Don’t Have a Keg…

Ever have a pump so good you just couldn’t wait to get back and blog about it? Me neither…just kidding. Tonight my arms pumped up like crazy, well over 17 but not quite to 17.5 inches and oddly enough, the right arm is still about a half inch smaller than the left. Always has been and always will I guess.

Anyhoo…I think I’m making progress. Despite the official guidelines of measuring posted here I think I’ll only measure in a pumped state for a while and then see if growth follows when cold as I’ve always believed.

Oh, and the work out went very well - I met all my benching goals with energy and strength to spare. I may have to postpone my trip to Hawaii so that I don’t have to miss a workout….on second thought, nah…

I was upset enough with my weekly weigh in that I just had to do it today. And guess what? If I ignore yesterday’s weight and bodyfat I made progress this past week. I think I’m going to weigh myself everyday this week - I’m curious how much my weight and bodyfat will fluctuate from day to day now. Probably more than I ever realized!

No, I haven’t decided to become a pirate - notice that the "aaaargh" above isn’t followed by "me matey" = but I’m becoming frustrated again. No appreciable change in any body measurement this week, except for a slight uptick in my shoulders and another slight increase in bodyweight and fat. I thought I was on the right track, but maybe my body has already adjusted to my diet. It doesn’t make sense to me right now and I’m going to have to take a day or two to review my eating and workout plan.

On the plus side, I do feel good about my current bench program and my lifts are increasing steadily. My pumps are good. Maybe I’m just expecting too much too fast. I don’t know.

I saw an interesting article in this month’s Men’s Health - lightweight workout reading I know compared to the more hard core lifting mags, but I’ve always found something useful each month - on body proportion. It turns out that the male physique that a women find the most appealing is muscular with shoulders that are 1.6 larger than the waist (think of Michelangelo’s "David"). So, I checked my shoulder to waist ratio and I’m only at 1.26. So to get to this attractive proportion I need to either get my shoulders up to about a 65" circumference or my waist down to 33". I’m not sure which is more likely at this point, but I think I’ll go for 54" shoulders and a 34" waist. Though I can’t remember the last time that my waist was 34 inches! High school maybe? Just one more goal to aim for I suppose…

Thanks to everyone who responded to my last blog and plea for help, I was able to shake my usual arm workout up tonight and try a couple new techniques. My pump was on the extreme side, which is always a good sign, so hopefully this new ‘tricks’ and the supplements will work together and I’ll finally be able to reach one of my life goals (i.e. 18+ inch arms - not a very impressive life goal, but don’t worry, I have others - like wanting to see my abs at least once before I pass on).

Chest workout is also going well - in fact, the weight seemed almost too light tonight. I’m not going to change this routine though. I’m getting used to the idea of success in my lifts. As long as there is some challenge and I’m putting up more weight each time, I’m happy. Though past experience with this chest routine does suggest that I will need some larger shirts by the end of the summer…I can live with that

I hope I’m not repeating a blog, but,  anyone who has read my blogs, comments, etc. has probably picked up on the fact that I would like a pair of big, shirt sleeve ripping arms. You know, the kind of arms that people can’t seem to keep themselves from touching, the kind that elicite an "omygawd - are those real" from women, the kind where you get a little tired from all the people asking you to "flex those guns" (but you always oblige). Superhero arms…

As long as I can remember it’s been my number one goal and when you consider that my arms at one time measured a mere 11.5 inches (flexed) and now pump up to over 17 inches it sounds like I might have achieved my goal. But, you would be wrong. To me a big arm is at least 18 inches flexed, with a high bicep peak and clearly defined between biceps and triceps (i.e. not fat or flabby). The closest I have come to the 18 inch mark is about 17.5 and it was a struggle to get to that. I sometimes feel I’ve tried them all - blitzes, drop sets, high reps, low reps, etc. I understand the importance of focusing on triceps - where the real mass of the arm is - and actually, have been told that my triceps, when I am in shape, are my best feature. Which is cool - but I can’t see them myself without a mirror and no beautiful young woman ever comes up to you at the beach to ask you to flex your tricep for her…but I digress.

Now what adds to my pain is that I know of guys who seem to add muscle to their arms by just looking at a weight (my sister is married to one of this type) and I read in profiles here at Bodyspace of guys who have gained a crazy amount of size in just a few months (as in several inches) as opposed to years.

