Yes, he was!
Look at the smile on his face. He was so happy, I could probably ask him for a pose down and he would have obliged. He is a really nice guy. That he would even take a picture with a total stranger like me was really cool.

Monday: OFF DAY...no training..just napping...It was Olivia's first day at daycare and I am exhausted. I did the drop off this morning which meant I had to do all the dressing, feeding, cleaning, and the walking the dog, and then me. I woke up early enough to get all that done plus get to work at my normal time. a new schedule to get used to. Mommy's back at work.

winflex wrote:

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Your 2007 and 2008 OCB Midatlantic champions. Neal is a beast!!

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Great picture Dwayne, I dig it.

And fantastic back workout the other day.  Impressed.

Chest Day:

Oh happy day...
Incline BB: 3 warms, 200/5 5 5 205/6 5
(After this exercise I'm thinking I made some gains from the week before because 200 was hard last week, this week not so much, upped it five pound and decided to push it, could've done more if I started out with 205...next time..I think it also helped that I had my powerlifting buddy give me a lift off on each set. I didn't realize how much energy is wasted without a liftoff and how much you can avoid injury with a proper lift off. Definitely getting lift offs from now on.)

Mid Incline DB: 2 warms, 95/ 7 7 6 6
(Even though I pushed those two sets on Incline BB, I still had 95 pretty good..going up to 100 next time. When I was doing the workout where I lead off with Incline DB I was up to 100 or 105, now I'm in that range for on the second movemnt...so the gains are happening!)

Dips: me/12, 12, 12, 12
(Gave myself a rep limit of 12 because I forgot my weight strap. I was going to do them weighted this week...but instead I did 12 reps followed by 20 seconds rest followed by 12 reps followed by 20 seconds repeat till four sets were done. Huge pump. I focused on the lower range of motion as to try to keep my triceps out of it as much as possible)

Incline Fly: 40/12 12 12
(I switched this to flat fly this time since my shoulder was bugging me from that angle on the first set. Did the same idea as Dips with low reps to build up a painful pump but only for 3 sets)

"I will have striated lats. I will have striated lats. I will have striated lats." The power of positive thinking hit me again today. Learned a new thing or two about my body.

Back and Calves (ha, didn't get to calves today, gym was closing...add em on tomorrow)

BB Deads: 4 warms (went up to 295 w/25's see explanation), 325/6 6 6 2
T Bar: 3 warms ,145/ 8 8 6
Bench Row: 1 warm, 70/10 8 7 (ended sets when couldn't pull all the way back)
1 arm DB: 95/8 8 7 (don't know if I prefer the heavier weight on this exercise, last time went lighter and really could feel a nice burn)
Lat Under/chin:2 warms on pulldown machine, me/ 10 7 5 4 (made a point to get more reps than last time)
Rope Pull: 210/9 9 150/ repped out to failure

Explanations:
BB Deads: took a hint from multiple sources and tried to warm up with on deads with a deficit to help engage the glutes better. I did this by using 25 pound plates on the warms. I went all the way up to 295 with this. I believe that my form with this strategy was 100% improved because my glutes (which were very sore from the squating and lunging three days before) kicked in nicely. So when I went to my work sets with 325, I expected them to continue to fire like that. Well they did and that was nice but I found out that the weakness on my deads is not my glutes; its not my hamstrings; its not even my lower back; its my upper back. My thoracic region does not want to stay tight. The shoulder blades always want to spread. I need to figure this out because when I do, I know my deadlift strength will go through the roof (for me). I will start the research tomorrow...but if anyone has input on this, LET ME KNOW.

TBAR: slowly but surely increasing weight
Bench Row: making sure that I pull that weight as far back as possible and twisting for the crunch in the mid back
1 arm DB: I went heavier today but I felt the set was too quick for this exercise. I definitely feel longer sets better. Might play around with varying the sets and reps next time. Great exercise for the lat lower back tie in though. Felt the pull on every rep.
Lat Under/chin: my favorite for the length of the lat, didn't add weight but added reps
Rope Pull: another good length of the lat exercise, similar to pullover machine when you don't have a pullover machine with a good stretch and good peak contraction...perfect for ending a workout.




-- Edited by winflex at 23:01, 2008-08-29

winflex wrote:

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"I will have striated lats. I will have striated lats. I will have striated lats." The power of positive thinking hit me again today.

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Hey do you get the free magazine from Vitamin Shoppe? I think its called Body and Muscle? They have an article in there about this! I'll see if I can find it online.

