Rookie: Road to rippedness and first comp

[PeterDolan]

presuming your talking bout street walking bro ???Incline treadmill works just fine as you know :nod:

Incline was the basis of my precontest cardio, it ain't no walk in the park!

[TonganTerror]

presuming your talking bout street walking bro ???Incline treadmill works just fine as you know :nod:

Incline was the basis of my precontest cardio, it ain't no walk in the park!

YEEYAA :clap: :clap:

[Rookie]

Ok so today was one of the days, NO PUMP, LOW STRENGTH!!!

Most likely to do with sleep I'm guessing, had an assignment due and only got 5 and half hrs sleep. I know sleep is often the most overlooked aspect of wanting to get big and strong. One of my mentors told me no good training hard for a few days, hitting the piss or missing sleep. Time and time again my mentors tell me consistency is the key, do things over and over.

Here is today's session: shoulders with some tri's

Rear delts: Cable: 12x12 for 4 sets

DB: 25lbx12 for 4 sets

A tri raise tri-set:

Arnold raise: 17.5kgs start where you would for an arnold press and raise to sides so DB's are parallel with ears

DB laterals: 12.5kgs focusing on raising with elbows and minimising swing

Cable laterals: 20lbs, constant tension and making sure delts dont relax

Tri's:

Overhead BB ext: 37.5kg for 4 sets of 10, 10, 8, 8

Smith machine Kaz press: 15kg a side for 4 sets of 10, 8, 8, 8

Just went through the motions really. I usually get a real good pump going but as I said before today wasn't my best days. So far I would have to say back was the best training session, pump and strength wise.

Many of you may be wondering why there is no pressing movements: Long story short, I injured my a/c joint on my right shuolder 3yrs ago and that entailed partially torn ligaments which were treated with cortisone so the pain is gone but since the joint is not fully attached its like putting a stick through a bike and trying to pedal- it just jams and causes annoyance/pain if I keep grinding the joint.

Just trying to do my best to work around the obstacles I have here but to recap all in all this week has been great. Tomorrow is a full on arms session, hence the light tri work.

My coach's unique training style seems to suit me better than anything I've done before.

His philosophy is heavy weight and high volume thats why we go anywhere from 5-10 on upper body and do heavy low rep work on posterior chain.

No doubt going to get massive gains if I keep going back to those sessions, a quote from my coach "there's no magic pill, its just hard work and eating right"

The reason why I like training at my gym is because of the environment and used to train at the uni gym which is just like a shinyland health club. IMO surround yourself with like-minded individuals with a wealth of knowledge and you CANNOT go wrong.

Over and out: Rookie

[PeterDolan]

Smart training, how do you find upright rows? Heard mixed things when it comes to fucked AC joints

[Rookie]

Upright rows are also are tough one, causes impingement of the rotator cuffs and jams the joint. I'm just stoked I can still train. Oh yeah, what you hear?

[PeterDolan]

Upright rows are also are tough one, causes impingement of the rotator cuffs and jams the joint. I'm just stoked I can still train. Oh yeah, what you hear?

Mainly the impingement you experience or too much strain on the posterior rotator cuff muscles, but one of my mates didn't have an issue so loved it cause it was the only compound movement for shoulders he could do

[Rookie]

Yeah, true that. Well my delts seem to be growing with bench and the pressing from tri's etc. Just gutted that I can't do overheads ay. oh well shit happens and you just gotta deal with it

[PeterDolan]

Yeah, true that. Well my delts seem to be growing with bench and the pressing from tri's etc. Just gutted that I can't do overheads ay. oh well shit happens and you just gotta deal with it

Sounds like your making the most of a shit situation, atleast you get to train them, even if it isn't how you would like

[Rookie]

Cheers mate, yeah I've found that in the iron game you've got to be able to make compromises. Looking forward to arms tomorrow as they are one of my fave body parts to train besides back. Would rather be a guy with a huge back and arms than look like the hunch back of notre-dame :pfft: Still train every body part equally but arms seem to have grown relatively quick, only if back was the same- shit lats :x

[genetic freek]

Tris twice this week?

[Rookie]

Yeah just light and one heavy. There's a bench champ at our gym who told me that tri's twice a week is good to get the bench up so I took his advice and his arms are huge so why not :pfft:

[Rookie]

Ok, so I woke up pretty late this morning. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, might have needed the rest after the week of hard training.

