I dropped the weight on the initial bench presses for a better range of motion and did the same for the rope pulldowns. Got a better workout overall and I'd wager I'll be more sore tomorrow than I was last week. Biceps destruction comes tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be ready for that one.
Increased weight on nearly every exercise and held up really well throughout the entirety of the chest portion, though those weighted triceps dips are still evil. My chest is getting much stronger and able to withstand the entire workout a bit better, but I need to focus on range of motion with triceps, especially the pushdowns. With the addition of the reverse-grip benches at the end, I feel that I'm getting a much better finish, and the set of three fly types seems to hit everything pretty well.
I like the layout of all of the back exercises, so I'll likely keep it in this format for the next couple of weeks. I changed the barbell curls/reverse curl order just to shake things up and decided I'll stick with three sets of dumbbell rows. I had planned on doing abs but felt really drained, so I'll go back and hit that hard tonight.
I switched the position of the close-grip pulldowns and the medium-grip rows to break things up a bit and it worked really well. I was able to get a lot more range on each of the reps. Also added some straight bar curls with pauses in at the end for a finisher and did an extra set of unassisted pull-ups/chin-ups during the back finisher. I can see visual progress each week, so something's going to plan. I'll do an ab set later and enjoy rest/travel day tomorrow.
Weighted triceps dips are no joke. I figured I wouldn't even feel much of a difference with 25 lbs. I was wrong. I could barely get the final set of 6 done and that was right at the beginning of the triceps work. I also saw an article yesterday (Bodybuilding.com - 8 Chest Exercises You Haven't Tried) that referenced reverse-grip bench presses as a finisher type workout. I liked them and was really just experimenting with the weight this week. I think 120-130 is the sweet spot for now. The Omni pause pushdowns were a good cap as well. My arms and chest feel totally obliterated.
I'm also working on a few recipes that are low calorie/high protein to start developing some nutritional content for this site. I should be posting those soon. I'm also messing around with some Blogger templates and trying to find one I like. Eventually this disaster will come together.
Single Dumbbell Squat Clean and Press - 8/8/8 (per side)]
#{45, 45, 45}
Est. Calories ~ 100
I changed up my rep/weight scheme from light-heavy to heavy-light, meaning I'm doing heavier sets of less reps first. It's more challenging this way both physically and to keep a good symmetric rhythm since I'm pretty much working to failure each set. It'll take a bit of getting used to but I think it'll be just the shock my system needs. I definitely feel like I'm going to be sore from this one.
I also had to put my cat Duke to sleep yesterday. Super disheartened over that, but luckily this fitness thing can take my mind off of it for a bit. He was awesome and had a great life even up until the end when he went peacefully at the vets office in my arms. I'm definitely going to miss the little guy.
Est. Calories ~ 485 Incline benches on the smith machine are weird so I'll probably stick with dumbbells from now on or just use the press machine. Not much of note today other than using a lighter dumbbell for the overhead extensions seemed to help my neck a bit. Also, hit the Omni-Concentration link for more info on that technique. It absolutely destroyed my triceps and wound up being just the finisher I was looking for, so thanks to the good folks over at MuscleHack.
