Respect for my Passion

It was the 4th of July, I was off work for the day but would hit the gym as soon as they opened for 30 minutes of cardio and calve training, then I would meet Roy at BodyComp Personal Training Gym in the afternoon to train quads. I love days like this, I feel so alive and accomplished.

I am progressing right along as planned, adding size but keeping bodyfat low, as you can see in my picture above. The diet still puzzles me, I will be writing more about it later, but I managed to avoid all starches now through the last weekend, none at all.

As I left Gold's Gym, another member stopped me, he is  young guy, an MMA fighter and fairly ripped, not someone you would call a couch potato by any means. "Hey- you are pretty much a professional right?" he asked, and he didn't wait for a response. He started asking me about my training, what my split was and how often I train each body part. We talked about it and he explained that he thinks his MMA is counter productive, he is staying small due to the sheer energy expenditure of the constant conditioning that MMA requires.

I told him how I was struggling a bit, I feel like my shoulders have lost much of their size, I have always been so proud of my massive shoulders, but I am training my chest right now with only a very little shoulder work thrown in. I will go back to training shoulders again in a few weeks, but right now I need to stop, so I can work on other body parts. I looked him in the eyes and said "You just may need to give something up", he nodded his head and agreed, he didn't want to hear it, but he knew it already.

He thanked me for my time, and walked into the gym, the conversation heavy on his mind. 

I appreciated this fellow for the fact that he engaged me in a meaningful conversation and wanted my advise, he saw me as a knowledgable  lifter, someone who has been able to accomplish what he is struggling with.

I felt really good after our conversation, almost "validated". I don't need anyone to validate my actions, but I think we all feel better when we beleive that people take us seriously. My daily exercise is not a hobby, it is a part of my existance, it is one of the things that makes Kristy, "Kristy".

There are those who find my devotion to the gym and my lifting "cute" and an entertaining hobby, and they wonder when I am going to come around and act like everyone else, or perhaps get bored, start eating like a "normal" person and find something more worthwhile to do.

Never.

The glutes and legs are growing, my goodness most of my pants are too tight and uncomfortable now in the butt and thighs, it is my goal but it's still rather funny. When I met Roy on Wednesday he remarked "Well your legs and  glutes are bigger, or maybe it's the shorts?" No, it is the shorts you see here, the same ones I have been wearing and they cannot shrink, they are all man made fibers, I have grown, just where I am trying to. We laughed about it and he said "You said you wanted a 'shelf butt' so when you have a 2 inch ledge that you can set a coffee cup on, we will quit". Until then, I am destined to having sore glutes, quads and hams for a bit longer.

I am proud of my lifting, proud of my accomplishments and prod of my determination and drive. It's unfortunate that everyone cannot see how important it is and respect it, but I won't let that stop me, I will contnue to surround myself with people who do share my passion and together we share a mutual respect. 

Quads

Saturday I trained quads as usual. I also had a good day, I can tell when my physique is looking good by the comments folks make at the gym.


Roy told me to hit the Leg Extension first this time so I did. I always think this machine is useless, but I always use it the closer I get to a competition.


I suppose it has it's uses depending on what your goals are. As far as building big, meaty legs, this is not going to do it. But for cuts and definition, I think it is the way to go. 


I did several sets, as heavy as I could without arching my back and basically looking like I was writhing in pain. You really need to keep your eye on your form, so many people think that even though they are grimacing, twisting, writhing, and squeezing the handles with all their might, it's OK because they have a lot of weight on the machine. 


Nope- not really. The weight should be as heavy as you can lift with good form. So I concentrate on keeping a "pretty face" and my back square against the back rest, my hands lightly gripping the handles and I do not swing the weight.


Afterward I headed down to my favorite power rack. I warmed up and loaded up the weight, I was to do 4 sets of 10 back squats with 140 pounds. All the way down, no shimmy! 


I did it! ha ha ha! I think I still have a little shimmy though, but I am working on it.


