boricuamason’s BodyBlog

"Most men hit their peak at 28 and from their it takes longer to recover", that’s what my ortho doc said to me a few months when I had him take a look at my shoulder and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.  It is true, it seems like my workouts and flag football take their toll on me but I fight through the soreness and pain and keep telling myself that the stronger I get the less the pain will be.  I’ll be 34 next month and I’m feeling great, I hit the gym 4-5 days a week and play football on Tuesday nights so I am definitely doing my part to slow down the age clock.

I am very grateful that my wife is in to fitness as well and we both push each other to improve and do more, she hit a person best yesterday on the bench press with 100lbs.  I was there to spot her and the smile on her face afterwards was amazing and pushed me to go harder in my workout.  My legs were still sore from Tuesday night but I pushed through my leg workout today, capped off squats with a final set of 6 @ 205.  My weight has been holding steady at around 162 so I am happy with my progress.  Sometime I like feeling sore but some mornings I just want to stay in bed with ice, advil and tiger balm til the pain goes away.

Did shoulders and arms yesterday, took it easy since I had a game at 9:30 and I was playing QB for the first time in a year.  I started with shoulders, seated military press, side raises and upright rows.  Nothing to crazy here just 3-4 sets of 10 and really focusing on my form.  When I got to biceps I decided to slow things down and do 10 slow reps and really squeezing it at the top.  I have to say that lowering the weight and doing it slow gave me a really good burn that I am still feeling.  EZ Bar curl with the wide grip and then alternating d-bells curls both with the same tempo and great results.  I followed the same for tricep pushdowns and I was very satisfied how I felt when I was done.  I think I will try to incorporate this in my workout on a weekly basis.

Our team lost last night, i had some first half jitters and had trouble moving the ball down field but in the second half we scored each time we touched the ball so I’m looking forward to the next game and getting better.

Every time I workout my back I try to get to 50 reps of pull ups, not 50 straight but 50 in total.  The first 30 are fairly easy but those last 20 and killer, I finally was able to get 5 sets of 10 last night.  It’s amazing how a simple movement is very effective in developing your back, when I’m done with the pull ups I do bent over rows and my lats are about done.

Yesterday I attacked my legs as if they owed me money, their refusal to grow is unacceptable and they needed to be punished.  I was reading an article by Animal on drop sets and watched some youtube clips on bodybuilders squatting and I got myself worked up pretty good before heading to the gym.  This would be the first time I incorporate drop sets into my routine but again, legs being stubborn needed a good talking to.

I started the workout with squats, warm up set with 135 for 15 and then up to 185 for 10 and 205 for sets of 8.  Felt like I heard my quads say to me "is that all you got?" so on the last set after I was done with my 8th rep and I hopped to each side and stripped the bar to 135 and banged out a quick 12 reps.  That was an intense feeling and a great burn after wards, sweat was everywhere and it was ridiculously hot in the gym too.  Well that wasn’t enough, leg press was next on the agenda and someone was kind enough to leave 4 plates on each side for me.   Worked my way up to 545 on the last set and proceeded to strip the machine down on the 5th set, hitting 10-12 reps with each plate that was removed.  Drop sets by yourself sucks but you get extra work for taking the weights off yourself.  At this point I thought I was going to lose lunch, breakfast and the previous nights dinner but I had to keep moving along.  Walking lunges was next on the agenda, typically I take a lap around the gym via 4 sets of 20 steps with 40 pounds.  Well today was definitely going to be a challenge, on a regular day that is a tough movement to complete and my legs were already burning at this point.  Sadly I didn’t make it to that last set but the burn let me know that I did not cheat myself.

The rest of the workout was a sheer battle of will to finish strong; leg curls, calf raises and romanian deadlifts were left.  You would think  I have had enough of drop sets but no this is where the sadistic side really takes over and I attack again until I can’t move the pads. Calf raises and deadlifts were really good as well but I was pretty numb while doing those, the message was sent to the legs.  As I write this post today, my quads are still twitching and I feel like every step is a walking lunge.  I need every workout to have my feeling this way.

I am in the middle of week 3 since I started again after recovering from the tendon strain in my shoulder.  Shoulder feels strong and my workouts are getting better each day.  Weight gain has been slow which is the norm, hopefully I do not suffer another injury.

Or they are just trying to save money, either way the gym has a great dungeon feel to it with two huge fans in the weight area.  I normally don’t sweat a lot but these last few days have been unreal, I love it, I get a great feeling of working hard.  My strength has come back a lot faster then expected and I have not been taking any supplements, not by choice but my stomach has been rejecting Superpump 250.  This happened to me last year with NO-Xplode, I took some time off and when I got back on NO it really bothered me, nausea and such.  Same thing happened with Superpump 250 this go around, I really liked it too but I guess it’s just not for me.  I may go back to Animal Pak since that never bothered me.

This is week three after taking 2 1/2 months off with a nagging rear delt, it’s still a little bothersome but I can finally get through a workout.  It was demoralizing when I was struggling with 105 on the incline bench when I was working out with 175 lol but things are coming along nicely for now.  Weight gain will be a struggle again but summer is here which means cookouts galore!

6 weeks I was off from the gym, started as a long weekend vacation, then we adopted a dog that almost died and now that life is back to normal I got back to the gym yesterday and it was pretty rough.  I haven’t stepped on that scale and I probably won’t for a month since I know that it won’t be good.  It will take me a few weeks to get back into gear again and I really hate these first few weeks.

I really don’t know where those 2.5 pounds went, I really don’t understand.  I’m putting on size and it’s pretty visible but yet I lose 2.5 pounds, yes I am upset because it took almost 3 weeks to gain that. 

I hit the gym Friday through Sunday and it was great, I’ve been doing 3 day routines and alternating one to two days off in between.  This way I get to work each body part twice a week, since I have been following this routine I have already gained 3 pounds and increased my strength.  Saturday I squatted 225 for 6 reps in back to back sets and if you have read my previous blogs about squats you know that this is a big accomplishment for me.  Today and tomorrow will be off days for me and my flag football league starts tomorrow night.

 Thanks to the daily bloggers for all of the stories of accomplishment and motivations, it really helps when you are trying to get motivated to work out.