Drivn2perfection’s BodyBlog

Seems like the person who wants to work the hardest always gets shafted… I took a little break off of lifting to help joints recover and to keep my body guessing… Well, of course the day before I start lifting, I get sick.  I say, hey it’s some cold virus, I’ll just push through it.  So I take it easy the first 3 days of lifting… But I get a lot more sick after the 3rd day.

Now I’ve taken over 5 weeks off of some body parts and I’m getting anxious to get back into the gym.  Every time I try to better myself, something pushes me back.  I can’t wait til I can get back into the gym   I’m hoping I feel good enough to go tomorrow.

It just happens that my first day back in the gym in a month falls on the day before new years!  I took a month off to help my joints and body recover from a very long time of hard workouts.  I started back up with arms today since I am a bit under the weather (thanks dad…) and cut the sets from 12 to 8 working sets.

The Good: I did 8 sets with almost the exact same weight and reps as I did one whole month ago.

The Bad: Unfortunately after 8 sets I couldn’t do a cooldown at all because I felt like I was going to puke.  I think I will lower my initial starting dose of Nitric oxide/ caffeine since I haven’t been on either for a month.

Overall: My first workout was great all things considered…

Side notes:  I started a completely clean diet today.  I am attemtping to clean bulk for the next couple of months in hopes that I can get my bodyfat down to 5% or so while gaining some muscle.  I will be elminating almost all sugars from my diet as I will be fats… Most of my meats will now be low/no fat meats and carbs are all from oatmeal/whole grain rice/high protein whole grain bread.  No sugars… no diet pop.. NOTHING.  Just water and milk for liquids.  And the occasional protein shake of course

I will be posting update pictures one month from today.  Check back soon

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So I am not even 2 weeks into my break from lifting to help my joints and body recovery and I’m having serious withdraw symptoms.  I feel like my body is getting slouchy and fat even though I cut calories in half to accommodate the lack of lifting.  And I am even doing minor light workouts every 2-3 days.

Can’t wait to get back into the gym after the end of December…

*Read last blog too to get full understanding*

Since I’m not lifting hard for the next month or so, I’ve decided to cut my calories down a substancial amount and eat a lot cleaner than when I bulk.  I also am doing high rep, no rest, circuit training 3 days a week just to keep in the gym and keep my muscles doing something while my joints recover the next couple of weeks.  I’m hoping to cut a little bit and get a bit leaner while I do it.  It usually doesn’t take long for me to lean out so it should be fun!

Hope everyone is keeping warm in this cold winter.  (At least here in Iowa it is.)

I went in to do quads/calves today and warmed up and everything… Went into my first set of squats and my knees starting killing me.  They’ve been hurting a bit at home lately just walking around but I figured it was nothing.  I started up Glucosamine/Chondroiton pills about 2 weeks ago to try and help.
Also, 2 days ago when I did chest; my right rotator was giving out again.

LASTLY, I stopped taking my kre-alkalyne creatine and my pre-workout NO products a few days ago.  I decided to cycle off of all of my non-basic supps for a month to let my system reload.

WITH ALL OF THIS in mind… I’ve decided to take the next 3-3.5 weeks off of any remotely heavy lifting and focus on high rep abs/calves/ circuit (LIGHT) training just to help my body recover.  I was planning on taking 2 weeks off within the next week or 2 anyway.

Hopefully all of this will help my body recover from all the stress that’s been put on it and I can go back into it on supplements again after / at the end of Christmas break.

-Brian

Worked from 9:30-4:10 today… came home to eat a little… and even though I’m slightly under the weather; I decided to try a quad workout.

I wasn’t overly impressed by my numbers and had some setbacks but here they are…

Wide BB Squats:  385lbs x 2 sets x 8/7 reps

** The first set I was trying out knee wraps for the first time.  Unfortunately it wasn’t put on perfectly and my lower left quad just started getting sharp pains on the 8th rep.  I had to stop.  The second set was just with knee sleeves and no wrap.

Narrow Smith Press: 890lbs x 2 sets x 11/7 reps

** I was happy with the first set, but my endurance went down really fast on the second set.  Could very well be due to lack of recoup and rest over the last 24 hours.  Overall not bad.

1 Leg Extensions: 90lbs per leg x 2 sets x 10 reps  (slow, full squeezed reps)

Did a cooldown on the Freemotion Squat Machine… did some normal stance squats for 30 reps at 80lbs.

…Of a bodybuilder

Took an off day today to do calves and abs.  Was in there for a good hour doing sets back and forth between the two body parts.  Felt good.  Also went and bought 100 bucks of groceries so I’m set for the next week and a half lol.

On a lifting side note… Tomorrow will be another ON day of PlasmaJet… I’ll be doing arms.  Every workout for the next 2 weeks will be on a 10 rep scheme with 2 sets per exercise instead of 1.  Tomorrow and Saturday I will be taking update pictures to show how my vascularity is doing.

On a last note, I quickly trimmed my leg hair to almost nothing so now I can actually look for veins and see how my shape/mass is doing.  I’ll be posting pictures of that on Saturday night.

Keep pumping strong!

-Brian-

Weighed in at the gym today after my workout.  I weighed in at roughly 230lbs.  Not bad considering I lost a lot of water weight while in the gym.  I still have a lot of work to hit my 250 naturally goal.  But I am going to continue to push myself hard and eat right!

On a side note, my goals are to start natural bodybuilding competitions once I get to a mass that I find sufficient.  Maybe sooner or later I can find someone to sponsor me so I don’t have to spend so much on my basic supplements! haha.  Hope everyone on here is still pushing hard towards their goals.  Cheers!

-Brian

Today was my leg day on plasmajet.  Technically, I did not take plasmajet today since I can only take it every other day.  Needless to say, my numbers were amazing on my 2 main lifts, which are the important ones.  This is my last week of 15 reps… I was going for a weight I could do 15 times.

My numbers were as follows…

Wide BB Squats: 280lbs x 19 reps  (not only did I surpass my 15 rep goal, I could have done 3 more reps with help.)

Narrow stance Leg Press: 720lbs x 17 reps

Overall, I was very happy with how my leg workout went.  I even had a bit of soreness in my quads still from monday.  Yet I still pulled out those numbers.  No crazy vascularity since I didn’t take plasmajet today, but my pumps were great.

Decided to go back to doing 2 body parts a day or so on my workouts… I did arms today.  Took plasmajet 3.5 hours before my workout.  (I hear 3-4 hours prior has been the best for people.)

Anyway, I posted two pictures up from the workout, but they were 30-40 minutes after the workout.  It’ll give you a general idea.  To put it into perspective, my vein-ness wasn’t too crazy, but my arms were so full and pumped that I couldn’t even reach up to the rack to put the dumbbells away.  It was pretty good!  More update pics to come.