domers50’s BodyBlog

Went to the gym yesterday to do my favorite session of the week: BACK

1. Pullups: 1×10 no weight, 3×5 with 32,5kg

2. Standing rows underhand grip: 1×10x60kg, 3×8x90kg

3. Very widegrip pullups unweighted: 9, 8, 6reps

4. One armed DB rows: 3×9x40kg

5. One armed pulldowns: 3×8x50kg

Approx. total volume: 12260kg (27000ibs)

Gotta say I was pretty happy with the day’s work afterwards No fancy pancy exercises, just heavy all the way through!

Today it’s time for shoulders and arms. Love to train shoulders…but not arms. Looking forward to it though!

Have a great day and train hard!

Felt in pretty decent shape yesterday even though I went home for the weekend to a wedding.

Came home from work around 4.30 and changed to my running clothes, packed some clothes in a backpack to lift in and ran the 7km to my gym. Pretty strong wind head on, but still managed to run in 31min. Avg HR was 182.

Came in to the gym, changed clothes, took a breather and drank lots of water. Got going on my chest session:

1. Flat DB Benchpress:

• 20kg DBs: 20reps
• 37,5kg DBs: 14reps
• 3 sets with 50kg DBs: 8, 8 and 7

2. Incline DB flyes:

• 3 sets with 20kg DBs: 15, 12, 10

3. Decline BB Benchpress:

• 1 set: 80kg x 15
• 2 sets: 100kg x 8, 100kg x 7
• 1 set: 90kg x 9

4. Superset - Machineflyes and Hammerstrength BP

• 3 sets Machineflyes: 40kg x 10, 37.5kg x 10, 35kg x 10
• 3 sets Hammerstrength BP: 50kg x 12, 50kg x 10, 50kg x 8

Overall a real solid session. Normally I always do flat BP, but I’m changing it up a little until maybe middle of august or september. I pretty much always do one flat, one incline and one decline excersise pluss a superset to finish things of. I try to change up everytime if the incline and decline ones are done with BB or DB, presses or flyes.

I was pretty happy with the run and definitly happy that I still managed to get a good workout. Took me less than 2 hours from leaving home to finishing my last set.

On todays menu: BACK (my favorites)

Tried yesterday to see if I could do 182,5kg benchpress (about 400ibs) and failed miserably. I’ve done 190kg before, but at the time I was about 15kg heavier than I’m now. It would have two times my bodyweight and I would have been extremly satisfied with that.

To make things a little bit worse I tweaked my shoulder doing the attempt. But I think I will be fine in a week or two. I’m going to go a little lighter and with more reps as a change up, and get back to the heavier sets in the fall again. 2xBW is a decent benchgoal and it will be done this year! Mark my words

I just love going heavy, but have to be better at doing lighter periods in between. Still fun to "evolve" after 15years of lifting

Haven’t been on this site much lately due to not having as much time as I had before. So I have made actually going to the gym or getting in my runs more of a priority than talking about on the web

Training is going well and I feel like I’ve made solid strength gains lately. I’m experiencing a little bit with my benchtech to see if I can improve my 1RM. I’ve researched a little on technique and found out that the way I’ve been lifting (formwise) is more "bodybuliding-style" rather than "powerlifting-style". It’s hard though to change something you have done for years, so it’s going to be interesting to see how that works out. I’ve also felt strong doing deadlifts lately, pulling well over 200kgs (440ibs) for 5-6reps. Also very happy with my weighted pullups which I did 3×5 with 30kgs (66ibs) last week. Overall solid strengthwise.

Endurancewise I’m also pretty happy. Ran 7km easily in 31mins. Ran to the gym where I did a solid chest session afterwards. So I’m in better shape than ever overall.

I think I can see some changes in my fat%, but the bellyfat underneath my bellybutton is persistent. I can see more veinaction in my arms and shoulders, more toned out pecs, veins in my calves, but that bellyfat is a little annoying. My diet is overall healthy and I’m not cheating any during the week. I let myself eat some crap during fridays and saturdays since I’m not dieting to get totally ripped. I don’t really consider myself on a diet, just being strict with myself. So since I’m not counting my calories I can’t really expect abs to just suddenly pop out. I think if I keep being overall healthy that bellyfat will eventually slip off. Getting visible abs is no goal in itself, but it definitly would be cool some day. Patience is a virtue and overall I happy with my results in 2009.

