Heisman's log

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused flat barbell bench press: 190x3/155x6, 190x3/155x5
Paused lat pulldowns: 200x3/140x6, 200x3/140x5
FT rows: 75x4/50x6

Stopped here as I twinged my left shoulder while doing simple dynamic movements. Probably related to me sleeping in my basement on the floor (with a rug) last night. Turns out the air conditioner likely needs to be replaced. I got a portable unit today and it's chilling my bedroom. Hopefully the home warranty will cover this; I'll find out Monday.

I will probably repeat this workout Tuesday as I prefer to do these movements at the beginning of the week when I'm fresh to use them as benchmarks for progress. Well, actually, I like the one-armed rows for that, so I may switch the bench press with the FT bench press but keep the back stuff the same. I will think about this more.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: worked up to 285x1, then 255x5, 255x4
Paused bulgarian split squats: 75s x4

Quite happy with the squats; form was solid on all reps and no pain.

I'm gonna cut back on volume until my air conditioning gets fixed. May just do the various compound movements for the next 1+ weeks. I may throw in a full body isolation-only day once a week... we'll see.

[Heisman2]

Today I did 15 minutes of rowing in the morning, walked ~3,000 extra steps at work, and did 15 minutes of rowing in the evening.

Apparently they are coming out tomorrow morning to fix my air conditioner... I have no idea if that will actually happen but it would be amazing if they did.

[Heisman2]

Just a quick session today, done in a circuit:

Dips: 16, 14, 11
Hammer-grip chin-ups: 10, 9, 7
Decline push-ups: 8, 8, 7 (actually all push-ups I do are at a decline but I haven't been stating that)
Inverted rows: 7, 6, 7

I did a high-intensity interval on the elliptical after each circuit (2 minutes for the 1st one, then 45 seconds almost all out for the second 2).

I wanted to keep things light today to give my upper body a bit of a break. No shoulder pain thankfully. Yesterday my left forearm was bothering me a bit in the early afternoon but that fixed itself somehow. No issues at all with this workout today. Gonna go back to doing something heavy on Thursday if I feel good.

The air conditioner people are not coming today, somehow their system got screwed up. I can't even talk to them about it as their system is still down. So irritating, lol.

[Heisman2]

Got up early and did the following in the morning:

Paused high bar back squats: 290x1, 260x5, 245x5
Leg extensions: 135x11/4/3/3/3/3
Leg curls: 70x12/4/3/3/3/3

Later in the day I did 15 minutes of rowing.

Very pleased with this.

[EiFit91]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: worked up to 285x1, then 255x5, 255x4
Paused bulgarian split squats: 75s x4

Quite happy with the squats; form was solid on all reps and no pain.

I'm gonna cut back on volume until my air conditioning gets fixed. May just do the various compound movements for the next 1+ weeks. I may throw in a full body isolation-only day once a week... we'll see.

Curious to know why you do so much paused rep training? And is it something you would recommend in general?

[Heisman2]

Curious to know why you do so much paused rep training? And is it something you would recommend in general?

I do it to help prevent injury. My knees are vulnerable, lol. I tore my right meniscus way back in like 2008 or so and never got it repaired. It doesn't always work as I still have intermittent knee issues and with that last set of bulgarians I think I strained my left glute in some way but not seriously.

For upper body I do it with dips as I go very deep with my dips and am worried about bouncing with them if I go heavy. With other exercises I just got into the habit of doing them as I find it a bit easier to track progress with paused reps.

I do not recommend them in general though except for people who are needing to do them to eliminate momentum and maintain good technique. For athletic purposes I advise against them as they diminish the stretch reflex significantly.

Today's workout:

Flat bench press: 190x4(paused)/155x6, 190x3(paused)/155x6
Lat pulldowns: 200x5(paused)/140x5, 200x5(paused)/140x5
Dips: 12/4/3/3/3/3
Hammer-grip chins: 10/3/2/2/2/2
Decline push-ups: 12/4/4/3/3/3
Inverted rows: 12/4/4/3/3/3

Then I did 20 minutes of rowing for 201 kcals.

I did the drop sets not paused after the question above and they felt good. I may start doing them like this, paused with the heavier set and then more constant tension with the drop set. The last 4 exercises had 5 full breaths between each mini-set.

[Heisman2]

Only slept a little more than 4 hours last night and had to get in an early workout before work:

Deadlifts: 425x3+1+1 - done as a cluster set
Abductors: 25x7
Adductors: 25x7
Hip flexors: 25x7/10x7
Dorsiflexion: 11
Paused one-legged standing calf raises: 10

That's it. Felt bad warming up and have felt bad all day, lol. Hopefully I can sleep well. I'd like 5 reps on the first set of deadlifts next week.

