My BodyBlog

My first ever attempt to stick with any program as long as 12 weeks is done with finally!  It was a program designed by me for me, containing the exercises I like most and a training split that I was hoping would further several of my goals.  I stuck with it through some rough patches including a summer flu bug, a calf injury, and forearm pain.  Although I had to adjust some things as I went along to account for unforseen circumstances, I managed to stick to my upper/lower body split and I included some heavy lifting in almost every workout.  Here, in no particular order, is what I learned (already knew some of it, but this experience reinforced it!)

• Lifting heavy every workout for so long is HARD to do, especially after about 6 weeks.  Although I still had good workouts my max strength just wasn’t there every time out.
• Adequate recovery time was vital in this program - 3 workouts per week was the max I could do and still lift consistently heavy weight.
• It takes mental toughness to stick with one program for 12 weeks.  Around week 9 I really wanted a change.
• Sticking with a program in spite of an injury or minor illness is vital to long-tem success.  Modifications to your program are fine, skipping workouts won’t get you where you want to go.  Any kind of workout in the face of difficult circumstances is 100% better than no workout.
• I love doing compound exercises - bench, deadlift, squat - I believe they have gotten me to where I am today and they’ll stay a part of all future workout programs.

Good lessons to be sure.  Now, how about results? I had several goals in mind to work on, some came along better than others. 

• Primary goal was to work on chest so as to increase my bench press.  I can see in the mirror I did make progress on chest, and I did see increased strength based on the chest exercises I was doing.  As for my bench press one rep max, I want to tackle that when upper body is completely recovered and rested, and that’ll be my first order of business when I get back from my one week vacation around September 20th. 
• Another goal was to do more reps on pull-ups.  I didn’t do pull-ups nearly as often as planned, mainly because I had some forearm pain for a couple of weeks and I didn’t want to take a chance of injurying myself to the point where it hampered my chest workouts.  However, I did reach a new personal best, doing a solid set of 12.
• My goal of doing a 500 deadlift is still with me and I feel I’m getting stronger, but I haven’t had any success yet pulling more than the 445 I achieved on May 24th.  However, I did do a 545 rack deadlift on July 19 which was a phenomenal achievement for me.  I know I didn’t have many deadlift workouts where legs/back or my overall health were 100% due to flu, calf injury, forearm pain, or muscle fatigue from garden work/cardio etc.  After my vacation, trying to equal or better my 445 is priority #2 (after the bench press).
• Another goal was to squat well each and every time.  I’m not worried about achieving max lifts here at this point, I just want to squat deep with good form with a decent amount of weight.  I achieved that goal, I feel more comfortable with squats now then ever.  I will slowly try to add weight and see how far I can take it, as long as I continue to squat deep and have good leg workouts.
• All the bench pressing, deadlifts, squats, pullups had one thing in common - my back had to work hard almost every workout!  Focusing on compound lifts every workout barely gives the back adequate time to recover.  Some days my back wasn’t 100% and I know this contributed to some less than max strength workouts.  On the up side, I’m sure I had some good back development and I hope this makes a difference especially to my benching and deadlifting as I go forward.
• A final goal was to work on leaning out as I continue on with my journey to abs.  When I started I vowed to do cardio each workout.  Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.  I got in some decent HIIT for about half of the workouts.  There is an up side though, I walked a lot, did some bike riding and swimming, and stuck to clean eating.  I can see in the mirror and tell from my clothes (and having to move in another notch on my weight belt) that a slow lean out continues.  I hope continuing to build muscle will help this.  I can see the outline of a 4-pack from certain angles, but not much definition at this point.  But I’m closer than I’ve ever been, so I’ll keep workin’ at it and keep dreamin’ the dream!

A very interesting 12 weeks and I’m very glad I stuck with a program for so long.  Don’t think I’ll be doing it again very soon though, maybe next year.  For the next two weeks, before I go on vacation, I’m going to workout however I feel like, depending on how my body feels, but I’ll be sure to hit it hard - my ‘reward’ for sticking with my program!

I got to the swimming pool Saturday at 8 only to see a sign that read ‘Closed for the season Saturday at 5′.  So much for that.  My area needs a year round swimming pool badly…there’s talk that the town council is in the planning stages for it, the sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.  Since I was out I headed to the gym and spent about 45 minutes doing abs, biceps, and a little cardio.  A bonus workout, albeit a short one, glad I did something productive since swimming was a no go!

