Saturday, April 30, 2011

Training - Press and stuff

Bodyweight - 245

Incline Press -
bar x 40
135 x 15
185 x 8

225 x 23, 15

Db Bench - 100's x 15

Seated Db Side Laterals - 20's x 4 sets of 20

Notes - Lifted at home.  Very little sleep but still had a decent session.  Closing in on 225x30.  That'll be a nice milestone.

This is how I'm looking right now at 245-250.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Training - Deadlift and back stuff

Weight - 248

Hip and Ass Machine - 2 x 70 w stack

Stiff Legs - bar x 30. 135 x 20

Deadlifts -
225 x 5
315 x 4
405 x 3
500 x 2
550 x 3

Stiff Legs Standing on Box - 455 x 9 PR

Shrugs - 405 x 8, 500 x 20 PR

Wide Grip Chins - body 5 sets of 5

Sprints on Track - 8 sprints

Notes - Probably a +10% session.  550 for the triple felt like an empty bar.  I think 700 is in the cards the next couple of months.  It's about fucking time anyway.  PR on the stiff legs and shrugs.

Wife's cooking blog

My wife is an awesome cook.  I am not saying that because I love her, I am saying that because one of the reasons I knew I'd marry that gal is because of her cooking.

Tiff can cook anything southern/Cajun/Italian.  And her Italian esp, is better than anything I have ever tasted from any restaurant.

Anyway, a great way to romance your own woman is to cook for her.  So guys take notice.

And for the ladies that follow here, a great way to get some honey-do list stuff done is to make him a damn good meal.

Learn how to work this shit to your advantage.

Also, if you are bulking this is great great stuff.

http://neworleansladycooking.blogspot.com/

Bodyfat Picture Reference

Thanks to Shaf for reposting this for me.  A visual guide to bodyfat %'s.

http://www.leighpeele.com/body-fat-pictures-and-percentages

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Gettin sweaty - Warming up on Squat day

Sometimes the difference in a good or great workout, and a dogshit one can be narrowed down to one simple factor.

How well did you warm up?

Now before you stop reading because warming up is boring, I want to stress that you can pretty much eliminate -10% days with a good warm up.  You can also turn what might have been an 80%er into a +10% session with something as simple as a good warm up.

So let's talk about gettin sweaty on squat day, before you squat.

I used to walk in on squat day, put a plate on the bar and just start squatting.  I have found that this is really not optimal however, and would have my fair share of shitty squat days.

If you are in a gym here is what I recommend to do so that warming up is not boring, and actually feels productive.

Hip and Ass Machine - I get on this thing, put the pin in the whole stack and knock out two sets of 50 in a kick-back motion.  This is like the warm-up for the warm ups if you will.


Calf Presses with the Good Girl and Bad Girl - This came to be out of convenience.  One of those seated leg press machines is right next to the good girl bad girl machines.  The good girl and bad girl machines are the ones for the abductors and adductors.  This is my general circuit there.....

Calf Raises - 3 sets to a top set of 20-25
Good Girl Machine - 3 sets of 15
Bad Girl Machine - 3 sets of 20

Good girl machine

Go heavy on the calf raises.  This should actually be work.  On the GG/BG machines just keep the reps the same and add a plate from the stack when you can.  This should not be hard but the last set should feel very good, if that makes sense.

Bad girl machine.....daddy like


Now it's time to squat.  Something I have been doing in between sets of squats during the warm up sets, is to do a Cossack squat.  Once I get to anything above 405 I stop and just concentrate on my sets.  I also DO NOT overstretch.

And speaking of stretching,  I spend my static time stretching AFTER I am done with the whole session.  I do not stretch a whole lot before the session or during, outside of the Cossack squats.  If you overstretch you can set yourself up for an injury.  I know, I've pulled some hamstrings doing so.  The Coassck squats help me with my depth really, not that there has ever been an issue there, but I find that it helps me open the groin more for when I squat.

Gettin sweaty at home -

If you are not at the gym here is what I generally do at home (even if it's not logged on the blog).

Bodyweight Squats - Yes just good ol bodyweight squats.  I will do several sets of 10-20 just to get some blood flowing and my legs loose.

After this I will either do lunges to 10 and 2 (think of a clock, and you lunge to the 10 and 2 spot if 12 is straight head) in an alternating fashion, or I will do bench step-overs.  Basically I stand beside my flat bench and step over it with a high knee.  I do not step ONTO the bench, I step over it.  I get my knee high and step in a deliberate fashion.  This is not some kind of plyo/speed thing.  This is to help stretch the glutes and hips.

I will do 3 sets of the lunges usually 10-15 reps.  Same for the bench step overs.

I will also spend some stretching my hip flexor.  Since I lift at home and at the gym, this tends to keep my bases covered and not get monotonous.

Next time I will write about bench and pressing day warm ups and some of it I think will surprise you.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Training - Pipes

Bodyweight - 248

Close Grip Bench - bar x 30, 135 x 15, 185 x 8, 225 x 6, 275 x 16, 225 x 15, 135 x 20

Ez Curl - 85 x 12, 6, 135 x 10

Overhead Rope Extensions - 55 x 22/9/8 rest/pause

Db Curls - 50's x 15

Notes - Fun session.  Bench only moved up a rep but that's ok.  I think 17 would have been there but it would have been a hell of a grinder.

Random Video of the week

This is the kind of shit that my co-workers send it.  Hilarious tho.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Training - Squatting

Weight - 245

Squats - no belt no wraps, the usual

bar x 20
135 x 10
225 x 5
315 x 4
365 x 3
405 x 2
455 x 1
365 x 15,12

Decline Sit Ups - 3 sets of 20

Notes - Well I think the leg is finally healed.  I didn't blow anything out tonight and 365 felt like no weight on the bar for the most part so I think I'm ready to slowly inch forward again.

Thoughts about life, training, crap and stuff

So I spent 3 hours in the ER last week due to chest pain and shortness of breath.  I knew it was probably nothing more than anxiety/stress but because of my pain tolerance (it's VERY high, and this is not a bragging macho thing, I just often don't know when I am really hurt) and my wife hammering on me about it, I decided to go in.  They ran a ton of tests and everything came back normal.  My family doc told me it was in fact, probably anxiety.  Now up front, I have nothing to be anxious about, nor am I stressed about anything.  Life is good actually.  But sitting there in the ER for 3 hours gave me a lot of time to think about my own mortality.  Something I think about more often now that I'm 36.  Sure, that's not old but I'm not spring chicken anymore either.  So I was in a fairly good funk for a few days thinking about it.  I imagine everyone who lives long enough thinks about this at some point.  Leaving your loved ones behind, missing out on the life that goes on without you, etc.  It's going to happen obviously.  Sometimes it seems more difficult to accept than other times.

This story isn't getting a lot of news coverage, and I think it's obvious that we all know why.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379691/Transgender-girl-beaten-seizure-McDonalds-attack-victim-hate-crime.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The victim is white and the attackers are black.  The two black girls stomp the victim out until a seizure sets in.  The rest of the "men" working in the restaurant do nothing to stop this attack, and I'm pretty sure if these two bitches got the transgender victim into the parking lot, they would have killed her/him whatever.

The only thing that saved the victim was an old lady who intervened who was also threatened to get beaten if she didn't back off.

There are so many thoughts I have about this story but I will leave it.....for now.

