half human/half machine - downloading training data...

[Android]

My starting point for the preparation...taken on 10th June so is 7 weeks ago, was about 14% b.f

[trainlikeafreak]

your body is looking mean bro.

[soundsgood]

That is some serious size Android! How heavy were you in that pic?

Looking forward to the updated ones.

[Android]

your body is looking mean bro.

cheers man

That is some serious size Android! How heavy were you in that pic?

Looking forward to the updated ones.

Cheers mate I was 115-116kg in early June

[Android]

Last night after Back workout just before bedtime at 10:30 I cooked 400gms of white fish, ate it, and then straight to bed. Woke up about 2pm for a piss and the back of head was sweating like I was on Winny. That's what a large portion of protein does for me, was a hot night.

Today was the start of cardio and a small diet adjustment. Workout was Legs.

I've said it before, I'm not a strong bodybuilder, I've got 8" wrists so am still a skinny guy underneath, and Legs are the least strong part of all. Loochie who weighs 40kg less than can probably out-squat me.

I warmed up on Leg Extensions, didn't go hard out just did 3 sets of 20+ reps each then off to do squats.

60kg warm-up, then 100kg, then 3 sets at 140kg for 8 reps. I went wide stance and dropped well below parallel which is further than usual (I usually go just on or below parallel, when the guts hits the knees) and worked to get the weight up on the final reps.

Hack Squats next and after a warm-up with 20 each side I stayed on 40kg each side and did 6 sets. 3 were with a high stance for Hammies, and then brought feet forward and close for more outer quads. Dropped down as low as it goes on the machine and squeezed Quads at the top.

Went back to Leg Extensions and did one-legged 15-20 reps for 5 sets on each leg slowly adding more weight until last set was only 10 reps. I twist my foot on this one, starts off with toes pointing outwards at the bottom of the movement and as I come up for the squeeze my toes change to point inwards. For me I find the initial lift of the movement is on the tear-drop alot and so that's on the inside of the leg, so toes outward places more stress on that part...then at the top I want to squeeze my leg and the outer sweep.

Nothing's the same, next time I'll do toes outward for all sets, or always inwards.

Next up was lying leg curls. No surprises I don't rate this machine very well anymore. 4 sets of 3/4 stack for 12-15 reps.

Then seated hammy curl. This one is better than the last and I did 4 painful sets i think it was hard because I didn't rest after lying leg curls.

Finally, seated calf raises. 40kg plates were loaded I left them on this weight the whole time. Warm-up was 30 reps, quick pace. Then slow deliberate sets of 15-20 reps, wide stance toes facing outward (or heels inward) and knees wide as well. For me this puts stress on inner diamond more than any other stance.

Today is first cardio day so I did 20 minutes straight after workout on the bike, keeping heart-rate at 125 the whole time which is easy it was 120 when I jumped on the bike and I was already sweating. Metabolism is crazy at the mo and it's about to get moreso. Will start on T3 this week until the show.

PWO is 60gms WPI + 10gms BCAAs.

Got home and had dinner which was 200gms chicken and mixed veges. I opened a 600gm packet of white fish and cooked 300gms to add to dinner. Before 10:30 tonight I'll have the other 300gms fish which is good, consuming 800gms of meat after a Leg workout with PWO is about 230gms of protein post-Leg workout.

[soundsgood]

You've found what works for you. Not everyone needs to squat heavy to get big legs although I always advocate that if you do you will.

You wouldn't believe some of the legs on guys I have trained with in the past who NEVER go over 3 plates. Keep doing what you're doing cos it's obviously working.

Interesting that you load up on protein on leg days. Nearly 250p post workout is insane! I have always load up on carbs pre and post leg days, but I'm interested in your theory behind loading up on protein.

[Gym rat]

looking good bro

[Android]

You've found what works for you. Not everyone needs to squat heavy to get big legs although I always advocate that if you do you will.

You wouldn't believe some of the legs on guys I have trained with in the past who NEVER go over 3 plates. Keep doing what you're doing cos it's obviously working.

