a_welch503 WORKOUT JOURNAL

[gcs118]

Dude...I have trouble walking to my gym in the freezing cold, much less working out in it. That's pretty damn hardcore. I'd probably quit real fast, just work out in the summer

[SurfinAmy]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

I believe that my time off and reduced weight may actually be a good thing. Since I am using less weight and not rushing to get back to where I was, I am able to put more intensity into each rep and make it really work. When I get back up to my old weights, I think I will actually be stronger than I was.

Andy -

That's awesome! 100% correct!!!!
Scott and I were working out yesterday - LEGS - well, this guy at the gym told us about his w/outs - let me tell you, his results PROVE that this is RIGHT ON!
He is 50 years old, uses pretty light weight, but makes each set 3 reps and the whole set lasts around one - one and half minutes.
So we tried it for hamstrings and calves (we had already worked our quads at that point w/ the heavy weight)
Let me tell you it was absolutely GRUELING - very PAINFUL -

I thought I was going to die!

Well, here I am at the library in another city - why? Because I drove over here to check out the book THE SLOW BURN FITNESS REVOLUTION by Fredrick Hahn -

I'm so excited about it - I'll let everyone know in General Bodybuilding Forum too.

You should see his strength gains when he switched back to the regular weights. It's also practically a cardio w/out - you don't have to do cardio when you lift this way -

I mean you don't do forever or anything, but its a great way to lose fat, gain strength & muscle and avoid injury -

I can't wait to get home and start reading this book, especially after the intense pain I experienced yesterday working hamstrings and calves.

-Amy

[.V.]

01-25-2004

Chest

Flat Bench........140x3x4
Incline Bench.....110x3x6
Decline Bench.....110x3x6

Almost failed on flat bench on #4 of the third set, took a deep breath, squeezed the scapulas tighter and made it. I'll go for 3x6 next time.

I love inclines and declines. I'm glad that I'm now set up to do these. I'm still a little light on them, but I'll just keep adding weight each week until I get to where I need to be. There is no hurry. I feel that the declines are going to be stronger than the inclines. I thought it would be the other way around. Even with the lighter weight, I'm still feeling things in the chest that I've never felt before. Good workout today.

I've been cleaning my diet up a little more. Even though I don't cheat, the extra carbs can sneak in there if I'm not paying close attention, especially since I love the green veggies so much now. This morning instead of sausage and eggs, it was chicken breast and eggs, this somehow just seems wrong and not very tasty, but we have to eat things that are not our first choice sometimes. The abs are visible again in only two weeks back to working out. They are not cut and defined, and the gross oblique insulation and the even grosser lower abdominal fat are still there, but they will eventually go. Tomorrow is ab day. I'm going to go back to the old ab routine, but I'm going a little easier with better form on the one that caused me to get hurt.

[.V.]

01-26-2005

Abs.

Leg Raises.........3x20
Crunches...........3x20

Haven't consistently done abs since the injury. I just thought I lost ability on the other exercises. Instead of 3x40 on everything like before, I'm down to 3x20 - and absolute failure. They should come back quickly enough though. I dread the soreness tomorrow morning though. I'm a little late getting to my workout today it was almost 11pm before I got the chance to get it. Busy running calls all day. Can't complain though, that is what they pay me for. Tomorrow's workout will be late too, I have to teach from 8 till Noon. Maybe they will be smart and we will finish early. Tomorrow evening, I start back on cardio. I have been completely lazy with that lately. No cardio in well over a month. My resting heart rate is showing it too. Up from 60 to 76 on average from doing without my cardio. I really miss doing it, except when it is time to actually do it.

[.V.]

