My Training Journal

 I've been exercising myself for literally over 50 years, starting with the President's Council on Physical Fitness chart and an old Universal in high school, through the 70s muscle magazines and Mentzer/Darden/Nautilus, through NSCA and ACE certifications and a very occasional physique competition and ruptured biceps and triceps and rotator cuff surgery and so on. Not that I've been a spectacular success physique-wise, and certainly not influencer-wise, but I've managed to earn a living at personal training and stayed in varying degrees of shape. 

Probably more important and relevant to you the reader, is my experience at working around and/or avoiding injuries of the exercise-induced kind. In a completely unscientific and anecdotal research study, I conclude that a high percentage of my readers are also recreational trainees, who had a lot of the same influences I did prior to the biomechanics stuff, with varying issues with their joints. Way back when Moment Arm Exercise came out, the late Greg Anderson and others you may know let me know that they had quietly pulled the Nautilus Pullover out of their routines because of shoulder complaints, and that MAE helped them figure out work arounds. Recently a reader let me know that he had torn a hip labrum from leg pressing too deep and that JFF showed him how to continue exercising after recovering. And so on.

So, with that in mind, I'll periodically share my own personal workouts, not because it will turn you into Senior Old Guy Masters Mr. Olympia, but because maybe you'll find some of my issues and workarounds useful.

Downloaded from my new high tech workout journal:



You saw that coming, right? Spiral bound, graph dot notebook from the BOOM podcasters. In pencil, because I plan the week and then adjust based on if anything new hurts or if my energy is higher or lower that day, like if I work out in the morning or after all the clients are done later in the evening.

I generally train as I wrote in JFF. Ten reps in one minute, with the occasional static hold/negative, one set per exercise, whole body each workout, 2-3 times/week, with at least 30 minutes of static or interval cardio.

At the beginning of October, I caught COVID, which pretty much wiped out 4 weeks of exercise, the longest stretch since the rotator cuff surgery in 2016. It was a bit disturbing that was when Doug Brignole died of what turned out to be COVID. Lucky for me, I wasn't dehydrated or cutting weight or doing anything else in preparation for a physique appearance. Still. Not cool.

When I started up again in November, I backed way off, a little less weight and instead of doing ten reps in one minute, I did 5 or 6 reps in 30 seconds, took a 30 second break, and did a second set. That was a nice change of pace, so I stuck with it, gradually eked the weights back up, then lost my mind and overdid it. To make up for lost time, 4 days/week, split routines, 5 sets on a muscle (shades of 1976 Mentzer!), added jumping rope for the first time in years.

So by December, my left shoulder (the repaired one) and right hip (just being difficult) were BARKING. These two weeks are where I ended up after cleaning up the workouts. I remembered Zane would split and put the chest/shoulder/triceps on one day so his shoulders got more of a break, and Mentzer did the same for different reasons. I generally didn't, but I am now. Forget 4d/week with a two-way split. 3d/week, back, biceps, abs Monday, legs Tues or Wed or Thurs, and chest/shoulder/triceps Friday. Although written in pencil, not stone.

On upper body days, 10:00 on the Upper Body Ergometer first, a thorough warm up. If I didn't have a UBE, I'd use the heavy rope for intervals. If I didn't have a heavy rope, probably cycles of the exercises with half the working weight. Dumbbell chest flyes/presses did not agree with the shoulder. Standing chest flyes on the Freedom Trainer, while not quite right "cam" profile, much easier on the shoulders. Without the FT, I would use elastics, one arm at a time. DB side raises and presses also out. Standing rear delt, internal and external rotations with bands are it for shoulders, with either the bodyblade or heavy rope for 5 minutes of intervals as the finisher/pump set.

I generally do 30 minutes of steady cardio on the recumbent bike, which leaves the hip alone. Before or after, except on leg day when it's before the leg press. Again, a thorough warm up, and if it makes the working weight feel heavier, that's fine by me.

I'm playing a little bit on the heel raises (which replaces the jump rope) and abs. I notice Ell Darden is experimenting with faster reps, and in a bunch of the old muscle mags I mention in the other blog, a few of the old timers also suggested it. The original hesitation still counts, the idea that you end up heaving and dropping the weight; so the challenge is to find exercises where you can control that and still move faster each rep. Heel raises and curl ups seem to fit.

Now I just have to have the discipline to not get ambitious. Stick with the exercises that aren't making my joints bark. One whole body workout/week, even if I split it in 3. I also have to hold back from "one set to failure" tendency, which invariably tweaks something at the high effort. 2 or 3 sets of 6 with 30 seconds rest is fine, and I like the rhythm and pace, instead of having to rest longer at the back end of a whole body, intense workout. 

And I have to remember, when nothing is barking at me, IT'S NOT A SIGN TO GO CRAZY. Diet harder, keep with the small increments, keep with the exercises that don't hurt, and it's ok for the weights to feel heavy, they don't have to be heavy.

Sure.

This blog by Bill DeSimone, author of Joint-Friendly Fitness and Congruent Exercise.

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