Along the way there…

Well, just got back from a cruise….few more days of leave then it’s a week in the field.  Yeah, it moves that fast.  I really hope you are all doing well.  Still hoping for the get-together.  SM, keep at it brother.  Steph, you’re still my hero.  Bill, RMHM….’nuff said.  Brian, stay HCM…..Pixi, hope you’re livin up the dirty thirty. everyone, love you all. 

Updates later.

Peace

Dave

So, I’m back in the states now.  As soon as I got back, they sent me to a school where I was livin a pretty crappy lifestyle.  I was LUCKY to eat 3 times a day, couldn’t procure my own food and real exercise was ….we’ll say ‘limited’.  Good news is my attitude will not be shaken.  I’m finnally on leave so I’m back on my own terms but lemme tell ya this setback blows.

I’m gonna take some measurements and pics and figure out where I’m at this afternoon but stressmonkey’s definitely got the edge here for a while.  No worries though.  I’m back on the horse and so help me god, If I have to resort to pink dumbbells, I’m gettin back in the game!

More later.

Peace! 

  The ONLY good thing about the past week is the presence of a gym and a mess hall.  Other than that I just wait and wait and discover new levels of boredom.  I’ve been doing a body part a day and very slowly to givemyself something to do during the days.

   Internet time is limited so I can’t stay on long but it helps fill some time also I guess.  eything that would normally keep me entertained is packed already.  Grrrr…

anywho, that’s my update.  I’ll be around from time to time.

Dave

Feeling a bit fiesty today and having been nominated by VT Dad for president, I decided to get froggy in the gym.  After hopping from the door over to the cardio machines, I had sufficiently distracted everyone enough to tackle the old man hogging the cross trainer.  "Outta my way grandpa!"

I looked uber-cool as sang aloud to the melodic tunes emminating from my ipod…..this earned me even more strange stares but the best waqs yet to come!  After about 20 mins or so I decided it was time for some clean and presses.  Did a few sets at 75 pounds making sure to keep the weight in motion for 12-15 reps per set. 

Now, apparently this is uncommon because everyone was fixated on this strange new exercise that was neither a bench press nor a curl and yet, seemed to involve the lifting of weight.  As I finished, I sang the chorus to "one more day" from Les Miserables and took a bow.  Grandpa didn’t dare say a word!

I decided that today might be a good day for just a few core exercises so I knocked out a set of hammer strength crunches at a 4-0-4 tempo with 50 lbs for 12 reps followed immediately by 2 sets at 60 and 70 lbs for 8 reps at a 1-0-1 then repeated the first set.  Next I decided to try my hand at an exercise a friend told me about called the ‘floor wiper’ which I will expain in a min.  I was using 115lbs doing a slow press every 5 reps.  Interesting.

Lying on the floor with a bb overhead as though doing a bench press from the floor, raise your feet off the ground and bring them up to one side of the bar then back to the starting point (do not touch the ground) and to the other side of the bar.  This is one rep.  It will take some getting used to but it’s new so I’ll give it a shot.

I finished up supersetting hyperextensions with a twist using a 25lb plate and decline plate twists also with 25.

I stretched for a while and decided to call it a day.

With all the attention I had in the gym, I thought perhaps I’d forgotten an article of clothing or perhaps had a booger.  Turns out tackling frail old men doing cardio is not considered customary in some circles.

Who knew?

So regarding my current state of crappiness, I think bodyauditor may be right.  I may not be there yet but I may be well on my way to OTS.  Over the last several months, I’ve put on 13 lbs, stripped away bf and have yet to give myself any kind of extended break.  Here’s a question though; does it have to be a period of COMPLETE inactivity?  What about like 15 mins on a cross-trainer and some rotator cuff exercises or something like that???  I need SOME kind of physical activity!

Meh, I’ll figure it out.  I want to do everything at once sometimes so as difficult as it will be, I’ll chill for a bit.  Things are getting hectic with my schedule so now is a good time anyways.

On a different note, a serious problem has been brought to my attention.  Everybody here is constantly Laughing Out Loud.  I’m afraid it’s getting just a bit too noisy in fact so I’m going to ask that people begin Laughing Quietly. 

Life is peachy.

I dreamt about tomato soup last night.  Pretty sure that means I want to go home…any dream interpreters out there?

Have a great day everyone.

Later,

Dave

Quick run today, shoulders are still sore and I’m beginning to wonder why my body is having such a hard time recovering.  I skipped the pushups and abs in favor of a few miles on the treadmill followed by extensive stretching.

 Tried something different with the callipers today and took measurements until I got at least 3 in a row that were within 1mm of each other and calculated based on that.  8% looks more accurate to me right now so I’m satisfied with that.

Our scale finally crapped the bed today, I came in callibrated it, weighed myself and as soon as I stepped off and set the weight back to zero, the pin (term?) was all the way up again.  Not sure why it won’t stay callibrated anymore but I can’t trust it at this point so there’s really no way to see if I meet my 155lbs goal or not.

Not too worried about that, at this point I just want to work on my run, my legs seem to be inflating to compensate for the new stimulus which I’m happy about.

Nothing really significant to report today, I feel pretty good about myself and my progress.  I’ll decide on how I’m arranging the next 3 phases once I get home.

As always, take it easy.

Dave

Feeling a bit better today, shoulders are still sore and my shins and outter calves were rather grouchy upon waking but overall, a better day.

