Upper body madness

Great day today. Felt happy, felt strong, worked my ass off

Rating: 8.5

Really had a great workout today. Hit a ton of stuff - probably won't do quite so much EVERY upper body day, but today I just felt like going all out, so I hit bench for chest, seated dumbell press for shoulders, close grip cable rows and pullover machine for upper back and lats, curls for biceps, some pushdowns for my tri's, and then situps for abs. Worked really hard on chest, shoulders, biceps, could have pushed harder on back and triceps, but I still got a lot of quality work in AND going all out on 7+ movements is asking a lot. Overall, feeling big, strong, and happy. Think my beer gut from the last few weeks is already starting to dissipate haha. I can't wait to look the part of the animal I am. Lets keep at it.

I'M BACK

So, it has been a WILD couple months. In terms of training, I have dealt with quite a few setbacks, both mental and physical. I needed a break, for my mind and my body, and some time to create a new relationship with training. And, although I trained in one way or another through the last 8-10 weeks, it is NOW that I finally feel ready to return full force. I know now, more than ever, how and why training is a part of my life, and I am extremely excited to be back at it.

To give a quick summary of the time I have been missing - First of all, my back injury needed rest, and secondly my mind was simply not in a place to put the focus and energy into training that I needed to be putting into training. I needed to rest my body to try and make it heal, and I needed to put more time and energy into friends, family, fun, etc. Physically, the time off did not do what I hoped - I tried to come back to squatting and deadlifting after a long hiatus, and unfortunately my back immediately started bothering me again. However, mentally I am finally feeling great again - I am ready to be training my ass off again. Unfortunately, because of my back I can't train the exact way I want to (the way I always have), with heavy weights and lots of squats and deads.

SO, the new plan is simple - I'm going to avoid movements that load my lower back. This means no squats and deadlifts for a while, and only very light stuff when I do come back. HOWEVER, aside from that, I am basically just going to MURDER my body every workout, and work to get as big and aesthetic as I possibly can. I lost around 20 lbs total over the past few weeks, so I'm sitting around 225, and I think my goal over the next 8 weeks or so will probably be to try and stay at this weight, and just make myself as lean and huge as possible. That means tons of high-rep leg press, leg extension, hammy curls, air squats, back extensions, glute bridges, light squat and dead variations when I feel healthy enough. For my upper body, I can still bench, but I am also goign to try and focus more on movements I tend to neglect - more back work, more shoulders, more dumbell work. Basically: focus is not on strength and the big 3, but rather on getting an insane pump and simply KICKING MY ASS every single workout. I can use the big 3 to get there, but I need to keep my focus elsewhere.

So the goal is to basically get as big and aesthetic as possible. I want to look like a fucking cartoon character by the time I come back. For the next 8 weeks, I'm not going to set any real goals except to try and work my ass off every single workout. Then, once I graduate and settle into a new rhythm of life, I might set some more concrete size goals - Right now I have 30 inch legs and 18 inch arms in mind for starters. I also would like to set a waist goal, as I have been carrying some extra belly fat for a long while and it would be nice to increase my leg/chest/arm size and get my waist down a few inches. Kill two birds with one stone, and go from looking okay to looking awesome.

I think, since I am just getting back on the blog, I am going to keep my blogging goals simple too - I'm not gonna type up every set and rep. Rather, I think I'm gonna rate every workout out of 10, give some brief explanation, and leave it at that. Rating will be based on intensity, productivity, how I'm looking, etc. I'm so excited to be back.

SO to start: today was legs.

Rating: 8

Good workout. I worked really hard, for the first time in forever. Pre fatigued with sets of 20 leg extensions,  then sets of 20 leg press, air squats, hammy curls and finally back extensions. I would have gone heavier on the leg press for more sets, and the air squats, while hard, don't seem very productive to me - I feel like I'd rather do sets of 15 with 95 or so, although I'm not sure that's a good idea yet. Definitely a very intense workout, and I'm happy with it for a first workout back. But I think it will be more productive if I push the weights a tiny bit more. Lets keep at it.

New Beginnings

So I have been absent for a while. Because not only was my back hurt, and my training has merely consisted of bench bro stuff for the last 4 weeks of so, but my life also sort of fell apart for a while. Some life changing events happened, and training took a seat in the way back - I simply knew I couldn't mentally train as hard as I wanted, and because of my back I couldn't physically train hard either, so I embraced it and allowed myself some time off. Mentally. Just got into the gym, did my bench bro stuff, and got out, simple as that.

