Sumpy’s BodyBlog

Greatings everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know that I have just returned from two weeks RnR in Europe. For the past fortnight I have ceased my training and pretty much drank alcoholo for 14 days straight, I know this is ill-disipline in terms of my training but after spending the past 5 months in Iraq and having no social life what so ever there was never going 2 be another way and I don’t regret it a bit.

I didn’t think that i lost much shape, however after looking through my progress pics taken just before leaving I have come to realise this may not be the case. I have my work cut out now to get back to where I was 3 weeks ago but I am looking forward to the challenge and don’t doubt that before long I will be in better shape than ever, muscle memory is a beautiful thing!!

Hey guys has been a while but I’m back with my latest blog just for my dedicated readers…haha

Anyway last night after my dreaded double rest day was time for chest again. After last weeks performance on chest day I was determained to get back on track. Last night was intended to be a light night on chest with no heavy lifting, however i decided it couldn’t hurt a great deal to max out considering I have plenty of time to recover with RnR coming up, in which I will spend two and a bit weeks partying hard in Europe.

I left no room for excuses last night, I took every supplement on the shelf, listened to Disturbed for about half hour leading up to the gym and downloaded some bodybuilding vids just before training. I went in feeling phyced and ready to go (A healthy change from last week). Come maxing time I was feeling good, getting my warm up lifts quite comfortably. Then the moment of truth, raising my previous best lift by 5lbs…….well I am proud to say that i achieved my task, but not without difficulty. I used every ounce of strenght I had, my technique was nothing shy of disgusting and my body seemed to cramp in just about every muscle I have, but the bottom line is the bar got up and thats what counts, you know what they say "doesn’t matter how you get there, they all look the same in the book" 

So today I feel like I have gotten back on track. I have one more chest session to go before going to Europe where I expect to loose a bit of strength, so hopefully next week I can continue my climb and again have good news to report come monday!   

I wish I had a dollar for everytime someone said to me "it’s easy for you, your naturally fit!" WTF.

I feel great pitty for those who formulate these incredible delusions in order to feel better about their own lack of motivation and self disipline. Naturally fit must be one of my favorites. Now if there is in fact such thing as naturally fit it’s not me, thats for sure.

Now I am willing to admit that there is deffinately such thing as good genes, and therefore if someone was to say to me "easy for you, your the product of two very motivated, highly active and health consious parents" then I could only agree. As far back as I can remember I was running amok around gyms and aerobic classes while my mum trained and dad was at work, or causing havock somewhere in the grand stands as my dad played cricket. So even as a very young child I had constant exposure to physical activity and hence the good upbringing and pedigree, but it deffinately does not stop there!

Let me talk about "natural" for a minute. When I joined the army 5 years ago I was 5′10 and weighed a whopping 138 lbs. 138 man thats barely more than just my skeleton! (Admittedly I have a pretty good metabolism) Today I still stand at  5′10 but weigh in at a fraction under 190 lbs. Now I will tell you now having these "good genes" or "natural fitness" does not by any stretch of the imagination make it, even remotely easy, for someone who is so skinny they need to run around in the shower to wet, to put on 52 lbs with minimal change in body fat percentage.

For the past 3 years and even more so the last 4 months I have poured blood, sweat and tears into my gym workouts. I get there rain hail or shine and never take shortcuts. My diet is also good, other than the severe over consumption of alcohol (At the end of the day I am still an Aussie). I often get remarks at the gym like "Hey man ease up a bit or you’ll do a hernia" or "does making noise help you lift the bar does it?" you can imagine the sarcastic tone of these questions which I choose to ignore, but it is these same people that ask "what supplements do you take?" Yeah man that’s it I’m making better gains because the protein powder I use is better than yours! Now when I look at peoples sites like tricepsman and alike I don’t email them asking what supps they use or what the trick is to looking like they do, I look at their pictures imediately appreciate the hard work and discipline that went in and only hope that I can do the same.

Thats why I love this website, because everyone on here appreciates that to obtain the body they desire, requires nothing but good old fasioned hard work, we’re not here in search of the ever eluding shortcut to sucess. I can safely say that not one person that reads this blog has achieved what they have so far by simply sitting on the couch, eating chips and mocking those with enough determination to put in the hard yards. So to all on this site well done, I have the utmost respect for all of you, keep up the hard work and keep sticking it to the haters out there!!

I would like to conclude with a shoutout to all the parents on here. You guys are the best and what you are doing is not only benefiting yourself but also your children, even if you don’t realise it yet. Good work guys!!

