Heisman's log

[Omni]

Well I am unfortunately COVID-19 positive. No workouts for 2 weeks for me. If I take a turn for the worse I will try to post it. Symptoms started yesterday.

Been following your log for a while man, hope all ends up well for you with no serious symptoms. Do you believe you contracted it at work or another source?

Side note, I know you're a front line worker and we're possibly weeks away from a vaccine, but would you have taken the vaccine regardless?

[Heisman2]

Been following your log for a while man, hope all ends up well for you with no serious symptoms. Do you believe you contracted it at work or another source?

Side note, I know you're a front line worker and we're possibly weeks away from a vaccine, but would you have taken the vaccine regardless?

I most likely got it at work. Our hospital has 4.8% of asymptomatic patients positive, that implies community spread of 1/20. We don't have enough PPE to wear the N95/faceshield/gown on every patient, just the sick ones. I probably got it from an asymptomatic kid. Or one of the many kids where family claims no symptoms but there are clearly symptoms when I walk into the room.

If I hadn't gotten sick I would have gotten the vaccine the second it was available to me. Now that I am sick I don't know if I need to wait a certain period of time prior to getting vaccinated for the vaccine to be effective. I imagine when the vaccines are fully approved there will be guidance regarding this.

[SandrasWl]

I decided to make a log to hold myself more accountable in all aspects of my life, but particularly with diet/exercise for the purpose of this forum. Right now I'm a first year resident and thus I at times work multiple weeks in a row (including weekends) without a day off. On typical work days depending on the rotation I'm on I may work anywhere from 6 hours to a more standard 11 hours or at times 14-16 hours. A big problematic factor is I cannot necessarily eat when I want to. There are days where I eat breakfast at 4:30am and do not get a chance to eat again until 3-4pm. I also can at times suffer a lot of stress that is work-related; being busy is not stressful to me but anytime I worry I have made a decision that negatively hurts a patient in some way that can hit me fairly hard. Also, I don't sleep nearly as much as I would like to some nights which also impacts me negatively.

Current stats:
5'7", 155 pounds, estimate ~14% bodyfat
Front squat: 265x5 and 275x3, 305 x 1 with a 3 second pause with poor form
High bar back squat: 345x1 a couple months back. I have a torn lateral meniscus in my right knee (for years) that holds me back
Deadlift: Maxed at 550 in May, have not deadlifted regularly or heavy since.
Pullup: Recently did bodyweight + 155 pounds.
Dips: Sadly no great dip station in my gym with my proportions. Recently did bodyweight + 135 pounds but I'd be stronger if there was a better set up.
Resting heart rate: 53 bpm

Goals:
- Cut down to 10% bodyfat to prove to myself I can do it (always been chubby if anything), then go on a long bulk.
- Do a 1 armed pullup and eventually a pullup with 4 plates
- Front squat 315 pounds with a 3 second pause
- Do a dip with my bodyweight (currently ~155 pounds)
- Back squat 405 pounds*
- Deadlift 600 pounds**
- Get my resting heart rate <50 bpm
- Elliptical: make progress over time regarding intensity and duration

*The torn meniscus may prevent me from ever doing this as I do not wish to risk injury and thus when I feel any uneasiness in the knee I hold back.

**I deadlift beltless and 550 was quite difficult. I don't think anyone my size has ever done 700 beltless and I don't really think I have the capacity to get within 100 pounds of an all time best lift so this may not be possible but who knows.

Diet: Typically consists of (in no order): yogurt, blueberries, banana, nuts, cottage cheese, salmon, chicken, lots of veggies, beans, oatmeal, eggs, milk, peanut butter sandwich, whey protein. I typically eat the same things most days. I'll log calories/macros as I go along. I will try to eat as little as I can while meeting fat/protein minimums but will bump up calories when necessary either because I'm too hungry to sleep or because I feel my workouts are suffering.

