Kippers Workout

“By changing nothing, nothing changes.” -Tony Robbins

2012-02-22T06:33:00.000-05:00

Rant and tip for February 22, 2012

Quote: “By changing nothing, nothing changes.” -Tony Robbins

This statement is true regarding your diet and your exercise plan. If you hit a stall in you weight loss and I mean a 2 month stall not a plateau that can occur weekly and monthly. When you hit a true stall you need to change things up to get things going in the right direction. My body is so use to the way eat that when I want to lose 5 pounds I have to really change my diet up. The same for my workout schedule. When I hit a stall in my benching I will switch things up to get things moving again.

Yesterday was a good squat day. I hit a PR with the free bar of 365 and it went up really smooth. I had someone watch my depth and I could feel when I hit depth and they said now at that point. I truly think I have 380 in the tank and eventually a 400 squat. Little by little I will get there. Not to shabby for a almost 50 year old man.

Tonight I will train in the bench shirt and what I am hoping to do is go heavier and press our some serious weight. I really want to put up 400.

For those of you working out at home here is a chest day schedule you can follow:
Wednesday: Chest
Incline dumbbell press - 4 sets 10
Flat dumbbell press - 4 sets 10
Decline barbell press - 4 sets 10
Dumbbell flies - 4 sets 10

Have a great workout!

Coming soon a page Kippersworkout T shirts. I am having a challenge getting the paypal pieces together but they will be up soon.

Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.

2012-02-21T07:09:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 21, 2012

Quote: Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.
Jim Fiebig

I found this quote this and thought it really touches on the fact that age is just a state of mind. Yes as we get older we need to be a little wiser in how we approach things, but that does not mean we should not approach them at all. As we age the worst thing we can do is sit back and let time take over. We need to take control and really push the envelope a little.

I has someone recently ask me do I think I will still be competing in my sixties and I told them of course and if I can continue to train properly maybe set some records then to.

Now to my low carb friends I apologize about the ice cream references and promise if I have some ice cream it will be Breyers Low Carb Ice Cream. I have tried and actually think it is creamier than regular ice cream. Yesterday a friend as me for some help with how to get started on the path to losing some body fat. We talked about what to eat and not eat and one of the things that popped up was snacking. Snacking has changed for me. To me a snack is a scoop or tuna or egg salad. Maybe a chicken leg or two and some fresh veggies. To most people the idea of a snack are chips or some other corn processed snack. I use to be that way as well. To my friends who still believe that low fat is the way to go you can still snack the same way as I have just stated. You will need to hold the mayo though.

Leg day for me and I plan on doing sets of 2 working my way up to a new 2 rep max I hope.

Your leg day would look like this:

Squats- 3 sets 10
Calf raises- 3 sets 10
Thigh extensions if doing at home try sitting on a chair with a dumbbell held with your feet
3 sets 10
Lunges - 3 sets of 10

Leg curls - 3 sets of 10

Have a great workout!

Tip: Plan you snacks as you would plan your meals

: Find something you enjoy doing and do it!

2012-02-19T21:10:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 19, 2012

Quote: Find something you enjoy doing and do it!

Well have given it some thought and the real reason I post here is simply because I like to. I truly enjoy helping and giving motivation to the few people who still come here to read my blog and I do find it helpful for myself as well. I enjoy writing this blog and the more people that take the time to read it the better. However I am not going to stress of losing a some visits.

Just like your training your are going to have up and down days and maybe even weeks in your training. I am not going to let a few poor days let me stop writing.

I trained with my 42 Super Katana today and it felt good. I used releasers with a top weight on the bar of 474 pounds and then a press of 366 which went up easy.

I will train the muscles for more pressing power tomorrow. It is funny after training in the shirt I truly do not feel like I have had a power workout. Maybe that is just the nature of the shirt. Bottom line is though the stronger I am raw the, in my mind the stronger I will be in the shirt. So I train both.

Woke up to a perfect body weight for training and working toward my March goals.

A little advice for you when dieting. Pay attention to your body. Learn the difference between hunger and thirst. Many people do not realize that many times there body is not hungry, it is actually thirsty. I find when I am drinking enough water I definitely eat less. Funny this though I need the fuel. So I have to be careful as well. This is why I stated take the time to get to know your body.

Have a great workout and stay focused on your diet!!!

Tip!!! LISTEN TO THE BODY!!!

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

2012-02-17T06:16:00.001-05:00

Quote: Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813 - 1855)

Good morning everyone. It seems to me that we have to take the time to understand what has happened in our lives to understand where our future can lead. We need to take the lessons learned from our past and apply them to our future. If we do not we are destined to repeat what we should have learned the first time. If eating poorly and not getting enough exercise has put your body in a state where your doctor has stated you need to lose weight or get on medication for some weight related condition, you have a great opportunity to learn from your past. You already know how not to eat. You also already know what not exercising can do to the body. Keep the body moving and choose the right foods for you.

My cardio is done already and breakfast has been finished. I had a good shoulder and back workout yesterday and I am looking forward to working my arms today. Sunday I will be a raw bench day and Wednesday next week will be an equipped day. I look forward to both days. My diet has been tight without any temptations. OK the temptations are all around but I have no desire to hit them.

I have been following the stats on my blog and have noticed hits are way down. I use to get around 100 to 130 a day and this past week I have been lucky to get over 80 hits. Maybe it is that my writing has become stale or maybe this blog has run its course. I am not sure yet. I am going to take a few days off and I will leave you with my intermediate workout schedule.

I do need to focus on raising money for the World Bench Press meet in May and since this blog is not generating any interest I think my efforts will be better spent hitting the pavement so to speak and working on getting sponsors.

If you would like to see me continue my daily rants and tips please let me know.

Here is the link to the intermediate workout

Have a great workout!

Tips: Dieting is not easy. You need to work at it. At times there will be stalls along the way as well as times you just want to give up. Do not give up. Spend the time working on it and you will be successful.

Looking after my health today gives me a better hope for tomorrow

2012-02-16T06:24:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 16, 2012

Quote: “Looking after my health today gives me a better hope for tomorrow.” Anne Wilson Schaef

Before

After

Good morning everyone, Prior to 2009 I did a very poor job at looking after my health. I didn’t eat right and as much as working around the house and helping family with projects I wasn’t getting enough of the right exercise. It is tough when you sit at a desk for a living to maintain a healthy fit body. While sitting at that desk we tend to eat all the wrong snacks and we opt for the quick and easy simple carbohydrate loaded lunch. I do not care whether you are on a low fat or low carb diet. The simple carbs are not good for you period end of story. Anyway my point here is that I did not take care of myself. I need to start looking after my health. Once I started doing that it gave me hope for a healthier tomorrow. Taking the steps to looking after your health is the wisest thing you can do for you and your family.

Eating right and getting your exercise in is one of the hardest things to do in this country. A food substance is always not too far away. I say food substance because if you actually read the label on some of the processed foods out there you really have to ask you if it is a food. On the other hand when I grab a bunch of asparagus or broccoli, I do not need a nutrition label to tell me what is in it. There are many whole natural foods we can snack on without getting a food substance. Society is such that everything seems to get in the way of getting proper exercise and eating correctly. We work long hours, we have to take our children here and there, and during all this still try to find time for our own mental health and sanity. For me part of the mental sanity is being able to get to the gym and hit the weights hard.

