richieirish’s BodyBlog

after having such a sh*t day yesterday of feeling borderline depressed i woke this morning with a very positive frame of mind! i was totally focused on the brutal back training session that lies waiting for me today. woke up BEFORE my alarm went off feeling refreshed and decided to weight in again.. .256! ok only a 1lb loss but thats fine, its steadily coming off. this along with new stretch marks appearing on my legs prompted me to take some measurements (which i had told myself i would not do until i finished my cutting phase).

to my suprise my quad measurement has finally reached 28", yeah they are still toothpicks but now they are slightly bigger toothpicks my waist has dropped below 40" and my forearms have suprisingly reached 14"! what a good start to my day! remember this is while im cutting? this is great motivation for me and is just what i needed after yesterday. i am unsure why i felt so sh*t yesterday for no apparent reason . . .does low carbs really effect people like that? anyway that was yesterday, i must concentrate on today and everything positive!

i stepped on the scales this morning and for the first time in months i seen the numbers 257 (117kg) - more weight lost, the next figure i seen was 18.3 - my bodyfat percentage!! this was really disheartening i have lost 15lbs and my bodyfat % has only dropped 3.7%!!!!

i feel manorexic!!! granted i havent lost any strenght in the gym and i can see that the weight is coming off my waist but to lose 15lbs and drop not even 4% bf is just crazy! ok so i had to do some math to try solve this!

start 272lbs bf22%= 60lbs lean body mass = 212lbs

present 257lbs bf18.3% = 47lbs lean body mass = 210lbs

and it is only when i worked it out like this did i realise that im actually doing really good! in the 15lbs i have lost only two of them are lean body mass which i think is pretty ok!

so in order to reach 15% bf while maintaining 210lbs lbm i will have to get down to 247lbs

10% bf means weighing 233 while maintaining 210lbm

well im straying off the point a bit here. ill try for 15% and see how that goes . . remember i have ten weeks of cutting still to do so im actually exceited about how this will turn out for me!

i have been gradually lowering my calorie and carb intake over the past couple of weeks from 6500cal/ 850g carbs to approximately 4500cal/600g carbs! starting from today my new diet will be as follows:

            mon    tue    wed    thur    fri      sat    sun   wk total

protein  405    405    405    405    405    300   405     2730

carbs    500    500    300    500    300    900   300      3300

fats        40     40      80      40     80       0      80        360

calories 3755  3755  3225  3755  3225  4800  3225   25740

wednesday, friday and sunday are the days i do cardio and on these days my carb intake is lower. i increase the number of fats (eating more salmon, steak, whole eggs) on these days to keep the caloric intake from dropping significantly.

monday tuesday and thursday my carbd are up to 500g so i try keep fats to a minimum and change my sources of protein to chicken, turkey, white fish and egg whites! saturday i try to consume 900g carbs and lower my protein intake to 300g. on this day i will try to consume as little fat as possible due to  the high number of carbs being consumed!

any feedback on this diet would be greatly appreciated (good or bad) as cutting is a new area for me! i hope to stay on this diet for 11 weeks ( gradually reducing the number of carbs over this time). thanks for taking the time to read my blog

as of this week i have started training to a different workout split. im in the gym every day now but only lifting four days a week, the other three are cardio and abs and some forearm training. so the split is as follows

monday - chest and triceps

tuesday - back and traps

wednesday - cardio and abs

thursday - delts and biceps

friday - cardio and forearms

saturday - quads, hamstrings and calfs

sunday - cardio and abs

ok, ill have a more detailed training split on my bodyspace page when i have the time to do so. im also changing my diet and i hope to post this soon as well. i hope to keep this training split until the 27th of june when ill be going on holiday for a week and when i come back off holiday it will be back to bulking again!

