 1000lbs! When I said that he was doing over 1000lbs already, he answered that he wasn't planning on doing it today, but that he has done it in the past! And he was feeling good enough that day, so he pressed on, and did it. He is not bigger than me in the legs, so he has inspired me to reach my goal of 1000lbs!

 

Leg Day Routine:

 

Seated Leg Press Machine: warmup 360 (4 45's on each side: total 8 45's)/25, 540/15+5 (15 solid ones, legs extended for one breath, and then finished the last 5), 720/15, and my best last time was 810/10 (8 last time! so I decided to up the ante), 860/8 (last 2 not so solid/used my hands to help push it up) (new PB - only 140 lbs to get to my goal of 1000lbs! my body weight!)

 

Leg Extension: 180/15, 210/15, 225/12, 255/10 and then I just went to the whole stack at 280/6+2 (6 solid, breath, then 2 more)

 

Leg Curl (Seated):100/15, 115/15, 130/15, 145/12, 150/8 (new PB) (with the lying leg curl machine -that I had at the old gym - I could do the whole stack of 200+, but seated - only one at my new gym now - is a different story for some reason)

 

Supersetted: Abductor machine: 110/4 sets of 25 reps

and Adductor machine: 110/4 sets of 25 reps

 

I was still able to walk out of the gym, and I did not trip over any rug or bump in the carpet this time. And no thing where the leg turns to a noodle for a spllit second and your walking step looks weird - kind of like you were going to fall but you catch yourself at the last minute. So I have been eating enough. It is five hours later, and my quads are feeling it. We also do some static contractions in the up position on the leg extensions with our toes slightly pointed in so we can maximize the teardrop muscle on the inner quad. Hurts so good! I hope I can recover in 6 days for next Leg Day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My rest day today, now I can record the awesome Chest and Bicep routine from yesterday. My partner and I were both commenting on our leg soreness from the previous day's Leg day routine. The soreness made getting the EZ barbells on the lower rack, very hurtful to squat and pick up the barbell.

 

I started yesterday with an easy 2 mile walk (1 hour) thru the leaf-strewn trail path (so pretty) just to get the stiffness out of my legs. I opted not to do that today so I can recover a little faster (all over fatigue last night - kind of hard to go to sleep with your body throbbing all over. plus, it is cold and rainy out today. good day for hibernating i guess).

 

Chest:

HammerStrength Chest Press: warmup 70/25, 90/15, 110/10+2(my partner Amy pushing my elbow from behind to get 2 more out), 120/8+2, 125(we added the little 2 1/2 weights to each side just to push it just that much more)/6+2

 

Machine Flye: 90/20, 120/10, 135/8, 138/5+3 (that time was a pause/breath, and then continued the reps for the set).

We were working with a trainer and his client on this machine, and the trainer made his client do a hold at a large weight. So we tried it too, after we had already done the sets on the machine: Bring the handles together, and hold it there with 2-3 inch space between the handles: 150/for 15 seconds. Cleavage buster! Yikes!

 

45 degree Incline Bench Press on Smith Machine: 50/15. 70/15, 90/ 9+2 (Amy's help), 100/8

 

Cable Flyes (Cables positioned at chest height): 40/15 for 4 sets, supersetted between me and Amy - thrashed the chest fibers to fatigue.

 

Took a 10 minute break as I was getting to be so fatigued - Talk, Talk, Talk, as usual - before going onto

 

Biceps:

 

EZ barbell Curl: 40/25, 50/15, 60/12, 70/8

 

Hammer Curl: 25/15, 30/8, 35/6

 

Cable Curl on a Cable Rack, in which I can hold both cables in my hand, forearm at a 45 degree angle from my body, and elbows tight against my sides: 20/15, 25/15, 30/15 for 2 sets. Too fatigued at this point. Went home and ate, and took a really long hot shower.