I got my cardio on the bike in this morning and later today am looking forward to working my shoulders and back. I want to strengthen my back more and work on thickening it for a better base to bench from. Yesterday I ended up doing squats and although I had not fueled my body properly had a great workout and then went for a max effort lift of 365. I attempted 375 after that but failed. Failure is a good thing, because squatting, is one of the exercises that I do tend to not work to failure. I get fearful of getting stuck under the weight. However like a friend of mine once said, “Kipper you need to be fearless in the squat”. Thanks Mike I am working on it.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Doing proper shoulder work consistently will also help improve your bench.

Perpetual optimism is worth millions and has the power to transform people

2012-02-15T06:32:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 15, 2012

Quote:” Perpetual optimism is worth millions and has the power to transform people.” General Rick Hillier

A truer statement has not been said. Optimism is described as “a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.” We need to do this in our lives a lot more than we do. I work for a company that does not use the word problem. Instead any instance of a perceived problem is either a challenge or an opportunity. An Opportunity for growth as a person, or an opportunity to fix something and make it better is how we look at things. Of course there are challenges along the way and always will be. If we take each challenge regarding creating better eating habits or getting into an exercise habit as an opportunity to improve we can be optimistic in our thoughts and be successful.

When approaching you way of eating in an optimistic way you can leave the self doubt and get over the challenges a lot easier. Beating yourself up for slipping up and eating something you shouldn’t have is counterproductive and will only lead to more cheating on your diet. If you make the mistake own it and move one. Make it an opportunity to learn what you did wrong or what led you to make to make the mistake in the first place. Life is full of opportunities and so is learning how to eat properly for your own dietary needs.

I find when I approach a workout session with an optimistic attitude every lift becomes easier. Every set get stronger and I just look forward to getting stronger. On days I am unable to complete a set, I look at that as an opportunity to do better next time, to push harder, and work on my technique. Each training session or workout session is approached with a positive attitude. I know that is what my body needs and my mind and spirit desires it as well. Remember we need to treat our body as a temple. Today is another bench day for me. I usually work in the bench shirt on Wednesday but since I worked in it on Sunday today will be free weights and no bench shirt.

Have a great workout!

Tip: I had someone recently ask me to look at his workout for chest day and one thing I noticed except for dumbbell flies he was not doing very much dumbbell work. I have noticed during my workouts that dumbbell bench pressing in a decline, incline and flat bench that I can get a great squeeze in the chest at the top for each rep with the dumbbells. I do not get that with a bar. When doing dumbbell presses, count to 3 on the way down and 3 on the way up. When you get to the top, touch the dumbbells together and squeeze at the top. Keep your reps between 10 and 15. This is more of a body builders workout and not a workout for strength.

Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.

2012-02-14T06:42:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine’s Day

Quote: Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.
John F. Kennedy

I am not sure how President Kennedy meant this quote for us, however I can tell you my interpretation. As I ponder this statement, what comes to my mind is how exercise can not only make the body fit, but also affect your mind. One of the side effects of exercise there is an increase of blood flow to the brain, as well as a release of endorphins into the blood stream. Both of these things are great for you. With the increase of blood flow and endorphins comes for back of a better term, Mental Clarity. It has happened to me frequently where I have had a challenge in work or in my personal life and during my workout or right after there is a moment of mental clarity the helps me see things for what they are. Don’t laugh to hard here but what just came to mind was Forrest Gump getting up from his porch and running across country. Now that man got some mental clarity during his trek. OK maybe that was a reach but really it did just pop in my head. I guess, President Kennedy also may also been alluding to the additional cost in healthcare and the strain that can put on us as a nation. The more unfit we are, in many cases the more unhealthy we are, which can put a strain on society. If we as a nation could do away with smoking and the obesity epidemic I am sure we could save a lot of money.

One of the areas I have been lacking in lately has been my cardio. I get my children off to school in the morning and do not want to leave them alone in the house while I go for a run. I just cannot do that. So I picked up a stationary bike. I also wanted to make sure it was something my children can use as well. I put it in front of the television and since it is a quiet machine, my thought is my children could use it while the watch one of their shows. I will be using it before breakfast and in the evening, before bed. All the body needs and this is in my opinion is, 30 minutes of cardio at a session. To me anything more than that does not make sense. You are over taxing your body at that point and putting it into a catabolic state. In a catabolic state you body breaks down muscle tissue. That is the last thing I want and it should be the last thing you want. If you break down muscle tissue, you will also slow down your metabolism. The less muscle you have the fewer calories you will burn when you are resting. The main point here is to get your cardio in and make it fun anyway you can. For me the bike will enable me to get the morning news in and my cardio at the same time. You may like Zumba or some other cardio program. Whatever it is make it a fun and enjoyable experience.

One of the biggest challenges I had and still have is making sure I eat enough. Before following a low carb lifestyle and cutting out all simple sugars, I was of the mindset like the rest of the country that you had to reduce calories and basically starve yourself to lose weight. Of course this never worked for me and to the best of my knowledge it only works temporarily for most. You need to learn to eat in a fashion that keeps your body satiated. When you do not eat enough you body being the efficient machine it is goes into survival mode. Your metabolism slows drastically and tries to keep the fat it has for fuel later. It gets even harder to lose body fat, with every ounce of fat you do lose. Many of us struggle with the last five pounds. We want to see our abs and be as lean as possible for our bodies. One thing I need to keep in mind it that you have to eat to lose weight. I know it sounds crazy but eating the right foods in the right amounts at the right time actually promotes weight loss. You brain sends signals to the body that it is getting enough of the right foods and is getting it often enough that it does not need to store fat anymore. Changing your mindset is a huge step to being successful n adapting this way of eating.

Tuesday is your back day.

Tuesday :
Wide grip lat pull downs - 4 sets 10
Seated rows - 4 sets 10
single arm Rows 4 sets of 10
Shrugs - 4 sets 10

Inverted flys 4 sets of ten
Weighted or not I prefer weighted hyper-extensions - 4 sets 10

Have a great workout!

Tip: If you are adopting a way of eating similar to my own it helps to set a personal alarm to make sure you are eating often enough. This not only helps me stay on track getting enough fuel, it also helps me to make sure I am not eating to soon either. I try to eat every three hours.

Strength Conditioning Can Change your life

2012-02-13T07:04:00.000-05:00

Repost from my guest blogger Brian "The Grizz" Espino:

Earlier this week, Jim asked me if I was interested in writing a segment for his blog. I thought this was brave of him, considering how much I like potatoes. I will leave the diet tips to Jim and focus more on the weight room. This first post will be mostly background information, but there are a few lessons in here. In high school I was interested in, and loved playing most sports. However I didn’t pick the right parents to be a great athlete, and the only team I was on was the math team. Fast forward a few years, and while in graduate school in Kansas, I started to lift weights at my university’s gym.

My workouts initially consisted of doing a little work for every body part, every other day, mostly using machines. When I started, I weighed about 150 pounds. The only big lift that I knew of was the bench press. I would not consider myself that strong at the time, as I could lift about 170 pounds a few weeks after I started to lift weights. I set the goal of benching 200 pounds. Eventually I benched 200 pounds and my next goal was 225. Each time I reached a goal, I would set another one to give me something to work toward. About three years later I weighed nearly 200 pounds and could bench press 320 for multiple reps.