Headed to the gym Sunday afternoon for my last workout of the 12 weeks, squats and lower body.  My right hip felt a little sore for some reason and this being my third workout in three days, I decided not to go too heavy, instead keep the reps high and the weight down.  There were a couple of other guys doing squats so instead of staying at the power rack I included squats with my leg circuit training.  I got in 3 sets, 135×10, 145×10, 155×10, and a burnout set of 115×20 at the end of the workout.  During the workout I did 9 sets quads, 6 sets hams and 6 sets calves, plus 10 minutes on the bike and 500 jump rope reps between sets.  Overall a great workout to end the 12 weeks.

My goal was 3 workouts a week and I was right on target, thanks to Saturday’s extra one.  However,if I count all the days I did yardwork, some of it heavy, as a workout then I exceeded my goal for sure.  So what did I learn/achieve over the last 12 weeks?  Check back tomorrow for my next blog post.

Monday night deadlifting, some heavy lifts plus a lot of volume, gave me back, trap, and forearm DOMS unlike anything I’ve ever had from deadlifting before - felt great and proof of a good workout!  I took Tuesday and Wednesday off for recovery, in preparation for an intense Thursday afternoon Chest workout, but I couldn’t get away from work.  Thursday evening I attended a BBQ held by a non-profit organization I’m involved with (had a nice steak plus green salads - a sliver of carrot cake for dessert - a small planned cheat item!).  So an unintended 4 day break from the gym but the upside is I’m fully recovered and I expect to be able to push some serious iron tonight!

…(Saturday morning) the workout is in the books and it was a great one!  Started with flat barbell bench press, did clean sets of 165×12, 182×8, 192×6, 200×4.  I reduced the first two sets by about 10 pounds from best so far, so that I had more in the tank for the last two sets.  The 200×4 is my best set all summer for this rep scheme.  After benching I did a lot of chest and triceps work with dumbbells and cables, including supersets and a couple of tri-sets.  The bench pressing pre-exhausted the triceps and it didn’t take long for the burn to start.

Taking my nephew to a nature park this afternoon where they’re having a magic show, you can meet ‘Perry the Perigrine Falcon’, and do other activities.  It’s a great place for a walk, you can walk a long trail among the animal enclosures and see moose, caribou, beaver, otter, fox, many different types of birds, and other animals.  It’s a government run facility that does research and rehabilitates injured wildlife.  The animals on display were raised from young or have injuries and can’t survive on their own.  Then tonight I’m going swimming, last chance before the pool closes for the season.

This was my 34th workout of my 12 week summer program.  Sunday’s lower body workout will be the last.  I’ll be posting my thoughts on how I felt about it.  Have a great weekend everyone! 

This post is primarily about me indulging in a last bit of procrastination before I start doing some work which I really can’t stand.  It’s a necessary evil in my business, something I put off each year until as late as possible.  I enjoy the part of my work where I am out talking and working with people, not sitting in front of my computer filling out forms that for the most part no one but me will ever look at anyway.  But the professional standards I have to follow require that I produce these forms.  It gets harder and harder each year for me to do this part of my work.

I know people and have read about people who love their work.  They wake up each day with a sense of anticipation, they enjoy the challenges of the day, the hours fly by, and after work they feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that they have done something worthwhile that has made a real difference in people’s lives.  I can’t ever remember feeling this way about the work I’m doing now.  A couple of summer jobs were something like that, but what I chose for my career?  Not even close.  Probably most people don’t feel this way about their work, I know.  And I am grateful for the living that I earn from my work, but I can’t stop thinking that there has got to be a better way, a way that I can earn a living and feel all those good feelings….the feelings like I regularly get from my bodybuilding workouts!

I feel the anticipation before going to the gym…the passion and desire are there to make the most of it.  I work hard and try to challenge myself by going heavier or doing more reps.  I enjoy every minute of it…even sometimes the pain.  The time flies by and when I’m done the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, knowing that I’ve done something really worthwhile that’s helping to increase my quality of life…that feeling is priceless.  My spirits are lifted and I feel truly alive…it’s a feeling that can last for a couple of days.  I also love talking about bodybuilding.  When I get a workout partner and we work together and push one another, talking about lifting as we go…it’s a wonderful experience.  When I’m asked a question or get into a discussion it makes my day, especially when I know someone has learned something from what I’ve had to say.  I guess in a nutshell what I’m saying is that bodybuilding is enriching my soul just as much as it is benefiting my body, maybe even more.  I want to feel that everday from my work.  I want it badly.

I applied for a new position recently, one that I feel would provide a lot of what I want.  The competition closed July 31 and so far I haven’t heard anything.  I’m not yet discouraged though, as the person currently in the equivalent role is finishing up this coming Friday, August is a tough time to get a hiring committee together because of vacations, and I’ve been told the goal is to have the position filled by the end of September.  Maybe I’ll call soon to ask when the process will be starting.  I’d rather know what’s going on than just keep on waiting for a phone call.