Then on to the Leg Press, where I did 5 sets of 10 with 495 pounds. I need to work on adding yet more weight but I start to feel it in my knees and that's bad joo joo so I avoid anything that will cause potential pain.


I then need to do my walking lunges. I don't particularly care for lunges but they are a "must do". I am moving benches trying to make a wide open path and Ryan comes by with a client points at a piece of equipment and asks if I am using something. No, I am only trying to make a huge open space to walk with an Olympic bar and it just isn't happening today, so I will go to get dumbbells and walk down the hallway instead.


I tell him I am off to Mexico soon, going to fatten up before the diet. I ask if he has started his, he competes in bodybuilding and we will be in the same show in May. No, he hasn't started yet but he has been cutting back on calories. He said I  have maintained a fairly lean physique, my diet shouldn't be too hard. I agreed, I told him I have done a good job adding weight but not too much bodyfat. 


I start my lunges, and I have chosen 25 pound dumbbells although I am using heavier ones with Roy, but I have done more quad work today than he and I typically do at once. As I am resting in between sets I almost bump into Denise as we both pace about. We start laughing and talking about dreaded lunges. She shakes her head "You are still changing, your whole backside especially! It's working, you look good." "What do you see?" I ask.


"More muscle, but lean, really lean definitely more muscle, it really is working whatever you are doing."


We talk about diet and how I have been training hamstrings twice a week, and quads twice a week, I have really been working on my legs, my glutes are huge too.


I finish my lunges (3 sets of 15 on each leg) and head off to do some steady state cardio- I am going to get on the stairsteper because all the stairmills are full.


MJ, one of the female trainers waves me over. She is working with a client on a Nordic walker and wants to talk to me. "Do you have a competition coming up?" she asks. "No" I explain, "Not until May."


"You look god! really good, it shouldn't be a problem being ready by then." I then tell her I am going on vacation to Mexico soon, so I may look a bit softer after my return.


"Enjoy it!" she said. "You will have plenty of time to get hard and ripped".


And she's right.

Quads

Saturday is quads again, I have been "over training" for several weeks, hitting hamstrings twice a week and quads twice a week. Soon, I will change that and go back to one quad day, one hamstring day and then a combo leg day (both quads and hams).


This over training has resulted in my legs being sore in one place or another constantly, and I mean all the time. Seems I get a moment when they start to feel OK, then I hit them all over again.


Saturday I arrived at 6:00 a.m. opening and warmed up on the treadmill, then stretched. I walked down towards my favorite power rack and as I got there Alan stuck his face in mine and says "Are ya deaf!!?" He had been following me trying to get my attention, but my music was way too loud. He was going to San Francisco and wanted to know the name of a restaurant we had talked about.


I then started in on my squats. I noticed that both of my quads were bruised, odd. They both had bruises in just about the same location. I couldn't figure out why.


I warmed up quite a bit, 45 pounds, 65 pounds, 85, 95, 115 and finally started in with 135 pounds, 10 reps. I am concentrating on maintaining the same strength in each leg as I rise up from the squat, I have been "shimmying" as one leg is stronger than the other, and I get partially up then veer to the left and then up, an odd movement and not desirable.


I actually think I may have conquered it today! But we won't find out till Roy watches me from behind on Wednesday.


I finished 3 sets and moved to the Leg Press. Again, several warm ups and then 4 sets of 10 reps at 450 pounds (plus the weight of the machine).  I know I should be able to do more on this, but it is only the second week I have used it, and haven't used it in ages since before this. 


Then up to the Leg Extension. Again, not something I typically use, and I may start using it before squats, I haven't decided yet. Warm up then 5 sets of 10 reps at 110 pounds. I am actually seeing more muscle and definition in my quads, I am super excited!


I have a busy day with my brother planned, so need to get some cardio or conditioning done now, I will not be able to do anything later. Saturdays the entire Basketball Court is taken over by men playing.....basketball! Can you imagine? So I really cannot go use the facility, I decide to hit the stairstepper for 20 minutes.  I forgot how boring it can be, at least on the stairmill my feet move! But they were all full so this is all I could do.


