FireMike

Fear Factory - Archetype Lyrics

You must never forget
The essence of your spark
All of that which defines you
Is the essence of your blood

Open your eyes (open your eyes, open your eyes)

So nothing ever bends, it only breaks into pieces and pieces… I stole this saying from a Crossfade song but how true it is. "it seems so much easier to just give in, when your reaching for so much more." I was recently in a place the past 3 days where I couldn’t workout, I couldn’t practice proper nutrition all I could do was think, think and think. I had to so the time would pass, so this moment would succomb. I thought about my children, how much they have brought to my life and how much less of a man I would be without them. I thought of my close friends, some of whom I later found made attempts and took actions to help me without my asking or knowing, they just did it. (DJ this is you, Jeff make sure he knows I know and am much appreciative for it) I thought about how far i’ve come in my journey and how ive transformered my body over the years and more recently, in the past 2 1/2 months. The pure "religious" experience if you will I feel  when im in the gym. I didn’t focus on the negative, only the possitives and with where I was this was a difficult task to do. I couldn’t train, but I could visualize and while visualizing my chest workout I began to feel as tho my chest was pumping. In visualizing my leg workout, I felt my legs swell and feel heavy as I paced around, my mind to muscle connection is better than ever. Most of all I realize that there are many loose ends still in my life and I do not except loose ends in my workouts or nutrition, so why except them in life, I won’t anylonger. This whole experience to this point has brought more than a better physique, it has brought a better attitude. Greater appreciation for the small things that most take for granted. I realize that there are many things I have in life, that others do not have the opportunity to built. While I have "built my life like a bike on a rigid frame, nothing bends it only breaks into pieces" it has brought greater meaning to everything.

Yesterday a marvelous thing happened, but with this great thing came an surpassed motivation to push harder, train more intense and continue to destroy everything. First let me provide some background, I am the oldest child of 4 siblings. My brother who is now 20 began competition bodybuilding at the age of 16. As ive noted in my bio when he first competed this provided me the motivation to get off my butt and get back in the gym as he stated that I inspired him when I was in high school by my overall dedication to weight training. Yesterday our sister who is 15 came to train legs with me, as she wants to achieve more in swimming next season. So naturally this excits me because the tradition is still being passed down the line, both my dad and step mother were very much active in the gym in the late 80’s and early 90’s and have recently returned to a lifestyle focusing on clean eating and training. Anyway, I pushed her hard for a first day, no cheating yourself and she responded very well, she caught on to proper form quickly and surprisingly didn’t complain all that much. The workout is over and my buddy and I are gonna practice posing, begin the motivation… She asks me why were going to pose, I say "for competition, gotta practice" she starts laughing and asks if im serious. WTF. I ask how come no one laughed at our brother when he competed, she says, "well you’ve always just been bigger than him." meaning FAT… Blood pressure rising, "well if he so dam built how come he didn’t come train with you? How come you asked me to train you?" No response… Exactly why? Because he doesn’t train anymore, he quit and there is no sign of him coming back anytime soon. I bust my ass, and this is the crap I get… Get up after only 4 hours of sleep on my day off so I can train her and she is gonna dis me like that. Come May 3rd she will see, they all will see. In two attempts for my brother no hardware was brought home, May 3rd I bring some home… This has turned into a family matter now, BLOOD of my BLOOD rivalry.

Ok well I haven’t been able to get any pics up in a while secondary to camera issues so the best I can do is provide a update. As of this morning I am at 200lbs even, my most recent bf% put my chest, arms and quads all under 8%, however im still retaining alot of bf in the abdomen, 13% to be exact, putting my overall at 10.25%. In the past week though, the full outline of a 6 pack has been showing while practicing certain poses like the front double bi. Overall I feel very good and feel im right where I need to be. My diet has been very strong and outside of making portion downsizing I do not intend on making any changes to it. I do need to step up my cardio and become more consistent about doing it, I just dont like it and find no appeal to it, but it must be done. The weight training has continued very strongly and overall I have been very pleased with what im moving. As for a timeline, well the goal is 192lbs by the end of March but honestly I see no reason why I can’t make it down to 190 by then. No other news to report, so the journey continues. STRENGTH & HONOR

Early morning sun, oh what a fraud this time of year. Nothing prepares me for the battle within more than phoney sunlight. Looks so warm and pleasant out the window, but step into it and you will be chilled to the bone, WTF. I strap my boots up, get my carbs and protein on board and grab my weapon to head off for war, it was chest day. The day I wreck the chains that bind ordinary men.

