ItalianDemon’s BodyBlog

Well, Christmas Day I was at work, I was doing a simple routine job and hurt my shoulder. I have been out of training for the past month and on light duties at work.

I have gotten clearance on my shoulder and next Thursday and Friday have booked a couple sessions with a personal trainer to help me with getting my strength back. I have decided on a couple things:
1. I will not be drinking anymore
2. I will train 3 out of my 4 days off
3. I will not spend an insane amount of money on supplements (and try to save)
4. Will put together a rather INSANE squat video.

I’m looking forward to my first PT session. I like the trainer, he can be a bit arrogant/cocky at times, but he’s a decent enough bloke. My main goal is to increase my leg and shoulder strength, while strengthening the small stabilising muscles around my ankles, hips, knees, elbows and shoulders. The last thing I need now is another injury.

I will be competing on March 21. Just a club comp. Try and get a 180kg total (80kg snatch, 100kg CJ). Also am gonna try to cut down to get into the 69kg division. That way I am more on track to get my 188kg qualifying total for Nationals (as opposed to a 200kg total for the 77s).

Another couple areas I want to bring up strength and explosiveness is my calves and traps. I know these areas are strong already, I just wanna get them used to moving at maximum force with heavy weight (ie, producing maximal power).

Gonna be retaking my supplements (creatine, protein, nitric oxide, multivitamin), haven’t been taking them since being injured, I saw it as a waste. Eating reasonably clean. Hopefully, my PT can help with that a little.

All in all, I think I am heading on the right direction after a month of injury and drinking. Bodyfat and bodyweight have risen to levels I dread. Cut down, get stronger, be healthier.

Go Heavy or Go Home!

To Be The Best You Have To Train To Beat The Best!

Well, I feel like I should write a blog telling ya’s all about me. More exactly about the path that has lead me to the weight room.

To start when I was very young, 4 or 5, I went anorexic. I know it sounds dumb, but it’s true. My older brother would call me a ‘fat, little worm’ and being young and idolizing him, I believed what he said. So, I decided not to eat anything.

 My mother would cook my favourite foods, spaghetti, lasagne, hot dogs, etc. But, I refused to eat. This went on for a short time, until my brother talked to me. Then, I went back to eating healthy, (as healthy as a 5yo could).

I’d always been involved in sports. I played soccer from about 8 or 9 t about 14. I wasn’t really good at it. I only started playing because my best mate played and I got a little chubby about my anorexic stint.

The captain for all those years was the coachs son. Me and him were the best and second goalkeepers in the Junior league. I started playing soccer to run around and hopefully lose some fat. Become a little leaner. But, since the captain was the son of the coach he always got to have a run and I was always stuck in goal. And being the 2nd best team in the comp, I got hardly any ball.

After soccer, I played a bit of basketball, softball, mixed netball, AFL, and some others that didn’t last long.

When I was 13 I started playing rugby league and union seriously in high school. It was here that I first entered a gym, to get stronger for weights, all thanks to my mate. I had a fair bit of size, I was chubby. So, I just needed strength to play my position.

 I continued playing footy up until Grade 11, where it took a back seat towards the end of the year where I got into Olympic weightlifting. I trained hard, and used the explosive nature of the sport to help me on the field.

Along came my senior year and I played as much footy as I could, but weightlifting was the forerunner in my sportng endeavours. It was in this year, 2007, that I entered my first Olympic weightlifting competition. A state league competition in which I weighed 71.3kg and lifted 53kg in the snatch and 76kg in the clean and jerk to secure 4th in the Open Mens 77kg division.

Now, I work fulltime at a pretty physical job at the mines, and train whenever I can for weightlifting. Having my coach (my older brother) also working at the mines on shift work, makes it somewhat difficult to secure definite days and times to train. So, I often train by myself doing raw strength moves, squats, pulls, deadlifts, shoulder presses, push press, as well as some bench work, pulldowns/ups, general ‘bodybuiding’ work.

Being a weightlifter means I do alot of ab/core work. The foundation of a good weightlifter is a strong core musculature. I train my core every training and most othe days away from the gym.

At the moment, I am trying to bring my legs up (especially my front squats) so that my lifts will be able to produce better results. (I can clean 100kg but can’t stand it from the hole). My shoulders are another area I am trying to get stronger, lots of push presses and power jerks, dumbell presses/barbell presses.

As for my muscular goals, I want to bring up my upper chest, well, bring up my overall chest, it is very shallow. I would love another 4 inches on my chest. My legs are another area, would love to add another 5 inches to them.

 When I get down to it, I want to add about 2-3 inches over every muscle group, and lose about 2 inches off my waist and hips.

Competitions…. I am hoping to compete in May, if I can get time off from work, and just use it as a progress check. Hoping to snatch 80-85kg and clean and jerk 100-105kg to total 180-190kg.