8:05 and I am done! Home for coffee and breakfast of 1 cup egg whites scrambled, 1 whole fried egg on top and a small serving of steel cut oats with peanut butter....


In the shower I figure out why I have bruised quads, it's the Donkey Calf Raises. The 3 plates hanging down between my legs. The chains from the dip belt hit right where the bruises are. I have got to change my calf training on Monday.

Carpe Diem

It's all coming together, my legs are getting bigger. You can see it in my shorts here, I can see it, everyone can see it. And the glutes? Huge in all their glory! 

Roy and I have been hammering and hammering on my legs, and now with this extra leg day added in, I am really getting excited!

Also, with the three days a week of calf exercises, my legs will soon catch up to my massive shoulders!

This is the kind of change that gets me so pumped up to seize the day "Carpe Diem"

What is so significant about this is I have been working on my legs for a couple years and really haven't seen a great deal of progress. I have great shoulders, they get wide and round; I have a wicked back, it gets wide and muscular; my glutes, get big and round; but the legs, they have always plagued me.

I am feeling so good about it all, I wake up in the middle of the night and think about training. I think about the food I will eat that will fuel me, and it encourages me to make better choices, what I eat immediately following training will make all the difference.

Wednesday night we met and it was quad day. We started with front squats, with the weight I left off with last week. These are down low, below parallel. Roy wanted to go heavier- "should I put on some more or just go for the big plates?" he asked. No need to ask again..."Big plates!!!" I said, so he stripped the bar and loaded on two 45 pound plates. I would try 10 reps of front squat with 135 pounds.

Roy said he wanted to video it but he was sure he should spot me instead. I banged out 10 without trouble, still maintaining a slow, steady tempo. I re-racked and told him I could have done 11. "Yeah I could tell!" he said.

We moved to lunges. Long, low and slow. You really haven't done lunges till you do them Roy's way. He wanted 4 sets of 15 on each leg. So that's a total of 120 lunges, 60 on each leg. The second set he says he wants to increase the dumbbells to 30 pounds, I say sure.

He sets down the dumbbells but they are 25 pounds with micro-weights, so they weigh 127.5 each. "What, you chickened out?" I ask. "That's all I need!" he says. "You want 30's? You got it!" He takes the others back and gives me two 30 pound dumbbells.

I do the next two sets and I do them well. I feel exhausted but elated at the same time. I am feeling powerful and triumphant.

Roy was excited too, I am not sure which one of us had more fun, me hammering the legs or him watching me progress and get bigger and stronger before his eyes.

My legs and glutes feel massive, we joke how soon I may need a cart behind me to carry the added weight, or a separate zip code just for my glutes.


I arrive home and Cooper and Adam are working on Adam's car in the garage, right where MyRedRocket (my car) lives. I park in the drive and give them the keys to move it when they are done.


At about 9:15 I am heading off to bed, I go to say goodnight and they are not there, I look down the drive and I see them with Adam's car, out in the street. I talk them out of their late night project and help push the car back up the long drive. It is difficult, the drive is slightly uphill, my legs are shot. So I guess this is my sled workout! 


We push it back into the garage and I tell them to leave it there, let MyRedRocket sleep outside tonight, she will be OK.


We need to push the car a bit more...all I can think of is how tired my legs are.

Soon, I may have to buy bigger shorts!

Training while traveling

I am visiting my father; my sister, Karen, and brother, Derek are with me. Friday I went into work, left at 11:30 to meet Roy to train shoulders, then off we go on a three and a half hour drive south. It would only take three hours but we stopped in King City for taco's.


The top was down, and poor sis got the back seat, although she was a trooper and didn't ask to put up the top for quite some time. She missed all the music and the conversation. (Email readers will need to navigate directly to the blog to view the video below).

Before heading off to bed Friday my dad says "Are you training in the morning?" and I think this is significant, I mean how many people use the word "training" besides people like me? Ha ha! dad knows me well, he doesn't say "working out" cause that's not what I do.

