Today's Target Muscles — Legs + Shoulders
Anterior / Medial Deltoid
Primary — Shoulder Press
Hamstrings
Primary — Leg Curl
Posterior Deltoid
Primary — Reverse Pec Deck
Quadriceps
Primary — Leg Press
Lateral Deltoid
Primary — Lateral Raise
Glutes
Secondary — Leg Press
Warm-up
Not logged in this session's notes — worth adding a line on warm-up sets going forward, even a short one, so it's part of the record rather than assumed.
Log This
Session Log · 3 July
1
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
4 sets · 12kg → 14kg → 16kg → 14kg · 16kg set broke down, correctly dropped back to 14kg
📷 Photo reviewed: seated, dumbbells at roughly ear/shoulder height mid-press, arms driving straight up. The bottom position in the photo looks close to correct — dumbbells aren't drifting down past shoulder level, which is the exact thing your own cue is protecting against.
Primary:
Anterior / Medial Deltoid
Secondary:
Triceps BrachiiUpper Trapezius (stabilizer)
Sets logged
| Set | Weight | Reps | Time | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 kg | 12 | ~60s | Hard in the end — reasonable opener |
| 2 | 14 kg | 10 | ~60s | Near failure ✓ — genuine load increase |
| 3 | 16 kg | 5 | ~41s | Near failure, but flagged — form broke down, too heavy; logged honestly instead of pushed through |
| 4 | 14 kg | 7 full + 2 partial | ~52s | Total failure ✓ — clean return to 14kg |
Form Analysis
"Don't Get the Dumbbells Too Low" — Correct, and the Photo Backs It Up
The standard bottom position for a seated dumbbell press is roughly ear/shoulder height with the elbows around a right angle — not dropping further down where the shoulder joint takes more strain and tension briefly falls out of the delts. What's in the photo on set 2 matches this closely, so the setup itself looks right. The bigger lever here is probably tempo, not depth — see the next point.
"Make the Movement Throughout" — Likely a Continuous-Tension Cue, Not a Depth Cue
If the read on this cue is "don't let the dumbbells rest at the bottom between reps," that lines up with why sets 1 and 2 finished at "hard" rather than a clean failure — a brief rest point at the shoulder between reps gives the delts a partial break and stretches out a set's effective difficulty. Keeping the dumbbells moving in a continuous, unbroken path — pressing up before tension fully drops out at the bottom — is the standard fix, and it's a more useful thing to tighten up than adding more weight right now.
The 16kg Jump Was Correctly Identified as Premature
Going from 14kg (10 clean reps) to 16kg and getting only 5 reps in 41 seconds before the form broke down is a big single-session jump, and it was the right call to log this honestly and step back to 14kg rather than force it. 14kg with 7 full + 2 partial reps at total failure on set 4 is a much more useful data point — it says 14kg is close to the real working ceiling right now, and 16kg is a "test again in a few sessions" weight, not a "switch to today" weight.
Vertical Path, Slight Inward Drift at the Top
Keep the dumbbells travelling in a straight line up rather than drifting forward in front of the face — a small inward drift so they end up close together (not touching) at lockout is normal and fine, but if they're drifting forward instead of up, that shifts load off the delts and makes the rep feel heavier than it should.
Set 4 (14kg, honest failure) is the best set of this exercise today — that's the number worth anchoring next session's plan around, not the 16kg attempt.
2
Leg Curl (Seated)
4 sets · 35kg → 35kg → 40kg → 40kg · 10 reps held constant across the load jump · Depth self-flagged
📷 Photo reviewed: seated on the machine with legs extended out in front, ankle pad in position. Consistent with the setup — the open question, per your own note, is how far the curl travels on the way up rather than the starting setup itself.
Primary:
Hamstrings (Biceps Femoris, Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus)
Secondary:
Gastrocnemius (stabilizer)
Sets logged — straight-set protocol, no time/failure tracking (legs, by design)
| Set | Weight | Reps | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 35 kg | 10 | — |
| 2 | 35 kg | 10 | — |
| 3 | 40 kg | 10 | Reps held at 10 despite the load jump — clean progression signal |
| 4 | 40 kg | 10 | Same — 10/10 at 40kg, ready to test a further jump next session |
Form Analysis
Your Own Read on Depth Is the Right Thing to Chase Here
The standard cue for this movement is to pull the heels all the way toward the glutes and drive down and back at the top of the curl, then return to a controlled full extension at the bottom without locking or hyperextending the knees. If the top of the curl is being cut short, the working range shrinks — and that's consistent with what happened today: reps stayed exactly at 10 across the entire 35kg→40kg jump, with no sign of the set getting harder as the load rose. A genuinely deeper curl at the same weight should have made 40kg noticeably tougher than 35kg was.
