Jettisoned Ponderings

I officially like my new arm workout! Before I’d maybe get a pump and have a flexed arm aroung 15.5". After tonight’s it was right at 15.9-16"! Sure, it’s pumped and not solid mass, but none the less it’s all the more motivating to work toward the current 16" goal and on from there. For now, sleep and recovery time… Have I mentioned I love Cyclin?

Last couple workouts have been great! I know I’m back in the training mode I need to be. I love the feeling of the higher total volume over multiple exercises. I used to do 4 sets, but for now am sticking to 3. I’m never too fatigued, just well worked. The pump is full and hard, and my body finally heats up enough that I know I’m burning more fat to stay lean where I wanna be. I’m very much enjoying the feeling of hitting abs more regularly again. Everything is 3×12 except abs which are 3×20. Last couple workouts have been as follows:

Tuesday: Chest/Abs
Pec Deck Flies: 100/110/120
Hammer Incline: 110/110/120
High X Cbl Most Musc. Flies: 60/60/60
Supine Grip Barbell Front Raises: 30/40/40
Hammer Decline Press: 160/180/200
1 Dumbell Front Raises: 35/35/35
Weighted Crunch Machine: 90/90/90
Leg Raises: Bodyweight
Lower Torso Rotator: 50/50/50
Keiser Pneumatic Chest Press: 1×15 (Pump/Fail) @160-180

Thursday: Back/Abs
Hammer Isolateral High Rows: 230/230/200
Supine Grip Barbell Bent Rows: 155/155/155
Dumbell Shoulder Flies: 15/15/15
1 Arm Hammer Rows: 90/90/100
Reverse Grip Pec Deck Rear Delt: 70/70/70
Hammer Isolateral Front Lat Pulldown: 140/140/140
Bent Dumbell Lateral Raises: 15/15/12.5
MTS Crunch Machine: 60/60/60
90 Degree Hyper Extensions: Bodyweight
Assisted Wide Pullups: 1×15 @-80lbs

Arms and Abs are tonight. My favorite! ^_^

I can’t remember the last time my abs were this sore! I know I haven’t worked them for far too long. Felt good to hit them Tuesday, and looking forward to it again today. Doing a lot more weighted exercises instead of just bodyweight or increasing the angle of the sit-up bench. Should end up with some decent results come wedding time. It’s nice to have a timeframe/goal to shoot for.
Lifting wise, I’ve got a ways to go. Still got some more time to try and hit my lifting stats by the end of November. It’ll be close, but they’re still doable if the changes in training produce the results I think they will. I’ll have to just do a max out day at the end of the month since I’m not doing any heavy/low rep training now.

After a 14 hour day at work having been up at 4:30am, I crashed completely yesterday. Didn’t get nearly enough food and there was about a 7 hour gap between lunch and dinner. Didn’t get any other food until early this morning. Bottom line, this all factored into me being weak and unable to lift what I normally could this morning. I felt great going in, was optimistic, but really wanted to put the past 5 weeks work to the fire and see if I’d actually made any functional gains from it. My conclusion: no. While I have ended up leaning out a little bit (combination of diet and the "light" workouts, in particular), I have gained no strength at all from the little bit of heavy training I’ve done. Courtney had the same experience, but granted she’s been depleting the past few days for her shoot tomorrow. She’s in the same mindset though about the routine. So again, another reinforcement that I/we need to go back to basics where I started and stick to the tried and true. I know I need to get my supplement stack back in order, too… I’ve been taking some time off ‘em, and now I really miss them. Back to stuffing the 7-day/4-time pill case I go!