[Heisman2]

I pushed myself hard on the deadlifts yesterday with that one set but I don't feel it at all today... may need to do cluster sets with deadlifts more often.

Today's workout:

Incline dumbbell bench press: 70s x8, 60s x9, 50s x10
Seated rows (full protraction/retraction): 180x8, 160x9, 140x10
Dips: 18/4/4/3/2/2
Hammer grip chins: 13/3/2/2/2/2
Rowing: 1 minute warmup, 9 minutes intervals (30s HI (high intensity), 60s LI (low intensity))

Weighed 144.4 today, my lowest yet. I cannot recall if I mentioned this above but I got measured for clothing for my wedding and went back to pick it up today. They need to take the pants in another 1.5-2" or so. I told them this would happen and it made more sense to wait a bit longer to get my measurements but they thought me losing 5-10 pounds wouldn't actually impact my waist (I've lost 7 pounds in the last 2 months or so). I am quite happy to prove them wrong.

Anyways, I think I can probably lose another 3-5 pounds without really suffering so I'll keep pushing along.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 295x1, 265x3, 265x3, 265x2, 245x4
Leg extensions: 135x13/5/4/4/3/3
Leg curls: 70x13/5/4/4/3/3

Happy with this.

Anyways, it got hot again. So, new plan, I'm actually done cutting for now. Going to go on a diet break until I get central air conditioning again. It's just too miserable with the heat, lol. I'm willing to gain 2-3 pounds with glycogen/water but no more than that.

[Heisman2]

Last night the power went out... I just cannot win, lol. Came back on overnight but I slept in the basement again and my back was feeling it a bit.

Anyways, today's workout:

Incline dumbbell bench press: 70s x9, 60s x10, 50s x11
Seated rows: 180x9, 160x10, 140x11
Dips: 20/4
Hammer grip chins: 12/3
Dumbbell lateral raises: 20x8/10x6
Dummbell hammer curls: 40x5/20x7
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x7/5x4
One-armed triceps work: 20x4/10x5/5x8 (first two mini-sets were pushdowns, last was an overhead extension)
Cable Y raises: 20x4/15x4/10x3
EZ bar reverse wrist curls: 30x17
Dumbbell wrist curls: 30x17
Supination: 10x11/5x11
Pronation: 15x11/10x8

Rowing: 1 minute warmup, 7 intervals (30s HI (high intensity), 45s LI (low intensity)), 1 minute cool down

Today I weighed 144.4 lbs.

Quite happy with all of this. No shoulder pain at all, which was a big factor in me not doing isolation exercises last week. At the end of the rowing I was really feeling it in my glutes so we'll see if that impacts my squats tomorrow.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 300x1, 245x 4, 4, 4, 3
Leg extensions: 135x14/5/4/4/3/3
Leg curls: 50x12/4/3/3/3/3 (less weight but I'm doing these more slowly and it feels better)

Happy with this. Legs have been quite fatigued all day. I think I'll start doing 1 heavy squat day and 1 light squat day weekly.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused dips: BW+115x1, BW+90x, BW+70x5, BW+45x8
Paused hammer-grip chins: BW+115x1, BW+90x, BW+70x5, BW+45x8
Decline push-ups: 15/4/2
Inverted rows: 15/4/2
Standing cross-armed cable lateral raises: 10x6/5x3
EZ bar curls: 100x4/80x3/50x6
Bent over lateral raises: 10x12/8
Lying triceps extensions: 70x6/50x6/30x12
Cable Y raises: 15x6/10x4/5x4

I was having some left hamstring soreness yesterday even before squatting but that is not bothering me today. Still wanted to take it easy prior to deadlifts tomorrow so I didn't do any rowing.

My right pec was sore and still is after my last upper body workout so I warmed up well for this one and these movements seemed ok so I moved forward with the workout. This all felt good.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deadlifts: 425x4+1 (warm-ups felt heavy again but I somehow got 4 reps on the first set, when I stall here I'm gonna go down to 5x5 with 315 and work back up with more volume or give SLDL a run)
Adductors: 25x9
Abductors: 25x9
Hip flexors: 25x9/10x6
Paused one-legged standing calf raises: 11
Dorsiflexion: 14

Rowing: 1 minute warmup, 7 intervals (30s HI (high intensity), 45s LI (low intensity)), 1 minute cool down

Yesterday and today I weighed in at 145.0.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Standing shoulder press: 115x4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 95x4, 4 supersetted with
FT rows: 130x4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 100x4, 4
The above was done in 10 minutes.