Luckily I suffered my first weightlifting injury. While performing a negative rep, something popped in my shoulder. I say this was lucky because during the time I couldn’t work on my bench press, I learned a few other lifts, most notably the squat and the deadlift. Previously my lower body work consisted of machine based exercises, such as leg curls and leg extensions. With some of those machines, I could lift the entire stack. I was about to be humbled. The first time I tried to squat, upon lowering a modest amount of weight to the squat rack’s safety pins, the bar didn’t budge. My legs were weak! While my shoulder recovered I worked on my squats and deadlifts, and within months, I could almost deadlift 300 pounds.

Now to the day that changed my life. My goal for the day was to deadlift a new max of 300 pounds. Another student was lifting nearby with substantially more weight on the bar. After I successfully deadlifted 300 pounds for the first time, I started to strip the weight. When I was taking the weight off of the bar, this more experienced lifter asked me, “What are you doing? Put MORE weight on.” He said I could lift more and invited me to lift with him. By the end of the workout, he had me doing a reverse band deadlift where I was locking out over 400 pounds. From that day I have been hooked on the powerlifting bug. Four years have passed and now as a powerlifter, I have found myself in the same role that my old friend from Kansas played in my training. In the following posts, I will be giving out tips and strategies that I use myself, that if you choose to, you can apply to your own workouts.

Have a great workout!

Tip of the day:

As you read Brian's post you see that goals are set along the way and while he had a boundary he learned that he could push past it. Sometimes we all need that someone to help get us past our limits. Brian had his friend at graduate school in Kansas. He assisted with me during my first deadlift meet last June 4th. While I had trained for the lift with the help of Mike Macri at Albany Strength, at the meet Brian encouraged me to push for a deadlift over 400 pounds. Thanks to both men. Keep your eyes open for those who can challenge you and help you reach your potential. Be willing to accept the challenge before you, and don't be afraid to ask for help or take the help that is offered. It is not a sign of weakness. IT IS A SIGN OF STRENGTH

Have the courage to act on your dreams

2012-02-10T06:36:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 10, 2012

Quote: “Have the courage to act on your dreams - leave behind you the internal forces that hold you back.” Unknown

If you dream of being fit and healthy and truly want that in your life, you need to believe in yourself and leave behind you the negative thoughts that dwell inside you. We all have those little demons in our mind that does not want us to succeed. This is that little thought that pops in your head that tells you that it s ok to have that piece of cake or go ahead eat that pizza it is only one slice. Have the courage to avoid these urges and do not listen to that voice, no matter how persistent it is.

Now that my weight is under control you all know my shift has turned to fitness for all. It does not matter how old you are or young for that matter. If we keep our bodies fit then we have the ability to truly enjoy life. Recently I was talking to an acquaintance and the person said to me, your blog is about power lifting and I do not want to become a power lifter. I thought about this for a second and then asked them if they had read my blog. I know I mention my meets and the training I do for the meets, however I do not believe I have geared this blog towards power lifting. As a matter of fact at this point in time the exercise programs I have set up for my readers are not the routines I follow. My exercise regimen is very different. If you read my blog today, please take the time and read some back post as well. I am interested I you have the same perception of my blog. Leave me a comment or send me an email I would like to hear from you.

I have recently been asked a lot of questions regarding an associate who is trying to lose weight. However no matter how strict he feels he is being with his diet he states he is putting on weight. If he is being totally truthful and at this point in time there is no reason for me to not believe him, I have to believe he metabolism is wreck. He is stressed over the whole situation and blaming the diet plan he is on. Meanwhile thousands of people have followed the diet and have succeeded. I have stated many times everyone is different, when it comes to their body and how disciplined a diet needs to be can really depend on that persons metabolism. Some foods will stall and even make people gain weight. I am going to try to put something together for this person to follow for just 2 weeks and see if we can get him losing some of the weight he has gained. I do not live near this person and will have to trust that he follows it to the letter. Let’s see if I can get him losing.

Today is Friday and the workout of the day is;

Friday: Arms
Skull crushers - 4 sets 10
close grip bench or Cable push downs -4 sets 10
Overhead triceps press - 4 sets 10
Bench dips - 4 sets 10

Dumbbell curls - 4 sets 10
Preacher curls - 4 sets 10
Concentration curls - 4 sets 10

For myself since I had some challenges this week I will be attacking my squats with a vengeance. I am looking forward to feeling the weight on my shoulders and powering through some max effort sets. This will entail a long warm up period because unlike my bench workouts where I warm up pretty quickly, my legs seem to take forever.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Get to know your body and warm up properly before your attempt any heavy lifting. The warm up period gets the blood flowing into the muscle and does actually warm the muscle.

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans

2012-02-09T06:46:00.001-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 9, 2012

Quote: “Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans.” Peter F Drucker

You must be committed to making the changes in your life, to be successful. If not you are just making an empty promise to yourself. You know it and so do I.

I was sitting enjoying a cup of hazelnut coffee at work yesterday morning and saw a friend of mine. We got talking about diet and fat loss. This is getting to be a habit with me. Anyway he mentioned that a friend of his, I wonder what he pays him, told him fat loss is 80% diet. I told him I agreed. You can work out till you are red in the face but if your diet is not tight you will only put on muscle and tighten those abs under the fat. Now I am all for working out and tightening the muscles under the fat. When you lose the fat they will show nicely. All the crunches in the world will not get you six pack abs. Well that is not exactly true, you will get them, and you will just need to remove the layer of unwanted fat to see them. As you are all well aware I prefer the low carbohydrate way of eating. Others prefer low fat and they are thin and healthy. The one thing we both have in common is commitment. Like many of us we have a fear of commitment. It is the fear of having the same thing day in and day out. At least that is what I think it is. I know it can be tough to say no to some of the foods that you think you love. Let’s take my diet as an example and a few conversations I have had in the past month or so. One man I know who lives a low carb lifestyle thought that he would miss pasta. Well he caved in and had some, what he came back with from this experiment was he did not miss the pasta; he missed the sauce and other ingredients that were on top of the pasta. Another friend just last night said to me, OMG you don’t ever get to eat pizza. I said yes I do, and told her I use a low carb wrap for the dough. By the way Atkins does sell a low carb protein rich flower for baking and I bet I could make pizza dough out of that. Anyway I just want to remind you if you commit yourself to a diet commit completely. You will build better habits and be thrilled you did. If you want to get some recipe ideas check out some of my friends’ links on the right side of this page.

Today is Thursday and shoulders work out is the call of the day. Here is a simple shoulder workout you can follow for today.

Dumbbell press - 4 sets 10
Side laterals - 4 sets 10
Front dumbbell raises - 4 sets 10
Bent-over dumbbell laterals - 4 sets 10

For I will also add in shrugs for myself as well as my rotator cuff, lower and upper trapezius exercises.

Have a great workout!

Tip of the day:

To help yourself stay committed in the morning take 10 minutes for yourself and right down your menu for the day. Make sure you are getting whatever your allowance is based on the type of diet you choose, of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. This will help you stay on track and when you are tempted to eat something that is off plan thing about what you read today. Heck, print it down and read it when you need that extra boost of will power.

There is only a perfect time to start working towards a goal; right now.

2012-02-08T07:03:00.002-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 8, 2012

Quote: There is only a perfect time to start working towards a goal; right now.
~ Byron Pulsifer

We all set goals in our minds but what we do not do is plan the date of execution very well. Many times I hear people say “I will start on Monday”, or “Right after this holiday I am going to get my eating on schedule.” Really though there is no better time than now to get on track. You just need to make the decision to do it and then stay on course.

