Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

My schedule at the gym runs Wed through Saturday. I am currently employing GVT sets to my major lifts each day, and honestly, I am beat by the end of the week (and until the next Wed). I take off Sunday for obvious reasons, and Monday is my toss up day. Mon and Tues I work all day long, and I only can get to the gym at the end of the day. I am tired and I don't have a solid workout. In other words...I plan to fail.

I have used Mondays to work my arms-- biceps and triceps. They are the only muscles I don't directly work on throughout the week, although they do work for my compound lifts. I feel weak doing isolation curls and tricep extensions. I love compound heavy lifts like deadlifts and squats. I am not training to be a bodybuilder, but more of a strongman with functional strength. Despite this, I do appreciate the pump I get from specific exercises.

Last night, this is what I did:

Warm up: Pull ups
                Superset: pulley curls and tricep extensions
 Preacher curls
Skull crushers with tricep bar
Dumbbell cheat curls (35, 40, 45)
Dumbbell tricep skull crushers
pulley curl (one arm)
pulley extensions (one arm)
Lat pulldown
Strongman dumbbell clean

I may have scheduled a fairly good workout, but I didn't go from compound to isolation only. I did a warm up to provide a pump, and only then did I hit the exercises that really worked my arms (those with free weights). The lat pulldown is an exercise that I liked for back day, but I stopped it because it didn't work my back (and my deadlift sets kill my back). I was glad to include it to break up the monotonous bicep/tricep exercises (those muscles are small and do not need a lot of work). I ended with my strongman conditioning exercise, which I may start off with in the future since it works my entire body.

 I am sure that a trainer would look at my routine and criticize it. I didn't plan it out well, but I did get a workout. Even so, I should plan this time out to use it wisely. Maybe some GVT on arms?
The point is to try out routines that theoretically should work, note what worked, and progressively change the routine to reflect what worked best. I need to do more of this by keeping a better journal-- maybe even use more of myfitnesspal.com.

The point is to plan, no matter how small, for things to spend your precious time on. Plan your workouts and learn from them. Plan your practice sessions and learn from them.
My workout yesterday was not that bad, but I didn't exactly have a plan going in, and I wasted some time deciding what to do. I am hoping next week to be efficient and constantly in motion during my workout. Every workout should be like this. Life should be like this.


Be efficient and enjoy the Highlands!