 And so it begins: call the troops, we need to climb the hill and take what is ours. It begins with incline BB press’s, what a movement. Not only do you build your shelf, but create on matched power throughout your entire chest. Now I hate when I see people half assing it, you don’t lower the bar half way to your chest, you touch the f*#&ing bar to your collorbone with each rep, thats inclines baby. I dont work up to some mind blowing weight to look like billy bad ass, f*#& that sh it, its about the rep, feeling it, becoming it, overcoming it.  135 easy, 155 just another warm up, 185 there we go feeling some burn by rep 12, 205 nice and controlled for 10, finally 215 god dam felt like 315 on a flat press today, but we overcame the battle.

 The praire: over the hill we climbed knocking those who stood in our way out of sight, as we marched down the hill, a beautifully dark praire. Pain is all that comes to mind at first sight. I lay down on the flat surfaces the enviroment has to offer, for its time to flat db press. Too many times people get wrapped up in what they bench, as I have many times before but not now, not today. I grab the 80’s to start, lower, hit level with chest and press…feel it, breath it, be it. 90’s again moved to perfection, feeling some pain in the chest by the end, but its not time to stop. 100’s keep moving it, fight for that 10th rep, F**# my chest burns, but gotta do one more set, why show up if your not gonna fight to perfection. I sit back down pick the weight up, bless the fall’s "guys like you make us look bad" blasting in my ears, im not gonna be one of those guys, useless muscle. Kick it up, BAM MOTHAF’ER, 1,2,3,4,5,6 all with ease, hit the wall on 7 but I push it, no fate but what I make, rep 8, shear screams of horror the pain the burn the pump. Lower it again a good negative and blast off, push it mike, push, dam it you weak sh it, get that weight up, I FAILED, THUD THUD THUD the weight hits the ground, the battle lost, but there is still the war to win.

 Punishment for failure: no water breaks, there not deserved, the battle wages on in defeat, a victory must be obtained at all costs. Grab the cables and start crossing, this isn’t a war of weight, but how much pain you can take. Deliver each rep with perfect execution and see what your made of in the end. One set after another, no sacrificing of form, keep it perfect so you look perfect. Your chest bloats up, feels like its gonna tear thru your skin, you see striations develop, WOW, I have striations. Battle won, war? Not by far

Here come the flyboys: even the ground n pound game isn’t enough to win all wars waged, sometimes you need the flyboys to come kick some for you. Incline it up for the cable flyes, oooooooooo….what a pump these deliver, kick into high gear now, you bodies running low on fuel but you gotta drive forward, did the men who fought in WWII stop because they hadn’t eaten in days, or haven’t showered in weeks? No, these were real men who stood in the hole and fought like there was no tomorrow, for them there may not be a tomorrow. We can not compare to these great americans but we can honor their spirit by fighting thru all obstacles to destroy everything negative in our ways. I do, I push and push and push, and when I can’t push anymore, well I call on these such men to give me the strength, to install a little of their mentality in me, so i too can become physically great as they were. 3 sets, the last one for 70lbs on each side, 12 reps non less would be tolerated.

The End: Here we are, at the end, with only one large enemy remaining. Some would shy away from such foe this late in the battle, not me. Flat BB Press, make that middle chest scream. Well it doesn’t end there, why dont we hold our legs up at a 45 degree angle and keep constant contraction on the abs throughout the movement, yeah lets. 135 for 12, 185 for 12, and 225 for 8… The battle won, this war….WON for the moment but will it every really end, NO i dont think so but for now the men rest, they get nutrition and prepare for the next enemy who thinks they can break us.

