HKR-Chief’s Body Blog

Today was my first workout using squats for my legs. OMG! I’ve read a lot about leg workouts but never believed that squats could do so much more than leg presses, ham curls, and quad extensions. Boy have I seen the light! I started my workout today with Shoulders. For every exercise, I did 4 sets. Military presses, front arm raises, laterral raises, lying down rear raises, and single arm cable pulls. My shoulders were so pumped, I couldn’t beleive the mass on the upper/rear of them.

I then decided to go ahead and try out squats for my legs. On my last leg workout, I did leg presses, ham curls, and leg extensions, each with heavy weights for 3 or 4 sets. My legs were perfetly fine the next day, so I dreaded trying to get a good workout that would really affect my legs. I decided to go ahead and give squats a try. I’ve never done them before so I started with a light set to warm up with; 25 lbs each side. That set gave me the feel of it and got me comfortable with it. Ok, up it by 10lbs each side. I pushed out 8 reps, but could have done more. 10 more pounds each side again. 8 reps, starting to feel it. 5 more on each side. Now I’m up to 50lbs per side. I pushed out 8 reps and when I stepped away, I felt it! By the time I took my shower and got back to my office, I was really feeling the workout. In my butt, hams, and quads. Even now, 5 hours after my workout, my muscles are still sore. I know it’s going to be tough walking tomorrow. I never imagined 4 sets of squats could do more for me than a full leg workout on machines. I am now a true beleiver. I am hooked on squats. I’m also starting to consider doing deadlifts to help me in my quest for a better back.

Yesterday, I worked back and biceps. That was a pretty good workout. I feel my workouts are going pretty well. I’m coming up on the 1 month mark of when I started and I feel I have come a long way. I’ve met some great people, learned a lot, and have made some nice physical improvements. This is only the beginning.

Well, I took a couple days off and I think it was well worth it. My local store got in some NO-Xplode so I bought some and used1 scoop this morning before my workout. I like what it did for me. First of all, it woke me up and got me fired up to work out. Secondly, my workout pumped me up very good, even in my chest where it’s hard for me to get a good pump. Third, I felt like I had more strength during my workout.

I started with Chest. I did two light warmup sets of machine bench presses. Then I did 4 sets of heavy weights. Following that, I did decline DB Presses and I really surprised myslef with the weight I was able to do. I started with 30lbs. on each arm and ended up doing 12 reps. Ok, I’ll call it a warm up set. Next I did 40lbs. for 10, then 45 for 8. I did one last heavy set with 45 and failed at 7. I never thought I would be able to do those with 45, but I had the strength today. Then I did flat bench flyes, 4 sets. I finished my chest off with 3 sets of cable crossovers.

For my triceps, I started off with a good set of dips and then moved to the rope pull down extensions. I did 4 sets of those, then I did 3 sets of standing overhead DB tricep extensions. I finished tri’s off with 3 sets of underhand grip cable pull down extensions. I was quite pumped. I finished off my workout with 2 sets of machine weighted crunches and leg/knee lifts using a medicine ball between my knees.

I’m going to try to get some updated progress pictures tonight. I have a meeting tomorrow all morning so I don’t know if I’ll be able to work out in the morning of not. We’ll see how I’m feeling in the morning and if I feel good, I’ll hit a back and bi’s workout in the morning.

I was up again at 0500 this morning to PT with the Chief Selectees. I found myself quite tired throughout the day today. My arms are ok from yesterday’s workout. They’re a little tight and I can definitely feel them trying to repair, but they don’t hurt. I think yesterday’s workout was a success. I’d love to get in there and work out tomorrow, but I think my body needs the extra sleep. I have the opportunity to sleep in a bit and I’ve been getting only about 6 hours of sleep at night so I’m going to take that opportunity to let my body recover. I’ll resume workouts on Saturday with Chest and legs.

I was a little more limited on time today so I decided on Bi’s and Tri’s only. It was a good workout and my energy levels seemed pretty good. I drank a Rip It energy drink right after I woke up and I was in the gym within that hour. Don’t know if it was that drink or not, but I did feel like I had a little more energy.

For Bi’s I did two progressively heavier sets of barbel curls for warm up, then did 4 sets with heavy weights. I followed that with 4 sets of Alternating DB Curls. Next was 4 sets of e-z bar Preacher curls and I finished Bi’s out with 2 sets of cable curls.

For Triceps, I started right out with flat bench ez bar tricep extensions. I did 4 sets here, but the first was a lighter set. Next up was seated DB tricep press. I actually was surprised at the weight I used on this one. Each set was progressively heavier. 30, 35, then 40 pounds. Next tiem I’m going to starting with 40. After that, I did v-grip cable push downs. After a couple sets of that, I did 3 sets of single arm tricep cable extensions. I finished off my workout with 2 sets of machine assisted dips. I’m pretty confident that I’ll feel it tomorrow but we’ll see.

