29/11/09

Chest day. had an awesome pump today. fricken hiong 'smore. we went pretty hardcore on the lifts and we were pretty much satisfied with what we accomplished

Incline bench: 3 x 10 x 55 kgs
Flat: 1 x 10 x 60 kgs, 1 x 8 x 65 kgs, 1 x 6 x 70 kgs
Decline: 1 x 10 x 60 kgs, 1 x 10 x 65 kgs, 1 x 6 x 70 kgs
Flyes: 2 x 10 x 10 kgs, 1 x 6 x 10 kgs ( burned out on the last set )
Pullover: 1 x 12 x 10 kgs, 1 x 10 x 15 kgs, 1 x 8 x 17.5 kgs

Good workout indeed, hope the rest of this week turns out as well or even better!

28/11/09

First day of the new routine. back.

Pullups 3 x 6
Barbell row 1 x 10 x 50 kgs, 2 x 10 x 55 kgs
Lat pulldown 3 x 10 x 120 pounds
Seated row 1 x 10 x 110 pounds, 2 x 120 pounds
Reverse flyes 3 x 10 x 5 kgs

almost caved in on the pulldowns. my lats were drained from the pullups. haven't done barbell rows in a while, now my lower back actually strains from doing it. DAYUM. otherwise, it was quite a good day and also a good start to this week's regime.

studied about physiological response recently. i'm supposed to tune my load according to how my body's feeling. in other words, instinctive training. but if i actually did this... i have a feeling i might not go any heavier on my load.... hmmmmm. time to experiment!

Chest tomorrow. can't wait!

Revelation

after 3 days of fucking my mind over all the worrying for changing my routines and what not, i finally came up with a solid decision about what to do - whoever is reading this, feel free to beat the crap out of me if i decide to switch routines again. after stuffing my brain with all the articles and information it can contain, i, not 'kinda' anymore or 'somewhat', fo-sho figured out what i should be doing for the next 4 weeks of my life before i go into... well, serving the nation. this calls for a great overhaul of what i do in the gym, and sure as hell what i eat, albeit i dont like the greens, i WILL stuff them in my mouth if i have to, but definitely not when i don't NEED to.
here goes. it starts tomorrow

Saturday: Back
Sunday: Chest
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Shoulders
Thursday: Arms
Friday: Rest
now, i need to have an AIM. so here it is.
1 - to cut down fat percentage until it's 10% by the end of December
2 - expand the size of my rib-cage
3 - add at least half an inch to my guns by end of December
4 - breaking through my shoulder plateaus and adding on mass to them.

So how am i gonna do them? tweaking my current program.
1 - add pullovers to stretch the rib-cage
2 - do breathing squats (1 set of 20 squats with deep breaths in b/w each rep) to expand rib cross section
3 - start doing barbell presses for my shoulders, whether if it's smith machine, free weight or what not, i need to add overall mass and strength to these lagging parts.
4 - cardio-after-workouts. sure 'nuff

so here we go. time to continue setting up the workout. HUZZAH!

Reflections Week 1

apparently, it may be a whole lot better if i went ahead with 5 day splits... considering how BORED i am at home most of the time and how much more effective it would be this way. but one thing's for sure, i HAVE to include PULLOVERS if i wanna expand my rib cage. i gotta wack the delts harder than i do my traps, since peeps like louis tell me my traps are... oversized, for me, making my torso look small. oh well. AS OF TODAY.....

Body Weight: 71.7 kg
Fat Percentage: 13.8%
Lean Mass: 61.8 kg

WOOT. i definitely put on quite some mass since the start of the year. wait, that's not the point. *Ahem*

now just to wait out the weekends for the next workout to start

25/11/09

shoulders day at last. did add in a few things though.... i added in dumbbell presses and pullovers. my legs hurt so bad i couldn't really focus much, though i managed to pull through anyway. i could see the striations on my delts. it was AWESOME! sure it didnt grow big that fast, but at least it got ripped and shredded, especially when i did wide grip upright rows.
as for abs work... it turned out fine, cept when i hit my obliques, i could see how messed up it was to do side bends with a spine that ain't perfect. i wonder how many other people actually face this problem....