As most of you who read my blogs know, I don’t have access to cameras and there are very few mirrors around here.  I did catch a rare opportunity today to check myself out though.  My back seems to have acquired incredible definition but no width.  I have no V-taper whatsoever and my arms are a mixed bag. 

Shoulders are most interesting.  when viewed from slightly behind they look full and round.  Whe coming straight on from the side they as well as my chest disappear.

Here’s where I need some advice.  I hear mostly that the problem with ‘disappearing when viewed from the side’ is rear delts.  This does not seem to be the case.  I really want to bring my chest out and add that v-taper so I’m thinking about a brief specialization routine.

How long can I go without working a specific body part before atrophy sets in i.e. can I do a three week blitz of only exercises for these areas? (upper chest, delts, lat width) and not suffer in other areas?

I already have a leg specialization routine picked out but it incorporates everything…just legs 2x a week.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dave

Woke up this morning dry and exhausted to step outside and, rain. 

Again.

After a quick breakfast, telling myself that lack of motivation is quitter’s excuse to not persevere.  5 miles.  One foot in front of the other.  Simple.

Getting started

Form is tenuous, feet start slapping the TM.  Shins about to crumble off of bone.  Suck it up, drive on.  I got this.

Soon, the pain is not a good one.  How stubborn am I?  Fine.  I’ll bike for 40 mins.

Crusted old P.O.S.

Slip my feet into the plastic pedals.  Begin.  Left side’s a little awkward, feel like my foot is slipping to the left.  I stop as the pedal comes off.  Now staring at my foot and it’s plastic new ornament.  The rusty metal peg jutting out where the pedal was; laughing at me.  Damn.

Next bike.  Good sturdy pedals.  I begin.  Again.

For a while everything’s fine, I forgot my watch.  No timer.  No clock.  Slowly, frustration rising like flood waters.  Screw this! 

All day’s been like this so far.  Maybe it’s because I’m training 6 days a week now (between cardio and weights).  Maybe it’s just one of those days.  Either way, I’m beginning to wonder why I got out of bed.

On a brighter note, my shoulders feel like hell today so my shoulder routine is apparently very effective.  Light weight and high reps, heavy on the isolation exercises is the way to go.  Arms felt like hell yesterday but aren’t real sore today.

Maybe tomorrow will bring something better.

Destroyed!  muwahahaha 

Ah yes, how can I relay the painfull bliss that was this morning…

Today was arms and shoulders…a new tactic with the arms, 2 sets per execise with no rests at all, 1 bi set, 1 tri set back to back as fast as possible. 

Lots of fun, I had to adjust a bit to find the right weights for a few exercises unfamiliar to me likelying tricep ext. (behind head) which has become my new favorite.  I went with an ez bar due to limited space in our cluttered little torcher chamb…er uh…gym.  I’ve never counted the weight of anything except a standard bb…not sure if that’s how everyone else does it or not.

Anyways, the arms went like so…

Barbell curl-75×8/80×7

Lying tricep ext. (behind head)-20×10/30×10

Preacher curl-50×8/60×6*

Skull crusher-50×8/60×7

Concentration curl-30×8/35×7

Close grip bench-115×8/125×8

Hammer curl-30sx7/20sx16**

Cable one-arm tricep ext-60×10/70×8

*watching the veins pop and snake up my arm was awesome, my arms are easy to please.  lol

**standing with my back to the wall, dropped the weight to burn that last little bit out.

Then came the shoulders very slow and deliberate 3-0-3ish…

IYT’s-5’sx15/10’sx12/10’sx12

Bent over cable raise-30×10/30×7

Incline front raise-15’sx10/15’sx10

Seated DB laterals-10’sx10/10’sx10

Quite satisfied with the amount of pain I was in, I hurried off to eat.  I have this strange affinity for doing exercises/body parts that tire quickly or where I have to use less weight I guess because I figure it’s more effective somehow…?  Anyone else like that?

Recovery run tomorrow, 5 miles of stationary, mechanical purgatory….

 Here, in response to the last blog, here’s how our tenticaled friends in the sea get down…

Taken from:  http://www.octopus.com/anatomy/

Most Octopi have similar reproductive methods. We will focus on the more known Giant Pacific (Enteroctopus dolfeini) since it has one of the longest life spans as compared to others who have shorter egg development.

When a female octopus is ready to mate she releases their equivalent of pheromones which attracts males who will sometimes fight over the right to mate with her. This chemical also helps prevent the larger male from being likely to eat the female – a common occurrence with octopi which is one reason smaller octopi often run from larger when seen.

Once accepted the male transfer’s sperm packages called spermatophores using a special structure called a hectocotylus on the third right arm.
The female stores the sperm for later use and after the male has left will locate a den which she will seal off and prepare to lay eggs.

Laying eggs one at a time and fertilizing each as it is produced the female will lay about 200 eggs into a string which she then glues to the roof of the den. Over a three week period she will normally lay about 57,700 eggs – each of which in the case of the Giant Pacific Octopus is about 5mm long with an 11mm string attached.

Over the next six months or so the female will groom the eggs and protect them. She also blows water across the eggs to ensure oxygen supply while the fetuses develop.

When hatching arrives the female will help them out by blowing water currents across the eggs to help them break free. Once free they begin swimming towards the surface of the ocean where they will feed on small planktonic animals as well as be fed upon themselves by various predators.

Like many octopi the female Giant Pacific will die shortly after her newborns arrive but the hope is that of her 57,000 plus young at least 2 will survive to continue the reproductive cycle …