Gotti's Journal

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Flat bench 5 sets
Standing shoulder press 5 sets
Incline bench 4 sets
Side lateral raise 4 sets
Cable crossover superset with bent over rear delt fly 4 sets

Had to leave work early to take my cat to the vet. First time I ever had to do this but he seemed fairly messed up. Anyway everything was OK but it also allowed me to hit the gym a little earlier than usual. It felt good, I wasn't drained from work, I knew I was getting there earlier than normal so I was in a good mood. I was worried about how the workout would go. I didn't go super heavy but used some decent weight. The thing I made sure of was to do slow reps because if at any time on the decline my shoulder would hurt I could notice it and stop rather than going quickly through the rep. I didn't really have any problems other than it kind of feeling overworked towards the end, it wasn't pain at all, more of a exhausted muscle. Wondering if I should do something different on Thursday when I'm scheduled to do another chest and shoulder workout and give the area some rest. I did feel some slight soreness in it last night after the shower but so far it's been a big improvement over last week.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

Stair stepper 20 minutes
Treadmill 10 minutes

I got out of work a little late yesterday and I felt like a balloon so I decided to do some extra cardio instead of abs. I felt like it would be more beneficial for me. I got about 15 minutes into the stair stepper feeling great, the last 5 minutes felt like a lifetime. I was struggling but all in all it was nice to do some extra cardio.

I did add a few more things to my supplement arsenal yesterday including Forged Liver Support and Premium Powders 5 HTP. I'm not on a cycle but still like to include a good liver product once in awhile to prevent any problems. The 5 HTP is for sleep but also mood. With the new job and some personal life things I feel like I could use something to put me in a better mood and 5 HTP always seems to help with that.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Seated side lateral raise 4 sets
Underhand flat bench 4 sets
Peck Deck 4 sets
Reverse Peck Deck 4 sets
Cable crossover middle setting superset with seated shoulder press machine 4 sets
Facepull 3 sets

Got to the gym and got down to business. My theory was to start with a more mild shoulder exercise to fully ensure everything was warm and ready to roll. Then I laid on the bench and thought to myself "oh I wasn't going to work shoulders or chest today, so I can rest my shoulder". As you see I still went through with the workout. It wasn't crazy heavy, but to increase the intensity I worked pretty quickly. For the most part I tried to stay away from exercises that would hit the front part of my shoulder. Even the shoulder press machine which is a really old machine, I reversed the seat so the bar sat back further and didn't put to much strain on the front of my shoulder. All in all it was more of a fluff/pump workout but I didn't feel any pain and my shoulder didn't bother me. The only time my shoulder felt tired was right at the end in the locker room as I grabbed stuff from the locker. But even after that I didn't have any issues.

[Young Gotti]

Saturday

BB Curl 6 sets
Behind the head ez bar extension 6 sets
EZ bar preacher curl superset with underhand extension 3 sets
DB concentration curl superset with wide grip extension 3 sets
DB kickback into curl 1 set of 20
DB curl 1 set of 20

I had to be quick during the workout because I was leaving town for the afternoon and my ride was coming. I still got in a full workout but that's why you see I supersetted a lot of the workout. It was a fairly good workout as I didn't experience any pain and I stayed on the heavy side with everything. I really focused on going to failure during the first 2 exercises and a lot on the squeeze during the next few exercises. All in all I like the arms workouts on Saturday mornings.

During the day Saturday, we went to the PA Bacon Fest so you can say I had an epic cheat day. The place was packed with tons of vendors selling all kinds of products that included bacon. The good thing about it was that I was on my feet most of the day walking around dodging the crowds and eating. Even got to boo at some vegan weirdos. All the sodium though, wow I still feel a bit bloated but it was a nice day to be outside enjoying some good food.

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Squats 5 sets
Weighted step ups 4 sets
Leg extension super set with lying leg curl 3 sets
Seated Calve raise 3 sets
Weighted pull up 4 sets
T bar row 4 sets
Straight bar pulldown 4 sets
Wide grip lat pulldown 1 set of 20

Got out of work alittle late and his traffic on the way to the gym. Needless to say I wasn't a happy camper but the workout went well. I feel like I got in everything I wanted to except cardio. As I'm trying to gain some size I made the decision that getting in my weight lifting was more important than fitting in my cardio. I still did farmers walk but I only did 3 intervals instead of 5. The workout itself was good, squats felt pretty good, weighted step ups I haven't done in awhile and they were a challenge but really ramped up my heart rate with a barbell on my back. Most of the time I do 1 leg and 1 back movement but I decided to break them up individually and it was a good change.

