Gerry: I use Valerian Root to help me sleep. Works great with no hangover in the morning.:-)

Found my new home!

Ive used melatonin in the past, also gave me crazy nightmares. I used to take ZMA before bed. It would help me sleep more soundly, but the zinc in it is a natural diuretic and would make me get up 2+ times a night to drain the lil guy.

Zemekone, are you using this thread as a specifically Q&A thread or just workout banter and workouts etc?

Banter is fine here Frank, we all talk about our daily workouts and such...glad you found our new home.

Tore up back today....put 5 plates on the T-bar, started with 19 reps and kept going until I could only get 10.

Did the same with barbell rows at 225, though I pushed out a final set at 275 to tear it up.

Finished with pull-ups, a couple sets of wide grip pulldowns at 290, and finally repped out a couple sets of cable rows at 240....I am spent!

Admiral,

Seems like T Bar rows are a staple in your workouts. Any specific reason or thoughts? I have never really done them What do you think the major benefits are?

I find the narrower (is that a word?) the grip, the more it works the outside of my lats, so I try to do the T-bars to widen out my "V".

....and I like having all the people at the gym stare at me when I throw on 7 plates on a heavy day. :-)

The answer to you question frank is YES, there was some nothing to do with anything banter going on that I got rid of...

Just in case my "yes" wasn't good enough. :-) :-)

haha! You should come down here and workout at the fitness and wellness center. The way its set up has a running track around the actual weightroom, its fun to show off to sorostitutes.... I mean sorority girls!:-)

Sleazy DZs! :-)

Thats odd tom, you find the narrow grip works the outter lats, general thought is narrow grip targets that middle area lower traps. I feel a little stretch in my lats from a narrow grip but I always find my upper back / middle upper (Rhomboid area I guess) to be sore.

DZ?!?!?! THOSE ARE MY INITIALS WHO YOU CALLIN SLEAZY!:-):-):-):-):-):-)

HAHA JK:-) Interesting about those T Bars....I was reading and a lot of powerlifters do that to help build big lats.They also do this because they need them to have huge bench numbers, and this is an exercise like you said where you can load up a lot of weight

I think they are interesting because I like to do opposite movements on the same day...I.E Bench press then rows

Never really seen much as far as close grip t bar rows as per powerlifting. more focus upon wide grip rowing and wide grip pulls. Most emphasis on lats, building stabilizing and explosive power out of the bottom.

But I guess it really depends on hand position on the T bar rows.

Did chest and back today. And now I know why I hardly ever do chest and back on the same day.

you guys have to take in coinsideration, that most people dont know how to bench with your back (i mean controlling it down with your lats and exploding with your chest) :-)

Im with ya 100% Most people dont realize the bench is a whole body lift...Especially for max effort

Maybe like you said it has to do with hand position and form, Frank...I seem to get more width from the T-bar, and more thickness from the barbell rows.

Dave....DZs, not Dave Z's!! :-)

Delta Zetas....dated 3 at the same time in college, and 2 of the 3 were OK with it! :-)

They just thought they were lucky to be with the hog!:-):-)

Had a nice workout today.

First time full flat benching with full range of motion in I dont know how long.

185x5
225x5
275x3
315x3
365x1
385x1
405x1
420x2
225x28
I am happy that I was able to rehab through my shoulder injuries and put up some ok numbers for low reps. This is also pretty early for us. We haven't done a lot of max loading. I contribute this to the mental psyche of having done more weight before and not wanted to look like an ass.

Hope everyone gets a good week of lifting in, and then lots of Rest and Recovery come turkey day!

Today begins my new workout.... trying to cut off a little fluff. Have a good workout made up, but my problem is the how to eat part... what can I say, I like taco bell! I'm already down like 10-15 lbs from my highest, maybe lose 15-20 more of "fluff" and then gain it back in muscle. I've decided Turkey Day doesn't count though, because I have to eat alot on Thanksgiving!

Well you are starting to diet in the hardest part of the season. I like taco bell too, when I try to diet instead of cutting it down all together I first start watching the quantity of what I eat at fast food. I stop eating 8 double chz and maybe eat 4... Then when it gets harder I try and gross my self out by thinking about how bad it is for you. It works for me

Good Luck James and have a good turkey day

Jim, crazy thing is I probably take in less calories on Thanksgiving than most other days....I try not to eat much until dinner, then stuff myself so much in one meal that I don't eat the rest of the night! :-)

Dave, sounds like you are gonna have one helluva max on bench before it is all said and done. :-)