M83MATT’s BodyBlog

Well today I turned 45 yearsold.  Spent most of the day traveling home from a family celebration, 5 hours away from home.  My wife’s Grandparents were celebrating their 62 nd. Wedding Anniversary.  Amazing!  Driving on long road trips always gives me time reflect on my life and today was no differant.  Turning 45 was no big deal,  my kids were excited for me and my 7 yearold son couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t more excited.  One thing that I did focus on was the goal of getting in the best shape possible for my age.  I do not want to remain the person I have been over the last 15 years. If I do not reverse the downward spiral of age I will be miserable and that is just not an option.

Well I am back and feeling more positive.  I had a good workout yesterday and today.  Monday 4-13-09 woke up 6:00 a.m. accomplished 25 min cardio,  11:30 a.m. went to Gold’s and worked chest 45 min (great workout) and then hit the stairstepper for another 25min.  Tuesday 6:00 a.m. 25 min cardio lunch time workout Back 45 min workout with 25 min cardio on stairstepper.  So lifting and cardio are getting back on the right track…Now I have to get the diet clean and more consistent.

Been taking some time away from bodybuilding.com.  My daughters competitive league basketball is taking alot of my time.  We spent last weekend snowed in at Laramie Wyoming a 5 1/2 hour drive from home.  It was a good tournemant and the girls took 2nd place and are now 10-2.  I have also been trying to get caught up with my photography class that I have been taking from NYIP out of New York and I have begun to get my head above water.  My son’s baseball season just started which means 2 to 3 games a week and let’s see between the 70 degree weather 1 week and then 6 inches of snow the next here in Colorado,  my lawn is growing like crazy and it is time to do all of my spring yard work.  So my workouts have taken a back seat to life. I am nowhere near accomplishing my goals by my birthday (4-26-09 soon to be 45). And I know if I don’t get back soon I will begin to spiral out of control and take a huge step backwards like usual.  So Kick my ASS! and tell me to quit whining and get it together!!!  I need to quit making excuses and stay consistent.  Time to re-commit.

Trying leg workout with new training method.  Cut weight and reps and tore it up.  I walked out of the gym completley fatigued.  And I am sitting here and my legs feel exhausted and sore.  Still feeling the burn in my arms and chest from the last two days.  Extra soreness could be from the change in routine but it really amazes me that it was achieved by dropping weight and reps.  Before with my previous routine I concentrated on form with heavier weight and 12 - 15 reps.  I am now lifting lighter weight and performing 3×7.  Squeezing the weight up very very slowly and then returning the weight the same way, taking roughly 20 seconds to complete 1 rep.  The weight gets heavier and heavier through out the rep feeling as if it is 3 times the weight.  I am pretty impressed and plan on continueing this method the next 3 weeks.

I recently got in touch with my cousin that I speak to on occasion by phone.  I regret not keeping in touch more he is a great person and he always cracks me up when we visit.  My main goal in contacting him this week was to pick his brain on training.  Clint has always been into body building since we were younger and has won several body building competitions.  He is 46 and has always built naturally, no creatine, no protien shakes, no nothing.  He does it all with diet (chicken breast, fish, buffalo meat, brown rice, corn, and beans.  The thing that blew me away the most though is his training method,  which I put into use today and I am even more blown away. Today I worked chest and right now I feel as if my chest is one big bruise.  The thing is I cut my weight in half and my reps in half and I actually feel like I had done the exact opposite.  I am going to continue with Clints training advice with all body parts and see how it goes.  I will keep anyone interested, posted on the results.  I am expecting good results.  Clint has won his class in his last two competitions using this training method and is presently training for a third competition in May.

Spent the last two days off work taking care of my seven year-old.  It’s bad enough getting sick during training but it seems that when our kids get sick, it’s like being sick ourselves.  They take so much time when taking care of them (and worrying when they spike that high fever)that it just wears a person out.  The other "Monkey Wrench" in my training is the fact that my secretary had a baby boy last Monday and she is on Maternity leave.  I have been having a hard time getting away from work during lunch to work-out.  Just need to work through it and keep on pushing.  I’m going to hit cardio right now and then work chest.  Until tomorrow!

I’m back after spending spring break with my children in Darango Colorado spent time site seeing the area and climbing all over the Indian ruins of Mesa Verde.  We all had a great time.  Also spent the weekend watching my 14 yearold daughter playing in a Basketball tournement.  Her team took second place with a hard fought loss in the championship game loosing by only 4 points.  I was really proud of her,  she is 10 times better at basketball then I was at the same age.  Had a great Chest and Back workout.  I did supersets.  Chest  High cable flys 3×12, low cable flys 3×12, mid. cable flys, Incline press 3×12, decline press 3×12, flat press 3×12.  Back cable rows 3×12, Pull downs 3×12, and t-bar rows 3×12.  Plan for tomorrow will be cardio in the A.M. and legs at lunch.

Worked out shoulders and abs today.  Plate front raises 3×15, lateral raises 3×15, bent over lateral raises 3×15,  Arnold dumbell press 4×15.  This is were I had my problem- I was feeling the good burn and on my second set felt a completely differant pain in the rear head of my left shoulder.  It kind of made me nervous because I had never experienced that sensation before.  I rested a little longer before my next set and was able to finish out the remainder of my sets although I felt a little weaker in my left shoulder.  I was wondering if maybe I made an error in doing my press’s last??  I feel alright at the moment just the normal soreness. Tomorrow will be the telling tale.  Finished up with a great ab workout.  Hi cable wood chop 3×15, Low cable wood chops 3×15, cable side bends 3×15, and standing cable crunches.  Tomorrow will be Bicep and Tricep workout  (supersets)  Oh! forgot went 2 hours basketball, for cardio.

It used to be that I hated training legs!  Before joining Gold’s I use to do all my workouts with dumbells and training legs seemed to be limited to Dumbell squats, lunges,deadlifts and calf raises.  Now I am enjoying all the differant possibilities in the Gym.  When working with dumbells I was always limited with weight and would experience cramping in my hands and forearms when working with heavy weight.  I now enjoy pushing the heavier weight and feel I am getting a much better workout.  Great workout today my legs are exhausted.  I did experience cramps in my hamstrings.  I am pretty sure I wasn’t dehydrated but temperatures here in Colorado are getting much warmer. (65-67 today)

My wife is the Infection Control Coordinator at our local hospital.  She is very intelligent and does a very good job at what she does.  She just finished interviewing me for an assignment she is working on for her continueing education in her field.  My question to anybody out there is.  How do the educational know it alls come up with their Ideal body weight charts.  Evidently for my weight I am suppose to weigh 178 lbs.  Now how in the He** am I suppose to do that.  If this were true I would have to loose 6 lbs. of lean muscle and have a 0% body fat.  I would have to say, that is impossible!  I get so frustrated with the so called experts using their charts.  There are so many more variables to consider.  Worse yet is my wife sits there looking at me like I don’t know what I am talking about,  when I tell her that the charts are full of $hit.  Hopefully she doesn’t have the expectation that I should weigh 178lbs.  What I do know is that I started out at 265lbs @33%bf. = 177.5 lean mass 87.45bf  I am now at 242lbs. at 24%bf = 184 lean mass 58bf.  That is a gain of 6.5lbs muscle and a loss of 29.45 fat not to bad.  So I say to he** with the charts!!!! 178lbs. Is not a reasonable goal.  But my actual goal of 215 @ 12%bf is!! All I have to do is loose another 33lbs of fat and gain 5.5 lbs. of lean muscle.  very do-able.  So wish me luck!