PROGRESS

Welcome To The Weekend

Hey Team Beater,

Happy Friday. I want to remind you guys who worked your asses off all week not to use the weekend as a chance to give back your hard earned gains. You don’t set your paycheck on fire at the end of the week so you certainly shouldn’t toss all your hard work in the gym in the garbage by spending the whole weekend eating and drinking crap.

Today I am leaving an open forum to ask you guys what you plan to do this weekend to get your workouts in. In the spirit of always giving as much as I ask for here is my plan for the weekend.

Saturday Morning

One Full Hour of HIIT Cardio on the Stair climber for some big time calorie and fat burns

30 minute Ab Circuit

Functional Stretching and Foam Rolling

Sunday Morning

My last JUST THE TIP workout including 30 minutes of cardio at the end

Monday

Well, I have been talking about it for months now. Monday is the 15th and it is time to go. I will do the first of my full scale workouts and officially be off of my break and back on routine.

So, chime in on what you are going to do for the weekend or what your fitness goals are or ask a question or toss out some tips. Team WB Fitness is, first and foremost, a team and we are all in this together.

It is my most sincere goal that by spring you guys will either be gods or corpses.

 

Let’s get it.

WB FITNESS

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10 Comments

J.Nyx

Okay this week I fucking killed it, I was gonna pat myself on the back there….if my lats and and shoulders dint hurt so much lol

Saturday: Im going to stay home and do some bodyweight stuff just for fun. Some pushups, pullups, crunches etc. Nothing too serious. Saturdays are my “fuck the world” day and I spend it with my family.

Sunday: Getting up early and doing the last round of the warmup stuff. Probably a quick 45 minute workout. Then the week’s meal prep.

Monday: I know this pain. I lived it and it is amazing. I cant wait to be in the full program. Prepare yourself for a difficult but 100% worth it ride fells

Lou Skunt

Since this is an open forum today, I would like to discuss another one of the many benefits to working out, and this is one I really love… Utilizing your physical strength outside of the gym.

This morning was a cold and windy 23-degrees. I was on the road early and I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things for my mom so she didn’t have to leave her house today. When I pulled up in her driveway, I noticed water coming out from under her garage door. Apparently, her water heater ruptured last night and she was unaware of it. I made a few calls, and even with my contacts, I couldn’t get anybody there until tomorrow, so I decided to fix it myself.

I disconnected the old water heater, threw it into the bed of my truck and took it to Home Depot for the return. The replacement 50-gallon water heater was on a shelf about 6 feet high. The clerk said to wait there so he could get somebody to help him lift it off the shelf. I didn’t have that kind of time this morning, so I just lifted it off the shelf, placed it on the cart and wheeled it over to the returns desk. A few minutes later, the clerk finds me and says “you lifted that off the shelf by yourself” I said “yes” , then he asks if I need help loading it into my truck and I said “no thanks, I got it” – he looked at me like I was crazy.

You become so accustomed to having all this strength always on tap, you just don’t think about these types things until you encounter something like this outside of the gym. It’s also kind of funny when a 46-year old guy outlifts two 20-somethings! All told, it took me less than 2 hours from start to finish and I got to spend some “quality time” with moms.

I trained legs yesterday. I just finished training arms 30-minutes ago. I’ll train delts tomorrow. Sunday, I’ll probably take it easy, then on Monday I’ll train back. Keep lifting fellas – never stop!

WB Fitness

Great comment Lou! You are right, aside from the aesthetic aspect and the fun of being able to push weight, just being stronger, more energetic and more athletic than the vast majority of the population is great. This long break from the gym to rest and heal really taught me that the thing I miss most is having the strength.

You isolate delts on its own day? Cool! Care to share some of what you do?

Lou Skunt

Hey WB! I just finished my delt work, and I’m happy to share. Yes, today was delts only, but I typically incorporate trap work with delts or sometimes I’ll train traps with back, just depends.

For today’s deltoid workout, I performed a giant set with 4 movements and a total of 5 overall sets, in the following order:

1) Seated Barbell Press, 80lbs. I performed a variation of this movement that I like to refer to as an “up and over” (I prefer to use a 48″ barbell for better balance with this exercise)… I start with the bar in front at the clavicle, and as I press, I go up and over my head and down to the rear (no locking out at the top), and then back over to the front, just up and over, up and over… slow and smooth movements, no stopping. I like this particular variation, as I really feel all three heads of the deltoid become fully engaged, not just the anterior and medial heads, but the posterior gets filled up nicely – very intense movement. It’s basically combining a front press with a behind the neck press, with more fluid movement and less stress on my joints. 15-20 reps, then on to the next movement…

2) Cable Upright Rows, 120lbs. Just your basic movement with the bent bar and the pulley positioned closest to the floor, pull up to the chin, and back down, keeping a slight bend in the elbows at the bottom, no locking out. 15-20 reps, then on to the next movement…

3) Standing Lateral Dumbbell Raises, 25lbs. 15-20 reps, then to the last movement…

4) Bent Over Lateral Dumbbell Raises, 35lbs. 15-20 reps, rest approximately 1 minute then repeat the cycle.

