Mon., 9/30/13, Chest

I got in a great chest workout this morning. I changed up the reps a little, where I've been keeping them lower I increased them a little:

incline dumbbell press: 30's-20; 50's-15; 65's-12; 80's-10; 90's-10; 100's-6,6
flat dumbbell press: 100's-6 + 75's-5 + 50's-10 (no rest)
crossovers: 60-16; 80-8, 10 + drop-set
dip: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 (30 second rest between sets.)

I'm very happy with my progress. At 5 1/2 weeks out- I'm holding my strength pretty good, I'm more ripped than I've ever been this far out, and continuing to improve every day. My last waist measurement was 29 1/2" and my weight is about 170lb. I'm pumped about the World Championships!

Fri., 9/27/13, Shoulders

I got in one of the best shoulder workouts I've had in a long time. I did a couple moves that I have not messed with in a long time because of joint issues, but today the different moves felt good:

Hammer Strength shoulder press: 50-20; 90-15; 180-10; 270-6,5; 180-15
*incline face-down dumbbell front raise: 10's-15; 15's-15; 20's-15; 25's-8 + 6
seated laterals: 20's-15; 25's-12; 30's-9
bent-over-rear laterals: 50's-15
*standing military press: 95-10; 145-6; 115-9
dumbbell shrug: 75's-15; 100's-15

*These are the moves that I have not felt safe doing in the past due to joint pain, but praise God, they are feeling better and more natural as long as I use flawless technique.

Thur., 9/26/13, LEG DAY

I got in a very good and very hard workout today. The lighter I get the  heavier the weight feels, but the more determined I am that the weight must be moved. I started the workout with squats: sets of 6 up to 405 and a set of 20 with 315. Next was walking lunge: 1 set of 25 steps each leg with 95lb. Back to heavy stuff- leg press: 3 sets- 450-10, 890-7, 540-6. On to hams- seated leg curl, 2 sets: 110-15, 155-8. Then lying leg curl super-set with leg extensions, both with 90lb 2 sets back and forth with no rest: 12 and10 reps on the curl and 20 and 15 reps on the extension. Just to feel the different angle, I did 1 set of 15 reps with each leg with 60lb on the standing 1-leg curl. And I finished it up with only 1- 15 rep  set of hyper-extensions set very low to nail the hams and glutes. And they were, ARE, toast.

Wed., 9/25/13, Arms

I got in an awesome arm workout this morning. I did 5 different exercises for biceps and for triceps, but not very many sets per exercise. Here's what it looked like:

7 total sets of curls super-set with rope pushdowns, but only 2 working sets
2 super-sets of concentration curls super-set with lying triceps extesnions
2 super-sets of arm blaster curls with seated ripe extensions
2 super-sets of preacher curls with pushdowns
and just 1 super-set of hammer curls and 1-arm seated triceps extensions.
BOOM! They were pumped.

Tue., 9/24/13, Back/ Calves

Today's workout was great. I got in a good pump. The focus was really on the upper back- thinking about making the rear double biceps shot thick with more detail than ever:

I started with medium grip pull-downs: 4 sets of 12, 1 set of 10 and a set of 7
next up was T-bar row: sets of 12, 8, and 5 + 3 drop-sets
then double D-grip pull-down: 2 sets of 10 and 1 set of 6
and I finished with bent over row: 2 sets of 10 and 1 set of 8
I increased the weight on every set, with 5 sets too total failure.
I finished with calves (which I normally start with.) Only 4 sets of machine calf raises and 3 sets of 1-leg calf raise on the leg press- it was pretty short because I killed them pretty good on Saturday.

Mon., 9/23/13, Chest

I got a killer chest workout this morning. It was fairly short, about 30-40 minutes, and total intensity:

incline dumbbell press: 20's-20; 35's-15; 50's-15; 65's-12; 75's-6; 80's-6; 85's-6; 90's-6; 95's-6; 100's-6,4 (I've been doing so many sets increasing a little at a time for 2 reasons: I want to do sets of 6 to failure and we only have 100lb dumbbells at the gym, and my shoulder is wacky so it's good to go up in small increments.)
cable crossover: 60-16; 80-10; 100-6
flat dumbbell press: 100's-5 + 75's-6 + 50's-10 (no rest)
bent-over cable fly: 70-12; 80-8
dip: 20; 45lb-8
pullover: 90-10 

Fri., 9/20/13, Shoulders

I got in a great shoulder workout this morning. It was a little different than usual, just pumping the blood in the muscle, trying not to cause joint pain. This is how it went:

