Ok, I didn't LIE, but I didn't follow my own instructions on Friday. I ended up working later that I expected to on Friday and just couldn't get to the gym. So, I went Saturday morning, nailed 205 on bench, and then went to my cousin's wedding. Fast forward to a very hung over Sunday morning, and training wasn't an option.
So, today I'm going and working the 20 reps at 190 on squats. Here are my sets from Saturday.
3/3/12 - Saturday
Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x6 (warmup)
155x3 (warmup)
205x3 PR
195x3
185x4
Bent Barbell Bicep Curl - 3 sets
60x8 (warmup)
70x8
80x7
80x6
Tricep Rope Cable Pulldown - 3 sets
80x8 (warmup)
120x8
120x8
120x7
Yes, that's another PR on bench. Feeling good. Gonna stay at 205 for another week or 2, then try for 210.
Stay Puft
Stay Puft has his game face on!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
To eat or not to eat
It's March. Time for the age old question. Continue eating like a maniac and trying to gain weight and strength? Or lower the calories a bit and aim to slim down for the hot summer months, but lose a little bit of strength. Usually, I try to lower the eating and get some more control. That's what I did last year, and almost IMMEDIATELY, my lifts began to drop.
I don't want that to happen this year. I don't want to be flabby when I take my shirt off at the beach either. So, I have an immediate plan and a mid length plan, and a long term for the summer plan.
For the rest of this week, I'm going to eat like a fucking champion. I'm talking lots of calories, lots of protein, carbs, fat... hell even some alcohol on Saturday. Today, I'm squatting 190x20. And on Saturday, I'm hitting 205 for 3 reps on bench press.
Then, I'm taking Sunday and Monday off. Those days, I'm still gonna eat well and recover well. Going forward, for another month or so, I'm going to eat heavy on training days, and I'm gonna eat medium to light on off days. I'm going to walk almost every day. I'm going to sprint once a week. And I'm going to see if eating this new way will effect my lifts. They shouldn't drop, because I'm still eating like a champ on days when I lift. But I should be able to trim some fat in the process, especially with sprinting.
Once the full on summer blast hits, if I've still got some flab then I'll go into a little bit of crazy mode to try and slim down. Increasing the sprinting, doing some intense barbell complexes and stuff. But for now, I still want to hit those increases on bench, squats and deadlifts.
Have a nice weekend everyone
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Not talking about my shoulder today
Don't worry, I'll eventually dive in to my exciting shoulder struggles!
In the meantime, I had a terrible deadlift session last night, and did a few sets of biceps to make myself feel better. It didn't work.
I think because I hit a PR on 1 hand dumbbell rows on Sunday, my back was still a little tired last night. I had a rough day at work too, and wasn't focused like I normally am. As warmups begin, I just felt really weak. I moved up to 275 as a final warm up for an attempt at 335, but 275 pounds felt so damn heavy, I only managed 3 reps! So I stayed there, and did 4 sets. Afterwards, I felt like garbage, and decided to be a bro and do some biceps to get that "pump." I even did 2 sets on the machine. Yeah... I get some silly ideas sometimes.
Here are the sets.
2/28/12 - Tuesday
Deadlifts - 4 sets
135x8 (warmup)
225x5 (warmup)
275x3
275x4
275x5
275x5
Bicep Dumbbell Curls - 2 sets
40s x 7
45s x 5
Bicep Curling Machine - 2 sets
125x6
125x6
Today I'm looking forward to a nice day off from lifting. Maybe a little ice on my shoulder tonight, a little trigger point therapy, and an early night's sleep.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
My Shoulder... more like my Bench
My shoulder has been an issue for a while now. I've done everything except what I should do. I've complained, I've "lifted through it," and I've tried to ignore it. Monday I started doing something, even if it's not the BEST thing for me, it's something.
But before I even begin getting into that, I realized that I've never really taken stock of my body, and what injuries I've had, and how they may have effected me. For example. As anyone reading this blog can tell, I fucking suck at bench and shoulder press. It hit home for me yesterday when a good friend of mine heard I hit 200lbs on bench and said, "finally." In my head it says, "It's about time, I almost consider you a real man now."
