Training for Monday-Wednesday, March 30th.

Monday 03/28

Today was a pretty normal training day. Nothing special. However, I am going to do another Pulse Fast today after the weekend carb-up.

AM - 16 Reps on the Waterbury Challenge.

PM - Upper Body

Chins: 65 x 4, 4, 70 x 4, 4, 75 x 4, 80 x 4

Yates Barbell Row: 265 x 12 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 4

High Incline Smith Press (Fat Gripz): 185 x 17 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 4

Neutral Grip Icarian Press (Tyler Grips): 130 x 15 + 5, 5, 6, 5, 6

Incline DB Side Laterals: 37.5 x 14 + 4, 4, 5, 5, 5

Rear DB Laterals: 30 x 19 + 5, 5, 6, 6, 7

Hammer DB Curls (Tyler Grips): 50 x 17 + 4, 3, 4, 4, 4

Tricep Pressdown (Fat Gripz): 160 x 15 + 4, 4, 5, 5, 5

Didn't get any cardio in after work. Went to Costco instead. :)

Tuesday 03/29

Weight is holding around 191 after yesterday's Pulse Fast.

AM - Foam rolling and 17 reps on the Waterbury Challenge

PM - Legs

I'm going to take a break from the Front Squats for a few weeks. My back still feels a little weird and I haven't taken a break from the Squats for a few months.

Cybex Squat Machine: 360 x 6, 380 x 6, 400 x 6, 420 x 4

Cybex Squat (Myo Reps): 300 x 12 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 4

Hip Thrust: 275 x 8 + 4, 3, 3, 3, 3

One Leg Press w/mini bands: 140 x 15/10/8 + 6, 5, 5, 5, 5

One Leg Calf Raise w/mini bands: 140 x 16/10/5 + 5, 5, 6, 5, 5

Lying Leg Curl: 155 x 10 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 4

Cybex Calf Raise: 270 x 10 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 4

After work - Sprints

10 x 50 yards followed by some stretching.

Wednesday 03/30

Normally, today is an off day, but I had energy to burn after work.

18 reps on the Waterbury Challenge (still only one set for each exercise)

15 min on the Recumbent Bike

20 min Yoga - Gaiam PM Yoga.

Sucker Punch - Movie Review.

Sucker Punch - Movie Review

I'll start off by saying that I actually like Zack Snyder. I've enjoyed most of movies, like 300, I loved Watchmen, and I even liked Legend of the Guardians. Like him or not, he has a distinctive style. I was really looking forward to this movie. It looked just insane to me from the previews and I was looking forward to seeing what this was all about. Then, I starting hearing all the bad reviews and was like, uh oh. I still went into this with an open mind.

I just got out of seeing this movie a few hours ago and I was kind of speechless. Not because it was so good that I couldn't put into words how much I loved it, but more like that I couldn't tell you what this movie was supposed to be about. The best way I can describe this movie is that it's a beautiful movie about nonsense. The effects are great, the fantasy sequences are really beautiful and there are some gorgeous women in this movie. The story, however, is just nonsense.

To sum it up, Emily Browning plays a girl, simply named Baby Doll, that is put in a mental institution. Except that in this mental institution, they are made to perform and dance for people. You know, because that's what they normally do in mental institutions with the patients, make them put on shows to entertain people. Makes perfect sense. So, they make Baby Doll dance, and when she dances, her mind goes into this fantasy world where all this weird shit happens. During her first dance, she gets the idea to escape from the mental institute and enlists some of the other patients to help her and escape with her. They need to steal a few items from several people and Baby Doll will dance to distract them while her friends steal the item.

It's kind of established in the movie that Baby Doll doesn't know how she's doing this and she just goes into a trance. However, she states as they are coming up with the plan to escape that when she does her dance, the target will be distracted and they can do their thing. Huh? If you don't know how you're doing it and you're in a trance yourself while you do it, then how the hell do you know how it affects other people? It's only a single line, but it's just of those things that when you're trying to make sense of a movie it takes you out of it a bit because you realize the writing is weak.

Don't take this to mean that I found that movie confusing, it's just not a very good story or screenplay. It felt like this movie was trying to be smart and have multiple layers, like Inception, but it's just nowhere near as good.

The fantasy sequences seemed just kind of random to me. It felt like this was written by a kid that wanted to make a movie and decided to throw every fantasy element he could think of into it.

