I couldn’t break away from work until about 6:30, which meant I would have to swim while the herd of sea cows did their best to simulate open water conditions. Curiously, they failed to scare off the crowd of people relaxing in the hot tub.
300 Free warm-up
5 x 100 Free @ 2:05
300 Kick
500 Free
150 Free warm-down
———-
1750 yards
When I jumped out of bed this morning I realized something. My legs had finally recovered from last week’s leg routine. As quickly as I realized that, I also realized it was Tuesday again. Tuesday is legs day.
I went up on almost everything today, so I was pleased with the results. It’s amazing how much difference a week can make. Joe, Joey, and Kyle came along today, but it looks like we may have scared Travis off again. Kyle was pretty much keeping up with me on every exercise, and I out weight him by a lot. I guess that’s my motivation to push myself harder. I had them test my body fat today. 22.0%.
Weight: 251.4
Squat:
225/12 275/10 310/6
Leg Press:
670/12 760/10 850/6
Standing Calf Raises:
395/12 395/12 395/20
Leg Extension:
155/12 180/10 195/8
Hamstring Curl:
95/12 110/10 125/8
Wall Sit:
1:30
Charmaine chatted me up at the end of the day and asked if I wanted to go swimming. How could I turn down an offer like that?
650 Free warm-up
10 x 100 Free @ 2:05 (coming in between 1:05 and 1:20)
100 Free easy
4 x 50 Kick @ 1:20 (coming in at 0:50)
200 Free warm-down
———-
2150 yards
Today we had a big group doing chest. Joey is back from San Francisco. Kyle was there. Joe was there. Even Travis came back from a long while out. It will be interesting to see how long Travis sticks with it this time. Hopefully we won’t hurt him or scare him off like we did last time.
I seem to be running into a mental barrier at 265. I can’t get through more than 3 reps without help. Joe pushes me and gets me to do at least 3 negatives after I fail, but I really think I should be able to get 5 or 6 reps at 265.
Today I went up on Incline Bench and Incline Fly. My weight hasn’t dropped, though. Looking back on when I made my drop from 265 to 245, I was doing a lot more. Maybe I need to do more. I had been lifting pretty regularly for about 4 months without really losing any weight. Then I started swimming 2 or 3 times a week. A few months of that only helped me cut about 5 pounds. Then I started riding my bike to work and kicked up my swimming to 5 times a week. I dropped 15 pounds that month. Then I stopped riding my bike and cut my swimming back to 2 or 3 times a week. Then I stopped lifting and started gaining weight. Now I’ve stabilized, but I want to drop some more weight. I think that means I need to add something else to the mix. I want the answer to be more swimming, but I think it’s probably more along the lines of adding running or biking along with swimming.
Weight: 252.4
Flat Bench:
185/12 225/10 265/3(+3)
Incline Bench:
185/12 205/10 205/6
Incline Dumbbell Fly:
70/12 80/10 90/6
Bar Dips:
8 6 6
Incline Sit-ups:
20
I went back to the pool on my way home from work last night. Unlike the day before, the place was empty, which was fine with me. I was just getting into the meat of the workout when a rather large woman came out and started arranging flotation devices around the side of the pool. It didn’t take me long to realize she was the leader of the water buffalo that would soon appear. Seeing them wade into the pool made it more than obvious why the place was deserted. And I’m not just talking about the pool, either. On Wednesday, the entire parking lot was full of cars and the whole gym was humming with people. Having the water buffalo tromping around in their polyester tarpaulins is enough to scare everyone away… even me. As soon as they removed the lane line, I got out and tried to avoid catching a glimpse of whatever they were doing as I high stepped out of there.
I had been trying to follow my own advice and take less rest between intervals and have more intervals per set, but the cows chased me away.
500 Free warm-up
5 x 100 Free @ 2:00 (coming in at 1:15)
200 Free warm-down
———-
1200 yards
The original plan for today was to do back and biceps, but my legs are way too sore to even think about doing dead lifts. Joe felt the same way. He wanted to do shoulders, which I haven’t done for a long time… maybe 5 or 6 months. But I talked him into doing chest again. I have a really hard time swimming after doing shoulders and I really need to keep swimming.
I was happy with my results on bench, but my arms had turned to jelly by the time we got to incline fly. And swimming after that was really difficult, but still pretty fun. I wish I would have had more time to swim. Maybe I’ll hit the pool again after work.
