Exercise Log 12.22.13 (Chest & Shoulder Day + Cardio)

Tonight I had a lengthy workout that was really demanding, and I figured I’d log it and try to keep the log simple. It has me re-evaluating the depth of my workout scope because my chest & shoulder day actually had 44 different sets of exercises, NOT including warmups and the different sets on superset activities… that puts it at over 50 sets of exercises. It was also two 1/2 hours. That’s quite a lot of volume for a single workout, maybe a sign I’m breaking up the day into too many different exercises.

Alright so since there is so much to document I might as well keep it minimalist. But it’s worth noting that I had a pretty long run of 7 miles out in the great weather first, which did deplete a lot of my energy reserves going into this extremely long workout. Lesson learned: you will not max out your bench press if you deplete your body’s energy stores with a long run first.

Inclined Bench Press (warmup 12 reps bare bar). Set 1) 8 reps @ 105lbs. Set 2) 5 reps @ 115lbs. Set 3) 5 reps @ 125lbs. Set 4) 5 reps @ 135lbs. Set 5) 12 reps @ 95lbs.

Declined Bench Press (warmup 12 reps bare bar). Set 1) 12 reps @ 95lbs. Set 2) 8 reps @ 115lbs. Set 3 & 4) 5 reps @ 125lbs. Set 5) 16 reps @ 95lbs (drop set)

Flat Bench Press (warmup 12 reps bare bar). Set 1) 8 reps @ 115lbs. Set 2) 5 reps @ 145lbs. Attempt to rep 155 failed. Set 3 & 4) 5 reps @ 135lbs. Set 5) 8 reps @ 115lbs.

Alright did 4 sets of 8 reps of body rows. Then I did cable flys superset with wide gripped flys and underhand forward flys. So for every set I did the number of reach for each motion (so if I said 10 @ 15lbs that was 10 wide gripped flys then 10 underhand forward flys @ 15lbs). Set 1) 10 @ 15lbs. Set 2) 8 @ 20lbs. Set 3) 6 @ 25lbs. Sets 4 & 5) 12 @ 12.5lbs (slower tempo for these two final sets, a 1-1-3 tempo). The weight levels were low on cable flys because I feel that to really get the work out of a cable machine you gotta set the weight to a level where you can keep your body stable and properly contract the target muscles, or else too many other muscle groups get involved in the patterns.

Reverse fly machine did sets 1-3 with 8 reps @ 90lbs, set 4 was 6 @ 105lbs and set 5 was 6 @ 120lbs (the last 3 on this were sloppy form, jerking around a lot in the seat). Then lying back dumbbell flys 4 sets of 10 @ 30lbs. Then standing shoulder flys did sets 1 & 2 of 8 reps @ a pair of 30lb dumbbells with sets 3 & 4 being 6 reps @ 35lbs. Finally wrapped up with overhead shrugs for my traps, 3 sets of 8 reps @ 95lbs.

Almost pulled something rushing off the station where I do the overhead shrugs because someone was working a circuit and wanted to work in with me, and I kind of hate it when people want to work in. It’s one thing to ask to work in if you know someone, or if it’s exceedingly busy and there is no other way you’re getting access to the equipment, or if what you’re doing is similar enough and the rest times are comparable enough that the swapping is okay. However this guy was about double my size, and he wanted to do military presses whereas I wanted to do overhead trap shrugs. That means we’d both be using vastly different weight each round. Plus my workout set was short, his would no doubt be long. Maybe I’m an ass for not giving up the station, but I was done pretty fast and honestly, I believe I deserve a priority in the seat. Alright well that rant over, I was absolutely spent after this! The deadlifts the day before still lingered, and on top of this workout I felt absolutely crushed.

Good thing tomorrow is leg day!