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

[Android]

Bingo! Bodies are so predictable sometimes (sometimes).

My upper lats hurt like mad, when I prod and poke around it feels like the upper insertion and the middle area was hit the most. The muscle around the area is constantly aching and I'm always shifting my shoulder around today and stretching backwards looking for relief, as well as strecthing out my lats under my shirt.

Legs are just starting to come on now and either this is as bad as it gets or by the end of the day I'll be hobbling around. I sit at a desk for a job so they don't get as much blood pumped around as often as I'd like but I am a fidgety sort of guy so I get up every 15-20 mins for water, bathroom, coffee, go and read something etc and of course the midday gym visit.

Which today is for Chest and Calves.

I haven't done bench press for a while so I might see how my strength is on that today, some wide-as flyes on cable and lying incline d/bells. Won't do incline presses as Shoulders are tomorrow and would rather spend energy on them.

Foodwise, I just invested in 5kg of chicken breast yesterday based on price, I didn't get back into as much beef as I had hoped but will try again in a week, and again and again. Cooked a kg of chicken to day but it didn't look that much once cooked so I added a 185gm tin of tuna (in water always in water, I can't stand the oily one).

Just brought oats with me today so will buy something like a filled roll or 2, maybe a couple of packets of sushi for the arvo. I think the oats is adequate before the midday workout, that and 2 containers of chicken, leaves me with 1 container of chicken and the tin of tuna for the arvo.

Let's see:

Oats in the morning (200gms raw) = 120gms carbs

Double-serve shake = 50gm protein

Oats until workout (300gms raw) = 180gms carbs

Chicken until workout (500gms raw = 350gms cooked) = 70gms protein

Banana = 20gms carbs

Blueberry Muffin = 30gms carbs

So it's: 120gms protein and 350gms carbs, = 1,880 calories ... hmm that should be enough to get me through the workout :twisted:

[Android]

Today I spent 30 minutes at 2pm in the gym just working my calves.

First exercise was on the lying leg press where I repped out 35+ reps for 5 sets. Some of the sets I had to pause and let the lactic acid pain subside.

Then over to the seated calve raise my personal favourite. You can hit any part of the calve with different foot positions.

I worked up from a 20kg plate for 30 reps up to x4 20kg plates for 8 reps twice.

Then I went back to the lying leg press and did another 3 sets at a heavier weight than before for 15 rep sets.

That took 30 minutes, had a post workout shake and back to work for more eating. The afternoon I just had chicken and almonds since I had eaten all my kumara earlier and too busy to go get something else.

When i got home at 6pm I had a can of baked beans and prepared for a workout at 7:15p. This one was shoulders.

The usual but went heavy today and wanted to see how strong I was. On the seated dumbbell press I worked up from 22kg warmup to 30kg, then 8 good reps of 40kg, then 3 resp of 45kg. I finished off with another 45kg set and dropped to the 22kg for final reps. Felt good, felt strong tonight.

I also did heavier side lat raises than usual, 15kg dumbbells strict form but not as strict as I can do with lighter ones.

For Shrugs I used the machine and it was 60kg each side for 12 reps, 5 good sets and I think I will do these twice a week now.

Tomorrow is Back high-reps so I'll be eating up carbs and meat from 7am onwards until late afternoon. My lats are still sore at the upper insertion so am really happy about that. Will try and hit the centre and lower part of my back this time and maybe do biceps if they feel pumped.

Note to self, take a panadol beforehand

Pre workout is still the same as posted this last week and I am now running low on BSN Volumaize.

Although I feel I am stronger and the weights show that I am I can't quite 'feel' or 'see' the stuff working if you know what I mean. I like to 'feel' something so maybe I should just drop a couple of vitamin B3 tabs :-)

The large container of Xtend is still only half-full after a month of taking it every single day so am really happy about that it will see me through another month.

[2guns]

You can hit any part of the calve with different foot positions.

thats a myth man,

pointing toes in or out doesnt influence recruitment of the inner or outter calve anymore so.

there are two main muscles to yr calves the gastrocnemius and soleus (excuse spelling if incorrect)

so... when u planter flex yr foot u use both muscles.

when doing exercises with yr legs straight (in yr case leg press) u shift focus towards the gastrocnemius.

when doing movements with yr legs bent (seated calve raise) u shift more so toward the soleus.

so thers is two ways to train calves with knees straight or knees bent. not toes pointed in or out

[Android]

You can hit any part of the calve with different foot positions.

thats a myth man,

pointing toes in or out doesnt influence recruitment of the inner or outter calve anymore so.

