Joby's Gorillapod

Yes, you guessed it, another mounting option for the GoPro Hero3. My training partners make fun of me and laugh because it seems like every other day I'm coming in with a different mounting setup. This ones a pretty cool little tripod that has strong flexible legs with strong magnets on the ends. It is nice for tight angles and holds the Hero3 well, using the adaptor for a tripod. It does bounce when on a machine that shakes, but it holds on tight and hasn't falling off, mounted upside or sideways. 

Monday: Chest and Biceps.It was Jon and I against Alex and Donnie. "Its not about who goes the fastest, it's not a race, said the Lobster." "You're right, but when its comes down to only one bench available when you need two, it's nice to have finished first" said the Tin-man. All in fun! Monday nights, so busy for training chest... who does chest on a Monday night?

Wednesday; Back and Traps, me and Alex, Jon and Donnie, starting with barbell shrugs, then wide grip pulldowns, reverse grip bent overs rows, (they were nice, haven't done them in a while), seated wide grip low rows and reverse grip pulldowns end the back!

Friday it was just Donnie and I for some Shoulders and Triceps:  seated barbell presses, uprights, machine side and rear laterals to finish off shoulders. Skull crushers, seated crooked bar French curls and finishing with, going back and forth between rope and straight bar pushdowns. Seated wrist curls and the gripper takes care of the forearms

Today, Sunday, was legs this week and it was just Jon and I,  Squats, barbell hacks (off the floor), Jeffersons, extensions, barbell stiff legs, lying legs curls, seated leg curls, standing calves, seated calves, done!

Of Course I have one video that doesn't want to load... Here is the link to GoPro 5-12-13 Legs Issue #10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaTTCzOkXyg

Subscribe to Tapboxer on YouTube to get these GoPro workout Issues early. I usually get the video on line the following day (off day) 

It doesn't end in the gym!

sB

It’s a mind game

No GoPro this weekend, but that doesn’t mean no kick ass work outs

Lasts night, Dave, Donnie and I, banged out shoulders and triceps. We started with standing over head presses for 5 sets, then reversed the grip for a few more. Upright rows, seated dumbbell side raises and bent over rear laterals. (head on back of incline bench) 

Triceps we stuck with cables. We did rope pushdowns and straight bar reverse grip pushdowns and we went back and forth for 4 sets. We did the same with over head rope french curls and bent over head extensions. We ended everything doing 3 sets of crunches

Today it was just Jon and I, and thanks to Donnie's suggestion last night, John and I did 10 sets of 10 reps, squatting 225, after warming up with 135 and 185. It took us 25 minutes to do 12 sets of squats, that's 120 reps!  So much blood went into my legs. I think they grew 2” or 3” in circumference. We will be doing this again!

How do you keep track of how many set you have done?

I’m glad you asked! Jon would throw a 5 pound plate in the corner every time he finished his set (he was last) and when we got to 5 plates, we went the other way, putting them away. This really help us stay focused and motivated to finish, it becomes a mind game after 5 sets

We finished off with leg curls, legs extensions, stiff legs (not for me-lower back was gone at this point) and donkeys

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GoPro 4/24/13 Back/Forearms/Calves

Back/Forearms/Calves

Wide grip pull ups

superset with

Wide grip cable pull downs

Bent over rows

Reverse grip machine rows

Reverse grip chin ups

superset with

Close grip pull downs

Seated wrist curls

superset

the Gripper

superset

Seat calf raises

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GoPro 4/22/13 Chest/Biceps

Chest/Biceps

Flat Bench

Incline dumbbell 

Incline Fly

Flat Fly

Pullovers

Alex was at a game and Donnie came late and trained solo

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GoPro 4/20/13 Shoulders/Triceps

Shoulders/Triceps/Forearms/Calves
and catching
Donnie aka the Rooster,  banging out a set of squats at the end

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Stick to plan

Monday night, chest and biceps and it felt like old times again. Minimal rest, heart racing, working up a sweat, fighting hard on each set just to get enough reps, as the weight goes up and the pump increases and you get deeper and deeper into the muscle.

