Heisman's log

[Heisman2]

I don't like Romanian DLs either. Something seems counterintuitive about the isolation emphasis on a variation of perhaps the most compounded movement you can do.

I just tend to always feel it more in my lower back than my glutes/hamstrings.

Anyways, today's workout:

Paused flat barbell bench press: 185x5/155x5, 185x4/155x5
Paused lat pulldown: 190x5/140x5, 190x5/140x5
Standing barbell shoulder press: 120x4/95x4, 120x4/95x3
FT rows: 65x5/50x3, 65x4/50x3
Lu raises: 10x7
EZ bar curls: 100x3/80x3
Supine reverse laterals: 10x10 (I think I'm just going to stick to rear delt cable flyes)
Lying tricep extensions: 60x9
Y-raises: 10x8
Wrist curls: 40x12/5
Reverse wrist curls: 15x10
Radial deviation: 20x16
Ulnar deviation: 20x16
Pronation: 20x5
Supination: 10x13
Reverse curls: 65x8

Finished with 10 minutes of rowing on level 10 (Concept 2 model D): 1948 meters

I was fatigued going into this and felt sore on my top sets but everything here still felt good.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 225x5x5 (knees felt iffy warming up but the actual work sets felt great, particularly on my quads)
Abductors: 15x8
Adductors: 15x10
Dorsiflexion: 15x10
Hip flexion: 15x10
Paused Bulgarian split squats: 70x6
Decline sit-ups: 2x5
Russian twists: 10x5

10 minutes of rowing on level 10: 2124 meters

Very pleased with how the squats felt. This was challenging in the right places. The isolation stuff was fine. The Bulgarians felt good.

The rowing was hard, lol. Doing this after legs made it harder. My form changed throughout the 10 minutes. Initially I was using a lot more knee flexion/extension but by the end I was using a lot more hip flexion/extension.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Machine chest press: 70x9/50x3, 70x6/50x3
One-armed pulldowns: 130x5/90x4, 130x3/90x4
Push-ups: BW+25x10/BWx5, BW+25x9/BWx6
Inverse rows: BW+25x6/BWx6, BW+25x6/BWx6
Leaning cable lateral raises: 20x3/15x3
Low pulley curls (facing away from pulley): 40x4/30x2
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x7/5x4
Overhead pulley tricep extension: 40x9/30x3
Face pulls: 50x12/30x9
Wrist curls: 40x15/25x7
Reverse wrist curls: 15x12/10x5
Radial deviation: 20x19
Ulnar deviation: 20x19
Pronation: 20x7
Supination: 10x16
Reverse curls: 65x10

10 minutes of rowing on level 10: 2132 meters

Happy with all of this, improving on the top sets and everything felt good.

[AdamWW]

Today's workout:

Machine chest press: 70x9/50x3, 70x6/50x3
One-armed pulldowns: 130x5/90x4, 130x3/90x4
Push-ups: BW+25x10/BWx5, BW+25x9/BWx6
Inverse rows: BW+25x6/BWx6, BW+25x6/BWx6
Leaning cable lateral raises: 20x3/15x3
Low pulley curls (facing away from pulley): 40x4/30x2
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x7/5x4
Overhead pulley tricep extension: 40x9/30x3
Face pulls: 50x12/30x9
Wrist curls: 40x15/25x7
Reverse wrist curls: 15x12/10x5
Radial deviation: 20x19
Ulnar deviation: 20x19
Pronation: 20x7
Supination: 10x16
Reverse curls: 65x10

10 minutes of rowing on level 10: 2132 meters

Happy with all of this, improving on the top sets and everything felt good.

Man that is a lot of variation. Do you track these same movements each time?

[Heisman2]

Man that is a lot of variation. Do you track these same movements each time?

Mostly yes. Still playing around with variations day-to-day but I will be tracking on a week-to-week basis.

Today's workout (done fasting in the morning as I wanted to get it in before work):

Paused high bar back squats: 230x5x5
Abductors: 15x11
Adductors: 15x12
Dorsiflexion: 15x11
Hip flexion: 15x11
Paused Bulgarian split squats: 75x3

Later in the day when I got home from work:
45 degree sit-ups: 7
Standing cable twists: 25x12
Dumbbell side bends: 75x12