I got angry at first, but it got me thinking... WHY do I suck at bench press? My shoulder sucking is pretty straight forward: It's injured, and has been for a while. I know it's injured. And sometimes it effects my overhead pressing ability. But bench? I feel 0 pain from my shoulder when I bench. None. No discomfort, no "weirdness," nothing. I don't even think about it.
But then I started thinking about the past, and when I used to work out in high school, and then college, and leading up to where I am now. I worked out on and off, usually for a few months at a time during the summers. And not every summer. Only when I was motivated (aka getting chubby). I would always get going and then after 3-4 month's I'd get lazy and stop. Kind of like what most people do when it comes to working out.
One of these 3-4 month stints sticks out. A few years ago... OK, maybe more like 8-9 years ago, during the summer, I was home from college and had started working out with a couple of friends. Right off the bat, 1st day in the gym, we're gonna start with chest. I proceed to do like 5 sets of bench, then move over and do 3 sets of fly's, then incline bench, and then like 3 sets of triceps. This was back when I did things like an idiot. Considering the fact that I hadn't been to the gym in at least a year at that point, it was insanely stupid for me to do something like that. I don't even think I warmed up. I don't even think I ever warmed up back then lol.
Anyway, next morning I can't move my arms. Notably, my right arm. The pain and soreness in my chest is UNREAL. I literally just stayed out of the gym for a week. When I finally came back, I was able to do back, shoulders, biceps, all that stuff... but when chest day came, I sat out. There was way to much pain when I even tried it. Things stayed like that for a few weeks, and when I finally began to bench again, I still felt pain. Still, I benched with VERY light weight. Like 95lbs light. Of course, being a 20 year old, I just kept going. I still remember when I finally stopped going to the gym after about 3 months, I still had pain in my chest. Right side, more towards the side than the middle of my chest.
After that, I went back to college, didn't work out for at least a year or 2. And when I finally went back into the gym for my next summer session, I was again weak at bench, but never really thought about it. Because by the time I started to realize I wasn't making any progress with my bench press, the summer was over, and I stopped going.
Anyway, fast forward to 2 years ago, I had been lazy and not lifting for at least 2-3 years and was out of shape. A friend (one of the same friends I was lifting with when I hurt my chest) got me back into the gym. Everything is fine and dandy, but after 2-3 months I realize that my bench is just not growing the same way his was. You know, the way newbies increase their strength in the first few months. And just like the previous times, I was generally just weaker in bench than anything else. At this point I was believing that bench was just my weakness.
Now, when I look back, I think that I really injured myself bad years ago. I remember how bad it hurt, how I couldn't move my right arm. And how long it took to stop hurting. It took months man. Like 5 months. I never rehabbed it, I never did anything about it. I just kind of rode it out, and eventually it stopped hurting.
8-9 years later, I'm finally making progress on bench. Go figure. Maybe the musculature is finally overcoming whatever damage I did. Maybe it's not, and I'm just weaker in bench lol. Either way, the good news is that honestly, my chest feels stronger than it ever has and I want to continue increasing the weight for as long as I can. My serious goal is to get 215 for 3 reps. I realize this might take another 2 months, but it's going to happen. I finally feel like that goal is not unrealistic.
Anyway.... back to my shoulders.... Yeah right. I'll post about em tomorrow, this one was long enough.
But before I even begin getting into that, I realized that I've never really taken stock of my body, and what injuries I've had, and how they may have effected me. For example. As anyone reading this blog can tell, I fucking suck at bench and shoulder press. It hit home for me yesterday when a good friend of mine heard I hit 200lbs on bench and said, "finally." In my head it says, "It's about time, I almost consider you a real man now."
I got angry at first, but it got me thinking... WHY do I suck at bench press? My shoulder sucking is pretty straight forward: It's injured, and has been for a while. I know it's injured. And sometimes it effects my overhead pressing ability. But bench? I feel 0 pain from my shoulder when I bench. None. No discomfort, no "weirdness," nothing. I don't even think about it.