Today I thought I would discuss your metabolism, not mine , yours. Her is the thing I get asked all the time what do I eat now and how did I eat to lose all the body fat I loss. The thing is everyone is different. If you do not exercise of course your metabolism will be slower. If a person does not have a lot of muscle mass, then their metabolism will be slower. Of course the reverse is true, the more you exercise the faster you metabolism works, at least to a point. Remember if you are not fueling your exercise then you will stall in fat loss as well. Your metabolism will slow down and go into starvation mode and conserve all the fat it can because it is afraid that it will not get enough food. Here is another thing to think about. When you eat 3 huge meals in a day, even if the calories are low, your body is going to store fat for the moments in between meals. Several smaller meals are better because, you body is constantly getting fuel. The brain then tells the body it does not need to worry about where the next meal is coming from and will not store fat so readily. Does this make sense? I use to be the guy who would eat three huge meals a day and wonder why I am getting fat. My snacks throughout the day are all healthy snacks, actually they are little meals. I was talking to someone last night and mentioned how a snack for me is half a can of tuna, and some green peppers. A mini meal you might say. This works for me, it may work for you.

The call of for me will be cardio at lunch and benching tonight in the bench shirt. I want to convince the guy training me to put 400 on the bar and work on getting down for a touch and go. I think I need that confidence boost. Your chest workout for the day is:

Wednesday: Chest
Incline dumbbell press - 4 sets 10
Flat dumbbell press - 4 sets 10
Decline barbell press - 4 sets 10
Dumbbell flies - 4 sets 10

This is a muscle building workout. Be sure to get 30 minutes of cardio in before breakfast or after you strength training session.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Setting goals are easy, remembering to make a plan is the hard part. Be sure to plan the path to success for your goals

Age is mind over matter, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter” Unknown

2012-02-07T07:07:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 7, 2012

Quote; Age is mind over matter, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter” Unknown

Age is just a number my friends and if you really want to make changes you can. I actually believe as we get older although our bodies are resistant to change our minds can overcome this and help us do what we need to do.

Good morning all, I am kind of stuck at 171 and want to get to 167 by Friday. One of the things I know I am lacking in, is my water intake. Water is essential to weight loss and I mean true weight loss not just water weight. Yeah I could just not eat and drink for the next day or two and I would lose some “weight”. However most of it will be water weight and muscle. Now since I do not want to lose any muscle and next week I will be giving my muscles a well-deserved rest I can start cutting back on my protein levels. Probably down to about 150 grams and I have to start making sure I am getting at 128 ounces of water a day. Water will flush out the system and actually flushes out the toxins that are stored in the body. You body fat will store these toxins and when you lose fat these toxins are released back into the body. The other thing about water is that sometimes when you are hungry you are actually just dehydrated and need fluids. Sorry everyone coffee and soda do not count here. Pure water is what the body needs. Since I am taking creatine monohydrate, which hydrates the muscle, I will definitely need the water. Next step in the process will be to reduce my carbohydrates a little more and watch my fats. This will create a diuretic effect and since I do need to lose water weight before the next meet it will actually help by staying highly hydrated. Your body become very efficient at processing the water and when the time comes to dehydrate it happens very quickly because your body is use to getting so much water. Some lifters have a 5 lb shift in weight just by not drinking water before weigh ins. Then for the next 2 hours the rehydrate before the lift.

Have a great Workout!

Tip of the day:

Since we are talking about water let’s talk about how to get that much water in. If you work in an office, water bottles make it easy and you can just refill them throughout the day. Keep it in front of you and you will find it is pretty easy to drink that much water. If you put a gallon jug of water in front of you it can look like a daunting task and we don’t want that.

“Little strokes, Fell great oaks

2012-02-06T06:21:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 6, 2012

Quote: “Little strokes, Fell great oaks.” Benjamin Franklin

The forefathers of this nation often had a great way with words. Benjamin Franklin was a great Statesman and Ambassador to the United States. He also had many quotable statements. “Little Strokes, Fell great oaks.” Now Mr. Franklin may not have meant the quote to be used in the fashion I plan to use it, I am sure he would be pleased with my adaptation. You see to me it is the small steps in life that make us successful and this really does include you diet and fitness goals.

For those of you embarking on a new way of life regarding how and what you eat, take the small steps that are necessary to be successful. If you are choosing a low carb lifestyle, and are a carbohydrate addict like I was the first step is to look around your home and see what has now become off limits to you. I do know some people that will go through the house and just throw out the food that is no longer on plan. Might I suggest instead donating these foods to the local food pantry. If you find that this is a daunting task look for some help from family members and friends. Again it is the little things that will make you successful. When you shop for groceries be sure not to do it on an empty stomach. I never shop when I am hungry. Look to get your vegetables first. The ones with high fiber are the best choices. Lastly be sure to know the plan. If it is a lowcarb diet you are using then be sure to read the latest Atkins book. It has some great success stories in it. Including some people who had trouble losing the weight and lost it very slowly.

Little strokes fell great oaks also applies your strength condition as well. I had someone recently tell me that if you just increase your workouts 1 pound a week every week you body actually has a chance to get use to the weight and it is not such a shock to the system. I have not tried this as I am currently working another program but I am totally interested in giving this concept a try. In theory this type of workout should had 52 pounds to your workout. I would love to add 52 pounds to the 3 big lifts. However it does not have to be a powerlifting routine to use this concept. Any exercise program this can apply to. If you are new to performing cardio and you exercise regimen currently just consist of a brisk walk, try running for 30 second intervals. If that goes well increase to a minute, then increase a minute every week. In a years time you will be able to run a full 52 minutes.

I worked my deadlift and benched yesterday. My shoulder is feeling better but not 100%. It should be fine by the next shirt day. Today is my cardio day and the goal is to push myself and really get the heart racing. What are your workout goals today?

Here is your workout for today if you are following the outline I put in the exercise schedule link.

Monday: Legs
Squats- 4 sets 10
Calf raises- 4 sets 10
Thigh extensions if doing at home try sitting on a chair with a dumbbell held with your feet
4 sets 10
Lunges - 4 sets of 10 Leg curls - 4 sets of 10

Have a great workout!

Tip: Be sure to warm up the legs with body weight exercises before adding weight to the bar. Also do not forget to stretch after your workout.

SuperBowl Parties and Rotator Cuff Injury

2012-02-03T03:08:00.002-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 3, 2012

Quote: “The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.” Richard Brinsley Sheridan

With Super Bowl weekend ahead of us if you are determined to succeed with all the foods at the parties ahead you must be determined to succeed.

I was talking to my son the other night and he said to me I should write about eating during celebrations. Like the Super Bowl. My brother in-law has a Super Bowl party every year. The food is abundant with a lot of variety. My sister in-law makes this delicious fried chicken which to be honest is breaded. I allow myself one piece and then it is to the veggie platter I go. I also enjoy the summer sausage and shrimp minus the cocktail sauce. My point here is you need to know what is going to be served at these celebrations. I know what is being served and will be bring something meeting my dietary needs as well. Fortunately wings are on my diet plan and I plan on enjoying them. If you plan properly you will not feel left out at any celebration. You will be part of the party and enjoying yourself as well.

