Monday, November 09, 2009

Back to the Gym

Back in the gym after a nice trip to Atlanta...here's today's workout:

1A) Vertical Jumps
1B) Shrugs

2A) Squats
2B) DB Incline Presses

3A) Rope Seated Rows
3B) Planks

4) Chinups

I was pretty crushed by the end.

In the morning I went to my chiropractor for ART on a bunch of bodyparts and an upper back adjustment. My chiro, Dr. Michael Sommers of Evolve Chiropractic, is one smart dude. He puts me back together after I beat myself up in the gym, or after sports, or after any of my other random accidents.

This weekend he went to a shoulder therapy seminar and came back with a bunch of recommendations for my training...one of which was the incorporation of the rope rows into my program - using a rope allows for a greater and better range of motion in a seated row than using a fixed V-grip handle. Definitely something worth adding to your program.

That exercise made my upper back work really hard even though I used 50% of my regular seated row weight.

I'll be trying out more of his recommendations and passing them on to you soon.

I also had a really great workout because I had a lot of rest on the weekend...I didn't train, and only did a few 30 minute walks around Atlanta. In fact, on Saturday I did something very uncharacteristic of me.

I was getting sick of being in the seminar I was attending, so I went back to my hotel room and watched 7 straight hours of TV, including:

- College Football
- The Breeders Cup (caught a once in a lifetime race - I bet they make a ton of movies about the winning horse)
- Then I rented Inglourious Basterds (slow start, awesome ending)
- Then I watch Strikeforce (the Fedor-Rogers fight - probably the most exciting MMA fight I've ever watched)

On Sunday, I got lucky and caught an early flight home.

And now I'm back on track with workouts.

Stay strong,

Craig Ballantyne

2 comments:

Justin said...

You should check out more of Fedor's fights, he's incredible. The epitome of mental toughness.

Anonymous said...

Craig - Question about push-ups: why do I hardly ever "feel" it the next day in my pecs like I do with DB presses (i.e., some soreness)? Even when I go to failure, do declines, etc? Is it just too hard to take the arms out of push-ups? I just don't feel like I'm getting a decent chest workout.
Perplexing.
Thanks for the shoulder tips.
Jay