A classic example of reading BB.com articles and accepting what someone says as fact by the way it's written, your reply seems to reference quite a bit this article don't you think?

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ms-fit10.htm

I can feel different amount of stress depending on whether I point them in or out.

Outwards I can really squeeze the diamond part and when it gets a thrashing the inside tip of the muscle hurts, but straight ahead or toes-in and I can't feel let alone squeeze that inside edge of the muscle as much...hence why I do that.

I'm taking the fact that I can actually feel some part of the calf as I squeeze as being able to work that part, whether muscle fibres run the same way or not it's simple for me: if I can't squeeze an area with toe-in but I can with toes-out then there's a pretty good reason to use toe positioning.

And likewise I can't do the outside calve with toes out it just doesn't get worked for me.

Don't believe everything you read and if you try it and you don't get anything from it no worries either, still doesn't make it a myth.

Here's the result of hitting calf with toes-out or toes-in...(scuse the hairy legs :oops: )

[2guns]

i never go on bodybuilding.com, i hate that site.

i used to point toes and then was told by quite a few ppl that its really pointless, so i read up quite alot for myself and the general consensus seemed to be that its a myth and bent or straight legs do the job.

just an opinion from a another angle anyway

u should tryed bent and straight legs then maybe yr calves will grow...

[Android]

just an opinion from a another angle anyway

Appreciate it, makes one re-think about what they are doing and why they are still doing it!

[Android]

This weekend was the first weekend off in a long time.

Just too tired and wanted a weekend where I did almost nothing. Watched "The Dark Knight" at IMAX and it finished late, which meant a late morning which meant insufficient eating and tiredness so didn't go near the gym for that reason.

Today's diet was also a 'day off', although I ate what you might consider 'clean' all day (tuna, oats, baked beans, eggs etc), I had a big bowl of icecream and bottle of beer :-P after dinner.

Tomorrow is a new day I'll plan for one big Back workout at night and do my abs at midday. Its summertime so I still feel obliged to keep working them, once Feb/ March arrives I'll probably quit doing abs for 6 months.

[2guns]

just an opinion from a another angle anyway

Appreciate it, makes one re-think about what they are doing and why they are still doing it!

sweet bro,

good journal!

[Gym rat]

Very good journal.

[Android]

Cheers guys, I'm keen to take this right through to next years Nationals Oct 3rd! - only 291 days left, that's about 41 weeks away and if I do one bodypart a week that's less about 30 Back workouts, 30 Shoulder workouts, ...etc to add mass. That's not much but it WILL be enough.

I'm off to China for a holiday late October '09 so don't know if I can make it to the NABBA Nationals, unless there's a date set already...someone?

I'll go to every show before then that I can for personal inspiration more than anything but won't compete. I need size and to bring up some weak points so I can't do that if I want to compete to win.

At some point soon I'll post up my weak points and what I'll do to make them my strong points.

Am really still devising a plan, talking to people, getting feedback etc. What I did this year might not apply to what I do next year, in my mind I want to challenge everything I do, which is what is really good about forums :-)

[Android]

Tonight was a freak'n awesome workout, something quite different from the norm for me and my Back.

Started straight on pulldowns with a close-grip bar and not using the seat but hooking the knees under the seat and getting the butt down to the floor. This allows for an almighty stretch of the lats going up.

We pyramided down the stack from 25 reps to 15 reps to 10 reps for a few work sets. The final weight was more than my body weight it was 210 on the stack and I needed help getting into position or I couldn't pull it down. Man I am looking forward to tomorrow/ next day to feel this at the bottom of my lats!

Then we did seated rows on a machine which forces you to pull higher than a normal seated row and cable. Whole stack, good feeling in the centre of the back from this machine.

Then we moved over to deadlifts because the t-bar row was taken. Got hold of another BB and we warmed up our egos on 140kg LOL for 12 good reps. 180 kg was our next weight and then I did a single rep of 200kg while the other guy repped out a few at that weight. We don't normally do this I promise! Just felt like the right moment, right atmosphere, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked on. Personal best for me and the last time I did a deadlift was well before the the comp in October when I did 180kg reps.

T-bar row was free so pyramid up from 60kg, 80kg, 100kg for a couple of sets and was starting to lose my pump so we finished off with a different seated row machine and I concentrated on squeezing the centre of my back together. Got a pump back after 15-20 rep sets and left the gym a happy person. Can't wait until I feel this workout :-)

Going to be hard to beat but it's Legs tomorrow. I know how much the lower back is used for Legs so hopefully it's not too weakened, we'll just have to wait and see.

Wow what a night!