"Yes indeed I am!" Off I go to sleep on the floor in the office. There are two couches in the living room and I can have one, but I go to bed much earlier than everyone else so this seems like the best idea.

I sleep fine but wake up with a headache, very unusual for me, but I have set my alarm and am up at 6:00, the gym there opens at 7:00 and is 13 miles away.

It's quad day, it will be tough since I have a headache but I am hoping I will forget about it soon.

I walk in, the guy at the desk greets me like he knows me and says "Hey how's it going? Have a good workout!" so I walk past and don't bother to pay or fill out a waiver. Either he recognizes me or I just look like I belong here.

I warm up on the treadmill and think about what I shall do. They have some equipment here that my gym does not so I want to use it. I like this gym, I imagine that this is what a prison gym would be like. 

I have actually been in the yard of San Quentin before, this is a high security prison in California. I was subpoenaed to show and testify against an inmate and since he was so dangerous they made me come to him instead of letting him come to me.  They told me "don't wear blue and don't run under any circumstances." I remember, after I was told to take off my shoes, and received a full body pat down that I had to walk across the prison yard, unescorted while the men walked all around me. Now I know why I couldn't wear blue, they all had on faded blue shirts. I was frightened and just looked straight ahead, walking slowly, looking at the door across the yard which only seemed to get farther away even though I walked closer and closer.

This gym reminds me of that, although I am not frightened or uncomfortable, because it's all men and they all wear wife beaters, white or black. Many wear hoodies, it's cold in here and big, there is no heat as it would cost way too much to heat the place. The men move slowly through the huge gym, almost in a trance. Most only train upper body, they are concerned with how they look in their tank tops, they have big puffed out chests, muscular arms, and thin, skinny legs.

I started with front squats, every quad day will have squats. The headache made it difficult, I couldn't go real heavy. I warmed up then did 5 sets of 10 with 95 pounds. I then used the hack squat, I love this and wish we had one but we don't. Since I have only used a hack squat a few times I have no basis for comparison, but I threw 2 big plates on each side and went as low as I could. 5 sets of 10. Then the leg press, again, I knew I could do more but the head got in the way. I had only 3 plates on each side, let's see...that is only 270 pounds, but add the actual machine and it's a bit more. Finally a leg extension machine with weight stacks for each leg, this is hard to master and I like it. I had 50 pounds on each side, so it's like uni-lateral raises with 50 pounds I suppose.

One hour, 15 minutes and the headache has prevented me from going as heavy as I would like, but it was still good. There was no space for me to do my conditioning as a "body pump" class was starting, and now in were coming the women. I used the step mill for my cardio. 

I showered, dressed and drove back in search of coffee. 

When I got home at about 9:15, everyone was up waiting for me, they were hungry. They all offered their solutions for my headache. K.K. (Karen) offered Advil, Dude (Derek) showed me an acupressure technique to relieve the pain. He took my left hand and gently squeezed the fleshy area between my thumb and first finger, I yelped in pain. "Yes he says, you have a bad headache." And we start laughing, "Um, that's my hand, not my head you squeezed." 

He explains that if you have a headache, you squeeze this area and gently massage until the headache goes away. I start massaging.

Dad tells me to sit back and relax and tell him about the headache, where is it, what color is it, how does it feel. I describe it as a pomello, red and encompassing the entire back of my head. 

More coffee, breakfast and soon my headache is gone. I don't know what made it go away though, time; Advil; massage; or imagery.

Keep this in mind when embarking on a training program. If you do too much, or switch programs too soon or often, you may never know what exactly was effective. Stick to a program long enough to be able to determine if it is successful. 

The back is second fiddle now

I have always been able to develop a nice wide back, and a good V-taper. I usually train back twice a week, and now I am changing it to once a week. I may lose a little detail, but I can dial that back in when I feel I need or want to.

Why?

Change is good!

