Week 1 Day 2- Sore, But Hungry For More!

31/03/15 Day 2- Chest & Triceps

First of all, damn my legs are sore! Started feeling the D.O.Ms pretty much a few hours after I got home, and I'm not even at the 24hr mark yet! Theoretically the pain should peek at a maximum of 72 hours after the exercise. But remember you don't always have to be sore to grow.

To aid my recovery I slept in my compression tights (much to my other half's liking), this aids with the venous return (the return of blood to the heart) of my legs. This means that all the negative toxins are being forced out of my legs and towards my heart and lungs for exhalation and excretion, another reason why drinking a lot of water helps, it will act a transportation system for toxins and help you to rid them of your body. So just remember that compressing the targeted muscles after a workout will reduce recovery time, making you fresher for the next session.

Today was probably most people favourite set of muscle groups today Chest & Triceps an area a lot of gym monkeys love to train over and over again, until you have some sleeve busting arms and pectorals that only a sports bra could hold. Before my workout I had my pre-workout, today I included some Glutamine and Creatine just to help with my maximal weighted work, being so tall my level system is quite a bit lengthier than most peoples, so I have never been someone to bench 200kg (440lbs). But enough with the bull s**t excuses.

I got the gym after a light cycle from my house, getting a bot of blood to those legs after yesterday is always a good idea. I worked through some light stretching and made sure all my joints we well oiled and ready for war!

Today's session was as follows:

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Dumbbell Flat Bench Press- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Incline Dumbbell Flyes- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Weighted Dips- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Tricep Pushdown- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Bent-over Cable Tricep Extension- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Close Grip Barbell Bench- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cardio- Interval Training 15mins Total 

So before each new exercise I made sure I went through the motions with a very light weight, not only for mental preparation of the exercise, but also to further warm up the muscles and lubricate the surrounding joints before I went heavy with the movements. I'm no stranger to injuries and have previously found any forms of Incline Dumbbell Bench Press a real problem. So before I go into any exercise now I will always, always, always make sure my body is 100% ready to take on the task at hand, because quite frankly have a debilitating injury isn't really fun at all!

So with a sense of care I smashed out the first couple of sets on Incline Dumbbell Bench Press only failing to hit the top of my rep range on the final set, which I'm pretty happy with! Moving onto Dumbbell Flat Bench Press, I had to put my ego aside slightly as after lifting so heavy on the first exercise, so I went a few kg's under my usual and thank Arnold (he is god here) I did! Working hard I just about managed to hit at least my minimum reps on every set, while doing this exercise I really wanted to put my emphasis on squeezing the chest at the top of the movement, almost using a double contraction to pre fatigue the chest before the final exercise. Incline Dumbbell Fly, I have not always been a massive fan of this exercise, just because I always found it put quite a bot of stress through my shoulders. But! Today it clicked for me, I was experimenting slightly during my warm up sets with alignment of wrists, elbows and shoulder, focusing on trying to find the contraction & squeeze through the muscle on both concentric and eccentric phases and BOOM! It all clicked into place. I found it the easiest I ever have and no longer fear doing them. So it goes to show, even when you think you know what's, what, you actually don't have a clue! The advice I would give people is that you want to try and build up your mind muscle connection as much as possible, creating that psychological pathway to turn the selected muscle on independently has helped me hugely. Even if you just try contracting the muscle in between sets, create a mental trigger, an image, word, sound, what ever it may be, everyone is different and therefore different things will work for different people!

