richieirish’s BodyBlog

since i began weight training nearly three years ago i have trained on my own for at least 95% of the time. training partners came and went at different times and there was always a good reason not to train with them - not committed enough, different training goals, unreliable ect. ect. so i decided that it was best to travel the path alone and found myself most comfortable training by myself - no distractions, no let downs, no excuses! i alone was accountable for all my successes and failures!

the christmas before last i had the oppertunity to train with a former mr.ireland and while it was great to gain vital knowledge from him i was severely lacking in strenght in comparrison to him and after about two months we stopped training due to work commitments ect.

more recently we have begun training together again and while there is still a big difference in strenght i have closed the gap significantly enough to be able to have training sessions that doesnt involve stripping and loading the entire bar every set

commiting to train more regularly and meet each other half way when it comes to arranging times to train ect has greatly improved my whole attitude when it comes to this sport and it has allowed me to reflect how training alone or with partners can effect your overall goal!

training alone - this is like running a marathon on your own, you will continue to make progress and push yourself to YOUR limits! you never know exactly how your progress is in relation to everyone else running the marathon until you reach the end and you can compare your time with everyone elses at which stage it is too late to do anything about the reasult.

training with someone weaker than you - this is like running the marathon with someone chasing you, you will do enough to keep ahead of him and not to let him overtake you so that you win the race between ye but when you finish your time could be well down the overall field! i see so many gym rats bringing a much smaller or weaker training partner with them to the gym so that they can lord over their partner by using heavier weights and listen to his shallow compliments about how strong the weaker guy thinks he is - little fish in a f*cking huge pond!

training with someone stronger than you - now this is the real marathon in life. you train as hard as you can day in day out but everyday your still behind, every step of the race your losing yet you have to dig deep to try your best to keep up! this is where the difference is - you no longer have to train to YOUR limits, you have to train well beyond your limits and match his limits! it doesnt stop there because eventually you are going to have to train beyond his limits and only when you do this are you ready for the next leg of the marathon and the painfull thing is if or when you reach this stage you will again be chasing someone who’s limits are again much higher than the one you have recently attained! whenever you finish this marathon you will not necessarily have finished first but your guaranteed to not have finished last and i can guarantee you will have finished much further up the field than the first two options!

so look, leave your ego at home go to the gym and try train with someone much more advanced than you! sure your pride will be severely hurt having to strip away the plates on the barbell after he has finished his set and your poundages will always look small when compared to his! but stick with it and if you do so the day will come when you eventually find yourself matching him set for set, pound for pound and nothing will be more of an achievement than when you are able to progress further than him! but be humble if or when you do so, because it is a process you will have to repeat time and time again and you are not always going to succeed!

so when i joined bodyspace i set goals for myself to lift 180kg (405lbs) in the bench press, 260kg (575lbs) in the deadlift and 260kg in the squat and i set myself a bodyweight target of 130kg (286lbs).

11 weeks laterand i have achieved my goals in the squat and the deadlift. i have fallen short of my goal in the bench - i got 170kg for two reps but did not try 180 for a single due to an injury in my left elbow. i fell short of my boyweight goal but this is of little concern to me as the bodyweight was just going to my stomach and was of no functional use to me. having gradually increased my caloric intake to 6,500 and finding myself still being hungry throughout the day while not gaining bodyweight i decided to give my body (and mouth and stomach) a break by cutting down on carbs and calories from anywhere from 8-12 weeks.

i have began to change my training by increasing the reps and reducing the ammount of time taken between stes! so far so good! so now i will have to come up with new short term goals for myself and aim to achieve them. i have never tried to cut down before in my 2yrs9months of training so this is really new territory for me. im thinking of roughly getting my bodyfat down to 15% (currently 19%)  and bringing my bodyweight down to 115kg (255lbs). so i will see how this works out over the coming weeks and post the results!

i was drying myself the other day and i noticed pretty severe stretch marks running from my groin to about half way on the inside of my quad, usually a good sign when you see stretch marks! these along with smaller ones on my biceps and delts led me to search for any others. i found some going across my lower back and noticeable one running from my armpits down my lats!

unfortunately after taking measurements on all my bodyparts there is littl or no gains in size! this really has me puzzled as i have lost some bodyfat, increased my lifts and look a bit bigger - yet the tape tells me im the same?

i have come to the conclusion that my skin has started to shrink

so during the past week i got the rather unwanted gift of an electronic bodyfat scales (yeah someone is really giving me the hint to loose weight)! more worrying was the price of these scales €150!! im still thinking of the ammount of steak that could have bought well i decided to use the scales as an aid to keep track of my progress seen as thought its quite accurate and expensive!

now before you crazy fitness freaks give me a hard time about how sh*t these scales are for bodyfat ect, im only using it as a rough guide and another form of tracking my progress - im not going to swear by them! so my first time on the scales went as follows:

bodyweight;          121.3kg - 268lbs

bodyfat;                19%

body water;           58.5%

body muscle;         45%

daily calorie intake; 4320

bone mass;           3.5%

so i will take another measurement in either two or four weeks time and post the result in another bodyblog. i have lost an inch off my waist and two inches off my hips (god i sound like a bit*h) and i suppose i do look a bit better for it. another interesting reading is from the EAS bodyfat calipers taken from just above the hip - 10mm which they say means i have 12% bodyfat (not a hope ) and while i dont pay too much attention to the reading it is interesting to note that when i first got the bodyfat calipers (18 months ago) the measurement above my hip was 28mm and at that time i was about 15kg (33lbs) lighter. so i will use the scales in the same way - just as a rough guide for my progress!

so the past two weeks has been pretty crazy for me. working as a carpenter from 7am to 7pm six days a week and then working as a bouncer from 11pm to 3am every night! i was unable to go to the gym for ten days and my daily sleep was from 8pm to 10pm and 3.30am to 7am ( yeah i just arrived in late to work every day). my diet suffered a little and my main goal was simply to consume enough calories on a daily basis!

       so two weeks later and my bodyweight has dropped by six pounds and i am not even bothered by it! my main concern was that i would loose strenght in the gym and after three sessions i have lost very little (if any) on my lifts. time out from the gym has done wonders for my mindset and i am training with renewed vigour and a much more open mind!

wednesday i was training my legs and knowing i was fatigued i cut down my reps to 3 after my first two sets. this resulted in me squatting 255kg x 1(well below parallel) and 272.5kg x 1 to parallel or slightly above!

thursday i trained my chest and was benching with a very wide grip (normally my grip is 2inches inside the rings) due to an elbow injury. weight wasnt an issue this time and all reps were done super slow with a long pause at the bottom! this was very intense and really targeted the chest without involving the shoulders and triceps too much!

saturday i trained my back ( i slept most of friday evening) and this time i kept the reps above ten ( until the last set) and used as much weight as possible. excellent workout and all the muscles in my back ached!

so for the first time probably ever i completely changed the rep ranges and technique used in consecutive training sessions and i am delighted with the results! i will probably continue to train like this for a few weeks and see does it produce better results! im not going to get too caught up in a particular training programme and will instead base my workout on my mood, energy levels ect and whichever way i decide to train ill still train to my capacity and beyond and ill review my progress in about four weeks!

far from being detrimental to my training, the time away from the gym has allowed me time to think about my training and have a fresh outlook on how i train. stuck in a rut? maybe take a wek or two off and it will do you the world of good! ill let you know how i get on in four weeks