kinkoshinkai’s BodyBlog

Sometimes the stars just align. I have a friend who is a P.E. teacher and coach at a local High School. His kids are good friends with my kids. We go to church together. He coaches a variety of sports - football, wrestling, softball - but mainly handles their weight room and weight training program. Several months ago I became aware that they had redone the weight room, emphasizing more free-weight and power lifting, and cleared out lots of equipment. After months of waiting for Board of Ed beaurocracy to handle the disposition of the equipment, which was in the gym, creating a safety issue, blocking an exit, and at risk of being damaged by students if left unattended, he got permission to just deal with it as expeditiously as possible before basketball hit full force and the equipment became a real obstruction issue. 

Enter ME!!!  I picked up a few things today!!!  Nice industrial bench press bench, leg extension/curl bench, vertical leg press plate loaded machine, and best of all, leg extension and leg curl selectorized stack machines!!!!  Still to come to my house, a peck deck, lat/row machine, leg press stack, high cable pully machine, seated calf stack machine, and a delt row machine!!!!  Am I a lucky dude or WHAT??????

I just got, and it’s not the first time, a private message from a minor.  This time, a 10 year old!!!!  I’m a bit apalled.  I never respond to such messages.  I even had some high school girl wanting me to be her "daddy"!!  I could puke!  Where are the internet monitoring parents?  Is there a moderator to whom I can report this stuff or have anything done about it?  There are kids on this site, teens, who are serious about getting fit, competing, athletics or whatever.  I get that. But some of these kids try to cross a line that I hope nobody on this site crosses with them!!  I understand the gay come-ons I’ve received, and I don’t respond at all, and they die off.  I’m hoping these messages from minors fade away, too, by just ignoring them.  But if there’s some other instrument in place to police, monitor, or weed out these perversions, I’m listening.

Prepare, Pump, Fatigue, Failure.  That’s my 4 set model.  Just thought I’d put an acronym to it.  It’s a good basice set scheme that allows plenty of room for adaptation as well.  The first set, PREPARE, is finding the weight my strength will allow for today.  Ideally, given that I’m a notebook/anal retentive/record keeping trainer, I’ll have the weight/sets/reps and notes from the last time I did a particular exercise.  However, even so I may be stronger or weaker today, based on mood, meals, rest, stress, or supplementation.  So the first set uses the information I have and find the right working weight with the first set.  The next set, using the information from the first set, is about proper form, mind/muscle connection, to PUMP blood into the muscle.  The next set doesn’t necessarily go to failure, but pushes the pump a little bigger to bring the muscle to a FATIGUE point.  Then lastly, the last set goes to FAILURE, or if I’m in the mood, beyond with forced reps, cheat reps, rest pause, pause sets, drop sets, or whatever method I choose if I decide I want to do so.

Within that framework, I can use the pattern of PPFF for exercise rotation as well.  I might take the first exercise for a body part to PREPARE my muscles, such as pre-fatiguing biceps with bar curls before dumbells or vice versa.  I might do Leg extensions to Prepare for the later mass builders.  The next exercise for a body part will focus on the PUMP , really working the blood into the muscle.  It might even go into a higher rep range than the 8-12, such as a 12-15 or even higher, just to really drive blood into the muscle tissue.  By the third exercise, I may not have taken either of the previous two to failure or even fatigue, but am feeling the body part, and now really want to fatigue the muscle within the chosen rep range.  I may do power sets - 3-6 reps on the bench - or strength sets of 6-8 squats, or standard hypertrophy range of 8-12 reps, but  I only tire the muscle without going all the way to failure.  Then, whatever exercise I’ve chosen for a finisher, every set, whether I do 3, 4, or 5 sets, every set goes to failure!

That’s my label for my workout system  PPFF!!

It’s been a couple years since I certified as a trainer. I’ve taken individual clients here and there, but now, I am officially a trainer at the gym where I’ve been working out for the last year.  I’m excited to get to charge for the advice I’ve been giving out free to those who ask.  Now, when someone asks advice, I’ll just schedule a session with them!!!

It’s a great validation for me of what I’ve been doing and learning.  I’m still pursuing my master’s, too, though it was on hold this semester while I paid off my car.  Having the NSCA certification at the end of the Master’s program will be a great credential to add to the gym.

On a sad note, my gym owner/manager, and friend, is struggling with cancer in his salivary glands and throat.  He’s fighting like crazy, and in the last week of his second round of chemo this week.  Prayers, positive thoughts, karma, whatever you can send, from anyone reading this would be greatly appreciated.  He’s pushing people away, because his big fit body is deteriorating and he doesn’t want to be seen that way.  But his heart and will to fight are still huge.  Fitness right now is saving him, literally.  THAT’S what it’s all for!!