Leg day at home + some May thoughts

Yesterday core went well (i updated what i did in the two week overview post), don't feel it as much today as i did last week which is kind of annoying cause i like to feel the burn. Maybe i didn't do enough. I forgot to do one exercise (side hip raises) and then flaked on the other one (hanging knee raises) so it is my own fault. 

Today is leg day at home. I am speaking to my best friend again so i am waiting for him to get home from work so we can work out together. My squats and deadlifts are going up in weight (from 4 to 8kg) but it should still be relatively easy for me. I am dreading once i go up in weight, because i am so weak lol. I am also going to try and do my bulgarian split squats with 10kg dumbbells (7.5kg warmup first). 

I am also thinking to start cutting my calories. I am really not happy with how flabby my core is; i feel like my body looks leaner, but there is a lot of flab. I might try to go to the gym daily to do some light cardio (like walking up hill on treadmill), but it depends on how i feel idk. I am trying to not make excuses for myself, but it is difficult since i deal with some anxiety, however i know how important it is to expose yourself to things you don't like/are afraid of, so i just have to overcome that. So let's just say: from tomorrow on i am going to the gym every day to do cardio, and let's see how that goes. I'll keep you updated.

I also want to start cutting calories because of the flab. I tried to cut calories last week but i felt so lethargic, so i am going to try and do it again. I will give myself "cheat meals" on Wednesday and Saturday; like have whole grain pasta on Wednesday's, and have something more fatty like pizza on Saturdays. I used to do this 2 years ago combined with running and doing light muscle exercises daily and my body looked really good, so lets try to keep this diet the entirety of May! I stopped counting calories and protein too so i will pick that up again starting tomorrow.

Update: leg day went really well. Instead of normal squats i did sumo squats cause they feel a bit better on my knees than normal squats. Hip thrusts with 20kg was insane, but i will keep at it until i normally can do them with 20kg. I kept falling over doing my 10kg dumbbell squats, which was kind of annoying, but i will also keep at it until i can do them normally (without falling over lol). 

Two week overview (29 april - 14 may)

I wanna write out for myself what i want to do the coming 2 weeks because i feel it will help. I looked around a little bit to see if there are different ways i can do some of my exercises and there are some. Like for example, i can start doing single leg work outs, like doing single leg RDLs with dumbbell, single leg leg press etc. I am thinking of maybe doing the single leg workouts after these two weeks are over.

Saturday - Core at home

3x15 Bicycle crunches (per leg)

3x20 Seated alternating knee tuck  (per leg)

3x15 Reversed crunch

3x20 Weighted oblique twist (10 reps per side) (7.5kg)

3x15 Dumbbell side bend (per side) (10kg)

Sunday - Legs at home

5x5 Sumo Barbell Squats (8kg)

4x12 Bulgarian Split Squats (7.5>10>10>10kg)

5x5 Romanian Dead Lifts (8kg)

4x15 Hip Thrusts (20kg)

3x12 Nordic Curls

Monday - Upper body at home

1x15 Lat raises (20kg) (at gym), 2x12 (25kg)

5x5 Barbell front raise (4kg)

5x5 Bar curl (4kg)

5x5 Bent-over barbell row (14kg)

5x5 Push up shrugs

5x5 Inverted rear dealt row

3x12 Seated barbell twist (4kg)

Body changes

I realized when it comes to body changes that mainly my back leg muscle is growing a lot, and ever since i stopped doing my home work-out routine as much, my butt has shrunk in size again, so it is obvious that my home routine was doing something. I think that i might start changing my routine again where, when i go to the gym mon/wed/fri, that i instead go Monday and Friday and that i work-out at home on Wednesday and Sunday. Then Tuesday/Thursday gym and Saturday at home.

My waist has shrunk in size as well. I naturally have a pretty small waist and larger hips (so a hourglass figure) and it is finally coming out more again.

I think what is killing my gains the most is that on my "off" days i very often try new work-outs or i am figuring out routines to do (like for my upper body or core), which makes it more difficult to track whether i am getting stronger or not. Next to that, i very often skip those days too because i feel lethargic or i just forget. And maybe, just maybe, doing legs every other day makes me exhausted, which makes no sense cause i literally did my legs every other day for an entire month at home and i was totally fine (i maybe skipped it once or twice). 

