Always A Bodybuilder

Three of me

2011-12-17T09:30:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine sent me an ad on Craigslist of a modeling agency looking for 40+ year old bodybuilders. The Gedney Agency http://www.thegedneyagency.com/home/home.html has been around since 1948 where they started in Bedford MA and since has locations in Connecticut and New York. Their recently starting a new project called the Creative a Age of Bodybuilding for 40+ Men and Women

I traveled Fairfield CT, where they are now based out of, for a two hour interview and met with Craig W. Shoop. Craig is their lead recruiter, a great last name and great guy too. We talked about what they are looking for and what they are all about and how right around the Pumping Iron era they decided to look more towards how bodybuilding and fitness modeling, can work together and how Bodybuilders are not one demoniacal and can be seen in different ways.

Craig was a runway model before he started recruiting, he has also judged in bodybuilding competitions. Craig spent six months in California living up close to bodybuilders, learning what it takes to be one, learning their lifestyle, to help complete his thesaurus on The Psychology Bodybuilding

Gedney wants their models to be like a role model to the public, showing them that "it doesn't end in the gym" and that bodybuilding is a lifestyle and how Bodybuilding and Fitness modeling can be seen as one.

The pay is $250 to $1000 a job, they get 20% and the jobs range from runway work, to trying on a shirt so a potential customer can see how it looks before they decide to buy it, or maybe sitting on a couch for another customer... nothing nude, which is nice to hear.

Craig needs to bring my information to the board to see if I'm what they are looking for. Craig referred to me as a signature model because of how I live the life of a bodybuilder and write about it in my blog, that he has read and was impressed. Basically saying, that he wishes he met me when he started this bodybuilding/fitness modeling venture. Craig said, he has talked to so many bodybuilders throughout the years, but no one has every explained things so simply as I do in my blog

During this time, I need to think about if it's right for me... and I'm learning towards no... and one main reason is, I'm a bodybuilder and I'm trying to become a pro in the sport of bodybuilding. When your a model you need to always be a model, which means you need to be close to contest condition all the time, although I do grow when I diet for a competition, it's a lot different if you are always like that. I would not be growing at my full potential, by maintaining that condition year round.

Craig called me back as he said he would and we talked for about an hour. He told me, that Gedney wants me on board and feels I'm a fit for what they are looking for. He had 6 interviews that week and I was one of the two hired.

I immediately told him my concerns and he came up with a great idea. Instead of them making a portfolio of one look of me, lets make the portfolio have three different looks of me. It will take a little longer the make, but in the long run, I will be more marketable and, in a sense, I'll have three times more of change to get picked for a job.

I like this idea a lot and this will give me the opportunity to continue on my way growing and competing for that pro card and still give me a chance to venture into something new to make a few extra bucks.

The three looks I will give Gedney are, the lean clean look (which he just saw) the big and ripped looked, which I am most of the time during the year and the shredded contest look, which they will see when I win the Masters Nationals this year

I still have a few good years to make some serious gains and cause some damage in the world of bodybuilding and until I'm done competing, I'm going to continue to grow and growing takes eating and eating and more eating and when I'm done growing and competing, I will just get in the best shape of my life and maintain that condition as long as my body allows it. But until then, you get three of me!

If anyone is interested in the world of modeling, please feel free to call on Craig at 203-913-8214, tell him you heard about him from Alwaysabodybuilder

Legs today GONE tomorrow!

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I never miss a scheduled workout

2011-12-03T17:57:00.001-05:00

I'm often asked if I take any time off from training after competition. I find I can really get some great muscle gains following a competition. Especially if I was restricting my calories and fats for so long. With all the sugars and good fats and added calories back in, you really get some sick workouts. But if your feeling like taking a day off and missing a workout, cause your so burnt, then you should plan for a week off, it's time for a vacation

I do plan a vacation, at least one, if not, two weeks a year from bang the weights and I think the week leading up to Christmas is a perfect time to take a vacation.

This is also the perfect time to change up the split. I usually run a routine for as long as I can remember, then change it when the time is right

I want to train arms together for a while again. I love having a bicep pump when I'm training Triceps, having a full bicep give the triceps a nice stretch.

Putting Arms together causes us to separate Shoulders to make it work. On Mondays when we hit chest, we will hit front and side Delts with a press and laterals. On Wednesday when we hit Back, then we will do rear Delts and Traps, and on Friday we do Arms and Saturday Legs, which is nice only training Arms the night before you got Legs in the morning

Alex and I hit Natick today for legs. We ran it in reverse, staring with the Donkey machine, (I love that machine!) Then legs curls, dumbbell stiff legs, legs press, hack, ending with extensions

After vacation it will be one week before it's time to get ready for a new year. Alex has his sites set on the Jay Cutler in May. He's going to start dieting early so he can go on vacation 3 weeks out, in Carbo. I like his thinking... treat the first day in Carbo like contest day, get shredded for that day. Then take a week off, enjoy your vacation (in shape), then when you come back, you have two weeks to dry back out again!

I'm thinking about the Arnold Amateur the first week in March, but I'll have a better idea come the first of the year, then it will be the 8 week out from contest and I'm about weeks out right now from contest.

But I don't know, wife has sometime to that weekend, so my son would have to go to my Mom's.. It can be done, it will just need a little juggling.

I guess If my buddy Craig Torres does it and we can drive 12 hours over together, I'd be more tempted

Here we are at the Masters Nationals this year, where we both took 7th place in our class

What I do know is I'm definitely doing the Master National come July... unless of course I do do the Arnold and win! :)

In the mean time, time to grow!

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12 week transformation

2011-11-06T18:11:00.000-05:00

When I was preparing to compete this year at the Master Nationals, I took daily ab shots every morning. Here are the weekly ab shots starting at 12 weeks out, up to the show

12 weeks out from the 2011 Masters National, first day of dieting weighing 230

11 weeks out

10 weeks out

9 weeks out

8 weeks out

7 weeks out

6 weeks out

5 weeks out

4 weeks out

3 weeks out

2 weeks out

2 days out weighing 210

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23 years later

2011-11-05T18:25:00.003-04:00

In 1985, I started competing in bodybuildingcompetitions at the age of 20. My first show was the Plymouth Rock and I took2nd place in the light heavy weight novice class and won best poser thanks toVinny Greco who taught me how to pose and helped me put together a routine forthat show. I remember Vinny and I going into a warehouse in Watertown witha stand up mirror and some music and we put together my first routine. Thiswarehouse soon because “Vinny Greco’s Powerhouse Gym of Watertown. This was thegym I competed mostly out of. Vinny has since passed on, but his legacy willlast forever in a lot of people. I could go on and on about Vin...

Afterthe show I pretty much placed 2nd in every show I did going forward. The showsback then were the Gold's Classic,the Massachusetts Statesand The New England's for national qualifiers. My first time placing 3rd in a competition was when I did theMass State couples in 1988. Aroundthat same time, I also got my first place, for the first time, inthe Cape Cod as a lightheavy weight

In 1985, the firstshow I weighed 183lbs, then each year I competed heavier and in 1992 and 93 Istepped on stage at 194

Back to the NPC CapeCod, this is when I first met Photographer Tony Annicone, he broughtme to the side after prejudging and had me do mandatory poses, as he clickedaway...

Fast forward it's1993, I've been completing every year since 20, now 28 and I remember doing twomore show that year, the Mass States and the Gold's classic where I took 2nd inthe Mass and 3rd at the Classic

I was pretty much doneat this point and wanted to venture into something new that was stillindividual, so I looked to boxing. I took onto to this pretty fast and by 1996I was able to fight in the golden gloves as a cruiser weight and inthe semi finals, I knocked the guy out in 59 seconds of the first round, thatfelt real good. I ended up losing in the finals to a decision. My record was5-1 with 2 first round KO's

I stopped fighting butstayed active sparring and teaching the sport to others. Up until 2004where not being in the right state of mind on June 16, I drove my motorcycleover a jersey barrier off the Leveret circle bridge. After that, Iwasn't able to stand on my feet comfortably (never mind box) for at least ayear.

So from 2004 to 2007,I did nothing but drink a six pack a night and ride. Well, I did manage tobuild a bad ass rigid bobber from the frame up

Then near the end ofMay of 2007, on two separate nights, that were close together, I had a vividdream of the feelings I had when I was younger and dreamed about weights andwaking up and that's the first thing you think about... that's when you knowit's time. I know I didn't want to go out as a fat beer belly old man now atthe age of 42, I didn't want to go out this way when and I knew I could do thisagain and go back to my roots

OnJune 1st 2007, weighting 220 having a 38" waist andabout 180lbs of lean mass, I joined the gym. I knew that once I started liftingweights I wouldn't feel like drinking.

The drinking stoppedand a year later I was 200 lb with abs. I like to think I put on 20lbs and lost20lbs and met right at 200

Now we have the Internet, which we didn't have back in the day. I hadpreviously qualified for thenationals, but never went... and I don't know why... So I go on-line and start looking at competitions and I said to myself, "I cando this again". So in May 2009, at the Jay Cutler, I take 6th in the open light heavy weights, out of 9

Fast Forward to 2011. I competed in the Masters Nationals and took 7th place out of24 in the 40+ class. Then I won my first wholeshow, the NPC New Hampshire's, taking the opens overall and the Mastersoverall. NextI won the Masters overall at the NPCNew England's and 1st place in the open Heavyweights.

Remember that guy Tony I talked about earlier?He recently found me on Facebook and sent me the pictures that he had taken at the NPC Cape Cod in 1988. Well he was also at the NewEngland's and he took more pictures...

Now check these out,this is pretty cool...

With hair, I was 23 years old and weighed about 188 ... thebald guys now is 46 years old and weighs 216! My son Anthony thinks I lookshorter!

I'm glad to be back to this sport and as of today, I still wake up and the first thing that comes to mind is my workout, so that tells me I'll be around for a while

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Good run

2011-11-01T14:28:00.000-04:00

Started this year competing at the NPC Masters Nationals in July. Where I stepped on stage at 207 (which should have been 210) and took 7th out of 24, in the over 40 heavyweight class. Up 3 pounds from the last contest 2010 NPC New England's in Oct, where I won the over 45 class and came in 3rd in the open heavyweights.

Then I worked closely with my training partner Alex and helped him prepare for his first contest, the NPC New Hampshire where he stepped on stage at 198 shredded and won his Light heavy weight class and I too jumped into this show, stepping on stage at 220 and not only did I win the overall Masters, I won the overall opens as well, my first time winning a whole show!

The following weekend was the 2011 NPC New England's (much bigger show) this is the show we really wanted to enter from the beginning, the NH was just a warm up. Alex took 3rd out of 14 in his light heavy weight class, he had the biggest class of the show. Awesome job! Big accomplishment for his first big show!

I know I couldn't step on stage at 220, I needed to dry myself out more, which I did and ended up on stage at 216.5, which I won the overall Masters out of 22 Masters total and took 1st in the open heavyweights out of 9, beating last years placings at this show

Alex is planning on the Jay Cutler next May and for me, I'm heading to the National again to try and get my pro card. I'm not sure yet what national show I should do. I may just go for an open non Masters Nationals and give some of these young guys a run for their money (smile)

Now it's back to the basics, back to banging out the weights and growing. As I said when I decided to get back into this sport 2008, it's all about the legs and this year isn't going to be any different!

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One down, one to go

2011-10-23T09:21:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Alex and I completed in the 2011 NPC New Hampshire bodybuilding competition. Alex weighed in at the top of his light heavy weight class at 198 and he looked awesome, big, dry and hard, you couldn't ask for more.

I weighted in at 222, which is the heaviest I ever stepped on stage. I was big and hard and I was again in the best shape of my life

Just as I predicted Alex and I would be posing down for the overall winner and we did... Alex won his class and so did I... I also won the overall master class and for the first time in my life, I won the whole show in a body building competition, winning not only the masters overall , but the open class overall too!

I'm so proud of Alex and what he has accomplished and he has so much more potential, he has just begun to win competitions, stay tuned for more of Alex Stylin' Stylien

Now we set our site for this coming Saturday where we are competing in the NPC New England's held and the little John Hancock in Boston. This show will be a little bigger, having my contesents and Alex and I will be the ones to beat, I'm sure the word is already out, to look out for the new guy Alex Stylien and his "Sensei" Rob Costarelli (what Alex kept calling me all day yesterday)

We are going to run this week as we did last week, training wise...Mon, Tues and Wed. having Thur and Fri to grow, to compete Saturday

Alex just needs to maintain his condition as he was spot on, he will only get better come next Saturday. For me I would like to step on stage around 215 and be a little more dryer for this show, so my focus this week is to dry myself out more

Stay tuned...

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Warm up show

2011-10-16T08:49:00.000-04:00

Alex and I decided to jump into the NPC New Hamsphire next Saturday Oct 22, held at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry NH.

This week we trained, Mon Tue Wed and Friday and yesterday we posed for two hours, which is another kind of workout, one that shapes and conditions

These next two weeks, we are going to train Mon Tues Wed taking off Thursday and Friday to fill out and grow to compete on Saturday.

Alex is in the best shape of his life so far, waking up at 194.4 today. He's looking hard and grainy, his legs are nice and separated. We will start to carb him back up again, adding 5 pounds of muscle weight which will bring him back up to 200, then minus 2-3 pounds of subcutaneous water and we will have a big full ripped Alex at 198, the top of the Light Heavy's.(cut off is 198 1/4), that's our plan!

For me, I've been waking up anywhere from 218 to 220 these past few weeks and this morning 219.4. I'm pretty much as ripped as I was at the Nationals I did in July. I stayed eating clean,(no fats) and just upped my carbs and added sugars back in after that show, so I've been growing every since and just two weeks ago, I cut my sugars out again and lowered my carbs to 50 grams a sitting as oppossed to 100. Im figuring around 215 to 217 I'll step on stage this time around, up 5 to 7 pounds from last contest conditioning.

Just like when I was younger, I grow with every show. It's nice to know 20 years later, when you do everything right, as you have done before, you can get the same result and that is, to grow and get better with every show.

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Step one; Get rid of all body fat.

2011-09-28T18:47:00.000-04:00

Monday night at Natick gold's started with flat dumbbell benchpress, 60,70,80,90,100 to failure. Incline free weight machine185lbs 4sets, all to failure. Incline dumbbell flies, 50,60,70,70 all to failureand cable crossovers 4sets to failure.

Standing straight barbell curl, 4 sets to failure, French barbell curl(like a two handed hammer curl) 4sets to failure, preacher curls, 4 sets to failure

And what I mean by failure is, we don’t count our reps, we just go until we can’tgo no more, while maintaining form. You go until you can't keep form or can take the burn anymore...

