a_welch503 WORKOUT JOURNAL

[Firehawk]

If it makes you feel any better, I'd work out with you .

You know, the guys that are stronger and won't help you are pieces of sh*t if you ask me. I dont care how experienced you are, when you're pushing maximum weight you are going to have problems with your form. The most experienced guys at my gym get yelled at too. I hate arrogant people.

[threenorns]

me too - what's worse is when you offer to help someone who's obviously struggling and they act like you just said something indecent.




they wish.

[.V.]

8-8-2005

BB Curls..........................125x6x3
Skull Crushers..................110x3,2,2
..................................100x6x3
Alternating DB Curls...............55x6x3
Tri Cable Pressdown...............110x6x3
Concentration Curls................50x6x3
Lying One Arm Tricep Extension.....30x6x3

Cardio
Walk...............................1 mile

Diet
M1.....5 oz sausage, 4 egg whites, 1 yolk
M2.....Protein, Dextrose, Creatine Shake
M3.....Chicken Breast, lettuce, tomato, mayo
M4.....1/4 lb hamburger patty with lettuce/tomato
M5.....Pork chops, green benas, squash
M6.....Will be a bedtime protein shake.

Totals: P-222.5g, C-58g, F-95g, Cal-1977
Water: >1 gallon

Comments
Workout was OK today, I thought it was going to suck because using the wrong bar that didn't fit my bench posts correctly - skull crushers were very awkward. I just couldn't handle much weight finally dropped down to 100 lb to manage them. Everything else was just great. My arms are pretty sore tonight already. I hope I can still use them tomorrow.

Only got to walk 1.5 miles today, but that beats sitting home on my butt. Due to rain, I can't hang my heavy bag - and my arms are too sore to pull the cardioglide. Because of the timing of the walk and the short distance, I missed one protein/dextrose/creatine feeding.

On a happy note, I found out that the pork chops I ate have 25g protein/3oz and only 5g fat. Woohoo - buying more of that. It's just hard to think of pork as lean/high protein meat.

[gcs118]

Aren't you going a little overboard with 6x3 Andy? Isolation stuff like pushdowns and curls in my opinion should almost always be higher reps like a 2x8-10 or something. If I'm not mistaken, 6x3 is more for heavy/core lifts like the bench press or squats.

[.V.]

Originally Posted by gcs118

Aren't you going a little overboard with 6x3 Andy?

Don't know:confused: just giving it a try for a week or three to see how it goes. My improvements had really slowed down and I'm just trying to force them to come back. My thoughts are like this - since the goal of Max OT is to get 3x6 before raising the weight and it has been working for me pretty good. That is a total of 18 reps/lift/day. So I thought I would do 6 sets of 3 to get my 18 total reps - with more weight - or at least reach the reps quicker so I can raise the weight sooner. Since the idea is to "tear down" the muscle so it can then heal and become stronger and bigger - it seems like it would work. And since none of my lifts are really big enough to be that risky - I thought I would go ahead and try it to see how it turns out. Besides, since I don't have nearly as much fat to burn for fuel this time around - 5-10lb instead of 160lb, I'm concerned about losing strength during the cut.

Results from yesterday - by last evening, my arms were totally sore. Today they still are - in a way they haven't been for a very long time. Some changes are already noticable - whether they mean anything or not remains to be seen. My left bicep vein isn't normally as prominant as the right one - only really visible during a workout when the blood is really flowing and the muscle is really hard and tight then the vein sits on top of the muscle. Today, it is VERY visible and the muscle is still VERY tight and hard.

When Dave explained the reason for the low reps/heavy weight for some lifts and higher reps/lighter weights for others he said that of course the low/heavy makes strength and the high/light (his light, mass builders are way bigger than my heavy ) is just to add some mass. Right now, my goal is to make them all stronger. I'm trying to evolve my workouts into the perfect balance between BB and PL

Don't forget the immune system with it's inflammatory response is part of the healing response. Since I have an autoimmune disease that tries to kill my CNS - anytime it doesn't have anything better to do - the more pain and damage I inflict during my workouts - the more my body is working on repair -the less often the MS attacks hit. Seems crazy, but seems to work. My only other option is monthly decadron or solumedrol treatment along with androgen cycles to keep the strength - a route I'm not willing to go. My weight training is working out for me kind of like the folks with chrones disease who consume parasites once a month to let their immune system work on killing the worms instead of their GI tract - they then live pain free lives - as long as they replace the worms every month.

