My BodyBlog

Poor squatting Friday night, I won’t dwell on it though, just accept the fact that hand pain, low stength in my legs and overall low energy meant that doing 10 by 10 squats was out of the question.  I could barely squat with what for me is usually a moderate weight.  I did get some decent quad work in though on machines, and the best part of the workout was pull-downs and cable rows, I used different attachments and did slow reps, really hit the back and lats from different angles and it felt great.  Did some good ab sets too, but wasn’t up for cardio.  I had a protein shake and went right home to bed.

Up early Saturday morning for the 1 hour drive to the city and a day of non-stop shopping.  I am NOT a fan of shopping, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!  The highlight of the day was lunch, we went to a breakfast restaurant (Cora’s) where I had a platter with eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, crepe, home fries, mushrooms, onions, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, and toasted raisin bread.  Breakfast food is my favourite :.)!  I finished the meal with a decadent dessert, a crepe stuffed with bananas and chocolate sauce and drizzled with english cream!  Not an ounce of guilt accompanied this desert, its’ been about six months since I had anything so sinful and I just felt the time was right.  I will look at this as a ‘carb up’ day, a day to boost my energy, and my clean eating continued next meal.  For the first time in my life I can eat something like this knowing it will not lead to a binge of unhealthy eating, guilt and a downward spiral into bad habits.  I am forever off the diet merry-go-round to nowhere thanks to bodybuilding!  After getting home my wife and I went for a walk in the dark and cold.  Felt good to get the fresh air and a little exercise in!

Sunday morning was housework and another walk.  Worked for a few hours in the afternoon then did some cooking, roasted a turkey breast and thighs, cooked a big pot of brown rice and did some veggies.  The hand is feeling a lot better than it was on Friday, although still not 100%.  The only soreness I have is my thighs, so my workout tonight was totally open to do what I felt like doing, except no legs!

When I was doing 5×5 training at the end of 2008 I got up to 205 with barbell bench press.  Didn’t quite complete it at 205, I was just a fraction away from doing the final rep.  Starting the new year I went on a 14 workout bench press program using pyramid training and I had some stength increase, seeing my 1RM increase by about 15 pounds.  Having recently completed that, I wanted to give the 5×5 another shot and tonight was the night!  Felt good in spite of having worked back 48 hours earlier and I did the 5 sets with little trouble, having some energy to spare!  Another bit of evidence that I am getting stronger and it feels great!  I did some light rotator cuff work and 11 sets for shoulders including 5 sets of overhead presses at a moderate weight.  A great upper body workout and what a difference in energy from the Friday night workout!  Maybe it was the banana-chocolate crepe . 

What a strange way to hurt my hand!  My right hand started to ache last night and it continues today.  Hurts most when I make a fist or spread my fingers.  I did some close-grip bench press Tuesday night so my first thought was that I hurt my wrist then.  It’s the same one that I sprained last year and it’s been a little sore at times….but this was my hand hurting, not my wrist!  I thought about it and then it came to me how I did it.

There was a piece of siding coming off our house yesterday in the high wind, the second time for the same piece.  We have a tool to help fit it back in place, so as my wife was sliding the tool along the edge of the siding I was pushing and hitting the siding with hand to make sure it was tightly locked back into place.  Must have been doing this for about 5 minutes and I guess I did something to my hand!  It’s not bruised so I’m hoping it will heal up in short order.

Don’t know how this will effect my workout tonight.  Wasn’t planning to use any dumbbells or do much upper body work.  I want to squat but don’t know if it will hurt to grasp the bar.  I’ll see how it goes and adjust as necessary to have a good leg workout plus abs and cardio.

This day has finally arrived!  I wouldn’t do this last workout until I had the right circumstances meaning a good spotter, the right bench, and a properly rested upper body.  Some of this was more for my mental preparation than anything else, but it is what it is.  I stretched out this bench training routine an extra couple of weeks compared to the first time I did it, hoping the extra rest days would make a difference.  I think it helped somewhat, although hard to know for sure.  I’ve had good form through-out, but have been inconsistent in terms of strength.  In theory I should be attempting the heaviest weight so far this time out, but I’d be happy with anything above my starting 1RM at this point!