Started the day with a cup of oats/shake, then 2hrs later 1cup rice and chicken, will be followed by creamed rice/shake post w.o, dinner will be kumara and chicken. Bed time meal will be cottage cheese and cinnamon.

So roughly I calculated the eats to be around 200-250g protein and around 250-300g carbs, not sure about fat as I'll just be getting it from oats, chicken and trace from cottage cheese. Will keep a close eye on things and see how I go.

So decisions and plan of attack:

Train 6x a week, with adequate rest.

Eat well with adequate calories and carbs/protein for recovery.

"Keeping it simple since Sept. 2010" Carbs and protein every 2-3hrs

Ok guys will check back in later as I am off to train arms, should be a good one and no doubt I'll learn a few tricks of coach as his arms are not small by any means!!

Rookie

[genetic freek]

6 day week too much for you. 4 days max.

[Dr Squat]

Plenty of "advices" here. I hope the young fella is smart enough to decide on an approach, stick to it and give it a decent chance of working for him.

I am sure that everybody means well. But I'm not aware of any magic bullet.

[Rookie]

Cheers Doc! Yeah I've always found that volume has somewhat worked for me. I did 5x a week with my previous training partner and I got some really good gains. Since doing more frequency, my coach said "you're filling out that t-shirt mate, I was wearing a BSN big T". As is always the case I think I'm a bit megarexic and don't know if I'm growing or not, so its always good to have others comment on progress.

Trained arms alone, as coach was caught up with work.

Arms:

Smith machine kaz press: 50x10, 50x10, 55x8, 60x8, 65x6, 65x6- PB Superset

Seated DB curls: 12.5x10, 15x10, 15x10, 15x10, 17.5x8, 17.5x6

Seated overhead tri ext:35x10, 35x10, 37.5x8, 37.5x8, 40x6, 40x6

Incline curls: 12.5x10, 12.5x10, 12.5x10, 12.5x10, 15x6, 15x6

V-bar pushdowns: 100x10, 110x8

Rope curls: 36x12, 36x12

Over head rope ext: 24x12, 30x10

1 arm reverse cable curls: 12x10, 12x10

All done in under an hour- I was superpumped and felt really good. Would have been good to have coach there but I know the case in real ife, work commitments etc

Was going for the squeeze on the biceps movements and constant tension, as a good mate of mine told me "bodybuilding is about putting as much strain on the muscle as possible". Also went for the stretch on the triceps movements as I was taught on Monday.

All in all a good days work and a good days eating.

I know many of you are trying to help me out with advice etc but I'll listen to my coach as the absolute and take his word as a given.

If I kept listening to different people I would be on a rollercoaster ride going around in circles. I will stick to one thing and see how it goes!!

Rookie

[morattigirl]

If I kept listening to different people I would be on a rollercoaster ride going around in circles. I will stick to one thing and see how it goes!!

Rookie

Stick to one thing at a time yup yup.... Double thumbs up emoticon :grin:

Nice work Rook

[Rookie]

Thanks MG!! I know that in the iron game many people have different views but you just gotta find what works for ya and go with it. If what I do with coach doesnt work in the next 6 weeks I'll change but I highly doubt that. Someone with 20+ yrs lifting experience as opposed to a few yrs in the gym.. In this one, experience counts!

[Rookie]

Ok so today was meant to be quads, however my mate who I'll be training legs with on Tuesday said it'll be best to have a rest- trust me this guy does not train soft by any means. So will rest up this weekend and am off to a local bodybuilding show to support my training partner, it should be a good one.

Chest again on Monday and will report back then will a full log.

Rookie

[Rookie]

Ok today's chest session was AWESOME!!!! Pump and strength wise, a lot better than last week- better flow and constant work, in and out sets.

It was:

Incline bench:

62.5x10, 62.5x10, 65x8, 65x8, 72.5x5, 72.5x5, 62.5x10, 62.5x8

Flat DB bench:

20x12, 25x10, 27.5x10, 30x4- pretty exhausted on this one

Flat DB flys:

15x10, 12.5x10, 12.5x10- lowered the weight to get a better stretch as tri's and delts were kicking in with the 15's

Medium grip bench:

40x8, 40x8- really humbled on this one, tried 60 and couldnt even get it for one rep as I was that taxed from the previous volume. Like coach said, I'll get used to the volume and strength-endurance will go up.

