Evolution

Not many people hit the steel on the weekends. I love to roll in around 2pm, use whatever I want and push it without much distraction. Disipline for me is an equal a high as the pump itself.

Some new measurements are up, as i’m tipping the scale at 205lbs. Things are going great on the bulk, as I think 212-215 by the end of Feb should be easily attainable. I’m taking in a good amount of protien with almost every meal, lots of fats, and carbing up.

I’m always trying to get back tips, and I really feel like I can see some growth on my lats coming in nicely. Pull ups truely are the best exercize as well as T bar rows I believe. If anyone has any tips for getting that lower lat hang, please comment.

Thank you to all my readers for your helpful comments.

Today is going to be heavy and brutal. Merry Christmas to all.

"Dude your ripped and only a year older then me, do you do anything specfic to develop such prominent pecs"

Well I am one of the people that started out power lifting, and I think that gave me the most rapid pectoral growth in the beginning. I followed a power lifting schedule, benching and doing weighted dips MWF which left me with a large barrel chest but not much definition.

Now I usually try to develop my chest with more complete training. I am trying to reincorporate the weighted dips, as they are one of the greatest developers of strength, particularly on the bench press where I believe they are all important. I think the main thing is get a full range of motion and not lock out on your reps when benching. I see so many using huge amounts of weight, popping up and down or locking out every rep. The more time under stress the greater the muscle will grow.

Chest is one of those days where it is great to have a spotter because the psychology of the weight gets to you some times. I still have a mental block some times when I use 100lb dumbbells just because of the number. Remember that your muscles don’t know how heavy weight, is only your mind does.

I keep the majority of my chest work at either the incline or the decline position. I think the incline should be highly stressed because it is overlooked in many chest programs. I know I had a large amount of incline strength, but no endurance for them because of my previous training style.

To really bring out detail in the pectorals it is almost essential to include some sort of fly movement, preferably machine or cable. I usually do it as a finishing move to really bring in separation and striations along the diaphragm/soler plexus.

As always, go heavy as possible while keeping strict form. Make sure you are working in cycles to keep your body guessing. Currently to get my bench back up to respectable level I am doing a power lifting schedule however I still include a few other exercises to make sure my definition stays visible.

The percentages are based off of 1RM’s, there are several calculators on BB.com that will give you such information or if anyone is interested I can supply a spreadsheet I designed for such means.Hopefully this will help! As always I love the comments~

So I got some leg wraps and used them for the first time last night for legs. I’m bulking, and trying to go heavy and hard on everything. My natural lifting style is lighter weights for more reps so I am trying to fight that currently.

It is so great to have a bunch of boys that are into working out. My circle is full of meat heads and bouncers that are all about protein and MD. Went over to my friends house after legs last night, he cooked steaks while I ate a bag full of sliced chicken. We had steaks later and salad after that. Then a couple hours later I had a Casein Protein shake. Is it just me or does that stuff mix horrible?

Legs was a challenge, always is. My lower back usually strains so bad after RDL’s. I read a new piece of research talking about how the Eccentric contraction, or the lowering and releasing tension on a muscle does more for growth than the concentric contraction. I’m going to try and include much more negatives and slow ECC work to see how this plays out in my training.
Last Night - Hams/Quads/Calves
Back Squat (Fast CON, slow ECC) 1×15 135 warm

1 x 15 225, 1 x 12 245, 1 x 10 265, 1 x 8 285, 1 x 6 315
RDLs (slow CON, superslow ECC)

1 x 15 225,  1 x 15 245

Hack Squat Machine (fast CON, slow ECC)
1 x 15 - 225, 1 x 12 245

at this point I felt like puking

Leg Curls superset with Extensions (slow ECC, slow CON no lock out)
1 x 12 - 80, 1 x 12 - 90, 1 x 12 - 100, Finished with single leg alternating reverse pyramid burnout, holding each leg flexed on top of the extension pad while I did the other went from 65 - 35.

Standing Calf Raise (Giant Set)
1 x 8 - 220,  1 x 10 - 210, 1 x 12 - 200, 1 x 15 - 190

I laid on the bench in the locker room after pounding my post shake. I had to wait in my car for like 15 mins because I thought I was going to puke and I didn’t want to have to drink another shake. Heavy legs are always brutal.

I plan on hitting front squats and lunges on thursday or friday depending on how I feel. My shit is so stiff right now I could crack walnuts with my ass cheeks

Today is chest and I’m working out with my marine friend who dosen’t **** around with small weight like I do. He gets pissed when he has to spot me if i’m using less than the 100 lb dumbells. he always pushes me to the limit. I just pounded 20 bucks worth of sushi in anticipation. I love raw quail eggs, i’m probably maxing out my protien levels right now.

Wish me luck.

IMHO the thing that you have to pay most attention to when cutting is keeping your metabolism firing. Steady metabolism will do more than exercize in the long run to contribute to fat loss, not to say that exercize is not essential. Metabolism is determined by three factors

1. Adipose Tissue (fat)
2. Muscle Tissue
3. Liver function

Many say that more muscle means greater metabolism which is true, however this effect is mostly negligable in the big picture. Keeping your insulin under control is key, and supplements like Chromium Picoliniate do a great job of evening out insulin activity in the body. Sugar is definetly the enemy here as it will spike blood sugar triggering insulin response.
When cutting, keeping your caloric content regular will keep the body in an anabolic state. In actuality, it really matters more when you eat rather than what you eat when you are fine tuning your diet. This is why diets like atkins can function well in the short term as the metabolism is modified to a great degree.

