BoyGenius702’s BodyBlog

   Felt exceptionally strong today. I have had issues in the past with ensuring that I was getting enough water in a day, and I think I am running into that same wall again. My eyes dry up about halfway through my workout. During squats, I get light headed pretty quick after tossing the bar down, though it clears up fairly quickly.

   1 mile run warm up
   Squats 135×2, 155, 185
   Roman squats
   Calf raises
   Leg curls
   Leg extensions
   Box hops
   Ab ball

   Technically speaking, this is the first day of competition training. I use the first week to slowly work the tendons and ligaments back into the groove of actually being used. My muscles are still a little achy from last week, but it’s that good ache. Breakfast consisted of eggs and imitation crab meat washed down with fat free milk. I also took in the pro pack vitamins from Max Muscle.

   The workout was a pretty good one. I’m still trying to cut weight before bulking, which will make the pull-ups for the competition insanely easier. If I can hit my goal weight, I would be effectively removing 850 total volume pounds from the exercise. That’s A LOT of weight. (17 lbs per pull up removed!) To get to my goal weight of 168~170 lbs, I’m throwing in a good amount of running. By the way, I absolutely abhor running. I’m still coming off a foot injury from trying to run two weeks ago. So, last week, I reached 6.5 miles, but as I mentioned a portion of it was completed on the elliptical machine. Today I packed on another 3.5 miles, maintaining an average heart rate of 160 for 30 minutes. I burned a total of 490 calories.

   Once completed I then took to my chest and back workout as such:

   Flat Bench Bar 155×12;175×10;185×8;225×6
   Pull ups 20,15,10,10 (assissted 75 lbs)
   Pull Overs 12×45,10×50,10×55,10×55
   Incline Bench Bar 155×12;175×10;185×6;185×6
   Bent over Rows 95×12;115×10;125×8;135×6
   Spiderman Push ups- 6/5/7
   Lying leg raises/knee lift combo 4 sets of 30

Felt pretty good about the whole workout, and no associated pain. Was hungry as a beast afterward though.

   Respect the off days. Still did my sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups as the normal wake-up and go to bed routines. Next weekend I will post the shots that I take through out the week at the gym, and some progress pics.

Days of rest. More important than… well, I don’t know. It just is. I’m taking today and probably tomorrow off. Not sure about tomorrow yet. After waking up this morning, stepping from bed and listening to my hamstrings yell WTFO - I decided I would take today off. Normally I would power through this, but not until at least the second interval.

I held fast through the day for the diet, but tonight I hosted the Lesnar/Couture fight at the house with barBQ. Brats and burger, oh man. Couple dogs. I couldn’t help it!!! Tomorrow is supposed to be an off day, … not so sure about that now. Makes me feel like Rudy. Lol

Lower body.

It could just be me, but I don’t think so. When you spend several days either running or performing other cardio exercises, when leg day arrives, it’s met with intense deep tissue soreness. I know I’m not helping the situation, like today for example. I started off my workout with an easy elliptical session - at low intensity. My goal is to get my heart rate up for the rest of my workout, not to mention get my core temp up a bit as well. Another observation is a slight fatigue when I get into my workout. I was definitely lacking both water and nutrients when I started today. Fatigue was nipping my joints, and every time I finished a set of squats, I would catch a hint of dizziness.

Today’s workout:

Squats (Clean and press 135 lb bar, lowered to shoulders) 4 x 10
Single leg squats 4 x 10
Leg Extensions 4 x 10
Leg Curls 4 x 10
Back Extensions 4 x 10
Deadlifts 4 x 10 (135)

I didn’t do abs today, I’m going to give the little guys a single day here. Yesterday I was capped by the amount of soreness they responded with. They’re earning their keep. Lol.

Success! Having past that first day, AND staying motivated through the second? This is shaping up to look awfully sweet. The overall mood for the day has been nothing short of anxious, wanting to rip into some iron and throw it around until my arms gave out.

   Breakfast was a myth this morning, having to suck down a detour bar while thinking about a steaming 6 egg and green pepper omelet. *sigh* Anywho, I threw in some vitamins on my way out the door. I still have a quarter bottle of GNC vits left, though I threw some cash at a stack pack at Max Muscle and you know how it is - something shiny, something new, had to have it! The unfortunate nature of being in a confined area for two hours, with a 1.5 hour meeting on both ends KILLS when your crawling out of your skin antsy. Thankfully it ended right on time!