Sumpy 

Hey all!

Well yesterday due to work schedule we were forced to train in the mid arvo. For a while now I have been campaigning wheather I perform better during the day or late at night, the answer I now know is at night. I know there is a lot of people out there who prefer the days but personally I don’t and veryone knows (or at least should know) what works for you, works for you. It also helps that Endo works better at night as well, so when possible night time it will be.

I find that mid afternoon I am very tired, esspecially if I had an early start that day, however come about 7, 8 o’clock at night I have generally hit my second wing, and my energy levels are back up and it is evident in performance.

Enough of that, yesterday was shoulders and even though I felt flat my lifts didn’t suffer in accordance. I didn’t start great but eventually found form and worked hard for the remainder. I surpassed my nemisis (90 lbs) on seated dumbells and did it quite easily, so again I express my joy with my new progaram and consistant gains. Endo was bitterly dissapoointed with his millitary press but used his frustration to dumbell press 125 lbs on the next excersise…good workl man!!

Anyway  yesterdays workout:

FRONT MILLITARY PRESS:

Warmup 10×95 lbs, 8×135 lbs, 3×165 lbs (should have been 5 but died in the ass), 2×175 lbs

SEATED DUMBELL PRESS:

8×80 lbs, 6×90 lbs, 4×95 lbs

SHRUGS:

10×270 lbs (top rung), 10×270 lbs (top rung)+90 lbs (lower rung), 10×270 lbs (top rung) + 180 lbs (lower rung)

MACHINE LAT RAISES:

8×145, 8×145, 8×150

REVERSE FLY’S:

8Xx180, 8×190, 8×190

A small part of my job in the army is to conduct physical training in the morning, I love this role as I get a feeling of self satisfaction when I see my peers really pushin the bar and sweating it out, knowing that I casued the imposed pain and the resultant improved health and fitness is something I take great pride in.

However as in any job, esspecially the army, you always get your whinges and whiners. we have one bloke who comes along each day (mandatory) who spends the entire duration of the session complaining and swearing under his breath. I don’t take any offence to this behaviour, if anything it is quite amusing as this guy is quite pathetic really. I constantly tell him that I do not enforce mandatoty participation, I would actually prefer it non mandatory, then at least I know the people who are there want to be there and therefore everyone can get a lot more out of the session.

Well today was the last straw. I had a friend of mine running the class, she is a luitenant and is much better at cardio activities than myself so on cardio days she steps in and i just participate. So 1st thing thismorning when we anounce that our excersise will be a interval style run…old mate spits the dummy and starts doing the normal routine. Apparently, as the program stated we were doing a cardio circuit and changed to an interval cardio session (Not exactly a huge difference) he says he isn’t prepared, really what does he need to prepare? All he has to do is show up and do as the instructor says. Now a pet hate of mine is disrespect and even worse, disrespect to a female, so when he got going thismorning it didn’t take long for me to step in and put a stop to his whinging forever. Now I didn’t get physical on him or anything like that (I would have liked to though), I just quietly told him, to shut up, then I brought it to his attention that he is pathetic and told him if he spent half the time he does whinging, working out, he would be a monster (Slightly more colourful language). Safe to say that was the last peep I heard from him.

Anyway just wanted to put that out there, anyone who knows someone like this will appreciate how annoying it can be. Let me know if u know someone like this or feel free to express your views on the topic itself or how i handled it.

Thanx

Sumpy

Another beautiful day here in the lovely iraqi desert. Felling shithouse today to tell the truth…i woke thismorning with lips all split 2 the shithouse, blood spots in my eyes (not good) and after going 4 a bit of a interval run session I’m feeling much, much worse than i normally would for such a cardio session, i think i may be coming down with something…ah well.

Anyway last night was another belta, we trained back and really pushed the bar again. I hit another personal best on deadlift, this time getting 390 lbs. We videoed the lift this time so i will download that 2 my page 2night as soon as I get the camera back of endo. When watching the vid it is safe to say that I didn’t, by any means, sell myself short, as it is quite evident i am using every last ounce of energy to get the bar up. I don’t think I could have lifted another gram on top of what I did.

I’m quite happy again with training and making steady progress each week, hopefully I can keep it up.

