Train insane or remain the same…

It was almost like green eggs and ham.  I kept running away from it, avoiding it, laughing at it, and then I finally broke down and tried it.  Now I love it.  I can’t wait to get some more of it.  Yoga, yeah, yoga.  I’ve been lifting weights since I was about 12 and I loved getting stronger.  I never thought i’d actually do something like yoga.  I didn’t think it would intense enough.  It’s nothing like deadlifting or squattin til you puke, but it is intense in it’s own way. 

You ever notice how some pics just grab your attention?  For a little while now when I get on bodyspace Jen_absgirl’s abs jump out at me.  I know it happens to yall too, don’t front.  That shits rediculous ( in a good way).  Got me to thinking about some of them old photos when my bodyfat was low and there was a bit of definition showing.  I kind of miss it.  We’ll see where this goes.  I am already pushing the ides of doing very limited weight training for a few months so I can focus on stretching and balance.  I’ll be doing a bunch of cardio and core training too.  I’m definitely not going to get abs like Jen, but I know I can get my gut back down to at least 35".

If you haven’t read Bronwyn’s blog on how she got into bodybuilding, leave my page and go read it.  It’s a real good story.  Very inspiring stuff coming out of that lady.  I would have read it again if I wasn’t at work.  I probably shouldn’t be writing this since i’m at work.

So cheers to yoga.  This will definitely be a regular part of my training no matter what phase I am in. 

Well I did a weight check today and found myself out of the band I would prefer to stay in.  I know I can’t sit at the same weight forever. I figure to stay within a ten pound band (185-195).  Well I was at 197.4 when I first weighed myself and then 196.6 the second time I weighed myself.  ( There was about 4 hours in between.  So that was the slap in the face I needed.  I’ve been eating a lot of fast food since my wife is about 3 months pregnant now.  I have also been drinking way too much beer over the last month.  So with todays ugly numbers (196.6, 17.7% BF, 37.75" waist) I have a new mindset. 

I am not hitting weights right now.  Last year I had a dream of working out a yearly schedule to work on power, flexibilty & core strength, and hypertrophy.  The whole thing was suppose to work in 4 quarters and I’d be able to plan out what I wanted to accomplish for each quarter.  Unfortunately things didn’t work out the way I planned.  I tried to push and get ready for my first powerlifting meet last November and hurt myself cause I wasn’t getting enough rest.  I thought about going in a competition in February, but once again, i hurt myself.  There’s a recurring theme here.  After giving up on the idea that I would ever actually do a competition, I jumped into my first PL meet in May.  Everything went great except the ripping, tearing sensation I felt in my lower back.  Did I just hurt myself again? 

Well, I believe I am at the end of that cycle.  I have done all these things knowing I have some pretty bad flexibility issues.  The reason I hurt myself at the meet was a flexibility issue.  A lot of the other injuries were caused by being impatient and not giving myself enough rest.  I am putting the weights down for a little while.  I’ll go for a month, maybe two.  I’ll be doing my fair share of cardio, and in new developments, i’ve finally started doing some yoga.  I believe that right now the best thing I can do for my body is work on my foundation.  I’ve put too much focus on weight lifting and lost sight of the big picture.  It’s going to take a while to get myself up to par, but hopefully in the end this move will improve my overall well being as well as my PL lifts.  

That’s right,  I said it.  I had myself a little fun squatting today before coming to work.  Now my hamstrings are hollerin at me.  I’m thinking that it was a good thing I left out the lunges at this point.  I’d probably be crying right now.  Better not say nothing about crying.  My last blog got me a suggested trip to get my estrogen levels checked.  I only had about 30-40 minutes to knock it out before leaving for work, but here it goes:

5 minute elliptical for warmup

Squats 135 x 10, 135 x 10, 185 x 7, 185 x 7, 185 x 7.  (Barbell)

Hack squats (135 x 7)x3 (Barbell)

Stiff leg deadlift 135 x 10 x 3 (Barbell)

Calf raise 185 x 20 x 3 (Barbell)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I’m suppose to into all this powerlifting jazz, but I got arthritis in my hips so it is what it is.  I’m trying to take it slow with the squats.  I don’t get to do them as much anymore depending on how things feel.  But I can easily take myself out of the squat business by trying to jump up in weight to fast.  Plus, I have to practice going as deep as possible and getting my hips below 90 so I can do unequipped powerlifting.  I’m trying to go slow and easy man.  I get to excited about stuff and let things get out of control.  I guess I also got hurt less 4,5,6 years ago cause I usually had a workout partner. 