Hell, maybe it will all be a total flop and Dave the PL and Todd the BB - both who have given me so much help in learning how to manage this weight training will get to say, "told ya so". Because my uneducated attempts at trying to find the best of both and make them work fails. But hey, what if it works? That would be awesome wouldn't it.

[maverick]

I love a good, fresh plan of attack! Trying something thats not proven is way better than sitting on this forum looking for the BEST training method. Like we always say, you gotta find what works best for you.

On a side note, if you want the perfect balance between PL and BB, why not periodize your workouts. Heavy one session, light the next. I can't speak from experience yet, but give me a few weeks and I'll let you know how it works for me.

[.V.]

Because even my heavy work it light. It's just heavy to me.

[maverick]

Oh come on, don't be like that. You know I mean heavy/light for YOU! You just gotta take a small chunk out of your ego and do it.

[gcs118]

Heavy and light are always relative terms. You could still have heavy/light days no matter what kind of weights you put up. I'll be curious to see your results after doing 6x3 on most lifts for a few weeks. Although unorthodox, I hope it does work well

[.V.]

Yeah maverick, I knew what you meant. But as long as I realize that all my work isn't heavy enough that I need to improve - there's no ego problem. And Greg, I'm curious too that's why I'm doing it.

The periodization thing sounds like another reasonable idea. I just don't want to be switching every week - I want to give the body time to adapt before making a change. You know the whole concept of be consistant as long as I get results, then when the body adapts and stops getting results - make a change.

So much good information available, so many ways to get good results... now to find which ones work best for me.

[maverick]

You don't have to switch every week. You can make the cycles as long as you want. But like you said, you don't have to switch anything if you are still making gains. I'm weird and I love writing up new workouts and things to try, so I switch up a lot now so that I never find myself with slowing gains. I feel like if I hit a plateau, I've wasted time that could have been used more effectively if I periodized properly.

[.V.]

08-09-2005

Shoulders
Shrugs (rear)......265x6x3
Shrugs (front).....265x6x3
Mil Press..........115x4x3
...................110x2x3
Upright Row........125x6x3

Cardio
Walk...............8 miles
There was some off and on running during this < 1 mile - not enough to count for much.

Diet
M1.....2oz sausage, 4 egg whites, 1 yolk
M2.....Protein, dextrose, creatine shakes
M3.....Steak, green beans
M4.....Protein, dextrose, creatine shakes
M5.....Steak, green beans

Totals: P-161g, C-93g, F-40.5g, Cal-1380.5
Water: >1 gallon

Comments
Found some very lean cuts of flank steak with 23g protein and only 9g of fat each. Pretty tasty, but a bit tough. Only got 5 meals in today because I got such a late start. After yesterday's workout I woke this morning and realized I needed more sleep so went back to bed until 10am. I've never slept that late before in my life. I came up a bit too short on calories today but at least I got all my water in.

Lifting went pretty good today, I managed to straighten my bar today enough to get by on until I can pick up a new one. The olympic set is going to have to wait another month. It's back to school time and the kids need new school clothes. I'll pick up another standard bar this weekend to do until next month. I should have stayed at 110 again this week on the mil press, but went ahead and raised the weight to 115. I did get 4 sets with this weight before I had to drop down to 110. I'll do better next week.

[threenorns]

tha's a lotta work on so little fuel....

[Klinger]

Nice MP there at 115. Be careful with that bent bar, especially while benching or doing overhead work. Now that it has weakened, it is much more likely to bend again, I would think.

[.V.]

Thanks klinger - more work needed. Yeah the bar is pretty weak, it has been bending slightly for quite some time - then the drop was all it took to ruin it. I'm picking up a new standard bar tomorrow and have started saving for a whole 400lb olympic set - with a good olympic bar.