Interesting that you load up on protein on leg days. Nearly 250p post workout is insane! I have always load up on carbs pre and post leg days, but I'm interested in your theory behind loading up on protein.

Yaeh I can't 'feel' heavy squats working, after the sets of 180kg I head home completely drained and not hungry, even tired. It seems to depress what I think is my CNS but could just be from straining to hard...when I stop growing on 3 plates then I'll move up :-)

You're right to load up on carbs on Leg day mate

I think you're doing 400-600gms carbs a day right so there's plenty of carbs in your day? I've dropped down to under 3,000 calories a day for the last 3 months and eat all my carbs (200-250gms) before dark so there isn't much left to load up with either side of workouts. I even dropped glucose from my PWO shake. Have considered peanut butter or MCT oil pre-workout (woo hoo) but undecided at the mo. Shouldn't hurt?

For bulking up again after the comp I will be dropping back the amount of protein of course and increasing the carbs to normal, man I am looking forward to those baked beans before a workout LOL!

I believe that while being highly anabolic the limiting factor on the size of the repairs and growth are the amount of amino acids available in your system at the time of repair. So with my nutro we've labelled R1, R2, and R3 recovery meals as the most important of all the meals in the day. Other times are important of course, repair is ongoing and takes longer than 6 hours but on non-training days I do care less about large amounts of protein.

[tomsammce]

looking good bro

U Mirin' Brah?

[Calvin]

looking good bro

U Mirin' Brah?

More like Android is Mirin' him brah...

Android, always good read in your journal. Good to have you back mate. Looking massive to.

[Android]

looking good bro

cheers Gym rat 8)

More like Android is Mirin' him brah...

Android, always good read in your journal. Good to have you back mate. Looking massive to.

Yeah I admire his leg press weights - outstanding feats of strength!

[Android]

Today was Shoulders.

Pressing movement first so picked the Smith machine seated front press, slower than usual for me was 1 sec up, 2 secs down.

Warmed up on 40kg then 60kg. Went with 80kg and did 3 sets of 8.

Forgot...drop-setted twice back to 40kg and 6 more reps each, then rest-paused on 40kg 3 times until delts exhausted.

Rear delts next and I don't know what these are called. Seated with 20kg dumbbells, bent over and you do a row action but with elbows outwards. 5 sets of 15 reps and rears were toasted.

Stayed seated and with 10kg dumbbells did strict side raises for 15-20 reps. Never let arms down vertically, always start raising before tension comes off the delts.

Cable front raise next I now do this holding bar away from body and front delts feel better for it although have to go lighter than the old way of pulling the bar up the body. 4 sets.

Cable side raises last alternated upright behind the back for front and side delts with ones to the front of body and bent forward slightly to hit rears.

25 mins cardio on the bike to finish off a good session. Shoulders pumped and blue colour on skin coming through during front lat raises, b leaning up.

[Android]

Leg day today. One of 2 Legs days in the week I do this one is an all round one the other is more Hammie focused with calves.

Warmed up with Leg Extensions kept it light like 1/2 stack, 40 reps, 25 reps, then slowed it down for 15 and 15 reps.

Hack Squats first up while I'm fresh, 20kg each side and just took it easy for 20 reps different depths to warmup the knees etc.

40kg each side for 15 reps full depth hitting the bottom each time. 60kg each side and squeezing at the top did 12 reps. Last time I did Hack Squats was 3 sets of 20 with same weight, to the bottom. Wanted to see what 4 pps felt like so threw on other 20s. Got 8 full reps out and that's it.

Didnt feel stimulating at all tbh so I dropped 20s and did 2 more sets of 10 reps with the 3 pps and short rest between. Last set I didn't straighten legs I just kept tension on by going down deep and not coming up fully. Quads now pumped.

Next up the Glute / Ham machine and after a warmup to stretch the Hammies I picked a weight for 15 reps, and for 3 sets each Leg.