Alex and I held mandatory’s in one of the yoga rooms afterwards. I basically called them out andwe ran through them as you would if you where completing. We plan to dothis after every workout up to the show. This only takes 15 minutes to runthrough 3 times and the benefit is huge. Gives you shape, hardness, control,burns fat, flexibility, strength, stamina, helps you relax and aids in muscles memoryto name a few.

I always believed that muscle memory comes from visualization andhow you see yourself and remembering how you look will help you get back towhere you were, faster. Always strive to see yourself better , so that yourmuscle memory keeps growing as well. sB

Tuesday night at Natick gold's was LEGS... Alex and I ran thembackwards, Donkeys, Lying legs curls, seated legs curls, stiff legged deadlifts, leg extensions, legs presses, we started with 3 plates each side and did 4 setsgoing up 3 plates each side each set, ending with Jefferson’s for 3 sets

Just only after 3 days of Alex going back to 25 grams of carbs asitting, his weight came right back off, from 205.4 on Saturday to 201 today.

What this tells me is if Alex eats 50 grams of carb's every 2.5hours, instead of 25 grams every 2.5 hours he will be 5 pounds heavy (more filledout) and at 50 grams of carbs he's still dry, which tells me we might get awaywith 75 grams or 100 come contest and add 7 to 10 pounds of muscle weight

Step one; Get rid of all body fat. Step two, Fill your muscles upwith as much water as they will hold, Step three, Get rid of all your subcutaneouswater.

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Shrink wrapped

2011-09-24T18:14:00.001-04:00

Alex ran another 50/50 week of carbs/protein. We wanted to see where his weight would stop and how he would look when it stopped.

8 days later, 205 was where he stop and leveled out. Now at this 205 he's so much bigger looking and leaner, then he was the first time he was at 205 (on his way down to 200) which was 3 weeks ago..

Let me break this down... 3 weeks ago Alex was 205 coming down from 209 the week before and 214 the week before that, by eating 25/50 carbs/protein. 2 weeks ago when Alex got to 200lbs, we upped his carbs to 50grams a sitting and he slowly climbed back up to 205 within a weeks time and stayed there for the following week as well, which tell me he's carbed up to the 50grams. Now this time at the 205 weight he's so much bigger and even leaner

We did this to show the kind of effects carbohydrates have on your body. You can really notice much more so, what foods do to you, when your body fat is low. That is the time to learn yourself and take full advantage of the opportunity.

So this week I also wanted to show Alex what sodium can do to you as well, so Thursday night at 6pm we both went zero sodium until Saturday morning (today), like if it was contest day. We only ate boiled chicken and potatoes for all of our meals, drank distilled water, stopped our vitamins, completely zeroing out our sodium... zip went the skin!

The one time I didn't take pictures... sorry!

As expected our skin became so dry. You could really notice how different our skin looked. We lost around two pounds and that two pounds of subcutaneous water makes a BIG difference.

So now that we see what we can do in a short period of time, lets get back to business, which at 6 weeks out today, is still getting ripped.

Alex will now go back to 25/50 for the next 4 weeks and this will rid any remaining fat he's carrying and then when he's two weeks out, we will decided when to start going back up with the carbs and begin growing to the show

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Two on, two off, two on, one off

2011-09-17T16:55:00.000-04:00

Starting Monday, this is our new training pattern... change is good.

We still hit Chest and Biceps on Monday and now Tuesday we hit Legs, have Wednesday and Thursday to grow, then Friday we hit Shoulders and Triceps and Back on Saturday's where we will do a dead lift or Sumo Dead lift, which works legs twice a week, so putting leg day on Tuesday was a must and Sunday we grow again

This week we trained legs on Wednesday to get ready for next weeks change and we really didn't go crazy, because they were not healed from the previous Saturday.

Thursday John and I hit Shoulders and Triceps, Alex did his Friday

Today Alex and I hit Sumo's and Back...John will get in done before the weekends over

Now we are ready to rock and roll with this new split

Alex's weight climbed back up from 201.8 to 203.4 up 1.6 pounds due to the carb increase, which is to be expected and he's just as lean and just as tight, only now he's just a little more fuller. Alex is going to drop the pasta now and start eating only potatoes and still keeping the carbs at 50 grams a sitting for another week

I got a better camera, (not a phone), but I still don't have the lighting down...

Here are the latest pictures of Alex

I decided I wasn't going to let Alex have all this fun to himself and I'm going to compete as well at the New England's, since my NPC card is still good...

Right now I'm waking up at 220 and I'm pretty much as lean as I was a month an a half back, when I competed at the Nationals. I figure 4 weeks out, is when I'll drop my sugars and lower my carbs, to pull out excess water and lose any fat I have, I'd like to step on stage around 213.

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It's called Prowler 2

2011-09-10T18:25:00.000-04:00

I think they should call it, Leg Destroyer 2!

Instead of lunges today, we added this exercise and I got tell you, WOW we will be doing it again!
The Gold's Gym in Natick has a 25 yard strip of Astro-Turf that this thing slides nicely on.

We started with Squats, 1 plate 2 plate 3 plate 4 plate, I was done after 3 plates and dropped down the weight for my last set. Then onto the Prowler 2.

You slide 45 plates onto those poles, we started with one on each side and down and back we went on the turf. On the way down, we put our hands high up on those polls and pushed our asses off as faster we could, like doing a sprint. Man the whole back of my legs filled up quick with blood. On the way back, we held our hands on the top smaller horizontal bar, which was harder and put your body more parallel with the floor, hitting your quads like crazy, we sprinted back We adding a 45 aside, we did it again. I was DONE then, my legs hurt so much!
The lactic acid build up was so intense, I couldn't even bend my legs anymore, they felt like burning springs.
Knowing the only thing that gets the lactic acid pain to go away is to do another set of something and fast, next was leg presses I couldn't wait to do my set, we starting with 3 plates aside, then 6 then 9 for 3 sets. It worked, the pain was less, but the pump was still there and I still couldn't bend my legs. Next was Stiff legged Dead lift, then Leg extension, Leg curls, (doing leg curls my quads where on fire, because I had to bend them to do the curl, pretty awesome feeling!), Donkeys calves, Abs, then off to the posing room
I love Leg workouts!

Alex weighed in this morning at 201.8 down 5.2lbs from last Saturday's 207. He looks better and better each week. For this coming week, we are upping his carbs, going back to what he was eating when he first started 5 weeks ago. What we should see is a bigger Alex, just as cut and even looking more cut in certain areas and the weight should continue to go down as he continues to burn fat

Here are the latest pictures, I have to point out, we just trained legs and his legs are washed out completely after what we just did, so you are not going to see, what we see, when we look before we train. Not to worry, his quads are separated already

Still haven't got the lighting right yet
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A little history and the compulsories

2011-09-03T19:34:00.003-04:00

This morning Alex and I trained legs, we ran it backwards, which we do every once in a while, starting with calves into hams, then quads, most of the time ending with squats, but not today, after training back the night before, the lower back wasn't having it. But we still had a sick leg workout with a sick pump!

Starting with donkeys, to lying leg curls, seated leg curls, stiffs legged (this blow the lower back out), leg extension, walking lunges (35 dumbbells up and back x 2 100 yards) and ending with hack squats, I was pretty much done after that.

Bob O'Brien an old time bodybuilder from back when I did this 20 years ago, came by the gym to hit some poses with Alex and check out his progress, he too is getting ready to step out on stage after 20 years.

Bob had mentioned on a number of occasions remembering competing with me at 1991Gold's classic and I happened to have a link from a web site on my blog that has the placements from that show and sure enough, there he is and Chirs Pappas too another friend from the past... I decided to look at the other links on my blog, mainly my last competition the 1992 Mass States, my name was a hyperlink and it took me to my history from "92 to current, pretty cool... too bad I couldn't find from when I started in "85, but I'm happy to have this link... kind of cool to see such a jump from "92 to "09

Alex is 8 weeks out today and right on target weighing in this morning at 207. 2.5 pounds less then last Saturday..

Here are some compulsories we took after legs today... remember we just trained legs, they are filled with blood, you are not going to see much separation

He will keep everything the same another week

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I got two words... Sumo Deadlifts

2011-08-30T14:26:00.001-04:00

I think I found the movement my lower body is missing. These hit your hamstrings like no other (for me) in fact, they hit the whole leg. We normally dead-lift on Wednesday that gives enough time before and after legs on Saturdays. I think we are going to swap regular dead-lifts with sumo's for a while and then eventually rotate between the two. You should have seen the 3 of us looking at u-tube last Wednesday before we started training, so we could see how they are done, it was pretty funny, but we nailed them and I can't wait for tomorrow to do them again.

Most of you have heard of my 25 cent "tip of the day" this all came about having numerous people approach me with a question on how to train something or what to eat.. you know, bodybuilding stuff. Well after a while I started holding out my hand and saying "25 cents please" after I answer them, which got some kicks going.. especially if I met the person for the first time, they didn't know if I was serous or not. So I decide to start writing some tips down, well I have over 120 of them now and I'm sure I can think of more. I was thinking if and when I get to 365 of them , I would make an Always A Bodybuilder calender with the tip and a picture of something/someone, who knows... Okay the reason why I brought this up is because I planning on running through the all of them, all over again, one for each day (this only applies to Facebook fans) and hopefully this will give me ideas for more

Last night the Hawk aka Alex and I trained Chest and Biceps, the Animal had to deal with a little extra water hanging around in his basement after Irene came for a visit, he's making up his workout tonight and he will be back for Sumo Dead-lifts and Shoulder/Traps tomorrow

After last night workout I grabbed some updated pictures of Alex... he is starting to change nicely and he's going to keep everything the same as last week for this week, he is weighing in around 209 and he is in the 9th week out.

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Moving right along as planned

2011-08-20T10:48:00.001-04:00

Alex is two weeks into his contest diet and is doing exactly as expected. He really responds well to food, which isn't too dissimilar to all of us, some just take longer to responded, for many reasons. We are all equal in terms (as the saying goes...) we are what we eat.

Alex woke up this morning 214.4 from 217.2 from last Saturday and 220.4 from when this all started 2 weeks ago. Starting tomorrow we are going to change up his carb intake, since we don't do any cardio, we need to further control our carbs.
Pretty much the whole dieting is all about controlling your carbs and that stands true for any diet, not just for bodybuilders and Cardio is best to be done in the off season, if going to be done at all, not during contest dieting.

We did some rear shots yesterday after banding out Back and Triceps

Today is legs and you know how I feel about them... I can't get to the gym any faster, I can tell you that.
All the basic staple moves will be there, Squats, Stiffs, Hacks today, Lunges, Extensions, Curls and Donkeys.

See you on the other side!

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Here comes the Hawk (updated)

2011-08-15T10:15:00.004-04:00

As mentioned in my last post, the main focus next is helping my friend/ training partner to prepare for his first bodybuilding competition, the New England's. Being held at the little John Hancock hall on Berkeley street in Boston, Oct 29th.

Alex aka Hawk started dieting last Monday and his wake up weight was 220.4 and today after one week of dieting he is right where I thought he would be 217.

The first two weeks dictate what the following 2 week will be.. The first week, you no longer have sugars, your sodium has been lowered and your carbs are now being controlled, rather then just filling yourself up on them. So what happens in most case is you lose weight. Now the second week tells us if he's needs to lower his calories, by way of lowering his carbs, not his protein and he's taking in no fats so carbs are all there is. Right now he's running 50/50 every 2.5 hours.

Yesterday the three of us, Hawk, Animal and I trained legs in Natick. They have this squat rack that is in the corner with mirrors that allow you to see your hamstrings drop when your squatting and MAN does this add to your intensity!

We started with those, crawling our way up to 4 plates a side (first time being there is 20 years) I was able to grab 3 full squats with a slight pause at the bottom. Then we did leg presses, started with 3 plates a side, then increased by 3 a side, ending with 12 a side for 4 sets... talk about a pump happening right now! Then it was one legged lunges with a dumbbell and the resting foot on a bench behind you, (the name of them slips me right now), then stiff legged dead lifts (a staple), leg extension, legs curls and Donkeys.. love Donkeys!

I can't describe how sore my legs feel right now... All I can say is, I WANT MORE!

We are hitting Chest and Biceps today at 11:30... I'm on vacation this week, so I can get some of my workouts in earlier!

Update: Chest and Biceps workout was awesome! Real sick workout, real sick pump!

Here is a picture I took of Alex afterwards, keep in mind his legs are completely washed out from yesterdays workout... as he becomes more ripped, his legs are going to become awesome looking... stay tuned!

One week of dieting and look as his abs!

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2011-07-26T14:51:00.000-04:00

Last night the three of us hit Chest and Biceps, it was nice getting back into the swing of things, having changed my last two weeks of workouts around for the competition. I felt strong and injury free, which lets me go heavier and of course I looked SICK... We all love training when we are ripped up, especially after competition when your taking in large amounts of calories with less food (called fats) your body just explodes with a pump!

I'm planning on just completing for this Masters Nationals this coming year and for the next year, it's all about working on my weak points, so a routine change is in order and now is the time to do it.

To concentrate more on my weak points, which is the back of my legs, the hamstring area needs thickness. They have changed since the New England's back in October 2010, so I know what I'm is working.

Deep squats and Dead Lifts is what I'm going to be focusing on. We were doing dead lifts on Back day, but that's a hard day and it takes away from your Back intensity level. I could get away with this, but for Alex and John we need to make Back a priority, so here is what we have come up with for a split.

Monday- Chest/Biceps
Wednesday- Dead-lifts/Traps/Shoulders
Friday- Back/Triceps
Saturday- Legs
Calves and Abs every workout

Now the focus is on my training partner Alex as he prepares for his first bodybuilding competition. The New England's on October 29th held at the Little John Hancock in Boston MA.

I think Alex will do really well, he has great genetics and response really well to food, which in the world of Body Building is a plus. He's planning on starting his diet second week in August, which will give him 11 weeks. Alex right now at 5'10" weights 225 and has his abs showing, so I think 11 weeks is plenty of time to get shredded to bone! Updates will follow.

Can't wait to Dead Lift tomorrow!

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2011 NPC Masters Nationals

2011-07-25T11:14:00.000-04:00

We arrived in Pittsburgh PA Thursday evening after driving over 10 hours... I woke up Friday morning at 210 full and tight, after lowing my sodium all day on Thursday, I was perfect!

But I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had in my head how I was going to spend my Friday lying in the sun and eating and resting... not realizing that lying in the sun, at this point, being as dry as I was, was only going to flatten my muscles, because I had no water elsewhere ...

I weighed in on Friday at 4pm at 210 (after eating 4 meals up to that point) I should have weighed 213, my chest was no longer full I know I was in trouble and became flat from the sun. I woke up Saturday 206.6, 3 pounds of water that was in my muscles was gone... on well... lets just hope I can get a pump I thought... In hind sight, if I was to indulge myself that night with TONS of food and water I would have filled back out again, I wasn't think straight

I took 7th place out of 26 men and for my first time at a natioanl show, I can't complain and the fact I wasnt' at my best, gets me even more excited!

