Team Korea looking to best Team America!

So, I felt compelled to update this blog after reading Matt's post regarding "Project Destroy Korean." Unlike my adversary, I try not to cheat and when if I do, I try to keep things in check. While Matt is eating junk food at the mall, pesto shrimp, NY strips, and garlic mashed potatoes for V day, this guy had two bites of cheesecake for his indulgence. Did I mention that I did cardio afterward? Yup, 3 miles, constituting the second workout of the day. I must admit my guilty pleasure since the start of this challenge has been Chinese food. Nothing crazy, just chicken with mixed vegetables.

I have been doing two a days, lift in the morning and cardio at night. I need to make sure that I'm not sacrificing any lean muscle mass in the process, so I need to regulate the intensity of my cardio. Matt thinks the Girls Scout cookies will defeat my willpower, haha, a laugh in the face of adversity. Bring it son! I'm going to be on point come end of April for wherever we decide to go for Brent's bachelor party, that is IF we go anywhere at all.

Still bitter

There are 3 letters that basically summed up this weekend....RDU. This weekend marked George Hall's annual "All About the Benjamins" 4 and 5 man tournament. It was the biggest cash prize to date with $6 G's up for grabs, $1000 for 5 man and $5000 for 4 man. As you can imagine, this kind of cash, to play a game we all love to play, draws a lot of teams thinking they have what it takes to bring home the cash. To make a LONG story short, let's just say that the ONLY team we lost to this weekend was RDU and the ONLY team RDU lost to was us. We played them a total of 6 times throughout the weekend and we came up short when it mattered. They balled out and was the better team this weekend. They are rolling high this year capturing the 2010 National Championship Title in 5 man in Orlando this past January and they banked 6 grand this weekend by winning both tournaments. I'm a little bitter, getting to the finals for both tourneys only to come up empty handed.

The bitterness did provide some extra energy for today's workout as much frustration needed to be released. I killed my arms with the heaviest weight I could handle maintaining a mid rep range. Sorry for the lack of footage. The weather is breaking which means golf usually starts to take precedence this time of year. I'll give a better effort in getting footage.

Nutrition is slipping a little with the wifey being on bed rest it's hard to not eat poorly given the circumstances. No excuses though. Eating poorly and continuing to use my wife's pregnancy as an excuse is a crutch and displays weakness and apathy. You are what you eat, so if you eat crap, you'll look like CRAP! 'Nough said!

P.S. It's Master's week! Go Tiger!

Getting there

I decided to go ahead and make it a 1RM week with the exception of squats. I maxed out on bench today. I made the decision to try for my 1RM after I had done heavy incline dumbbell presses capping out at 100lbs for 5 on my 5th set. Not ideal for me to waste that energy prior to establishing my 1RM but I still pressed 330lbs. Not bad. 405 deadlift (still had more), 330 bench press (should have more). If I can now get this knee back together then I'll be straight. I did some Free Motion squats yesterday but that DOES NOT translate to a free back squat. I'll try next week.

Tomorrow and Sunday are the two biggest cash tournaments to start the year. $6 g's up for grabs this weekend. We have to be in the top three favorites to win it all. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!!!

Beastin' it!!!

It's been two weeks since I last deadlifted and if you recall, my PR at that time was 385. I knew I had more so I got after it today. I finished up with a new PR of 405! HOLLA!! The first couple sets didn't feel so good as my knees felt achy from all the football this weekend but that achy feeling quickly went away as my lower back was feeling the effects of pulling all the heavy weight. This may not be a huge accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, but for me it was a monumental moment. I'm really proud of myself as cheesy as that sounds. The bar never stopped moving during the pull so I am confident that I have more IF my lower back can handle. I was going to use a belt today but it was too big. I'd rather not rely on the belt so lower back strengthening will be a focus. All in all, my strength in EVERY category is going up! SOLID!

Deadlifts 225x2, 275x2, 315x1, 345x1, 365x1, 385x1, 400x1, 405x1

Rev. grip pulldowns 165x6, 180x6, 195x6, 210x6, 225x6
Hang leg raises-modified 4 sets of 15

T bar row 90x8, 115x6, 115x8, 125x6
Side cable crunches 90x15, 100x15, 110x15

I'm Baccckkkkk!!!!

My apologies for the absence! Lots going on and preoccupation with the acquisition of my new toy for the summer! I bought a 2000 Jeep Wrangler and I just got the tags today to get it on the road!! I'm a little behind still, so I'll post for yesterday and today to get caught up.

Yesterday is ordinarily shoulders but I skipped last Friday, for reasons that I can't recall at the moment, so I had to do bis and tris. I did some calf training as well since I had the extra time. I had a busy weekend but felt refreshed not having lifted since Thursday. I'm taking all my supplements religiously, my EFA's, multis, jack3d, BCAA's, and my protein. Food intake has been good so far this week as we enter the final two months before Memorial Day. This workout got my arms SWOLE!







Tuesday, March 23

My motivation levels remained high today and smashed shoulders today. I superset HSPU's and hi pulls, push / pull, and it felt great. I did the HSPU's off a stack of 3 - 25lb plates which gave me a 5" lift. I was able to get full range of motion for all 8 thru 4. I was stoked seeing how I superset with hi pulls. I definitely thought I would struggle once I got to sets 5 and 4, but I was good for all 30 reps on the HSPU's and the hi pulls. The push presses with only 115 lbs for 3 sets of 5 was a killer. I pretty much shot my load on the first two exercises that I had to will my way through the push presses. I finished this workout up with side lying laterals and tripod laterals. Gotta get that core work in.

He's Baaaaaack!

I am choosing not to report on my workout today in lieu of something far more important than my 35 minute back workout. Tiger Woods is BACK!!!

April 8th marks the day ladies and gentlemen! Yes, Tiger Woods' announcement to return to play Augusta has made headlines everywhere and rightfully so. Should you disagree, let's let the ratings for April 8-11th tell the story of how Tiger Woods single handedly has changed the game. I hope he wins. NO, I don't want him to just win, I hope he comes back and destroys the field! We shall soon find out who will have the last laugh. Go on, be a Tiger!!

Race to 54!!!!

The challenge has been issued and it's a gonna be a war. My boy, Alex Usategui, the king of box jumps in my mind, and I are racing to see who can box jump 54" from a static position. I'm not sure how close he is to accomplishing this, but I am one step away.....literally! I stacked the boxes today and worked myself up to only needing a one step drop in. I was really shocked I was able to hit this even with the three step drop in that I stared with but never did it with a one step. Next up will be a static jump but that's gonna be MUCH harder! I'm anticipating a few falls and banged up shins. I'll be sure to post all the outtakes for your viewing pleasure.

As for the rest of WOD, shoulders and abs. I was really amped up after hitting the box jumps. I spent a good 15 minutes on the box jumps so I had very little time to work with which is why I didn't get all the footage. I got some stuff, here's the rundown, with no rest between shoulder and ab supersets.

L sits 3 sets of 30 second holds
Free Motion laterals 20x17, 25x10, 30x10

Toes to bar 4 sets of 8
Smith military presses 185x6, 195x6, 195x6, 205x6

Cable crunches 3 sets of 72.5x12
Ankel cuff rev flyes 32.5x6, 37.5x6, 37.5x7