Stomach Vacuums

Attaining an abdominal six-pack or eight-pack is the goal of many, yet few achieve it. The most common reason I've read is the person's diet, referring to the point that abs are made 'in the kitchen' and not in the weight room. This may be some people's downfall, but I found more important components. Increasing my decline sit-up with weight from 5lb to 60lb did not give me the results I sought. I often had a layer of fat below my navel, and I couldn't figure out why, though I suspected my diet.

I've found the solution: stomach vacuums. Upon first hearing of the exercise, it was too daunting to practice, and the instructions on performing a vacuum wild greatly. Thankfully, I've returned to them and have found a good form to use:

1/ Breathe in through nostrils, filling your muscles and contracting them.

2/ Hold the breathe for 10 seconds.

3/ Exhale through your gut, and continue to exhale, while contracting your abs (crunching into them) and pulling your navel to your spine. Try to exhale every last bit of air from abs like ringing a wet towel.

4/ Hold lack of breathe for 10 seconds.

5/ Repeat 10 times.

After this is done, immediately, you can feel a closer mind-muscle connection with your abdomen. You will also notice by looking in a mirror that your abs are both pulled in and contracted somewhat involuntarily. I find my stomach is so drawn in through these repetitions that yoga poses like Plow become much easier as your stomach does not get in the way or interfere with breathing. By exercising the muscles around the stomach, you exercise the organs as well, and this speeds up the digestive system and speeds up metabolism. A surge of energy is granted to you. The deep breathing relieves stress, helps calm and focus your thoughts.

I feel the abs are very neglected as we do not tense them through exercises as we should. You can perform an exercise with loose muscle and tight muscle. There is more strength and power in the tight muscle. Largely, I feel that exercising is about learning to control your muscles. In the life of the untrained man, he pays no mind to his muscles, and simply performs tasks, not caring which muscles are used. Such a man will never have highly developed muscle, nor extraordinary strength and power. He will also succumb to sickness and injury more quickly as he is somewhat blind within his body.

The awe inspiring thing about stomach vacuums is that anyone can do them. They're easier in concept to do than mere push-ups. But, don't let their simplicity fool you into not taking them seriously. When inhaling for the vacuum, it is important to fill the serratus anterior muscle, for this is key for more advanced abdominal control in vacuums. Another factor I admire about the vacuum is that it can be practiced in any bodily position. I recommend lying on the floor face up to begin learning this move. Gravity works with you to pull your abs downwards. Other positions include: lying face down, sitting, kneeling, standing, on all fours, driving, lifting, during yoga, during jogging, etc.

The results are very immediate with vacuums, and recovery is quick as well. It should be practiced multiple times a day. Of all the muscles to learn a connection with, the abdominal are highly vital and highly beneficial to us. Our greatest strength comes from the hips, and the abs connect the chest to the hips, along with the rest of the upper body. A tight torso down to the hips is like a boa constrictor. There is the power of the gods. 

Triceps Among Us

After struggling to activate my triceps for nearly 2 years, I've found something that works. It's an exercise that I tried long ago, but I didn't use the form I'm using now. They're called Skullcrushers or lying triceps extensions. What led me toward them is triceps kickbacks. I noticed when I fully extend my arm, the long head of the triceps gets a good contraction if the weight is on it from a decline angle. I found it impossible to increase my weight on kickbacks, and so I stopped doing them.

I had been looking for a triceps move that you can use a lot of weight, and something that's not a machine or cables. I don't like close-grip barbell bench press. Dips don't make my triceps grow (not even heavy weighted ones). I experimented with standing overhead triceps extensions, and I really had to fight to perform the move as it's not a very natural movement with a straight bar. I wanted to use the straight bar because I hadn't had any success with shorter bars and curved ones. I never like EZ curl bars for biceps, and still don't thus far. Yesterday, I tried Skullcrushers with a straight bar, and it made me hate the exercise. I couldn't get my triceps to contract fully as I can with the EZ curl bar.

I chose Skullcrushers over an over-head lying extension because it felt more natural. I don't need to bring the behind my head, only to my forehead (more specifically eyebrows/bridge of nose). Also, bringing my arms merely straight upwards doesn't get the triceps contraction. I need to go farther forward to the decline angle I mentioned earlier that I experienced with triceps kickbacks.

Goodnight, Sweet Prince (Pull-Ups)

After a childhood and the past 2 years of consistent pull-ups, I'm sad to see them go, but I have no choice. I seek to live a life without tennis elbow, and that means no more pull-ups. Perhaps you could say my form is causing the issue, but I've conquered high rep and heavy weighted pull-ups. I don't believe in cutting out an exercise for the sake of 'muscle confusion'. I believe in improving your numbers and mind-muscle connection. There is the term, 'pet lift', and I suppose it was one of mine. I had thought of replacing pull-ups with Deadlifts, but I think it would interfere with too many other exercises (squats and anything with lower back).

