Tue., 12/31/13, Delts and Arms

I got in a great pump this afternoon. It was not very intense- my arms and shoulders are more sore from my chest and back workout yesterday than most people get from their shoulder and arm workout, but again it had been over a week since I trained them so they were going to be sore. So were it is:

laterals: 3s-30; 10s-15; 20s-15; 30s-12
incline laterals: 30s-15;40s-12
military press: 45-20; 95-15; 135-10

dumbbell curl: 15s-20; 25s-12; 35s-6; 40s-6
rope pushdown: 60-30; 90-15; 120-10; 150-5

cable curl: 120-10; 100-10
pushdown: 150-15,10

rope hammer curl: 100-8,8
seated rope extension: 100-8,8

seated hammer curl: 25s-15,8
lying hammer extension: 25s-15,10

Mon., 12/30/13, Chest/Back

I changed it around a bit today. I just randomly decided to train chest and back instead of chest, delts and tris. I didn't make it too intense as it's been 10 days since I last trained my chest. Here's how it went:

incline smith machine press: 90-20; 140-10; 190-6; 240-1+1+drop to 190-4,5
super-set with pulldown: 75-20; 130-15; 180-12; 230-6; 200-8

machine fly: 180-15; 200-?
super-set with rope pulldown: 140-8; 120-10

cable fly: 80-8,8
super-set with rope row: 140-12,10

incline dumbbell press: 100-6; 75's-10
super-set with dumbbell row: 100's-6; 75's-6

pullover: 50-15; 65-12

Tue., 12/24/13, Sick!

Yes, I am sick. I felt it coming yesterday morning, not long after my workout (which was a great workout.) The sinus drain making me cough. I hoped it was allergies due to the drastic temperature changes here  recently. But, alas, I woke up this morning coughing and nose running. So, no workout today. If it was contest prep I wouldn't have missed a meal or workout- it's not that bad, but I don't want anyone else sick and I'm not building muscle mass with a cold. So, a day of rest.

Now it may interest some how a bodybuilder handle a cold- with extremes like we do anything else. As soon as I felt symptoms I increased vitamin c and zinc, began drinking even more water than usual and eating lots of fruit in hopes of killing it early. Yesterday I ate 3 apples, 2 oranges, took  v-c and 4 zinc.

It being Christmas Eve, I won't be working out any more this week any way. So, ya'll have a very merry Christmas and we'll pick up hard training on Monday.

Mon., 12/23/13, Back/Traps/Bi's

I got in an excellent workout this morning. I was feeling strong on most exercises- it just felt light. I got a great pump- it was good. It was all basic stuff, though I did do some stuff that I normally don't:

row: 45-15; 95-15; 135-12; 185-10; 235-10
V-pulldown: 150-12; 195-10; 240-6
1-arm Nautilus pulldown: 115-15; 205-8
1-arm Nautilus row: 90-8; 135-10
shrug: 135-15; 225-15
cable curl: 70-15; 100-15; 130-12
concentration curl: 20-15; 30-8
hammer curl: 20's-15,15,15 (with 30 second or less breaks)

Fri., 12/20/13, Chest, Delt, Tri

I got in a great pump this morning. I played with a couple exercises that I don't normally mess with. Here's how it went:

incline smith machine press: 50-15; 100-10; 150-10; 200-6
machine fly: 150-12; 180-10; 210-8
incline nautilus nitro machine: 155-10,10,10
lateral raise: run the rack doing 5 reps each up to 30's and back down; drop set with 40's,30's,20's,10's
  super-set with seated behind the neck press: 95-15; 145-4 + 95-8
lying dumbbell extension: 15's-25; 25's-15; 35's-12,12
seated triceps extension: 100-12
rope pushdown: 100-15

Thur., 12/19/13, Legs

I took it pretty easy on my legs today. I've had some aggravation in tendons connecting my hamstring to my knee on the right leg, and as this is officially my recovery time I shouldn't be aggravating anything except the cashier at Food Lion. Here's what today's workout looked like:

squat: 45-20; 95-20; 135-10; 185-10; 225-10; 275-10; 325-10
leg press: 270-20; 360-15; 450-15,8,10 (30 second rest periods; no fail, just pump)
smith machine calf: 50-25; 100-30; 150-20; 200-20,12 (again very little rest)

It was a great pump- very controlled and focused.

