Tallcall's journal

[tallcall]

This was everything I did yesterday (Legs):

Wall squats with ball: 3 sets of 15, 1 set of 12 and 1 set of 10

Walking Lunges (unweighted): All the around the gym and back twice. This was kind of supersetted with the previously mentioned wall squats and some kind of impromptu seated dips (still having trouble doing more than 2 or 3 unassisted).

Seated Dips: 3 sets of 10, followed by 1 set of 5 (with ball under legs) and 1 additional set of 10 (I had some trouble with the ball, getting used to it).

Leg presses (I can't believe I still had anything left): Dropsets starting at 180 pounds at 10 reps, then 360 pounds at 10 reps followed by 410 pounds at 6 reps, then the fun began. I swear I gave it about 25 reps while my trainer slowly moved the weights off, but I couldn't keep count. My legs were pretty much toasted.

Knee extensions: 2 sets of 10 at 90 pounds

Seated leg curls: 5 sets of 10 (90, 95, 105, 95, and 90 pounds respectively - pretty light for me but my legs were well done by the time I started this one).

Last was 30 minutes of cardio (steady state and kind of slow!)

Diet - I keep it the same almost every day and only add a MRS (300 cal) and a lot of carbs to meal 5 on my strength days.

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal - I'm not sure if this link will work, but it is 2850 calories on the normal days, and 3150 calories on the strength training days. They are broken down to approximately 20% fat, 42% carbs, and 38% protein. I also take two multivitamins and two fish oils.

 

[tallcall]

Today is just a cardio day, so I will be doing some HIIT (Each time, I either choose to go for 90 seconds up and 90 seconds down or about 15 minutes up and the remainder of the time - not more than 15 minutes - down).

If I go for the 90/90, I might decide to push for a 45 minute session (god I love those). But usually the 15 solid minutes of the high intensity kicks my butt so I don't go for much more than 30 minutes total. Leg day is strictly a 25 minute steady state day.

Today I am doing a 35 minute HIIT 90/90 session!

 

[tallcall]

Ok, that link didn't work, I really don't feel like typing it all in right now.

 

[DOMS]

Good job on starting your journal! Now you just need to keep at it.

What sort of workout are you doing? Is it based on some methodology? Is that the only workout that you do, or are there more?

 

[tallcall]

Good job on starting your journal! Now you just need to keep at it.

What sort of workout are you doing? Is it based on some methodology? Is that the only workout that you do, or are there more?

There are more, I'll add them as I do them.

Currently I am using a body part split. I know they are not the best, but we have to squeeze everything into 30 minute sessions (Always do compound movements first, but sometimes it takes a while to get the equipment and can quickly burn up the time, so I get in 4 days and maybe 4 exercises per region).

 

[DOMS]

I'm not going to suggest that you change anything (because you said it's working for you), but doing a full body routine (with short RIs) would allow you to get more done than a body part split.

 

[tallcall]

I'm not going to suggest that you change anything (because you said it's working for you), but doing a full body routine (with short RIs) would allow you to get more done than a body part split.

I totally agree.

When I started there I was on a full body routine. The problem was that in order to do those over head presses I wanted, I would have to wait almost 20 minutes. So in the meantime I always ended up exhausting my arms and shoulders (to some extent) by using whatever else was left. So now My trainer and I are able to make sure that we get those compound exercises in. Maybe that'll be all we can do together, but then at least he can tell me what smaller (isolated movement) exercises he wants me to do after our time has expired. These are generally much easier for me and since I'm mostly exhausted from the compound movements I can just burn everything I have left on these isolated exercises.

I know, it's a bit of an excuse.

 

[DOMS]

Speaking of time, how long is your average workout?

 

[tallcall]

The strength portion is usually between 30 and 45 minutes. My trainer is really a great guy and will usually give up his break time to work with me (he says that there are only about 5 of us that really seem to care about this). I think it's awesome to get 45 minutes with him because he has taught me so much and has so much more to teach, but I usually get to do about 15 minutes on my own just to finish up everything.

Cardio varies from day to day, always keeping to a 25, 35, 45 minute rotation and alternating between the HIIT days and the regular days.

 

[Double D]

You going to post some weights you are using?

 

[tallcall]

You going to post some weights you are using?

Sure.

The seated Wall Squats were done using 10 and 15 pound weights (2 sets of 15 at 10 pounds, 1 set of 15 at 15 pounds, one set of 10 at 15 pounds, and one set of 10 at 10 pounds).

Sometimes I do some Hack squats on one of those sleds (I think it's at a 75 or 80 degree angle): 1 set of 95 pounds at 10 reps, 1 set of 145 pounds at 8 reps, and one set of 150 pounds at 8 reps.