On some days i am also getting really sick and tired of just propping my mouth full with protein. I wish i didn't have to eat so much, it is getting annoying. I even stopped tracking my calories and protein intake, cause i hated seeing how many calories i was actually consuming and it made me uncomfortable.

Anyways, new routine maybe starting next week:

Monday: arms/shoulders home
Tuesday: leg day gym
Wednesday: day off
Thursday: leg day gym
Friday: core at home
Saturday: legs at home
Sunday: day off
Monday: legs at gym
Tuesday: arms/shoulders home
Wednesday: legs at home
Thursday: day off
Friday: legs at gym
Saturday: core at home
Sunday: legs at home

Superset gym day

Another gym leg day! Yesterday i didn't do anything cause i got distracted with other things whoops.

• Warm-up (20 minutes)
• Hip adductors 2x15 (25kg), 2x10 (30kg), 1x20 sets of 5 (30kg) 
• Leg extension 1x12 (15kg), 3x10 (20kg), 1x8 (25kg), 1x20 sets of 4 (25kg) 
• Leg press 1x15 (30kg), 1x15 (40kg), 1x12 (50kg), 1x10 (60kg), 1x26 sets of 5 (60kg) 
• Romanian deadlifts 5x5 4kg
• Stretch

I went to the gym way later than i wanted and the entire gym was full with zoomers (my bad). I had to turn around my entire training schedule because the machines i wanted to use were constantly occupied which was very annoying.

I started with the hip adductors which were a pain in the ass (not literally) because my adductors were still sore from Wednesday. Before i leave my house i always stretch and i couldn't stretch the adductors as well as i usually can which was annoying. Doing 30kg was very difficult (i was struggling around the 8 reps) and i didn't write down that i wanted my super sets to be 4, not 5, so i thought my super set had to be 5 reps so that kind of fucked me up lol.

After the adductors i wanted to do the leg press but it was occupied, so i waited for a bit and it was still occupied so i just decided to do the leg extension. This wasn't very smart because my legs hurt so badly after doing my supersets that i could barely walk and i was getting very annoyed because to me, gauging my strength is done through the leg press, it is my most important work-out at the gym, and i was gonna do it last. I wasn't happy about this.

At the leg press i felt like i was struggling a lot, especially with the 50kg, and the 60kg wasn't easy either. I did a superset of almost 30 reps, but i think i only hit 26 and then i just died. My legs hurt so badly and i usually never have lactic acid problems when doing the leg press. So next time i will just wait to use the leg press, cause i am never gonna do it last again.

After the leg press i just went straight home cause i could barely walk and someone was doing the lat raises, so i was like whatever. I was thinking about maybe just walking into the gym to do lat raises on my arm/shoulder days and then walk out. The gym is nearby and i would only have to use one device so i wouldn't really care how crowded it is. I won't even bother going to the changing room, just walk in and out.

Anyways, at home i did the RDLs which went easy since 4kg is kind of a very low weight for me, and then for stretches i did an extra 20 minutes of adductor stretches since they felt so tight. At the moment they are still sore but i don't feel as stiff.

Now i have Sunday to look forward to to do my entire home routine. 

Gym leg day!

 Gym today was gud. I woke up a little later than i wanted but that's okay since i still ended up going. 

• Warm-up (23 minutes)
• Hip adductors 1x15 (25kg) 3x10 (30kg)
• Leg press 3x15 (30>40>40kg), 1x12 (50kg), 1x10 (60kg )
• Leg extension 4x12 (15>20>25>25) 
• Lat pulldowns 3x15 (20>20>25kg)
• Barbell squats 5x5 4kg
• Stretch

After the gym i went to the store to grab some food and then when i came home i did my 5x5 squats. I warmed up with the bar and did 10 squats, then i put the weights on and i did 5x5. On Friday i will try and do it with 5kg and build up from there. 