It’s 5:15 and there were five of us, one, two, three...shoot, we all throw in one or two fingers. It’s Jon Dave and me on one team and Alex and Donnie on the other.

We ran side by side through flat bench, incline dumbbell, incline flies, flat flies and dumbbell pullovers

For Biceps, we started with preacher curls and they started with incline dumbbell curls (haven't done them in years) then we switched and ended over on the donkeys for calves

Nice and fast, huge pump! Couldn't ask for more!

Wednesday Dead lift, it was time! (Back and Traps too)

No show from Slim, down to 4 of us.

After we decided it would be a good idea to just stay together doing dead lifts, we chose to finish the whole work out that way. The thing about Back, because it’s usually high rep movements, you can still get a really nice pump with 4 deep, as long as you keep moving.

I broke a personal record last night dead lifting 550. I had it on my mind all day and it went as planned. 1 plate for 5 reps, 2 plates for 5, 3 plates for 5, 4 plates for 5, 5 plates for 3 and 5 plates and a quarter for 1.

I tried this weight before a few months back and I couldn't even get it off the floor. I knew after having a few weeks off from dead lifting this was going to be my chance. I knew if I could get it off the floor, I would be able to close out my hips and stand up and I did!

Traps for 5 sets, Lat pull downs, machine free weighted bent over rows, low rows (camera dies here) and reverse grip pull downs destroys the rest of the back.

Wrist curls, the hand gripper and seated calves, we circled around them non stop for 4 sets

Check out the the angles!

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One, Two, Three... Shoot!

I need to train Monday through Thursday this week; have something to do this weekend.

Training is going to be a little tough: four days in a row can be a little brutal, especially when legs is your last day!

Monday night there were three of us and the pace was almost perfect. It has been a long time since I've trained with only three of us. We had a nice pace going and with that less rest. I got a huge pump!

Last night, it was just Alex and I. It felt like old times. This is where it started over 3 years ago. Then came Big John 3 months later and not until just these last 4 months, we added Dave and Donnie

Talk about a fast pace! Right off the bat I knew what I was missing! It has been about 4 month of training, 4 or 5 guys deep and you get used to it and you don't know what you are missing until you go back to what brings you to the gym every day... The pump!. I said it once before and I'll say it again, it's all about the pump! The bigger the better and frankly you can not get the biggest pump possible if your rest is too long; it just isn't going to happen.

We decided, starting next Monday, when I'm back, to split up into teams. Every workout we will buck up into 2 or 3 per team and run parallel to each other. We will all get the same workout, but with a lot less rest and a much bigger pump and a short training time. It's a win win situation.

To further our efforts to grow!

Enjoy Monday night video. Chest/Biceps//Calves

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Hitting the angles

Starting to get the hang of this GoPro Hero 3. I'm using the display mount that came with it. It's basically a flat 3" square plastic piece that accepts the camera mounts. So I glued some magnets on the bottom and you can only imagine the possibilities.

Friday night starts Shoulder/Triceps/Forearms/Calves

Shoulders started with, standing barbell front presses, barbell uprights, seated side barbell laterals and machine rear delts.

Close grip bench press, scull crushers, were the the first two exercises for triceps and we ended doing cable pushdowns, taking the rope and 2 straight bars (hands both ways), and circling around them 4 times, non stop.

Forearms, we took a 2 straight bars and the gripper (its nice on friday nights, being so slow, we can use 2 benches for forearms. Only in america!) We did wrist curls, reverse wrist curls and the gripper and went around 4 times non stop, ending everything over at the donkeys for 4.

Let us not forget about 3 sets of crunches after every workout, although hardly mentioned, they are hardly ever forgotten (felt like a good place to add)

enjoy the video

Saturday morning legs we went straight forward, squats, presses, hacks, legs extensions, stiff legs, legs curls (back and forth between seated and lying) ending on standing calves,

Let the video say the rest..