Seated Leg Curls next and I should've taken pain killers cause with a medium weight and 20 reps was hurtin from lactic acid not from muscle failure. Used rest-pause on the following sets and slowed down the reps and squeezed just to try and keep time under tension more than 30secs but struggled. Caffeine increases pain sensitivity so maybe pre-workout supps r to blame a bit.

Final exercise was Leg Extensions. Did all toes outward for concentration on teardrop and seeing veins come out was good to see. Not jaw-dropping visually have to look hard lol but can see them clearer than b4. I did 4 sets at stack weight then dropped to 3/4 stack and did x2 reps of single legged extensions rest-pause and do that 4 more times, then finished on full stack both legs to exhaustion.

30 mins on stepper/ski machine I like this one more than a bike. Was running heart beat at 135 after 5 mins. At end of this i felt super hungry man!

Yesterday I started a course of T3 and T4, 50mcg blended on waking and then a 40 min walk to kickstart the day, then 50mcg blended in the arvo before workout and cardio. Haven't dropped total calories at all but have re-portioned my carbs to different times of the day and different kinds of carbs. Hunger is through the roof so may increase carbs soon.

[yeahbuddy]

Solid workout man. I like how you went for the feel on the hack squats.. much better than just throwing the weight on for the sake of it.

Good luck with that T3! I've got myself some T3 and some Clen but I haven't decided which to start off with... leaning towards the T3 myself .. Clen's a bit harsh on the blood pressure for me.

[Android]

Solid workout man. I like how you went for the feel on the hack squats.. much better than just throwing the weight on for the sake of it.

Good luck with that T3! I've got myself some T3 and some Clen but I haven't decided which to start off with... leaning towards the T3 myself .. Clen's a bit harsh on the blood pressure for me.

Cheers mate, you're hack squatting a good weight it was a tough 8 reps for me. I'll try and pick up my game a bit here.

T3 on it's own is fine imo, but you gotta be taking anabolics else you'll likely lose muscle as well as the fat and excess carbs.

[yeahbuddy]

Cheers mate, you're hack squatting a good weight it was a tough 8 reps for me. I'll try and pick up my game a bit here.

T3 on it's own is fine imo, but you gotta be taking anabolics else you'll likely lose muscle as well as the fat and excess carbs.

I should be fine then as I'm just currently cruising on 200mg/week of Test E... should be enough to counter the catabolic effects of T3.. I hope? Just looking to lean up to less than 10% BF before my next blast

[HarryB]

Cheers mate, you're hack squatting a good weight it was a tough 8 reps for me. I'll try and pick up my game a bit here.

Hope the T3 goes well for you

Yeah I hope so too... never tried it before.

Don't know what you think Android but I have always thought you had to short cycle your thyroid meds to avoid a shut down.

[Android]

Cheers mate, you're hack squatting a good weight it was a tough 8 reps for me. I'll try and pick up my game a bit here.

Hope the T3 goes well for you

Yeah I hope so too... never tried it before.

Don't know what you think Android but I have always thought you had to short cycle your thyroid meds to avoid a shut down.

Yeah definitely Harry it's a closed-loop feedback system like testosterone, if you supply it your body shuts down production.

I believe you can take T3 in modest amounts (25-50mcg daily) for up to 3 months and just discontinue use and your system will recover quite fine assuming your thyroids were working fine beforehand. I want to try this over the summer so will give first-hand experience in early 2012.

But that won't help burn fat at the rate we want - right?

So yes definitely want to cycle it, pyramid up and down the doses is the safest way, and everyone reacts differently.

Not sure 200mg/week is enough to be taking T3 with for fatloss without losing muscle but maybe it is for you and your situation yeahbuddy. If you record your weight and body fat before and after you'll learn soon enough, hopefully none :-)

[Android]

Today was Arms and was a great workout it's been awhile since I've done Arms i previously was splitting bis and tris

Biceps first and incline dumbbell curls, supinated, not alternating and slower than normally do. Warmup was 20 reps of 10kg, then 10 rep sets thereafter, 15kg, 20kg, 25kg, 20kg, 15kg...done!