The upshot of this is that I’m tired of being jealous and staring at the arms of complete strangers wondering "how did he do it?" or worse, asking "how did you do it?" and getting an answer like "I don’t know, I was just fooling around with my brother’s weight set last week and bam - my arms grew two inches - kind of weird, huh." So what I am proposing is that this blog become a little more interactive.

If you happen to read this, please leave me your single best arm routine - the one that you felt really did the trick for you, that took your arms from "ho hum" to "wow." Did you ever go through a period where your arms just really seemed to grow from week to week? Then please share the routine you were doing at the time - heck, feel free to let me know what supplements you were taking, if any, as well.

Hmmmm, maybe this idea is worth a thread in the forums. Maybe it’s already there - I’ll check.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice!

I don’t know why I got to musing tonight, but I thought I would share some of these thoughts that came to me while surfing through profiles tonight (does anyone else do this? Randomly check out other people’s profiles that is).

1. I’m amazed the number of men who in my opinion are already in fantastic shape, but still put down as their goal "to gain muscle." Now, this really shouldn’t surprise me - this is Bodybuilding.com after all not Bodyshaping.com - but for some reason it does strike me as interesting. Does anyone say "that’s it, I’ve built enough muscle, what good would it be to add another inch on my arms, chest, etc. I’m just too darn big!" I’m thinking that most of us - at least the men, maybe some of the women - look in the mirror and still see that skinny/fat kid they used to be. Of course, a lot of us here started out as jocks and just don’t know any other way (did you notice how I implied that I was once a jock? Such a rich fantasy life I have).

2. Why can we rate photos? I understand leaving comments as a form of encouragement and support, I’ve left plenty myself, but rating a photo? Are we supposed to rate the composition? Angle? Lighting or the subject itself?

3. Is there some sort of contest to get more "friends" than anyone else that I’m not aware of? I do admit to getting a little thrill however when I find that I’ve climbed up the "popularity" list (based on number of visits).

Not much of a blog, but maybe I’ll get a few more visits from it (hahaha)! Off to do some cardio - wish me luck!

Good workout tonight - teh chest routine is going well, and I was lifting more than I expected. I may have underestimated my 1 max rep - I’ll decide after the next workout if I need to move up the weights a bit ahead of schedule. Negative rep tonight - I forgot how hard it can be to just control lowering a weight that’s heavier than you can lift. Thank goodness I had a spotter I could trust!

Reports of my growth may have been premature. My weigh in this morning revealed a slight bump up in my weight, a bigger bump in bodyfat (though not an alarming one), and virtually no change in my upper arms as I hoped there would be. However, given the pump I had during my last workout - more than a half inch - I gotta believe that growth is coming soon. Thighs are thinner - which given the amount of bodyfat I carry I have to believe is because of fat loss, though waist and other areas remain unchanged. Shoulders are a little larger. No matter if the measurements are mixed - I still feel good and strong.

Oh well, back to the gym.

Ever have one of those days where you just felt big and strong? That was today for me. I had just enough discomfort in my pecs and arms to tell that I really worked out yesterday, but also felt kind of pumped all day long. I know I had this same feeling early on when I started using the Cell Mass and NO Xplode, so I wonder if it’s just one of the effects of the supplements. Maybe I’ll start to see some real gains soon - the signs are all there (good pump last night, hard workout, etc). Wish me luck - my weigh in tomorrow may be interesting….

Finally, I think I’m putting some size back on my arms while still "downsizing" my waist. Both arms pumped to just over 17 inches after my workout tonight, so though that’s not a cold measurement, it’s the first time in a while that I’ve consistently reached the 17 inch mark (but only my left arm actually made 17 last week - it’s still the slightly bigger of the two). So, I’m feeling pretty good about gains - even if they are "inflated."

I decided to switch things up a bit and go back to a bench routine that has worked well for me in the past and that I’ve been recommending to others (Muscle Media’s add 50 lbs to your bench in 50 days routine). It’s basically a powerlifting routine but when I last used it I was able to gain not only the 50 lbs (plus) on my bench but significant size to my pecs, tris and bis. I’m hoping for the same again this time! I have my trip to Hawaii coming up in just a few weeks and I hope to not be totally embarrassed to take my shirt off at the beach - so I’ll keep working on the weight loss, too.

Keep lifting hard everyone!