Michigan Muscle Boy

Short But Intense

The big girl is wondering if the hypertrophy workouts are too short.  Personally, I felt like I got my butt kicked today doing 80% 1RM for five sets per exercise with 45 seconds rest between sets.  It was just hard.

Now, I think she has a bit of a point.  We're doing a small number of exercises.  If we don't do one right, well we're just in trouble.  That's why I've been so focused on the squat analysis.

Here's today's workout:

• Skull crusher (80% 1RM):  85 lbs/7 reps X 3 sets; 85/4X1; 75/3X1; 75/7X1;
• Behind neck pull down (80%): 125/7X5;
• Rear Delt Pec Deck (80%): 70/7X3; 80/7X1; 75/7X1
• Shrug (80%): 65/7X5
• Back extensions: 15X4

Tomorrow, we're on to doing six exercises for multiple sets at 90% of our max effort.  Nancy may be happy that today was a little lighter.

Hard as Hell H with the Big Girl

Today, we did a hypertrophy (H) workout, and I had some kind of intensity blow-out after the third exercise.  We'd done 80% lunges, sit-ups, and then 80% biceps curls, all on 45 seconds rest between sets.  After the biceps curls, I thought my arms were going to explode.  I mean really explode.  I've never felt so much muscle pain in my life.  The muscle wasn't torn or anything, it just felt explosive.

Arnold chased up some advil, and about 20 minutes later the pain was over.

We actually did manage a great workout.  It was just hard.  Here it is:

• Lunges (80% of 1RM): 143 lbs./7 reps X 5 sets;
• BOSU straight up crunches: 15 X 5;
• Free Motion Reverse curl (80%): 60/7X1; 70/7X4;
• Triceps Skull Crusher (80%): 85/7X3; 85/3X1; 75/4X1; 75/7X1
• Paramount Pec Deck Rear Delt (80%): 80/7X4; 75/7X1
• Behind Neck Pulldown (80%): 125/7X5

I managed harder work on the skull crusher this time around.

Return to Liberty

Well, I worked out at Liberty today, first time in 8 days.  It felt good to get back, though I liked vacation a lot.  All during vacation, I did not crank out a single Max Strength workout, unlike the supergirl over at Diva Training.  The thing is that had I done one, I would have had to park the family somewhere for about 3 hours, and I would have been pretty tapped.  No tubing down the Platte River.  No little trips to the Empire kayak shop and the incredible beach between the dunes on Lake Michigan, part of the largest freshwater lake system in the world.

I did this workout again on a 45 second rest interval between sets.  Some nice lunges in there.  Here's the workout:

• Flat bench skull crushers (70% 1RM): 75/8X4
• Pull down behind neck (70%): 110/8X4
• Standing dumbbell bent lateral (70%): 17.5/8X4
• Lunge (70%): 125/8X4
• BOSU straight-up crunch: 4X12
• Reverse Free Motion curls (70%): 50/8X2; 60/8X2

I had a little trouble with the reverse free motion curls.  I had thought I would do 60 and 70 lbs.

On to Mixed Training

We're heading into a combination of max strength and hypertrophy training.  The goals of this cycle are to increase strength, not necessarily size.  We're going to do that by starting to mix in some max strength work.  The first week is really done at hypertrophy levels.