A.Wright

I have received a few private messages regarding my chest. The number one question is "how did I get rid of the man boobs?"

Well, here is a little secret. I had convinced myself that I had gyno. I looked up surgery options and everything. Basically, I was stupid. So, I just told myself to work through it. Keep working on losing weight and hitting the chest hard. Now, I guess I am "man boob" free.

There is not such thing a spot reduction. Continue to lose the body fat and your chest will shape up nicely.

I could think of a good title, so I settled on this. Anyway, due to life issues, I haven’t been able to get to the gym for the last two days. Each day has been horrible to say the least, but this has allowed me time to reflect on training, my goals and just overall life.

Training:

There is an old saying, "It’s not the machine, but the man." I believe, the saying originated from World War II. This saying can applied to the gym. It’s not how much weight you lift, it’s how you lift it. I was reading a profile of someone I have come to admire. This person has been able to change their life around through the use of fitness. However, now do to one mistake.  They may be out for a long time or even permanently.  The injury is not important, how this person got injured is.

I personally believe that EGO is the #1 factor in gym injuries. I see it everyday, males come in and immediately  proceed to squat 300 or bench 300. They wonder why they don’t progress or get injured. I tell males time after time, that you must leave the ego at the door. It’s not about out benching the guy across the gym. It’s about coming and using your time effectively. I spoke with a friend yesterday, regarding getting my deadlift up. I explained to him that I believe I am being held back due to a minor injury in the past. He stated, "Stop being a pussy. I (insert injury here), (Insert heroic recovery), ( Insert massive increase in strength)." All, the while I was thinking. Yeah, ok. I stop being a "pussy" and injure myself. Where will I be at?

In am in this for a long run and I be damned, if I let a self caused injury set me back. Here are some keys to success:

• Don’t lift drunk or tipsy - Yeah, that was a smart move that put me out for a month.
• Don’t try to impress girls by lifting heavy - 9 times out of 10, they don’t even care. Plus, they’re probably laughing at your foolish ass.
  
• EGO is a killer - Leave that **** at the door.
  
• Read the profiles of others - I think this is one of the most important. You should always read and learn what not to do from others.
  

That’s it, now let’s get it in!

Today was the first day of officially coming off my week break. I would like to add that week was hell. Anyway, I doing a new 10 week program called the T.H.T. workout. T.H.T stands for Targeted Hypertrophy Training. The T.H.T. Principles are:

· Maximum Muscle Stimulation by working to ‘Positive
Failure’ with good form
· Training That Targets Hypertrophy (Growth) – you’ll
leave the body no choice but to grow!
· Specifically Targeting Progressive Overload
· Maximum Recuperation between sets
· Deconditioning - A planned week off to ensure long-term
success
· Workout Cycles & Variations allowing you to plan months
into the future and ensure continuous gains
· Optimum Workout Duration – Learn to Train Intelligently
· Minimizing Catabolism (muscle breakdown)
· Optimum Reps for Muscle Growth
· Maximum Intensity
· Overcome plateaus

I will keep you all updated on how progress is going. I would also like to add that I am going through some personal issues and my motivation has faltered a bit. Don’t worry, I will be fine. It’s just life.

Anyone who cycles carbs know, that by the end of the week your body should be at or near depletion of glycogen in your muscles. This depletion will ensure that you have a successful loading of new glycogen. The two workout below will more then likely get you to depletion in a short time. This workouts should be performed right before you carb loading period (the morning of your load).

Workout #1
DB Bench Press
Lat Pulldown
Overhead DB Press
Leg Press
Leg Curl
DB Tri Ext
DB Curl
Calf Raise
Crunch

Workout #2 (This workout focuses on the use of machines, however the same reps apply.)
Leg Press Machine
Rowing Machine
Chest Press
Shoulder Press
Triceps Machine
Biceps Machine
Standing calf-raise machine
Crunch Machine

Perform each exercise to 20-25 reps per circuit with no rest between. Try to see if you can get up to 3-4 circuits.

I tend to use the gears of a car to describe the intensity of what I am doing at the time. Over, the last few months I have been running at 6th gear (7th gear if I am M5).  Anyway, it is time for a break. Tomorrow is my last day of training for this week and I am going to finish strong. Next week I am going to relax and bump my calories up to around 2500-3000 to encourage relaxation and repair. The goal of this bump of calories is to trick my metabolism.

After my break, I am going to jump right back into 6th gear, however things are going to be different. I am going to switch to a 4th split with Friday being a 2nd leg day and de-load workout. De-loading means that I am going to try and remove as much glycogen from my muscles before I carb load.

Good luck and keep hitting the weights hard!

