Dsher10’s BodyBlog

Now that I have been at this a while I expect to make much more rapid progress having learned what works for me and what doesn’t, what to do and what not to do, and how to prevent progress-robbing injuries.

Starting next Monday I will begin a series of cycles. A cycle will consist of three weeks of strength training with four grueling workouts a week - chest/back on Monday, shoulders/tris on Wed, lower body Thurs, biceps on Friday. Then, one week of sculpting (high reps) followed by a week off for recovery.  I find I need the rest time to FULLY recover in order to move ahead.

I will be also doing cardio three times a week (typically 45-min, 3 mile treadmill). Without the cardio, I simply can’t lean up, and I want to loose another 10% bodyfat.

I will try this program for several cycles, making any necessary refinements along the way. I can’t wait to get started!

I have just been plugging away. Last Wednesday my trainer had me do some seated two-handed dumbbell overhead presses. I have always felt comfortable with these, as I used to do seated overhead barbell presses with 215 lbs. He started me off with a 50 pounder for 10 reps, but it was too light, so he moved up to 60’s… too light, so we went to 70’s, too light… 80’s, too light, 90’s too light. Finally, he handed me a 100 pounder. I did 10 reps, though I was getting a little tired by now (after all, I had already done a bunch of previous exercise sets). I could have gone on to 110, but he wanted to play it safe, so we stopped. Heck, I think I could have gone to maybe 130. I can’t wait to see!

The amazing thing was those sets actually HELPED my rotator cuff injury! My shoulder discomfort has decreased dramatically since those sets. Go figure…

Then on Friday my biceps trainer had me do sets of standing dumbbell curls. She started me off with a warm up set of 10 reps with 45’s (though she felt she should have begun with 50’s). No problem. We then moved up to 5 reps with 50’s. No problem… 5 reps with 55’s.  No problem… 5 reps with 60’s. No real problem, though I was beginning to work some. Then 5 reps with 65’s. I worked hard but did them. Finally, now quite tired, I picked up the 70’s and pumped out three good reps and two “sloppy” reps. We both feel I could do 75’s or more if I started out with 50’s. We will see next week! Heck! If I can do reps with 70’s I should be able to about double that (140) with a barbell. And if I can pump out reps with the 75’s, that should equate to 150 lbs with a barbell, which is near my goal (and consistent with what I recently did with my preacher curls)!

I’m also amazed that I am not getting sore much from these heavy workouts. I guess my body is becoming acclimated to the strain. All in all, I’m pleased with the progress I can make with no workout-stopping injuries. It just fuels my desire to push even MORE!

Well, it’s only been a week since I got back with the negative benches, doing 250 last week. My trainer suggested that I may get back to 300 today, the weight I left off at months ago due to my injured rotator cuff. We worked up to 250, which felt remarkablt light, so we loaded on 275. And jeez, that felt amazingly light, too! So we went on to 300. And no problem! The 300 felt so good, in fact, that we went to 325, and I handled THAT with strength to spare! I was amazed! 325 didn’t feel NEARLY as heavy as 300 pounds did six months ago. I am CERTAIN I could have handled 350 (and will next week!) but my trainer didn’t want to push my luck (plus he wanted me to save some energy for the "sled" work to follow). But Wow! What an improvement! I feel so up and confident! I can’t wait to see where I can go with this!

I started my current workout regime in March of 2007 at 220 pounds total body weight and 26% body fat (163 lbs lean body mass, 57 lbs fat). By August of 2007 with diet, workouts and cardio, I worked down to 207 lbs total body weight and 20% body fat (166 lbs lean body mass, 41 lbs body fat). Then my workouts and diet began putting on muscle. By March 2008 my total body weight was back up to 218 lbs, but still at 20% body fat! That means my lean body mass is now 174 lbs, with 44 lbs of body fat; an 11 lb gain of muscle (or about 1.5 pounds of new muscle per month) as my progress photos indicate. At that rate, by next spring I could add 18 pounds of muscle and weigh 236 at 20% body fat.

Now my body fat seems to have plateaued, and I am finding it very challenging to, at the same time, continue loosing body fat while gaining muscle. I have tried the “burn the fat, feed the muscle” concepts, along with a good, multi-daily meals, high protein diet, etc., but have not seen significant changes in body fat. Yet I keep putting on muscle. So, I guess I’ll be doing the “bulking” then “leaning “ technique body builders employ. Right now I’m going to pack on as much muscle as I can while, at LEAST, maintaining my current body fat percentage. Leaning out can come later.