Tue., 12/17/13, Back and Biceps

It was hard getting into it this morning. My delts, traps and chest are all stiff and sore from yesterday's workout. Because my traps were so sore I decided not to do any specific exercise for them today. But I still got in a great workout. I didn't try to beat any weight records, I just pumped the muscle up really good and called quits. Here's how it went:

Free-Motion pulldown: 70-15; 100-15; 140-10; 170-10; 200-8
seated cable row: 160-12; 180-10
straight arm rope pulldown: 100-12; 120-12; 140-8
1-arm bent pullover: 30-12,10
1-arm dumbbell row: 100-8,6
rotating simultaneous dumbbell curl: 15's-15; 25's-12; 35's-10
cambered bar preacher curl: 50-12; 70-6; 90-4
arm blaster curl: 60-15; 80-8

Mon., 12/16/13, chest, delts and tri's

I got an incredible pump today. The delts always get crazy pumped when I do this workout, because they're working the whole time I do chest and then I just finish them off with a couple delt specific moves. The same with tri's- they're working hard with chest, so I'm just finishing them off. Here's what it looked like:

incline dumbbell press: 30's-20; 45's-15; 60's-12; 75's-10; 90's-6; 100's-8
flat dumbbell press: 100's-6 + 50's-15
bent over cable fly for upper chest: 100-8; 80-?
dip: 15,10
pullover: 70-12,12
military press: 95-15; 115-12; 135-8
incline face-down dumbbell front raise: 20's-15; 30's-12 + laterals: 20's-17
rope pushdown: 60-30; 90-15; 120-7,5
lying 45 degree triceps extension: 90-10,7

Nothing was to total failure, I'm still in my recovery phase after the World Champ.

Fri., 12/13/13, Legs

I got in a great leg workout this morning. It was totally different than my normal workout. It was the first one that didn't start with squats in a very long time. My knee has been feeling a little wacky the last 2 days, so I wasn't going to do anything extreme. It was just a good pump:

1-calf press: 90-20,20,20; 180-20,12,10
Tri-set:
   standing 1-leg curl:  30-15; 45-15; 60-12
   "incline" 1-leg curl: 15-15,15
   seated 1-leg curl:     50-15,12
seated calf raise: 140-15
leg extension: 60-30; 90-30; (1-leg) 45-15,10
leg press: 180-30; 360-20; 590-12
squat: 225-20

Thur., 12/12/13, Back/Trap/Bi

I did some different stuff for back today. I got in a great pump. Here's what it looked like:

row: 45-20; 95-15; 135-10; 185-10; 225-10; 245-6
neutral grip bar pulldown: 180-10; 220-6
rope pulldown: 110-15,12
standing cable rope row: 110-12; 130-15
V-pulldown: 220-6
dumbbell shrug: 50's-15; 75's-15; 100's-10
hammer curl: 15's-15; 25's-12; 35's-10
spider curl: 20's-12; 30's-7
cable curl: 120-12,12

Off Season Diet

Here is an example of what my off season diet looks like (It is not the same every day, but it is similar. This is what I ate on Tuesday.):

meal 1: 5oz chicken; 1c oatmeal; apple
meal 2: 4oz chicken; 1/2c oatmeal
pre-workout: 24g whey protein isolate
post-workout: 35g whey protein; 9oz sweet potato
meal 3: 5oz chicken; 1/2c oatmeal
meal 4: 4oz chicken; 1/2c oatmeal; 4oz sweet potato
meal 5: 6eggs; potatoes; pancakes, syrup
meal 6: 3/4 c Greek yogurt, 1/2 scoop whey protein, fruit

Normally my calories are between 3500 and 4000, but I don't have any idea what they were yesterday because of the pancakes and potatoes, I just ate a bunch. I don't do that every day obviously.

Tue., 12/10/13, Chest, Delt and Tri

I got in a killer pump this morning. My delts were swollen. It was all very focused and controlled- basic stuff: incline dumbbell press, bent cable fly, dip, Hammer Strength shoulder press, incline facedown front dumbbell raise (the weird exercise for the day), incline rotating dumbbell extension (another different one), and rope pushdowns. By the time I got to the pushdowns the pump was so good that I had filled up my extra large T-shirt...that's the goal. I backed off the reps a little bit and just focused mostly on the 6-10 range today. It was good.