I have finished eating my body weight x 18 in calories. I would like to mention that I didn’t gain a pound of weight. However, I did lose body fat! Now, it’s time to cut the calories by 1000. So, that will put me at 2600. So far things have been going good,  I haven’t noticed any decreases in strength.

Since, I have been making progress, other people have been noticing too. You can’t imagine how many time I have been asked "How I did it". While I do find the questions flattering (I don’t consider myself in no shape to be answering them) I just tell them research and find what works for their body.

Over the weekend I completed my second carb load up. This loading phase was different, due to the fact of me eating a lot more. On Sunday, I weighed in at a whopping 210 pounds! Considering I was weighing 210 that Friday before means that I loaded pretty well.

Now, my strength has increased considerably. I have increased by 10 pounds on almost every exercise. While my stomach is bloated, I have noticed that my vascularity has increased in my thighs, forearms, wrists, and calves. This is an indicator that my BF% is still dropping. I am coming into the 3rd week with one more week to go. According to the book, my body will have shifted to using fat as fuel by the 4th week and I can’t wait.

"The Anabolic Diet: More Muscles, More Strength, Less Fat", that is the tag line from http://stronglifts.com/anabolic-diet/. The Anabolic Diet is the brain child of Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale. According to Wikipedia the Dr. is world class power lifter champion. He has also written thousands of articles for the popular bodybuilding magazines like Muscle & Fitness. How does all this apply to me? Well from what I have read, this guy does know what he is talking about.

Over the last few months I have been carb cycling, while the results have been great. I found the carb up days during the week to be tiring. I found the massive influx of carbs slowing me down. This affected my workouts and cardio. With the Anabolic Diet, I "convert" my body to processing fat as fuel.  The carb loading weekends allow for the insulin spike, which in turn allows growth hormone secretion.

I started the Anabolic Diet yesterday and so far so good. It has been very weird waking up and eating bacon and eggs for breakfast. Now, the bad thing is that I have be on a 30g and below of carbs until NEXT Saturday, so we shall see how things go.

Body Building and working out in general is a great thing for the body. However, when you push yourself too hard you can hurt your body. Last Saturday, I was working out my chest and I was going some incline DB flyes. Well, I was feeling good and I decided to go up to 50 pound DB’s.

The next day BOTH of my arms were very sore, I mean very sore. My arms were very weak and the first thing I thought was "I messed my shoulders up!!" So, I started doing some research and I learned about the rotor cuff.

[img]http://www.holy-cross.com/Orthopaedics/images/image013.jpg[/img]

The rotator cuff (rotor cuff) is an anatomical term given to the group of muscles and their tendons that act to stabilize the shoulder. Along with the teres major and the deltoid, the four muscles of the rotator cuff make up the six scapulohumeral (those that connect to the humerus and scapula) muscles of the human body.

The rotator cuff can be injured….

[b]Rotator cuff tear[/b]

"This group of tendons can become torn, leading to pain and restricted movement of the arm. A torn rotator cuff can occur following a trauma to the shoulder or it can occur through "wear and tear" of the tendons (most commonly that of the supraspinatus) under the acromion. It is an injury frequently sustained by athletes whose duties involve making repetitive throws, such as baseball pitchers, American football quarterbacks, volleyball (due to their swinging motions), swimmers, boxers, kayaking, fast bowlers in cricket, and tennis players (due to their service motion). It is commonly associated with motions that require repeated overhead motions or forceful pulling motions."

Now, I have been working out for 7-8 months and I never even thought about working out the rotator cuff muscles.

"Strengthening the rotator cuff allows for increased loads in a variety of exercises. When weightlifters are unable to increase the weight they can lift on a pushing exercise (such as the bench press or military press) for an extended period of time, strengthening the rotator cuff can often allow them to begin making gains again. It also prevents future injuries to the glenohumeral joint, balancing the often-dominant internal rotators with stronger external rotators. Finally, exercising the rotator cuff can lead to improved posture, as without exercise to the external rotator, the internal rotators can see a shortening, leading to tightness. This often manifests itself as rounded shoulders in the population."

WOW! I see nothing but a benefit in doing this. Anyway, I just wanted to get this out and let everyone know, not to forget the rotator cuffs.

OK, I am posting a day early. Sue me.

Wow the last three months have gone by really fast. During the last three months I have lost a total of 31 lbs! On May 18th I weighed in at 241 lbs, I weighed my self on the 13th and I am now 210 lbs!

5/18

 241.0lb

 8/17

210 lbs

I recently had my body fat measured. In February, I was measured in at 26.2 %, now I am currently at 19.6%. That is a reduction of 6.6%!

In training block #4, I am going to work on form and adding more weight to my exercises. On my day’s off I some times go to the gym. That is how motivated I am towards being fit. I love working out and I love the compliments. Well, until next time. Good luck.