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February 11- Jeff G. asked, "How's your training these days?"

It's good. Even in relatively mild central California (Santa Cruz is 75 miles south of San Francisco) the Winter, it's damp and cold and short-lived days...subtracts from your training performance - less pump, cranky joints (even the youth grumble). Energy and spirits though always high, show a foggy edge. In the words of Josue (my loyal maintenance man) "Wha' can I say, boss?" We're all hopeful. The two World Gyms in my neighborhood are all cranking up now that the days are getting longer and Spring is ahead.

I train 5 days a week, 3 days on, 1 day off, 2 on, 1 day off. I hit everything twice a week, not unlike the routine outlined in Rotation Training. I'm one of those fool hypocrites who warns against overtraining and is subject to the same disease about which I preach.

8 out of 10 workouts are great. The others are satisfactory. Sometimes I'm distracted by the duties at the gym - sometimes I've got a chip in my shoulder.

Most of the time I engage. Example, yesterday was arms and legs. My workouts are always preceded be functional aerobics (you know, mop the floor, windex the mirrors), 25 minutes of crunches, leg raises and various preliminary warmups and then to the main floor. World Gym in Santa Cruz has a 5,000 square foot main floor wisely laid out with Cybex, BodyMasters, Hammer and weights on rubber mats, high 18 foot ceilings and lots of air. Lots of room, we don't oversell, overpack (makes for a zoo).

The routine: wrist curls, followed by hammer curls, followed by tricep pulley pushdowns, and lying close grip tricep presses on the Smith machine. All these done in giant set form for a total of five big ones. Reps range from 8 to 15 or 20 depending upon exercise, sequence and urge. I finish bis and tris with standing bent bar curls, supersetted with overhead tricep extensions. Five supersets with curls in the 8 rep range and tris about 12 to 15.

Legs were simply squats, after 5 supersets of moderate extensions of 15 reps, leg curls (10-12) and standing calves (20+). Squats were light. Five sets of 12 reps, supersetted with stiff arm dumbbell pullovers (8-10 reps) and rolling dumbbell shrugs (8-10 reps).

About 3pm to 5pm - the gym was smiling - a good feel, good creatine pump. I didn't flog myself (excessively). My injuries behaved. I lived to go to the movies afterwards with Laree, Ed and Jeff, watched Payback with Mel. Nasty. It was as good as my workout.