Feel like I'm alittle stuck in the size department, no big improvements the last week or so. Feel like my upper stomach is having some bloating issues and can't seem how to figure out how to get it to go down. It's not really bad but it's not great either, still working on finding a solution, I hope it's not the laxo that's causing it

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Slight incline DB press 4 sets
Decline hammer strength 4 sets
Cable crossover low cable 4 sets
Hammer strength shoulder press 1 set of 20
Peck Deck 1 set of 20

Felt good at the gym yesterday. Gym was empty and I was moving quickly through my work. Decided to start off with shoulders again and side laterals to guarantee I wasn't doing a compound and I could get my shoulders completely warmed up. Seems to work pretty well. Went into shoulder presses which weren't the best weight wise but I didn't experience any pain. So I was reading someone saying to do a slight incline on a bench with DBs and it'll take the stress off the shoulders, so I tried it and it seemed to work well enough. I didn't notice any pain, haven't used DBs in awhile since my gym is missing some, only was able to go so heavy before I stopped even though I wanted to test myself but didn't want to test my luck. I probably could of squeezed in more volume to the workout but half way through the hammer strength sets I could feel my right shoulder getting fatigued/numb so I decided I got in a good workout, so lets not push it.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

Staristepper intervals 25 minutes
Walking treadmill 10 minutes

Once again I got out of work a bit late and rushed to the gym to do my cardio. It went well though, I swear the time on the stairstepper is the longer than other cardio equipment. I felt fatigued and I looked at the timer and still had like 12 minutes left. Kept pushing through to get in my time but it wasn't that easy.

What I was really pleased with yesterday was the mirror. I don't know if the Sparta Hercules is kicking in or what but I looked fairly lean and full. The scale says I lost 1.5lbs which isn't the goal so I'll have to monitor that but I was pretty happy with how I looked, a lot better than I did at this point last year when I was on a ton of carbs and felt like a bloated mess. I'll gladly take the rest of winter to slowly gain some size if my fat levels stay similar to what they are now.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Deadlift 6-7 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Standing Calve Raise superset with lat pulldown 3 sets
Leg extension superset with close grip lat pulldown 3 sets
Rope row low cable 3 sets

Late update I was off on Friday and didn't touch a computer all day. I put two numbers for sets on a deadlift because the last set I went heavy, not a PR but not a number I normally hit very often and failed on it. But the deadlifts felt pretty good overall, I just think I wasn't all the way in on the PR set. Never the less nice to be able to work up to the heavier weights and not feel like my body was struggling.

Saturday

DB curl 6 sets
Reverse incline ez curl bar curl 4 sets
Incline DB hammer curl 4 sets
Behind the head ez bar extension 4 sets
Close grip press 4 sets
Underhand extension 2 sets
Overhand extension 2 sets
Rope extension 2 sets
DB kickback into curl 1 set of 20

Saturdays workout was pretty good. I was in the groove during my bicep work, I could of kept going and wanted to. Triceps were good too but the bicep movements just felt so smooth and everything was firing and doing what I wanted. Stayed away from the BB curl for a week just to change it up a bit. Tricep work was still ok, but I wasn't feeling the pump, I felt like I was pushing myself during the first 2 movements but decided to do a bunch of stuff towards the end to draw blood into every aspect of the muscle.

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Seated lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse Peck deck 4 sets
Flat bench 6 sets
Cable crossover from low cable 3 sets
Incline bench 3 sets
Cable side lateral raise superset with peck deck 3 sets

Really solid workout. Felt good, energy levels where were I wanted them and I went for it. I'm not sure I hit any PR's but I felt strong and came close on a few occasions. Standing shoulder press was one of the exercises where I came close to a PR or at the very least did more reps at a weight that I usually don't reach. All in all I was pumped to get in a good workout. I went on to do farmers walks on the treadmill, 1 minute on and 1 minute off and that was brutal but I was in a mind set that I had to push through it.

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Leg extension superset with lying leg curl 4 sets
Squat 4 sets
Standing Calve Raise 4 sets
Weighted Pull ups 4 sets
Straight bar pulldown 4 sets
T bar row 4 sets
Leg press superset with close grip lat pulldown 3 sets

Another pretty good workout. I haven't been super happy with my squats, hips have felt tight, don't like the depth that I was hitting. So yesterday I did my warm up but decided to hit some leg extensions and leg curls first which seemed to help. Squatting felt good as did the rest of the workout. Today I'm a bit tight in my left rear hip area which I'll monitor but I was pleased with the way the workout went. I was able to get pretty heavy in all of the lifts while keeping the reps at a higher level so my strength seems to be on point this week so far.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

20 minutes stair stepper
10 minutes walking treadmill

Nothing special to report, pretty much the same workout I've been doing the last few weeks on cardio day. Good sweat, felt nice, good pump in legs felt great.

