richieirish’s BodyBlog

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

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

just home from a gruelling training session with a former mr. Ireland! shoulders and biceps! he is a pure monster of a man, training with extremely high intensity and very heavy poundages for high reps (10 - 15)! the benefits of this training session were too numerous to list but some of the more important ones were the determination to not only better myself but also someone who is a lot more stronger than me! the knowledge gained from him during the training session and knowing that you every rep is being scrutinised by someone with a much greater knowledge of the sport than me! it think the most important thing i learned from this workout was being left with the feeling i was only as strong and as big as a ten year old boy!! this was such a huge wake-up call to tell me exactly how far i still have to progress! it is such a crazy sport we are in, the bigger and stronger you get, the higher the standard gets and the smaller you feel in comparison! we are climbing such a huge mountain in this sport that as we look below at the countless people we have passed out on our journey we sometimes forget about the ammount of people who have climbed much higher than us and we are in fact still at the foot of this huge mountain!

so dont look down ever again, train like an animal, never miss a meal, be short one ounce of water, loose one hours sleep, or rest on your laurels for even one minute! keep doing this lifestyle religously, day in, day out! make no excuses and continue on this path until your weight training days come to an end! only then look down and see how far you have come on this long journey with countless sacrifices! as you look up at those who are still above you do not be disheartened, for this place on the mountain on which you stand is your summit and you have done everything possible to reach it! if everyone was able to climb this mountain than very few would bother doing so, that is human nature! the mountain on which we are all climbing is only capable of being climbed by a very select few . . . . that is the challenge and the attraction which draws us to it!

so i wish you the best of luck on reaching "your" summit and when you reach it be proud of your achievments, do not make little or dismiss those below you and do not be jealous of those above you for this is a mountain which we have all climbed together!

september 06 - chest day, for some the highlight of their training week and a chance to show off to their gym-rat buddies how strong they are in the bench press! for me, it was a much more modest affair as i had only been training in the gym for four months and i knew the massive ammount of work i had to do in order to achieve my goals!

one of these goals had just been achieve a couple of weeks prior to that nights training session - bench 100kg! having achieved that goal i now set my sights on improving on this! feeling strong and solid on the bench i worked my way up in weight and decided to do a set at 105kg! having set myself up for the set both mentally and physically i unracked the bar when suddenly i felt the left side of the bar shift dramatically forward, someone had just walked into the barbell!! regaining control of the bar and trying to focus on the set i lowered the bar and was able to do 2 reps before re-racking it! getting up from the bench i noticed this big polish guy ( the person who walked into the bar) looking at me bemused! he made his way over to me and foolishly i thought he was going to apologise for his stupidity and ignorance, instead he passed me and dramatically started counted the plates on the bar before announcing "huh, only 105?!" - the feeling of wanting to kill this gym-rat was only matched by my humiliation that all my hard work could be so easily dismissed by someone so arrogant! it was my first real negative experience in a gym and it left a very sour taste in my mouth!

january 17th 2009 - arm day, feeling strong today and the first exercise is close grip bench press. the gym is fairly quite with only a few people training. i see that big polish guy is in the gym after being absent for quite a while. first set warm up 25 x 20kg then taking very little rest its 12 x 60kg. chalk up my hands and take a little rest and on to my next set 10 x 100kg! coming up from this set i see i have caught someones unwanted attention - mr.polish his attention increases when i load the bar to 130kg for my next set! as soon as it is loaded he is over asking me " do you want a spot?". this is unlike him and i know deep down he is expecting me to fail miserably on this set and he wants his ringside seat! being polite i accept his offer and ask him to give me a lift off with the bar, i usually count reps in my head but this time i was counting them differently " 1. . . . 05, 1 . . .05, 1 . .05, 105, 105!, 105!!, 105!!!, 105!!!!" 8 perfect reps using precise form before re-racking the bar! short of breath i turned to him and thanked him for the spot and in doing so killed one of the demons that had been in my head since september 06! he did not expect me to get one rep, let alone 8! he could not compliment me on my efforts but that did not matter, he . .  did not matter! did he offer to spot me when i loaded the bar to 150kg?? . . no! he was probably to proud to do so knowing that such a weight was within my capabilities but beyond his!!

its days like this that drive me and motivate me to be constantly better and you must keep telling yourself that any negative critisism is only more fuel for the fire within!!! if everyone told me how strong i was when i was benching 105kg would i be in the position now where i am benching 170kg??? i know, 170kg is not that big a weight to be benching . . . .  but please . . do me a favour . . be the first person to tell me that its "Only 170?!"

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