Acquiring Aesthetics

Update... Many months later.

2012-03-25T16:15:00.001-04:00

Well here's finally an update that has been long overdue. To be honest, I completely forgot about this blog for awhile, until recently. Anyways my cut was fairly successful, I'm down to roughly 175lbs now. From Aug 1 to Dec 1, I went from 206 to 174lbs. I let myself go for awhile over the summer, but finally got it together and had a successful cut. I've been eating at maintenance for awhile, but now I'm starting my cut again. I might go down to 170 or even 165, at least until I see my 2 lower abs.

The diet that really helped me cut down successfully was my own modified version of the Warrior diet. I've basically been lifting in the evening while fasted and then having a huge meal afterwards. That makes it so much easier to hit my macros and caloric goals for that day. So essentially, I'm only have 1 or 2 meals, but within a 2 hour time-frame. It was pretty rough for the first couple of days, but afterwards, everything was smooth sailing. If anyone is having trouble shredding weight, I'd highly suggest it. Here are some current pics at around 175lbs:

I started cutting again about 2 weeks ago, using the same modified warrior diet. I think I have approximately 5-10more lbs to lose until my lower abs will finally show. My lifts have shot up while on the warrior diet as well. It's pretty mindblowing. I went from benching 225 for 4-5 struggling, to hitting it for 12 easily. I also hit a 300lb bench PR @ 174lbs.

2AM = Random Thoughts + Update

2011-06-07T03:20:00.008-04:00

Recently, one of my friends (who just started getting in to the gym) was telling me about how he has been going to the gym 4 days/week every week religiously... he's just not seeing any results. He was extremely discouraged and I could understand why. However, he can't honestly expect to go to the gym for 2 weeks and have incredible results and be able to reverse 20 years of wrongdoing (eating junk food, not exercising, etc). It just won't happen. The majority of people who quit going to the gym, quit because they weren't seeing results. The ironic part is that all of those gym goers were just weeks away from seeing the first signs of change. In a way, they were struggling to climb a mountain and just when they are one foot away from reaching the top, they say "f-ck it, I'm out," when that last foot is what will make all the difference.

Just the other day, I was informed I talk about the gym far too much and that I need to stop relating everything to the gym. (No surprise that this came from someone who is out of shape and has never stepped foot in a gym.) That may be true, but I do this for a reason. In this life, your body is one of the very few things that you have complete control over. When you make a transformation, you can say "I did that. Me. No one else." You have total control over how your body looks, so when someone is actually willing to let their body go to sh-t and stay that way, that only says one thing to me: They lack the will and dedication to achieve their goal physique. My viewpoint is that if someone can't take care of their body, they can't take care of anything else, whether it be business, school, or relationships. Their mindset is so weak that they actually start to blame outside sources for their problems. They start making bullsh-t excuses like "oh that's all genetics, only good genetics can achieve that." If they actually buy into that, then no wonder they're going to be mediocre for the rest of their lives. It's not until you say "F-ck it. That may be how society has written it, but thats not how its going down for me" that you start paving your own path towards achieving your goals.

People nowadays are too content with waiting for their destiny for them to reach their goals, when instead, they could be actively working towards achieving that goal. When you have the determination... fate, destiny, and chance are all taken out of the equation and you start paving your own path in life. While we're still on the subject of philosophy and motivation, nothing makes me more mad than when someone says that someone else is being 'unrealistic' with their goals. Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity. When you have the determination, you WILL reach your goals no matter what. There is no pre-determined fate that can stop someone who has the willpower and determination. The saying that "some people are just destined for greatness." is extremely flawed in my opinion. Greatness exists in everyone, its not some elusive aspect that only few people have. It's in everyone. Whether people actually take advantage of its is a completely different story.

That pretty much sums up all of the thoughts that I've had tonight. I've rambled on enough I think...

Anyways, my cut is still going strong: I weighed in this morning at 192.8, so I'm averaging 0.5 to 1lb lost per week, which is a great pace believe it or not. 1 to 1.5 lb a week was my goal but with a wedding coming up in 1 month, I might speed it up a little bit (need to look good for wedding pictures ya know? haha). Right now, I've been sticking to my 2600 calorie cap religiously, but I'm highly considering dropping that down to 2100 cals. If I do decide to lower my calories to 2100, I should be able to hit 180lb in 1 month easily. Depending on how I look at 180lb, I might cut down further to a lean 175.