I started with a super-set with no rest at all- just running through it-

   machine lateral:        60-15;   80-15; 110-15; 130-12; 150-7
   machine rear lateral: 80-15; 120-15; 160-15; 190-12; 220-6

Hammer Strength press: 90-15; 180-12; 270-5 + 2 drop-sets
    followed by 1 set of lateral raises, 1 set of rear laterals and 1 set of front raises all with dumbbells.

dumbbell shrug: 50's-15; 75's-15; 100's-15

Thur., 9/19/13, Legs

I got in a killer leg workout this morning. To change it up a little, I alternated quads and hams. I feel like this helped me bring the hams in a little more, it was good. Here's how it went:

squat: 45-25; 95-6; 135-6; 225-6; 315-6; 405-6; 315-20
seated leg curl: 80-15; 110-15; 140-10
leg press: 450-20; 720-10
lying leg curl: 105-10, 5; 90-9
    super-set with leg extension: 90-20,12(no rest)
reverse lunge: 65-12/  1-leg step-up: 15 (no weight)/  alternating lunge: 95-10 (All just to feel, squeeze the glutes.)

Wed., 9/18/13, Arms

My arms were pumped this morning. It was a great workout. I mixed it up a little, wanting to hit the muscle with both heavy weight and maximum pump. I included low and high reps:

curls: 30-20; 45-15; 65-10; 85-6; 105-6; 125-4; 65-21
 super set with rope pushdowns: 50-35; 60-20; 70-15; 80-12; 100-10; 120-10; 80-21

spider curl: 35's-7,5; 20's-13
super-set with seated rope extensions: 130-9,6; 100-9

hammer curl: 35's-12; 30's-8
super-set with lying extensions: 100-7; 70-10

cable curl: 130-12 + drop set
reverse 1-arm pushdown: 60-?

Tue., 9/17/13, Back/ Diet Update

I got in a great back workout this morning. It was all basic stuff: barbell rows, dumbbell rows face-down on an incline bench, medium-grip-pull-downs, 1 arm rows, and V-grip pull-downs.

This is what I ate yesterday:

meal #1: egg white; oatmeal; banana
meal #2: chicken; oatmeal
pre-workout: whey protein, glutamine
post workout: whey protein, glutamine; after cardio- sweet potato
meal #3: chicken; oatmeal; orange
meal #4: chicken; black beans; brown rice; spinach; hummus
meal #5: chicken; sweet potato, 1/2 tbs peanut butter
before bed: whey protein, glutamine
265g protein, 330g carb and 43g fat- about 2780 calories.

Mon., 9/16/13, Chest

I got in a great chest pump this morning. I've been doing relatively high volume for chest, with a total of 19 sets including warm-ups. I hit it from a lot of different angles, but the volume varies for each exercise: 10 sets for incline dumbbell press, 3 for machine flyes, 2 for flat dumbbell press, 2 and a drop-set for cross-overs, 1 set of pullovers and 1 set plus 3 rest-pause sets for dips. And they were pumped!

9/14/13, Calves 8 Weeks til World Championships

Everything is going well with the prep. I'm very happy with where I'm at. The waist measured 29 1/2" this morning. As long as I can lose 1/2" in the next 8 weeks we're good... ha ha. My average caloric intake this week was 2750, with some high days, some low days and one that was right at 2750. The split will remain the same as I am happy with the progress. This is the current training schedule:
Monday: chest/ abs
Tuesday: back/ calves/ abs
Wednesday: arms/ abs
Thursday: quads/ hams
Friday: shoulders/ abs
Saturday: calves/ abs
Sunday: rest
Note: every work day I do 20 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of posing.

Thur., 9/12/13, Leg Day Report

I got a killer leg workout in yesterday. I went to the Life Fitness in Chesapeke, VA. I like this gym because it has a couple of unique pieces of equipment. They have 2 different leg press, a leverage squat machine and a Cybex kneeling 1-leg curl. When I go there I always do a pretty high volume workout to shock the muscles with the different stuff. Here's how it went:

squat: 45-25; 135-10; 225-6; 315-6; 405-6; 315-20
leverage Power System squat: 270-10, 12
leg press: 270-15; 450-12
Body Masters leg press: 540-12; 720-8
Cybex kneeling 1-leg curl: 50-15; 90-12,12,8
seated leg curl: 2 sets I don't know how much weight or how many reps
lying leg curl: 110-8 + drop-set
reverse dumbbell lunge: 50's-6; 75's-6; 100's-5 + 45's-6
....Yeah, they were toast and I looked like I'd just climbed out of a swimming pool.

