Exerbabble for 2-8-6

I woke up good. *yawns*

I’m tired right now, but not the kind of tired that makes you want to crawl back into bed. Just the kind of tired that kind of stunts my brain. Probably low blood sugar or something.

I showered, ate, brushed my teeth, and shaved. Look at that, a morning routine. I even snuck in half a game of Battlefront. I alt-tabbed in the middle of Theed. I’ll finish it later. I had taken two of their based (good), but they had taken our three original bases (bad). Despite a 4 – 2 base lead, I was still winning the reenforcement count.

Yet another partner for weight training. He suggested openning my grip a little on my overhead press and bench press. It made a difference. Unfortunately, while he does know some things and is obviously more experienced than me, he told me to GOTO failure while I was doing preacher curls. Failure means exactly what it sounds like. Your body gives out and the weight drops. Maybe this wasn’t what he meant, but that is NOT a good thing. Repeatedly failing teaches your body to, guess what, fail. Going one rep short of failure teaches your body good form and pushing it as hard as it can – and knowing when to stop. When we’re doing anything else in life, we don’t just wait until our body gives out.

*taps head* I really have learned a thing or two in the past couple months.

It’s hard to explain to people why isolation exercises are a waste of time. I’m sure you can get buff with just isolation exercises. But it’s redundant. If you do overhead press and bench press, what muscles are you using? Deltoids and triceps for the former, and pectorialis major and triceps for the later. Gee, that’s triceps twice. Why in the world would you need to do tricep extensions or skull-crushers? You don’t, no more than you need to do bicep curls if you’re already doing pull-ups and rows.

I’ve made my point. Compound exercises are better. Maybe I’ll start an Exercising For Dummies series or something. It’s really quite simple when you get down to it, there just aren’t that many muscles in the body. Major ones, at least.

Might as well keep posting my stats.

BB Bench Press: 18 @ 65 lbs, 8 @ 75 lbs
Back Row: 20 @ 30 lbs, 12 @ 35 lbs
BB Overhead Press: 19, 9 @ 45 lbs
Preacher Curl: 20, 10 @ 45 lbs
Squat: 20, 10 @ 70 lbs
Crunches: 20, 10 @ bodyweight
Calf Raises: 20 @ 150 lbs, 10 @ 160 lbs
Pull-ups: 6, 3, 2 @ bodyweight

Maybe I could have struggled for one more rep for the overhead press. But I figured I had gotten one rep short, I might as well stop, as I had a second set to do. I’ll start using the barbell at the Y, so my brain is used to the same thing. I’ll probably do it with weight and hold my 3 x 8 pattern, but come Monday I should be able to do 20 and 10 reps with just the bar. I am patient.

Yes, I did mention my back was sore. I decided to call it on the spot. I did my usual freeweight squat stretch to feel how my body is. I decided to go ahead, and if it felt uncomfortable, to stop. I was fine. For squats, the back is a stabilizer, as opposed to the way the back functions during a deadlift. *taps head* I obviously ditched hyperextensions, that’s just asking for trouble.

Again, pull-ups isn’t something he askes us to do, but I feel better keeping up with them. With frequency, I intend to add one rep to the first set each time. So next time I should be at doing at least 7/4/2.

He was going over muscles of the body and claimed a back row hits the lats. …Wait a minute. That’s not right. Lats pull the arm down, not back. Rear deltoids pull the arms back. (Yes, there are fancy words like exterior rotation and junk, but whatever.)

And already, I’m thinking of what I’ll do when the class is over. I’ve mentioned doing two hard full-body workouts, then having a two-day push/pull split where I don’t go so hard on those same exercises. “Periodization”, it’s called. Thank you, Krista Smash. There is a virtue to varying your weight. While once a week isn’t enough to emphasis smaller muscles, I don’t need to. That isn’t the point. As I say so often, I feel better knowing my groin’s in good shape. Plus the variety of doing something silly like Cuban Rotations makes me feel.. good. I like feeling good. Hell, maybe I could get into a pattern of a split, rest, split, rest, full-body, rest. Though, that’s an 8-day cycle. Not a problem!

MY GROIN. *sarcastically grabs his groin*

I think somebody’s listening to Yellow Ledbetter under their headphones. You know, Pearl Jam. Man, Pearl Jam should just be called the band of the 90’s. I love Eddie Vedder.

My bladder is telling me that I need to expose myself to an innocent urinal. I love being exhibitionist. ; )

I’m supposedly meeting with some kids from my Systems Analysis class in the café at noon so we can figure out what the hell we’re doing. Mmmhmm.

Now he’s listening to “Alive”. Good song.

I think this entry’s done. You may put your pants back on now.