But then I started thinking about the past, and when I used to work out in high school, and then college, and leading up to where I am now. I worked out on and off, usually for a few months at a time during the summers. And not every summer. Only when I was motivated (aka getting chubby). I would always get going and then after 3-4 month's I'd get lazy and stop. Kind of like what most people do when it comes to working out.
One of these 3-4 month stints sticks out. A few years ago... OK, maybe more like 8-9 years ago, during the summer, I was home from college and had started working out with a couple of friends. Right off the bat, 1st day in the gym, we're gonna start with chest. I proceed to do like 5 sets of bench, then move over and do 3 sets of fly's, then incline bench, and then like 3 sets of triceps. This was back when I did things like an idiot. Considering the fact that I hadn't been to the gym in at least a year at that point, it was insanely stupid for me to do something like that. I don't even think I warmed up. I don't even think I ever warmed up back then lol.
Anyway, next morning I can't move my arms. Notably, my right arm. The pain and soreness in my chest is UNREAL. I literally just stayed out of the gym for a week. When I finally came back, I was able to do back, shoulders, biceps, all that stuff... but when chest day came, I sat out. There was way to much pain when I even tried it. Things stayed like that for a few weeks, and when I finally began to bench again, I still felt pain. Still, I benched with VERY light weight. Like 95lbs light. Of course, being a 20 year old, I just kept going. I still remember when I finally stopped going to the gym after about 3 months, I still had pain in my chest. Right side, more towards the side than the middle of my chest.
After that, I went back to college, didn't work out for at least a year or 2. And when I finally went back into the gym for my next summer session, I was again weak at bench, but never really thought about it. Because by the time I started to realize I wasn't making any progress with my bench press, the summer was over, and I stopped going.
Anyway, fast forward to 2 years ago, I had been lazy and not lifting for at least 2-3 years and was out of shape. A friend (one of the same friends I was lifting with when I hurt my chest) got me back into the gym. Everything is fine and dandy, but after 2-3 months I realize that my bench is just not growing the same way his was. You know, the way newbies increase their strength in the first few months. And just like the previous times, I was generally just weaker in bench than anything else. At this point I was believing that bench was just my weakness.
Now, when I look back, I think that I really injured myself bad years ago. I remember how bad it hurt, how I couldn't move my right arm. And how long it took to stop hurting. It took months man. Like 5 months. I never rehabbed it, I never did anything about it. I just kind of rode it out, and eventually it stopped hurting.
8-9 years later, I'm finally making progress on bench. Go figure. Maybe the musculature is finally overcoming whatever damage I did. Maybe it's not, and I'm just weaker in bench lol. Either way, the good news is that honestly, my chest feels stronger than it ever has and I want to continue increasing the weight for as long as I can. My serious goal is to get 215 for 3 reps. I realize this might take another 2 months, but it's going to happen. I finally feel like that goal is not unrealistic.
Anyway.... back to my shoulders.... Yeah right. I'll post about em tomorrow, this one was long enough.
Monday, February 27, 2012
PR in Bench and 1 Hand Rows!
Sunday was a good day for training. I had plenty of rest, woke up around 8:30 and fasted until around noon, when my wife and I headed to the gym.
Working out fasted is interesting. I don't feel fatigue or anything, and I don't get tired quicker like you'd think. I have the same energy levels (sometimes more) and I'm even usually more enthusiastic about being at the gym and training. The problem is that despite this, I'm still usually a tiny bit weaker when I'm fasted. Nothing crazy, but I'll get under the bar and expect to do 4-5 reps, and only get 3-4. I'm just a litttttttttle bit below what I'd expect. I don't know if this what other people go through, but it makes me wary of training fasted when I'm going for PR's.
Fortunately, I just didn't give a damn on Sunday. Warmed up on bench, and felt great. Put 200 on the bar, and easily drilled out 3 reps. I could have gotten 4. I followed with 2 more sets, each for 3 reps. I still had plenty left in the tank. Headed over to the dumbells and nailed 105x4, for 2 sets. And then dropped it to 100 for 5.