Anyways, hip adductors were a little tough today. I only got to 6-8 full reps with 30kg, and had to push my legs really hard (sometimes pushing them closed with my hands) to get to 12. I think next time i will go 15>20>20>25kg and then do another 25kg super set till 20 reps (do some reps, rest, do some reps, rest till i hit 20). 

Leg press went a bit tougher today too. I felt the chemicals boiling in my quads with only doing 40kg. I think i will also super set the leg press on Friday with 60kg. I honestly think i will super set everything on Friday.

Leg extension was rough as always. After doing 8 reps with 25 i had to take a deep breath and take a 1 second pause to get myself to 12. So i am excited to super set this on Friday.

I forgot to do cable kickbacks today. I felt a bit distracted, but i did end up doing the lat pulldowns, which went quite tough. I thought last week i did 30kg, but i did 25kg and 25kg went a bit easier today (still very tough). 

And the squats went alright. I still don't know how to squat properly. I feel like every time i squat i do it differently. The introduction guy from the gym walked over to me today to ask how i'm doing and i told him i got a barbell and stuff and he said that they were more than willing to help me if i want to practice squats in the gym so that's cool. I did tell him did it was scary and intimidating to me cause there are so many strong people around and i don't want to look stupid. He also said it was cool that i got into fitness so much, but like... i was already planning on doing that with or without the gym lol. 

O yeah, my warm-up was also a bit longer today cause there were some kids on the stair master, so i kept going on the elliptical until they left. So i got an extra 3-4 minutes on the elliptical. I wonder if it is a holiday week or something, cause there were quite some teens in the gym and also a bunch of very young kids. I do know tomorrow is a national holiday so it might be that it is also a free week for school.

I wonder how much my legs will hurt tomorrow but i will do some core work-outs regardless. Friday leg day at gym again, and Saturday i will do arms/shoulders at home.

Catch-up

Ugh, i don't know what is happening. I feel so tired lately. I am eating protein heavy foods, taking my vitamin pills, and i'm even spending more time in the sun so i don't understand why i feel so tired.

Saturday
Saturday was the first day that i started working out with my barbell and it was ROUGH. I felt so incredibly weak, and i will have to figure out a way to properly build up strength to start squatting with a barbell etc. This is what i ended up doing:

• Front squats 1x10 - 0kg, 3x8 - 4kg
• Hip thrusts 4x12 - 20kg
• Bulgarian split squats 3x12 4 > 7.5 > 8kg
• Kneeling squat 4x12 8kg
• Four random workouts 4x10

Definitely the most annoying thing was loading and unloading the weights. 

Sunday

My entire body hurt; my shoulders and arms still hurt from the lat pulldown machine at the gym on thursday, my core hurt incredibly much from friday, and my quads and glutes hurt from Saturday. So rest day was imminent. 

Monday

That was yesterday. I was supposed to have a leg day at the gym. I woke up on time, got up, and then somehow found myself back in bed again and i slept till 3 in the afternoon. I was very annoyed with myself. I ended up doing some arm work-outs at home with the barbell since my legs still hurt and i was too tired to do anything like squats or whatever.

• bent-over barbell row 5x5 (10kg)
• barbell front raise 5x5 (0kg)
• bar curl 5x5 (0kg)
• push up shrugs 5x5
• inverted rear delt row 5x5 
• seated barbell twist 3x12 (0kg)

I did most of the work-outs with 0kg cause they were difficult to do with weight on the bar and i was also too lazy to put weight on the bar tbh. The bent-over barbell row was still difficult to do with 10kg but i did it. The other ones i just did with the bar. Next time (probably thursday or saturday) i will add 1 or 2 kg weights and build up from there.

Tuesday (today)

Since tomorrow is gonna be leg day at the gym, i will have to figure something else out for today. I already did arms/shoulders yesterday so idk what to do for today. I might just not do anything and rest. Maybe eat a calorie dense meal and hope that i wont feel too tired tomorrow to not wakeup on time to go to the gym. 

Labels

I'm trying to come up with labels to label my posts with, so this post is more for me to think out loud.