 

I really need to recover now. Try and get a nap in somewhere today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow great, I'm so happy that there are finally some girls who lift heavy! It gives me always more energy and power to read these kinds of posts before heading to gym:). Going to start my log soon as well to share the progress and obstacles:) during my "bulking phase".

 

Keep on pumping the iron hard:)!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I am really camera shy on the internet. It has been awhile, but I will see if I can find some stuck in a closet somewhere. Otherwise, when I get to contest time in May, I will post some then. Off season is not a great time for photos of me.

 

But my legs are the biggest body part on me (the butt is part of it right? cuz that is big also).

 

So sore today. I will post my delt/shoulder workout tomorrow. Right now I am trying to digest all this cooked vegan food. So bloated and very tired. It is going to take my digestive enzymes to get back up to quantities to process all this food I am eating. I am looking forward to tomorrow morning's BM! Then I will feel as light as a feather again (OK, maybe an emu's tail feather ).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Delt/Shoulder workout from yesterday:

 

Smith Military Press: 40/25 warmup, 50/15, 70/10+2 (my partner helped me get those last two up), and after a little bit of a rest went for the 80/10!

 

Max Rack Barbell Front Raise: 5/25 warmup, 15/15, 20/15, 25/8

 

Rear Delt Machine (Doubles as a Front Chest Flye Machine): 75/15, 90/15, 100/8

 

Usually I superset with the Cable Tower, but that was being used by one of the gym's Personal Trainer with two clients, so we opted to go to our last exercise instead:

 

Machine Dumbbell Grip Press: 100/15, 115/13, 130/8

 

then we could superset these two exercises:

 

StarTrek wide Side Cable Laterals: 35/15 for 4 sets

Cable Tower with a 45 degree front raise: 30/15 for 4 sets (elbows strictly at the waist)

 

and we were nicely tired at the end of that workout. We both commented that parts of legs still hurt. Hope we can recover so we can work them beastly legs on Sunday (in two days!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Onto today's awesome Back and Tricep workout:

 

We did the same exercises as last time (we will keep this for the month of October, and then a new routine in November).

New weights this time were:

Machine Row: last one 225/10 (2 more than last time)

Cable Lat Pulldown: 120/10+2 (partner help), and went for a new weight of 130/6+4 (partner got carried away with helping me)

Deadlift was the same, but very hard today! I think the sore hamstrings may have contributed to it.

Front Barbell Cable Pressdown: 50/15 on the last set (could feel the lats getting stronger with this exercise)

 

Triceps was all the same. Played around at the end by doing some little weights with high reps to thrashed the tricep muscles.

 

So sore right now at night. The space between my shoulder blades on my back needs to be rubbed to make it feel better! And I feel so tired. The weather was not conducive to energy: gray skies, windy, and rainy (wet leaves sticking everywhere!). Sun is in the forecast for tomorrow! And it is another rest day tomorrow! Yeah! Shopping and a little yoga perhaps. Stretch these muscles out! But baby the legs to get them ready for next days intense Leg day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Enjoying my day off. And the sun even came out today! I did a 5K walk for an hour today, and my legs didn't really even work hard, though I must say I did sweat alittle. I have been doing yoga stretches all day, and only felt a tinge in the teardrop area and on the quad outer sweep as I was going up the stairs just now. I am adding back in spirulina to my diet today - just to help in recovery faster. Hopefully I will be ready for Leg day tomorrow. Have one more week of going all out heavy, then onto high reps/sets with medium/low weights for the burn, and then a total switch of exercises for the month of November.

 

Let me see. I have Nov, Dec, Jan, and Feb, to build muscle, and then March, Apr, and May to diet down. Have to find a contest in June. . . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Leg day again today. I forgot my little notebook, so I just wrote down what I did on the gym's only supply of paper - the suggestions notepad paper. It was pretty much the same, except that I did the whole stack on the leg extension machine (285) for a set of straight 8 reps, and then a set for 10 reps.

