Big_James’s BodyBlog

So today was leg day and well I decided today was go huge day. I started off innocent enough with light warm up of 135 lbs for 12 reps. I don’t know what came over me but I decided today was kick it into a new level. 225 lbs second set of warm ups (normal for me), instead of moving to my working weight which is like 295 lbs I opted to change things up. I put up the 295 lbs and did 3 reps racked and added. So went up again 315 lbs did 3 reps racked and added. Now comes 335 lbs did 3 reps racked and added. The last set was nice and hard especially because I was doing a bit of a slow count. 345 lbs racked it up and did 3 reps I could have gone a bit higher but at this point I liked the tightness throughout and felt this was a good stopping point. I did another set at 345 lbs for 3 more reps and started working my way down increasing the number of reps. I was struggling the entire way down and nearly lost it, the safety bars came in handy. I finally dropped 50 lbs off down to 225 and did a set of 8 reps.

Good lesson to remember creating a good shelf with your back muscles to hold the bar is the key to a good set with squats. Remember that always.

Diet:
Today is technically my cheat day I had some unhealthy carbs but did put some good protein in. I still have dinner at my in-laws tonight which typically consist of fried foods but I will be super clean machine tomorrow.

Workout:
Just look above I also did a great ab workout and did a murderous calf routine and that swelled my calfs 2 inches to nearly 20 inches. I could have poked a hole in my legs or calfs and bleed out in a minute.

Mind:
Keeping everything in perspective and trying to keep myself on track.  Remember it is consistency that pays off in the end so I just have to keep plugging away.

Have a good one.  I am heading to the gym for some quick cardio and a bit of dry sauna hopefully no staring guy today.

Big James

Well starting to get back to full swing did 30 minutes of stair stepper and a great chest workout on Wednesday. Thursday I did a slow walk monitoring my heart rate and then headed to the Angel Game. Friday I did an amazing arm workout that just blasted them I felt so great when finishing them up.

On Wednesday I got to try out the gym dry sauna wow I nearly made it a full 30 minutes but man was it hard. The only problem I had was in the men’s changing room this young guy was in there and he parked his behind directly next to me. He decided to just stare at me now at first I was thinking it just must be me, but then this guy I don’t even know asks "Why is that guy staring at you?" I said "I don’t know!" we both looked at him and he proceeded to get something out of his locker and walked into the other room. What a strange experience, so I headed into the sauna made it through 30 minutes and headed back in to take a shower. Guess who was back in his spot and proceeded to stare again well this time I said something again trying to be polite "Are you okay?" I asked. Again he seem to not say anything maybe he muttered the word "fine" but he left the area again. I got out of my shorts and headed to the shower I got back and guess who was there I wasn’t sure what to say this time so I just grabbed my stuff towel held tightly and moved. Is this a common thing in locker rooms?

Diet:
Bad very bad I am hitting the numbers for protein but just barely with a bit more carbs coming from fruit. I am also hitting some bad carbs I am using being sick as an excuse but really it has been a ton of eating out. I am getting back on track Friday I did fairly amazing with a bit of fat added to the diet at the end of the day but nothing crazy. Today some whole grain carbs in the morning but not enough protein.

Workouts:
I really turned it up a notch on Friday and while I was sick I decided to change up my days a bit. I am doing my calf muscles twice a week. I am doing my forearms twice a week and I am now doing some extra Bicep and Tricep work with my Back day and Chest day (Bicep with Back, and Tricep with Chest.)

Mind:
My self hypnosis is working alright I have tweaked it some more and I am really thinking about each muscle when I workout. I want to make sure I get them to complete failure. My sessions are about 20 minutes now with light trance level still trying to deepen the level but I think that is just going to take time.

Have great workouts don’t let the staring person put you off from the gym and by all means keep moving forward.

Big James

My new lung workout its called hacking cough you shouldn’t try it really is brutal. So yes I am still sick and I am sorry I have not posted too much while I have been down and out. Good news my latest cover came out of Easter weekend. Check out Volleyball Magazine for my cover of Paul Lotman http://www.volleyballmag.com.

