Pentecost (core4jesus) (lol)

DOMs were better today. Arms/shoulders hurt only a little bit because of yesterday and legs are only a tiny bit more sore. Tomorrow leg day at gym again. It's Tuesday so it is usually a little bit less crowded. I ate a bit too much dinner tonight so i hope that wont bother me too much tomorrow. 

Today i did:

• Bicycle crunches 4x20 (per leg)
• Seated knee tuck 3x15 
• 3x15 Reversed crunch
• Dead bug 3x15 (per leg)
• 3x12 Weighted oblique twist (per side) (7.5kg)
• 3x15 Dumbbell side bend (per side) (7.5kg)
• Sitting oblique twist with bar 3x12

The bicycle crunches nearly ended me. I also wanted to do leg raises but i just couldn't get myself to do them so i didn't. I have kind of been neglecting the pull-up bar all together but i can tell that i am getting a bit stronger cause i can lift myself up ever-so-slightly. I need to start doing the lat raises again at the gym but usually after i do my leg raises i feel DESTROYED.

DOMs

I kind of got distracted on Thursday and ended up not doing upper body. And on Friday i had a lot of stuff to do and i didn't go to the gym (which ended up being a good thing) but i did work-out at home. I ended up doing:

• Squats 4x10 12kg 
• RDL 4x10 20kg 
• Hip thrusts 4x8 20kg 
• Bulgarians 3x10 7.5kg

Yesterday i kind of had DOMs that became worse the later it got, but today the DOMs are insane. Today was supposed to be leg day but i wont be able to do it LOL. I think as i go heavier in weight (especially with squats etc.) i might need longer rest days. Whenever i go to the gym i am ok but at home with heavy squats.. yea. That might change when i start incorporating the smith machine at the gym tho. Maybe if i do leg day at home early in the day, and then in the evening go to the gym for cardio, it will lower my DOMs, but i will need to test that out.

I got halfway through an upper body routine yesterday but i am not gonna count that, so i will just do upper body and some core today since i wont do leg day. Tomorrow i will just do strictly core and Tuesday leg day at the gym. Also this weekend (today/tomorrow) is Pentecost, so good thing i don't have to go to the gym tomorrow hehe. 

So today i will just do the lil schedule that i had whipped up for Thursday.

Baby sitting dog!

I have a lil dog i have to dogsit until Saturday which is fun! Also, lots of stuff to do today and tomorrow. Need to set up my partial fence for my yard tomorrow for the dog i have adopted, so i need to get some stuff for that. I also need to go to the store to grocery shop (properly). Today i am going to do upper body  at home. I think i will keep the same weights as i did last time, since i haven't worked out my arms for a while and i will just write down which exercises went easiest, so i can adjust next time. My problem is also that i don't want to build huge arms, so i don't have to go up in weight too much when i work-out my my upper body!

• bent-over barbell row 4x12 (14kg)
• bar curl 4x12 (6kg)
• dumbbell shoulder press 4x12 (4kg)
• bent over lateral raise 4x12 (2kg)
• sitting oblique twists with bar 3x12
• Dumbbell side bend 3x12 (10kg)
• Negative pull-ups 5x5

Edit: i didn't work-out today lol

Wednesday at the gym

Sooo i didn't go to the gym on monday. I felt very down and had a bit of a depressive break. Yesterday i ended up going to the garden store and got some flowers and other stuff for my yard so i felt a little bit better after that. I did go to the gym today. I ended up going a bit later. Google said that almost no one would be there between 12 and 3. So i went around 12. There were like 7 people maybe. It was really nice. I also didn't go to the locker room. I just hung up my hoodie and my bag and immediately started working out. When i wanted to go home i put everything in my bag and went home. I wore my gym shoes but i was on my bike so i barely wore it outside so my shoes were clean.

• Warm-up cardio (20 minutes)

• Hip adductors 1x15 (25kg), 1x15 (30kg), 2x12 (30kg)

• Leg press 1x15 (50kg), 2x12 (60kg), 2x10 (70kg)

• Leg extension 1x10 (20kg), 2x10 (25kg), 2x8 (30kg)

• RDL 2x12 (10kg), 2x10 (14kg)

I did adductors today and i was really struggling. I don't know why they are such a difficult work-out to do whenever i haven't done them for a while. Also, the first set is always easy. Second one i struggle more and then after that it is just downhill. I wanted to do 35kg and 40kg but i couldn't manage to do so. I think next time i should pyramid down instead of pyramid up on adductors/abductors since i obviously struggle with them for some reason.

