D4rkhorse’s BodyBlog

I don’t know why, but I always enjoy working arms. Everything else I can, on occasion, just not be in the mood for, but I can be down in the dumps one the day I do arms and still be jacked to do them.

"Betsy"

Cable Bicep Curls/Tricep Pushdowns Superset (Straight-Bar): 3 x 10 (8 Machine Plates)
Seated Dumbbell Curls w/ Twist: 4 x 12 (30s)
Tricep Pushdowns w/ Twist (Rope): 4 x 12 (10 Machine Plates, 9, 8, 8 )
Close-Grip Barbell Curls: 5 x 8 ( 65(3), 55(2) )
Dips: 5 x 8 (Bodyweight)

Sitting here this morning, I really feel like I incorporated my chest and front deltoids way to much in this workout. I also feel like my biceps are more worked than my triceps. I have yet to find a lift that really challenges my triceps! Lifts are difficult and I sometimes burn out on them, but my tri’s never feel exhausted. All in all, this was a great workout. I don’t think I performed to my max and on the BB Curls I felt my back chiming in a little too much (which is why I dropped the weight). Hopefully I’m more prepared next week.

Tonight is Shoulders, Calves, Traps, Abs. I realize this is kind of a conglomorate, but I neglect these items all too often when I try to attach them to other workouts. I’m hoping to make up for that by spending a whole day on them.

I’ve always enjoyed the concept that the Crossfit program uses, naming workouts like Hurricanes and invoking a memory every time you hear the name of a particularly grueling workout. So, I decided to steal that idea. Hell… it’s fun to me.

"Arlene"

Squats: 4 x 10 ( 225(3), 185(1) )
Deadlifts: 5 x 8 ( 185(4), 135(1) )
Leg Extensions: 4 x 12 (145)
Leg Curls: 4 x 12 (75)
Standing Calf Raises: 4 x 10 (DNF)
Seated Calf Raises: 3 x 15 (DNF)

I did not realize how painful this workout was going to be… especially my first day back. I guess I expected to be fresh and ready to go, not needing to gradually get back into things. Well, as you can see, I had to drop the weights on the two big lifts on my last sets. This bothers me a lot. My lower back was failing before anything else. I’m guessing I should put more focus into that, or just wear a belt.
I couldn’t even attempt the calves though. I was so dizzy and fatigued that I went and drank a Gatorade in the lobby for about 20 minutes. My heart kept fluttering and I thought I was gonna puke. If all my leg workouts go like this, I think I’ll need to move calves to another day…

Tonight is arms My fav.

FINALLY! Summer has arrived. I don’t love school. Yes, you heard me correctly: I don’t love school. In fact, I ****ing hate school. Why do I come here? Why am I not just working until I’m 65 then retiring? No idea… society tells you that if you go to school, you’re a social step higher than your manual laboring counterparts.
Having taken summer classes last year, I have been going to class for about 2 years straight. That’s a shit ton of school when you opt out of summer break! I never realized how much it would deter my motivation, but it really does. In the past month, I had to just forget about lifting completely. I had two hands-on labs where I would sit and work until midnight after having been on campus since 8am. I only go home to sleep. Towards the end of the semester, when I was desperately trying to cram in the final touches on the projects, there was no way I could sacrifice the energy I needed to stay awake just to go lift (this rationale pisses me off, I put lifting above everything… girls have broken up with me for blowing them off to lift ).

But I had a good run this year. I went from about 175 to around 195 in the 9 months of school. Given my genetics, build, and schedule, I’d say that’s awesome for me. I hope to get to 215 with the next year, but if I play this summer right, I should be able to get a significant head start before the next year starts.

First and foremost, I plan to stop drinking. I’ve tried this time and time again with the same determination, but when you’re in college it’s hard to have friends that are very supportive in this field. My friends don’t understand my goals or my reasoning for the things that I do and they have even less comprehension of my diet. So when there’s a party, they attempt to put a drink in my hand without rest. I can fight this off for a good amount of time, but all it takes is a bad day and I just want to enjoy myself with my friends. Being in their company and not being able to share in the things they do requires a lot of patience, and being in a bad mood makes that almost impossible to fight.
But most of them have left for these next 3 months, which leaves me with an unhindered span of training.

I’ll be starting day 1 tonight after work. I work 9-5 Monday through Friday and I intend to work out from 5:30 to 7:30 Monday through Friday with the following split:

Monday- Legs (includes calves)
Tuesday- Arms
Wednesday- Shoulders, Calves, Abs, Traps
Thursday- Back
Friday- Chest
Sat & Sun- Rest

I will be posting thoughts, progress, etc here everyday (time permitting), so look forward to reading!

Well, I’ve been doing some soul-searching lately. I’ve always been a competitive type and I need some source of physical outlet to keep myself focused and have an available release (for stress, energy, etc). Track and field was that outlet in high school, and when I tore my hamstring before coming to college I knew I had to turn elsewhere, as pursuing a track career would be emotionally draining and unfeasible.

It was shortly after this point that I turned to lifting. Weights had always been a compliment to the things I was looking to accomplish and was more of a neglected area. If I was sprinting- **** lifting with my arms, focus on legs. If I was in the off-season- **** lifting with my legs, they’re too worn out from track season, focus on arms. Obviously, I never struck a physical balance and was always disappointed with my physique. Something was always lacking in my strength/appearance. Lifting alongside football players as a 140 pound ectomorph, I just always felt that I wasn’t any good at lifting and I shouldn’t care about it.

However, college really put my weaknesses in perspective. As a self-conscious male in a sex-crazed, drunken environment, I felt puny next to the guys surrounding me. Although I despised their attitudes and behaviors, the frat boys I would observe would get the girls, and I KNEW that in a fast-paced scenario like that beer-ridden frat house it wasn’t their personalities leading girls into a private room: it was their physique. As shallow as it seemed, I felt the only way to feel comfortable next to Joe College was to upgrade my 10 inch guns.

So I proceeded to "spray-and-pray", lifting anything that looked like it would make me bigger. No approach and no plan were necessary because as long as I was lifting I was supposed to get huge, right? Wrong. All I managed to do was grow taller from another growth spurt and put some meat on my ribs from eating so much. My arms gained tone but no size. How could this be possible?! I was doing curls until it hurt and then going back two days later to do it again. My bench was never improving and my damaged hamstring still couldn’t handle more than the ****ing bar to squat with.

Freshman year came and went with a good 20 pounds to add to the scale, but virtually no aesthetic improvements. My friend back home introduced me to supplements, and was able to provide a new motivation simply by being there for me when I lifted. We were of comparable strength and size, which helped tremendously in keeping my ego from being hurt by someone who could lift and improve more than I could. I enjoyed taking the supplements as well. I didn’t rely on pre-workout supplements so much as I got excited for their effect. "How will I feel today when i take this? Will I lift more if I have a great pump from this?" These thoughts may be impractical, but I still keep them in my head to this day. It provides me with an entertaining kind of excitement that makes motivation to lift easy as pie.

When i came back to college I had a new game plan. With all these supplement options open to me I was having a blast. I started trying new things, seeing how they made me feel, and evaluating their usefulness as objectively as I could. It quickly became a kind of "side-quest" for me. There was the lifting game and the "what do I tweak to make this even better?" game that I got to play when I went home. No one understood why I would take protein, creatine, etc. and I now believe that I didn’t understand either. But I felt like I was doing all I could and that’s all that mattered. Or so I thought…

I have to work now so I will complete this in a few hours