The 'Terminator' Press

Andy's taken to devising new combination exercises to pummel our muscles. Yesterday's creation, the 'Terminator' press, is simply brutal. The sequence is; Clean, Press to behind neck, Squat, Behind Neck Press, Inverted Reverse Curl, Inverted Deadlift. Reverse curl bar back to shoulders and repeat from press.
Given there's no chance of any exercise website having an animation for all that, you'll have to rely on that description, at least until I decide to bring a video camera to the gym and start making my own.

Overall, I wasn't too happy with this session. I still feel knackered after being ill last week, and have yet to shake the cough it's left me. Couldn't push myself at all.

The box jumps really cane your quads, too. I was expecting today's boot camp to hurt, and sure enough it did.

Exercise	Warmup	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
'Terminator' Press	15×10kg	12×20kg	7×22.5kg	8×20kg
Dumbbell Bench Press Barbell Decline Triceps Extension	15×12kg 15×20kg	12×18kg 12×20kg	10×20kg 10×22.5kg	8×22kg 8×30kg
Dumbell Curls(21s)		21×10kg	21×10kg	21×10kg
22" Box Jumps		50
Box Lateral Shuffle		30s / 30s †

†: Both legs moving together, symmetrically.

Supersets 2: Triceps, Chest, Legs and Abs

I was dead chuffed with this session. I'd under-slept the night before, and wasn't even sure if I would make it to the gym, between that and how much my muscles still ached from the last session. Though knackered when I arrived, by the time we hit the skull-crushers adrenalin had kicked in (or perhaps the CEE I'd munched just before leaving the office), and the rest of the workout was brilliant. Never thought I'd lift that 40kg bar, even if my muscles gave out one shy of a full set. We were there for two hours, and even got in some boxing in the end. Class.

Today, I've got a burn in my chest, abs, and bizarrely, my upper back - but the part that really canes is my quads. I can barely walk!

Exercise	Warmup	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
Cable Pushdown	15×20kg	12×45kg	10×50kg	8×55kg
Triceps Dip		12×-40kg	10×-30kg	10×-20kg
Dumbbell Fly Barbell Decline Triceps Extension	15×6kg 15×20kg	12×12kg 12×30kg	10×14kg 10×35kg	8×16kg 7×40kg
Medicine Ball Incline Crunch†		30×3kg	30×3kg
Weighted Lying Straight Leg Raise		20×2kg	20×2kg	20×2kg
Overhead Medicine Ball Lunge‡		20×4kg	20×4kg	20×4kg

†: Throwing the medicine ball and catching it between crunches.
‡: With a medicine ball held overhead (rather than a barbell on shoulders as illustrated). Last set with eyes closed to increase core stability work.

The numbers for the triceps dip are low because I was concentrating on perfecting my form, and using a full range of motion. My shoulders are sufficiently inflexible that I can't hold a barbell behind my neck comfortably - so this was hard work, and I felt it almost entirely in my shoulders rather than my chest or triceps.

Partnered training

If anyone's in any doubt as to how much difference training with a partner makes, have a lot at these stats from my session last night with Andy - the numbers in brackets after the third set are the percentage improvement over my previous PB:

Exercise	Warmup	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
Smith Bench Press	12×27kg	12×47kg	10×57kg	8×62kg(+32%)
Dumbbell Arnold Press	12×5kg	12×7kg	10×9kg	8×12kg(+33%)
Decline Skullcrusher	12×15kg	12×25kg	10×30kg	8×35kg (+113%)
Chin-up		5	5	5
Incline Crunch		20	25	30

As you can tell, we really pushed ourselves, and each other. His exercise log shows a similarly impressive improvement.
Tonight, we're going to pummel our legs. Tomorrow I suspect will be a day of rest - I probably won't even be able to climb stairs.

Update: After some discussion, I'm going to count the smith machine bar as 7kg, not 18. Though means my lifts aren't as impressive, it means my gains are more so, so it's all good.

Injuries

It's been an accident-prone couple of days in the gym. Tuesday night was a yoga class and biceps / back. Which was fine, until just before I left, when I stumbled into an open footlocker door, which ripped into my tensed calf muscle, sideways. It still hurts, though thankfully, last night it proved no handicap to doing calf presses (new PB, 79kg).
Yoga does seem to leave me feeling relaxed, yet interfere with my balance. I guess they must hit stabiliser muscles in a way that I'm not - yet - used to, so after a decent class they're ready to give up.

Last night was triceps / chest. It started badly - I dropped a 18kg dumbbell while warming up for the bench press, and decided to ditch the exercise rather than risk damaging my shoulder. Must space arm workouts farther apart.
I realised I was probably too knackered for a serious workout, so decided it might be a good idea to experiment - with skullcrushers.
There are two versions of this exercise I've seen - one with a barbell; and one where you dangle a dumbbell vertically over your head, cupping the top plate under your hands, with your thumbs and forefingers circling the grip. The latter is more common, presumably because you can tweak the weight in smaller increments than if you're using a bar, and also because you don't have to worry so much about balance.
It does, however, have a certain disadvantage - namely that it's far too easy to misjudge the movement and smack yourself in the face with the lower plate. Won't be doing that again (hopefully).