Dave’s Body

 I’ve been having some computer problems lately so I haven’t been online. This is supposed to be the last week of an 8 week push to add muscle. My training has been good up until a couple of days ago. I committed the un-pardonable sin, I didn’t warm up properly. The bad part is that I knew better. You see I was going to put a bar up on a rack that had 230 pounds on it. I was doing chest so I hadn’t warmed up my back. It was just a measely 230 pound deadlift up to the power rack and I wouldn’t have to unload the bar. Then I thought  " you should unload that bar, It will take longer but you will avoid injury". Did I listen to myself? Of course not or I wouldn’t have this pulled muscle in my back. I can barely do anything that requires my right arm to be over my head. Good thing this is the last week. I’m going to take next week off then scale back my workouts and diet for the Holidays. There is one thing that I plan to do different this year though, look into getting a gym membership for the winter. You see I work out in my garage and in recent years when it would get cold I would use that as an excuse to slack off for the winter. And as you know, the longer you lay off, the easier it gets to stay off. It’s my intention to not let that happen again this year. At the end of this week I will post reviews of the supplements that I’ve been using. 

 After the second week on Methyl 1-D, there’s still not alot to report. I was actually down .4 pounds this week. My wife made the unsolicited comment that my body felt like it was getting harder. I don’t know if I feel any difference in hardness besides, how does one measure hardness? Unless you go from alot of fat to a very little I don’t see how you would notice a small difference and my bodyfat is still the same. I’m still noticing a small amount of acne on my butt and now on my back also. I did notice this week, that while training, my muscles do get pumped quicker. Again nothing spectacular to report. I’m still waiting for a breakout week so that I can say definitively, that I am seeing results from the supplements.

 After the first week of my Methyl 1-D trial, there’s not alot to report. So far I’ve gained 1.8 (1.6 lean)pounds which has been consistant with my previous gains before adding the Methyl 1-D. I have had some good workouts this week but nothing extraordinary. The only effect that I’ve noticed during the first week is very minor acne on my legs and butt. So minor that I almost didn’t mention it here. My wife claims that I’ve been in a bad mood this week but I don’t feel that my mood has been altered. If anything I’ve been a little lethargic this week, but again, not enough to blame a supplement that I’ve only been on for a short period. So far nothing spectacular to report but will continue to train and eat good. 

 I love breakfast. It’s usually the only meal that I’m hungry for. Eating every 2-3 hours throughout the day doesn’t allow you to get overly hungry if at all. Breakfast is another story, you haven’t eaten anything all night. I usually eat 2 scoops of protein powder dissolved in milk with 1 cup of cereal (Special K Protein Plus is good) and a banana. Depending on what flavor of protein powder, this can taste awesome. Sometimes I just drink a protein shake and eat whole wheat waffles with peanut butter, banana and sugar free syrup. Also good is 1 cup of cooked oatmeal with 2 scoops of protein powder mixed in with milk, cinnamon and sugar free syrup. Each of these choices take less than 15 minutes to prepare and keeps me full until my next meal, which is only 3 hours away.

 On Monday Sept. 22, I will be starting an 8 week push to add muscle. I will be using Legal Gear’s Methyl 1-D and 1-GH-1 for 4 weeks and Tribulus, Chrysin and creatine for 4 weeks. This will be above my normal supplementation of whey, multi-vitamin and BCAA’s. I have read alot of praise for these products from men my age and will be posting updates throughout the 8 weeks in this Bodyblog and I will post a review for the legal gear products afterward on my Bodyspace page. My diet will remain the same so it will be clearer what effect the supplements have on me. My training split will be as follows: Mon- chest, Tue- back and biceps, Wed- off, Thu- legs, Fri- shoulders and triceps, Sat and Sun- off. Abs will be on alternating days with calves. Starting body composition is: 159.4 pounds; 10% bodyfat so that is 143.5 pounds of lean mass and 15.9 pounds of fat. I will be posting before progress pics shortly on my Bodyspace page. My goals are to continue to add muscle with as little fat as possible. My plan is to continue to seek out the best supplements that can help me reach my goals and to give honest reviews of the different products that I use.

 A friend came up to me the other day and mentioned , that it seemed like I was keeping the weight I lost off, and that I looked more muscular in the chest and shoulders. I had forgotten what that felt like, to have someone notice the hard work you’re putting into your body. The motivation you get to stick with what you are doing is incredible.

 I woke up this morning in pain… the good kind. You know the kind of pain that lets you know you had a good workout the day before. The kind that makes you feel like people are staring because you’re walking funny. I worked legs yesterday so all day my butt and quads were paying me back for pushing them. I actually do like the pain though. Does that make me weird? To me it makes the shortness of breath, light headedness and even nausea of leg day well worth it.

 I’ve decided that this week will be a recovery week for me. I will still train, but just enough to get the blood flowing. I’m hopeful, that by taking it easy this week, my hip will feel better. The funny thing about this is that I have no idea when or how I hurt it in the first place. It just hurts. I can squat with little discomfort but going up and down stairs is painful. Oh to be young again when aches and pains were gone before you even realized that something hurt. I will be hitting it hard again next week. Hopefully I won’t have much pain to have to work through. 

 I just wrote a post yesterday about being a hardgainer. Then this morning I woke up and was .4 Ilbs less today than yesterday. UGGHH!

I know that I shouldn’t just rely on the scale but my original goal was to gain 10 Ilbs of muscle in 6 weeks. I’m just going to have to increase my caloric intake a bit but not too much because I’m trying to not add too much fat with the muscle gain.

 I was always what you would call a hard gainer. It was easier for me to lose fat than gain muscle. Just the way my body type is. It seems though that now that I’m older (38 vs 15 when I first started and 27 when competing) hardgaining has been taken to a new level. I set a goal 2 weeks ago to gain 10 Ilbs of muscle in 6 weeks. So far I’ve gained 2 Ilbs with no increase in bodyfat. Which means I need to step it up to reach my goal in 4 more weeks. 20 years ago that would have been fairly easy but now I’m questioning whether I should have given myself more time. At any rate 1 Ilb a week is pretty good. When you think about it you can’t perpetually gain 1 Ilb a week or you could gain 52 Ilbs every year! I’ve added amino acids to my supplements to see if that jump starts the gain in size because of right now I’m weighing less than my competitive weight of 11 years ago. Just as a side note for you older guys, the amino acid arginine is called the "natural viagra" so I’ll post later if I see any developments in that arena.