I figured out the trick for the Meso-Tech drink without a blender. After pouring in the mix and the liquid (water or milk), I shake for about 15 - 20 seconds and then I let it sit for a minute. Then I shake it again for 10 - 15 seconds and let it sit again. After the second or third soaking phase, it breaks down the powder and allows it to mix well. Now I’m starting to like this drink. I usually take 1/2 packet at a time and I’m getting about 4 - 5 of these servings per day. This amounts to about 90 - 110 grams of extra protein on top of the food I eat.Yesterday I had about 155 g protein and the day before I managed about 195.

Not sure at this point on whether I’m working out tomorrow or not. I might be doing cardio in the morning but I haven’t gotten confirmation yet.

First off, I changed my arm measurements so you’ll see a drop in my chart. I was measuring flexed and it was brought to my attention that I should be taking measurements in the relaxed state. So, my relaxed state is 13". I have a long way to go now. I guess maybe I should change my goal for my arms as well. We’ll see. I’m also going to double check all my other measurements and make sure they’re  in the relaxed state. I’ll try to do that tonight.

I worked shoulders this morning. I started out with two warm up sets of presses and then did 4 sets of heavy presses. My shoulders seem to wear out real quick so I had to reduce the weight on each successive set. After those, I did 4 supersets of front raises and side lateral raises. After that, I did 3 sets of Dumbell Lying Rear Lateral Raises. When I finished, I wasn’t sure I hit them hard enough so I gave them one more heavy set of front leterals. Following the shoulder workout, I decided to work the legs a little more again. I did 5 sets of Machine Leg Presses. I started light to warm them up, and the second set was meadium weights for about 10 reps. After that, I had heavy weights and managed 6-8 reps for 3 sets. I followed that with 3 sets of leg extensions. Man, legs are hard to work. Why do they hurt so much more than arms? Anyway, I finished up with a few sets of machine crunches.

Well, I tried the Meso-Tech with milk. It still doesn’t mix well. Lots of chunks, And it’s so thick, it’s like mud. I definitely need a blender of some sort. I had to choke down about half of it as chalky chunks to free up some room in my bottle, then I diluted it with water and it was good to go. I think for now on, I’m going to use half a packet at a time. Problem with this will be drinking twice the amount of water or milk. Because of all the troubles with this, I can see me going back to Optimum when I finish this product off.

Well, I did my morning swim today for my PT session. One lap up and back and I was huffing and puffing worse than when I run a mile and a half. Granted, It’s been a while since I did any swimming, and it’s a pretty long pool, but sheesh. I’m going to have to do that more often. Maybe I’ll go out there at least once a week. I think that would be good for my overall body and cardio.

My initial assesment of the Muscle Tech Meso-Tech powder is kind of mixed. Last night I had my first drink of it and I mixed it with water like the directions say. It took a LOT of shaking to get it thoroughly mixed. Even then there was some clumping. The taste was nothing near as good as Optimum’s Whey, but it was manageable. Later, I’m going to try it with milk and see how that is. This stuff is categorized as a Meal Replacement Powder vice just a protein, so it contains all kinds of good stuff in it. Carbs, Fat, Vitamins, Minerals, Creatine Monohydrate, Inulin, Aminos, Fish oil, all kinds of stuff. Because it contains more protein per serving, I shouldn’t have to take it 4 or 5 times a day. The directions say once in the morning and once after the workout. I’m still deciding how I’m going to divvy out the servings. I might try it how it says. I’m going to use up all of it, which should last me about 9-10 days. Using the Optimum, I gained about 4 pounds in about 9 days, so we’ll see what this does. Granted, I don’t know what the content of my weight gain is. It’s doubtful that it’s all Lean Mass, but I’m bulking so I’m willing to gain a little bit of the bad stuff, as long as I’m seeing improvements in my muscles.

I’m planning right now on conituing my bulking up until about mid-September. After that, I’m going to diet and see what it takes to Lose some of the fat. There’s not too much there, but I’m sure it won’t be easy for me to get that stuff off my belly. If anyone has some good tips or suggestions on that phase of the operation, feel free to drop a line or leave a comment. I haven’t even really started looking up "dieting without losing muscle" info yet. I’m concentrating right now solely on gaining as quick as I can (without any harmful/illegal stuff).