Here is a link to the MD website with pictures of the night show... My tan has washed away from sweating in prejudging... I didn't bother to re-tan seeing I wasn't a class winner and didn't need to worry about posing down for an overall
http://pics.musculardevelopment.com/index.php?mode=browse&id=21334&eventcode=1465

I'm going to train for this competition for next year, so this give my a whole year to work on my weak points, like my legs...

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2 weeks out... I think I'll have the chicken

2011-07-09T14:39:00.001-04:00

What once took me around 5 minutes to eat, now takes over 20, it just doesn't want to go down anymore. Boiled chicken for the past 10 weeks...I'm going to start to shit eggs soon...

This week for some reason the weight started coming off fast. I went from 213 the beginning of the week and woke up this morning, after loading up on pasta yesterday at 210.8. I still have my size and I am even tighter, so I'm not worried about this, but I do want to hold at this weight if I can.

Now I know it's not how much you weigh, its your conditioning that is important. I am in the right condition, right now, so I want to maintain this and keeping my weight here will help assure this.

I may have to have a weight gainer drink tomorrow if I come down anymore. Drinking your calories is the faster way to get them. It's a 1250 calorie gainer with 5 grams of fat and 250 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein and a bunch of other stuff... but I'm not sure about it yet, I may level out and not need it, but If I decided, it okay being 2 weeks out, I'll have time to correct anything that may happen.

I'm going to start to lower my sodium a little more now by dropping the protein drinks and replacing them with chicken. yeah chicken, did I mention how much I hate chicken these days...

I'm going to training Monday through Thursday this week and treat is like a contest week. This Saturday a friend of ours Elisabeth Taylor, who is a professional photographer is going to take picture's of me outside at the Fenway in Boston. I'm going to treat this Saturday as a day I would be completing, preparing myself as I would the day of the show

For me, the last two weeks are the hardest, but at the same time the most exciting

please pass the chicken

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3 weeks out... chasing my nose today...

2011-07-03T09:33:00.000-04:00

I would have to say now, my body fat is definitely below 5%, unfortunately when your fat % is real low, I think your immune system follows. I woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat when I swallow, that turned into a sinus cold. Last night my face, head, nose and teeth ached so much I finally broke down after being up from 1-3am and took some Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold, this shit works. I was able to get 5 more growing hours of sleep. But more importantly this stuff dried me out and showed me, what is water and what is fat, I woke up with striated ass muscles. My head doesn't hurt so much anymore, but my nose is running a marathon

Still keeping everything the same 50/50. Next Saturday when I'm 2 weeks out, I will stop drinking protein drinks and eat boiled chicken in its replacement... (I hate to say this, but this is the part I hate... All day long nothing but boiled chicken and potatoes)... this will lower my sodium another 240mg, which will put me under 100mg a day, where I want to be

Wake up weight 213.

For the last 2 weeks I've been waking up 215ish... just goes to show you how fast you lose water weight (this was caused by the Alka-Seltzer) I'm not too worried, I will end up where I end up... probably right here at 213, because I'm real dry this morning.

Today the family is headed to Roger Williams Zoo in RI

Happy 4th to everyone!

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4 weeks out... legs!

2011-06-26T15:32:00.000-04:00

Awesome leg workout today! It seems like every leg workout is awesome. The more you do something right, the easier it becomes and what I mean by this is, you don't have to kill yourself as you once did to get the job done, you get the job done with less effort and the beauty of it all is, you keep killing yourself anyways and you grow even faster. As I always say, it's not what you do, it's how you do it... we all do pretty much the same exercises, but we all don't do them the same way.

Lately we have been starting leg with stiff legged dead lifts, they really get the ball rolling, giving you a nice pump and makes for every movement to follow that much better, in terms of form and the pump you get. Squatting was next, 1 plate, 2 plate 3 plate, 2 plate for 4sets, then leg presses, 5 plate, 7 plate, 9 plate, 6 plate, then to dumbbell walking lunges for 3 sets, ending with extension and lying down leg curls. My legs feel awesome right now!

Wake up weight 215.8

50/50 all week long and I'm going to keep this going again this week, 50 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein every 2.5 hours. As you can see I'm getting leaner and dryer week after week, which tell me and proves that you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

I'm real happy with my condition right now, I could compete now. I'm at the point where I have a chance to bring my condition to another level in terms of size ans being shredded. I have 4 weeks to get my glutes shredded and this will be a first for me. Having shredded glutes is the ultimate, you have to be ripped 2% BF or lower to have them. Condition wins shows and having shredded glutes is being in the best condition you can be, I love a challenge...

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5 Weeks out... Happy Fathers Day!

2011-06-19T17:46:00.000-04:00

I am 5 weeks out from competition and again in the best shape of my life thus far. Just like when I was younger and competed back in my 20’s every show I got bigger and better and this still stands true. Eating clean and correctly, along with intense training and you will grow like weed, no matter how old you are

I woke up this morning weighting 215, the same as I weighed last week this time. But the difference now from last week is, I’m a bigger 215, because I’m leaner yet weigh the same. As I lose fat I gain muscle, which is what happens to all of us who lift weights and eat clean and correctly, it’s just more noticeable when you have your body fat real low. Right now, I would have to say, I’m around 5% body fat and have about 2-3 pounds of fat left. I’m right where I want to be, if not ahead of schedule.

This past week I have been eating 50/50, (50 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein) every 2.5 hours.

No Gym today, I watched my son Anthony perform at his piano recital; it’s so nice seeing him take off like he is. It was just about 6 months ago when everything clicked and he understood how to play and really started playing good. Now it’s been just over two years of lessons and he’s really starting to grow and come to his own with it, we are so proud of him!

Keeping everything the same next week…

Happy Fathers Day to all you Fathers!

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6 weeks out

2011-06-13T07:36:00.000-04:00

This past few weeks, I have been eating 25 grams of carbs every 2.5 hours except before and after my workouts, where I'll eat 50 grams. This seems to have done the trick for me, I'm now right were I want to be at 6 weeks out. I have about 3 pounds of body fat left, maybe 4, which will come off easily in the next couple of weeks. Last night I decided to eat a huge bowl of pasta to see what would happen, other then sweating all night long, I feel good this morning, my cuts are deep in my quads (a place where I like to look for change)

Wake up weight 215

Workouts have been sick, I love training and I love it even more when I'm ripped and everything looks sick when I got a pump going on! Hams are coming in nicely, I will be having cross straited glutes, you need them at the national level

I'm going to continue with everything for another 3 more weeks, then I will drop the protein drinks and the carbo force, replacing them with food, lowing my sodium under 100mg a day, where I need to be to dry out my skin and give me that look I'm looking for

Chest and Shoulders tonight

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Back to 7 weeks out

2011-06-05T08:22:00.000-04:00

After thinking if over more clearly and thanks to my friend John Davis who replied to my 39 days out post with a simple, Why?, got me thinking why... I would much rather just do the Masters Nationals which I was shooting for in the first place. It's a much bigger show and it's only one day, not two and placing 1st or 2nd in my class would earn me pro card.

This past week, I cut my carbs in half for most of the week, except before and after my workouts, where I kept them at 50 grams.

Wake up weight 217

I'm now just going to go by feel and for the most part keep my carbs around 25 grams every 2.5 hours, unless I start to feel flat or tried, then I'll go back up to 50 grams. I feel much better knowing I have 2 more weeks to get shredded.

Legs today, I can't wait!

To sum it up, I'm 7 weeks out from the Master Nationals heard in Pittsburgh PA

sizeBIGGER

39 days out

2011-05-30T09:08:00.000-04:00

Wake up weight 218.8
(see me in a week)

I've decided I am going to cut my carbs in half. I'm not sure if I'm going to do the whole week, just going to take it day by day.
By cutting my carbs, I am in a sense, just lowing my caloric intake, forcing the body to use it's stored resources, such as fat. I wouldn't want to cut my protein to lower my caloric intake, I need that to fill muscle cells, just like I wouldn't want to go zero carbs, because I need the carbs to insure the protein is being used for muscle cells and not energy for having no carbs. (fat burns without losing muscle, if carbs are present) and carbs and fat burn 50/50, it's like the carbs are the kindle to the wood, the fat

Here is a look at what I've been eating for a day

18oz of boiled chicken (that will become 36-42oz 2 weeks out)
900g of potato (this could go as high as 1800g as I get closer to the show)
3-4 whey Isolate protein shakes. (this will stop 2 weeks out, replaced by chicken, further lowing my sodium)
6 pieces of Maztol (this could go away and be replaced by potato)
3 chewable vitimins and minerals (every other meal)
128oz of water/Crystal light (I don't really count this, but I pretty much drink a gallon, I only drink when I'm thirsty, I never force drink, unless it's alcohol of course).

Today potatoes will be 450g for the day, Maztol will be 3 for the day, everything else stays the same. lowing my caloric intake by 600

Heading to the pool today to scare people, I mean get some sun. We have been lucky with the sun these last few days, I have a nice brown tan now, enjoy the weather!

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40 days out from the Team Universe

2011-05-29T09:27:00.000-04:00

I thought I would do some picture comparisons from when I started.

Day one, when this all started I weighted 230

A week later after having controlled my carbs and lowered my sodium, I weighted 224.6

This is week 3 (went away for week 2, no pictures) I weighed 219, this is after one week out cutting my carbs in half (25grams a sitting)

Week 4 after going back to eating 50 grams of carbs a sitting for the week, I weigh 219.4

Today, 219.4, it's hard to tell from the pictures, but I'm a lot leaner from last week, each week I get leaner and leaner

So I'm now just under 6 weeks, I need to start thinking about a song to use for my posing routine. I having put together a routine since back when I use to compete 20-25 years ago.

Also I need to start holding compulsories more. I usually pose in between sets a little, while I'm waiting for my set, but soon I will start spending 15 minutes after each workout holding compulsories. This really helps, not only in shaping you, but making you hard and giving you the relaxed look you want when holding that pose on stage. It's nice when you look in condition, as well as, in shape

My legs are still sore from Friday night. Alex and I mixed it up and did a bunch of new movements and ones we haven't done in a while. We did one legged squats on the Smith machine and we even used a lying down squat machine, that allowed you to really stretch into the squat

Tuesdays is Chest and Shoulder...

Happy Memorial Day!

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56 days out is now 41 one days out

2011-05-28T09:39:00.003-04:00

I have decided to compete in the NPC Team Universe National Competition held in TeaNeck NJ on July 8th and 9th., instead of the NPC Teen Collegiate Master National held in Pittsburgh PA on July 23rd

I decided this for a couple of reasons, for one it's a 3 1/2 hour drive instead of a 12 hour drive and two the Master Class for the Team Universe is age 35,45 and 55, where as, in the Teen Collegiate Master it's 35,40 and 50. I'd rather be the youngest in my class (I'm 45), plus the show is being put on by Bev Francis's grew, the same people who put on the jay Cutler Classic and the New England's, so the judges will know me and see my improvements

The downside to the Team Universe show is, I have to win the overall masters, not only winning the 45 over class, but also beating the 35 and 55 over winners in the finals, to be awarded a pro card. In the Teen Collegiate Masters show, If I were to place 1st or 2nd in my class, I would be awarded a pro card. So the Team Universe is a little hard in someways to get the card, but fuck it, I'm going for it.

Wake up weight 220.2...
This little increase of weight, is water weight held in my sodium, I ran out of the whey I use for dieting that has 80mg for the two scoops and had to use one that had 260mg for the two scoops. Not worried about water at this stage, but I do have lower sodium whey again

On Monday, I might do one more week of 25 grams of carbs a sitting... not sure yet though... even though I just lost two weeks of dieting and I'm now 6 weeks out, I feel like I have time.

I have the next 3 days off from training, I'm going to relax, soak up as much sun as mother nature allows. eat and grow!

sizeBIGGER

57 days out...

2011-05-27T07:34:00.000-04:00

Awesome Arm workout last night, we started with Biceps, standing straight barbrll curls, into preacher curls, ending with hammers and standing wrist curls. Triceps started with push downs, into Skull crushers, ending with straight bar french curls, definitely had an 20" arm pump last night!

Wake up weight 218.6... and growing...

Legs tonight, we are taking the weekend off. Now maybe I can get some things done I've been meaning to do. I'm pretty much trashed for the day after hitting legs on Saturday morning, leaving me coma toast. So it will be nice to have a Saturday where I feel like doing something constructive... Think I might pull the rigid out and change out my leaky oil line... who knows...

I grabbed some sun these last couple of days and it looks like it's going to be 86 today and just as nice tomorrow... I see more sun in my future!

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58 days out....Sun!

2011-05-26T07:34:00.000-04:00

Back and Traps last night, we started with standing Calves, then standing one legged curls, then 3/4 dead lifts, Shrugs, Lat pull downs, machine weighted row, low rows, ending with reverse grip pull downs, then Abs
As always nice pump, nice workout

Wake up weight 217.6

A little change in our workout schedule this week, we are hitting Arms tonight instead of Friday and hitting Legs Friday, instead of Saturday...

I was able to grab some sun yesterday, hopefully today as well

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59 days out... Vitamin D

2011-05-25T07:38:00.000-04:00

I was able to grab a few minutes of sun yesterday through those clouds, but these next few days should be good for some Vitamin D.

I don't believe what they say about the sun not being good for you...too much of anything isn't good for you, but the Sun definitely has it's place and should be used for a healthy body and mind... enough said!

Wake up wait 217.6

Tonight we hit Back and Traps

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60 days out...

2011-05-24T07:31:00.000-04:00

Last night we hit Chest and Shoulders, starting with flat benching, then incline dumbbells, into Dips, then flat dumbbell flies, ending chest with cable crossovers. Shoulders started with standing barbell presses, then rear delt machine, ending with the side delt machine. Finishing up with seated calves and Abs

Wake up wait 217

Quick breakdown of how and what I'm been eating...

7:30/ 2 Matzos/ Whey protein - 50/50 (grams each)
10:00/ Boiled Chicken/ Potato - 50/50
12:30/ 2 Matzos/ Whey protein - 50/50
3:00/ Boiled Chicken/ Potato - 50/50
5:30/ Carbo force/Whey - 50/50 (pre-workout)
5:30/ 2 Matzos/ Whey protein - 50/50 (no workout)
7:30/ Carbo force/Whey - 50/50 (post workout)
8:30/ Boiled Chicken/ Potato - 50/50
1030 or 11:00 / 1/2 bag rice cakes/ Whey - 50/50

This has been pretty much what I've been eating this past 5 weeks, just so you get an idea. Also add a vitamin and mineral with each meal and let's not forget my traveling gallon of frozen Crystal light
(exception 3rd week I ate 50/25 (25 grams of carbs))

No gym tonight

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61 days out.... no sun

2011-05-23T07:35:00.000-04:00

I did manage to grab a couple of hours of sun on Saturday after the gym. Natural sun is the best when it comes to tanning and its also the cheapest.. I'm hoping I don't need to use any beds this time around, but will if I have too.

