funkyb5150’s BodyBlog

I am finally back to work and back to the workouts. I was away from the office for two weeks. The last week of march I was in a traning class - learning a new software application for my job. I still got all of my workouts in… but I had to hit the ym at 5:30 am (before my class started). So… they were not the best workouts. I was tired and only had 1 meal in me at the point. Last week I took the whole week off from lifting. It was great. I ate like crap the whole week. But gave my body a nice rest from all of the heavy lifting I have been doing. So I am back …. hitting the weights hard this week. And I have never been this sore. My triceps still hurt from monday. I can barely walk from tuesday’s leg workout. Yesterday was back and biceps and my arms are sore already. I am hitting the diet hard this week (strict!) because I gained about 6 pounds from all the crap I ate (last week). Today is hamstrings, abs, traps, and cardio. Here’s some pic’s from my vacation..

So friday’s workout kind of sucked. None of my training partners showed up. So I had to lift a lot lighter weights. Oh well. I hit my calves pretty good. And then did decline dumbell press, dumbell flys and finished with incline barbell press. I ate pretty bad over the weekend. But I am back on track now. Yesteday was great. I absolutely destroyed my shoulders. My workout was pretty much the same - but this time I supersetted standing barbell shoulder press with seated lateral dumbell raises and bent-over rear-delt raises. It was brutal. I have put a slight twist on my lateral raises lately… when seated on the bench, I pinch my shoulder blades completely together. I keep them pinched together throughout the whole movement. This does limit your range of motion - as you cannot raise the dumbells as high. And you cannot go as heavy. But I do feel it alot more in my side delts. My triceps are already getting sore… so I know I did something right. Today is a heavy leg day. Heavy heavy squats. I am going to go deeper than parallel. I will be a bit crunched for time - so I will not have a lot of rest between sets. Also - tonight is cooking night! Time to make my meals for the next week. Here are a few pictures from the arnold expo:

So first let me cover my last two workouts… Wednesday was back and biceps. I killed it. Even though my legs were very sore… I still made myself hit deadlifts. I was able to get 455 for two reps (from the floor). I was very happy with that. Here’s what I hit:

- Deadlifts

- 1 arm dumbell rows

- standing dumbell curls

- standing EZ bar curls

- barbell rows

- Lat pull downs

- Incline dumbell curls

- standing barbell curls

- hammer curls

- T-bar rows

- Close grip lat pull-downs

Yesterday was my easy workout day. I started with three sets of dumbell shrugs. I then moved onto to behind the back barbell shrugs in the smith machine. I then did some seated leg curls for hamstrings. Followed by lying leg curls. Next up was abs. I did a whole bunch of hanging leg raises. Followed by cable crunches. I finished with 20 minutes of cardio on the elliptical.

Today is chest and calves. I am not sure if I will start out with dumbells or barbell bench press. See ya at the gym!

I just have not had enough time to blog! Last week’s workouts were great. This week has been good so far. Monday I hit triceps and shoulders. I did not have a training partner - but I made the most of it and was actually able to more exercises done. Here’s what I did:

- Cable (tricep) push-downs

- Close grip bench press

- Weighted dips superset with more cable push-downs

- skull crushers

- seated dumbell shoulder presses

- standing barbell shoulder presses

- seated lateral raises using dumbells

- bent-over rear delt raises using dumbells

- Front delt raises using dumbells

- Lateral raises using the cables

- Seated tricep push-downs (machines)

- Seated galileo shoulder raises (machine)

My triceps did not get too sore. But my shoulders did! However… My legs are in the most pain. Yesteday’s leg workout was the dreaded ‘Giant set’ program. I hit this workout at least once every month. And yesterday was my lucky day. My legs are actually aching with pain. Not just sore. Here’s what I did… And remember.. There was no rest in-between each exercise. I immediately went from one movement to the next….

- 45 degree leg press (630 pounds for 20 reps)

- Leg extensions (100 pounds for 25 reps)

- Sissy squats with heels elevated (hold the bar under your butt and sit right down on your calves) (40 pounds for 15 reps)

- Forward barbell lunges (135 pounds for 20 reps).

So its four movements that make up on ‘giant set’. I ran through this giant set 3 times! And then hit some lying leg curls to finish off my hamstrings. My training partner never does legs with me. But I made him do two ‘giant sets’ yesterday. He could not finish the second one because he was going to throw up!

Today is probably back and biceps. I don’t know if I will be able to do dealifts. My legs are pretty shot. But who knows…. I have not checked my weight in a while. So I may have to do that today. See ya at the gym!

First off - Let me just say how sore my legs are from tuesday’s workout. I am barely walking. Yesterday I hit the gym for a brief workout. It was kind of a ‘make-up’ day. Here is what I did:

- Dumbell shrugs (3 sets plus one drop set)

- Lying leg curls (I actualy peformed a couple sets of 21’s… doing three sets of 7. I would do partial and full reps).

- Seated leg curls (3 sets)

- Hanging legs raises

- Cable crunches (front, left side, right side) (20 reps per side, or 60 reps per set)

- 20 minutes of cardio

I think that my heavy dumbell shrugs may have caused a pulled muscle in my right trap. I developed a severe headache yesterday afternoon that stemmed from my neck - on the right side. I went home around 4 pm and ate some junk. I then took some motrin and napped for about an hour. I woke up and the pain was nearly gone. But by 9:00 pm it was back and even worse. However, I woke up this morning feeling great. So I hope that was the end of it. Today is back and biceps. I have meetings from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm… so I guess I will have to go at one. I just hope I can get my lunch meal in before I workout. Because I cannot eat at 8:30 am and then wait until 3:00 pm to eat again. I am completely out of meals after I eat the 2 (that I brought with me today). So tonight is cooking night. I have to stop by the grocery store after work and buy my food. See you at the gym!