I don't think I'll ever forget how to do a pull-up. I never learned to ride a bike, but pull-ups have stayed with me. I went about 8 years without doing a single pull-ups, and when I tried after that hiatus, I did 10 reps with ease. So to replace pull-ups, I have a horizontal friend named Barbell Bent-Rows. I also feel my lats very strongly, and they get pumped from Deadlifts.

I had been doing Barbell Bent-Rows once a week, and recently my form jumped to the next level. I'm able to really feel my lats and throw the weight into them and statically hold the contraction for a few beats on each rep. I started Rows 10 months ago. I wanted to do them more frequently, but my lower back was never ready for them. So I designated my extra work day to Deadlifts. I think it's easier to put on muscle through Rows than Deadlifts. My lower back gives out first on Deadlifts, whereas my lats give out on Rows. So I've avoided volume on Deadlifts, and in doing so, I've gotten my Deadlift to 385lb for 8 reps at 180lb.

I had always done my Rows with a prone grip (palms down) for the sake of saving my biceps strength for pull-ups. I had also brought straps into my routine for the sake of saving my grip strength for pull-ups. I remember, before I had straps, I would Deadlift 300lb for 1 long isometric hold, and it would absolutely destroy my hands, and it got to the point I couldn't train the Deadlift, because the bar would just slip out of my hands to my fingers instantly.

It's funny how everyone's goal is to do pull-ups. You see them on the assisted pull-up machines and the lat pulldowns, hoping one day they'll be doing pull-ups. I have a different view on pull-ups now though. I think they're inefficient, at least for me at the present time. I definitely grew my lats with pull-ups, but they don't feel the same anymore. I've sort of outgrew them as I did with push-ups. I like both exercises, but they're no longer working in my favor.

Stat Review

One of the great things about having logs of your workout is to be able to see how long you've been performing an exercise, and to mark down your technique level. This will help strengthen weak areas, and will expose any blatant holes that need to be addressed.

/Legs
Barbell Back Squats
9 Months
Barbell Hack Squats
6 Months
Barbell Rear Lunges
2 Weeks
Barbell Good Mornings
9 Months
Barbell Standing Calf Raises
18 Months
Abductor Machine
3 Months
Adductor Machine
3 Months
Glute Kickback Machine
3 Months
Lying Leg Curls Machine
2 Months
Running Treadmill Machine
5 Months

Perseverance

Every day is not the same. We must accept and embrace this. You must workout consistently to see results and for your body to adapt to the programming. Momentum can carry you from one workout to the next. Deviation is dreadful. The willpower of a human should drive his actions. Have the willpower to carry yourself day to day, and improve - evolve. If it's raining, you train. If it's too hot, you train. There are people who will not train under many circumstances. But to train consistently, is to get into a groove. It is efficiency. We train according to our recovery, which is dictated by intensity, volume, load, and experience. To train your body is to listen to your body.

The mind works quite well with a dysfunctional body, but a strong body does not come from a weak mind. Physical culture is a discipline. It is wise to invest in discipline, because it can shape and direct your life in a sound manner. There are many lives that we are capable of living. That which grasps our attention is what garners respect. Of all the things you can do throughout a day, how many are truly productive? Exercise is that thing that is truly productive. Some people have the thought that exercise results are temporary, and require you to continue working out, and that this is clearly not worth it. I do not see it that way.

I do not enter the gym for the sole purpose of enhancing muscle. Having a fit body, allows you more liberation in life. You can break into a run at any moment. You can carry people with ease and over far distances. I go to the gym to experience my muscles engaging in full range of motion, getting pulled with resistance. Afterwards, my body is primed for repair and growth, and as i recover as does my fire for taking my muscles through another run so that they can repair again. These cycles should be done as close as possible for maximum results. To skip a day of training is to ruin the day that you were to workout, the momentum from the prior day's workout, and it jeopardizes the following workout, so that you need to do the day prior's workout, but even then, you've lost momentum, and so you're at somewhat of an intermittent stall. It's like slamming on the brakes when you're driving 80mph on the freeway. The car doesn't want to brake, and when it does come to a stop, it's much harder to accelerate than keep momentum. Our bodies are similar in this aspect. Don't fight your body; nurture it. Feed it. Hydrate it. Train it.

Physique Update

It can be hard to monitor muscle growth. One has to study their muscles to see change and to see what needs work more so than others. I've had some noticeable pec growth this week. Today I benched 8*190lb Incline and 8*195lb Flat. My triceps are noticeably growing due to incorporating Standing Barbell Tricep Extentions. I've also been lifting heavy on Standing DB Tricep Extentions, having used a 115lb db today.

