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

I wasn’t sure what workout I would do today, but I knew I wasn’t going swimming this morning. Charmaine is still pretty sick from her trip to Oregon and I didn’t want to cut her sleep short by getting up early. So I brought my swim stuff to work with me, but I also had yesterday’s workout clothes in the bag as well.

As it turned out, Joey wanted to workout again. He is still sore from playing too much soccer over the weekend and from our chest workout yesterday. So he didn’t want to do legs or shoulders. In my mind, that only left back and biceps, so that’s what we did.

Lindsey, Joey’s wife, was there and he was quite distracted by her. I don’t think he did two consecutive sets without going over to talk to her. I teased him about it a little. At one point they were both laughing about something she had said to Joey. She asked if Joey had told me about the dream she had about our work yet. He had told me earlier that morning. I told her Joey says she’s dirty. She smiled and said, “I am.” I added, “and proud of it.”

Weight: 249.0

Dead Lift:
135/12 135/10 135/8

Lat Pull-down:
160/12 170/10 180/8

Hammer Curl:
30/12 35/9 35/8

Backups:
12 12 12

Preacher Curl:
65/10 45/10 45/8

I didn’t sleep much last night.  I went to bed late and kept waking up.  I think I’m a bit nervous about closing on our new house later this week.  There may be other reasons as well, but the bottom line is that I didn’t get up and swim this morning.  That means I either swim or lift weights at lunch.

Alex has decided he doesn’t want to swim anymore.  The chlorine isn’t doing great things for him.

We decided we would do our regular Monday workout — Chest. When we got to the gym, Kyle was already dressed and starting his chest workout.  Unfortunately, right about that time, I realized I hadn’t brought my workout clothes, just my swim stuff.  Alex was still convinced that he didn’t want to swim, so we cruised past my apartment and picked up my workout clothes.  Kyle was mostly finished by the time we got back to the gym, but we still pestered him a bit.  Joey’s wife was also at the gym, but we didn’t see her until we were just about finished ourselves.

The nice thing about today’s workout is that I saw my strength returning.  It took a long time to build it up the first time, then it went away quickly, but it seems to be returning just as quickly.  Now if I can just figure out how to stop the weight gain and turn it into weight loss again.

Weight: 245.8

Flat Bench
185/12   225/10   245/6 (+1 with spot)

Incline Bench
185/12   205/9 (+1 with spot)   215/5 (+1 with spot)

Incline Fly
70/12   75/10   80/8   These were pretty easy, I should go up next time

Bar Dips
8

Joe continued to feign depression and was trying to round up a group of people to go to lunch with him. Alex had already agreed when I got to him. After a few minutes of persuasion, I was able to drag Alex to the gym for legs day.

Everything I said yesterday about losing strength quickly applies doubly to leg strength. I had to roll out of the leg press machine at one point. It was really pathetic.

I thought we might run into Jeff and Steve, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Weight: 245.0

Squat
225/12 275/10 275/2 135/12

Standing Calf Raises
395/16 395/16 395/16

Leg Press
670/10 670/10 760/7

Incline Situps
20

It really is amazing how fast you can gain and lose strength.  In August I was finishing up my flat bench workout with 6 reps at 245 and a couple reps at 275.  Just 6 weeks later I find myself struggling to finish up with 8 reps at 225.  The rest of my chest workout was horrible.  In fact, the only good part of today’s workout was that I went.

Joe is still claiming that he’s depressed and says the last thing he wants to do is go to the gym.  I’ll keep inviting him until he breaks down and starts coming again.  Right now I’m guessing that will be about 3 weeks.

Alex was ready, though.  It’s been a long time since we went regularly, so we each had a hard time lifting our usual weights, and we both wore out much faster than we usually do.  But still… we were there.  Kyle showed up after we were mostly finished (around 12:55).  I bet he was mostly just surprised to see us there at all.  I think he’s been going regularly this whole time.

Weight: 244.6

Flat Bench
185/12   205/10   225/8

Incline Dumbell Fly
70/12   75/10   75/8

Incline Bench
155/12   185/6   185/7

Bar Dips
8   6

Freedom Chest Fly
65/12   80/10   95/8