The diet is going good but I do find that I allow myself more cheats than I should and I need to get that back in line.  I'm already between 3800 and 4200 per day depending, and there is no need for extra IMO.  So I have to be cognitive of that to avoid extra fat gain.

I'm pretty sure this will be the last time I ever "bulk" or eat to get bigger.  I really have just been teetering on the edge of where I need to be for so long that it's more or less a requirement right now.  Being 240 under 10% bodyfat has been my goal for as long as I can remember.  So I'm just going to see where this takes me.  I will not exceed 15% bodyfat however, no matter what.  Dieting to get fat off sucks too much for that.

I'm pretty sure I have a heel spur.  I still run on it when it doesn't bother me, but the next day or later that same day it will hurt like the dickens.  I hate this more than anything because sprinting and hills are such a staple in my training.  But I've been doing more bag work and stuff to compensate for the loss of the sprints.

Movies -

Hanna - Saw this yesterday.  Awesome movie.  It's like Bourne identity meets x-men if you will.  Definitely work going to the theater for.

Wasn't one of the reasons that Obama got elected was because of the price of gas at the time?  People feared that McCain was just another oil/money guy and it would stay at $4 a gallon?  Wellllllll here we are a few years later and uh, gas is $4 a gallon.  We're sitting on crude and heating oil highs over the past two and a half years, and the scare of higher gas prices is one of the reasons swing voters voted for Obama.  Instead of going to Brazil to get oil why aren't more jobs being created at home to help this shit economy?  Why aren't we going after our own native oil instead?  It's fucked up.

Things you lose your man card for - Just an update

Carrying your wife/GF's purse around while she shops.  You can hold it while you stand in place as she shows you the sexy underpants she will wear for you later.  Otherwise, you lose the man card.  This is whupped at a level that requires you to kill a medium sized animal with your hands and teeth to get your man card back.

Is there anything better than Sunday afternoon delight for 2-3 hours?  I don't think there is.  I really don't.

I may take a road trip to see Mount Rushmore this summer.  I haven't been travelling in a while, and I think the girls would really like such a trip.  It's about a 12 hour drive but that's ok, as road trips are fun too if you make em fun.  Which means stopping to see shit and have a good time.  My dad drove past everything.  Pissed me off to no end.

Let me also say, there is a difference in travelling and vacation.  Travelling is when you go somewhere to see and do shit.  Vacationing is for resting and relaxing.  I hate it when you go on VACATION and some asshole wants to plan a bunch of shit to do.  This is a huge pet peeve of mine.  My wife hates this too, so we never go anywhere with other couples because without FAIL the female of that couple always wants to run around and do shit the whole fucking time.  Why?  The whole point of getting away like that, is to recharge.  To show back up at work and feel refreshed.  I don't go to Vegas or Cali to travel.  I go there to kick back, relax, and sleep a lot then do some easy style partying at night.  But hell no, there is always one that wants to go to the Grand Canyon then walk the strip all day then go see 50 shows, etc.  Fuck that.  I'm going to the pool, passing out for a few hours, eating lunch, then repeating until it's dinner time.  This will happen pretty much the whole time I am in Vegas or Cali.  But for a road trip, I plan on doing stuff and walking and seeing the sights.  The whole difference is the mindset of what you are out there to do.

Guys that are super skinny that have been lifting a long time shouldn't give eating advice to guys who are trying to get big.  And fat guys shouldn't give dieting advice.  These guys always recommend the most retarded shit.  Do internal training on low carb?  Are you fucking nuts?  Sure, I want to go into full catabolic mode and feel like shit while I do my cardio.  Real easy here......

If you're going to do intervals as your main source for fat loss conditioning do not eat low carb.  Worry about calories and eat moderate carbs.  And do your intervals in the evening after you have had some food in you.

If you are going to do low carb, do steady state shit and if possible in the morning.  30-45.

Really, a great option is to end 2-3 of your lifting sessions with 8-10 minutes of intervals of some kind, then do steady state on the off days.  This is a really solid overall plan and something I have been implementing during this bulk.  I think it will work great during fat loss stages as well because I intentionally eat more on lifting days.  Should work like a charm.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Mondays suck.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Training - Press and stuff

Bodyweight -246

Incline Press - bar x 25
135 x 5
185 x 4
225 x 3
275 x 2
335 x 1
275 x 13

Db Bench Press - 100's x 18

Seated Lateral Machine - 144 x 12, 120 x 12

Notes - Pretty much identical to last week outside of the 335 single on incline.  This was the epitome of an 80% day.  Just getting the reps in from last week.  Didn't get any better but not any worse.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Training - Deads and Back

Workout from last night -

Bodyweight - 248

Warm up - calf press machine x 25, adductor and abductor machines, hip and ass machine - 2 sets of each

Deadlifts -
135 x 10
225 x 5
315 x 4
405 x 3
475 x 2
515 x 3

Stiff Legs on Block - 455 x 8

Shrugs - 405 x 8, 500 x 18

Chins - wide x 5, close x 5 (elbow hurting on chins too)

Sprints - x 10 around the track

Heavy Bag Work - 10 minutes

Notes - Really solid session.  Upper range 80%er.  Although I think, but not sure, that the 455x8 on stiffs is a PR.  But I'm not positive.  Saw a guy doing PJR pullovers in the gym.  I asked him what they were called and he told me "PJR pullovers" and I told him I was the guy they were named after.  Don't mean to brag but it's the only thing relevant I've brought to the lifting world.

Guess I can continue to aim low.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Weekly Q & A.......

Leave a name and a question!  Good read for single guys below.  Click on the pic to view bigger......

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Training - Pipes

Bodyweight - 245

Close Grip Bench - 
bar x 25
135 x 10
225 x 8
275 x 15
225 x 15

Ez Curls - 65 x 15, 115 x 15

Pushdowns - stack x 13-8-5 rest/pause style

Machine Curls - 1 arm at a time - 1 plate x 18,15

Notes - nice session.  Close grip is just shy of where I thought it was.  So I'm still around a 400 close grip bench which is fine at the moment.  That means aftera  few weeks it will probably run up to 275x18-20 which puts me squarely back at 435-445.  My goal this year has been 450.  I was smart about the benching tonight and kept it light and the elbow is thanking me for it.  So I'm pretty happy about being smart for once.  

To the guy I ran into that reads my blog I apologize for not talking more.  If I get to talking while I'm lifting I will end up blowing up the whole session.  If you ever want to talk lifting more hit me up after a workout and we can discuss anything.  I have to be mindful of fat mouth because I have the gift of gab and will go on forever.  Thanks for reading!  

Against the (current) grain methods to gain mass

Since I'm in my own mass gaining phase, I'm going to write more about this shit.  Mainly because I want to, and because most guys do actually want to know how to get bigger eventually.  So here we go..........

#1 Eat Carbs - I love this one now because carbs have become such the enemy in the lifting community.  But the fact is, you're never going to get big without em unless you're some crazy freak of nature.  And when I say big I mean fulfilling your genetic potential.  This whole "I'll just add some olive oil and eat some chicken and bell peppers" bullshit will not get you massive or build Hulk sized muscles.  That's a fact.  Paleo, Keto, low carb, and all of that bullshit is never going to be as good as carb based diets when it comes to mass building.  Building mass requires fuel and a lot of it.  To train, to repair, then of course to serve as a caloric surplus.  It's the gold mine of mass building "tricks" from an eating standpoint.

