Mitchell Hoyt senior project

 Day 12 5/25/21 Today Dylan and I tested our max squats. We warmed up with 135, and after that our progression was 185, 225, 275, 300, 315. Dylan was able to hit 315, but I unfortunately was not. I did hit 300 like it was nothing though, so I think what happened was I spent to much energy warming up and my muscles peaked when I went for 300. It's ok because now I have something to work towards over the summer which I am excited for. I also took preworkout for the first time today so after we squatted I did a bunch of sled pushes to get my energy all the way out. Overall a pretty good day, 300 pounds is not too shabby. 

 Day 11 5/24/21 Second to last day of senior project, so you know we had to hit biceps and triceps. Yesterday I did chest and back (I forgot to blog about it) and I felt the effects today, my arms were dead. I started with twist curls and overhead tricep extensions, 5 sets of each with 12 reps for hypertrophy because I want big arms. Then I did seated bicep curls and dips. After that I did a heavy set of curls paired with a light set of curls for 5 sets of each to work our biceps. To work our triceps I did a superset of cable extensions and skull crushers. Then to end I did a drop set of cable extensions and farmer curls. For the drop set I did 12 reps at 30 pounds then dropped the weight to 25 and did 12 reps with no rest in between, I did that all the way down to 10 pounds. I did the farmer curls with Dylan, I did 1 rep then passed it to Dylan and he did one rep and passed it back to me then I did two reps and passed it back to him all the way up to 8 reps and then back down to 1 rep

Week 2 5/17-5/23 Great week. I actually learned a lot by trying out the Arnold split; even though I did the same types of exercise in both of the splits (Arnold and PPL), they had much different effects on my body. The PPL split gave my muscles enough time to recover because I would work that group every 2-3 days. With the Arnold split, I worked each group of muscles two days in a row which felt like it was more effective. Because I got vaccinated and had games I was only able to work my upper body two days in a row by working out my chest and back one day, and my biceps and triceps the next day. For those who are new to the blog, working your chest and back partially works your biceps and triceps and vice versa.  Picture during PPL split: Picture from Arnold split (Gower is ok he's just not in this one, also Dylan got a buzzcut): After doing the Arnold split, Dylan and I decided that it will be the one we base our workout plan off of. Stay tuned for the workout plan and more updat

 Day 10      5/21/21 Dylan and I both had games today (that we won) so it was very light. All we did was bike for 10 minutes, half hour of footwork, and foam roll. The footwork actually made me sweat a lot which made me feel better about not doing much today. We did abs too but for like 2 minutes. The stretching definitely did help because I felt good during the game. I didn't get any pictures during the actual workout, but I did get a nice one from the game that I will be sharing in this blog. Hours: 9:30-10:30am: footwork and stuff

 Day 9 5/20/21 Today was a super light day focused around stretching and agility because I also had a game today and I didn't want to be fatigued but I also didn't want to be stiff. I started with 3 miles on the bike to get the blood flowing followed by 5 minutes of jumprope for agility. I also did a core workout because I still wanted to do some form of workout even though it was a game day. For core I did three rotations hanging leg raises, crunches, and weighted Russian twists, 20 reps of each and then the last set was until failure. I did those three ab exercises because they all work different parts of your core; leg raises work lower, crunches work middle and upper, and Russian twists work the sides. I ended with about a half hour of foam rolling and static stretching. I had to do all that stretching to make up for the fact that I did leg day the day before a game because usually I do it two days before so that I'm not sore. It paid off, I wasn't sore and we actua

 Day 8 5/19/21 Today was leg day again, they're usually brutal but today it wasn't too too bad, probably because I have been doing more leg days recently and my muscles are used to it. I feel like I'm gonna regret saying that tomorrow. To start, Dylan and I did back squat, for 5 sets and 8 reps for hypertrophy. Then we did front squad as a variation to target our quads a little more. For that we did 5 sets and 5 reps. Following the front squat we did a superset of calf raises and hamstring curls; calf raises until failure and 10 hamstring curls, 5 sets for both. We ended with our favorite: sled pushes! I honestly really like sled pushes to end a workout, mostly because they suck too much to do at the beginning of a workout and when you're done with the sled it feels very good to know you don't have to do anything else. Overall it was a very good workout even though I did not push the weight because I have a game tomorrow. Don't forget about our instagram either

 Day 7 5/18/21 Ok so the Arnold split is kind of a killer. I was sore from yesterday going into today's workout, and after today's arm workout my arms were very, very dead. To be fair it was a long workout, but even from the beginning I could tell that my arms were sore from yesterday. Today Dylan and I changed it up and did 5 sets of everything instead of 3 or 4 because we wanted to really push ourselves. We started with curls while sitting on an incline bench- so that we couldn't use our bodyweight to help lift the weights- and tricep extensions. We then went to regular bicep curls and overhead tricep extensions, we did a different type of tricep extension to work a different part of the tricep. Then we did preacher curls which are good because they make it so it is impossible to use any muscle other than your bicep to lift the weight. We put that in a superset with dumbbell skull crushers. After that we did concentration curls and dips on the bench and then twist curls a