Keep the Hips Pinned to the Seat
Chasing more depth can tempt the hips to lift slightly off the pad at the top of the curl, which brings the glutes into the movement and takes tension off the hamstrings — the opposite of what a deeper curl is supposed to achieve. Worth a specific check next session: hips stay flat against the seat through the whole rep, even at the deepest point.
Controlled Return, Not a Dead Stop
Lower back to the starting position under control rather than letting the weight stack drop — this keeps tension on the hamstrings through the full rep and makes the depth easier to feel and correct in real time.
This is your own diagnosis and it's a good one — a depth check next session (are the heels actually getting close to the glutes at the top?) will tell you more than another weight increase would right now.
3
Reverse Pec Deck
4 sets · 2.5kg → 5kg → 5kg → 5kg (10kg attempted, not sustainable) · First time on this exercise
📷 Photo reviewed: back to camera, seated with chest against the pad, arms extended out to the sides pulling the handles apart. Arm path looks like a genuine horizontal fly rather than a shrug — consistent with a correctly set-up rear-delt movement.
Primary:
Posterior Deltoid
Secondary:
RhomboidsMiddle Trapezius
Sets logged
| Set | Tension | Reps | Time | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.5 kg | 12 | ~60s | Not too hard — light calibration set |
| 2 | 5 kg | 14 | ~60s | Hard in the end ✓ — held here since it's the first session |
| 3 | 5 kg | 12 | ~60s | Hard again ✓ — fewer reps at the same weight, real signal to go up |
| 4 | 10kg attempted → 5 kg | 13.5 | ~57s | Near failure ✓ — 10kg wasn't sustainable (7.5kg unavailable), correctly regulated back down |
Form Analysis
"No Need to Go Full Down" — Matches Standard Rear-Delt Guidance
Forcing the arms further back than a comfortable range doesn't add extra rear-delt benefit once the shoulders start rolling forward or the chest lifts off the pad — the useful range ends where the rear delt stops leading the movement and the mid-back takes over. Stopping at a comfortable end position rather than chasing maximum backward travel is the correct call here, not a shortcut.
Keep a Slight, Fixed Elbow Bend
Arms shouldn't fully straighten or bend too much during the movement — a small, constant bend throughout keeps the tension on the rear delts rather than shifting it into the arms.
5kg → 10kg Was Too Big a Jump for a Brand-New Movement
Doubling the load on the very first session with an exercise has no baseline to justify it — the fact that 10kg wasn't sustainable and had to come back down to 5kg confirms this. For any new isolation movement, a smaller step up (5kg → 7.5kg, when available) is a better test than jumping straight to double.
Good first session overall — 5kg is the confirmed working weight, and set 3's drop in reps at the same weight is the real cue to move up next time, ideally to 7.5kg rather than straight to 10kg.
4
Leg Press
4 sets · 60kg → 70kg → 80kg → 90kg · 10 reps held at every weight · Depth already decent, tempo to tighten
📷 Photo reviewed: reclined position, knees bent well past 90° and tracking close to the chest, feet planted on the platform. Depth here already looks reasonably good — this is a smaller refinement than the note might suggest, not a big technique gap.
Primary:
Quadriceps
Secondary:
GlutesHamstrings (stabilizer)
Sets logged — straight-set protocol, no time/failure tracking (legs, by design)
| Set | Weight | Reps | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 kg | 10 | — |
| 2 | 70 kg | 10 | — |
| 3 | 80 kg | 10 | — |
| 4 | 90 kg | 10 | Heaviest set of the ramp, reps still held at 10 |
Form Analysis
The Photo Shows Decent Depth Already
Knees bent well past 90° and tracking close to the chest in the photo is already close to the recommended range for this machine, so "go a bit deeper" is a fine-tuning cue here, not a sign the movement is being cut short by a lot.
