bwestgat’s BodyBlog

I used to live up in Northern BC (Burns Lake).  I had an awesome weightlifting partner, and we made significant progress together.  I moved out of Burns Lake over a year ago.  To keep in touch we e-mailed every so often.   Then more recently we both started using blackberry’s that work had given us.  One day I e-mailed my old weightlifting partner and told him I was going to the gym to work chest and tris.  he e-mailed back and said "me to".  So I sent him another e-mail and said lets work out together.  ????  he said "OK how are we going to do that?"  I said "just bring your blackberry with you to the gym."  So he did.  We sent mesages to each other telling each other what how many reps, sets, how much weight, what we were feeling, etc.  This motivated us immensly.  It was like he was right there in the room with me, it was very motivating.  We ended up having one of the most intense workouts we have had in more than a year.  So if you se someone in the gym typing away on his blackberry.  Don’t get mad immediately, he may just be working out with his buddy 1000km away.  Isn’t technology great!

I need to pack on 5 pounds of muscle, any suggestions?

I have a 4 day split schedule where I do chest and shoulders, biceps triceps, legs, and back and traps.

I do abs on the other 2 days and will do some interval training but for no more than 20 minutes.

I eat 6 meals a day, with a mix of 30 or so grams of protien, complex carbs and a fruit or veggie.

I think I am doing everything right but I am desperate to really gain some mass.  Any thoughts would sure be great.

I will be posting my new workout soon.  It will be a four day split with chest and shoulders one day, biceps triceps the next day, legs the next and back and traps the last day.  It will also require 2 days of cardio and abs.  There will be a lot of compound moves for wach body part for growth and each routine will end off in a superset or triset with 60 seconds inbetween (very very intense and lots of sweating).  My cardio will be 20 minute interval.  My goal for the next 3 months will be to gain some mass.  If anyone is interested in joining me or is looking for an intense workout let me know.  Take care and have a great Christmas.

I have had a few questions lately on how I got my abs.  Most are asking what excercises I do to get them.  It may surprise you to know that I don’t do much in the way of ab work as there are other things I do that are more important.  I will break it down into three categories, 1) basic weight training, 2) Nutrition 3) Cardio

1) Basic weight training

OK, first and foremost is weight training.  When I workout my routine typically sticks to basic compound excercises.  What does this have to do with abs.  Well heavy compound excercises like squats, bench, military press, barbell curls, etc. requires that you use stabalizer muscles.  When you curl think about what your abs are doing.  They are rock hard and flexed.  When I see trainers training people in my gym it drives me nuts because they have these poor souls doing all their weights on one foot balanced on a ball.  What the hell!  This is not going to do anything for you.  What it does is over works your stabalizer muscles (the small muscles) and hardly works the large muscles at all.  I say if you want to get the most out of your workouts you need to work the large muscles.  Its a cost benefit analysis.  Besides someone benching 300 lbs is working thier core just as hard as someone benching 100 lbs on a ball.  And that is about all they can do.  Crazy!  So to summarize heavy sets of compound excercises works your core intensly.  For those still wanting to do some ab work I do 1 to 2 days a week.  I do a tri set of reverse crunches, crunches and side crunches for sets of 20.  I find that even if I don’t do this I still have abs due to what I have already said and the next 2 points.

2) Nutrition - OK I think this is very important for abs.  I spent many years in the gym working as hard as I could on the weights and never saw my abs.  Once I started eating 6 balanced meals a day (lean protien, complex carbs (whole wheat) and fruit or veggies) in the right proportions, and eating no carbs at night and drinking lots of water, I started loosing wieght, gaining muscle and seeing my abs.  So for crying out loud, eat right.  It is so important.

3) Cardio - Cardio has to be intervals!  Intervals take off the fat without taking off the muscle.  I do 20-25 minutes of intervals.  have you ever seen a long distance runner with big muscles.  I haven’t they are usually skinny and even scrawny.  have you seen a sprinter.  They are buff and muscular.  Intervals people, they work.  I do intervals twice a week.  Don’t over due the cardio or you will start to loose the muscle.  But do some to burn that fat.