Quick shot of my tri's before a workout. Definition is

definitely starting to get better as my cut goes continues.

Bicep peak is starting to get better, serratus is starting to

become more apparent. The biggest thing that I need

to fix is my forearm size. I've been hitting forearms hard

lately, so the size should start evening out soon enough.

An Update (Just a few months late!)

2011-05-23T00:15:00.000-04:00

Finally an update! And its only a few months overdue! My mini-bulk went pretty well, I got back to my old stats pretty quick (~7 or 8 weeks). In that short time, I definitely gained a lot of mass back that I lost. Well, I'll let the before and after pics do the talking:

My arms definitely got bigger and I got a little bit leaner at the same time. Huge thanks to Layne Norton for his amazing Power/Hypertrophy split. I'm actually stronger now than I was a few months back before I stopped lifting.

I started my cut a week and a half ago and I'm slowly shedding the pounds away. I'm averaging 2lb/week which is a little bit fast, but not too bad. I shouldn't lose TOO much muscle by the end of the cut. My macro's that I'm maintaining are simply 40/40/20 Protein/Carbs/Fat. My maintenance is roughly 3400 cals and I'm cutting at 2600cals. I haven't hit a weight plateau yet but once I do, I'll most likely get on oxyelite pro or EC stack if I'm daring enough. But overall, my cut is going well, I'm starting to lean up fairly quickly and noticing some results. Especially in my vascularity and leg definition. Here's a quick pic I took of my legs. The quad separation is definitely starting to show which is pretty impressive since my legs are bigger than they've ever been (almost 26 inches).

So far I've gone from 198lb down to 194.5. In a few weeks, I'll hopefully be at 180-185 at 9% and will have reached my goal.

Finally! - An Update!

2011-01-30T22:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates guys, the semester started up again so I've been trying to get back into the swing of things. My bulk is going successful, my lifts are starting to improve, and muscle memory is starting to kick in. I've taken a few before pictures and once my minibulk is over, I'll snap a few after shots. Then its the start of my 2-3month cut, and by the end of it all, I'll hopefully be shredded (8-9% bodyfat) at 185lb. Hopefully, now that I've gotten my class schedule figured out, I can get daily updates on here again. On another note, it seems like I'm going through noob gains all over again. I'm definitely on the road to getting back into good shape!

Shredded by Summer - Day 2

2011-01-19T11:13:00.001-05:00

Just a quick update while I'm waiting for my next class. I'm going to try doing 2-A-Day workouts for the next couple of days, kind of shock my body back into getting used to a high workload again. This should be good for me especially since I let myself go for the past couple of months. All my lifts are absolutely trash right now. I used to be able to hit 225x4 on bench, today, I barely even hit 1. Not good. That's what I get for slacking off I guess haha. But I'm determined now, more than ever, to get bigger and leaner than I ever was.

DAY 2
Weight: 187.4
Lifts: Terrible

Shredded by Summer Day 1

2011-01-18T15:33:00.001-05:00

Well, today marks the beginning of my mini bulk. Basically the goal is to take in 3700 calories per day and gain some muscle back since I haven't worked out in months. Muscle memory will serve me well hopefully. I've definitely let myself go over the past couple of months so now it's time to get serious again. Once I get some size back, I'm going to start my 2-3 month cut and be shredded by July. The plan right now is to hit 200lb then cut down to 185 at 8-9% bodyfat.

Please comment with any tips you may have that might make my bulking/cutting easier. Thanks :D

Starting Stats
Weight: 184lbs
Bodyfat: 14% (Caliper measured)
Abs: Upper 2 abs show, but there's still a little bit of stubborn fat over my lower abs.

Those stats are from a few months ago, USF Gym doesn't have the right tools for me to effectively measure myself, however, I can definitely tell that I've let myself go. My upper abs come and go and my arms are barely over 15.5" when they used to be 17" cold. So I've basically gotten smaller and fatter. This is more than enough motivation to get myself back into the gym and come back bigger, stronger, and leaner.