The leg press went pretty well. I could tell that i hadn't worked out in a while cause i did struggle a little bit but i ended up doing 2 reps of 10 with 70kg so i was pretty proud of that. On Friday i'm gonna see how many i can do with 80kg (probably not many).

I wanted to do cable kickbacks but someone was at the cable machine and near the other one was a group of zoomers so i didn't feel comfortable so i left those out.

Leg extension was PAIN, as always. I could barely walk after (as always). I did manage to do 30kg today so i am happy with that. Next time i am going to start with 25kg and i'm gonna try and do 35kg. I think i could easily do that.

At home i wanted to do hip thrusts but i felt more like doing squats. I first did warm up squats with just my barbell and my quads were burning so much still from the leg extension that i just did RDLs cause i didn't work out my hamstrings today, which ended up being a good conclusion to my workout! Happy!

Sunday funday

Was supposed to do arms today and core but didn't happen. Kind of annoyed with myself, at least i got a little bit of cardio with the dog. I also look more flabby again so i really want to go a bit harder this week. I just wrote out what i want to do tomorrow at the gym. I also think i will go a bit later, since now all the zoomers go at the same time to the gym which is around 10-11 i would say. But also i realized that those really young kids usually go around 12. I am supposed to trust Google it says that there is almost no one at 2-3, but last time i fell for that a group of teens came in (i guess after school). I think i'll go tomorrow at around 11.45AM then i have 20 minutes of cardio and i should be done at around 12.15PM and i should be home at around 13.15PM. It is so difficult to gauge how many people there are at the gym cause it keeps changing depending on the days that you go too. I'm pretty sure that i clearly remember there being a lot of people around 12-1 too, so idk anymore.

I do want to try to go to the gym every day, if anything just for cardio. My birthday is in early june and i want to look good lol. I also need to make an overview of what to eat so i can hit my protein intake. I bought bananas last time i was at the store and i got some vegan protein powder on discount (no idea if it's any good) so i can at least make smoothies with that.

I just really hope it is not crowded tomorrow at my chosen time. Now i am doubting myself.

Saturday leg day (at home)

Yesterday i ended up not doing my arms and core so i guess that was my rest day which means i will have to do it tomorrow. I did walk the dog tho for about 1 hour. Today i did leg day at home and i walked the dog again.

• 5x5 Barbell Squats (10kg)
• 5x5 Romanian Dead Lifts (18kg)
• 1x12 Hip Thrusts (12kg), 1x12 (14kg), 1x12 (18kg), 1x12 (20kg)
• 3x8 Bulgarian Split Squats (7.5kg)
• 3x10 Side bends (10kg)

Before i picked up the dog i was fine but once i started walking the muscle above my ankle started to hurt and it dawned on me that i had forgotten to stretch on Thursday after working out so welp. It's luckily just above the ankle and it only hurts when i'm walking, mainly. I hope i just lightly pulled the muscle and the pain goes away soon.

I opted to go back to 10kg squats again to see how that would go, and to work on my form more and it went pretty well. It is kind of insane that i couldn't even do 10kg squats a few weeks ago, and now they go kinda easy. I still have to practice how to go deeper in a squat, but it will come with time i guess.

For my RDLs i did the 18kg again, the same that i did on Thursday. They're pretty tough and i really need to get wrist straps cause i'm not sure if i could go up in weight otherwise.

Hip thrusts today went better than usual as well. Something that i realized is that when i took off my 18kg plates (2x5kg, 4x2kg) and i put on my 10kg plates that it was waaaay easier to hip thrust. I feel like it has something to do with balancing; like when i have more plates on the barbell it is more difficult. I think i could easily start with 20kg plates next time and then just put 1 or 2 kg plates on them per set, and see how that goes. I did feel it burning in my booty more and i even had some lactic acid build up at one point.

Bulgarian Split Squats went alright today. I feel that i can't do certain exercises properly because i have issues with breathing. I don't know if i have mentioned this here before but i have a deviated septum and i have a very hard time breathing through my nose; it always feels like i am breathing back into my face and like i don't get enough air. I need surgery to fix it, which i am planning on doing some time in the future, but until then i have to just live with it which kind of sucks. I only did 3 sets of 8 reps today cause i started to feel really tired and out of it.

I ended with some side bends since i have been neglecting my core the past few days and i made sure to stretch at the end.

I was thinking to try and go to the gym every day for real this time to do cardio because i feel like my body looks more flabby right now, but if the pain above my ankle doesn't go away then idk if it is a smart move to do that, but we will see.