Anthony and I did just over 100 miles on the bike yesterday doing the Matt Brown benefit run. This was his first time doing such a thing and I think he enjoyed himself. When I asked him what was the best part of the run, he said, when we got off the bike and he could stretch his legs. He's got the right, halfway through I got a groin spasm in my left leg from shifting. I was able to work it out after 15 minutes, but at one point I thought I was going to have to stop... Groin pulls suck, they are the worst, there is really no way to stretch it out, especially on a bike

Wake up weight 216.8

Going to keep everything the same this week, 50/50 every 2.5 hours x 7 meals... Skin continues to thin, so at this point there is no reason to change anything

Chest and Shoulders tonight, feeling like flat benching and doing some dips too

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62 days out... in the wind

2011-05-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we hit legs at the Golds in Boston. This was the gym I trained at when I came back into this sport on June 1st, 2007. It's a small gym with that old school feeling, that's set up perfectly and has everything you need.

We started with Squats on a 2x4. I stole this from Paul Demayo years ago, that's all I ever seen him squat on and no one can say he didn't have awesome quads. From there we leg pressed starting with 5 plates and climbing by 3 plates, ending with 14, quads are trashed just about now. Leg extension, Stiff legs, Ass machine, Leg curls, Calves, then Abs, did the damage for the day

Wake up weight 216... doubt I'll need to do another 50/25 week..

Day off today, my son and I are going on a motorcycle benefit ride for Matt Brown

Continue with 50/50 for all next week

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63 days out... sticking to the plan

2011-05-21T09:56:00.000-04:00

Last night we hit Arms. I can't remember when I just only trained Arms and no other major muscle group along with it. It's so nice just hitting arms, they respond so nicely, I can see my arms getting to the next level because of this and my joint pain in my elbow and forearm (when I'm not in the gym) has abated quite a bit too from this change

We started with seated french curls (behind the head) then dumbbell skull crushers and ended with push downs. Biceps started with standing barbell curls, then preacher curls, both with a straight bar. They did hammer curls, I did standing dumbbell wrist curls, because of this forearms pain I have. We all ended on a bench doing wrist curls, then Abs

Wake up weight 217.8

I'm going to run one more week at 50/50 to see where that puts me. Right now I'm still burning fat at a good rate, so I'm not too worries about being ripped come contest, at least not at this moment. If come the following Monday and I feel a little behind, I will do another 50/25 week

Today is my favorite day of the week.... legs!

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64 days out.... again!

2011-05-20T07:33:00.002-04:00

Looking at my calendar and realizing that the contest is a one day event (Saturday) for the men and (Friday) for the women, so today I am 64 days out

All this week I have been eating 50/50 x7, that is 350 grams of Carbs and 350 grams of Protein every day and my weight has been pretty much maintained and my skin has continued to thin out

Wake up weight 218, down 1.4 from yesterday

Tonight we hit Arms, can't wait!

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64 days out... weight still climbing up

2011-05-19T07:37:00.000-04:00

Back and Traps last night started with standing calves, then barbell shrugs (if you haven't tried hitting traps before back, you should give it a try, it's a nice pump) then, bent over rows on the smith machine, wide grip pull downs, dumbbell rows and reverse grip pull downs, ending with Abs

Wake up weight 219.4

no gym tonight.... where is the sun~

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65 days out... weight coming back up

2011-05-18T07:44:00.000-04:00

Body weight is slowing going back up and body fat is still coming off, it's doing exactly what I want it to do... It's all about changing those "fat cells" into protein and carbohydtrate cells, changing the body composition

Wake up weight 219.

Training Back and Traps tonight at Gold's in Arlington

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66 days out.. time to eat again?

2011-05-17T07:37:00.001-04:00

Last night we hit Chest and Shoulders, we started with seated calves and then dumbbell flats into, incline smith machine, then dumbbell flat flies, pullovers, crossovers. Shoulders started with a machine press, then side and rear laterals on an end of a bench, ending with Abs, nice workout!

Wake up weight 218.6

Going back to eating 50 grams of carbs each meal this week, I find myself asking after 2.5 hours... is it time to eat again? Just adding another 100 calories to each meal fills me up so much, that all day long I felt like I was force feeding myself. Of course I wake up this morning hungry as all hell.

I find I do my most growing when I'm dieting for a show, because of all the eating I do around the clock, my body response so well to this.

No gym tonight

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67 days out... adding a meal

2011-05-16T07:18:00.000-04:00

Starting today, I'm going back to eating 50 grams of carbs with every meal.

Quick recap.

The first 2 weeks I ate 50 grams of carbs and 50 grams of protein every 2.5 hours for 6 meals. In one week I lost 5 pounds of water weight, because of lowering my sodium intake and controlling my carb intake.

The third week I cut my carbs in half eating a 50/25 split every 2.5 hours (50 grams of protein/25 grams of carbs) lowering my caloric intake even lower, I lost another 7 pounds of water weight and fat. mostly fat though. Now I will up my carbs and go back to 50/50, I'll get bigger and still be as lean, continuing to burn fat
So starting today, on top of going back to 50/50, I'm adding a meal number 7 right before bed, which will be for now a whey drink and 2 maztols (50/50). This will increase my caloric intake to 2800 and 2950 on workout days.

I'm going to make this change for 1 week to see what happens... I predict, my weight will stay roughly the same, maybe gain a pound or 2, but most importantly I will still be getting leaner

Wake up weight 218.8 (started that 7th meal last night)

Chest and Shoulder tonight

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68 days out... sorry you can't train here

2011-05-15T10:19:00.001-04:00

The 4 of us headed to Gold's Gym Somerville MA, the one at the Twin City Plaza. I remember training at this gym 20 years ago and forgot all about it. As I was just about at the gym, I get a call from John saying they won't let him in, that they are not affiliated with Gold's in Arlington.

Funny, right on the Alliance pass there is Somerville as a gym we can visit.. I didn't bother going in to try and plead our case, so we drove down the street to Gold's in Medford.

This is the original "Legs day" gym for us and in my opinion has the best equipment for a awesome leg workout. We squatted, then did some walking lunges (the gym has a 50 yard strip of rubber flooring that travels the length of the back of the gym), then we hit Hack machine (one of the best I've seen) then leg extension, stiff leg dead lifts, lying down leg curls, calves and abs.

You know you had an intense workout, when all night long your fighting both teardrops from spasms!

Wake up weight 217.6

No change from yesterday which tell me I'm as flat as I can be at this point, especially after a leg workout like yesterday.

Tomorrow I go back to 50/50 for the week. That's 50 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbs, every 2.5 hours x 6

Day off today, going to relax and do some praying for the Sun Gods

sizeBIGGER

69 days out

2011-05-14T10:23:00.000-04:00

The Tap show last night was great! I got to see a lot of people I know through the tap world and they put on an awesome show!

We are hitting legs at Golds in Somerville MA today. I can't wait for a leg pump, my legs are separating nicely and I can't wait to see how they look when they are engorged with blood.

Having stayed up past my normal bed time last night really burns calories. My last meal was at 8:30, but I didn't crash until 11:30 and I can tell just by looking down at my legs last night, I lost a lot of weight from being up. Nothing a little food can't change!

Wake up weight 217.6

Oh... is that my friend Alex, I see in my binoculars, up ahead in that boat of his? :)

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70 days out

2011-05-13T14:03:00.000-04:00

Last night it was just Alex and I and we hit Arms. We started with Dumbbell skull crushers, which I like a lot, really hits all three heads with blood. Behind the head French curls with a rope, ending triceps with push downs. Biceps started with standing barbell curls and ended on a preacher machine, 5 sets of wrist curls, then abs and we finished up this time with seated calf raises

Very nice arm pump, the kind you wish wouldn't go away!

Wake up weight...219

Coming down a little faster then I want, but not surprising, I kind of figured this would happen, once I started working again out in the field, where I burns more calories throughout the day. When I go back to 300 carbs for the day, weight dropping should slowdown, but fat loss will continue

Low carbs are start to effect my patients, I'm feeling more on the edge over nothing...

Looks like the sun is coming out today, I hope to grab some.

No gym tonight, heading off to see a tap performance in Arlington MA

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71 days out

2011-05-12T06:46:00.000-04:00

Last night we hit Back and Traps, starting with standing Calves, then lying down legs curls, then Dead-Lifts. We decided to try something different and rather then holding the bar having one hand facing in and the other facing out, we used straps and held the bar normally. You kind of need straps with this grip or your not going to go as heavy as you normally would, we ended with 5 plates a side.

I can usually get 2 or 3 reps with 500, but not last night. Being on my 3rd day of half carbs, I couldn't even get it off the ground and that was after doing 400 for 5 reps. I had plenty of energy, I just had no strength.

After DL's, we did barbell Shrugs, then weighted machine rows, Lat pull downs, close grip cable low rows and close grip cable pull downs, ending on Abs

Wake up weight 220.6

Just realized I can't train Friday, going out to a tap show... Training arms tonight

sizeBIGGER

72 days out

2011-05-11T07:35:00.000-04:00

Today will be the 3rd day of 25 grams of carbs every 2.5 hours and my pants belt has become less tight, that's always a good sign.

Where the hell is our sun, I feel like I live in Washington with all this rain. It's hard to catch a free tan if Mother Nature doesn't' let the sun out

Wake up weight 221.6

Tonight we hit Back and Traps, I'm feeling like dead-lifts!

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73 days out

2011-05-10T07:26:00.000-04:00

Last night we decided it was time to change our training route around. We are now going to train Chest and Shoulders on Monday instead of Chest and Triceps and do Arms on Friday.
After we finished banging out Chest we all looked at each other and said, how the hell we going to press now, the Shoulders are trashed!
But after we make it throught the first set of dumbbell presses, the Shoulders took on a new pump and it worked out great. In fact, we were hitting more sides and rears, then fronts, so Chest and Shoulders work out for a nice combination. As always we started with 5 sets of calves and ended with 5 sets of wrist curl and Abs

Wake up weight 222
Day one of 150 grams of carbs for the day has gone by....

No gym tonight

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74 days out

2011-05-09T07:38:00.000-04:00

The Jay Cutler had a great turn out yesterday, all my friends did a great job bringing their condition to the stage.

Starting today I'm cutting my carbs in half for one week, this will really get my body fat down.

Wake up weight 223.4

Tonight is Chest and Triceps and I'm in the mood to bang out some flat benching for starters, should have the whole crew tonight. I can't wait to get a pump, watching the prejudging yesterday really gets you motivated, and I'm ready to take it to the next level!

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75 days out

2011-05-08T09:05:00.000-04:00

Legs feel really good this morning, just enough soreness where I'm still able to flex them without too much pain or locking up. We did Squats, then walking lunges, leg extensions, stiff-legged dead lifts, seated legs curls and donkey calves. Nothing too fancy, just enough to get the job done.

Today is a day off from training and my son and I are heading to the Jay Cutler Classic in Boston to watch the prejudging show. I have a few friends competing this year and I want to cheer them on. This might be the first show I ever went to just to watch. Should be a good turn out, the Jay has been getting bigger and bigger since it started back it 2009. I wish all my friends the best of luck!

Wake up weight 224.4

Tomorrow and for the whole week, I'm cutting my carbs in half, taking in 25grams every 2.5 hours. This should really make a big difference. I only have about 5-6 pounds of fat to lose, mostly in my waist, so I really don't need to lose too much fat.
Back in October when I was getting ready to compete in the New England's, at one point I was 217 and was pretty shredded, I just had the extra water to get rid of, which I did the week of the show, so knowing that and what I weigh now and I know I'm bigger than I was 6 months ago, there is no reason why I shouldn't be "shredded" at 217 again if not heavier this time.

It's all about changing your body composition. First you get rid of the fat, then you control your water so the your muscles hold as much as possible "in" them, without holding water "on" them. But before I worry about that, I need to rid the body of fat and this is done by training hard and eating super clean (zero fat) and controlling your caloric in-take

My prediction, (for me, here is where I like to have fun with this) next Monday before I go back to eating 50 grams of carbs a sitting, my body weight will be at 221-222 range and then I should be able to go back to 50grams and lock that weight in, slowing down the weight lose, but still continuing to burn fat

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76 days out

2011-05-07T11:02:00.000-04:00

Back from a week of traveling to Windsor CT each morning for work. Monday and Wednesday night I trained at the Windsor CT gold's gym, before heading home. The gym was down the street from where I was and it wasn't a bad gym, kind of small, but had everything I needed.
Thursday I drove home first and hit Natick Gold's.
Friday I got back real early from CT and was able to grab some sun in back yard. I didn't miss a beat, I ate the same way all week long 50/50 x6 every 2.5 hours, starting at 7am.

Wake up weight 225

So let's do a quick recap, I started two week ago on Monday with 50grams of carbs and 50grams of protein every 2.5 hours for 6 meals. The first week I lost right away 5 pounds, which was water held in by sodium being to high and by carb's, eating to many. Now I've controlled both and the second week, I've been maintaining around 225 pounds. You can't see, but I am leaner and my body composition has started to change.
Starting Monday, for one week, i'm going to cut my carbs in half, which in turn will lower my caloric intake, so to see what happens and go from there. Except for my pre-workout meal, it will stay at 75/50.

I'm looking to see where I need to be to drop weight slowing, like a pound a week. I may need to do every other meal at 25grams of carbs instead of all 6. But let me see what all 6 meals at 25 grams does for me first... remember I'm getting ripped without cardo

Keeping in mind, 50/50 might be where I need to be, and the reason for the last week that I didn't drop any weight, might be because I sat on my ass all week long and didn't walk around as normally I would during the week... but I like to play food games likes this, so I'm going to make this change for a week.

Today we are hitting the Natick Golds for Legs, Big John is away so it's 3 today. Thinking about squatting and they have a nice long strip of astro-turf for walking lunges

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82 days out

2011-05-01T08:44:00.000-04:00

We trained legs at the Gold's in Concord yesterday morning and what a small gym it is. We still made it work with leg presses and hack squats. I like going to different gyms, each have their own uniqueness to them, this gym has an ass machine that I've never seen before and it's worked real smooth, pushing evenly on both sides

Calves
Leg Press
Hacks
Leg extension
Stiff legs
Leg Curls
Ass machine

Weekends are always different from weekdays, meals will be on a different schedule, the trick is to keep the general format of eating every 2.5 hours 50/50 x6 which your last meal might be 10 or 11pm, it's okay to eat them go right to bed.

