JediBB’s BodyBlog

Great time. I met everybody that was involved in the filming at Buena Vista Lake, just outside of Bakersfield at 8:00 am and we hung around b.s.ing for a while because a few of the girls were late. In all it wound up being 8 or 9 girls and 6 or 7 guys not including the camera crew. Everybody was between 24 and 35 and the deal was we were gonna shoot 3 commercials and then BBQ and party out on the boss’ boat.

The commercials themselves are goofy, cheesy blurbs that are very reminecsent of beer commercials. The general plot gist of the first two was like this: there are some "cool" guys partying and goofing off while surrounded by hot girls in bikinis with some poor guy watching from the distance wondering how he can get that life. Then he buys a custom bad @$$ truck from DMS and gets the chicks too. Fun stuff.

The third commercial though was different and I was "the star." LOL. It started out with me in this crappy Astro van looking pretty disgruntled with my "wife" yelling at me from the passenger seat. Jason’s (the owner) voice comes in and says something along the lines of "Are you that guy that has to drive the van…blah blah" and I get out of the van as Jason walks up to me and asks if "I’m tht guy" again and I shamefully shake my head and assume a crestfallen stance. Jason then walks me off camera telling me that he’ll get me hooked up.

In the next scene I am the proud new owner of this ginormous Excursion. I proudly help my "wife" into the drivers seat while holding a car seat. After I shut the door I turn to the camera with the biggest cheesiest smile I could muster and say "Hey DMS, thanks for showing me the right way to drive my family around." Then I turn to Jason, shake his hand, he goes into his lines and I put the seat in the truck and exit the scene. End of commercial. I had so much fun. I’ve always loved screwing around in front of an audience, hard to beat the rush in a way.

What is really cool is I thought the commercials would only be on the crappy local channels but they will actually be on all of the major networks in Bakersfield too (Spike, MTV, etc, etc). I even got a probable date out of the whole thing. Alrighty then, have a good night and good training to all.

Warm ups 3 sets each

Barbell Curl

115×10

165×7

185×5

Barbell Overhead Extension

115×15

135×9

135×8

Hammer Curl

90×8

100×6

Pressdowns

2 @ 70xfailure

Incline D.B. Curl

50×10

50×8

One Hand Overhead D.B. Extension

40×12

50×9

High Cable Curl

70xfailure

Machine Triceps Extension

#8xfailure

 Well, I don’t have to sub tomorrow, so after the long and fun weekend I can’t sleep yet. Oh well, just have to take care of some errands and a few other things tomorrow, breakfast may have to wait till 9:00. Sorry muscles. You can deal with it. The commercial stuff was super freakin fun, but I’ll talk about that in my post workout jive.
I was cruising the internet, don’t really watch tv much, rather read online or write or read those paper things, what are those? Oh yeah books. I kinda miss those. Been too damn busy. Or spending my free time here… But yeah, as I was saying, I ran on to this site which is rather cool: http://www.sandowmuseum.com. Basically it gives a little history about the Greek Ideal and calculates what your ideal measurements are. These measurements, when applied to yourself, basically mean if you were sporting them you would look like  a Steve Reeves or a slightly more built Statue of David. Not a bad look.
It’s based on wrist measurements and I don’t know (pretty heartily doubt) that it works for women ( I guess it really just depends on the goal, gotta try to be p.c.) but I know if a male uses it, it can be a good way to base goals. It is of course just an estimator. Things may vary,everybody has different structure. I first read about the "ideal measurements" in a Muscluar Development mag, I don’t remember the year, but it was before the magazine became as thick as the Sears Christmas catalogue, but it still had the same cartoon drawings with the "news flashes." Since then I’ve used it as a guideline, but haven’t set the measurements as a limit. Like I said, they are an estimator. Here are my "ideal measurements" based on my wrist size of 7.5 inches: chest: 48.75 waist: 34.125 hip: 41.43 arms: 17.55 forearms: 14.13 thigh: 25.83 calves: 16.57. My actual ( at 210, new measurements will come at 225) measurements are pretty close to this in some respects but fairly far off in others, but again my goals are actually a few steps farther than what these "guidelines" are.

