Monster Shoulders

Wow today was fantastic. A bit of a late lift this evening but very productive. I really hit the three headed monster really hard and got a great pump. I reference to the three headed monster is the three parts of the shoulders. The front, mid, and back delts.

I was always told and this comes from a very reliable source to make sure to concentrate on the three areas independently. This allows for the great growth. When working the back delts, stick with them for several exercises before moving to the mid or front. This keeps the blood encased in that specific delt.

Once you have exhausted whatever delt one would be working on move to the next and so on. If you have never tried this you will thank me because it is the best shoulder pump you will ever have, at least in my opinion.

If you are not familiar with how to hit each section of the shoulder individually, give this article a look on different shoulder exercises. 

Lifting Sound Slide

I talked about having to make a sound slide for my class that had to do with my blog and I just finished it up. It shows a day lifting with me during chest day. I think it turned out very well! I hope you enjoy!

Reasoning...

I mentioned a few blogs back that I was going to explain the reasoning for me starting this blog and to introduce myself a bit more. I should have done this in the beginning but I do not, so here we go.

I actually started this blog as a project for my New Media class at Mercyhurst. We were required to post a certain amount of material throughout the term for our project. To be honest I probably would not have done this if it were not for the class, but I will say it has been an enjoyable experience up to this point.

I chose this topic because I know a good deal about fitness and eating healthy. I have been an avid lifter throughout my life and have learned a great deal through the different gyms I have been to and from my own research. The information I know about dieting is through my own personal experiences with nutritionists and through classes I took when I was younger at WVU. This is the underline reason I chose this topic. The MAIN reason was I feel out of shape myself. I was in great shape about 10 months back and then I just got away from my routine and started to be unsatisfied with my own body. This is never a good feeling. Choosing this topic for my blog I figured would give me the kick in the butt I need to get back in shape. WHICH IT ABSOLUTELY HAS!

As I state in the description of the blog, this blog is aimed for people having a hard time sticking with getting in shape/healthy. I wanted to be a person that someone out there struggling could relate with. I know how hard it is to be consistent either it be eating clean or hitting the gym on a daily basis. Life is hectic and any number of things can happen that can throw someone off course. I am the prime example. I thought it may help someone thinking about quitting to keep with it and show that there are people out there just like you with the same struggles. That quitting should never be an option even if a bad week or two happens when it comes to eating or getting to the gym. That the goal you set out for is attainable even if it takes longer then once thought.

Finally, let me tell you a little about me. I am a single dad. I have my daughter full-time. I attend Mercyhurst University full-time and I work a third shift job. All those circumstances makes it difficult sometimes to stick to being in shape. I have to do everything I can to balance my life as to obtain my goal. I wake up in the morning and go to work, followed by getting/taking my daughter to school, than coming home and heading to school myself. When school is over I must pick my kiddo up from school help her with her homework and work on my own homework as well as balance a house and take care of our 6 animals. I still find the time to budget my time to get the best eating in per day as I can and get to the gym several time a week.

I hope in the end that reading my blog and my life situation that this can give you, the reader, some extra maybe needed motivation to stick to your guns and continue the process of feeling better about yourself, about being healthier and happier.

I know that by doing this blog is has helped me a great deal just holding myself accountable for my own health. That I know that when I eat a bad meal or I skip the gym that I must blog about it and sometimes it gets to me but it instantly picks me back up because I know I must to better the next day!

Please, do enjoy reading my blog. If you ever have any questions or positive feedback I would love to read your comments.

KEEP AT IT!

Beautiful Monday Motivation

Chest is feeling fantastic this morning. Being able to lift heavy yesterday with a gym partner really made the difference with chest. I really have not been sore in this area for quite sometime and today it feels wonderful to feel sore.

Woke up to some beautiful weather. The weather app says there is a chance of rain today. I am hoping this holds off because I would love to do my cardio outside today. I am sure some of you can relate that running or biking inside constantly gets extremely boring. A change of scenery is always nice and what better of a change then the great old out doors.