Moving on to Weighted Dips I wanted to incorporate a little bit of chest into this exercise, to do so I flared my elbows out ever so slightly and made sure on my upward phase I focused on pushing the elbows toward each other (think about do a cable pec fly) to try and recruit some of those chest fibres to help my shift a little bit more weight. Then as I regained my breath from the dips (this is tiring work!) I made my way to probably my favourite exercise, the Tricep Pushdown, here I made sure I was squeezing the traps and rhomboids (shoulder blades) together to give myself a stable base to work from, really isolating the triceps I burnt through my 3 sets with gritted teeth, today I made sure I was hitting the heaviest I could possibly go within my rep ranges. From here I set up for my Bent-over Cable Tricep Extensions working with a medium height cable pulley I placed my elbows on a flat bench to isolate the Triceps and stop myself from using and momentum to make it easier, (Remember! This isn't supposed to be easy, this is meant to hurt, you are breaking your body every session to make it stronger, never let this out of your head it will drive you.) using the isolation took a lot more out of me than I thought it would! Getting a solid stretch through the whole Tricep before every rep meant I was utilising all the muscles all the time...making it harder once again. Finishing my weighted work where I started, the bench. Close Grip Barbell Bench was probably the hardest exercise yet, which was fitting, as it was the last. Clenching my teeth and grunting my way through the reps I found out very quickly that my Triceps had taken a bit of a battering and barely got over my minimum rep range with quite frankly not a lot of weight on the bar! Which should make for some interesting viewing when we get round to the Y3T High Volume week! Arnold help me!

After a nice 15 minute bout of Treadmill sprints I had finally finished today's workout, a nice gentle cycle home proved slightly more strenuous as it seemed like gale-force winds pounded against me and almost grounded me where I was. But after marginally longer than expected I found myself at home woofing down the rest of last nights dinner! YUM!!! Now for a shower, lots of water and a bit of stretching.

Tomorrow we tackle Shoulders & Abs, cannot wait for this!

Happy Lifting!

Matt

Week 1 Day 1 - Lets do this!

 30/3/15 Day 1- Legs & Abs

Today was mainly spent at work, working from 9:45-5:30pm, felt pretty shot to be quite honest, it was pretty dark here in England and there was a glumness in the air. But on the train to the gym I chugged down my pre-workout (musclepharm assult), looked at the diary and began to focus on the task at hand. Today is Leg day, now for those of you new to the gym leg day is normally conveniently "missed"by most people, excuses are normally found to by pass this day. But I embrace Leg Day, some people might think I'm crazy but I might even go out to say that I actually enjoy it! With a few previous injuries to my right knee legs were always my week point. I have had my PCL (ligament) slightly torn, along with some grinding of my Meniscus cartilage, which obviously as it sounds isn't ideal by any means.

So with my rucksack on I walked into the gym, the smell of warm sweat circulating in the air and set out to annihilate my legs. The first 3 weeks of this program is based on Neil Hill's Y3T training scheme. This is focusing on targeting each of your three (3) muscle fibre types; Type 1, Type 2a and Type 2b. The first week concentrates on heavy compound movements with a low-rep range. The second week is a combination of compound and isolation movements with a slightly higher rep range. In the third and final week, the approach is complete muscle failure with lighter weight and a high rep range.

So here is what today's training looked like:

Leg Press- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Spilt Squat- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Hack Squat- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Stiff Leg Deadlift- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Lying Leg Curl- 5 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Seated Calf Raise- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Standing Calf Raise- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Bent Knee Hip Raise- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Decline Reverse Crunch- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cardio- Interval Training 15mins Total 

The idea today was for me to push my muscles to failure on pretty much every single set. With the rep range being pretty low (8-12) it means that heavy is the main objective. If you can get out 12 Reps and still have something left in the tank for a 13th Rep, you aren't working hard enough in the set. So for me it was all about hitting the 8th Rep, from there mentally I could then focus on squeezing out the possibility to hit the follow 4 Reps. 

After going pretty heavy on the Leg Press I could already feel my legs swelling, the blood pushing its way through my quads. Considering this was the first exercise I knew I was in for some mentally challenging and physically tough training. The Spilt Squats came around pretty quickly, working each leg individually really allows me to see my weakness in each of my legs, in terms of stability, strength, symmetry etc. Which I think is a fantastic tool for equal progression of all body parts. Giving myself around 90s-110s rest it was really taking it toll on my legs and glutes! But I pushed through to the Hack Squat which was quite new to me, I really loved this machine as I could really work on correct and slow glute activation. Now if I have learnt anything from the hundreds of hours of videos and articles about body building I have watched/read, its that nothing is better for muscle growth than Time Under Tension(TUT). The Idea that the more time you can keep the muscle under constant tension, the more blood, naturally occurring HGH (human growth hormone) and nutrients can then be delivered to the muscle and therefore allow you to grow more!