These guidelines are also directed at what natural athletes can achieve by the way. They are goals that a diligent and dedicated trainee can reach. Check it out, see how you add up. I feel it is a good motivational tool because if you are not there yet it gives you a reasonable idea of what you can (at least) achieve and if you are beyond; you can be assured that you are training as well as you -or any one else for that matter- may be able to. Anyway I should catch some zzzzzzzzzzzzz’s. Good training to you.

Well I had to combine today’s and tomorrow’s workouts because I now have obligations for tomorrow. I’m stoked though because I’m doing a TV commercial tomorrow for an auto sales place in Bakersfield. I can’t wait.

Anyway I had to combine workouts to make sure I hit everything this week, but back and legs are both big and the suck to train together. So I basically just made more or less a maintenance workout and took the opportunity to make a video of me leg pressing for the Bodyspace page.

Various warming up

Barbell Row

225×12

315×10

405×5

Leg Press

I didn’t really pay attention to what I was doing for most of it. I just warmed up for 1500 for most of my sets.

1500×4

Wide Grip Pull Up

Bodyweight x 15

+45×15

+45×15

Leg Ext.

2 @ #10xfailure

Leg Curl

2 @ #10xfailure

Machine Row

#10xfailure

Well, have a good weekend ya’ll.

"…When I lifted about 9 years ago, I had the mind set that you just loaded up on the complex carbs and that extra fat was just part of the process. I realize I will not have 6 - 7% body fat while I am trying to bulk but what is a realistic expectation. Can you maintain 10% and still bulk up? You see all the super HYPE adds on packing on 20 lbs and drop body fat to 7%. It all seem like bull. I am patient and have plenty of time, I just want to make sure I am going about this the right way. I eat clean but I eat alot, 7 - 9 times a day, 50% protein the rest good carbs/ good fats. Any thoughts on how your view of bulking up and how much body fat is ok vs. just wasted calories packed onto the gut is much appreciated.
Thanks."
 This is a little rambly I think, but I tend to do that when I answer questions…

Oh man, where do I start. As a teen I ate and ate whatever was around to try and gain, you know the old school bulk method. As I learned more I switched to the clean bulk. My first try at it was something to the liking of 400g protein 400g carbs and 20-30g fat. This was pretty flawed but I did put on a little mass and I definitely didn’t smooth out very much. The diet itself really was not enough real food though, thats pretty much impossible to get that macronutrient profile and eat much real food. That was the major flaw there, the other one being far too little fat. Over the years I’ve found out that real food sticks and supplement calories (gainers, whey) really don’t. Of course I haven’t tried today’s weight gainers (like BSN’sTrue Mass or something of the like) so those may work better. I kinda doubt it though, no offense to BSN, I just don’t like gainers much.
 

That brings me to now. After fooling around with clean bulking more and fine tuning a lot of things, I found that it just didn’t work that well for me. Trying to stay lean and add a lot of mass as a natural trainer just doesn’t happen that well. I have to eat. Lots. You see my bodytype is mesomorph leaning towards the ecto side of things. While I gain muscle fairly easily I get lean even easier. Hence I need to eat.
 

In my progress pics I gained 15 lbs. Part of that was muscle memory but I have made tremedous gains in a lot of ways, because 215 looked a little better this time around. It came from food though, you can see on my page what supps I’m using and protein powder is not on there. Protein powder is an indispensible part of getting lean, but you really don’t need it to get big.
 

Now I’m not saying to go out and eat crap though. You need to eat good, whole food. Veggies, potatoes, steak, fish, you know the drill. Just eat more of it but if you are in a pinch that pizza or burger is going to work just fine too. Its just that if you eat too much of that stuff you will put on more fat than you need to (too many calories period will make you fat) and with food like that eating too much is a slippery slope. I definitely eat that kind of food a fair amount right now, but I keep it within my metabolic limits. I will make it to 240 but I won’t break 12-13 percent bodyfat doing it, and that is still a fair amount of fat gain considering that I carry like 7-8% naturally (i.e. training and just eating maintenance)- so yes you could realistically maintain ten percent and make good gains, I’m just trying to go really big and a little faster for myself. I’m gonna do this by allowing myself time to put that on and I cycle my calorie intake. When I’m putting on mass I find that 4,000-4,700 in five to six meals works best for me, so I eat that consistently for some odd amount of time. As soon as I feel I am getting a little too fat I drop to maintenance calories, which is like 2900-3500 for me depending on the day. So I don’t drop much, but enough to kind of maintain until I "solidify" a little if you know what I mean. Then I bump the calories back up.

