Martin roy training log

[Martin Roy]

Squat night = Best night of the week.

After last week's session of volume at 275, the aim was multiple set/rep work at 290. To do that I made some adjustments in the approach, dropping a couple of levels of weight on the ascent. Previously I would start with 135, jump to 185, then 225, 255, 275 and at that point I'd decide where to go from there. However, tonight I started with a set of 8 at 185, 2 sets of 5 at 245, 2 sets of 5 at 275, and then made the jump to 290. A set of 4, and 2 sets of 3 at 290.

Mission accomplished. I'm feeling it now, two hours after the session.

Time to go light and deload for several days.

[Martin Roy]

The last two days, Saturday and Sunday, were complete rest days and much needed after the session on Friday. I found it curious that on Saturday I felt tired from the squats but not really sore. However, Sunday made up for it because I was good old-fashioned stiff and sore on Sunday. This morning I'm feeling much better, with some residual aches and pains that should disappear with some light work later today.

[Martin Roy]

As a famous poet once noted: The best laid plans of mice and men...

Got in the light work on Monday and it helped considerably. Tuesday was an off-day for real life demands. But I had planned to spend Christmas Eve getting some last details finished at the office first thing, then a couple of errands second thing, before heading to the gym for a good afternoon bench session third thing. Arrived at ten minutes to two only to discover that the gym was closing at two. !!! In past years they've stayed open until 5... Hmmm, well, I do have to confess that there was a posted notice with "Holiday Hours" which has been on the gym door since Thanksgiving - which I read before Thanksgiving and completely ignored since then. So I may share in some of the blame for screwing up the timing ... I went home for a hot tub instead.

Now it's Christmas morning about 9am and I've been up alone since before 6 as usual; everyone else knows how to sleep in. I've been contently basking in the peace and quiet, a unique commodity around this house. Even the dogs are still sleeping.

To everyone checking in here, I wish you the Happiest of Holidays, however you celebrate them.
It's a day to relax and enjoy.
All the best to you.

[Stitchwiz]

May you have a Blessed Day, with your family, Marty. Happy Christmas!

[Martin Roy]

Thank you for the kind wishes, Stitchwiz.

Friday afternoon was a wake up session - after the off-days and deload, everything felt rusty. As O1d Dude is fond of saying, "motion is lotion", and the last week has seen too little motion. Thus, I've been feeling like a creaky hinge. Hence, light rack pulls, shoulder routine, traps, and a lot of bike, elliptical, and treadmill. Even after this I still felt all grinched up.
Saturday I met Alan H and Mr. Creed at Shaffer Park for a serious caber hunt, which is always a great way to spend a day. We came up with three sticks of varying length and weights. After drying out and buffing by Alan, they will be named and tossed.

Today was more wake up work focusing on upper body. A lot of warm up on elliptical and bike, then off to the bench. After three sets of five with 135, it didn't feel right. Moved over to db incline bench with 35 and finally felt good after many sets of five - I didn't count; continued with a few sets with 40 and 45.

Pull-ups, pec deck, more treadmill, and finished with abs and a good stretch. However, things felt right at long last.

Tomorrow I'll be getting my work standing up all afternoon as part of the security team for the California Coast Classic Wrestling Tournament hosted by Aptos High.

[Martin Roy]

Gaaaahhhh!!! Poison Oak!! The gift that caber hunting at Shaffer Park routinely passes along. It made itself known on Monday when I found myself scratching the inner part of my right forearm. This morning I discovered two other patches coming into flower on my left arm and my left ankle. Next step for me is to get a cortisone shot which will stop any further spread. I've had tooo many bouts of poison oak and have no desire for a rematch.

Anyway - Stood by a door at the Coast Classic Wrestling tournament all afternoon on Monday making sure that only wrestlers and coaches came through. No parents or girlfriends. Some of the stuff parents would say to try talking their way into the competition area left me shaking my head. One big guy, when I stopped him to ask for coaches ID, "That's my boy there, on that mat!" Me: "Yeah, well, all the other boys have parents who are sitting in the stands; why don't you join them?" Him: "Do I have to buy a ticket?" Are you really asking me that? Later a mother came to the door and told me she "really needed" to get in to help her son; why? I inquired, thinking that maybe she had medicine or something he had to take. Well, she said, he's just a freshman and he's very shy. Me, to myself: this poor kid!; to her: "Doing this on his own is probably the best thing for him, then." By the time things rolled up for the day I was stiff as a board.

Back at it Tuesday morning until about noon; then, after attending to some business, I went to the gym to loosen everything up. This morning, except for the poison oak, I'm feeling pretty good.

[Stitchwiz]

Thank goodness cortisone will stop it!

We needed you to man the door to the green room when we had dance competitions! Job well done, Marty.

Just goes to show that some of the issues children have are created by over-protective parenting. You are just the right man for the job.