Conclusion - to see abs you have to build muscle and loose fat.  Only when you have lost that fat will you see your abs.  Crunching a 1000 times on a ball is not going to do it.  You have to get your weightlifting, eating and cardio (the three legs of the stool) aligned before you see a difference.  Good luck.

If you had a great workout you know the next day or even that day because your muscels get extremly sore.  Many people take ibuprofin to take away some of this soreness.  Studies have now shown that taking ibuprofin after a workout, or to take away typical workout pain will actually half you muscle gains.  Very significant!  So the take home message when building muscle is to avoid ibuprofin for typical weightlifting pain.  This doesn’t mean you cannot use it for fevers, and other strains that are not "good pain".  But instead of taking ibuprofin learn to enjoy the pain.  The pain shows you did well and if you flex the muscles that are sore and feel that pain you can actually shoot a few endorphind into the sytem making you feel good - a job well done.  SO suck it up and live with the pain rather than relying on drugs to take the pain and the muscle away.

Well it is the New Year, and if you have a goal of loosing 6 inches off your belly well that is not something that is out of your reach.  There are thousands of people out there who have done it who are no different from yourself.  It’s just a matter of wanting it bad enough, setting your goals, creating a plan to get there, and of course the hardest part sticking with it.  When I was a lot younger I was 6 feet tall, 140 pounds (very skinny) and I still didn’t have a 6 pack.  I worked on it for 15 years and never saw a 6 pack.  So what was I doing wrong.  I told myself that it was genetics and that I would never see a 6 pack.  That I later learned was just an excuse among many.  later in life I had a bad back injury for which I have never fully recovered from.  So what did I do?  Well I stopped working out, and kept eating at the level I did when I did work out.  I ballooned to 209 lbs an all time high.  My back was in horrible shape.  Finally I decided (everyone has a time when they trigger a time for change) that I had to get back to the gym.  I modified my excercises somewhat to compensate for my back (eg. no deadlifts, hacksquats instead of squats, etc).  I then started eating right (6 clean meals a day, etc.)  I lost 20 pounds in the first 3 months.  How was my back?  Better than it had ever been.  As I was told many times weight on my frame in the form of fat was bad for my back.  And low and behold excercise was good for my back.  When I lost those 20 pounds I actually started to see my abs.  To help me get through those 3 months I had a training partner whith similar goals.  He was going to be turing 40 and wanted to be in the best shape of his life.  So we hit the gym 4 days a week and got out and did some running 2-3 times a week.  We ate clean and cheated once a week so we didn’t fall off our schedule due to unplanned cheating.  It worked amazingly.  I started having more time in the day because I had more energy, more enthusiasm and people started seeing me as a strong positive influence.  So what I am getting at is that you cannot afford to not start a program and stick with it.  If there is anything I can do to help you I will be happy to assist.  But the first thing you need to do is commit to changing.  Each day think about what you are doing with your time.  Are you investing it wisely and getting a good rate of return including, health, energy, etc?  Or are you spending your time carelessly which leads to depression, poor health, frustration, low energy, etc.?  You have 1440 minutes a day no matter what, this is a constant you cannot change.  I reccomend that you use it wisely and get the most out of every minute you can.  Check out my body blog for recipes, tips, workouts and advice.  Good luck!

I have been wroking hard for 12 days now and have already lost 6 pounds!  6 pounds in 12 days is incredible.  My program is working (maybe to well).  My only concern is that I am dropping wieght to fast.  I want to make sure that I am loosing only fat and not muscle.  ONly time will tell but I am eating a lot and woking out hard so my initial thought is that I am not loosing muscle it has been mainly fat and water retention.  So I am calling today a success!  196 lbs to 190 lbs.  My abs are appearing before my eyes.  I am looking forward to my one month progress pics.  Check out my other posts if you would like to see how I am doing it.