01-27-2005

Legs

Squats..............180x3x4
SLDL................180x3x4
Calf Raises........150x3x12

I'm doing Box Squats. I took my old homemade weight bench and used it for a box. It puts me a little past parallel. I'm getting past parallel without falling - wow, this is great. Sad part. Instead of being at 220 - pushing towards 250 or 260, now I'm down to 180. I guess the quads are the problem not the butt and hamstrings. I think this because on the SLDL I can do WAY more than on Box Squats. I'm only going to do the same weight on both though so that one doesn't get way stronger than the other. I hope the idea of doing the box squats to get proper form and build a better foundation is correct and can make them stronger. The 5' bar wont fit on the new rack. The 6' bar will, but it will only hold 250 - until I can get some more 25's. So my calf raises are too light. That is why I'm doing 3x12 instead of 3x4 - 6. I'll be so glad when I can finally afford that olympic weight set and quit messing around with this standard size stuff. Tomorrow is arms - looking forward to a day without disappointments. One good thing about today is I can really feel my legs already - and it's only been 6 hours since I lifted. I will do cardio tonight and post it when I'm done. I hope if anyone sees me not posting cardio, they get on my ass, I've got to get really serious about doing it.

[gcs118]

You better do cardio. It's been over a MONTH!

[.V.]

01-28-2005

Arms

BB Curls............110x3x6
Skull Crushers.......90x3x6
BB Preacher Curls....60x3x6
Cable Pressdown......80x3x6

I don't know if doing the BB Preachers is better than DB or not, but it is definitely more controllable - I feel the work only in my biceps, not my back and shoulders. I'm also not flopping around while working the left arm. It goes faster too since I'm doing both arms at the same time. I'm not doing any more weight, but I feel good about today's workout - form was good on everything, got my reps with just the right amount of difficulty. Now that I'm done, my arms feel huge - they aren't but they sure feel that way. This is a great feeling.

Cardio - sucks, people keep getting sick and having accidents. I was on call for 24 hrs yesterday and spent all afternoon and most of the night going in to run ambulance calls didn't get any cardio in at all. I am off tonight - it WILL be done. Right after the Girl Scout meeting. Don't laugh at me - they need dads to help out too. Somebody has to carry the heavy stuff.

OK, got my cardio today finally - only got 3 miles. I had planned on 4 miles, but my 9 year old daughter went with me and at 1.5 miles, she got really tired and was too cold. The cold wind blowing up off of the lake was cutting right through us. We turned back at 1.5 and I carried her on my shoulders the last 1 mile. After that we went to fun world and I got plenty of other cardio following her around from one game to the other - then in the lazer tag, I got some more when I kicked EVERYONE'S ass. I didn't want to play, but there were a bunch of teens in there that wanted to get an old guy in there and light him up - they kept bugging me to go in. I guess all those years of Thunder Ranch style combat handgun training gave me a slightly unfair advantage. Now, however, I'm totally wiped out. I'm going to go to bed now and hope this ice storm that we are having now lets up by tomorrow. No need to only get one day of cardio, when I can do two.

[Klinger]

welch - your BB curls are awesome. I bet you can go a lot heavier on the pracher with that kind of curling power. I like to do those sometimes, too. It really focuses the contraction right on the bicep. And it's cool to watch them peak in the mirror.

[.V.]

I'm going up in weight next time I think I may have the preacher pad set a little too high. If I lower it one notch, I can get 80 - but on the top setting, 60 was doable, 70 was not.

Edit: Cardio Posted Two Posts Up. It was a good Cardio Session.

[.V.]

01-29-2005

Shoulders

Mil Press.............95x3x4
Upright Row..........110x3x6
DB Mil Press..........35x3x6
Rear Shrugs..........210x3x6
Front Shrugs.........210x3x6

Cardio - 25 minutes on cardioglide - 1200 repetitions.

I thought I wasn't going to get to do anything today. Yesterday and today were my two days off, and a coworker called at 02:00 needing to go home (kidney stone). So I went in and finished his shift for him and then covered call today. Ran calls all night and off and on - most of today. I finally got to lift at 5pm. Got interrupted to go on a call once and got finished by 7pm. Then did cardio at 9pm. Too close together but either do it that way or skip it. No more skipping it. I'm completely off from work tonight so I hope to get some good sleep so I can get up at 5am and get my back before work tomorrow. If I don't, I'll just do abs at work instead and then hit back the next day. Either way I'll do something.

