BergMuscle’s BodyBlog

As I pumped some iron in front of the mirrors in the cruise ship gym during last week’s vacation (Holland America ship to Alaska!) I took a hard look at myself, especially in a room full of other people in "work out clothes". At home, I train alone in my basement, so I was more "body conscious" than usual. Now, I’ve been real aware that my legs have little definition and are carrying too much fat (my opinion) and that my biceps have neither the peaks that I want to see nor the "baseball bulge" that I see guys flexing on youtube.  My triceps have improved big time, but not enough to push my arms to that 16" mark. 

With that said I noticed as I did lateral raises in my tank-top shirt that my delts are solid, well-defined, even - dare I say it? - cut. My traps, while not as huge as some other guys, show nice muscle definition. I’m even getting vascular in my delts and forearms. Plus I’ve always been aware that I’ve got big lats and pecs.  In short, while I’ve been focusing on the bodyparts that aren’t up to my expectations yet, I’ve developed some seriously good-looking muscle mass in other places.

 So my point is that, while I’ll continue to work on improving my "lagging" body parts, I’m going to start celebrating my most muscular areas. Instead trying to always post a more impressive front-double-biceps shot, I’ll try some poses that show off the delts/traps or the chest/lats. I’ve build some good muscle on this body of mine; I really ought to spend some of my energy feeling good about my best areas, and take a break from my "challenge spots."

I wanted to blog this link to an ab article from T-nation that has greatly influenced my ab training.

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/death_to_crunching

I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I tend to allow myself to be unduly influenced by other people.  After my recent triceps injury, and my successful rehabbing while still building muscle and strength, I realized that my goals and training had become a mish-mosh of mass building and strength building goals based a lot on what I had read from other trainers, what I saw on their Bodyspace pages, and the plethora of stats on my own Bodyspace page.

Since I tend to celebrate what I call "Viking New Year" on the Winter Solstice (Dec. 22) I’m a bit late on these:

1)Break the 200# mark two ways. One, bench cleanly at least 6 reps of 200+ lbs. Two, gain enough clean mass to weigh in at 200 lbs. and be lean muscle.

2)Get those bicep peaks up and triceps pumped so I hit the 16 inch mark on my upper arms.

3)Get my one rep max on dead lifts over 300 lbs.

4)Build a more solid midsection and start to see some ab muscle.

So there’s some size goals and some strength goals.  The biggest goal of all is to think, act, and carry myself as more of true muscleman in the coming year!

This was a “warm-up” we used to do when I studied Tae Kwon Do. I’m incorporating it into my cardio training.

Begin with 10 double jumping jacks (count 1 for every two jumping jacks – up, down, up, “one”, up, down, up, “two”, etc.)

Next, immediately do 10 pushups (flat palms or on knuckles – your choice)

Follow that with 10 double alternating punches (Throw a punch with your right hand placing your right foot forward; quickly switch feet so the left is forward as you throw a left punch.  4 punches equal 1 count: right, left, right, “one”, right, left, right, “two”, etc.)

Next do 10 scrunches (on your back, hands at your sides, bring up knees and shoulders at the same time.

Now do 9 double jumping jacks, 9 pushups, 9 double punches, 9 scrunches, then 8 of each, then 7, etc. (I think you’ve got the idea by now.)

After you get to the point where you’ve done 1 of each (no, you are not done!), do 2 double jumping jacks, 2 pushups, 2 double punches, 2 scrunches. Then 3, then 4, etc. until you’ve done a set of 10 of each movement.

NOW you are done! (Breath, relax, walk around so your calf muscles don’t cramp up.)

It’s call a “109” because you end up doing 109 of each exercise (OK, it’s 218 jumping jacks and punches since they are doubles, but you get the idea).

I learned this from one of my black belt instructors years ago.  He may have picked it up at the Police Academy (he is a cop), but don’t quote me on that part.

It is a GREAT routine.

Now that I’ve got the journal thing going on the Over 35 forum I’m posting here a lot less. That said I’m using this BodyBlog for part of my goal setting process.

Weight/size-wise I’m shooting for 200 pounds while maintaining a 32 inch waist (34 inch at the most). Once I get there, I’ll work to keep in the 195-200 range and drop the bodyfat to less than 10%. I want muscle definition along with my mass.

Plan B is to focus on the lower bodyfat and defintion and hold somewhere around 190 (never less than 185 again!)

I began a new routine today. I’ve got it posted on my BodySpace. One of my big goals is triceps development (to get my arms bigger over all - the biceps are starting to pop up).

I’ve also started a journal on the Over 35 forum. I don’t know how long I’ll keep that up. Possibly not once school starts up in August, but for the summer it may help me make bigger gains by being more conscious and accountable with my training.

I’ve decided that 20 days of my 100 rep deload training are enough and I’m ready to hit the heavy weights again. I’m on break from teaching now, so I can plan longer training sessions with different splits to work my muscles harder. I’m also going on a cruise to Norway in July which will mean 2 weeks of no training (except for whatever "fitness center" the ship may provide - I’m not holding my breath), so I want to blast my muscles into great shape before that. That also should build a good base to work up from between the time I get back and early/mid August when I’ll be spending time getting our school library set up for the new year. I’ve felt some good DOMS with this training, but I miss the blasted, pumped, full muscle feeling I usually get. I think I’ve given myself enough of a break/rest. It’s time to go heavy again!

Still doing the 100 rep deloading routine.  Getting a decent pump, but I do miss going heavy and feeling blasted (imagine loving blasting my muscles at age 50!)

On cardio day, I started adding an extra 2 minute drill on the heavy bag after my regular three 5-minute rounds.  I’ve also switched the stationary bike work to 2-mintue sprints with 1-minute slow rides.  I think, just to really mix it up, I’ll move that last 2-minute bag drill to after the bike ride. Really shake my body up.

I also need to give myself a true rest day.  I’ve been treating cardio day as a "rest day" because I’m not lifting, but I’m thinking I need to give my body a true rest if I want to continue growing.  Hell, I want to be 200 pounds of muscle by the end of summer! (Big goal, but without big goals I’ll never acchieve anything.)

This week, for the past 4 days, I’ve begun a new routine where I’m doing 100 reps of 8 basic core exercises – one for each muscle group, two exercises per day.  I do 5 sets of 20 reps with 30-60 seconds rest between.  I decided to do this as a break from my usual training and, so far, I really enjoy it.