Delts Triceps

Seated DB Press: 4 warms, 75/10, 7, 5, long rest, 9
Side lateral (standing loose form): 2 warms, 40/10 10 10
Front Raise BB: 45/ 12 12
Side lateral (super strict, straight arms): 15/12 12 10, 10/ 12 12 (Don't ask but I'm really getting into pumping the muscle up to oblivion at the end of the workout for that bodypart..only 20 seconds between sets)

Tricep BB Skull: 3 warms, 85/9 7 7, long rest, 8
DB alternating Skull: 20/ 12 12 9, 15/12 12 12 10 (another pumping session)

Painful Painful Painful PUMP!!. Fantastic. I made some gains on the Seated DB Press, the main exercise today. Goal is to press the 85's...has been my goal since November last year. I'm only 10 lbs away. I used to say, "When I can press 85's I'll be huge." Well, I'm not huge yet but I am ready to attempt those 85's. However, there is noticeable size increase to my traps though...and not to sound like a broken record, my arms are quarter inch bigger...STILL. (I was afraid they would shrink overnight but they didn't WooHoo!!)

I'm going to have to say that I attribute most of my gains from Deadlifts. They provide the foundation for adding more size. Goal is 405 on that. I don't think I'll be far away from that the next time I hit up a powerlifting phase.

Off day yesterday.

Quads Today:
Sometimes in life you get lemons. Its up to you to turn them into lemonade. I'll explain later...but first here are the numbers:
Leg Press: 4 warms, 365/ 11 12 10
Front Squat: 4 warms, 180/ 6 6 5 4
*Step Lunge*: 95/4 115/6 135/6 *lemon right here*
Leg Extension: (20 sec rest only..pump sets) 75/12 12 12 10 strip 65/12 11 strip 55/12
Hacks: just the sled 3 sets of 15 *lemonade was made*

Normally, I wear my wrestling shoes for Quad day. They give me enough support and my foot can make a solid connection with the ground. I forgot them at home and I wasn't about to turn back. So, I just did my exercises in my socks. Wow, that was an even better connection with the ground; so much so that I actually made excellent gains on Front Squat. It was not shown in my numbers above but I made an attempt with 205 and I got 2 good reps. The problem happened with Step Lunge. Unfortunately, stepping forward with socks, kills the heels and has absolutely no traction so I was slipping too much and pounding my heels. I couldn't wear my regular sneakers because they are just way too bouncy and the connection with the ground is all over the place. So, I made due with what I could do and moved on to leg extensions. I absolutely pumped the quads passed their comfort zone and it was painful. I still felt jipped about the lunges so I jumped on the hack machine with my quads all pumped and zonked of any type of energy and pumped out 3 sets of 15 with just the sled. Let me tell you, that definitely turned that lemon into lemonade and I was glad that I didn't settle for being jipped. Sweat dripping from head to toe, veins were bursting through the skin on my thighs. I squeezed that lemon for all it was worth.

winflex wrote:

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So its an off day today and I'm taking off from work tomorrow for a nice four day weekend.

I just got my Natural Bodybuilding Magazine in the mail. 2006 OCB MidAtlantic Champion, Paul Oliviera, has just won another overall in the INBF and has earned his WNBF Pro card.

Congratulations to him!!

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Paul is a great guy, but why didnt we see him this past year?

Chest:
Incline BB: 5 warms (including a 225 attempt which I hit for one very easily), 205/9 8 215/4 3
Mid Incline DB: 2 warms, 100/7 6 6 6
Pushups w/ feet on a bench (instead of dips today):16 12 11 9
Flat flyes:40/ 14 13 12

Holy moly! Had great gains on the Incline BB. 5 warms (seems like a lot) because I had to get my mind right because I wanted to see how strong I was today. I actually attempted 225 for 1 during my warmups and got it. It felt easy and I could've done more but I wanted to save it up for my worksets. The gains continued into my mid incline db, which I start off with on the other round of exercises, but now that I'm doing it as a second movement, I've gotten my strength on these up to the point where they are equal as if I started out with them. Excited to see what it will be like when I start up back with these. Instead of dips, I did feet on a bench pushups. Trying to get some scap stabilization going as well as avoiding any further irritation to my right shoulder. Instead of incline flyes which really seem to nag that right shoulder I went with flat flyes again. For pushups and flat flyes, I went for reps; stopping the set when the form started to break down. On flat flyes I increased my rep output this week.

winflex wrote:

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Yesterday was off

Today was....

Back and Calves
Bodybuilding Deads:4 warms, 330/6 5 3, 245/8 10TBAR:3 warms, 155/8 8, 130/15
Bench Rows: 75/9 9, 60/20
1 arm DB: 100/8, 10f 80/12f
Chins: me/11 8 6 5
Rope Pulls: 210/10 10 7
Calf Raise Smith machine: 3 sets to failure with 225 and only 30 secs rest in between too many reps to count.