my old workout split is posted below:

day1 - quads - leg extensions - 3 sets - 30,25,20 reps
- barbell squats - 5 sets - 15,12,10,10,f<10
- leg press - 4 sets - 12,10,10,f<10
- front squats - 3 sets - 10,10,f<10
- leg extensions - 3 sets - 20,15,10

day2 - chest - flat bb press - 5 sets - 25,12,10,10,f<10
- incline bb press - 4 sets - 12,10,10,f<10
- incline db press - 3 sets - 15,12,10
- flat db flye - 3 sets - 12,10,10
- cable cross-over - 4 sets 20,15,12,10

day3 - back - bent barbell rows - 5 sets - 25,12,10,10,f<10
- t-bar rows - 4 sets 12,10,10,f<10
- lat pulldown - 4 sets - 12,10,10,f<10
- incline db rows (2 arms)- 4 sets - 15,12,10,10
- straight arm pulldowns - 4 sets - 20,15,12,10

day4 - rest

day5 - shoulders-seated shoulder press-5 sets-20,12,10,10,f
- seated db press - 4 sets - 12,10,10,f<10
- db side raise - 4 sets - 12,10,10,f<10
- bb shrugs - 6 sets - 25,20,15,15,12,f<10
- rear db raise - 4 sets - 15,12,10,f<10

day6 - lower back,hams - deadlift - 6 sets - 10,5,5,5,5,f<5
-s.l. deadlift - 5 sets - 10,10,10,10,f<10
- good mornings - 4 sets - 10,10,10,f<10
- lying leg curls - 5 sets-15,12,10,10,f<10
- seated calf raises - 5 sets - 20,15,12,10,10

day7 - arms - close grip bench press-5 sets-20,12,10,10,f<10
- lying e-z nose breakers - 4 sets-12,10,10,f<10
- triceps press downs - 4 sets - 12,10,10,f<10
- bb curls - 5 sets - 15,10,10,10,f<10
- alt db curls - 4 sets - 8,8,8,f<8
- concentration curls - 4 sets - 12,12,10,8

day8 - rest

so now that i have a new training partner we have decided to train legs every saturday! its the day 90% of bodybuilders hate the most but it is becoming the day the of the week i look forward to training the most. how hard is it to train your arms to the point where you find yourself wanting to throw up?

legs (and back to a slightly lesser extent) give you the oppertunity to absolutely push your body to its limits and beyond - both physically and mentally! sure we can all train intensely when were training our arms or shoulders but when you get under a heavily loaded bar to squat there is no escape, no room for error and every inch of your body and your mind must be severely focused on the set ahead and when the bar is taken out of the rack you are (or should be) on a completely higher level of training! every inch of your body is tight from your head to your toes, every single muscle group works in perfect form to allow your body to slowly lower the weight to just below parallel to where the point of contraction takes place!

the ammount of force required to move a weight that is often 2x bodyweight+ for reps is enormous! you have to take into consideration that when you are squatting(or deadlifting) not only are your muscles moving the huge weight on the bar, they are also moving a very high percentage of your own bodyweight in order to complete the lift! when benching, culring, shoulder pressing ect you are merely moving the weight on the bar and your arms!

this is what makes the squat and deadlift the lifts people tend to shy away from - they are just so hard to execute! if you stop and think about how hard it is to squat for several sets with maximum effort BEFORE moving on to exercises like the leg press, hack squat and leg ext ( and then exercises for your hams and calves) you realise why this is not a day for the faint hearted!!!

today was one of those training sessions that throws up a lot of questions of your character and determination and today even on low carbs i had the answers to them all. even without proper sleep for the last two days i managed to push myself to new limits. training with two others meant there was always somone doing a set and we had the bare minimum rest between sets - but the energy, drive and motivation was at a severe high! pushing each other and encouraging each other to work beyond the point of failure resulted in what we all agreed was one of the best training sessions ever! it was one of those days where it was difficult to sip your intra-workout drink because you were too busy  swallowing the vomit coming up your throat!