Tri pushdowns

90x12, 100x12, 100x15, 120x9, 100x10, 100x10- just varied the grips here and went for full range of motion and squeeze on every rep, just to flush out the tri's after all the benching.

So that was just another day in the office aka the house of ESBB.

Todays eats were:

M1 1cup oats, 40g protein powder (WPC)

M2 1cup brown rice, 400g chicken

M3 300g kumara 300g chicken

M4 1cup rice, 40g WPC

M5 300g kumara and 300g chicken

Just had to make do with what I had at home and will have a shake before bed.

Rookie

[Rookie]

BIG REALITY CHECK!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

Today was legs with my mate and his training partner- this guy is one of the strongest guys in town and hardest training guy I've ever seen/ trained with.

Leg extensions:

48/12, 54/12, 60/12

Hacksquat superset with Leg press:

Hacks: 1plate a side/10, 3plates total/failure, 3plates total/failure and beyond

Leg press: 3plates per side/10, 3plates/failure, 3plates/failure- this was a strip/dropset.

Reverse hacks:2plates a side/10, 2plates a side-failure, 1plate a side to failure and beyond

Leg curls: 30/10, 36/failure and beyond, 36/failure and beyond

Leg extensions: 36/10, 42/faliure and beyond, 42/faliure and beyond

Walking lunges: 10 per leg/12.5kg for 3 sets

1 set of 40kg sumo squats: 12 reps

Abs: leg raises to faliure and beyond

:shock: :shock: Was well fucked after all this, the cheeky bastards even said bro we're only halfway through- I almost shat my pants.

First sets of Hack Squat and Leg Press I was gagging and panting- had to bring the bin closer to me, I hate half spews and just spitting. This was a lactic acid builder for sure, 2nd set I was on the ground like a bitch panting hard, 3rd set I could barely walk.

Reverse hacks: Good stretch but always hard to get the form right when you're well fucked. Couldnt bend knees and arch back as I was told. All in all a good set and seriously thought I was gonna spew, spat about three times in bin, gagging constantly.

Leg curls/Leg extensions:

Good mind muscle connection but had a bit of a habit of not doing full range. Like my mentor/mate said: "partial range=partial development, full range=full development"

Was a bit humbled by the weight I had to use as I was so drained to this point.

Lunges: Were good as I think my mate/mentor was trying to drain the last bit of energy I had. Gave it my all and ploughed through.

KB sumo squat: Once again just to drain energy and tax the quads one last time.

At the end of these was on the floor on all fours catching breath and finding where my balls went. Then to hear, "come on mate we're doing abs"- these guys made it look like a walk in the park.

Abs: Good ab pump :pfft: damn hard though, had to get a lot of assisted reps.

OK: So all in all was an awesome session- at the end I was walking like I had a few carrots shoved up my rear :shock: The boys the laughing coz I couldnt walk straight and was all over the place. Hated sitting down coz I could barely get up again. Big reality check for all those so called "I'm the man", "train hard" "lift heavy" "no one out trains me" blah blah blah, who the f gives a toss. Until you actually TRAIN HARD for once keep your mouths shut and do some real training!!!

I trained with one of the strongest guys in town and didnt complain once- did as I was told and gave it my all. Proud I got through it, people were looking weirdly who gives a shit. If you want to get REALLY BIG, you're gonna have to train hard, like it or not, its the truth!!!! look at how the pros train, this was close to it- hardest training I've ever done. Look in the mirror and ask yourself is there someone who trains harder than me? There will be- find them and use your balls to train hard.

I'm much weaker and smaller than these guys but the fact that I got an offer I could not turn down made me so stoked that I was willing to endure the pain to have the privelege to learn from/train with these guys.

All in all a good session and thanks to the boys for helping me out- they didnt even help me up :pfft: Had to bloody grab the weights rack to get up!!!!

Like I said: be a man and train with men. If you wanna stay the same size then train the same way.

I am so grateful and lucky to have been able to train with the strongest and most knowledgable guys in the gym and in town.