Thursday Feb 8, 2008 its 0430hrs I wake up and can feel a cold draft thru the bedroom window. The wind is whirling, its the type of morning you don’t wanna get out of bed to do anything, just want to lay there and be a slug. Not me, I get up, get dressed and head home to prepare my first meal of the day, 2 cups whole oats, 6 egg whites, 2 whole eggs…. an hour and half later a whole grapefruit. Im entering my mind set, visualizing the session, preparing myself for the pain and suffering Im gonna deliver upon myself on this cold morning. 0830hrs I ARRIVE. Walking thru the doors I am ready for it, I can already feel the burn running thru my quads, obviously its LEG DAY. My training for the day arrives moments after me, you can see and smell the fear radiating from him. He feels the intensity in my hand shake, see’s it in my eyes, and smell’s it radiating from my body. The past few workouts have been very strong, moving bigger weight than I have since beginning my comp dieting, and today I wouldn’t except anything less.

 The First Shot is Fired: a nice painfully slow concetrated set of leg extension to get the circulation in the wheels moving. Im focused on feeling every rep but in the back of my head im visualizing the real work ahead.

 The Offensive: Finally its time to attack, we had to the squat rack. First a nice easy assault of 135 and 225… my partner thinks were moving onto our third set, but he’s wrong this isn’t sh it, its just another warm up. 315 move it deep for 10, 365 another deep 10, 405 a deep 8… with each negative my quads quiver, each positive the pain slowly aleviates, its a pure euphoric feeling coming out of the hole.

 Here comes the ground attack: we move to the smith machine, my partner very confused somewhat because he’s light headed and already wants to vomit, but its not time for that yet. Verticle leg press’s… not all do them, but those who do swear by them. We begin the raid 225 for 10 hitting the knees on the pecs each rep, 315, 405, 495… these are nothing like a leg press machine, the pain is running thru the entire length of the quads, all heads. Keep going, 585, and finally a gut wrenching, make you wanna cry for your mommy set of 655 bury it for 8 reps. I can’t stand up, I grab the bar and pull myself up only to fall as I put the weight of my body back on my legs… "are we done now?" my partner asks, I just shake my head no, I dont wanna speak for fear I may projectile vomit in his face.

Were closing in: I point to the target, the Hack Squat. Not sure where to begin, what our legs can handle at this point we begin with 135. that ain’t a thing. 225 again nothing going deep, my ass almost hitting the stand with each rep, finally 315, it takes every ounce I have left in my body, I have to draw on my dark primitive side to complete the set, but I do it.

 The Victory Dance: last set for the quads, a heavy round of leg extensions… at this point anything would feel heavy but I can’t settle, is my competition settling? Are they pussing out bc it burns, I doubt it, so I can’t. 160, 185, 205 each set slow and controled for 8 reps, each time struggling to get up off the set to allow my partner to do his sets.

This was the quad part of leg day and yes I picked my ass up off the ground and moved on to hit the hams…but the battle had already been won, this was just cleaning up the bodies. Tomorrow a new war begins, the casualties…unknown, but the outcome? VICTORY

This past week ive been really off my game in terms of consistancy. I missed 2 workouts because all the hours worked and pulling so many consecutive days was finally catching up to me. The 4 workouts I did get in were great and I was feeling great those days. I had intended to catch up on the 2 missed training sessions over the weekend, but my daughter decided to get sick for her weekend with dad, so I spent the weekend on the couch cuddling my little furnace (103 degree temp) back to health. She still wasnt feeling great today so I ended up missing my chest day, so I start this week tomorrow having to hit legs twice this week and chest twice within 6 days, gonna be a challenge but I will find or make a way to get this done. On the nutrition front, all is running well. Iam noticing how much fat has fell off my flanks and love handle areas, which is a good thing. Also a new development, my serratus is showing very nicely and would be prominent if I had any sort of color but im as white as white gets. At the end of this week I will begin fake n bake sessions, will also be a good time to squeeze in a twenty minute power nap. Still feel good about were Im standing and feel right on track for having 14 weeks still to go. The last 10 weeks are gonna be shear brutality and I have a diet scheme in place I have given the nick name "down n dirty" its gonna be fun.