Evolution

After two weeks of slacking off  I finally got my lazy ass back in the gym today… I didn’t start a new routine yet  and so decided to just throw out a "freestyle" shoulder workout. It felt good to be in there again, It’s pretty amazing what one workout can do for my mindstate, I feel so much more at peace right now than earlier this week…I still need to re-configure my school schedule (hopefully by tomorrow), and so won’t have a routine set until next week…

-Jex

Unlike a majority of people around the world I generally don’t make New Year resolutions. Personally I feel if you need to wait for a specific date to make some sort of change you’re starting your path to any goal with an excuse, but thats just my opinion, "Why Wait??!!"  Anyways, that was an irrelevant rant.  Warning: I am feeling rather, for a lack of better words, BBLLAAAHH/depressed so ignore my wh’cha-matude….  

I took some progress pics (I don’t feel I should call this set that tho) today and am extremely dissappointed, I knew I wouldn’t like what I saw because of me slacking (to put it lightly) in the gym lately, it’s basically been two flippin’ weeks since I’ve been!!! and just all around not really watching or caring about my diet. I could make 150 excuses and semi-valid reasonings behind this, but I won’t.

I ****ed up, bottom line, no excuses, it’s completely on me. 

I might try and throw out a little 1 rep max workout b4 my daughter starts school on monday, which is also when I’m going to start back into my training. Just because I like to start on "even" days of the week (lol ignore the gigantic hypocrosy of the very first sentence of this very same blog!!! ) I’m unsure of what my routine is going to look like right now , I have to try rearrange my timetable at school so I can be home for my daughter!! It’s looking like maybe only three days of weights and squeeze in cardio when I can, which I’m not happy  about, I really wanted to be able to have a five day a week routine!

Just to throw this out there, my daughter has been living with me since boxing day, hence the new found stress/ time contstraints, not because of my daughter, but because of dealing with her mother A/K/A the biggest….ummm…I’ll save that rant for elsewhere…   

So to stop this before it turns into a psychotherapy session, I got alot of work to do to get my scheduling and , well , entire life in order in the next little bit!!

jex

I woke up this morning ready to hit the gym, only to look out the window and see 2 feet plus of snow on the ground and freezing rain coming down, Not a pretty sight!! I know this sounds like an excuse right of the hop, but… well it kinda is..but a semi-valid one…being x-mas eve the bus is only running every hour so i would of had to walk home. In freezing rain?!?! Nope, not gonna happen!!  so I decided to swap today’s arm day for Friday’s whole body routine, and do a full body circuit sorta thing at home. I dug out one of my old ass adjustable db’s took out the "handgrip" and stuck 50lbs. in the middle. like a 1′ barbell, with all the weigth in the middle ( –IIIII– lol, thats supposed to be a diagram.) I know my circuit isn’t quite as good(muscle wise) as hitting the gym but it’s better than nothing!!

Cleansx12 ,pushupsx20, bent row x 25, calf raise x 20, burpees x 12, 90sec rest, sumo squat x 15, curls x 10, overhead extens. x 12, jog on the spot 2-3 mins., 75 crunches, 2-3 min rest

I did this set three times with only the rest noted. it got me breathing pretty damn hard for sure!!I also decided today I will never do a burpee again for the rest of my life, I thought I was going to have a heart attack!! Oh, and I got about 15-20 mins of  full body work while digging my girlfriend’s car out before work, In the freezing rain!!!

I like christmas(gifts ) but HATE the snow/cold/frezzing rain!!!

so there it is, my x-mas eve day rant!

have a good christmas everyone!!  

-Jex

After today’s workout I decided to make another alteration to my 5 week schedule. I left the gym in quite a bit of pain from my left shoulder and elbow burning pretty bad, not in a good way either! so decided I’ll either continue the change up week(see last blog) for an extra week and see how I’m feeling, or go lighter on the last 2 weeks,after the change up week, of the program, focusing on a slow rep/power pause, higher rep routine, using mostly the same exercises in maybe a 4-4-2 count(?). I’m kind of leaning to the lighter rep routine as I’ve been bulking and using heavier weights for about four straight months now. I think my body is about sick of training this way, and needs a change up.  

I have legs,chest, and back left to do this week, but will probably skip chest day to let my shoulder rest.

As a side note I’ll probably start cutting back calories a little those last two weeks, getting ready to start cutting again, I have alot of fat to get rid of. 

-Jex

It’s been about 3 weeks  so I figured I’d write an update on here…I’m now on break from school (from Dec5- Jan 12) and so have more time to focus on training & getting some quality rest!! I’m a week into the routine I’ll be following over the 5 week period and It’s feeling pretty good so far. I’m doing a mix of semi-high volume with semi-heavy weights and am feeling pretty…swole…for a lack of better words…so far.    I have been feeling pretty drained after training and sore in my joints (left elbow’s killing me) so I’ve add a lighter change-up in week three to ensure no overtraining or overall burnout. The routine is from some old (2004-5) AnimalPak stuff on BB.com. I’m basically doing one part per day in this order: Arms, Legs, Delts, Back, and Chest I throw one light 3 set excercise for Bi’s on back day, and another for tri’s on chest day, again these are pretty light just for an extra pump before my two day rest. I’ve re-started doing cardio (which I never should have stopped) on each day(except legs), doing about 250 cals on the elliptical I’ll continue upping the cals per day as I move closer to wanting to cut again.