Happy with all of this and I actually really enjoyed the core work so I think I will ramp that up in a big way.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused dips: BW+90x5/BWx7, BW+90x4/BWx7
Paused hammger grip chins: BW+92.5x5/BWx6, BW+92.5x4/BWx6
Incline dumbbell bench press: 75x6/55x4, 75x5/55x4
Seated rows: 200x6/160x6, 200x6/160x4
Dumbbell lateral raises: 15x10/3/3
Dumbbell hammer curls: 35x7/2/2
Bent over dumbbell lateral raises: 5x20/10/8
Tricep pushdowns: 40x9/2/2
Face pulls: 40x9/3/3
Wrist curls: 45x11/25x10
Reverse wrist curls: 15x14/10x5
Radial deviation: 25x7/15x7
Ulnar deviation: 25x7/15x7
Pronation: 20x9/15x4
Supination: 15x6/10x6
Reverse curls: 70x6

10 minutes of rowing on level 10: 2161 meters

Pleased with all of this. The top sets take a lot out of me so I will probably end up taking out 1 of them; we'll see how I recover for the next session.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 385x1
Leg extensions: 180x6(N)/180x3/135x3(N)/135x3
Leg curls: 90x6(N)/90x2/70x2/60x2/50x2
Paused one-legged standing calf raises: BWx15 (first time training calfs in years, very interested to see if the single set makes me sore tomorrow)
45 degree sit-ups: 8
Standing cable twists: 30x6
Dumbbell side bends: 75x16

Deadlifts felt a bit heavy but my back was a bit fatigued from yesterday. That said, they felt good. Whenever I'm done pushing my squat I'm gonna start focusing on deadlifts again. May be awhile if I can continue to squat without any knee injuries.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused flat barbell bench press: 185x5/155x5, 185x4/155x5 (no improvements but was fatigued going into this so I'm not concerned)
Paused lat pulldown: 195x5/140x5, 190x4/140x5
Standing barbell shoulder press: 120x5/95x4, 120x4/95x4
FT rows: 65x7/50x3, 65x6/50x3
Lu raises: 10x8/3
EZ bar curls: 80x7/2
Cable rear delt flys: 10x5/5x5
Lying tricep extensions: 60x11/3
Y-raises: 10x11
EZ bar reverse wrist curls: 30x15
EZ bar wrist curls: 30x50
Pronation: 15x21
Supination: 10x21

That's it. Not gonna lie, the ONE SINGLE set of standing calf raises yesterday, just 15 measly reps with one leg at a time with a pause at the bottom and the top, destroyed my calves. I started feeling sore several hours later and it's hard for me to walk downstairs now. I started rowing a bit and it didn't bother my calves too much but I felt it slightly so I decided not to do it. I may row later but a lower intensity for a longer period of time and that may even help with recovery. While it's true I have not trained calves in years, I did not expect this much soreness from one set. Quite interesting.

Otherwise, I haven't stated this but I've been cutting for the last few weeks just because I haven't done it in awhile and while I don't know how accurate my scale is today I weighed in the 147.4, so I'm down about 3-4 pounds or so. My primary goals right now are to continue increasing my squat strength without knee pain and otherwise maintain strength. I don't have a goal weight with the cutting but I just want to see how low I can go without having my lifts or general life suffer.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 235x5x5
Abductors: 20x6
Adductors: 20x6
Dorsiflexion: 10x12/5/2
Hip flexion: 20x6/10x5

My calves are still very sore. I expected it based on how they felt yesterday but it's honestly pretty surprising to me that this happened from just one set of calf raises. Lesson learned, lol. I felt my calves with the squats as I'm doing heel-elevated squats and my hamstrings touch my calves and the compression made the soreness obvious. I'm probably at about the limit of linear progression with the squats; I'll go for 240x5x5 next time and we'll see if I get it. I will say my calves likely altered my proprioception at the bottom and I'm always trying to be cognizant of my positioning at the bottom of the squat due to my knee issues so that probably held me back a bit.

The other stuff was all good. I skipped Bulgarians today as I pushed myself pretty hard with the squats.

Weight today was 146.8... I may be dropping slightly too quickly but my lifts have not suffered, my energy is good, and I'm not too hungry so I'll just keep moving along. I'm at ~1,820 kcal/d with ~130g protein/d.

Lastly, I'm almost done with the exercise course for my website. Next weekend is a 3 day weekend for me and I'm hoping to have it go live then.

