So today's workout:

10x50# Cable rotator cuff

12x40# One arm dumbell snatches

Iso lat pulldown: 15x45#, 15x70#, 12x90#

Iso low row: 15x45#, 15x70#, 12x90#

One arm dumbell bench row: 4x12x60#

While I was doing these, Kenny was telling me the story about his leg workout yesterday. He and Greg went down to the gym where they have the big leg sled and got into it. Knowing Greg, a lot of it. So Kenny tells me how on his last rep, he has seven plates on a side, and he can't budge it up. To demonstrate this, as I am rowing, he gets down on the floor and assumes the position of someone deeply in trouble on a leg press. He says it was stuck there for a minute, and Greg was calmly telling to "push, push hard". Which I completely believe. Kenny is grimacing and groaning, eyes bugging, probably just like it really was if you were there. He was explaining how other people in the gym were slowly coming around to see what was going on, and Kenny was just grimacing and pushing hard. But the sled wasn't moving. After another minute or so, he locked out the sled. Then he couldn't get his legs to move off the footplate, so he demonstrated to me how he lifted his legs out from under the plate with his hands. All this time I'm just rowing my dumbell.

What Kenny didn't quite realize was this other guy came over and was quite interested in his demonstration. He looked like a guy that trains, but I hadn't seen him before. His face brightened when Kenny started grimacing, and after Kenny had got back up off the floor, the guy said something which I heard as something like "Tiger position?". I don't have the martial arts background to have a clue. But the guy was clearly happy to see a trainer who understood these things. The guy explained about how when he had to hold the position for three minutes he thought he was going to explode. Kenny replied that he thought he was going to explode too - meaning when he had been actually doing the leg press yesterday.

I'm not sure the resolution of that conversation, though. The guy was speaking in a low voice because I was repping and presumably he didn't want to distract me.

Incline bench press: 2x15x115#, (12,8)x135#

Cable cross chest press: 18x40#, 15x50#, 12x60#

Cable curl: "21" at 60#, 70#, 80#

Cable triceps pushdown: 18x60#, 15x70#, 12x80#

Standing alternating dumbell curl: 3x20x25#

Vertical stack leg press: 20x135#, 15x175#, 15x215#, 12x235#

Well there it is. When we went over there I joked: "what's this?" Kenny said "it's a leg press, I use it when I don't feel like squatting". I replied "I never feel like not squatting." Kenny said "I never feel like not benching, you want to bench?" So we did the leg press. Two legs at a time even.

No funny tiger position stories though. It was quite easy - this was an uppers workout after all, and I mentioned to Kenny "I think my squatting has improved my leg press". I think if there is going to be a tiger position story Kenny will go for that in a real leg workout.

Lying leg curl: 20x70#, 15x90#, 12x100#

1070 Calories in 1:21
MHR 170, AHR 141

Supplemental cardio
Barbell step-ups: 4x30x125#

308 Calories in 28:20
MHR 172, AHR 143

Do you always do legs on upper body workouts? How many times a week do you do weighted leg work?

I remember when I was a nippper, can't have been more than 9 or 10 (still in primary school), going to the local leisure centre with my dad occasionally. There was a vertical leg-press machine there. Four steel columns, central bar with plate bars in all 4 directions (NSEW), small foam pad on the floor under it.

One of the simplest machines I've ever seen. Lie down, lift the weight off the stoppers, then it's just you against gravity (right down deep till you look like a violated frog!).

Andrew.

He only got 7 plates(Hopefully on each side)......weak.

I agree with you Zen. There is no substitute for squats. I normally finish up my box squats and then head for 2-3 sets of one legged leg press (4 plates on a side). I have only been doing two legged leg press if the squat rack is taken.

He only got 7 plates(Hopefully on each side)......weak.

Kenny isn't weak when he starts working out. God only knows what nasty stuff Greg was running them through to get to that point. Kenny has done sets of 12 at eight plates a couple weeks ago. Greg (all 54 years old and not lifting his age) reps with 9 plates. I actually don't know how strong that really is, but I can say that both of those guys can deadlift over 500# for reps. Not bad considering that they always seem to be working on their bench.

Kenny also has a much more body bulding focus - he lives in the single digit body fat and gets modeling jobs. The last one was for Nike. His trouble now is that he can'e seem to get his bench back over 405# without looking soft.

Do you always do legs on upper body workouts? How many times a week do you do weighted leg work?

Two or three times a week. But today was basically a light leg add-on to uppers. We do that a lot (you can see we usually do that in the journal). It has a few advantages.

1. It increases the exercise response which might not be that big based on the low intensity that I can do uppers. At my age I got to scratch for all the testosterone I can get.

2. It's a cheap way to round out the Calories so my liver gets the message. Nothing wrong with lifting as cardio. I don't know why more people don't get into that.

3. Hey it's fun. Why not? I have a full day of rest before and after so there is no problem adding it on. It really cuts down on the problem of scheduling workouts.

There was a vertical leg-press machine there. Four steel columns, central bar with plate bars in all 4 directions (NSEW), small foam pad on the floor under it.

I wouldn't mind trying one of those. Just to be clear, the leg press we used today is a vertical stack leg press which is a nearly horizontal sled with a vertical weight stack. The point of the vertical weight stack is that it isn't the usual 65%=70% conversion for 40 and 45 degree leg presses. Plus if someone gets stuck, unlocking the clutch lets the sled out with ease. The full stack of 395# on the machine I was using today is about six plates on a side for a 45 degree machine. I was pushing the equivalent of a bit under four plates a side 45 degree equivalent, so you can see we were not going heavy.