I’m not sure why I’m still gaining weight. I push myself pretty hard lifting and even harder in the pool, but maybe I’m getting too much rest between sets. I think that’s definitely the case while lifting, but I’m not sure I should adjust the rest I’m taking during lifting, because I seem to be gaining strength. I do think I should try to do some longer sets swimming, and it looks like I need to swim more often. Because I’m not going to change how, what, or when I eat. I like it too much.
Weight: 253.6
Flat Bench:
185/12 225/10 265/3(+2) -> 245/3
Incline Bench:
155/12 185/12 205/8
Incline Dumbbell Fly:
70/12 75/11(+1) 80/6(+1)
Bar Dips:
6
Swim:
200 Free warm-up
4 x 100 Free @ 2:05 (coming in at 1:20)
100 Free warm-down
———-
700 yards
This doesn’t seem like a tough concept to me, but apparently it’s confusing to a lot of people… specifically those that use the men’s locker room at Gold’s Gym. The TV in the locker room is there as background noise while you are changing. In the morning it is usually tuned to CNN and you listen to a section of the news as you get ready in the morning. It’s usually tune to ESPN during the day and at night. That’s fine. Listen to the latest scores and catch a replay of a great play while you’re getting ready. I have no problem with that.
What I have a problem with is people that think they should sit in the locker room and watch a whole football game. That is not the reason they put a TV in the locker room.
When I go out to swim, I bring my towel and shampoo with me. When I’m done swimming I take a shower and head back to my locker to get dressed. Last night as I got out of the shower I realized that my locker was blocked. There were 4 old men sitting around on benches watching the football game. Most of them were wearing gym shorts or swim suits. It was obvious that none of them had moved in at least 10 minutes. They were glued to the game. They didn’t seem to notice me standing there asking them to move. How many times should you say, “Excuse me,” before getting upset?
I made my way around them to my locker which clued in the two guys sitting on the bench directly in front of my locker that I was going to be naked soon and if they didn’t want a close-up of my butt in their face, they should move. As they moved away they looked upset that I had taken away their good seats for watching the game.
The locker room is not a sports bar! You don’t go to the locker room to watch the game!
Afternoon:
500 Free warm-up
12 x 100 Free @ 2:05 (coming in between 1:12 and 1:20)
300 Free warm-down
———-
2000 yards
Evening:
500 Free warm-up
8 x 100 Free @ 2:15 (coming in @ 1:15)
200 Free warm-down
———-
1500 yards
After several months off, Joe has started coming back to the gym. Today we did legs, and, as usual, we pushed ourselves too hard. I know the numbers themselves are not all that impressive, but keep in mind the last time we did a leg workout was 5 months ago. I think we’ll be lucky to walk on Thursday.
Weight: 252.2
Squat:
225/12 275/10 275/8
Standing Calf Raises:
395/16 395/12 395/12
Leg Press:
580/12 670/10 670/8
Leg Extension:
125/12 140/12 165/12
Hamstring Curl:
80/12 95/12 110/12
Incline Sit-ups:
20
I’m not sure how or why, but I must have convinced myself that Joey wouldn’t want to workout today. He hurt his leg over the weekend, and I figured he wouldn’t be able to do legs today, and that he wouldn’t want to do shoulders. I was right about that, but he felt good enough to do back and biceps.
My shirt from yesterday was really sweaty, so I put it in the dirty clothes basket. The trouble is that I didn’t remember to restock my workout bag with another shirt, so when I got to the gym today I was forced to wear the only shirt I had. I tried to stay as dry as possible, but it still turned out pretty gross.
Dead Lift:
135/12 135/12 135/12
Lat Pull-Down:
160/12 170/10 180/8
Hammer Curl:
30/12 35/9 (+1) 35/8
Bent Row:
95/12 95/12 95/12
Preacher Curl:
35/12 45/10 45/10
We finally got up and went swimming at the Orem Rec Center this morning. Charmaine signed us up a while ago, but we hadn’t ever made it in until today. We had to get ID cards made. I had them use my old picture from when I was at Novell.
The pool there is LCM, which is a big change from the SCY pool we’re used to at Gold’s Gym. That’s about the only good thing.
Pros:
1- The pool is 50 meters.
2- The lanes are fairly wide (compared to the skinny lanes at Gold’s Gym).
Cons:
1- There are a lot more people using the pool at the Rec Center than there ever are at Gold’s Gym.
2- They also don’t have any swim clocks. This makes it hard to do anything other than just swim on your own.
3- The lockers require money every time you use them.
4- The lockers are half-size. This means nothing can be hung up, especially my huge gym bag.
5- The locker room is dirty and filled with old men that take 25 minutes to change.
Swimming:
1100 m Free