   Gym, how I love thee so. I can’t wait to take a couple snap shots of the gym I go to, if for no other reason than for everyone to laugh in hysteria. It’s a hole in the wall, and usually pretty empty - which are two things I LOVE about it, but it has like 1/3 of the equipment you might find in a GLOBO Gym America Corp. *smirk* The foot wasn’t feeling quite as bad as I imagined it would, so I threw an extra half mile on it for the aerobic portion of the workout.

   1.5 miles
   Shoulder Press
   Dips
   Curls
   Lying Tricep skullcrushers (DB)
   Shoulder Raises
   Abs (Aerobic Ball)
   Bent Over Rows

Nearly all of my exercised fit a 12/10/8/6 or 10/8/8/6 rep sequence. Next week these numbers will hit more of a mean, and on the third week, these numbers will drop considerably. Again, that is only for the third week. The idea here is as stated, I work on getting my endurance up, keep it building, then tax my peak strength. In doing so, my lowest weights for the 12 rep sets increase and the 3 interval system starts over. I’m not a certified personal trainer, this may or may not work for everyone - it works for me.

More bodies continue to join in the competition here at work, and today I think I may have enlisted my first REAL competitor. He’s been out for a while, but he’s got the potential of a small atom bomb. I love it. This is the sort of competition that will help you decide whether or not you should stay late at work and hit the weights or go home and take the day off. My motivation continues to build! WHoo!!

Why does this day have to suck so amazingly hard? Could be the four near solid weeks I’ve taken off to indulge in wings and brew. Why do I do this to myself?! The way I’m going to tackle this workout is as such, a breakdown of the overall time into intervals. The first interval is also the easiest, a six-one split with upper body, aerobic, and lower body. Rinse and repeat. Pretty simply I guess. If my body is feeling limber enough, then I’ll move onto the next interval, which I’ll describe once I’m there.

As with any regimented training session, the first thing that must go is a lousy diet. Not that what I was eating was lousy, per se, but in essence, "you are what you eat," in true cliche fashion. I’m not a very picky eater, which makes this far easier than for others I imagine, so I’ve stocked the fridge with top sirloin and boneless skinless chicken breast from wally world. My job sucks for maintaining a consistent schedule, so I’ve also grabbed a bunch of meal replacing bars. I’ll be using the lower sugar detour bars for this go.

Here we are, day one. The alarm sounds, and instantly I am met with impulse. That first day jitters of going back to school, a job interview, and a first date all rolled into one rushing instant. Sure makes getting out of bed a little easier. I’m not going to be using any sort of supplementation until the second interval at least. If I can get on the bike, I want to get my balance before racing down the track. I use pure egg white by the half gallon from my local Max muscle. I’m not endorsing products by the by, the referencing what I used for this little trial. Approximately 6 eggs and a V8. Out the door. The first day is an early one due to work, up and running before the moon even sets.

Through out the day, I am eating canned tuna mixed with V8 and spiced with habanero sauces. It’s a little treat that’s light, and keeps the metabolism trucking. Once the feasting settles, about an hour or so, I take to the gym. This in itself is a test, due to a foot injury two weeks ago. At about the midway point of a 5 mile loop run, a quick pop let me know that I had just bit it pretty hard across the top of my left foot. It didn’t hurt at the time, but three days later, it was swoll like a grapefruit. The flight surgeon gave me a thumbs up yesterday, and so 3.5 miles later, I’m still feeling it. Not too bad. I rock out the rest of my workout as follows:

Incline Fly
Incline Press
Floor Wipers
Pull ups
Pull overs

My chest is screaming, and my arms are whimpering. Not a bad day afterall. Incline press with the dumbells was maxed at 75lbs. for sets of six. Can’t really complain. We’ll see what tomorrow brings

-BG

So like most everyone else who has seen the movie has probably already heard about the workout that goes with it. 300. The spartans in the movie trained to look good on screen by doing alot of compound movements, and core workouts. The graduation "test", now commonly miscoined the 300 workout, was the benchmark set by the gym owner/operator of Gym Jones as the final test. What does this have to with me? Well… a couple of guys at work started talking about it, and now we want to try it too. I will be posting my daily routines, what I’ve eaten, and also what I’ve accomplished here on this forum to better track my results. Also, this will be to share with anyone out there who is trying this same ordeal, whether for personal gratification, or the pool of cash we settled on.