Synder overused the slo-mo in the movie to the point where it became annoying. I understand it's his style, but it's just way overdone here. However, if you watched some of these action sequences at regular speed, you probably wouldn't have been able to tell what was going on at all. This is a movie that's probably much better to watch on a nice HDTV where you can rewind and watch some of the action sequences to see that is going on.

With that said, this is a rental and even then I would tell you not to expect much.

Training for Thursday through Sunday the 27th.

I'm still feeling pretty weak, so I'm just treating the rest of this week as a back off week. Hopefully, I'll start feeling better next week.

Thursday 03/24 - Upper body

AM - Got 12 reps each of chins, reverse lunges, pushups and single-leg calf raises. I like the way I feel after these. It's similar to how I feel after a tabata session.

PM - Upper body

Floor Press (Fat Gripz): 225 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 - Two second pause at the floor

Incline Hammer Strength Press: 230 x 12 + 4, 4, 4, 5, 5

Close Grip Pulldown: 160 x 15 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 4

Hammer Strength Seated Row: 230 x 16 + 4, 4, 5, 5, 5

Rear Delt Raise: 35 x 12 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 5

Cybex Tricep Pressdown: 120 x 12 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Cybex Preacher Curl: 110 x 10 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

After work, I got 15 minutes on the recumbent bike.

Friday 03/25 - Lower Body

AM - Did 13 reps each of the Waterbury Challenge. Still feels pretty easy and energizing.

PM - Weights (Lower Body)

RDL: 405 x 4, 4, 415 x 4, 425 x 3, 4, 5 - My back felt a lot better this week.

One Leg Curl: 90 x 6 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Seated Leg Curl: 285 x 12 + 4, 3, 4, 4, 4

Leg Press: 450 x 18 + 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Leg Press Calf Raise: 500 x 13 + 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Saturday 03/26 - Off

Weight was at 190 even today. I'm giving blood around 1:30 and then I'm going to carb back up with some pizza and watch some movies. I intended on doing some sprints before the blood donation, but my back was pretty sore from yesterdays workout, so I decided against it. I did do 14 reps on the Waterbury Challenge though, so I at least did that.

Sunday 03/27 - Prowler

Weight is back up to 195 after the carb up. I'm a little tired still, but I have a little more energy this morning. As the weather has finally let up, I can get a Prowler session in. Before my Prowler session, I did 15 reps on the Waterbury Challenge. The good news is that I can still do it all in one set. I still have a few left in the tank, so I think I may be able to get up to about 20 before I need to start breaking it up into multiple sets.

Prowler Drive Pad:

180 x 30 yards x 2, 230 x 30 x 2, 260 x 30 x 2, 270 x 30 x 2

Prowler Reverse Push:

180 x 30 x 2, 190 x 30 x 2, 200 x 30 x 2, 210 x 30 x 2

Prowler walk with Strength Shoes:

210 x 30 x 2, 220 x 30 x 2, 230 x 30 x 2, 240 x 30 x 2

Paul - Movie review and this week in DVD.

Paul - Movie Review

Today, I saw Paul. This is a total geek-fest! If you liked stuff like Fanboys, then this is like Fanboys, but with better writing and actors. It's not great, and the Pegg/Frost duo would have been helped by Edgar Wright, but it still was happy with this.

As much as I liked this, I actually recommend this as a rental. Rent this, get a 12 pack or two, a few pizzas and a collection of your best geek buddies and watch this together. Make a game out of all the movie references you catch. You'll have a blast if you watch it that way.

The Tourist

What a fucking bore! Before I saw this, I was wondering how you could fuck up a movie starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, but these guys found a way. I don't blame the actors. I blame the writer/director of this movie, who's essentially an unknown, and with movies like this is going to stay that way. This was just plain bad.

Hereafter

I really wanted to like this. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Matt Damon. What could go wrong? A boring ass story, that's what went wrong. This movie blows it's wad in the first 5 minutes. The tsunami scene you see in the commercials? That's a the beginning of the movie. The rest is people just wandering around. You really feel the length of this movie, which is only just a tad over two hours long, but feels like it's three hours plus. You can leave the room for 15-20 minutes and come back and not feel like you really missed anything. I was really disappointed in this.

Morning Glory

This movie kind of broke my heart. A perky Rachel McAdams (who I still love) and a cranky Harrison Ford (which would have worked here with a better script) and this movie just came up short. You get a glimpse of what this movie could have a been about halfway through when there's a pretty good scene of Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton going back and forth at each other. At the end of the day, I'm not sure what this movie wanted to be. At times, it seems like it's going to be a smart-assy movie making fun of morning news shows. Then, it feels like it's a story about a woman balancing her love life and career with a bit of romantic comedy thrown in. I don't think it committed to any of these themes and ultimately suffered for it.

