yardarts’s BodyBlog

GRRRRRRR

I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Denver for six nights last week and was forced to use their gym.

Why is it so hard to dedicate a little space and a one time investment in equipment for these hotel gyms! The gym was your usual combination of a couple elipticals, treadmills and do-it-all weight machines. they had a small assortment of free weights but only one bench (not bench press mind you, just a multi height bench). Now, when I say a small assortment what I mean is that all the weights are small. The heaviest weight was a single pair of 50’s.

They didn’t have a machine for working chest at all and, in the absense of a bench press, cable cross, or other substitute there was really not a good way to get the workout done.

 I hate to whine about this but I travel a lot and this hotel gym situation, even in highly rated hotels, seriously lacks somethign to be desired.

O.K. kids, thanks for listening. They did have a tennis court on the roof though which was awsome and I had a blast playing up there.

O.K. for a guy who has been doing this for a while, I should be more aware of some of the basic principles like….squats are good, I should do squats.

I have always been concerned with the dangers of doing straight bar squats in the gym. I was also concerned about the drama of having to drop a bar in my "fitness club" the way other guys do in their "Gyms" when they can’t get "out of the hole"

Anyway, the result was that I never did squats away from the smith machine and I hated doing them there anyway.

Well, recently I decided that I needed to do them thanks to my good friends here at bb.com and, well, I had an epiphany . The clouds parted, I heard angels sing and I realized that I’m not nearly as bad at doing squats as I thought I was. Damn if that bar doesn’t feel good on my traps. Powering through that bar from the floor feels awsome and my legs are pumped like never in my life.

 I guess that the angle of that smith combined with the rigidity of having to adjust my body to the bar and not the other way around has really limited my squatting experience. I can feel ten pounds of leg weight piling up already!

O.K. Well, I’m feeling like I’m back in pretty good condition. I’m back up to the weight I was at when I left training due to a job change a year ago or so. I’m back up to 181 lb. up from 165 lbs. just a couple of months ago. My strength is back and my diet is right. I decided that I need to get back into some of the large multiple muscle group excercises like BENCH PRESS, SQUATS, DEADLIFTS, etc.

I started today by getting back into benchpress. I rarely and almost never have a partner so I all but gave up on bench just to avoid the need to ask people for a spot. Well, when I left last year my max was above 300. I worked out with 225 today and it was the right weight so I was pleased. I’m at a phase where my first set should only bear out about 8 reps. My chest is sore today so I see that it worked.

I’ll be doing delts and traps tommorrow but, after a couple days off, I’ll be doing heavy deadlifts.

I need to get up to 200 lbs. bodyweight by next summer and I need some breakthrough action here.

Well, i hate to admit it but I really blew it. I had some career and lifestyle changes after the house fire and I let my training go completely. I did run a lot during 2008 but I haven’t been in the gym hardly at all since mid 2007. I can hardly believe it has been that long…uuurgh! Well, no matter, I’m back again and have been lifting steadily for about two months now. I’m gaining weight steadily and am almost up to the weights I was lifting before the furlough. I love the fact that, once you have reached a certain level with your muscles they seem to return to that level with relative ease. I’m not thrilled with the way I look but I’ll be posting current pictures here very soon and will track my progress more carefully this time. I am also eating a lot right now since my end goal is to be around 190 lbs lean. I’m at 175 or so now but with a lot of fat.

O.K. thanks for checking in. I’ll also be posting videos of some of my stronger lifts soon. 

Well, we had a big house fire at my place. We pretty much lost everything. I’ve been out of the gym about two weeks and I felt like garbage yesterday when I got back for the first time. I worked chest and triceps and man was it miserable. I think, more than anything, that I felt so bad because my sleeping and eating habits were thrown off since I’ve been living in a hotel room. Things are looking up though. Monday I’ll be in a rent house and I’m sure I’ll find a new home soon. I’m not going to let things take me away from the gym though. I’m back and plan to break the 200 lb bodyweaight mark this year!

I finally broke the 300 lb mark for bench press! Wooo Hoooo!  I know, I know, maxes don’t completely represent a bodybuilders sucess but it sure gives you some street credit! I weigh 175 today and bench 300. The weight went up pretty easily and I’m sure I could have gotten 310 or 315 or so but I was just thrilled with my 300. I didn’t even care to go on. It was my delt and trap day and I took my brother in law with me and he was like " what do you max?" He wanted to see what I could do so I decided to give it a try before I started my delts and traps. I pushed 135 and then 225 for warm up and then went to 300 even. I’m psyched…now I need a new goal. Thanks for listening guys!

Awsome, it happened…I broke through a plateau.

You know how that happens…you go three weeks and the same weight just keeps feeling heavy and you can’t move up? I finally broke through yesterday working chest and triceps. Funny thing is my strength went way up. I hade been working on a free weight loaded machine for decline bench where I usually use 135 lbs. per side. I got into the chair, put on the seat belt, and pushed each handle with 135 like I’d been doing it for years…of course the last three weeks did feel like years. I got out after stopping at 12 reps and put on another 45 for each side for a total of 180 per side and did my next set failing at rep number 9. I did two more sets failing at 7 and then at 6.

What was the answer? Diet! The only thing that has changes in the last week was my diet. I found a brand of protein that I like the taste of and, subsequently, drank about 60 grams per day more than I had been. Feels good, I can’t wait to do delts and traps today. My military press has been stalled at 135 lbs. and I hope that I can break through (if my tri’s arent too weak).

Man, I was sicker than a setter this past new year’s weekend.

I was like a baby, well according to my wife anyway. I went to the gym today for the first time since last Thursday. I felt good and I really haven’t lost any strength but I did lose about six pounds while I was sick. Back at it though, with the realization that illness and injury can really hammer your results so be careful out there amigos.

Well, we had a big company party and it was awsome! My wife and I had a great time and the company gave away lots of expensive gifts. The best part of all… I have to be honest…. was when people commented to me about how much bigger I am. I wear a dress shirt to work and so my results are hidden . I went in a short sleve that is thin and rests against my body. I don’t feel like I need people’s approval every day to be happy, but it really did make me feel good to have people see the results of so much hard work. 

Well, I’m happy to report that I kept my weight on after my cycle of Methyl-1-A. I’m near a month out from the end of my cycle and I weigh 180 lbs. today so I didn’t lose the weight. I’m a little fat but I think that is mostly attributed to my holiday cheating. I have a mental block to get past and I need help! I have been training chest and triceps and have made major strength gains over the past four months using the type of bench press machines where you put the weights on them (no Cables) and the machine has the swing-arms on a hinge. Plus I do flies with dumbells and flies with a pec machine. I do triceps press downs with cables, nose breakers, and dips. The problem is that this strength has not really translated into a stronger bench press. I usually can’t work bench because I lift during my lunch and I don’t have a partner. I am positive that I have more strength for this lift but the bar still feels heavy. I want to break the 300lb. ceiling and I wanted to do it by the end of this year. I honestly think that it is my lack of comfort under the bar that is keeping me from lifting it.

Is there any advise out there for training up to a higher bench when strength is not necessarily the problem?