I talked with Courtney for a while earlier today about our workout program; likes, dislikes, etc. We’re 5 weeks into a 12 week program, which has been all fine and dandy, but really not yielding the desired results. I took some time to look more closely at past programs as well as past progress pics. I thought, "When did I look my best, and what got me there?" in particular, I think back to the beginning of this year when on my first LG Science’s Trifecta. During that time, I was at one point at my leanest ever (6% bodyfat at one point) and by the end of it I was also my heaviest at 179lbs, So what changed? Really, I’ve lost a bit of size this year, though my strength has gone up, and I’m not too happy about it. My body’s changed around aesthetically more to my liking, but I don’t really have more mass. Not only that, but in reality, that was the year that I put on the most muscle and dropped 20% bodyfat and increased my sum total body weight an extra 10lbs. Also, when Courtney first started training with me, she dropped 4 sizes in 3 months doing the same training I was. I pieced it all together and here’s what I came up with.

Most of this year, I’ve been doing:
-Primarily moderate/low Volume
-Far too little core/abs
-No cardio
-Training 4-5 days a week
-Fewer machines, more free-weights

When I first started, I was doing:
-Moderate/high volume
-5 minute cardio warm-ups
-Abs after every workout (except legs)
-Training 5-6 days a week
-More Machines (no workout partner then)

When Courtney first started lifting with me, I didn’t push her very hard. On her own, she started to push herself and the more she saw results, the more I could challenge her and up the intensity of her workouts. Now that she’s been lifting about as long as I had been when I first met her, I believe she has not only the physical conditioning, but also the needed mindset, to be able to push at a higher intensity like I used to. We both know and agree that if I’d thrown my normal workout at her right away, she wouldn’t have stuck with it (and probably not stuck with me!  :’(  [insert depressing monologue of bachelorism]) So it’s been decided to abandon the current program after the week is up and start new next week with a program tailored more toward what we both started on, with a few enhancements that have been proven to work this year.

New Program Structure:
-Alternating A/B Workouts
-4 Day Split
-Train 5 days a week
-3 sets of 10-12 for all exercises
-1 minute rests between sets
-Rest-Pause as needed
-Tempo: 2-1-1

Having a 4 day program with Monday and Wednesday (Court’s school days) to be the off days will allow for the off days to not always fall after the same body part was worked. So one muscle group will be worked twice a week, but a different group each week. Also having an A/B workout will allow for a little variety to change things up a bit, but still be fundamentally the same. So anyhow… I’m still putting the routine together, but I’m excited for it!

I’m now into week 5 of 12, so I figure it’s worth taking a look back at the last four weeks and reviewing a bit. Overall, I have really mixed opinions. Is it working? Well, sorta… My first observation is that I have felt no plateauing over this last month. My body is almost always feeling the workout the next morning, but it doesn’t linger (Unlike Court, hee hee…) I know that I’m for sure gaining in strength, but I feel like overall I’m not inducing hypertrophy like I want to. This is mostly evident in that my weight has settled right between 176-178lbs, which seems to be changing more based on water weight. I do like the occasional heavy day, but I very much miss doing it along with lighter sets. Likewise, I feel that the lighter days give a fuller pump, but it doesn’t have quite the same feel like that of a higher exertion from heavier days. Bottom line, I am finding myself enjoying the more basic days, similar to what I first started lifting as. Everything was done in sets of 12 reps, except abs. When I really think about it, it’s also what caused me to gain the most and best change my body composition. It’s also what helped Court to make the most of her initial progress. I read an article a couple months ago that mentions how so often we tend to over-analyze and complicate workouts to where we easily over-train and don’t stick to the basics that made us have such good progress initially. I don’t feel that I’m necessarily doing that now, because really the program is pretty simple day to day. However, there are some days when I finish my workout and wonder if I did enough, or I wake up the morning and feel no physical indication that I worked my body the day before. On the upside, I am quickly discovering what works best and what doesn’t. I very much believe that I’m going to need to revert back to doing 3-4 sets of 10-12, but really stress a 1-1-2 tempo. "Hulkinout" mentioned once that he read a write up saying that 37 seconds is the ideal tension duration for a set and that’s what he always focussed on. When I think back to doing GVT or current says that have a longer time like this, I realize they are the ones that I feel the most benefit from. I think my body responds best to a little longer than this time frame. Most of my non-heavy sets wind up around 40-50 seconds. The pump is good and full, and the muscle feels worked but not exhausted and burning like in high rep or drop sets. I still have plenty of time left in this program to look at it more, but I’m presently leaning heavily toward these changes to make as soon as it’s over. Who knows though, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve scrapped a routine and reverted back to something that’s worked before. I’ll have to talk to Court, too, and see what she thinks and how her body is feeling. After that, I’ll see what path needs to be taken. I know I’m her "trainer" since she trains the exact same way I do, but I do value her input since I also use feedback on routines for when friends and family ask for a program. Of course, any additional feedback is more than welcome.