Yes, it is Monday and I know many of us have a hangover from the weekend. And I do not mean from alcohol but just the fact that the weekend is over. If you need a little pick me up on how to start your morning out on the right foot, check out this article in Readers Digest. Several of this tips may not relate to you in life, but that does not mean that their on not some that can help!

Always wake up with a positive attitude and this will help you power through the day.

Amazing!

Today I went to a different gym then normal. I did this because college is letting out in the next week and I do not want to travel clear across town to my normal gym. So, I used a free pass to a gym right down the street from my house and wow did I have a great workout.

Now I can not say this is from the gym, but maybe it was from having a spotter to push me to go heavy.

Today was just amazing! I lifted more weight today then I did the last time I was really into the gym hard. I jumped on chest today cause it is always nice to have a spotter during chest day.

I went right to incline bench and pushed 225 up for 10 reps. This put a monster grin on my face. So, I pushed myself further and threw 245 up on the bar. I pumped it out for 4 reps. This was the highlight of my lifting these past couple weeks!

I continued to go heavy the rest of my workout and really exhausted my chest. By the time I was done I had nothing left in the tank to even attempt another rep. I think it all started with the picture below!

A nice clean breakfast always helps. I had 6 egg whites with a cup of blueberry oatmeal, topped off with vanilla granola. All organic of course.

They always say to start your day off with a powerful breakfast and that right there does not get anymore powerful.

Always make yourself prepare breakfast before you leave the house. Without it I know I always feel tired and sluggish.

Check out the link here I provided and it gives a nice outlook on how one should eat throughout the day. The time where one should have a big meal and when you should have a small portion.

This website explains the benefits of eating big in the morning and smaller as the day goes on!

Food Pyramid 

Weightloss

Well I ended up doing back yesterday. It was a nice light workout. Did lightweight for high reps. Surprisingly the triceps are used for almost everything even slightly so I did not want to over work them with heavyweight during back.

The tris are still sore so I am definitely pointing to I overworked them. Going to tone it back a bit next week. Thinking about doing legs today to just give the upper body a break from the weights.

Rewarded myself with a productive week overall with a nice dipper pizza from pizza hut. I do recommend them. They are down right delicious!

Extremely excited news today. I weighed myself and I am down a nice amount. Started out at 194 and I am now down to 184. Stomach is starting to flatten out. I am very happy with the results! If I keep it up I should be down to the 170 in the next couple months so I can bulk back up to 200.

Back/Chest

The triceps are feeling good this morning. Still a little sore but not like they were yesterday. Going to try the same routine again next week but if the soreness is the same I may tone it down a bit. The amount pain almost felt like the tris may have been overworked.

I am contemplating on what to workout today. With the tris still sore I may not do my second chest day as I normally do and may go with back. It will all depend in a couple hours how everything is feeling.

Getting off topic just a bit my Cowboys impressed me with another solid pick taking Byron Jones from UConn to fill our cornerback need. 

Sore

My arms are completely trashed. Tuesday I emphasized my triceps and biceps. Specifically I focused on the long part of my triceps. The long part is lacking on most people, but if you hit it really hard and get it to grow it actually helps fill out the upper arm.

The bicep is actually the smallest part of the arm. It is mostly made up of triceps. Check out this diagram of the arm. TRICEPS/BICEPS/FOREARMS

If you took a look at the diagram you can see that the triceps are about a third of the upper arm. I have found great growth in my arm in size by hitting my triceps hard. This is the workout I did the really hit the back of the triceps.

Close-grip bench 6 sets

Skullcrushers 4 sets

Standing Dumbbells Triceps Extension 4 sets

Cable Triceps Pushdowns 4 sets

I found this be an extremely effective way to hit the triceps. As I said my arms are completely destroyed. From the soreness I have taken a couple days off so that they could recover.

The diet has been steady this week and I have felt wonderful. Slacking on my diet always makes me feel terrible. I just feel sluggish and tired when I am not eating clean. And then bang eating clean really raises the energy. 

Just have to throw this in here. LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NFL DRAFT TODAY! LETS GO DALLAS COWBOYS!!!

                           

Back on Track

Today was the start of a new week and a new goal. My goal is to hit the gym at least four times and to eat clean for six days. I will attempt all seven and just have a cheat meal but we will see because it is extremely tough.

