dirennat’s BodyBlog

Today I decided to go a little heavier on squats even though my legs have been really sore from soccer on Monday night.  I had a great workout and performed a nice stretching session after the weight training.  I’m feeling good right now and just weighed myself and I weight 198 pounds after I’ve eaten 3 meals and two snacks throughout the day.  I want to lose another 5 pounds but slowly and I want to really increase my strength and power.

Squats 135×15/165×12/185×10 supersetted with one legged deads 20×10x9×8

Front squats 135×10x8×6 supersetted with leg curls 90×12/110×8x6

side lunges with the barbell 75×8x8×8

seated calf presses 270×15/320×13x10 supersetted with hanging leg raises 6×6x5 (these were difficult)

There you have short and sweet, I could probably do more for my legs but I really work my legs several times a week, this workout, hockey on Friday nights and soccer on Monday nights.  I’m really pleased with my training thus far and hope to keep making improvements.  I’d like to add some solid muscle while still being able to see my abs and lose the last bit of fat that I have around my waist.  I don’t want to be ultra shredded as I’ll concentrate on ripping up in the summer.

My legs are destroyed from soccer last night because I really ran around a lot, at one point I thought I was gonna toss my cookies even though I haven’t touched a cookie in years.  I felt like going heavy today because I’ve lost a good amount of weight in a short period and am starting to feel "skinny".  I want to look a lot more muscular and not having trained heavy in awhile because of my elbow I was feeling like pushing some weight today.  The elbow felt suprisingly good. 

flat db press 60×12/65×9/70×8 supersetted with wide grip pulldowns 135×10x8×7

incline db press 60×10x9×8 supersetted with db rows 60×8x8×8

pushups 8×8x8 supersetted with high cable rows with a close grip 150×8x7×5

twisting decline situps 8×7x6 supersetted with supermans holding a medicine ball.

I went to a whole life expo yesterday and attended a seminar by Brian R. Clement.  I was totally fascinated by the experience.  Here were all these people together learning and talking about health, nutrition and fitness. Mr. Clement talked mostly about eating well in order to live a healthy and happy life.  He is an advocate of eating raw foods which he believes is the best way for humans to get the required nutrients needed for a healthy immune system.  It was so interesting, he touched on supplements and stated that probably 90% of the industry is selling snake oil and that there is actually substances in theses supplements that are harmful.  I’ve always believed this to be true, don’t get me wrong there are some supplements out there that are beneficial for health purposes but they are few and far between.  It made me really rethink what I put in my mouth and how I treat my body.  One of my closest friends has been battling cancer for the last few years and he went down to Florida to attend the Hippocrates Institute which is run by Dr. Clement.  He is on a raw food diet and he has lost I believe more than 30 pounds.  His skin actually glows and he has looked the healthiest I have ever seen him look.  My friend has been really brave and inspirational, he came back this weekend and just being around him I seem to have adopted his positive energy.  He just radiates positive energy.  I’m going to be eating a lot healthier from now on and really respecting myself and my body.  Today I didn’t have any coffee and I felt fine.  I think having coffee everyday is just a habit, I’m not sure of the negative effects of caffeine but I figure I don’t need anything to give me a boost in energy.  Anyway I titled this new chapter because this is going to be a new chapter in my life of really taking care of health, taking care of all aspects, mind, body and spirit.

kettlebell swings 25×20x20×20 supersetted with swiss ball knee tucks 9×12x8

kettlebell laterals 25×8x8×7 supersetted with medicine ball woodchoppers 8×8x8

rear delt laterals 12×12x10×8

dumbell curls 25×9x9×8 supersetted with one arm tri exts 40×12x10×8

db hammer curls 25×8x8×8 supersetted with rope tri exts 70×12x11×10

I did some light stretching after my workout and stretched out the bodyparts I worked.  This week although I was only in the gym twice, I played soccer on Thursday night and hockey on Friday night so I basically exercised 5 nights this week.

So last night I had dinner with some colleagues from work and I decided to lighten up and make yesterday a cheat day.  I ate some sweets, but not many then for dinner I had a steak dinner(with the steak sauce) some rice pilaf and veggies.  That wasn’t so bad but the 5 beers I had after that was the problem.  So I went to bed really late and had to be up really early.  The poor nutrition combined with the lack of sleep contributed to the worst workout I’ve had since the last week of September. My elbow was really  bothering me today and near the end of my workout I realized my mind, body and spirit weren’t into the workout.  I decided to skip lower back and abs and just call it a day.  I hate skipping bodyparts and I hate quitting but I’ve been at this training thing for so long I know when you just have to wrap it up and come back strong the next day.  I had to many negative factors working against me for my mind to override the negativity and perform at an intense level.  The fact that I worked chest and back on Sunday didn’t help either, mix that in with the poor nutrition and lack of rest and you have a recipe for a ****ty workout.  Anyway sometimes these things happen and tomorrow I’ll be back.

