Wed - rest day

Mmmmm, beer.

Tue - Chest/Shoulders

Learned something new, don't try plyometric pushups after a heavy chest workout. I added them in after my presses and cable fly routines and managed to pull off 5 of them before I said that was enough. I'll either have to do them first, or just do a dedicated routine.

• Morning - 30 minute cardio before breakfast
• 6 min warm up on the stairmaster
• Wide cable press - 1x8x270 1x8x290 2x5x310
• Wide cable fly - 1x8x180 1x8x190 1x8x2oo 1x8x220
• Plyometric pushup - 1x5 (Bad idea)
• Shoulder press - 1x8x210 1x8x240 1x8x250 1x10x250
• Standing shoulder raises - 1x10x120 1x8x130 1x8x140 1x8x150
• Deltoid high rows - 1x8x280 1x8x300 1x8x320 1x8x340 (Nice!!)
• Shrugs - 3x20x410 1x16x410 (These were off the hook too!)
• Cable crunch - 2x50x180 2x50x200

Then it was venison barbecue for dinner... mmmm mmmm! and a oatmeal power shake.

Mon - Legs

Added some new exercises today. Also started my morning cardio routine.

• Morning before breakfast - 30 minutes cardio
• Afternoon - 6 minute warm up on the stairmaster
• Squats - 1x8x320 1x8x360 1x8x410 1x10x410
• Hack Squats - 1x10x200 1x10x310 1x10x360 1x10x400 (These were a lot harder than I remember)
• Dumbell lunges - 1x8x70 (Had to quit these. Doubt I will ever be able to do them. My bum foot just doesn't bend enough to let me lunge)
• Leg extensions - 1x8x220 1x8x230 1x8x240 1x8x250
• Dorsi flexion - 1x10x100 2x10x200 1x7x200 (Hope to get my shin splints under control)
• Calf raises - 1x25x410 1x30x410 1x35x410 1x31/37x410 each leg
• Back extensions - 4x10x410

Felt pretty good today. I was on the road all day so I didn't get my usual water intake. Also didn't get to spread my meals out like I usually do. I've cut the caffeine in the mornings and have switched to oats instead of bran muffins for breakfast. Today I weighed in at 259, so I am floating around 10 pounds lighter than a month ago.

New changes!

Monday will start a new week and I'm switching up. I will start adding in 30 minutes of cardio in the mornings before breakfast and I will be adding some new exercises to the routine. I feel I have built a good base and now it's time for the more aggressive training. I think I will be adding Hack squats, lots of dumbell work, and a jump rope routine.

Time to add some quickness to the strength.

Fri - Back/arms

Same deal as yesterday. I may only have a couple of these in me a month.

• 12 minute warm up on the stairmaster
• Seated barbell row - 300lbs x24 x17 x15 x16
• Wide lat pulldown - 1x13x240 and then a cramp. 200lbs x13 x 10 x9 the cramp pretty much ended these.
• Preacher curl w/ez-bar - 50lbs x18 x13 x11 x11
• Reverse grip preacher curl - 40lbs x12 x10 x13 x14 (??? hmmm, not sure what happened here. Second wind?)
• French press - 140lbs x18 x12 x10 x9
• Rope pulldown - 100lbs x18 x14 x14 x15
• Straight bar pushdown - 130lbs x18 x16 x15 x10

And now a 2 day rest. Back to the old routine next week.

Thurs - Chest/shoulders

Something new today. This is brutal and will make you cry. Changed up the routine for a shock to the system. Here is the deal. Start with a weight you can lift pretty easy. Then do 4 sets for as many reps as you can pound out with only a minute rest between sets. Same weight, don't add any.

Now see, my normal workouts use the first three sets to just fatigue the muscle before my last heavy set. This workout nails you from the get go and just keeps on hammering, no if ands or buts, it will just blast you.

• 12 minutes on the stairmaster
• Wide cable press - 210lbs x18 x12 x9 x8
• Wide cable flies - 140lbs x19 x16 x10 x15
• Military press - 190lbs x16 x9 x8 x6
• Standing shoulder raises - 80lbs x21 x16 x12 x14
• Rear deltoid rows - 240lbs x18 x14 x12 x7
• Shrugs - 320lbs x20 x18 x16 x15
• Neck extensions - 160lbs x27 x23 x20 x18
• Cable crunches - 160lbs x60 x55 x53 x62

Not sure where I was able to pull out a few extras on the last set with a few of those. This was brutal though. May do the same thing with back and arms Friday.

Wed - Rest day

Spent dinner resting at the pub with a chicken breast 
and ham mess, some pub chips, and two dark beers.
Hey, a man has gotta live ;-) 

Off topic rant. - I just want to watch the fricken movie!

