britonarius’s mindset blog

Sometimes you have got to have faith; no , not in god but in yourself! you have got to believe - that is after all exactly what religion is; believe in ourself as a species. Last night , i failed to believe and i am gonna beat myself up mentally now until next tuesday. Its not so much the eye popping , vein bulging cherry red faced image in the mirror that stops the faith - though its not pretty [ ain’t meant to be ] , its the mind failing and yielding to the matter that over runs and conquers whilst mentally we crash and burn. I am of course talking about my favourite tuesday night exercise - the romanian deadlift - and for the first 3 sets it went well. 220 kilo x 6 reps, 220kilo x 6 then 225 x6 and then doubt and 225 x6 - i know , oh yes i know ; pathetic, he didn’t even go for the 230 and i didn’t. I looked at the 5 kilo disc and the 10 and looked at the bar and left it and lifted. I wimped out at a ***got weight, so now its beat up time and next week its gotta be 240 to restore the pride but first i’ll have to do 230 and 235.

I suppose i should as i am retired from active work but not fortunately from active work outs. I love mondays not because i don’t have to work anymore, i’m sure that my wife could turn it into a shopping marathon , but because i do biceps and triceps. So its wait for the kids to get home and then hammer the cardio and then mash the arms. Usually i can hardly move them after the workout , you see i have a driving burning ambition , in my old gym sit a pair of 90 kilo db’s and i want to return and bicep curl them once at least. Can i do it - uh! i don’t know but each month i increase the weight of db curl and i am still in front , so i have an outside chance [ currently curling 34/36 kilo db’s] but i have a long way to go. However like a chaffeur it drives me , every monday.

So its sunday and back at it with the chest regime. I am a 48 inch chest [ i know - pathetic and weedy ] but i am determined to get it to at least 50 inches. Possible? I don’t know given that i am 51 years old, but i won’t fail for lack of trying! Slowly i think , it might happen. As for the rest of sunday - well its clean the car - cook - try to get another progress pic up and then do some research. No tv - never cared for it much, but lots of music. Nice heavy metal / rock to relax and chill the neighbours. Oh well - time to crank up the volume and enjoy some Richard Z Kruspe and WAKE UP!

So - its almost the end of January and in the last week , i have managed to get down to 230lbs and posted a personal best in Romanian deadlift of 225 kilos [ 495lbs ] - so not bad for being a 51 year old. My weight loss stands at 120lbs in around 13 months and that was done without taking any supplements or fatburners [ yeah right if they worked that well - doctors & hospitals would prescribe them!] and without some supp team in control. The only expert i had was my wife who teaches aerobics but that was enough along with the belief and motivation that i could do it.At the end of the day it comes down to dedication and motivation. Sure its not a bad thing to have a team of ëxperts" but the old saying that you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink; is the most important part.Take Barry in England - over 700lbs and taking the bandage op, he had Armani and others promoising the earth if he reached 210lbs [ the target weight ], did he do it? No - he rose in weight once he learnt that you could still get around the bandage [ last tv appearance - he was over 800lbs ] and blaming everything but himself Its about dedication and life choice! As a good friend of mine [ Savage Muscles ] we keep the pics of our old selfs and the memories to remind us NEVER TO RETURN - right on brother. Like you i will never return to that old time.

So the weekend has come early and training is over until sunday. Finished my last session this morning just before 11 and as usual it was a mixed programme. Now you don’t need all my secrets; so enough said and i keep a workout tracker, so its available to anyone who wants it. I can say one thing - Universal Animal Flex actually works, been on it now 3 weeks and i am feeling the benefits of it. Universal products seem to work unlike others [ no names ] that i have had the misfortune to try. Everything is on target for cutting from 2nd week of February, not Keto but a secret cut pattern given to me by a veteran bodybuilder whose opinion of keto is unprintable and unwriteable. I shall be observing this cut formula with interest and posting the stats on my bodyspace. Have a great weekend everyone!

I ain’t sad enough or dedicated enough to list my exs in a blog , i use the workout tracker , so anyone can drop by and see them. However ; i do list my PB’s, as and when i do them. Last night i did a 225 kilo Romanian deadlift for 6 reps and might have a little more in the tank. Today i am going to do a crazy thing but i made up my mind to try - i am going to try and Zottmann curl 50 kilo dbs - i must be able to do 1 , normally i curl 34 kilo; so its a good hike up the weight scale but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Today is bicep and tricep day. I am a bit old fashioned in this as i favour Zottmann and spider curl for Bicep and skullcrusher and old school for tricep. Still not totally happy with weight i curl with [ 32 kilo ] and desperately want to comfortably curl with 50 kilo - after all i use that weight for triceps and spider but they are 2 handed! Anyway i will attempt to max out again and build the bicep. So far so good.

Better make this quick as i am off to train in 20 or so minutes and today is chest and - well - chest ; i love it! I’ve said that several times in blogs so enough on that. During the week i got Swedish quickstep; 24 hours of toilet hell but it didn’t stop me training. So in your face bug and whose the daddy! It made life difficult but shit happens [ literally in this case!]and i am now fully operational again. I usually train 6x per week but due to this bug; i have hit the gym 7x this week to fully flush it out. Been fun though and i made two promises to myself during the illness. 1/ Never visit Sweden if thats whats on offer - remember there last offering to the world was Abba; still gives me the heebee geebees. And 2/ invest in a toilet roll company. Have a great sunday.

Sweden has a lot to answer for - after all it gave us Abba [ and i still don’t forgive them for that! ] and it gave me Swedish quickstep [ Stomach bug that makes you live in a lavatory for 24+ hours ; wishing you had a second one to vomit in ] and i have never even been there! I am not bloody likely to either if thats what they have got to offer! What it failed miserably on is : It did not stop me training. I popped a strip of paraceutimol , dragged myself to the gym and went for it and you know what - i feel great! Sure it was shower time on the cardio -= mass sweating , saturated training gear ; nausea and a feeling of what the f**k am i doing! Took a shower , changed gear [ thats usual for me prior to iron ] and wasted the iron. Felt like crap but hey - most of the time thats how people say i look anyway - but did it. Message for the bugs / Let this be a learning curve ; you don’t always get to win. Men on missions refuse to yield!

So my friend Nic Brunicardi warns me that Sweden has a virus that gives you 24 hour sickness . This bug makes you want to live in the toilet for that time [ wishing there was a spare alongside it!] I haven’t been to Sweden but I got this virus; late last night. Is it gonna stop me training? Not if i can help it - men on missions refuse to lay down!