Gym day: for all days that i go to the gym
Gym leg day: leg days at the gym
Gym upper day: upper body at the gym
Home work-outs: all days when i work at home
Home leg day: leg day at home
Home upper day: when i do upper body at home
Home core day: when i do core at home
Program: when i discuss/research/think about my program
Research: looking up and researching programs
Leg program: when i discuss/look at leg programs
Glute program: when i discuss/look at glute programs
Upper program: when i discuss/look at upper programs
Core program: when i discuss/look at core programs
Diet: posts about food and diet things
Vent: more personal posts
Useful: posts i find useful to look back on 
Random: when it doesn't fit any other label

Core day

I haven't done my core in a while and my arms are dead from yesterday, and it is rest day for my legs so i will just do some core exercises. I haven't found proper core exercises yet that i enjoy doing and that i can perform properly so i am still kinda looking around. I found some new ones i want to try today that also incorporate the legs and glutes so that's a win-win for me.

• Bicycle crunches 3x20 (per leg)
• Seated alternating knee tuck 3x15 (per leg)
• High reverse plank 3x30seconds
• Dead bug 3x20
• Lying leg and hip raise 3x20
• Hanging knee raises 3x10
• Dumbbell side bend 8kg 3x15 

Edit: the above is what i ended up doing today. I had two more exercises i wanted to do - the lying side hip raise and roman chair sit-up - but i didn't do them because i didn't want to spend longer than an hour on this. I also didn't do a V-up cause i literally couldn't (i'm weak!!!)

Figuring out barbell leg routine

I am trying to figure out a routine for tomorrow where i can incorporate my barbell. It seems that some people do their squats and deadlifts on two separate days, but some people don't. It is very confusing lol. You also have back squats and front squats and i think that i would prefer to do front squats, for some reason having something on my back just irks me, and maybe it is also better since i don't have a squat rack yet. I might just do back squats on my normal gym leg days.

My ideal work-out program would be something like having 2 quad dominant days and 1-2 glute dominant days. I just don't really know how to incorporate that properly and the internet isn't very helpful either. I guess i shouldn't overthink it too much and i will learn along the way.

For tomorrow:

• Front squats 3x12
• Hip thrusts 4x15-20
• Bulgarian split squats 3x12
• Kneeling squat 4x12
• Nordic curls 3x10

For Wednesday:

• Warm-up (20 minutes)
• Hip abductors 3x15
• Leg press warm-up 3x15 (30kg)
• At home:
• Reverse Barbell Hack Squat 4x12
• Romanian Deadlift 4x12
• Hip thrusts 4x15-20

It's difficult to figure out what to do for Wednesday cause i still want to hit the gym, but i don't want to do the exact same stuff as i am doing on my other gym days and i don't want to go to the gym after my main lifts that i will do at home. Most people seem to do leg extensions and stuff after they lift, but i want to do that on my machine days. I just want to be able to squat properly and deadlift properly, so i can start using the smith machine at the gym, and then i can just plan my routines around that. Until then i am stuck with this, but i think my workouts look pretty good so far.

I just have to figure out arm/shoulder days, cause i want to incorporate that two times a week too to help with my lifting. I wish i could afford the personal trainers at my gym, but maybe that is something for the future.

The gym today was awesome!

As the title reads, the gym today was good. When i woke up this morning i checked my mail and it said that i was getting my barbell stuff between 19:00 and 22:00. Which was still not really as helpful but at least that meant i had the entire day to do whatever i wanted. I did have problems getting out of bed this morning (i really didn't want to and felt really tired) so i ended up going to the gym at around 11:40PM but then when i was just about there i realized i forgot my gym key, so i went back home, and i just biked to the gym instead of walking, so i was at the gym at exactly 12:00. 

It was a little bit crowded but it was mainly bigger guys, and some friends who were working out together. The vibe was nice so i didn't feel thrown off. This is what i did today:

• Warm-up (20 minutes)
• Hip abductors 3x15 (25kg) 1x15 (30kg) 1x15 (35kg) 1x15 (40kg)
• Leg press 4x15 (30>40>50) 1x10 (60kg) 1x1 (70kg)
• Cable kick backs 3x12 (5kg>2.5kg)
• Leg extension 3x12 (15>20>20) 1x8 (25kg)
• Lat pulldowns 3x15 (20>20>25kg)
• Stretch

I think this was my most successful day at the gym yet. I did hip abductors and i kept going up in weight, but it started to bore me (lol) so i went over to the leg press. Doing 60kg was pretty difficult on the leg press and doing 70kg was near impossible, but i hope to build up the strength to do at least 2 reps at the end of next week with 70kg. 