OVER-TRAINING? that phrase is the most over used excuse for not fu*king bursting your balls while training in the gym! 95% of people are under-training(myself included) due to their fear of over-training!did arnold, big lou, ed corney, franco columbo and all the other legends of bodybuilding "overtrain"? yeah they did and they produced physiques that still rival (some even better) the physiques of today, WITHOUT the use of gh, igf-1, pro-hormones ect ect that the bodybuilders of today use! oh yeah and the supplements they used back then - egg whites, casin protein, milk, oats, honey ect blended into something that probably tasted like cold vomit and was barely drinkable!

SO BITCHES - next time you walk into the gym just remember where this sport originated from and the people who were the pioneers of this lifestyle we now chose to lead! then walk away from that funky new cable biceps blaster machine and find yourself a nice freeweight squat rack, remember those scenes from "pumping iron" and try your best to replicate that level of training intensity! if you end up screaming, grunting or foaming at the mouth in order to do so then thats good, at least your making the effort! while you are training like some crazy animal remember it was seeing people train like this that first got you interested in the sport (when it was a sport and a lifestyle, not a money-making industry) and the feeling you get when you train like this will only send your motivation (and gains) through the roof! if you get thrown out of your gym for training like this then congradulations brother - you just found out your training in the wrong gym

learn to love leg day, deadlift to the point of collapse, use free-weights whenever possible, train beyond your capabilities and get out of the familiar rut so many people find themselves in when training! listen to your body for a change instead of the thousands of experts with so many conflicting ideas! its time for you to grow a pair - a pair of balls and a nice big pair of legs!!! now train like a freak and reap those hard earned rewards - you fu*king deserve them!!!!

so after training in the same gym for nearly three years i have decided to change the gym i train in. if you look at my videos you will see my old gym - freshly painted, full of machines with weight stack designed for women, clean carpet, tons of cardio machines, 5 huge plasma screen t.v’s and a relatively small free weight area! it is a good representation of the modern gym - squeeky clean with a big appeal to the general public to come in and lift some weights or lose some bodyfat!

over the past few months i really just felt out of place in this gym for several reasons. the members changed and a lot of the Polish who were lifting big weights went home due to the recession here, other members were thrown out due to arguements with the owner and others left due to the changing atmosphere in the gym!

so it came to be that i was one of the strongest guys in the gym ( sad when im not actually that strong) and with that comes unwanted attention from gym rats and the stupid questions they ask "how much do you bench?", "what supplement will make me real big?", "how much steroids do i need to take?" ect ect ect

ok ill jump in here now and say that im not an ignorant prick in the gym, if a guy comes up to me asking about what he should be eating or about lifting technique then ill give him my opinion (for what its worth) but its the guys looking for maiximum reasults with minimum effort that i have no time for and i found my old gym to have an ever increasing number of these! also when the owner of the gym asks you to put the barbell down "gently" when your deadlifting 250kg (550lbs) you know your in the wrong place and he doesnt have a clue! yeah your not allowed to use chalk ( but i do anyway) and the gym to me represents the way in which bodybuilding has lost its soul!

ENTER MY NEW GYM - ok think ronnie colemans metro flex meets dorian yates temple. it has an upstairs area - a few cardio machines and all the weigh lifting machines are up here - nothing too fancy and every machine is very effective! down stairs is the free weights room with leg press machine and hack squat.

just one step into this room and i knew where my new home was! linkin park blaring from the big speakers in the corner, everyone busy throwing big weights around and training with a huge intensity! the conversation here is usually kept to "hi" and a handshake, but at the same time you dont usually even have to ask for a spot as usually someone is there to help before you even look for it! yeah the place is covered in chalk and the noise of plates crashing is at times deafening! there is not one heater in the place yet the room is like a furnace and the smell of sweat and testosterone in the air would be a bit sickening except for the fact that yours in mixed in it!

holy shit this is a place where you can do nothing but build muscle and get stronger and im so glad to call it my new home . . the name of my new gym "olympia" . . . the name of my old gym "mcfit" and that accurately sums up the difference between the two! yeah bodyuilding has just found its soul again