I am almost back to full strength I am figuring by Thursday I will be ready to pump some serious iron. My kitchen is stocked chicken, turkey, brown rice, egg whites and lots of vegetables. My orders have come in from Bodybuilding.com so I have Supreme Protein bars and plenty of ON Protein. My self hypnosis recording is ready to go and I have already been using it with fairly good success.

You maybe asking if I am sick why am I not still eating clean I figured if I eat fairly healthy dropping my body out of whack for a week might actually do me some good on the fat loss front.

My wife is getting ready to start a new workout program tonight as she has been healthy for a while. I will be tunning her diet she now has a goal of adding about 15-20 lbs of muscle over the next year.

I hope everyone is well.

James

I don’t think I have been sick once since eating clean but at soon as I cut my calories boom I am strapped with a whopper of a sore throat and a ton of sickness.  I am out today will not be cutting calories will eat what I can and try to stay hydrated.

Hope you are all doing well.

James

Have you ever noticed that Men’s Health recycles their articles. I just noticed that three headlines on the magazine are almost exactly the same thing from the previous month. They always talk about Sex weather it is the best 25 moves or 25 secrets you need to know for better sex they always have a sex article. They always have a flat stomach article 6 Pack Abs or Getting Rid of that Belly Fat just doesn’t seem to change. They also include 12 power foods in each issue that you should be eating just these prevent this and these prevent that. So after reading these articles and thinking about it I have come up with a few things that I have learned.

Men really have issues in bed we are not confident or just don’t understand it. Apparently we need an instruction manual to get the job done right. I am sure a few ladies would agree with that thankfully my wife won’t.

We all want to have a nice flat stomach. Well I can agree with that one I want it and I am fighting for it but I am not sure if I change my workouts every 2-4 weeks with the new routine they give me that I will ever know what really works for me. How about you save time and just make minor adjustments to the routine you gave last month.

Power foods for preventing illness and aging just 12 new ones each month. So let me think about that 12×12 = 144 different foods that we are suppose to eat on a daily basis to prevent everything from a cold, to cancer. No wonder we are all trying to get that flat stomach we are eating all this food to prevent other illnesses. Maybe we can get a better deal like this food prevents 20 different illnesses and you only need to eat it once a month.

Well I still enjoy reading them even though the articles are almost the same each month, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and with Diet, Workouts, and Mind being the same three topics maybe I can just save time and cut and paste.

Diet: Well I am not sure sticking to this 1800 calories is a good idea my brain has been lacking all day. I found myself just not on task for sometime I am not sure what to do I really want to kick my transformation into high gear but I think I might be moving backwards. Going to creep up the calories a bit today but really just the protein side.

Workout: Well the one thing that did go great today was my run I did 3.1 miles I did walk two short sections once up dirt hill that I am not sure I could have jogged up anyways. The second was just before the final section home and was maybe 30 yards I just ran out of gas for a minute. I happy to have been pushing myself to a new level but the shin splints were back today although not bad enough to keep me from going on.

Mind: I am finishing up the new tweaks to my self hypnosis script changing the wording and the induction I have extended it now so I will be a bit over 20 minutes of time. We will see if this continues to help out.

James

I have decided to change the style of my blogs breaking them down to three areas Diet, Workouts, and Mind. Let me know what you think of the changes. Happy St. Patrick’s Day he converted a nation of druids to a nation of catholics.

Workouts: Today was shoulder and back.
One Arm DB Rows (4 Sets)
Wide Grip Lat Pull Down (4 Sets)
Close Grip Seated Row (4 Sets)
Standing Barbell Shoulder Press (4 Sets)
Side Lateral Raises (4 Sets)
Rear Delt Flys (4 Sets)
Cardio 1 hr.

Diet: Well today I am writing everything down again and will be paying very close attention. I am going on caloric restriction for next 4 weeks with 1 cheat day per week (the night we go to the inlaws.) I am trying to stay right around 1800 calories with a 300g Protein. I know this might sound crazy but I am attempting to shock my body into letting go of the fat around my stomach. Today is going good so far I have been eating pretty healthy keeping my carbs fairly high with minimal calories.

