Bonecrshr’s Blog

I’ve decided that I’m going to change-up my routine somewhat.  I came across this split in an article by Dorian Yates and thought I may give it a try.  There is no particular reason for doing this other than training variety.  I figure I’d give it a shot and then adjust it to better suit my needs if so required.  The split looks like this:

• Day 1:  Chest, Delts and Abs
• Day 2:  Back and Calves
• Day 3:  Biceps, Triceps and Abs
• Day 4:  Quads and Hams
• Day 5:  REST
• Day 6:  Begin training cycle again…

As I have stated in the past, I rest when I feel I need it.  So, the sixth day may be another rest day if I feel too sore or wore out.  I will begin to increase my cardio this week and will kick the diet into the next gear as far as keeping better track of the total calories I consume on a daily basis.  I also plan to weigh myself today and place input into my weight tracking chart.  I have been getting requests for my measurements, so I’ll have to get on that as well.  I have never measured my bodyparts and I’m a little curious myself.  If nothing else, it will be another gauge to go by during the cut.

After posting some recent pictures of myself in the ‘Post Your Pictures’ forum, I received a lot of complimentary and encouraging feedback.  I was hesitant to post them at first, but I am now glad I did.  You know, sometimes receiving such feedback from friends and family can be…I don’t know…suspect.  You know they mean well and, for that matter, may be being 100% honest with you.  But it can be quite gratifying receiving the criticism of others, regardless if its good or bad.  I thank those who have shown interest in my success and look forward to sharing with them my progress over the coming months. 

Earlier this morning I worked Shoulders and biceps.  I had fully intended to do biceps, but planned to do shoulders on Friday.  After getting off of work and arriving at the gym, I don’t know, I just felt great!  My shoulder did not feel worn out from doing back the day before and I just decided to trust my instincts and knock ‘em out.  Ultimately, I had a GREAT workout.  I felt very strong and very motivated.  Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and follow through when you get that feeling.  That’s what I did.  For shoulders I did the following exercises:

• Behind the Neck Presses (performed on Smith Machine)
• Front Dumbell Raises
• Lateral Dumbell Raises (performed seated)
• Dumbell Shrugs

For biceps I did:

• Straight Barbell Curls
• Incline Dumbell Curls
• Preacher Curls (performed on machine-all sets to failure)

…and that was it.  My intensity today was definitely there and I’m looking forward to a couple of days off from the weights while I allow my body to heal.  I plan to get in there at least one day to perform some cardio, but we’ll see how that goes.

I’ve never really had many pictures of myself as an adult.  Don’t know why.  Others have plenty of me, but not I.  So to better document my transformation, I had a friend take some shots of me.  I bought myself my first camera a couple of days ago…a SONY CyberShot.  Neat little camera.  Well, anyway, I’ve uploaded some pics and placed them in the ‘photos’ section.  Please feel free to leave some comments if you’re so inclined.

I just realized that I did not make an entry yesterday.  I have been attempting to write a little something each day.  I have found that it aids in motivating me.  Motivation is an area I struggle with from time to time in regards to my lifting.  Well, anyway, I did back and rear delts yesterday.  I have been combining back and biceps lately, but was extremely tired for some reason and decided to do biceps another time…probably tonight.  The back workout went fine other than I found myself yawning in the middle of sets.  I hate when that happens.  The intensity was there, but every now and then a yawn would rear its ugly head.

My back workout last night was as follow:

• Straight-arm Cable Pushdowns (pre-exaust)
• One-arm Dumbell Rows
• Close-grip Seated Cable Rows
• Bent-over Lateral Raises

As I said earlier, I will more than likely knock out biceps tonight.  I have gotten pretty good at back exercises that I rarely overwork my biceps when working back.  This gives me the opportunity and affordability to work them the next night with out much concern of overworking them to the point of counterproduction.

Today, I worked chest.  Had a pretty good workout.  I was off from work and got in there earlier than usual.  Damn that place gets crowded.  Anyway, I have been working more on my upper chest lately.  My chest responded very quickly when I began training back in high school.  I feel I have always had a significant amount of mass in that area, but never really focused on the upper.  Today I did the following exercises for chest:

• Incline Bench Barbell Presses
• Incline Dumbell Flyes
• Low Pulley Cable Flyes
• Dumbell Pullovers

This isn’t a normal routine for me, but I was interested in switching up a bit.  I also threw in some tricep work as well.  I will often combine triceps with either chest or shoulders.  After doing the Dumbell Pullovers I got even more of a pump in my tris and decided to go ahead and knock them out.  Today I did the following exercises for triceps:

• High Pulley Overhead Extensions (Heavy to simulate a skullcrusher movement)
• Cable Pushdowns supersetted with Bench Dips
• Dumbell Kickbacks (Done as heavy as possible while maintaining good form)

Tomorrow I move to back and biceps.  Gotta be at work at 6 am tomorrow, so I’ll hit ‘em when I get off.  Damn…I better get to bed!

Immediately after work tonight I will head to the gym and work legs.  Legs are a definite lagging body part for me right now.  I have been unable to do squats since my return to lifting about three months ago.  I encounter an enormous amount of knee pain when trying to do so.  The result of a lot of football and heavy squats in the past I guess.  My leg workout usually consisits of most of the following:

• Incline Leg Presses
• Machine Leg Presses
• Leg Extensions
• Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
• Seated Leg Curls
• Lying Leg Curls

I have began to add more size to my legs recently with higher volume training.  I also generally keep my reps between 8-12 for all exercises, but find my legs really respond best to this rep range.  I do feel that it is important to vary the reps, however, from time to time.

I generally will work calves twice per week; once on leg day and another later on in the rotation.  My calves are one of my strong features, I think, and I generally do not perform very high volume sets and reps for them.  For calves I incorporate the following exercises:

• Machine Press Calf Raises
• Seated Calf Raises
• Unweighted Calf Raises 

Can’t wait.  I’ll post how things went when I’m done.

Gotta good one in…

Had a great leg workout tonight.  Leg presses were very intense.  They have to be.  Everytime!  I’ve been experimenting with various foot positions to not only blast the quads, but to get the hams involved as well.  I know it won’t take the place of squats, but I feel that big well-developed thighs can be attained with pressing movements.

After being off from the gym for three days, I’m feeling very hungry for training.  Generally I won’t take off for as long as I have.  My gym closes early Friday through Sunday.  I’m not much of a morning person and chose not to train before work this weekend.  Due to the rotation of my work schedule, I am off some weekends so this is not a consistent problem.  I do, however, want to begin training before work eventually, but I’m in no rush to do so.  I enjoy training after work.  I’m in there by 10:30pm and the atmosphere is just how I like it…laid back and almost empty.

Today it ocurred to me that I may be doing just that.  I figured out my BMR and then applied this number to a BMR & Calorie Need calculator.  My BMR equated to 2790 calories.  Considering the amount of training I do my overall caloric intake to maintain my current weight is approximately 4800 calories!  The calculator then estimates the following:

• To lose 1 lb/week = 4313
• To lose 2 lb/week = 3813
• To lose 3 lb/week = 3313

The recommended calorie range for cutting fat is between 3250 and 3900 cals/day.

I’m not coming close to this.  But I will begin to increase my caloric intake with the necessary proteins and fats.  My daily goal for protein is between 350-400 grams per day.  This is terribly hard and I often miss it, but I am trying to increase as I go.

Took the day off from the gym today.  Did so yesterday as well.  Every bodypart is sore right now and I could use the rest.