My mind-set was to be flexible with the weight, to give myself the best chance of doing all sets cleanly.  I took two possible workouts with me to the gym (thanks for the idea Jason).  First option was the regular workout for the track I was on, second option was to do the workout for one track lower in the progression table.  I’d try the harder workout but switch over if necessary, even modify the sets and reps if I felt it would be better.

Arriving at the gym, there were several regulars there who had seen me benching and knew I was trying for increased weight.  When they found out I was tackling bench last night, I received a lot of encouraging comments and it was a motivating atmosphere to lift in.  I’d like to say it was a fairy-tale ending and I did all lifts no problem.  If it were that easy, I probably wouldn’t be challenging myself enough!  After warm-ups I started with the hardest option and banged out the first set 225×3 no problem.  Next set was 240×2, did the first rep fine, the spotter did touch the bar on the second rep saying that he just ’straightened up one side’.  I’m sure I would have completed it.  Next lift required was 255×1.  It would be the heaviest lift I’ve ever attempted, I decided to go for it rather than be safe and do a weight I’d done before.

Spotter helped me lift off, I lowered it and started to come back up and it was feeling good but I got stuck at the usual ’sticking point’ and the spotter gave a little push to get me going again and I was able to finish, just barely.  A good lift though, but I thought I could do better because I didn’t try to push with my legs.  Decided to do it again after a rest, the spotter I had was gone, another guy jumped in to help me. Turns out his spotting technique involves keeping hands on the bar and making the lifter complete the rep smoothly by giving whatever assistance needed.  I pushed up that 255 like I was Superman LOL!  That’s fine though, I’m happy with the effort I put in and the fact that I tried the more challenging workout.  Although 255 wasn’t completed unassisted, I didn’t feel like I was totally out of my comfort zone, it’s a weight that I am very close to conquering.

So, Muscle Media’s 14 workout bench press training program is competed, for the second time in about 8 months.  I’ve gone from a 220 to a 250 lift, but more importantly I’ve learned how to do a good bench press and I’ve gained a lot of confidence.  I’ve established a good foundation to build on as I keep working towards a bigger chest and a 315 bench press.

I rolled slowly out of bed this morning feeling the full impact of DOMS in my upper back and even forearms.  My back workout Friday night was apparently a great success, I can’t remember the last time my lats were this sore!  My first thought was maybe I’m over doing it, after all I’d worked out 3 of the last 4 days, including an extra workout yesterday (abs and cardio only).  Maybe I’d rest today, especially since I wanted to fell strong for my next bench press workout…. this line of thinking lasted about 30 seconds as I made my way to the shower and stretched out a little.  I love and strive for the sore feeling you get from making the muscles work hard, there can be no doubt that it means they’re going to grow!  The feeling just makes me feel so alive!

So of course I went to the gym today but I was selective in what I did.  My back needs at least another 48 hours to recover for the bench pressing and I didn’t want to work any other major muscles needed for that.  I decided to do a moderate leg workout plus pump up the biceps!  I did 7 sets of lying curls, 7 sets of leg extensions, 6 sets of standing barbell calf raises, and 15 sets of various bicep exericeses.  Most were 12 reps until the end where I did a few burn-out sets.   For cardio I did 630 jump rope reps, plus I had a walk earlier in the day.

At the gym yesterday one of the young guys who has a very strong and big upper body asked me how often I worked out.  I replied ‘usually three times a week’ and he nodded and said ‘I think that’s what I should be doing too.’  Turns out he’s been working out six times a week and rarely takes a break.  He says he’s been feeling tired and just going through the motions lately and can’t see any strength or size increases.  He says he’s been reading about over training and is wondering if that’s his problem.  I said that muscles don’t grow while you’re breaking them down at the gym, they grow while they are resting, they need time to repair themselves.  He said that makes sense.  I hope he changes his approach, he won’t be sorry.  He is one of the few guys at my gym who, with a cut diet, could be in great shape and look great in a show.