FT bench press: 100x6, 4, 3, 3, 70x7, 6 supersetted with
Underhand leaning lat pulldowns: 140x6, 4, 3,3 90x7, 6

Dumbbell lateral raises: 10x10/5 followed by cross-armed cable laterals: 5x5/4
Hammer curls: 40x5/30x4/20x5 followed by preacher curls: 10x15
One-armed tricep overhead extensions alternating with pushdowns: 15x11 / 15x3 / 10x3 / 5x4
Bent over laterals: 10x15/5, followed by cable rear delt flyes: 10x2/5x3
EZ bar reverse wrist curls: 30x15/5
Dumbbell wrist curls: 40x10/5
Face pulls: 30x5/20x7
Supination: 15x3/10x3/5x5
Pronation: 20x6/15x6/10x6/5x15

May do abs/cardio later but probably won't as it's warm here. Cannot wait to get my air conditioner fixed...

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Superset:
One-legged standing calf raises: 12, 12, 12
Leg curls: 70x7, 7, 7
Paused high bar back squats: 225x7, 5, 5

Leg extensions: 180x8/135x5/90x5

Standing cable twists: 40x4/30x4
60 degree decline sit-ups: 7
Dumbbell side bends: 90x8

It's hot... just happy to get through this, lol. May start doing a large cluster set on squats on Sunday's, we'll see.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Dips and hammer grip chins supersetted with each other in a 10 minute time span: BW+45x8, BW+45x4, BW+45x3, BW+25x5, BW+25x4, BW+25x3
60 degree decline sit-ups: 8
Standing cable twists: 40x5/30x5
Paused incline dumbbell bench press: 50x6 / 50x3 / 40x4
Paused seated rows (full protraction/retraction): 140x6 / 140x3 / 90x5
Leaning cable lateral raises: 15x4/10x3/5x3
One-armed low pulley curls: 30x4/20x3/15x3
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x5/5x3
One-armed overhead tricep extensions: 15x8 followed by one-armed pushdowns: 15x4

This is the hottest day yet and it's now been 3 weeks without air conditioning. This is brutal. Weight this morning was 144.6 so thankfully even with increasing calories and decreasing activity I haven't gained much weight back at all.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused bulgarian split squats: 70x2x5
Leg extensions: 180x8/135x5/90x5, 135x8/135x4/135x3
Leg curs: 90x5/70x5/50x3, 70x6/70x2/50x3
Paused one-legged standing calf raises: 13

That's it. Too hot for me to sleep well. Didn't want to try to force my body to do squats. Woke up to my home being 85 degrees. Just happy to get something in. Body weight was 145.2 this morning.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Dumbbell laterals: 20x8/20x3/10x5/10x3
EZ bar curls: 100x4/80x5/50x7
Bent over dumbbell laterals: 10x17/5/5/5/4
Lying EZ bar tricep extensions: 70x9/50x9/50x2
Facepulls: 40x11/6/4
One-armed low pulley curls: 45x1/40x1/35x2/30x3/25x5/20x6/16x6/10x7/5x10
Cross-armed pulley laterals: 15x3/10x3/7.5x4/5x6
One-armed pushdowns alternated with one-armed overhead extensions: 20x6/15x5/10x8/5x12
Rear delt cable flyes: 15x1/12.5x2/10x3/7.5x5/5x5
Cable Y raises: 20x6/15x3/10x4/5x4

Chest/lats were sore from the last workout so I just did shoulders/arms. Still no air-conditioning. In sadder news, our 3 year old cat likely has terminal cancer. We'll find out later today or tomorrow. I'm very sad about this; death in older age of pets or humans doesn't usually bother too much but our cat is only 3 years old and we are taking this hard.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deficit SLDLs: 225x8, 275x5 (I did not actually touch the ground on these so you could argue it's a Romanian deadlift, but I also didn't actively push my hips back, rather I just focused on keeping my legs mostly straight. So I will keep calling it this but that's how I'm doing them).
Leg extensions: 180x10, 180x10, 180x7
Leg curls: 90x4/70x3/50x3
Adduction: 25x3 (did these with a different body angle than usual)
Abduction: 25x3 (did these with a different body angle than usual)
Hip flexors: 20x8 (did these lying down with the ankle strap around my ankle and these felt so much better than doing them standing)
Dorsiflexion: 15
Paused one-leggeded standing calf raises: 14
60 degree decline situps: 6
Dumbbell side bends: 90x12
Standing cable twists: 30x4

Happy with this. Glutes are still sore so I changed up the deadlifts.

Our cat does have lymphoma. We'll bring him home today and do palliative care with steroids. I'm really torn up about this. Separate, the parts to fix the air conditioner are shipped so we should hopefully get that fixed soon.

[Heisman2]

Didn't have the heart to do a long workout today so got in a quick one:

Incline dumbbell bench press: 60x10, 60x5, 60x4, 50x7, 50x6, 50x6

supersetted with

Seated rows (with full protraction and retraction): 180x6, 180x5, 180x3, 160x5, 160x5, 140x6

Did all of the above in ~10 minutes.

