12 Aug Tucker: Deload

Man, I feel good. I took a few extra days off last week and hit chest and back for one day, and shoulders and arms another. I took it as a good mental deload as well, and on the evenings off that I would normally have been working out on, I just spent some time on the couch, or took the dog to the park, or did something for me. In the past I might have filled the time with something “productive” or work related, but this time I found productivity in my respite. It’s been a very busy month getting moved in, situated and adjusted to everything here in LA, and if I’ve learned one thing from the last year, it’s been that mental exhaustion can be just as taxing as physical exhaustion. I figured before I got to that point of feeling mentally overloaded, taking a few hours in the evening to enjoy nothingness would do me some good…. and I was right!

My workouts this week so far feel great too! My elbows and joints are feeling better, and I’ll be going to see Craig on Monday to see what else we can do about the pinched nerve I’ve got going on.

Not too much new besides that. Strength is getting better, the scale is adding about a pound a week but I’m getting leaner… everything is going according to plan.

My apartment complex has some nifty equipment made for gen pop lifters, but I found a way to make it work for me. One was this interesting cable variation where instead of having a pulley and cable attachment, there’s just a vertical cord with a handle in the middle that can be moved wherever someone wants, and you adjust the tension on it. I think it’s supposed to be easy on the joints and work stability is some way so I gave it a try and it was pretty fun. I practiced some of the stuff Craig gave me to do with it and made some progress stability/health wise

Warm ups were my standard mobility get ups, wrestling warm up moves and other plank variations Craig has given me, and then I also threw on some planks and bear crawls while trying to balance a ball on my lower back, as well as more thoracic mobility stuff with kettle bells.

Weights were kept light and sets/reps were 4x 15-20 per exercise. I didn’t go to failure but still got a nice pump and got my blood pumping pretty well from the pace of the workout.

Chest and back –
Stability cable chest press SS w/ rows
DB chest press SS w/ double hand DB rows
Incline DB press SS w/ lat pulldown
Dips SS w/ pull-ups

Arms and shoulders
Machine shoulder press SS w/ DB Side raises
DB shoulder press SS w/ DB front raises
Cable rear delt pull aparts SS w/ Cable upright rows
Cable pushdowns SS w/ cable curls
DB kick backs SS w/ DB curls

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Tucker Loken

Tucker Loken is a Bodybuilder turned Powerlifter turned Powerbuilder from Eugene, Oregon. He did his first bodybuilding show when he was still in high school, and has been training male and female competitors for shows since 2011. Several years ago he decided to take a step away from his normal routine and learn how to get strong. He worked with Brian for 9 months, added 200 pounds to his raw total and qualified as an Elite lifter in the 220 pound weight class. He returned back to bodybuilding much stronger and now incorporates the 10/20/Life philosophy into his training to keep himself healthy and making continual progress in the Big 3 as well as adding size and shaping his physique. Now part of Team PRS, he brings his unique expertise of nutritional knowledge and how to balance Bodybuilding with Powerlifting to help athletes achieve their best potential.

Latest posts by Tucker Loken (see all)

• Tucker: Another Normal Log Update - March 1, 2019
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• Tucker: Making Do - February 4, 2019