My rest periods will slightly increase with each set to accommodate for added recuperation between sets.
Thats it. Pretty simple today, but intense.

WB Fitness

That is a very nice felt training day for sure. My gym doesn’t have one of those great seated barbell press chair/rack things so when I want to do it I have to wheel a bench under a power rack, but that is such a great move.

I have a confession, bent over lat dumbbell raises are one of my worst lifts. It isn’t the muscle it works, it is the position. I also have a very hard time with front squats. Stupid gorilla arms never get into position right. So rather than doing those bent over I usually sit backwards on a bench with a 45 degree incline. I know I should probably focus on getting the motion down because one should always work on their weaknesses, but this isn’t a problem with the muscle but rather with my own flexibility. I am planning on throwing some extra yoga in to the mix this year and hopefully work on that.

“Prett simple today, but intense”

Damn straight man! I always laugh when I see guys in the gym doing lifts that look like circus routines. The basics are the basics for a reason.

Question: do you wear lifting shoes with a heel for quotes. I wear Inov-8 F-Lite training shoes for everything except cardio but have been really considering a lifter with a heel like nike romaleos 3. I am not sure if it is worth it though. I’ve never lifted in proper lifting shoes only chucks or cross trainers with a flat bottom like the inov-8.

Lou Skunt

Yea, I hear ya on the bent over laterals, it is a little tricky for some people. The 45-degree bench with dumbbells is a great alternative. Also, bent over cable crossovers – these can allow for more freedom of movement and foot placement which may help you find the sweet spot. If your gym is equipped with a peck-deck that doubles as a rear delt machine, that is a really nice way to isolate the rear delts and it also allows for easy drop sets with a quick pull of the pin. I also like it for the fact that you can really squeeze and hold the contraction in that upright position.

With regards to shoes, I’ve never invested in a pair of actual “lifting shoes.” For me, it’s all about comfort and support. For everyday workouts, walking, etc. I prefer a shoe with a bit more heel. When it comes to leg training, I prefer a slightly lower heel. In either case, I require strong heel support and plenty of room around my toes. I’m also very particular about the socks I wear; I prefer a thicker bottom to the sock. I’ll take those socks with me when I shop for shoes because I’m really looking for the proper “bite” between the sock and the insole; I don’t want my feet to slide at all inside the shoes. As far as brands, I’ve had good luck with Nike, Adidas and NB cross trainers and running shoes.

WB Fitness

The pec deck used as rear delt maxhine is a delt go to for me for just the reasons you say.

I really like my training shoes in general, I just have been looking at proper squat shoes and curious if they are worth the dough.

Trudodyr

Hey WB, first off, thanks for putting up this blog. I am not able to go through with everything you recommend here, quite simply because I am not as passionate about lifting as you are – I do it mostly to stay healthy and to feel/look better. Nevertheless, since I switched to smaller weights and higher volume I observed some positive changes – the workout feels better, I gained more muscle and I started to look forward to the gym more, so I guess you can count me in as a supporter of your view on lifting now. 🙂

I also have one suggestion to make. Since you are about to start working out heavily from Monday, could you maybe post your measurements before it starts and then maybe in regular intervals? I think it could be a nice motivation for some of us ‘lazier’ readers 🙂 Besides that, it could give readers some idea of what is really possible when someone really invests a lot of time and energy into lifting and also give us better feel of how good/poor our gains are. I am mostly interested in basic numbers most digital scales give you these days – weight, fat percentage and muscle percentage. I know that these scales are not always precise in terms of absolute values (when I weigh myself with my friend’s scale it gives me something like 2% more fat), but I think they are quite consistent and so they can detect changes in weight/muscle mass/fat quite well, which is what we are after after all.

Thanks and kick ass on Monday!

WB Fitness

Hey man, thanks so much for the great comment. I’m glad you are enjoying the blog and finding success with incorporating some of the basic principles.

I will absolutely start giving measurements and weights. Tomorrow’s article will be about the starting point and going forward Monday articles will include my progress reports.

You are right about scale and unless you get dipped in the tank there is almost no chance to get a perfectly accurate bf% but if you are on the same scale every time you can at least know which way things go.

Always love to find a new reader. Keep coming back and also shoot out any feedback or questions!

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