The change up routine I’ll do is another old routine I found on BB.com for "Arm specialization" I did this routine for the two weeks before starting into my current program and saw decent results. I wouldn’t do this routine long as it’d almost guarantee overtraining!! It’s a mon-wed-fri routine of whole body(light arms)- Heavy Arms- Whole Body (light arms). I’ll do light cardio on training days and higher cardio and Abs on Tues. & Thurs.

As far as supps:I’m still taking protein(of course) and creatine (for another week or so), and just added a GNC Multivitamin,Zinc, and tribulus to help me out. I want to try an N.O. product but can’t force myself to waste anymore Cash money…especially with x-mas coming soon…No one will get me supps for x-mas….but thats another rant 

-Jex

The other day I took a look at a couple people’s profiles on here, that I aspire to look similar too one day. When there, I guaged their mesaurements, most of which I am assuming are flexed, compared to my own and thought all my goals are based on non-flexed measurements. So I took the average measurements of these four or five dudes to create my new "flexed goals," I’m, keeping this seperate because all my previous measurements are obviously non-flexed. Goals: Chest-46-7", Arms-18.5"(goodluck buddy), Waist-31", Forearms- 14.5, Shoulders- 53" These are much longer term goals, actually, I should probably call some of these dreams (Damn Arms never grow!!)

Back in the now time frame, school’s almost done for the semester, which is going to leave me a month or so to focus on growing, I’m pretty excited I can finally get back to a four or five day a week routine for a bit! I am debating if I want to do a one part a day routine or a split where I can get two arm workouts in a week on the monday and the friday, my arms are by far my most lagging bodypart but I’m worried they’ll end up over trained, by inadvertantly getting hit on chest and back days??!!!

any suggestions or comments would be great…..

-Jex

So it’s now been 11 weeks of bulking, as stated elsewhere not as cleanly as hoped, not absolutly garbage but more cheat meals than I deserve for sure. I ‘ve had some increase in size but I don’t feel like it’s enough. I don’t know if I’m just being impatient or what but I’m sick of seeing kids in the gym with bigger arms than me!, Imean literally 14 y/os with bigger arms and a smaller waist, its kinda starting to piss me off WHY CAn’T I grow!?!?! anyways there my venting for a minute….. in 11 weeks I’ve gained:(remeber this is unflexed, see last blog)

Chest: 2"

Arms: 0.7"

Calves: 0.3"

thighs: 1"

Waist: 1.8"

forearms: 0.6"

shoulders: 1.8"

weight: 14lbs.

I’m probably going to carry on bulking for 7-9 more weeks, alot cleaner tho, I’m not letting myself gain more than another .7" on my waist and then i’ll start phasing into a cut, gives me about 6 months to lose the gut before summer, now if I can just get my gottdam arms and calves to grow……

-Jex 

After looking through a bunch of pics and profiles on here the last couple weeks, I decided to take some flexed measurements today. I’m starting to think I’m one of the few people on here who take their measurments relaxed. I can understand why people like to look at their mesurements flexed and everything, I just don’t really see it as a good way to measure progress, you can’t walk around completely flexed all day long,( unless you’re one of those dipshits who "strike a pose" every chance they get trying to show off i.e."I think it’s going to rain {hits the front double bi, while looking up in the sky} so why use that as your progress measure?? anyways I didn’t mean for this to be a rant, My "new and improved" measrurments/change from relaxed measurements:

Arms:14.9"/1.1"

Chest:43.5"/2"

Quads:23.5"/.4" (I hope this small change is just because I don’t carry fat on my legs!)

Calves:14.65/.3"

Waist:35.5"/-1.8"

So there it is, I’m still not as big as alot of people on here, but, you know, whatever….

-Jex

hmmm…So I haven’t updated this in a little bit, so lets see…..the last month: I was super tired from mid-term tests and projects at school. I was pretty sick for about two weeks and couldn’t keep any food down,and had absolutely no energy (wasn’t fun.)

About 2 weeks ago I got back into the gym routine, and changed up my routine once again. I’ve literlly changed my routine every two weeks during my bulk, its kept me from getting bored. So these two weeks I’m doing pretty big sets: 10 sets each two exercises. I drop the weight on the 4th, 7th, & 10th set.  for example:(3 @120, 3@ 100, 3@ 80, 1@ 60) Its been super tiring training like this, but pretty fun, too!

day 1- Bench & dumbell flyes

day 2- Squat machine & leg press

day 3 - Military press machine & bent row machine

I’m not sure what I’ ll do for my next two week plan yet, I’ll figure that out this weekend, I think I can make a four day per week schedule now that my schedulr’s slowing down a bit(knock on wood). On a side note I have decided to extend my bulk from Dec. 12 until Dec. 26 to make up for my sick and slacking time.

thats all for now

-Jex  

I just came back from the gym, and God it felt good to be back in there after a week long hiatus. I have to stop letting school and things (laziness) hold me back!! On the plus side my lifts were up a bit and, for the most-part, felt a bit easier to complete.

 I’ve decided/have to start going lighter on my military presse from now on; two or three weeks ago I was doing  the machine mil. press - 8 @220 x 5 sets- and could barely move my left arm for two days afterwards, and my fingers kept going numb for about a week after that, I’m not 100% sure if mil. presses were the cause, but thats what my body is telling me. Maybe I just did too much weight and pulled something? Today was the first day since then that I really put an effort in to the press (I was just went through the motions(90lbs) when I was hurting.) I’m not sure how to build my shoulders without going super heavy on mil. presses(?) I just did 8 @ 180 x 5 sets today, and I can feel it, but,it doesn’t hurt.

As always any opinions, and comments are more than welcome…..maybe one day I’ll actually get one? lol

-Jex