kylefields10’s BodyBlog

First off I want to explain what a big accomplishment this is for me.  I have been working out for almost eleven years.  Over the course of those eleven years, the one body part that I have had the most difficulty training has been my chest.  It seemed that no matter how hard I tried, no matter what program or rep scheme i did, I could never increase my bench press.  Even through college, my bench was stuck at about 245 for a one rep max.

During almost all the years I’ve been lifting, I have been overtraining.  I always played football and it is a punishing sport.  In the wieght room, we trained our bodies to respond in a state of complete and utter fatigue.  The training was incredibly tiresome and it destroyed our muscles past the point of catabolism.  Looking back at this training style, it is obvious why I never saw much development in my chest or anywhere else for that matter.

 After football was over, I messed around in the wieght room without much drive or focus, and it wasn’t until this past February that i started a quick, heavy, intense, overload training schedule.  I changed my frequency to one day on, one day off, from 5 on 2 off.  I also changed my priority in chest from flat bench to incline.  I also started doing one arm, dumbell bench press to keep my body from compensating to one side.  Every so often, would do a set of flat BB press but not more than once a month or so.

 Anyway, the main point of this Blog was to say that i finally Benched over 300 pounds.  I have never put more than 265 on the bar before.  I also haven’t performed a max bench in almost a year and a half so I didn’t know how it was going to go.  My first heavy attempt was for 275 and It was surprisingly easy.  I racked it and tried 295 and It felt good so i tried for 315, my muscles had just begun to feel a slight pump and i knew that this would be the best set i could do for that day.  I told my spotter that it would be my last set and i would just do as many reps as i could if i could even do one.  I pulled it off the rack and holy crap, I DID A REP OF 315! I was so excited that I did one rep I almost forgot to keep going.  All said and done I did 3 reps on my own with a little help at the top of my 4th.  I hope I’m not coming off as boasting or bragging because i know it’s not a whole lot, but this is probably the biggest accomplishment I have ever made in the gym.  Now I’m excited to go after 350 lbs hopefully by January 2008.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been working out.  I’ve played football my whole life and training for sport.  Lots of Plyometrics, balance and stabilization, focus on core strength, explosion and power. I was never concerned with the physique and asthetic aspect of training.  The only body alterations I have made is weight gain before preseason camp, but that was only because I knew I would lose it all during training camp.

Over the past 5 months I have done all kinds of research on how to train for different goals.  How to gain weight, cut weight, harden muscles, improve asthetic appearance.  Right now I’m trying to put on some more size by increasing my calories and lifting wieght and and decreasing my reps and total workout time.  It has absolutely amazed me how much my body has responded.  I’ve always had a good intensity and focus in the gym, but I always thought longer and harder was better, I was doing a total of 30 SETS per workout!!  and by doing that I was practically catabolizing my body and causing more harm than good. 

Now that I am more educated on nutrition, training, rest, and goal accomplishments, I’m not sure what my goal should be.  I hate what bodybuilding has become and so many people strive to attain the freakish form of Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler.  Don’t get me wrong, I have all the respect in the world for those guys.  The sacrifice and determination that those guys have is beyond anything I can comprehend.  I want to look like a human, and I’m also not willing to take the "supplements" required to transform your body that way. 

The problem I’m having is that those guys are supposed to be the ultimate goal, but what If I don’t want that to be my goal.  The Olympia used to be so different.  Frank Zane won in 1983 at 5′8 170 lbs, ronnie coleman is 5′11 300 lbs!!!  I mean these guys make Arlold look like a little kid.  I would love to hear what you all think is the perfect male size/form/proportion, I’ll post a discussion thread, let me know what you think.