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

ABS-olutely!

I had two hours to get his workout in, obviously much more than what I needed to complete the task at hand. It was a good one, but I have to admit that I'm getting a little bored. It's either boredom or my new work schedule. Having to work out in the late afternoon/early evening is not really my style, but what choice do I have, I gotta stack that paper.

The bis and tris routine was good, but the ab workout was better. My first ab exercise was to hold L-sits for 3 sets of 30 seconds. The first two sets were solid, holding for 33 seconds with the last set being 29 seconds. I wish I had a clock to look at because I would have fought for that last second. L-sits are legit and they definitely tax the abs-try it, it's much harder than it looks. I made improvement here so I was pleased.

My second core exercise was a modified alligator walk on the treadmill while using a Bosu. Again, I was shooting for time here, in an attempt to increase time under tension. I did 4 sets of 30 seconds at 1.3mph. I used the Bosu to make the exercise harder and it lived up to the billing. Trying to keep the Bosu level while walking on your hands is the key here, as you can see on my last set, I struggled to do this! Fun exercise though. After 3 sets of L-sits and 4 sets of the alligator walks, I was only able to finish with 2 sets of 8 and 6 reps of toes to bar. My abs were absolutely fried.

Stress kills!

I took a much needed rest day yesterday. I was scheduled to do legs but my stress levels are out the roof so if there was going to be any day that I could skip, it was yesterday. Primarily for the fact that, I'm still "resting" my meniscus sprain so it's not like I'm getting a whole lot out of my leg routine anyways.

Today is the first day this week where I have been able to come home and relax without feeling the pressure of a million things that needed to be done. I did get my workout in a bit earlier today and it was well received. I busted out chest and felt good. It took me a LONG time to warm up on flat bench. I did two warm up sets with 135, max rep set at 225 for 16 and then started making my climb. I did 1 rep sets up to 315 and then capped off flat bench with two sets of 225, max reps. I was pretty disappointed with only 16 reps. I was hoping for at least 20! That was a big kick in the nuts. Interestingly, my last two sets of 225 felt smooth. I got 12 reps at 225 for my last set. I didn't expect it to go up as smooth as it did given all the energy I expended previous to this last set. I have 20 reps in me, I just need a proper warm up. Next week, consider it done!

I was pretty tired moving into incline bench after a total of 61 presses on flat. I did 5 sets here starting at 225 and moving down to 185. I followed incline presses with 3 sets of 50 lbs on incline dummbell flyes.

Lastly, I did 2 sets of 8 Bosu smashes to really smoke 'em out! Job well done! I'm tired now. One more day and the weekend comes, along with the rain. I hope to catch up on some much needed rest.

DEADLIFTS!

I'm still in my strength mode and unlike last week's back day, I started with deads rather than finishing with them. I wanted to see what my threshold would be and after my warm up sets, I did 5 x 1 (275, 315, 345, 365, and 385). 385 went up pretty smooth. I wanted to go more but I didn't have a belt, which I never use, but then again, I have never deadlifted like this before. In other words, I got scared. I guess 385 is my new PR for now, but I could have done a little more. I'll man up next time.

I did 1 arm rows with rope pulls next. Heavy on the 1 arm rows with 110 lbs and 120 lbs for 10 on the rope pulls. This coupling felt really good. I got a nice pump off the 1 arm rows.

I finished up with strict wide grip chins at a slow tempo and reverse push ups. I was pretty smoked at this point and all I tried to accomplish here was for the hard squeeze. The slower tempo left me dying out at 8, 6, 6 reps on the wide grip chins and 3 sets of 12 on the reverse push ups.

My back used to be a lagging bodypart, but I feel like I've made leaps and bounds with my back development. My traps need work and I need to give more attention there but overall, I'm pleased with the way the footage looks on my wide grip chins.

In honor of Grevis Vasquez!

So I've been donning the mini mohawk in honor of my Terps and Vasquez. I took to shoulders and abs on Monday. It had to be a late workout due to the my new schedule. I'm not a big fan of the early evening workouts. It really messes me up nutrition wise because the workout suppresses my appetite so much that dinner is hard to eat. But we must push through and work past the obstacles in front of us.

All in all, the workout was great. My shoulders felt a little tight with the behind the neck push presses but I managed. Strength levels were so-so. The ab part was painful for some reason. I willed my way through those 3 sets.