I have a friend who uses quite a bit of supplements and he hasn't gained any real mass in quite a few years.  6 months ago I lit into him and told him that he was never going to get big if he didn't eat.  He knew this already but just wasn't putting it into action.  He finally relented and I saw him yesterday, and he was 240 pounds.  The most he's been in over 5 years.  The only thing that changed was his eating.

I promise you that some guru or diet expert will tell you how you can become fat adapted and build mass and blah blah blah horseshit puke puke.  Same for internet board gurus who are 185 pounds or whatever that tell you that you don't have to go about it like this.

It's nonsense.

Great for mass building


Anyone who ignores anecdotal evidence is an idiot.  I don't know a single massive guy that got that way avoiding carbs.  Just because some guy you know that is massive now and does Paleo/Keto/Carb cycling what the fuck ever, doesn't mean he got massive doing that shit.  He didn't.  And if he did, he's the exception and we don't use exceptions to create rules.

I like railing on these carb haters because like everything else in lifting and dieting, shit comes full circle so at some point everyone will realize how important it is to eat carbs and will say how ahead of the curve I was.  Then I will be labeled a guru myself and live like King Solomon!

In all seriousness, I already live that way.  Now I'm just waiting on guru status.

No but serious, you have to have carbs to get big.  This is unavoidable.  So if you have turned into a carb phobia guy then I guess getting big is out of the question for you.  And I'm not joking about that.  I still laugh at one of the guys I was training for a while telling me he knew he needed to get bigger but didn't like how I told him to eat.  "I just want to add some olive oil and some good fats and do it that way."  Fine man, knock yourself out.  When you are in the same weight class in 6 months don't blame me.  Blame olive oil.

I will say that eating the right kind of carbs is important.  Sweet taters and oatmeal, you can't go wrong with.  White or jasmine rice right after a workout is really good, and whole wheat sammiches are a good staple as is milk.

You don't have to go carb crazy, although this will work (however you'll pay for it later as you read #3).  But how the hell are you going to power through multiple heavy, high rep workouts each week with a fucking refeed?  You aren't.  You aren't going to get big that way either.  That's just reality.  It's up to you to accept it and play with your carb intake.

#2 Train to failure - Don't confuse this with HIT.  I don't care if you do multiple sets or rest/pause or strip sets.  But at some point you're going to need to train to failure and learn how to work your ass off.  You need to remember that you are asking your body to make physiological changes that it does not want to make.  I know a lot of guys are big on volume but I'll delve a little bit into why volume training, IMO, is substandard in comparison to training balls out for mass.

Capt. Kirk was big on training to one big all out set


When a guy has to do 5-7-9 whatever sets of a movement with a static weight for volume, it's easy for him to throw on a weight that is easy, or rest a little longer than he needs to.  In fact, unless you time yourself, as the sets go on I promise you will rest longer each time.  I mean I've done plenty of volume before and had days where that 7th set of squats actually felt easier than that 3rd set.  I found that when I made volume training more intense by reducing rest periods between sets or taking a set closer to failure that a few things happened...

1.  I couldn't keep up the volume very long because I got weaker
2.  I started cutting the volume down because it was too hard to sustain that level of intensity.

Eventually I realized that my philosophy of working up to 1-2 top work sets then with maybe 1 back off set as a finisher worked so well because I could pour it all into those few sets, and I had marks to beat or goals to shoot for.

Yates early training stuff can't be beat for a good mass building methodology


One of the things I hated about volume training was the fact that I had no real goal in sight.  You just had to get the volume in.  This bored me.  I love to have a goal to beat.  A number or weight to hit.  This motivated me and still does.  You can do a million sets all day and lie to yourself, or you can put weight on the bar and do more reps than you did with that weight last week.  There is no way to cheat yourself like this.  Numbers don't lie.  If you got 11 last week and got 13 this week, you got better.

With volume training you can lie to yourself all damn day.  I know, I've done it.  When you're busting ass for new PR's you can't.  You either made it happen or you didn't.

#3 - You cannot get big and stay lean or get leaner (but you can limit fat gain) but you shouldn't get fat either

This is one of the reasons that so many "don't know shit" guys don't like my eating advice.  Because they want to believe that deep down they can get bigger and keep their six pack.  Or that you need to eat fucking rice cakes, chicken breast, and egg whites all day long.  You're NOT going to get bigger and stay the same leanness unless you have a hell of a mess of drugs at your disposal.  I am assuming you don't.  If you do, please share.

Look, at best you will probably gain 1 pound of fat per pound of lean mass.  And man, that's BEST case scenario.  More than likely you will gain a few pounds of fat per pound of muscle.  I will tell you this, it is important to keep fat gain to a minimum if you want to KEEP that hard earned mass.  Why?  Well, later you're going to want to peel that fat off.  The more fat that is on you, the more muscle you will cannibalize because you will have to diet longer.  And being in a caloric deficit for a long time will take more muscle with it as well.

Never listen to douchebags about training or eating


If you keep fat gains to a minimum, then you will only have to diet for a short time.  Thus, sparing most, if not all, of your hard earned muscle.  Fat gain is unavoidable.  However bulking is NOT an excuse to turn into a fat ass slob.  I promise you if you do that when you diet down, you will either be the same size as before or even smaller.

Now that just sucks doesn't it?

So don't use bulking as a reason to become Jabba the Hutt.  And if you're already above 15% bodyfat don't ask yourself or anyone else if you should bulk.  This is retarded.  The answer is no BTW, if you did want to ask.

#4 - Keep fat intake low(ish)

Again, this will go against the current trend of how fats will fix global warming, create world peace, make all women hotter, and of course give you a sexier body and faster car.

There are a few reasons to monitor fat intake when doing a clean bulking cycle.

First off, calories.  See #3 if you don't get it.  If you eat a shit load of carbs and a shit load of fat, you're going to get fat eventually, unless you're a super skinny guy that has to eat whole villages of midgets in order to just maintain weight.

I keep my fat intake to about 80 grams a day even at 4200 or so calories.  So you figure yeah, I'm around 400 grams of protein and 490 grams of carbs (give or take here and there for each).  My fat comes from a couple of whole eggs in the morning, some fat that is in 2% milk, peanut butter or almonds, and red meat.  I get it through FOOD.  The eggs and red meat are great sources.  I eat red meat almost every day.  Flank and sirloin usually, but I will have a ribeye as well.  If you want to be more conscious about good fat intake, which is not a bad thing, add in some flax in you will.

No I don't believe that if you eat fat, you'll get fat per say.  In fact as much as I rant against all this carb-hate I do agree that higher fat-lower carb diets work great for getting rid of fat (but you still have to beware of caloric intake) and works really well for most people in that regard.

However you do not need a significant intake of fat to gain mass.  And I will tell you this, if you are ingesting high amounts of carbs to fuel those hard workouts and to recover from them, what do you think your body is going to do with all of that extra fat?  Yeah, it's pretty simple.  Make you fatter.  Bulking is about growing as much lean mass as possible, not expanding your waistline.

So basically -

High carb and high protein with low fat to gain mass.

High protein and medium fat with low carbs to lose fat.

#5 - Squat, push, pull, arms, squat, push, pull, arms........