Next preacher curl machine. Did similar pyramid up and then down, was 5 sets and pumped them up nicely. Last few sets I rest-paused to get to 10 reps wasn't giving up easily here.

Next up was triceps and close-grip smith machine bench press, bulking movements first.

Started with 40kg and warmed up with 20 reps, keen to slow down my movement here. 80kg next and 12-15 reps, then 100kg, just got out 6 reps so drop-setted back to 80 and did another 8 reps. Left it at 80kg and did 3 more sets of 10, slow and steady feeling the tricep working. Last rep of each set almost needed a spotter...almost.

Next was cable push down things, face away from the cable and it goes above your head. Harry knows this one what is it called? My chest bunches up against my throat on this bit uncomfortable but good movement. Kept it heavy and slow'sh.

Next I did cable pushdowns using v-bar and supersetted with cable hammer curls to keep bicep alive. Pushdowns I did slow as I could and tried to forget that I could way more reps if I just went faster :-) hammer curls with cable were easy there was 2 rest points, once at the bottom and again at the top so have to change cable next time so have constant tension for better results.

Final one was tricep kickbacks with cable supersetted again with hammer curls. Kickbacks really light pumped up the triceps to max size, awesome feeling.

Finished with 30 mins on the cardio ski thingy I don't know what its called. 5 mins into the cardio and heart was 142 but didn't feel like it was racing, cool. Wanted to give up after 20 mins but had to miss morning walk cos of rain. Burnt 300 calories apparently, smart machine :shock:

[Android]

Saturday was a bit of a re-feed day.

Had the usual breakfast of raisins, oats and shake.

Cooked and ate 1kg of chicken before 2pm, then cooked another kg of chicken which was meals until bedtime.

Also cooked 1/2kg kumara. Also went to Burger Fuel and had a Bl**dy B*stard.

It isn't on the menu but the guy ran me through it and it's basically like a B*stard except it has x2 1/3lb beef patties.

There's another choice not on the menu called a B*tch which is using chicken breast, and a Bl**dy B*tch which has 2 chicken breasts.

Saturday I went to supplements.co.nz for the BSc taste-testing and brought some MesoMorph pre-training powder and Omega-3 caps.

First time in the place didn't even know it existed and turns out I competed with the guy, Garth. He was looking huge and ready to compete in 4 weeks, awesome to see!

Sunday trained, supposed to be my 2nd Legs day but old TP wanted to train and he won't do Legs with me, so Shoulders.

Pressing movements usually first, this time started with side lateral raises and what a difference it makes I may never start with pressing again!

Warmed up with 12kg for 20 reps and then 16kg for 15.

These are standing side raises, dumbbell does not come to the front of the body but to the side and back up again to keep the tension constant.

DId 4 sets with 20kg and was 10-15 rep range. Last set did 8, picked up 16kg and got out another 4, then 12kg for 8 reps.

Was actually the most enjoyable side raises ever felt fresh and able to push myself further

Next up was heavy rear delt work.

Have made the switch from light bent-over raises to these new heavy bent-over rows with elbows out for the last month and feel much better for it.

Just used 24kg dumbbells for 4 sets of these and delts were full, round, and pumped.

Felt a bit like food was coming up while doing these bent-over rows my last meal of chicken and rice was 1 hour before, then 30 mins before had 10gms BCAAs with some milk.

Okay pressing time, we did Smith machine seated front press starting on 40kg for 20 reps to warm-up.

Then sat on 80kg for 3 sets. 80kg after 2 other shoulder exercises felt heavier and it was a struggle to get to 10 but he had to, even with spotting.

Did another final set where we aimed for 20 reps regardless of how long it took or what we dropped to get there. So was 80kg, 70kg, 60kg, and 40kg...and collapse :-)

Finally did cable upright rows but held away from the body to isolate and work the front delts. Can't do these too heavy it else you'll be prone to aggravating the rotator cuff.

