• June to August – Cutting – high reps, high sets, low calories, 5-6 day workouts.
• End of August to September – Bulking – special workout, high calories, 3-4 day workouts
• Past 3 weeks – Getting over flu – occasional light run, abs workouts, bad food

Shortly after the last post, I got a gym membership through work. Having access to equipment is crucial. I worked out 3 days a week in the gym, plus running on off days. Sunday was rest day (as was Saturday depending on how I felt). Lost 10 lbs in 8 weeks and got a six pack; I’ll try to scrounge up a picture.

My body fat percentage went to 9% and weight to 150lbs if I remember correctly. Around 9 weeks I started bulking and the trainer at the gym built a wicked workout. I’ll post it when I have a few moments. In 2 weeks, curls went from 2 sets of 6 reps at 60lbs to 3 sets of 8 reps at 70 lbs.

Unfortunately, I’ve let it slack. Back in school and fighting sickness has made me skimp for 3 weeks. I feel horrible but resolved to get back to the gym this week.

So upcoming, I’ve got a nice ab workout and my bulking workout to show you, as well as some new motivational ideas as well as things I’ve learned.

The person had a curious issue of loosing the most weight on their off weeks. Their routine consisted of 30 min cardio 7 days a week supplemented with 4 days of lifting weights. This routine was followed for 3 weeks straight and then an off week. The most convincing explanation posted was the need for the body to consume fat when finally having the time to rebuild the damaged tissue. This in conjunction of loosing excess water and muscle mass because of the period of inactivity seemed to account for the massive losses. So instead of consistently loosing weight, the person was loosing about 10 pounds during this off week.

Overtraining is not letting your body recuperate in terms of repairing damaged muscles in between workouts. The result of overtraining is plateauing and not experiencing any gains not to mention problems sleeping and a variety of other problems. Apparently it’s very common especially with beginners…

I’m posting about this because the worry of overtraining has been in the back of my mind lately. I might cut back and give myself more days off to recover (ARG! Need to get off my ass and do that). Anywho, it’s worth looking at your own routines to make sure you’re allowing enough time for your body to recover.

I was looking through my old pictures and it really opened my eyes in some ways while strengthening some views on other things. This is what I found:

Now I know that all those hours working out last summer were basically fruitless. In those 6 months I was completely spinning my wheels. I really don’t see much of a change. And that’s what probably urged me to start eating much more and trying to gain weight. That’s what you see in the last picture: much more fat but very little extra muscle. The abs however do seem a little wider which is nice… and to give myself credit, I did increase my max bench that summer. So something worked, but I’m not satisfied with the little change in 6 months.

I believe the reason why I did so poorly was largely do to sleep. I simply didn’t get enough of it. Plus college isn’t a great place to get your nutrition straight…

So yeah. Can’t wait to see the end of summer picts, should be really different if I continue to see progress like I have these past few weeks. I have other interesting stats too, but I’ll post about them later… I must get ready to go out.

Take care.

Day 8:

Day 8 I felt guilty in not working out my biceps this week so I focused on that. I did however skimp on the abs and just did biceps workout. Again, I could give you an excuse as to why… a pattern is beginning to emerge here. It seems that people (read: me) like to give excuses as to why we’re not doing something and then are surprised to see no results. Ha! This blog is already worth it!

So for biceps I did 3×12 barbell curls and 3×12 sitting one armed hammer curls. I did the usual 1 set of one exercise and then the other exercise to really tax them. Mission accomplished, they are sore today.

Day 9:

This Perfect Pushup stuff is awesome. I look forward to using them everyday, even though I only use them every other. Today was the same workout as 2 days ago: 3 exercises, each done in 2 minutes, in which each exercise consists of 3 sets of pushups with decreasing amount of reps. Moreover to looking forward to using them, I’m PUMPED because I’m definitely getting stronger. Before, I really felt the burn for the first set of 14 reps, but I now do without a problem. In fact, the entire exercise is relatively easy. But lets see how I do Sunday… I have to do an extra exercise.

UPDATE: Worry of overtraining has convinced me to take Saturday and Sunday off to recover. Instead I’ll take the time to write down my stats and prepare workouts.

Day 6:

I was absolutely destroyed by the Perfect Pushup (Check out the post from day 5 for more info ). My shoulders, triceps, back, pecs, and abs in pain. It was wonderful and was totally invigorated by it. However, I knew it would be futile to lift some more so I decided to go for a short 30 minute run instead. 10 minute/miles, taking really slow and making sure to stretch before, during, and after.

Running completely relaxes especially at sun down when there are few people in park.

