WashboardAbs’ BodyBlog

Alright, so, after a long time off and some experimentation with training, I think I’ll return to my roots and go powerlifting again.  After I blew out my knee/hurt my back, I took it way too easy, and now that I’m healed, I’m back in it (taking it easy at first, of course).  I’ll be doing a Westside approach, with 2 max effort days coupled with 2 dynamic strength days–one each for squat/deadlift work and the other for bench work.  I’ve already done a couple weeks on the program, and it’s going well, minus a little bit of elbow/knee pain (but nothing I’m not used to).  

That’s about it for this update–I’ll try to post somewhat often on here, but I’ve been somewhat busy as of late, so we’ll see.  Anyway, here’s my workout regime:

Day 1 - Max Effort (ME) squat/deadlift
Squat/deadlift/good morning - Using one of these exercises or a variation of them for no more than 3 consecutive weeks work up from a warm up in sets of 3 until 3 repetitions are no longer possible and switch to a single rep working up to 4 single repetitions of between 90-100% of your max.

Lower back work - Choose from glute-ham raises, reverse hyper-extensions, half deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts (SLDLs), hyper-extensions or cable pulls - 4 x 8-10 (weighted if need be to stay within rep range)

Abs - Any form of rectus abdominus work - 4 x 8-12

Lat work - Any form of upper back work such as wide grip chins, pull downs, barbell rows, cable rows - 4 x 8-10

Day 2- Max Effort (ME) Bench press
Bench Press of any of the above mentioned variations working from a triple to a single.

Tricep work - Any form of core strength tricep work such as close grip bench, JM presses, Tate presses, lying dumbbell extensions - 4 x 5-10
Cable pushdowns - A variety of cable attachments may be used (flat bar, V bar, rope) - 4 x 8-12

Shoulder work - choice of either lateral or front raises - 4 x 10-12

Lat work - as above - 4 x 8-10

Biceps - Pick any bicep exercise of your choice - 3 x 8-10

Day 3- Dynamic Effort (DE) Squat
Box squat 8-12 doubles with 45-65% of 1RM

Lower back work - as Day 1

Side bends (or variation of external oblique training) - 4 x 8-12

Neck work

Day 4- Dynamic Effort (DE) Bench press
Speed bench 8-10 triples with 45-46% 1 RM

Tricep work - as Day 2

Pushdowns - as Day 2

Lat work - as Day 1

Biceps - as Day 2

I take one day off between days two and three, and two off at the end of the week.  That’s about it!

Well, I have been away from the site for a long time now, and some major changes have been made in my routine.  What changes, you might ask?

I no longer lift weights.

This is mostly true, anyway, as I have been persuaded by a good friend of mine to take up using the gymnastic rings.  They’re a really tough workout for the upper body (I still use weighted exercises like squats and leg presses for legs), and have given me great results.  If you would have told me 6 months ago that building upper body strength and putting on muscle was possible without weights, I would have told you to get lost.  However, after the past 6 months of rings training, I have seen the light–that weight training is NOT required to build a muscular body.

I’ll post pictures sometime soon to illustrate my point for the non-believers.  Anyway, after training for this amount of time, I can already hold the Iron Cross, the classic strength position that ring specialists are best known for.  This and other accomplishments have only come my way through the use of the rings, and ONLY the rings, for my upper body thus far.  Like I said, I’ll update with pics soon.

Yesterday was back/traps day (my absolute favorite), and it was intense!  I felt good, but my lower back was feeling sore–so I decided that this week wasn’t a good day for rack pulls, especially after stiff legged deads on monday.  So, after a couple warmup sets, I was feeling pretty strong, so i decided to go as strong as I could with barbell bent-over rows.  Some of you will see the major jump I made in my lifting stats recently.  The strange thing is that I was able to row just as much as I usually deadlift…very strange, but I’m feeling good about it!  I guess my lats are just much stronger than my erectors.

After 4 grueling sets, I busted out 4 sets of weighted pullups, which get more difficult as I go along as I gain weight.  These were, of course, wide grip to really bring out the serratus, which I’ve noticed some great improvements on recently.  Third was t-bar rows, 4 heavy sets, followed by 3 sets of dumbbell rows, with the 95’s (which I think is pretty impressive for my size).  I finished off the workout with 6 sets of barbell shrugs and 2 sets of bodyweight neutral-grip pullups.

I feel amazing today (which means really sore), and am just really excited about the recent progress I’ve made.  Yay for me!

I’m trying to get a bodybuilding club started at my college–easy enough, but I’m finding support very limited.  I’m also running into problems with people not being open to "bodybuilding," as people’s minds jump to the physiques of ronnie or jay.  Not that that’s bad to any of us, but to those not involved or as…invested in the sport as we are, the extremes they see and the negative attention from media, etc. turns them off to anything associated, like a bodybuilding club.

How do I approach these people?  How do I make the club a more welcome place for EVERYONE, thus gaining enough support to get the ball rolling and get everything started?

Eventually I’d like to plan trips through these clubs to visit nearby competitions, which would show people that not every bodybuilder or fitness competitor is a giant–making the idea more attractive.

So, I’ve been on a bulking cycle for the past few months, and it’s gone great.  I started out at around 150 pounds, and everything I had tried before wasn’t giving me any progress.  So, I revamped my training program, removed some isolation lifts, added more compound lifts, and started eating a ton more calories while changing supplements.  So far it’s worked pretty well–I’m up to around 170 and still gaining.  I’m noticing growth in areas that haven’t seen growth in 6 months, which is very refreshing!  I’m starting to bring up my arms to be proportional with the rest of my body, which is nice.  If you haven’t read any of my previous posts, I started out training with only bench, squat, and clean, which did wonders for my strength but nothing for my arms.  I started working arms by themselves sometime last year, and they’ve grown about three inches, which is exciting.