Switch

I actually didn't mind this. It's another romantic comedy, so it's inherently predictable, but it's carried by the performances of Jason Bateman and Thomas Robinson, who plays the neurotic kid. This is also a movie where I actually felt Jennifer Aniston was not playing the typical romantic comedy role that she seemed doomed to play for eternity. It's pretty funny at times and I enjoyed it for what it was.

Faster

Don't expect much in the way of dialog, but if you want to watch a mindless, action flick, look no further. It's basically The Rock playing the Terminator for 90 minutes, which is kind of bad ass. This is the kind of stuff I was expecting The Rock to do when he first started acting, instead of shit like The Tooth Fairy and The Game Plan (I'm sure it helped pay the bills though, so whatever).

This isn't a great movie, but considering the alternative, I'd rather see The Rock make 10 more movies like this, than make one more The Tooth Fairy.

The Next Three Days

Man, another bore of a movie. You get Russell Crowe and have him do nothing for 90 minutes. Unfortunately, this is a two hour movie. The last 20 minutes is pretty much the only part worth watching. It's a waste of time otherwise.

Luther

This is an awesome, short BBC series starting Idris Elba. If you're a fan of Idris Elba, that's probably already enough information. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but this is just a bad-ass mini-series about Idris Elba playing a detective who forms a weird bond with a killer played by Ruth Wilson. The exchanges between the two are fascinating and kept me wanting more. This is fast paced and just a great show all around. I highly recommend this to everyone looking for a good, but short, mini-series to watch.

Training for Monday-Wednesday, March 23rd.

Monday 03/21 - Upper Body.

Ugh...man, I am achy today. I'm not sure if this is from dieting all month or being sick all of last week. I'm still not 100%, but I just hate being lazy or making excuses.

Chins: 60 x 4, 4, 65 x 4, 4, 70 x 4, 75 x 4 - No Fat Gripz today. Just regular Chins.

Yates Row: 255 x 12 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

High Incline Smith Machine Presses: 185 x 15 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 5

Incline Machine Press: 220 x 10 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Incline Side Raises: 37.5 x 15 + 4, 4, 4, 4, 5

Incline Rear Raises: 30 x 16 + 4, 4, 4, 4, 5

Hammer Dumbbell Curls (Tyler Grips): 50 x 12 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 4

Tricep Pressdown (Fat Gripz): 150 x 18 + 4, 5, 6, 6, 7

After work, yet another 15 minutes on the recumbent bike.

Tuesday 03/22 - Squats and Sprints.

Weighed in at 194.4 this morning. Today I'm doing another Pulse Fast, so this should be interesting.

Just did a little bit of foam rolling before work. I also started the Waterbury Challenge today. You can read about it here.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/plp_the_60day_challenge

This should be pretty easy for the first 30 days. It's mainly just something extra to throw into the mix. Before work I did:

10 chins

10 reverse lunges (per leg)

10 pushups

10 one-legged calf raises - the workout didn't call for this, but I hate my calves

PM - Legs

Front Box Squats: 275 x 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 - I just didn't have it today. From this point on, I considered today a back-off day.

Front Box Squats (Myo Reps): 185 x 11 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 4

Hip Thrust: 275 x 13 + 4, 3, 3, 4, 4

One Leg Press w/mini bands: 140 x 10, 10, 10, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5

One Leg Calf Raise w/mini bands: 140 x 10, 8, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Cable Pull Through: 150 x 10 + 5, 4, 4, 4, 5

Cybex Calf Raise: 270 x 8 + 4, 3, 3, 4, 5

Weak sauce! The diet's over soon, so I can finally eat more carbs.

After work was sprinting time. Despite my fatigue, I actually felt pretty good during sprints. Perhaps all the leg and Prowler work carried over.

10 x 40 meter sprints followed by some stretching.

Wednesday 03/23 - Off, but some notes.

Today, I was pretty happy. I weighed in at 191 flat this morning and then I took a certification test for work that I've been stressing about for a few months now. Fortunately, I passed the test and I can say it was clearly affecting my mood as I was instantly in a good mood the rest of the day. Went out after work, had a drink and caught a movie.

After the movie, did the Waterbury Challenge:

11 Chins

11 Reverse Lunges

11 Pushups

11 One legged calf raises

Fun stuff!

