SwoleB1’s BodyBlog

I’m most likely preaching to the choir by posting this on BodySpace, but I wrote this as a note on my Facebook and wanted to share it on here as well. It just drives me nuts how the majority of people (BodySpacers excluded) don’t step back and realize what they’re doing to their health via their diet and unnecessary drugs.

So I was watching tv the other day and saw this interesting commercial. It was a first person view of the average ‘office job american worker’s’ typical day and what they eat during it. Breakfast was a bagged up fast food burrito, lunch was chinese takeout, and dinner was something else I can’t remember but it was unhealthy.

The narrator starts to talk about how these foods that most people eat on a daily basis effect our bodies. So what comes to mind? I think to myself ‘ohh great, this must be a message about how we need to eat more foods that are good for us instead of eating out 3+ times a day and damaging our bodies.’Correct me if I’m wrong, but common sense tells us that if something hurts us we should stay away from it, right?

Pff of course not silly! This was a commercial for acid reflux and the magic pill you can take to make it go away after you shovel mouthful after mouthful of **** into your stomach. Lest we forget, in America we only act concerned about other people’s health when we want to make money!

That mean old burrito gave you heartburn? Here darlin’, just take this pill and he won’t hurt you anymore! Ohh and here’s some REALLY good news. While taking this wonderful pill, you may experience stomach pains, constipation, nausea, and diarrhea. So you probably won’t feel like eating the rest of the day, that means no more burritos or chinese takeout and no more heartburn!

So let’s recap. I eat a food, a very unhealthy food, and when I do it makes stomach acid squirt up my esophagus like Old Faithful. So I should:

A) Stop eating this food and choose an alternative because not only is it unhealthy, but it also gives me a constant ‘just barfed’ taste in my mouth and eats away at my esophagus.

or

B) Take this miracle pill because goddammit I’m an American and all those soldiers in Iraq are dying for my freedoms to eat whatever ****ty food I want whenever I want and pop prescription drugs like candy. It’s the least I can do to make their sacrifice worthwhile. 30,000 more troops? 30 more burritos and 6 bottles of Prevacid!

Well I don’t know about you, but I think the case it closed. Option B is the way for me!

Seriously why doesn’t anyone think about this? Here’s an idea. I know it’s crazy but just try it. This Sunday, go to the grocery store. Buy some eggs, rice, pasta, whole wheat bread, chicken, fish, lean red meat, fruits and vegetables, sauces and seasonings, and bottled water or a water purifier. And instead of spending your paycheck at the mall or watching football and getting wasted, spend a couple hours cooking some healthy meals and pack them up for the next few days.

You might notice a few things.

1) Gee, I don’t have that ‘did I just eat that or rub it all over my face?’ feeling after every meal. Your complexion will greatly improve if you drink more water instead of soda and stay away from greasy foods.

2) I actually have some energy today without relying on caffeine every 2-3 hours.

3) My mood has greatly improved. I don’t yell and throw my stapler at whoever walks past my desk or looks in my general direction. After you get past the sugar and saturated fat withdrawals, that is.

4) I have way more money! 3 takeout meals ranging from $5-$10 each will cost $15-$30 a day. That’s $75-$150 during the workweek alone! This does not include trips to the vending machines for those pesky sugar fixes, whatever god awful things you eat during the weekends, or 2am visits to Whataburger when you’re so drunk off your ass you mistake the cashier for your ex girlfriend.

Who knows, it could be. Who am I to say?

Getting back on topic, you can buy a week’s worth of groceries to last 7 days, 4 to 5 small healthy meals each day and not spend more than $75 a week. You can even binge and buy some ‘weak moment’ sweets, frozen pizzas, ice cream or whatever you crave and still not break the bank. That’s way less than what you would spend eating out. I spend no more than $40 a week and eat at least 4 meals a day all 7 days of the week off it. And you know what you can do with the money you saved? GET A GYM MEMBERSHIP! Or pay someone to give you a pat on your back for taking care of your health. Hell, I’ll do it for free.

