Squat

Saturday morning- squat day.

Actually let's back up to Friday. I am at Roy's and we re training shoulders, I have no energy. I think it's a culmination of really hard training everyday, and three of those days it's twice a day and it's been a long week. 

I am supposed to be doing German Volume Training, barbell shoulder press with 70 pounds. I did it on my own Tuesday, there is no reason why I cannot do it here with Roy, I have him to spot me so that makes it even easier!

He lowers the weight. I feel sort of like a failure, but he is explaining that we really need to de-load soon, I have been training way too hard for too long.

I look at him between sets and tell him: "At some point, there will come a time when the weights cannot continue to go up every single week you know."

He laughs and says: "Yea, but that's not for a long, long time!"


After I finish my 100 presses, and then my leaning lat raises (4 sets of 12 on each side, and I am supposed to be hitting a count of about 70 seconds for each set), I ask him what I should do for Saturday. I know it's still GVT- squats, but what weight?

120 pounds

100 squats

10 sets of 10

all the way down to the ground

90 second rest in between

I know I say this a lot, but I really don't see many people squatting low. Did you know that performing squats "half assed" (ha ha) is easy? If you don't squat all the way down, you don't hit the glutes nor the quads where you need to and you are not performing them correctly, so it's easy to do them that way! 

I can do it, it's almost my body weight, but it's still doable, and he seems to think I will just keep increasing weight.


Saturday I arrive at Gold's Gym at opening, 6:00 a.m. One thing I like about GVT is that it is a fairly quick workout, you do the 100 reps and maybe one other exercise to exhaust the muscle and poof! Done!


I like doing GVT squats, I get into a zone, I think you have to actually. I know people stare, and I don't mind people staring, it actually helps me continue. They are thinking that I am an absolute crazy beast. I talk to myself, I have to, it's the only way I can continue after the fifth set. I shake my head, I tell myself it's light, I have to convince myself I can do it.


I make my hash marks on the paper after each set. When I make the seventh, I think "only three more sets left, easy!" and then I realize it's not easy, it's hard as hell, but I won't quit, ever.


The feeling of accomplishment and exhilaration when I have finished that last squat, the 100th squat of the day, the 200th squat of the week, is nothing I can really describe to you, but it keeps me coming back for more.


I finish with four sets of leg extensions, sweat dripping down my back, now so wired I really don't even need coffee.


I am ready to tackle the day.

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.

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. 

205 Squat

On my mission to get as big as I can, I had a conversation with SC and told him all about the last four weeks. I had been doing a huge volume of work, many, many reps and it was getting easy, even though I kept upping the weights.

He said it was time to cut back on the volume and bump up the intensity. That means really heavy, heavy weights, but not as many reps, it just isn't possible to push huge amounts of weight many times.

Saturday morning and I had my plan written out. A modified version of what I have been doing, just less reps but a lot more weight. Here is the workout:

Front Squat 5x5 155 pounds
 
Back Squat 6x4 205 pounds
 
RDL's 5x8 185 pounds
 
Leg Press 4x10 495 pounds
 
Leg Extensions 4x10 110 pounds
 
Pistol Squats 3x5 12 kilo bell
 
Walking lunges 30 seconds on, 30 seconds rest 5 sets
 
stair mill 20 minutes

I started feeling nauseous right in the middle of the leg extensions, that shows me I was really pushing hard. I just sat and rested a bit longer in between sets, then sat for about 5 minutes before I started the pistol squats.

In the picture above I am squatting 205 pounds, and next week it goes up, I can do more.  I am aiming for two big wheels next Saturday, that's 225 pounds.

I had to sit a bit in the cafe before going home, this wiped me out! 2 1/5 hours of training hard is difficult! Grabbed my coffee, sped home and fueled up with the perfect after training meal:

1/2 a bagel, peanut butter and no sugar jam
1/2 cup non fat cottage cheese and 1/2 a mango

Sugar, quick acting carbs (lots) and a little protein.

Getting Bigger

Yes my goal right now is to get big, really big. That doesn't mean I want to get fat, although a certain percentage of my gain will certainly be fat.

I can see a big difference from the picture I took only a week ago, under the  post "off season eating right". I realize it was posted a couple days ago, but the picture was a week before this one.

Arms are looking ripped, I like that!  My weight is slightly down too, which is even better. I am at 126. I went back on creatine the day after my competition on October 2, so a good amount is water that I will hold on to.

Back is getting wide, in fact you can see in the picture below that I am about busting out of my favorite Lululemon Hot Class Bra!

I am not sure when I will stop, I like this. I felt so strong this morning (Saturday), and the turn excites me. Even though I moved up on most everything, it was easy, no struggle at all! That means that my next leg workout, I go up again!