The cable kick backs were a disaster again, i even went down in weight, and i could not feel it in my glutes again, i don't understand it. I did some band kickbacks at home as a warmup and i could feel my glutes perfectly fine. I even did some kickbacks without the weight at one point to see how i should be standing and i kept not feeling them. It's just odd, but i am obviously doing something wrong. So that is under investigation until further notice.

Leg extension went decent as well. Since my max weight wasn't determined last time i just played around with the weights, and jeez louise, leg extensions are hell to do. My legs started to sour up every time at 12 reps, and with 25kg i could only get to 8. The problem isn't even that the weight is heavy and i can't pump it, it is literally the acid you feel building up in your legs. Really nasty feeling lol.

And to top it off i did my lat pulldowns today! I first did it with 20kg which was a bit too easy, but then 25kg was a bit too difficult but i kept going with it. My last 5reps were HELL but i powered through it. Next time i'm gonna start with 25kg instead.

When i came home i drank my protein, stretched, and just chilled a bit. I had to go to the grocery store to stock up on food again, so i did that. I usually do not like to go to the store during the day cause there are always so many people (why? why cant you go later or in the morning). They also take their entire families with... it's always a disaster. Anyways, i went, cause i didn't need that much anyways. Then i got home and i relaxed and played some computer game while listening to a podcast.

Then around 18:00 the doorbell rang and there were 7(!!!!) packages for me with my weights yay! I now have my weights. The barbell itself is heavier than expected and the 20kg plates are KILL, but i am very happy with my stuff. Now i only need a squat rack and i am good to go. I have to also figure out where i am gonna store all this but i was thinking to just put the plates under my couch on a thick piece of carton so i can easily shuffle them around and grab them when needed, and i can put the barbell wherever i want, so i think i will do that.

My arms hurt like heck, and my legs only hurt a little. I am excited to work out with my new stuff this weekend!

I haven't written for a while

On top of it being my dog's first birthday without her, i also had to deal with getting my period. So i was just a whole mess and i was very, very tired. I have been trying to do some workouts at home in the meantime but i didn't really have the energy most of the time to get anything proper done (except for one day where i did a full leg/glute day). Sooo yeah, i haven't been going to the gym for a good week now.

That said, i should be going to the gym again tomorrow. Only problem is that i should also be getting my package tomorrow with my barbell and weights, and the time says "between 08:00 and 22:00" and i have to be home for the package. Yes, very helpful! 

I should be getting an update tomorrow morning when exactly they will deliver the package and if it is between 10 and 12 i am going to scream, cause then i wont be able to go to the gym again. I might go in the evening tho because from what i remember the guy said that on thursday and friday's it is pretty empty cause "everyone is out clubbing". However, i just prefer to go to the gym earlier in the day. I also have to go to the grocery store tomorrow so everything is really falling in reverse but whatever.

If i make it to the gym tomorrow i would like to:

• Warm-up (20 minutes)
• Hip abductors 3x15 (15>20kg)
• Leg press 4x15 (30>40>40>50)
• Cable kick backs 3x12 (5kg)
• Leg extension 4x15 (2x15kg 2x20kg)
• Lat pulldowns 3x15 
• Stretch

For my work-out on Saturday i will have to figure out what i want to do at home, but if i have my barbell i would like to start squatting, hip thrusting, split squatting, and deadlifting. That should be fun! I also found out that i can dead hang way longer on my pull-up bar than i could before (1 month ago i could barely hang for 25 seconds without dying of pain, now i can easily hang for 1 minute and 30 seconds, even though it feels like i have no fingers afterwards). I can also pull myself up on the pullup bar a little bit. Barely tho lol. I am still very weak, but i am making progress! And that is nice to see, especially knowing that i barely work on my arms and shoulders.