Exercise program: I'm squatting every 3-4 days and am trying for the first time to have separate days for pushing and pulling movements. I'll log what I do as I do them and make adjustments as necessary. I like to do at least some cardio with an elliptical daily if I can, but I am more likely to skip it on a day I squat than anything else.

I'll start logging tomorrow. Happy to answer any questions.

I think it's this grate traning program, maybe I'm combine it with my one!

[Heisman2]

Alright, back at it today.

Rowing: 5 minutes
Paused high bar back squats: 135x5, 185x3, 205x3
Paused weighted dips: BW+45x5, BW+70x3, BW+90x1
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+45x5, BW+70x3, BW+90x1

That's it. Overall I started getting sick on 11/21, got quite ill 11/22, was at my worst 11/23, then fever broke 11/24 (I think) and gradually improved. By 11/30 or so I was feeling a lot better. Then I went to get groceries on 12/2 and that actually took a lot out of me with my heart rate getting well above 100 just walking around, which is very atypical. I also felt worn out after this and started getting slightly more cold-like symptoms. Yesterday morning I was coughing some but improved throughout the day and woke up feeling good today. As it's day 15 now I figured exercise should be safe if I felt up to it and I did the above. No chest pain or light-headedness. Definitely feel weaker but I'm not concerned about that. Overall this is definitely a success. We'll see if I'm sore at all tomorrow; if not I may lift again.

[Heisman2]

Today I did:

Rowing: 7 minutes - I pushed myself pretty hard on this and it took a lot out of me.
One-legged leg extensions: 80x2x6
Leg curls: 80x2x6
Lateral raises: 20x2x7
Bent over lateral raises: 10x2x7
Dumbbell curls: 30x2x7
Tricep pushdowns: 30x2x7

All felt good. I did these reps in a more slow/controlled fashion.

[Heisman2]

Today I did:

Paused high bar back squats: 225x3, 235x3, 245x3 - these all felt excellent, loving my form right now
Weighted dips: BW+70x5 paused, BW+45x7
Weighted hammer grip chins: BW+70x5 paused, BW+45x7
Incline dumbbell bench press: 70s x5
Seated rows: 160 x7

Quite happy with this all around.

For people wanting an excellent review of the differences between hypertrophy and strength from a physiologic standpoint, I found this to be an excellent read: https://www.pagepressjournals.org/in...view/9311/8965

[Heisman2]

Nice workout today:

Paused high bar back squats: 255x3
Paused weighted dips: BW+80x4
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+80x4
Paused bulgarian split squats: 60s x5
Paused bench press: 155x5
Seated rows: 160x8
Step ups: 50s x7
Incline dumbbell bench press: 70s x6
Paused pulldowns: 140x6
Dumbbell laterals: 20s x6, 20s x5
Bent over laterals: 10s x6, 10s x8
EZ bar curls: 90x3 (first 2 were strict against a wall)
Dumbbell curls: 40s x5
Tricep pushdowns: 40x6
Overhead tricep extensions: 30x7
Facepulls: 40x6, 40x8

That's it, quite happy with all of this. Did all this in ~1:50.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 245x5 - these felt good, could have grinded up a 6th but trying to stop when bar speed slows down fairly significantly
Paused weighted dips: BW+70x6 - last one was slow but not a grinder
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+70x5
Paused bulgarian split squats: 60s x8 - these felt really good on my hamstrings
Paused bench press: 135x10 - these also felt good, last workout was the first time I've done flat bench presses with a regular grip in many years, it'll be fun to see how these progress
Paused pulldowns: 140x8 - these felt good
Step ups: 50s x10 - these were incredibly taxing from a cardiovascular perspective, so much so they derailed my workout (more on this later)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 60s x10
Seated rows: 140x11

Everything felt good. The step ups were killer. I was moving quickly through the whole workout as I'm trying to work on work capacity and getting my conditioning back post-COVID and by the time I did the step ups it caught up with me. Had to rest for like 5-10 minutes just so I could feel functional enough to stand up and walk around before the last 2 exercises. So I called it here.

