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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THis is HOw we Do IT!

As the song goes...

We never have the opportunity to have someone video our workouts, never mind try doing it ourselves with out losing your focus and pump, except for today. I pulled my right quad pretty bad last Saturday and I was hoping to be ready today, but that is not the case. So I decide to seize the opportunity and video our workout

Started with Squats (my demise last week) 1 plate, 2 plate, 3 plate for two sets, back down to 2 plates for one more

Leg Press, 5 plates and then just keep adding 2 plates at a time until you cant fit anymore

Stiffs, 1 plate, 2 plate, 3 plate, 3 plate!

Extensions

Curls

Cows, as I like to call them

Pikes

Crunches

And that is the way we do it (today), or should I say, the way Alex did it!

Although there was a lot of muscle damage in the making of this video, no animals other then the one you see in the video, were harmed!

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2012 Masters Nationals

9th out of 30 in the over 40 heavyweights; What a big show! All the weight classes were big!

First they split us up into four groups; I was in the last one. We stepped out on stage and hit our poses and where then winged off onto the sides of the stage in four lines, two on each side. First call out was only four numbers and they ran through their poses; then they were dismissed and done. Then they called out the next six numbers and I was the 5th one called. I knew I was top 10 but I also knew I wasn't top five when the had me switch places with the guy on my left, who was on the end, after we hit a few poses. After prejudging, my family and I went out and I had beers, pulled pork, slaw... I didn't care how I would look for the night show, which was smoother.

I am very happy with this placement. Being in the top 10 for two years in a row, is something to be happy about. Of course, if I nailed my condition, regardless if I still took 9th I would be much happier. But I have grown in a lot of places and even though I didn't come in at my best, I've brought myself to a new level in size and condition and that whats it's really all about, growing and improving

I've grown a lot since my last show where I weighed 207. This time I stepped on the stage at 215 and I was pretty ripped at 2%, I could have been fuller which would have made me harder looking and even more lean. When you are properly carbed up and ripped, you look even more ripped.

The question I have is, why do I need to get fat and eat myself up to 240 to grow? Why can't I do that by just eating in excess? Why do I need to eat fat, when the carbs not used will turn to fat? Where does the fat go first? Into the muscle (where you want it)? or on the muscles where you don't?

I have no cravings at all, for any type of junk food, I would much rather over eat clean fat free foods. Don't get me wrong, when in Rome I will eat like the Romans. It's not that. I'm not dieting for a contest. I just don't care to eat junk food, I have no interest in it, even if it is in the house... and I have a 10 year old living in my house, so trust me, it's there if I wanted it!

I am a firm believer, if you are craving something fattening, like cakes, chips, cookies, pizza,  hamburgers, fries, peanut butter, you are not eating enough food. Yes I said peanut butter is junk food, and you can tell yourself what you want, you will not get abs to show off, if you eat peanut butter, its high in fat and low in protein, low quality too. I would not use it for a staple in my diet

220 under 5% bf

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Fill up the water balloons baby!

In less then two weeks I will take my second shot at the Masters Nationals. Last year, I took 7th out of 24 in the 40+ heavyweights. Last year, I stepped on stage at 207, which should have been 210, if it wasn't for a lesson learned the day before. Right now, I'm waking up at 213 and have 2% body fat and I'm in the best shape of my life thus far. I like saying that, because it's true. I've never been this big nor ripped this big, so that makes the statement stand true, right?

I started dieting 11 weeks out for this show and at that time I weight 224 with 8% body fat. I hadn't allowed myself to get too fat, so that I would be farther ahead near the end of the diet and that I would have to eat more food to stop from losing muscle, because of no longer having any body fat.

I got to that point a week ago.

I started dieting by eating 50 grams of carbs with each meal every 2.5 hours, that got me shredded in 7 weeks, oh and no fats by the way. My fat intake for an average day is 10 to 15 grams total.

What do you do when you have no more body fat?

You need to eat more food, because you don't have anything in reserve. Now I could just eat some fats and that would increase my calories, which is what I need to do, but I'd much rather eat more carbs and see how big I can get without smoothing out.

I woke up last week weighing 210, wrapped, and realized I was on the low end of my carb levels and need to increase them, having 3 weeks to go. So for the next day and a half, I ate 100 grams of carbs each meal and in 2 days I was waking up at 215, just at ripped. Since then, I have eaten 100 grams with two of my meals and that's holding me at 213.

You see where I'm going with this right?... Fill up the water balloons baby! Its time to grow! It's party time!

I'm going to slowly change out meals, adding more carbs and see where it takes me.

My sodium is just over a 1000mg and when I drop that to 300mg, I'll lose 1.5 pounds of subcutaneous water weight.

The plan is to see if I can eat myself up to 217 and dry out to 215... but even if I were to dry out at this weight here, 213, that works for me too

Not only is having no body fat and being in kick ass shape the best part of the dieting, now is when you really learn your body

Like I've always said, first you get ripped, then you grow!

Master Nationals July 21th!

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All within one years time

This past weekend was the 2012 Jay Cutler Classic and Alex took 3rd in the light heavy weight class out of 14 competitors.

Now that's a great accomplishment being only his 3 time ever competing, all in less then one years time. I was very happy with the package Alex brought to the stage, his condition was tight, his posing improved.

This was a BIG show, the Jay draws more competitors then the New England, because it's in the beginning of the year and more people start with this show to qualify for a national show later in the year. Placing third in this type of show is huge.

I told Alex, he can't be a light heavy weight anymore, 5'10" is to tall to come down to that weight, it makes him smaller then he has to be.

This next year Alex is planning on growing into a heavyweight, which I see him doing without any problem. He knows how to do it now and its just a matter of time.

here are a couple of shots from the show....

























More can be seen here ... http://pics.musculardevelopment.com/index.php?mode=browse&id=29434&eventcode=1531


Just as Alex's finishes his contest dieting, I start mine the following day (Monday) I won't change too much of what I do now, I eat pretty clean year round, expect I will be more controlled with my eating and not over eat or indulging into sugary snacks.

I'm not far away from my contest weight of 213 as I'm waking up now just over 220 and I'm siting under 7% body fat and just this first week, I feel I've lost another 1% of BF

I will most likely have to increase my calories, seeing I'm 11 weeks out from the Masters Nationals, and I'm probably 5 weeks out condition wise. Which is fine, I dont' mind eating more food.. right now I'm just over 3000 a day and I'm slowing losing weight, which I need to stop. At this time I don't want to lose weight too fast seeing I'm only 8 pounds out, but I need to let this first week go by before I make any adjustments to my calories

To be honest, I could step on stage bigger then 213, I am being conservative with that number. Last year I competed at the Master Nationals 210... well really 207, but that story was already told why, so I figured 3 pounds of muscles seems about right... But, by the way I look now and that fact I have some much time in front of me.. I might find myself shredded and still have weeks to go and if that's the case, all I can do it grow from there, which could put me above 213...

In any event, its really not about the weight, its about the condition and I'll weigh whatever I'll weigh, when I'm ready!

Stay tuned!

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