Mind: I am still working on the changes to my self hypnosis script I cheated a bit with it on Sunday by basically putting myself under through a different process and having my wife hit the play button. I had one of the best workouts ever today pushing my self well past last weeks max weights lifted. I seem to have focus and fire keeping my timing very specific in rep counts and rest between sets. So I would have to say I feel that by brining the mental aspect into this has been very rewarding. If you would like to PM me about the self hypnosis and how I am doing it please feel free I don’t think I will be sharing my full script.

Thanks,
James

Modifications are always required. Right now the session is lasting 14 minutes my wife is keeping the kids, cats, and dogs away while I work on them. I have some tweaking to do I found that I was not going deep enough into a trance. I was finding myself and my mind wandering to the noises around me. This shouldn’t have been a problem if I would have relaxed to the proper state but I wasn’t fully there so I need to tweak my induction. I even found myself thinking about the modifications to the induction to make it more affective.

For the people not in the know an induction is the term used for placing a person into trance. Self hypnosis CDs are sold by the thousands but they don’t always work well the reason is the induction. One induction may work well for one person but not for another just like with weight training some movements work with some people while others don’t. This works in my favor for knowing what the hell I am doing so I can tweak it to be more affective for me.

Today’s normal workout is ARMS. I am happy to say my measurements last night showed I was at 18 inches non-flexed. If do some more cutting I am sure that will drop to almost 17 but I am also confident now that I add more size fairly easy with some of the new workouts I have created.

Have a great Friday.

James

I have to confess I am big believer in the power of the mind. I know their are many skeptics about how powerful the mind can truly be. I believe the mind has more infinite power than anyone really knows. So where am I going with this well I am actually going to begin adding some self hypnosis to help in my transformation. This hypnosis is nothing more than a self made recording enforcing the diet, the workouts, and everything I want to change. I will visualize myself where I want to be and what I want to look like. I think this is really helpful I have studied hypnosis for sometime now have felt I could do so much more with it. By adding the re-enforcement of these items I will strengthen my will and force time into schedules to get the things done I need to do.

As for experience I have done hypnosis several times both in a educational setting as well as for entertainment. Unlike making someone visualize everyone naked this will open my mind and keep me focused.

I will let you know how it goes but I am confident I will have positive results.

James

Well yesterday it was the run today it was my chest workout.  Things are changing folks I think I am on the verge of a real transformation.  So yesterday I pulled off a minor miracle making it 2.5 miles without shin splints and today well I hit the 255 lbs mark for bench press for reps.  Yeah I know for some of you folks thats nothing but I was still impressed.  I warmed up at 185 lbs did 225 next and felt great and fairly easy next came 235 still going so I said to hell with it put up the 10 on each side and pushed for it.  I did go to failure the safety bar stopped it from crushing me but I did it.

I was feeling great like a runners high and after a couple sets of Pull Overs I hit the DB flys.  Started with 60 then went to 70 then up to 80 lbs I could have gone more but without a spotter I didn’t want to risk it.  One of the small problems when working out at home you don’t always have a spotter.

Next week man I am going to push it even harder.

James

I know for the general fitness reader 2.5 miles is nothing but for a guy my size who yes does workout like an insane mo-fo it still is hard. I normally can’t run more than a 1/4 of a mile before shin splints bring me to a halt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_splints

They hurt so darn bad and I seem to get them every time I run. Well today I didn’t want to workout at the gym so I just grabbed my keys and cell and headed out the door. I didn’t warm up I just took off at a nice leisure pace. I saw the school coming up (approx 1/4 of a mile from my house) and started to notice that my shins were not even bothering me. I made it past the school and some pain kicked in a bit so I just slowed my pace down as I started a declining hill. I kept the slower pace up until I hit flat surface again. Once there I just kept going I am totally blown away that I made it 2.5 miles without stopping.

So I think I will throw a day of running in each week next weeks goal will be to just time it not go any faster or slower just make it all the way once again but time it. Then I will start picking up the pace with an overall goal to hit 3 miles in under 30 minutes.

James