34 hours sleep?! Did I read that right, Tachyon? :shock:
New toilet installed yesterday and Christened suitably.
I plan to train every day now until Monday. Some seriously hard graft needs to be addressed 
Yes, 34 hours. Unusual even for me, as normally if I feel a long sleep coming on it’s not more than 15 to 18 hours. When I wake up I’m still tired but at least I get a standard 7 or 8 hours sleep the following night. I have no idea why this happens, and thankfully it only happens every few months. I’ve never met anyone else who has this happen, lol.
Glad you have a working toilet again. 
Had a very good session in the “little gym” on the hydraulic machines. After two hours of constant work I felt great and could have stayed longer but I had things to do and places to go, sadly. It was one of those rare occasions when I was “in the zone”.
Everything felt smooth and easy and I’d exceeded my normal reps and was working the machines faster than usual, too. I finished with a set of 150 on the stomach crunch machine and felt it was a shame to have to stop when I could have maybe done 100 more. I bet next week isn’t going to be as easy! 
Two hours is a brilliant session Tachyon, well done there. I bet the shower felt fantastic after all that work.
150+reps on the stomach cruncher.:shock: Takes me back to my glory years in bodybuilding when I’d finish off with about twenty sets ending up at near 100kg on that machine ending up with abs like cobblestones! Be nice to turn back that clock again there.
Anyway mate, you’re doing amazingly well and I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s in store next week.
I’m almost ashamed to post my meagre routine following Tachyon’s post…
I finally made my return to the gym after six wasteful days away. What a tediously boring week. Everything that could go wrong went wrong at home. The cistern problem, issues with an extended family crisis (i.e. divorce mess) and a hectic few nights at work which I’m now utterly fed up with to be honest. I need to get out of that place asap.
But my Friday session at the gym is usually my intensive training day, so no time to waste, but to my dismay a bad knock on my elbow last night at work caused such discomfort today that most of my ‘push’ exercises were hopeless. Coupled with that, my motivation just wasn’t up to scratch. I managed 35 minutes and quietly drove home again. For what it’s worth, here’s the routine:
Friday 10/8/18
Tricep extensions:
20x30 warm-up
*A warm-up was enough to aggravate my left elbow bone and I moved on.
DB bench press:
6x32’s, 6x32’s, 6x32’s, 5x36’s
*Again, I was in such agony that I’m surprised I even managed what I did on this exercise. Any more weight though would have been a disaster and I moved on.
Smith flat bench:
15x40, 6x60, 6x70
*Rubbish.
By this stage I gave up any kind of pushing exercises and decided to do some bicep work. Surely I’d be okay with that.
Machine curls, both arms:
10x20, 10x30, 10x40
DB curl, standing, alt, (across chest to opposite shoulder):
6x16, 6x16
DB preacher curl, seated, alt, low pull:
6x18, 6x20
*No it didn’t make much difference. With the arms resting on the pad, my elbow was in severe conflict every time I lowered the weight. One final try:
E-Z preacher curl:
6x38
*Nope, crap. Just so much pain in the joint. The lift itself was remarkably easy and flew up, the biceps are holding their power really well, but on moving the weight down again I almost had to drop the bar.
35 mins.
I grabbed my bag and left the gym in a strop with myself. But there’s always another day, so I’ll sleep on it and see how I feel tomorrow. Apologies for such a miserable write-up.
Thanks for reading.
Hi, everyone. I haven’t forgotten you all and am inspired by your workouts and that things are clicking along well.
The son of a friend was killed in a head-on car accident in Georgia, just as we were flying across country… I’m still running though. As always, there is no better way for me to cope in rough seas.
More later, but it felt great to check in here to find you all are faring well.
Oh my God this is awful, Suzie.
My thoughts to your friend’s family and to yourself. Take care and don’t worry about posting on here, it’s very trivial in comparison to what you have to deal with right now.
I wonder if it’s the crash in Atlanta I saw a news clip of this morning?
This morning I was all set for the gym to recapture some of the huge losses I made at yesterday’s embarrassment of a session. And what a turn up for the books it was – two solid hours of very hard grafting with no niggles from the left elbow issue I had at yesterday’s non-event. I guess it’s like a bump on the head (of which I must have had many over the years) it gets better with a little rest. Forgive me for saying so myself, but today’s session was fantastic, productive and ultimately very effective with some very good gains made. Read on…
Saturday 11/8/18
Shoulder press:
12x40, 8x60, 6x70, 6x80, 6x90, 3x100
*Great reaching 100kgs again. It’s been quite a while.