EDIT: I forgot to do core stuff so I did this later:

45 degrees sit-ups: 9
Standing cable twists: 30x8
Dumbbell side bends: 90x10

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Machine chest press: 75x4/50x3, 75x3/50x3
One-armed pulldowns: 140x2/90x5, 140x1/90x5
Push-ups: BW+25x12/BWx5, BW+25x9/BWx6
Inverse rows: BW+25x8/BWx6, BW+25x7/BWx5
Leaning cable lateral raises: 20x3/15x4/10x4
Low pulley curls (facing away from pulley): 40x2/30x3/20x4
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x6/5x4
Overhead pulley tricep extension: 40x5/30x4
Face pulls: 50x8/30x8
EZ bar reverse wrist curls: 30x12
EZ bar wrist curls: 50x30
Radial deviation: 10x25
Ulnar deviation: 10x25
Supination: 15x10
Pronation: 20x11

Yesterday after waiting a very long time I finally got the weight stack upgrade for my Inspire FT1 and I put them on last night. Then I had to get up early to workout today so I was a bit fatigued going into it. Nonetheless, this is a good starting point for the heavier weights on the top sets.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 240x5,5,5,3
Abductors: 20x8
Adductors: 20x9
Dorsiflexion: 20x7/5x9
Hip flexion: 20x10/10x5
Paused Bulgarian split squats: 75x4

The 3rd rep of the last set of squats was somewhat of a grind but my form felt good on all reps and I had no knee pain. Very happy with this! Now I can actually work to build up my squat. I'm still debating how to do this but I anticipate I'll only go up in weight every other week or so. I want to take this slowly and try to avoid injury.

Everything else was fine. Calves are still slightly sore, lol.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused dips: BW+92.5x5/BWx7, BW+92.5x4/BWx5
Paused hammer grip chin-ups: BW+95x5/BWx7, BW+95x4/BWx5
Incline dumbbell bench press: 75x4/45x5
Seated rows: 200x7/110x7
Dumbbell lateral raises: 15x12/3/3
Dumbbell hammer curls: 35x9/3/2
Bent over dumbbell lateral raises: 5x20/10/8
Tricep pushdowns: 40x7/3/2
Face pulls: 40x12/3/3
EZ bar reverse wrist curls: 30x14
EZ bar wrist curls: 60x30
Radial deviation: 15x20
Ulnar deviation: 15x25

Definitely building up some fatigue but the first set for the top two exercises went well so I'll keep pushing along.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 405x5 (felt heavy but good)
Leg extensions: 180x7(N)/180x3/135x4(N)/135x3
Leg curls: 90x4(N)/80x2(N)/70x2(N)/50x5(N) (started doing these with a slow concentric and they feel better, this is a byproduct of the ironmaster super bench pro set-up where the weight releases at the top, I can explain more if anyone is curious)
Paused one-legged standing calf raises: 10 (only 10 this time, not 15... we'll see how my calves feel later today and tomorrow)
45 degree sit-ups: 12
Standing cable twists: 30x12
Dumbbell side bends: 90x12

Pleased with all of this. Gonna start incorporating more deadlift sets.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused flat barbell bench press: 187.5x4/155x7, 187.5x4/155x6 (no improvements but was fatigued going into this so I'm not concerned)
Paused lat pulldown: 197.5x5/140x6, 197.5x5/140x5
Standing barbell shoulder press: 125x3/95x4, 125x3/95x4
FT rows: 70x7/50x4, 70x7/50x4
Lu raises: 10x10/3
EZ bar curls: 80x10/2
Cable rear delt flys: 10x7/5x4
Lying tricep extensions: 70x7/2
Y-raises: 10x11
EZ bar reverse wrist curls: 30x12/3
EZ bar wrist crls: 70x25/3

Would have liked 1 more rep on the first set of bench but I misgrooved the first couple reps a bit. Regardless, good session all around. Weighed in at 145.8 today.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 240 x 6,6,5,4
Abduction: 20x9
Adduction: 20x10
Dorsiflexion: 20x7/10x10/6
Hip flexion: 20x10/10x7
Paused bulgarian split squats:

Good workout overall. Knees felt a bit off but nothing bad. I'll bump the weight up to 245 next session. I forgot to do core work again, lol. I'll get this down eventually. I weighed in at 144.6, so down a pound from yesterday... I really think the scale is off a bit as I only am at a 600 kcal deficit but we'll see what I weight tomorrow.

Separately, I've been working extremely hard to get my exercise course done and while it's a long shot I may be done with it by the end of tomorrow. Certainly by the end of this coming week.

[Omni]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 240 x 6,6,5,4
Abduction: 20x9
Adduction: 20x10
Dorsiflexion: 20x7/10x10/6
Hip flexion: 20x10/10x7
Paused bulgarian split squats:

Good workout overall. Knees felt a bit off but nothing bad. I'll bump the weight up to 245 next session. I forgot to do core work again, lol. I'll get this down eventually. I weighed in at 144.6, so down a pound from yesterday... I really think the scale is off a bit as I only am at a 600 kcal deficit but we'll see what I weight tomorrow.