 Ok, a rant about the movie industry. I know this is way off topic, but I had to vent. There is this movie I have been looking for called “Chasing the deer”. It is a British film made in 1994 about the second Jacobite rebellion of 1746. It’s not a terribly well made movie, but historically it is very good. The problem, it was never released to the US market and when it was released it was in a very limited number. So I had my contacts on the hunt for it. About a month ago I found a copy. It was a German release of the film but it had the option for English audio so I consider it a score! The jacket and DVD menu is all in German though, but I don’t really care. Even better was the price, $7! Anyway, it was shipped from overseas and landed on my doorstep yesterday.

Now the gripe. First I throw it in my Playstation(my DVD player broke last week) and get a nice message telling me it can’t play it because of regional restrictions. Damn, that sucks. So I pop it out and throw it in my wife’s eMac. Hey, what do ya know! A screen telling me that I need to change the regional code on the DVD drive in order to watch the movie. I will be “allowed” to do this 4 more times before it locks the drive in the last viewed region. What a load of crap. If you answer “cancel” it spits the DVD back out, have a nice day. So, third try is the charm. I grab my Powerbook and pop it in. I have the autolaunch of the DVD player turned off so it doesn’t fire up the Apple DVD player as soon as the disk mounts. Just as an FYI, when I did launch the player I got the same nice message but for some reason I only have 3 chances to switch the region left. In the end I end up using an opensource media player(VLC) to play the DVD. It just ignores the region code and luckily doesn’t set the counter on the DVD drive. Now there is about a million other ways to watch this film. I could use MactheRipper to rip a image and strip the regional encoding off, I could use RegionX to reset the firmware on the drive every time I use it, I could buy a “all region” DVD player off of the Internet for $100(which I may still do, I need a new one anyway).

But my question is why? Why do they do this to us. It’s not like you can’t work around it. If I was a pirate I could just bit torrent movies I wanted. What is the deal with region encoding, can anyone tell me? What I was told is region encoding is so movie companies can charge us wealthy Americans and other well to do countries more for the movies than poorer countries. They are afraid if they release Cars2 here for $29.95 and it’s only $9 in China that we’ll all just order it from China. That’s just fine but what about movies that are never released in the US? We just get the high hard one. What disturbs me more is the power the movie industry seems to have over our OS vendors and hardware makers. To support this region encoding the DVD drive has to support it as does the player app. That bugs me more than anything. My hard earned money bought the player and the DVD yet in order to use them together I need to use a “free” piece of software which some may argue is illegal. Enough is enough. Oh yeah, I watched “Chasing the deer” last night and throughly enjoyed it so the movie industry can bite me.

End of rant.

Tue - Leg day

Just not a knee day. My knees were acting up today so I wasn't going for any new PR's I wrapped them tight and was still a little wobbly. Just took it easy and knocked out a pretty good workout anyway.

• 6 minute warmup on the stairmaster
• Squats - 2x8x360 1x8x410 1x10x410
• Leg curls - 1x8x100 1x8x110 1x8x120 1x6x130
  
• Leg extension - 1x8x220 1x8x230 1x8x240 1x8x250
• Calf raises - 2x25x410 2x30x410 each leg
• Back extensions - 1x10x380 2x10x410 1x20x410

Nothing great, but I am sore and that's all that counts. I may have to knock back the really heavy stuff for a bit. My tendons need to catch up to my muscles.

Mon - Back/Arms

Man, super busy at work. I'll try to keep my workouts up to date, but they are happening at all times of the day now. Ok, today. Usual Tuna and rice thing today. I have also cycled off of the creatine for two weeks. Weigh in today, 261! I'd say we have reached the tipping point. Some of that is going to be water loss because of going off of the creatine. 272 to 261 in a few weeks while still gaining strength, I won't complain.

• 6 minute warm up on the stairmaster
• Machine crunches - 3x20x210 1x30x210
• Barbell rows - 1x8x330 1x8x360 1x8x380 1x8x400 (Booyah! Major PR, but it might of blasted me for the rest of my workout. I was a happy man though)
• Wide Lat pulldowns - 1x8x260 1x8x280 1x8x310 1x8x340 (These rocked too)
• Standing barbell curl 1x8x200 3x8x180 (Form got sloppy so I had to kick it back some)
• Preacher curls - 1x8x60 1x8x80 1x8x100 1x4x110
  
• French Press - 1x10x140 1x8x160 1x8x200 1x5x220 (Man I felt these!!!)
• Rope pulldowns - 1x8x140 1x8x160 1x8x180 1x6x200
• Straight bar pushdowns - 1x8x160 1x9x180 1x8x200 1x8x210

A rockin good triceps day. Well, time to get some work done. Only 20 more years to go and I can retire! :-P

Fri - Chest/Shoulders

Had to move fast, wife wanted to go out for dinner. So had had very short rest periods between sets. Had a good workout though.

