Gotti's Journal

[Young Gotti]

Monday

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

Cable crossover 2 sets high, 2 sets low, superset with straight arm lateral raise 4 sets

Back to the normal routine. Still had the mindset to work quickly from the last few weeks and I'm sure that will go away once I get back in the groove. What I can say is it felt good to do multiple movements and more compound movements but tbh the straight set training didn't seem nearly as intense as the supersetting and moving quickly. I'm sure it's better for muscle mass but I found myself waiting to feel my heart beat super rapid and it never got to that point. Either way it wasn't a bad workout. At the end I threw in 2 sets of YTI's for my neck as well.

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Squat 4 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Standing Calve raise 4 sets
Pull ups 4 sets
Rope pulldown 4 sets
Close grip lat pulldown 4 sets

Leg extension superset with seated leg curl superset with cable row 2 sets

Pretty good workout, still had groin pain on the squats which is BS but it wasn't as bad as it has been. Towards the 4th set it started to feel much better but I also did less reps and really slowed things down. The leg press had my lower quads burning like crazy which was nice. The back workout was good as I really paid attention to my pull ups. If at any time I felt my body sway during a pull up, I lowered back down took a pause and did another rep in order to get proper reps in. All in all I was pretty happy with the workout, feels good to be able to spend more time in the gym than I have been too.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

Stationary bike 25 minutes
Treadmill 5 minutes

Had to wait for a lady I work with in order to leave yesterday so I got out of work later than usual. I decided to head to the gym and not really worry about abs. Hopped on the bike and just went, I was playing with the tension on the bike the whole time trying to mimic a HIIT style. Afterwards my legs were numb, but was so my glutes. The seats on those bikes leave a lot to be desired. It's weird because I grew up riding BMX all day everyday yet the seat is what was bothering me at about the 18 minute mark. I decided to get my legs in a different motion at the end so just did a light walk on the treadmill. Not bad for getting to the gym later than I normally would of, still got a solid half hour cardio session.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Decline bench 4 sets
Hammer strength press 4 sets
Underhand flat bench 4 sets
Standing shoulder press machine 4 sets
Face pull 4 sets
Side lateral raise 4 sets

Cable cross over (2) high cable (2) low cable superset with high row 4 sets
Side lateral drop set and then side lateral pyramid set

The gym was packed for the first time in a very long time. I didn't want to start with decline but I also figured I haven't done a free weight decline movement in a very long time. The decline bench at my gym is too big for me. I almost have to pull the bar forward to get it in position and it just doesn't feel right so I don't tend to go heavy on it. However the rest of the workout I was pretty happy with the weights I moved. I didn't get a good pump in the chest but the shoulder pump was really good, that's why I just grabbed some light weights and banged out some side laterals at the end to further the pump. Surprisingly I had a nice sweat going on during the session, maybe the heat was up? The plan is to hit the gym on Saturday morning but we are doing the "Third Annual Pizza Tour" that day, it's a fat day to drive around and try a bunch of pizza places in surrounding cities. I'll have to report back on the outcome.

[Young Gotti]

Saturday

Arms training

I don't really remember the exercises I did, I know I did a reverse incline curl which felt good. But the real excitement came from the pizza tour after the gym. We went to 6 or 7 pizza places in a small city about 45 minutes from where I live. This is the third time we did it and this time probably the worst one in terms of pizza quality. It was still fun to be out with the friends though. I would put my area's pizza against any area in the country but this town we went to just didn't have the amazing quality that all the places the last 2 years had.

Monday

Squat 4 sets
Reverse hack squat 4 sets
Leg extension superset with seated leg curl 4 sets
Straight bar pull down 4 sets
Lat pulldown 4 sets
Close grip cable row 4 sets

I was not thrilled with this workout. Not sure if it was because I went in the morning and wasn't awake or what but the squats weren't great. Each rep was a struggle even with smaller weights. I had a rough time, that's also why I skipped calves in favor of doing movements that would hit the quads and hams. Back work was a lot of cables which kinda sucked but the squeeze was solid and got a pretty decent lat pump.

Today I add some fun back to my supplement regime. It's been the basic protein, bcaa, creatine, vitamins, fish oils. Today I'll start OL Triumph which is a soy lecithin based supplement. Hopefully I can recomp a bit over the next month or two.

