Along the way there…

So, I was in the middle of another one of my desert ponderings earlier and a few small epiphanies came to me.

1. Everybody is an expert on everything.  Yep, it’s the only logical answer for why everyone is convinced that they are the utmost authority in whatever you happen to be doing at the moment and why everybody always seems to know the ‘right way’ to do everything.

2. Camel  spiders are not as social or cuddly as they appear.

3. People never get what they ‘deserve’.  The ones that have it don’t deserve it and the ones that deserve it don’t have it. 

4. The greatest way to appreciate something is to give it up for a time.

5. I appreciate women, beer, hot showers, my own damn bed and styrofoam (I don’t want to talk about it).

6. Having a cool sounding screen name or sign off does not increase the weight you can lift or the shape you are in…usually

7. If people were as eager to make friends in the real world as they are online, society would be better off…and we’d all walk up to strangers just to make a random ‘comment’ and then walk away….I just think that part would be cool.

8. Part of what makes people so exciting is that we rarely think about what we say before it comes out of our mouths.

9. I’m glad I’m not an octopus.

10. If you are concerned about your health and appearance, you’re vain, if you don’t you’re a slob.  The trick is for all of us to never let on that we all secretly desire to be a better and more balanced individual in every respect.

Just my take,

Dave

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 …

Well, the day started out alright and got steadily busier from there.  As most of you know, during my bulk for the last few months I focused alot on larger muscle groups relying on compound movements to indirectly hit the smaller stuff.

Added the weight but now my calves and arms are not so bueno and my run has obviously slowed.  So today was dedicated to intervals and calves with some squats and hammer strength crunches thrown in on the back end.

Warmed up on the treadmill and did 10 mins. of a 7 1/2 min. mi pace sprinting at a 6:30 or so making sure to stay on the balls of my feet for the sprints.  Cooled down and I was ready for some calf work.

Single leg DB raises, Ski jumper calf raises and Leg press calf raises with toes straight forward, pointed out, and pointed in just to make sure I got all the angles.  We don’t have much to work with out here so ya really gotta make do.

To wrap things up, I did 2 sets of squats and 3 sets of hammer strength crunches at a 4-0-4 tempo.  A real a**kicker but worth it.  All in all spent about an hour not including the intervals.

I’m thinking about changing all my runs to TM just because I find it so much more enjoyable than running the obstacle course around base.

Tomorrow is arms with a little bit of shoulders tacked on at the end.  Should be interesting.  No octopi were molested in the making of this blog.  The guy sittin next to me right now just thought it would be a funny title.  I’m concerned about the number of sets I’m doing tomorrow but then, it’s supposed to be a very fast paced WO with no rest periods for the arms Bi and Tri exercises are supersetted together and the whole thing is run as one long pain in my a**.

Let ya know how it goes.

Dave

Woke up this morning and interrupted the storm going on.  Cold.  Wet.  Grey.  Crap!

Headed over to the gym to do upper body.  Just enough for maintanence: Get a good pump, get out.  2 sets per exercise (1 warmup 1 to failure):

overhead bb press, Nautilus lat pulldown, DB incline Press, Nautilus row, Behind the back BB shrug*

Not bad, not my area of emphasis for this phase so I wasn’t trying anything spectacular…my legs thanked me (those little bastards have no idea what they’re in for tomorrow!)  muwahahaha

*funny and sightly embarrasing, not sure if anyone else has this problem: I seem to be running into an issue here you see…..how do I put this delicately….my a** keeps getting in the way of my behind the back bb shrugs.  There.  Nice and tactfull.  Anyone else have this problem or is it time for me to get new glutes installed?

The rest of the day has been spent sorting through a delightfull plethora of headaches and plottinjg the assasination of murphy and thereafter repealing his stupid law.

That’s all my madness for today.  Calf day tomorrow, should be fun.

Take it easy

Dave

Had a rather frustrating 5 miler today.  I have to run off road here and between dodging/slipping on rocks, running through some sandy areas and dealing with the uneven terrain while sucking down the exhaust of passing vehicles I was in a less than enjoyable mood from the get-go.

I could feel every tendon, joint and support muscle complaining the whole way.  My legs will simply have to get used to the extra weight I guess.  I know that this is part of the reason for my slow run times so I’m moving the intervals and second 5 miler each week to the treadmill despite how much I hate them.  I need an accurate picture of where my run is at on flat surface so I can gauge my progress better.

I’m also working on my flexibility (as per VT Dad’s suggestion) because I know that has suffered a bit too.  This phase is certainly shaping up to be a challange but I guess I wouldn’t have it any other way.

After returning home and getting settled in, I’ll have the next two phases set: wheels and V-taper.  There’ll be a brief cardio only period in between.  Ultimatly, I’d like to hit 165 but I’ll be happy with breaking the 160 barrier this year.

Well, tomorrow is upper body gym day so the legs can chill for a while.  Let ya know how it goes.  Have a good one!

  Today was day 1 of my new phase of training and boy, was it an eye-opener!  I’m moving around more weight now so everything speed and body-weight related is harder. 

  Usually I can do 100 pushups with maybe one rest in between….took 3 sets today!  Situps should be 100 without my feet being anchored/held one set no prob.  took two today and my run has slowed down to about an 8 min. mile.  Pullups weren’t too bad but still, I managed only 12.

 Before I hear "that’s great dave…" let me explain that I am comparing this to my performance 6 or 7 months ago at 140 lbs. 