Well, now it is time to rebuild. My life is changing again, this time for the better. I have lost about 15 lbs from the shift in training focus, and I look pretty great right now. I think I am going to truly start back next week. I'm going to keep eating to lose weight, but I am going to try a little harder to get some more protein in to make sure muscle/strength gains aren't too affected. And I'm going to bench and squat every single day for a while, to work on technique and try and seriously master the lifts. Here's what the template is gonna look like.

squat, bench, deadlift, core

bench, squat, back, core

squat, bench, deadlift, core

bench, squat, arms, core

Try and keep workouts to around an hour and a half. Try and just have fun, work hard, and cut down to around 220. I think I will look AWESOME at 220 as is (that's another 12 lbs of fat), but hopefully if I add in all this extra stuff I will maintain/gain even more muscle, and look even better at 220. Then, after I hit 220 ish I think I will start really pushing myself hard again in the gym. Hopefully that will be 4-8 weeks from now, we will see.

Anyways, hopefully next week I will return to regular posting. This will be my last week being dark. Life is hard and strange and painful, but I am the master of my soul, no one else. Love and passion will reign supreme. And my hate will die with you.

Lets keep at it.

Tuesday bench

Really good day today. Started off feeling a little tight and weak and the weights were feeling heavy, but I got into the swing of things and ended up performing very well.

Decided to do sets of 4 today, so I could work up to some heavier weight. Started with 95, then 135, 165, all of which felt not great. But then 185 felt a little better, and 205 was solid, so I took the jump to 225, and ended up hitting it for a really hard 4! Pretty good shit, considering I hit it for a tough 2 just the other day. Because I made all 4, I took one more jump, to 240. Would have liked to have doubled it, but a single was hard enough. After, dropped back to 205 and hit it for 3 sets of 4.

Then, hit my arms. Did a rest-pause type workout where I only rested very little between sets of each exercise - I counted how many breaths I took, and rested for the same number of breaths as reps in the sets I was doing. So, for example, 10 reps - 10 breaths - 10 reps - etc. Did 5 x 10 close grip tricep bench with 95 lbs, then did 4 x 12 bicep curls with 20's and some lateral raises, 5 x 5 but with a rep out on the last set cause the first few weren't hard enough.

Making bench gainz, slowly but surely. Lets keep at it.

Sunday Bench

Decided to bench a day early today, because I am going to have a crazy day tomorrow. It went pretty well - although I am starting to get some serious tightness and it feels like my pecs want to explode haha. But I think it's nothing serious - just adjustment to the new bench frequency.

Started with sets of 8, feet up and paused. Hit 95, 135, 175, then jumped straight to 205 because I was feeling strong. I thought I could crush it for 8, and was feeling REALLY strong up through 7 - then lost it on the 8th rep. I tried SO hard to lock it out, and just did't have it. Made me really mad. Dropped back to 175 and hit it for 3 sets of 8, easy, despite the pec tightness. Really wish I got that 205 x 8 and could have gone up, but alas, next time.

Anyways, finished up with some back work. 3 sets of 20 t-bar rows, 3 sets of 12 rear delt flyes, and then 3 sets of 16 lat pulldowns.

Feeling alright. Gonna keep hitting it. I know it is a lofty goal, but I REALLY want to bench 315 soon. I'm going to try and just believe and work hard haha. Lets keep at it.

Bench Friday

Good day today

Hit sets of 6, all paused and feet up. Hit 75, 95, 115, 135, 155, 175, and 195 x 6, then went to 215 for 5 which is pretty awesome. Then dropped back to 185 and hit it for 3 sets of 6.

Then, arms. Did a bunch of sets of curls, some close pushups for my triceps, and a bunch of lateral raises to hit shoulders.

Feeling pretty good! Lets keep at it.

Bench Thursday

Keeping this short cause it's a little late -

Bench went well. Everything was done feet up and with a pause. Decided to do sets of 10, so I hit 95, 135, 165 for 10 and then 185 for 9. Then, dropped back to 135 and hit it for 3 sets of 10.

Then, back work. Did a bunch of sets of 12 dumbell rows facing a bench, then some rear delt flyes, and then some lat pulldowns.

Felt solid. Lets keep at it.