Limitless - Movie Review

Let me start by saying that before this movie, I did not like Bradley Cooper. First off, his name is fucking Bradley Cooper. Second, he always just had that douchey, asshole attitude to me. I wasn't sure if that was just the type of roles he was taking, or just his own personality coming through in his acting. Hell, I'd be the first to admit that maybe I hated him cause he's just too good looking or something. Fuck him and his good looks. :P

Well, after this movie, I have to say that my opinion of Bradley Cooper has changed. I genuinely liked him in this movie and now I think he can carry a movie.

Yes, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie! It's not a perfect movie, nor is it a movie that I can see watching over and over, but I think it's a really good story.

You know how you watch a movie and go, "If he's so smart, then how come he doesn't do this?" Well, I didn't find myself saying this that much. I actually found myself surprised at the lack of plot holes in this movie. The movie kept me going and I didn't find myself going 'huh?' through most of it.

Overall, my enjoyment of the movie is a genuine surprise. I was really expecting to hate this.

The less you know about this movie, the better. Stop watching trailers and just go see this.

Training for Thursday through Sunday the 20th.

Thursday - 03/17 - Upper Body.

Still feeling pretty weak from being sick and the diet. I almost called in sick today, but we're short handed at work, and I'm no pussy, so I went in. Around workout time, I actually felt pretty good, so I decided to do a workout session. Around the time I got to the gym, most of my gym buddies were at the gym, which kind of motivated me. At worst, it at least made me feel like I was at home...

Floor Press (Fat Gripz): 255 x 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 - Man, the weakness is really settling in.

Floor Press (Myo/Fat Gripz): 205 x 11 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 3

Close Grip Pulldown (Fat Gripz): 160 x 15 + 4, 4, 4, 4, 5

Seated Chest Supported Row: 180 x 20 + 5, 5, 6, 5, 5

Rear DB Incline Delt Raise: 32.5 x 18 + 5, 5, 5, 5, 7

Rear Delt Machine: 120 x 10 + 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Cybex Tricep Machine: 120 x 15 + 3, 3, 4, 4, 4

Cybex Preacher Curl (Tyler Grips): 110 x 15 + 4, 3, 4, 4, 4

Friday - 03/18 - Off

Today is normally not an off day, but I felt like absolute HELL today. My weight dropped to 191, which normally would be a good thing on a diet, but with me being sick and how I've felt, seems like more of a signal to take a day off. Today ended up being a pretty busy day at work, and I ended up not taking a lunch break, so I just skipped the workout. I got home Friday night, made a big dinner, watched Hereafter (which sucked) and then rested up.

Saturday - 03/19 - Legs

I'm on call this weekend, which normally means I can't do much as far as working out, but around 3:30, I figured I wasn't going to get called, and I was feeling pretty rested, so I wanted to get a session in. Because my normal gym closes at 4 on the weekends, I needed to go to the new, but really super shitty, 24 Hour. This place sucks ass! There's one power rack and one weighted leg press. Period! Everything else is a machine, which isn't inherently bad, but only one plate loaded leg press? Huh?

Plus, they used to follow you around and harass you for carrying a gym bag on the gym floor. Even today, most of the people at the gym seem more interested in watching the games on the TV screens, than working out. I mean, seriously people, go home and watch the game if that's your priority. Get the fuck out of my way (and out of the way of anyone that wants to work out seriously). As busy as the gym was, I saw maybe 4-5 people that looked like they were actually trying to get a good workout in. Anyway...

RDL: 405 x 4, 425 x 4, 4, 435 x 4, 4, 445 x 4 - Still a little weak, but not too bad. I have to admit that it's nice when you put that much weight on a bar and people start to stare. :)

Lying Leg Curl: 155 x 12 + 4, 3, 4, 4, 5

Seated Leg Curl: 120 x 20 + 5, 5, 5, 6, 8

One Leg Press (Free Motion): 180 x 20 + 5, 5, 5, 5, 6

Leg Press: 450 x 18 + 4, 4, 5, 5, 10 - Okay, I'm clearly not pushing myself enough on the first set. I'm going to need to figure out what the deal is here. More warm up maybe?

Calf Press (Hoist): 376 x 13 + 4, 4, 4, 4, 5

Seated Calf Raise: 135 x 20 + 6, 6, 6, 6, 8

My back felt pretty sore after, but I felt okay on Sunday. I was tempted to do sprints, but I ended up getting a few calls for work, so I just didn't have time. Plus, I don't like to do sprints when I can't start my day with yoga before the sprint session. Hopefully, the weather will lighten up and allow me to do more sprints and Prowler sessions.