 

Pushed it so hard the last time, that it was just work to do what I did last time.

My partner also didn't get much sleep last night, so we went pretty slow today.

 

Also a friend of mine that was a female bodybuilder during Diana Dennis' time showed up at the gym, and I introduced her to my new workout partner, who was a female bodybuilder from Texas during the 1990's (same time as me, but only I was in Michigan). She is fun to talk to about the good ole days of female bodybuilding when Corey Everson was the role model, and steroids were not so prevalent as they are now. So it turned into a 3 hour workout! We worked our legs and our mouths this time.

Edited by Gaia
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another Chest and Bicep day. It was pretty rough going at the beginning, just trying to do what I wrote down I did last time. There was no increase in weights this time. I did some for fun descending sets with some of the exercises, but I don't write those down since I am in the bulking phase, and weight is what matters.

 

I am still having a hard time eating alot of food. My recovery doesn't seem to be fast enough lately. . . for me at least. It is 6 days between working out a body part, which seems to be plenty of time to recover for me in the past. Though to be fair, I have only been lifting super heavy for 3 times each bodypart so far, so it is a shock to my body. So I wonder what I will have to do to try and build the muscle and have it ready for the next workout to go heavy.

 

Rest day tomorrow. My legs might be able to handle a trail walk, if the weather stays nice (sunny and 60 today).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The sun did come out on my rest day, but not till the afternoon. I did a short 2 mile/1 hour trail walk, just as the sun went away again. I rested alot today, taking a nap in the late morning after chores, with a hot water bottle on my quads and a little arnica rubbed in.

 

Today I went for a 3 mile/1 1/2 hour trail walk. Right now my quads are alittle sore around the knees, but I still have 3 more days to recover before it is leg day again.

 

Today was Shoulder/Delt day at the gym. It was the first bodypart for the new routine. We did 4 sets of 25 for some new exercises for Delts using weights that made it attainable. I will write them down next time as my warm up weight probably.

 

We used the MaxRack (freeform squat rack) to do some Military Presses, then we went to the Rear Delt machine, and then returned to the MaxRack for our usual challenging Front Barbell Raises. By this time we were pretty well spent, but we continued to Dumbbell Side Laterals with Descending weights for a rep of 15. I always think it is so funny to have me starting out with 20 lbs for 15, and then looking like a flopping butterfly with 10lbs at the end (I had 15lbs inbetween for 15 to thrash the delts good). I think next time I would like to add upright rows if we any "mojo" left to give each other - it is what my partner calls it when we inspire each other to keep going when the energy is just not there anymore - and we are not spotting each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know! Right?

 

I can't weight to progress to the dummbell rack that contains the 25 on up to 50 lbs! I think 35 would be a nice goal to reach for by this February (before dieting down and watching the weights drop as my weight (hopefully only BF) drops also.

 

I love having big delts for my BB look (lats and quads are next) on stage. My partner loves traps, biceps, and hamstrings. So between us, we will have it covered. (Abs is always a given though).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thursday was a new routine for our Back and Triceps. Again I will post the weights next time as the weights present themselves to us as we play around today doing new exercises and see what works for us. I focused on hand grips for the Back alot, to make sure the forearms/biceps/triceps all had a fair share of play.

 

Started off with a low pull cable row with the v-bar hand pull attachment (neutral grip). Squeezing at the peak pull back. This was a little tricky as we both have ample breasts to contend with. Might have to switch later on to a different attachment when the weights get seriously heavy. Then hyperextensions with the gym's bodybars, instead of the circular weight plates. Put those poles behind on our upper backs and away we went. I remember not being able to get up after my last set of 25 with the 15 lbs bodybar (and I use to do a 45 lbs plate! I think it is the putting the weight on the back instead of in the front (I would hold the 45 lbs plate to my chest when I did the hyperextensions) that made it all so more difficult to do). Then we went right next to us and used the HammerStrength Machine Back Row (underhand grip). Haven't used it in such a long time. It was awkward to reach up and pull down with an arc motion - that and the thing that holds the legs down kept bothering me - but I will stay with it as it really worked my lats (which I luv!). Then my partner wanted to do the pull-up/chin-up machine: assisted machine (wide, front/palm forward grip). We laughed because she said this was the only machine she could brag that she could do the whole stack! -yeah, as long as you don't say that it is an assisted machine! And then our Back routine was set for next time.