I was able to eat clean throughout the entire day today and able to get a nice hour and a half workout at the gym as well. I tried a new technique today while doing chest. It was recommended from an article I read featuring the one and only Arnold!

This is what I did today. I did four sets of three on bench. I did this on the smith machine with a bench that was able to adjusted for different degrees.

1st set 15 degrees for 3 sets

2nd set 30 degrees for 3 sets

3rd set 45 degrees for 3 sets

4th set 60 degrees for 3 sets

The reason to do four different degrees on the bench is to hit the entire chest throughout the movements. If you have been following my blog I do chest quite a bit. The reason for this is I have an extremely strong chest but it lacks size. For this reason I really work on it harder then the rest of my body for this point in time.

I finished the workout with heavy incline dumbbell flys followed by lighter cable flys to really get the blood pumping in the chest. And of course the oh so hated cardio.

Motivation

No one has your exact situation. Even if it may be similar it is not exact.

Do yourself a favor and stop listening to the negative people throw out. Yes maybe they ate better and worked out a few more times that week but that does not mean you are a failure. Circumstance arise and you just have to go with it.

Just never give up and keep at it and you will always feel you are accomplishing what you set out for.

When I started this I had a goal and lets me honest I am no where near it. I have made progress and will continue to strive for that goal but I do not see myself as a failure. We just have off days and sometimes off weeks.

Always put your head down and plow through that brick wall!!!

Check out this article in Time Magazine about motivation.

Checking In

Been a busy week with projects due. Have not been able to consistently get to the gym or eat well for that matter. Ran out of the good food a couple days ago and have not had time to get to the store to restock.

Finally found some time to hit the store yesterday and get the the cabinets refreshed. I like to hit a couple different stores to pick up groceries. I have going to the co op lately and I have fallen in love with it. I absolutely recommend everyone stop and in and check a store in your local area out!

If you are not sure what the co op is? It is an organic grocery store that offer amazing products and are extremely friendly if you would have any questions.

I have hit the gym twice this week and just tried to get a nice burn going.

I will attempt to get there both day over the weekend if I am able to get some of these projects out of the way.

Never give up. Life is hectic but you will eventually reach your goal if you keep at it!

Productive Day!

I have been off of the gym for a couple of days, as well as my diet. I know it sounds terrible and I may not have a great excuse but it was my 30th birthday weekend. So I pretty much relaxed and had a fun time with a bunch of good friends.

Now that the weekend was over I did have a very productive day today. I lifted chest real heavy today. I was very impressed with myself after the lay off.

A side note I have a project for a class that involves me doing a soundslide. This pretty much is telling a story with pictures and some music in the background. During my lift today a buddy of mine followed me around and took pictures of my routine for this project. So, within the next week or two I will be posted the completed slide. I am excited to see how it looks.

Also I never really told much about myself and really why I started writing this blog. Please stop by in the near future for a more in depth look at myself.

I LOOK FORWARD TO TELLING YOU MY STORY!

Thanks for reading!

Feel Great

I did not get the chance to get back on to blog after the workout last night. Got out of the gym late.

Yesterday was a great workout. The tweak I had in my chest did not bother me or appear to come back even in the slightest during my workout.  I did chest last night and it was my heaviest lift to date. Check out the weight below.........

Floor Bench

I started my workout with floor bench. My last two sets I was able to push up 275 lbs. For those who do not know floor bench is a different kind of flat bench. One lays on their back and benches as you would normally but the added benefit is it restricts movement. Because you are laying on the floor you can't go past your elbows or bounce the weight off of your chest and it makes the chest work in overtime. This is great for explosiveness.

Since about the second week of lifting chest I have not really been sore the next couple days afterward so I decided to switch it up.

This is why I had forgone the regular bench for a new approach. This was my routine last night.

Floor Bench 6 sets x 12 - 2 reps

Incline Dumbbell 4 sets x 10 - 6 reps

Incline Bench Cable Flys 4 sets x 10 reps

Pec Deck 4 sets x 10 reps w/ final set being a drop set

Chest Dips 3 sets x failure

 Cardio 25 min.