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Flat bench 4 sets
Incline Bench 4 sets
Cable crossover 4 sets

Really good workout. Weight I was moving was pretty good and there no way pain or tightness anywhere, felt really good. I wish I could of fit more volume in but a friend of mine joined the gym who I haven't seen in awhile so him and I were discussing diets and supplements which slowed my fast pace down a bit. I also reintroduced HIIT into my workout. During the winter I haven't really been doing traditional HIIT. I've mostly been doing farmers walks or stationary bike with alternating resistance. Damn I was winded after like 3 sprints but I kept pushing to finish.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

10 minutes farmers walk
60 crunches
5 minutes farmers walk
60 crunches
5 minutes farmer walk
10minutes walk on treadmill

Since I'm starting to ramp up time and/or effort on the cardio I went heavier on the farmers walks the first bout. I did them similar to my normal HIIT, 6 rounds of walking with weight for 20 seconds, 40 seconds regular walking. The next round of cardio I went lighter and did a minute on a minute off. The third round I was pretty beat so I did 1 minute with the lighter weight on an incline. Overall it was a pretty good workout, the heavy weight was definitely challenging. I need to figure something out with it though, I use the cup holders on the treadmill to hold the weight when I'm not carrying it and getting it up into the cup holder and out of the cup holder became difficult. Other than that I enjoyed the challenge.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Deadlift 5 sets
Leg press superset with close grip lat pull down 4 sets
Standing calve raise superset with straight bar pulldown 4 sets
Goblet box squats superset with DB row 3 sets

Wow I haven't deadlifted in awhile. It was a poor performance in the deadlift, the weight felt pretty heavy and I was gassing out earlier in my set than usual. It didn't really bother me because I was just happy to be back in the gym deadlifting which I haven't done for what seems like more than a month. I was half tempted to just keep deadlifting with light weight for more sets but decided because I wasn't thrilled with my Monday workout I would try and get more leg and back variations in. I worked pretty fast and it was warm yesterday so I was sweating and had to pause between sets a few times and really catch my breath.

Today I have a massage scheduled, I almost forgot about it but I'm thrilled to have a massage the day after deadlifting, there is no doubt that my neck that hurts a little right now will flare up between now and the massage so that'll do me some good.

[Young Gotti]

Sunday

DB curl superset with straight bar extension 4 sets
Reverse incline db curl superset with reverse overhead rope extension 4 sets
Ez curl bar curl superset with reverse under hand overhead extension 4 sets
Dip machine superset with cable hammer curl 4 sets

As you can see I put Sunday. I didn't make it to the gym on Saturday. Lets take a step back though, got a massage on Friday and it was awesome, they let me sit in a hot tub for about a half hour before the massage to loosen things up a bit. During the massage we found that I had crazy knots all around my right shoulder blade. She was going over my blade with her elbow and stopping at tight spots to get them released but on my right side a few times she had to stop on the knots and really shake her arm and clench in order for it to release. The left side wasn't nearly as bad, makes me think it's time for an adjustment. Saturday I had to tend to some family stuff that was out of town and didn't get back until later in the day/night so I didn't make it to the gym, I was super sore though. My back felt like it was destroyed from the massage.

So Sunday I made it to the gym. It didn't feel like the best workout, mainly because I never really got a good pump. I was waiting and it never really showed up in full power. The pump was ok but not what I wanted. Either way I did my thing and last night noticed my arms were getting sore. I don't really get sore arms from workouts so I was surprised, and I know soreness doesn't mean a good workout but made me feel like I might have at least do some good.

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Side lateral raise 4 sets
Standing shoulder press 4 sets
Reverse peck deck 4 sets
Flat bench 4 sets
Incline bench 4 sets
Cable crossover 4 sets

Chest press machine superset with shoulder press machine 3 sets

A solid workout. Everything felt good and pretty smooth. Weight and reps were where I wanted them to be. Felt like I could of kept going but I'm doing chest and shoulders again on Thursday so I figured I wouldn't overdue it and did some abs instead. Also did HIIT on a treadmill. Sprinting is so taxing wow. I was breathing heavy head hanging after just a few bouts. I prefer elliptical because of low impact but the machine I use was taken.

The plan I'm coming up with is chest and shoulders day is HIIT cardio and Leg and back day will be farmers walks.

