Jan. 22. Starting Week 4 of LIIFT4 + Tournament Prep.

January 22, 2019, Tuesday - LIIFT4 - Week 4, Chest and Triceps Circuit + Shoulder Care Yoga + TCF.

It is a week before a tennis tournament I'm playing in and before my last tournament about a month and a half ago,  I decided to take it easy on the weights so I wouldn't be sore on tournament day. Well, it seems that that plan was a failure.  Sure, I wasn't sore, but I also lost strength and stamina, and I played terribly.  So, this time, I'm not changing my weekly workout routine and I'm going to just play through the soreness if I have any. 

I'm starting Week 4 of LIIFT4 so back to the beginning.  Here is the rundown of the routine.  This time, we work on Quad-sets and no cardio, all weights.  I liked it better this time because the chest moves were mixed in with the Triceps moves.  In previous circuit routines, Joel Freeman did half of the moves on one body part first, then the last half on the other body part.  I don't like that style.  Today's style is more my style.  So here it is:

Set 1

1. Chest Press
2. Tricep Press
3. Flys
4. Tricep Kickbacks

Good moves.  Staple moves for the chest and triceps.  I felt strong going into the first round, but by the final round I could feel the pump and burn.

Set 2

1. Decline Press
2. Skull Crushers
3. Rotating Chest Press
4. Single Side Crushers

My arms and chest were already almost fried at this point, so I went down a little in weight and I still got even more fried.  I hit failure by the end of the third round.

Burnout Round

1. Wide pushups – 30 seconds
2. Tricep pushups – 30 seconds

I was totally fried at this point.  I had to do both variations of Push-Up on my knees and even then I hit failure at the end of each set and round. Talk about Rubber arms.

Core

1. Reaching Situps– 30 seconds
2. Bicycle Twists – 30 seconds

Joel does the situps weight free, but I added some weight to it today.  At the very end of the second round, I could feel my abs starting to cramp and involuntarily flex, especially when rolling back onto the floor.  That was really tough and I fried my abs.

When I did the Shoulder Care Yoga, Oh the pain.  Especially in my chest.  I could feel my shoulders really starting to open up, the keyword is "Starting" to open up.  I have a long way to go before I'm satisfied with my shoulder flexibility.  My ending flow was also good.  I'm getting it back on the right side, but it still feels a bit off for some reason, not totally natural.

In the end, I burned a good 552 kcals.  Not bad for a shorter routine.