Especially for a training. The human body is a master at adaptation. Look at the various populations of the world, they all adapt to their climate and terrain. Look at the people at the gym who do the same thing over and over, day in and day out, they look the same right? Their bodies have adapted to their workouts, their bodies are expecting the same old thing everyday. 


So while I have a very well defined and muscular upper body, I still need to increase the development of my legs, they need some size!


It seems to be more effective to split the hamstrings and the quads into two different days. The hamstrings are primarily fast twitch and get exhausted quickly, and the quads are primarily slow twitch, they can go on forever. 


I have been training hams one night with Roy, and then quads another night, and combining them together one day on my own (hitting the hams first of course). 


I am changing it up to increase the volume, and that means I need to take something out, one of my workouts needs to go, and that will be one of my two back days.


Here is what my training split will be:

Monday - Hamstrings

Tuesday - Shoulders

Wednesday - Quads

Thursday - Hamstrings

Friday - Shoulders

Saturday - Quads

Sunday - Back/Arms

It is going to be tough, my legs have actually been sore every single day for the last two weeks anyway, and I am a little hesitant to add yet another day in, and a day devoted only to Quads (or hamstrings) as it means a much more intense workout on that bodypart.

But I love change, I love a challenge, I love a new experience. And when you see my back, if it's starts lagging- shoot me an email and let me know!

Quads

Quads....we did that on Wednesday and my hamstrings and glutes were still sore from Monday.


I walked over to the squat rack, the chains are there waiting for me. I kept bugging Roy to get them and now I get to use them all the time! I love the sound of the chains clanking against themselves, and the sound of the metal links slowing piling up on the floor.


I may be getting these weights wrong, some days my training is such a blur, I get home and eat and then just go to bed.


We started with front squats this time, I warmed up with 100 pounds, then Roy increased it to 115 pounds.

20 reps. 

If you do front squats you KNOW that's quite  a bit, and it's heavy too. I weigh 131 pounds currently, so its close to my body weight and don't forget these are front squats, not back squats!


After the second set I think I kind of stumbled out to find something to sit on, it wouldn't be much rest, I recall that Roy announced time when I was still breathing hard, but what can you do? 

Back in the rack.


4 sets

I see Roy stacking up the wood panels like he does for split squats. Surely we aren't doing those nasty things again? I looked at Roy with disbelief "I thought we were done with those?!" "Really?" he said "No, we are still doing them but less reps! um...and heavier weights." Then he goes over and picks up the 25 pound dumbbells, "oh that's not so bad I thought to myself" then the next set was 35 and the next 40. Then he slapped the little micro weight magnets on to bring it up to 42.5 pounds each.

4 sets 

Time for the sled. Roy said it will be a little different than the last few weeks, the weight is reduced, there is only 90 pounds on the sled. But instead of pushing it up and back I need to push it up and back two times before I rest.

4 sets

The last set he tells me to push hard, beat my last time of 57 seconds, run fast. Well, I can hardly run bent over pushing the damn thing and especially after all of this, I am wiped out. But I push as hard and fast as I can, breathing hard and collapse at the end. I think I did it in 47 seconds. Beat my best time!

Saturdays Training

I am back! I am really, honestly not a whiner, but I am sick so infrequently that it just blows me away to wake up feeling...well, sick! I usually bound out of bed like an obnoxious energizer bunny, and it was a week of no bounding, but believe me, I still got up and tried my best. 

There was no hop in this bunny's step.

Saturday I finally felt like my ol' self again. I hadn't missed any training, but the intensity just wasn't there before. I was at the gym at opening as usual.

Warm up by walking a few minutes then lots of stretching, I had all the time in the world and it was leg day, so I needed to warm up a lot. My adductors were still quite sore from Wednesdays quad workout with Roy. 

I hit the hams first, low reps, heavy weight. They need to be trained with as much weight as possible, which means that I cannot possibly do many reps each set. Charles Poliquin once said something like "Show me someone who has huge hams and their training consists of light weight with high reps and I will show you someone who is on steroids".

Hamstrings don't respond with lots of high reps, they need heavy weights.