[Heisman2]

Took Sunday off as my legs felt dead. Still so hot. Also was not feeling great due to the cat situation (currently at home doing palliative care, will likely have a few good weeks left but hard to predict).

Today I did:

Paused high bar back squats: 225x2x6
Paused weighted dips: BW+45x2x6
Paused hammer grip chins: BW+45x2x6

That's it. When I woke up today the thermostat says the house is 87 degrees. Should hopefully get working AC soon. My weight has been consistently in the 144s despite decreased exercise volume/cardio/walking.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Deficit SLDLs: 315x3, 275x6 (first set I felt some tugging on my right lower lat so I stopped at 3 reps, did not bother me the 2nd set)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 70x2x6
Seated rows: 180x2x6

My spinal erectors feel fatigued from the deficit SLDLs; I don't remember them ever feeling like this. I am rounding my back on purpose while doing them. Very pleased with this assuming they aren't actually injured (does not feel like an injury).

Otherwise, still quite hot. I will pick up the volume whenever it cools off.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused bulgarian split squats: 60s x2x6
FT bench press: 70x2x6
Leaning back underhand pulldowns: 160x2x6

Felt good all around. Tomorrow I will just do isolation work. Next week if I feel good I'll go up to 3 sets on everything (this week I did 2 sets all the compounds).

[Heisman2]

Quick workout today:

Cross-armed low pulley lateral raises: 15x5, 10x7, 10x5
Hammer curls: 40x5, 30x7, 30x6
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x3, 5x8, 5x7
Lying EZ bar tricep extensions: 70x6, 60x8, 60x6
Leg extensions: 160x3/4/5/6/4
Leg curls: 70x3/4/5/6/4

Had a weird pain in my right lower calf after this so I stopped and then it hasn't bothered me at all the rest of the day.

For the leg extensions/curls I was doing the 3-7 method, where you take 70% of your 1RM and do sets of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 reps with 15 seconds rest between each set. I just guessed on the weight and failed on the last set so I'll keep the weigh the same next time.

Still waiting to have my air conditioner fixed. When that finally happens I'll start training hard again.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused high bar back squats: 225x6, 225x6 225x4 (right knee felt a bit shaky so I stopped here, I think I need to squats 2x/wk).
Weighted dips: BW+45x3/4/5, then BWx4/3 - all with 15 seconds rest
Weighted hammer grip chins: BW+45x3/4/2, then BW+3/3 - all with 15 seconds rest

Still low/mid 80s in my gym... still hopeful the AC will get fixed soon.

[Heisman2]

With more thought it has occurred to me it makes much more sense to do daily quick workouts, at least until my air conditioning gets fix. Thus, today's workout:

High bar back squats: 135x20 (no pause, really felt my quads pumped)
FT bench press: 120x8/3/2 (15 seconds rest between each mini-set)
Leaning back underhand pulldowns: 160x7/3/2 (15 seconds rest between each mini-set)
Nordic leg curls: 7 (used a longer bar for support and this worked much better)

Quite pleased with this. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'm thinking of doing something like this Tue-Sat and make Sundays just isolations.

[Heisman2]

Today's workouts:

High bar back squats: 140x20 - lower back was a bit pumped, likely from some fatigue from yesterday though I wasn't sore at all
Weighted dips: BW+45x10, 5, 4 (~90 seconds rest between sets)
Seated rows: 160x10, 6, 5 (~90 seconds rest between sets)
Nordic leg curls: 8

Full workout done in 36 minutes. Quite happy with this, and I think doing 3 sets of each upper body compound will prove better than doing 1 rest pause/dropset/myo rep set.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Paused bulgarian split squats: 60x7, 5, 4 (~90 seconds rest between sets)
Incline dumbbell bench press: 70x7, 5, 4 (~90 seconds rest between sets)
Weighted hammer grip chins: BW+45x7, 5, 4 (~90 seconds rest between sets)

Happy with this. Chest was a bit sore going into it.

[Heisman2]

Today's workout:

Cross-armed lateral raises: 10x10, 5, 3 (~20 seconds rest between sets)
Low pulley curls: 30x8, 4, 3
One-legged paused standing calf raises: 14
One-armed overhead pulley tricep extensions: 15x10, 5, 3
Abductors: 30x3, 3, 1
Rear delt cable flyes: 10x7, 3, 2
Adductors: 30x3, 3, 1
Paused face pulls: 20x15
Dumbbell wrist curls: 50x7, 4, (3R/1L)
EZ bar wrist extensions: 30x26,8, 4
Leg extensions: 160x3, 4, 5, 5, 4 (all with ~15 seconds rest)
One-legged hip flexion: 15x8, 4
Dorsiflexion: 13
Supination: 10x13, 7, 4
Pronation: 20x11, 5, 4

Most of this I did 20 seconds rest between sets. Felt good all around.