Triple Threat

For the past three weeks, life’s events have prevented me from working out as much as I would like. Now I find myself in Spain, and having caught up on my sleep over the weekend, I am ready and rarin’ to get back into a regular routine.



It’s about 30 degrees here (that’s 86 Farenheit for the Celsius challenged) and the gym is not air-conditioned. It’s also got low ceilings and no fans – you get the picture. I made the 10 or so minute walk from the hotel (that counts as cardio, right?) to the gym and in broken Spanish, told the owner that I would like to join for two weeks. Twenty-five euros later I was ready to begin. Two sets into the workout I was already sweating.



The first thing I noticed was several new pieces of Nautilus equipment, at the expense of some cardio equipment. As far as I was concerned, that was two improvements. One improvement by addition, one improvement by subtraction.



I must have been asleep when the announcement was made that Mondays shall be reserved for chest day. Easily two-thirds of the people there were doing a chest workout. Apparently, this notion is universal, as I notice the same phenomena when I am at home.

Triple Threat

June 7 workout was back and abs.



Deadlifts

132 x 5

220 x 3

308 x 3

352 x 3

396 x 2

440 x 1

484 – wouldn’t budge



BB Rows

220 – 5 x 8



Wide grip pulldowns

198 x 7, 6



Narrow grip pulldowns

176 x 8, 6



Nautilus pullover machine (I just had to try it)

155 x 9, 9



Hyperextensions

44 – 4 x 8



Crunch machine

8 plates (not numbered, no weight indications) – 4 x 9





I recently purchased a bottle of Liquid Chalk. It’s supposed to act like chalk without the mess. Great idea – still needs some work. It needs a lot of work actually. In fact, it is better as a sex lubricant than it is for providing a good grip for weight-lifting.



After the fourth set of DLs, I decided to try the stuff, as the 352 nearly dropped from my hands thigh-high on the last rep.



I used 6 squirts and rubbed my hands together as per the directions. I kept waiting for the tackiness, but it never came. After about 5 minutes of rubbing my hands together, they still felt slippery, more suited to a massage than a deadlift. So I wiped the stuff off and (ugh) pulled out my lifting straps for the final sets.

Var

Nice lifts Captain! Must be weird working out in a foreign country. Funny to hear that some things are universal though.

But when you disarm them, you at once offend them by showing that you distrust them, either for cowardice or for want of loyalty, and either of these opinions breeds hatred against you.

-N. Machiavelli

Triple Threat

Thanks, Var. The first couple of times it was strange, but free weights are the same no matter where you are, and except for a couple of machines, I've seen them in various shapes and forms elsewhere. The gym where I'm going now is lacking a squat cage, though they do have a squat machine.

Jodi

Essence EFA

nikegurl

if you aren't a writer by profession....time for a career change.

Tomorrow may be the best day of your life.

Or not.

Triple Threat

Gracias, NG.

Today I had to go to a store to buy a couple of 120 to 240 voltage adaptors. I showed the person at the counter what I wanted, told him I wanted two, and when he came back out, he told me the price speaking very slowly and distinctly, obviously dumbing it down for me. I knew that wasn’t his normal speaking voice, as he had been talking to a customer when I walked in. He must have realized from my accent that I wasn’t a local, and I appreciated his gesture to make sure that I understood. This was in sharp contrast to this morning’s episode at the bank.


Cue next story.

Triple Threat

I had to go to the bank this morning to exchange some more money. I handed the teller my UNITED STATES OF AMERICA passport and my AMERICAN dollars, and asked him in Spanglish (that’s broken Spanish spoken haltingly by an American) to exchange it for euros. He counted the money, looked up at me and said “Dos cientos cincuenta” (two hundred fifty). Being well aware of the amount of money that I had handed him, I had no trouble understanding what he said.



I replied “Si” and at that point he must have assumed I was in full control of the Spanish language, for in the next 15 seconds or so came spewing forth a very large number of words, apparently without punctuation as the words seemingly came in a steady stream, and none of which I understood or recognized.