Separately, I've been working extremely hard to get my exercise course done and while it's a long shot I may be done with it by the end of tomorrow. Certainly by the end of this coming week.

Been following your workouts and noticed we have pretty similar lifting numbers. I'm around 147lbs at 5'8", what weight are you trying to cut to and how tall are you?

[Heisman2]

Been following your workouts and noticed we have pretty similar lifting numbers. I'm around 147lbs at 5'8", what weight are you trying to cut to and how tall are you?

I'm 5'7". Weighed in the 145s today. Honestly I don't have a goal, just want to see how lean I can get before lifts or quality of life begins to suffer (then I'm done cutting, lol).

[Omni]

I'm 5'7". Weighed in the 145s today. Honestly I don't have a goal, just want to see how lean I can get before lifts or quality of life begins to suffer (then I'm done cutting, lol).

Right on man best of luck to ya! If you don't mind me asking, what is your caloric maintenance level?

[Heisman2]

Right on man best of luck to ya! If you don't mind me asking, what is your caloric maintenance level?

2,400-2,600 or so when I am not doing any cardio. Currently I am eating a little over 1,800 kcals daily. I may start adding in a protein shake and take it up closer to 1,950.

I did not finish my course today but the end is in sight. Definitely will be done by the end of next weekend, possibly sooner depending on how hectic the work week is.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Machine chest press: 75x6/50x4, 75x5/50x3
One-armed pulldowns: 140x3/90x5, 140x2/90x5
Push-ups: BW+25x13/BWx5, BW+25x9/BWx6
Inverse rows: BW+25x8/BWx6, BW+25x7/BWx4
Leaning cable lateral raises: 20x3/15x3/10x3
Low pulley curls (facing away from pulley): 40x4/30x2/20x5
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x6/5x4
Overhead pulley tricep extension: 40x7/30x4
Face pulls: 50x11/30x9
Behind the back wrist curls: 75x30
Reverse wrist curls: 30x20
Supination: 15x4/10x7/5x10
Pronation: 20x7/15x10/10x10

Nice improvements on the top sets so I cannot complain.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 245 x 6, 6, 5, 4
Adductors: 20x12
Abductors: 20x11

That's it, I was out of energy at this point. Wednesday's I frequently train after work and now that I'm cutting my energy is low later in the day. Nonetheless, the squats were great and I had no knee issues at all with the work sets. I added 5 pounds since the last workout and did the same number of reps.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused dips: BW+95x4/BWx8, BW+95x4/BWx6
Paused hammer grip chin-ups: BW+97.5x4/BWx8, BW+97.5x4/BWx6
Incline dumbbell bench press: 75x3/45x6
Seated rows: 200x9/110x10
Dumbbell lateral raises: 15x14/4/4
Dumbbell hammer curls: 35x10/2/2
Bent over dumbbell lateral raises: 10x10/5/5
Tricep pushdowns: 40x10/2/2
Face pulls: 40x12/3/3
Behind the back wrist curls: 95x25
Reverse wrist curls: 30x24
Supination: 5x26
Pronation: 10x26

Energy levels still low. May need to consider cutting back on the volume or frequency a bit but my top sets progressed last session and this session the top sets were fine so it's hard for me to convince myself to change things at this point.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 405x2x5
Paused bulgarian split squats: 75s x4
Leg extensions: 135x7/3/3/2
Leg curls: 70x6/2/2/2
Paused one-legged standing calf raises: 10
45 degree sit-ups: 13

Happy with all of this.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused flat barbell bench press: 187.5x5/155x6, 187.5x4/155x6
Paused lat pulldowns: 200x4/140x5, 200x4, 140x5
Standing barbell shoulder press: 125x4/95x4, 125x3/95x5
FT rows: 70x8/50x5, 70x6/50x4
Lu raises: 10x11/4/3
EZ bar curls: 90x1x1
Cable rear delt flys: 10x5/5x5
Lying tricep extensions: 70x8/2/1
Y-raises: 10x12

Definitely feeling the fatigue from the deadlifts yesterday and the upper body session the day before. 2 sets of deadlifts takes more out of me than 1, lol. I plan to do 3 next week...

