Evil’s Workout Plan – December 2014

2014 goes into its final lap and my workout plans for this year do too. But what is up with those calf raises?

Less Neck, More Fun!

It paid off that for my November plan I called quits for the two kinds of pullovers I did up until October. The excruciating headaches are gone.

The calf raises still make for an amazing exercise, but I find it hard to judge if I’m using enough weight or if I’m having a simple balance problem.

Other changes I made are due to getting bored with a particular exercise.

Evil’s Current Workout Plan (December 2014)

 
Again ExRx links to the exercises I still have to film.

Mondays Explained

The inclined bench presses I reintroduced as replacement for the dumbbell pullovers were a success, although at the beginning I found it difficult to control the motion on the right side. I was, I have to admit, a bit out of practice with that kind of exercise.

The dumbbell triceps extensions I replaced with their barbell counterpart, as I felt I got a little too used to the dumbbell variety. The kickbacks stayed in for the sole reason that I couldn’t come up with a better exercise. To keep them going I’ll play around with the rep ranges a bit.

Wednesdays Explained

Wednesdays saw the other pullover exercise gone, which, as I said above, took care of those neck-centered headaches I experienced.

But replacing them with regular and underhand barbell rows led to a revelation: I may have been doing regular barbell rows with too narrow a grip.

Now that I checked, I found them more difficult than before. The narrow grip I did was lat-centric and the wide grip I should have been doing goes more toward general back (the middle and upper trapezius in particular).

It goes to show again that even after years of experience with working out at home you have to be vigilant about what you do.

Dumbbell curls I dropped in favor of barbell curls, because I got a bit bored with the former.

Fridays Explained

It’s amazing how much weight my calves can handle. I started calf raises in October with 2 x 10 kg and only now, eight weeks later, I’m at a weight where I feel a true challenge: 2 x 17.5 kg.

Although, to be honest, the challenge that got bigger is staying upright doing the exercise. I’m not sure if that’s due to my calves taken to the max or the increasing loads keeping my sense of balance out of, well, balance.

The unilateral side and rear delt raises finally bored me out of my skull, so out they go and in come standing side raises and rear delt rows with a dumbbell. On the latter I have to watch out a lot to not accidentally slipping into surprisingly easy dumbbell rows.