One thing I noticed this morning is my back is extremely tight and I'm not sure why. Didn't bother me when I was squatting the other day, I'm wondering if my posture on the stair stepper has anything to do with it, the stair stepper I've noticed puts me leaning forward a bit. Can't say for sure if that's causing the tightness but I'll monitor it, maybe go away from the stepper for a week and see.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

DB flat bench 4 sets
Underhand flat BB bench 4 sets
Decline hammer strength 4 sets
Rear delt fly 4 sets
Side lateral raise 4 sets
Wide grip high row 4 sets
Side lateral raise superset with peck deck 1 set of 20

Went pretty heavy or at least felt stronger than I have. It was a really solid workout and the pump was great. The strength was better than I expected. The only time I slipped up was high rows, I think I was getting fatigued at that point and I did a set then when I was between sets thought to myself "I just did that set without even thinking" but other than that I thought the workout went really well.

This week has been one of my best weeks in the gym since I returned from vacation. The Sparta Hercules must be fully kicked in and it's showing with strength gains. I also have had some outside the gym stuff happen which sucks but the gym becomes a place where I can go and forget about it for about an hour so in a way it refocused me for my workouts.

[Young Gotti]

Saturday

DB curl 4 sets
BB curl 4 sets
Seated DB hammer curl 4 sets
Cable skull crushers 4 sets
Wide grip pushdown 4 sets
Dip machine 4 sets

Another satisfying workout. Not the workout where I wanted to be in the gym all day. I did my work and it felt really good that I didn't feel a need to keep going to excessive volume. I really liked the cable skullcrushers, I haven't done them in ages but having the constant tension on the muscle felt nice and the pump I got from them was really good. Like I said after the 12 sets I'm done unless I feel like some more work would be beneficial, usually I finish with a 20 rep set or something but all the work was done at weight I was happy with, the pump was were I wanted and I was satisfied so I got out of there.

I need to weight myself again, I feel like some fat is starting to accumulate and as we go into the holiday that's not what I want to happen so I'll have to keep extra close attention to detail over the Thanksgiving break to make sure I'm not going to crazy.

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Facepull 4 sets
Flat bench 4 sets
Incline bench 4 sets
Cable crossover from low cable 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 3 sets
Peck deck 3 sets

So I was about 2 sets into my facepulls when I remembered it was supposed to be a legs and back day. Almost ended up doing shoulders and legs but it would of thrown things off. This week is going to be a weird gym schedule anyway with the holiday and the gym hours so I figured I'll do legs and back during my next workout and arms on Saturday. As long as I hit each body part once I'll be ok and get back on schedule next week. This workout was good though, I'm really close to setting a PR on standing shoulder press. Ever since I started paying extra close attention to my form the numbers have kept going up. Flat bench was the weakness of the workout. My body just didn't seem to want to do them plus the bench had a heat duct right above it blowing down hot air which didn't seem to help. I don't know if the air made it hard to breath or just warm overall but it was a struggle. I thought for sure the chest portion of the exercise wasn't going to go well. However I was happy with my incline and cable work so it was still worth it. Doing farmers walks on the treadmill has been a struggle but in a good way. I do a minute on and a minute off, the weight I'm using must be perfect right now because that last minute it a complete struggle to hold on, my grip almost gives out every time.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday and Saturday

So I had Wednesday and Friday off from work which was nice long weekend. I've had some technological difficulties this weekend with my cell phone going to crap and internet in my house being weird. Either way both days I had really good exercises and my strength is up across the boards which is awesome. I hit weight that I've handle in the past but it feels easier or I'm able to do more reps which I'm excited about.

I took the 5 days off from work to make sure my recovery was top notch as well. I did some extra stretching and foam rolling Thursday morning since I didn't go to the gym. I didn't set an alarm all weekend and slept as much as I could. And once a week I take an Epsom salt bath. I figured coupling all of that with the extra food for the holidays that my body would be ready to rebound and grow going into the depths of winter.

But I woke up yesterday with a bad sore throat which turned into a full on cold. I was hanging out with my g/f last night and shivering and then sweating. I was very uncomfortable and didn't sleep much at all last night. I'm going on like 3 hours of sleep as I type this and my head feels like it's 100lbs. My ears are blocked and I just feel blah. Today is supposed to be legs and back day but I'm still undecided on what I want to do. I may skip the gym and go home and relax or I might go and take it easy in hopes I just wear myself out and I pass out tonight.