I got two words... Sumo Deadlifts

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

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)

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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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

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

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...

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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