I'm still having potatoes for 3 of my carb meals. I believe spuds to be the best source of carbs, because they are rich in potassium, which holds water in your muscles

Wake up weight 224.6

No change at all in weight, which tells me, i'm starting to balance out (water wise) I'm right were I need to be as far as caloric intake goes. At this point now, I don't want to lose weight fast or i'm losing muscle, around a pound a week is a good pace

No gym today, we have a wedding to attended, I will eat as usual...

Next week I will be traveling to Windsor CT every morning for work and I'll need to leave real early, so I'm not going to write in my blog until next Saturday when my mornings return back to normal

I plan on hitting a different Gym if possible from here to CT, if not, I will just hit the golds in Natick, where I live when I get back each night I'm to train. I will hook back up with the crew for Saturday's leg workout, which will be at a different Gold's to be determined by Big John during the week sometime

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83 days out

2011-04-30T10:17:00.001-04:00

Heading to Gold's in Concord Ma today to train legs, my favorite day. The whole crew will be there, Alex, John and Bob, 4 works out so nice on legs day, just as you catch your breath it's your turn.

I'm feeling like pressing my ass off today and some walking lunges, but I've never been to this gym, so I have to wait and see what they have. I kind of like not knowing my workouts ahead of time, I usually envision my whole workout before I even do it, including weight amounts, but not knowing what this gym has, I can only create a rough idea

Sour Diesel, don't get used to the shorts, it's the weekend and I'm off to the gym now

Wake up weight 224.6

I can tell that I'm just eating enough calories to slowly lose weight (fat), I didn't train yesterday and still lost .08 pounds, I'm starting to level off after 5 days.

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84 days out

2011-04-29T07:54:00.000-04:00

Again last night while training Shoulders and Biceps, I poured out sweat like crazy, this will slow down once I balance out more. I didn't lose much more weight like I did after Monday's sweat job, only .6 of a pound

Wake up weight 225.4

Alex and I started with Calves as usual and we did dumbbell shoulder presses into rear lateral lying on an incline bench, then seated side laterals. For Biceps we used a crooked bar for both standing and preacher curls, we haven't used a crooked bar in a while, we use mostly a straight bar.

5sets/Calves
13sets/Shoulders
8sets/Biceps
Abs

Still have not started to tan yet, trying to find the best deal... you know, the free ones :)

No gym tonight, going to the circus in Boston, it's an annual event for us

Food will be the same as yesterday, with potatoes for my first two meals and my last.

50/50 - 50 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbs every 2.5 hours x 6

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85 days out

2011-04-28T07:36:00.001-04:00

Last night the 3 of us hit Back and Traps and boy I poured out sweat like crazy, mainly due to the humidty being high, but also I lowered my sodium intake to under 300mg a day and I have nothing to hold the water in me.

I was thinking what a perfect night for my competition friends doing the Jay Cutler Classic next Sunday the 8th. Who needs a sauna when you have weather like this, it's perfect for pre-contest, I hope it holds right up to the show for them.

Last nights damage
5 sets/Calves
5 sets/Traps
16 sets/Back
4 sets/Abs

No tanning yet...

Today I'm going to switch out a few of the Matzoh's with potatoes. I will still take in 50 grams of carbs each time. 148 gram weight of a non cooked spud is 25 grams of carbs, so I will eat 300 grams (round it off) each time

2 cups of coffee
Meal 1/ whey and spuds
Meal 2/ chicken and spuds
Meal 3/ whey and matzoh
Meal 4/ chicken and matzoh
Meal 5/ whey/carbo force (pre-wo) 75grams carbs/50 grams protein
Meal 6/ whey/carbo force (post wo) 25 grams carbs/25 grams protein
Meal 7/ chicken and spuds
Vitamins and Minerals with each meal

Training Shoulders and Biceps tonight

Wake up weight 226 (lost a lot of water last night)

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86 days out

2011-04-27T07:46:00.000-04:00

Keeping everything the same today, except for my pre-workout and post workout drink. I use a Carbo Force which has 400 calories 100 carbs. I will use 3/4 of the drink with 2 scoops of whey right before I train and the remaining with 1 scoop of whey right after I train.

Tonight's damage will be Back and Traps with my buddies at Gold's in Arlington

7:30 whey/matzoh
10am chicken/matzoh
12:30 whey/matzoh
3pm chicken/matzoh
5:30 whey/Carbo Force (pre-workout)
7:30 whey/Carbo Force (post workout)
8:30 chicken/matzoh

Wake up weight 228

I have to start thinking about tanning. I need to figure out the best way to go about it...I'm thinking about carrying shorts with me for a 20 minute lunch tan, the weather is starting to change... I might just start hitting the tanning booth at the gym too, on days I train, you can never be dark enough

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87 days out

2011-04-26T07:35:00.000-04:00

Day one of dieting has come and gone. I kind of enjoy dieting, not much variety, but it's easy and it's a no brainier, you never have to think about what to eat, you just make your food and eat it. Food now becomes a tool to get yourself where you need to be, it's just fuel to build muscle and strip fat away.

Weight in 229.2

Last night I hit Natick Golds and did some Chest and Triceps. I started with Donkey calves even though I was suppose to do seated, I decided to do both, I love that Donkey machine. Then onto dumbbell bench, machine inclines, dumbbell pullovers, dumbbell flies and cable crossover. Triceps started with a Hoist Machine seated push downs, then single rope behind the head extensions, then push downs. some forearm work and abs finished it off

Today's food looks like this

7:30 whey/matzoh
10am chicken/matzoh
12:30 whey/matzoh
3pm chicken/matzoh
5:30 whey/matzoh
8:00 chicken/matzoh

no gym tonight...

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88 days out

2011-04-25T09:33:00.000-04:00

I took today off from work and was able to sleep a little later, pushing all the meals forward an hour and a half. I needed it after eating and drinking all day yesterday, pretty much from 12:30 on...I started with a bottle of white wine and ended with a shot of tequila and I eat everything in site, I was out by 9

Wake up weight is 230.4

Today eating started at 9 and I’ll eat every 2.5 hours. I started with a protein drink and 2 Matzoh, then it will be, boiled chicken and 2 Matzoh, then back to a protein drink, so on and so forth, six times. And let's not forget about the chewable vitamins and minerals with each meal. Eating with not much variety, you need to make sure you take your vitamins and minerals.

Training tonight solo, Chest and Triceps at the Natick Golds, I'll probably do a lot of dumbbells tonight, feeling like dumbbells and cable crossovers, I haven't' done crossovers in a while

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89 days out

2011-04-24T10:45:00.000-04:00

So here we go, starting tomorrow I will begin dieting for the NPC Teen Collegiate Master Nationals on July 22-23rd held in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. This is a national show, so it's a two day event. In this competition, in the over 40 class, if you place 1st or 2nd in your weight division, you will be awarded a professional card, which will enable you to compete in IFBB competitions, where placing wins cash

I thought I would document my days to competition, like I did when I first competed in '09 for the Jay Cutler Classic. This time, I am going to add a daily Ab shot and be as real as possible, so you can see how I change and what I do everyday to make that change..this should be pretty cool!

I'm going to start my diet with 50 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbohydrates and 0 grams of fat every two and a half hours, that will give me 6 meals, 2400 calories, for the day. I don't plan on doing cardio, so I need to start out low on the calories to force my body to burn fat. I'll do this for 2 weeks and then see where I'm at. There will come a point where I will go to 75 or 100 grams a sitting, bringing the calories up to 3000 or 3600 for the day. This will help me be as big as I should be come contest time, I need to find my "splash over point". How much food can I eat to be as big as I can, while being as tight as possible and still burning fat?

There will be no sugar, as I want the body to only run off complex carbs (stored carbs), this will help me control my carbs/water balance better, helping me know where I'm at, not to mention burning fat more efficiently. Also, I will lower my sodium to under 500mg a day. This will help me see what's what in terms of sodium water or carb water, it's all about controlling your water and shredding your fat

The first few weeks, 3 of the 6 protein sittings will be 2 scoops of whey protein (50 grams) instead of boiled chicken. Come close to the show, it will be all chicken and this will lower the sodium to under 100. For me. I find at contest, it's best to go real real low, but never NO sodium. In fact, no sodium will only cause you to hold water, believe it or not.

Eating times.
7:30am - 50/50
10:00am -50/50
12:30am - 50/50
3:00pm - 50/50
5:30pm -75/50 (pre-workout day)
7:30pm - 25/25 (post workout day)
8:00pm -50/50

On workout days my calories are slightly higher by 300 totaling 2700 for that day and that 8 o'clock meal turns into a 8:30pm meal

The Food.
Boiled Chicken seasoned with Mrs. Dash
Optimum Nutrition Whey protein
Matzoh
Potato
Carbo Force with Whey (Pre and Post workout drink up until 4 weeks out)
Pioneer Chewable Vitamins and Minerals (eat one with every meal)
Frozen gallon of fruit punch Crystal Light... the life saver, trust me!

Training will be the same,
Monday-Calves/Chest/Triceps/Forearms/Abs
Wednesday-Calves/Hams/Back/Traps/Forearms/Abs
Thursday-Calves/Shoulders/Biceps/Forearms/Abs
Saturday- Legs - we started gym hopping for this day, we plan on hitting a different gym every week, all with in a 45 minute travel. Yesterday we hit Tewsbury Golds and went like this...

Standing Calves
Lying down leg curls
Leg extensions
Squats
Hacks
Stiff Legs

Also during this time I will be working on a tan, tanning outside as much as possible, natural sun works the best.

Here is the first of many ab shots... 89 days out at 230 hoping to complete at 213

I hope you enjoy these next 88 days as much as I will!

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Back to Monday

2011-03-29T12:47:00.000-04:00

Looks like this week will run normal with no workout changes. Monday is Chest and Triceps and we started with Flat Bench, then Incline Dumbbells and then onto Dips, which we hadn't done in a bit, ending with machine Flies.
We always like to mix it up as much as possible, never starting with the same exercises. Last Chest workout we started with Incline barbells, then onto Flat Dumbbell, followed with pullovers instead of Dips.

Mixing it up keeps you growing I believe, plus it keeps it interesting all the time, instead of the same thing over and over. This way here, your body never gets a chance to get "use to it". And there are some many different movement you can do for a muscle, there in no way to do them all in one workout.

Break it down...

5sets/Seat calf
5sets/Flat Bench (last set just the bar as many as we could)
4sets/Incline Dumbbells
3sets/Dips
4sets/Machine Flies
4sets/Dumbbell skull crushers (these were real nice)
4sets/Cable Push downs
4sets/Cable French Curls w/ a straight bar
5set/Standing behind the back wrist curls

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Legs to Legs

2011-03-27T12:21:00.008-04:00

Last Sunday we trained Legs, but I wasn't too good to myself the night before. It was our neighbors birthday celebration at a place in Boston and I drank a little too much and unfortunately, I ate to little too and that's the worse combination. Up at 9 still not feeling good, had coffee and 3 potatoes to help soak up the booze and just before training at 11:30 I had a Carbo Force with 2 scoops of protein and told the guys to lead, I'm just going through the motions today

Big Bobby is still banging out legs with us, so the 4 of us started with leg presses. Alex mentions something about standing on the apparatus, so I jumped up on the machine when he was doing his last set. This machine was already at it's limit with only 11 plates each side, Alex ripped it apart like it was nothing, hitting high double digit reps!

Of course, I had to have Alex jump on the machine now for me, which I ripped apart. You see my thinking here is, lets give it all I can, while I can, so I can get as much out of this workout as I can, because my head is spinning and I feel like I have to "let go" in both outlets.

Next was the Hack machine, then weighted Sissy Squat and when we hit Stiff legged bent over row, I couldnt' even do 2 reps, my head spun so fast being bent over. I jumped back in on extensions and curls and calves and made it to the end.

The moral of this story, just because you don't normally drink, doesn't mean when you do drink, you can drink A LOT!

Still waking up at 232

5sets/Leg press
4sets/Hack
4sets/Sissy (I did 3)
4sets/Stiff legged) (not me)
4sets/Leg Extension
4sets/Seated leg Curls
5sets/Donkey Calve

This week we had to change it up a little. Tuesday started Chest and Triceps and we started to add a high volume rep, I'm talking triple digits at the end of some exercise (when it came to mind), for instances, the last set on behind the head French curls, we took just the bar and did as many reps as we could, not telling each other how many reps we got until we were all down. This little challenge caused us to "set the bar high" no matter if you are first or last, you just wanted to keep going rep after rep, to blow the number out the door. What an insane pump you get too!

5sets/Seated Calf
5sets/Incline Barbell bench (last set just the bars)
5sets/Flat Dumbbell bench (last set with 35's)
4sets/Flat dumbbell files
3sets/Dumbbell pull
4sets/French curls (last set just the bar)
4sets/Skull crushers
4sets/Push downs
4sets/Standing behind the back Wrist curls

Wednesday we trained Back and Traps and started with Calves, then leg curls, then Shrugs, then Dead lifts, then Bent over rows. We always forget how hard it is to do bent over rows after you have just trashed your Calves, Hams and have just Dead lifted, until you do your first rep and realize you can't hold yourself up in a bent over position. By the way Big John pulled 6 plates aside on Dead Lifts, that is 585 pounds, nice pull Animal!

5sets/Standing Calf
5set/Standing one legged curls
5sets/Shrugs (last set just the bar)
5sets/Dead lift (6 for John)
5sets/bent over rows
4sets/Wide Grip Pull downs
4sets/low rows
Abs

Friday Shoulders and Biceps went something like this...
5sets/Seated Calf
5sets/Seated barbell press
3sets/Reverse Seated barbell press
4sets/Dumbbell side and front raise combinations
4sets/Seated dumbbell rear laterals
4sets./Stand straight barbell curls
4sets/straight bar preacher
3sets/Dumbbell hammer curls
5sets/seated barbell wrist curls

And now back to Saturday for Legs and it was just Alex and I for this one, we kept it simple with Squats and Presses

5sets/Squats
5set/Leg press
5sets/legs extension
4sets/Stiff Legs
5sets/Seated Leg Curls
5sets/Donkeys

It looks like there at two National Shows in July, one in NJ and one in PA. not sure which one I will do, I may do both... In any event, I will start this madness April 18th, which should give me plenty of time to get in shape for July!

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And it moves

2011-03-19T10:06:00.000-04:00

Have you ever noticed that your pain likes to move around from place to place and you hardly ever train injury free. That pulled muscle pain I have in my forearm, (though is still there slightly), now has moved to a pulled muscle between my shoulder blades, you know the one that you feel through the center of your chest as well. Yeah that's the one, where you cant put your chin to your chest and sleeping becomes a challenge when you have to roll over. But my forearm feels great today considering we trained Biceps last night. I wonder where it is going to next!