Good workout. Had enough time to get calves in tonight. Pattern I used tonight was a couple heavy sets and then drop it about 20% and do as many reps as possible. It was a good change up and I will definitely feel it tomorrow. Not too fond anymore of the TBar machine so I'm going to switch to Old school TBAR in the corner next time. I'm starting to miss the split back workout I had before because I could focus on the two different areas of back better (thickness, and width). Might switch back to that at some point too. This is the instinctive part of me coming out here...but I use the instincts to make a plan and then I stick to it. That's the structured part of me. I mean how do you know if a plan worked if you don't stick to it for a little while? So that's my more detailed answer to the instinctive versus structured Joe that you posted on the OCB board...however, I do always start with the plan you give me as the base.

-- Edited by winflex at 22:57, 2008-09-05

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Dwayne - Holy shnikies!  That is a lot of weight for the Deads!!  I agree with you regarding the TBars.  I don't like the icarian machine that my Golds has for the TBAR - it always agrivates my ribs - I much prefer putting the Olympic bar against the wall and go from there.
I also agree with you regarding the training and figuring out what does and does not work.  I certainly follow Joe's advise - but always like it when I hurt the next day - makes me feel like I actually accomplished something.

Hams Biceps

Seated Leg Curl: 4 warms, 155/ 7 6 4 4, 110/16 12 11
SLDL BB: sore back but went for it anyway 3 warms, 295/4 5, 225/10 9, 135/ 15 15
Loose BB Curls: 3 warms, 115/ 6 6 5 5
Seated Alt Curls (loose too): 2 warms, 50/11 11 7
Rope Curls: rest pause sets: 85/21+11+7 drop+65/19+10+9 drop+45/19

Good workout but I can't say I was happy with the SLDL BB's. My back has not recovered from the Deads and TBARS the night before. Made gains everywhere else. Kept my form loose on the curls. I like doing them that way and then doing them strict on the cables. It seems to work for me.

Anywho, hopefully the trains are still running well today because the plan is to go see the Team Universe tonight in NYC. I hope the weather isn't too bad today with the storms that are supposed to be making their way through.

Shoulders Triceps
Seated DB press (high incline):3 warms, 75/6 (a little easy), 80/8 7 6
Side Lateral (heavy loose): 3 warms, 45/ 8 8 6+1+1
Front Raise BB: 55/16 15
Tri BB Skull: 3 warms, 95/ 8 8 7 6
DB Alternating Skull (pumps-low rest-high reps): 25/12 12 12 8 drop 15/12 12 12

Short workout. I was short on sleep last night. My stomach was paying me back for eating so many METRX bar samples at the Team Universe. I should have known better. I got up at my normal time and after eating breakfast and playing with the baby, I opted out on church and went back to bed for a good 4 hours. I hit the gym after that and had a good workout with gains across the board. This week I'm going to change my pre-w/o ritual to have no ZAP since I need a break from the stimulant. Other than that, I plan on going back to the basic powerlifts for a few weeks after I complete this no-ZAP week.

I'm doing a NO ZAP Recovery Week this week. So the plan is to deload my weights by about 20% and kick the reps up a little bit. So the total volume will be about the same but just lowered weight to give the joints (right shoulder, right knee) a little break before I go into powerlifter mode.

NOZAP Recovery Week Day 1

Quads
Leg Press: 2 warms, 310/15 18
Front Squat: 2 warms, 145/10 10 7
Step Lunge: 1 warm, 95/ 12 12
Leg Extension: 65/ 15+15+15+15+15

So although I dropped the weight this workout, the intensity was still high. I completed this workout in record time (40 minutes) which means my rest periods were very short. I still achieved an alien pump but the best part is that I know that my knee will not be crackling with crepitation all week long. I'm very excited to hit up some regular old back squats next week. I don't know how long I could keep doing these Fronts.

NO ZAP Recovery Week Day 3

Back Calves
Had a session at Joe's tonight so I didn't record the cable exercises because the weight would be different at my gym anyway.

Lat Pulldowns (under): about 4 or 5 sets
Deadlifts (bodybuilding style): 3 warms, 315/5 set up, 315/7
Close Grip Pulldowns: 4 sets
Inverted rows in the rack ss w standing calf raises: 3 sets each (about 12 reps for the rows and to failure with the calves)

Definitely had a good workout. Can you believe I almost did eight reps with 315? Very pleased with that performance. Last week I hit 6 with 330. I think I had that eight one but my strength just konked out. I needed that ZAP, ha! I wonder what my triple will be when I go back to powerlifting for a few weeks. Goal is 405..I can feel it in my reach...within six months (assuming everything goes smoothly).

One exercise I never did before was the inverted rows. Joe called them rack pullups but I think of a different motion when I think of rack pullups. With the rack pull up I think of my upper body being more vertical...but with the inverted row your upper body is more horizontal. It is kind of a truer row than a bb row or db row. I like it because my shoulder feels great after doing it. I think that it is a good exercises to keep in there for building up that upper back...which I really need for a bigger SQUAT and DEADLIFT.