So yesterday I worked the muscles that help stabilize my scapulas. I will have to start working them twice a week. I also had my sport physician check out my shoulder as well. She suggested that I start some rotator cuff exercises. I use to be very consistent with these exercises but have fallen away from them and now I believe I need to hit them with a vengeance. Being the power driven individual I am I have a hard time focusing on these exercises. I like handling heavy weights and these exercises require a lighter amount of weight and the range of motion limited. However they are a necessity. Here are some exercises you can do to help.

External Rotation
1. Lie on side opposite of working arm.
2. Start position: Grasp dumbbell and flex elbow at 90deg keeping elbow in at side.
3. Rotate arm outward keeping elbow at 90deg.
4. Return to start position.
5. Remember to keep elbow firmly secured to side. You may put a rolled towel between the elbow and side to facilitate rotation and secure form.

Internal Rotation
1. Lie on same side of working arm.
2. Start position: Lying on a bench or bed grasp dumbbell and flex elbow at 90deg keeping elbow in at side. Forearm should start slightly below parallel to floor.
3. Rotate arm upward keeping elbow at 90deg.
4. Return to start position.
5. Remember to keep elbow firmly secured to side. You may put a rolled towel between the elbow and side to facilitate rotation and secure form.

Horizontal Rotation
1. Stand with your elbows at shoulder level and flexed at 90 degrees.
2. Hold a weight plate in each hand and externally rotate your hands up towards the ceiling.
3. Return to the starting position.

Horizontal Rotation
1. Stand with your elbows at shoulder level and flexed at 90 degrees.
2. Hold a weight plate in each hand and externally rotate your hands up towards the ceiling.
3. Return to the starting position.
You can also simulate these exercises using a cable machine

Have a great workout!

Tip: When invited to a friends or family members house for a party or celebration offer to bring a dish that is in your dietary plan. You host or hostess will welcome the assistance in the menu and you will know you have something to enjoy

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself

2012-02-02T06:28:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 2, 2012

Quote: “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile. ~Plato

Isn’t this everyone’s biggest challenge? We need to conquer our own minds to be successful in most any endeavor. For me to reach a 400 squat by August the first thing I need to do is get through my head that I can do it. I need to stop letting my own mind conquer me. When changing your way of eating for a healthier lifestyle the first thing you will find is that you need to conquer yourself. If you cannot do this then you will fail and as Plato has so eloquently stated this is shameful.

My work in the shirt last night was horrible. I was doing pretty well in it and found the grove but tweaked my shoulder/back on the lift. After that it hurt just to lift the bar off the rack. It is not anything serious. I have loose joints in my shoulder. I can make my shoulder blades stick out and sometimes the go the other way and go in. Now after doing some reading this last night and this morning I think I know what is going on. It all goes back to the imbalance between my back and chest. While I will always be able to force them to stick out because I believe that since I have been able to do this since high school the muscles are stretched out a bit. Also to add to the challenge my research has led me to believe I need to do more stretching in my chest muscles to get them more flexible. My scapula do not stick out on their own but when put under stress like when I bench in the bench shirt they tend to have a mind of their own. I can control them when benching raw and do not have this challenge. I do not at this point that it is due to the heavier loads I take on in the shirt because when I benched using the drop weight hooks I had 436 pounds on the bar with no challenge and no pain. In closing what this all means is I need to continue to strengthen the muscles in my back that hold the scapula in and stretch after my workout.

When conquering a new way of eating you will need to sit back and take an account of where you were successful in changing your lifestyle and where you were not. If you take a moment each evening and write down what you did right you will probably remember and do it again. The same goes for the areas that you may have failed. If you right down the cause of the failure and not so much what happened you can keep it from happening again. What I mean by this is, when you ate that donut at the office, you do not right down I ate a donut and leave it at that. You write down you ate the donut because you were hungry and didn’t plan well enough to have a healthier choice. Or if you have to write it just looked to dam good sitting there I had to eat it. You know not t go near the donut counter again. LOL You need to conquer you own mindset first. I often tell people come to me when you are truly ready. I guess what I really need to tell them. Come to me when you have conquered your own mind and your mind is ready.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Attack all exercise programs with the same intensity. Make sure you hit your back as hard as you are hitting your chest. Hmmm I wonder why this comes to mind? I always thought that I did do this. However the proof is in the pudding or scapula in this case. Time to take it up a notch on those smaller back muscles.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”Nelson Mandela

2012-02-01T06:15:00.001-05:00

Rant and Tip for February 1,2012

Quote: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”Nelson Mandela

Education really is the key to being successful in so many ways. Take the time to educate on the eating plan you have chosen. Read the book, ask the questions, get the answers and apply them. The same goes for implementing an exercise schedule. Take the time to learn all the lifts and the proper form so you do not get hurt. I have been learning all of 2011 just how to become better at the 3 lifts and I still have some work to do in that area. I continue to read and try to learn about the eating plan I follow and apply new strategies to follow. I even realize that I have to learn from my own body what is right for me. Be sure to take the time to learn from yourself as well.

I was reading an article last night in the Men’s Health magazine. Don’t worry ladies it does apply to you as well. It was stating something I already knew but thought I could reiterate. It was comparing cardio versus strength training and the benefits of both. Now of course cardio is great for the heart and for increasing your lung capacity, also it can be a kick start to any weight loss program. However your glycogen stores cannot keep up with a cardio session that will run over an hour. It becomes counterproductive at that time. Strength training has the of working like an interval training session. When you strength train you are taxing the body heavily for a few minutes and then giving you body time to rest. During the rest periods you body is accessing your body fat for fuel for recovery. Also since you are having those small rest periods between sets you are not likely to be accessing muscle protein for fuel. If you can start adding some strength training exercises into your program. You can start with body weight exercises first and later move up to weight training. Push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups are all great body weight exercises. Squats done without weights are great as well.

Tonight is my equipped bench night. I will have the shirt on again and I am really looking forward to working in it. With today being February 1^st my diet will become stricter. Those foods I know although well on plan that can still stall my weight loss will be pulled from my diet plan. I just want to shed a solid 5 pounds and be ready for the next meet I have scheduled. No more macadamia nuts, really the nuts are fine it is the fact I end up eating the whole can instead of just a serving. If you have this challenge as well one way to get by it is to put the servings into a snack bag and this will help you limit your intake.

Have a great workout!

Tip: All diets come with a book. Take the time get the book and learn the program. Then after you have completed the book, look to the forums where the diet is discussed and ask your questions. Be ready to listen and learn.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

2012-01-31T04:00:00.003-05:00

Rant and tip for January 31, 2012

Quote: “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” George S. Patten

Yes another quote by the General. OK I am not a war monger but I do believe there are some things worth fighting for. OK now back to this quote. During your workouts as well as you daily battle in controlling what we eat, there will be days that you hit rock bottom. In your workout it may be a stall in gains you hope to make in a particular lift. We all hit those. It can be frustrating as well and mentally draining. It is how you rebound from this set back that will tell what a success you training is or isn’t.

The same applies to your diet. When you fail whether it be, due to poor planning or a moment of weakness when that cookie that just seemed to jump into your mouth, you feel like you have hit bottom. Yeah I know it has happened to you. All of a sudden you are thinking, “What did I just do.” It is at this time you need to bounce right back up and get back on track. You can and will be successful if you handle these moments of weakness as a learning experience instead of letting it defeat you mentally. I have seen it happen many times to friends and even myself when trying to lose the fat. We make a mistake in our diet plan and we feel defeated. We end up feeling like there is something wrong with us. We say to ourselves “Why can’t I just stay on plan? “ I just want you to know you are just human. We all make mistakes when we work a diet plan that is a new way or eating for the rest out our lives. That is truly the journey you are on, the journey to get fit and live a healthy lifestyle which includes a healthy clean diet. There is nothing wrong with you. You have been eating all the foods that have gotten you to where you are for so long it will take the ability to bounce back from setbacks to be the success you deserve to be. How high can you bounce back?