 

On to the Triceps.

We did only two exercises last time and they both utilized the rope. So we opted for the straight bar which did not hurt my partner's wrist (the V bar did) and did straight old fashioned pressdowns. Then we got an incline bench, put the cable below our shoulder height, attached the V-bar, laid down on the incline bench, and did behind the head overhead tricep extensions. That one was funny as hair got caught in the swivel of the V bar that we used (in this position it did not hurt my partner's wrists) and we had to hand the V bar to each other, and our hands got a hold of many things before it reached the V bar! We laughed a little too much I think, and my partner who is not afraid to say anything out loud, said something about feeling each other up before the set! Then my partner suggested Dips on the assisted machine, and we ended on that note.

 

Just wanted to clarify that in my training I like to do a new routine each month, and I usually start it off with the last week of the old month, getting it in place for the new month. I also like to do 4 sets of 25 with a weight that you can do easily at first - to get the form right (though with some, the weight was too light that we could not feel the form yet - so it has to be somewhat heavy to give resistance for you to work with). And by the time you get to your 4th set of 25, it burns so much and is full of whatever (lactic acid, no creatine/ATP) that you just stop and can't do anymore. But we do, by resting in whatever position you can rest at, take a few breaths, and continue till 25. Full range of motion is also important, so as to get the ligaments/tendons ready for the heavy lifting of next week's new routine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Friday was rest day. I was hot padding the legs to get them ready for tomorrow. It was so nice and sunny out, that I couldn't resist the 2 mile trail walk for an hour. My legs felt OK during the walk, in fact the stiffness went away.

 

Saturday- Leg Day is here! I hopped on an elliptical to warm up the legs, and had no problems there. We took our time thinking of what we wanted to do for Legs for our next routine.

 

This time we started out on the leg extensions, and after 4 sets of 25 the quads were a burning. We then did my favorite, which I call the plie squats (or sumo squats) on the Smith rack with some heavy weights. My partner was having a hard time feeling it in her glutes, so I helped her, and she said on her second set she felt it mostly in her glutes, but then the last two sets was all quads. I think she is leaning forward, and not thrusting the pelvis forward/tailbone down, but she has never done them before - so we will work on that! Then we did Leg curl for hamstrings, and then went to the Leg Press. What a difference doing the Leg Press after already doing the other 3 exercises before it! I was having a hard time with 3 45lbs plates on each side (plus 1 25lbs on each side) for 25 reps for 4 sets! I thought we could Lunges next, but actually our ankles on the back foot couldn't take all the weight we would pile on it, so I ditched that one. My partner wanted calf raises, so we did those with the old school 2 sets feet straight forward and 2 sets with the feet slightly angled out. And to give us more pain, we hopped on the adductor/abductor machines at the end. I definitely had rubber legs walking me out of the gym by then!

 

My chest and biceps are all rested and looking forward to tomorrow's thrashing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Talk about being lazy! We spend over 3 hours in the gym today. We did 15 minutes of elliptical (well I did waiting for my partner) to make sure our legs could move. Then I thought about what to do for our new Chest and Bicep routine.

 

I thought we would start out with a Chest Flyes this time, to build up the inner pec muscles, so we went for the hard movement one a slightly inclined bench with Dumbbells. My partner said she has done these for a finishing exercise, and I said that I have done these with 45 lbs dumbells the last time I pumped up my chest and it was no finishing exercise. Though I did get a pec tear in my left side with those, so I will watch my form carefully next time. (The pec tear was not that serious - just looked like I had a breast implant for 2 months or so - why couldn't the right side also have a minor pec tear so I could have been symmetrical at least? ).

