Legs

Before this workout, yesterday I had a last minute one.  My brother asked for help smashing concrete, so for over 2 hours I was working with a sledgehammer on 30 plus weather, it was pretty fun and ended up being a bit of a workout.  Any who, on to today.

Prowler (push there, drag back)
270x 1 set
360x 1 set
450x 1 set
450x 1 set

3 Rounds for time
10 Back Squats - 185
20 KB Swings - 50 lbs
Time: 6:52

That was a sweaty workout.  The prowler sets took minutes each, and the last two at 450 were insanely painful.  The circuit was made up on the spot, challenging but good.  Nothing was broken, short but intense workout!

Upper Body

On Wednesday I was hit with a stomach that had me throw up over 10 times, and not eat a thing.  It wasn't fun at all, I knew this workout back would be tougher than usual..

HS Wide Bench
180x10
230x10
270x10
270x8

Pulldown
120x10
140x10
140x10

Alternate Sets
Cable Fly - 16x10, 18x10, 10
Band Pull Apart - 3x12 with black

Machine Pushdown
Preacher Curl - forget weights for both.

That workout sucked, I was winded too early, not surprised being I only had one day to try and consume good calories, not enough from what I got rid of Wednesday!

Legs

Time to make my legs hurt

Leg Press
180x10
270x10
360x10
450x10
450x8

Back Squat
135x8
135x8
185x8
225x8
245x8

Travelling Lunge - 2x20.....100

If that's how my leg presses went, then my strength would be back to normal on them, awesome.  The back squats, as well, 245 for 8 reps I think is what I could normally do, they felt tough but strong.  The lunges, however, were pure agony and a gut check.  It became mental, the two sets closed in on 3 minutes each.  That's 40 steps total, and my legs, lungs, and even arms from supporting the bar, holy shit.....awesome sweaty leg day!

Upper Body

Push Jerk
95x8
135x6
155x6
155x5

Wide Pullups - 10, 8, 8

Chest Fly - 42.5x10, 8, 6

Face Pull
57.5x10
62.5x10
67.5x10

Quick upper body workout, the push jerks were tough but fun, I probably could have gotten that 6th rep but with this move I'm not about to risk moving the wrong way.

Prowler and Arms

Sore, but lets workout anyway.

Prowler, drag there, push back
270x1 set
360x1 set
360x1 set

Alternate Sets
Close Grip Bench Press - 135x8, 155x8, 175x5
DB Curls - 25sx8, 30sx8, 35sx8

Pushdown - 57x5x12, 625x12, 12
Double Bi Curl - 20x12, 12, 12

Those last two sets with the prowler were agony, but fun!

Full Body

I decided to not do the program I was tempted to go on, while it's effective I like to change things up.  This one isn't so much a program, more of a "do what I feel like".  Today, I wanted to lift heavy shit.

Sumo Deadlifts (touch and go)
warm up
135x8
135x8
225x8
225x8
work sets
275x8
315x8
315x8

Chinups - 10, 9, 8

Push Jerks
95x6
115x6
135x6
135x6

Marpo (mid setting)
4x25 metres
6x25 metres
7x25 metres

The last time I started with this style of deadlift was in October, on the last set I only got 6, so this makes me quite happy, my strength seems to be coming back very well, plus doing 315 on something again felt awesome.  The chinups were either so hard because it was after deadlifts, or they are taking longer to go back to normal.  Also a first time for push jerks, they felt pretty light, but I did do a single rep at 95 pounds for split jerks, that one did cause pain.  The marpo is kind of fun, great workout with a cute girl again!

Upper Push

I was tempted to go onto the program I was on right up till my surgery, but am already thinking against it.  We will see.

Incline DB Bench Press
50sx10
60sx10
70sx10
70sx8

HS Wide Bench Press
180x10
230x10
230x8

Cable Fly - 3x10....16

Pushdowns - 50x12, 65x12, 12

Legs

Since I''ve been back, it seems that legs are my favourite muscle group to hit, today I wanted a tough one.

Front Squats
95x8
135x8
155x8
185x8

Pause Back Squats
185x5
205x5
205x5

Travelling Lunges - 3x10.....115

Hack Squats - 3x10.....180

Wow that one hurt.  First time doing front squats, they felt great, so did the back squats and lunges....the hack squats burned a ridiculous amount.  I think I'll be sore after this one!

Upper Body

My body needs a rest, but one more day as tomorrow I am with clients all day.

Incline Bench Press
95x10
135x10
135x8

Chinups - 8, 8, 8

Cable Fly
12x10
16x10
16x10

Cable Row
120x10
140x10
140x10

Alternate Sets
Pushdowns - 42.5x12, 47.5x12, 52.5x12
Cable Double bi Curl - 22.5x10, 8, 8

The most thing about today was the chinups.  8 reps was by no means my max, quite below it, but I kept my feet in front of me to avoid stretch of my abs as this exercise would bother my incision the most.  It felt good, no discomfort, but I'll have to slowly work this one back in, slower than the others.

Legs

My legs were sore as hell, that usually means I'm ready for a prowler workout.

Prowler, push there, drag back
180x1 set
270x1 set
360x1 set
360x1 set

Deadlifts - 3x10......225

Wow that burned like crazy, especially the last two sets, I haven't done it this way before, normally I'd drag it there and push it back....holy quads.  I also did these with one of the trainers, seeing a cute girl do the prowler is a good reward!!  The deadlifts were light, but felt good.

Upper Body

Pretty sore still, but wanted to try something.