Waking up today I really feel a nice sore from changing up the workout. I am going to take this approach for the rest of the week and do a little different for every body part. Even though I normally switch up slightly week to week I am going to make it a point to switch it up to the extreme.

Pre-Workout

Took four days off from the gym due to a discomfort. I was doing dips when I felt some real discomfort in my chest on Thursday. I decided to take it easy for a couple day till the discomfort completely went away.

I did not want to have a huge set back due to an injury so I wanted to be a hundred percent before I went back in lifting some heavy weight.

I now feel 100%

Headed to the gym now to work chest. Hoping for the best!

I will post how in went after I return.

Dreadful Cardio

Have had an extremely productive week! I have been spot on with my diet and been to the gym four days straight. Yes that includes four straight days of cardio.

Ohh dreadful cardio. I have never been a fan of doing cardio but this time I was determined to stick with the regimen. I have consistently done cardio at least four times a week.

Her is a little motivation for those who hate it as well!

That is about what my results look like daily.

If you are having trouble getting it in everyday just remember you are not alone in this world in not wanting to do cardio. I choose to use the elliptical because it is less stressful on the knees. I have also been told by pro bodybuilders that running on treadmills is bad overall for the quads. Take a look at the link below if you are not sure which you would prefer.

Elliptical vs. Treadmill

Getting in the Routine

It has been a couple weeks since my last blog. Shame on me! If you remember my last post I started a new diet, reducing my calories by quite a bit. It has been trying at times but for the most part I have been following it pretty strictly. The hardest part is not turning my one cheat meal a week into a cheat day.

This is going on my third week of being on the diet and I am down to 185 from 190. My goal is to get down to around 170 and cut the majority of fat out of my body until I start to bulk back up, but this time bulk in the good way. No need to add a spare tire again.

Here is a updated picture taken today while doing shoulders at the gym.

Yes it is a selfie. Laugh a little if you must!

As I mentioned above I find myself after eating a bad meal graving to get back into the gym. Bad part is most of the time the gym is closed because I have the meal on a Sunday. I am actually thinking about moving the meal to a weekday before I lift to do some extra cardio so that it is not as detrimental to my day.

Word of advice for the day. STAY CALM AND LIFT HEAVY WEIGHTS!

A New Approach!

This is going on my third week of hitting the gym off and on as well as having a spotty diet. Life is tough what more can I say. I am sure many of you readers out there go through this on a daily basis as well. Between work, school, raising kids, or any mix of those it gets hard to consistently do any number of things let alone diet and exercise.

My strength has been returning quite fast over these past five weeks. Thank you very much muscle memory. It is such a fantastic attribute to our body. I started on incline bench only being able to barely do 155lbs for 8 reps to in five weeks moving up to 225lbs for 5 reps.

Even though my size is increasing nicely and strength has been going up my body fat and weigh have stayed about the same. In other words I look bigger in the arms, chest, shoulders, legs, but the stomach has stayed stagnant. This was not my goal to start. I wanted all of those to increase but for the stomach to go down.

I got lucky the other day. While lifting I sparked up a conversation with a gentleman who was in great shape (I recommend to always try to befriend people in the gym it can definitely come to your advantage at times!). We got to talk and he told me he was a physique model and personal trainer. After about a half hours of lifting and breaking inbetween sets to chat he offered to make me a meal plan to help cut the body fat off of me at a responsible price.

I of course AGREED 100%!

Well I started this diet yesterday. I am going to attempt to follow it and take it day by day. I know from personal experience that looking to far in the future can heed progress in the now.

The diet is extreme and dropped my daily intake of calories around 2000 daily.

I am looking forward to seeing how this may work for me.

Everyone keep at it, it will pay off if you just never give up!!!

Negative into a Postivie

Work hard and play hard. This week has been busy just getting back into classes. This is the week after spring break and had much work to catch up on. If I was not studying for a test, I was reading or doing another assignment for one of my classes.

Put that aside and this week in the gym has been very positive. I have only been able to get a workout in twice but they have been extremely effective.

Monday I was finally looking like my old self one bench press, putting up 225lbs again! I did a lot of super sets to really get the blood pumping in the chest.