Last nights workout:

WEIGHTED PULL UP’S:

13×25 lbs, 13×25 llbs, 13×25 lbs

DEADLIFT:

5×225 lbs, 1×315 lbs, 1×365 lbs, 1×390 lbs

(Deads not actually part of the program, I just love doing em, thats why I just quick warmup then max out)

BENT OVER BARBELL ROWS

8×225 lbs, 8×235 lbs, 8×245 lbs

WIDE GRIP PULL DOWNS

8×175, 8×190, 8×205

CLOSE GRIP PULL DOWNS

8×175, 8×190, 8×205

Hey all, anyone who read my blog on sunday will know I was bitterly dissapointed with my chest workout. Well today i can safely say that I moved forward and redeemed myself as promised. I hate off days and there was no hope in hell it was going to occur again.

Last night was legs and I pushed harder on every excersise than I ever have before, lifting personal bests on every excersise. I am now happy again and ready to continue with the rest of the program in the same fasion as last night.

Here is my workout for last night:

BARBELL SQUATS:

warm up: 10×225 lbs, 8×335 lbs, 6×365 lbs, 2×405 lbs, 2×425 lbs

45 DEGREE LEG PRESS:

10×450 lbs, 10×540 lbs, 10×700 lbs

LEG EXTENSIONS:

12×235 lbs, 8×235 (both legs)/8×100 (right leg)/8×100 (left leg), 8×235/8×100/8×100

(We mixed up the last 2 sets so that we can do some single leg work aswel)

SINGLE LEG CURLS:

12×45 lbs, 12×45 lbs, 12×45 lbs (i am really finding it hard to get past 45 lbs on this ex)

SMITH MACHINE CALF RAISES:

20×245 lbs (10 wide stance/10 close stance), 20×255 lbs, 20×275 (feel the burn)

We finished with 2 sets of unweighted calf raises each set consisted of:

12 left leg

12 right leg

12 wide stance

12 close stance

Do u ever wish u could just rewind time n try something again? Of course u do…we all do, well thats how i feel right now.

Today was chest day and chest day is my favorite. My whole new program is designed to focus on bench press and improve it over a 10 week period. Well I’m currently just begging week 4 and so far have had great results but today was different…to be honest it was pathetic!

The intent today was to increase my bench by a further 10lbs on my last effort, that being 260 meant today all going well i should have pressed 270….well i failed, misserably….. twice, then again at 265. I am so pissed now i feel I have cheated myself and let myself done in a huge way. And this was just the beggining, the whole workout was lacking i felt terrible from the outset and my lifts reflected this.

The worst part now is that i have to wait a whole nother week to give it another crack. I had, up until now been really making awesome ground on this program and the confidence was high but that took a real kick and now i have to chin up and make sure this never occurs again. It will however give me the determenation and agravation that will, I beleive, power me through the rest of the week where i will not by any means settle for second best.

I am a very discipline person (comes with the job) and cannot accept second best and therefore tonight will not be forgotten, yet it will also never happen again, i will just move on and train my guts out for the remainder of the week and start fresh next sunday with this behind me.

On a brighter note i am still a long way ahead of where the program suggests i be, even as slack as I was tonight i am still at a point where i am doing sets of 4 reps at the weight the program suggest i should be doing once.

Anyway i’m sure everyone has had the same days as long as i can redeem next time not all is lost, thankyou for listening to my gripe and i will keep u posted for the rest of the week where i expect to set some new personal bests.

Hey guys,

A bit of a random topic for today but I know any fellow aussies out there can appreciate my pain as I watched my beloved collingwood fall less than a goal short of beating the powerhouse that is geelong in todays preliminary final. We have missed a grand final appearance by a measly 5 points…..but geelong have deserved it all year and were the better side on the day, just a shame we couldn’t pull off a fairytale win but the game was awesome and i will be barracking for the cats next week.

But not all is lost we still have storm in the nrl to play sunday and they are really looking the goods this year!!

Hey,

Well it’s been a hot and dusty past 3 days out on patrol in the iraqi desert, but i’m back at barracks now and more importantly back working out.

In order to catch up on missed days  decided to do a double session working back and shoulders on the same night. Coming in felling slightly dehydrated, underfed and tired u could say I was a bit worried about how I would perform, However when I deaded my max (385) in front of a big crowd mixed with the N.O explode my mood started to change.

The rest of the night felt great and I’m happy to say that my lifts are starting to improve and make their way towards the goals I set out. Still not great numbers yet but at my size they aren’t too bad.

Big Endo is preping 4 his power lifting comp on sat and with me being his coach/spotter I feel it is partly my responsibilty to get his skinny ass lifting large so that we can win this thing!! haha check his page "blomihada" and throw some incouragement his way…please feel free to feed the ego!