• 12 minute warmup on the stairmaster
• Bench Press - 1x8x240 1x8x270 1x8x290 1x6x310
• Cable flies - 1x8x160 2x8x200 1x8x220
• Military press 1x8x210 1x8x230 1x8x250 (My delts were blasted. I didn't have it in me for my forth set)
• Standing Shoulder raises - 1x8x100 1x8x120 1x8x130 1x12x140 (These felt good today)
• Rear deltoid high row - 1x8x260 1x8x280 1x8x300 1x8x320
• Shrugs - 3x10x410 1x18x410
• Neck extensions - 1x8x160 1x8x200 1x8x240 1x8x260

Washed up, and went to Ram's Head for a Ruben and a few carb loaded beers ;-P

Thurs - Legs

First, it seems I have lost a little weight. I didn't think I had but I weighed myself after supper and I am down to 265. Seems I have reached the tipping point. Now, as long as I can keep the strength we are in business. If today is any indication, I am doing ok ;-) I didn't feel like today was going to be a strong day, but it was. Only drawback was my shoulders and back were killing me so I split my squats with with a dip belt to get some of the weight off of my shoulders. Only drawback with that is you can't go very deep, but you can get to 90 degrees.

• Usual 6 minute warmup on the stairmaster (My favorite piece of cardio equipment)
• Squats - 1x8x310 1x8x360 1x8x410 1x8x430 (uncharted territory, my knees did not like this)
• Leg curls - 1x8x90 1x8x100 1x8x110 1x6x120 (I was actually pretty happy with these)
• Leg extensions - 2x8x220 1x8x240 1x8x250 (My legs were shakin! I felt weak like little girl after this)
• Calf raises - 4x20x410 on each leg
• Dead lifts - 1x8x360 1x8x380 1x8x410 1x8x420
  
• Cable crunches - 2x50x160 1x30x180 1x50x180 (I almost puked, and I'm not kidding)

Today rocked! Makes a guy feel like pillaging a village!

Wed - Rest

I was actually going to do legs today but I worked late and came home with a bad headache. It wasn't worth it to do a half ass workout. This will get me back into my regular routine. Anyway, 4 Advil and a Sudafed later I'm not feeling bad. Hope it warms up a little by Sunday. I would love to get out and throw for a while.

Tue - back and arms.

Well I had a surprisingly good work out considering we didn't get back from the airport until after midnight and I have to get up at 5:30 to get ready for work. I was fricken tired! Did the Tuna and rice thing today with some yogurt and banana snacks thrown in.

Todays drill:

• Machine crunches - 3x20x210 1x30x210
• Seated rows - 1x8x320 2x8x360 1x8x380
• Wide lat pulldown - 1x8x260 1x8x280 2x8x310
• Standing barbell curl -1x8x160 1x8x180 2x8x200 (my arms were blasted)
• Preacher curls - 1x8x60 1x8x80 1x6x100 1x7x100 (Ouch! no biceps left)
• French press - 1x15x100 1x8x160 1x8x180 1x8x200
• Rope pulldowns - 1x8x120 1x8x160 1x8x180 1x8x190
• Straight bar pushdowns - 1x8x160 1x8x180 1x8x200 1x4x200 Done! and I have nothing left in my arms.

Oh yeah, and the usual 6 minute warmup on the stairmaster.

Now a new pic for the week. I actually have abs working their way out. I have strange abs, they are big. Not in a good way. Like they stick out and are large. I mean it looks like I carry a lot of mid section fat like every other old guy but my mid section is actually quite solid. Fat lays on me like the gel on a gel bicycle seat. I hope they'll shape up a bit when I start burning the fat off. I guess I should be happy that they show at all at my age. Oh well, I think I will start kicking up my cardio in February and get the cutting going on.

Sunday - Bowflex and still resting.

Still resting, I probably won't get in another workout until Tuesday. You need a rest every once in a while. Although I don't think I'd call the last few days a rest. My little girl is a bundle of energy.

Ok, a couple people have asked me about the Bowflex. My wife got me a Ultimate 2 Bowflex with all of the extras for Christmas. The reason for that instead of a squat rack and a set of weights is two fold. First, I belong to Gold's gym and it's right next to work. Second, the only place I have for equipment at home is on the second floor of a 110 year old house. I don't want to test how well the place is built. The wife also wanted something to work out on. A couple of the guys I throw with gave it a pretty good review and I do like it, but I don't think you could drop the gym for one. It's nice to have something to workout on whenever you feel like it, and you can get a good workout. It is a different kind of workout however.