  Here’s another oddity: My bf% is continuing to decrease.  Not sure what the healthy lower limit is for BF but I’m really hoping to get mine up just a notch. 8-9% is fine but 5.8%?  is that even still healthy???  Hopefully my callipers are just wrong (I have the Accufitness fat track II digital ones)

At any rate, I super-setted the pushups and pullups with no rest between sets.

Pushup: 40/40/20

Situp: 50/50

2 mi. run: 15:56

Pullups: 12

meh, tomorrow is a 5 miler.  In the next few weeks, I should be able to bring this all down while retaining weight with no major issues. 

You ever have a workout so damn good that as soon as you eat your PWO meal, you’re falling asleep on your feet? 

Body, like a dry sponge…soaking everything in.  Heavy.  Sore.  Exhausted.  And slowly slipping into a state of hibernation as your body repairs all that you just did.  Yes.  Back was beautiful today.

I’m actually thinking about putting on a pot of coffee just to keep me awake at work.  Anyhow, I re-vamped the new workout schedule that starts next week.  I’ll try this on for a week and adjust as needed.

21 Jan-TBD
 

Mon:
Pushups (100), situps (100), 2 mi. run, pullups (to failure)

Tues:
5 mi. run

Wed:
DB press, Overhead barbell press, Lat pulldown, Incline db flyes, Seated row, Behind the back bb shrug,

Thurs:
Intervals (run), single leg calf raise, ski jumper calf raise, leg press calf raise, Hammer strength crunches, Squat

Fri:
Arm supersets/Shoulders
 

Barbell curl/Lying barbell tricep extension (behind head)

Preacher curl/Skull crusher

Concentration curl/Close grip bench press

Hammer curl/Cable one-arm tricep extension 

I-Y-T’s, bent over cable raise, incline front raise, seated laterals

Sat:
5 mi. run

A quick aside that has nothing to do with anything…..I’ve noticed that alot of the customer service folks from BB.com are on here.  I’ve spoken with several of them since I’ve been out here (they are my lifeline for nutrition and supps…lol)  At any rate, what’s up with those catchy names?

Karate Chop Kayla, Curling Caleb, Jogging Jen, Micellar Mike, Kettlebell carlos……sometimes when I call to ask about an order I want to be like: "Hi.  This is Deadlift Dave and I’m calling about…"  LOL

Ok, that was my moment of random for the day.

Hope everyone has a good one.  Take it easy.

Once again, my plans for world conquest have been thwarted!  We have one of those old-school ‘doc’s office’ scales in our gym and I noticed today that the part that balances when the weight is correct (don’t know what it’s called) was resting on the bottom and the scale was at zero!  Damn!

Usually I don’t pay attention, step on and move the weight to where I think it should be.  Got my leatherman and calibrated it.  Turns out it was off by about a pound which means I’m actually at 154.75!  that’s right….1/4 lb from reaching my goal.  I’m eating everything in sight today!

As I was seated near one of the only mirrors we have, I noticed that my posture kinda sucks right now too.  Also my form was pretty crappy on those bench presses (I’ll be updating my log next).  Definitely two things to work on.

Overall, I’m very happy with the progress I’m making.  I’ve been taking pieces of other people’s programs and advice to frankenstien my next phase (see last blog).  Between Bodyauditor’s set scheme, Trixter’s apparently very effective tempo tweaks and mmeyer’s arm advice, I’m feeling optimistic about the lifting portion of my next phase.

Running’s simple enough, I’ve done this many times and know what I have to do…..it just sucks is all (especially those forefoot strike intervals)

Anyways, Just my thoughts on the day so far.  I haven’t forgotten about my book report, I’ve just been too lazy to write it lol……I’ll be around.  Later,

Dave

I want to suprise myself, catch my body totally off gaurd.  I’m incorporating several elements into my next phase that will help keep my body growing even as my run time goes back down (provided I keep my diet straight)

Not sure how long it’s going to be, a few weeks maybe.  Starts monday. 

Monday’s workout is designed to improve my APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) score.  The first 5 miler is for time, fast pace here.  The full body workout will be 1 warmup and 1 working set to failure of each exercise.  I may add more later but probably not to the legs. 

The sprint portion of my intervals will be done forefoot striking to emphasize the calf involvement and the calf exercises themselves will alternate heavy sets with slow tempo and no pauses and moderate weight with high tempo (still working details here.

Arms will be conituous slow movement as well.  In my last few phases I haven’t been playing with tempo at all and usually have a 2-1-2 tempo.  I’m looking at a 3-0-3 or 3-0-4 tempo here.

The second five miler is for form only.  Slow and deliberate the whole way.

Please feel free to critique and add input. 

21 Jan-TBD
 

Mon:
Pushups (100), situps (100), 2 mi. run, pullups (to failure)

Tues:
5 mi. run

Wed:
Bench press, Squat, Overhead barbell press, Deadlift, Lat pulldown, Incline db flyes, Seated row, Behind the back bb shrug, Romanian Deadlift, I-Y-T’s

Thurs:
Intervals (run), single leg calf raise, ski jumper calf raise, leg press calf raise, Hammer strength crunches

Fri:
Arm supersets
 

Barbell curl/Lying barbell tricep extension (behind head)

Preacher curl/Skull crusher

Concentration curl/Close grip bench press

Hammer curl/Cable one-arm tricep extension 

Sat:
5 mi. run

Once I get home, My next phase will likely empasize Lats and Delts in pursuit of a V-Taper.