Feeling really good about the intensity I am achieving in my workouts lately and about getting in some cardio most workouts.  The next 3 out of 5 days there’ll be no lifting so grow baby grow!  I’m going to watch a movie now, it’s about all the planes and people who were diverted to my home town of Gander, Newfoundland right after the attacks on 9/11.  That little town of about 8,000 took care of about 10,000 stranded passengers for several days.  Should be interesting to watch!  Hope everyone has a great week! 

Back has been worked hard the last eight weeks as I squatted, benched or deadlifted during every workout (except one).  I did a few light sets of pull-downs and cable rows, some trap work and a few pull-ups during that time, but I avoided having a full-blown, no holds-barred, take no prisoners back workout to avoid becoming overly fatigued and effecting my compound lifts.  That cycle is done, so last night it was time to inflict as much punishment as possible on the back muscles!

After a 12 minute bike warm-up, I started my pullups, grip slightly wider than shoulder width.  Haven’t done many pullups lately, and they were HARD!  I managed 4 sets of 7, not bad I guess and a good starting point, I’ll be doing them often in the coming months.  I really felt my back, there was some soreness and fatigue left over from my high volume chest workout 48 hours before.  I was determined though to stick with my plan for the workout.

At my gym the Smith machine and the power rack are side by side, in a corner away from the other equipment.  I set up for shrugs on the Smith machine, barbell bent-over rows in the power rack, and a barbell for deadlifts in front of the power rack.  This would be the first time I had included any deadlifting as part of a high-volume back workout, and I wasn’t sure how it would go.  I alternated between traps, deadlifts and rows, not quite super-sets but not taking too long a rest between sets.  I focused on form and kept the weight moderate.  The deadlifting in combination with the other exercises was very tiring.  On deads I did 135×10 and 225×10, then moved up to 295 where I could only manage 2.  For the last set I did one 315 lift.  I had done 16 sets of the 3 exercises in all including warm-ups - goal achieved!

I looked at the deadlift bar, I had six plates on.  I wasn’t planning to lift any heavier last night, but with only two mores plates I could be at 405…. It was happening to me again.  Something inside me was urging me to push myself past my perceived limits.  I wanted so badly to go for a 405 lift, even though I was tired at the end of a long back workout.  Far from ideal circumstances for a heavy deadlift, and I’d failed to lift heavy when tired many times before.  But of course that didn’t stop me from wanting to try, I reasoned that if I failed it meant nothing, I had good reason considering the workout I’d just done!  So I went for it…I did the lift and it took all my body’s resources to get it up.  I’m still amazed I could do that lift in those circumstances, it’s another sign of my good progress in building overall strength in my back and legs.

I wasn’t quite done yet though.  I did 3 sets of lower back extensions holding a 25 pound plate.  I went slowly and tried to stetch out the muscles as much as possible.  I really felt it.  The hardest part of the workout was yet to come - I had to unload 8 plates off the bar and I was exhausted!  I did it in ’sets’ of 2, jumping rope in between.  I’d done some jump rope between pullup sets, and ended up with 550 reps for the night.  Picking the bar up off the floor, I was finally done.  The gym was empty by that time, 10 pm on a Friday night.  Feeling tired but exhilerated, I looked back at the Smith machine and power rack, thinking there was no other place I would rather have spent my time on a Friday evening.

I’ve had this post done for a couple of weeks but I’ve been afraid to post it in case I was deluding myself…this is such a big deal to me that I wanted to be absolutely sure of what I’ve been seeing in the mirror before I shared this with the world….but I’m not losing my mind, it’s really happening, so here it is!