It’s at times like these when I utter my well-rehearsed phrase “No entiendo mucho espanol” (I don’t understand much Spanish), which usually has the effect of slowing down the proceedings. However, in this case, the teller did not pay attention to WHAT I had said, but rather HOW I had said it, no doubt noticing that I had said it in Spanish, pretty good Spanish I might add, since I use that phrase quite a bit.



Thinking that we were having some sort of conversation, he continued prattling on for another 15 seconds or so before he realized it was more of a monologue. It was at that point he gave me an exasperated look, and said ‘Hotel?” (No, he didn’t say ho-tell as it is pronounced in English, but oh-tell, the “h” being silent in Spanish, but since he didn’t surround it with a bunch of other words I didn’t know, I was able to understand what he wanted.) With the teller having finally spoken my language, I told him where I was staying and he handed me my money. I gave him an undeserved “Gracias. Adios.” Not surprisingly, he said nothing in return, which I took to mean our conversation had ended.

Triple Threat

And the heat goes on.



June 8, where except for me, everyone seems to be doing back. Once again, it’s very hot and unfortunately, the gym seems to be full of just men. Now what am I going to do between sets?



Bench Press

The bench has narrow uprights, which makes liftoff awkward, and the top of the uprights have cradles, which means you have to set the bar down carefully or you wind up eating it. Miss the cradle on the back side and there’s no stopping that baby unless you have really strong triceps and can French press it. I don’t know of anyone who can French press what they can bench press. You would think that with all this new equipment in the gym, they’d have a decent bench press setup.



132 x 5

176 x 3

220 x 3

242 x 3

264 x 1

220 x 5



There’s no room for a spotter since the head of the bench is right next to a wall,

and besides, I don’t know the Spanish word for spotter, so I chickened out on trying 286.



Incline Bench Press

132 x 8



The angle was too steep, and my shoulders have given me trouble in the past, so it was time to move on to the next exercise after just a warm-up set.



Incline DB Press

66 x 9, 8, 6



Pec Deck (done as one giant drop set, in honor of all the TP-PT trainers now in week 4 of phase II)

88 x 7, 77 x 7, 66 x 6, 55 x 6



That should have been the end of the workout, but by now the gym had emptied and these brand new Nautilus arm machines were beckoning me. Arm day is supposed to be Friday, but I figured, what the hell, a couple of extra sets can’t hurt. Arms are my weakest body part, anyway.



Nautilus seated dip

140 x 10, 170 x 8, 8



Nautilus Bicep curls

65 x 9, 9, 9



These two machines were wonderful. The angle of the seat and the placement of the arms isolated the muscles perfectly. I can’t wait to try these two on Friday at the start of my workout when I’m fresh.

Triple Threat

What is up with the funky spacing in my posts?

IainDaniel

Gotta be a universal thing, every gym I have ever been in is like that. Let alone the fact that Monday is probably the busiest day as every wants to make up for the weekend

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Michael Jordan

Twin Peak

You are a freak.

I'll bet you are writing your journal elsewhere and cutting and pasting eh?

Am I good or what.

www.DesignerSupps.com
INTELLIGENT DESIGN™...lands on 1/1/2007
www.intelligentdesignmag.com

myCATpowerlifts

when i went to mexico
(i know your in spain, but whatever)

I got on the bench press in the hotel's gym

The bench was so freaking narrow both shoulder blades were over sides

very annoying


anyway good luck

Novo

'Tis indeed universal, and the ruling is in place even at the bottom of the world. At my place, daring to do legs on a Monday (and why wouldn't you for crying out loud. Squat rack? She is empty. Bench press? They're queuing 3-deep), well, such audacious behaviour earns you the same kind of shocked looks as if you had just taken off all your clothes. I am tempted to combine the two and squat naked, just to see what happens.

Of course, it does rather beg a question. Why would someone design a certain three-part program that consistently calls for us to join the queue and train chest on a Monday? I guess he's a law-abiding kinda fellow, doesn't like to cause trouble hey? I find that quite endearing, bless him.


And yes. I think I do know him better than that

Triple Threat

Yes, I type it into a word document at my leisure, and then cut and paste it into here. It's worked quite well in the past for my other journals. Besides, you never know when you might accidentally delete an important post that you desperately need. Do you know what I mean?

Triple Threat

Now THAT is something I would pay good money to see.