Lunges were body weight

Seated Dips were body weight

My weighted dips are: One set of 10 at 145, 2 sets of 8 at 155, then I usually have to drop back down to 145 for the last set of about 8 reps.

Leg presses: 1 set of 15 (?) at 180 pounds, 1 set of 10 at 360 pounds, 1 set of 6 at 410 pounds. This was all off the top of my head. Afterwards I did one long set of about 20 or 25 reps, I didn't keep count while dropping the weight every 3 or 4 reps back to 90 pounds.

Knee Extentions: Just 2 sets of 10 at 90 pounds

Seated Leg Curls: One set of 10 at 90, one set of 10 at 95, one set of 10 at 105, one set of 10 at 95, then another set of 10 at 90.

I am also benching a maximum of 105 right now, but training at 60. I do 60 pound Incline flys. I get about 10 reps on the bench and about 8 on the flys

I am doing over head presses at 60 pounds, usually sets of 10 or 15.

I am rowing a maximum of 65 pounds at 8 reps.

I'm still pretty weak on the Skull Crushers, I am getting about 12 reps at 12 pounds single arm only.

I am doing my preacher curls at 30 pounds, and straight curls at 25 pounds.

Over head extentions: 2 sets of 12 at 30, one set of 10 at 35, one set of 10 at 40.

Pulldowns are at 95 for 12 reps, 125 for 8 reps, and137 for 6-8 reps.

Back extensions: one set of 12 at 145, one set of 12 at 155, one set of 12 at 165, and another set of 12 at 175.

Barbell shrugs: One set of 20 at 135, then 2 sets of 20 at 185.

When I do Hip Abductions I am maxing out at 210 pounds for 10 reps (I've been told to go for reps and drop the weight next time).

For Abs, I usually do body weight Planks at about 60 seconds, Crunches (3 sets of 10 at body weight), Leg raises (also 3 sets of 10 at body weight), and Side Bends (1 set of about 40 at body weight, sometimes I use a 10 or 25 pound plate over my head, but not often).

That's about it for my numbers, I attempt to add 5 pounds to everything each week (at least the compound movements, sometimes even 10 pounds).

 

[Double D]

How much you weighing right now? I may have missed it and if so I am sorry.

 

[tallcall]

Right now I weigh 312 pounds at ~19% bf.

 

[Double D]

Well thats not to bad. 19% isnt to bad at all! You are one big boy!

 

[tallcall]

Well thats not to bad. 19% isnt to bad at all! You are one big boy!

Aw shucks (my face is turning red). That is what I keep hearing. My target weight is somewhere around 280 at ~10%.

I just checked your pics, your looking pretty big yourself! What'd you say you were at, over 205? That's pretty impressive! Keep it up man!

 

[MCx2]

Glad to see ya making yourself at home here in journal-land. I'll be following along with the others. Good luck.

 

[Double D]

Anytime a guy comes back to me with comments like that lets me know your a good guy. Thank you for the nice comments. You will do fine. This is a great place to write down what your doing and get positive feedback!

 

[tallcall]

Awesome! You guys are too cool!

 

[tallcall]

Thursday 6/14/07

Alright, today was shoulder, traps, delts day.

Superset
Shrugs
135 x 12
205 x 12
250 x 12

DB Side Raises
30 x 10
30 x 10
30 x 10

DB Front Raises
30 x 10
30 x 10
30 x 10
20 x 10

Non-Superset
Rear Delt Row
30 x 15
30 x 15
30 x 15
30 x 15

Superset
Shoulder Press (barbell on smith machine)
50 x 10
60 x 8
60 x 10
70 x 8

Military Press
30 x 10
30 x 8
30 x 12
30 x 9

Cardio (45 minute total, steady state)
5 minute warm up on a rowing machine (done prior to all of the above)
20 minutes of jogging on an elliptical trainer
10 Minutes on a recumbent bike
10 minutes walking on a treadmill

I would have liked to go more for power, but today felt great. I really drained myself with that cardio session (I tend to keep my heart rate around 145 on the steady state days, but love to hit and exceed 170 on the HIIT days).

 

[Double D]

My suggestion would be to do the shoulder and military presses first then do your iso's last. Nice workout though buddy!

 

[DOMS]

Good job on the workout.

Are the items in red personal bests for you? If they are, it's the custom to put "PR" (Personal Record) after them.

 

[tallcall]

Yeah, they are my personal bests.

