Workout Journal Episode 1 Upper Body

Some of my favorite posts to read on steemit are exercise and workout posts. So i thought it would be fun to share my current gym workouts and keep track of some progress.

I generally hate having my phone on me at the gym, and hate selfies even more so here is a super cool weight pic to start

I meant to start this yesterday, but didn't quite get around to it so I will pick it up where I started yesterday. I have been lifting upper body for a few months after a very long break.

My warm up yesterday was an hour long yoga class. It was a pretty mellow paced class so got a lot of small and big muscles warmed up without getting too fatigued. Yoga before weights can be really good for getting loose and getting the breathing going, but can take away from lifting heavy weights if you have a very challenging class or overstretch certain muscles. Yesterday's class was perfect.

My post yoga warm up was to hit my rotator cuffs with several different angle exercises and very light weights. I have been copying a lot of rotator cuff exercises from Martins Licis (this years worlds strongest man) who shares a lot of good technique on his youtube channel

. Check him out.

Rotator Cuff Warmup

5lb dumbbells for a few sets of 15-25 each at four different angles. Really helps the shoulders get lubricated and reduces shoulder impingement when lifting heavy.

Exercise 1

Flat Bench Dumbbells Press (I like low reps heavy weights for strength building, my body responds best to it)

30lb x 8 warmup
40lb x 6 warmup
50lb x 5 still warming up
60lb x 5 " "
70lb x 4 starting to work
80lb x 4
90lb x 3 fairly challenging
100lb x 2 these reps barely got up, no spot, heaviest I've gone on dumbbells since 2000 I think :)

Exercise 2

Pull ups - my pull ups are pretty weak compared to many

4 sets of 4 reps, very controlled. Going very slow on building up my pullup reps as I seem to always get weird injuries when I try to pull more reps

Exercise 3

Squat bar shoulder press, strict press no leg drive

45lb x 8
65lb x 8
85lb x 6
105lb x 5
105lb x 5 was difficult

Exercise 4

Seated Mid Back Cable Pulls

90lbs x 8
100lbs x 10
115lbs x 12
130lbs x15
145lbs x 12

Exercise 5

Shoulder Raises, straight arms, alternating to the front and laterally

10lb dumbbells, 3 sets of 20-24 reps

At this point I had done an hour of yoga and an hour of weights (1-2 minutes rest between sets) so was tired and deciced to save my arms until today. I actually feel stronger when I hit my arms at the end of a workout upper body workout as opposed to the next day, but an hour was plenty for me yesterday.

Today I got to the gym about 45 minutes before yoga class and worked triceps and biceps. Made sure to warm up the rotators just like yesterday and then lifted arms fasted.

Exercise 1

Triceps Skull Crushers on a flat bench

75lbs x 8
75lbs x 8
75lbs x 8
75lbs x 8

Exercise 2

curl bar biceps curls

60lb x 10
60lb x 10
65lb x 10
70lb x 10

Exercise 3

Triceps extensions on cable machine

set of 8 then 10 then 12 then 15 working up to about 70ish on the stack, but was light.

Exercise 4

Dumbell Biceps Curls

25lb x 8 each arm
27.5lb x 10 each arm
30lb x 12 each arm

At this point it was time for my yoga class, probably would have done some forearm work if I had the time, but my body was feeling nice and tired anyway so no big deal.

Tomorrow is a leg day for me so I will throw up another post with details.

I have no specific system I'm working off, just hitting a lot of different exercises. Ends up being Two lower body days a week, two upper body days a week and 1-2 arm days a week if I dont hit them with my upper body days. I go to 5 yoga classes a week and have also been swimming outside in the lake lately. I need to get back to running hills and heavy bag rounds as well (been really lazy about this lately) and then I will be set.

Comments, suggestions, questions, encouragement and shit talk is all welcome ;)