I’m also considering (really, planning and merely deciding on the "when") writing a few articles and submitting them, hoping to get published.  I’ve got some cool ideas that the staff might think are good, which would mean great things–it would start a possible career in fitness/writing, plus score me some free supplements, which are always welcome.  I’d post here what my ideas for said articles were, but I’d rather not have someone take them…sorry guys.

So, the other day I decided to try a product I’ve heard a lot about but never had any experience with–the Manta Ray.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it takes the place of a pad on a squat bar, and instead evenly distributes the weight across your shoulders.  At first it was awkward, but it soon proved to be much, much better than just a pad.  I felt a better stimulus, however, I did feel the Manta Ray slightly roll forward on my back with each rep, which could possibly prove dangerous if not handled correctly, but for the most part I think people have nothing to fear from and should at the very least try using the Manta Ray.

This last week was the last week of my arm routine, and I’ve grown a lot, but I don’t wanna burn out.  To avoid that, and to avoid boredom, I’m moving on to the leg specialty routine, to see if I can’t slap a couple pounds of muscle on each.  Next week I’ll change my legs days to Monday and Thursday, take my arm workout (now once a week) and put it on Tuesday, which’ll push back to wednesday.  Chest and Shoulders have always been a Friday workout for me–I have shoulder issues sometimes, so I like to leave more rest before I lift again (two days of nothing) so they’re safe.

 Incline Barbell Bench Press–5×5 reps, 175 lbs

Dumbbell Flat Bench Press–4×8 reps, 65 lb DB’s

Neutral Grip (palms facing inward) Military Press–4×8 reps, 45 lb DB’s

Side Laterals (DB)–3×12, 30 lb DB’s

Reverse Flies (DB, lying flat on a bench)–3×10, 20 lb DB’s

Cable Crossovers–2×12, 60 lbs (each cable)

Dips (leaning forward, emphasize chest/shoulders)–3×10 (strict form, slow negatives, no weight).

I can’t do military presses very well, as they strain my shoulder, but for some reason doing laterals doesn’t give me any problems.  I’ve started doing my military presses with my palms facing inward to try to take pressure off of my rotator cuff, which is what gives me the most trouble.  Hopefully I can work through whatever injury I’ve sustained, and can continue to grow.  Come Monday, it’s time to start the new leg program!

I’m starting a new program for legs (and for most other bodyparts, too), as I used to do a lot of high rep squats and leg presses, with little to no growth.  Now, I’m going to train heavier, to see if I can’t squeeze some more size out of my legs.

Back Squats–3×5 reps, 225 lbs (focus on controlled negative)

Hack Squats–3×5 reps, 185 pounds (focus on negatives and stopping before lock-out)

Leg Press–3×6 reps, 520 lbs (full ROM)

Romanian Deadlift–3×8, 200 lbs (focus on stretch, pause at bottom of reps)

Barbell Lunges–2×12, 135 lbs

Leg Extension/Curl superset–1×15 reps

Calf Press–3×20 reps, 270 lbs

Seated Calf Raise–3×12 reps, 105 lbs (focus on stretch and contraction)

I felt pretty pumped, and can already feel my muscles getting sore from this morning’s workout, so I know I’m doing something right.  Legs and arms are the two main places I need improvement, as they’ve been neglected in the past, which is a mistake a lot of people make when they first start out (forgetting legs, not arms).  I didn’t train arms by themselves until about 3 months ago–I did mainly squats, presses (military and bench), rows and power cleans.  I got stronger, and am stronger than a lot of people my age and size, but I don’t have the muscle mass behind it.  I’m working on it, though!

I’ve been hooked onto Derek Charlebois’ ebook on hypertrophy, and in there is a sample training schedule for maximizing arm size and development.  For almost nine months, I focused solely on bench press, squat, and deadlift, thinking that if I lifted heavily enough, my arms would get enough development.  I was wrong, and I plateaued early due to insufficient arm strength.  Since then, my arms have never been up to par, and I’m working on getting them caught up to the rest of my body.

Preacher Curl– 80 lbs, 4×8 (full extension, focus on negative)

Skull Crushers– 70 lbs, 4×8 (six second negative, two second pause at bottom of movement)

Alternating Dumbbell Curls– 45 lbs (each), 3×8

Tricep Kickbacks– 20 lbs, 3×10 (focus on contraction)

Hammer Curls (DB)– 50 lbs (each), 3×8

Overhead Dumbbell Extension– 45 lbs (single DB), 3×8 (focus on negative)

Barbell reverse curl–60 lbs, 3×10

Over the next 8 weeks or so I hope to drastically increase my arm strength and size, and once my arms are up to par, I’ll use a similar program (lower volume training twice a week) on another bodypart, either legs or chest.

Today was the first day I’ve been on my new bulking cycle, and I love training back and traps, so it was a good and productive day.

Warmup–20 Pullups

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown– 200 lbs, 5×5

Barbell Bent-Over Row– 165 lbs, 5×5

Close (Parallell) Grip Weighted Pullups– 25 lbs, 3×8

Cable Row– 150 lbs, 3×8 (slow negative)

Barbell Shrug– 245 lbs, 4×8

Upright Row– 115 lbs, 3×8

Dumbbell Shrug– 65 lbs (each), 3×10 (slow negative)

I felt a pretty good pump when I left the gym, which is a good sign.  My total caloric intake for today was 3,050 roughly, which is also pretty good.  Hopefully if I can keep things up for a while then I’ll bust through this plateau I’ve been stuck in forever.  Tomorrow–legs!  My favorite day of the week.