Bigger Stronger Wiser

I’ve tried a prothein diet for about six months, but a blood test showed some results begining to get out of the excelent. Mainly LDL and creatine, which means I’ve been eating more red meat than I’m supposed to. So I’ve jumping out of it.

Kettlebell changed a lot in my workout routines. Not only because of the bell itself, but because of what it brought along. The explosive way of lifting and the focus in stability is now a constant in my trainings. Since I began doing overhead and front squats instead of back squats or leg presses I’ve built a lot of muscle. I’m not saying this is the best training method ever, but it’s certainly the best one for me now, and I’ll stick to it while I’m getting results.

This weekend I’ll have a kettlebell training on saturday and sunday. By the end of the training I’ll receive a certificate, allowing me to use the KB training institution’s name as reference. I’m really excited, so I decided to cut my training this and last week to a minimum and avoid any injuries, even the tiny little micro ones. Boy, I’m already 31, but I can still feel the burning of youth excitement. The difference is that I don’t recover so fast anymore.

Last saturday (13/09), some power cleans put me in some awful lower back pain. Since then I cut some exercises to avoid more injuries, and I’m now trying some basic training routine with compound exercises and X-reps.

Day 1 - Chest and Biceps
Press
Flies
Biceps, preferably chins

Day 2 - Back and Triceps
Pullups
Seated rows (no cables)
Triceps

Day 3 - Traps, Shoulders, Legs and Calves

Shoulder press
Upright row
Side laterals
Squat (hack or smith)
Something for calves

The amount of reps varies from 3×8,5,X-reps, 5×5,3,X-reps, to 10×3,X-reps.

I believe I’ll see some good results from this training. Check my progress stats and photos.

I changed my workout a little bit, as I always do. Now I’m doing Xs by the end of every exercise, and I’ll insert some exercises targeting the stretched part of some muscles (in red).

Monday
Pull-up (X middle)	6×4-6 or 10×3
Standing military press (X middle)	6×4-6 or 10×3
Deadlift	6×4-6 or 10×3
Tuesday
Dumbbell upright rows (X below middle)	2×8-12
Chin-up (X Middle)	2×8-12
Close Grip Bench Press (X Middle)	2×8-12
Back flies or Dumbbell Rear Delt Raises (X middle)	2×8-12
Butterfly or Dumbbell Flies (X above bottom)	2×8-12
Seated calf raises (X bottom and top)	2×15-20
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday
Bench press (X middle)	6×4-6 or 10×3
Seated cable row (X above bottom)	6×4-6 or 10×3
Squat or Kettlebell Front Squat or Kettlebell Pistol Squat	6×4-6 or 10×3
Friday
Wide-grip upright rows or Power Clean (X middle and bottom)	2×8-12
Power Partials or Side Laterals (X above bottom)	2×8-12
Straight-Arm Pulldown or Bent-Arm Barbell Pullover (X middle)	2×8-12
Barbell curls (X Middle)	2×8-12
Dips (X middle)	2×8-12
Standing calf raises (X below middle)	2×15-20

And running for 20min on a threadmill progressively raising the speed every week, and alternating "strong" with "slow" speed days.

New month, new workout. I decided to try the shotgun method. It’s basically a heavy day, with few compound exercises, alternated with a troubleshooting day, with isolation exercises. I just did some adaptation. My shotgun method consists of the heavy day of the link, and a X-reps day for troubleshooting. Let’s see what happens!

Monday
Pull-up	8×4-6
Standing military press	8×4-6
Deadlift	8×4-6
Tuesday
Dumbbell upright rows (X below middle)	1×8-12
Smith-machine presses (X middle)	1×8-12
Chin-up (X Middle)	2×8-12
Close Grip Bench Press (X Middle)	2×8-12
Standing calf raises (X below middle)	2×15-20
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday
Bench press	6×4-6
Seated cable row	6×4-6
Squat	6×4-6
Friday
Wide-grip upright rows (X middle and bottom)	1×8-12
Seated dumbbell presses (X middle)	1×8-12
Barbell curls (X Middle)	2×8-12
Dips (X middle)	2×8-12
Seated calf raises (X bottom and top)	2×15-20

My glute-ache is much better now. I already did some fully loaded deadlifts yesterday. However, last week I fell and felt some pain on my neck. I thought it was nothing, but the pain migrated to the traps, right delt, right elbow, and right hand. If it’s not sightseeing, I guess Houston has a problem… I’ll watch closely during this week. If it doesn’t go away, I’ll see a doc. At least it’s not preventing me from doing any exercises.

Yesterday I injured my glute during some lunges. As a matter of fact, I felt a little pain during warm up, but I didn’t listen to my body. The result couldn’t be other than the one that came up: injury. Now I got this pain in my glute. I’ve put some ice at night, and today before work. My butt was icy cold. Lol. I hope I get better soon. I can’t live without deadlifts…

Yersterday I included some pistol squats on my training. I was supposed to use a kettlebell, but since I had none, I used a dumbbell instead. I guess the result was pretty much the same. For my legs at least. The only mistake was doing pistol squats on the same day as deadlifts. Those two together are a burning combination. Next week I’ll do them on different days.

Today I almost injured my right shoulder trying to do an olympic squat. The exercise is not so easy as it looks like (at least to me). I was supposed to do it twice a week, and another squat on the other day. I decided to do one leg squats and lunges instead. I believe these exercises will force my legs so much as a squat, maybe more. Let’s see what happens.