Pluses:

• Built like a tank (The Ultimate line is actually built like a piece of commercial gym equipment)
• Fast to move between exercises
• Smooth as silk
• Very adjustable

Minuses:

• The power bars are temp sensitive. As they warm up the resistance seems to go down.
• The weight settings are a little optimistic. Some things seem a lot easier, bench, squats, etc.. some harder preacher curl, leg extensions, etc... I did a lowtech test. I hung a 50lb dumbell off of the lat tower and hooked up 50 pounds worth of rods. It didn't bottom them out but it did take them almost all the way flexed. So to me it would seem you don't see the full rated weight until almost lockout. This isn't altogether bad, just different.
• It's no IRON!

I would recommend one to a friend, I think it's a good machine to have even if just to shake up your lifts. Being a cable based machine it really works all of your stabilizer muscles. If you focus on technique you can really get a lot out of it. It also nullifies the inertia effect you get with free weights. In some ways it will compliment your iron workouts. The progressive resistance is something you can't get with a straight cable stack. I'll give you an example:

1. Standing dumbell curl - weight is only at full resistance at 90 degrees. It's lighter at both the top and bottom positions. Lightest at full contraction where you are at your strongest.
   
2. Standing cable curl with weight stack - Constant resistance through whole range. You can only curl the amount you can get moving at your starting position.
   
3. Standing cable curl with Bowflex - It's lightest at start and gets progressively heavier as your muscle contracts. You can start with weights you normally couldn't get moving and really blast your arms at full contraction.

So if you combine a dumbell workout with a bowflex workout, your arms really get a full workout. Now there are some advanced dumbell techniques like 21's or assisted curls, but the Bowflex fits in as a nice supplement.

I would not snub the Bowflex as a training tool, anything different will make you grow. Your muscles need to be shocked. This thing will shock them if you have never used one, and it will make you stronger. Food for thought, I have watched some guys get quite big with only body weight exercises. I have belonged to a gym most of my adult life and when I get in a routine I do gain size and strength. This most recent routine has added more size and strength than anything else I have ever done. The scale and the pics don't lie. The only thing I have really changed was adding in a few long intense Bowflex workouts a week. I would like to think my muscles were in the "wtf?" mode, and that's what did it. I don't know. That's why I started this blog, so everyone can watch and give me their opinion.

I'm 40 years old now and have parts failing. I have a bad joint in my foot, a bum knee, arthritis, etc... all that crap that comes with age. The fact that I can gain muscle this quickly at this age is a blessing in itself. So if I can blame that on the Bowflex, it was worth whatever the wife paid for it. Short of it is, it is no free weights but I don't regret having it.

Hope that rambling helps anybody thinking about getting one. One last note, look at the Ultimate model if you can. I saw one of the other models at a equipment retailer (The Extreme 2) and although it also looked very well made it was not the same beast. Like I said earlier, the Ultimate is built like a piece of commercial gym equipment. Very heavy duty. I use the preacher curl attachment and the bench for my dumbell workouts.

Rest day, sorta.

Had to have my wife at the airport by 7am this morning and she will be gone until late Monday. That leaves me with my 2 year old daughter all weekend. If the next 3 days are going to be anything like today it looks like I'll have 4 days of cardio. That girl just keeps on going, and going, and......

I may try to get in some lifting on Sunday and Monday, but it may be sketchy.

On a side note, CVS had vitamins on sale buy one get one free. I now have a years worth of vitamin C. They had the 1000mg ones and some of the bottles were 100 capsules free bottles, bonus!

Thursday - Chest/shoulder

Well what a sucky day. I worked late, ate like crap, didn’t drink enough water, etc... I didn’t start working out until 8pm. I was already tired. I got in a good 90 minutes though, but it wasn’t my best by a long shot.

Diet today was 2 bran muffins, some sushi (spicy tuna), 7oz of straight tuna, 2 slices of pizza(bad, bad, bad), and 2 shakes. This is my second chest/shoulder day this week.

Here we go:

• Stairmaster - 12 minute warm up.
  
• Wide cable press - 10x220 10x260 6x280 8x250 (I love these, but was weak today)
  
• Wide cable flys - 8x160 8x180 8x200 8x220 (These felt good, did some dumbell flys too, but didn't record them)
  
• Military press - 8x200 8x240 8x260 8x270
  
• Standing lateral shoulder raise - 8x100 8x110 8x120 8x140
  
• Rear deltoid row w/strait bar - 8x240 8x260 8x280 8x300
  
• Straight bar shrugs - 4x8x410
  
• Neck extensions - 8x140 8x160 8x180 8x200
  

Overall, not a bad day. But I wasn't feeling too fired up this late in the day.

