Chest & Shoulders .. And Blood Pressure Talk 8/26/2025
Before I get to the workout, I need to comment about blood pressure. When I was fat and suffered with insulin resistance, I was on several medications. That included two high blood pressure meds. In 2015, I spent some time in the hospital with extremely high blood pressure. I healed all of this and now take no medications. I did that with diet (keto/carnivore). My blood pressure settled into a range of 125/65 to 128/70 most days, except if I consume a lot of caffeine. That can take it higher. This range is good… not perfect for someone my age and having been diabetic for a short time, it's acceptable.
For some time now, I have been testing my nitric oxide levels with test strips. They have been less than optimum. I tried all kinds of stuff to increase them but could not significantly change the results. For a few weeks now, I have been taking beet root powder twice a day, pre-workout and before bed. The test strips have shown a darker pink, which is an improvement but not perfect. Where I am noticing a change in my blood pressure… it has dropped, and today was 112/61. That is amazing. It took around 2 to 3 weeks to see the change, but it's consistently dropped this week. I am super interested in this… wow.
The workout with Derek today was intense, and the pump was mind-blowing. The pecs really felt it… shoulders too.
- Low incline Smith press 3 sets to failure. I am super happy with my progress on these. For years, I have struggled to lower the bar to touch my chest… I didn't have the flexibility. I have been working on the stretch position for weeks and can work the full range and feel the stretch. More importantly, I can see it in my chest development. Not bad for 67, almost 68. You are never too old to change. This is from a guy that has trained for near 30 years.
- Incline cable chest press: 3 sets to failure. Felt amazing!
- Pec deck: 3 sets to failure with a focus on the deep stretch.
- - Standing cable fly: 1 sets to failure with partials.
- Crossing cable slide laterals: 3 sets to failure with as many partials as I could get.
- True OH press: 3 sets to failure.
- Sled HIIT: 8 reps over 10 minutes.
- Elliptical for 10 minutes.
I have alredy said too much .. just finish with this: amazing workout. Go kill it today!
My body weight this morning was 185.5
My step count yesterday was 14,913.
~ Rick