Project HUGE - Week 1 of Full Body Workouts

Last week (July 5th through the 11th) was my first full week of full-body workouts. I have to say, I really enjoyed it. Full-body workouts really feel good, and they feel POWERFUL. Really powerful. I thought I would post the results of my first full week of these workouts, both for my own inspiration, but also, to get critiques and opinions from anyone else.

I said before, that I like to keep track of the total weight lifted. To me, this can be a great measure of how much actual work is being done. There are some exceptions to that. The leg press machine allows you to push the weight your are working at a 45 degree angle. This greatly reduces the effective weight you are working against. So while I may be able to do a 700 lbs leg press, in my opinion, that is actually less work than a 200lbs squat.

So you may ask, why do the leg press at all then?

That is a good question. I said in one of my posts that I will be alternating my workouts so that I do not do back-to-back spine compressing workouts. Spine compression is not a good thing and can cause all sorts of problems later in life, the least of which is that I could become shorter. A lot shorter. I am only 5' 10" now. Leg presses do not compress the spine like squats or deadlifts do, so that is why I am doing them. I am considering swapping out the leg press exercise in my full body #2 workout for single leg squats or split squats. Because I would need to use considerably less weight for those squat exercises, it would not compress the spine.

My Workouts this week

Sunday

Sunday I did a lot. In fact, Sunday I did too much. This was after I had decided to start full body workouts but before I learned about spine compression. I had not laid out my full-body workout plans yet, I was just deciding on the fly what to do. I had done squats the day before and deadlifts two days before that. So I really paid for this workout. That was three spine compressing workouts in a row. My back was stiff and sore for two days and it was really unpleasant. It was quite a learning experience. But regardless, here is what I did.

38,880 lbs. (23,410 lbs. after adjusting for leg press inefficiency)

• Shoulder Shrugs:
  • 20x100 lbs in each arm
  • 13x100 lbs
• Cable Curls:
  • 6x50 lbs each arm
  • 4x50 lbs
  • 4x40 lbs
• Leg Press:
  • 16x285 lbs
  • 8x375 lbs
  • 6x465 lbs
  • 6x555 lbs
  • 4x605 lbs
  • 16x375 lbs
• Shoulder Press:
  • 6x195 lbs
  • 4x205 lbs
  • 4x225 lbs
  • 8x195 lbs
  • 24x105 lbs
• Upright Rows:
  • 8x95 lbs
  • 6x105 lbs
  • 4x115 lbs

Shrugs, shoulder press and upright rows were all putting compression on my spine. In addition to the deadlifts and squats from prior days, it was too much and I won't let that happen again. You'll also noticed I did add in some extra-curricular activity for my biceps with the cable curls. I continued to do that throughout the week because I want to see a little more growth there and I have not felt like there were getting enough work.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I was still feeling the effects of the spine compression I was complaining about earlier, so I did one of my non-spine crushing workouts. I could really feel the difference.

I did bent over rows, but I took it light. This is the first time I have ever done these, so I wanted to get used to them before I took on heavy weight.

I also did step ups for the first time. I used the FreeMotion cable machine that is designed for this exercise. The weight listed represents the total weight in both hands.

I also did the decline press for the first time with a barbell. I've always done it with dumbbells in the past. It felt pretty good.

27,160 lbs.

• Bent-over rows (Barbell)
  • 8x115 lbs
  • 6x135 lbs
  • 5x155 lbs
  • 5x155 lbs
  • 6x135 lbs
  • 6x135 lbs
• Step ups
  • 20x305 lbs
  • 16x335 lbs
  • 16x355 lbs
  • 16x355 lbs
• Bench Press, Decline (Barbell)
  • 16x135 lbs
  • 10x180 lbs
  • 8x200 lbs
  • 4x240 lbs
  • 8x180 lbs
• Cable Curls
  • 2x60 lbs in each arm
  • 6x50 lbs
  • 8x40 lbs

Thursday

Thursday was a good day. I did Full Body Workout #1 from my initial blog post. It went well. I have two issues to bring up.

The chain on my dip belt is not long enough for more than 50 lbs. of plates, so I ended up using dumbbells instead. That will work fine until I need to exceed 100 lbs. Then I will need to get a longer chain.

My first 2 sets of squats are "Front Squats" where I hold the bar in front of me. This was too painful on my shoulders and arms, so I had to switch to "back squats" (standard squats), where the bar is across the back of my neck and shoulders, for the remaining sets. Later this week I will hopefully be receiving some squats straps that I ordered to help with the front squats.

30,005 lbs.

• Seated Cable Row
  • 12x100 lbs
  • 4x150 lbs
  • 7x120 lbs
  • 7x120 lbs
  • 5x130 lbs
  • 10x100 lbs
  • 8x100 lbs
• Squats (Barbell)
  • 4x135 lbs
  • 2x180 lbs
  • 6x180 lbs
  • 4x225 lbs
  • 6x225 lbs
  • 4x225 lbs
  • 8x180 lbs
  • 10x180 lbs
• Dips with weight belt (Weight is body weight + dumbbell weight - 20 lbs. forearm weight)
  • 8x235 lbs
  • 6x280 lbs
  • 6x300 lbs
  • 6x300 lbs
  • 8x275 lbs
  • 11x235 lbs
  • 16x235 lbs

Saturday

Yesterday was another non-spine compressing day. So I did the leg press again. I am now planning on switching out the leg press for split squats. I have to put so much weight on the leg press to get a decent workout that it takes forever. It looks cool to be lifting with so many plates, but it feels like a cheap win.

I also did the incline bench press and managed my best presses since high school. I am getting closer to that 300 lbs mark more quickly than I hoped. I managed two reps with 265 lbs. Woo hoo!

32,800 lbs. (19,389 lbs. after adjusting for leg press inefficiency)

• Leg Press
  • 8x430 lbs
  • 8x520 lbs
  • 4x610 lbs
  • 4x700 lbs
  • 3x750 lbs
  • 12x520 lbs
• Lat Pull Downs
  • 7x162.5 lbs
  • 4x175 lbs
  • 7x162.5 lbs
  • 5x150 lbs
  • 5x150 lbs
• Bench Press, Incline (Barbell)
  • 6x205 lbs
  • 4x225 lbs
  • 4x245 lbs
  • 2x265 lbs
  • 7x225 lbs
  • 12x155 lbs
• Cable Curls
  • 6x40 lbs in each arm
  • 4x50 lbs
  • 6x40 lbs

Conclusion

So my 7 day adjusted total was about 99,964 lbs. of weight lifted. I'd say that's pretty awesome, and I am happy with it. Granted I got in 4 days this week, so I do not expect that all of my weeks will be up to that level, not even close. This was an exceptional week. I also expect that you will not see an update like this every week. This post was a lot of work. It was fun, but I doubt that I will have this kind of time every week, plus I have other more ColdFusion related posts to make.

Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading :) This post is so long, I'm not even going to bother going back and proof reading.