gymfreak713’s BodyBlog

Everyone keeps giving me positive feedback about my picture with the shirt off.  I have to say that it was very hard for me to first come to the realization that I had blown up so badly.  In pictures, I was always standing behind a girlfriend or a group picture, so I never really saw myself.  I went back into the gym and was still strong, but boy was I winded.  The thing that caught my eye is that i was doing curls and some guy 10 feet in front of me was doing side lateral raises.  I am used to being wider in the shoulders than most guys, so seeing my shoulders around him in the mirror wasnt new to me.  But then I saw it. The dreaded it.  My stomach.  It was not big, huge, or anything so easily described. It was gargantuan. I immediately changed my diet, and went from 360 to 260 in 5 and a half months.  that may seem like it was too fast, but I had my bodyfat checked the whole time and I was losing fat not muscle. This was from Jan 2006 to may 2006.

Then the summer hit, BBQs, nights drinking with the friends, changing jobs, my girlfriend saying she had slept with her best friends husband.  It was a tumultuous time.  I let it get to me.  I ate and drank and ate some more.  I found pleasure in feeding this emptiness that had surrounded me and I didnt care. No gym, no nothing, just work and food work and eating, work and bars.

In may of 2007, I took that picture.  I realized that mirrors can lie.  That picture cannot.  I also realized that while I know how to successfully manipulate my body into ridding itself of fat, I need to make some changes.  I cannot go through life eating.  I also cannot try this again without a good support system, and thats where the picture comes in.  Think about it.  All of the BB.com community is my support system.  Everyone who looks at that photo, or reads my blogs, or checks out my recipes on the forums, etc will knwo exactly where I came from and where I am going and once there, will know how I did it.

So, I thank all of you for being in my corner, just as I am in yours.  This is a sacred brotherhood, but not to ignore all of the lovely, lovely ladies on here, a kinship.  I wish everyone the best and remember, schedule your rest and cheat meals, so that the remainder of your time you are 110% in the game

Ok, two weeks in to my rededication and I have lost a total of 12 pounds.  My strength is returning and I can feel my body getting used to the burning off of fat.  Thursday, 6/28, was leg day and I did 5 sets of breathign squats.  Thats where you choose a weight you will fail at 8 reps with, and then stand there holding the weight until you can get 9, and then 10, and 11 and so on until you get 20.  Its a sort of tougher version of rest pause.  It took me about 15 minutes but my legs felt awesome afterward.  I then went to do some leg press and finished with some stiff legged deads.  Maybe 16 total sets including warmups for leg day, but its Saturday now and I’m still sore.

Friday was chest and bis.  The only thing I did different here was that on my incline barbell presses, someone asked if he could work in with me and I said sure if he would help me with negatives.  So I did 5 sets of heavy negatives, fully taking advantage of the assistance from this other guy.  He tried to do one set, but on his third rep, his chest and arms were shaking soo much (which is a good thing), he got scared and refused to do anymore negatives. 

This morning before work I weighed myself, 308.  12 pounds down.  I then went to the gym  did 45 minutes of cardio on the bike, and came home for a proptein shake and egg whites… I hope everyone has a Great Day!

Geez. We all know what I am about to say.  Beyond the guy who loads up 1400 pounds on the leg press does one half rep and leaves,  beyond the girl who asks for help removing all that weight (as if we are not working out ourselves), beyond the person who screams as he/she works out.  There are two things that just toally disgust me in the gym, and unfortunately, my mindset is somewhat barbaric as I workout, so I have found its good for me not to speak until my workout is over as I can come across very harsh at that time.  Those two things are:

PEOPLE WHO DON’T USE A WORKOUT TOWEL. No one wants to sit in your sweat or worse. even if you are wearing a sweatshit, when you bench, or are on a machine with a bench, your bacteria festering sweat from that obviously vacant minded noggin is staying on said bench.  You are a disgusting person if you do this.

PEOPLE WHO SNEEZE OR COUGH WITHOUT COVERING THEIR HANDS AND THEN WASHING THEIR HANDS. If this is you, and I have to explain this one to you, then there is really something wrong.  Don’t people know that the reason SARS, the FLU, etc starts in developing countries is because they dont have access to wash their hands? It takes less than a second to cover your mouth and less than three minutes to walk to that bathroom, wash up and come back out.

And I just remembered one more thing that is totally disgusting.  I know we all sweat and might get fresh at the end of a workout.  But if you stink. I mean if you haven’t bathed, and or your clothes are stinky,well then… you my friend need a lesson in cleanliness.  And its not just other guys who are like this… Unfortunately, I have had the unfortunate experience of some "stank" women walk by me as I was benching or squatting. 

You know what I love about training? I love how you can track progress.  Its a great feeling watching the poundages or reps go up workout after workout.  Even hitting a plateau is a good experience if you let it be.  It means that watch out, because when you break through the plateau, progress is going to come quickly.  I love that!  I personally track my progress a number of ways, I measure my bodyfat, i record every weight lifted, including sets, reps, and of course I weigh myself twice a week.  In addition to this, every thursday morning is picture day.  I take one picture from the fron back and side, not flexing anything.  Thats where the first progress picture on my bodyspace came from.  I honestly love this website because you can’t help but stay motivated using the tools to track your progress, to converse with other like minded ironheads, fitness buffs, whatever.  Well, just some random thoughts today.

Wow, I just had an awesome shoulder workout.  I have always been strong in my shoulders but honestly, I hate training them.  It sucks not being able to lift your arm very quickly the next day or so.  But I do lose the look of veins popping out across them and of cours my shirt looking nice and full the rest of the day from the awesome pump I get in them.

