Mitch’s goof off space

Yes, we are all impressed that you have maxed out the leg press machine with nearly every free 45lb plate out there, and use crappy form to do those little half presses where you only come down about 45 degrees.  You are a super he-man, and we are all awed.  Now, if you want to make some real progress, take like one seventh of that weight and do free standing full squats with it.

I realized I make noise during the last rep or two of certain workouts.  Specifically squats and sometimes bench press.  Not loud, but… loud enough to be heard within a ~15 foot radius.  Strangely, I think part of why I do it is so that I feel like I really am exerting myself - so it’s mental?  I don’t think I bother anyone with it but still, I want to keep it reigned in consciously, no one else really wants to hear that.

Poor performance today, a nice headache brewed in my left hemisphere and made high intensity reps pretty much impossible about half way through.  Frustrating!  Still, I got most of my workout done, and for the latter part concentrated on more reps at a lower weight to stop spikes in blood pressure making my head pound.

I have a pretty good idea what caused it too: my worst sin regarding bodybuilding is not eating enough/at the right times.  Lunch at 12:30pm, and then I should have had dinner right after work, but I screwed around and went to the gym on a very empty stomach.  I have got to eat more, and more often.  How do you do it?

What a great workout.  I just moved to a new place, that’s about a mile from the gym, so I’ve taken to jogging there sometimes instead of taking the bike.  Got in a good back and bicep workout, just started taking some supplements so I have that whole "they must be working, so I’ll workout harder" thing going on.  When I finish up I walk outside to one of Florida’s famous intense rainstorms starting to build up.  The heavens open and I find myself jogging home in a heavy rain - not torrential, but enough to soak me through and through.  It was great!  In my head I’m totally singing ‘Eye of the Tiger’ as I go.  In the distance the clouds have broken, so there’s a beautiful sunset filtering down.  I get to my house and just stick outside a bit, it’s still so warm that it just feels like a shower now.  I admit it, I totally shouted some self affirmations out loud - whatever the world can give me, I can survive.

Hope you all had a good workout if that’s what you did today, and have a fun weekend!

We guys love the bench press.  It’s a simple exercise that’s easy to work till failure on, with an extra dash of danger/embarrassment if you can’t push out that last rep.  One thing I’ve noticed is how wildly different everyone’s capacity for work with chest movements is.  I think the muscles of the chest are easy to conceal and don’t scale in size regarding strength in a linear way.  I’ve seen guys push out some impressive weight who had unremarkable chests - always makes me a little unsure of myself, like I’m not *really* training hard.  But I am happy with what I have so far, since I came from so very little.  I was never a big kid, and at my thinnest the muscles of my chest were probably just millimeters thick.  Now at least you can tell I have pectorals. 

Good timing, as a got a ‘where are you?’ automated notice from BodyBuilding.com.  I am back, moved into a new place where I can set down a good routine - I plan to gym it 4 to 6 times a week and get serious about supplements and diet.  I’ve floundered at putting on weight and I hope that a real, sustained increase in calories will see some results.

Oddly, I’ve found it easier and easier to push myself harder during workouts.  In fact I’ve been going in with the intention to keep it light, since I’ve only been able to get in the gym once or twice a week, but end up training until failure.  I feel great afterwords, except for the DOMS that happens when I don’t work out often enough.  Today was legs and I’m sure I’ll be feeling it two days from now (it takes two days for DOMS to show up in me, for some reason.  I think it has something to do with the seated position, which I’m in at work and often at home.)

Anyway, I’m back and looking forward to some great, hard workouts - and I hope everyone else is too!

Friends and I decided to go to the pool today (a balmy 94 if Florida right now.)  Invented a little game where we throw a POOF ball back and forth between the three of us, but in the deep end - no touching the bottom.  Treading water while throwing a gradually heavier water logged ball back and forth makes for an interesting kind of cardio.  No impact, no getting hot or sweaty, no range of motion injuries.  Good stuff, I  recommend it!

That’s what I call my dinner of a slice of greasy pizza and a Yuengling beer.  Whenever I behave badly, eating wise, I consider it a ‘loan’ against my fitness.  To pay the loan back, all I have to do is work out the appropriate amount to counter it.  Works well for me. 

I recently picked up a few Alpinestars and Oakley shirts.  Because these are relatively nice marques, the sizing is more ‘true’ and flattering.  In fact, the slim fit T-shirts leave little to the imagination concerning your body - which I find keeps me honest as far as maintaining fitness.  Those shirts were expensive, so I’m going to fit in them! 

Fun fact: The cheaper/more mass market the brand of clothing, the more likely the sizing will be off or the article will be baggy.  One reason for this is that baggier clothes will fit more people, and another reason is that people will be more satisfied buying clothing that displays a smaller size than a larger size, even if they are the same size.  I wear a size 30 waist in Old Navy jeans with plenty of room to spare, but wear a size 31 in Express Mens that fits more snugly.

After getting sick twice and being all bent out of shape from girl problems, I finally got back to my ‘holding’ weight of 155.  My true goal is to end up ‘cut’ at 165, which I suppose would require a bulk beyond that.  I’m going to keep my higher calorie diet going and see where I can get to.