I respond well to the basic moves, the hard ones that most people don't like to do:

Front Squats

Back Squats

RDL's

Lunges

Chin Ups

Pull Ups

Swings

I have been moving up on my weights for the large muscles every session, SC taught me that I need to charge, I need to increase weights and/or volume and doing the same weights every time is not doing me any good.

Saturday I did:

Front Squats 5 x 8 135
Back Squats 5 x 10 165
RDL's 4 x 10 155
Leg Press Drop Sets 20@405/ 30@315/ 50@225

Leg Extensions 5 x 10 97.5

Pistol Squats 3 x 5 each w/ 12 kilo bell

Walking Lunges 5 sets 30 seconds on/ 30 seconds rest with 2 25 lb dumbbells

20 minutes walking on the Nordic Track climber at 30% incline.

2 hours and I was done. Then home for a big breakfast.

I will be training with someone again soon, if all goes according to plan. BN is a big guy, really big. He trains football players, is RKC certified and a beast. I believe he is something like 6' 3", 265 and 5% bodyfat...a beast like I said.

I told him I want to get big, I do not want to do all that silly jumping around that I see all the trainers at my gym do with their clients. They spend a great deal of time jumping around, or engaging in cardio workouts, that's fine if they like that and cardio is their goal, it is not mine.

I don't need a "perceived" tough workout, I need a "real" tough workout. I know that I have trained hard enough when I sweat even though my feet are not moving. That's heavy squats and deadlifts, you go nowhere yet everywhere.

I want weights, and heavy weights. Basic moves. Squats. Deadlifts.  Kettlebells. And a program that is guaranteed to get me big. Some cardio will be thrown in of course, but not too much or it defeats the entire goal of adding mass right now.

He has planned a program with only four days a week lifting. That means it will be hard and heavy requiring lots of rest. I can do my cardio on the other days, and a few ab exercises too I guess.

Not sure when we start, you will certainly hear all about it though, I guarantee it!

The Rebound

The weeks following a competition can be really rough for some people. It's called the "rebound"  it hits some hard, and it hits others even harder.

I guess it can be similar to postpartum blues, you may feel depressed, unmotivated, you over eat, or eat things you wouldn't normally even consider putting on your plate. Some find that getting back to the gym is difficult.

The worst for me has been the psychological effects of gaining weight. Now, at competition time you weigh less than is healthy, bodyfat is abnormally low, and it is virtually impossible to maintain this for long.  You have to gain weight, just to get to where a normal, healthy person should be.

It's tough to see yourself as a sleek, svelte, beautiful human specimen one day then several pounds heavier only a couple weeks later. I gained 9 pounds in 2 weeks, then I lost 3 for a net gain of 6.

I think I do a fairly good job by allowing myself to eat almost whatever I like for a few weeks, but I maintain my schedule of eating and don't gorge all day long (I actually did two of those days).

I only took two days off from the gym afterward, then launched right back with a new program which gave me something to look forward to, changing things up helps.

Although I am now only 6 pounds heavier, I still put myself through torture thinking that I have gained too much, when in reality I still look fantastic. I can't help it, it's part of the "dark side" of competing in a body conscious sport. Your mind plays really stupid tricks on you. Sometimes, it's hard to get a grasp on what is real and what is all in your mind.
 
You can see this in all competitors, just look at our Facebook posts, we all talk about enjoying a simple treat like the world will come to an end, and luckily, we all try to keep each other in check.

David tells me all the time that I look great, in fact, I even know I look better with more weight on, it's just when that belly is soft, I get kinda freaked out for a while. It usually takes me about 5 weeks, then I get it all back into perspective.

Yesterday (Saturday) I looked forward to the gym as I could spend as much time as I wanted to and not worry about being late for work, or cutting my training short. It was leg day, "Quadzilla Lite #3" and I was looking forward to a really hard workout. Here is what I did:

Front Squat 5x8 @ 135 pounds (40 reps)

Back Squat 5x10 @ 155  pounds (50 reps)

RDL's (Romanian Deadlifts) 5x10 @ 135 pounds (50 reps)

Leg Press 3 Drop Sets 20 reps @ 405 pounds, 30 reps @ 315 pounds, 50 reps @ 225 pounds.
 

Leg Extension 5x10 @ 90 pounds (50 reps)

Pistol Squats 3x5 each leg with a 12 kilo kettlebell (15 reps)

Walking Lunges 5 sets of 30 seconds walking, 30 seconds resting holding a 20 pound dumbbell in each hand.

This was my hardest "Quadzilla Lite", I saved it for Saturday so I would have enough time. I put the reps down to emphasize how many times I moved my legs in this workout, and if you add it up, not counting the lunges, that was 320 repetitions. With weight. At 6 am. Actually it took me an hour and a half so 6am to 7:30am. That's a lot of reps.

