I woke up this morning and my back just was not feeling it. After doing alot of running around this afternoon/evening it was not feeling any better at all. I decided to do some surfing on bodybuilding.com and my motivation came back really strong. I decided at 9 that it was time and off i was.

Im very glad that i made the decision as i had one of my best workouts i have had in a long while. Today was a shoulders/traps day and i decided to cut the traps short just to be cautious about my lower back.

It was a very good workout, the weight i pushed was not through the roof, but my shoulders and traps felt blasted after. I also picked up a new creatine product that i started trying today. It is AllMax Nutrition Creatine Monohydrate, let me know if you have tried it.

On to the workout:

Dumbbell Laterals: 15lb x 20 warmup
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 50 x 10 + 2 Rest-Pause/ 45 x10/ 45 x 10
Dumbbell Laterals: 15 x 10/ 15 x 10/ 15 x 10
Rear Delt Laterals: 10 x 10/ 10 x 10/ 10 x 10/
Rocky’s: 50 x 10/ 50 x 10/ 50x 10
Barbell Shrugs: 180 x 10/ 180 x 10/ 180 x 10

Thats all ladies and gents

Sorry for the lack of news today but tomorrow will be more interesting, promise.

I started will some bent over rows, just one set, to warm up, low weight with high reps, i think i did like 20. Then it was on to wide grip pull downs, one of my favorites. I Started with 130 and did 10 plus a rest pause set. I wont get into my love for rest pause, refer back to yesterday for that. I finished pull downs off with 2 sets at 145, 6 reps then 8. Next was bent over rows.

Now i do my rows with an underhand grip, personal preference. I find it works my bi’s as well. I have seen people do them either way but for me it has always been underhand grip. So i did my 3 sets, all to 10 reps at 110. I know this is low weight, but i have not done back in a while, so i decided to ease into it.

Apparently i wasn’t easing in enough, i made it through 1 set of dead lifts at 130 and tweaked my lower back, and it hurts. Now this isn’t an unbearable pain, and im sure its a combination of my lower back being weak, and me not training it enough period. One leads to another anyhow. So i decided to cut the dead lifts short, just to be safe.

I tried doing some single arm rows, wasn’t gonna happen, cable rows? nope. I had my whole biceps workout still left to do as well, but i decided to cut my loses and call it a day, i don’t want to do any more damage. I will do my bi’s on my core/calf day for this week. I just hope my back if fine for my leg day tomorrow.

For the rest of the day, after i take my protein i am going to clean the house, maybe fold some laundry. Then i am going to take my daughter for a walk, maybe to the park. Then its off to work at 2, i may make an update from there, depending on how busy i am.

Here’s the stats:

Wide Grip Pull Downs: 130 x 10 + RP / 145 x6 /145 x 8

Bent Over Rows: 110 x 10 / 110 x 10 / 110 x 10

Deadlifts: 130 x 10 / 130 x 2 (Stopped/Ended workout)

One Arm Rows : ——

Cable Rows : ——-

BB Curls: ——-

DB Preachers: ———

Stability Ball Hammer: ———

P.S. Progress pics in a week

That gives me a timeline of about 1 year to gain muscle, and definition and then drop the body fat, to reach my goal. Now to be a bit more specific on my goals, i plan to have a stage weight of about 175 pounds, that is what i am hoping for. Now i weigh 185 right now but im sitting around 25% body fat. So clearly i have a lot of work to do.

For the first phase of this program i am going to be on a semi-limited diet as i want to burn off the fat to hopefully go shirtless this summer, i still have a lot of work to do. I am still working out with the intention to gain muscle, but my diet as well as my cardio levels will not let me gain muscle as fast as i would like to at this point.

Late on i will be switching to a bulk diet where i hope to gain about 20 pounds of muscle or so, haven’t determined if that is realistic or not but we will see. After i gain lean muscle, i will finally switch to a cut diet in hopes to Burn Fat and get myself as close to 0% as possible and compete in my first show.

As for today, i woke up around 8:30 and got to the gym at 9. I am taking a few supplements as well as my multi. Currently i am taking Six Star Muscle products, their creating, nitric oxide, and fat burner pills. As well as their protein. It has a pretty good effect on me so while funds are tight it will have to do (BSN hit me up, i love your products). So i get to the gym and today is one of my favorite days, Chest and Tri’s My program will be the same for about a month, then i switch it up so that my muscles get confused and it helps my growth. So after a warm up i start on the flat bench, a plate and a 35 per side, repped it out to 8, with a rest-pause set tied into it. Then i went down to a plate and a 25 and did 2 more sets at 10 reps a piece. I love rest-pause sets when i’m trying to gain muscle, as they take a tired muscle and give it limited rest which in turn gives you great results. Next was the decline bench, which was pretty self explanatory, plate and a 5 on either side, high reps (15) to burn the fat, lower chest is an insecurity of mine. On to the incline bench for some more heavy weight, plate and a 35 on either side, on the first set i repped out to 8 but i felt weak, and as i put the bar back on the rack, i tweaked something in my back, below my shoulder blade, so i dropped down to a plate and a 25. The last two sets were fine after i stretched out my back repped them both out to 10. I try to keep my rep range between six and 10, i am trying to gain muscle, but i find anything with reps lower than six, i am killing myself trying to get up, and it does more harm then good. I do throw in high rep sets every workout, to burn some fat as well as to get the blood really flowing into the body part..

2 more chest exercises to go, i did cable crossovers on a stability ball, to help my core as well as i find it makes you focus on your chest contractions more, then i did a final drop set, with 50 pounds of chains on either side, with 20 pounds of with added to that. I love the chains because they give you a different feel for your chest, and they really work the deep tissue.

As for tri’s i did overhead dumbbell raises with heavy weight, tri extensions with low weight/ high reps and finished it off with tri pull downs with a rope. I will go into more detail about my tri workouts next week.

All in all, great workout, except for the damn cycle class playing John Mayer all class, but other than that it was great.

Here’s the first Set of Stats.
Weight: 185.6
Flat Bench: 260 1RM
Decline Bench: 193 1RM
Incline Bench: 260 1RM
Cable Cross: 17.5 Either Side x 15
Tri Overhead Extend: 120 1RM
Tri Extensions: 20 1RM
Tri Press down Rope: 70 x 15