I wanted to choose weights that I could do, but that also would be pretty challenging - I figured I would rather push myself and fail (as these workout don't really matter too much), than to go too light. So, I decided to go with 135 on the close-grip bench, and to use the 25 lb Dumbbells for the curls.
That's about where I close grip. Maybe a little bit wider
I managed to make it through the curls, although it was pretty hard. This is a pretty awesome improvement however, considering where I started: on the first post I wrote about curls on this blog, I did 10, 9, and 7 reps with the 25's. So, doing 5 sets of 10, super-setted with another movement, is pretty cool. The close grip was the real pleasant surprise, however: this was the heaviest 5 x 10 I have ever done for bench (with any grip, never mind close grip), And I even managed to squeeze out 12 reps on the final set. I think this shows a huge improvement in my tricep strength, and in my bench press strength in general, and I'm pretty excited I was able to make it through this workout pretty easily, when I wasn't even sure i would be able to do it at all at first.
Even though arm days are a little bit stupid, and I still count them as being relatively unimportant in comparison to my real workouts, I think that they are really helping me to get stronger in my upper body, and I plan to keep doing them whenever I can on Wednesdays. It was a very worthwhile experiment.
Hodge twins are right when they say you got to find what works for YOU. I may think "arm day" is pretty stupid, but it's certainly helping get me stronger.
On a slightly different note, after my 24 hour cheat last weekend, I have already noticed a drop in body fat %. Before the meet, I would have estimated my body fat at about 14.5%. However, looking at myself yesterday morning and today, I would honestly say I've dropped down to between 13 and 14%. I'm right on the edge of my abs being visible WITHOUT me having to flex them like a motherfucker, and when I do flex, you can see my upper abs pretty clearly - but relaxed, my manbelly still hides them for the most part. If I can drop down another 2%, and get between 11 and 12, I should be able to start to see them without flexing, although I'll still have to get down to around 8 in order to be at the level I want as far as leanness goes. SO, it seems pretty clear that the cheat meals work really well for me in terms of kickstarting my metabolism for fat loss. I'm going to stick with my current diet for the rest of this three week cycle, and pay attention to see if I notice a fat-loss plateau again in the second half of these weeks. If not: great, but if I do plateau like I did last cycle, then I think I'll have to change my diet to include more cheats: I'll have to be stricter overall in my diet throughout the week, but then have a 24 hour cheat every weekend to ramp up my metabolism. I'm thinking that, if I decide to change, I'll probably eat 3 big keto meals a day, with 3 protein shakes in between the meals to make sure I'm getting enough protein, then cheat friday night through saturday evening. BUT, thats just one idea, none of this is decided yet. I'll have to see how the rest of this cycle goes before I change anything.
Low ass body fat, I'm coming for you
Coming up tomorrow, lots of cool shit! Speed work, heavy single squat, and some slight changes to my thursday assistance work. Get strong bitches.
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