Benching went well Yesterday. To change things up a bit and confuse the muscles after working up to a one rep max I switched my grip out wide on the bar. When you bench with a wide grip you stretch the chest more and actually shorten the stroke of the lift. I wanted to isolate the chest and this was the way to accomplish that. I also wanted to get myself use to the wider grip. If you recall I stated last week that benching in the Super Katana it was suggested I move my grip out wider. I will bench again in the shirt on Wednesday night and am looking forward to getting the grove right. I felt very strong today and fully expect that it will carry over on Wednesday.

Today will be squat day. I will work my 5X5 workout making sure to hit dept on each set. While I will not be doing box squats today I will use the box to make sure I am low enough. I will not have a spotter available so I will have to set the safety rails on the rack and as a friend has told me “Just be Fearless”. Over the next few months you will see I mention a 400 squat. Each time I right this number down it becomes engrained in my mind and I see it happening.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Be sure to get enough fats while on a low carb diet.

This can be a real problem. Despite some effort to get out the word about so-called "healthy fats", hardly a day goes by that I don't see or hear a negative message about fats in the diet. This leads some to attempt a low-fat version of a low-carb diet. At the beginning, some can even manage it, if they are using up a lot of their own fat (as opposed to eating it). However, fat loss inevitably slows down, and people can then become hungry if they don't add some fat to their diets. Nothing will sabotage a diet faster than hunger. So don't let this happen to you!

"You're never beaten until you admit it." George Patten

2012-01-29T04:00:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for January 30, 2012

Quote: "You're never beaten until you admit it." George Patten

Now while General Patton my never had the desire to hit the weights or not I do not know. He did however lead many a man to a successful battle. Sometimes that is exactly how we feel as we tackle our diets and our fitness regimen. It is a battle. If you have a lot of weight to lose still then it becomes an all out war. I believe that his words are absolutely true. If you admit that you cannot follow your chosen diet then you will fail. It truly is a mindset that you need to adapt that you will not admit defeat. You will not get beaten in your quest. I remember the last meet I did there was a point with I started to falter during a lift. I remember thinking there is no way in hell I was going to let that bar start a decent back down and I did not let it.

It seems many people want to get better abs. I know I have repeatedly told you that it is mostly diet that will get the abs to pop. If you do not lose the fat the abs will never show no matter how many crunches you do. With that said let’s talk a little about getting better abs. To get the most out of your ab-crunches you need to keep the muscles tight throughout the movement. You never want to let muscles relax during the motion. You want to keep them tight though the entire movement. You should not rest during a rep whether at the bottom or the top of the rep. Do not rest or bounce on the floor or bench. Be sure to exhale as you contract the abs on the upward movement. When you do exhale be sure to fully exhale as if someone has punched you in the stomach. Inhale as you lower your body on the way back down. Lastly you need to keep in mind the range of motion for an ab crunch is very short. A full sit-up or crunch brings in the hip flexors as well. So be sure to focus on crunching of just the abs. For an added benefit you can crunch to the left and the right and get the obliques involved.

I missed a training session yesterday because my daughter was not feeling well and I need to stay home with her. This is a session that I will not get back but I will however train twice as hard tomorrow. The intensity I will apply to my bench session will be all out. It is hard to explain, while I try to train hard each day I am in the gym tomorrow I will almost make myself pay for not training yesterday. Not only did I really miss the training session emotionally I feel that it is my own fault for not having a backup plan in place. It seems I always come back to the need to plan better. So today for me will be a benching day. I will warm up and then work on hitting heavy weight sets for reps of 2. Incrementing repeatedly until I cannot get 2 out. Either that or my 5 x 5 set finishing with a set of 5 at 310. At least at this point I have two plans in place.

What do you have planned for today regarding your diet and exercise?

Have a great workout!

Tip: If you are having problems with crunches or other ab exercises try this while sitting at your desk at work or at home. I know you at your desk right now. Tighten you abs as tight as you can and hold it for 30 seconds. Now release and do it again for a set of 10. At the end you should feel like you had just done several crunches without the pressure of sitting on the floor.

Please visit The Tribustolplus web site and give Tribustol a try. When purchasing you supply be sure to pick my name in the drop down box when asked where did you hear about the product from. As an affiliate the proceeds will help me get to the World Powerliftng meet in the Czech Republic.

Mother-In-Law

2012-01-27T17:38:00.000-05:00

Mother-In-Law

Contributed by Milford Woods

I just moved my mother-in-law to an apartment just across town. Prior to this move, she had been living 8 hours away. This is both a blessing and a curse. I am happy to have her here so the kids can get to know her better, and have her in their life more, but I am a little concerned that she will not have her own “life” and always be at our house. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother in law, but I really need her in small doses. I’m going to introduce her to some other single women her age, but one of the first things I’m going to do is go to http://www.satellitetvfamily.com/order.html and get her set up with TV, so at least she will have that to do. My wife told me that her mother enjoys cooking shows, so I’m hoping there are plenty of those to keep her busy. Who knows? Maybe we will even get to try out some of the new recipes she learns. Now that is a win-win for everyone!

If you are going through hell keep going

2012-01-27T06:36:00.001-05:00

Rant and Tip for January 27, 2012

Quote: “If уоu аrе gоіng thrоugh hell, kеер going.” (Winston Churchill)

Wow does that quote pack a punch or what. I was sitting here wondering what to write and found this quote this morning. Really what choice do you have, if you are going through a tough time, give up? No way that is not something we are going to do. We will not give up.

If you feel like you new eating plan is not working or you have hit a plateau do not just give up, change your caloric in take based on your fitness activities. Or increase your net carbs or decrease them do not keep them the same and do not give up. It may feel like hell now but success is write around the corner and you will have worked you way through hell. If you can keep away from those simple carbohydrates you will eventually succeed.

Simple carbohydrates are found in most processed or refined foods and some natural foods. These carbohydrates have short-chained sugar molecules and, because they break apart quickly, enter the bloodstream quickly. Sugary foods--including corn syrup, fruit juices, and honey--contain glucose that is absorbed directly through the stomach wall and rapidly released into the bloodstream, almost as quickly as if delivered by syringe. When this happens your body cannot burn the fuel fast enough and this has no other option but to be stored as fat. Your body recognizes it as a fuel and just wants to store it for later.

I work out a couple different gyms and a training center. When I am at Albany Strength there is a great group of lifters that help everyone keep on track. I wish I could get there 5 days a week but my schedule will not allow it. When I go to the training center, there is always someone there to help and push and spot as well. Have a workout partner is very helpful and encouraging. When I work out during the day I have a consistent workout partner as well. While he does not lift the weight I do, he does work hard and pushes me to hit new marks. The past few weeks he has been nursing an injury and has not been in the gym. I can tell you when he is not there I do still work hard but the moments when I need to get that last rep out and I am pushing with intensity I could use him pushing me verbally.

Have a great workout!

