dorito’s BodyBlog

At least I think it’s advanced… Things have progressed well this past month and a half and I think it’s about time to change up my workout, keep things fresh, keep tricking them muscles.  Growth has been awesome, as I mentioned earlier 9 pounds in 10 days is really good, at least I think it is.  I’m also losing more and more body fat.  I used to be one of those guys who thought that no matter how much exercise I managed to do, it always stayed there.  Now things are different and I can almost feel the progress as the days go by.  Every morning it seems like I wake up and have changed a little bit more.

Well it’s been four days since I’ve last worked out because of the hectic schedule at work.  There’s been a lot to do this week, but I digress.  Today started the beginning of my new work out schedule, one muscle group a day, 6 days a week, for at most an hour workout.  I don’t feel any less worn out than I would on my 1.5 to 2 hour workouts that I normally did.  The only difference is I put a lot more energy into that shorter period of time.  We’ll see how this works out, I think it may do just fine.

While in the gym today I was doing the traditional bench press.  There was a guy next to me who after every one of his sets I did mine.  I wasn’t really watching him, just using peripheral vision.   So as soon as he racked his weight off I go.  It started off good, I did 135 for a warm up set 20 times.  Then after that I was doing 205 for 10, then 7, then 6 reps.  It was before I started the last set that as I watched him out of my side vision, it looked like his weights went down and back up for the last time.  So I was like, ok he’s done.  I lay down and notice again out of the side of my vision, his weights went down again after a pause, is he not done?  I look over and the bar is trapped against his chest (thank god he was just doing 135), and as I sit up to help the poor guy out another gym rat was already doing his 2 second sprint across the length of the gym to help him out.  While very embarrassed he was uninjured and continued his workout fine.  It greatly amused me, because there I was with 205, a weight I’m not yet used to, no spotter thinking what happened to him was going to happen to me.  Now by laws of Karma I felt for sure it would happen to me.  I lucked out and it didn’t.  After bench I did a few more exercises but that definitely stuck in my mind the whole time.  It’ll probably happen next time I do chest…

I don’t know if its great for everyone else but this is pretty good for me.  In the past two weeks I’ve put on 9 pounds and lost 1% body fat.  I definitely wouldn’t mind if that trend manages to keep itself up at least for another month and a half.

It’s kind of weird, something that I’ve been struggling with since the moment I first swore in, or maybe it was the second time I swore in right before they sent me off to boot camp…  Early on it was always the thought, did I make the right decision?  Was this a mistake?  Usually that was following being blasted by a drill instructor.  It’s easy to think you’ve made a mistake when you’re in boot camp, in fact I think that’s one of their goals, but even if you admit it was a mistake they’ll do their best to make sure you stay committed to that mistake.  Then comes the fleet where you meet your first unit and you start tripping up as often as not.  In those early years I was always counting down the days till I got out.  Then I hit Corporal, E-4, and began thinking maybe it’s not so bad.  Since then I’ve deployed three times, in fact I’m still on my 3rd, and while the units I’ve been with really suck I’m thinking it might be a good idea to stay in.  I have my wife and kids to look after and this is definitely a stable job to take care of them.  If it was just me, I’d probably get out.  A lot of people look at their family as the reason to get out.  I definitely live my life for them, everything I do is for them.  I hate being apart from them.  That’s hopefully part of the deal of staying in, the possibility that I can work it into my contract that I’ll not be deployed for a good amount of time.  As of right now I’m thinking after this next enlistment I’ll get out, 9 years is enough.  I’ll save the bonus (or possibly spend it on pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and when I get out of the Marines I’ll have that buffer.  Well I definitely had to write this down somewhere..  it’s a big decision that’s driving me crazy.  Hope after I re-enlist I don’t think, did I make a mistake?

Dear Sports Fans,
 

                The workout today was pretty fun, I enjoyed it a lot.  The more I study into what I need to do, how to do it right, the more excited I get about actually getting to it.  Generally I hate shoulder days, which is why I pair biceps with it.  That leaves chest and triceps the day prior and back/legs the day after.  I do 3 workout days together then a break, then do them again.  The cycle is working for me pretty well so far, though I don’t doubt it’s going to change the more I learn about it.  I really wish I had the ability to upload a progress pic ‘cause there’s been a significant change between the last one and what I have today.  It’s almost like those 90 day progress pics, though it’s only been two months since then and I’ve only been able to work out a month steady in that time.  Today marks the change up of my workout in order to keep my muscles guessing on what’s going on, so some of these exercises I went light on for the first time just to get my arms used to it, at least that’s what I tell myself.  As of typing right now they’re pretty pumped and I feel like a clumsy ape trying to type away on this keyboard.  By the end of the workout when I was doing chin ups it was impossible to do more than 3, so I guess that means I had a good workout as normally I can do at least 12 (PFT).  I should also mention that I start every workout with stretching.
 

So for today being shoulders and biceps this is what I did:
(weight/reps)
Barbell rear delt row                       65/20, 145/12, 145/12, 145/10
Barbell shoulder press                   95/15, 115/12, 115/10, 115/8 (this one was weird to do as I was working out in a tent and the ceiling isn’t that high, I had to place myself just perfect or I’d either hit a light or the tent ceiling.
Dumb bell rear delt raise              70/12, 70/12, 70/10, 70/8
Alternate Hammer Curls               70/15, 80/10, 80/8, 80/8
Barbell Curls                   Â
 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  45/20, 65/12, 70/12, 70/12 (by this time my biceps were feeling really pumped yet pretty exhausted)
Chin Ups                    Â
 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  3, 3, 3, 3 ¾ (was going for 6 but I really couldn’t do many, had no more power to give!)
 

