Training Day Fourteen

Today was a good day. The sun was shining, biceps and chest was on the menu and I was in a good mood. Sounds like a good start? You bet it was!

Bringing Awesome Back - Day by day...

Here's today's workout: 
- 4x12 Dumbbell chest press
- 1x3 Dumbbell chest press
- 5x12 Cable chest flyes
- 5x12 Barbell biceps curl
- 3x12 Dumbbell alternate biceps curl

Everything went smoothly except for the last set of the dumbbell chest presses. I couldn't pull off more than 3 reps due to being exhausted from the previous set. Then again, it's really not about the reps, it's about getting the most out of each and every workout.

Training Day Thirteen

Quads time! Today the front part of the legs was supposed to get a good makeover! But, due to another "photo shoot" at the gym I was already tired from an hour or so of walking. Therefore I decided to do some isolation exercises. I ended up with simply one exercise, but a lot of sets:

- 5x12 Leg extensions (Alternate - one leg at a time)
- 5x12 Leg extensions

A machine that guarantees a massive pump in the quads!

This might have been a simple day as far as my workout goes, but the feeling was special. I actually did not feel any issue with my abs whatsoever. This is the first day since the operation where I notice a huge difference in my mobility. Awesome!

Training Day Twelve

Due to a busy schedule I had to do a quick workout today. Delts and calves were on the menu and everything went rather smoothly. This is what the workout looked like:

- 3x12 Shoulder press (smith machine)
- 3x12 Lateral delt raises with dumbbells
- 3x12 Rear delt reverse flyes
- 3x12 Seated calf raises
- 3x25 Standing calf raises

Did a good few sets here. Last rep on the last set I twitched a
little, which engaged my abs a bit. So I had to cut it short.

No worries with the lateral delts. Did get a gruesome pump!

Reverse flyes were pretty decent.
The motion was slow and steady.

Seated calf raises went fine. I leaned back against the wall,
and had the calves do all the work, without lifting the bar.

Finished my workout with some standing calf raises. Had a
massive pump and walked like a crippled man afterwards.

Was a good workout, although I was a bit stressed. Which quite frankly seems to be an ongoing theme in my life at the moment. Having a bit of an issue with my sleep as well, since I'm getting a bit of pain in my hips from not being able to sleep on my belly. Nothing to be worried about as I still feel rested when I wake up...

Hmm... hip problems and complaining... I must be getting old!

Training Day Eleven

Didn't have any time to enter my training yesterday. Directly after my workout I did some filming for the Krav Maga group at my gym. Due to that I wasn't home until 9 in the evening and I had to get up at 6:15 the next morning, so I decided to postpone it until today. In any case, yesterday's workout - which was Triceps and Hamstrings - was done as follows:

- 5x12 Seated leg curls
- 3x12 Alternated horizontal leg curls (while standing up)
- 5x12 Triceps cable pushdowns
- 3x12 Triceps dips machine

First exercise. Went fine, got a good pump in the hamstrings.

Did this one while standing up. I'm still limited
in my movement due to the operation.

Couldn't perform as well as would have liked to.
The abs engage if too much weight is being handled.

Ended with triceps dips machine. I forgot to take a pic with
my mobile cam. So this pic is from when I stopped cutting.

The workout was rather fluid. I did have some issues with not being able to train as heavy as I'd like to, but all in all it went pretty smoothly.

Training Day Ten

Today was Back day, and this was the worst training day so far - in the sense that I had to hold back a lot. I started out with wanting to see if I could pull off some lat pulldowns this time... I couldn't. However, I did tweak the exercise a bit further into the workout and got some reps done. After the "pulldown failure" I did get some good solid rows done though. The joy wasn't long-lived as I went for the T-bar row and completely failed again. That was pretty much how the day went - a rollercoaster of success and failure. Here's the workout for the day:

- 1xZero Lat pulldowns (Couldn't even do one)
- 5x12 Row machine
- 2x8 T-bar rows
- 3x12 Shrugs (Using the bench/delt machine)
- 3x12 Kneeled down Lat pulldowns with rope
- 3x12 Pronated and Supinated Barbell wrist curls (Superset)

Started out poorly. Lat pulldowns still won't work...

Had a good couple of sets on this baby!

Failure again. Too much stress in the abs in this exercise.

No problem doing Shrugs here.

After a bit of tweaking I got some "lat pulldowns" done.

No issues with the wrist curls - go figure!

This was officially the first day that the surgeon told me I could train. Didn't go too well. But that won't stop me from trying. Just another bump in the road!

Training Day Nine

Yet another training day with my old 5 split routine has past, and today, Chest and Biceps was on the menu - hooray! Unfortunately, just as yesterday's training was somewhat troublesome, I had a similar experience today.

Equipment used for today!

I was going to start out with some horizontal chest presses. However, simply laying down on the bench was a hassle, and getting back up, even more so. Luckily I got a helpful hand from a friend, and after giving it a second try I pretty much decided to scrap horizontal presses. In any case, the workout ended up like this:

- 2x12 Horizontal chest press machine
- 4x12 Vertical chest press machine
- 4x12 Chest fly machine
- 4x12 Biceps alternate dumbbell curls
- 3x12 Biceps barbell curls

The image says it all...

This was yet another day of tweaking at the gym. I'm starting to get good at this! Tomorrow I'll be resting, and the day after that I'm back at it - literally - since I'll be training back, trapz and forearms.

Training Day Eight

Today was the first day of training (since the operation) where I started training according to my old 5 split routine. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it is as follows:

• Day 1: Quads, Abs
• Day 2: Biceps, Chest
• Day 3: Back, Trapz, Forearms
• Day 4: Triceps, Hamstrings
• Day 5: Delts, Calves

Naturally, I wasn't able to do any abs, so today's workout was simply quads. As usual I had to do a bit of trial and error in order to find out what exercises I could do. My initial idea was to get some really light leg presses done. That, however, ended up in a complete failure. My range of motion was zero to none, so I had to scout for different exercises - squat machine and leg extensions to the rescue! So, here's todays workout:

- 4x8 Squat machine
- 5x12 Leg extensions

Contemplating whether leg press is doable or not...

Leg press was a failure. Had to tiptoe through the squats!

Good old leg extensions. They never fail me!

These were a pain to descend after my leg workout!

There was nothing fancy about the workout. As usual I had to keep myself from engaging the abs in any part of the exercises. That meant that I had to stand a on my toes while doing the squats in order for me to not feel it in the abdominals.

Feels good going back to regular routines, even if I do have to modify them to quite some extent. Then again, I guess that's what training is all about - finding what works for you.