Day 7:

Day 7 was the continuation of the Perfect Pushup workout. It consisted of 1×14, 1×10, 1×6 of the regular form, done in two minutes. Then repeat with wide and close stance. It was considerable easier but today I still feel sore. Heck, I think this soreness is from the first day with the Perfect Pushup. 

I don’t know if it’s psychological or not, but I think my arms are bigger already. Its really encouraging. All I want to do is go back and workout more. I’ve also been steadily decreasing in weight by almost 1.5 pounds in a little over a week. Sleep, food, and working-out are really key.

Early impressions were impressive. It definitely activates muscles I don’t use in the typical pushup. In this compound exercise, my weakest points were my triceps and deltoids and I look forward to strengthening them. The box comes with a training guide that shows you the movements and a workout schedule. You begin by determining your maximum rep and from there find your workout from a provided table. My baseline was 20 pushups (although the last few were in poor form) and so my workouts consists of 1×14, 1×10, and 1×6 within 2 minutes in the regular stance. I then take a break and do the same with wide and close grip stances. It’s pretty rigorous and I definitely feel my arms right now.

So if you haven’t guessed it already, I’ll be following this for 21 days (the length of the proposed workout) and see how I do. This workout isn’t comprehensive though, so I’ll supplement with core and legs on off days and still strive to workout 6 days a week.

Alright, I’m going to try and get 8 hours of sleep.

Arm day is the day of pain, suffering, and satisfaction. Nothing feels better than feeling the “pump” in your arms and feeling your arms full of blood. Arnold isn’t shitting you:

The exercises this time around were barbell curls, tricep extensions, supinating sitting dumbbell curls, and dips. I decided to due them in supersets just to mix it up. So I did 1×12 barbell curls immediately followed by 1×12 tricep extensions. Repeated 2 more times, and moved on to the other two exercises in the same fashion.

This was actually the first time I’ve really felt the tricep burn in doing dips. Since I don’t have parallel bars, I use my bench to dip from. I always thought the burn was felt at the bottom of the motion, but it’s actually at the top! You really need to tighten them when your arms are extended.

Still need to figure out diet… Sunday is weight day though.

Today was supposed to be legs and core but my glutes and quads are really bothering me…not in a good way. Hopefully some additional rest and stretching will cure that. So instead of straining my legs, I did an extended core session.

Googled some exercises and decided to do these for 30 minutes: 30 second Plank, 30 second V-sit hold, 10 twisting crunches, 30 second superman, and 10 reverse crunches. I repeated this twice for a total of 3 sets. My entire front and back side is tight now; I’m going to feel it in the morning.

I’m pretty glad how this week has gone so far. My chests, delts, back, biceps are sore today, and my quads and hams were sore this morning. Just one more day (arms again) and I get a rest from this lifting…

They say to get a habit to stay, you need to focus on finishing one week at a time for 4 weeks. After that it become nearly automatic. Today was a struggle with regards to that, but I’m glad I pushed myself to do it and write a post here.

Today was back and chest… but mostly back. To put it another way, it was get that large-upper-body-look-like-don’t-eff-with-me-now-you-understand?

After warming up and stretching, I started with pull-ups doing 1×4, 1×5, 1×8, and 1×8 with short rests in between. Check out my up and coming section on making your own workout routines on how I came up with doing it this way. I also chose to forgo chin-ups this time because my arms are already sore from yesterday and chin-ups heavily rely on biceps.

Since my pull-up bar is in the house, I then went outside for bent-over rows, lateral raises, and wide-grip bench, doing 3 sets of 12 reps on each exercise in the same fashion as day 1. 

I definitely felt the pain on lateral raises, struggling mid second set. But I can increases weight on both bench and bent over rows.

Total workout took about 30 minutes give or take. I quickly took a shower, and had a banana, whey protein, handful of almonds, and multi-vitamin. I take the multi-vitamins regardless of it I lift or not. They seem to prevent me from getting frequent nose bleeds. Anyone happen to experience this?

I did 1×12 barbell curls, 1×12 hammer curls, 1×12 standing skull crushers, and 1×12 close grip bench, with no rest in between. Took a little 2-4 minute break to catch my breath, then repeated this 2 more times for a total of 3×12 of all the exercises.

Total workout time, just under 30 minutes. It’s important to note I’m not powering through these. I’m taking my time for control and form in making sure I’m flexing the target muscle at the top of the motion.

The last set was definitely tough. I had to take a few seconds at rep 6 of the barbell and hammer. However, I can push the weight for the tricep exercises next week. The biceps need more time at this weight…

Arm day is definitely my favorite day though. When you’re done and look in the mirror, you look absolutely huge.