Exercise Log 12.26.13 (Dev Day, No Cardio)

Alright quick exercise log for today just to lay it down. Had a short workout but tons of volume, it was very efficient. Today is developmental day, and my legs still feel shot so I wasn’t developing them today. That’s okay though, I could use some work on my bench press, so that’s what I did for developmental day.

First I did 6 sets of 10 pushups to get ready. Then I did 6 sets of 12 reps at a moderate to light weight (105lbs). By the final sets, I was starting to need to rerack and breath for a second before I could finish the set, which was what I was aiming for. Then did a 7th set of 5 reps at 125lbs, then an 8th set of 5 reps at 135lbs. Was really focused on tempo and form.

Alright after this I hate to leave a lot of pushing without some good reverse motion, so I did bent over reverse dumbbell flys, 3 sets at a light weight of 15lbs and 2 sets at 20lbs. I’m a big believer that in shoulder exercises if it’s not a situation where you can really make yourself stable for the motion (like bench pressing) you should go light, to focus on the contraction of the actual muscle in this case the rear deltoid. Otherwise you do bad form things like sway, recruit the back and arm muscles which you weren’t really intending to work. You want those shoulders to do the work because their strength is important to prevent injury. For instance take the cable suspension machines… it’s easy to use your whole body to prime a motion by leaning into the cable or not keeping still enough because your weight is too heavy and in the process lose focus on what you intended to work out in the first place. I feel the same way about most flys where you don’t lay on your back or sit down. Anyways, rant aside, one thing I was thinking during all this was that I didn’t get a good trap workout last chest/shoulder day, so before the next thing I did some trap dumbbell shrugs, 4 sets of 16 reps @ 160lbs, just nice and slow and very focused on good form again.

As touched on earlier when doing a lot of presses I like to support the reverse motion, because the opposite muscle groups control your stability for the pressing action. Your traps and upper back are what hold your upper body taught, they keep the bar from tilting in your hands and let you firmly apply the pressing force. A strong back, traps and rear deltoids will allow your arm and upper shoulder stabilizer muscles to recruit into the pressing pattern too, giving a cleaner, stronger pressing motion. Anyways second rant aside, I did some body rows to reinforce the reverse pattern and build that aforementioned stability, 3 sets of 8 reps.

Finally, one muscle group I felt this week needed a little extra oomph was my scapula adductors and upper back region. It’s always important to be strong up there for good thoracic extension, which strengthens so many natural movements. So I did 5 sets of 12 reps at a modest 105lbs on the seated row machine to work that out. Slowed the tempo a bit, and felt it work it’s way in.

I did skip cardio today (boo!… I know, it was a long day for me though and as said before, my legs feel like shit) but I didn’t skip the stretching tonight. Spent a good 20 minutes stretching out my back, chest, arms, legs. I used a cat toy platform with a curve in it to roll my back and body out, and man it was painful for the first minute or so, then I just sorta sunk into it and all my stress just went away. I also did a fun thing, got a tennis ball and pressed on an old injury that left a mass of tissue behind my right hamstring. I’m still not sure to this day if it’s an actual hamstring tear that tore off, or something else, but it’s never hindered my mobility or strength. That said I’m going to use the techniques I learned to pinpoint that spot with the tennis ball and roll it out more often… see if it helps reduce that tissue to a normal size.

A lot of tangents for such a short log. Oh well, better to get it all out of me, right?