If you're not preparing to compete in anything, getting jacked for the sake of getting jacked is pretty simple really.

Squat on day.....any kind - fronts, hacks, high bar, low bar, whatever (although I am not a fan of box squats for mass gain at all as the quads are removed from the equation for the most part)
Push one day.....any kind - bench, incline, standing
Pull one day.....any kind - deadlifts of all kinds, barbell and t-bar rows
Do some arms......whenever you like, barbell curls, pjr pullovers, french press, db curls

So simple.  Yet so effective.  Go in to squat and squat until your legs shake.  Finish up with some leg curls.

Go in and do some flat bench and then some incline db press.  Use some PITs and go all out.

Go in and pull heavy, then take some weight off and hit a high rep set of romanians then chin until your arms fall off.

When your arms are back on, go back in and do some french press and heavy barbell curls for high reps.

Take a day off or two, eat a lot, rest a lot, sleep extra, and repeat.

This shit is so simple I really don't know why there are so many questions about it.  You have to eat a lot, you have to get stronger in a medium-high rep range through a progression scehem, and you have to rest and recover.  That's all the secrets.  Ok, well not all but you know what #6 would be if I were to write about it........

Monday, April 18, 2011

Training - Squatting

Weight - 245

Squats - no belt no wraps (as always)
body x 20
135 x 20
155 x 20
185 x 20
225 x 20
315 x 20

Pause Squats - 315 x 2 sets of 5

Notes - Well didn't retear anything so I think the adductor is healing up ok.  I won't lie this workout was HARD.  I am in good shape cardio wise, but my legs are weak weak weak from the weeks of not squatting or rehabbing the adductor.  I think I will start the 10's next week and roll them for 2 weeks before moving into 8's.  Still, I apologize for moving pussy weights until the leg is healed.

Thoughts about life, training, crap and stuff

I like Jon Jones as a fighter, but even better as a person after the last few weeks.......

http://mmaweekly.com/ufc-light-heavyweight-champion-jon-jones-saves-the-day-again


Guy leaves a blowup doll in boss' car.  Comes in to this the next day in his cube......



As I was leaving the gym this past week, I had to walk around a guy that had 1 foot on a Frisbee while he was pulling himself around by his hands.  21 years of lifting and this is a first.

Walking - I see so many people "walking" for exercise in a completely unproductive way.  They walk casually, like they are checking out animals at the zoo or window shopping for prostitutes in Amsterdam.  Walking productively should be at a CRISP pace.  One that leaves you with labored breathing after half an hour to forty-five minutes.  I can't believe how many fat people I see "walking" that stay fat.  Walking with a purpose is a great way to accelerate fat loss.  Walking at a zoo pace is not.  No matter what kind of exercising you are doing if there is virtually no real effort required, then it is not productive.

Movies -

Faster - That movie with The Rock.  Loved it.  I can dig a shallow action movie if it's faced paced and not too unrealistic.  This was exactly that.  I thought this was really his best work ever because he seemed very believable in the role.  He seemed to actually be in pain and hurt from the loss of his brother.  This is one of those cool action flicks that you would change the channel to every time you see it on TV.  Highly recommend it for a good popcorn action flick.

Faster - Solid Action Flick


Ironman II - I know this is not new but I just got around to seeing it because so many people told me it was a let down from the first one.  Well, they were right.  All I can say is they spent too much time trying to make it a "real" movie by having so much dialog and character development.  Usually this makes a movie good for me because I love that stuff, however there simply was not enough action in the movie to break up the dialog.

Was watching some new music channel this week and it featured Foo Fighters.  Dave Grohl is a heck of a lucky guy.  Played the drums for Nirvana and made millions and millions.  Then headed up Foo Fighters and is now worth like 200 million dollars.  Who knew the most talented guy in Nirvana was the drummer?  Because Cobain was not talented and I don't give a shit what anyone says about that.  Dude couldn't sing in tune live to save his fucking life and played melody line guitar solos.  Grunge (outside of Alice in Chains) sucked anyways.  So glad that shit is over.

Interval Training and low carb do not mix.  I always see this as the recommendation for fat loss.  It'll get rid of fat alright.  And a lot of muscle along with it.  Interval training is not a lot different than lifting, especially if you are busting ass.  If you're going to do it for the thermogenic effect, at least have some carbs beforehand.  If you're going low carb for fat loss, do steady state.  Be smart.

I hate my lawn mower.  Every single year it's a complete pain in the ass to get this thing going again.  A total lemon.  Something is constantly breaking or broke on it.  I want to go Office Space copying machine on this damn thing so bad.  I should just buy a push mower and consider that my Sunday cardio because it's 3 hours to push mow my yard.  On second thought, fuck that.

Seems like all of my injuries are healing about the same time.  A stroke of good luck for me in that regard for once?  Maybe.  I think I deserve it after the last year.  The elbow is day to day but as of this morning, it feels really good.  So medium-heavy inclines don't bother it at all.  My left bicep is fine I think.  The shrugs last week with 500x15 felt fine.  So good there.  Leg is feeling ok but I'm going to continue my pattern of 20 rep squats for a while.  Then after that I will bust into the 10's, then 8's, then 5's and see where I am at.  I do think it would be fairly badass to be able to do 315 x 20, 365 x 20, then 405 x 20 all in the same workout.  I don't think that is going to be possible for me at this time however.  LOL  I've done 405x20 on several occasions and it's generally a max effort.

I'm keeping my routine really basic and getting back to 1 or 2 big sets and focusing on progression on everything.  This is easy to do when you have only 2 or maybe 3 movements per workout and they don't change a lot.  I don't get systems that have you change the main big movements on a set basis.  What if you end up missing out on weeks and weeks of solid progress on a multi joint movement?  This seems dumb.  Oh wait I know, "CNS burnout".  I will be so glad when that phrase dies forever since there is no such fucking thing in regards to weight training.

So this past week I found out a "friend" totally shit all over me.  This was someone I helped through some tough times and was there for a lot.  I'm a very "emotions on my sleeve" kinda guy.  I say what I mean, and mean what I say.  I never BS or backstab.  I always want people to know exactly where I stand.  Some people like this, and some people like their life sugar coated to them.  So I end up finding out through a mutual friend all the shit that has been said.  And none of it had anything to do with me (I know this seems vague and strange but the situation is strange) in the situation.  In other words, I was getting talked shit about but I had nothing to do with why the situation was in that particular state.  But it comes back to my belief that in life, the people you can REALLY trust will be narrowed down that you can count them on one hand.  Don't think for a second that your BFF/best buddy/ whatever wouldn't shit on you in the right circumstance.  A TRUE friend that would give his blood for you, go to bat for you no matter the circumstance, is more rare than anything else I can think of in this world.  I have 1 person in this whole world I know I can trust fully.  My wife.  Outside of that a good dog.

Speaking of dogs, it's time to look again.  My best buddy in the world Dozer passed away October 22, 2010 and I think I've healed enough to start looking for a new good buddy.  I brought Doz's ashes home a few weeks ago and I felt like that kind of gave me closure.  I was going to spread them but the box they came in was so nice it's now a decoration.  I will be getting another bullmastiff because well, they are the coolest dogs ever.  I honestly wish I could get a place out in the country so I could have like 7-10 dogs.  A couple of bullies, an Akita, a German Sheppard, an English Bulldog, a Cane Corso, and a Presa.  At least that many, maybe more.