I’ve been thinking about having defined abs ever since I started weight lifting five years ago.  Back then it was just a fantasy, I didn’t really believe it was possible for a non-athletic average chubby guy working behind a desk.  I put abs out of my mind, and just enjoyed working out and feeling a lot better about myself and life in general.  I worked abs from time to time, mostly doing crunches on the exercise ball, and not doing them very well either.  Fast forward about three and a half years and I’d changed my body a lot, adding some good muscle and losing a lot of body fat.  I thought about getting defined abs again off and on, but then I looked at all the fat left around my mid-section and I figured I’d just be lucky if I could lose any more of it…abs were probably not realistic.  And I was right, I just didn’t know it.  I was right because at that time my diet was pretty crappy.  I ate a lot of junk food and fast food, although in my heart I knew better but I didn’t have the motivation and information to make the lifestyle changes I needed to clean up my act.  The workouts took me to a better place physically and I was happy with it, but I can see now I was coming to the end of how far I could progress without cleaning up my diet.

Thankfully, in November 2007 I discovered bodybuilding.com after seeing an ad in a fitness magazine.  This site opened the door to a whole new world for me.  I read for countless hours (and still do) and soaked up whatever info I could about exercise and nutrition.  Then I started to try applying some of the basics to my own life, both at the gym and in the kitchen.  Reading profiles and transformation stories on bodyspace gave me incredible motivation.  For the first time I truly believed that almost anything was possible if I just did the right things…it was then I started to believe that I could make defined abs come true.  That was over 16 months ago, and hell, it’s been a long road!  I had to change so much where my diet was concerned, and I couldn’t do it all overnight, I had to do it in small steps to truly make each change stick.  The weight lifting part came easy to me…I love every minute of it and thanks to my increase in knowledge the past 15 months have seen gains in mass and strength that I never thought possible.  I know the importance of cardio to my abs goal, and all last year I did better at it than ever before, but I was inconsistent and I realized at the end of the year that I had to step up my game if I wanted to shed the fat.

I decided to be a little more structured in my approach in 2009.  I would try different ways of training and stick to each routine for enough time to see how my body would change, and I would do cardio after every single workout, and more on non-lifting days too.  I would also make some more changes to my diet, adding more lean protein and being more selective about when I ate healthy carbs.  So here I am just finished the second month, and I successfully completed my cycle of bench press/deadlift/bench press/squat workouts.  I’ve been trying to get the most out of these workouts in terms of strength gains.  I’ve also been very consistent with the cardio, although non-gym days have been a challenge.  This will improve when the weather improves since I’ll get back to walking daily.  Also I’ve learned how to jump rope very well and this is a great boost to my cardio.  I’ve been working out abs twice a week and over the last several months I’ve learned how to do a decent ab workout in about 10-12 minutes…but I haven’t thought much about abs since the new year started.  I’ve just been doing what I believe I need to do.

Incremental change is hard to notice.  You can see someone every day and they look the same in your eyes, then one day your brain makes the connection and you realize how much they’ve changed from before.  The same is true when I look at myself…I know I’m getting leaner but it’s hard to appreciate it from seeing myself in the mirror each day…my clothes is better proof, pants that fit well six months ago are getting much too big these days.  I have to be honest with myself and admit that I can see real changes in my body since the start of the year, it’s not my imagination!  I can see the shape of the abs starting below my pecs, although not a lot of definition yet, it is definately there…I’ll call it the beginning of a ‘four pack’!

It’s ironic that the time when I’m not thinking a lot about abs is the time when I’ve made the most progress…I’m just doing what I need to do day in, day out.  Lift, do short duration but high intensity cardio, eat a clean and lean diet.  I don’t know how long it will take me to get the defined six pack that I want…I can get there if I stay on the path that I am on, I’ll even try to do everything better.  I can visualize it.  I believe in myself.  I will succeed! 