What a great workout. I could not even walk upstairs afterwards. My legs are already sore!! Here’s what I hit:

- 6 sets of deep squats (below paralell - and working up to 425

- Front squats

- Forward Lunges

- 45 degree Leg Press

- Leg Extensions

- Hack squat machine

I really nailed my quads. Today will be hamstrings, traps, abs, and some cardio. Back and biceps will be tomorrow. I have been doing pretty good with the diet lately. I made some awesome salmon last night. Weight has been steady at 216 - and I have decreased the stomach some. So I have to be gaining muscle. I have been working on a new bulk diet that I will start the second week of April. See you at the gym!!!

Ok… So last thursday I hit back and biceps. I absolutely killed them. It was a great workout. Heavy deadlifts, heavy rows and lots of curls. My arms were sore. My back was sore. My whole body was sore. It was great. We ended up leaving for Columbus thursday night around 7:30 pm. The drive down was pretty scary at times. It was raining hard and then turned to ice. My wipers decided to stop working again which made us all nervous. We arrived at the hotel around 12:30. The hotel we stayed at is a bit north of downtown columbus. But they have a free shuttle that takes you to the Arnold. It runs every half hour - so you don’t have to worry about parking. So thursday night… everyone was tired and went to bed right away. We woke up friday morning and headed to the expo. I think we got there around 10:30 am. It was sunny and warm in Columbus - compared to what we have been experiencing here in michigan. We got right in and started to check everything out. There were lots of familiar faces. I saw Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, Shawn Ray, Mark Dugdale, Monica Brant and several others. Lots of free T-shirts and supplements. I am test driving a few of them this week. After three or four hours of hitting the expo… we stopped for lunch. We were pretty exhausted from lugging our huge bags of free stuff around. The only thing I was dissapointed with… is that I did not find a lot of new workout clothes. I did not see any max muscle stuff. Oh well. We left the expo around 4:00 pm and headed back to the hotel. Everyone rested up before heading to dinner. After dinner and drinks… we had a little party in the hotel. It was fun - but I drank too much beer. We woke up saturday morning and hit the road by 10:30 am. We were home around 4:00 pm. I ate pretty bad all weekend. So now I am making up for it. I hit triceps and shoulders yesteday and it was a good workout. I also did calves and some cardio last night. Here’s what my workout looked like:

- Tricep cable pushdowns

- Close grip bench press

- skull-crushers

- seated arnold presses

- standing barbell shoulder presses

- side lateral raises using dumbells

- bent-over rear delt raises using dumbells

- front delt dumbell raises

- Lateral raises using the cables

- Dips

- Seated tricep push-downs

Today is a quads. Time for some heavy squats. I will post some pictures from the arnold as soon as I remember to bring my camera with me. See ya at the gym!

So today’s workout was nothing to brag about. It was kind of a make-up day. I started with some heavy dumbell shrugs to work my traps. I used straps on the 140 lbs dumbells for three good sets. I then hit calves. 4 sets of standing calf raises (20 reps each) did the trick. Time for abs. I did some hanging leg raises… followed by some cable crunches (120 reps of these!). I then headed up stairs for some cardio. 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer went by fast as I read a bodybuilding magazine and answered some texts on my phone. I was really hot and sweating like crazy for some reason. Could be the Lipo-6 I took this morning. But I normally take two per day… The first one with breakfast and the second one right before I workout. So I am stumped. I then came back to the office and ate my chicken and green beans. Tomorrow is back and Bi’s and then off to the Arnold Expo!!!

I had a great leg workout today. I started with squats - deep - below paralell… They were slow and controlled:

135 x 25 reps

275 x 17 reps

315 x 12 reps

405 x 3 reps Then immediately drop set to 315 for 4  more reps. Drop again to 225 for 4 more reps. And drop one last time for 7 more reps. My legs were completely shot. I was shaking and could barely stand. Next up was leg press. I went extra deep on these as well:

630 x 12

720 x 12

810 x 6 Then immediately drop set to 630 for another 6 reps. We then hit leg extensions, lying leg curls… And I finished with a set of front barbell squats. Tomorrow is going to be an easy day.. abs and cardio. I am getting excited for the Arnold expo this weekend… I am leaving thursday night. See ya at the gym!

I hit back and biceps yesterday. I started out with some awesome deadlifts. My back is really sore from them (already). I worked my way up to 425 pounds with great form and continous movement. (Meaning that I did not rest the bar on the floor at all between reps). I did four intense sets and it kind of killed me for the rest of the workout. I managed to do several sets of incline curls - and I think that is what made my biceps are so sore. I admit that I was dragging through my workout yesterday. I should have accomplished a lot more in the time that I was there. Oh well.

Today is abs and cardio. Which is needed!!! I really wish I had more time for cardio. But my new schedule just does not allow it. I would love to have a treadmill or eliptical at home… But the current budget does not allow it. I guess I could always run - now that the ice is starting to melt. Believe it or not….  I don’t really mind doing cardio and watching tv. It makes the time go by fast. Anyway… See you at the gym…