Gotti's Journal

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sts
Flat bench 4 sets
Incline Bench 4 sets
Decline hammer strength 4 sets

Incline DB flies superset with straight arm side laterals 3 sets

Run of the mill in terms of exercises performed but odd workout. Standing shoulder press felt really unbalanced for whatever reason. I unhooked the bar and it didn't feel right but it's odd because the weight was flying and I had no problem handling the weight, I just felt the form was a little weird. However I ended up going fairly heavy and probably matched my best 8 rep weight total. On the other hand the flat bench was not so good as I kept getting left shoulder pain. I played with the bar placement and found if I lowered up higher on my chest the pain wasn't as bad but it seemed to hamper the strength. Incline press I didn't have pain so I went pretty heavy there to make up for the flat bench being weaker. Wanted to do some cable crosses at the end instead of DB flies but all the handles were missing. We have a million handles for single arm cable movements and I couldn't find a matching set to save my life so I just went with the dumbbells.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

10 minute farmers walk (40 seconds on, 40 seconds off)
Rope crunches superset weighted side dips
5 minutes farmers walk (30 seconds on, 30 seconds off)
Rope crunches superset crunches
5 minutes farmers walk (20 seconds on, 40 seconds off)
60 crunches
5 minutes walk

Again I'm just trying something new for cardio to shake things up a bit. I went with lighter weight and decided to do longer than a 20 second interval. I used the same weight the whole time and decreased the time I was holding the weight each time. The part I wasn't thrilled with was my forearms and grip were giving out before I was feeling any type of intense breathing or burning from the cardio itself. I need to find an effective way to do farmers carries. I enjoy doing them but the heavy weight isn't great on the treadmill and the light weight even at longer distance doesn't feel intense enough. I used to walk back and fourth in the gym but the gyms been more busy than it used to be so if I was to do that I would just be getting in everyones way since our gym is pretty small. Back to the lab.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Deadlift 7 sets
Leg press superset with chest pad t bar row 3 sets
Standing calve raise superset with straight bar pull down 3 sets
Leg extension superset with seated leg curl superset with lat pull down 4 sets

Deadlifting felt pretty good. After having overtime a month ago and other things I haven't been deadlifting all that much but it felt solid and my form felt good. The first two sets I went 10-12 reps, then the next two sets I did 5-7, I figured at that point to test my strength to see where I was and did 3 sets of 1 rep but it kept being fairly easy until the last set where it was a struggle but I was happy with the weight I ended up with. I also feel like I got a lot of work in other than just the deadlifts.

I weighed myself last night and I gained a pound, I'm not trying to gain weight, I'm hoping to start losing some fat but the mirror says I look better. By that I mean I'm a tad leaner and maybe a tad bigger but my shape is noticeably better than where it was just a month or so ago, which at the end of the day is what I care more about than a number on a scale.

[Young Gotti]

Haven't been to the gym since Thursday. Had a death in the family that I found out about Friday afternoon. Friday was my day off anyway, Saturday I had to drive to pick up my quarter of grass fed beef then ran around that town all day trying to pay the people for the beef. Got home and had to split it up with people so by the time I was done it was kind of late.

Monday we had the funeral and I could of wen to the gym later in the day but I sat down and passed out. Tuesday and Wednesday I was snowed in. It was unlike any snow storm I've ever had to deal with, also the first huge snowstorm in my house. So I guess I got in a few workouts just shoveling. Spent a good 2 hours shoveling on Tuesday, then walked to my parents to get a snow blower, however the snow blower isn't huge and the roads were not plowed so it took like 45 minutes both ways even though they live like a block from me. It was basically a sled push the whole way. Went back out at night for an hour or two. Then Wednesday I did more shoveling for a few hours. Thinking I was done shoveling I went outside to see a plow truck covered my driveway with huge ice chunks so another hour crushing ice and moving the blockade.

