RangerUpbitch’s BodyBlog

Unfortunately I didn’t make it.  Back on the 22nd of March I was supposed to be doing a pose down.  I worked extremely hard for it and I probably would have won.  Well that’s what the others said.  I had to go on for emergency leave because my grandmother that helped raise me for a few years passed away.  I got back on the 21st but the sandstorms in Kuwait kept the airplanes grounded for almost a week.  I got back here to Iraq late on the 27th.  I’ll keep building on what I got.  There’s no rush to compete right now.  It was just frustrating because I had my song, my trunks, and my posing routine down.  Next time…

Today i received my much anticipated kettlebells from Performbetter.I purchased two 16 kg kettlebells and one 24kg kettlebell.

I’ve used several different brands including the very expensive dragondoor ones.  I am very pleased with the perform better kettlebells because first they were cheaper, second they are vinyl covered, and third the handles are similar if not the same as the dragondoor ones.  I got all three kettlebells for $270 bucks including shipping over to Iraq.  I would also like to add that the staff at performbetter was awesome helping me out with customer service etc answering all my questions very quickly even when I was showing no interest in buying the equipment right away.  I’ve used kettlebells before, but never my own.  I love kettlebell training and believe that they have helped me attain the level of fitness that i currently have.  I have several different circuits that I do mostly for metabolic conditioning.  I noticed I can run through a few rounds of the circuits as opposed to running and I get better results than running or walking on a treadmill for an extended period of time.  I don’t believe there is a substitute for kettlebell training and they would help nearly anyone trying to get "fit".  Any questions shoot them my way!  RANGER OUT!

I got my new toy for the gym.  it’s by far the best jumprope i’ve ever owned.  it better be.  it cost me 45 bucks including shipping to have it shipped over to Iraq.  i jumped yesterday with it and I jumped for 10 minutes for a cool down today.  I’ve read in several different spots that 10 minutes of jump rope at 120 turns per minute burns just as many calories as running for 30 minutes.  I’m not sure how fast of a run, but whatever.  My legs were tired when i was finished nonetheless.  if you love jumpin rope i recommend one of these ropes.  I use it to warm up and cool down.  It gets me a good sweat started before i hit anything else in the gym.  i think the MWR staff in the gym was getting tired of me wearing out and breaking all their ropes, so i got my own and it’s better then theirs so there. 

 Great peice of equipment for any home gym.  less than 90 days till i get till leave Iraq.  WOOT! 

Ranger OUT!

Well guys i entered a powerlifting competition that happened tonight.  It was my first official powerlifting competition ever.  It wasn’t a sanctioned event or anything but it was fun nonetheless.  I took 2nd place.  I lost by 2 10,000th’s of a point.  Talk about close.  Anyway i’m really happy with the results.  I didn’t have any personal records and i only failed on one lift.  We only were allowed two tries per lift, so I stayed conservative which is probably why i lost.  No biggie, i’ll win the next one.

Bench 250 good 270 failed…i did 275# earlier this week so that was frustrating

Dead 385 good 415 good

Squat 345 good 365 good

I got at least another 20-30 pounds on each dead and squat, I learned a lot about what i’m capable of and where to start in the future.  Good Stuff

So here they are

3 rounds of 20 reps 40# kettlebell swings, 40reps 50# pushpress, 60 reps air squats.  Time: 10:27

7×5reps deadlifts: 225, 245, 275, 295, 315, 335, 365 and 5×5 incline DB bench, 90# Dumbells

Today:  Joshie: 3 rounds of 21 L-Pullups, 21reps 40# db snatch, 21 L-Pullups, 21reps 40#DB snatch.  Time: 17:27

Ok so the past few days i’ve slacked off adding my workouts.  But here they are.

 Today was 5×7reps squat I went heavy at 335# and 7×5 reps of bench and i went really heavy for me…i was failing on reps 3-5, but i was focusing on the negative with a lot of help on the way up at 275#.

Yesterday

7 rounds 10 ring dips, 10 95# thruster, 30 27" box jump.  time: 16:27 This was a real smoker.  followed by medicine ball ab work

The day before

5 rounds of 10reps 55# kettlebell swing, 10 reps 55# kettlebell snatch and mills, 25 glute-ham-dev situps Time:10:27

Followed by: 5×10 55# dumbells shoulder press, 5×20 20# dumbells lateral raises, 5×10 270# shrugs

The day before that:

20 minutes of 10 dips, 15 205# squats, 25 situps.  i did 12 rounds and just under 21 minutes. 

THAT’S!  180 REPS OF 205#

this is one of my favorite workouts because of the sheer amount of volume of weight you push.

And the Jan 31st:

3 rounds of DEATH   of 15 reps 225# deadlift, 15reps 95# thruster, 15 pullups, 15 handstand pushups.  Time 12:29

Alright so on March 22 there’s a pose down here at our post gym.  I feel like i could probably win this thing.  I’m not the biggest guy, but i have a well balanced physique.  I’m decently cut, but i think my back and chest need some work.  It’s about 2 months out.  I’m wondering how i can win this thing, strategically that is.  There are some big guys around here but i haven’t seen too many of them cut up.  Most of them just heave a bunch of weight and get big but i never see them doing anything to cut themselves up.  So i pose(pun intended) a few questions.  Do you think i should bulk for the next 5 weeks and then cut for 3 weeks?  What would be a better interval?  As far as supplements, i’m on 6-oxo an estrogen blocker/antagonist or whatever, protein, and creatine, but i’ve been able to consistently put on 1-2 pounds of lean muscles a month.  Should i take longer to get a better cut?  When should i stop taking the creatine etc?  I won’t get rid of the Crossfit WOD’s that i do, but i can definitely add some long slow cardio to cut up in place of the strength/bulking workouts that i do afterward.  Any wisdom out there?

