Thursday, December 17, 2009

Check Your Ego at the Door, Sucka

This time last year, I was posting here all the time and felt like I had so much good stuff to say (relatively speaking, I guess). But since Nationals, it's like pulling teeth for me to put anything together for a semi-decent post. Even though my offseason diet is on track, not having a set training program in place has really fucked with my head. I've had some anxiety about going back to the 5x5's this week because I know that I can't just pick up where I left off 8 months ago in terms of the weight I was using, especially not for squats and deads. I need to redevelop proper technique and build things back up again, and that's going to require a bit of humility. After a lot of thought and switching things around for the past couple of weeks, here's the split I have finally put together for myself:

Sunday: Quads
Monday: Delts/Chest (emphasis on delts)
Tuesday: Cardio/abs
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: Hams
Friday: Cardio/abs
Saturday: Arms

I never really liked combining body parts (other than arms, that is), but I'd tossed around the idea of doing that for a while so that I could give myself two days off from training each week. I figured that, since delts are easily my best body part and are very easy for me to hammer away at, I would pair them with chest...since I need to start being more careful with my chest training to preserve this several-thousand dollar investment I have in it. I'll still do standing bb presses for my shoulder 5x5 exercise, but I'll toss out the incline bb press 5x5 for chest and only do two exercises of 3 or 4 sets each at max intensity--just enough to stimulate the muscle but not damage the twins.

So, I'm writing this on the heels of one of the best back workouts I've had in a while. I've been doing my PT exercises religiously for the past two weeks, and I am noticing some slow improvements coming along. I keep telling myself that I have to be consistent and patient, and the injury will heal. Plus, I go back to get worked on again this Saturday. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, tonight's workout....started out with dead lifts. I didn't put up anything impressive, but I listened to my body and didn't push my luck. I let the correct muscles work to move the weight up instead of trying to get it up with brute force. We followed with close grip pull downs and then wide grip pull downs. Again, I pulled back on the weight in an attempt to re-learn how to feel that connection and burn in my lats. I need a wider back, and this is the only way it's gonna happen. We followed with three sets of heavy t-bar rows then three sets of 1-arm db rows, and finished with a little FST-7 on the assisted pull-up machine for shits and giggles. I can already feel how fried my back is. I got that taxed nervous system fatigue going on right now, and I love it. Last night and tonight, I really began to feel like my strength is coming back, so I'm hoping and praying that my body and head are ready to settle in to some big training in the months ahead.

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