I then had to get my cardio in. I don't do much cardio typically; however, as I have gained so much and am still not in a frame of mind to accept it, I have been trying to lose a bit before I level off.

I headed over to the stair mill for a 20 minute interval session.

There was a woman on the stairmill next to me when I climbed up, she appeared to have been there a while. About 10 minutes later, she climbed down and went to an elliptical in front and started on that. She wasn't in bad shape at all, but nothing striking about her came to mind.

As I ended and went to toss my towel into the bin, she leaned over to speak to me:

Woman: "Are you a trainer here?"

Me: "No, I am not"

Woman: "I have been looking at you thinking to myself 'that is the body I want!'"

Me: "thanks, that's great to hear, but I am just coming off a competition, I compete in Figure, so I am looking almost as good as I get, and it won't last that long" (we then talk about the difference in Bodybuilding and Figure).

Woman: "Really?! You compete?! I can see that, you look fantastic, I would love to look like you."

Me: "Well, I will tell you what, start lifting weights. What I don't do much of is cardio."

Woman: "Yes, that's what a trainer here told me too."

Me: "Look around you, look at the people you see doing cardio all the time, they don't look very good do they?"

Woman: "No, they don't that's for sure."

Me: "I started lifting weights when I was 40, I am now 49, you can do it too."

Woman: "I am 44! I can do that. I woke up this morning and said to myself 'you are awake, start your program now!', so I am here."

Me: "You know, a good cardio workout is running up and down bleachers if you can, you don't need to do it long, it hits your whole body, great for the butt, it is a great workout."

Woman: "I will try that, thanks!"

We then chatted a bit about training and frequency and I then excused myself.

Encounters like this happen frequently, although this one was really needed. It came at a time when I was not yet recovered, I hadn't emotionally "rebounded" fully. I am still trying to see myself accurately, as others do. I needed this stranger to help me, I needed the assurance, the boost to my self esteem, I needed another woman to ask me how to look as good as I do.

I will get there, it won't be long, but it is still a struggle for me everyday.

Fortunately, I don't suffer through the binge eating and massive weight gains that many others do. I think that most competitors who do struggle with this are those who had eating disorders at one time, or have struggled with weight and perhaps were extremely overweight at one point in their lives. For those women, the "rebound effect" may be all too familiar and all too haunting.

If you see yourself here, think about this, give yourself a break, shoot me an email if you want to talk. You know you still have a physique more stunning than 90% of the world's population, don't forget it!

Quadzilla (lite)

I was reading Natural Muscle Magazine and ran across an article by Steve Shaw called "the Quadzilla, 60 Minutes of Leg Destruction" he said it was named after the King of Quads, Tom Platz.

I am forever attempting to get bigger quads, so this caught my eye. Now the only problem with this workout was it was designed to do only once a month.   Not sure about you, but I pretty much detest anything that comes around once a month, so I decided I would alter it to fit my needs.

 This is designed where you will perform your squats at 60% to 70% of your one rep max. You will be doing a lot of squats, so don't try to load the plates on too much!

I did this on Thursday, and could already feel them that afternoon. Friday, I was sore. Saturday I was popping Advil. Not only were my quads in pain, my glutes hurt too, I was a pathetic sight. Sunday, today as I write this, I am sore still, but it is fading. Good thing cause I gotta hit them again on Monday morning.

Mondays are always "Bench Press Mondays' for the guys, they all come in swaggering after the weekend and want to prove how tough they are again. This is good, because it keeps them out of my squat rack. They can lay on their bench grunting and I have the squat rack all to myself!

Here is Quadzilla Lite (1)

Front Squat 5x8 125 pounds
Back Squat 5x10 135 pounds

Hamstring curls 8x10 20 pounds added to machine

Leg Extension 5x10 90 pounds

Lunge Walking 30 seconds walk, 30 seconds rest holding 20 pound dumbbells in each hand. Repeat 5 times.

I plan to incorporate Quadzilla Lite (2) and Quadzilla Lite (3). My changes will be adding RDL's one day and leg press in the other in instead of the hamstring curl. It may prove to be way too much and I might have to go back down to two times a week, but I will never know unless I try right?

He advises to "eat like a monster" post workout, I do like that advise, in fact, I have been doing quite a bit of that, I have gained 7 pounds since the 2nd. I will soon have to stop eating like that, I am looking a little sloppy, but I can clean up fairly fast, in just a couple weeks actually.

But I am still giving myself some leeway, at least for another week or so. Then it's back to the same 'ol, same 'ol!
 

I know that pain does not mean a good workout, nor is it always desirable, but it really did hurt so good, I had this in my head all weekend long!  (Email subscribers may need to navigate directly to the blog to see the embedded video)