I was happy with today's workout. I felt stronger than I have at any other time since I got started back. I'm 2 1/2 weeks back into it. Maybe things are starting to get right again. The mil press was easier than I thought, maybe I'll go for 3x6 next week instead of 3x5. It is time to increase weight on DB mil press. Upright rows were good so I'll increase the weight on them. I feel that I need to do 3x6 once more on the shrugs so that I can make sure I'm ready to up the weight and make sure that I can get that full contraction and get the shoulders all the way up agian.

Breakfast and supper were my usual foods, but I didn't have time for lunch so I ate 2 protein bars instead This makes 5 extra grams of protein and about 100 less calories than my chicken breast for lunch would have been.
It's sunday so I got to have my low carb, sugar free, full fat ice cream today. This is my pretending that I'm cheating day - it was good - had a whole 1/2 cup.

[.V.]

01-31-2005

Back

CDL..............230x3x6
BOR..............150x3x6
Pull Ups.......BW+40x3x4
Pull Ups....BW 15, 14, 9

Cardio - 4 miles walking/running.

Good back day. I changed Conventional deadlift to first and pullups to last. I felt stronger on deadlifts this way, I will increase the weight next time. I cut the weight on BOR to work on form a little. I with 10 lb less, I got excellent form 3x6. I will repeat this again before I raise the weight back up again. On pullups, I hit failure trying for rep # 5 on each set. This may be because I moved it to the end and was already tired. I rested about 5 minutes then did bodyweight pullups to failure on each set. Hopefully these little changes in my back day are for the better. I feel good about them and feel like I got a good workout today.

[.V.]

01-31-2005

Chest
Flat BB Bench Press..........140x3x6
Incline BB Bench Press.......120x3x6
Decline BB Bench Press.......120x3x6

I'm happy with today's chest workout - going to add more weight to everything next time. I will add 5 lb to flat and incline 10 to decline.

Abs
Crunches...........3x20
Leg Raises.........3x20

Today after a brief rest period following my chest workout, I decided to go ahead and hit abs today - that way I can get legs tomorrow instead of trying to do them before work day after tomorrow. Thanks to Todd who suggested incline crunches. The suggestion got me thinking about a better way to work my abs. Today when I had the bench slanted for decline bench press, I just left it that way. Then did crunches on it with my head down and legs up. Then I did my leg raises with my legs down and my head up. After this, I didn't have enough left in me to do any cable crunches as I had planned.

I'm posting my workout a little early today - before cardio. I will come back tonight and edit cardio into this. I just have news I have to share. I'm so proud - it isn't much, but for me it is a major accomplishment.

Today was measurement day - I haven't did the full measurements since September. I have cut my body fat back down to 10%. I had gained some while hurt. I still have a little of that stubborn abdominal fat to get rid of, but 10% with most of the abs visible is a proud day.

Here is the difference from september to now:

Chest - increase 1.5"
Abdomen (measured at the navel) - decrease 1.5"
Hips (measured around the biggest part of the butt) - decrease 0.25"
Left thigh - increase 1.5"
Right thigh - increase 1.5"
Left arm - increase 0.75" (hooray - I got my 15s back)
Right arm - increase 0.5" (ditto)

This is while eating ketogenic and cutting.

There are so many people doing much better, and much bigger, definitely much stronger - but from where I started (300 lb slob), I'm proud.

My wife still thinks it's gross (apparently she likes fat men) - but the kids have stopped calling me ghandi on crack.

[Klinger]

Nice job, welch. You should be proud. Now it's time for some pics. :

[Lift2Live]

Much congratulations buddy! You deserve to look the way you want to look. Keep up the hard work!

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Klinger

Now it's time for some pics.

I need to get some - I was hoping to have the rest of the ab-flab gone first, but even though what I have now is pretty pitiful - it is way better than before - and better than my last ones. I'll see if I can get my wife to not vomit over my appearance long enough to take a few.

She said there is something just wrong with us posting pics of ourselves to share on this site - she just doesn't understand how we try to encourage each other and give pointers on what we need to work on.

And this is a woman that used to own a gym, teach aerobics, and teach combat for women - before she had babies. Even when she owned the gym, before we got together - she wouldn't date any bodybuilders - that is how big fat me got her (even though I had more chins than a chineese phone book at the time). I guess even though I'm not the man she married - she is still sticking around. If you love somebody - it shouldn't be for their looks.