I really can't believe the time and money spent on that whole Barry Bonds trial bullshit.  It's amazing to me, that with a government shutdown in effect at that same time we cared if Barry Bonds or some other baseball players took steroids and lied about it.  He wouldn't have been in court to lie about it if our government gave a shit about more important things.  Like gas prices, jobs, and the economy.  But no, we need to know if Bonds took steroids.  And if he did so the hell what?  Accusing people of doing steroids is the mating call of the insecure loser.  I had a board I used to go to that was just chock full of guys that constantly accused me of using roids.  Nothing is more pathetic than to watch a bunch of guys accuse another guy of being "on" because they are insecure losers.  What I find funny about this is that the same group of fuckwads will go on and on about how weed or even hard drugs should be legal, but then condemn the usage of anabolics.  "Cheating" some of them say.  Yeah well crack heads and meth heads and coke heads cheat themselves and everyone who cares about them out of a life.  So shut the fuck up with that nonsense.

Bonds did roids.  Who gives a shit?


Mondays suck.






Saturday, April 16, 2011

Training - Chest and Shoulders

Weight - 243

Incline Press - 135 x 15, 185 x 4, 225 x 3, 275 x 2, 325 x 1, 275 x 13

Db Bench - 100's x 18

Side Lateral Machine - 144 x 11, 120 x 12

Boxing - 5 - 2 minute rounds

Sprints - 5 total with walking between

Notes - Felt great.  Wrapped the elbow good on the top sets but it felt ok today after hurting since that close grip session.  For whatever reason the incline press doesn't bother my elbow as much so, no more heavy close grips from here on out.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Training - Deads and Back

Hip and Ass Machine - 2 x 50

Deads -
135 x 10
225 x 5
315 x 4
405 x 3
455 x 2
500 x 3

All super fast and snappy.  Just like the first week should be.

Stiff Legs on block - 455 x 6

Shrugs - 405 x 10, 500 x 15

Chins - body x 2 x 5 wide, 2 x 5 v-bar

Bosing  - 3 5 minute rounds

Notes - Nice session and everything seems to be healing up except the elbow of course, which took a step back after the close grips two nights ago.

On a side note, I want to say that there isn't a mother fucker walking the face of the earth that you can FULLY trust.  Even your best friend since childhood can and will shit on you in the right situation.  It's a painful fucking lesson to learn, but everyone has to at some point.  This is truly one of those "fuck life" days.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Training - Pipes

Weight - 241

Close Grips -
bar x 25
135 x 10
185 x 5
225 x 4
275 x 3
315 x 2
365 x 1
275 x 3 (more on this in notes)

Rope Pshdowns -
up t o 70 x 13

Ez Curls - 85 x 20, 105 x 10

Notes - elbow was feeling just fine all night until the down set with 275.  3 reps in and excruciating pain.  Even though the 365 was super fast and easy I think I'm going to just keep it at 245-275 for high reps the next month or so and incline heavy.  This should work just fine, and I have to remind myself that my training is serving a different purpose right now.  For so long I've been in "1 rep max" mode that I'm having a little trouble breaking out of it.

So look for some high reps with light-medium weight on the close grips from here on out.  275x25 would be nice.

Update - So I get home and I'm pissed about the down set so I go into the basement, wrap the elbows up nice and snug and hit a quick close grip of 225x22.  My goal for close grips over the next few months will be 225x40 and 275x25.  I'm pretty sure fresh I'm good for 225x28-30 and 275x18ish.

Cavemen, muscle mass, keto diets, milk, and more bullshit

Well here it is.  The latest diet fad.  A few years ago it was no carbs or low carbs.  And even a lot longer before people called it low or no carb diets it was called ketogenic diets.

I've done em.  I hate em.  Every second of em.  I did a keto a few years ago for about 6 weeks.  I felt like shit the entire time, I got skinny-fat, my lifts went straight into the shitter, I had zero energy for fighting.  The so called rebound never happened.  I never felt good again, and the theory that you can eat as much as you want on these diets and not get fatter is complete HORSESHIT.

Pretty much, this diet sucked for me in every way possible.

Now it's the Paleo diet.

I have yet to figure out the obsession with these fucking diets.

"I'm going to eat like a fucking caveman!  Look how hardcore I am!"

Knock yourself out.  Guess what?  Cavemen didn't make it dude.  We changed/evolved/got better, made better tasting food, got bigger, stronger, and faster.  Cavemen didn't have power racks, barbells, dumbbells, or any shit like that.  There is a reason why people got better.  If the god damn caveman were the pinnacle of manliness we'd all still be cavemen, humping a carcass because we didn't know any better and naming everyone we know Grogg.

Cavemen aren't here any more for a reason.

Captain Caveman is the only cool caveman ever


My guess is, they didn't exercise a whole lot.  They probably weren't yoked out or swole.  They died fairly young, and weren't too smart.  So for the life of me, I can't figure out why some strength and mass guys have jumped on this damn Paleo diet bangwagon.

"Healthiest diet ever!"

I got that.  And I probably even agree to SOME extent.  I mean if your diet is lean meats, fruits, nuts, and vegetables that's hard to beat in terms of being healthy.

However the hating of carbs is retarded to a degree that is hard to explain.  I mean do you REALLY think cavemen shunned potatoes?  Potatoes come from the ground, you grow it.  Yet I see plenty of Paleo boards and guru's talking about how you can't eat a damned potato, or not one very often.  This is idiotic.

First off, our bodies are made to EAT carbs.  Carbs and grains are not the problem.  I don't give two shits what any of these diet gurus say/write/vomit, whatever.  The primary source for energy in your body will always ALWAYS be glycogen.  If you want to be a big, strong, robust son of a bitch you better have some glycogen in your body, and you better make it a priority in your eating.  I don't know of a single impressive lifting son of a bitch that does Paleo AS written.  I do know of some Paleo with milk guys and they like it (OMG THEY ARE DRINKING MILK!!!  YOU AREN'T MADE TO DRINK ANOTHER ANIMALS MILK!!!  :::::intellectual trainer thrashes about::::)  And even if there was an impressive guy that does it now, he didn't become impressive doing it.  That's because there aren't enough calories or carbs in that diet to make you fucking massive and scary.  Period.  I'm gonna rant more about milk later in this article too, because these anti-milk assholes drive me even more nuts with the bullshit they spew.

Our Ancestors and Old Time Lifters -

We've been eating bread for thousands of years.  Same for potatoes, both red and sweet.  Our ancestors ate these like crazy.  They generally were not fat because they worked a physical job, didn't have an excess of food to eat, regardless of what it was, and their lives weren't based around food.  In other words, they didn't rely on food to make them happy.  They went fishing, hunting, played sports and games outside, went swimming, and did a whole host of other activities.  In other words, they didn't eat a ton and were active, so they weren't fat.

Chet Yorton

I mean shit man, go look at some really early muscle rags.  There were plenty of guys that were ripped that didn't know they couldn't eat bread and potatoes.  They did some very basic calorie counting, essentially.  In other words, they exercised more and ate less, and they got leaner.  Ooooo SOOOO magical!  Did David Copperballs travel back in time to give them this magical "get ripped" formula????