I posted my weight, BF%, and waist measurement.  I am going to try and get some pictures done this week on my days off.  I am also going to start video taping my exercises and putting them on the bodyspace page so people can give me feedback.  Unfortunately for me that’s about as close as I can get to having a workout partner since I live in the boonies and folks I work with aren’t into fitness.  Did I mention my legs hurt?

Well, I haven’t really been hittin the weights like I planned.  I felt a weird pain in my chest about 3 weeks ago and just stopped.  (Recall, I damaged my butt bone May 3rd at a PL meet).So I decided that I needed to take a step back if I was really serious about competing in November.  I started doing a little more stretching which felt great, but on the down side I started piggin.  I can’t hide it either cause when I’m stuffin junk food down my throat I tend to break out really bad.  I would say something bad about the beer, but that’s just not right to talk bad about the beer so we’ll just excuse that thought.  I tried to do a little yoga and bought some cheesy dvd from walmart cause I seriously didn’t know where to start.  The video had to be from the mid ’80’s or something.  I could watch it seriously, so I stopped.  I have started back weight training with my powerblocks.  I realized that I didn’t get hurt as much when i was training with dumbbells most of the time.  I was a lot stronger back then cause I didn’t get hurt and have to take so much time off.  Now i’m sitting around with a bag of chips ahoy thinking about working out, but then again, well, ………..  I guess I don’t have anymore excuses for what i am doing.  Every now and then I need to binge. The thing I have to correct mentally right now is having my goodies for a short period and getting back focused on my goals.  I’d like to get some new pictures up, man boobs and all.  Actually i’m still better off than when I started.  I am just not as solid as I felt about 8 months ago.  Shout-out’s to my two new friends Holy-N-Swole and Nakedpagan, (it looks funny putting those two names together), check them out and show them some love. 

So for a while I’ve been thinking about getting into some yoga or pilates for the whole core strength and flexibility thing.  Everytime I get close to starting I end up dropping it.  i love hittin weights.  I don’t think that I wont get challenged by yoga.  I am sure that it’ll kick my ass.  That doesn’t change the way I think about hittin weight.  So I think i’m going to try out the kettlebells for a while.

375 on the deadlift.  375 was nice but now I want 400.  375 is in the past, an old friend, a one hitter quitter.  400 is the newest sexy thang on the block.  The only problem for me is, I can’t get 400 just yet.  I want to sooo bad.  But I need to wait.  I still have to go to the doctor a get my back evaluated.  I am not in any pain really, but I don’t want to chance nothing just yet.  I got her posted up on the wall though and everytime I’m in the gym I think about it.  The video of 375 looks too easy.  I swear I should have gone 400.  But then again, if I failed 400 I wouldn’t be jumpin up for joy about going back to 375. 

I’m still pissed about that bench press failure.  I can’t wait to get under the bar again.  Frankly, f*** 270.  At least that’s how i feel about it.  That b#&%@ a$$ mutha…… whoo wee I need to get back.   I don’t like 270. 270 been talkin sh@! for years now and I just been taking it.  I’m tired of it.  I’ve had 300 hundred on my mind but 270 275 and 280 been in my way gigglin and pointin.  To hell with them though.  I’ma get mine.  From here on out it’s redrum on the bench. 

Talkin all that sh%t, I guess I better not hurt myself. 

I don’t.  Just so you know.  I am thinking that I need to get my legs into the act a bit more.   It’s funny how things have changed over the years.  When I first started waaaaay back in the early 90’s I was all about the leg strength.  That help me run faster and jump higher but if someone nudged me the slightest bit i’d go flying.  The last 5 or 6 years have been all about my upper body strength ( justified by diagnosis of arthritis in my left hip).  Now I am desiring going back to the heavy leg lifestyle.  all in all, i’ll  be best if I get into the whole body lifestyle and stop living with chicken legs. 

I’ve been looking into kettlebells and how to use them.  I think they’ll be a good addition to my gym.  I don’t really know what weight to start with though.  I’ll probably find a book on it first and read up a bit.