My functional trainer is currently scheduled to arrive 12/23 (was scheduled to arrive 12/19 last week); once that is all set up then I'll be changing my routine a bit though I plan to continue this same basic format 2 days a week.

My primary goal in the short term is to increase work capacity/conditioning.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Rowing: 570m in 2:30
Paused high bar back squats: 245x6 (+1 rep from last time)
Paused weighted dips: BW+70x6 (+0 reps from last time)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+70x6 (+1)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 60s x9 (+1)
Paused bench press: 137.5x10 (+2.5lbs, same reps, felt easier than last time)
Paused pulldowns: 140x10 (+2)
Step ups: 50s x11 (+1)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 60s x12 (+2)
Seated rows: 140x12 (+1)

Very happy with this. Did more reps or weight on all exercises except dips. My glutes/hamstrings were still sore going into this but that didn't hinder me. I did this whole workout in 90 minutes and paced myself well; the step ups did not hit me nearly as hard as last time.

Shipping date for my functional trainer got moved up to this Friday, which I'm very happy about. Will probably do deadlifts and isolation movements Thursday and then Saturday I'll be putting the functional trainer together (hopefully) after I get home from work. I may take Saturday off from lifting just to get the functional trainer together.

[Heisman2]

No workout today as the Inspire FT1 actually came yesterday. Took me a couple hours yesterday to get everything out of the boxes and ensure all the parts were present, and then I put it together this morning with a little assistance from my fiance. Due to that I didn't have time to lift before going to work, so I'll workout next Saturday. Tomorrow I'll be trying to clean my garage gym well and then I'll put a picture up.

[Heisman2]

Today I did:

Paused high bar back squats: 250x4
Paused weight dips: BW+75x5
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+75x5
Paused bulgarian split squats: 60x10
Paused lat pulldowns: 142.5x8
Paused bench press: 140x10

That's it. Unfortunately I once again had to stay considerably later on a Saturday morning shift than I thought I would and wasn't able to adjust my eating accordingly and ran out of energy here. Gonna figure this out. The squats felt off but everything else was good.

The bulgarians took a lot out of me. I think I'm gonna cut the rep range on them to 6-8 and the rep range for step ups down to 8-10. I do want to work on conditioning but not at the expense of lifting, lol.

Tomorrow I'll be using the functional trainer seriously for the first time so I'm quite excited for that.

Regarding pics, I posted a couple here: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...post1625966643

[Heisman2]

Today's workout: Cable laterals: 10x8,7
Strict EZ bar curls: 90x4, Low cable curls: 20x7
Tricep pushdowns: 25x6, Overhead tricep extensions: 30x11
Rear cable laterals: 5x10,8
Facepulls: 15x10,10
Leg extensions: 80x8,7
Leg curls: 80x7,7
Adductors: 5x5,6
Abductors: 5x8,8
Flies: 15x8,8
Straight-armed pulldowns: 15x8,8
Then I did some forearm work.

Quite happy with this; played around with the functional trainer a lot and it is working well. The weights above are per arm, not total weight.

Still playing around with a routine I want to follow, probably need one more week of workouts using everything before I start to finalize something.

[Joseph1990]

Absolutely impressive keeping this log going since 2016.

[Heisman2]

Absolutely impressive keeping this log going since 2016.

Thank you. We'll see how long it goes. More motivated now than I have been for a long time now that I got my home gym fully set up so it should be pretty good moving forward if I don't get injured.

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 250x5 (+1 rep)
Paused weighted dips: BW+77.5x5 (+2.5 lbs)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+77.5x5 (+2.5 lbs)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 65sx8 (+5 lbs)
Paused barbell bench press: 142.5x10 (+2.5 lbs)
Paused lat pulldowns: 142.5x10 (+2.5 lbs)
Step ups: 55s x9 (+5 lbs)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x10 (+5 lbs)
Seated rows: 145x11 (+5 lbs)

Overall happy with all of this.

