Round 4: Day 80: Shoulders and Arms

Day 80. The end of this Round is in sight, which is sufficient incentive to keep going to completion. I was mildly concerned yesterday that I was coming down with a cold, having experienced some congestion and sneezing, coupled with my entire family being under the weather with colds and stomach flu. I prescribed myself extra rest last night, and awoke this morning feeling energized and refreshed, and ready to take on Shoulders and Arms.

I love this workout, especially using dumbbells. Briefly surveying my numbers from the last time (you see, it really does pay to write everything down! Information is knowledge, knowledge leads to better results) I decided to modify my strategy and pursue heavier weights, rather than increased repetitions. I made a note that on any exercise where I exceeded 10 reps, I would increase the weight. My objective was to achieve 8-10 reps on all weightlifting exercises, and try to sustain that each time the exercise was repeated. This resulted in an increase in weight on virtually every exercise. Sometimes, the weight felt a bit too heavy towards the end of the exercise (straight arm shoulder flys) and I lightened my load during the repeat of that exercise in order to ensure that I could complete the requisite number of repetitions.

The result was that I had an arm and shoulder burn like never before, and my body was really pumped up. I'll pursue this strategy again in the future, and look for further opportunities to increase my weight.