This was Anytime Fitness gym though so after 2nd set I went to the stack and did a couple of sets, slow and steady, then another set dropp-setting 3 times until I had done whatmust have been 20-25 reps.

Awesome workout.

PWO the usual straight after the workout, 10gms BCAAs and 55gms WPI. Got home and had 1/2kg of beef for dinner with loads of mixed veges.

No cardio this weekend except Saturday morning walk, other stuff on but will be the last weekend I miss these sessions with just 8 weeks left.

[yeahbuddy]

damn that's a lot of food!

[Android]

damn that's a lot of food!

yeah could have squeezed in more earlier in the day but was totally full at night

500gms kumara is only about 125gms carbs from memory (25gms per 100gms raw weight) not as high you'd think?

[yeahbuddy]

500gms kumara is only about 125gms carbs from memory (25gms per 100gms raw weight) not as high you'd think?

Yeah that's not high at all... I'd have guessed double that. I eat a lot of oats and I know they've got approximately 55g carbs per 100g raw weight. Kumara must be good for your guts then with all that fiber. I should probably put some into my diet cuz I'm always bloating up like mad. lol

[Android]

Today was Back and was really happy with the choice of exercises, felt bigger than I probably was LOL

First exercise was the incline dumbbell shrugs I adopted over a year ago to improve the middle of my Back, to create that look of wearing a Yoke. On big Pros this combined with big erectors looks freaky but I'll settle for just a glimpse of that if I can.

Chose 30kg dumbbells, no warm-up this was my working weight from the start I find traps don't need much warming up they can handle it and 30kg isn't breaking any records. Did 6 sets of 15-20 reps and worked at tiring the very middle area. In later sets I had to resort to row-style reps but just kept repping them out anyway.

Next up was seated rows on a Hammer Strength machine. Warmup was 30kg each side for 20 reps, then went for 50kg working sets, of which I did 5 sets. Biceps pumped up with 12-15 rep range. I concentrated on keeping my chest to the pad and pulling right back so can't help bicep pump doing it like this. Had little rest between sets, think it was the T4 at work :-)

Another Hammer Strength machine next, the lat pulldown. Same weight as the row machine, same warmup. Biceps again got a pump from 12-15 rep range and 4 working sets.

Seated Cable rows next and I picked an average weight. Did Arnie-style rows where you let it pull you forward alot and stretch the hell out of the lats. Did 4 set, 1 set was fast pace fast rythym, while last set was higher rep trying to reach 20, got to 18 yay!

Cable Lat Pulldowns next with a twist, 6 inch pulldowns with almost the stack and the wide bar with inward facing handles, this one builds up the muscle in the outer lat the top trust me. Once you have a V-shape that's nice, next is you build outer lats so they bulk up a bit, but it's still a V-shape and that's nice, but if you want lats that hang down from the shoulders so the V-shape is low this is the exercise to do at the end of your workouts. Heavy-as weight has to be more than you could ever pulldown, because you aren;'t even going to try. You pulldown less than 6 inches in a kind of shrug motion using lats only. Have seen big guys not even move the bar 4 inches.

Final exercise was one-handed seated row machine. I now include a one-handed row in all Back workouts (most do bent-over dumbbell rows) but I dislike the tortion twist on my core with the heavier weights so choose either seated rows or lat pulldowns one side at a time. Different strokes, same results :-)

Finished off with 25 mins cardio bike heartrate was 135 when I jumped on the bike but heart didn't feel it was pumping this fast.

Finished off with some ab work, 2 sets of crunches with legs held up parallel to ground, and 3 sets of 15 leg raises, that's all for abs.

Awesome day, awesome year. I decided nearly a year ago that I was big enough so now just enjoying the preparation without worrying about size. Just lifting lagging parts up is enough pressure, enjoyable pressure, good times ahead...is this the T4 talking? LOL

[yeahbuddy]

lol you're on fast forward!

those short pull downs using a long bar with your palms in... did ya get that off Dennis James? He does them in his DVD... never tried them myself.