lifting and cooking

Thinking "Reborn" will be a great song for a posing routine! Found this one on my ipod while training today.

So I found out what it takes to make yourself sore while doing DC training...Learning to do the reps properly. Last few workouts have been brutal and I can not only feel it but see it. Measurements changing in the right directions for all bodyparts. Weight is down too with just a lil extra cardio and some cleaning up of my diet.

Not going into too many details as far as my last few workouts but I have found doing a ham exercise as the widowmaker is really nasty! Last 2 leg sessions were like that and I really felt them. Another thing I found is that too much pressing in one workout is not really smart. I did inclines for chest and then close grip for tris...stupid! Got buried with 315 and then 275 on the close grip press. Of course my mindset has to get away from the amount of weight to performing the exercise properly.

Have to work on finding the right stretches to do between exercises. So far the standard leg stretches work along with hanging from the pullup bar. I use dumbbells to stretch the tris and bis, which can be awkward and painful, but who wants small arms anyway?

Diet is cleaned up nicely and going well. Added a lot more protein from good sources, my freezer is loaded up with about 20lbs of chicken breasts. Limiting my carbs helps a lot. Finding my body responds better to rice than anything else. I still throw in pasta just because I can make some good pasta! My favorite is to make pasta then add 3 whipped eggs along with parmesan.

Well that's all for now...

 

oh Henry...

He was speaking to me today through my ipod. No I have not lost it, well not completely, but I heard the same song from The Rollins Band twice in the last two days. Both times it powered me through some wicked training.

Hit my second and third day back to back due to an interview and training at work. Good thing about that is I did get in an hour of cardio riding my bike. Because of the interview I will be getting in that cardio as I head into the office twice a week. Can't beat that...

So yesterday I did biceps, forearms, calves, hams and quads...very brutal! Today I hit chest, delts, tris, back width and thickness...even more brutal! Feeling a bit sore, a lot tired, and seriously famished. Time to eat some good food and snack on some bacon jerky...yes bacon jerky!

8/8/2012
barbell curls 100x8, 5, 5, 2
wrist curls 205x10, 6, 4
calf raises 250x8 with 10 second pause/stretch at bottom ----feeling this today!
standing leg curl 150x12, 8, 12
squat machine 540x8 rest, then the widowmaker 20 straight reps with 540
----stretched deeply after each exercise

8/9/2012
dumbbell flyes 50x10, 6, 4
machine shoulder press 250x8, 4, 3, 2, 3
pushdowns 100x20, 20
machine row 290x8, 7, 6, 4
kelso shrug 220x10, 8, 10 ---what are these you ask? i shall explain...


The Kelso shrug...sit at a pulldown station, grab the bar underhand, then shrug back as if starting a row. just try to squeeze the shoulder blades together. thrus me you will feel the middle of your traps!

After both lifting sessions I got on the treadmill for 20 minutes.

Now I think I will take a nap....

making changes

Thought long and hard about where I want to go on my next adventure in the world of iron...debated powerlifting, crossfit, physique, and bodybuilding.

Why the change? My joints are beat, my brain not in it, and I discovered who my real friends are. Imagine a person you called a friend and training partner completely ignoring you not once but twice!
Worst part is if I did anything to offend him I am clueless, but he has no balls to say what his beef is with me. And with that i just have no desire to be around people like that in training or competition. Sad to say I have seen a lot of that in strongman lately and will not be part of it. ---rant over---

Powerlifting was on my mind but again it will be brutal on my already beat up joints and it is really boring. Like watching paint dry boring. No offense to powerlifters out there, it is just not for me...

Crossfit? Yeah...that went in and out really quick. And as someone posted in a discussion on my facebook page "Why do I want to be the best exerciser out there?" Nuff said on that.

Physique and bodybuilding...here is a challenge I like. Something I have never tried and a place I have not gone yet. My enemy in this is the diet, can I put myself through it and get shredded? Physique crossed my mind because I can wear shorts, beats the banana hammock a bodybuilder wears, but as a friend pointed out I have a lot of mass and bodybuilding might suit me better. Either way I have to do something I dread, eat clean and do a lot of cardio. But if I didn't dread those things then it would not be a challenge now would it?

So what is my plan? First I need to work my chest, something not needed as a strongman. I also need to add size to my arms. Digging through notes and articles I opted on DC training. Simple high intensity designed to add mass. Why not? One thing I am doing that is a no-no for DC is high intensity cardio. But I know my body and the lo intensity stuff doesn't work for me. 20 minutes on the elliptical is about all I need. Diet for now will be high protein, but damn I discovered I need a lot more than I have been consuming. Other than that I plan to eat clean, no junk! After about 12 weeks I plan to start a cut and see what I look like under the fluff.

so i got in the gym today after 2 weeks off. here is what i did...
HS chest press 270x11,4---was very easy
Smith Wide Upright Rows 205x10,3,4,3
Rolling Extensions 40x12,6,7,5
Neutral Grip Pulldown 200x10,5,5
Good Morning 275x6,6
Elliptical 15 minutes---that kicked my ass!

That's it! In and out in one hour.