Now, a picture from today. Like I said, not too worried about the fat just yet. It's working it's way off, albeit slowly. I have deffinately added some beef compared to last year though.

Wed Leg day - Usually my rest day.

First I'll start with a weigh in. I don't know why nobody thinks I weigh
this much.

To be honest, that was just luck. I weighed myself before lunch this afternoon and it was 268. The scales at work are most likely more accurate than my home scale. I ate well today too. Lots of bran, a whole bowl of rice, a can of chicken, 2 shakes, etc... Finished it all off tonight with two venison burgers! mmmm mmmmm!

Ok, quick once over of how I train. I no longer do pyramids. I do one light warm up set followed by 3 progressively heavier sets. I go as heavy as I can to 8 reps but no more than 10. Always to failure. Sometimes I'll toss on an extra set if I'm not hurting enough. I also go heavy on the reps for my calves and abs. They seem to respond a lot better to that.

My workouts are long, usually around 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Once again, it works for me. I have lots of energy and recover pretty quickly. I've tried short intense workouts and I just don't gain or get that much stronger. With this routine, Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri, I have been adding
10 -20lbs to my lifts a week. I'm sure this won't keep going forever, but it's still going strong right now.

Ok, Legs:

• 6 minute warmup on the stairmaster
• Squats 8X280 8X310 8X360 8X410 8X410 (extra set, felt great)
• Leg curl 8X70 8X110 8X110 8X100 (My hams suck)
• Leg extension 8X210 8X220 8X220 8X240 (Nice and slow reps, man they hurt)
• Calf raises 20X410 both legs 20X410 each leg 15X410 each leg, 19/20X410 each leg (Left leg gave out after 19 reps)
• Back extensions 10X320 10X410 10X410 10X410
• Seated Ab crunches 20X140 20X160 20X180 25X200 (OUCH! I'll feel this in a couple days)

That about wraps it up. Knocked back a shake as soon as I was done and took a shower. Tomorrow is Chest and shoulder day. I'll try to get some pics. I was going to tonight but ran out of steam after the workout and didn't feel like it.

Initial measurements for the journal

These will be my starting measurements for this journal. Like I said, I'm already 6 weeks into my routine and have made some nice gains. I've added a full inch to my biceps and wasn't keeping track of anything else. Now I will try to keep a record. I will try to get a pic up post workout on Wednesday(legs) or Thursday(Chest/shoulder).

These are cold measurements, no pump.

• Neck - 18 1/2 in
• Chest - 49 1/2 in
• Bicep - 17 3/4 in
• Forearm - 14 in
• Thigh - 25 in
• Calf - 18 1/4
• Weight - 272 pounds
  

These are all target areas, so I should be able to track my progress pretty well. I am losing some fat too, so I may actually lose some size as I lean out. I have been holding in the 269-272 range for about 2 weeks now. I imagine I'll start dropping as soon as I build enough muscle to use all of the calories I take in. My diet is not changing yet. I'll reevaluate my diet if I start losing strength.

Diet and Supplements

Ok, today is normally a workout day but this is a screwed up week and I had to juggle days to get my 4 workouts in. Wednesday is my normal rest day, but today I rest. So I'll just skim over my diet and supplement plan. Very bare bones and not very strict.

Supplements:

• Multivitamin - High potency w/ Antioxidants and enzymes
• Ripped Fuel - Not for getting ripped though, just like the boost it gives me during my workouts.
• Liquid C-300 - Vitamin C
• L-Glutamine
• Optimum Nutrition Pre-load creatine complex - I actually use it "after" my workout not "pre"

• Whey Protein

That's it for the supplements, and I don't go too crazy. Most of the stuff is just a one time a day thing. The whey and creatine is used after my workout because it gets absorbed quickly. Other than that I'm a real food guy. I'll give you my staples:

• Steel cut oats
• bran muffins
• oat bran
• Tuna
• chicken
• long grain rice
• apples, bananas
• Pasta
• Yogurt, Milk

My diet is not set in stone but I do stick with my basics every day. It's a high protein/carb low fat diet of about 2500-3000 cals a day. I'll drop some of the carbs when I want to slim it down, but right now I'm not getting fatter and have packed on some lean muscle. I ended last season at around 250 and I am now up to 272 but have lost an inch off of my waist! So I will hang with this for a while and then cut down a bit before the games begin.