Over and out: Rookie

[Rookie]

:shock: So sore... hurts to sit down=glutes are toast, hurts to stand=quads are fried, hammys are tender too.

Mentor/mate said it'll be worse the next few days :pfft: Well at least I know I busted my ass off!!

Training back with the same guys tomorrow and training with my original training partner on Monday- with max effort 3 lift throughout the week. It's good when you're and in demand training partner :pfft:

Back to training with coach once my training partner goes back to UK in a few weeks.

Will be good to focus on lifting heavy and fulfilling my goals for the 3 lift. I might actually surpass my current goals at the rate my strength is climbing atm. Finding it good to mix up training partners as all of them have different views on diet etc but my mentor who helped yesterday is the best/hardest trainer ever.

Will be back with a report on latissimus punishment!! :pfft:

[Rookie]

:shock: I thought legs was hard.... Back was hard as!!! Ok not hard as legs but not too far off. First half of training was intense but it dropped of towards the end.

Was very good as I learned a lot about form, still have a long way to go regarding R.O.M- didn't help that I did a PT course and was taught the "correct" way which is no R.O.M what so ever and controlled concentric.

Bodybuilding form has always been hard, I think that's why my back is behind all my other body parts. Need to always focus on stretch and squeeze- power through movements. Was good as my mentor has one of the best backs I've ever seen: Thick, dense and wide!!.

On today's menu was:

Rack deads: 100x10, 120x10, 120x10, 130x8

Db rows: 25kgx10 for 4 sets. This was hard/awkward as I kept using my biceps and pulling as if I was trying to curl, couldn't get an adequate mind/muscle connection- My mentor was trying to help me but I need to make sure my form is much better before I dive in the deep end- these guys train like animals- heavy and quick.

Lat pulldown: Same problem as I mentioned before, couldnt power it down and squeeze, let it go instead of stretching lats properly- I have a long way to go before I start moving serious weight. I think I did- 60-70kg for 10 reps.

Hammer strength iso rows: 2platesx10, 1platex10, 1.5platesx10

Straight-arm pulldowns: 50x20, 60x12, 70x10

Cybex pulldown: 70x10, 60x10, 60x10- 50x10 (dropset)

Seated machine row: 50x10, 50x10, 50x10- 40x12 (dropset)

Abs: Allover the place but these guys were laughing when I was in pain coz I don't work abs much and kept cramping up. Made some crazy noises :pfft: About 4-5 sets on these.

That was it- learned a lot and all in all a good session. Met a legend in NZbbing today, this guy is huge- traps and delts are crazy. One thing that stuck with me what he said was: You've got a good body type for growning, you can gain fat easy and build muscle easy- keep at it, train hard and eat big.

Words like this will stick with me forever. Just knowing that someone else thinks I'll do well is motivating enough, never had a strong male role model in life so it's always good to be surrounded by such strong male figures. Once again I am so blessed to train with the guys I train with and met the people I meet, fate they may call it.

Rookie

P.S I didn't spew like a bitch today but I did sweat like a rapist and pant like a mofo!! My mentor is the man, pushes me to my limits and knows how much I have left and drains all the energy I have left- I gave it everything.

[musclenz]

Great to meet you today Rookie. You have got a good team with you. All the best with your training.

[Best Bench]

Yeah just light and one heavy. There's a bench champ at our gym who told me that tri's twice a week is good to get the bench up so I took his advice and his arms are huge so why not :pfft:

This guy sounds awesome :nod:

Looks like the training is going well. Just a small suggestion regarding the powerlifting comp. Might be good to throw in some bench and squat "practice", by practice I mean just using very light weights and working on technique and learning the movement. For example on chest day go in early and do 20 minutes of bench with light weight, work on technique, practice pausing on the chest, concentrate on speed etc. As a rookie you will make good gains in the powerlifts by teaching your body the movement and increasing coordination. Coach is pretty experienced so can get by without much work on the core movements.

That's just my 2 cents.

[Rookie]

Thanks MNZ!! Your words stuck with me and I'll keep training hard and eating big. Have to get into powerlifting training from Monday as our meet is only 7 weeks away. Has been good training with the team- they push me to my limits and teach me a lot which is good.

Your delts and traps looked awesome today- not bad for someone that young :pfft: You've proved age is only a number.