Raashid’s BodyBlog

My workouts have been starting off quite lazy of late.  Catchingthe tube to the gym in the July heat, I normally wake up abruptly at my stop from a fairly good slumber.
Which makes me wonder, the alternating cut and bulk cycles are meant to be timed so that we look our best when we’re likely to be flashing the most flesh: summertime?  Makes sense, but for that to work, we’d have to begin a cut cycle before the sun comes out.  For those of us in the northern hemisphere, summer typically means June-August.  Given that bodyfat can generally only be reduced by around 1% a month, presumably even a reasonably in shape guy will therefore need to start cutting from March/April as I did.  I finished my cut cycle at the end of June and am now bulking up again, whereas I see most guys in the gym are still cutting.  What gives?  Shaping up those abs, just to show them off for a week at the end of August?

But this attempt to bulk up in summer doesn’t sit right either.  These long summer afternoons induce a laziness that winter doesn’t.  As I stated earlier, I’m just waking up from commuters siesta when I get to the gym.  And I tend t not have the appetite in summer so am having to resort to meal replacement drinks. Yuck!

So it begs the question for obsessed bodybuilders.  What to do in summer?

Just when the second week of training was going well, an old weak link prevented me really blitzing my lats: "*** hands" as Jake La Motta called them.  Puny, girly small hands which cause me to lose grip before the actual lats are fully  pummelled.  Skinny forearms fail as well.
UPDATE: Apologies for the offence that seems to have been caused judging by the first comments I’ve got on my blog, put it down as the eccentric British sense of humour.  I’m more surprised that somone actually read one of my posts

I know, an oxymoron right?  Actually, my calves have taken a full week to recover, as a result, today’s session didn’t really progress as such and I had to take yesterday off as no bodypart was free of ache.  so looks like I can’t stick strictly to my proposed schedule, as it will depend on recovery time.  Still learning!

The dreaded squats begun again, a lot lower weight then a few months back tho.  Defintiely felt stronger for the extra calories, will be intersting to see if I can keep flab at bay whilst building up again.

With just under 2 months before Ramadan, I’ll try and bulk cleanly until September with the following regime:

Sunday - Biceps, triceps

Monday - Thighs, lower back, forearms

Tuesday - Shoulders, abs

Wednesday - Back

Thursday - Chest, calves

Need to up my calries again and the protein!

Finally over, this reduced calorie period that made me lose loads of muscle as well.  It’s been a learning experience, next time, I’ll keep my protein intake higher.  Did my last HIIT run today:

5min - 8kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kph

1min - 9kph

4min - 6kph

Workouts seem to be getting worse!  Strength has been lost and funny how wide grip bench press is harder then narrow grip.  Shows how much I’ve neglected my upper chest.

From next week - hardcore bulking before Ramadan!

A very gorgeous lady suggested I muster the energy for my HHIT session and it paid dividends:

2min - 9kph

1min - 16kpk

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kpk

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kpk

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kpk

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kpk

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kpk

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kpk

1min - 10kph

1min - 16kpk

3min - 6kph - walking pace warm down!