Then compete again around August to qualify for Nationals, again. Lift 110kg in the snatch and 120kg in the clean and jerk, to total 230kg. By this time I wish to be about 72kg bodyweight and about 6% bodyfat.

Dunno how I am gonna go with these goals, but I will just do my best and try to get there.

I’m also going to start taking Nitric Oxide along with my creatine and protein shakes. And eat a very protein rich diet, with lots of red meat, chicken and tuna. Heaps of fibre from fresh fruit and vegetables as well.

Try and stay healthy. Thanks.

Well, I’ve already written about my Nationals trip. So, I thought I would write about the next 12 months that lay ahead in my preparation for the 2009 Nationals.

My training program is completely different to what I have done in the past. I am still training for 12 weeks before maxing out, but I am only doing 3-4 platform moves. All the rest are either squats or, like we called them at the old gym, ‘Dungeon’ moves.

What this means is stuff like bench presses, lat pulls, and hamstring and calf work.

As for my future comps. I will not be training again in 2008. I plan on competing at a League competition in April or May, and totalling 185-190kg, hopefully weighing about 70-72kg.

After that I only plan on competing at QLD Championships to qualify for Nationals. Hopefully, total about 210-220kg at 72kg bodyweight.

I was considering dropping weight to become a 69kg lifter. But, I have decided to Do some exercises, and set/rep schemes, to help me add muscle in a few critical areas. Namely my chest, shoulders and arms. Although, I want to add quality muscle all over. And I hope to drop my bodyfat to about 8% by May and weigh close to 72kg of muscle.

I have started taking my protein/creatine shake as soon as I get home after training. This will help with adding muscle and gaining strength.

But, for now I will focus on weak areas of my lifts. Especially my squats.

Feel free to comment with criticism and/or encouragement.

Go Heavy or Go Home!

To Be The Best You Have To Train To Beat The Best!

Well, I’m home from Melbourne now.

It was a great weekend, all I could think about was lifting.

I lifted on Saturday and had a bloke named Barry Harden coach me. He’s a top bloke.

I weighed in at 70.25kg. I was worried that I would come in underweight, because the night before we had a weigh check and I was 69.4kg.

We elected to start me on 67kg snatch and 90kg clean and jerk.

My warmup wasn’t going to flash so we dropped me down to 60kg snatch which I was told to power snatch. I got it no worries.

Then, for my second lift we put it up to 67kg, and I was again instructed to power snatch it. Which I got.

As I was walking back into the warmup room, I told Barry to put me on 75kg for my last snatch. He did so.

I went out there and snatched it, I sat in the bottom position for a while getting my balance, and stood it. At the top of the lift I welled ot ‘Light Weight!’ 3 white lights.

For clean and jerks, my warmup went well, but, with my dip and drive for my jerks I was getting full extension.

I started on 90kg, power cleaned it and jerked it. Nice lift.

Up to 97kg, my PB, clean was a struggle but got it, jerk was good. Arms locked out but weren’t stabilised and I missed the lift.

I was angry at this. I told Barry to put me on 99kg for my third attempt.

Mike Bailey had one attempt left (he lifted on Friday as well in the U16s). He was going for a 100kg CJ. He had already secured an 82kg snatch. Barry put me up to 102kg for my last attempt, his reasoning was that if Mike missed his last CJ and I got my 102 I would have taken 3rd place.

To my disappointment, Mike got his 100kg CJ. So, I was lifting for a PB.

The bar was loaded and I went out there. The pull was good, but heavy. The bar landed heavily on my clavicles and I tried to stand it. I got to about halfway up but I was too bent over. And dumped it.

My first Nationals made me wanna get home and train harder than hard. For the next 12 weeks I am gonna use my own program that is mainly focussed on strength in the areas where I feel I am weakest.

My lifts at Nationals:

Snatch:

60kg
67kg
75kg

Clean and Jerk:

90kg
97kg X
102kg X

Bodyweight: 70.25kg

It was a good weekend with Steph and Capper from New Zealand breaking more records than I can remember. They aint a bad mob, them Kiwis.

Shout out to you Capper and Steph!

Go Heavy or Go Home!

To Be The Best You Have To Train To Beat The Best!

Well, we had our comp up in the Isa, which went good. But, the AWF wouldn’t accept the results, because it wasn’t a sanctioned AWF competition.

So, I made the trek down to Ipswich, where I stayed with Ian Moir, to compete and qualify at the QLD Senior Championships.

Luke Gardner offered to coach me through my warm ups (as I was told by Miles, and which I thank both Miles and Luke very much).

I weighed in at 70.6kg. I was the lightest lifter in the Open Mens 77kg division, as well as the youngest. (U18).

My first snatch attempt was on 67kg, which I missed. I was bringing my hips through so that the bar was just bouncing up with no control.

My second lift was also on 67kg, which I got without any dramas.

