Somewhere along the way I got weak in the bench and probably every other area.  I guess that’s the facts of life and we’ll improve on them.  We practically had the gym to ourselves last night. Very nice.  I think everyone was out enjoying the wonderful weather that we had.  It’s supposed to rain/snow later this week.  Wonderful!

Bench Press - 5@135,5@155,5@165,5@175

DB Bench Press - 6@60,6@65,2×6@60

DB Rows - 3×10@55

Face Pulls - 3×12@85

HIIT - 10 minutes.

I’m not the strongest guy at the gym, and I probably never will be, but there’s something about pushing around heavier weights that I really enjoy.  I can honestly say that since I’ve switched back to trying to get stronger I have enjoyed going to the gym more.  I still do kettlebells at home, but I now have goals in mind.

I made it into the gym yesterday.  There were a couple of powerlifters there, but they were gone by the time I changed.  However there were a bunch of dudes that just bench pressed.  One guy in there with his girlfriend that wanted me to spot for him.  About my level of strength, but all he did was bench press and work the guns. Girlfriend needs to put some muscle on.  WAY to skinny.

Enough commentary.  Numbers

Bench Press - 4×8@135

Chin-Ups/Lat Pulldowns - 9 Chin-ups (1-2-3-2-1), 3×8@100 Lat pulldowns

Barbell Row (underhand grip) - 4×8@95

Shrugs - 3×10@135

Seated Bicep Curls - 5×5@30

HIIT - 18 minutes on ellipical (this gym doesn’t have one treadmill that is herky jerky and when doing sprints I don’t want to be one something like that!)

I’m back after a 2 week cold…or 1 week and an extra one off to recover.

Not sure what I’m going to do, but for right now it’s westside for skinny bastards.  I can get in and out with it pretty quickly and I’m adding in HIIT.  If I get strong great.  If I get leaner great. But right now I’m just looking for something that keeps me going back to the gym and healthy.  The healthy portion is something I’ll have to watch on this one.  I can see getting sucked into lifting heavier and heavier and not doing other stuff to keep me in shape and flexible.  Hopefully kettlebells once a week or more will help with that.

Tomorrow is front squats, back squats or deadlifts.  I haven’t decided which.  I’m kind of taking this first week as a warm up and next week will get into a regular routine.

I seem to be on the 2 workout a week program for some reason. Part of it had to do with the wife’s birthday on Thursday and something planned for last night. However I did get a workout in this morning and I’m now dripping in sweat.

Kettlebells was the name of the game this morning (and chin-ups!)

100 swings (alternating arms 10/10). I’d do 20 and then a chin-up and then 20 more. Repeated that. Chin-up strength has waned a bit, but I’m going to work on it this year and finally be able to do 10 BW chin-ups!

After the swings I switched over to snatches and did 50 total (5 right, 5 left rest).

Overall the workout was about 17 minutes including breaks. All done with the 16KG bell.

This is probably a dumb thing for those that do KB’s, but on my swings I wasn’t really gripping the KB that hard. When I did grip it hard, things flowed a bit better.

Back in the gym yesterday. Things felt really good. There was a bit of shoulder pain on the shoulder press so I only did 2 sets vs the 3 that I should have done.

Clean Pull - 5@109,5@129,5@139,5@144
Front Squat - 10@100,2×10@105
Single Leg RDL - 3×10@35
Neutral Grip Bench Press - 3×10@40
Bent Over DB Row - 3×10@60
DB Shoulder Press - 2×10@25
Single Arm Lat Pulldown - 3×10@30

Also my suspicions were confirmed. One of the guys that I’ve seen in there, a rather large dude, finally benched while I was there. Pretty impressive. I’m sure if he got in a shirt, he’d be close to 500 or something.

Didn’t make it to the gym tonight. Wife messed up her knee slipping on ice this morning, so I stayed home and played with my kettlebells. I took them out to the garage where I could do snatches and other stuff. I don’t know exactly what I did, but it was swings (16KG and 20KG), and snatches mostly. I did some over head pressing with some 20lbs DB’s that were out there. I felt a small amount of twinge in the shoulder, but not as much as it had been. Swings and snatches didn’t hurt it. So I’m debating on what to do tomorrow. If I go light on upper body and see how it goes or try it all. Probably do something light and see if it bothers me.

I don’t even want to mention me and food.  My diet has been shit.  I need to grow a backbone and figure this out or else I’ll end up right back where I was, which I don’t want.

My shoulder was still bothering me yesterday so the workout was fairly short. I didn’t do any upper body to see what that did. This morning I have no pain in it, so there’s hope that it will be better and I can get back to this program full time.

Jump Squats - 4×5

Single Leg Squat 3×10

Good Mornings - 10@95,10@100,10@105

Did some cardio for about 15 minutes and that was it.

I really need to watch my diet. My weight is like a yo-yo…up and down up and down. Frustrating!

I should have made it into the gym yesterday, but I didn’t. It was a combination of being dead tired after work and a sore shoulder. I haven’t figured out why the shoulder is sore, but it’s something I’m watching cause it hurts!

Clean Pull - 5@99,5@109,5@129,5@139 (need to up the weight on this and work on form; probably watch some video to make sure I’m doing it right)

Front Squat - 3×10@99

Single Leg RDL - 10@30,2×10@35

CG Bench Press - 10@125,10@130,10@135

Bent Over DB Row - 3×10@55

Shoulder Press and Single Arm lat down skipped due to pain in the right shoulder when performing them.

Ab Work.

Over all a pretty good workout. I wish I could have done the 2 exercises that I missed, but I’d rather figure out what’s going on than have it continue to hurt. Maybe just soreness or maybe a pulled muscle. I’m not sure.

The last couple of days I’ve just been beat after getting home from work and I’ve not wanted to do anything.  Last night I vegged in front of the TV and watched a couple of old episodes of CSI.  Tonight was a bit better, but I didn’t make it into the gym.  I grabbed the kettlebells which I hadn’t touched in ages and did a workout at home.

100 Swing for right hand and 100 Swings for left hand.

It took me 17:30 to do this.  I wasn’t pushing it.  I’d do 5 with the right and switch to 5 on the left.  Probably something I’ll do when I need a workout at home.  See if I can improve upon this time.

I’m sure these are making the rounds. Very interesting listening to these guys. This is Andrus Murumets and Zydrunas Savickas. Thanks to Nick at BeyondStrong.com for posting them up.