[Heisman2]

Got my COVID-19 vaccine today. No side effects so far except mild shoulder ache. Decided to workout shortly after as given I had COVID-19 1 month ago I'm theoretically at risk for having a more severe reaction to the vaccine.

Deadlifts: 315x5
FT (functional trainer) bench press: 30x8 (meaning 30 pounds real weight in each hand, this required a surprising amount of stability)
FT row: 50x8
Snatch grip deadlifts: 225x5 (doing these mostly stiff-legged)
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 45x8
One-armed pulldowns: 110x5
Paused front squats: 225x3
Weighted pushups: BW+25x8
Inverted rows: 8

That's it. Ok workout overall. A lot of these were new movements for me so it took quite a bit of experimentation to get things set up decently. We'll see how I progress with this.

[Heisman2]

The day after the vaccine (2 days ago) I felt like crap most of the day until the evening and my shoulder/axilla were very sore with overlying erythema of my shoulder. Yesterday I felt completely normal other than my shoulder/axilla which were improved but still quite sore; I went back and forth and decided to give myself 1 more day to recover prior to lifting. Today my axilla is still a bit tight when I stretch my arm upward and I still have some shoulder pain when I press on it but I don't have shoulder pain with arm movement and the erythema is more mild. I worked out today:


Paused high bar back squats: 255x4 (+5 pounds, decided I'll keep the weight the same til I get 5 reps (without grinding) and then go up 5 pounds from there)
Paused weighted dips: BW+80x5 (+2.5 lbs)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+80x5 (+2.5 lbs, previously I paused at the top but I am no longer doing that as I feel that just fatigues the biceps for no significant benefit, I am still pausing at the bottom)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 70sx8 (+5 lbs, I had more in me but I'm aiming for 6-8 reps and capping it there)
Paused barbell bench press: 145x10 (+2.5 lbs, this was challenging)
Paused lat pulldowns: 145x10 (+2.5 lbs, probably had another in me but I'm aiming for 8-10 reps)
Step ups: 60s x8 (+5 lbs, I do not plan to continue these as it's really hard for me to avoid using momentum, I will switch to front squats. I may still play around with these in the future with lighter weight and higher reps (or a lesser height as my box is 20"))
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x10 (same weight/reps as last time)
Seated rows: 145x12 (+1 rep)

Overall quite pleased. Will switch the lower body to back squats, front squats, bulgarian split squats. I may or may not include a set of front squats on Thursday, if I take it out I'll probably do high pulls instead.

[Heisman2]

Good session today:

Paused high bar back squats: 255x5 (+1 rep, felt very solid)
Paused weighted dips: BW+82.5x5 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+82.5x5 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused front squats: 185x7 (gonna keep these sets at 7 reps)
Paused barbell bench press: 147x10 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused lat pulldowns: 147.5x10 (+2.5 lbs, felt solid)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 75sx6 (+5 lbs, balance was a bit of an issue, it's interesting this wasn't a problem with 70s)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x11 (+1 rep)
Seated rows: 147.5x10 (+2.5 lbs)

Given my last workout was 2 days ago this was great. Hopefully I can get a solid week of training in with no hiccups.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 335x5 (+20 lbs)
FT bench press: 30x12 (+4 reps)
FT rows: 50x12 (+4 reps)
Snatch grip deadlifts: 245x5 (+20 lbs)
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 45x10 (+2 reps)
One-armed pulldowns: 112.5x5 (+2.5 lbs)
Paused front squats: 225x4 (+1 rep)
Paused weighted pushups: BW+25x9
Paused inverted rows: 10

Deadlifts are still easy at this point. Everything else felt good though I realized after doing the last set that I need to alter my set up for inverted rows and will adjust accordingly moving forward. Quite pleased overall.