If my gains simply stop, I drop calories as well, but I drop them to high cutting levels. This will last a few days generally, and when I get back to eating high cals I get back to growing. Kind of kick starts the anabolic mechanism, which will fail after doing the same thing for too long. Really what I do there is a tweaked version of the Anabolic Burst Cycle Diet that I first read about in Muscle Media 2000 in like 1997. That idea was to bulk for two weeks and cut for two weeks. For me the cutting seems to serve its purpose in a few days time.
 Basically you have to eat to get big and if you aren’t juicing don’t expect to put on a lot and stay at 6% unless you want take 5 years putting on 12 pounds (ok, a little exaggerated, but I was trying to make a point). To speed gains along, find a method that works for you and experiment with it untill it REALLY works for you, then, change it repeatedly. LOL. I hope you can get something out of this and good training to you.

4 setsxwarmup

Machine Military

Stackx12

Stackx10

Dumbbell Lateral

40×10

Drop Set 50×6/30×6

Upright Row

115×10

135×8

155×8

Shrugs

315×15

405×15

495×10

585×5

Reverse Flyes

35×12

40×12

Good strong day. My head was in the right place and my body was cooperating also, can’t beat that.

5 warmup sets for bis and tris

Close Grip Decline Press

225×12

245×8

EZ Barbell Curl

125×10

145×8

175×6

EZ Barbell Overhead Extension

125×10

125×8

Dumbbell Curl

65×12

75×8

Pressdowns on the light stack

160×18

200×15

200×12

Hammer Curls

80×10

90×6

One Arm Dumbbel Overhead Ext.

40×10

50×8

Cable Concentration Curl on the light stack

70×15

90×12

Started out with chest this week. Got a great pump today.

Bench

warmupx3 sets

225×10

275×6

285×6

315×3

2 @ 250×3 2 second pauses at the bottom.

Dumbbell Incline Flye

50×15 superset w/ Palms Up front Raise

60×14 superset "

Cable Crossover

100×10 superset w/ Dips

60×15 superset w/ Dips

Starting ZMA again today and am still working with creatine and glutamine. I should get whey back in there but I still don’t really feel like I need it. Still eating plenty of protein and am still staying pretty lean considering I’ve put on 18 lbs in the last 4.5 months, so screw it for right now.

Warmups 3 sets

Wide Grip Pull Up

Bodyweightx15

+45×12

+90×5

Barbell Row

3 @ 225×8

315×8

Reverse Grip Pulldown

300×7

280×8

Dumbbell Row

100×15

100×10

Wide Grip Pull Upx8

Well I didn’t really plan on training today anyway, I knew yesterday that today was gonna be one of those ‘lift if you make it, if not Saturday is probably better anyway’ days. Back. Its really tired. Been hitting it hard in a lot of my leg days and in my back days plus hitting an @$$load of golf balls lately. Hmmm… I’m trying to work up to a 700 lbs deadlift and straighten out my drive… I wonder what the next sport I’m gonna try is? It’s not exactly golf.

Anyway my back has been worn out, growing, but dog tired.

On a different note though I had a great day. It was my first day ever substitute teaching. It was awesome. First of all the kids were great. No problems at all. There was of course kids bickering but if I told them to straighten up, they did. Really on the whole, a respectful group of middle schoolers if I may say. What’s even cooler though is I had P.E. Apparently nobody likes subbing P.E. What gives? I pitched kids softballs all day and got paid for it. Awesome. All the staff at the school I was at are cool too. I’m back in my hometown now and even though its not the same school I went to, it employs some of my old teachers which was fun too. I always got along with my teachers (I can only think of two who I somewhat despised, and I never really see them around) and its pretty cool working with them and getting to see things from their perspective in a sense.

Next week I get language arts. I’m looking forward to that as well. Before I switched to psychology as a major I was studying English lit. I switched after I discovered psych and had a certain Shakespeare class. It wasn’t the material, I like old Will, but the class. Some lit majors. Its like sitting down with Descartes. Yeah you have some good ideas but they aren’t that earthshattering. God didn’t give Moses a high five and say "Score one for that guy! He’s brilliant!" Spare me the hour and a half of self @$$kissing (or in Descartes’ case literally the 90 some odd pages I got through). So yeah, back to track, I’m looking forward to the class and getting to try out the classroom setting.

Well I’m out.