Push Monday

I took Friday off and spent the weekend sorting through the house. And I didn't miss the gym at all. Of course, I still need to sort through the rest of the house (for a little house, we sure have a lot of stuff!) but I did go to the gym today. 30 minutes on the Precor elliptical got me close to 3 miles and vaguely sweaty. Then I marched myself to the free weight area and claimed a bench. I saw M chatting with B and other regulars, and I was glad that I wasn't going to need a spot today. I know it's still April but I've already decided on my new program for the next few weeks: Push Day / boxing / Pull Day / boxing / Leg Day. It's a plan. What I haven't decided on is how much less weight I'm pushing while I up my reps.

I want to get rep sets at 115 lbs. Today I only do one set, and finish off with 20-reppers at 95 lbs. Figuring 135 lbs for 6 reps is my max weight, then 115 is 85% and 95 lbs is 70%. I'm good with that. I do a few sets on the Incline Bench but only to 85 lbs. Down 10 lbs. I have a good chest pump and skip DB flyes because they tweak my shoulder. I also drop my weights down to 20 for the DB Lateral Raises, and do 6 12-rep sets. With the rear delts, Bent-Over Reverse Flyes are too easy at 25 lbs, so I grab a pair of 30s and finish the remainder sets with them. It's a Push Day so the last thing I need to do is Triceps. All the benches are taken so I replace Rip Crushers with Cable Push Downs with the V-bar handle. Between sets, V, who returned last week from winter in the City, wanders over and does a floppy 5-rep set of seated cable rows with three plates. I think that's 45 lbs. I give him a quick wave just to be neighborly, and then focus on my own sets. There's no way I can do 3 sets at 50 lbs today. Instead, I start at 30 lbs and work my way up to 50 lbs, then add a 5 lb plate to my drop sets. When I get to 25 lbs, I decide to do AMAP (As Many As Possible) which turns out to be 25.

Because I'll probably do crunches and knee-elbow crunches tomorrow, and the Torso Twist machine is busy, I climb atop the Sit-Up board and knock out 100 twisting sit ups. I haven't been doing them because they do put a weird amount of stress on my tailbone, causing it to be sporadically painful. Since I replaced sit ups with crunches, I haven't had that issue. I figure 100 sit ups today won't kill me. I'm torn between 20 minutes on the elliptical or the steps, and the Step Mill wins. Afterwards, I drop onto the Mat and do my full Mat Stretch. Tomorrow I'll just do a Cage Stretch.

Push Day Workout

30 min Precor elliptical = 2.95 miles

Bench Press
15x45 lbs (bar)
15x95 lbs
12x115 lbs
12x105 lbs
20x95 lbs
20x95 lbs (I probably could've gotten another 20-rep set)

Inclined Bench Press
12x45 lbs (bar)
12x65 lbs
8x85 lbs
10x85 lbs
12x85 lbs

DB Lateral Raise
6x12x20 lbs

Bent-Over DB Reverse Flyes
12x25 lbs
5x12x30 lbs

Cable Tricep Push Downs with V-bar
12x30 lbs
12x40 lbs
12x50 lbs
12x45 lbs
12x35 lbs
25x25 lbs (started off easy and got really hard at rep 18)

100 Twisting Sit Ups

20 min Matrix Step Mill = 1196 steps

Mat Stretch with 2x12 DBPUs, 60-sec plank, splits, upper and lower back stretches