[AdamWW]

The day after the vaccine (2 days ago) I felt like crap most of the day until the evening and my shoulder/axilla were very sore with overlying erythema of my shoulder.

Could you describe the 'felt like crap'?

Flu-like?

[Heisman2]

Could you describe the 'felt like crap'?

Flu-like?

I'm not sure like the flu as I didn't have a fever. I just felt fatigue and general malaise. I think malaise describes it perfectly but that's frequently a medical term and then only way I can think of translating it to non-medical jargon is to say I felt like crap, lol. I was tired, low on energy, just mentally not fully myself.

Anyways, workout today:

Paused high bar back squats: 260x4 (+5 lbs, felt solid)
Paused weighted dips: BW+85x4 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+85x4 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused front squats: 190x7 (felt these nicely in my quads)
Paused barbell bench press: 150x10 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused lat pulldowns: 150x10 (+2.5 lbs, felt solid)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 75sx7 (+5 lbs, balance was not an issue this time)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x11 (same as last time)
Seated rows: 147.5x11 (+1 rep)

Overall solid session.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Cable laterals: 10x10 (+2 reps), 10
Strict EZ bar curls: 90x7 (+3 reps), Low cable curls 20x11 (+4 reps)
Rear delt cable laterals: 5x12 (+2 reps), 5x12
Tricep pushdowns: 40x10, Tricep overhead extensions: 40x6 (doing these on my pulldown/row setup)
Face pulls: 40x12, 12 (doing these on my pulldown/row setup)
Leg extensions: 80x10 (+2 reps), 9
Leg culs: 80x11 (+4 reps), 10

That's it. Very good all around. Not gonna lie, I'm really excited about the curls. After not caring at all about biceps for 15+ years of serious training it's fun to do something new.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 260x5 (+1 rep, unfortunately had a bit of knee pain but not too bad)
Paused weighted dips: BW+85x4 (same as last time)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+85x5 (+1 rep, challenging)
Paused front squats: 195x7 (warming up I had some knee pain but for this set my knees felt fine)
Paused barbell bench press: 152.5x8 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused lat pulldowns: 152.5x9 (+2.5 lbs, felt good)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 75sx8 (+1 rep, balance was a bit of an issue but not too bad)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x11 (same as last time)
Seated rows: 147.5x12 (+1 rep, felt good)

No real progress with my pressing exercises but I was a bit sore/fatigued going into this so I think it's fine. We'll see how things go throughout this week.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 355x5 (+20 lbs, still pretty easy)
FT bench press: 40x10 (+10 lbs, felt solid)
FT rows: 55x8 (+5 lbs, felt solid)
Snatch grip deadlifts: 265x5 (+20 lbs, still pretty easy)
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 50x6 (+5 lbs, a bit of an awkward movement with my powerblocks but serviceable)
One-armed pulldowns: 115x5 (+2.5 lbs, felt good)
Paused front squats: 225x5 (+1 rep, felt good)
Paused weighted pushups: BW+25x10
Paused inverted rows: 12

Happy with all of this.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 265x4 (+5 lbs, felt good, no real knee pain)
Paused weighted dips: BW+85x5 (+1 rep, challenging)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+87.5x4 (+2.5 lbs)
Paused front squats: 200x7 (felt good)
Paused barbell bench press: 152.5x9 (+1 rep, challenging)
Paused lat pulldowns: 152.5x10 (+1 rep, felt good)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 80sx4 (+5 lbs, considerably harder than 75s)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x11 (same as last time, eventually I will make progress on this)
Seated rows: 150x10 (+2.5 lbs, felt solid)

Happy with this overall.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Cable laterals: 10x13 (+3 reps), 11
Strict EZ bar curls: 100x3/80x5 (+10 pounds on top set), Low cable curls: 20x14 (+3 reps)
Rear delt cable laterals: 5x14 (+2 reps), 5x12
Tricep pushdowns: 40x11 (+1 rep), Tricep overhead extensions: 40x7
Face pulls: 40x14 (+2 reps), 13
Leg extensions: 90x6, 6
Leg curls: 90x7, 7

