I had some bad news this week…my video camera died on me! I was not able to film any training sessions this week. I have to look into getting another one and then I can start filming again.

Training Update - Deload Week
This past week I went into the gym with a scheduled deload to help me recover from the previous two weeks of high intensity training. On Monday night I had leg day and I did some free weight squats, stiff legged deadlifts, standing toe press on the smith machine and then I finished off with decline sit ups. On squats I used about 75% of my 1rep max (315 lbs) and I did 3 easy sets for 8,6,6 reps. They felt really good and it wasn’t too strenuous. I moved on to stiff legged deadlifts and I did 225lbs for 3 sets of 10. Again nothing too crazy and I stopped short of failure with every set. Next came the toes press and 405 lbs for 8,8,8. No failure and felt pretty light. Decline sit-ups went really good with 2 – 45lb plates on my stomach and I hit 10 reps for two sets.  

On Wednesday morning I got in a very cautious upper body workout. I avoided any chest pressing movements because my shoulders were very tender. I did the pec – dec with 50 lbs for 3 sets of 10. This is not my favorite exercise, but it definitely helped with my shoulders. I then moved to seated rows and used about 60% of my normal weight and did 3 sets of 10. I was very careful with these because of my strained teres major. I can’t pull from above my head without feeling a lot of discomfort, so I have to stick with rowing movements for back. For delts I went with standing military press and I pushed with 95 lbs and it felt okay…3 sets of 10 and no failure. Lying dumbbell triceps press was next and 90lbs for 3 sets of 10...again no failure and they felt good. Hammer curls with 30lbs and 3 sets of 15. They were really light, but it is a deload week.

Friday night I ended the training week with another lower body workout. Smith squats done in a hack squat fashion began my workout using 225 lbs for 3 sets of 10. Lying leg curls - 3 sets of 10 and then toe press - 3 sets of 8. Leg lifts followed and the workout was complete. The deload week was a complete success and I look forward to keeping them in my training schedule.

Blast Away – Next Week 9/19/10 – 9/26/10
As I write this blog I feel good…my shoulders feel pretty good compared to previous weeks and this week coming up I feel I can increase the intensity again. Judging from the past weeks of HIT it completely tore me up, so this week I will cut down on the volume. I will be doing only 1 set in the 6-8 rep range with static holds/negatives on all exercises that I perform using HIT (high intensity training). On other exercises such as squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, military press and bent rows I will do 2-3 sets with a 6-8 rep range, but stopping short of failure to ensure safety. So here is a tentative outlook to this week’s training schedule:

Sunday Night – Upper Body 1

Decline Dumbbell Press – 1 set 6-8 reps, static hold/negative

Pec Dec – 1 set 6-8 reps, static hold/negative

Bent Rows (underhand grip) 2 sets 6-8 reps no failure

Bent Rows (overhand grip) 1-2 sets 6-8 reps no failure

Single Arm Side Lateral Flys - 1 set 6-8 reps, static hold/negative

Triceps Press downs - 1 set 6-8 reps, static hold/negative

Barbell Curls - 1 set 6-8 reps, static hold/negative

Tuesday Night – Lower Body 1

Squats – 2-3 sets 6-8 reps no failure

Stiff legged deadlifts – 2-3 sets 6-8 reps no failure

Standing Toe Press - 1 set 6-8 reps static hold/negative

Decline Sit-up – 1 set 6-8 reps static hold only

Friday Night – Upper Body 2

Incline Dumbbell Press - 1 set 6-8 reps static hold/negative

Seated Rows - 1 set 6-8 reps static hold/negative

One arm Row – 1 set ?? reps (I only have 100lbs) static hold/negative

Standing Military Press – 2 sets 6-8 reps no failure

Lying Triceps Dumbbell Press - 1 set 6-8 reps static hold/negative

Hammer Curls – 1 set 6-8 reps static hold/negative

I will take one day off in between the first and second workouts, but will take two days off before hitting up that third workout. I feel this will give my shoulders another rest day to fully recover before taking on another upper body workout. Saturday and Sunday will be off before starting another week on the following Monday.

The following week I have planned out another deload week instead of trying another two weeks of blasting away. I feel this will really allow me to keep training heavy the following week after the deload without feeling run down.

Until my next blog…keep training hard and naturally!