Wed., 9/11/13, Arms

I got a pretty killer arm pump this morning. I used the arm blaster for 2 different exercises today. I've been enjoying that little thing:

6 total sets dumbbell arm blaster curl super-set with rope pushdown
3 sets concentration curl super-set with seated rope extension
2 tri-sets arm blaster reverse curl/ arm blaster curl/ lying 45 degree triceps extension
2 sets 1-arm preacher curl
1 set seated extension
1 set V-pushdown

Tue., 9/10/13, back

I started my back workout with the old basic king of back exercises: the bent over row. I did several sets increasing weight and decreasing reps with each set, doing 20, 15, 12, 10, 8 and 5 reps. Next was just 2 sets of  under-grip-pull-downs, 12 and 10 reps. Then 2 sets of Nautilus unilateral pulldown, 12 and 9 reps. To finish the pulls off I did 2 sets of Free-Motion Pulldowns, 12 and 10 reps. Then to finish the whole workout I did 2 sets of seated rows, 12 and 8 reps. I really hit a lot of different angles and got an excellent pump.

Mon., 09/09/13, Chest

I got an insane chest pump this morning. I'm feeling very confidant with where I am. Everything is coming together nicely- slowly but surely. I can see improvements all the time- new details popping. My training is very basic, everything once a week except calves twice and abs 5 days. The this is what my chest workout looked like:

incline dumbbell press: 10 sets with several warm-ups/ feel sets and 2 failure sets
machine fly: 2 sets 12 and 10 reps
flat dumbbell press: 2 sets 10 and 8 reps
cable crossover: 2 sets 12 reps and ? + drop set
cross-bench pullover: 3 sets of 12 reps increasing weight each set.

Fri., 9/06/13, Shoulders

You know those days when everything hurts, you're tired out of your mind and depleted from weeks of calorie deficit? This was one of those days. You have fight harder on those days. The weight seems heavier. But these are the days that count. These are the days that make you better, they make you stronger. I have to remember what the Book says, "This is not a battle of flesh and blood." It is a war of the mind and heart, and if you can overcome the physical, then you'll win.

I stuck with the 10 sets of 10 with 30 second rest periods for behind the neck press. Then 4 sets of laterals working up to the 35's. Next was bent over laterals- 3 sets: 15,12,10. I finished with barbell shrugs: 135-15, 225-15 and 315-10. BOOM! They were pumped, tight and the veins were popping.

Thur., 9/05/13, Legs

I destroyed the legs this morning. It was great. I got all the different fiber types with high reps, low reps and medium reps. This is the whole thing from start to finish:

squat: 45-20; 95-15; 135-10; 225-6; 315-6; 405-6; 315-20
leg press: 540-15; 770-9
reverse lunge: 65-10; 95-10; 115-10
Tri-sets:
    seated leg curl: 110-15; 125-10; 140-8
    back extension: 12, 12, 12
    lying leg curl: 90-10, 6, 7

 

Wed., 9/04/13, Arms

We got a new toy at the gym- an arm blaster. So, of course, I played with that today. It had been a long time since I'd used one of those. They are nice. I got a killer pump today. It was all basic stuff:
5 sets of barbell curls super-set with rope pushdowns
3 sets of arm blaster curls super-set with seated rope triceps extensions
2 sets of spider curls super-set with V-pushdowns
2 sets of arm blaster hammer curls super-set with lying triceps extensions

Tue., 9/03/13, Back Training / DIET

My calories have been fluctuating between 2500 and 3000 for the last week or so. This is a good range for me:

Monday, 9/02/13-

meal 1: 8oz egg white; 1 c oatmeal; apple
pre-workout: 20g whey protein, glutamine
post-workout: 40g whey protein, glutamine
meal 2: 5oz chicken; 11oz sweet potato
meal 3: 5oz chicken; 7oz sweet potato
meal 4: 5oz chicken; 1/2c oatmeal
meal 5: 6oz 93% lean ground beef; 5oz red potato; tomato, onion, cabbage
meal 6: 3oz tuna; broccoli

This totals 2600 calories: 275g protein, 270g carb, and 44g fat.

Mon., 9/02/13, Chest

My upper chest has always been a weaker area for me, so I definitely focus on that area. I pumped the mess out of it  this morning. Here's what it looked like:

incline dumbbell press: 20's-30; 40's-20; 55's-15; 70's-6; 80's-6; 85's-6; 90's-6; 95's-6; 100's-6,5
incline hammer strength: 160-12; 210-?
bent cable fly (for upper chest): 100-7; 80-12
flat dumbbell press: 75's-11,8
pullover: 50-12; 60-12; 70-12
dip: 20,10,8 (only 20 seconds rest) + cross-overs: 80-12