Psyched up to finish the bench press program last night.  Had plenty of rest and good pre-workout food, but when I got to the gym the other two pieces of the puzzle weren’t there - the bench press was in use and there was no spotter.  A couple of teens were doing close-grip bench and I could have waited for them to finish, but the spotter issue was a big problem - I needed someone I knew could handle the big weight and those kids were beginners.  Where were all the regular guys who are there on weeknights?  Then I remembered it was Wednesday night.  It’s half price wing and discounted beer night at the most popular local tavern - ‘Whacky Wednesday Wing Night’ they call it.  On many Tuesdays, my usual night, I hear guys talking about going there.  Maybe last night that’s where they all were, I don’t know.  Anyway, no spotter so I decided to wait until I have the right circumstances before doing that last bench workout.

The disappointment was soon forgotten when I started an intense chest workout.  I’ll have plenty of time to recover before trying bench press again, so I went all out (almost).  Started with flat dumbell press, working sets 42×12, 60×10, 80×6.  The 80’s were solid, I was feeling good and know I could have done 100 for reps, but I decided to wait until next time.  I had other plans for chest, didn’t want to use up all my strength too fast!  Bench press was now free so I did a couple of sets just for the hell of it, 135×10 and 201×8.  Chest starting to burn a little now!  I then did incline and decline dumbbell press, 6 sets total, followed by 3 sets flat bench flyes.  I started super-setting with various shoulder raises, did 8 sets of these along with chest.  Then I grabbed the 10 pound dumbbells and did 6 sets of various rotator cuff exercises, 12 reps each, with no break in between.  Not finished yet though!  Time to stretch the chest muscles and go for a final pump and burn.  I did 4 sets of cable crossovers, different angles, low weight and high reps.  Finished off with a couple of sets of what I call ‘plate pushes’ which are a killer at the end of a chest workout and really squeeze the muscles.

So ended my first chest workout with mostly dumbbells in over two months.  DOMS have started today, feels great! 

I did a good leg workout last night - no squatting though, after two months of doing them for every leg workout I’m taking a break!  Started off with leg press, first time I’d done any this year.  I was able to push some great weight last time I did them, got up to 810 in plates, with good form I thought, but I’ve been wondering - was I able to push so much because I was cheating somehow?  Last night as an experiment I positioned my feet on the push-plate a little further apart than usual, with the toes pointing out slightly.  Coming down at this angle was comfortable but seemed moderately harder than with the feet closer together.  I did 4 sets, 180×12, 270×10, 360×8, 450×6.  I had more in me but didn’t go any higher because I was unsure about my foot placement.  Reading about leg press today, it seems that varying foot positions are acceptable and work the muscles at different angles, which is good.  You should also avoid locking out at the top of the movement, and of course no moving around the hips or rear.  Anyone have any experiences or advice on leg press form I’d love to hear it!

Besides the leg press I did 6 sets lying curls, 3 sets thigh adduction, 3 sets leg extension, and 2 sets of walking lunges.  I did 9 sets of abs, 650 jump rope reps (these are a killer when done during a leg workout!) and rode the bike for 20 minutes.  Tired after, but felt great!

March 1, 2004 I stepped into the gym for my first workout in over 10 years.  Little did I know I was starting something that would change my life.  Five years later I look back with great joy on the journey I have experienced.  I won’t go into detail about my experiences, I’ll just say there have been some lows and many highs during that time, and I have learned important lessons from it all.

Lots of people start working out.  I know that many, if not most, don’t stick with it.  What gave me the drive to keep going, especially those first couple of years when I had no on-line or other support?  I dabbled with fitness when I was younger, but other things in life took priority.  I knew the benefits of weight-lifting, I had a taste of it.  Looking at turning 40 in a couple of years, I felt like it was my last chance to get serious about being fit, I felt at the time the alternative was to settle back and wait for the inevitable deterioration of my body and health that aging would bring.  I know now of course it’s never too late to start living a healthy lifestyle.  I guess it was the desire to improve my health and maintain a high quality of life that kept me going back to the gym time after time.  Of course, the more I went and the more changes I could see in my strength and body the easier it became to keep going.  Now I can’t imagine ever stopping!

