StrongerGeek’s BodyBlog

Yesterday after baseball practice, Thing #1 (age 11) challenged me to a chin-up competition.  Now, normally I don’t do competitions, but I am very exciting about his (and Thing #2’s) new-found interest in fitness, so I’m doing anything I can to encourage it, without being overbearing.  So a chin-up competition it was.  Now I had done an upper-body workout earlier in the day, but I still wasn’t too worried.  The most chins I’d ever seen him manage was five.

The little stinker did 8.  I was hard-pressed to get 9 in, let me tell you!  He was so happy.  "Hey Mom, guess what!?!  I almost beat Dad!"  I wasn’t quite ready to let him beat me…

Thing #2 (age 9) told me he wants to get stronger and wants me to make up an exercise program for him.  He then asked me how long it takes to get stronger.  Then he said (God bless him) "Well it must take about a year, because you’ve been working out for a year and I can see you have humongously bigger muscles now than before."  Did I mention that I love this child?

So I’ve been thinking about a program for him today.  I’m thinking three days a week, full-body, centered around pushups, situps, burpees, chins/pull-ups, prisoner’s squats, and calf-raises.  If he sticks with it (he might, he might) then I’ll let him start using dumbbells in my home weight set for some stuff.

Pretty good workout.  I only have two highlights to report.  First, I benched 155 lbs x13, which I was happy with.  I’m not moving past this weight until I get 15 reps.  I’m in a higher rep phase these days, I guess.  Second, I did 7 pullups again today.  8 seemed within reach, but I just couldn’t do it.

I measured by BF again yesterday and was happy that it is still at 13.5%.  I was worried that with my lighter weight workouts, I’d gain more fat.  But my diet has been very good lately and I’ve been swimming for cardio, which helps too.

Since I started this BB stuff, I’ve kept records of my workouts.  I’m a geek and a bit anal-retentive at that, and so it seemed like the natural thing to do.  But since I started my new split a couple of weeks ago, I’m purposely not keeping records.  I have mixed feelings.  I feel like I waste less time this way, but I do like to see my numbers go up over time.  What about you?  Do you keep a log of every workout?

Another light lower body day.  I squatted 120 lbs today, which was just about the limit of my back.  I’m thinking of visiting a sports massage person.  I’ve had good luck in the past with that, but it’s very expensive.  Must my lower back on the right side is still giving me trouble. I’ve had what a doctor called sacral-illiac issues there before, and I suspect that’s what the problem is again.  At least it isn’t like before where I had trouble doing everything (like walking)  Now it’s just a nagging thing, but it’s making me too scared to go heavy on squats.  And you all know how I love squats.  It’s like the best exercise ever.  I’m itching to get back to work on them.  I’m sick to death of the leg-extension and leg-curl machines.

It’s funny how things go in phases.  For about four months, my upper body was dragging behind my lower body, mostly because the shoulder injury I had at the end of December.  Now it’s reversed.  I’ve really noticed a big improvement upstairs.  My bis and tris are getting a lot larger.  I measured my arms recently because I was curious if that was an illusion, or if they actually were larger than before.  And they were 1/2" bigger (15-1/2" now) than last time I measured!  I was very happy with that.  I’ve been hammering the bejeezus out of my chest recently and that is starting to show in the mirror too.  I can’t measure my chest by myself and I’m too embarassed to ask my wife (she thinks I’m vain enough as it is already) to measure it for me, so I don’t have any hard numbers to back myself up.

On another note, Thing #1 is on a fitness craze and he is making real progress.  I’m very happy about this.  He has been doing chinups religiously for the last 3 weeks and I can already see the definition in his back and arms.  Now if I could just get the kids to eat healthier.  Thing #2 in particular is terrible this way.  I read about the obesity/diabetes epidemic in this country and I get scared.  But I also find the harder I push with him, the worse he eats.  Ugh.

Yesterday I went to the gym and had a rather light lower body workout.  Nothing crazy, since I’m still in back repair mode.  I did squat for the first time in a long time, but I did lots of sets with light weight, just so I wouldn’t forget how to do them.  I did 8 sets of 95 lbs x 8.  Then I did 5 sets of medium weight leg-extensions supersetted with leg-curls.  Then some calf-raises and finally some forearm work.  (I like putting my forearm work in with my leg workouts for some reason.)