Chest is one of the harder muscles groups I have to grow.

Today I was able to get a quick workout in before a business meeting of mine. I did shoulders and wow was it great. By the end of the 45 minutes I could barely lift my shoulders. I had them really puffed up. I did nothing put supersets on all three of the delts (front, middle, rear).

I could have eaten better throughout this week but overall I am satisfied with it. I still have three days to go before the week is over and maybe I can squeeze in another two gym days.

Here are some tips to grow the chest!

I personally read a lot of different articles to train from and Jay (he is the one giving the tips in the article) is one of my favorites to follow.

The Highest High to The Lowest Low

This is my fourth week of working to get back in shape and it by far has been my WORST week to date. My college had spring break and I became lazy. The first day I found myself motivated and right in the gym as if it were any other day.

And that was the last day I was in the gym for the rest of the week. Today is Sunday and this would make day number six without being in the gym. I did not even eat very well this week.

I am not sure if it was taking advantage of the extra sleep or if it were possibly my mind telling me just relax this week. Either way this week has been a disaster as it comes to getting back in shape.

Must keep my head up and stay positive. It was a down week but there is a new week starting tomorrow and I plan on hitting it harder! I will come back this week and spin this negative into a positive.

Third Week Productive

The third week has been the best since the beginning. I was able to maintain a proper diet throughout the week and managed to get to the gym four days in a row.

I tried something a little extreme during this week. I CUT OUT ALL CARBS! Wow!

When I started I was 193 lbs. After the week of no carbs I was down to 188 lbs. It was extremely trying both mentally and physically. I went from a decent amount of energy to feeling almost zapped every single day. Not only that but I became extremely moody. My results felt good while looking at the scale but no carbs is not for me.

I did some research and I found it best that if you are going to cut crabs to cut them down but not totally out. Limit the carbs to morning, afternoon, and directly after your workout to refuel the tank. Eating carbs between the hours of five and six are just not a good approach. Since most people will be going to be shortly afterward the body now has an overload of carbs to digest while sleeping, and during sleep ones digestion slows down which cause the body to store fat.

Pictures from week three of my arms routine. Always make sure to focus on the muscle you are working on and to put as much stress as possible on that specific muscle!

In conclusion no carbs are not the way to go for me. It may be for you but my experience was not all that great.









Swollen Second Week

First week of training was amazing. Getting the feeling back in the gym and eating healthy felt amazing. I had more energy then I have had in months. The draw back was finding the time to both get to the gym and cook healthy. I ended up getting behind in some reading for college.

The second week I thought I may be able to manage my time a bit better now that I was getting back in the grove. Another problem was raised. My daughters school was cancelled due to negative weather. This made another challenge for me. I was able to eat healthy without a problem but was not able to get to the gym due to no sitter.

Toward the middle of this week I was able to get back into the gym again. Found a easier way to get my food packed for the day, and things were going smoothly until yesterday.

Yesterday I was having an extremely good pump doing shoulders. Pumped as much blood into my shoulders as I could to spark growth. I was high on the lift until another problem came forth. I was pulling weight off of the rack for my next set of behind the neck shoulders presses when I didn't notice someone placed a 25 lb plate over a 45 lb weight. Next thing I knew I was in extreme pain. The 25 lb weight dropped right onto my big toe from about three feet up.

 

The swollen toe!

 

On a more positive not the shoulder workout yesterday was amazing until the accident.

 

 

If you're a beginner and need to see some sample exercise I suggest checking out these shoulder workouts. When doing rear delts try super setting a few exercise for high reps to get the blood pumped into them as much as possible. The pump is great!

 

I am going to give today a go in the gym and hope I am able to lift without putting to much pressure on my toe.

In need of any extra Health tips check out Live Healthy Get Fit!

 



The Beginning!

About a year ago I was in the best shape of my life...For one reason or another I lost focus and stopped training. I will now attempt to get back on the right path with my training and eating properly over the next 13 weeks. Check in throughout this time for my routines and progress pictures.

I will be posting my progress several times a week and any advice is always welcome!

Next entry will include a beginning picture to compare when the 13 weeks are over.

Well it has been awhile but finally here are my starting pictures.