DB bench press:
6x34’s, 6x36’s
*I didn’t push this exercise too much today having done some of these yesterday. Too much to fit in later, so retired after the 36’s.
Single DB press, a.k.a. “The Floydy Press!” (i.e. one heavy DB, flat bench, hands interlocked under top end and push up):
40x50, 30x50, 22x50, 18x50 = 110 reps.
*I always aim for a total of a hundred reps, usually over four sets if possible on this exercise. Today I actually miscounted and did 110!
Tricep extensions:
10x40, 10x50, 10x60
6x70, 6x80, 6x90, 6x90, 6x95 Personal Best
*I know it’s only a supplementary exercise but this was the full stack plus 2x2.5kg baby weights strategically balanced on top of the stack inside the machine. Unfortunately, one fell off and fell down the back when I dropped the stack on the final rep into the machine. It’s still there.
Always will be. However, it felt great pushing almost a century just using the triceps.
BB curl, seated, 60° backrest:
12x30, 12x30, 12x30
*I do these every time now before the heavy work on the preacher bench. A great warm-up which I increased by an extra two reps per set today.
Superset:
E-Z preacher curl, c/g, low pull / DB preacher curl, seated, alt.:
10x28 / 6x14
10x38 / 6x14
6x48 / 6x14
12x38 / 6x14
15x28 / 6x14
20x18 / 6x14
*A new one for me doing a superset on the E-Z curl, slotting in six slow dumbbell curls between the heavier bar work. I went as far as 48kg on the bar and travelled back down the weight to a final set of fast reps.
A short 5-minute intermission for a crunch bar to let the muscles calm down a bit.
BB forearm reverse curl:
10x20, 10x15, 10x10
DB hammer curl, standing, alt.:
6x14
*One set was all I could manage. The biceps were now screaming for mercy and simply told me to back off with anymore curling!
Decided to do some other stuff for a while.
Seated row:
15x47, 15x53
Pec dec (reverse sets):
12x70, 12x60, 12x50, 12x40
Fly dec (forward ‘delt’ pull setting):
16x72.5, 12x80, 12x80, 12x80
*Nice machine. Really hits the delts and inner shoulders.
DB concentration curl, alt.:
6x16, 6x16
Superset:
Bicep stack curls / tricep pushdowns (reverse sets):
12x20 / 12x20
12x17.5 / 12x17.5
12x15 / 12x15
12x12.5 / 12x12.5
12x10 / 12x10
*On the standing stack machine, just a top-up for the arms this afternoon.
Machine curls, both arms:
25x20 high reps
Ab crunch:
50x30, 50x30
I always finish my training with ab crunches but the time was five minutes shy of the two hour mark, so just a couple of quickies were called for as a grand finale:
Tricep extensions:
70x25 high reps
Barbell standing curl:
35x15
Time: 2 hours.
Very pleased with today. I do believe I’m still getting stronger, albeit only in the arms but I’m happy with that.
Tonight I’m at an 18th birthday party at one of the roughest pubs in Hull. Should be a great night then.
Legs tomorrow, pending hangover.
Thanks for reading.
Without sounding wierd, I would love to come and watch you train Floydy, you could teach me a thing or two about weights for sure.
I’m knackered reading that but once again you have motivated me to get off my arse and go to the gym. I’ve decided I’m setting off when I’ve finished this coffee. I know I will feel so good afterwards. Thank you.
Enjoy the party.
Lol! There’s nothing weird about it, Lion Queen. I’d love to show you the ropes. In fact, I’ve advised quite a few people how to do certain exercises over the years, especially when they look like they are doing themselves a certain injury when they are not lifting properly. Anytime you’re over my way, I’ll organise a day pass 
Great to see you going out now incidentally. There’s nothing like a bit a guilt to get the motivation cogs going. Enjoy your session! 
Tonighr’s party will be a strange do though. It’s at a notoriously rough pub in Bransholme, a huge council estate.
I’m sure I’ll be okay :o
My legs session didn’t happen today, absolutely no chance of that. I didn’t wake until midday and have been shattered ever since. Partly to do with yesterday’s inhuman gym effort, plus a boozy night out too when I didn’t get in until 1 a.m.
Sorry I haven’t posted recently, but Virginmedia has had weeks of problems in my area. I’ve had no internet connection since early on yesterday. I don’t have much mobile data, either, not usually needing it. Back ASAP. 
Yay, Internet back on… for now! No gym today (Monday) as I had to go to hospital yesterday because my right knee has swollen again. It was just too painful to get out today. I’ll try a trip there tomorrow, although no leg work will be on the agenda, sadly.
