Hump day

I take a pre-work out supplement called JP8, it does not taste good at all, however it has around 200 mg of caffeine which is the reason I take it. A friend of mine is doing a study on the effects of energy supplements and work outs. You can read more about that if you click on the Mike T Nelson blog on the right of the screen. I hope that JP8 is not in his study; this stuff really gets me going, but is like drinking dirty urinal water. I cringe every time I drink it. Anyway, I took it today, and I think it did more harm than good. I started with Bench press my sheet said to do 5 sets of 6 at 275. During my warm up the weight moved good; however, once I picked up 275 and it felt like 340. So heavy! I did 3 sets of 6 then finished with the last 2 sets being 5. After bench I moved to DB incline bench, I worked up to 75s, this too felt extremely heavy. I paired those with DB shrugs using 140lb dumbbells. Between my 3rd and 4th set I took my heart rate, it was 150 beats per min. Now this is higher than it normally is when I lift, but doing so much work in such little time will increase my heart rate more than normal. So I thought it was just my hard work that was increasing my heart rate, until the next set, when I ran over to the garbage can and gave a good old fashion dry heave. My burps and the dry heave tasked like JP8. I didn’t feel comfortable finishing my work out with the garbage so far away, so I brought it closer. I finished my work out with DB flys and over head shrugs. The over head shrugs were interesting and I wanted to use more weight, but holding 45 lbs over my head felt pretty heavy.

My second work out started with push presses; I have problems with these because my shoulders are not very flexible. In fact, a few weeks ago I squatted 5 times in a week and I had real problems with my right elbow. I first thought it was just tendonitis, but then I figured it was because I’m a low bar squatter and I should be flexible in my shoulders, however, I am not. My elbow has started to flame up again making me think it is tendonitis and there is nothing I can do about it. So push presses 5x6, EZ bar curls 5x10 and 2 way neck 5x10. After those were done I moved to Arnold press and rev. grip curls. Then finished with curl + pump and the other 2 ways of the neck.

The rest of the day at work was used to debate the results of a death match between an African Elephant and a Silverback Guerilla. If you would like to weigh in on this debate, let me know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post. I came home to a pleasant surprise, there was a letter waiting for me from the U telling me I got into grad school. So I will start working toward my graduate degree in Applied Kinesiology: Sport and Exercise Science this summer.

My nightly work out was more of the same as always at my night gym. Weird looks when I pulled out my 3 board for 3 board close grip bench. This is a great exercise to really load up the triceps. The 3 2x6s stacked together laying on your chest will take your pecks right out of the bench, that paired with a close grip you can really jack up the volume on your triceps. After those I did some tri-push downs. While doing my push downs and sit ups I watched an older Personal Trainer try to teach a woman how to do kettlebell snatches and swings. Now I’m not 100% but I’m pretty sure he is not RKC, this woman looked like a fool doing these kettlebell exercises. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of them, however I do believe there is a place for them in the gym. I had my run in with a 70 lb kettle bell, doing swings to the tabata intervals….not fun, I am still kind of pissed at Y for talking me into them, I got her back with sled pulls/push though. I really wanted to ask the PT when he did his RKC and how was it. But I know I would have gotten the dear in the headlights look. I finished up with dips. These were extremely hard as well.

I am actually pretty excited that 275 was super heavy and dips were crazy hard. I am not worried about this because of the supercompensation principle. The more stress you put on your body, your body will adapt and overcome, actually become stronger. This is a great thing that your body does. To read more about this read this article on the SAID principle. It is now past my bed time so I will be hitting the sack.


Stay Strong
Tommy