Seated leg curls

Kneeling leg curls ( I do more reps and sets on the left)

Romanian Deadlifts

I get very excited near the end of the kneeling leg curls, my left is incredibly weaker than the right. So much that it is almost laughable. But I do 8 reps on the left and 6 on the right to help catch it up. The 4th set my left all of a sudden has strength! It is not a struggle! Could it have all of a sudden wised up? I cannot wait until Monday to test it with Roy.

Then the Quads, high reps, lighter weight. (Quads, on the other hand, require high reps).

Back squats (lots of them, I mean like 60)

Front foot elevated split squats

Tom walks in and says "I see you are killin' it as usual!", yes I am back in the game! We chat a bit and he is telling me about a Saturday Night Live repeat episode he and his wife saw the night before, I need to Google it. Something about "a box" (I did, and it was hilarious). I told Cooper, David and Lauren about it at lunch and Cooper almost spit his food out, he had already seen it. 


If you want to see it, feel free to take a look at this link. It's potty humor, I must warn you, but pretty darn funny! How did we get there talking by the squat rack? I have no idea....


I finished with 3 sets of 10 on the Glute Ham Raise. I have to do this at the end, it is just too brutal to do any other time. But I LOVE it!

20 minutes on the stairmill

Boxing in the gym. I walk in and there are many men playing basketball, and several sitting on the bleachers. I count, there are 21 men. 6 have no shirt on, and I can periodically see the bodies of those with shirts on too. Oh I am off topic.

I will go 5 rounds of boxing, 2 minutes on and 1 off. I am practicing more with my left as this is my weaker side, I need to develop the strength. I am sweating, and although I have a headband on to keep my hair out of my face, it's useless, I am a mess. I am wailing on that bag like my life depended on it.

One of the guys stops by as he walks to the water fountain "Good workout huh?" "Yes" I respond, "It's a great workout!"

5 is enough, that is a total of 10 minutes, I will go one more round on Sunday, soon I will be able to go a half hour. 

Quad Day

Wednesday nights with Roy is quads. Monday is Hams with Roy, and on Saturdays I hit both quads and hams myself. 


That's quite a bit of work for the glutes too, and you can tell. My body responds quite well to volume and frequency, my butt has gotten big.


Not big in a bad way, it never gets big sideways, it gets big from front to back. And it has gotten quite round and is sitting even higher than before.


Wednesday Roy looked at me and was almost shaking his head. "I am amazed at how your glutes respond" (What he meant was dayam your butt has gotten big!) ha ha


I laughed and told him that my glutes do respond quite well, my butt gets big and round, but it shrinks when I diet down. But maybe it won't this time! I have added quite a bit of muscle in the last month and a half. Oh I have my share of fat; however, the lean mass is definitely winning this race.


Then he made a comment about Nicki Minaj. Well, just check this butt out. Fast forward to 1:00 on the video, it says it all. (Email readers must navigate directly to the blog to see this video below.)


 


Entertaining no?


I really noticed my butt today, I was afraid my shorts might split as I squatted....


Back to Wednesday- what did we do?


Poliquin Dips for the VMO (I really don't care for these) 3 sets of 20 on each leg, holding a 20 pound dumbbell


Bulgarian Split Squats, I cannot recall if I did 4 or 5 sets, but I started with 25 pound dumbbells and ended with 30, I did 12 on each leg, slowly as possible, it was really burning.


1 1/4 back squats. That's a regular back squat, weight is a bit lighter than usual due to the nature of the exercise, lower all the way down, very slowly, then up only 1/4 of the way, back down all the way and then stand all the way up, immediately down again. 10 reps, 4 sets. Burning, burning, burning

So if you are trying to work the glutes, the best way is really to work the quads and the hamstrings, then you will be functionally training the glutes and they will look great!

Wednesday's Quads

Quad day- How many times have I written about my legs? I have been trying to bring up the size for ages, and Roy seems as serious as I am, so I am seeing improvement, but it’s not easy that’s for sure!

