Pumping Iron on Day 10

I completely forgot my notebook.  Luckily the Body For Life website has them for download so I was still able to record how I did.

Overall I was happy with my chest and back exercises.  I did the chest press machine and then followed up with pec flies.  For my back I did the lat pull machine both sitting up and inclined.  The system I use recommends switching up your exercise at the end for some reason.  Hitting your paradigm shift and striving for the core or something.

The plan is to start at a “level 5″ intensity.  I figure a level 4 is something you could do all day, but a level 5 actually takes some effort.  So I do 12 reps at level 5, 10 reps at level 6, 8 reps at level 7, and then 6 reps at level 8.  I increase the level by increasing the weight I’m lifting.  At the end of the exercise I do 12 reps at level 9 and then 12 reps at level 10 (the max).  That’s the goal at least.  A level 10 is where you absolutely can’t get another lift out and you’re done.  If I think I could have probably gotten another one out then I rate that a 9.  The idea is to do that with short breaks for each muscle area.  Since today was upper body I did chest, back, shoulders, triceps, and biceps.

I also kept track of where I started and where I ended up.  I can now look at it and say I did really well and was happy with the back exercise, but I wasn’t too happy with the shoulder exercises.  That’s probably my weakest — I was only able to get 16 reps at the end part of the workout before my arms felt like there were going to fall off, explode, then melt into the floor.

I have a little place to make comments like “start shoulders at 40 with longer rest time = more reps” and “GO GO BURN!”  That was my comment after my back exercise.  It was awesome and manly and immediately sprouted new hair on my chest.

Tomorrow is dragon smashing time.  I’ll let you know what that’s all about.