Tip:

It’s been proven time and time again: Support for your fitness efforts is a very potent part of your motivation. I have often thought that the most consistent people exercising are the those who have a partner. Often, another person’s encouragement may be just what you need when you do not feel like hitting your workout.

Here are some tips to help you find that support:

● You and your partner should be “like-minded,” that is, be interested in exercise, nutrition, and good health – and the benefits they bring.

● Your partner should share the same workout and thoughts on eating properly. You do not want someone who is chowing down a donut while you are eating you energy bar before the workout.

● Each one of you should be a “positive motivator,” and not a “cheap complimenter.” In other words, don’t tell your partner he’s looking great, when in fact he has only worked out twice. Tell the truth. Be supportive and encouraging – especially when new fitness goals are attained.

● Partners should have compatible schedules so that you can work out at the same time during the week. It’s easier to stick to a set routine rather than do sporadic activities. Schedule your exercise sessions at the same time, on the same days. This is an excellent carrot to dangle in front of you. Eventually, your workouts will become cemented into your daily routine.

● Both of you should be willing to work out at the same intensity levels and not be afraid to sweat! Commit yourself gradually and progressively by increasing your intensity. Keep in mind this does not mean you have to be pushing the same weight. Just pushing with the intensity

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe

2012-01-26T06:07:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for January 26, 2012

Quote: “It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.” – Muhammad Ali

Yes another Muhammad Ali quote. I personally like this one because that pebble can be any little thing in your life that you will let you down. Sometimes the pebble is poor planning on our part and not preparing for the events of the day to get the proper fuel. Other times that pebble is that little guy on your shoulder that is yelling in your ear that you are putting too much weight on the bar or you cannot squat that to depth. We need to remove those pebbles no matter what they are. It does not matter how big that mountain is if you are stuck on dealing with that pebble. So deal with the pebbles and move on.

So my diet is getting where it needs to be, I am increasing my dietary Fiber and working on keeping my water intake up. The funny thing is I truly enjoy my vegetables and I just need to plan better and prepare my vegetables properly. It is time to get to the store and get some fresh vegetables. We all know that Dietary Fiber is important to keep the system running smoothly and helps avoid constipation. However did you also know that it is beneficial in lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease? High-fiber foods generally require more chewing time, which gives your body time to register when you're no longer hungry, so you're less likely to overeat. Also, a high-fiber diet tends to make a meal feel larger and linger longer, so you stay full for a greater amount of time. And high-fiber diets also tend to be less "energy dense," which means they have fewer calories for the same volume of food. So you see by increasing your dietary fiber you can also aid in your weight loss goals. Some vegetables that are high in fiber are: Avocados, Tomatoes, Artichokes, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Edamame, Eggplant, Endive, Fennel, green beans, Kohlrabi and Okra. All of these have 4 or more grams of fiber per serving. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Asparagus, Celery Lettuce, Spinach and Squash all have 2 to 3 grams per serving. So you see there are a lot of choices here. Make sure to get your vegetables today.

My call for the day in terms of exercise will be shoulders and back. I had a good workout with squats yesterday and will work just as hard on my shoulders and back today. If I can get my back to be thinker and not just wide this will help me increase my bench and allow me to handle more weight on my shoulders when I squat. Many people believe the bench press works just the chest and the squat works just the legs. These are compound exercises and work the whole body. I have a friend that states he knows he had a good bench workout when his legs are sore. If you are driving with your legs properly you will feel it there as well. The squat requires the entire body to stay tight. If you are loose at all you will not make the lift. Even the deadlift is a compound exercise and will the entire body when working out. I even feel my deadlift in my chest.

Have a great workout!

Tip:
In order to add depth to your back, you need to build the trapezius muscles, which form a kite from the base of your skull to your mid back. You need to build the teres major and minor, just above and behind the lats. You need to build the rhomboids, which sit in the middle of the back and help the traps retract the scapula. These muscles are best built with rows. Cable rows, T-bar rows, barbell rows, and machine rows are all useful. They each hit your back from a slightly different angle, emphasizing different muscles for full back development. To maximize that development, sometimes use lighter resistance and concentrate on pinching your shoulder blades together.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges,

2012-01-25T06:07:00.001-05:00

Rant and Tip for January 25, 2012

Quote: “It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.” – Muhammad Ali

We can all learn something from one of the greatest boxers there ever was. If you do not have the faith in yourself that you can and will make the changes to meet the challenges that come from starting a new way of eating or exercise regimen, you will fail. However, believe in yourself and have the faith that you can succeed in making these changes you will be successful. I have the faith you can do it. It is just a matter of you convincing yourself you are worth the changes.

Benched again yesterday and I believe it was too soon after Sunday’s workout. I should have waited till Wednesday. I was only able to get 305 for 2 and wanted to get it for 5. This was after hitting 240 or 5 then 260 for 5, 275 for 5 and 290 for 5. I really should have gotten that 305 for 5. Then like a fool I attempted 335 for one but I was already spent at that point. I should have rested the body one more day. I guess I did not head my own advice there. OK squats are the call of the day and again I do not plan on going to heavy. No smith machine either. I may do box squats and try to hit 350 from the box. I will definitely need a spotter for this one. I do hope to hit 380 or 400 in August.

I recently had a friend at work ask me what he can to at home for his workout so I pointed him to my Exercise Schedule page. Today on that page is back day. Here is my suggested workout for you on back day. All of these can be done at home with dumbbells.

For those working out at home:
Dumbbell rows 4 sets of 10
Weighted hyper-extensions - 4 sets 10
Shrugs - 4 sets 10
Pull ups or let downs 4 sets of 5 Pull ups if you can do them lets downs till you can.

If you are having trouble sticking to your diet, try to access why; determine what your disabling factors are. Take an inventory of them and decide to push them away. Whether they are physical, emotional or environment challenges you need to find a way past them. Some of us have family members who seem to sabotage our efforts. Now you may not be able to remove them from your life but you can stand up for yourself and say something. This is your body after all land they have no right to attempt to keep you fat for their own delight. Say something, let them know this is important to you and you do not appreciate them under mining your efforts. Of course they will come back with some statement saying they did not realize they were doing that and maybe they didn’t, but if you make it a big deal, they will get the point.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Take a few minutes every morning and write down some of the qualities you do not like about yourself. Take that piece of p aper and crumple it up and throw it away. Throw away those qualities today. Now write down some qualities you like about yourself and some that you believe others like about you. Have faith in these qualities and use these as your reason to succeed. Turn you negatives into positives and have faith you will be successful.

There is no such thing as over training just under resting

2012-01-24T04:44:00.006-05:00

Rant and Tip for January 23, 2012

Quote: “There is no such thing as over training just under resting” John Parrillo

I have taken this philosophy to heart. I try to train very hard during my training sessions. Longer is not always better. I am not one of these guys that get to go to the gym for 2 hours and put in a huge workout and then go home to rest and give my muscles enough time to heal from a 2 hour workout. Heck sometimes I have trouble just getting 6 hours rest in. Really not enough for the simple hour I get in a day. The only days I get a longer workout in are a Sunday morning or a Wednesday evening. It is at these times that my children are busy with other functions or are able to be with a family member while I train. THANK YOU Hilary!!! Any way my point here is to make sure you get the proper rest for the amount of working out you are doing.