Can’t say my nutrition is all that great, but I am hoping the addition of a few different protein bars will help cover me on those moments I want to jusmp out and have a snickers or something.  I don’t really know what kind of nutrition value Appleton Rum has  but it sure is good!  Oops, this aint the site for all of that.  Gotta go make me a myspace page or something. 

So I am finally training insane so I can change.  I’m almost afraid to try and set a permanent training split cause that just means i’ll end up falling off again.  It’s easiest for me to just not try and have too much structure in all of it.  This is suppose to be an outlet and not a stressor.  Since the saturday before last I have been doing Shoulders, Triceps, Chest, Biceps and then 2 days off, repeat.  I already got chicken legs so it don’t matter!  Just kiddin’.  I wasn’t comfortable doing any back or leg work because of the issue with my lower back.  I did do a little cable work for my back yesterday but I don’t really count that.  It don’t count unless i’m back to deadlifting or doing cleans.  I’m going to do some leg curls and extensions when I get home from work in a couple of hours but that don’t really count either.  I can’t wait to get back to squatting. 

I am going to try and do this APF competition in august.  It will probably be bench only depending on how I heal.  I don’t really want to jump back into it too early.  Right now the bench press work is feeling real good.  I’m doing more inclines and declines than anything else.  i’ve been stuck at the same level so long and never really was motivated to change things up too much.  Well now I am trying to chase a record or 2 and I got to do something.  There aint much else to say.  Nobody really to talk to about any of this stuff so im doing the ‘dear diary’ deal.   

So after talking about it all last year, I finally completed my first power-sports competition.  It was pretty cool going through the whole event.  I learned a lot.  The biggest thing for me though was getting past the nervous feeling of standing in front of an audience.  After my first couple lifts it wasn’t a problem.  I had made the reference before that competing would be like shooting free throws in a basketball game.  Ironically, this competition was in a basketball gym.  This blog is even boring me.  That’s why i haven’t written any in a while.

So i set a personal best in the deadlift.  It came with a price though.  I felt something tear in my lower back.  Maybe it’s just my imagination but something aint right back there and I’ll have to go to the doctor soon.  I figure it was just a form issue.  I didn’t even think i would pull 350 so I was quite amazed when I got 375.  The bench press was interesting cause the ‘press’ command comes at such different times.  Believe me, every second counts when the weight is sitting on your chest.  I made 249 with ease but failed on 270.  Oh well, now I know what to expect.  Power-sports does a strict curl instead of squats.  This works out great for me since I have that bum hip issue and squats are a little ‘iffy’.    I curled 127 in the end of it all and was pretty happy. 

i guess the back story to all of this would be that i haven’t trained much for the competition.  I did get most of march down consistantly, but then I got really sick the first week of april and was out of things for a few weeks.  I figured I’d do the competition anyway just to learn.  Somehow, I got first in my division.  There must have not been anybody else in the division.  But you know what……… I still got a trophy for first place.  Now I have the competition bug.  I can’t wait for the NASA master’s- sub masters in november.  i believe they do a regional meet along with that meet.  If that’s the case I will definitely get involved.  I think before it just seemed like something I might want to try out.  The reality is that I might have actually found something i can compete in.  It’s going to take a lot of work cause I think the sub master divisions will be where I get my first taste of what fighting for fifth feels like. 

 Fortunate for me, there are no picture of me in the singlet I had to wear.  Let’s just say I put on some pounds since I bought it.  I’ll definitely be trying to put the video of my PR deadlift on the bodyspace page. 

Man, I sure didn’t think things would fall off this bad.  I haven’t been on the site too much since I started taking college classes again.  I have learned a lot form this health and nutrition course.  Hopefully i’ll work harder to apply some of the new knowledge i’ve gained.  I am also still having a hell of a time keeping up with a regular training schedule.  No need explaining why I can’t, i’ll just keep pushing to find ways I can.  My son is doing well and my wife has lost a bunch of the baby weight.  We still got to get out there and try some tennis.  Nothing real interesting going on for me in the world of fitness.  I’m working on power/strength gains.  I hope I can compete in a powerlifting competition in May.  I’m even scheduling vacation for it.  I missed out on about 4 comps last year cause of my work schedule and that was rather disappointing.  As always it’s great to get motivation from the bodyspace family.  The times I have come on here I try to shoot a comment or two.  Finals are coming up so hopefully i’ll get back into the groove of this blog before my next class starts.  Til next time.  (I need to go do something so I can have a good story to tell.)