Both were PR's, and both felt fantastic. Here are the sets:
2/26/12 - Sunday
Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x8 (warmup)
200x3 PR
200x3
200x3
1 Hand Dumbbell Rows - 3 sets
65x8 (warmup)
105x4 PR
105x4
100x5
Cable Rope Pulldowns - 3 sets
80x8 (warmup)
110x8
120x7
120x6
All in all, I'm very very happy. The 1 hand rows are not a PR in weight, but in reps. I've gotten like 1.5-2 reps at that weight before, but never 4 solid "good" reps. And definitely not 2 sets in a row.
Working out fasted is interesting. I don't feel fatigue or anything, and I don't get tired quicker like you'd think. I have the same energy levels (sometimes more) and I'm even usually more enthusiastic about being at the gym and training. The problem is that despite this, I'm still usually a tiny bit weaker when I'm fasted. Nothing crazy, but I'll get under the bar and expect to do 4-5 reps, and only get 3-4. I'm just a litttttttttle bit below what I'd expect. I don't know if this what other people go through, but it makes me wary of training fasted when I'm going for PR's.
Fortunately, I just didn't give a damn on Sunday. Warmed up on bench, and felt great. Put 200 on the bar, and easily drilled out 3 reps. I could have gotten 4. I followed with 2 more sets, each for 3 reps. I still had plenty left in the tank. Headed over to the dumbells and nailed 105x4, for 2 sets. And then dropped it to 100 for 5.
Both were PR's, and both felt fantastic. Here are the sets:
2/26/12 - Sunday
Bench Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
135x8 (warmup)
200x3 PR
200x3
200x3
1 Hand Dumbbell Rows - 3 sets
65x8 (warmup)
105x4 PR
105x4
100x5
Cable Rope Pulldowns - 3 sets
80x8 (warmup)
110x8
120x7
120x6
All in all, I'm very very happy. The 1 hand rows are not a PR in weight, but in reps. I've gotten like 1.5-2 reps at that weight before, but never 4 solid "good" reps. And definitely not 2 sets in a row.
Friday, February 24, 2012
The ridiculous idea of eating dessert for breakfast
I heard about this on the news this morning, and thought it was ridiculous. Then, doing my daily internet rounds, I found that 70's big did an article on it as well.
A study was done where they took some overweight people, split them into groups, and had them eat identical meals and calories every day. The one difference was that group A ate cake for breakfast. At the end of the study, group A lost more weight than group B. That's me oversimplifying the shit out of it. The daily news wrote an article on the study. It's very short, read it here quickly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/health/nutrition/dessert-at-breakfast-may-help-dieters.html?_r=4&smid=FB-nytimes&WT.mc_id=HL-E-FB-SM-LIN-NDB-022212-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click
If the average person heard the news report I heard this morning, or read this article, the first thing they'd think is "Awesome! I'm eating cake for breakfast!" Like it's actually healthy. I could break down just how fucked up this is, but 70s Big already did a great job of it.
Here's some more.
Excellent article by 70's big, and I couldn't agree more with what he says. Here's the link to his article.
http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2012/02/this-is-what-were-up-against/#more-6398
Eat real food. Lift heavy weights. Get healthy. The formula is simple, the application of it is hard. Don't look for shortcuts, they don't exist. And as for cake, the only type you should be eating is this:
A study was done where they took some overweight people, split them into groups, and had them eat identical meals and calories every day. The one difference was that group A ate cake for breakfast. At the end of the study, group A lost more weight than group B. That's me oversimplifying the shit out of it. The daily news wrote an article on the study. It's very short, read it here quickly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/health/nutrition/dessert-at-breakfast-may-help-dieters.html?_r=4&smid=FB-nytimes&WT.mc_id=HL-E-FB-SM-LIN-NDB-022212-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click
If the average person heard the news report I heard this morning, or read this article, the first thing they'd think is "Awesome! I'm eating cake for breakfast!" Like it's actually healthy. I could break down just how fucked up this is, but 70s Big already did a great job of it.
The media acts like the media in that it takes an idea and then turns it into a big ball of fuck. In this article, researchers allowed fat people the option to have sugar-dense (fattening) food in the morning (i.e. cakes, cookies, chocolate, and ice cream) and found that those people lost more weight than the other group. The average American will see this, fist pump, and proceed to continue eating like shit.The jist is that the NY Times did a terrible job of describing the study (not that the study was done well in the first place), and merely wrote the article to get people to read it. It's shitty journalism.