Shoulder Press
95x8
115x8
115x8
115x6

Wide Pulldown
24x10
26x10
28x10

Dips - 3x12

Band Pull Aparts - 3x12 with black

Marpo (high setting)
3x25 metres
5x25 metres
6x25 metres

Good workout, my muscles were pre-fatigued but still felt good.  I don't often use the marpo, but rope pulling is a great burner.

Legs

Time to hit the squats

Back Squats (to box, just below parallel)
warm up
95x10
135x10
work sets
185x10
205x10
225x10

High Leg Press
180x10
270x10
360x10
450x8

Travelling Lunges, 80 steps with 60 lbs on back in 4:04

The squats went well, tried 225 for a set of 10, felt tough but strong.  I like the high leg press, it's something my hernia stopped me from doing in the past.  The lunges also went well, I increased the weight 10 pounds and decided to see if I could go unbroken again.  I could and also was going faster I guess, my lunges and legs burned, but great workout!

Upper Body

This was the first time I really felt the loss of strength.

Bench Press
135x8
185x7
185x6
185x5

Chest Supported Row (elbows high) - 3x10.....180

Chest Fly
10x10
12x10
14x10

Pulldown
60x10
70x10
70x10

Pushdown - 42.5x12, 57x5x12, 12

Preacher Curls - 75x10, 90x8, 8

That 185 bench press felt much tougher than usual, but again, some loss of strength is to be expected.  I am going to roughly do an upper low split for now.

Legs

The gym was muggy so I knew I'd sweat.  I also wanted to try power cleans very lightly to see how they feel.

Power Cleans (resetting)
95x5
then 3x5 at 135

Prowler Sprints (1 set is there and back)
180x1 set
270x1 set
270x1 set

80 Travelling Lunges with 50 lbs on back in 4:46 (40 per leg)

The cleans felt good, I'm not about to rush into that one, as the explosive movements will take longer, 135, however, felt pretty easy.  The prowler sprints are different than how I usually do the prowler, simple, you run with it, or simply move as fast as possible.  My lungs and legs burned like crazy.  The last thing, the lunges were random and made up on the spot.  I put 50 pounds on my back for lunges (which is light) and did 80 in a row, so essentially a 5 minute set of lunges.....holy hell.  I was hoping to not need to set the bar down and I didn't, but that one hurt but felt awesome....oh how I missed this!

Full Body

Now that I can workout again, I may be getting ahead of myself.  I don't think I'll go into a program yet, but this was my 4th day in a row, 3 of them using the upper body, all 4 using legs.

Reverse Lunges
95x6
115x6
135x6

DB Shoulder Press
35sx10
45sx10
50sx10

Wide Pulldown
22x10
24x10
26x10

That's all today, tomorrow is a rest day!

Fully Body

Lets push the weights again, and see if my legs can handle some more.

Back Squats (to box, below parallel)
warmup
95x8
135x8
work sets
185x8
205x8
225x8

Incline Bench Press
95x10
115x10
135x8

Cable Row
22x10
24x10
26x10

Alternate Sets
Pushdown - 3x15.....52.5
Cable Curl - 10x12, 12, 10

First time doing 225 for anything, felt good, heavy and painfree by my incision, legs it hurt though.  Rest of routine was good too.

Conditioning

Time to sweat!

Prowler, drag backwards there, drag forwards back at 270 lbs
5 Rounds for time
13:45

10 minutes of stairs at lvl 7

Simple but fun.  The prowler circuit burned the legs like crazy, and the lungs too.  After the third round I let one of the other trainers borrow the prowler, so my time may have been a bit faster, not sure.  Fun workout!

Post Surgery and workout

Fitting first picture

So I'm back, and man am I glad to be back.  A little back story, I had surgery to repair a hernia in my groin, while it didn't affect too much during my workouts as I had it for years, it did on the rare occasion cause pain.....and when it did it left me barely able to move.  I figured time to get it removed, knowing that the next 6 weeks was going to be torture, as no weight training was permitted.  As most will say, I'm a difficult patient, but I did a decent job of listening to my body, if something hurt, I simply didn't do it.  I slowly got into weight training, even before the 6 week mark, but if I felt the incision in any way I stopped.  Oddly back squats felt great, so my first back squat workout was 95 pounds for 3 sets of 20, I only went so high on the reps so it'd be somewhat of a challenge.  My legs were agonizingly sore, and I loved it.  The next few workouts were again, very low key so I didn't bother to post, the most notables were 205 back squats for 10 reps, 95 thrusters for 3 sets of 10, and some cable work.  I figured I'd finally start posting my workouts again.  The weights will be slow, as even though I am past the 6 week mark, that's a lot of time to take off of weights and I'm not going to assume my strength is identical.  Any explosive movements, like the olympic lifts, may be on hold for a bit.  I also noticed I lost some mobility, my hips were very tight, so I spent a good amount of time on mobility.

I decided to try deadlifts for the first time

Deadlifts (touch and go)
115x10
205x10
205x10
205x7

Incline DB bench Press - 3x15.....50s

Cable Row
22x10
24x10
26x10

Pushdown - 52.5x15, 15, 12

Cable Curls - 10x12, 10, 10

The deadlifts felt good, I am nervous everytime I pick up something remotely heavy now, but that's mostly because going through this again is unthinkable.  I did a double overhand this time as well, so it was my grip that failed me on the last set.  I can say, however, that my muscle all around my shoulder blades are very sore as I am typing this the day after.  Rest of workout felt good!  Feels amazing to be back!