Monday was hams and my calves were still super tight and bordering on painful when I got to Roys at 5:30 pm on Wednesday. I stretched and rolled trying to loosen up a bit before the squat marathon.

Back squats- we started with a warm up of 8 reps at 95 pounds.  He reminds me to do what we did last week, no resting at the top, we all do it, and we shouldn't. You squat all the way down,  explode up and stand for a few seconds and catch your breath.  no no no! No resting!

Today there would be none of that. If I need a short rest do it at the bottom, but keep the legs tight, as soon as I get to the top standing position, thrust my hips forward, squeeze the glutes and head right back down again., and I mean all the way down to the ground. Everything is timed, it’s all about the “time under tension”.

Try it, you will find a whole new world of squats exists.

Another warm up set of 8 reps at 115 pounds. Rest

On go the chains, there are two and they weigh 22.5 pounds each, so we are at 160 pounds.

10 squats, low as I can get, all the way to the ground, way past parallel, shoot up, no rest, back down again.

The sweat is dripping off my face already and yet again, I haven’t even moved my darn feet.

I lost count, I just wanted to stop and I think we did four sets. Rest.

Take the 35 pound plates off and add the 25 pound plates, another set and although the weight is lighter now, I am fatigued.  It’s 140 pounds.

Off come the 25 pound plates and all I have left are the chains so it’s a light 90 pounds. But Roy tells me this is a burnout set I will do 25 reps.

“All at once?!” I exclaim. “No, I will tell you when to stop” he says.

I start and am wiped out already, I get to 12 and barely make it “Rack it” he says. He quickly strips off the chains and adds plates, I think it is now way down to 65 pounds, but really my head was spinning, my eyes couldn’t focus and I am not sure (but he has it all written on my chart). “Go!” he says and I launch into more, I think I got to 8. “Rack it!”, then he strips off all the plates and I am at 45 pounds, “Go!” and down I go, I have 5 more reps.

Talk about burn….

I rest a while and its now time for Poliquin dips for the VMO’s super set with walking lunges, slow, long stretch, 15 on one leg, 15 on the other. Four sets of each. With each set of lunges I end up outside in the drive, the cool air feels good, but I smell food and it is making me hungry.

Finally we are done, it lasted 75 minutes.

I arrive home at 7:00 pm and am famished. Cooper, Lauren and David are enjoying brisket I made previously; I will have a vitellone patty, wild rice, asparagus and Brussels sprouts.

That night, as I lay in bed, my calves still throb from Monday.

Hams from Hell

We are now working on my hamstrings once a week, Monday evenings is the selected day of torture.

I enjoy training hamstrings, but then there are some things that once I start, I decide they are really, really difficult.

SC always told me I was built to deadlift. I guess that's better than being told I am strong like a Russian tractor, he meant it as a compliment I am sure. 

Monday we did deadlifts, Romanian Dedalifts (RDL's). We started with my ending weight from last week- 155 and Roy just kept piling on the weight. He said as long as I could do 10 reps, I could do more weight.

He added more, then the chains. We were up to 195 I think, and I had done four sets. He wanted more. He added more weight, it couldn't have been much, maybe we were up to 200 or 205, and I did 5 reps and on the 5th, just let it drop it on the ground, I couldn't pull it up any longer. 

I was breathing hard, sweating, the kind of training I like, you see, my feet barely moved! ha ha

Then it was on to unilateral work on the extension bench, with a weight. This one is done very slowly, it hits the top of the glutes and my lower back begins to feel it.

We went longer than usual. Roy wanted to hit the calves too. I got home, had a ground beef patty, brown rice, mushrooms and zucchini. I thought I would be sore the following day.

I woke at 4:00 am, ate egg whites and off to the gym for shoulders, nothing was sore, nothing hurt, odd. I made sure I rolled and stretched my legs a little but concentrated on the shoulders more.

I emailed Roy and told him "nothing! no soreness!"

At lunch I changed and grabbed my jump rope, it was off to run the steps and jump. Jogging to the event center was fine, but as I took the first stairs (two at a time), I could feel the slowness in my legs, the muscles were still fatigued.