Rear dumbbell laterals on a incline bench started Shoulders, then onto seated side doubles laterals. On the last set, we did a drop set 6 times for 8 reps, starting at 35's. Standing Shoulders presses were next and here is where the pain decides to change location. Funny thing about that is, while doing the presses, I had no pain or felt any pulled muscle, it was after each set I felt everything, so you know I kept going!

Keeping it simple

5sets/Seated Calf
5sets/Rear Double Laterals
5sets/Side Double Laterals (last set drop set 6sets/8reps)
5sets/Standing Barbell Shoulder press
5sets/Straight bar peachier curls
4sets/Dumbbell curls (3 for me, forearm was toast)
3sets/ Wrist curls
3sets/Reverse wrist curls

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Nothing a little ibuprofen can't handle

2011-03-17T08:47:00.000-04:00

After Chest and Triceps Monday night, I ripped something in my right forearm. The next morning I couldn't even bring my cup of coffee to my mouth. I guess that's why God gave us two arms. I loaded up on ibuprofen a couple times and I was ready to bang out Back and Traps last night!

We did end up finishing our high volume week with legs a couple of Saturdays back... If you ever wondered how many times you can squat just the bar, well for me, it's was 111 times... although I could have probably got more (not much more) I felt 111 was a nice number to stop at. When you're doing triple digit reps, besides the pain you have to get through, its a huge mind game you have to play with yourself as well

Last night I weighted in again at 237, the heaviest thus far...

Because of my forearms I opted out of Dead Lifts, this make now the second time in a row, not dead lifting... i'm really jonesing for that movement now...

We started with Calves, then to Legs Curls. These two movements back to back really work well together. Then it was onto Traps. I like starting with Traps as opposed to ending as people normally do. At the end, you always find yourself not having much energy and your grip is pretty much toast after 15-20 sets of Back. Bent-over rows is a nice segue-way after doing shrugs, your whole Back feels nice and thick after the two. We ended everything with cables, starting with Wide Grip Pull downs, Close Grip Low rows and Reverse Grip Pull downs.

Break me down

5sets/Standing Calf
4sets/lying leg curls
5sets/Barbell Shrugs
4sets/Bent Over Rows
4sets/Wide Grip Pull Downs
4sets/Close Grip Low Rows
4sets/Reverse Grip Pull Downs
Abs

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Again again...

2011-03-04T14:32:00.001-05:00

We continued with the high volume sets for Wednesday's Back and Thursday's Shoulders and Biceps workouts

What we did was 3 sets, the first two we used a light weight and did as many reps as we could, I'm talking as much as 100+ in some sets, going WAY into the pain barrier.

Then the last set we bump the weight up almost double, if not, triple in some exercises. You think because your muscles are so gone and there is so much blood in them, that there is no way you are going to be able to lift heavier weight, but you can and we did

You see the first two sets are hitting the slow twitching muscle fibers and the last set hits the fast twitching muscle fibers and believe me, there is a difference and it's real noticeable when you go from a weight that you did a 100+ reps, then to a weight that you're good for 8-12 reps.

Break me down

Today's wake up weight 232.6 (heavies thus far waking up)

Back:
3sets/Standing Calf
3sets/Lying down leg curls
3sets/Shrugs
3sets/Bent Over Rows
3sets/Pull Downs
3sets/Low Rows
3sets/Wrist Curls

Shoulders and Biceps:
3sets/Seated Calf
3sets/Standing Shoulder Press
2sets/Seated dumbbell side laterals - 1set/machine sides
2sets/Lying down incline rear laterals - 1set/machine rears
3sets/Standing barbell curls
3sets/Machine preacher curls
3sets/Reverse grip curls
3sets/Reverse wrist curls
Abs

What I've learned is, if you can get past the pain and I mean PAIN, you get to a point where the muscle becomes numb and you are able to continue to triple digits.

I think going forward, we might try for a while, doing the first set (the warm up) as many reps as possible, with a weight to do at least 50 to 100 reps, then continue on like we would normally and increase accordingly. This way here we are assuring that both fast and slow twitching muscle fibers are being hit...

It's mind boggling how my whole body feels right now!

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I can't touch my face

2011-03-01T15:26:00.000-05:00

I don't know how to write this one...

I though just for the hell of it, we would do as many reps as we could with the warm up weight on flat benching (135) well that turned into everything. You know we don't count our reps unless we count our reps for a reason and we usually just go to failure. But this time we went to failure and counted... talk about volume.

We started with the flat bench 135 and did anywhere from 25 to 40 reps and went up to 185 and did it again, as many as we could do, then back down to 135 for the last set, trying to get as many reps as we got the first set. We did this on the smith machine too with inclines and then on dips, doing as many as we could for 3 sets, trying to beat each other or just trying to beat our own numbers. We ended chest doing dumbbell pull overs, as many as we could with 60's the first set, then 80's for the last set, doing well over 30 reps.

For Triceps we started with skull crushers with a straight bar having just 10 pounds on it and do as many reps as we could for 3sets, doing 30+ each sets, same with French curls and we ended on push downs with 50 pounds and did 2 sets of as many reps as possible. I was able to get 46, then 55 and Alex was just about the same, but John first set was 50 reps and with a little incentive (me motiving him on the side) he was able to do 105 reps on his last set!

Talk about a blood pump, I can't remember the last time I put so much blood into a muscle, boy what a great feeling!

Break me down

Scale me 234.4
4sets/Seated Calf
3sets/Flat bench
3sets/Smith Inclines
3sets/Dips
2sets/Dumbbell Pull Overs
3sets/Skull Crushers
3sets/French Curls
2sets/Push downs
Abs

Workout time 1hr 30m

I'm in the shower last night, my pump was gone at that time, but I still couldn't touch my face and even today I feel like I have something on the back of my arms

Again, again, lets do this again!

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My Legs are not the ones to burn like this...

2011-02-28T11:19:00.000-05:00

Alex screams out after finishing his last set with 9 plates on each side of the press machine, as he reaches failure, we strip one plate at a time, until we get back down to where we started at 3 plates... Yeah man!
This is what happens when you go on a cruise and mis a leg workout... who am I kidding, my legs were burning too and I didn't do a big drop set!

So I get this phone call the other day from an old time ex-bodybuilding friend of mine Big Bobby O'Brien. He just found out we lost a close friend Vinny (Powerhouse Gym) Greco and was looking for away to reach out to Cheryl so he could express his condolences. The next thing you know he's banging out legs with us on Sunday and it's went something like this...

We started with leg curls and leg extensions going back and forth between the two for 5 sets, then to leg presses starting with 3 plates aside. I was going to try to do 100 reps, but Alex started making fun of me around 30 reps and I don't normally count so it's easy for me to lose track of where i'm at, so I did. I know it was more the 40 but I don't know where I ended. Then we went to 6 plates and I manage to get to 30 reps without losing count and the last set was 9 plates and i didn't' count but it was around 15 reps. Then it was off to the squat rack for 1 plate, 2 plate, 3 plates to failure as always, from there we hit the hack machine for 3 sets to failure, then to stiff legs for another 3 sets to failure, ending on the Donkey machine

Break me down...

5sets/Legs Curls
5set/Legs extensions
3sets/legs presses
3sets/Squats
3sets/Hack Squats
3sets/Stiff Legged Dead lifts
5sets/Donkey Calf
5sets/Wrist Curls

Awesome leg workout and nice seeing an old friend. Big Bobby who had such an awesome workout with us, he wants more damage next week, how could we say no... we love sharing the damage!

Legs today gone tomorrow!

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All in

2011-02-26T11:17:00.000-05:00

Alex is back just in time to bang out some Shoulders and Biceps with us.

Orange Carbo Force (400 calories 100 grams of carbs) plus 2 scoops of vanilla whey, makes a nice 700 calorie, 50 grams of protein pre-workout drink, giving me the fuel needed to kick some ass...

and it went something like this...

Scale/234.4
5sets/Seated Calf
4sets/Seated rear lateral Dumbbell raises
4sets/Seated side lateral Dumbbell raises
4sets/Standing Barbell Shoulder press
3sets/Reverse Grip Standing Barbell Shoulder press
4sets/Machine side laterals
4sets/Standing Barbell Curls
3sets/Preacher Curls
3sets/Dumbbell Hammers
4sets/Reverse wrist Curls
Abs

Awesome workout as always!

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Tipping the scale

2011-02-24T09:00:00.001-05:00

Last night at the gym I weighed in at 235, this is the heaviest I've been. 234 was where I left off last year, before I took it down to 209 to compete.

I'm planning to hit 240-245 before May where I'll start to take it down again. If my calculations are correct, I should come in around 215 this next time competing, which should be nice for my 5"10 frame. But as always, weight doesn't matter on the stage, it's condition, so I'll weigh whatever it takes.

Monday night, Chest and Triceps was solo. It's hard sometimes to drive to Arlington and train at 550 when you have the day off from work and live in Natick

And it went like this...

5sets/Seated Calf
5sets/Free weight machine Incline Bench
4sets/Smith machine Flat Bench
4sets/Incline Dumbbell Flies
4sets/Cable Crossovers
4sets/Scull Crushers
4sets/Triceps Push Downs
4sets/French Curls with rope on cable machine
4sets/Wrist curls
Abs

Last night John and I hit Back, Alex is still on his Cruise looking large

And it went like this...

5sets/Standing Calf
4sets/Standing legs curls
4sets/Dead Lifts
4sets/Barbell Shrugs
4sets/Bent Over Rows
4sets/Lat Pull Downs
4sets/Dumbbell Rows
4sets/Reverse grip Pull Downs
4sets/Wrist Curls
Abs

What a Back pump you get when you go from Dead Lifts, to Shrugs, to Bent Overs, I felt like I was carrying around a Backpack after that.

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Always be training

2011-02-20T10:07:00.001-05:00

I want everyone to know, just because I'm not blogging, doesn't mean I ain't training, we've been having some sick workouts!

One night while banging out Shoulders doing side laterals, we started at the 35's for 10reps and without resting, we did drop sets right down the line..30,25,22.5,20,17.5. We did that again for 6 reps. Then for the last set, we went up the line for 6 reps. This was definitely a growing day! Come to think of it, every workout we have are growing workouts. You know the ones that release your hormones because of the intensity is so high and you get such a huge pump. You can tell with the right amount of good food and enough sleep, you will be growing!

Speaking of growing, I'm waking up these days around 230, though my abs are not in contest shape, I'm still under10% BF.

The plan this year is to compete in a National show at the end of July in PA. This will be my first attempt to capture a pro card.

Come April 1st, I will be about 120 days out. This is when I will start to make changes in my diet, where as, I will drop red meat and stop overeating. Eating just enough to continue growing and thinning my skin at the same time, but in the meantime, I'm hoping to climb my way up to be around 240-245

Yesterday for legs, I trained solo. The Animal aka Big John, was entertaining his family and trained Friday and the Hawk aka Alex, flew the coop and is on a big boat right now somewhere out at sea. I'm sure he's looking pretty sick right about now too. For the past 5 day before taking a Cruise, Alex's dropped his carbs to just about to zero (only eating carrots for carbs) pulling all the water out of his skin and muscles. Now when he starts to eat carbs again, he will have a nice big tight look for a couple of days, just in time to show off on the boat. He went from 230 to 223 and from not seeing his lower abs, to now seeing his intercostals, way to go brother!

I love starting fresh with that Donkey Calf machine, I don't know which is growing faster, my Calves or my Forearms, since we started hitting them every workout

Legs curls and then leg extensions on that Hoist equipment were next and I really really like the seated legs curl machine, boy does that deep burn really creep up on you right at the end, you can't get out of the machine fast enough!

I then did Leg Presses, super setting with Stiff Legs and ended on the Hack machine

5sets/Donkey Calves
5sets/Seated Legs curls
5/sets/Leg Extensions
4/sets/Leg Press/Stiff Legs
4sets/Hack Squats
5sets/Wrist Curls
Abs

On a side note; What Alex did was only to temporarily change his look and to learn himself. You need to know what food does to you, if you are to ever compete. Please understand that this is not a way to lose fat, nor is it a way to grow muscle, you MUST eat Protein and Carbohydrate with EVERY meal to grow and lose body fat and to be HEALTHY

Stay tuned, come April I will start to document my journey

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Sometimes one sets does the trick

2011-02-05T19:12:00.001-05:00

Legs today (favorite day) and we had a special guest, Ripp'n Rodney came to Natick Golds (home of the Donkey calf machine) to blast legs with us.

We decided to run everything backwards, so the Donkey machine is was, followed by a leg curl machine and a leg extension machine, where we went from one to the other, resting one person in between sets. After we got the blood pumping all through the legs, we moved to Stiff legged dead lifts to finish off the hams.

Then we took a Roman Chair device where you lock your feet and calves into it and sit back and did Sissy Squats on it, with a barbell across the shoulders like we where squatting, climbing the weight up to185 pounds.

My quads are on fire as we head over to the strip of the AstroTurf. and do walking lunges with the 45's on the bar. 25 lunges down and 25 lunges back, for one set. NOW my quads a screaming!

After I no longer felt the need to walk around in circles praying to the "stop the pain gods" we ended legs on the hack squat machine.

5sets/Donkeys
5sets/legs extensions/leg curls combo
3sets/Stiff legs
4sets/Roman Chair Squats
1set/Walking Lunge
4sets/Hack Squats
5sets/Wrist curls

Workout time 1.45min

Did I mention I love leg days...

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Just another one

2011-02-05T08:40:00.000-05:00

The snow only kept us apart for one workout, we were back banging it out the next day. After seated calves we started with standing shoulder presses, then seated dumbbell laterals, then lying on a incline bench for rear dumbbell laterals, ending shoulder with a few front raises.

Biceps started with standing barbel curls, then machine Preacher curls, then machine reverse grip Preacher curls to hit the forearms and end the biceps, since we just did wrist curls the night before, we opted out this time

Lately I've been getting some sick pumps and this was just another one!

5sets/Seated Calf raises
5sets/Standing Shoulder Presses
4sets/Seated Dumbbell laterals
4sets/Incline Rear Dumbbell laterals
3sets/Front Raises
5sets/Standing Barbell curls
4sets/Preacher curls
4sets/Reverse Grip Preacher curls

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Flying Solo

2011-02-03T11:39:00.000-05:00

The snow may stop the gang from training together, but it's not going to stop us from training

Back and Traps at Natick Golds worked for me, right after I cleared the path to get out...

It all started with my favorite machine, the Donkey calf machine. Back started with wide grip lat pull downs, into a free weight machine row, where i started with the seat at it's highest position and each set I went down a notch, to change up the angle and hit the Back a little different each time. 100 pound one arm dumbbell rows was next followed by reverse grip pull downs. Back to the 100's for Dumbbell Shrugs for 3 sets and on the last set, I did giant set where i when from the 100's to the 80's to the 60's as many reps on each as i could do. Wrist curls and Abs ended everything...

