Recently in Fitness Category

Went in yesterday and ran through a quick set of exercises to determine my single rep maximum. I should have done this in the beginning, because an effective workout routine is based around knowing how much you can do, if you only have to do it once.

My SRM on the bench is 150lbs or maybe a touch more. (I had to work my way up to it.)
SRM on the sled is 308lbs+body weight.
SRM preacher's curl is 100 lbs.
SRM on thigh abductors and adductors is 120lbs.

This means that if my goal is to build muscle and strength (and it is), I should be doing 70-80% of my SRM in 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps or until I can't do it any more, whichever is first. The breakdown as follows (rounded to the nearest 5lbs).

Bench 105-120lbs (triceps)
Sled 215-245lbs (quadraceps)
Curl 70-80lbs (biceps)
Thighs 85-95lbs (abductors and adductors)

I'm not really trying to build muscles in my chest, as I already have plenty of muscle under my gut (enough to surprise plenty of people), and building any more will just push my gut outwards. I prefer to think of it as having stealth abs, or keeping my six pack in a cooler.

I need to find my pectoral max, and then work it as well. All other muscle groups are small enough, that I can continue to work them as I have without concern for building mass, except as it applies to the other exercises.

As for DefCon, as soon as I get my notes together, there ought to be a post on the festivities.

I didn't work out Friday of last week because my shoulders were kind of screwed up from Thursday, I had some bad form for one rep while I was benching.

On Saturday I went to a local auction and picked up some files, punches, and chisels both for use as tools and for use as steel. I spent more than I wanted to on it, but it was definitely better than flat out buying new stuff.

Saturday afternoon Matt came down, so we hung out, eventually running over to The Grotto to have a beer and so he could talk to Mike and his wife Jamie (owners of the bar).

Sunday we went golfing, whereupon I finally beat him by two strokes, my golf game is definitely improving despite not practicing a lot.

DefCon is coming up at the end of the month, so it's once again going to be roadtrip time. I also plan on having a Bunker Party the weekend after school starts.

Workout stuff:

Usual sled work
30 slow reps at 60 lbs on the preacher's curl
Bumped my bench up to 100lbs, got to 19 before my arms stopped working
20 reps 80lb butterflies
20 reps 80 lb thigh abductor and another 20 rep 80 lb thigh adductor
20 reps 50 lb shoulder raises
20 lb dumbbell forearm workouts

Today I'll probably do more leg and cardio work.

Usual hops, squats and raises on the sled.

Preacher's curl was 60 lb for 20 slow reps today.

Got 40 reps at 90# with good form, and I'm not feeling it in my arms, so it's time for me to up that.

A couple rounds of shadowboxing with 5# weights for cardio.

80# butterflies, 20 reps.

Going to do more leg work and cardio tomorrow.