I'm sore all over from the shoveling. My wrist and shoulders hurt from when the shovel got jammed up. My back is sore from pulling the snow blower and from deadlifting snow for 2 days. I've also been dealing with a groin injury from squatting and walking on uneven ice and snow didn't help, a few times I slipped and had shooting pain from the grown. Oh what a winter wonderland.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Hit the gym and my body was in pain. As the day went on yesterday my body started to have more aches and pains. I decided since most of my body felt drained to do some chest training since it probably got hit the least from shoveling. I also did some light shoulder work, most side and rear. I didn't really pay attention to sets and mostly used hammer strength machines or cables for my chest. The weight actually wasn't that bad. I got a nice mind/muscle connection and really good squeeze on the movements.

My groin was also hurting really bad when I left work so I did some walking on a treadmill which doesn't really bother it, I was hoping to narrow down what movements would cause pain and I could tell it was sore but nothing gave me a shooting pain while on the treadmill.

After all of that I thought to myself I feel like I have some energy, my body's worn out but I could of stayed at the gym a little longer. Until I got home and realized I was plowed in....again. So I spent a good half hour unshoveling my driveway so I can park my car. At that time is when I realized how sore my legs and back were, also my forearms were on fire.

We were joking at the gym because you were able to tell who spent the last 2 days shoveling as we were all moving pretty slowly vs. the guys who didn't shovel still going at full speed. Either way today is a welcomed day off.

[Young Gotti]

Saturday

DB curl superset with V bar extension 4 sets
Incline DB curl superset with behind the head ez bar extension 4 sets
Dip machine superset with double high cable curl 4 sets
Underhand extension superset with DB hammer curl 4 sets

Started off really slow. I thought I was getting sick as I drove to the gym, my throat was itchy and I didn't feel right. But once I got moving the workout was great. I had really good concentration and went pretty heavy on the all the movements. Turned out to be a good workout. I would of kept going if I didn't have some other things to do during the day. As I did my cardio my arms felt like balloons and I could tell they were going to be sore the next day. I was right, Sunday I was pretty sore in my arms. Between the training and the snow my forearms and arms in general got a lot of work last week which I'm pretty happy about since it was a weak part going into winter.

I don't know how but overtime is being offered at work once again so I'll be working that. I'll have to go back to supersetting and doing quick workouts to get in an out of the gym before the owner kicks me out. Part of me wants overtime to last for a few weeks but another part of me knows it's this time that the gym is so important to get ready for spring and summer.

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Leg press superset with lat pull down 4 sets
Leg extension superset with seated leg curl superset with close grip row 4 sets
Vertical leg press superset with straight bar pulldown 4 sets

Back to overtime and trying to get in an out of the gym. Not a bad workout, thought the leg portion was better than the back though. Felt like I hit everything in my legs that I wanted to that wasn't my calves. Seated ham curl felt good, leg extension really hit the lower quads. I finally got my hands on the good bar for pulldowns, it's a lat bar but the handles are lower than the middle so when you pull back the indention fits around your body allowing you to get the elbows back and improve on the squeeze. I did a short cardio session with some farmers walks but my grip was terrible, maybe still not fully recovered from the snow shoveling. Had a nice sweat going on during the workout which is the main goal as I move quickly in order to build a pump and exhaust myself.

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Chest press machine superset with shoulder press machine 4 sets
Cable crossover high cable superset with side lateral raise 4 sets
Cable crossover low cable superset with bent over rear delt flies 4 sets

Wanted to get more work in but I was running out of time. Thought I was moving quickly but I guess not quick enough. Even with the work I did I had a really nice pump, as I was walking out I pulled my elbows back and my chest was super tight. So I can't complain to much because I enjoyed the workout, just wish it was longer.

Not to much more to report, slow news week with overtime.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

Farmers walks 5 sets
13 minutes incline walk
weighted ab machine superset with leg raises
10 minutes treadmill

So I pulled up to the gym pretty late and it was empty. Just me and one other person at the time so I decided to do some farmers walks the length of the gym since I wouldn't be in anyone's way. Looking back I should of did more sets of it. My grip was starting to go with the weight I was using but I should of dropped the weight and kept doing them. Either way I did some walking with the incline on the treadmill, trying not to use the railing for support I've found keeping my hands behind my back allows me to be further from the rails so I don't use the railing system. Threw some ab work in since I haven't done it in awhile but the main goal was cardio.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

Farmers walks 5 sets
13 minutes incline walk
weighted ab machine superset with leg raises
10 minutes treadmill