So I moved up north, closer to my family and the same town as my girlfriend. I was truly unhappy were I lived before, so getting a job close to the place I want to be the rest of my life is a blessing (I’ll use the word even though I’m not religious).

I drive a lot now as my job is about 90km from where I live, but I’m still able to keep a healthy diet and have developed a good routine for bringing enough food and eating at the same time every day. My diet is unsupplemented (except for essential fats) and consists of mostly whole grains, fruit, vegetables and lean meats.

A new gym was also necessary and I feel like I found the place right away. It’s not very big, it’s not very fancy and it’s not very crowded. Just the way I like it!! Not totally hardcore, but somewhere in the middle between hardcore and those big studios that "everybody" goes to. The staff is polite and friendly, the people working out are also friendly and I don’t have any trouble getting a spotter for when I’m doing heavy sets.

Training has been great the last month. I was a little bit anxious to see how my energylevel would be in the afternoons, since I get up before 6AM to go to work. But it hasn’t been a problem whatsoever. I actually gotten a new fire lit under my ass in the weightroom! My bodyweight is about the same, but I think I’ve leaned up a little bit going hardcore with the lifting. Lifting is fun again!!

Doing a 3-split: Chest, back/deads and shoulder/arms. Not going heavy on the legs (deads are heavy though) since I want them fresh for running and biking. So I pretty much do some kind of workout 6 times a week (3 lifts/3 cardio). I’ll get back to the legs more when fall comes.

Thanks for checking in and have an awesome day

I’m 200ibs! Lost 20ibs since christmas. Originally my goal was to accomplish this before June, but what the hell…I can definitly live with it happening before April

I’ve pretty much weighed myself every day since new years, and I’m going to continue doing that for a while. For me it’s a good way to control my weight and my intake. I don’t want to gain weight again before I’m totally confident in my eating habits and I’m sure that any weight gain is muscle and not fat.

I don’t really feel like I have done anything revolutionary with my diet, but it’s been way more consistent and cleaner than before. I feel healthier, more energized and I feel GREAT Thanks, people of BB.com for all your help and support so far!!

I have always been active, doing all kind of (team) sports and I’ve been going to the gym to get better in those sports. Due to moving around I had to stop doing the team sports of my choice and my motivation for doing necessary cardio disapeared and my lifing got lazy. I still got into the gym, but I had no goals and no reason to push myself. I am the guy who doesn’t have the most talent, but I will bleed for my teammates. While playing football I never missed a training even when I blew out my knee. I was on the sideline trying to encourage them, trying to do whatever I could for them to still reach OUR goals. I even cried by myself on the sidelines at a practice once standing on my own. I cried because I wasn’t able to be in that huddle, calling plays, getting in on gang tackles, throwing blocks on an INT. When I was in the service I made sure of not being the one that complained because something was too hard, I gave my everything for my team to get the job done. I love being a member of a group pushing towards a common goal. When I went to the gym before, that was always in the back of my mind. When I put on my running shoes, that was always in the back of my mind. "I will NOT let my buddies down!!".

I never thought of being healthy as a reason to train. I never set goals for just myself and that came to bite me in the good old behind when I went out of the service, footballcareer done. I had to move because of job opportunities, away from friends and family. Suddenly on my own. Even though I had completed an education revolving around being healthy and staying healthy, I never saw that as something that applied to me. I had never been the one skipping practice or going to the gym. I spent over 2 years to figure that out, still going to gym my fitness level dropped. I never got really fat or really weak, but I was in decline. My total activity level had gone down, it wasn’t enough to just lift half ass weights 4 times a week (and not really pushing it). I had never taken eating right super serious, just something like 75%. I definitly didn’t make a serious commitment to cardio, sports had taken care of that for the most part.

So last year I decided to get a job as an spinning instructor. I sure as hell didn’t look the part. Rarely do you see a spinning instructor being 5′7 and almost 230ibs!! But I decided this was my new team and noone was going to work harder than me in class. When I have a class I want them to look at me and see that I’m working hard, I’m dripping sweat, that I’m giving it my everything, sometimes struggling to shout out instructions. Getting this job also gave me some structure to my cardio training. I could feel that I was getting in better shape, lost some pounds.

