Upcoming Book

I'm very proud to announce that I'll be releasing a book titled Goblincore: Fitness for 2013. I will be releasing it free of charge, but I plan to charge for future books. Although I'm calling it a book, it is in fact short, coming in at 5000 words. I wrote the content late Saturday night. I had been planning this since I started my venture into fitness. All that's left is the photography. I finished the template for the .pdf today.

My Current Routine

I've created a new page on the site. I'll probably change the template of the site soon. The new page is My Current Routine that I'll keep updated. I was going to wait longer before I went from a 3-day split to a 2-day split.

I just read an article stating 2-day splits aren't a good idea because you do legs one day, and cram everything else into the other day. I'm sacrificing a lot of sets for my upper body (somewhat) in order to have another leg day a week. I need to develop my legs more. My back is very developed. I feel my triceps and chest could use work as well as my legs (mostly quads).

I'm thinking of adding more upper body lifts to the leg day - maybe biceps and shoulders. I think developed legs make you feel lighter in general. It makes you agile and gives you endurance. I'm proud of where I took my arms and back, and I do have definition in my legs, but I need more mass.

Techniques and Program Change

I’ve learned a new technique for the squat. Hell, I haven’t posted in so long, I have a new technique for everything. I changed my routine from a powerlifting style to a bodybuilding style. That is to say I went from 2 sets of 8 on everything as heavy as I could to 4 sets of 8 on most of my exercises with less weight, but I am building my way up.

Immediately, I benefited from the extra time at the gym. With my old routine, I was Deadlifting so heavy (8 reps of 380lb, 2 sets) that it took me 4 days to recover before I could do any type of lifting. I was Deadlifting once a week and Squatting once a week. I was only going to the gym twice a week. Prior I had been going three days. Now though, on the new routine, I train six days a week. Having one day to rest versus four days to rest is a huge difference. I hated my off days, so this was a perfect fit.

I modified Arnold’s Beginners Routine that I snagged from his book, ‘The Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding’. I replaced some exercises and changed reps and sets for some. His routine was the skeleton though. The results were very drastic. I lost 11lb and put on muscle. I’ve been on the new routine since August. So it’s been 1.5 months.  My hands look significantly worse from all the volume. I have 4 rows of callouses on each hand and they’re all black.

I highly recommend this routine. You can see my lifts at Fitocracy under the name ‘vampborn’. So back to the new squat technique, I’ve found you must approach a heavy squat different than a light squat. I bounced around for a long time squatting 180-185lb, which was my weight. I could do 8 reps, but if I went any heavier my body collapsed under the weight, which makes sense logically since it was heavier than me.

I read something recently and it stood in my mind imprinted. “If you squat heavy, your legs will have no choice but to grow.” I guess the first thing I changed that helped me lift heavier is utilizing power breathing, and inhaling before each rep, holding breath until I’m shooting back up. I do stomach vacuums before sets. I also noticed my preferred stance in squats is wider than most people squatting heavy. I like to feel my adductors a bit, but I tried going narrower and it worked.

Making my leg stance narrower made the lift feel more like a Leg Press. I suppose I was able to push the earth away more intuitively and more easily. You have to treat heavy weight differently than light weight. You need to sync your pace with the poundage of the weight. For instance, I can squat 135lb like a rag doll as fast and explosively as I want for 30+ reps. But when I Squat 250lb, the weight doesn’t move quickly. It accelerates slower and I have to wait for it.

The technique I want to talk about most is the one I picked up recently. A funny thing I’ve heard people comment on during critiques of someone’s form on a Squat is that they Good Morning the weight up. What they mean is that their hips go up faster than their torso and so they’re forced to lean their torso back in order to stand up. This kills your lower back. What I found is a better technique for Good Mornings that carry over to Squats.

Previously, when I did Good Mornings, I went down and pushed the weight into my hammies, then stood back up straight, which does hurt your lower back because your lower back is a hinge that brings up your torso. I never understood how powerlifters could Good Morning 135lb+ when I struggled so much with 95lb and felt pain and not good muscle sensation. So I’ve been doing very light weight Good Mornings staying in the 45-75lb poundage.

The technique is that when you’re in the down position and are about to stand back up, you should grip the bar, pull it into yourself, contract your abs powerfully and stand up. Effectively your abs should be doing an eccentric contraction. So you’re horizontal bent over, and as you rise, your abs are crunched, then extend. It’s not like a reverse crunch; It’s like a normal crunch in reverse. This works your abs unbelievably, and protects your lower back.

As you squat, you can use this Good Morning technique to pull the bar into yourself and eccentrically crunch as you stand. I suppose this works only for low-bar squats because in high-bar your torso is vertical.

Bodybuilding Posing !

Foam Roller Routine

Back Squats

The absolute most important exercise. The squat uses more muscles than any other move. The second most vital exercise is the Deadlift, in which you hold the bar at your waist, yet in the squat, the bar rests above your back, crushing your entire body. I have found the squat to be the most complex exercise in my routine. You should be able to squat your own weight (1x bw) even as a beginner. Here are the points that I find are the most important:

1/ Bar position - High Bar Position is when the bar is above your shoulders and is resting on your traps.This is a position better for having a more vertical torso like emphasizing quads. Low Bar Position is having the bar tucked behind and under your deltoids (shoulders). It promotes a more forward lean for the torso, and emphasizes the posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, calves, lower back). You can lift heavier in low-bar position. The glutes are the strongest muscle in the body.
2/ Stance (feet width distance) - A narrow stance targets the quads, while a wider stance hits the adductors and is in a better position to hit the posterior chain.
3/ Grip (hand width distance) - Too narrow a grip can cause arm pain and can unbalance you. Too wide may also unbalance you and prevent a tight enough squeeze in your back.
4/ Down Position Depth - Too high will put tension on the knees. Going to parallel is good, and just a little lower is the sweet spot of hitting the stretch for the quads.
5/ Torso Position - A vertical torso would put more pressure on the quads, whereas a horizontal torso would help you sit back more, using the posterior chain.

Eyes should be looking downwards, and worse straight ahead, but never look up as it throws off your spine and puts your neck at a bad angle. You should focus on contracting your leg muscles in the down position of the squat. Take a breath before performing. Don't breathe during the squat. Push your feet downwards and apart as if spreading something. Come out of the hole by rising your hips and back at the same speed. Beginners often rise their backs before their hips, and this causes the exercise to resemble a Good Morning. It's dangerous to perform Good Mornings with heavy weight as you would a squat, so you'll back will be injured quickly. I don't see it taught often, but the squat should be performed powerfully. Sit into the down position, below parallel, and rise upward and extend your hips in a lockout. The squat and deadlift are very hip dominant. The squat being more knee dominant.

Squat in different rep ranges to fully understand the exercise. 20 rep squats make you breathe hard, having an endurance trait, while having a long period of muscle under tension. I'm currently doing 15 rep, 12 rep, 8 rep, and 3 sets of 6 reps.

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.