Breakdown

5sets/Donkey calf
5sets/Wide grip Pull downs
4sets/Free Weight machine Rows
3sets/Dumbbell One Arm Rows
3sets/Reverse Grip Pull downs
3sets/Dumbbell Shrugs
3sets/Wrist Curls
Abs

Shoulders and Biceps tonight

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Nice way to start the week

2011-02-01T18:13:00.027-05:00

Monday night, Chest and Triceps and for the first time, in a long time, (months) I was able to bench press with hardly any shoulder pain. Taking time off these past 6 weeks by training real light, is starting to paid off.

The three of us had such a fast pace intense workout, doing forced reps, going past failure into the growing zone on almost every set. The pump was so big and I was feeling real good, ripping out dumbbell pullovers with the 105's without any shoulder or elbow pain, it felt so nice!

Pullovers are a staple and really work the whole upper body, working your Back, Chest, Rib Cage, Traps, Shoulders, Triceps, Abs, even your Forearm's. We chose to do this on Chest day, but you could also do this on your Back day too, one or the other

and it went like this...

5sets/Seated Calf raises
5set/Flat Bench
4sets/Smith Incline Bench
3sets/Dips
3sets/Wide Dumbbell Flat Flies
3sets/Pullovers
4sets/French Curls
3sets/Skull Crushers
3sets/Push downs
4sets/Wrist Curls
Abs

Workout time 90 min.

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Weekly wrap up with...

2011-01-30T10:08:00.000-05:00

So now it's Wednesday night, time to train Back and Traps, we start with wide grip lat pull downs, the bent over rows, ending Back with close grip cable low rows. Barbell shrugs did the trick for Traps

5sets/Standing Calf raises
5sets/Lat pull downs
5sets/Bent over rows
5sets/Low Rows
5sets/Shrugs
5sets/Wrist curls
Abs

Thursday night the Animal was loose, so it was just Hawk and I banging out Shoulders and Biceps on our own.
We were on fire that night and banged out our workout in just over an hour.

Shoulder we sat at the press machine backwards facing the pad and did as many presses as we could, then dropping the weight 2 plates grabbing a reverse grip and banged out as many as we could again, doing a super set.

For side and rear laterals, we laid chest down on a incline bench doing sides, then rears, then sides, then rears with dumbbells, hitting both heads at the same time

5sets/Seated Calf raises
5sets/Shoulder presses
5sets/Sides and Rear Laterals
5sets/Preacher curls
5sets/Machine bicep curls
5sets/Hammer curls
5sets/Wrist curls
5sets Reverse Wrist curls
Abs

Now it's Saturday morning and we are all here and it's my favorite day of them all, LEGS! And what a leg workout we had... my legs are so trashed today! Not only did my quads lock out on me last night, they did it 3 times. The first time I was praying for help, I could not, for the life of me, bend my legs (both) my quads were locked. This lasted for about 10 minutes, I thought I was going to faint at one point because of all the pain... God I love training legs!

5sets/legs extensions
5sets/Squats (this did me in)
5sets/leg Press
5sets/Stiff legs (3 for me, my hips where screaming at me to stop)
5sets/Seated leg curls
5sets/Donkey calf raises
Abs

Awesome workouts this week as always... resting today to start it all over again tomorrow!

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Felt like a Friday

2011-01-25T09:16:00.001-05:00

But it's not, it was Monday and it was dead as a door nail at the gym... Some things never change... New Year resolution lasted for 3 weeks, if that and now the gym is empty again. I want to take what they take, that gives them the ability to get in shape in only 3 weeks.

Normally I don't see anyone at the gym other than the two guys I work out with, unless of course someone come over the us and says hi. (if you know what I mean) but last night there was no one at the dumbbells, which is very unusually for a Monday night...

We started with incline barbell bench, then Smith machine flat bench, ending with flat dumbbell flies.
For Triceps, we took cable push downs, over head rope extension and bent over cable extensions and went in a circle 5 times, totalling 15 sets in 15 minutes, then onto the end of a bench for 5 sets of wrist curls.

Something like this...

5sets/Calf machine presses
5sets/Incline Bench
5sets/Smith Flat Bench
5sets/Flat Dumbbell Flies
5sets/Triceps push downs
5sets/Triceps overhead extension
5sets/Triceps bent over extension
5sets/Wrist curls
Abs

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Give me one more day

2011-01-23T09:17:00.000-05:00

Was how I was feeling as I entered the gym Saturday morning. We trained last Sunday due to the weather and although my legs pretty much recuperated, they still felt like one more day rest would be perfect. When I bent over to tie my sneakers, I could still feel my Hamstrings not completely healed, but it's all good, 6 days rest is plenty of time

We were all here for this one and we started with walking lunges. Talk about waking up your legs, after the first set of 50 lunges (25 down, 25 back) the blood just rushes in and says "HELLO" here I am! We did 4 more of those, 5 sets total! Hack Squats followed, then leg extensions, Stiff legged dead lifts, Leg Curls, ending on the Donkey calf machine

Breakdown

5sets/Walking lunges (started with the bar, climbing up to 45 plates)
5sets/Hack Squats (ending at 5 plates aside)
5sets/Leg Extentions
5sets/Stiff Legs
5sets/Leg Curls
5sets/Donkey Calf rasies
3sets/Wrist curls
3sets/Reverse Wrist curls

Awesome workout!

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One benefit of two

2011-01-21T18:15:00.002-05:00

Just a block away from the gym last night, when I get a text from the Animal saying he's not going to make it. I knew this was coming, we talked about it the night before. What I didn't know was right after that text, I get one from Hawk saying... are you training tonight? I didnt' think Alex was able to train and I thought I was running solo for Shoulder and Biceps, it's nice having 2 training partners!

We started with behind the neck shoulder presses on the Smith Machine, then to machine side laterals and rear laterals, it's was all about the machines tonight. For Biceps we started with standing crooked barbell curls, then machine preachers, ending biceps and starting forearms with dumbbell hammer curls and forearms were wrist curls off an end of a bench

And it went something like this...

5sets/Seated Calf raises
5sets/Behind the neck Shoulder presses
5sets/Side Laterals
5sets/Rear Laterals
5sets/Standing crooked bar curls
5sets/Machine Preacher curls
5sets/ Dumbbell Hammers
5sets/Wrist curls
5sets/Reverse Wrist curls
Abs

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Nice and Simple

2011-01-21T12:13:00.001-05:00

Alex "the Hawk" flew the coop for this one... it was just Big John "the Animal" and I...

Hams are still trashed from leg day, so no dead lifts this time

5sets/Standing Calf rasies
5sets/Wide grip Pull Downs
5sets/Bent Over rows
5sets/T-bar row
5sets/Barbell Shrugs
5sets/Waist curls
Abs

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MLK = Morning workout

2011-01-19T07:23:00.001-05:00

As we recognize MLK day, this gave us the opportunity to train early.
You have to love noon time workouts. It's not too early that you're not completely awake and you're able to get a few meals under your belt, which helps push you through the intense workout you get from having all this morning energy

The Animal is back feeding... welcome back

We decided to do Smith Machine work, we did both the flat and incline bench on it. The smith machines are nice at the Gold's in Arlington, they are smooth and have no drag at all. From there we moved onto wide flat dumbbell flies, these feel really good, I think I'm hooked with this new way of doing them. We ended Chest with dumbbell pullovers, these really open up your rib cage and finish off the chest nicely and also warm up your Triceps

Triceps started with skull crushers with your head hanging off the bench, then to push downs, ending with over head cable rope extensions.

5/Machine Calf presses
5/Smith Flat bench
5/Smith Incline bench
5/Wide Flies
3/Pull-Overs
5/Skull Crushers
5/Push Downs
5/Overhead rope extension
5/Barbell Wrist curls

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I pick things up, I put them down

2011-01-16T15:48:00.001-05:00

Is how I felt today as I walked in the new Natick Gold's gym with my half frozen gallon of Crystel Light flavored water (sorry that's all it is) as people looked at my water, all I wanted to say was that... if fact, i did quote it a bunch of times, just for fun throughout the workout, ask Alex

About this gallon of water, for me it was something I did during dieting season, while preparing for a competition. When all day long you eat boiled chicken and potatoes, the last thing you want to drink is plain water.. trust me..
Now it's a just habit. I like having the frozen gallon of crystal light (fruit punch) with me when I'm training, it really hits the spot!

It was legs day this morning and my favorite most satisfying time of all. After you finish a big leg workout your euphoria is through the roof, along with your testosterone and your growth hormone, it's really such a total body grower. You get that feeling of, I just finishing an intense leg's workout and now the rest of the week is a cake walk

Animal is still a little under the weather, so it's just Hawk and I

We started with leg extensions on this new equipment called the Hoist, each machine acts like a rocker, it puts your whole body in motion.

It's okay, not a big fan of the leg extensions as I thought I was the first time using it last week. I can't get enough of a stretch, but the seated leg curls machine rocks! no pun intended...

After the extension we did squats, climbing our way up to 315, then walking lunges, stiff legs, that seated leg curl machine, Donkey calf raises, ending on a Hoist machine for abs, where you can twist as you pull your knees up to your chest... it was okay, I'll do it again, I guess...

No forearms today, they are still wrecked from the last time with Back (Thursday)... beside we are training Chest and Triceps tomorrow and we can hit them then.

5/Extensions
5/Squats
3/Walking Lunges (legs are on fire right now)
5/Stiff legs
5/Seated leg curls
5/Donkeys
5/Abs

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Make it a double

2011-01-16T08:11:00.000-05:00

Because of mother nature and the fact I was running on only one 1200 calorie drink for over 4 hours of snow removal, I opted out of training Back and Trap on Wednesday and I got Hawk to bail with me, but it was too late for the Animal, he made it to the gym before we could reach him.

Thursday Alex and I figured we'd get to the gym a little earlier and bang out Back and Traps before the Big John got there

Moving right through an intense Back workout, resting only 30-45 seconds and increasing the weight each set. We did 4 exercises doing 5,5,5,3 sets.
Animal walked in so, we only did 3 sets for the last one. We move to traps ans did 4 quick sets of dumbbell shrugs with 80's, I go, he go, I go, he go... I think it took us about 4.5 minutes to do 4 sets each, around 10 reps

We started with Calves as we do every time now, 5 seated was the damage this time. For shoulder we went with a press machine, facing the seat, then to those new side lateral we do with the rear laterals on a incline bench (real cool). This time we did it alternating, going from first rep side raise, second rep rear raise, so on and so forth for about 8 to 10 each angle, totaling 16-20 reps. We ended shoulders taking a 45 plate doing as many front raises with a twist as you can, then handing if off, we tossed that around 5 times, shoulders are done.

Biceps started with dumbbell curls on an incline bench, these give you a nice stretch, then we did standing dumbbell concentration curls, we each grabbed a dumbbell and went left to right two times in a row, rested, then repeated. Ending Biceps and starting Forearms was reverse grip curls with a crooked bar, then ending forearms was wrist curls off a bench

We banged out the whole workout, Back,Traps,Calves,Shoulder,Biceps,Forearms and Abs, in 2 hours and 15 minutes

Great Workout, nice pace!

Breakdown

Lat pull downs/5sets
Weighted machine Lat pulls/5sets
Low Rows/5sets
Reverse Pull downs/3sets
Shrugs/4sets

The Animal has come to feed

Seated front shoulder presses/5sets
Side and rear incline dumbbell Laterals/5sets
Front raises with a 45 plate/5sets
Incline Dumbbell curls/5sets
Standing concentration curls/4sets
Reverse grip curls/5sets
Wrist curls/5sets
Reverse wrist curls/5sets
Abs/5sets

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Arnold does 5

2011-01-12T11:46:00.000-05:00

I just finish the book, Education of a bodybuilder by Arnold, it's a book about Arnold growing up and being different, because of his love for bodybuilding and I can relate to that.

Bodybuilding or even weight training wasn't that popular when I was younger. I remember in high school, a lot times, I was the only one in the gym during break time. I trained at Mike's gym in Cambridge (the first Mike's, in the back, by the tracks, off of mass ave, which is no longer there) I was 15, the youngest one there. I would ride my bike from Cambridge Port (Pearl st) to North Cambridge, just about everyday until I got my permit at 15 an a half. Even when I was competing in my early 20's, I would be at a restaurant and if I asked for no butter or sauce, I was looked at like I had 4 heads

What I got from this book was, remembering the way I use to train when I was younger, like doing 5 sets on everything, a couple of warm up's, then 3 good working sets and how I did certain movement, like dropping your head off a bench when doing triceps extensions, little things like that, or bringing the barbell just over your nipples when you bench. You kind of forget these little things and they make such a big difference

The Hawk has landed, so it was back to three of us. We started with 5 sets of seated calf presses (we are going start with calves every workout now for a while), then flat bench, then incline bench, then flat dumbbell flies where we dropped the dumbbells really low on the stretching, so that your rear delts wrap around the bench as you stretch, then coming up 10" apart at the top.

Skull crusher with our head hanging off the end of the bench, still bringing the bar to the forehead and when contracting, not pressing the weight above your chest, but keeping it behind the head

French curls leaning against a preacher bench. These are so nice, because after doing skull crusher all you feel like doing is stretching your triceps, because they are so pump, this does that for you and adds another level to the pump. Standing Triceps push downs completes everything giving you that hard full contraction, just what the doctor ordered

We ended doing 5 sets of wrist curls and some abs, we are going to end every workout with this for now... I need forearms as much as I need calves!

The break down

Seated calf press/5sets
Flat Bench/5sets
Inclines Bench/5sets
Flat flies/5sets
Skull crushers/5sets
French curls/5sets
Pushdowns5/set
Wrist curls/5sets
Abs

Time for a protein drink!

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Vertical leg press hasn't moved

2011-01-09T12:09:00.000-05:00

Natick Gold's just opened in their new location yesterday and what perfect timing for legs day!

Alex hasn't flown north yet, so it's me and the Animal

We met in the parking lot to go in together (We are not members of this gym, but alliances) Of course I go right for the vertical leg press machine, but it hadn't been moved from the old location as of yet, (sad face) what a bummer, I really like this machine and you never see this machine at gyms

That's okay they have this other cool press machine that instead of the moving apparatus being on a sled, it's on a pivot joint and I can get this angle to really rip apart my quads. We did 6 sets/12reps, starting with 3-45lbs plates aside and increasing by 2 plates aside, ending at 13 plates, feel the burn!

The gym has a long piece of AstroTurf for various exercise, or so should i say walking lunges. Up and back twice was about a 150 lunges, with a 55lbs barbell on the back, now my legs are on FIRE!

Over to the seated legs curl machine, then to the ass buster machine for couple, ending on the donkey calf machine.

