Still training hard!

Usually on the week of a competition I will train my whole body over the course of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. But, since my larger goal is to be in my best condition for the NPC Masters Nationals (July 18th and 19th) I am treating this week like a regular training week. Tuesday evening and yesterday morning Diana and I did the Shredder Walk in sweltering heat. Yesterday afternoon it was so hot that I opted to do an extra leg training session rather than go walking again out in the heat. My leg session was done using the occlusion method described by Layne Norton in the April 2008 issue of Ironman Magazine.

Quickie leg workout:

Superset Super-deep Hack Squats with Leg Presses 4 supersets 12-15 reps on the Hacks and 40-50 reps on the leg presses

Superset Leg Extensions with single-leg leg presses 4 supersets 15 reps on extensions, 12-15 reps on leg presses.

Leg Extension 3 sets 8-10 reps

Holy Crap it felt good to get those wraps off my thighs and let the lactic acid clear!!!

Today I met my gorgeous new training partner, Tricia, for a back workout. My lower back has been extremely tight and sore, so we did the deadlifts at the end of the workout to avoid having to use as much weight. I got a tremendous pump in my lats today! Then we did triceps so that I’ll have less to do tomorrow. Also, Tricia feels that triceps are one of her problem areas and since we won’t be able to train together tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that she got a good tricep workout. Here’s a photo of Tricia that I pulled off of her myspace page :)

Here’s today’s back workout:

Lat Pulldowns 5 sets 8-12 reps

Seated Cable Row 4 sets 8-12 reps

High Pulley Row 4 sets 10-12 reps

One-arm DB Row 3 sets 10-12 reps

Deadlifts 4 sets 15, 12, 10, 5 Heaviest set was 385X5

Tricep Workout:

Seated Tricep Ext 5 sets 15-20 reps

Pressdowns 4 sets 12-15 reps

By the time we got done with pressdowns I was totally out of gas! I finished off my post-workout protein drink, stopped by Max Muscle to pick up a couple items for this weekend (Micheal and Travis at Max Muscle are awesome!), then headed back to Hyde Park Gym for a posing session. Tomorrow morning I head to Houston. Weigh-in is at 2:30. I plan to find a gym and train shoulders and biceps after the weigh-in. Rest assured I’ll get some cardio in, as well.