Monday

With a temp of -3 I got up at 5:30 am and went to the gym. I had a killer workout and I am glad I got up so early, inspite of the frozen nose hands and nosehairs. It was so cold that the honda almost wouldn't turn over and certainly never got warm enough to blow even mildly lukewarm air on my hands. I am definitely warming the car up for at least 10 minutes tomorrow. Anyway, I lifted legs today and then rode the bike for a half hour. The thing is that I decided to change things up a little bit last week and for the next two-three weeks I am lifting heavy weights with 4 sets. 10 then 8 then 6 then 4 reps respectively. So today I ended up doing my final leg press set at 6 plates a side (540 lbs plus the machine), granted only 4 times, but that is the most I have ever lifted. It was hard. Leg presses are much easier than true squats, but they are so much better on my knees. I am squatting between 2 and 3 plates a side but even then I don't do it the traditional way, my neck and shoulders just can't take it. I have been doing squats on this great machine that has kind of a shoulder harness that you duck under. Nice big pads, no bar resting across your shoulders, you are still doing real squats because the degree of movement is there but it takes the pressure off my aching back.