Surprisingly, my lats are also growing and evolving. Pull-ups are my best exercise, and I've been doing them longer than any other exercise. So my lats are accustomed to pull-ups. However, I've just began doing pillar pull-ups which involve hyperextending your body so that your lower limbs are vertical with no bend. This activates your lower abs supposedly. Them along with weighted pull-ups and chin-ups. Today was 5*75 with both grips.

I remember the first time I had felt my lats with my hand, and knew it to be my lats. I would open and close my elbow laterally, which does move your lats a bit, but now I understand how to contract them more powerfully. I wasn't able to do a double biceps pose with flexed lats as I didn't have the mass or control. The mind-muscle connection started in just a small spot on my lats, and even last year, my lats were sort of limited in their range of contraction. I was afraid of doing a full lat contraction, because I had gotten muscle spasms from contraction muscles too hard, and I had interpreted that as a thing to avoid. After a few months of weighted pull-ups and diligent muscle control, I began feeling my lats much lower towards my waist. One muscle control in particular contracts the full lats. It is to stand and with the right hand grab the left lower thigh, resting your right elbow on your right knee, and digging it downward for leverage as you contract your right lat. It's a bit scary feeling as it's half the length of your torso, and the tension feels like it could rip your body in half. And now my double biceps pose is comfortable with my lats flexing with my whole upper body seemingly sitting on top of my lats.

I've had steady progress with calves. I'm up to 24*235lb Standing Barbell Calf Raises. I sort of feel like my legs would be better trained if I trained them three days a week like I train upper body. I think a six day routine would be too much. I've having the thought of scaling back on upper body exercises for lower body exercises. I'm interested in incorporating more leg exercises. I'm looking into Barbell Split Squats.

Bodybuilding Training Update

I hit my most impressive lift yesterday: Deadlift 8x370lb. I've been breaking PR's in pull-ups (1x135lb, 12x20lb). I recently squat 6x225lb and 4x235lb. Last month I decline bench pressed 5x225lb.  I military pressed 135lb. Hack squats have rocketed to 180lb and will hit 225lb. Calf raises hit 8x200lbx3. I rowed 8x200lb.

I've been bench pressing low weights this year so far as I relearn technique. I've started back into push-ups, currently at 150 reps.  My ab work has been more serious this year. I started using a torso rotation machine. I'm decline weighted crunching 8x25lbx3 with ease. Dragon Flags are a staple again. I started curling again (hammer and zottman). I found two useful lower body machines (lying leg curls and glute kickbacks). I realized there's not really any way to get a nice hamstring contraction without doing leg curls. I feel the glute kickbacks are good for flexibility, and it reminds me of the way I used to do decline push-ups on 1-leg with a vertical body. I noticed I have far more range than the average person in them.

I excluded dips in the middle of January. I found them to be too dangerous on the shoulders. Cutting them out allows me to focus more on pull-ups and chin-ups. I also found I didn't like having my triceps used so much in dips. My triceps are fatigued by the time I do dips, and so I don't feel I need them, even though they're known as a great exercise. I think I'd prefer a different parallel bar width than I can find currently. I need them to be wider.

My legs are sore more often than my upper body. They're less developed so it makes sense. I had a calf injury last week from just contracting it while sleeping. I was limping the next few days. This could have been from dehydration and overtraining. For a long time, I was doing lightweight calf raises to really ensure and build-in my form as I found myself cheating with heavy weight earlier on, and not holding the contraction. So now I'm doing heavy weight calf raises, and my cardio running has picked up. I think all of these factors resulted in too much stress in my calves. But I feel that like any weak muscle, you must harden it, and so I plan to resume and ramp up my calf training again. I had also been skipping out on calf stretching,.

My hamstrings are very welcomingly sore, my quads are becoming more defined, and my adductors are hardening. My calf definition has gone up, especially while my leg is bent. My back is more defined. The line down the center is more emphasied with the spine erectors more full. I've found my traps to be one of my more utilized muscles. On any type of pull exercise, before any rep, I find myself tensing and packing my traps, which thickens my neck as well. My body doesn't want to pull anything with loose traps. Tightness in all exercises is key. My hips feel more solid and my lower back feels very impregnable.

At this point in my bodybuildling career, I know myself to be at an intermediate level lifter with a clear goal and the potential to be advanced. Once I get there, I'll make my road for the elite. My advice from my experience thus far is to: know technique, choose lifts you enjoy, know anatomy, have heart, constantly battle the impossible, arrive places beyond that of which you imagined, and lastly intelligently plan your routine and recovery so that no muscle is overtaxed or underutilized.