[Young Gotti]

Tuesday

Squat w/safety squat bar 4 sets
Weighted Bulgarian split squat 4 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Weighted Pull ups 4 sets
Straight bar pulldown 4 sets
T bar row 4 sets
Lat pulldown 3 sets

So the other night in the mirror my quads looked smaller than they were a few months ago. I think it's because I've been having pain during squats and haven't been able to go all out. So I went to the gym yesterday and told myself if I was in pain during the squats that I wouldn't do them and just do other movements like lunges or whatever rather than go 50% on a squat. The only cage open already had the safety squat bar set up so I figured I'd give that a shot, to me the movement is a squat but it's way different than a regular squat. To my surprise it didn't bother my groin until the very bottom of the movement so I went with it. Actually went pretty heavy because it's been awhile. I've also made the decision to let me calves go and focus on the quads and hams for a bit. The back workout was a big iffy just because I felt spent after the leg work. I also hurt my leg somehow, I was doing pullups and after a set let go of the bar and when I landed the bottom portion of my quad hurt, it might have been a slight crap or the pump but it had me walking with a limp the rest of the night, nothing injury related, probably a cramp type issue.

[Young Gotti]

Wednesday

20 minutes treadmill (farmers walk intervals)
60 crunches and 15 leg raises
5 minutes treadmill (farmers walk intervals)
60 crunches and 15 leg raises
5 minutes treadmill

Still playing around with what weight is best for the farmers walks. This time I went with less weight than last week but did 40 second intervals. I did 6 intervals at 40 seconds but also threw in a few 20 second ones towards the end of my first round. The next 5 minutes I went lighter and did a minute on and a minute off. I was pretty happy with the cardio this way. It was easier to unload the weight from the cup holders and still offered a challenge and towards the end made my grip feel challenged.

[Young Gotti]

Thursday

Flat DB press superset with side lateral raise 4 sets
Decline hammer strength superset with facepull 4 sets
Underhand bench superset with wide grip high row 4 sets
Peck deck superset with rear delt fly 3 sets

I was fairly impressed with my workout. The weight I was moving was right up there where I was in the middle of the winter if not a touch more. I swear I was able to get 3 or 4 more reps on the decline hammer strength than I'm used to. As you can see I didn't do any presses for the shoulder and that was the plan I figured I've been getting enough front delt work from benches and presses that I wanted to focus more on the rear delt. I did have some tightness in my right shoulder during the workout but nothing enough to stop me from going full force.

Woke up this morning, top abs are showing more detail, I was hoping to get that look in February but 3 days late isn't too bad either. Pretty happy with where I am this early. Last year I was no where close until like June.

[Young Gotti]

Saturday

DB curl superset with rope extension 4 sets
BB curl superset with BB close grip press 4 sets
Underhand extension superset with rope cable hammer curl 4 sets
Dip machine superset with double cable high curl 3 sets

Solid workout here. Felt good the arms got pumped real quick. It's also a mind thing but I had a basketball jersey on under my hoodie so when I got warm I took the hoodie off. Something about training arms without sleeves just makes you want to keep working the arms all day because you get that pump and see the roundness. It's like a silent motivator. I am happy with the way my arms seem to have come up over the winter a bit. Wish my forearms would grow but I never really train them directly, farmers walks will help as I continue to use heavy weights.

As far as the OL Tr1umph. Nothing crazy to note yet, I've used the main ingredient in the product which is soy lecithin before and experienced more fullness and maybe I have noticing a bit more fullness but nothing to write home about yet, however I am doing more intense cardio than before so maybe I'm offsetting things a bit. I have two jugs and I'm not done with the first one yet but hopefully the fullness will come soon and carry me into the second month of the product.

[Young Gotti]

Monday

Squat (safety squat bar) 6 sets
Leg press 4 sets
Standing calve raise 2 sets
Weighted pull ups 4 sets
Straight bar pulldown 4 sets
T bar row 4 sets

Lat pulldown superset leg raises 3 sets
Vertical leg press superset leg raises 3 sets


I don't know what to do. Last week I used the safety squat bar and felt good enough to get intense again on the squats. This week my groin was in pain. I got to the 4th set and thought it was starting to feel better and maybe got fully loose but the 5th set I had a lot of pain again, the 6th set I went light to just make sure I extended the time under tension but it wasn't great. The leg press on the other hand was really good and the burn I was getting after the set was awesome. However between sets on the leg press I could feel my groin in pain. I may have to stop squatting for a bit and find some other big leg movements because when the pain happens it feels like I either end up loosing out on reps or weight and I could be doing other movements with more intensity.

Did farmers walks again with heavy weights and it's tough at the end to get the weight back into the cup holders but it felt intense. It's a different type of heavy breathing than sprinting but it is difficult nonetheless.