Lifts
Bench: 225x4
Squat: 275x3 ATG
Deadlift: 355 apprx. (I hardly ever do normal deadlifts. I almost always do romanian/straight legged DL's)

Supplements
ON Protein
ON Opti-Men multivitamins

Greg Plitt's ARM WAR

2011-01-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

Greg Plitt's ARM WAR Routine is absolutely insane. I tried working it in on the same day as chest so I could keep with the Layne Norton split... bad idea. My arms gave out way before my Chest did. I didn't get a good chest workout because of that reason. But that's both good and bad. The bad thing is I didn't get to hit my chest as hard as I could have. The good thing is that I now know what my Bi's/Tri's routine is going to be when I change up my split in a few months. This arms workout is nothing short of brutal. Everything is supersetted and I tried to keep the rest periods to 45 seconds between sets. I took some Optimum Nutrition Nitric Boost and my god... the pump was amazing. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone that is on a split that has a Bi's/Tri's day.

Superset 3-4 sets
Straight BB Curl
Scull Crushers
Close Grip Bench

Superset 3-4 sets
Rope Curls
Overhead Extentions

Superset 3-4 sets
Guillotine Curls
V-bar Extension

Superset 3-4 sets
Arm Blaster Curls
French Press
Front Press

Superset 3-4 sets
Dead Hang Curls
Reverse Grip Extensions

Superset 3-4 sets
Floor Curls
Pully Kickbacks

Superset 3-4 sets
One Arm Preacher Curls
Close Grip DB Press

Layne Norton's Power + Hypertrophy Split

2011-01-16T20:33:00.000-05:00

I've been using a slightly modified version of Layne Norton's split and I've definitely been noticing some results. I've been eating pretty clean and I never go overboard with the cals. 3.5 months in and I've gone from 183lb to 188lb with a noticeable size gain. My upperbody and lowerbody power has shot up as well: 225x4 on bench to 225x8 or 9. 225x3 ATG squats to 275x5 going as low as I possibly can. The only difference between my current split and the normal split (that's posted below) is that on hypertrophy days, I usually do 4-5 sets per exercise since I prefer high volume.

Here's the normal split (taken from http://www.simplyshredded.com/layne-norton-2010-training-series-featuring-paul-revelia.html)

Sunday: Upper Power

    * 5×5 or 3×5 for all lifts(5×5 on bulk cause recovery is better, 3×5 on cut)
    * Barbell Bench Press
    * Barbell Rows
    * Military Press
    * Barbell Shrugs

Monday: Lower Power

    * 5×5 or 3×5 for all lifts(5×5 on bulk cause recovery is better, 3×5 on cut)
    * Back Squat
    * Stiff Leg Deadlift, Or Romanian DL
    * 6-8 sets of Standing Calf, little higher reps, i like to do 6-8 on heavy days

Tues: Off (I usually do some cardio)
Wednesday: Hypertrophy Chest/Arms

(For hypertrophy days I never go to failure, always stop about 2 reps before failure)

    * DB Incline Bech 3×8-12
    * Barbell Close Grip Bench 3×8-12
    * DB Flat Bench 2×8-12
    * Preacher Curls 3×8-12 super setted with
    * Standing French Press 3×8-12
    * Push Downs 3×8-12 super setted with
    * DB Hammer Curls
    * Cable Crossovers 3×8-12
    * Machine Curl 3×8-12 supersetted with
    * Machine Dips 3×8-12

Thursday: Hypertrophy Shoulders/Back/Traps

(For hypertrophy days I never go to failure, always stop about 2 reps before failure)

    * DB Shoulder Press 3×8-12 super setted with
    * DB Front Raise 3×8-12
    * DB One Arm Row 3×8-12 super setted with
    * DB Arnold Press 3×8-12
    * Lat Pull Down (Wide Grip) 2×8-12 super setted with
    * DB Shrugs 2×10-15
    * Lat Pull Down (Close grip, palms facing in) 2×8-12 super setted with
    * DB Upright Row 2×10-15
    * T-bar row 2×8-12 (Usually too tired/dead to do this last exercise, but some times i do it)

Friday: Hypertrophy Legs/Calves

(For hypertrophy days I never go to failure, always stop about 2 reps before failure)

    * Hack Squat 5×8-12 super setted with
    * Standing Calf 5×10-15
    * Leg Extensions 5×10-15 super setted with
    * Sitting Leg Curls 5×10-15 super setted with
    * Sitting Calf Raise 4×8-12

Saturday: Off (cardio if you want)