If the new position doesn’t pan out I’ll have to stay mentally strong and keep believing that I can make the changes to my work that I want to make somewhere down the road.  In the meanwhile I’ll have to tough it out and get to work filling out those forms and be thankful I have my workouts to look forward to that will give me the good feelings I need.

Hurricane Bill hit my area Sunday night around midnight.  Thankfully, the reality of it was a lot less severe than all the hype.  It had been downgraded to a tropical storm and it really wasn’t much worse than typical severe wind and rain storms.  We had prepared our grounds so there was no damage from flying objects, in fact we didn’t even lose any tree branches.  The only thing Bill did was blow the cover of my compost bin!

No workouts over the weekend.  We had some stressful times with an ill pet that unfortunatly had to be put to sleep by the vet Sunday morning.  This is always upsetting for my wife and I who are animal lovers.  I just wasn’t in the mood to focus on much so I skipped my usual Sunday workout.

I took the day off Monday, did some garden work which sometimes can be as much of a stress relief as lifting (almost).  I emptied a compost bin and finished moving an old flower bed - about two hours of shovelling, lifting and lugging.  Monday night was lower body, time for some deadlifting, but I was unsure how I’d find it after the garden work.

After warm-up, I did a sets of 135×10 and 225×6.  Felt good, decided to go for a heavy lift.  I did 315×2, 365 x1, and 405×1.  How I feel on the 405 lift is always a good indication of whether I should continue or call it a night.  Last night I felt average, so I put on some more plates, totalled to 437, and did that lift.  It was a tough one, grip on right side wasn’t good, but I got ‘er done.  That was heavy enough for that session, but I wasn’t finished deadlifting.  Another guy was waiting for the bar, so I put the weight back down to 225 and worked in with him.  I did 225×10 and 225×8.  When he was done we took off two more plates and I did a set of 135×10 (sumo style) and to finish a set of 135×12.  I finished my workout with three sets of lying leg curls to stretch out the hamstrings.  I totalled up my deadlifts and turns out I lifted 11,657 pounds last night!  Next workout upper body, chest will be the focus. 

First the Friday afternoon workout - I felt energized today and that translated into intensity and high volume.  Started with my primary goal of standing overhead barbell press.  Added 5 pounds to every set compared to my previous best, and I nailed every set with more energy to spare!  I did 105×12, 115×8, 125×6, 130×4.

Feeling great after that, I decided to try something different for me: tri-sets!  I set up two ez-curl bars and gathered extra plates, I did upright rows for shoulders, skull-crushers for tris and curls for biceps.  I did 4 tri-sets, going up in weight and down in reps every set.  Intensity and volume, it left me sweating!  After this I kept going with the same tri-set scheme but switching to different dumbbell and cable exercises.  Did a total of 10 tri-sets in all, arms were very tired by the end but it felt fantastic!  This is the first upper body workout in 11 weeks where I didn’t do any bench pressing or direct work on chest.  It was a nice change of pace and I’m planning to hit chest hard next upper body day!

Now on to Hurricane Bill - I’ve been watching the progress of this hurricane all week on the US National Hurricane Center website.  It’s been forecast to head our way from the start and that hasn’t changed.  I live in on the island of Newfoundland, easternmost part of Canada, on the Avalon Peninsula, easternmost part of the island, jutting out into the north atlantic ocean.  We get the after-effects of most hurricanes that come up the eastern seaboard each year, but by the time they get to us, having travelled over some land and colder water, they’ve usually lost most of their steam and are then tropical depressions or at worst tropical storms.  But Bill appears to be different.  It’s forecast to remain a category 1 hurricane when it makes landfall in Newfoundland not too far from where I live.  That’s still over 48 hours away so the track can change….but it’s a big storm and even if it weakens a little or moves a little we probably will have a bad weather event.  A lot of people I’ve talked to are in denial, not believing there will be much to it, but we aren’t taking any chances.  We’re putting all outdoor stuff that could blow around in the garage, and making sure we have plenty of bottled water and foods that don’t depend on electricity to get ready.  Better to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best!

In My bb.com, the section ‘What My Friends Are Doing’ hasn’t updated since early yesterday.  Is this happening to anyone else?  I really miss it as this is usually the first thing I check, it’s a great way to keep tabs on those members that motivate you with their progress and mutual feedback.  Of course I can still go to those members profiles another way, but it’s not as convenient.