Right after doing chin ups I made my way into my office and here I am typing away.  Prior to the workout I took Arson, Black Powder, and Muscle Milk protein.  I’m about to take Cell tech and some more muscle milk.
Sometimes I feel a little nauseous during my workouts with some of the supplements that I’ve started to take that I’m not used to, the combination of the 3 mentioned above had me feeling sick a little bit here and there during the workout but overall I did pretty good.  Started it out with a lot of energy and was still feeling really good up to the barbell curls, when that finished I felt done.  Anyways that’s how that workout went.  Sometimes with all the dumb stuff going on out here it’s hard to find the time to work out, so as of this writing mine was done during midnight to almost 2 am!  That’s when our small gym is at its emptiest too, so it all works out.  The gym is almost the only fun thing I have to do out here, and the results I get keep me happy and motivated because I can see a difference in myself almost every day.  While everyone else is screaming and yelling at each other I have something positive to look forward to on a daily basis.  It’s definitely become something of a routine that I feel put out about if I miss a day.  I just hope that nothing will prevent me from being able to make my daily trips to the gym.  Wish me luck.
 

-          Chris

The gym is pretty small and there are a lot of people leaving almost no room to maneuver, but I still manage to get a good workout  I’ve lost about two inches on my waist so far, but that could be a mixture of a cleaner diet, walking 8 miles a day around base, and the workouts I’ve been doing.  It’s not always easy to find time to go to the gym and it’s impossible to go there when there’s not peak hours.  As far as I’ve noticed, it’s packed 24-7.  Evenings aren’t good, midnight it’s still packed (people hope if they go at midnight no one will be there, too bad everyone else is thinking the same!)

 Still I’m getting a good set of workouts, following some exercises in musclemag’s new book, we’ll see how their plan goes, wish me luck.

Well I’ve been here for several weeks now and while there seems to be heavy construction it doesnt look like the status of the gym is going to change at all.  It’s pretty sad overall, with only a small rack of free weights and a few benches.  It’s definitely better than nothing, but because of its limitations I hadn’t stepped into the gym until a few days ago.  I actually have a gym partner who is almost equal with me in strength, so finally someone who can spot me and we can encourage each other.

I havent’ been able to take any supplements since I’ve been out here tho and I notice the difference a lot.  My upper body is extremely sore, more so than when I can take even just a protein supplement.  I stretch throughout the day and drink a lot of water, high protein meals is about the best I can do.  

I ordered from bodybuilding.com some supplements they should be here any day, that will makes things feel a lot better and hopefully I can get a lot more out of the effort I put into the gym.  Definitely went to failure the past couple of days. 

Well it looks like all my hard work paid off, while my pull ups weren’t all the way up there like I’d want, I did cut off 4 minutes from my run time with only 3 weeks of having worked on running. So I think that’s worth celebrating!  Of course the 100 crunches were easy to get in any case.

Today I did the 4 miles like I said I would, this time without any walking.  Slowest I ever went was 5.5, after the first mile, and every .1 of a mile I would increase by .1 till I hit the halfway mark of each mile then it would increase by .2 to .3 so that by the time I hit .9 of a mile I would be close to 8 or at 8 miles an hour. I didn’t do my usual sprints of 12 mph, needed to pace myself

I just want to go on and say I hate running, and the only reason I do it is because if I never do it I’ll never get good at it and if I want to be competitive in my job I need to have a good running score.  2 miles used to be real difficult for me, let alone 3 miles.  I now have it to the point where 3 miles is decent, 4 miles is where it starts feeling like 2 miles used to.

Next Friday I have a pft which is a 3 mile run, pull ups, and crunches. I’m hoping to do really well on it.  I’ve been doing push ups every day in hopes of increasing my pull up score, and crunches as well.  Crunches were never a problem, easy to max out the 100 they require and that was before I did them every day.

Only thing I’m curious about is the diet I should have right before a run to maximize my energy, current on an almost protein only diet. Any tips would be appreciated

Just in case anyone is curious my workouts for running include a distance run (today), speed run (tomorrow), and a normal 3 mile (sunday).

I don’t know if its ’cause I’m killing myself with cardio on a daily basis or not, but Black Powder didn’t have as massive of an effect as day 1.  It could just be me, ’cause NO Explode had that same effect about.  First day I had a giant surge.  Only thing is with Black Powder I still notice effects, even tho not as strong as day one, still pretty darn good.  NO Explode I didn’t feel anything any day thereafter and I was thinking, this stuff is so nasty why am I taking it if it doesn’t do any good.  I never finished taking the whole tub of NO Explode.  

It was a leg day, and since it was the first leg day in a while I didn’t do much more than 4 exercises just to get my legs used to working out again.  That is… after a  4 mile run.  So overall i think I did 11 miles so far this week.  Since its two days after this workout that I’m posting this, and I do a 3 on 1 off workout schedule, that means I’m going at it again today   Within the last two days of this week I think I can push in 8 more miles for a total of 19 this week.  >:)

This workout went really well, I did weights first, blasted through that workout, was shoulders and back, less rest was needed between sets and did a little more weight, not too much didn’t want to injure myself lol.  After that I did an interval run for about 1.5 miles, ranging from 5.5 mph to 12, following it up with a 1.5 mile walk.  Was starting to lag towards the end in energy but overall the workout went really well.  Of course running at 12 mph does tend to kill someone who’s not used to it.