Day 390: Crushing An Upper Body Workout

It felt amazing not having to wake up to an alarm this morning since I wasn’t driving in to my office. I only slept in an extra 30 minutes before Sasha and Darren got me out of bed but it was still nice. What was even better was that the extra sleep pushed me close to 5 hours of deep sleep.

After closely monitoring my sleep and trying different ways of sleep hacking over the past year, I find that I am the most refreshed when I read for around 30 minutes before bed, fall asleep with a cold room (ideally less than 70 degrees), lay flat on my back and get 4-5 hours of deep sleep. 

I started my work day earlier than normal since I was working from home which allowed me to get a jump on the day. 

I only had two meetings today which is a far cry from my normal schedule so I treasured it, using the “extra” time to get through a bunch of admin work that had been piling up, checking in on various lower priority projects and tackling my inbox. 

I ran over to have my second blood work drawn around lunchtime so that I wouldn’t deal with morning rush hour traffic. 

When I walked in, my usual phlebotomist said that he almost didn’t recognize me because I was wearing a t-shirt and baseball hat instead of a button-down. 

I was still feeling a bit of pain in my knee today so to give it an extra day of rest I decided to do a full upper-body workout. 

I haven’t done a pure weightlifting session in many, many months and that sounded like fun so I programmed this for my workout: 

• Bench press - 4 sets x 15, 12, 10, 8 reps 
• Seated close-grip rows - 4 sets x 15, 12, 10, 8 reps
• Alternating bicep curls - 3 main sets x 12, 10, 8 reps w/drop set of 10 reps
• Tricep pushdowns - 4 sets x 15, 12, 10, 8 reps
• Front raises - 3 sets x 15 reps per set
• Medicine ball slams (12 lbs) 25 reps x Alternating standing oblique twist 15 reps/side - 2 sets

It was fun to only lift weights again without other HIIT-style exercises (e.g. burpees) or cardio worked in.  

I am a bit limited with what I am able to do for weightlifting at our gym based on the weights available but we do have a gym on our campus that has a lot more equipment. I have never used that gym before but it’s free for employees so I just need to take care of the paperwork to gain access. 

As hard as my workouts are, I’m continuing to up the ante with the help of Spartan private groups that I belong to. Many have set up their own obstacles to help them prepare for races or other WODs that they have programmed. 

I’m looking forward to the long weekend so that I can spend time with Laura before traveling this coming week.