Yesterday was kind of insane, but I learned a lot about mental barriers and perceived weakness. Before I get into that though, here’s a quick recap of Monday’s workout:

–Bench Press 95×10, 135×5, 185×3, 225×3, 235×3, 225×4

–Overhead Press 95×10, 95×10, 95×10, 95×10, 95×10

–Seated Cable Rows 120×10, 120×10, 120×10

–EZ Bar Curls 80×10, 80×10, 80×10

–Triceps Extensions 120×10, 120×10, 120×10

I felt kind of weak on the bench, but overall I definitely still got a good workout in. Since I barely got 235 the number of reps I was shooting for, I added another set of 225 to make up for my failure. No workout should be set in stone. It should be a template that can be modified to suit your needs each day.

It’s amazing what one night of sleep can do.

Tuesday was an entirely different kind of day than Monday. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I felt like Superman. I set new personal records in the Deadlift and the Kroc Row. It was also the most taxing martial arts class I’ve ever been a part of.

Due to a slight injury to my obliques last week and the resulting extra day off, my workouts are shifted one day forward this week which means that I have to workout and do my martial arts classes in the same day. I don’t usually like doing this. I specifically design my routine so that martial arts days are my off days from the gym.

So Tuesday rolls around and I know that between getting off of work at 4:30 and the start of Open Hand class at 7:30 I have to workout and eat. I decide to just drink a protein shake after work and head straight to the gym. Here is what followed, a simple, but awesomely effective routine:

–Deadlift 135×5, 185×5, 225×5, 255×3, 285×3, 325×4, 350×1, 365×1 (new personal record 1RM)

–Front Squats 115×10, 115×10, 115×10, 115×10

–Kroc Rows 85×26 each hand (new personal record)

325 for 4 felt good so I put 350 on the bar. That came up easy. So I put 365 on the bar and that came up easy as well. I think I had more in the tank, but sometimes it’s good to leave a rep or two in the tank. It speeds recovery and keeps you strong. This reminds me of an important point that took me a long time to figure out.

If you’re working out really hard and you’re making minimal to no progress, you’re probably doing way too many exercises. Did you see that last workout? 3 exercises. And I was drenched in sweat at the end.

Arnold demonstrating a bodybuilder grip on the Front Squat

I got to the gym around quarter after 5 and was done just over an hour later. My girlfriend had the car which left me with a 15 minute walk back to the apartment. I get back to the apartment around quarter to 7; not enough time to eat and digest before plyometrics and Open Hand class. Another protein shake it is. Thinking I was clever, I also grabbed a granola bar to eat after plyo. That would normally suffice until I could eat a nice dinner after class. However, tonight was not to be a normal night.

Only 4 of us showed up to class, out of a possible 8 or 9. We noticed the guy who runs the plyo class wasn’t there. When we inquired, our martial arts instructor told us that there would be no plyo tonight, but that he had something special planned in its stead.

He told us to find a comfortable area on the mats. Easy enough. Then said to start doing push-ups and to not stop until he said so. And so we did, thinking he’d stand around and tell us to stop after 40 or 50. Such was not the case. He just walked away. After about 150 or so, I started to wonder if he was ever going to come back. He did when I was around 165. He asked how many each of us had done and then said, “Good. Keep going.”

Around 200 my arms pretty much quit working. On his next update, I was at 206, he said that if we couldn’t do anymore push-ups, we should pick up a medicine ball and start squatting. Even though I had already done a pretty intense deadlift and squat workout, I welcomed squats if it meant I could stop doing push ups. We had 3 of us doing this non-stop routine and when we all started doing squats we rotated who had each of the 10, 20, and 30 pound medicine balls. Our instructor told us to keep track of our total number of push-ups and squats and to report it to him when asked. After 150 or so squats I decided to try my hand at push-ups again. I went from 206 to 220 and couldn’t do anymore. Back to squats then…..

On the next update my total between the two was 410 (220 push-ups, 190 squats). I had the highest total so he based how long we had to go on me. He said “Good. You can stop when he (me) gets to 500.” Back to squats.

When I got to 500, I dropped the 30lb medicine ball and thought we were finished. He then asked the other two how close to 500 they were. They were both around 300-330. So he subtracted their totals from 500. Then added them together and told us that amongst the three of us, we had to make up 365 total reps. We did the reps together in sets of 10, 15, or 20 until we finally got it all finished. I ended up doing 220 push-ups and close to 500 squats. It was over an hour of continuous punishment. I’m proud of my fellow classmates and myself. We never complained and we finished every rep he gave us. We didn’t really learn any new martial art techniques that night, but we learned a lot about what we can achieve if our mind is in the right place. Failure wasn’t an option, so we simply didn’t fail.

In a surprising turn of events, after all that exercise yesterday, I’m not horribly sore and crippled today. My arms are a bit more tender than usual, but after all those squats and deadlifts, my legs feel fine. It’s very empowering to accomplish a task that others wouldn’t even try and to emerge unscathed. Don’t let your mind stop you from completing something. Muhammad Ali, when asked how many sit ups he did, replied:

“I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that’s when I start counting, because that’s when it really counts.”

Tarzan out.