So I pulled up to the gym pretty late and it was empty. Just me and one other person at the time so I decided to do some farmers walks the length of the gym since I wouldn't be in anyone's way. Looking back I should of did more sets of it. My grip was starting to go with the weight I was using but I should of dropped the weight and kept doing them. Either way I did some walking with the incline on the treadmill, trying not to use the railing for support I've found keeping my hands behind my back allows me to be further from the rails so I don't use the railing system. Threw some ab work in since I haven't done it in awhile but the main goal was cardio.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Reverse hack squat superset close grip lat pulldown 4 sets
Hack squat superset with lat pulldown 4 sets
Seated calve raise superset with DB row 4 sets

Saturday

BB curl superset with v bar extension 4 sets
DB curl superset with behind the head ez bar extension 4 sets
EZ bar curl superset with close grip press 4 sets

So a pretty worthless workout on Thursday. I went to the gym and I was dead tired. I had no motivation and just felt like I was getting sick. I figured if I could get some good movements in I would wake up which happens a lot but Thursday I was just in the funk.

Saturday was better and I felt like I had a solid workout, I passed on more arm work for some direct core work. Sleep hasn't been the greatest so I'm going to try this week to get to bed a little early to catch up.

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Hammer strength press superset with side lateral raise 4 sets
Underhand flat bench superset with reverse peck deck 4 sets
Decline hammer strength press superset with wide grip high row 4 sets
Cable crossover superset with shoulder press machine 3 sets

Some bad time management on my end here. I wanted to do regular flat bench but thought it would take up too much time so I went with hammer strength only to realize I had a bit more time at the end than I thought when I did a quick cable crossover and press. Should of only did 2 sets there as it took away from my target cardio time. I did do farmers walks, 1 minute on and 1 minute off. The good thing about the workout was I used some really good weight even if it was on machines mostly. I was still happy with the weight and time under tension. Broke a nice sweat and got the heart rate up which right now is the main goal.

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Leg press superset with chest pad t bar row 4 sets
Leg extension superset with seated leg curl superset with low cable rope row 4 sets
Vertical leg press superset with lat pulldown 4 sets

Must say I'm pretty impressed by my strength recently. I'm not doing huge compound movements because of time but the weight I'm moving on some of the these movements makes me happy. I kept adding weight on the leg presses and kept getting 10 reps, the next set I figured I wouldn't hit 10 and I did. I was pretty happy with the workout. I wanted to do more rows since last week felt like mostly lat pulldown type movements which I did. Last night was the first overtime workout I had when the lights were off as I finished, the owner wanted to get out of there and started shutting off sets of lights until I finally left.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

15 minutes treadmill
leg raises 3 sets
5 minutes treadmill
ab machine 3 sets
10 minutes treadmill

I was super tired as I left work but I wanted to get a decent workout in so I can sleep at night. I've been struggling with quality sleep. So what I did was walked on the treadmill at a slightly faster pace than normal and alternated from steep incline for 2 minutes, then I would cut that incline by half for a minute and then flat for 2 minutes. It seemed to take forever and my legs got a decent pump in them, I felt worn out fairly quickly. I even decided to jog a bit during the 15 minutes interval. I'm not a good runner and it doesn't feel natural but the little bit I ran felt pretty smooth. I decided to do full sets of ab work as well instead of just a minute at a time and I loaded the weight on the ab machine to really give me abs a new feeling.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Flat bench superset with seated side lateral raise 8 sets
Flat bench superset with face pull 3 sets

As I was driving to the gym I was still unclear about how I wanted to attack the workout. I decided to stick with the same 2 exercises just to really crush specific muscle fibers. So that's what I did, rather than hitting all angles in with random sets and what not I just stuck mainly to the 2 exercises. I slowly increased each on the 8 sets and even got pretty heavy on the flat bench which I was happy with, but around the 8th set I decided I needed some rear delt work and that's when I switched my shoulder exercise, also around the 8th set is when I hit the peak weight so then I slowly decreased weight and increased reps the last 3 sets on the bench. Not a bad workout. Still tired from cardio the day before I started on the treadmill and I just felt off so I hopped on a stationary bike and pumped up the resistance and road that instead.