First off, I love Cyclin! The last two nights I have slept great and woken up fully refreshed. Got up early today to hit the gym by myself since Court’s got a busy schedule today and we had a pretty short night. Today was Heavy Back, which included Bent Rows. Now granted when I set my current goals I didn’t think to check how old my previous lifting stats were. So my previous stats were from 10 months ago. I set the goal based on the number only and not factoring in gains since then. So with my previous stat of 180 (goal for 225) I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the bent rows and found myself not counting my first set and going for two more at a better working weight:

Reverse Grip Front Pulldowns (Warmup): 80-180
Reverse Grip Front Pulldowns: 210×6, 210×5
High Cross Cable Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns: 70×7, 75×7
Barbell Bent Rows: 185×8, 225×4 (5 if you count some cheating form)
Close Grip Seated Rows: 200×6, 190×6

So with that only counting the 4 good reps, that puts my projected max up at 245! Sure, it’s a victory of miscalculations, but none the less its much more than I thought I was going to be able to do, so I’m happy none the less! Still got a few more goals to shoot for. I doubt I’m going to hit the weight goal, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to at least hit my lifting goals.

Due to errantly thinking Thursday was supposed to be a cardio day, and skipping it due to fatigue and Court feeling ill, last night we found ourselves catching up on light chest and negative arms. I wasn’t looking forward to it until I realized the combination of exercises lined up was going to give quite a significant pump, and I’d been feeling a bit "deflated" in my arms recently So I popped a few NO Overdrive and went to work…

Light (2-1-2 tempo, never push to lockout)
Hammer Decline Chest: 180×15 - 3 sets
Hammer Incline Chest: 140×11, 120×13, 105×15
Lying Cable Flies: 35×15, 3 sets
High Cable "Most Muscular" Flies: 45×15, 50×15 - 2 sets

Negative (1-0-5 tempo)
High Pulley Curls: 60×10 - 3 sets
Overhead EZ Bar Triceps: 55×10 - 3 sets
Cable Rope Hammer Curls: 70×10, 80×10 - 2 sets
Cable Rope Triceps: 80×10, 90×10 - 2 sets
Cable Reverse Curls: 60×10 - 3 sets

By the end, I was tired but felt absolutely great and was quite blown out. Back when I worked at Vitamin Shoppe, we got some of the first samples of MHP’s Cyclin-GF and I loved that stuff. Sleep quality definitely improved within the first couple times taking it. I got some more samples recently, and I’d been curious to give A-Bomb a try. Heard mixed things about it, but for those who actually took it as directed they’ve liked it. So I went ahead and ordered some yesterday (I love that bodybuilding.com price matches!) along with some Cyclin. I’m taking the samples now until the order arrives, then I’ll be stacking in some 6-oxo once that sale day comes around. I should have enough Tribuloid to last me till then. Can’t wait to see how it works!

So I’m turning 24 in a few weeks and have no idea what to do for it. Obviously, I’m not one to just go out to the bar for drinks or anything, but I really don’t have any ideas. I haven’t cared much since after I turned 18 and didn’t do anything for my 21st either (granted I’d just moved states and knew no one). So I guess I’m just seein’ if anyone has some good ideas to toss out there… Thanks