It was just over a year ago, when I started using this site, that I realized I wasn’t just lifting weights, what I was really doing was bodybuilding.  I soaked up the information contained here on exercise and nutrition, and I got inspired and motivated by bodyspace members.  I began applying what I was learning and saw my progress accelerate like I never thought possible!  I started setting and meeting short-term goals, and that motivated me to keep challenging myself, to keep pushing to get bigger, stronger and leaner.  My starting goal of improving health has led me to a lifesyle where some sacrafice and hard work have provided me with tremendous physical benefits, but it doesn’t stop there.  Thanks to bodybuilding I have improved confidence and self-esteem, I have a more positive outlook on every aspect of my life.  A guy who has been average at everything he’s done in his life has found something that he can do pretty well and that is tremendously satisfying.  I have plenty more to learn and I want to learn as much as I can.  I don’t know how far I can progress physically and I will keep going until I reach my limits.  Not knowing what my limitations are motivates me to keep pushing myself to be the best I can be.  There are so many ways you can challenge yourself with this lifestyle, I doubt if I will ever run out of things to do and it will never be boring! 

Five years ago was my starting point.  There will be no ending point.  This journey will continue until I am physically not able to do anything anymore.  God willing that will be many decades from now!

I did it! I stayed with my plan for the whole two months, not missing a single workout - 28 workouts in total.  I did 13 bench press workouts following Muscle Media’s Bench Press Routine (1 left to finish next week), and other workouts alternated between deadlift and squat (except one extra trip to the gym where I did light isolation work).  I did some isolation work to complement the compound exercises every time.  I did cardio at some point during every workout, except 4 times when leg or back soreness was an issue.  I did abs every second workout.  This was a lot of heavy lifting and towards the middle of February, fatigue started to become an issue but I adjusted a little and pushed through.  Focusing on compounds like that was new for me, a great thing to try that I think is helping me grow.  Some highlights were a 250 bench press, a 425 regular deadlift, 432 rack deadlift, and doing squat 5×5 @ 275 pounds with excellent form.

In the kitchen I stayed clean and I was very happy with how I dealt with working out of town, I packed lunches and snacks and when I went out to eat I kept to healthy choices.  I made visible progress on my abs goal.  To help with my abs goal I decided to take some advice I’d read and cut out carbs after dinner.  I succeeded at this sometimes, not every day.  Seemed easier to do when I worked out in the evening, I’d just have my protein shake after the gym and some tuna, salmon, chicken and a little cottage cheese and then go to bed.  When I had carbs in the evening, they were healthy carbs.  I’ll keep working on this, but it’s hard because I find I get cravings for food, not any particular food but just for something.  It’s natural since I was lifting heavy and I’m growing and the body demands fuel for this!

Staying with my two month plan is success on a small goal, but it’s still important.  Achieving the small goals keeps motivation high and the little successes quickly accumulate to big gains!  Two months was enough on one routine though, personally I need variety to keep my motivation high and towards the end I started looking forward to when I could make a change.  I’m a firm believer in the philosophy of changing up exercises, weights, sets and reps on a regular basis to stimulate maximum growth.

So, where do I go from here?  My busy season for work will take place over the next 3 months.  If past years are anything to go by, I’ll still get to the gym at least 3 times a week, but it might not be on the schedule I prefer.  So rather than start something very structured, I think I’ll just do split training, working 2-3 muscle groups per workout and doing those which have had the most rest.  I guess I’ll be following the instinctive training principle and train how I feel will best suit me any particular day.  I’ll still work on my strength goals though.  I’ll deadlift once a week in some form and then go for a heavy lift once in awhile.  For my bench press goal, after I finish the bench program next week I want to get in few good chest exercises using dumbbells, incline, decline, cables, whatever I can do to stimulate all around growth.  Then I’ll start doing bench press again, following a routine that someone in the ‘Big Bench’ group told me about.  I have no idea how it will work, more on this later.  Lots of fun workouts to come!