Here's some more.
This irritates the shit out of me for several reasons. First, it provides a shortcut. If you’ve been training for a while, you know that there are no shortcuts. To anything. The first line on the back of “FIT” says, “Fitness is hard. Very Hard.” Giving people the erroneous impression of ease makes me sick. More often than not, fat people are fat because they do things that make them fat. Poor people are poor because they do things that make them poor. While this isn’t always the case, the belief that it is empowers the individual to actually give a shit.
Excellent article by 70's big, and I couldn't agree more with what he says. Here's the link to his article.
http://www.70sbig.com/blog/2012/02/this-is-what-were-up-against/#more-6398
Eat real food. Lift heavy weights. Get healthy. The formula is simple, the application of it is hard. Don't look for shortcuts, they don't exist. And as for cake, the only type you should be eating is this:
From one of the comments on the article
In other news, I squatted yesterday. Hit 185 for 20 reps. Felt awesome, but my back was aching afterwards. Is this because of bad form? Yeah. I could tell from the get-go that my form wasn't good, but I kept going. Here are the sets.
2/23/12 - Thursday
Squats - 1 set
135x8 (warmup)
135x5 (warmup)
185x20 super duper
Dumbbell Bicep Curls - 2 sets
30x8 (warmup)
40x7
40x6
Went home, ate some food, watched the Knicks get beat up, and then went to bed nice and early.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Pressing and Pulling
Monday went to the gym. Was an in between day, meaning it was between deadlifts, bench and squats. Decided on military press, cleans and weighted chinups. The only thing I was remotely happy with was the chins.
2/20/12 - Monday
Seated Military Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
115x5
125x4
115x5
Power Cleans - 10 sets
95x5 (warmup)
135x2
Did 10 sets of this, on the minute (not a minute rest in between) for 10 minutes. 20 reps total.
Weighted Chins - 3 sets
25x6
25x5
25x4
I wonder if I should just clean every fucking day until I get better at it. I felt like the 135 was so easy. But then I up the weight to 145 and I can't get it up more than 2-3 times in a row. WTF
I'm not a big basketball fan, I never have been. It's baseball and football for me. But I live in NY, and a few of my friends are Knicks fans. With all the crazy Linsanity going on, I've been tuning in every so often. Usually it's just a few minutes here and there, and I actually watched last week when Jeremy Lin scored the 3 to win the game against I think it was the Raptors. But last night my wife and I watched the ENTIRE game of the Knicks destroying the Atlanta Hawks. It was a fun game to watch, and I'll admit I'm getting caught up in the whole thing. Tonight they're playing the Heat. You can bet your ass that after the gym I'm gonna plant myself in front of the TV and watch. And PS, the guy making the 70's big face cracks me up.
2/20/12 - Monday
Seated Military Press - 3 sets
95x8 (warmup)
115x5
125x4
115x5
Power Cleans - 10 sets
95x5 (warmup)
135x2
Did 10 sets of this, on the minute (not a minute rest in between) for 10 minutes. 20 reps total.
Weighted Chins - 3 sets
25x6
25x5
25x4
I wonder if I should just clean every fucking day until I get better at it. I felt like the 135 was so easy. But then I up the weight to 145 and I can't get it up more than 2-3 times in a row. WTF
I'm not a big basketball fan, I never have been. It's baseball and football for me. But I live in NY, and a few of my friends are Knicks fans. With all the crazy Linsanity going on, I've been tuning in every so often. Usually it's just a few minutes here and there, and I actually watched last week when Jeremy Lin scored the 3 to win the game against I think it was the Raptors. But last night my wife and I watched the ENTIRE game of the Knicks destroying the Atlanta Hawks. It was a fun game to watch, and I'll admit I'm getting caught up in the whole thing. Tonight they're playing the Heat. You can bet your ass that after the gym I'm gonna plant myself in front of the TV and watch. And PS, the guy making the 70's big face cracks me up.
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