Anyways, my body weight has seemed to plateau at ~146. I'm considering increasing my overall activity and possibly adding in a protein shake to offset the hunger. My lifts are steadily improving so I'm pretty pleased with how things are going currently.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar backsquats: 250 x 5,5,4,4
Abductors: 25x4
Adductors: 20x4

Happy with this. Squats felt good.

I actually finished my exercise course on my staging site and attempted to deploy it and now my website is down, lol. My server says there is ongoing maintenance right now so that may be why though it was scheduled for 6/8 so I have no idea. If it is not back by tomorrow morning I will attempt to restore a back up. Kind of irritating but hopefully this gets resolved quickly.

[Heisman2]

I tried to back up the site and it's still not working so I think it's definitely the server. If the dates on the original posted message are correct then it should be done with maintenance tomorrow morning. If it's not I'll try to contact someone about this.

Today's workout:
45 degree sit-ups: 10/4/3/2
Standing cable twists: 30 x 6/4/4/3
Side bends: 100 x 8/4/3/2
Then I did 5 minutes of rowing and a bunch of ATG split squats and heel-elevated body weight squats to work on my knees.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused machine chest press: 150x7/100x5, 150x5/100x4 (previously I was listing the weight for each arm as each arm is separate but as I do both arms at the same time it makes more sense to list the full weight)
Paused one-armed pulldowns: 140x3/90x7, 140x3/90x4 (I never got around to relubricating the set-up and I definitely need to, additionally the actual resistance is ~15 pounds higher than stated by my estimation as I can hang from it when I have 132.5 pounds on it without it really moving)
Push-ups: BW+25x15/BWx5, BW+25x11/BWx5
Inverted rows: BW+25x10/BWx6, BW+25x5/BWx4 (I have started pausing between each rep)
Leaning cable lateral raises: 10x8/3/3/3/3/2
Low pulley curls (facing away from pulley): 30x8/3/3/3/2
Rear delt cable flyes: 7.5x8/3/2
Overhead pulley triceps extensions: 40x10/3/3/2
Facepulls: 30x12/3/4/3/3/3
EZ bar reverse wrist curls: 30x25
Dumbbell wrist curls: 30x15
Supination: 10x14/4
Pronation: 15x14x4

Happy with all of this. Also, got my website working again. I had to contact someone from the hosting site; somehow there were two "www." in the database. I'm guessing it's from me trying to deploy a new version when the server was in maintenance. Whatever the reason, it is fixed now. My exercise course is up. http://www.healthierwithscience.com/...ercise-course/

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high-bar back squats: 250 x 6,6,3 (had some pain the back of my right knee on the last rep here so I stopped... nothing serious thankfully but this is annoying. However, the first 2 sets were great and I'm making steady progress.)
Adductors: 25x5/3/2
Abductors: 25x5/3/2
Paused one-legged standing calf raises: 10
Dorsiflexion: 8 (doing these standing against a wall with my feet out a decent amount)

Other than the squat hiccup this was all good.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:
Paused dips: BW+95x5/BWx7, BW+95x3/BWx7
Paused hammer grip chin-ups: BW+97.5x5/BWx7, BW+97.5x3/BWx7
Incline dumbbell bench press: 75x5/45x5
Seated rows: 200x6/110x11
Dumbbell lateral raises: 15x12/4/4/3/3/3
Dumbbell hammer curls: 35x11/2/2/2/2/1
Bent over dumbbell lateral raises: 10x13/5/5/4/4/4
Tricep pushdowns: 40x12/3/3/2/2/2
Face pulls: 40x12/5/5/5/5/5
Dumbbell wrist curls: 30x20/5/3
Reverse wrist curls: 30x18/5/3
Supination: 10x10
Pronation: 15x10
45 degree decline sit-ups: 10/3/2/2
Standing cable twists: 35x5/3/2
Weighted side bends: 100x8/5/3
Rowing: 10 minutes.

My weight loss has stalled; I've been ~146 for a couple weeks now. I'm going to increase the cardio, take my protein up to 1 g/lb, and we'll see if I choose to cut back on carbs somewhere based on how I feel.

[Heisman2]

My air conditioner broke a couple days ago and it still isn't fixed, a guy is coming tomorrow. I couldn't sleep well last night and woke up feeling like crap so I didn't do anything this morning. This afternoon I did:

Deadlifts: 405x3x5
Paused leg extensions: 135x10/4/3/3/2/2
Paused leg curls: 60x9/2/2/2/2/2

This all felt good. The last set of deadlifts was quite hard but it was also pretty hot in my garage and that impacted me to some degree. Regardless, I got what I wanted.