Thur., 10/31/13, Back and Tri's

I got in a good workout today. It was hard. I'm used to training 1 muscle at a time and  I'm tired and depleted, so by the time I got to triceps it was bad. My forearms were giving out and my energy was non-existant. BUT, it happened:

row: 45-20; 95-15; 135-12; 185-12; 205-10; 225-8; 245-6
Free-Motion pull down: 150-12; 180-10; 200-6
seated row: 160-10; 180-10
close pull down: 180-10; 210-10
rope pushdown: 50-20; 70-20; 90-15; 110-10; 130-6
pushdown: 150-15; 170-8
lying 1-arm dumbbell extension: 40-6; 30-6,5 (no rest)
seated extension: 100-12 

Wed., 10/30/13, Chest and Biceps

I got in a good chest and biceps pump this morning. It was all the same exercises, but I increased the reps a little on several things. So I was hitting in the 8-12 range instead of the 6-8 range though I did get a few low rep sets in there. Here's how it went: incline dumbbell press, flat dumbbell press, bent over cable fly for upper chest, dips, pullovers, concentration curl, cable curl, preacher curl, and hammer curl.

tue., 10/29/13, legs

I again scaled back on the intensity of the leg workout today, because I will do them again on Saturday. Plus, I have been feeling it. I upped the reps a bit. It was a hard workout, just because I am depleted and tired. Here's what it looked like:

squat: 45-20; 135-20; 225-20; 275-15; 315-10; 365-6
hack squat: 90-20; 180-12; 270-10
reverse lunge: 95-15, 15
calf press: 270-30; 360-20; 450-15
   super-set with lying leg curl: 60-20; 75-15; 90-12
seated calf raise: 90-20,15,15
   super-set with seated leg curl: 110-15; 125-12

Mon., 10/28/13, Shoulders

I got in a great shoulder workout this morning. This is the last full week of training before the World Championships. I am very excited. My energy levels are pretty low, but the workouts are still happening. The shoulder workout was very similar to what it has been: Hammer Strength press; incline face-down front raise; incline rear lateral; military press; lateral raise and dumbbell shrugs. These exercises have been feeling good, so why change them? If it ain't broke don't fix it. I did lower the weight on the front raise a little, because I noticed I get a better feel in the muscle and better control. So, 12 days out and still progressing!

Fri., 10/25/13, Chest and Biceps

Today I changed my slit up again for this last 2 weeks. Now it's a 4 day split: day#1 chest/bi's; day#2 back/tri's; day#3shoulders; and day#4 legs. I'll do this right up to Wednesday before the contest.
It was a great workout today- killer pump! It was all pretty basic stuff: incline dumbbell press, bent over cable fly, flat dumbbell press, dip, pullover, curl, spider curl, hammer curl and concentration curl.

Thur., 10/24/13, Leg Day

It was a hard workout this morning. I was weak and feeling very depleted. It was freezing cold and took me forever to warm up. Yesterday was a low carb day. And the complaints go on. The bottom line: These are the workouts that count. You must push past the pain, weakness and fatigue. You must forget about the lack of sleep. You must forget about the weeks of dieting and depletion. You must do what has to be done. Period- no excuses. This is the day that separates the champions from everyone else.
So todays workout:  8 sets of squats; 3 sets of leg presses; 2 sets of reverse lunges; 4 sets of calf raises; 3 sets of seated curls; 2 sets of lying curls; 2 sets of leg extensions; and 3 sets of hyper extensions. It took about an hour and 15 minutes. And the gym manager asked why I was limping.

Wed., 10/23/13, Shoulders

I got in a great shoulder workout this morning. It was short, sweet and to the point. I did Hammer Strength presses, incline front raises, military presses, rear laterals and dumbbell shrugs. It was a good pump and I really put in some intensity and pushed some weight without hurting the joints.

Tue., 10/22/13, Back/ Diet Update

I got in a good back workout today- all basic stuff. It was heavy and intense and only took about 30 minutes: back extensions, rows, nautilus uni-lateral pull-down, dumbbell row, free-motion pull-down and 1 drop set of T-bar rows.

Here's what I've been eating:

meal 1: 1c egg white; 1c oatmeal; 1 apple
meal 2: 5 oz. chicken breast; 1/2 c oatmeal
 post workout: 40g whey protein and glutamine
meal 3: 5 oz. chicken; 11 oz sweet potato
meal 4: 5 oz. chicken; 6 1/2 oz sweet potato; broccoli
meal 5: 2 eggs; 1/2c egg white; 6oz potato
meal 6: 4oz chicken; 6oz sweet potato; broccoli
meal 7: 4 oz chicken; broccoli

This is about 2710 calories: 275g protein, 305g carb and 43g fat.