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No dead lifts for me tonight

As much as I love dead lifting, I can usually only do them 3 weeks in a row. After that,
not only do I start getting weaker, but my back and hips start to feeling more tired and I
can tell. I'm more prone to hurting myself and I know it's time to skip a week.

Normally, when we start with dead lifts, I like to follow them up with shrugs, because
shrugs feel great after having your traps stretched to hell from the heavy dead lifts

So this time we saved shrugs for last (and we remembered to do them too!) It wouldn't
be the first time I/we forgot to do them.

Wide grip lat pull downs for 5 sets (The Rooster did Pull-ups instead) and from there
we did barbell bent-over rows off the floor, then to t-bar rows with our new contraption,
ending back with reverse grip pull downs, 21 sets total for back. Then we did 4 sets of smith machine shrugs, superset with seated dumbbell shrugs
We took wrist curls off the end of a bench, the gripper and seated calves raises and
went around them 4 times, going from one to the next

That’s all she wrote!

Check out some cool footage, we got some pretty bad ass angles

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There is a saying...

You should eat for what your are going to do, not for what you have down. This explains why the gym was so busy last night, being the day after Easter. (but I think it's meant for the same day)
 
That did not stop us from having a kick ass work out as usual!
 
Chest/Biceps/Calves was the damage. We started with the incline barbell bench for 5 sets, then flat dumbbells presses, incline dumbbell flies, flat dumbbell flies and dumbbell pullovers. Yes, finally, after just about a month my elbow felt good enough for them. I didn't go too heavy-80's, I just needed the movement and they felt great!
 
We started biceps with straight bar standing curls, then crooked bar preacher curls, superset the last 2 with French hammer curls, ending with French hammer curls for 2 more (4 total) 5 sets of Donkeys calls it a night
 
I bought an LCD touch screen for my GoPro Hero3 and decide to used it last night, the camera didn't even make it past chest before the new add on killed the battery. I won't be using that LCD for these filming's
 
I still got some cool footage...

 


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Wait for it...

5:30 comes across the phone, a text from big Jon telling all of us what time we are training. I looked forward to this every time. For the most part we all are pretty flexible, after 5 and no later than 6, if we can help it (with a 15 minute grace period for those who are late). Big Jon is our team doctor, no really, he is a NP (Nurse Practitioner) and as much as we would like too, we can't have him telling his last patient of the day, to come back in the morning, to finish the stitches, nor can he be rushed to make mistakes. So we let Jon tell us what time we are training.

Once I see the time over the phone, it is game on and knowing I probably already thought about my workout the day before or even after the last workout, It's on my mind again and I can't wait to get to the gym.  

Next to legs day comes dead lift day. I get pretty pumped up for both. We do legs on Saturdays and do dead lifts on Wednesday, mid week, just barely enough time for your legs to heal.  But it's not just dead lifts, its traps and back too! 

We start with dead lifts, 1 plate, 2 plates, 3 plates, 4 plates 5 plates. I was feeling a little stronger today than last week and was able to grab 4 reps of 5 plates, this time around, last week I don't think I got 2.

Next were barbell shrugs for 5 sets and after that we start back. 4 wide grip pull downs, 4 machine bent overs (free weights).

 

Dave our team handyman hooks up the Gold’s Gym with one of those t-bar mounting brackets you screw down to the ground and stick a Olympic bar in. Yes, this brings back memories from when I was a kid in my bedroom, sticking a pillow in the corner to protect the wall, stacking up my cement weights onto one end of the bar for t-rows. Needless to say, we broke that in last night, started with 3- 35lbs plates and worked our way up to 7. Then came reverse grip pull downs and we ended everything on the donkey machine

I can't wait to get that text come tomorrow for Shoulders and Triceps!

  

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Is it Monday yet?

I like Monday's especially when it's over and I had a great workout. Its a nice way to kick off the week!