Mon., 12/09/13, Legs

Today was almost all sets of 20. No sets were taken to total failure, but I was definitely working on some of them. The pump was awesome- they were tight. Here's what it looked like:

squat: 45-20; 135-20; 225-20; 315-20
leg press: 450-20
seated leg curl: 95-20,20
smith machine calf raise: 90-20; 180-20; 270-15
seated calf: 160-15
1-calf press: 90-25,20
hyper extension: 20,15

Fri., 12/06/13, Back, Trap and Bi

I got in an excellent workout this morning. I felt good- strong on several moves; got a great pump. Here's how it went:

super-set various ab exercises with Hyper extension: 20; 25-15; 45-12
medium grip pulldown: 90-18; 120-12; 150-12; 180-12; 210-10
incline dumbbell row: 60's-12; 70's-8,8
barbell row: 135-10; 225-8,10
seated row wide grip: 120-15; 150-10
barbell shrug: 135-15; 185-15; 235-row-6+shrug-10
arm blaster curl: 95-6,5; 60-12
spider curl: 30's-8; 20's-15
cable curl: 100-15,15

Wed., 12/04/13, Chest, delts and tri's

Today I really put the emphasis on upper chest with the 2 starting exercises really nailing it. It was pretty basic stuff, but I did higher volume on some exercises and only did 1 or 2 sets for others. Here's how it went:
6 sets incline dumbbell press
3 sets bent over cable flyes for upper chest
2 sets flat dumbbell presses
1 set pullovers
1 set dips
4 sets military press
1 set incline front raises
1 set incline rear laterals
1 set laterals
4 sets seated triceps extensions
2 sets lying triceps extensions

Tue., 12/03/13, Legs

I got in an excellent pump this morning. It was short, sweet and to the point, as most of my workouts are. Again, the focus was on hamstrings and calves:

calf press: 90-20; 270-20; 450-25; 570-20; 640-15
1-calf press: 180-20, 15
leg curl: 45-20; 60-15; 90-15; 105-6 + standing leg curl: 75-12
squat: 45-20; 135-20; 225-20; 315-20
leg press: 540-12

No sets were to total failure, though I was definitely working on some of them.

Mon., 12/02/13, Back/ Traps/ Bi's

After a wonderful 4 day weekend full of family, friends and more food than most normal people could comprehend the prospect of eating, I am 4 pounds up and smooth as butter. Ha ha! It was a good vacation from life... But it's back to work now.
I got in a great workout this morning. It was the basics: rows, pulldowns, shrugs and a few different types of curls. I threw in 2 cambered bar exercises today (the spider curl and the preacher curl) where I normally use either a straight bar or dumbbells.
It was good. I'll keep you posted on how the weight holds now that I'm back to normal life (whatever that is.) I've been hanging around 178 1/2 and this morning I was 182 1/2. Stay tuned.

Wed., 11/27/13, Chest, Shoulders, Tri's

I got in a good leg workout yesterday. My schedule was crazy yesterday, so I worked out in the afternoon in a time slot that happened to be available- different than normal. It was all basic stuff: seated leg curls, standing leg curls, machine calf raise, seated calf raise, squat, leg press, and hyper extensions. It was a good workout. Again the focus was on hamstrings, and again, no sets to failure yet.

Today's workout was great- very similar to last weeks. I did increase the weight and/or reps on a couple things, but still nothing to failure:
incline dumbbell press up to 100's for 7; flat dumbbell press 75's 2 sets of 10; incline hammer strength press up to 270-6; bent cable fly 2 sets 80lb for 10-12; dips 3 sets 15,12,10; laterals up to 30's 2 sets of 10; military press up to 145 for 6; rope pushdowns and reverse grip pushdowns- great pump, very tight.

The next 4 days I'm taking off to spend time with the family, and eat a ton of food. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Be blessed.

Mon., 11/25/13, Back/ Traps/ Bi's

I got in a great workout this morning. It was all basic, similar stuff to what I've been doing. Again, I did not hit failure on anything, though I was definitely working on several sets, I just got a good pump in the muscle:
6 sets of rows
3 sets of pulldowns
3 sets of straight arm rope pulldowns
2 sets of 1 arm dumbbell rows
3 sets of barbell shrugs
4 sets of barbell curls
3 sets of cable rope hammer curls
3 sets of concentration curls