So then I bought myself a mountain bike, and when spring came I started riding on my own. I set goals for every ride. I was going to go up that hill or that mountain or today I’m going to ride 30miles, I would not turn around halfway through. I experienced the satisfation of motivating myself for my own welfare, getting out of the house, breathing fresh air and being the best that I could be. I signed up for a race at summers end and knew that if I was going to be able to get through those 45 miles over a mountain I had to ride a lot. But I made every ride fun. Setting a goal for that particular ride. I finished near the bottom in my class in the race, but I’m going to ride the same race next year and I will improve. I will make a significant jump in my time. It’s not even an option to not doing way better than last year…

So this winter I’ve cleaned up my diet quite a bit, started to get a little bit of seriousness back into my weighttraining and I’ve been kicking ass in my cardio. I’ve dropped over 25ibs since October.  It doesn’t hurt that I like what I see in the mirror better now than just a year ago. But that’s just added motivation. I want to be healthy and I will never ever not have goals for my training. I will forever be grateful to all the awesome people that I have been on different teams with, but nothing lasts forever…teams dissolve as we grow older. Thankfully I have found a new team consisting of just me and myself. It’s not a team that will last forever either, but at least the timeframe is a bit longer. My team will be better this year, even if it’s just competing against myself.

Got to say I’m really impressed by quite a few of the "older" guys her on BB.com! In my profession I meet tons of middle aged guys (and women) with beer guts, poor fitnesslevel and a whole bunch of excuses for not working out. One of my main motivations for working out is that I want to be healthy. I don’t want to become one of those guys… When time comes and I (hopefully) have children I want to be able to run around with them and no chance in hell if I have a son will he be able to put me on the ground in a wrestling match before I’m 60…ok, maybe 57…it depends

Because of my profession and being surrounded by so many unhealthy souls I started to loose faith in that generation. But looking at the "older" guys here on BB gives me so much motivation for living healthy and setting goals that doesn’t expire until I die. I have nothing but respect for somebody in their 40s and 50s who makes time for working out, eating right, being a family man, works hard in their profession and who doesn’t even consider being full of excuses. When I become that age hopefully I’ll at least measure up a little bit to those guys.

I never thought I would say these words: I like looking at pictures of buff men in their 40s and 50s!! (thank God it’s for the "right" reasons…puuh…)

I have an extra job as a spinning instructor and had a class last night. I was totally ready for that one hour of sweating with the crowd. Started of the class by telling the them that we were going to work harder than anyone had done that day and encouraged total focus on the work ahead. I challenged them to go hard from the get-go, and most of them totally responded. They pushed harder than before and it rubbed off on me! I was going so hard I could barely shout out the instructions. The last minutes everybody was a team just f-in’ pushing out whatever they had left in the tank! The energy in the room was just magnificent, and so rewarding for me personally. I’m not the guy who requires pats on my back from my boss…but getting applause from the crowd and seeing the happy and exhausted look in the faces of those who pushed the pace throughout that one hour, was truely a great feeling!

Needless to say I’m totally stoked for the rest of this week’s training!!!

So I got myself a new girlfriend and life is really great nowadays! I’m happy and my fitnesslevel is going up. My girlfriend and I live way aparts so there’s some planning involved to meet every other weekend, and I try to get extra days there when I’m visiting her. Not much training when we’re together, but I try really hard to make the most out all the other days so that I can afford myself that luxury. She, like me, likes to ride mountain bikes and go hiking, so when spring comes it’ll work itself out. At least then I’ll get some cardiotraining in those weekends.

She’s also a really good cook and made THE most delicious brownies I’ve ever tasted last weekend. Problem is that eating those brownies has really given me the cravings for sugar for a week now! Sugar is a powerful drug, at least when you’ve battled some weight issues like I have in the past. Staying diciplined with food is still not second nature for me, but I’m getting there. She’s not fanatically concious about what she eats, but she prefers a relative clean diet and fresh foods. And we made an agreement about not getting the "in-loved-snuggle-in-couch-eating-snack
s-bellys". So I don’t think that will really effect my diet, but I have to be more diciplined after allowing myself some snack on the weekends. It just can’t drag out into the rest of the week.

The fat is coming of slowly, and I think I can see a noticeable change the last couple of months. I definitly feel healthier and my cardiofitness is getting to level it’s never been before. Hopefully I’ll be sub 200ibs (90kg) before the summer and I want to improve my time in a mountain bike race in august with at least 30mins.

Still some hick ups and still challenges out there, but overall: Life’s great!!

Have an awesome weekend, good folks of BB.com!