Today I started with 20 reps on a Hammer Strength Military press machine to get warmed up. I did two sets like this.  I then went over to do side laterals and did 4 working sets. I kept my palms facing backwards the whole time and noticed I got a HUGE pump in my side delts.  Then I did 4 sets of incline bench rear laterals, again keeping my palms facing backwards insteads of in towards my body. what do you know? Another great pump! I moved onto Shoulder presses next, since I am trying to let my side and rear keep up with my fron delts.  I did dumbbells today, and did them seated. 4 sets, working up to 110 pound dumbbells. Three sets of wide grip upright rows and I was done.

I train my traps only once every other week.  I train them after what i call my "powerlifting" back workout which is only deadlifts, BB rows and shrugs. 

I noticed i didnt get a lot of response to my blog about the characters in my gym.  I do hope to hear from more people as time goes by.

Good luck to everyone and keep training hard to reach your own goals!

There is a guy at the gym that I have called the Rabbit.  I have never seen anyone like this in my life.  He literally just bounces, not walks, not runs, bounces or skips from one side of the gym to the other, grabbing the tbars and doing 4 LOUD reps with only 45 on there, then  heading to do calves and making sure everyone sees his 4 reps with two 25s on there.  Then back over to the chinning bar and does 2 pullups kicking the whole way up,  and then over to hacks to do 7 half hack squats with nothing loaded.  i dont know what his goals are or anything, but what could they possibly be?

I am by no means making fun of anyone at my gym, I just love to see the characters.  There is a guy I have also nicknamed Napoleon.  He is about 6 feet tall and maybe 165 pounds soaking wet. Exemplary ectomorphic frame and looks like he should be a great cross country runner or something.  Anyway, this guy does nothing but curls! He will curl on monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, well you get my point.  He walks around curling, but flexing his calves. Its just funny.

Well, any one who reads this, feel free to respond and let me know of the other wierdos in your gym. I’m not talking about the obvious ones, you know, romeo, Stripper girl, Mr. Funk (as in B.O.), the guy who wears short shorts, none of these guys because they are everywhere.  I am talking about weird and unique people.

I love cooking with buffalo.  I don’t but Trader Joe’s though because it is disgusting.  I either buy it in a regular store or from a butcher.  It is usually leaner than red meat, has a little more protein per ounce, and is not extremely game tasting.  I use it to make ranch burgers, basically taking a tiny tiny bit of low fat, but not non fat ranch dressing, and mixing it into the meat with a little tiny tiny bit of italian bread crumbs.  I then form patties and serve it with something with fiber and slow carbs like black beans.

I have also tried draining some black beans and adding them to my buffalo meat to boost the fiber content and add some carbs.  it basically becomes a meat meal.  I know, some of this must sound disgusting, but to me, if i can just take a bowl, add some meat (turkey, buffalo, beef, etc.) and something to add fiber and slow carbs, and then just form a patty and keep these patties for a few days, i will do it.  So i add the black beans, some chopped jalapeno, some garlic, and an egg or two and make buffalo bean patties.  full of protein, a little fat from the red meat for testosterone support, some fiber and slow carbs from the beans along with a little more protein, and of course the spice of the jalapenos.  Feel free to mince up a smoked jalapeno, or chipotle, and add that instead.

I was wondering if anyone reading this has ever trained the same bodypart two days in a row?  I mean obviously, you couldnt try that with legs, otherwise you wouldnt have trained your legs hard enough.  For instance, two days ago was Friday, and I trained my chest and biceps.  Yesterday, I had some cardio to do, but when I got to the gym, I felt this urge to hit chest with a few machine presses and dips.  Just to work some blood into the area, kind of shock the muscles.  I did 5 sets of Hammer Strenght incline presses and 5 set of dips, and then went and did my cardio.  I gotta tell you, something tells me that this instinctive "shock" did wonders for the fibers in my chest.  I am wondering if next workout I will be able to kick up the weight a notch.  I sure feel strong lately.  Has anyone else ever done this?

I added some recipes to the forum, but here is one I make both to add mass and to diet down since it is so filling.

Brown 1 lb of ground sirloin or turkey depending on if you are cutting or not, take out of pan and clean pan, brown 1 medium onion, and some garlic, add beef back to pan, along with 1 small can of tomato paste, some chopped jalapeno, some cumin, some cilantro, and black pepper to taste. basically make your own spicy rice.  Spices dont add calories just flavor.  Now, If you are cutting, just take some of this mixture, stuff it into a hollowed out bell pepper and eat. For adding mass, heres the secret weapon: low fat neufchatel cheese or non fat ricotta cheese.  both have protein and get creamy when melting. Stir this in until creamy, then stuff into a hollowed out bell pepper and warm in the oven. 

Well its been the completion of my first week since being back on my diet and training program full bore.  I have gone from 320 to about 313, I know most of this is water.  My protein has been about 312g a day and total calories have been between 2500 and 2700 a day.  For my larger bodyparts, I would choose an exercise randomly and utilize drop sets.  For instance, on Monday, While I was doing T-bar rows, I worked up to 210.  I had 3 45s and 3 25s.  After I got to this weight, I did a set of 10, peeled a 25, did some more, peeled another, and did a few more reps.  Thats was one drop set. I did two or three on Monday.  On Thursday, during my leg workouts, I was doing lunges with dumbbells, anc worked my way through 3 dumbbells on a drop set.  And on Friday, I was doing Hammer Strength Inclines and worked up to 270.  I would do a set with 270, take off 90, do some more reps, take off another 90 and finish it up.  I love the burn I get from doing drop sets!!!  Well, this is just an update of my progress.  I know my calories are a little low right now, but as long as I am losing weight, and my strength goes up, then I am losing fat and not muscle.  I am doing 30 minutes of cardio on monday, tuesday, wednesday and friday nights, along with Saturday morning