Anyway here was the workout of the day for my Crossfitted self:

9 rounds of superset of 5reps 115# thruster, 5reps 55# weight pullup, 5reps handstand-pushups, 25 gluteham-dev situps.  Time: 24:01.

I finished with the following bodybuilding strenth supplementation: 5 sets of 10 reps 65# laying skull crushers, and 5 sets of 8 reps 80# dumbells incline bench. 

3 rounds of 15reps 55# turkish get-up windmills, 15reps 55# dumbells lunges, 25 dips.  Time:  23:05

This workout seems like it shouldn’t take that long but the stupid get-up mills smoke the dog piss out of you.  I didn’t take too many breaks, and I was surprised to see my finishing time.  It didn’t seem like i was doing it for that long.  I felt good pushing through.  I wanted to take some breaks, but my workout partner is obsessed with trying to beat me and well i wasn’t about to let him.  I thought he was going to take a break here and there but he’d start his next getup almost immediately.  It’s crazy how a little competitiveness will make you do so much more.  I was rolling on the floor laughing at one point when he was in the standing part of the getup about to start the windmill and his arm kind of collapsed and the dumbell glanced off his face and hit the floor.  He was okay and laughing too so it’s all good. 

Bodybuilding work out for the day went as follows:

4 sets of superset of 10 reps 100# dumbells shrugs with 10 reps 65# preacher curls.

4 sets of superset of 10 reps 50# dumbells standing shoulder press and 20 reps 20 # dumbells lateral raises.

Finished with 3 sets of the triplet: 25 glute-ham-situps, 25 leglifts, 25 pushups.

Easy bodybuilding workout as usual.  I barely broke a sweat.  I still like doing the traditional bodybuilding workouts, but i definitely don’t get my biggest results from doing it.  I think doing the extra few pumps during the bodybuilding portion may help with my crossfit workouts.  Some of my times have gotten better since i started doing it.  Don’t get me wrong though…when i first started crossfit i wouldn’t dare do anything extra over the workout of the day, but it just doesn’t seem like i’m doing enough with just the WOD.  Crossfit is super demanding, and hard especially when you’re starting out.   

This is just a vent. 

Alright how many people go to the gym and smoke the dog piss out of themselves?  I’m sure anyone that’s worth a damn on this site does so.  I’m sure you get weird looks from other gym goers and you know what i’m talking about.  Well my big workouts are kind of equipment intensive.  A lot of times i use 2 oly bars and rarely i use 3 oly bars.  The only reason i do 3 rarely is because when i’m using 2, guys look at me like i’m an idiot.  Most often times it’s these fat mf’ers that give me these looks.  Or times when i’m using the pullup bar with one oly bar sitting in front of it i get these same looks.  I could understand getting these looks if i’m taking my time between the 2 bars talking and bs’ing or whatever but i’m almost always going back and forth constantly.  When they do take the bar when i’m all finished all they wanted to do was some bicep curls with an Oly bar instead of the 4 curl bars sitting in the rack.  WTF?

Along the same lines, my gym is kind of crappy because of the limited equipment but why in the f#$% would you use the only squat rack available to rack your weight for some bicep curls.  First of all you’re using an oly-bar to do curls and second of all you’re to f%#$ing lazy to stand up with the weight and do your curls.  Space and equipment is limited in understand, but why the f%$#  would you have no gym courtesy whatsoever.  Another rant, if you have a pot belly why the hell are you working on your biceps? 

Second rant on the squat rack-  why are you hogging the squat rack with 10 sets of half squats?  half squats don’t mean shyte.  These guys brag to each other saying man i squated 405.  WTF?  No you half squated 405.  I was reading InkCreeps blog about what are these guys calling parallel?  "Parallel to what? an imaginary 45 degree angle from the wall?"  WTF?  Idiots!

Random rant- Alright dude you can bench 500 pounds and you can only squat and deadlift half of that?  you’ve got a problem.  Discounting the guys that have knee problems etc.

If you have a potbelly you shouldn’t be doing forearm isolation exercises and tricep extensions.  haha!  Hit the treadmill!

And finally…man you’re huge, but you’re covered in fat.  It’s time for a cut.  bodybuilding doesn’t mean shyte if you can’t cut it out. 

A question for the guys with infinite wisdom out there.  How do you tactfully tell someone man you’re doing it all wrong as far as form.  Most of these guys do too much weight so they do whatever exercise it may be wrong.  I thought it was the basic knowledge that to see results etc form is the most important element to what we do.  It’s usually the same guys that are like, "man i go to the gym every day and i don’t see any results."  I really want to help some of these guys, but for the most part they aren’t receptive to correction or seem approachable.  Do you just say f^%$ it let them keep doing it wrong? 

And my favorite comment I’ve ever received at the gym.  "What are you doing?  The dance of death?"  HAHAHA!

7 sets of the following: 25reps 45# sumo-deadlift highpull, 15reps 135# Deadlift, and 9reps ring dips.

I finished in 17:34.

today i felt like getting some good metabolic conditioning on my hamstrings and legs so that’s the workout.  It’s a good smoker.  I broke most of the sdlhp up into a 15-10split for the total 25.   My forearms were getting smoked, thus my grip was failing. 

 Body building workout: 5 sets of 10reps 60# dumbells incline bench. 

I hit my triceps pretty heavy on the dips in the warmup and the first WOD so good for bb on chest and tri’s day. 

My second WOD of the day went like this:

4 Sets of 10reps 50# kettlebell windmills, 10 reps 50# kettlebell swings, 10 pushups and 25 laying leg lifts.  I didn’t time it, but i did it as fast as possible with few breaks.  Good for gettin my heart rate through the roof for at least 8-10 minutes and smokes my core stabilizer muscles.