Triple Threat

That's unusual right there. Not too many hotels have decent weight rooms. I've seen too many "Fitness Centers" consisting of a treadmill, a stationary bike and a TV set.

Triple Threat

No workout today and nothing exciting or interesting happened either. Guess it's time to go whore up other people's threads.

Twin Peak

Here is a reason:

Assuming you plan your workouts during the week, and rest on the weekends, it makes good sense to break up the upper body with an off day such as legs.

Otherwise, if you take off on the weekend, and train legs on Monday....

Not everyone is "on a sabatical", ya know.

www.DesignerSupps.com
INTELLIGENT DESIGN™...lands on 1/1/2007
www.intelligentdesignmag.com

Novo

Easy tiger! Noone was questioning the logic in the program, we know it's solid and stands up to cross-examination (uncannily so ... almost as if ... there were a legal brain at work? )

Sabatical ... jealous?

Triple Threat

June 10 – Today is paella day. Paella is a rice dish with fish, meat, and vegetables. I’ve found mini-clams, crabs, veal, chicken (both with and without bones) and various other previously sea-living creatures with hard shells and not much edible food inside. No two restaurants make it exactly the same. It’s actually very good and quite filling and also a good dish to eat prior to working legs, which coincidentally, is what’s on the agenda for the gym tonight.



According to my English-Spanish dictionary, paella should be pronounced pie-yah, where the double “l” is pronounce like the “y” in yellow, which paradoxically enough, also has a double “l”. Anyway, it’s not pronounced that way around here. The locals pronounce it pie-zah, or pies-yah, or pies-jah according to personal preference I assume.

Triple Threat

Leg day



You would think that a place with 5 (yes, 5) leg press machines would have a squat cage. They’ve got 3 new horizontal leg presses, a 45 degree Nautilus machine, and an antiquated vertical leg press. They’ve also got this equally antiquated squat machine, where two arms come out from the machine towards you. The arms, with pads, sit on top of your shoulders, and you do the exercise with the weight supported there. It’s more like a Smith machine than a real squat, but since there’s no bar sitting on your shoulders, there is some front to back freedom.



If they got rid of the two antiquated machines, there’d be more than enough room to put in a squat cage, with enough room left for a couple of weight trees.



Machine squats

231 x 5

275 x 5

319 x 5 (see, much easier than regular squats, no way could I do this right now)

363 x 3

407 x 3

429 x 3

473 x 1 (only in my dreams do I squat this much)

473 x 1

473 x 1

I had to stop there, since that’s as much weight as the machine has.



Nautilus 45 degree leg press

This is one solidly built machine. The sled alone weighs 65 kg, and it slides very smoothly. The owner has done a great job of selecting new equipment. He’s built like a brick shithouse to begin with, and I wouldn’t doubt that he tried the equipment before he bought it.

319 x 10

495 x 7

495 x 6

495 x 5

Nautilus horizontal leg press

352 x 9, 9, 8



SLDL

220 x 6

308 x 4

308 x 4

220 x 5



Leg curl

88 x 8, 8



Hyperextension

55 x 8, 6, 6



Crunch Machine

8 plates x 9, 8, 8



And then it took me about 15 minutes to make the 10 minute walk back to the hotel.

Triple Threat

June 11. It had to be the hottest day of the week today. The temperature read 35 degrees (95 F) as I passed it on the way to the gym. I don’t know how accurate it is, but I was drenched in sweat from just the walk there. I also faded fast during the less than stellar workout. Maybe it was as hot as it read.



Shoulders and arms (along with just about every other guy in there)

I was reading in a journal somewhere that Friday is a popular day for guys to do arms since they can get their arms pumped up before going cruising the bars. Interesting theory. It certainly seemed to be the case today.



Nautilus seated shoulder press

80 x 8

95 x 8

110 x 6

110 x 6



DB laterals

22 x 8

22 x 8



Shrugs

352 x 8, 8



Nautilus seated dips

200 x 12

215 x 12

230 x 7



Overhead triceps extensions (DB)

44 x 8, 8



Nautilus Curl

85 x 12

100 x 7

100 x 7



BB Curl

88 x 8, 8