Building Muscles

Nutrition - Day 81

I had 2 x pea soup with ham.(now it is all finished) 1 x protein drink. 1 x chicken, veg and boiled potatoes. 2 x dried fruit and nuts.(I just love these and they keep you quite regular)

I cannot stress enough the importance of eating properly. I am not that good at it, and should actually be a lot stricter. (Here come the justification). I want to enjoy what I am doing and this is not meant to be a punishment. To change this kind of thought I need to actually see the benifits in my mind. (Visualise a lot more) I do this with the actual resistance training. I know that if I did do this, I will eat a lot better. It is hard to change a life-time weakness but it is not impossible. I know I have to change the way I think and then I have to work at it.

Water was no problem.

Training Arms & Chest Schedule - Day 81

Day  81	Goal			Actual
Chest	Reps	Kg's		Reps	Kg's
D/B Incline Fly’s	20	12.5		20	12.5
	12	15		12	15
	10	17.5		10	17.5
	12	15		12	15
D/B Bench Press	15	20		15	20
Triceps	Reps	Kg's		Reps	Kg's
Overhead Ext.	20	20		20	20
	12	25		12	25
	10	30		10	30
	12	25		12	25
Push Downs	15	25		15	25
Biceps	Reps	Kg's		Reps	Kg's
Z/B Curls	21	25		21	25
	12	35		12	35
	10	40		10	40
	12	30		12	30
D/B Preacher Curls	15	10		15	10

Training Arms - Hints and Ideas

I just thought I would give you a few hints and ideas about training arms. Triceps are the largest muscles on the arms. You need to give them great attention. Most people are so concerned about their biceps that they spend most of their time and effort on how to train Biceps. We should really focus on how to train triceps.

Training Biceps - I have, over the years, attended gyms and seen people training biceps - sets and sets with endless repetitions. I really think that common sense needs to prevail. (This is for any training you are doing). I believe you can get a magic workout with just two different types of bicep training exercises.

One main exercise, which is the normal barbell curls -

• three to four sets of 10 to 15 reps.
• I always add in a warmup set of 20 reps light.
• I increase weights as I train so that the muscles do not get used to a weight.

The other exercise is hammer curls or preacher curls -

• I also believe you need to shock muscles with a superset which means you go for a different type of movement and go to failure. That should be around 12 to 15 reps if you have worked out your  training plan properly. The superset is normally preacher curls or dumbbell hammer curls.

You can see how I like to train biceps on my YouTube - Bazblog.

Training Triceps - how to train triceps is something, I think, we need to give a bit more attention to. It is the muscle that gives you great mass and makes the arms look huge.

• The training should have the same amount of sets and reps as for biceps.
• Doing a load of extra triceps training is only going to make them tired.
• The extra attention I am talking about is more in the mind than with the weights. This, in fact, should be the same for all training but especially triceps.
• You need to really focus on each rep.
• Never rush to get the training over.
• Concentrate on each rep and then have only around 1 minute break between each set of reps.
• I like Triceps overhead extensions and I just love Kick backs for the superset.

You can go to You tube - Bazblog and have a look at how I train triceps.

General Thoughts - Day 80

I have been really looking forward to training today, but a little nervous as well. I am still quite stiff from Sunday legs training believe it or not. This is very unusual for me.

I met up with a few prospective clients today so had a really exciting day and enjoyed every minute of it - then to the gym. All the wheels fell off and not before they went flat. What a training. This is so exciting because I am determined to train with reasonable weights. It is my ego getting the better of me and my pride.

People often tell you success is about getting where you want to go. I can assure you that is not success that is just the fruits of your efforts. Success is all about overcoming obstacles. If success is about having, then why are there so many so-called successful people in rehab centres all over the world. Being able to overcome setbacks and problems with your training is genuine success.

I hope you have many successes in your training, as I am having.

Training Legs - Day 80

Wow Wow Wow is all I can say. I did the new single leg squat again today. My legs are still showing signs from the last time I was training legs - very stiff. There is only one big problem and that is - I am using weights that I think my granddaughter could lift ! I feel so stupid because at the end of a set of reps my legs are shaking with this way of training legs.