They didn't have fucking macro-nutrient breakdowns and refeeds and deloads and and a whole list of other things that you need to follow.  They just ate good foods, lifted, ran, swam, and did freakin activities.  I've said this over and over again, there is no magical formula to get big and strong and lean.  We've known how to do this for a very long time.

Don Howorth


Shit man, Weight Watchers has been helping people lose weight through a point system for what, decades now?  And it works!  And you know what it is?  Calorie counting!  OMG THE HUMANITY!  That shit can't work it's too simple!!!!!!  GRRRAAAWWRRLLLLLL!!!!  ::::intellectual trainer thrashes about:::::

If you have a calorie deficit you will get leaner.

If you have a calorie surplus you will get heavier.

Your eating essentially defines what you look like, but I don't think that the macro breakdown is as important as everyone thinks it is.  Calories at the end of the day, are the be all end all.  That's a damned fact.  Now someone will whip out the blueberry pie example on me, but I don't give a shit.

Joe Damico set a personal best in the Los Angeles marathon eating only MACDonalds (yes, MAC) for the 30 days preceding it.

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/mcrunner-joe-damico-personal-best-la-marathon-mcdonalds-diet-20110321

Here's his blood work at day 25!

http://mcrunner.com/?p=517

There was another guy that did the 30 days just for body recomposition and it worked as well.  All he did was count calories, lifted and did conditioning and he got leaner and all of his blood work improved.

The blueberry pie assholes and Paleo zealots would have you believe this is not possible, but the fact is from my own experience I haven't found that macro partitioning made a HUGE difference if my calories weren't in line with my goals.  When I ate less, I lost fat.  When I ate more I got bigger.  If I ate too damned much I got bigger and turned into a fat hog.  When I ate too little however, I would also stagnate in terms of bodyfat loss.  Guys in prison get jacked on like, 90 grams of protein a day.

There are some happy mediums.  They are for you to experiment and find out.

But basically in a nutshell if you want to get big you need to eat.  And you need to eat a lot of carbs.  You will not NOT get big on eating in that fucking Paleo style with limiting carbs and relying on a "refeed".

If you want to lose fat you need to slowly lower cals to a certain point, then start upping your cardio.  This is bodybuilding get-lean 101 for about eleventy billion years now and it works.

Milk - 

The other thing I see too much of now is this complete railing against milk.  If you are lactose intolerant I understand.

One of the arguments I hear is that we're the only animal that drinks the milk from another animal and this shit makes me laugh and think I'm talking to someone who went full retard.

First off, this is like the caveman scenario in that are we REALLY judging how we should live by the way animals eat?

At least he's not drinking milk!


Dogs will eat the fucking carcass of another dead dog off the side of the road.  They will eat cat shit.  Most animals have the practice of cannibalism.  Are you shitting me?  We shouldn't drink milk because other animals don't drink milk from other animals?

Get the hell out of here with that bullshit.

Ok animals will drink the SHIT out of milk from another animal if they are offered it.  I worked on a dairy farm for two years, and our Rotties drank milk from a 5 gallon bucket until they couldn't move.  They could't wait for us to open up the tank and fill that bucket up.

Lots of animals are adopted by other animals and nurse from them.  So this one is bullshit.

Oh and you know why guys can grow on Paleo with milk?

Carbs and more calories.  OMG thrash about the floor intellectual trainer, you dope!

Bottom Line -

If you want to be a 155 pound ripped guy that talks about health, does distance running and thinks bodyweight exercises will make you as strong as you can ever be, then Paleo will probably be great for you.  You will be able to buy into it and all the horseshit that comes with it.

But if you're a mass/strength athlete that wants to get as big as possible and wants to raise your strength ceiling as much as possible, you're going to need carbs and calories and possibly milk (GASP!).

When you need to take fat off, just do bodyweight x 10 in order to get a starting baseline for how many calories you need in a day to do that.  If you eat McDonalds all day, so long as you stay in that calorie range and lift/run/bang you'll get leaner.  Fact.

And BTW off topic, didn't we go to war for oil?  That's what all the liberal whack jobs told me.  Now gas is like $97 a gallon.  Can we please go to war for oil somewhere now to lower gas prices?  Sheesh.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Training - Squats

Bodyweight - 241

Squats -
body x 20
135 x 20
155 x 20
185 x 20
225 x 20

Notes - That was it.  Just rehabbing the adductor.  All were easy and felt good.  I may just keep adding sets to this scheme for a while, but I think that's wishful thinking.  I can only take 20 rep squats for so long until I hate em with a passion.

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff

Watched some new flicks finally.....

Tron - Not bad.  Ending coulda been a little better I thought, but I think they purposely left some things open for another one.  I watched this with the girls so I appreciated the PG rating.  They liked it a lot as well.  Always a bonus for me when the girls dig it.

The Next Three Days - Someone recommended this to me.  Really solid!  The do a great job of not letting on what is really going to happen and it does a good job of keeping you on your toes.  A lot longer than I expected too.

Source Code - Really really awesome.  Not what you think either, if going by the previews.  Don't want to give anything away so just go see it.  It's not that long either.

Well the government avoided the shutdown.  This is good for me as I work for the government.  Although I wont lie, I wouldn't have minded a day or three off just to hang and relax.  I suppose I could take vacation for that but I really like to save my vacation time for big stuff like Vegas or going back to Louisiana.  I'm also glad they were able to cut funding that was going to go to federally funded abortions.  Now just to smash planned parenthood eventually.  And I believe this will happen at some point.

Ok so I FINALLY got my training down.  As I noted, I generally write a bunch of shit on paper and then make changes as the week goes on.  I'll just post up the sessions and if anyone has any questions just ask.  Don't be surprised when you see me doing fewer movements than ever.

More steroids in baseball crap been going on.  For the love of God congress, get back on subjects that matter and keep your nose out of this kind of shit.  Besides, everyone knows now that complaining about steroids is the mating call of the perennial loser.  They should put these old geezers in congress on some test so they'd know how awesome it feels.

My buddy sent me a link for this antijoke site and I haven't stopped laughing.

"What did the homeless man get for Christmas?"

"Nothing"

Speaking of baseball (I did earlier) I hate it.  I played it for a long time, mainly because my pops wanted me to.  But man that is some boring shit to watch.  I don't see how people can watch baseball on TV or golf on TV.  I can even watch bowling.  I mean at least there is some action every minute or so.

I feel the same about NASCAR.  How can people watch cars do left turns for hours on end?  I came up with an idea for NASCAR.  They should put in a ramp or some kind of high risk/high reward thing, where you could do it, and possibly make up 10 cars, but the risk is you destroy the whole car.  Like a ramp that cuts across the track or some shit like that, or you drive through a gasoline car wash then have to jump through a fire hoop.  Something like that.  I'd watch then.

I have written before about how over the past many years my training has dwindled down further and further as far as how much shit I am doing, and the less I did the stronger I got.  I knew at some point I'd just be doing the big 3 or 4 and some arms.  And well, after having a big huge plan about training that's pretty much what is going to happen.  Although I will be training 4 times a week.  With all this food coming in I feel pretty good and my energy levels are high.  But I'm not going to overdo it the first couple of weeks and burn out early.  Here is what I will be doing (and this is after the first week when I have to feel things out, so this is correct)

Monday - Squats and adductor work or lunges maybe
Tuesday - Close Grips and some arm work
Thursday - Deadlift, Shrug, and possibly chins
Saturday - Incline Press and Shoulders

That's the whole ball of wax.  Had to have that same damn conversation with myself about staying the course and not worrying about too much bullshit.  Whenever I get really enthusiastic I can write down shit on paper for myself that LOOKS good, but isn't good.  I believe that a lot of us probably fall into this trap.