Mon., 10/21/13, chest and calves

I got in a killer pump today! It was great. My energy levels were very low, but I have to make a decision to do what must be done and the pump comes. Here's how it went:

calf press: 90-20; 180-20; 270-20; 360-20; 450-20; 540-15
seated calf: 90-20; 140-15; 190-12
smith machine calf: 180-20; 270-15

incline dumbbell press: 30's-20; 45's-15; 60's-10; 75's-6; 80's-6; 85's-6; 90's-6; 95's-6; 100's-6,6
bent over cable fly (for upper chest): 80-12; 100-8,6
dip: 15; 45lb-10; 90lb-6 + 45lb-6 + 6 (no rest drop-set)
flat dumbbell press: 100's-6,6 + cable crossover: 70-15

10/18/13, Chest and Back

Great pump this morning! It is definitely taking total concentration to complete the workouts at this point, but they are good. Nothing to out of the usual today:  7 super-sets of incline dumbbell press and under-grip pull-downs; 3 super-sets bent cable fly (for upper chest) and seated rows; 2 super-sets flat dumbbell press and bent dumbbell rows; 2 super-sets wide pullups and dips; and 3 sets of cross-bench pullovers. It was tight.

Thur., 10/17/13, Leg day

Today I decided to change it up a little- not a whole lot, just some subtle adjustments for where my body's at. I decreased the intensity a tad, and took out the 20 rep set of squats. This allowed me to add a couple more sets here and there:

squat: 45-20; 95-6; 135-6; 225-6; 315-6; 405-6; 365-6
leg press: 450-15; 630-15
hack squat: 160-10; 300-8
reverse lunge: 95-10; 115-8; 135-8

calf press: 270-30; 360-20; 450-15,13
  super-set with lying leg curl: 60-20; 90-?, 9

seated calf: 90-15,15,15
  super-set with standing 1-leg curl: 60-12; 75-10; 90-8

leg extension: 135-20,14
  super-set with seated leg curl: 140-10,9

back extension: 20, 15, 15

Yes, it took a little while, and they were tight.

Wed., 10/16/13, Shoulders

I've been getting good results from a few particular exercises here recently, so the workouts have been very similar:
Hammer Strength shoulder press
incline front raise face down (My shoulders bother me with laterals a lot; these seem to nail the delts with the technique I use.)
military press
bent over dumbbell laterals
The reps are 6-15, with the final set of each exercise taken to failure.

Tue., 10/15/13, Back/ Diet update

This is what I ate yesterday:
meal #1: 8oz. egg white; 1 c oatmeal; apple
meal #2: 5oz chicken; 1/2c oatmeal
post workout: 40g whey protein, glutamine; 7oz sweet potato
meal #3: 5oz chicken; 6 1/2 oz sweet potato
meal #4: 5oz chicken; 6 oz sweet potato; 1/2 peas
meal #5: 5oz chicken; 1/2 c oatmeal; broccoli
meal #6: 5oz 93% lean beef; 5oz potato
meal #7: 4oz chicken; broccoli
Total: 2820 calories- 290g protein, 300g carb and 50g fat

Mon., 10/14/13, Chest

I got a killer chest workout this morning. My strength levels are maintaining. I'm doing a lot of sets of 6 reps to stimulate those fibers. Today's workout started with 10 sets of incline dumbbell presses. Next up was 3 sets bent over cable flyes for the upper chest- really focusing on my weaker area. Then 1 drop-set of flat dumbbell presses. I finished the chest with dips: 12; 45lb.-10; 90lb.-6 + 2 drop-sets +cable flys. They were tight. 

Fri., 10/11/13, Chest and Back

Today I've been very tired, I've been putting in a lot of time to posing practice and it has kicked my tail. So the workout today was hard, but I got it done. It was a good workout, just hard. Here's how it went:

incline dumbbell press: 35's-15; 50's-15; 65's-12; 75's-10; 85's-8; 95's-6; 100's-6
 super-set with pulldown: 105-10; 135-10; 165-10; 195-6; 210-6; 225-6; 240-6

pullover: 50-12; 65-12; 80-7

cable fly: 80-12; 100-7
 super-set with straight arm pulldown: 120-12,9

flat dumbbell press: 100's-6,8
 super-set with row: 225-8,8

pull-up: 15,9
 super-set with dip: 15, 10 + pullover: 60-12

Wed., 10/09/13, shoulders

I got in a great shoulder workout this morning. It only took about 25 minutes- in, kill it, out. I was a little stronger on my starting exercise than I have been recently. Here's how it went:
Hammer Strength shoulder press: 50-25; 90-15; 180-10; 270-8 + 2 drop-sets
incline face-down dumbbell front raise: 15's-15; 25's-15; 35's-?
military press: 95-12; 115-12; 145-5+fail
incline rear lateral: 40's-15; 50's-10 + lateral raise: 35's-8 + 20's-15