Current stats:
Dumbbell press: 20 kg
Pullover: 17.5 kg
Arnold press: 15 kg
Row: 22.5 kg
Rear delt: 5 kg
Lateral raise: 7.5 kg
Side bend: 20 kg
Shrugs: 22.5 kg

gonna hit the gym again tomorrow with louis. maybe i need to hit my body parts more often... oh well. CHEST TOMORROW

24/11/09

leg day... grueling shit.
i did realise however that after that 2 week break even my deadlift weakened, even though i could still do 100 kg for 5 reps. after much observation i noticed my rib cage was.... unimpressively small. and that was one of the main reasons why i couldn't get my shoulders to grow broader. now, i'm facing the same problem i did back then - should i change my routine? for the better? i DO have a lot of spare time on my hands, but should this be how i'ma deal with it? well... i guess we'll leave that for next year. MEANWHILE, put mah mind on what i intend to do, and keep going at it. so....

Current stats:
Squats: 80 kg
Deadlift: 100 kg
Leg extension: 125 pound
Leg curl: 100 pound
Calf raise: 260 pound

can't drop my focus any time soon, i gotta keep going!

23/11/09

Rest day! Last paper today as well... END OF A LEVELS WOOOOO

Rest s'mores now, tomorrow's gonna be a grueling day.

Let's get shredded!

22/11/09

finally, chest and triceps day!

Incline bench presses made me realise how much weaker i was after those 2 weeks. as much as i pushed myself, could only hit 1 set for a full 10 reps, the rest deteriorated so bad to 7-9 reps...
bench press wise, those partial reps totally stretched my pecs from their resting state from the 2 weeks, felt totally awesome! though i could only go for a max of 8 reps... followed by a last 1 to rack it back up
went on to do dips, and kinda felt that they were near pointless, maybe decline presses were a better option afterall...
went on to do my skull crushers, totally forgot about my chest flyes. felt an intense burn in my triceps
FLYES! damn. after all those chest exercises, i could only go 8 reps!
triceps rope pushdown.... i had to cheat throughout the reps, since my 'ceps were burnt out. damn i feel so guilty :(

current stats:
incline = 20 + 17.5 + 17.5 = 55 kg
flat = 20 + 20 + 20 = 60 kg
flye = 5+5+1.25+1.25 = 12.5 kg per side
skull crusher = 5 + 5 + 2.5 + 2.5 = 15 kg
ropes = 80 pounds

GOTTA GO FURTHER THAN THAT YEAH

21/11/09

'Bout this blog....
This, is my workout journal/blog. It'll be about my journey to become stronger and perhaps bigger. This is, Up The Iron Plates. Cheers!



So.........
First day of gym after a break of 2 weeks. tried out a new 4-day split that goes like this:
Saturday: Back and biceps
Sunday: Chest and triceps
Tuesday: Thighs and calves
Wednesday: Shoulders and trunk

so.... as for today!
Back:
wide lat pulldowns
seated rows
pull-ups, goddamn, i realised how fucking difficult they are when you do them after all that back stuff
biceps bar curl, i could totally feel the burn in my 'ceps with these!
preacher curl
hammer curls made me realise that when my back was swelling up, i couldnt keep my arms straight... sucks to have narrow shoulders
finally, wrist curls

all that pent-up energy from those 2 weeks are finally gonna be made use of! time for me to work towards those massive guns and boulder-like shoulders! not forgetting armour plated PECS

P/S: must add an inch to my arms!

Current stats:
Pulldowns: 120 pounds
Rows: 110 pounds
Pullups: damn 6 reps
Curls: 10 + 10 = 20 kg
Preacher: 50/60 pounds, gotta go further...
Hammer: 2.5 + 2.5 + 1.25 + 1.25 = 7.5 kg... gotta go further than that man.

GOTTA GO FURTHER THAN THAT