Happy with all of this.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 265x5 (+1 rep, felt good)
Paused weighted dips: BW+87.5x5 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+87.5x5 (+1 rep, challenging)
Paused front squats: 205x7 (felt good)
Paused barbell bench press: 152.5x10 (+1 rep, challenging)
Paused lat pulldowns: 155x10 (+2.5 lbs, felt good)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 80sx5 (+1 rep, felt good)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x11 (same as last time, getting comical at this point but as I'm progressing with the first 2 pressing exercises I'm not concerned)
Seated rows: 150x11 (+1 rep, felt good)

I did not sleep well last night and was not expecting a good workout but this ended up being good pretty much all around so I'm quite pleased.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 375x5 (+ 20lbs, felt good)
FT bench press: 40x12 (+2 reps, felt good)
FT rows: 55x9 (+1 rep, felt good)
Snatch grip deadlifts: 285x5 (+20 lbs, felt good)
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 50x7 (+1 rep, felt much better than last time)
One-armed pulldowns: 117.5x5 (+2.5 lbs, felt good)
Paused front squats: 245x3 (felt easier than I expected)
Paused weighted pushups: BW+25x11 (felt good)
Paused weighted rows: BW+25x7/BWx4 (still figuring these out)

Happy with the entire workout.

[AlexSays]

Got my COVID-19 vaccine today. No side effects so far except mild shoulder ache. Decided to workout shortly after as given I had COVID-19 1 month ago I'm theoretically at risk for having a more severe reaction to the vaccine.

Deadlifts: 315x5
FT (functional trainer) bench press: 30x8 (meaning 30 pounds real weight in each hand, this required a surprising amount of stability)
FT row: 50x8
Snatch grip deadlifts: 225x5 (doing these mostly stiff-legged)
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 45x8
One-armed pulldowns: 110x5
Paused front squats: 225x3
Weighted pushups: BW+25x8
Inverted rows: 8

That's it. Ok workout overall. A lot of these were new movements for me so it took quite a bit of experimentation to get things set up decently. We'll see how I progress with this.

Could you explain the functional trainer lifts a little more and how they work?

[Heisman2]

Could you explain the functional trainer lifts a little more and how they work?

Basically I set up my ironmaster super bench pro to the full upright position and put it in the center of the functional trainer for the bench press. Then I set the handles to chest height and face away from the functional trainer for the presses. It's somewhat like a hammer strength converging bench press, but with the individual handles there is a much greater stability component and is more reminiscent of a press + fly combo. I do the reps fairly slow and controlled.

For the rows I still have bench in the full right position but this time I pull it out some and straddle it so I'm facing the functional trainer. I raise the handles up so that I'm reaching up and out at the beginning of the movement, and then it's somewhat like a chest supported row (though as the bench is too high for my head to go over the top I arch back a bit and it's more my stomach/low chest against the bench). Also doing these fairly slow and controlled and squeezing at peak contraction.

For both of them I just wanted another pressing and rowing movement that worked a large range of motion.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 270x4 (+5 lbs, felt good in my quads)
Paused weighted dips: BW+90x4 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused weighted hammer grip chins: BW+90x4 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused front squats: 210x7 (felt good)
Paused barbell bench press: 155x10 (+2.5 lbs, challenging)
Paused lat pulldowns: 157.5x10 (+2.5 lbs, felt good)
Paused bulgarian split squats: 80sx6 (+1 rep, felt good, no balance issues)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 65s x11 (same as last time)
Seated rows: 150x12 (+1 rep, felt good)

I slept in a bit late and it threw my eating schedule off some leading me to lose energy halfway through the workout but I powered through without issues. Happy with all of this.