Flat db press starting with palms facing each other and twisting until my palms were facing my feet 60×10x8×8 supersetted with really wide grip pulldowns 125×10x9×8.

Incline db press 60×8x8×7 supersetted with high pulley rows with a widegrip ( these bothered my elbow) 125×10x9×9

straight arm pulldowns 60×8x8×8 supersetted with machine flyes 105×8x8×8

db bench 60×12/65×10/70×8 supersetted with wide grip pulley rows 135×6/125×8x8

one arm db press on a swiss ball one arm at at time 55×8x8×8 supersetted with widegrip pulldowns 135×12x10×10

cable rows 60×14/70×10x8 supersetted with rope cable straight arm pulldowns 70×10x10×10

deads 135×5x5×5 supersetted with swiss ball crunches 9×9x9.  I stretched for about 10 minutes after this workout and really concentrated on stretching my pecs and lats.

Arnold presses with kettlebells 25×12x10×8 supersetted with Medicine ball circles 7×7x7 each side

bent arm laterals 15×9(drop set with 12lbsx7)/15×8(drop set with 12lbs x7)/15×7(drop set 12lbsx6) supersetted with med ball btw legs leg tucks 12×11x10

rear laterals on the machine 105×8/95×8x8 supesetted with rotator cuff laterals 12×8x7×6

single arm db zottman curls standing on one leg 25×9x9×9 supersetted with cable tri xts 70×13x12×11

onearm facing away from cable station curls 70×6/60×9x9 supersetted with one arm tri xts 70×9x9×8

stretched.  I weighed myself today and weigh 201.4!

I read somewhere that varying rep ranges helped muscle grow so I tried doing some higher reps today. My legs felt really pumped by the end of the workout which felt amazing.  I also once remember reading that high rep squats released growth hormone naturally and that higher reps were beneficial for building muscle as the time under tension increased.  I think it was an article in Ironman magazine that I remember reading those statements in and that was the inspiration for todays workout.

squats 135×21x14×20 supersetted with db stiff deads 35×7x6×5

Goblet squats 55×12x10×8 supersetted with bb stiff deads 95×10x8×8

lateral jumps 15×14x13 supersetted with jumping lunges 3×3x3

seated calf raises 115×13x13×12 supersetted with cable wood choppers 70×9x8×6

I stretched my legs out decently tonight but cut it short as I had to go home.  I felt really good this workout, the intensity was not the highest but it was still intense. It felt like I did exactly what my leg muscles needed to grow and stretch.  It was quick with little rest periods btwn sets.  Yesterday in my blog I discusses how my elbow was hurting and I may try a high rep approach with my upper body for awhile.

Well today I looked in the mirror and finally saw a fitter me looking back.  I’ve lost about 13 pounds since the last week of September and I feel a lot better.  I still want to lose some more bodyfat so I’m going to tighten up on my diet a tad more.  I feel great even though lately on some days I’ve felt really run down.  Today is usually my light chest and back day but I was really careful to keep it light and monitor my right elbow as it’s been bothering me lately.  I really feel it this week but have had a minor ache for the last month.  I may have to lighten the weights and be really diligent about warming up my elbow before my workouts and icing it after my workouts.

db incline bench 60×9/70×7x7 supersetted with close grip pulldowns 145×9x7×7

flat bench db press 60×8x7×7 supersetted with wide grip bb rows 135×7x8×6

machine flyes 135×8x7×7 supersetted with straight arm lat exts 70×8x8×7

swiss ball back exts 8×8x8 supersetted with oblique v ups 9×11x9

I stretched lightly after my workout and felt really good, even though my workout wasn’t the most intense it was still productive and I was happy that I was disciplined and experienced enough to back off on the intensity considering my aching elbow.  For the next little while I’m going to try and stick to exercises that don’t aggrivate my elbow.

So I missed training my back and chest yesterday but didn’t feel to guilty about it as I actually wanted to take the whole weekend off to let my body recuperate.  I’m so used to working out though that I had to sneak in a workout today.  I did a little light circuit, nothing major but more for psycological benefit.  My right elbow has been hurting me a bit lately and on the diet side I’ve still been strict but this weekend, I had a little too much calories.  I’m not going to beat myself up about it as I’ve made some real progress.  I’m about 3 to 4 pounds away from my goal weight which I set for the end of November.  I have two weeks to dial it in.

5 circuits of standing db presses 35×35x35×30x30, db curls 30×30x25×25x25, closegrip pushups, situps/v-ups/frog crunches/upper ab v ups.  Added a light stretch.

Squats 135×20/165×12/185×10 supesetted with single leg stiff deads 25lbs each hand 9×8x8

Db walking lunge 35sx7×6x6 supersetted with lying leg curls 90×10x10×10

standing hurdle jumps 6×4x4 supersetted with free hand squat jumps 4×3x3

seated calf press 270×13x13×13 supersetted with decline leg raises 9×8x7

I performed a good 10-15 minutes of stretching for my legs.