Tue., 10/08/13, Back and Calves

I got in a great workout today. It was a pretty low volume/ high intensity with only with multiple "feel" sets and only 5 failure sets for calves and 4 for back. I started with calves: 5 sets of machine calf raises the last to failure; then 1 calf raises on the press 4 sets back and forth with no rest. And back started with Nautilus unilateral pulldowns- 3 feel sets and 1 failure set; next was medium grip pulldowns- 1 feel set and 1 failure set; then rows- 3 feel sets and 1 failure set and I finished with seated rows- 1 feel set and 1 failure set with rest-pause reps.

Mon., 10/07013, Chest/ New Split

I changed the split up for the last few weeks before the contest. Here's the updated split:
Monday: chest, abs
Tuesday: back, calves, abs
Wednesday: shoulders, abs
Thursday: Legs
Friday: chest, back, abs
Saturday: arms, calves, abs

I got in a killer chest workout this morning:

incline dumbbell press: 30's-20; 50's-15; 65's-10; 75's-6; 80's-6; 85's-6; 90's-6; 95's-6; 100's-6,5
machine fly: 160-12; 190-9; 220-6
dip: 12; 45lb.-10,8
cable crossover: 80-20; 125-?; 155-9 (This was a different cable rack than I normally use, it was not as smooth, but the others were in use and I have a rule: never stop for traffic.)

Sat., Oct. 5, 2013, arms and calves at 5 weeks out

The status update: standing at 168 1/2 lb.; feeling very confidant with how I look; working on the glutes as they are the last to come; maintaining strength; waist is very small; limiting protein powder to 1 scoop before training and 1 1/2 scoop after training; lots of chicken, lots of sweet potato, lots of oatmeal, lots of broccoli; working on besting my stage performance, particularly the quarter turns. That's the scoop. Stay tuned.

Fri., 10/04/13, Chest/ Back/ Shoulders

Today is transition between changing my split up. So I had to double up some stuff today. I did less volume for each muscle but more muscle groups:

incline dumbbell press: 30's-20; 50's-15; 65's-10; 75's-6; 80's-6; 85's-6; 90's-6; 95's-6; 100's-6
  super-set with bent over dumbbell row: "
flat dumbbell press: 100's-6,6
  super-set with V-grip pulldown: 210-8; 225-6
wide pull-up: 12,8
   super-set with dip: 15,8 (no rest)
pullover: 70-12,8
Hammer Strength shoulder press: 90-15; 180-10; 270-4; 180-12
laterals: 20's-15; 35's-8
incline face down front raise: 25's-9,12,15
incline rear laterals: 35's-11
dumbbell shrug: 75's-15; 100's-15

BOOM! That's a lot! Great pump!

Thur., 10/03/13, Leg Day

I had a very encouraging leg workout today. I've been doing basicly the same squat workout for the past several weeks: 45-25, 95-6, 135-6, 225-6, 315-6, 405-6, 315-20. The goal here is to tell the legs that I need muscle mass, rips, shreds and strength in the quads, hams and glutes. That 405 has been feeling very hard, but today I could have gotten more than 6 on 405 and more than 20 on 315. They were hard don't get me wrong, but totally doable, praise God. Here's todays order of events:

squats: the above
hack squat: 180-6; 300-10
reverse lunges: 25's-10; 50's-10; 75's-5 + 50's-5 + 25's-5 (no rest/ drop-set)
lying leg curl: 75-15; 90-12; 105-8
  standing leg curl: 60-12,10,10
   super-set with leg extension: 90-20; 105-12
hyper-extension: 15,15,15

Wed., 10/02/13, Arms

I got in a killer pump this morning. It was a decision to make my body do what it has to do today- feeling very depleted and just worn out, part of the game. It was a good workout though- no excuses. I did 6 super sets of curls and rope pushdowns; 2 super sets arm blaster curl and seated rope extensions; 2 super sets concentration curls and lying 45 degree triceps extensions; and 2 super sets of hammer curls and 1-arm overhead extensions. It was totally focused and intense.

Tue., 10/01/13, Back and Calves

I got in a great back and calf workout this morning. I started with calves: 5 sets of seated calf raises and 5 sets of calf presses. For back I only did 3 exercises: 7 sets of rows, 3 sets of Nautilus uni-lateral pulldowns and 3 sets of seated rows.