1956’s Blog

Last night I ate a pint of icecream topped w/ about a half  a cup of chocolate sauce. Would this qualify as a ‘cheat meal?’

Well, I got a reality check. "You don’t have an 18 year old body," said RC. "You have a fifty year old body. "That’s why it’s not doing what you want it to do."

Bah, humbug!

I’m going back to my world of make believe.

The advice I’m getting from people is that I’m overtraining. Too many sets, too many days- too much. One guy at the gym showed me his workout log and pointed out that in the two months since he’s reduced his reps and sets, he’s gained 5# of muscle after being on a long plateau.

No matter how many people I talk to, it’s difficult to sort out what might be the nuggets in all the contradictory advice. I don’t dispute that less might be more. It’s just hard to change. Besides, I’m basically a glutton for punishment. Always have been. Why do things the easy way when you can make them incredibly difficult? This is my unspoken motto, the guiding principle of my life.

Contest upcoming. Never even considered doing one until several months ago. Bought posing suit and am studying mandatory poses. Took pics of myself which I think look absolutely ridiculous and beg the question, why am I doing this?

Posted one of the posing pics and then realized, aside from the necessary musculature, I am lacking in another department- grooming. I looked at competition photos and realized to my dismay that nobody has underarm hair. Also pubes are showing. Also by competition standards I look ridiculous. Oh well. WTF.

Hit a plateau on legs. Aside from mumbling there wasn’t much I could do about it. Then, last leg day, which I start w/squats, I dropped the weight and increased the reps to 20x for my first, second and third sets. Managed 15x on my fourth. Applied same strategy on  other leg lifts and two days later my quads are noticably sore. This I like. This must be good. Didn’t somebody say ‘no pain no gain?’

Very intense workout today. It was at the end of my back routine and doing Roman Chair w/ 35# plates against my chest. I go slowly and don’t arch my back. I thought I might be pushing too much  because when I paused inbetween sets I got lightheaded, not like what I feel after deadlifts, but almost as though I was in a trance for a couple of seconds. I should stop, I told myself, but I did another set and experienced the same kind of mind-altering feeling.

Oblivious for years, I have come to realize that crew socks are geezer-indicators.
My son (and Mrs. Rocks!) raid my dresser and wear my pants, t-shirts, underwear, but my son won’t be caught dead in my crew socks. I had no idea that crews were square.

Update: son borrowed pair of crews last night. He was wearing jeans. Let’s see if he borrows in shorts season.

 Update #2: I have decided to buy a pair of socks that go higher up my legs than standard crews. The reason for this is to try and protect my shins from the occasional scrape that occurs when doing deadlifts. I’ll realize I’m bleeding and my crews are insufficient in length to cover the wound. Auxillary benefit is reduction of scarring which is becoming unneccessarily prominent on shins. "Is he a cutter?"

It was suggested recently to me that I give my abs their own training day and I’ve decided to give them 2- Wed and Saturday, so I’m now lifting 6 days a week instead of 4, and swimming at least 3 days a week. The routine I’m using for abs takes 40 minutes and incorporates 7 exercises.

Hanging leg raises: 18/13/11/9- w/these I twist, and 20 seconds in b/w sets.

Extended Plank- 3 sets of 45 count

Side plank w/ leg lift- 3 sets of 45 count. These are killer. Excrutiating.

Hanging Pike : 8/5/4/4

Cable Crunches@150# 20/15/15

Crunch Machine@50# 14/12/10

Vacuum: 3 sets @ 30 count

It’s a good workout. The hanging pikes are a blast. I’m doing them slowly and w/ legs  straight from start to finish to make them as difficult to perform as possible.

Holy crap, SuperPump 250 is amazing. I have a caveat for myself, however. For years I’ve been picky about what I eat and all of a sudden I’m swilling supplements that may not exactly have long term health benefits. But I’m lifting 10# more per rep and thinking, a) I don’t care, this is awesome, and b) am I going to fall over from a heart attack?

 Most bodybuilding diet advice runs counter to what I practice, at least regarding meat.  I eat little meat and lots of fruits, veggies and grains. Now that I’m tuned in to this site and the information on it, I’ve started taking some supplements, such as whey protein, creatine and most recently, SuperPump 250. I figure I’ll take them for three months and see if I gain weight- muscle.  But I’m not going to start pounding down chicken and other meat products because I have a tendency toward high cholesterol anyway.