Some things to remember when cutting:

Muscles will maintain and continue to grow so long as you keep your supply of amino acids constant. Keep your protien supply up, no matter what. Carbs and fat are always going to be your primary energy sources, so give your body something to work on at all times. Slow digesting carbs like yams and oatmeal are great. Carbs and fat are going to be the primary variables in diet as well as cardiovasular excersize which taxes quickly digested energy the fastest. Caffeine is also a preferred supplement.

So for cutting, depending on what your lifestyle is like try to get carbs and fats only when you know you are going to be active. For most people this is in the early morning, noon, late afternoon, before and afterworkout etc. Then switch to mostly slower digesting protiens and minimal fats/carbs when you are sedentary.

I hope this is insightful and I welcome any comments/corrections/insights.

"hey dude ..can u please tell me how to put on such lean quality muscle on?.i’ve been trainin for 2 and half yrs..i hav got good shape.but not good quality muscle..can u please tell me how u guys manage to get such great quality muscle??"

Short Answer:: Diet, Progressive Overload, Variation

Long Answer:
The best harvest is the hardest crop to sow, put the time in. Make it lifestyle, go everyday and do something. I always tell myself that I can always do cardio and watch tv with my headphones.

Diet is 85%, you read it everywhere. Learn your body type and make sure you are training to your weaknesses, not your strengths. Eat protein with every meal.
Focus the most on the areas that you are weakest in. Legs, calves, shoulders, etc. If you are naturally ecto or endomorphic, research some strategies to get yourself looking mesomorphic.

Always eat clean. Forget soda, forget sugar, forget all the comforts that other people need to eat food and realize that you are fueling a machine, give yourself high test petrol. Don’t add sugar to anything, get used to the taste of oatmeal, eat tuna out of the can, eat egg whites with salsa. HFCS’s interfere to greatly with metabolism and they are horrible for you. Eliminate them. Many people like splenda and shit like that, I say forget that. Either you are lifting hard and living hard, or you aren’t.

Lean mass is what you build it from, if you feed your machine quality ingredients and put it under prolonged stress, it will be quality mass.

Don’t let sugar handle the throttle and you just steer, get in the drivers seat. Cheating is fine and necessary. The more you eat the bigger you get, that simple. Just keep it clean. Every 3 hours. At least a gram of protein per pound of weight.

Chromium Picoliniate is a great sup for keeping your metabolism firing. I also like ZMA. Always drink water, at least a gallon a day.

Overload, you should need a spotter on almost every training day. If you aren’t pushing every day, you don’t grow. Use forced reps, set goals and accomplish them. Compound movements are the best for overall growth, include a lot of them. Think about your muscles when you are working them.

Never lock out, this is such a vital rule. I see so many squatters take reps one at a time and locking knees. If your locked out your muscles aren’t working, do not do it. I don’t use very heavy weights on many exercises because I don’t lock out. Systems like the X-Rep are built on this principle. You won’t see striations until you increase the time of stress for each set.

Pose often, and be aware of what your weakness are. Stay humble and follow the traits of the great ones. The guy wearing a tank top in the gym talking and doing curls, or the guy frozen in the zone burning inside a sweater with the look of pure hell on his face doing hack squats.

Change it up. I try to at least every two weeks. Completely different program. Flex magazine has great ones. Lean mass is going to come in the best when you are doing around 12 reps per set. Don’t waste time with shitty form, be a form Nazi. Make every rep perfect and strive for excellence.

Change up the rep speed, use slow/fast eccentric/concentric contraction variations. Make your muscles burn, ESSENTIAL rotations should include an extremely high rep scheme (12-20 per set) and a low rep very high weight scheme (2-6 per set).

Always make it hurt more, if quads aren’t screaming then you aren’t training. Embrace the pain, make it your ally and your gauge. If you leave the gym and you feel like you didn’t kill yourself, you didn’t and you aren’t going to grow.

Hopefully these tips are helpful for all and I welcome any comments or suggestions.

Looks like I got featured which is awesome. I’ve heard that bb.com is one of the top ten trafficked websites so it is a great honor. I want to thank everyone who is coming by to check out my page and all my friends as well as the bb.com developer.

I’m looking like a refrigerator these days. I have a large box of shirts that I can’t fit into anymore that I have in my closet. The November M&D has some great workout ideas that I have been incorporating. School ended on Friday, so this week is going to be double duty hitting the gym mornings for cardio and afternoon/night for the weights. I’m going to really push hard for some nice baselines in all my lifts so when I start toning in for spring break and next season i’ll have good numbers to work off. I’ve been doing much with 1rm calculations and using a bench power lifting schedules like I had back in high school to try and get my press back up to respectable weight.

This is something I found on bb.com that I have whipped up in Excel with automated buttons so that I can easily change numbers on the fly as I make gains. I also have the accepted squat and dead lift coefficients as well. If anyone is interested in the spreadsheet let me know.

I think my knee is pretty much going to stay the way it is, however I am hoping that getting some knee wraps this week is going to give me the ability to return to the squat. I love the >15rep widow makers.

Also check out my other personal blog for other topics of discussion.