You may not see a correlation to this quote and your diet however think if it this way. You need to spend a lot of time training yourself to eat properly. There really is no such thing as overtraining when it comes to teaching yourself to eat properly. You need to retrain your taste buds as well as retool you mind to plan your diet better and be more consistent in your daily walk with your new lifestyle. Actually this is harder than any exercise program you start to follow. You will still need to make sure you get enough sleep as well. Even if you exercise is minimal. Sleep is the time you body takes to repair itself in many ways. I remember when I was learning to write code. I would sometimes wake up dreaming code. The code I was dreaming was actually the answer to a homework assignment that I had. I got out of bed and wrote it down. Then I was able to get to a sound sleep. I had gone to bed the night before feeling defeated and broken. I needed rest and my body new it. I just didn’t know it. After a few hours of rest not only had my body had time to heal but my mind was refreshed and I was able to finish my project. OK I know this was a reach applying the quote to your diet plan, but I had to try.

Today will be a day for squats. March is right around the corner and I want to make a solid showing. I think I will go for box squats to a 14 inch box. This brings me below parallel and will assist me in developing explosive power out of the hole. I will keep an eye on my shoulders during the lifts so as to not cause any injury from the weight resting on them. I have to keep my exuberance in check and keep in mind my main goal is to have a good showing at the world meet.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Think about what you can add to your diet, not what you should take away.

All know the way; few actually walk it. ~Bodhidharma

2012-01-23T05:09:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for January 22, 2012

Quote All know the way; few actually walk it. ~Bodhidharma

We have all been told or read all the different thoughts on diet and exercise. With the internet there really is little that you cannot educate yourself on. So what this brings to mind is this, we know or can learn, the way to a healthy fit body. The challenge will be to take that information and walk or in my case run with it. Some of you just starting you exercise regimen will be walking others may be running. In either case you are implementing the knowledge you have learned whether you learned it here or someplace else it does not matter. Taking those first steps is a huge step forward for the rest of your life. I commend you.

There is something to look out for though and being prepared for it mentally will be key to your future success. Many people will fall off the exercise or diet plan at some point in the future. It has happened to me and will happen to you. One of two things need to takes place at this point. You either come back with a vengeance realizing that we all fall off the wagon at some point or another and there is no shame is getting back on course after a brief unplanned break in you will. The other thing that happens to many people is that they will get a guilty feeling about not being in the gym or not following their diet plan. They then get into a malaise and think it is to late to get back on track, they get depressed in their thoughts and decide whether consciously or subconsciously that they just cannot do it.
Do not let this happen to you. You are better than that and so deserve to get to where you want to be. Do not be the second kind of person that just gives up. Even if you have put another 20-pounds on and feel to embarrassed to get in the gym get there anyway. Put on a big sweatshirt and get to work, get back to tracking your meals and pull all the key points together.

I have changed my workout schedule around so I can get to a bigger gym that has more equipment for my powerlifting goals. I now lift Sundays and getting in my deadlifts and then some raw benching will have to let you know how this all works out. I would prefer to get to this gym on Tuesday nights but with family obligations that has not worked out yet. Last Wednesday night I tweaked my shoulder and it was bothersome when I deadlift. It will be fine in another week. I have loose joints when it concerns my shoulder blades. This is why it is so important to not let the bench shirt pull my shoulders out. When I bench raw I do not have a problem because as I go heavier my shoulders simply stay tighter. As I first started benching my shoulder felt a little tight but not a sharp pain or anything that would cause me concern. So I just made sure to warm up nicely. Once I was warmed up I tried something-new called drop weight sets. This is a little tough to explain, but I will try to anyway. You load the bar with a weight you can press with confidence and power. Then you hang these hooks on the bar that are loaded with more weight. What this does is allow you to handle much more weight when lowering the bar to the chest and at the bottom the weights on the hooks drop off this lightening the load. This loads the muscle on the way down and you explode in to the lift at the bottom.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Always believe in yourself. If you start doubting yourself you workout will not be effective. You attitude can make or break you. Once you attitude changes everything changes. I remember the last competition I entered after my second lift I was pumped and had a great attitude regarding my third and final lift. I knew the weight was going up.

Too many times have I heard people say, "Why do you go to the gym so much, you don't need that" or "Why you building all the muscle for? It’s all a waste of time and besides, all those guys are on steroids",

I ignore these people with their negative attitude. I consider negativity to be a disease and if you hang around with people with negative attitudes you will catch it as well. Ignore them or replace them in this portion of your life.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

2012-01-20T06:24:00.000-05:00

Rant and Tip for January 20, 2012

Quote: Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill

Our quote today comes to us from across the Atlantic Ocean form Sir Winston Churchill. “Success consist of going from failure to failure with out loss of enthusiasm.” I had never heard this quote before but can say to you that this is so true. Think about the things you have attempted and failed at. I am sure there a few things that when you did fail, it did not kill you desire to keep going. I have failed many times at a lift that I should have gotten. I have even failed at eating properly whether it be not eating enough or eating the wrong foods at the wrong time. Still I never lose sight of the dream and keep enthusiastic in my desire to keep moving forward. If you can look at the bright side of each failure, learn something from each one and remain optomistic you will have success.

Wednesday while performing my cardio about 35 minutes in to it my calf cramped up pretty bad. I was gong pretty hard at the time at 7.5 miles and hour and had to abruptly stop. The young lady on the machine next to who was walking at a brisk pace, which was good for her, said to me “Had enough?” I do not know why but I felt I had to explain my calf cramping. Silly really because she was only noticing that I was running along and stopped rather quickly. Anyway it was feeling fine with just a little discomfort yesterday and when I ran up the stairs I felt 2 little pops in it. I thought I had pulled a muscle but there is no bruising. I am not sure what it was just now I need to be more careful. In the future what I learned from this is I need more potassium in my diet to keep from getting a cramp like that. Today will be biceps and shoulders. The shoulders feel good enough today to hit them and since I hit the triceps hard yesterday I will do the bicep today.

Foods rich in potassium include parsley, dried apricots, various nuts (especially almonds and pistachios), potatoes, bamboo shoots, bananas, avocados, soybeans, and bran, although it is also present in sufficient quantities in most fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. Looks like I will start eating my avocados again. Avocados are an excellent source of Omega 3 fats as well. A lot of times when someone switches to eating a low carb lifestyle they will tend to hit the wall during their exercise. This is because they need more fat to fuel the activity they are doing. I will usually introduce them to the wonderful qualities of the avocado.

As many of you may have noticed I have added a link to a supplement called Tribustol. It is derived from the Tribulus flowering plant. It is suppose to increase your own natural testosterone. It is one of the sponsor for the 100% Raw Powerlifting Federation. I thought I would give it a try. While taking it for the 8-week cycle I felt like my recovery time from my workouts was quicker and prior to taking the supplement the most weight I had pressed in a competition were 305. At the end of the cycle I was putting up 325. Now while the lift itself did not count because my foot moved and my butt came up slightly. The strength was there to press twice my weight. Now was it the Tribustol or just me busting my backside harder in the gym or did Tribustol give me a boost in the gym. The bottom line is, if you try this supplement you will need to really push yourself. If you take it and do not push yourself you are only increasing your natural testosterone and not doing anything with it. If you decide to give it a try, please choose my name in the drop down under, How Did You Hear About Us? Wesley Kipp. This will also help me get to the world meet.

Have a great workout!

Tip: Keep enthusiastic through your failures and look for those bumps that caused the failure in the first place. This will help you to stay on track next time.