5) And let’s not forget the kicker, holy mother of US Metals, my heartburn is gone gone gone! Unless the acidic properties of fruit give you acid reflux, watch out for that.

So everyone give it a try this Sunday or sometime over the weekend. There’s an overpopulation of burrito eating chinese takeouters and we should do something about it.

This rant is officially over.

So this monday I ordered this creatine powder by Promera Health called Con-Cret. It’s supposed to be really awesome stuff. It’s conjugated creatine so it absorbs much better than regular creatine monohydrate, even PH buffered creatine like Kre-Alkalyn, and ester bonded creatine. They did lab tests and it beat out all the other top creatine supplements on the market as far as solubility goes. I think one of the other brands was Cell-Tech, and there were a few other popular ones too. But basically the more soluble creatine is, the more you can absorb per serving and the less your body wastes. Also when your body doesn’t absorb creatine, it converts the excess creatine into creatinine which sits outside of your muscle cell and gives you the ‘creatine bloat’ that everyone hates. So according to Promera’s claims, I should be putting on mostly lean mass and a very minimal amount of water weight. I’m really excited about using this stuff! It should be coming in the mail today or tomorrow. Ohh another good thing about it, NO LOADING REQUIRED! Sweet huh? So I’ll be blogging over the next couple of weeks about how this product works for me. Here’s a link to their website where their studies are published. They currently have a special going on. You get a container of Con-Cret, a gym bag, and a $10 coupon on your next purchase for $19.99 + shipping. Check it out!  http://www.con-cret.com/

My energy is slowly but steadily returning. Every few days I notice being able to do more before my body wants to nap lol. I went to the gym on Saturday and worked chest and triceps… omg how embarrassing! Before mono screwed me all up I was flat benching 275# for 5/6 reps easily. On Saturday I could barely rep out 185. Needless to say I was a little pissed! I had only lost a little strength from my biceps and back, but for some reason my chest and delts really lost a lot of strength. Why? I have no idea, it’s very perplexing to me. After bench I hit incline dumbbell presses and some cable flies. Practically had to cut the weight in half again… Then did two tricep exercises and called it a night.

The rest of the weekend I ate as much as I could and just chilled. Sunday I was pigging out BIG TIME, I woke up around 10am and cooked a huge breakfast with eggs and sausage and toast, then about 2 hours later had a stacked turkey sandwich with celery sticks, then about 2 hours later a Hercules from Smoothie Factory and then Wendy’s about an hour after that hahaha. Then had dinner at home later and whatever else I could get my hands on. I don’t think I ever felt full that whole day either. So at least my appetite is back, that should help with getting my strength back as long as I don’t go overboard on the junk food hehe. We’ll see how much it helps in my workouts the next couple weeks. I’m also considering getting on some creatine, it’s been at least 6 months since I’ve touched the stuff. Thinking about using CTD Labs Kre-Alkalyn or Con-Cret by ProMera. Definitely don’t want to touch anything like Cell-Mass haha. But I’ll save that for another blog though. Peace!

My energy is slowly but steadily returning. Every few days I notice being able to do more before my body wants to nap lol. I went to the gym on Saturday and worked chest and triceps… omg how embarrassing! Before mono screwed me all up I was flat benching 275# for 5/6 reps easily. On Saturday I could barely rep out 185. Needless to say I was a little pissed! I had only lost a little strength from my biceps and back, but for some reason my chest and delts really lost a lot of strength. Why? I have no idea, it’s very perplexing to me. After bench I hit incline dumbbell presses and some cable flies. Practically had to cut the weight in half again… Then did two tricep exercises and called it a night.

The rest of the weekend I ate as much as I could and just chilled. Sunday I was pigging out BIG TIME, I woke up around 10am and cooked a huge breakfast with eggs and sausage and toast, then about 2 hours later had a stacked turkey sandwich with celery sticks, then about 2 hours later a Hercules from Smoothie Factory and then Wendy’s about an hour after that hahaha. Then had dinner at home later and whatever else I could get my hands on. I don’t think I ever felt full that whole day either. So at least my appetite is back, that should help with getting my strength back as long as I don’t go overboard on the junk food hehe. We’ll see how much it helps in my workouts the next couple weeks. I’m also considering getting on some creatine, it’s been at least 6 months since I’ve touched the stuff. Thinking about using CTD Labs Kre-Alkalyn or Con-Cret by ProMera. Definitely don’t want to touch anything like Cell-Mass haha. But I’ll save that for another blog though. Peace!