The Real Ceiling Is Hips-Off-the-Seat, Not a Fixed Number
Standard guidance is to descend until just before the hips start to roll and the lower back begins to round off the pad — that point differs by hip flexibility, so "a bit deeper" is worth testing carefully rather than chasing a specific knee angle. The moment the glutes lift off the seat or the low back rounds, that's the actual limit, not a number to push past.
Slow the Descent Specifically
The cue to slow the movement down is the higher-value fix here relative to depth — a controlled 2-3 second lowering phase, especially at 90kg, keeps the quads under tension through the stretch rather than letting the platform drop quickly under load, which is where a lot of the actual growth stimulus from this exercise comes from.
Straight sets, no time tracking — correct for the leg protocol. 10/10 reps holding all the way to 90kg means there's room to test a heavier top set next time, once the slower tempo is locked in.
5
Dumbbell Lateral Raises
4 sets · 4kg → 6kg → 6kg → 8kg · Swinging self-flagged, confirmed by the photo
📷 Photo reviewed: standing, dumbbells raised well past shoulder height — closer to overhead than out to the sides. Raising past roughly parallel-to-the-floor is a strong visual signal of exactly the swing/momentum issue you flagged; it's very hard to reach that height with strict, isolated delt tension.
Primary:
Lateral Deltoid
Secondary:
Upper TrapeziusAnterior Deltoid
Sets logged
| Set | Weight | Reps | Time | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 kg | 18 | ~60s | Not too hard — light opener |
| 2 | 6 kg | 12 | ~60s | Hard in the end ✓ — real jump from set 1 |
| 3 | 6 kg | 15 | ~60s | Repeated at 6kg to check form — hard but not failure |
| 4 | 8 kg | 11 | ~60s | Hard but not failure — likely the same swing pattern reappearing |
Form Analysis
The Photo Confirms the Swing You Already Flagged
The dumbbells in the photo are raised close to overhead rather than stopping around shoulder height. Going that high past parallel almost always means momentum and the upper traps are doing part of the lift instead of the lateral delts — this lines up exactly with "body is kind of swinging and the movement is not strict."
Stop at Shoulder Height, Not Higher
The standard cue is to raise until the arms are roughly parallel to the floor — elbow at shoulder height — then lower under control. Going higher doesn't add more lateral-delt work; it just recruits the traps and increases shoulder strain, and it's the easiest visual cue to self-check in a mirror.
The Weight Where Strict Form Actually Held Is Closer to 6kg Than 8kg
Repeating 6kg on set 3 specifically to check form was the right instinct. Since 8kg on set 4 likely reintroduced the same swing, the working weight for genuinely strict lateral raises right now sits closer to 6kg — worth locking that in for a session or two with a real mirror check before pushing the load to 8kg again.
Lead With the Elbows, Not the Hands
Thinking about pushing the dumbbells out and away from the body — leading with the elbows — rather than "lifting" them tends to naturally cut down on the urge to swing, since it shifts the mental focus from the weight to the shoulder doing the work.
This is the exercise that needs the most attention next session — not because effort is missing, but because the swing is visibly taking real work away from the lateral delts. Weight can come back down without it being a step backward.
Answering Your Standing Reminder
Why Leg Curl and Leg Press Have No Time/Failure Data — That's by Design
As flagged at the top of this session's notes, legs run on a straight load-ramp protocol here rather than the time-to-failure approach used for shoulder press and reverse pec deck. Same rep target (10) held constant while the weight climbs set to set — 35kg → 40kg on leg curl, 60kg → 90kg on leg press. The missing time/status column on those two exercises isn't a documentation gap; it's the format doing exactly what it's supposed to for legs specifically.
The signal to watch here isn't time-to-failure, it's whether the rep count holds as the weight climbs. Today it did — 10/10 on both exercises, even at the heaviest set. On leg press specifically, that means 90kg isn't yet pushing reps down, so there's real headroom to test a slightly heavier top set next session once the tempo and depth notes above are dialed in.
The signal to watch here isn't time-to-failure, it's whether the rep count holds as the weight climbs. Today it did — 10/10 on both exercises, even at the heaviest set. On leg press specifically, that means 90kg isn't yet pushing reps down, so there's real headroom to test a slightly heavier top set next session once the tempo and depth notes above are dialed in.