You will see from the picture, you must be around 2-3 feet in front of the bench. Make absolutely sure that when you squat down your head is up and that your knee does not go further forward than the toe of your foot. Only go down till the leg is parallel with the floor as you can see in the photo. (Take note of my head and where the knee is in relation to my foot). The foot resting on the bench just flexes and helps to keep balance. I would do this without weights to start with, and just test for yourself. See how you feel after a warm up of 15 - 20 reps.

After the strain of the single leg squats, the leg curls were quite easy, even though I had nearly no energy and strength left. Remember the first exercise hammers the hamstrings as well as the quads. You have to be careful training the hamstrings with hamstring curls as it is not good to overdo the training.

Training calves is always fun - just a problem to hold the amount of weight. I just do lots of reps and enjoy it. Training calves can be a big problem if you were not blessed with reasonable calves and you have to build them to be in proportion with the rest of your legs. The last thing you want is to look like the little red rooster. Great upper body and legs like match sticks or tooth picks. 

Nutrition - Day 80

Because of the nature of my work, I often come across people who want to make the most of themselves.  (I work with people and their self-images). They decide to lose weight and get in shape. I prefer the term reduce weight. (It is a psychological thing - you always seem to want to find what you have lost.) Most people who "go on a diet" count calories. For me how boring. I really do not care how may calories there are in a piece of lettuce or anything else for that matter. I prefer to count portions.

Your fist size is a portion. If you have one portion of protein and one portion of carbohydrates at a meal you will have had enough. Throw in a few veg or salads for 2 of your meals and you have a great eating plan. Protein drinks take the place of the protein you would get from meat, fish, eggs or cottage cheese. If you have a good protein powder, it will have carbs in it as well. If not, I add a fruit for the carbs.

Today my intake was 3 x protein drinks, 2 x bowl's of pea soup with ham, (my mother-in-law makes a mean pea soup, one to die for), 1 x Chicken and veg with a baked potato.

Water around 2 lts.

Training Legs Schedule - Day 80

Day 80	Goal			Actual
Legs Quads	Reps	Kg's		Reps	Kg's
Single Leg Squat	20	4.5		20	4.5
	12	5		12	5
	10	7.5		10	7.5
	12	5		12	5
Single Leg Ext	15	30		15	30
Hamstrings	Reps	Kg's		Reps	Kg's
Lying Leg Curl	20	12.5		20	12.5
	12	15		12	15
	10	20		10	20
	12	17.5		12	17.5
D/B Lunges	15	12.5		15	12.5
Calves	Reps	Kg's		Reps	Kg's
Single Leg Calf Raise	30	30		30	30
	20	45		20	45
	15	50		15	50
	15	50		15	50

How to Train Chest Video

We've finally managed to get my next video clip uploaded to youtube.com - on training chest using dumbbells - Inclined Flys.

General - Day 79

Well, thank goodness, my regular meeting in Southampton was postponed. I exercised legs a new way - on Sunday night. I have always said you know when you have trained well if you are just slightly stiff the next day ( and then you really feel the muscles the following day). Training legs the way I did was possibly too much for the first time. I thought I could do more weight and my ego got in the road. I was very stiff yesterday but have really suffered today. I think I will work out a bit lighter next time regardless of how light the weights are. I will just put my ego in my back pocket and sit on it.

I have worked on the computer for most of the day which did not help as I was not moving around much.

The great and fantastic thing about life is - tomorrow is another day. As long as you put yesterday behind you, and focus on the here and now, every day can be a good day.

Training Shoulders & Back - Day 79

I limped into my gym today to do my shoulder training. Working out shoulders and back is very rewarding. The more you train shoulders and back the bigger and  broader you get.

How many times do you see men with bums bigger than their shoulders ? We really need good resistance training. It is very easy to reverse the big bum situation by the type of shoulder and back training I do.

Sitting on the gym ball certainly puts extra tension on the abs area as you have to keep your balance, so I am enjoying training this way.

I increased the side raises by 2.5 kgs.

 

Training back can be very rewarding. The lat area is the bulk of the back, and I have found lat pull-downs to be one of the best exercises for training your back. The only problem is - as the weights get heavier (because you get stronger) you will need something to anchor you to the bench. Once you exceed your own body weight it will become impossible to keep your backside on the bench.
Never mind - I have a way to go and will face that when it happens.

I trained abs with weights doing leg raises. I love this training. I can just imagine a six pack at my age, I will be the talk of the town. I often see youngsters going around without shirts on hot days. Well, I'll be the old boy without a shirt on, even in the middle of winter.