Then we just moved the slightly inclined bench to the Smith Machine and did our usual Chest Press.

Then we went to the HammerStrength #2 I call it machine (it seems to be an incline, but is attached as a back row also and just says chest/back), which to me seems easier than the single Chest Press HammerStrength machine, in that the range of motion is shorter, and awfully high up when in full extension (so I don't go there that often, and seems to work just the belly of the muscle - unless you consciously force yourself to extend way up there). After our 4 sets of 25 reps on those machines, our pecs were pumped. My partner said she could feel the bra cutting into her skin by her armpit. I was just pumped. So onto Biceps.

 

My partner stayed with the EZ bar curl due to her wrists, while I went to the MaxRack and grabbed the bar for some barbell curls. This time I slowed the motion way down, and no rocking momentum to get it back up. My biceps were on fire towards the end, with a slight twinge on set 3. Also had a cramp in the left hand which traveled down the ring finger. Even massaging it afterwards hurt, so I went and got some water, let it rest for 2 to 3 minutes, and went on to the last set with no more problems. Weird.

Then we did a superset of Hammer Curls using the cable and the rope, and the side lateral bicep curl on the StarTrek cable station. Did 2 sets of 25 reps of each, rested for 3 minutes, and then finished the last 2 sets of 25.

And then to finsih it up, we did 3 sets of 15 with descending weights dumbbell curls (though I had to stop myself because I kept doing hammer curls instead of bicep curls). It was pitiful to be using 12lbs/10lbs/7.5lbs as my weights and wimpering at the 7.5lbs. But I felt good that my muscles must have been so fatigued by everything else that is all they could handle at that point. I had a hard time getting my water up to my mouth!

 

Such a good workout. So long though. I was worried about it being 3 hours long, but my partner reminded me that it was because we were doing 4 sets of 25 reps. It will go fast with a warmup set and then a couple of heavy sets like usual, plus we have what we have to do down on paper so we can just do it instead of thinking about which exercise to do and what weights. Good.

 

A good cycle of fast paced exercises for the whole body this week. I am so sore and beat up. I look forward to a leisure lift of heavy next week! Yeah!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today was definitely a recoup day. And it is already night, and I think my shoulders/delts are ready for tomorrow, but my legs and back are definitely not ready to tackle anything. Today they are still sore. Recovery for these big major muscles is slow going for me. Wanted to do a trail walk today, but thought against it till my legs are better. Ugh. I will just have to smile with the idea that my muscles will get bigger and bigger with the way they hurt and if I allow them to repair by doing what needs to be done - instead of what I want to do.......sigh........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New heavy Delt day:

 

MaxRack Military Press (with short back chair): 15/25, 20/25, 30/18, 40/9+1 and then another 40/11+2, and last 50/5+3 (+means that my partner spot/helped me)

 

Rear Delts: 60/25, 75/17.5 (half means not a full range of motion, but a valiant effort), 90/12.5, and 95/8+2 (not as heavy as last time, so I will have to work on it)

 

MaxRack Front Raise: 20/27, 25/15, 30/8 (at least this was more than last time!)

 

Dumbbell Side Lateral Raises: 17.5/15, 20/15, 22.5/12, and 25/8 (and there were descending sets along with this - like for the first set it was 17.5/15, and then I grabbed the 12.5/and did 15 reps but the last 5 were not pretty (as my partner called them 'Ugly!'), and then 10/15. I would do this for each set - at least 3 additional lowering weights for 15 reps - no matter how shallow the range of motion/ugly they were).

 

And that ended our 1 and 1/2 hour workout for Delts. Trying to get the time down, but I like the long rests in between SOME of my sets. Makes me feel energize to do heavier in the next set.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share




×
×
  • Create New...