I managed to run my steps and jump rope, but it was slow going. I slowly jogged back to the office when I was done. By the time I got home from work at 5:30, my calves were killing me, my hamstrings were staring to feel tight, and I knew I was in for a long night of tossing and turning. I would have hamstrings from hell in the morning.

And Wednesday night Roy and I train Quads. Quads means squats. No way to rest the hams when doing squats.


Give me strength, I am going to need it Wednesday night!

Leg Day

Saturday, Legs. I used to love training shoulders most, and now I am starting to really love training legs, maybe even more than shoulders.


I trained with Roy on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, hamstrings on Wednesday and shoulders on Thursday. Saturday I would hit the legs on my own, quads and hams.


Lately I have been sleeping better, I am not up as much as I had been previously so I feel more rested when I wake. In fact, I have been getting up before the alarm everyday. Today, I turned it off so the alarm wouldn't wake up David later and I got up early.  I get excited when I get to go to the gym, and luckily that is everyday!


I walked a few minutes on the treadmill, stretched then started in on my squats. I warmed up with 10 reps @ 45 pounds; then 10 @ 65; 10 @ 85; then I used 115 for the rest. I did 4 sets of 115 with a 60 second rest in between. Except when Mike came up to tell me a joke, then I rested several minutes. Oh well.


Lunges, unilateral with 20 pound dumbbells, 4 sets on each leg.


Kneeling leg curl (hamstrings), 3 sets on each leg at35 pounds.


Seated leg curl (hamstrings) 4 sets at 70 pounds.


Leg extensions, unilateral 10 @ 30 pounds each, then bilateral 10 @ 70 pounds. 3 sets of each.


I finished with 5 sets of 10 on the Glute Ham Raise.


I felt GOOD! I still had energy. It was too much, I really shouldn't have done it all as the session lasted an hour and a half. Everything tells me not to train that long but sometimes when I am in the "zone" I cannot stop, I am on a high that feels so good I just keep going, today was one of those days.


I climbed up on a stairmill and walked (intervals) for 30 minutes, sweat didn't start dripping on the machine until 20 minutes into it. Cardio, still gotta do it!


I practiced posing for about 10 minutes, I should be doing more but that's all I felt like doing today. Into the meditation room to stretch my hamstrings and roll my quads, I have some very sore spots on my legs.


8:45am I am done. I got there at 6:00am. I sat in the cafe and drank my post training drink and took supplements. Grabbed a cup of coffee and home for a good muscle building breakfast.  1 cup egg whites scrambled with 1 whole egg (fried) on top, and a bowl of steel cut oats.

5 Weeks Out

5 weeks away, I waver in and out of feeling on target and feeling behind, I think that is natural though. Today at the gym Anthony says something, I pull out my earbuds and he repeats himself "Looking good. Your legs look bigger, you added size".


I jumped up in the air let out a "whoop" and smiled and thanked him, he started laughing.

I think my shoulders look better and better everyday! I need to keep practicing holding them up and out, for the look that is oh so unnatural, yet what you need to have on stage.

The back is looking good, I even have striations on the upper back, and last time I trained back was Thursday! You can see the glutes coming down and appearing tighter too. I know I am getting there when the bottom of my suit finally stays for a moment as I pose for pictures, it starts to sit on my hips instead of sliding down.

Ah the side view, where the "pooch" of the stomach is a sure give away, mine is almost gone, soon, soon! I still have a nice round butt, Roy checked bodyfat the other day, it will be shrinking more soon, by about 4 millimeters (in fat), but I think it's still OK.

The legs look nice and full, no saddle bag material hanging out anywhere (but I never do), quads look bigger and are showing a bit of definition.


I was chatting with Yvonne today in the stretching room, she is a trainer at Courtside and a Figure Competitor too, we have been in a few shows together. She was giving me a pep talk, said I looked right on target when I cut water and dehydrate, it will all tighten up and come in, she's right. 

Lean and mean!