[biggurl27]

Cor blimey 200kgs nice work! Very animated update tonight, don't think you'll get to sleep anytime being so ampt :pfft:

[Gym rat]

Blimey is right 200kg 's very nice work and well done and very inforative update as well tonight.

[Android]

hahaha thanks guys, biggurl too.

I am amp'd, had 300gms (cooked weight) of hoki tonight with some spuds and cauliflower.

Just now 2 hours later had the remaining 200gms (cooked weight) of hoki which I was going to have tomorrow.

Hungry as :twisted: I miss heavy weights

Ohh so add that 1/2 kg or more of fish to the 1kg (raw weight) of rump steak I had this morning and it's a good protein intake.

Todays carbs was from 200gms white rice (raw weight) which is 160gms of carbs, plus a sandwich with 3 slices of bread and a tin of tuna, half an avocado inside it.

My pre-workout was the last of the BSN Volumaize, Xtend (which is lasting forever I'm halfway through and it's been 4 weeks already the scoop is soo small), and Nutrex Ignite. My iSatori Morph is all gone and not sure I got anything of it tbh. Might have to try it on its own another time just to be sure.

Later :-)

[Android]

Oh man I have to scroll half way down the page to find my Journal after just 24 hours, nice posting everyone! :-)

Today was Biceps at midday and Legs at night.

We did Back last night but Biceps were fresh as. I don't wear straps for Back anymore have learnt to take my Biceps out of the equation for most Back exercises, they didn't get any pump yesterday and were fresh for today's workout despite the huge weights.

Doesn't mean I don't use straps or agree/ disagree with them, if I find I am feeling the start of a pump I'll use them.

I did 4 exercises for 4 working sets each.

First one up was the cable machine where you stand in the middle with a cable handle in each hand and do like the bicep poses on stage. Set the cable up high and concentrate on keeping the elbows high and forward a little. As you tire holding this position get harder. Weight doesn't matter the pain comes at any weight you choose. Sets stop when either the pain is too much or failure. I do all sets to failure or to the pain threshold.

in fact I do pretty much every set including warmups to this level. I can't seem to stop at a number, if there's fuel in the tank I burn it so to speak, everytime.

2nd exercise is preacher curls. I live for this exercise! When your arm is at rest and straightened (99% of the time) I still want a bicep bulge and this is the way to do it. Biceps hanging out the bottom of shirt sleeves inconspicuously is in my opinion better than a peak. It's like "I'm here, guess how big I get" LOL, rather than "Look at me, look at me!" that a peaked bicep implies. I have no idea where this thought is going but anyway preacher curls are the bomb as are incline dumbbell curls which also stretch the hell out of the bicep. If I had photos of me at 25 you'd see absolutely no bicep even reaching halfway down my arm so I get a little pissed when people look at my arms and say, good genetics they tie in all the way down to the elbow, WTF! Get real these puppies were pushed down my arm by praying every week on this damn preacher machine! :twisted:

3rd exercise is alternate supinating seated dumbbell curls or whatever order that description is supposed to be in. Seated alternate supinating dumbbell curls... perhaps? Anyway this one is for the brachiallis...something which as I know is the muscle under the bicep which if you increase it's size pushes up your peak...a free increase in size imho.

4th exercise and 2nd fav of all is concentration curls. I change hand position from hammer to supinating to other angles while I do reps with this. As I tire I change angles and fresh bicep muscle is used allowing me to squeeze out more reps. I get a huge pump from this exercise and I don't stop much between sets as I am doing one arm after the other there's no real need. One muscle is resting and ATP is flowing back into it while the other is working and this is not exactly a cardio exercise so apart from the effort in squeezing contractions it's easy enough to do the entire 4 working sets without a break.

Finally I went back tot he preacher and did a few heavy sets for the hell of it before being done, helps with my genetics - LOL.

I had my post-workout shake with double-serve protein and glucose then went and had BurgerKing HellRaiser combo. I had Legs tonight so more carbs was in order, quick!

Legs was a great workout, no presses or squats tonights we caught up on exercises we hadn't done last time and included calves at the end with 5 sets of seated calve raises at 60kg for 20 rep sets. I think the calves were hammered from Friday's midday workout where I just did calves for 3 exercises, and then the deadlifts yesterday woke them up again slightly. So they felt trashed tonight before I even started on them - sweeet!

[soundsgood]

If I had photos of me at 25 you'd see absolutely no bicep even reaching halfway down my arm so I get a little pissed when people look at my arms and say, good genetics they tie in all the way down to the elbow, WTF! Get real these puppies were pushed down my arm by praying every week on this damn preacher machine! :twisted:

Get the 'good genes' thing all the time cos my dads a PT.