Chest and biceps was the damage last night. I try to never repeat a workout and last night was no different. We started with flat bench. I'm having an elbow issue and it’s preventing me from some movements and this is usually one of them, but it wasn't feeling too bad, so I took advantage of situation and banged out 5 sets before moving to inclines on the smith machine. I watched a u-tube video not too long ago of Dennis James doing these pause sets at the end. Dennis would bring up the stoppers, so that the bar would rest on them right at the point of the full stretch and when he couldn't do any more reps, he would rest the bar on the stoppers for a second, then do another rep, again and again. It’s was a lot harder than he made them look in the video, but I'm always looking for ways to shock the muscle and that’s just another way.

After those we hit flies, flats and inclines. I would have liked to end chest with dumbbell pullovers, because I believe this movement is a staple and should be done every week or at very least every other, but because of my elbow being fucked at the moment, I had to pass on that for yet another week. Off came the compression sleeve and we started standing crooked bar curls, then preachers, followed by dumbbell hammers and ended on seated calves

That’s all she wrote today, looking forward to dead lift Wednesday!

p.s. those pictures where taken a few weeks back, I’ll try to be more current going forward.

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I'm back...

I took a little time off from the blog, but not from being a bodybuilder. I'm still hitting the weights hard, along with Alex and Jon, but we have added a couple more to the wrecking crew. We now have Dave and Donnie, Dave was a 300+ guy and when he came aboard a few months back, he was over 315. Now as of today he's weighing 299, the goal is 5 pounds a month and the way he is so focused on his food and the way he trains so intensely, I can see this goal being obtained every month. Donnie on the other hand is a guy who is too strong for his own good, this guy has a powerlifting back ground and if you were to look at him, he's not an overly big guy, I mean he's big, don't get me wrong, but he's defiantly not as big as he is strong. We find ourselves having to step him back, because he tends to over do it and hurt himself. It's just a matter of adjusting his approach to the sets, sometimes I think he rushes up the weight too fast and he's not fully warmed up

Alex is bigger then ever (if you don't ask Rodney) his arms have to be over 20" now, I wish I could put on body fat like him and keep a small waist, like he does. I would look like a fat beer belly biker dude, if I ate like him... rumor has it, he gets up every night around 2am to eat cookies... maybe that's the trick!

Big Jon, is getting bigger, standing over 6'5" weighing 250+lbs, under 10% body fat is not a small guy, thank god for Donnie, now Alex and I don't have to try to push Jon on the weight, we have Donnie for that

As I mentioned last, I'm taking off this year from competing, planning a family trip to Italy and Spain for two weeks. I plan on coming back May 2014 to win the Jay Cutler Classic held in Boston, then head to the Master Nationals in July held in Pittsburgh, where I am shooting for top 5 this time around. In 2011 I placed 7th out of 24 and in 2012 I took 9th out of 30, so I will be happy with a top 5 placement come 2014.

I've been working on all my weak points, like my hamstrings (especially my side view) and dead-lifts really do that trick, I'm starting to get a nice ham drop from the side (who said you can't build big legs after 40)

Speaking of legs, (my favorite day) here is a breakdown of the damage done yesterday...

We started with walking lunges with just a broomstick to keep the upright posture. There is a nice strip of astroturf at the Natick Golds gym that is 25 yards long and we did that 10 times non stop, thats 250 yards of lunging. After that I couldn't get to the leg extensions faster enough to get the lactic acid out of my burning quads. We then went back and forth in between extension and lying down legs curls for 4 sets. Squats came next working our way up to 315 (except for Donnie who needed to go to 405 until he felt an ouch in his back, dropping him back down to 315) Leg presses came next 4 plates, 7 plates, 10 plates (all she holds) ending with 7 plates, then came 4 sets of hacks, followed by 4 sets of stiff leg dead lifts, ending everything going back and forth with seated legs curls and donkey calf raises
As always 3 sets of crunches ends the workout

Stay tuned for more updates


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