Third snatch attempt was 72kg, which I got. Although, in the bottom of the lift, I felt myself losing balance and had to ‘crab walk’ forwards a bit. Nevertheless, I still got the lift.

Now, before my clean and jerks, I had to realise that I needed to make a certain total (167kg) to qualify for Nationals. In order to do this, I need at least a 95kg clean and jerk.

Me and Luke agreed that after my first CJ we would jump up to 95kg so that I had 2 attempts to get it.

My first CJ attempt was 87kg. Which I power cleaned easily. And the jerk was very stable.

Second attempt was on 95kg. Which I got, with no dramas.

For my third attempt I wanted to go 98kg, which I thought was a very reasonable weight to attempt. I already had the qualifying total, so I had nothing to lose. Luke, on the other hand, had a look at the other lifters and noticed that if I went 97kg I would be 1kg ahead. What I failed to realise was that this other lifter (Leith Walsh) still had one CJ left.

I agreed with Luke and the bar was loaded to 97kg for my third and last CJ attempt. The clean was good, and I fought hard to stand it. I stood what seemed an eternity under the bar, catching my breath and getting my head in the right train of though before my jerk.

I took a breath, dipped down, pushed through my heels and thrust the bar overhead in a split jerk. I stood , got my feet in the same plane, but the bar seemed to travel forwards, so I had a short walk forwards so that I didn’t lose the lift.

Afterwards, I watched Leith lift and he also secured a 97kg CJ. Leith finished with a 170kg total. 73kg snatch and 97kg clean and jerk. I missed out on silver by 1kg. Even if I did tie with Leith I would still have gotten silver because I was at a lower bodyweight. (Leith had at least 5kg extra bodyweight on me).

I congratulated Leith on the win, and we both had a joke about the 1kg difference.

With the presentation, I had none other than Australia’s only Male Olympian that competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Damon Kelly, present me with my medal. That alone was well worth the trip.

But, prior to the medal presentations, I had an official from ASADA (the Australian Anti Doping people) come and talk to me. I had been selected for a random drug test. Luke was my representative, which I have to thank him again for taking the time to do so.

6 bottles of water and almost 2 hours later, I was ready to piss into the cup for them. I cooperated completely with the Control Officers and must thank them for explain everything I questioned.

Overall, it was the single best week of my life. Now, I have to try and find some money to make the trek all the way down to Melbourne so that I can represent QLD at Nationals.

I have written up several letters addressed to several businesses in the Isa asking for sponsorship. Hopefully, a couple companies will see it as a wise investment and I will be able to live out another one of my weightlifting dreams.

Go Heavy Or Go Home!

To Be The Best You Have To Train To Beat The Best!

OK, the QWA let us Isa lifters hold the Qld U16 & Youth & Junior Championships up here, to help us because of the expense of travel to South East QLD.

Things went smoothly. This is how I went.

Bodyweight: 71.6kg
Snatch: 65kg
70kg X
72.5kg
Clean and Jerk: 85kg
90kg
95kg

My coach was one of the referees so I had very limited time with him to discuss weights and warm ups.

I was very anxious/nervous before we started. I felt like there was a lot on the line for me.

But, like always as soon as I started warm ups and my name was called for my first lift, it was all business.

I felt my technique was almost perfect. As good as I had ever lifted. All my lifts, except my missed 70kg snatch, were as I had invisioned them.

Talking to my coach, after all was done, he said if he had the oppourtunity to coach me properly, I would’ve attempted a 75kg snatch and a 97.5-100kg CJ. Which would’ve given me a total of 172.5-175kg.

Future comps? If I miss out on representing QLD at Nationals in October, I plan on competing at QWA League Round 4 & Masters League Round 4 on September 20.

Goal for Round 4:

Bodyweight: 68kg
Snatch: 80kg
Clean and jerk: 105kg
Total: 185kg

Goal for Nationals:

Bodyweight: 72kg
Snatch: 85kg-90kg
Clean and Jerk: 110kg-115kg
Total: 195kg-205kg

Well, I am now not trying to lose weight. I am now trying to add another 5kg onto my frame.

Why? For the simple fact that I want to qualify for Australian Nationals. And in order to do this, the extra weight will help me increase my strength.

 I have put a solid nutritional and supplementational plan in place and with eating more and still doing a bit of cardio, I should still stay lean and add muscle.

Any advice and support is welcome.

One month, that’s all I have.

In one month I want to weigh 67kg, and have about 6% bodyfat.

How will I do this? Firstly, I am starting to do more cardio. Mainly treadmill work, although I will ride the bike when not feeling 100%. Secondly, I am starting to eat proper food, and eat at the correct times. (No more mass carbs before bed). I am also restarting to take my MultiVitamin, Fish Oil and WPI/Creatine shake.

 Please, leave me a comment showing your support and/or any advice.

Thank you to all.