It pisses me off. Cos good genes is the reason why I go and slave away at the gym for an hour 5 times a week. Good genes is why I take a run every day. Good genes is why I dont eat shit food and fizzy drinks. And good genes is why you dont see me out in town on the piss. :roll:

Anyways enough of the rant, I like the way you hit your biceps straight, decline and incline. Great overall workout man!

My favorite Bicep exercise to finish on is Buddy Curls. You know the one where you load up an olympic or ezy curl bar with weights. Grab a training partner and do a set of 12 barbell curls. Then pass it to your mate, he does 12 curls then immediately passes it to you. You do 11 curls then pass it back, etc, etc down to 1 curl. The rest period gets shorter and shorter. If you pick the right weight and you have an evenly matched partner its a fantastic fun way to finish :grin:

[disasterpiece]

My favorite Bicep exercise to finish on is Buddy Curls. You know the one where you load up an olympic or ezy curl bar with weights. Grab a training partner and do a set of 12 barbell curls. Then pass it to your mate, he does 12 curls then immediately passes it to you. You do 11 curls then pass it back, etc, etc down to 1 curl. The rest period gets shorter and shorter. If you pick the right weight and you have an evenly matched partner its a fantastic fun way to finish :grin:

i call these homo-curls

[biggurl27]

Yeah thats cause you're a homo DP.

[INSPECTOR64]

Yeah thats cause you're a homo DP.

PMS time BG?

[samoan_muscle]

My favorite Bicep exercise to finish on is Buddy Curls. You know the one where you load up an olympic or ezy curl bar with weights. Grab a training partner and do a set of 12 barbell curls. Then pass it to your mate, he does 12 curls then immediately passes it to you. You do 11 curls then pass it back, etc, etc down to 1 curl. The rest period gets shorter and shorter. If you pick the right weight and you have an evenly matched partner its a fantastic fun way to finish :grin:

i call these homo-curls

hahaha

[Android]

LOL I've got a training partner who always wants to do those ones, gonna watch him from now on whenever I turn my back ...

Another good one is using 2 bars, use the heavier one for wide grip and do a set. Then do a set of the lighter one with close grip. Increase the weight of the bars with each set as you would anyway.

Wide-grip barbell curls I don't do the curl thing with arms by my side rigidly.

I always bring the bar up close to the front of my body like it's sliding upward rather than curling upward. This means the elbows get pushed backwards as the bar rises making it impossible to push elbows forward and under the bar.

[Varven]

Android, do you rest pause your sets?

Do you use any other "overload" techniques, like static holds? or stretches ?

[Android]

Android, do you rest pause your sets?

Do you use any other "overload" techniques, like static holds? or stretches ?

Yes I do rest-pause for the high rep work.

Every single set is to failure or pain threshold, (or boredom if I pick the wrong starting weight). I use rest-pause when I really want to pump up the muscle on the initial sets for a warm-up, and then on the last sets I use it to take my muscle to complete failure.

When I did 100 reps of leg extension last week I did 60 reps straight up, then rest-pause in lots of 10 and 5 reps until I reached 100. That was the first set. On that set I was just trying to pump and warm up not exhaust completely.

On the last set I was rest-pausing after 20 (heavier weight) until I couldn't bear the pain or lift another rep. So there's a slight difference in how I use the rest-pause there.

I never do static holds. I've never seen a bodybuilder do it only scrawny PT instructors and physio people recommend doing it, hence why I never will. If I see JC or RC do it I'll consider it again LOL

Stretches. I have to thankyou at this point.

I believe in muscle stretches for bigger muscle bellies by strectching the skin fascia etc but it's not an ingrained habit yet, and seeing this again in words reminds me to do it!

Other overload techniques?

Nothing out of the ordinary if something comes to mind I'll let you know when it does (am at work and just finished a great tricep workout so busy eating and thinking of work-stuff instead).

[Gym rat]

Good call Biggurl and I would have to go along with that as well.

[Varven]

Android,

I always dismissed static holds... until I found quite a few pl'ers use them succesfully!

EG: On squat, heavier than normal weight, knees bent, just short of lockout...

same with bench....

same with bicep curls etc.....

Apparently it helps build tendon strenght as well...

I quite like doing it on the last set.

I am not sure if I am using the terminology... but eg: doing preacher curl, after the very last set, I hold it short of lockout for however long I can.

I think it works...

Fascia stretching, I wish I learnt about it earlier.

Ive started stretching and Its made a difference I believe...