I realized after i got home, we forgot to do stiff leg dead lifts, which are a staple and should be done every workout. But I can tell you today, i don't even notice it, my legs are so trashed, i love this feeling!

Break it down

Leg extensions - 4sets
Legs press - 6sets/12reps/13plates max
Walk lunges - 2 times up and back/150 lunges/55lbs
(Stiff leg dead lifts would have been here) 5sets
Seated legs curls - 5sets
Butt Blaster - 2sets
Donkey Calf - 5sets/15reps

Time for a protein drink

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Thursdays workout

2011-01-08T09:22:00.000-05:00

Shoulder and Biceps

Alex the Hawk, glided his way to NY for the weekend with his brother, so it was just me and Big John the Animal.

Just the night before we banged out Back and Traps, so it was nice for the first time, in a long time, not to do Shrugs after training Shoulders.. Everyone knows when Traps follow a Shoulder workout, they tend to sometime be an after thought, they just don't get the energy as they would if they were trained first or close to first, instead of last

We started with shoulder presses, that we did sitting down this time, then to side laterals on a incline bench, if you have never tried this, you should, you will be amazed on how much your sides get hit. Then on the same bench we did rears laterals, in fact, we went back and forth doing sides, then rears, then sides, until we did 4 sets each.

Then we took a 45 plate and did front raises, passing it back and forth to each other with no rest other then the other guy doing his set.

Biceps started with standing barbell curls, then standing bent over Bicep concentration curls. I have to say, this is the best exercise to build a peak in your Biceps, when done correctly, they will grow like crazy.

We then took the rope from the bottom pulley and did Hammer curls which sucked and we won't do that again... there just wasnt' enough resistance to really get a pump... dumbbell hammers or standing reverse curls work so much better

We then went to the end of a bench and did heavy wrist curl to really drive some blood into the forearms, then reverse wrist curls top it off nicely and we ending with Abs

The breakdown

Seated barbell press/4sets
Incline side/rear lateral raises/4sets each
Front raises with a 45 plate/4sets no rest
Standing barbell curls/4sets
Bend over concentration dumbbell curls/4sets
Standing rope hammers/4sets... won't do these again
Seated wrist curls 4/sets
Seated reverse wrist curls/4sets
Abs

1 hour and 30 minutes later we were a size BIGGER

Time for a protein drink

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Don’t try this at home

2011-01-06T12:17:00.000-05:00

Not sure what Alex was thinking when he suggested we do Dead Lifts and Bent Over Rows in the same workout, he must be thinking we are immortal or something

Last nights workout was Back and Traps and we started with 4 sets of standing calf raises into 4 sets of lying down legs curls, then 4 sets of dead lifts (Nothing like trashing your calves and hamstrings before you dead lift), then 4 sets of barbell shrugs. At this time I could no longer feel the center of my back and next … you guess it, Bent Over Rows for 4 sets

Now picking the barbell off the rack having 135lbs on it felt easy, seeing we just had 315lbs on the bar for shrugs, but when you bend over to start your rows, the center of your back/hamstrings/quad/calves are so exhausted, that start screaming out, ARE YOU CRAZY.

After we grunted through bent over’s, it was already 7:50pm and we still had 12 more sets to do for Back,(Dead lifts ate up a lot of time) so we took the last 3 exercises (lat pull downs/Low rows/reverse grip pull downs) and did them all together, going from one to the other, resting one person in between sets.

Here is the breakdown

Standing calf raises - 4sets/15+ reps

Lying down leg curls - 4sets/15+ reps

Dead lifts - 135/5reps-225/5reps-315/5reps-315/10reps-315/10reps

Barbell shrugs – 225/315/315/315

Bent over Row – 135/185/205/205

Lat Pull Downs/Low Rows/Reverse Grip Pull Downs/ 4sets each

Feeling pretty thick today

Mental note; do a machine row the next time you do Dead Lifts with Back

Time for a protein drink

size BIGGER

Plus 3

2011-01-04T15:45:00.000-05:00

This week we switch to a 4 day split...
Monday/Chest and Triceps
Wednesday/Back and Traps
Thursday/Shoulders and Biceps
Saturday/Legs

Chest and Triceps started with Dumbbell inclines 4 sets, the first set being a feeler and the last three were to failure plus three more reps. This is how the rest of the chest exercises went, 1set feeler and 3sets to failure plus three past failure and it went something like this...

Dumbbell incline bench 4sets
Smith Machine flat bench 4sets
Dumbbell flat flies 4sets
Crooked bar decline Triceps extensions 4sets
Crooked bar over head french curls 4sets
Straight bar triceps push downs 4 sets

Great workout, injuries are starting to go away, cutting back on the amount of weight I have been using and doing more volume work is starting to pay off, in terms of my injuries healing

Chest and Triceps are nice and sore today

Time for a protein drink

size BIGGER!

Start without me

2011-01-02T10:25:00.001-05:00

This Saturday we pushed forward the workout time to 1:30 to catch a couple hours extra sleep to make up for staying up late on new years eve and a happy New Year to all!

At 1:30 John and I get a text from Alex saying, where our we working out, Arlington or Natick? Alex was at the Natick Golds, where we talked about training next Saturday not this. Start without me, was his next text, so we did...

We did Shoulders first and Alex hooked up with us on Back

Standing Barbell presses 4 sets
Machine side laterals 5 sets
Incline bench rear laterals 4 sets
Incline bench side laterals 4 sets
Barbell Shrugs 5 sets
Wide grip lat pull downs 4 sets
Free weight machine wide grip rows 4 sets
Cable reverse grip low rows 4 sets
Palm facing grip cable high rows 4 sets

Shoulders before Back is a killer, but it's all good and although your not as strong on Back as you could be if done first, we had a great workout!

Time for a protein drink

and my new years resolution is... size BIGGER!

Volume 25: Chapter legs

2010-12-31T13:34:00.000-05:00

My favorite part of the book. We decided that it was a night of volume and 25 was the number to hit

We started with leg presses, 3 plates a side for 25 reps and climbed our way up to 7 plates a side for 25 reps, totaling 5 sets.

After that the only thing I wanted to do were leg extensions, to get rid of the lactic acid burn I had in my quads from all those reps, 4 sets of leg extensions did the trick!

Hack Squats was next, 4 sets of 25 reps and back came the lactic acid burn, but now it was in a different place, more to the out side as opposed to the tear drop area and on the last set Alex yells out, there goes my glut, it just gave out… After 225 repetitions total for pressing movements, I can’t blame it one bit!

Next we did stiff legged dead lifts for 4 sets, standing legs curls for 3 sets and the 3 calf machines we use, for 9 sets total, ending with Abs

The breakdown…

Leg press /5 sets/25 reps

Leg extensions/4 sets/failure

Hack Squats/4 sets/25 reps

Stiff leg dead lifts/4 sets/failure

Standing legs curls/3 sets/failure

Standing calves/3 sets/failure

Seated calves/3 sets/failure

Machine calves press/3 sets/failure

Abs

Legs are pretty trashed today and I love it!

Time for a protein drink

size BIGGER!

Last week for a 3 day split

2010-12-29T12:33:00.001-05:00

This week due to the holidays and the snow storm we just got, we decided it would be best to run Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Next week we go to a 4 day split and it should transition nicely

Yesterday I was able to get the guys to train at the Natick Golds gym which is 5 minutes from my house. I had the day off from work, and it made things for me a little easier, seeing I had to take care of some personal stuff near home.

Natick Gold’s will be moving in a couple of weeks and it’s nice to know that they are keeping the vertical leg press machine, as well as, the donkey calf machine. You don’t get to see these machines often and they are both awesome machines!

I’ve been kind of on “vacation” in terms of intensity, I figured rather then taking time off from the gym, I would just cut back on my intensity to give my sore joints a rest

Yesterday it was all about Chest and Arms and it went something like this…

Flat Bench Dumbbell presses

Machine Incline presses

Flat Dumbbell flies

Close grip Flat Bench on the Smith machine, (starting the triceps, ending the chest)

Triceps push downs with a rope

Seated Triceps extension on a machine

Seated Bicep curls on a machine

Seated Dumbbell curls

Reverse grip Barbell curls

No abs today… seeing I can’t see them anymore, they won’t be missed (smile)

Time for a protein drink

Want to add that Big John aka Animal ripped apart the 150 dumbbells on the flat bench, for reps!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

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Save yourself first

2010-12-25T08:43:00.002-05:00

Of course we got our workout in on Christmas Eve and so didn’t the whole world… I’ve never seen the gym so busy and so many new faces. It’s a nice sign that Americans are starting to get their priorities straight and took advantage of a no work day and got their workouts in early.

Save yourself first so you can save others, is how I believe it should be, let’s just hope it last.

Back and Shoulders

5 sets/ Lat pull-downs

4sets/Bent-over rows

4 sets/ Cable Low rows

4 sets/ reverse grip cable pull downs

4 sets/ Shoulder presses on a press machine facing the pad

4 sets/ Dumbbell side laterals

4 sets/ Machine rear delts

4 sets/ Cable Shrugs

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Time for a protein drink

size BIGGER!

Left hamstring I would like to introduce my good friend ice.

2010-12-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

Why don't you guys hang out for a while… the Animal aka Big John barks out

Yes another legs day, oh how I love leg days, let me count the ways…

4 sets/Leg press

4 sets/ Smith Machine Front Squat (I was pretty trashed after this)

4 sets /Step back Smith machine lunges (here’s where the Ice comes asking for the Animal)

4 sets /Legs extensions

4 sets/Stiff leg dead lifts

4 sets /Lying down leg curls

3 sets each/Standing calf raises, seated calf and sitting calf press

The Hawk aka Alex led the way last night and I was the caboose, two hours later and the legs were gone!

Time for a protein drink

size BIGGER!

And it went something like this…

2010-12-21T13:30:00.002-05:00

Chest and Arms;

Standing crooked bar curls 4 set

Preacher curls 4 sets

Dumbbell Hammer curls 4 sets

Incline barbell bench 4 sets

Incline dumbbells 4 sets

Smith Machine Flat bench 4 sets

Machine flies 4 sets

Triceps cable push downs 4sets

Lying down “skull crushers” 4 sets

Triceps kick backs 4 sets

Abs

Starting the New Year we are going to a 4 day split, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday

Chest and Bi’s

Back and Traps (including Dead lifts)

Shoulders and Tri

Legs on Saturday (Big SMILE) ain’t nothing like Legs on a Saturday, not only are you full of energy having a morning workout, you have the weekend to rest and grow!

Time for a protein drink

size BIGGER

25 cent “tip of the day” Start with a different exercise and or muscle often

2010-12-18T18:52:00.000-05:00

Back and Shoulders.

And it went something like this…

Shrugs - 5 reps, 7 sets, climbing up to 5 plates aside for 2 sets, ending on 4 plates, last two sets to failure

Standing shoulders presses, 4 sets, didn’t count

Dumbbell seated laterals, pausing at the top, 4 sets

Wide grip lat pull downs, 4 sets

Machine hi row grip lat pull downs, 4 sets

Machine seated wide grip lat pull, 4 sets

Single grip cable lat pull downs, 4 sets

Dumbbell rear Delt raises on an incline bench, 4 sets

Abs

Off a “Cliff” swoops down a Hawk, onto a Lobster, who assimilates that Hawk.

This is called, the survival the fittest!

Then there was the Hawk aka Alex aka the Hawkster

Awesome workout!

Time for a protein drink

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When slapping your face doesn’t do the trick, try peeing...

2010-12-16T14:38:00.000-05:00

I was out of town this past Monday, so I didn’t train Chest and Arms and gave my shoulder more rest time. It's not 100%, but It does feel better. Of course Cliff-lobster and The Animal had awesome Chest and Arm workout, they made sure to tell me last night how much their triceps were killing them!

All day meetings on Tuesday and I forgot my cook ground beef in the refrigerator at the hotel, so I went over 6 hours without eating. I did try to make up for it with my last meal, but you can only stuff so much food into your stomach before you explode.

Because I didn’t eat as much food the day before, I got some BIG TIME calf spasms at the end of the workout. The guys where like… OH shit! I’ve never seen that before!

And it went something like this…

Standing calf raises - 4 sets, 20 reps, and increasing the weight each time, trying to reach failure

Seated calf raises - 4 sets, 20 reps, increasing weight

Lying down leg curls - 4 sets, 20 reps, increasing weight

¾ Dead-lifts - 5 sets, 5 reps, climbing up to 4 plates for 2 sets

Squats - 4 sets, 1 plate, 2 plates 3, plates, 2 plates, no counting to failure

Front Squats on the Smith Machine - 3 sets, 1 plate, 2 plates, 3 plates, no counting to failure

Hey guys look, my calf is cramping… OH NO now it’s starting to SPAS... OOOOUCH!

After not being able to put my foot down for about 3 minutes, I started to slap myself in the face in hopes to get my mind off the spasm, (I’m sure at this point people where thinking I was a little crazy) finally getting myself to pee a little did the trick!

We ended on leg extensions, I was able to get 2 sets out of the 4 they did, before the spasm would start up again...

Got I love leg workouts!

Time for a protein drink

size BIGGER!

What happened to Lateral pull downs?

2010-12-12T12:14:00.000-05:00

My lats hurt more than usual, right up hi around the armpit, that little muscle that sits in the front, below the rear delt.

Lately we have been picking a number and doing that amount of reps, while increasing the weight until we fail.

Yesterday was 15, not sure what we were thinking…

And it went something like this…

We started this time with reverse grip lat pull downs for 4 sets of 15 (I’ve never started with this movement) climbing down the stack of weights, 2 plates a time. This would be the reason why I’m extra sore in that muscle… awwwthe beauty of starting with a different movement every chance you can

Remember we have the most energy and strength doing our first movement, let’s not be selfish and not give all movements the chance to be first!

Wide grip bend over rows on the t-bar, 6 plates, 4 sets, 15 reps. here is where you’re saying, why 15 reps? (Here’s where I tell my Eveie, who reads my blog, but only the first and last part, she skips the workout, that I love her!) We ended on low rows, 3 sets of 15, climbing down the stack 2 at a time, totaling 165 reps, that’s a lot for only 3 movements, 165 reps! That would be why we forgot about Lap pull downs, we where toasted.

Lap pull downs are a staple and should never be forgotten, you should always do them every workout. I can only imagine how much more sore my back would feel, if we did pull downs too, next time!

Standing shoulder presses at the squat rack. I staying out of this one giving my shoulder time off and just using the bar for 4 set of 15, while Cliff-lobster and The Animal ripped apart the weights, they just kept going up and up, banging out 15 reps, I could feel the pain!

We took on the machines next doing side raises and rear delts, keeping the 4 sets of 15 reps going… then Traps, 4 sets of 15 using a cable machine, ending with stomach, awesome workout!

Time for a protein drink!

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