Brian Westgate’s Journey

I get a lot of questions about how you gain muscle or how you loose fat.  It is very simple.  Hard work and clean eating.  Hit the gym hard, I mean really hard with a lot of intensity.  When you are out of the gym, eat clean.  If someone tells you that sucking back a low carb beer is healthier then eating an apple, kick them in the nards!  If someone tells you to stop doing barbell curls and start doing one armed dumbell curls while standing on one leg on a bosu ball, that’s right, kick them in the nards.  If you want to build muscle and loose fat, stick to the basics.  Sitkc to basic movements in the gym and stick to basic foods outside of the gym.  Simple right?  So why doesn’t everyone look like they are in peak shape.  Easy they are looking for the magic excercise or magic pill.  It is right in front of them it is called hard work and eating clean. 

Cheers!

Still so sore from mych chest and tris workout.  My inner bicep is feeling a bit strained while doing my shoulder routine.  I am right on the edge of growing and injury.  I’ll have to be careful. 

Smith machine military shoulder presses - 185lbs for 8, 8, 6 drop to 135lbs for another 6

Upright rows - 110lbs for 3 sets of 10

Side dumbell laterals (seated) - 35lbs for 12, 12, 12 (very hard)

Bent over Rear lateral dumbell raises - 40lbs for 3 sets of 15

Smith machine shrugs (to the front) - 325lbs for 4 sets of 8

Dumbell shrugs - 3 sets of 15 with 100lbs

WOH!  Am I ever sore today!  yesterday’s chest workout killed me.  COOL!  Lots of heavy basic compound moves, works every time.  Here is what I did:

Bench Press - 255lbs for 8, 8, 6

Inclined dumbell press - 90lbs for 10, 10, 10 (barely)

Inclined dumbell flyes - 55lbs for 3 sets of 12

Cable Crossovers - 80lbs for 10 then drop to 70lbs for 5 for 3 sets

Dips with 90lbs (2 plates) hanging between my legs - 10, 8, 7.  Killed me!

Dumbell tricep extensions - 100lbs for 10, 10, 9

Pressdowns - 80lbs for 12, 10, 10

Another great workout.  Eating has been good to.

Today was a focus on strength, middle back thickness and lower lats for back and hypertrophy and outerhead for biceps.  Tough workout and I found that doing the reverse grip pulldowns was akward and created some paiinn in my left shoulder.  I’ll have to watch my form or not do these anymore.  Here is what I did:

Bent over barbell rows (smith machine) - 235lbs for 8, 245lbs for 3 sets of 8 - felt good, felt powerful.

Lat pulldowns (haven’t done these for awhile as I find pullups work better) - 3 sets of 10 at 200lbs.  Found these very difficult to get the weight down and in position.  Once I did though it felt great and powerful.

One armed dumbell rows - 100lbs for 3 sets of 10 - focused on bringing the weight down slowly

Reverse grip pulldowns - 140lbs for 10, 150lbs for 2 sets of 10 - as I said this aggrevated my shoulder.

Inclined dumbell curls (35lbs) superset with EZbar curls (70lbs) - for 3 sets of 12 - these gave me a killer pump.  Doing basically 24 reps in a row even though the weights were light, right after a big back workout was killer!

Cable concentration curls (drop sets) - 45lbs for 8 drop to 30 lbs for 7 for 3 sets.

Arms can barely bend now.  Time to get a protien shake - one banana, 1 large scoop of protien (30g), frozen strawberries and bluberries and some skim milk.  Yum yum.

Oh man today was tough to get down to my basement for a workout.  it is very hot and it has drained me of energy.  Non-the-less I hitched up my dog and did an 8 minute run (was supposed to be 10 but it was to damn hot).  I then went down into my basement which was blessedly cool.  Today was shoulders and traps and I hit them hard:

Superset - one arm side cable laterals superset with one armed rear cable laterals - I used 20lbs for 3 sets of 10 for both.  This doesn’t sound like a lot but on my machine it is.  It took everything I had to keep my form good while doing the 10 reps.  Sweating good after these.

Dumbell shoulder presses - 60lbs for 12, 65lbs for 10, 10, 8.

Bent over Rear lateral dumbell raises - 40lbs for 3 sets of 15

Smith machine shrugs (to the front) - 315lbs for 4 sets of 8

Dumbell shrugs - 3 sets of 15 with 100lbs (wish my dumbells went higher)

Great workout but I am exhausted.  Time for the weekend.  Enjoy everyone!

I managed to go up in all of my excercises this week from last week.  Always a good feeling when you see strength progress.  I need to push legs harder but was happy with the increases. 

barbell free weight squats - 245lbs for 3 sets of 10 (increased by 10lbs)

Leg press - 630lbs for 3 sets of 10 (increased by 40lbs)

Lunges - 195lbs for 3 sets of 12 (increased by 10lbs)

Leg extensions - 180lbs for 15, 15, 15 (got 15 instead of 12 on the last set)

Stiff legged deadlifts - 100lbs dumbells for 3 sets of 10 (20lbs more total)

Leg curls - 110lbs for 15, 15, 15 (got 15 instead of 12 on the last set)

Standing calf raises - 240lbs for 3 sets of 12 (15lbs more)

Seated calf raises - 170lbs for 3 sets of 15 (10lbs more)

Today is Canada day yah!

I had to do chest and tris today but ended up splitting my routine in half so I could attend some Canada day events.  In the morning I did chest and in the afternoon I did triceps.  Here is what I did:

Bench press - 275lbs for 8, 7, 6, 6 (much more then last week)

inclined dumbell press - 80lbs for 10, 85lbs for 2 sets of 10

Inclined dumbell flyes superset with flat dumbell flyes - 55lbs for 3 sets of 10

After this I took a few hours for my Canada day celebrations then it was tricep time:

Skull crushers superset with narrow grip presses - 100lbs for 12/15, 12/15, 12/15

Pressdowns - 85lbs for 3 sets of 8

Overhead tricep extensions - 100lbs for 3 sets of 10

Great workout and i am sore all over.