Gym last night was warm and very humid, the changing room was especially humid from shower steam.  It was so humid there was a rank odour of sweat permeating the entire place.  I myself started to sweat right from my first warm-up.  My gym last night was not the place for the faint of heart or the sweat-adverse person.  I didn’t mind it one bit!  It added to the hard-core atmosphere of the place and I felt right at home.  There were a lot of regulars there doing some serious lifting, just the way a gym should be.  I started with squats, sets of 135×10, 225×6, 275×1, 295×1, and a final lift of 305.  Squatting took a lot of energy last night, I was happy to get those lifts in.

I went to get a drink after the 295 lift and a man I didn’t know came up to me saying that I sure was lifting a lot of weight.  He said when he saw me start he didn’t think I had a prayer.  I told him the weight and he was amazed.  Turns out he’s a 42 year old who’s just been working out for a month.  He wanted to know how long I’ve been at it, when I told him I started at 38 and now I’m 44, he said ‘I guess there’s hope for me yet’.  I said it’s never to late to start to do something good for your body.

After the squatting I did sets of jump rope and used different machines for quad work.  During breaks I chatted with some of the guys, some of them I hadn’t seen much over the summer.  They were asking about how much I was deadlifting now, if I had been working out all summer, etc;  I received some great comments and (if I was reading it correctly) think they were impressed by what I am accomplishing.  Of course, I am doing this for ME and no one else, but I wouldn’t be human I guess if such positive feedback didn’t make me feel good about myself.

Skipped calf work last night - I think the 500 reps of jump rope I did during the workout counts for calf work along with cardio!  Next is an upper body workout on Friday.  Have a great day everyone!

I figured out why I wasn’t feeling my usual self Friday night.  The same thing caused me to delay my Sunday workout to Monday.  I won’t go into details (unlike other posts I’ve read), I’ll just say that a minor stomach/bowel issue rendered me feeling bloated, uncomfortable, and unable to focus on much other than staying within close proximity of a washroom.  Seems to have cleared up now for the most part, it didn’t hamper my Monday night workout, which is a good thing!

It’s week 11 and I am starting to get tired of my program.  Trying to lift heavy every time out is taking its toll on me as well, I’ve never worked out like this before and this 44 year old body can only take so much!  So I’ve decided to modify it somewhat, I’m sticking with the upper/lower body split and compound exercises, but I’ll do fewer exercises or sets, depending on how I feel each workout.  Hopefully that will give me the stamina to see this program through to the end, which is in sight now.

Monday’s adjustment was to drop incline bench press and do decline only.  There was no spotter available so I had to use some of my energy each set for an awkward lift off, and I had to rely on the safety rods in the power rack to save me if I got into trouble.  First working set, did 195 x12 cleanly.  Highest weight I’ve used for 12 reps!  Next set I got 215×7, 1 rep short of my goal.  Still great though, improved from 6 reps last time.  Third set, completed 225×4.  Would have had at least one more rep if I had a spotter for lift-off help.  Since I was coming up short of my target reps at this point, I didn’t try the 235×4 as planned for my last set.  There was now a guy there who could spot me, so I went for a heavier lift.  I completed 245×2!  Some great decline benching there, as usual that exercise left me feeling strong and pumped!

For the rest of the workout I did chest/back supersets, various exercises, low to moderate weight and reps in the 12-15 range.  Oh, except for the pull-ups.  My first set I only got 4, I had a grip problem.  Next two sets I used straps and did 8 reps both times.  Not bad considering they were after a lot of other chest/back work.  Next workout - squats/quads/calves! 

For some unexplainable reason I just wasn’t up feeling my usual self last night.  I felt bloated and sluggish.  The gym was also very warm last night which didn’t help.  When I arrived I found the place in a mess.  The dumbbells, plates and benches were strewn everywhere.  On Fridays the staff leaves at 5, so either they didn’t tidy up before they left, or between 5 and 8:30 there were a lot of inconsiderate people there.  I spent about 15 minutes tidying up and accumulating the plates I wanted at the power rack.  That was just as good a warm-up as anything else I could have done!

I was determined to do both squats and deadlifts during the same workout, a rarity for me.  After the first sets I knew I wouldn’t be going heavy on either given how I felt, so I focused on light-weight 10 rep sets with good form and a full range of motion.  I also threw in lying leg raises, quad extensions, and some Smith machine shrugs for traps (not lower body but I just felt like it).  It turned out to be a nice change of pace from heavy weights, I’m glad I pushed through and got in a decent workout in spite of how I felt.

Chest and shoulder work planned for Sunday, I hope I’m feeling a lot more energetic!