Floydy, you naughty stop-out you!
Tachyon, firstly don’t worry about not showing up. We get in here when we can and I’m sure your posts are met with enjoyment from all of us. I for one am very pleased to see somebody else who does some gym training along similar lines as myself.
I hate to say this bud, but I did warn you about overdoing the knees. They need rest, especially following even basic surgery. I’d be booking another appointment with your GP if I were you just to make sure what you can actually do training-wise. In fact, a sports physio would be even better.
Take care bud, perhaps you can do some upper body work instead?
However, I can talk! I haven’t actually been slacking in the knee department myself today…
Catching up with my legs session and what a corker this way today. Discarding the majority of my manic high reps training in favour of some slow, controlled sets with paused reps instead, this saw me power up the quads until they were almost on fire, burning from within lol.
Monday 13/8/18
Incline press:
25x100, 15x150, 15x200
15x250, 15x250, 15x250, 15x250, 15x250, 15x250 (=6 sets with a 5 sec held pause at top of movement in between sets)
12x300
*The paused sets were a killer and I nearly stopped after four searching for some extra breaths. It’s been a while since I went for 300kgs too on the final set and it didn’t feel at all difficult.
Seated ham curls:
25x40, 10x60, 8x70, 6x75
Horizontal ‘sled’ press:
25x140, 15x160, 15x180
10x200, 10x200, 10x200 (=3 sets with a 3 second pause between sets, held at top of plate)
50x120 fast reps
Extensions:
10x50, 10x50, 10x50 (=3 sets with a 2 second pause, held at extended leg position then carrying on).
20x60, 15x80, 12x100 full stack
25x40 slow
- On a sudden whim, I tentatively brought back leg extensions into my routine. I’ve refrained from doing them for the past six months due to the knee “arthritis” (or whatever it was/is? As the leg curls really used to aggravate my inner bone tissue. However, now that I’ve built up my knee muscle inner quads quite substantially, I thought I’d give it a whirl today. Those tentative light weights didn’t stay that way for long, throwing caution to the wind…and that full stack lift at the end was a doddle. The final set of 25 at 40 reps were done really slowly to see if I could strengthen my inner quads near the knee joint with this exercise. I’ll know later on if all this paid off.
50 mins.
Super happy with this. Going heavy again after all this time doing rather pointless high reps felt really good and I was pleased how I handled it – like I’d never been away to be honest!
My upper body is still in recovery from Saturday’s beasting, but all that hard work has definitely been paying off. I’m feeling and looking stronger, more muscled but what’s more important – fitter. Can’t be a bad thing.
Thanks for reading.
I took it very easy regards leg work last week, but it was the (possible) internal knee infection that caused the swelling yet again. Yes, no leg work for me tomorrow though!
Love reading about your workouts, as always.
Okay mate, hope your knee repairs itself soon. I’m sure it will
Thanks Tachyon I switch from so many different exercise routines like the change in the weather, I suppose it keeps me motivated not to keep doing the same exercises week in week out. My new lease of life with the return to bodybuilding is doing me some good though and I think I’ll stick with it for a while.
Obviously I’m over 50 now so I don’t expect to see any lasting gains as regards size, but I think of natural muscle wastage as we age and I know keeping some of the heavier work in my programme should cancel that out for some years to come. Plus, I enjoy the bit of vanity that goes with it!
Really tired today which is probably my body telling me I need more rest. I don’t think it’s anything to do with training too hard (my last upper body session was Saturday), it’s the night shifts grinding me down, so a short workout was called for. 2-3 sets of random exercises at middling weights to tide me over until Friday’s big session.
Wednesday 15/8/18
Lat pulldown, wide grip:
20x40 warm-up
Shoulder press:
10x60, 6x70, 6x80, 3x90
Cables, downward pull:
10x30, 6x40
Smith shoulder press:
6x40, 6x50
Smith press, 15°:
6x50, 6x60
Fly delt dec:
15x80, 15x80
Tricep extensions:
12x40, 12x50, 12x60
Decline bench, close grip:
10x40, 10x50
Machine curl, both arms:
20x20
Ab crunch:
50x30, 50x30
45 mins.
Nothing too strenuous, hit the spot nicely. Plenty of stretching in between sets too which is something I’m rather neglectful of usually.
Thanks for reading.
Went to “little gym” yesterday and today, totalling 4 hours of continuous workout. I’m away the rest of this week and all next week so that’s my last until I get back. I’ll just have to do whatever walking I can do and pack my stretch bands for a bit of exercise.
Well done mate. Four hours is awesome. Did your knee hold up okay today?
Have a nice break away