Fri., 11/22/13, Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

I got in a great pump this morning. It was similar to Monday's workout, with a few changes:

incline dumbbell press: 20's-30; 35's-20; 50's-15; 65's-12; 80's-10; 100's-6
incline hammer strength press: 90-15; 180-12; 270-6
bent cable fly (for upper chest): 70-15; 90-8,8
dip: 15,15
pullover: 60-12
hammer strength delt press: 90-15; 180-10; 270-6
military press: 95-15; 135-8
incline face down front raise: 25's-15 laterals: 25's-15 incline rear laterals: 25's-18
pushdown: 70-35; 100-20; 130-15; 160-12
seated triceps extension: 50-15; 70-10; 90-10

Thur., 11/21/13, Legs

I got in a good leg pump today. The focus was on hamstrings, so the order of exercises was stretch and work the hams the hardest. Here's how it went:

seated leg curl: 30-30; 60-20; 80-15; 110-12; 140-8
reverse lunge: 20's-15; 35's-12; 50's-10
  super-set with calf presses: 180-30; 270-25; 450-20
seated calf raise: 90-20; 140-15 + 1 set of lying leg curls
squat: 135-15; 225-12; 275-10; 325-10
leg press: (high/wide stance) 450-12; (normal stance) 630-10; 770-6
hyper extension: 15,10,10

I did not take any sets to failure, this was a good recovery/ stimulate the muscle workout...my wife says she's proud of me...haha, she says I'm addicted to intensity.

Tue., 11/19/13, Back/ Traps/ Bi's/ diet update

I got in a great workout today. It was a killer pump, even though I'm not training to failure yet. It was all basic stuff: rows, close pulldowns, wide pulldowns, seated rows, curls, spider curls, hammer curls and shrugs.

Here on my recovery phase the diet is much looser than it was during my contest prep, obviously. But, in order to maintain and grow muscle mass I have to be just a disciplined, just in different ways. The exact menu changes from day to day, but this is what I ate yesterday, it is a good rep of offseason eating:

meal #1: 8oz egg white; 1c oatmeal
meal #2: 5oz chicken; 1c oatmeal
meal #3 (post workout): 40g whey protein; 1c oatmeal
meal #4: 5oz chicken; peanut butter, banana, honey sandwich
meal #5: 5oz chicken; 1c pasta with tomato sauce; almonds, raisins
meal #6: puppy drum; white rice with butter; peas
meal #7: casein protein, plain yogurt, 1 1/2tbs. peanut butter
The total: 285g protein, 370g carb and 100g fat; about 3500 calories.
On the weekends I'll eat a dessert if I want it.

Mon., 11/18/13, Chest, Delts and Tri's

After a full weekend off, I got in a good workout this morning. The intensity is not very high right now, but it was an excellent pump. The volume was medium. Here's how it looked:

incline dumbbell press: 20's-25; 35's-20; 50's-15; 65's-10; 80's-8; 100's-6
flat dumbbell press: 60's-12; 70's-10; 80's-10
dips: 15,15,15
bent-over cable fly (for upper chest): 60-15; 80-10; 100-8
Hammer Strength shoulder press: 90-15; 180-10; 230-6
incline face down fronts: 20's-15; 25's-15; 30's-12
laterals: 30's-12
rope pushdown: 60-20; 80-15; 100-12; 120-10
seated rope extension: 120-8; 100-12,10
lying triceps extension: 80-8 + close bench

Fri., 11/15/13, Back, Bi's and Traps

I got in a good pump this morning. The workouts now are focused on recovery so I'm not hitting failure on anything, just feeling the muscle and getting a good pump. Here's the workout for today:

row: 45-20; 95-15; 135-12; 185-10; 225-7
V-grip pulldown: 135-12; 165-10; 195-8
Medium grip pulldown: 135-12; 165-10,10
barbell shrug: 135-15; 185-10; 235-10
seated dumbbell curl: 20's-15; 30's-10,8
concentration curl: 35-8,6,6
hammer curl: 20's-15; 25's-15; 35's-6

Thur., 11/14/13, The recovery program

If you've followed my previous blog, you know that this year I won the overall at the Tournament of Champions and got 2nd in the light weight division last weekend at the Pro World Championships- so, my body is a little weary. But, I'm phsyched up for next years World Championships. From now until then every workout is focused on being better than I have ever been November 8, 2014. So here's the start to the game plan:
I will train on a 3 day split- #1 chest, shoulders, and triceps; #2 back, traps and biceps; and #3 legs. I will train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Thursday will always be legs and the other days will rotate the 2 upper body days. This is designed to recover the body from the hard 11 months of trains I've just finished. Over the next month I will slowly increase the intensity of my workouts. Here we go....