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.

COCONUT

Mid January Ideas

I made some changes to my workout routine. I joined a gym a year ago, and I wanted to train five days a week, but I found myself only going 2-3 times a week. I didn't utilize anything but the pull-up bar and dumbbells until ten months later. I was still doing barbell work at my home gym. I finally started doing all my training at the gym and using the barbells there, but I only went three times a week, because I found it a bit taxing going to the gym early in the morning. Now that I've moved where I'm living, I'm in a situation where I have the chance to go the gym five days a week and time isn't an issue. My first two weeks going five days a week, I did a full body routine 3 days a week and 2 days of running in-between. I experienced a similar feeling to when I only did pull-ups and push-ups. As I ran on the treadmill those 2 days a week, I spied the workout equipment, the bars, the barbells, and I wanted to lift.

I had been avoiding weight lifting five days a week because I felt like I was over-trained on that schedule. My hands would get weaker and heavily calloused and ripped up. My central nervous system would leave me aching on a permanent basis, and my gains actually went down because I wasn't recovering enough between workouts. Since then, my bodybuilding knowledge has greatly increased, and I'm lifting much heavier weights. I've tapered off over-training for a good number of months.

My last routine had only 1 leg training day (although I squatted 3 times a week). I knew that was a large flaw in my training. My legs have developed and have become stronger, but I know they have a long way to go. So I've switched back to upper body/lower body split. I've increased the number of sets several places, and with less exercises on each training day, I'll have more intensity for my lifts. I've slowed triceps, lateral delts, and abs training down to 2 days a week. I've stopped doing dips for the moment. I have a lot of faith in my new program. I'll be squatting like a beast (4 sets each session) and an extra set in good mornings and hack squats. You can see my workouts here as I do them.

2011 Wrap-Up

I've had perpetual success this year. The workouts were many and my valor was undeniable. In barbell back squats. I started them in June. In Late August I got the right squat depth down. I started with 1 set of 12 reps and got to 195lb. I decreased reps and used less weight. I reset again at 8 reps of 140lb, increasing 5lb each workout and reset at 185lb. I started at 2 sets of 135lb (8, 10) and utilized low-bar position instead of high-bar, and have gotten to 2 sets of 180lb. I should break 200lb this run (Jan 2nd).

Pull-Ups, I started the year with the most experience, being able to do 100 pull-ups in one workout. I switched to using a thicker pull-up bar, which I preferred because I found thinner bars although they allowed for a better grip, it made my hands ache and feel crippled. Now with the thicker bar, it took me a few months to get my reps just as high. It lead to better forearm development. Also the bar I switched to doesn't have a close-grip available, there's a gap that forces you to take a shoulder width grip. I felt stronger with a closer grip, I believe because of the more biceps use. I hit my peak of 127 pull-ups in one session. My reps fell dramatically; my body refusing to go high rep anymore. In May, I realized my joints preferred less reps of pull-ups regardless of my favoring them. I had been getting elbow pain from the high reps, which went away with the lower reps (24-30). Having waited far too long, in October I finally accured a dipping belt that I could use for weighted pull-ups. I started with 10lb and increased by 5lb each workout, usually 3 sessions a week. I raced to 8 reps of 75lb and also hit 5 reps of 90lb. I'm not sure where to with these. I'm doing a reset, and I'm at 8 reps of 60lb, but it's proving too difficult. My chin-ups and dips follow the same routine as my pull-ups.

I found a triceps exercise I actually like - dumbbell triceps extensions. I've done 8 reps of 80lb and 4 reps 100lb. Only 2 years ago, I struggled to pick up a 35lb dumbbell. Now, everything feels like 15lb unless it's 80lb+. I've begun using heavier weight on lateral raises. I just started incline dumbbell curls and using both the abductor and adductor machines.

In Good Mornings, I've gone up and down in weight between 50-95lb. I only recently switched to bent-knee, which is allowing me to lift more weight. In bent rows, I sailed into the 100s and I'm now going past 8 reps of 165lb easily (switched to straps). In rear delt rows, I plateued at 90lb, then pushed past it to 8 reps of 120lb and I'm steadily going up.  In shrugs, I got to 12 reps of 145lb, and ended the year with 8 reps of 220lb, 10 reps of 200lb. They've become one of my best lifts. I think I'll row 200lb easily next year as well as rear delt row 200lb.

Calf Raises, I've chosen to very slowly climb up and I'm currently at 4 sets of 8 reps of 155lb. I could easily do these 300lb and have, but I'm doing a slow grind to ensure the best technique I can manage.

In Deadlifts, I started in May at 12 reps of 135lb, and I knew it would be a good life for me. I got to 6 reps of 245 before resetting to 135 again. My deadlift had been suffering because of the damage my lower back was taking from squats as well. I finished the year at 8 reps of 305lb, and will hit 315lb (3 45lb plates each side) before the year ends.

In Bench Press. I got my 1 rep max at 245lb and proceeded to fail 250lb three separate times in a row. I added decline and incline bench press, switched to 12 reps, and got stuck around 180lb. I reset twice more, topping out at 170lb. In October, I really swithced technique to a more arched back, more leg tightness, and pinning and holding my shoulders back, and more tightness in the chest. I recently have been developing my triceps use by really shifting the weight to the triceps to blow them up in lockout.

I started Military Press and got to 8 reps of 95lb before resetting. I recently pressed 8 reps of 110lb and 3 reps of 125lb. Other noteable lifts include 2 reps of 150lb Zercher Squats on the 7th time I tried them. Hack Squats have just come to my attention. I'm at 8 reps of 145lb, andI'm finding depth very challenging. I began running in October and started at 1.1 miles, then did 5 sessions of .7 miles then resumed 1.1 miles with 4 sessions, then did 1.6 miles for 3 sessions. This past Friday I ran 2 miles in 15 minutes and 9 seconds and there were moderate hills. My goal in running is to hit 20 minutes. I'm guessing it'll be 2.6 miles. Perhaps I'll aim for 30 minutes after acheiving 20 minutes. I don't want to run for hours as weight training and building muscle is my priority.

Aside from exercises, I've been continuing Muscle Control on a daily basis. I've also incorporated foam rolling into my lifestyle. I use it every day I'm not training. I just recently started using straps on all my pulling exercises (not pull-ups, not yet anyway). I gained 15lb this year to make my weight 180lb. The year before I gained 25lb (I was underweight).

My goals for next year are to hit each exercise 8 reps:
deadlift 400lb, shrugs 400lb
squat 300lb, row 300lb, calf raise 300lb
bench 275lb, rear delt row 250lb
zercher squat 225lb, military press 225lb, good morning 200lb