Eating wise i need to do better as well. I haven't really been eating enough and thus not really fueling my body with enough protein. I think i will walk to the super market tomorrow with the dog to get some more protein food but we'll see how i feel, otherwise i will just bike there. I need to make an overview of what i want to eat the coming week so it is easier to prepare stuff etc.

I am also thinking about making a google doc/sheet with all my work-outs and what i do every week so i have a more proper overview of the gains that i am making.

Crowded gym of ascension :(

Yesterday the weather was nice so i was able to bike the 15km! I was so tired at the end of the day i went to bed early which enabled me to wake up early this morning. That was a good thing since the gym was only open from 9 till 1 (because of the day of Ascension or whatever it's called). When i checked in the morning how many people were at the gym around 9.30 it said there weren't that many people. When i got there (which was some time after 10) it was CROWDED!!! Literally every machine was taken. It was insanity and i hated it. Luckily most of the cardio machines weren't taken when i got there so i could at least do my warm-ups. The funny thing was that every single device that i wanted to use for my legs was empty while i was doing my warm-ups, but once i was done, that wasn't the case anymore. First i had to wait like 5-10 minutes because both the adductor and abductor machines were taken. And then when i finally joinked the abductor, the leg press was taken. The girl who was on the leg press was SO SLOW. I have never seen anyone doing leg presses like that. She would press herself, then wait 5 seconds to descend. AND EVERY SINGLE REP WENT LIKE THAT. She was on the leg press for more than 15 minutes. It was driving me insane. The only 2 machines i had left were the leg press and the leg extension and i knew my legs would give out if i were to go on the leg extension, so i had to wait. Almost 15 fucking minutes dude. I was so fucking annoyed.

• Hip abductors 1x15 (25kg), 1x15 (30kg), 1x15 (35kg), 1x12 (40kg)
• Leg press 2x15 (50kg), 1x12 (60kg), 1x10 (70kg)
• Leg extension 2x10 (20kg), 1x10 (25kg), 2x8 (30kg)
• Barbell RDL 4x8 (18kg)

Once i got on the leg press my legs start lactic aciding so hard. I never had it that bad on the leg press before. Probably cause i had to wait so long between my sets. Absolute annoyance. I did however somehow manage to do 10 reps with 70kg which was pretty cool. I think it was just all my hatred that pushed me through it lol. And also probably because i warmed up my legs a little by doing lower weights first, and i also think i need to start taking 1 minute breaks between my sets instead of just 30 seconds.

The abductor went btw so easy. 25kg is way too low, 30kg is a good warmup weight, but i think i want to start with higher weights with the abductor and build down instead of up on my regular sets. At least i can tell that me squatting at home is paying off lol.

The leg extension went alright. There were 2 people (teens, couldnt have been older than 19) standing around the machine that was next to me, cause one of their friends was on it i think. They saw me putting my towel on the leg extension and they didn't move? They only started moving once i started putting on the weights and they barely moved at all. They could've gone to the other side and they just didn't. Such weird behavior lol. Anyways, i put 20kg on first but i think it is too low. I did 30kg today for the first time and was kind of struggling with it but it's a good weight to do. When i was done with my reps a guy next to me asked how many sets i had left and i was like "oh i just finished lol". First time someone talked to me at the gym. I believe i have seen him more often at the gym tho and he tends to wear cringe t-shirts with playboy on it or rick and morty EW. At least he seemed friendly.

At home i did some RDLs, instead of 5x5 i tried to do normal sets/reps. It went pretty well, although the weight seemed too much for my lower arms so i had to hold it alternatively (one hand facing forwards, the other one backwards) it went better that way. I might need to buy wrist straps. 

While writing this i have been sipping on some protein while listening to music. I haven't stretched yet. My legs still hurt from the leg extension lol. I do kinda want to look into doing the seated leg curl maybe next time at the gym. I don't know if it will hurt as much as the leg extension, but if it doesn't i can do it after the leg press so i can do 4 machines at the gym for legs instead of just 3. Although doing 3 and then going home and doing barbell stuff is serving me pretty well too. I want to try doing cable kick backs again but every time i go the gym it is so crowded and all the pulley systems are taken so i usually don't do them.

I am still not entirely happy with my squatting, but i want to work on it so i can try the smith machine at the gym. It will be a good alternative for the hack squat machine since i can just focus on pushing the weight up instead of keeping my entire weight balanced and it should work out my quads harder.

Tomorrow i wanna do arms and core. I might go to the gym to do cardio + lat pulldowns and then go back home and do some arm stuff. Oh wait, i wont be able to do that cause i have to walk the neighborhood dog tomorrow. Welp. At least i will get my cardio in while running around with her haha.