For a more in-depth look at TUT visit:http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/time-to-grow.html 

Pushing forward, with my lifting straps on I moved on to the Stiff Leg Deadlift, here the emphasis was on the hamstrings, keeping the back tight and sinking till tension is found, then explode to the top of the movement. With the heavier weights being used the Hamstrings took a real battering, and getting the last few reps out was incredibly arduous. After this I waddled over to the Lying Leg Curl, to further work on isolating the Hamstrings further. Out of all of the exercises and weight already shifted in today's session this was undoubtedly the strenuous, working through the contraction on both the concentric contraction (muscle actively shortening) and then without rest working through the eccentric contraction (muscle actively lengthening) is very taxing. So its fair to say the rest periods here were slightly longer!

Then came the Calf work, the Seated Calf Raise was interestingly more difficult compared to the Standing Calf Raise, this I feel was due to the fact I could influence the standing calf raise with some more momentum, were as the Seated work really isolated the Calf muscles. Again I made sure I kept tension through the whole movement to give more blood to the muscles, as one of the smaller muscle groups the calves are often overlooked by most people (which I have also been guilty of!).

To finish I hit the mats for the Bent Knee Hip Raises, again surprisingly difficult when performed with control and not allowing those abdominal muscles to switch off. If you have ever done any core work in some gym classes you will know the burning sensation in your stomach. Its not overly pleasant, and does make you think you may have a small forest fire ripping through your stomach, but it is the exact sensation I was looking for in both the Bent Knee Hip Raises & Decline Reverse Crunch. Needless to say I was rather happy when this was all over! 

To complete the session it was a quick 16mins on the Treadmill working through 4 min Intervals 3min Easy 1 min Hard to keep that heart rate elevated and yet again flood the legs with as much blood as possible to help aid recovery.

After a quick 10min cycle home I could finally relax, get a quick Protein Shake in me, I only use basic Whey Protein at the moment. Will go through all the supplements I am using later in the series. After a shower and some dinner (Nasi Gorang) I find myself here at the computer, telling you my story. But that is enough for now. Sleep beckons and I need to get in my 8 hours! So will check in tomorrow, where I am going to be training Chest & Triceps!!!  which promises to be insane!

Happy Lifting!

Matt

References: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/neil-hill-workout-program.html

                   :http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/time-to-grow.html 

Where It all Began

So! Lets start at the beginning.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Matt, I'm 6ft8in Tall, I'm 20, I live in the south of England and I have decided to become a natural body builder.

I have a bit of history in the gym, firstly being a Personal Trainer I spend a lot of my time in the gym, but as well as this I have been through some pretty gruelling training with Harlequins Academy RFC in my early teens as part of their EPDG (Elite Player Development Group). So its not like I'm a complete novice here, but I am far from being an expert in body building!

This diary will follow me through the next year building up to my first show. The training, the food, the blood,sweat and tears that will take me from where I am now to where I want to be.

I will always try to post daily but obviously sometimes this might not be possible, so will try and keep you all updated as frequently as possible.

So to give you some idea this is what I look like now

 (forgive the bad lighting!)

My starting measurements are:
Chest-44in
Lat Spread -46.5in
Waist-36in
Thigh-25in
Calf-18in
Bicep- 16in

All measurements are taken in the morning when the muscles are relaxed and not pumped. 

To start my first 12 Weeks I am following a fantastic plan devised by Kris Gethin through the one and only bodybuilding.com. Within this plan I will be fighting through some killer Y3T training, some FST-7 expanding work, some old school German volume training as well as many, many others.

Please feel free to give back any feedback, advice, help etc. I love being able to hear other peoples thoughts and ideas, I feel it always makes for a better experience to constantly learn and appreciate other peoples values and opinions.