Great fight between Diaz and Daley.  I still want to see Diaz fight the top 170 guys in UFC before I buy in though.  I think that GSP would walk through him right now.

Got a guy I work with, and he's one of those ultimate glass is half empty dudes.  Not a negative guy to hang out with, totally cool guy.  But if a scenario comes up, like this government shutdown, he always chooses the WORST possible scenario.  Everytime.  I said at most, two days.  He said Easter.  EASTER!  WTF?  If he heard about a toothpick battle going on in Chechnya he'd say we were on the brink of a nuclear war.

Google is such a sellout now.  They used to be the anti Microsoft.  You know, everything was free and not annoying.  Well now I can't watch too many Youtube vids without having to sit through some stupid advertisement.  You're waiting to watch Cannibal Corpse and gotta sit through a fucking tampax advertisement.  Does this make any damn sense?  Google has officially written their Black album.  F U whores.  I have other complaints about them but I want to see how some shit turns out.

I've been eating a lot more lately and my 4 year old has taken notice.  After eating more bread one day last week she said to me "Dad you like bread so much your parents should have named you Bread Pitt."

Hope everyone had an awesome weekend full of drama and ridiculousness.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Training - Press

Squats (leg rehab) -
body x 20
135x20
155x20

Incline Press -
135 x 12
155 x 5
185 x 4
225 x 3
275 x 2
315 x 1
275 x 11

Db Bench - 100's x 15

Lateral Machine - up to 144 x 10, back off 109 x 12

Heavy bag work - 20 minutes

Notes - Nice session for my first real pressing day.  Still about 60 pounds off my best incline but that's to be expected for a first week.  Did a lot of stretching for my legs and stuff after as well.  Probably 15 minutes worth after my bag work.

Friday, April 8, 2011

You just can't give a shit

When I was a younger man, the opinions of my peers were important to me.  I think the need for acceptance or approval is a common trait in young men.  Even in so called "alpha males".

But as you get older and life hands you out bigger priorities than being king shit amongst your friends or getting the last word in, things start to change.  You learn how to not sweat the petty bullshit.

You really begin to understand that YOU have to live your life, and be happy with it.  Damn what people who don't matter in your life thinks about it.

I think the lifting community is made up of a metric shit-ton of guys who care too much about what everyone else thinks, or thinks that their opinions matter more than they really do.

But isn't that life too?

At the end of the day, all that matters is that you're happy with your own bullshit.  Because we all have bullshit in our life.  But some of it is worth dealing with, and some of it is not.  It's up to you to decide what bullshit is not worth dealing with, then being smart enough to break out the pressure washer and spray it off.  When you're able to do this, you'll find out that you're a much happier person, and that's good for you and the people around you.  Because they don't want to deal with your bullshit either.  Right?

The thing I'm getting at here is, don't seek happiness through the acceptance or approval of others.  Because you're life will end up being an empty shell a lot of the time.  You're not always going to be able to make people happy, and a lot of people aren't going to accept you for who you are in some ways.  And that's perfectly fine....so long as you're not the Unibomber or Charles Mason (and even ol Charlie got a lot of people to accept him and even call him Jesus.  How about that?).

People who do crossfit take shit

Powerlifters take shit

Bodybuilders take shit

Runners take shit

Triathletes takes shit

Everyone takes shit at some point or another.  Whether it's for what sport they decide to pick up, their lifting philosophy or methodology, the clothes they wear, the car they drive.  Someone will try to find a way to say you are lesser for what you have or what you do or believe.

My attitude?  They can go eat an AIDS sandwich and keep bitching.

You know why?  Because that's what haters do.  They hate.  That's their job.  If you're doing something that makes you happy, gives you fulfillment who they hell are they to tell you it shouldn't?  But, take it as compliment.  Everyone who has ever done ANYTHING worth talking about has haters.  Bam.  Period.

Hot women have haters everywhere.  They are called ugly women who feel self conscious at the sight of hot women.

"Look at her girl, you know she thinks she's all that."

Guys do it when they see a guy they see women staring at.

"That guy?  Total douche bag.  You kidding me?"

It's all about breaking other people down in order to make them feel better.  You need to meet THEIR criteria for something in order for them to not feel offended.  Fuck that.  If my training ecstasy and enjoyment comes from running a stretch band up my ass crack until I bleed and I feel like that makes me strong, who is to tell me it doesn't?  Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.  Whatever.  Not that I do that.  But still.

Only spend time with the people who will cry at your funeral and live your life in a way that gives you fulfillment.  The haters can pick up some haterade on aisle 9 then go bathe in a cancer sauna.

 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Random video of the week

I laughed........

Training - Ummmm ???

Weight - 241

Stiff Legs -
135 x 10
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 5
455 x 5

Shrugs - 315 x 20, 405 x 4 sets of 20

Some curls and calves

Notes - Just did what I wanted to do tonight.  This is not uncommon for me the first week of a "plan".  I sort of feel shit out and by the second week I know exactly what my body wants to do.  With the bad adductor it's making me manage it a little differently but I think I've got it figured out.

Random Music Post

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Week 1 Training - Legs

Warm up -
Hip and Ass Machine - 2x50 with stack
Adductor and Abductor Machines - 2 sets of 20

Squats - no belt no wraps
135 x 10
225 x 5
315 x 4
405 x 3
365 x 18 Adductor popped again here.  fuckin great.

Stiff Legs - 405 x 10

Leg Press - half stack x 3 sets of 40

Notes - Well that adductor that popped a couple months ago went again.  Shit man this injury just won't go away.  The good news is the leg press didn't bother it at all.  365 was prolly good for 25 reps or so.  But I think I'm just going to drop my first love, squats, for a while and hit leg press and adductor machine for a while and try to let this thing heal up really good.  God I'm pissed and aggravated with this thing.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Week 1 Training - Back/Biceps

Weight - 237

Cable Rows -
stack + 45 x 12
stack x 13
half stack x 15

Pulldowns - stack x 8, half stack x 12, 1/4 stack x 15

Ez Curls - 65 x 15,15,12

Notes - Ok change of plan because of this stupid bicep.  Am going to change around the routine a little bit in order to work this thing some extra.  Plus back to my old stand by routine of chest/shoulder/tricep, back/bicep and legs.  However I will be lifting 6 days a week.  These workouts as short.  Fuck volume training.  I want to go heavy and do brutal back off sets.  I know my shit works so fuck experimentation.

I also did 20 minutes of boxing after this workout.  I will NOT be getting fat this bulking cycle.

Weekly Q & A

Leave a name and question.......

321 

Monday, April 4, 2011

Training - Week 1 - Shoulders and Traps

Clean and Press - clean the first rep, no leg drive all strict (I hate push press)

bar x 15
95 x 10
135 x 5
155 x 4
175 x 3
205 x 2
185 x 12

Barbell Shrugs - 45 seconds between sets
315 x 8 sets of 20

Seated Side Laterals - 45 seconds between sets
30's x 7 sets of 12

Notes - When I walked into the gym tonight the first dude I saw was this guy sitting at a table with a mullet.  I shit you not.  I thought about my dream last night and started laughing.