Today on the other hand was a pretty fantastic upper body workout.  I didn’t go super heavy on the bench, again because I want to protect my back, but I made up for it by doing high volume (high volume for me) chest work.  For the chest, I did 155 lbs x11, x9, x8, x7, x6.  Then I did pullups (On my first set I did 7 today, woohoo!) supersetted with pushups.  Then I did 65 lbs dumbbell rows supersetted with dumbbell bench presses.  (I was very pleased with the fact that my shoulder no longer complains about these!)  Then some cable crossover work.  My chest was fried and the end of this.  Then some seated overhead dumbbell presses.  Finally, I curled 5 sets of 40 lbs dumbbells supersetted with tricep extensions.

I was in the gym for a good hour and half today, which is long for me.  But it felt oh so good to have such a good workout under my belt.

I have a challenge for you.

In the comments for this post, write one thing (just one) that helped you improve the most in BB.  Or perhaps the one thing that you wish someone else had told you earlier.

Here’s mine:

Diet.  I must be the master of my diet.  I used to have the attitude that I could eat whatever I wanted if I was exercising a lot.  This is false thinking.  I read somewhere that someone wrote the equation (I know geeky, but I like equations - I chose my name for this site for a good reason) for success in BB was:

Success = Dedication x (Nutrition + Training + Rest)

where all the variables go between 0 and 1.  For the best results, you need your Rest and Nutrition just as much as your Training.

So tell me your one big secret.  Tell me one thing that has helped you the most.

______

I’ve been swimming for cardio the last several weeks.  I just couldn’t take the elliptical anymore….  So I’m off to hit the pool.  Keep training, eating well, and resting…

I find this guy very inspirational.  Look what he has done at age 59!  It makes me feel like I’m not too old for this lifestyle:
http://www.bodybuilders.com/richard_sullivan.htm

My back is feeling okay today, and I took advantage of that and got a good upper body workout in.  I did make sacrificies to appease the lower back gods, preventative more than anything.  Namely, I didn’t do standing overhead presses or barbell curls today.  Instead I did seated versions of both with dumbbells, which are much easier on the back.

I’m not usually one to get DOMS, but my triceps have been killing me the last couple of days, and I mean that in the best possible sort of way.  Monday was the first day I did dedicated tricep work in a long time, and I am feeling it now!  I blasted the triceps again today.

I got a nice compliment from my gym’s general manager today, an impressively large and strong man.  He said he’s impressed with my progress - that he can really tell I’ve gained a lot of size.  I really don’t need compliments from other people to drive me in my quest - I do this for me and no one else - but it sure doesn’t hurt to hear affirmation.

So I went to the gym.  I still have this rotten cold and my back has been fairly bad lately, so I threw my workout plan in the dumpster and winged it.

I did six supersets of @15-20 rep leg-extensions and @8-10 reps of hamstring curls.  Then I did five sets of 15-20 reps of seated calf raises and some forearm work.  That was all I was going to do, actually, but then I decided to throw in some "prisoner’s squats" (squats with no added weight) at the end.  I was just going to do one set of 25…  But then I added another…. And then another… I ended up doing 6 sets for a total of 150 reps!  That felt pretty good on the back, and even gave my legs a nice pump.  I’ll have to remember these for the next time my back gives me trouble.

So nothing fancy.  Nothing hard.  But I’m glad I went…

Blah.  So no gym yesterday.  Between having a completely miserable cold and an aching lower back, I just couldn’t do it yesterday.  In fact, I couldn’t do much yesterday.  I even ditched work early and went home to sleep.

I feel a little better today, and I might try for an easy leg workout today and see how it goes.  I’m hoping the cold/fever is exacerbating the back (I normally have back pain when I get a cold) and it will get better when it finishes.  I certainly won’t be doing any squats today, I’m afraid.  Blah.  I hate back issues.  Blah.

Thing #1 got a chin-up bar yesteday and is excited about working on it.  In fact all the Things are.  Thing #3 (a little girl of 5) said to me yesterday "Daddy, I’m gonna get ripped!" which almost made me shoot a protein drink through my nose.  I asked my wife where she learned to say that and apparently she read it on the chin-up bar box.

So I made the switch.  Starting today, I’m lifting 4 times a week, two days upper body and two days lower body.  I did the 3 days a week full-body workout for just over 4 weeks and it was a nice change of pace, but I’m ready to return to my old plan.  My upper body was doing fine with full-body, but my lower body was dragging a little.  I need those dedicated leg days.

So today…  It was a bit of a drag since I have a cold.  But like almost everything that makes me wonder if I should skip a workout, I feel better after having gone.  I felt a little weak.  I did 180 lbs x 6 on the bench, which was okay, but I was aiming for 7 reps.  I did 6 pullups, which was okay, but I was aiming for 7.  You get the idea.  Not a horrible workout by any means, but nothing great either.

New in this cycle is a return to doing dedicated tricep work.  I hope this will help the bench a little.  We’ll see.