[Martin Roy]

Itinerant door man. Stitchwiz, I may have stumbled into my new career calling. lol

My non-resolution for the New Year is be focused and committed to the process. If I can do that good things will happen along the way in lifting, throwing, job, life, and everything else.

I've long since left behind New Year's Eve revelry, opting instead for a getting some sleep and welcoming the New Year feeling rested with a clear head, and happy to have avoided starting off the year feeling terrible. Fresh coffee, the newspaper, casually watching the Rose Parade, and then I head to the gym before noon to stay ahead of the inevitable flood of New Year Resolutionists who will overcrowd the place for the next six weeks or so until their resolve runs out of steam. This is an annual event and despite the inconvenience, I root for the newbs. Everyone starts out in the same shoes at some point early or later in life and each person, to be successful, must find the answer to the question: Why am I coming to the gym? The answer is different for each individual and can't be handed to them. Working on someone else's goal may keep a person going for awhile, but ultimately it will lead to failure. My silent hope for the new folks, then, is that each of them realizes that consistency is the key - show up, suit up, get started, do something. Keep this routine and you will soon feel better. Another important point they must come to understand is that nobody else in the gym is paying attention to them; don't be so self-conscious. The other people working out are focused on their own body, their own issues, and are doing so in response to their own needs. They aren't wasting any effort wondering about your stuff. Miss a few days? Don't beat yourself up; it's going to happen. Get back to the gym and keep going forward. Finally, never forget that the body you're working on is your body, not the guy doing reps with 305 on the bench. Don't get what one old-timer described to me once as "plate envy". The number and weight of the plates on the bar must be geared to your own level; any other approach will get you injured quickly, guaranteed. Trust me on that one; it's a lesson I learned the hard way many years ago, losing about six months of training in the process.

Okay, enough blather for now.

Yesterday I went in late morning needing to do enough to push through some lingering tightness in my lower back, the result of too much sitting around that last couple of weeks, without doing too much and causing new problems. Thus, goblet squats to warm up, supersetted with hammer curls. Then, rack pulls. Warming up with 135 and 185 felt creaky and I was a bit concerned, quite honestly. However, I decided I would aim for 5x5 with 225. After the second set I knew I was going to be okay. By the time I finished, I felt fatigued enough to know I'd done something and the kinks were gone. I'll be able to starting pushing things again in the coming week. Followed that with pull-ups, bench row, incline planks, abs, treadmill, and bike.

A good start; moving forward.

A prosperous 2015 to all.

[Martin Roy]

An overview of the relative quality of gym sessions has lead me to a rule-of-thumb equation: about 70% of workouts will be routine - you get in, do it, note the accomplishment, and head out; another 10% will be days where you have no energy, none of the start-up tricks get the engine running, and so you bag it - such days are actually telling you something and must be given attention; the remaining 20% leave you experiencing a sort of euphoria - it can stem from breaking through a plateau in weight or reps, or achieving a deeper awareness that the process of training is providing benefits that go far beyond the physical.

For myself, I began training with a purpose in 2010 at age 57 when I became instantly enthralled by the Highland Games in the aftermath of a spectacular public failure on my first throw in my first event in my first game at Woodland. Family members were present and video does exist, unfortunately; the tale has been recounted in this log previously. Though largely a process of trial, error, and adjustments along the way, I have discovered that nothing, and I do mean nothing, clears my head and relaxes me more thoroughly than weight training. During the week I lift after work before going home and I look forward to the interlude throughout the day. On weekends my preferred time is late morning to early afternoon. However, regardless of the time slot, lifting demands total focus on form or you'll do some damage on some level. Whatever the weight may be, heavy or light, the particular lift is part of a plan and it must be respected. I think of it as Iron Therapy with the mantra: Form is everything, the weight is an illusion. And, except for the 10% of bagged workouts, I walk out of the gym energized and refreshed, physically and mentally.

Anyway, that was a long-winded preamble to acknowledge that yesterday I found the euphoria. The session itself was nothing extraordinary in terms of weight or reps, more of a serendipitous confluence of factors that released the endorphins necessary to get the high. I felt the glow the rest of the evening and it lingers still this morning.

Started with shoulder warm-up routine with 20lb db, the heaviest I've gone since surgery. Three rounds of fast overhead, lateral raise, and front raise. Hammer curls, three sets of 10 with 35, three sets of 5 with 45. Continued with overhead press when the station (finally) opened up, work sets 5x5 with 95, primed to increase the weight next week. Reverse incline planks, three rounds of rep and hold to fry the posterior chain. Easy traps, many reps to loosen the shoulders and upper back. Tricep cable pushdown alternating with straight arm pull down, 3 sets of 10 each. Treadmill to cool off and ramp down.

And that was it. Nothing earth shattering in that session, but I walked to my car on wings.
Who needs that foul tasting Red Bull?

[Alan H]

Love reading this.....so true.