Gravity Sucks

Kicked off a new training cycle last night.  This one should be fairly boring, but I'm trying to add in as many morning workouts as possible, so I'm keeping my heavy workouts pretty basic.  Not to mention the weights in my heavy workouts are getting heavy now. *fjord*  It's a bit intimidating as I'm pushing in to nether regions I have yet to explore.  Pain and injury are sure to follow.  Fortunately I have a tens unit and my house is within crawling distance from the gym. (side note: I was talking to a chap at work last week after I hurt my back deadlifting.  He suggested I only lift a heavy single every once in a while and the rest of the time I lift in my "safe zone".  What the hell does that even mean?  "Hey! If you wanna be a world class sprinter, you gotta do speed work once a month and jog on a treadmill the rest of the time to prevent injury."  I don't get people)

Military press:
Bar x 10
95 x 8
135 x 6
155 x 5
170 x 5
180 x 5
190 x 5
115 x 10 x 5   (50% 1RM)

Pull ups x 8-10 x 5

Rehab workout. Sort of.

I love deload week because I get to stray from the "program" and do whatever I want.  Last night I finally made it outside and wanted to do some rehab work for my low back.  after a pretty good warmup and some stretching I ended up with a 135lbs barbell on the floor trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it.  Being the lazy sloth that I am, I decided I didn't want to change the weight again, but try and do a full workout with what I had in front of me.  Sure, it looks a bit contrived, but what iron workout isn't?

Clean and press: 5 sets of 5
Sumo Deadlift : 3 sets of 10
Front squats: 2 sets of 15

finished up with some hip and hamstring mobility stuff.  Not real taxing, but it got the blood flowing and it put me in a considerably better mood.

cycle wrap up

it took me roughly three months to finish a six week cycle.  No huge gains to speak of, but I suppose there was no degradation either.  Did have some small positives.  that's good. finished up strong on Saturday by pulling 490lbs for three reps.  That's a big PR for me.  The last rep was a battle and towards the lockout I think I actually heard a spring shoot outta my back and ricochet off the wall.  Been dang near crippled since.  I knew I was injured when I did it but I also knew the pain wouldn't set in for a while so I went ahead and knocked out the rest of the workout with some heavy hamstring curls and weighted situps.  I skipped monday's workout to give the back a bit more rest.  I've been feeding the injury lots of protein and anti inflammatories.  By the end of today I felt like working out again.  I can live with that kind of recovery time.  Chalk another one up to sobriety.  Speaking of which, I forgot to take my diuretic this morning and my BP was down to 147/66 with at a pulse rate of 86 shortly after my workout.  Not perfect, but much better than the old norm.  This week is deload week, so I'm not too worried about the structure of it.  I did a bunch of close grip bench and experimented with several different rowing and pressing movements using the green bands.  My bis, tris, and ta-tas where fried by the end of it.  No serious stress on any joints. just a lot of blood flow and some good stretching for my low back.  Mission accomplished.  I should be ready to hit it hard in a new cycle next week.

Couple days of it

Monday was squat day.
370 x 3
420 x 2
470 x 3
And then a buch of other stuff.
Drug the sled w/90lbs half a mile this morning.  Had to break the second quarter up into intervals.  My legs were fried.  Standing Millitaries tonight.  Yay!

A prost! to Friday

I wish.
Bench press:
Bar
135 x 10
185 x 10
225 x 8
280 x 5
315 x 3
355 x 1
I really had hoped to double 355 but I just didn't have it in me although it wasn't much of a fight to get the single.  It seems that my bench will remain stalled for a while longer.  Maybe now that most of my travels are ore' I can focus on the lift.
On a side note, I discovered my favorite protien ever.  I'd been wanting to try "Just Protien" from IronMind for quite a while but it always seemed expensive.  A shade under $60 for five pounds.  When I thought about it I realized its not any more pricey than anything else I've taken, its just that I usually buy 2.5lbs at a time.  So I dropped the quid and gave it a shot.  I love this stuff!  It tastes great (no sweetners of any kind), mixed easy and has a nice thick texture.  Best of all, it took roughly two seconds to memorize the ingredients list:
Calcium caseinate, powdered skim milk, powdered eggs, almond and vanilla extracts.  MMMmmmmm. 

Where the ocean meets the sky

Made it out to the gym at about 9 last night.
Deadlifts:
135 x 10
225 x 8
315 x 5
405 x 3
420 x 3
445 x 3
465 x 3
DB shrugs: 95lbs x 20 x 2

This morning I pulled the sled with 45lbs for a half mile at fast pace then dropped the sled and ran a half mile.  Not as much as I wanted but I ran out of time.  I know its strange, but every day that I'm not poisoning myself, I feel better.  And I can think clearly.  It's like I've been living in a fog since the day I turned 21.  I had no idea I could feel this good.