Anyway, my left bicep is still not 100% so I couldn't do what I wanted to on shrugs, which was to work up to a really heavy set of 5, then do a ton of back offs.  So I stayed at 315 which still caused some tingling in it.  This really sucks balls because I had plans to work up to 675x5 over the next 8 weeks or so and 500x25+.

Elbow still hurt just slightly on the press.  I had plans to go to 225 for an easy single but the bicep hurt a little even on the clean.  So I thought it would be smart not to push shit the very first week.  The 185x12 was not max effort.  Had 15 or more in me.  The first week I still leave some in the tank.  Next week I will start busting balls hard.

My bicep also presents a problem for deadlifting this week.  So I will end up squatting instead and pulling light.

Diet so far today -

Breakfast -
6 egg whites + 2 whole eggs
cup of oatmeal with raisins
banana

Lunch -
7 ounces of buffalo steak
1 sweet tater
broccoli

Snack -
Met-rx in water with 15 almonds

Pre-workout -
2 pieces of rye with jelly
1 cup of cottage cheese

Post-workout -
1 cup of jasmine rice with raisins
2 scoops of 100% Whey in 2% milk

Thoughts about life, crap, training, and stuff

Monday O' Monday, how I loathe thee.........

Whatever lifting template, program, routine, etc you decide to use let me say right off the bat that it should not be difficult to understand.  I don't know how many times I have to write this.  Nothing in strength training has changed in 60+ years.  Guys knew how to get strong a long time ago.

Why is it in dreams you can't beat anyone up or run away from anyone?  I had this dream last night, and this guy I didn't know wanted to hang out with me but I didn't want him to.  Some random white trash guy with a mullet.  Anyway, I tried to run away but he was like Usain Bolt.  Ran me down from a great distance with ease.  Then I tried to beat the hell out of him and he couldn't be damaged.  Like the Incredible Hulk.  Maybe I should create a PWT mullet super villain?  Listens to Lynard Skynard and CCR all day long in his Monte Carlo and invades peoples space and private parties.  If anyone tries to remove him or get away, well it's impossible.  Very nightmarish indeed. 

Super Villain?


Ever notice that the control freaks in your life almost never have control of things?  And the people who are cool, calm, and collected always have control of everything?  Something to ponder when shit isn't going your way.

Spring is here FINALLY!  Lots of good conditioning to be done.  Except that my feet are not in good shape at all.  But I expect to be doing a lot of steady state outside.  My hard conditioning right now will be a lot of bag work and boxing.

So I didn't write about it yet but, I got a wild hair up my butt and bought some supplements for this mass gain phase.  My diet will be almost all food aside from 1-2 shakes, but I did buy some multi vitamins, Animal Flex (to see if it would help my elbow), protein powder (ON 100% Whey), my usual BCAA (scivation), a preworkout pick me up as I have gotten tired of well, being tired (Jack3d).  I think I got something else but can't remember.  Anyway, nothing fancy or over the top.  These are decent "supplements" to buy as I researched them and they are truly acting as SUPPLEMENTS.  Not staples.  I also plan on trying a fat burner when this mass gain cycle is done.  I haven't tried one with great regularity since they took REAL ECA stacks off the shelves.

Will give reports on the shit I bought.


Expect to see a lot of volume in my training over the next few months.  Volume with high reps and limited rest periods.  This will be on my secondary movements.  My initial movements, the staples like overhead press, incline, squats, deads, etc will all be cycled like I have cycled lifts before.  But I'm going to do some really high volume on the movements after that for medium to high reps to see what happens.

Started my spring cleaning stuff yesterday.  Cleaned the gutters, moved a bunch of big stones in the yard, raked the left over leaves, put the mowers battery on charge, and just did an overall "get ready" of the yard.  The wife likes to plant a whole botanical gardens worth of flowers in the spring and she's working now too, so  I'm  trying to make the starting of it easier on her.  I did very little yard work last year for the first year ever.  My house looked like an abandoned home all winter.  So back to making the yard look good this year.  Plus yard work is fun and good for calorie burning.

We had big trash pick up day this last week.  So you put out all the big shit you want taken away on the curb.  Man, that is such a surreal evening.  There's all this trash out along the whole neighborhood, and car after car comes down the road pilfering through all this crap.  Just taking shit.  It's reminds me some post Apocalyptic raid.  I guess it's true, that one mans trash is another mans treasure.

Big trash pickup day in my neighborhood is always a mess


I have a feeling that that Rebecca Black song is going to become the new "Rick Rolled".  I had a co-worker send me that shit last week and I thought it was an SNL skit or something because, outside of the song being beyond terrible, the lyrics were so retarded.  So I kept waiting and waiting.  And nothing happened.  So I wasn't laughing, or saying "this is shitty" because I thought it was a damn parody of these teeny bopper singers and kept waiting on the turn.  But nope.  It was "real".  Some will laugh, but it makes me put bands like Creed and Nickelback into a new perspective.  I mean yeah everyone hates them, but at least those dudes played their instruments and wrote their own songs.  We have record labels auto tuning people who can't sing and over marketing them so that we HAVE to know who they are.  It's disgraceful.  And again, the record labels and movie companies wonder why piracy is such an issue.......

Maybe losing the throne? 


So the new season of The Ultimate Fighter is here.  Brock Lesnar sounds/acts like a different guy than the born-asshole-grew-bigger guy he was when he smashed Frank Mir.  You know why?  Because Cain Velasquez beat his ass six ways till Sunday.  My guess is, Brock has never been beaten on like that.  Yeah Carwin beat his ass and then turned into a 265 pound sandbag in the second round from gassing out.  But Brock went on to win that one, so in his mind, he was unstoppable (even though he has never been able to take a punch).  Getting your ass beat for the first time is a HUMBLING experience and will change you.  I remember when Chuck Coleman beat my ass at a park in the small town I grew up in.  I had been in a lot of scraps at that point and gotten the better of the other guy every time.  Well Chuck was older than me and took me to school, even though it took him a long time (he told me later it was the longest fight he had ever been in, I wasn't going quietly).  Anyway, it was good for me to be humbled.  No matter what you think of yourself, there is always someone out there that can stomp your ass out in no time flat.  I don't give a shit how much you bench press or how tough you think you are.  Hell everyone watched 155 pound Roger Huerta beat the living hell out of a 250 pound linebacker in the middle of the street.  I guess what I'm getting at is, it's always good to watch some big mouth get humbled like that (including myself when it happened to me).

Humbled...I think

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Training - Zero Week

Hip and Ass Machine - 2 sets of 50

Calf Press - 2 sets of 20 with stack

1 arm Curls - 6 sets of 12
Rope Pushdowns - 6 sets of 12

Lateral Machine - 4 sets of 12

That left bicep I strained 2 weeks ago is still not 100%.  I had some tightness and pain in it when I did the curl machine.  So when I do arms Tuesday I will not go super heavy with it (wasn't going to anyway the first week out).

Friday, April 1, 2011

Training - Zero Week

Chins - body for 7 sets of 5

Upright Rows - 115 x 5 sets of 10

2 mile run afterwards.  Felt awesome.  Diet ended today.  Ate 3 Reece's Klondike bars in celebration of it.