Leg day at gym becomes leg day at home

Today was supposed to be leg day at the gym, but i overslept. I wanted to go to the gym later, but i ended up going to the store and came home later than anticipated so i just worked out at home. While i was putting the weights on my barbell the neighborhood cat came in and distracted me so instead of 12kg i put 14kg on the barbell and i was like "welp, guess we are gonna do 14 now" so here we are:

• 5x5 Barbell Squats (14kg)
• 5x5 Romanian Dead Lifts (14kg)
• 1x10 Hip Thrusts (14kg), 1x10 (18kg), 2x10 (20kg)
• 4x10 Bulgarian Split Squats (7.5kg)

I also found out that on Thursday it is the "day of the ascension" or whatever (the day when Jesus magic tricked himself out of the cave) which means that it is treated as a "sunday" in my country, which means that everything closes early or isn't open at all. So on Thursday, when i have to go to the gym, the gym is open from 9 till 1 which isn't a big deal for me, but i am afraid that it will be crowded since everyone will probably want to work out and it is probably a lot of people's day off sooo... i guess we will see? If it is too crowded i can always scram i guess.

Also, also, tomorrow i will be visiting my grandparents and afterwards i have to bring back keys from a job i used to have. I hope it wont rain so i can do everything by bike, which will clock me in at 15km! Which will be a good cardio work-out. Since i'll be home late-ish, i probably wont do any other exercises. Thursday leg day at the gym as i said, and friday i'll do upper-body/core again.

Upper body day!!! (with a little bit of core)

Put together my exercises for today. I am going to mix barbell exercises with dumbbell exercises and at the end i will throw in two core exercises done with barbell and dumbbell. In between all my sets i will do negative pull-ups.

• bent-over barbell row 4x12 (14kg)
• negative pull-up 1x5
• bar curl 4x12 (6kg)
• negative pull-up 1x5
• dumbbell shoulder press 4x12 (4kg)
• negative pull-up 1x5
• bent over lateral raise 4x12 (2kg)
• negative pull-up 1x5
• sitting oblique twists with bar 3x12
• negative pull-up 1x5
• Dumbbell side bend 3x12 (10kg)

I have no idea how long it is going to take me to finish this since i have to keep changing up my weights but we will see. Hopefully it wont take me much longer than an hour!

Absent!

I have been feeling a bit burnt out the last few weeks which is why i have been writing less, but in happier news i have adopted a new dog! She will come in from Romania next month and am very excited to meet her. I was having such a hard time with the loss of my dog that it started to weigh me down a lot. It was all i could think about all day every day, and last week was her 1 death anniversary. Weirdly enough, around that time, i stumbled upon a dog shelter website. And they operate out of my old town where i grew up! I never knew it existed! I surfed around on their website and it took me 3 days to make sure i had picked out the right dog cause there were so many cute ones.

I think once i have her i will feel better cause i have something to plan my days around. Right now i don't really have that. Since i work from home, i can come and go as i please which makes it harder to properly structure my days. Also, i had to go grocery shopping for about 2 weeks now and i keep not going. I just don't feel motivated at all. I buy whatever the small neighborhood grocery store has to offer to make sure i hit my protein for the day and that is about it. When i have my dog i will feel more pressured to properly go grocery shopping cause i have to keep her fed.

I also really have been slacking with the gym. I just constantly don't feel like going. Mainly the zoomers who kept being at the gym made me very demotivated, i don't know why. They were just such a distraction being there and because they all moved in packs of 3 the gym constantly felt very crowded, even though it wasn't. I was determined to go to the gym this week but i got my period this morning so welp.

Tomorrow is leg day at the gym tho so i am going to go!!! I btw didn't write that i hit 70kg on the leg press the last time i went to the gym. I did 5 reps. Am very proud of my progress so far and would like to keep going so tomorrow I AM GOING NO EXCUSES.

My body has also changed a lot i have realized. I have lost a lot of fat on the side of my waist. Normally when i would bend to the side i had about 2-3 fat rolls, now i only have one, and i think it isn't even fat, it's just skin. My hourglass figure is coming through more which i am very happy with especially since i have been slacking so much. I have been working out at home almost every other day tho but i do nothing but squats and RDLs mainly. Haven't hit core and arms as hard.

Food wise i haven't been doing too great either. I've had pizza and ate 2 more bags of cheetos during my weeks of absence and am actually surprised that i am not getting fatter LOL.

Today i actually wanted to do some cardio at the gym and do arms, but i will just do arms at home now since my period is driving me insane, and i might add some core. I will make a new post for what i wanna do today.