Welp, I hit the gym last night after missing 2 weeks from getting mononucleosis (mono for short haha). Here’s what I did:

Lat Pull’s
Rear Delt Flies (basically using the pec deck facing the other way)
Barbell Raises
Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curls
Preacher Curls
Reverse Grip Barbell Curls

Not my usual back/bicep workout, just trying to get the feel of things back again. Mostly everything was light weight, and I did 4 sets of 10 on each exercise. Took about an hour, going slow of course haha. But I was surprised at how much strength I kept despite losing so much weight so quickly (8# in about 2 weeks). For example, when I was doing the rear delt flies, I was using basically the same weight I had before I got sick. So that lifted my spirits a bit. I figure I’ve lost about 10-15% of my overall upper body strength (not sure about lower body yet), but after last night I feel a little better knowing that I can probably get back to where I was in a matter of a few weeks instead of months.

I went to the doctor last week to see what’s really going on with me. Things weren’t getting better after all. I was diagnosed with mono. YAY! Not… Well at least I know what’s been wrong with me. Mono lasts for a while and so that would explain why I kept getting symptoms for an extended period of time. Thankfully the worst past has run it’s course and in another week I should be able to start hitting the weight again after doc says it’s ok. My energy levels will still be low another few weeks or even months, so I’ll have to start light and build my way back up.

So even though this whole thing sucks bad, I’ll have gotten it out of the way and can finally move on! Good thing about mono is you can’t get it twice, at least it’s very rare. I’m hoping my strength to return to normal after 6 weeks of continuing lifting. God knows how weak I’ve gotten LOL. I’ll blog after my first returning workout and we’ll see how it goes.

Guess what this post is about? You guessed it! I’ve been battling sore throats, fevers, aches and chills for over 2 months now. They’ll come every 3 weeks or so. Sometimes severe to the point that I’ll have to miss work, and sometimes just bad enough to make me question going to the gym. As a result I haven’t been training as hard, not eating enough, and just feeling crappy a lot. I’ve been to the doctor, got strep tests that came back negative. I’ve been on antibiotics that made my symptoms go away but screwed up my intestinal tract, then the symptoms reappear a few weeks later. For example, right now I feel weak even though I’ve been sitting at a desk all day. And my throat hurts to the point where I don’t want to eat because it hurts so much if I swallow, same with drinking fluids. Even just water.

Luckily I did make some headway last week. After some tests I found out my spleen is down on it’s luck and my immune system ain’t doin too well. How could this have happened? CYCLO-BOLAN! Gee thanks cyclo-bolan! I was so worried about getting gyno and now I have something that might be worse, a severely weakened immune system. So shame on me for not taking precautions to avoid or lessen this side effect on my cycle. My cycle is over and I finished PCT about a week ago. I’m laying off ‘muscle-building’ supplements until this is all cleared up and prob will never touch another prohormone, let alone a steroid, til the day I die. I’m taking natural supplements to strengthen my immune system so hopefully once I’m up to 100% I can fight this stuff off and it will be gone for a good long while.

If that doesn’t fix it, back to the doctor. But that’s really a last resort since I don’t have medical insurance yet at my job and don’t have a bucket of money to blow on doctor bills :/  So if anyone has suggestions to speed recovery (maybe this has happened to you?) please let me know. It’s cliche, but true: I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired!

Swoleb1

Ahh… another Monday, another leg workout. I don’t know what it is but I swear each time I do legs, my squats increase. As logged in my blog last week, I was expressing my joy over hitting 7 reps on 275. Well that’s nothing! Last night I hit 6 reps on 295. I’m tellin ya they just keep goin up and up. I might mention though that for the 5/6 years I’ve been lifting, only the past 3 months or so have included regular leg training. So I’m sure that’s contributing to the sharp gains. But I’m pretty sure I will keep increasing steadily as time passes, even if it’s not 20 lbs a week lol.