That’s about it for now. Tomorrow morning I’m going to hit a shoulder workout. I’m going to push this one real good and hope it will give me some results. I’m also thinking I’m going to work legs again because there was no soreness in my legs at all today after working them yesterday. I don’t think I hit them hard enough. That’s about it for the day. Later.

Well this is it. I’m on my last pack and tomorrow I quit. I’ve gotta do it. I’m just going to remember my goals and the other reasons to quit smoking and when I get those cravings, I’ll pop in a nicorette.

I worked my back today. It was a pretty good workout I guess, but being new with this, it’s hard to judge if I’ve done enough or not. The back isn’t like legs or arms where you can feel the pump real easy and know that it’s worked good. With my arms wearing out, it’s hard to tell if my back is worn out or if it’s just my arms. That’s another reason I didn’t work arms today or yesterday. I think I’m going to separate my arms from my chest day and back day. That way I can do a workout dedicated to just the arms instead of only letting them get a workout after already going through as secondary muscles.

After back, I also worked my quads and calves. I went fairly light, again to try to minimize the pain of the next few days. I’m hoping if I gradually get tougher workouts in on my legs they won’t go into shock like my arms did after their first workouts.

Tomorrow’s CPO PT in the morning is going to consist of swimming. That should be a good overall body workout. If anything, it’ll be a good cardio replacement for running. Poeple that know me say I swim like a fish, but I do wear out quick because I don’t swim all the time. I’ll try to change that because I know swimming is a good thing to add when you’re trying to tone up.

Also, I used the last of my 2Lb of Optimum Whey Protein. I had to go to the local PX and all the had was Muscle Tech’s Meso-Tech. We’ll see how it works for me. It’s more expensive, but I got it for $42.95, a little cheaper than most places. It’s only 20 packets, but each packet has twice the protein of 1 serving of Optimum, so I should be able to get by with only 2 or 3 servings a day. The package says 2 servings - 1 in the morning and 1 after the workout. We’ll see. Fifty dollars a week is a lot for just Protein. MuscleTech is supposed to have good products. I wouldn’t have gotten it if my store had something cheaper. They had some other stuff earlier this week, but out here, things go quick. Who know’s when they’ll get a new shipment in.

That’s about it for now. Be sure to check up on my latest Update pics. I’ll try to keep them coming. Hopefully through this next week I can really hit some heavy weights now that my muscles are worked in a little and ready to go.

 Last week was my first round of workouts. Today I began round 2. I concentrated mainly on chest today. I did 2 sets of Inclined Bench presses. I didn’t push it to failure because I don’t train with a partner, but the second set came aweful close to failure. I followed that up with 4 Supersets of presses on the machine (safer) and Incline DB Presses. I finished chest off with 3 sets of Incline Cable Flyes. It’s a little tough for me to feel a good burn in my chest. It’s not like my arms where I can really feel it. I don’t know if that’s lack of experience, not hitting them hard enough, or if it’s normal. I seem to think my arms wear out before I can really impact the chest a lot.

I started working my legs today. I do a lot of walking here so I need to go kind of slow so as to not get too sore. I know what it’s like to have sore leg muscles. It hurts. I decided to start off with hamstrings. I figured just 3 sets of Ham Curls on the machine would be enough. I used some pretty good weights and squeezed real good at the top of each rep. My hams were burning pretty good. I’ll feel it tomorrow. I think I’ll gradually increase the intensity on the legs as I go.

I finished off my workout with some mass building for my abs. I used some heavy weights for 3 sets on the crunch machine and supersetted those with leg raises to really burn in those lower abs. It felt pretty good. 

Prior to todays workout, I weighed myself and I was 164. That’s 4 pounds higher than last week. I don’t know if it’s muscle, fat, or both at this point. All I can do is hope for the best and keep on keepin’ on.

I’ve got so much going on with work, I haven’t had time to work out. My arms are fully recovered from my previous back/arm workout. I’ve had two days now that would have been perfect for me to get in and work out, but too much work has kept me out. Yesterday morning was paperwork overload during my normal workout time and in the evening, I had CPO Selectee training to go to. I only had an hour between work and the training and I knew this wasn’t enough time to hit the gym, so I decided to improvise a workout in my room. It was shoulder day, so I decided to use my body armor for weights and did side an front raises, one arm at a time. I had to use slightly higher reps, but I wore my shoulders out after a couple sets. I followed those up with a couple sets of 20 overhead presses using my m16. By this time my shoulders were burning pretty good. One last blast on the shoulders by doing pushups with my feet elevated finished them off. It was quick, but at least I did something. I suppose that’s better than nothing.