This was a weird day, I think we (my trainer and I) were going for reps (maybe some combination of power and reps, a lot of weight to do at the end when exhausted, but I still felt great) on the presses because we really had no way of doing them earlier in the workout, so we went for a lighter weight than I am accustomed to for the Military presses (I also know that on any other day I could have done more weight on the shoulder presses).This kind of goes back to the reason for the split in the first place (I just wanted to be able to do the presses inside of 30 minutes, everything else was done while we were waiting!).

I can't complain though, I felt like we really tore into the shoulders today. You know, I always thought it was amazing how such a small amount of weight can feel like a ton when done at the end of the workout.

Next week we are going for power on the presses, so we will do everything in our power to do them as soon as possible.

My legs are killing me, mostly knees. It always happens after a walk on the treadmill, I'm not really sure why (shin splints?). Oh well, I just work through the pain.

 

[Scarface30]

hey man, good to see you started a journal! looks like your workout was a good one

 

[tallcall]

Saturday: Chest and Back

Boy today kind of sucked! I was able to hit 105 on my bench for all of 2 reps. But then I went back down to 90, I got 5 reps and couldn't re-rack the weights. It really was not that much weight, I sat up with it and was fine, but two other guys came over and gave me a hand (let's just say this is the worst day I think I've ever had there, I have never had to have any help re-racking weights, ever). But the plus side is that pretty much everything I did was a personal record (even the 105 for 2 reps was a record/tie with last week).

CHEST:
SUPERSETS - RI=60 seconds between each superset
INCLINE BB Bench PRESS:
90x7
95x8
105x2 PR
90x5 (failure, needed help re-racking, felt very depressed afterward)

INCLINE DB FLY:
30x6 PR
30x6 PR
30x7 PR

BACK:

LAT ROW:
100x10 PR
110x10 PR
120x10 PR

BACK EXTENSIONS:
150x12 PR
160x12 PR
170x12 PR
180x12 PR

I also did a 35 minute HIT session (90 seconds up and 90 seconds down)
5 minutes on a rowing machine (warmup - hr @ 152!)
20 minutes on an elliptical trainer (max hr @170, Max level @10, Lowest level @ 5)
10 minutes on a treadmill (max hr @150 - kind of a cool down for me, Max level @ an incline of 5 and speed of 3.5, Lowest level @ an incline of 3 and a speed of 3)

I really need some help on that bench press, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, it'll take me a few days to get over this one (I feel really stupid!).

Please let me know what you think.

By the way, I did get about 8 hours sleep last night, so I don't think rest is a problem.

 

[tallcall]

6/17/07

Sunday

Arms and Abs

Super Sets:
Overhead Press: (still not sure about the name, basically over head tricept extension)

40x10
40x10
45x8 PR
45x8 PR

Straight DB Curls:

20x10
20x10
20x10

Non Super Sets:

Skull Crushers (single arm):

15x10 PR
15x10 PR
15x10 PR

Weighted Dips (Plate loaded machine):

155x5
165x4 PR
165x4 PR
165x5 PR

Preacher Curls (plate loaded machine):

70x10
75x10
80x10 PR (Since this was a cable based machine, I did a mental down conversion to estimate the actual raw weight: 70lb = ~20lb DB, 75lb = ~25lb DB, and 80lb = ~30lb DB)

Another Super Set
Side Bends:

10x20
10x20
10x20

Hammer Curls (a bit of overkill, but I had energy to burn and a 10lb weight in my hand)

(each set was done on both arms of course)
10x10
10x10
10x10

Non Super Set
Planks (regular, body weight)

:60
:60
:60

Cardio:
35 minute steady state day.

5 minute warm up on a Stair master (max hr = 140 on level 8)

20 minutes on an elliptical trainer (max hr = 143 at level 5 for 15 minutes, max hr = 145 at level 8 for 5 minutes).

10 minutes on a treadmill (max hr = 140 at a speed of 4 and an incline of 4). This included a 2 minute cool down period.

All in all, today was a really good day! None of the blunders like what happened yesterday and I feel great! I set some new personal records and will continue to push them higher. I still plan to get some help on the bench press from my trainer, possibly on Thursday (I love my Tuesday leg day setup and will not touch that).

Again, all advice is welcome (some will probably be ignored )!

 

[tallcall]

Alright I got my diet up on FitDay, I don't change it much from day to day, but I do add in an extra 350 cal shake on my workout days. I think some of the information is a little off, but it is a good estimation.

My FitDay (not going to alter it much at all)

 

[fufu]

gj buddy

 

[tallcall]

Day off for me, yay! I might finally get to watch that UFC pay per view I wanted to see (I still don't like sitting for 3 hours, a little ADDish).

 

[tallcall]

gj buddy

Thanks man, yesterday was a lot of "fun."

 

[DOMS]

Solid workout, Tallcall.