Still have a ways to go to meet my goal of squatting 100 lbs more than my bench. I’m predicting 6-8 weeks til I meet it.

Ok ok, so today I had planned to go for my one rep max on flat bench. I arranged to meet a few peeps at the gym today and we were all going to do it. So 6:00 rolls around and there I am, at the gym, as I said I would be. Only problem is, my buddies were nowhere to be found. I decided to do some light cardio and warm up, hoping they were just running a little late. 20 minutes pass by and still no sign of the guys. At this point I am a little dissapointed, a little pissed, but very wired. My pre-workout was kicking in so I said screw waiting, I’ll get someone else to spot me and go for my max without them.

So I go downstairs to the weight room and see a few people that would be good spotters for me. With that covered I start on the bench. One warmup set of 135×10, and another of 175×10. Now more heavy weight, 275×2. Next is one rep on 315. For this I needed a spotter. I ask this guy I had talked to before, nice guy with a decent build. He had played sports in college and had been around the weights for many year, in my mind he was an ideal sub for my spotter. So he spots me on 315 and I get the weight up nice and clean. A few minutes later I call him over when I move the weight up to 345. He spots me, I get the lift, and everything is going great. Next is 365, my target weight. I tell him that this is my final set and my target weight I am aiming for. I get on the bench, he gives me lift-off and I feel pretty confident about the lift. I bring the bar down to my chest then push it back up. Around my sticking point I slow down considerably, and let out a grunt to help me get the weight up and psych myself up. Then all of a sudden the guy grabs the bar and yanks it up. It hits the rack rather prematurely. At this point I’m thinking, what the heck just happened man?

I get up ask the guy ‘what happened?’ he replied ‘I’m sorry, I got scared and had to bring it up when I saw you slow down’. I can’t believe it, I KNEW I could have got the lift clean! No use trying again, I knew my strength wouldn’t be the same. And besides, the psychological effect of what just happened would effect the lift if I tried again. My confidence was totally broken and I actually felt a little embarrassed because others were looking over at us. What was supposed to be a record setting day for me turned out to be a disaster and huge disappointment.

Despite this unfortunate happening though, I did learn a few things. If you’re asking someone to spot you who has never spotted you before, make sure to tell them exactly how you want them to spot you. Even going so far as asking them if they comfortable spotting you on the amount of weight you are lifting. And vice versa, if someone asks you to spot them, make sure you know what they are expecting from you. It’s crazy because this is like Weight Training 101 stuff, but I guess we need refreshers from time to time. I’ve been lifting since I was 16 and assumed this guy who was at least 35 with a solid background in working out would know how to handle spotting some trying to get there one rep max. Guess not.

Second thing I learned is: next time I’m maxing out or going really heavy and my usual spotter isn’t there, I really need to check out who I ask to spot me. And it would probably be better just to do lighter weight and go heavy next time. Not worth getting hurt over, things could have went a lot worse. A lot more than my pride could have been hurt.

So that’s how my would-be max day went. After that lift, I finished my regular chest workout which actually turned out pretty well. I will probably wait another week or two before I attempt to max again. But this time it will be with my regular spotter.

Thanks for reading

Josh

Today was leg day, and boy am I glad it’s over! I really am impressed with how far along my squats are coming though. Only about 2 or 3 months ago, I could barely pump out 8 reps on 185#. And now? Well today I hit 7 full reps on 275! What an accomplishment! I just had to tell someone other than my spotter, and who better to tell than all the Bodyspacers out there? Anyway, I feel pretty good about my squats today… but I can’t stop there! No siree. My goal for squats is still to exceed my benchpress by at least 100#, which puts it at about 450. I plan to meet this goal by increasing weight, reps, or both with each leg workout so I keep moving up. Maybe in 3 months I will meet my goal.

Btw guys this is my first blog so let me know what you think. And any advice on the leg workouts are welcome too. My leg workout is described on my main bodyspace page.

May the swoleness be with you.

- SwoleB1