  Day 6 5/17/21 Today was the first day of the Arnold split, I did chest and back. It felt weird doing push exercises alongside pull exercises because I had done the PPL split for so long, but to be honest the change was kind of nice. My muscles were tired but they weren't completely burnt out like they are when I do a normal push or pull day. I think it is because I was not working the same two muscles with every exercise, the workload was more spread out across my upper body. I have my doubts about the effectiveness of this type of training because, in my mind, the more you push your muscles the stronger you get. Then again, it was the first day so I have no idea how the more spread out working of the muscles will feel two days in a row. I did research about high vs low reps and learned that high reps/low weight trains your muscles for endurance and low reps/high weight trains your muscles to be more explosive. Chest/Back workout: Bench(chest, triceps) Pull ups(back, biceps)   In

 First week 5/9-5/16 First week of senior project is done! I would say it was a success, I spent the week testing out the push/pull/legs workout split and for this week I will be moving to the Arnold split. If you are on a PPL split the succession of workouts goes chest+triceps+shoulders then back+biceps then legs repeated throughout a week with one rest day. The Arnold split goes Chest+back then biceps+triceps+shoulders then legs with one rest day. The difference between these two splits is how much you train each muscle. With the PPL you work a set of muscles one day then let them rest for two; so on push days you work chest and triceps, but then you don't work those muscles again for two days. When you workout your chest you inadvertently workout your triceps and when you work your back you inadvertently work your biceps so by working chest+back you inadvertently work your biceps and triceps too. Them, the next day the main workout is bicep and triceps so they do not  get as muc

 Day 5 5/14/21 Today was super light because it was a game day, my main goal of the day was to make sure I was stretched out for the game. I started with a mile and a half on the bike to get the blood flowing and get loose before stretching. Then I had a very thorough foam rolling session followed by ladder drills. I did the ladder drills to get my legs ready for the in game movement, I am not sure if it actually helped my performance but it made me feel more prepared for the game. I also went out to the turf to shoot and play wall ball. We ended up losing the game, so I guess all that preparation didn't help too much. Hopefully it  works tomorrow! Workout:  Mile and a half bike Speed ladder Wall ball Hours: 10-11:30am

 Day 4 5/13/21 Today our workout was biceps and back. I made a business decision to not do legs today for three reasons: First, I have a game tomorrow and I need my legs firing on all cylinders. Second, leg days are a huge grind. Third, my legs are honestly still a little sore from that workout on Monday, I think they keep getting re-sore from practice every day. Anyway today we started with biceps; seated hammer curls and narrow grip pull-ups followed by twist curls and two hand dumbbell curls and then regular curls paired with wide grip pull ups with a burnout set of curls at the end. The seated curls are really nice because sitting makes it so you can't use the rest of your body to get the weight up, it's all in your biceps. After that we did a superset of machine rows, dumbbell rows, and more wide grip pull-ups with a burnout set of machine rows at the end. It was also tank top Thursday, so that was a nice change up. For readers of this blog who want to hear about the worko

 Day 3  5/12/21 During my third day of senior project I worked out strictly shoulders. My shoulders got worked a little bit during my push day yesterday, which is why I wanted to double up today. To really work my shoulders. I started with shoulder press for nine sets with increasing weight. After that I did three way dumbbell raises and shoulder shrugs. I originally was going to stop the workout there and then stretch because my legs are still sore from Monday's workout, but I didn't really feel satisfied with what I had done. So, instead of stretching, I added an extra set of the raises and shrugs. I also added another superset which consisted of seated lateral dumbbell raises and front dumbbell raises. These were extra so I went through them quickly with high intensity. I really wanted to feel the burn. It worked and now as I am writing this at 9:45pm (12 hours after the workout) I can barely lift my shoulders past a 90 degree angle. In short, those extra exercises worked. T

 Day 2 5/11/21     Today I went to the gym closer to 8am and did not finish until 10:30am. Part of the reason it took so long was because today was a push day. A push day is a day where you do exercises that involve a pushing motion because that motion works your triceps and your chest. Exercises during this day could be bench (pushing the bar), push ups (pushing your body), shoulder press (pushing the bar), or any other exercise with the pushing motion. It is a good workout because you are working the same group of muscles with every exercise. Anyway, today I benched and then Dylan and I went through a tricep workout that we found online. I started benching at 135 pounds and got up to 205 pounds by the end. After that I hit  dumbbell incline bench for 5 sets, 10 reps each at 100 total pounds (each dumbbell was 50 pounds). That exercise killed me on the fifth set, I highly recommend the combination of flat bench and dumbbell incline bench if you want a sore chest.  My workout: Bench In

 Day 1 5/10/21     So, I just finished my first lifting session of senior project! Dylan and I did the same workout, started with a lot of back squats, then we went to Bulgarian split squats, and finished it with sled pushes. It was only 3 exercise but we pushed the volume: 9 sets of back squats, 5 sets of Bulgarian split squats, and 3 sets of sled pushes. For back squats we started at 135 pounds and increased the weight up to 270 pound s by the eighth set. For the ninth set we dropped the weight down to 205 pounds and went until failure, the burn was very solid. Bulgarian split squats are when you are in a lunge position but with your back foot raised on a bench. Dylan and I used two 35 pound dumbbells for this exercise. Bulgarian split squats allow you to isolate one leg at a time and go super deep. I find they work best when you go down as far as possible and then as high as possible, with the leg you're standing on leg fully extended at the end. We did those 5 times for 10 reps