During the training session we ate pizza and chicken wings for dinner. There goes the healthy run I was on. That’s probably why I was so tired today. I still took my protein, but maybe just a lack of good veggies did it. Or maybe it was getting up at 0500 too many times in one week that did me in. This morning I was up early to go re-qualify 9mm pistol at the range. After that, I felt like I was dragging ass all day. I would work out tonight, but I don’t think that’s wise. I think my best bet will be to get a good night’s sleep and work out tomorrow morning. I don’t have to be in to work until 1200, so I have plenty of time to wake up and blast my muscles before work.

I’m starting to lose my appetite for eating. I’m hoping that’s just because I haven’t worked out in a few days. I’ve had a couple unhealthy snacks as well. Today I had a twix bar and a couple m&ms. I’m sure it won’t affect me too much, but every little bit counts I guess. Anyway, I’m hoping to get in there and get a good workout tomorrow. I should be posting update pics around Sunday. Maybe earlier. We’ll see.

Oh, I guess my measurements are supposed to be taken with relaxed muscles, not flexed, so I’m going to have to re-do my arm measurements. You’ll be seeing a major drop in size on my chart. I’m going to re-measure everything just to make sure I wasn’t flexing any other measurements. Later.

Over the next 5 weeks we should see a pretty good improvement on my fat reduction. The results came out for who was selected for advancement to Chief Petty Officer (CPO). CPO in the Navy is E-7, same as what Gunny Sergeant in the Marine Corps is, and Sergeant First Class in the Army. Navy is the only branch that does this "special" training for personnel advanced to E7. This means that we are going to be training them, and with that training comes Physical Training (PT). We are going to be doing PT 3 days a week. This PT usually consists of stretching, basic calisthenics such as jumping jacks, push ups, crunches, scissor kicks, etc…, and finally running. The PT sessions will get tougher as we go. When I went through this process as a Chief Selectee, I went from 160 to 150, but then, I didn’t eat too well. They kept me pretty busy and I missed some meals and I had a LOT less sleep.

During this process, I’m going too plan my weight sessions around the PT days so I’m not expending all my energy at 0530 and then trying to lift weights later. This should amount to 4 Weight training days and 3 Cardio days per week. I might actually make my plan 3 and 3 just to give myself a day off. If I don’t I might burn out too quickly.

Yesterday was my second weight training day. My soreness from my chest/triceps workout was down enough so I went in and hit back and biceps. It was a pretty good workout. I had a good pump for the rest of the day. I did a warmup set for my back on lat pull-downs. After that I did 3X Lat pull-downs behind the head, 3x Lat Pull-downs to the chest, 3X sitting rows (palms together, and 3X rows with palms down. I followed that up with arms. I did 3X e-z bar curls, 2X standing alternating DB curls, 2X sitting isolated DB curls, and 2X incline alternating DB curls. My arms felt pretty weak, as this was the first biceps workout in a long time. Hopefully, I’ll gain some muscle with this and start using bigger weights soon. I sure felt like a weakling doing ez bar curls with 30 pounds and struggling to get 7 reps in. For all my exercises, I tried to use weights that would give me 6-8 reps at failure. After by arms, I decided to go ahead and give my traps a little workout as well, so I did a couple sets of Standing Dumbbell Upright Rows. After that I did a quick hit on the abs using some Cable Crunches.

I think I’ll be doing plenty of ab toning exercises on my cardio (PT) days, so I’m going to use weighted ab exercises on my weight days. The workout was pretty good. I took some pictures last night so I’ll try to post them tonight, as I can’t access the forum or image gallery from work. I’m definitely feeling the workout today. My arms are tight and my back, shoulders, and traps are a little sore as well.

As far as nutrition goes, I’m trying to get enough of what my body needs but it’s aweful hard to do, especially with only having access to 3 meals a day. Yesterday I managed to take in approximately 166g protein, 368g carbs, and 26g fat. with that, I’m just barely meeting 1g protein per pound of body weight. If I don’t gain any size with this intake rate, I’m going to have to figure out how to kick it up a notch. The foods I’m eating are relatively clean foods. I don’t eat fried foods unless fried chicken is the only good protein source available. I’ve had one "dessert" type of food in the past week and that was a small slice of pumpkin pie. Doesn’t that count as a vegetable? I’m reading a lot about the different types of carbs, Hihg vs. Low glycemic and when to eat them. I’m trying to dial in when to eat what foods. I’m slowly getting there and before long, it will all be routine.

I think tomorrow will be a recovery day to recover from my first back/bicep workout. Plus, I have to go "outside the wire" tomorrow so that would interfere with my training anyway. I’ll resume on Tuesday with a PT session and on Wednesday with a leg workout. Actually, if I feel my chest is up to it, I might do chest and tris and include some leg with it. We’ll see. Until my next post, have a good one.