I got lazy

I missed the last two days for a couple reasons: 1) Wed was a boring ass workout since it was legs and wasn't even worth the time to report on, 2) I've been consumed with trying to find a jeep, and 3) stressed out about work.

Yesterday's chest workout consisted of 3 different exercises--flat, incline, and Hammer Strength incline.

Here's the W.O.D. from yesterday.

Flat bench 225x15, 275x2, 295x2, 225x8

Incline bench 185x5, 225x4, 225x4, 225x4

Hammer Strength Incline 180x12, 180x10, 180x8




Today was a little better. Stress can really put a damper on your workouts! It's like putting sand in your gas tank! Now that all the drama at work is over with, for the time being, I can hopefully crank it out again.

Here's today's W.O.D.

Overhd. ext 70x10, 80x8, 90x8, 100x8
Alternating DB curls 30x8, 35x7, 40x6, 40x6

Alt. grip D handle pushdowns 50x10, 60x8, 60x8
Hi cable curls 50x10, 50x10, 50x8

Skullcrushers 95x5, 105x5, 105x5
Barbell curls 3 sets of 95x4

Bungee pushbacks 25
Bungee curls 25

Got back?!?!

Today was a tumultuous day in terms of up and downs in the mental department. The work day started off great, then bad, then good, then bad. "The mind is a terrible thing to waste," is what a wise man once said. I needed to do a better job of getting my focus for the late workout. It wasn't a bad workout but not the best. It was certainly better than yesterday's performance.

It was cold in the garage but I warmed up quick with the Arnold 50 pull up routine. The first set of 15 pulls were smooth and without a hitch. By the time the last set of 7 to get my 50 reps, the "smoothness" had gone bye-bye. I was S-T-R-U-G-G-L-I-N-G!!! That's the point of the Arnold 50 though, take as many sets as you need until you get 50 reps.

I moved onto the bent over rows. The plan was to go heavy for 4 sets of 5 reps, starting at 185lbs and finishing at 205lbs. I tried to get 3 sets of 5 at 205lbs but only got 4 reps on the last set.

Lastly, I was losing motivation so I finished with what I should have started my routine with, DEADLIFTS. I actually got some adrenaline after the first couple sets. I finished up at 315 for 2, which went up much easier than expected. However, for every optimistic point of view, there's a pessimistic point of view. For this situation it will have to be watching video of Kevin Nee deadlift 925lbs!! He's a crazy man. That's basically 3 times what I did tonight. Pretty deflating.......not really. He's on a different level and I'm ok with that, not that I have a choice.


Here's Kevin smiling while pulling a shitload of weight. I want to get stronger so this 5 rep scheme will be in effect for a little while. Watch out Kevin, I'm creepin' on a come up!

Frostbitten?!?!

Sunday, February 28

Sorry, for the no post yesterday. I was thawing out from the 12 football games, in the 6 inches of snow, that still remained from the blizzard weeks ago! It was pretty ridiculous, for lack of a better word. My feet were absolutely frozen! So bad that the tips of my toes still have a tingling / numb sensation. Wiki says it may be a mild case of frostbite, haha! Not really funny but what the hell else are you gonna do but laugh. Laughing at one self is a natural response when one feels embarrassed, especially when one allows stupidity to interfere from making common sense decisions. Lesson learned...............the cold way!

Monday, March 1
WOD

Dumbbell military presses 27.5x 12, 60x5, 70x5, 80x3
Hanging leg raises-cross body 4 sets of 15

Behind the neck smith presses 135x12, 185x5, 185x5, 185x5
Decline touchdowns 3 sets of 10x15

Life Fitness machine laterals 3 sets of 100x8 drop set to 70x8
Free Motion modified woodchops 3 sets of 60x15

Reverse pec dec 3 sets of 80x12

Today marks the 3 month stretch til Memorial Day and today's workout was anything but stellar. I thought I was feeling strong so I attempted 80 lb presses and it did not go over well. It felt heavy just trying to get them up into position from my knees so I should have known better, but I tried anyways. Reps one and two were as expected, extremely difficult, but on the third one I felt something pinch in my neck. 8 hours later, I still can't turn my head from side to side without pain radiating up and down the right side of my neck and trap. As you could imagine, the rest of the workout suffered tremendously. I tried to work through the pain but the intensity of the workout was completely lost. The mojo was gone and even writing about it almost sucks as bad as the workout itself. On that note, I'm out!