Hallowe'en Crazy - ddot's Journey to the Stage

Training Logs
1

So I promised my good friend and semi-client (what do you call someone who listens to all your advice and doesn’t need to be shown proper form on any exercise?) that I’d post a log here as she has done the same over on the Powerful Women folder.

http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=2270474&pageNo=0

Anyway, come October 25th I’ll be stepping on stage for the first time in a Bodybuilding comp. I’ll track my progress and results here in my log. I haven’t taken any measurements lately but will do so this weekend along with some updated pics.

My goal is to come in under 175, being as close to 175 as possible. I recently ran through a 7 week diet (ended June 1st) finishing up the last week with Thib’s 6 days to Get Shredded and came in at 171lbs at around 4-5% BF. I’ll post a pic of me at that weight.

I’m hovering around the 185 mark right now. My official plan is to tune in the diet beginning August 11th which will give me 12 weeks to get to where I need to be, just under 175 and dry, full and hard as can be.

Currently finishing up 4 weeks of Thibs HSS Shoulder Specialization and will be switching to a twice weekly leg program at the end of this week.

Expect some more posts and pics soon!

2

Me - July '07
-205lbs

3

Comparison Shots:

Left: January 08
-200lbs

Right: February 08
-190lbs

4

420×805 197 KB

June 1st -08
171 lbs

5

Woot woot - sounds like you put in some solid work, so I will wait quietly in anticipation for the pics!

6

[quote]ddot76 wrote:
So I promised my good friend and semi-client (what do you call someone who listens to all your advice and doesn’t need to be shown proper form on any exercise?) [/quote]

Not to mention the fact that she pays only by being your friend.

[quote]ddot76 wrote:
Currently finishing up 4 weeks of Thibs HSS Shoulder Specialization and will be switching to a twice weekly leg program at the end of this week. [/quote]

Does this mean we get to train legs together soon?

Glad you finally started the log. Yet another place for me to spend my time and a way for me to follow what you’re doing since we never happen to be in the gym at the same time anymore.

7

Didn’t get a chance to weigh myself this morning.

Last night’s training session.

HSS Shoulder Specialization - Overall Shoulders

A.Push Press
4 x 135lbs
5 x 135lbs
3 x 145lbs --struggled with rep 3
5 x 145lbs

B1.Seated Lateral DB Raises
15 x 20lbs
15 x 20lbs
14 x 20lbs --the first three sets are taken very close to failure
*10 x 20lbs --not to failure
B2.Seated DB Press
12 x 55lbs
10 x 55lbs
8 x 55lbs
*10 x 55lbs – Was able to squeeze more presses out on last set as Laterals were not done to failure

C. Concentric/Eccentric Presses
12 x 30lbs
12 x 30lbs
11 x 30lbs --very little rest between Set 2 and 3.

D. 100 Reps - Machine Press
Performed 100 reps in 20 rep increments with 10s in between on Machine Press. Weight is per arm. 60lbs.

E. Weighted crunches on bench.
Left Obl./Right Obl./ Reg. Crunch
15/15/10
12/12/10
5/5/15
All performed with 10lb plate and 15s rest between sets.

After my workout I played an hour of beach volleyball.

One might ask where a Canadian plays beach volleyball? Well, the answer is simple really; behind the hockey rink. :slight_smile:

Weights and measurements coming this weekend.

8

So I’ve been delinquent on posting here.

Here’s a quick update.

Friday: Trained Beach Muscles (Chest, Arms)

BB Bench Press, HS Incline Press, DB Flyes, Supersetted CG Press downs and BB Curls, and Machine Curls and Machine Overhead Presses.

Saturday: Beach VBall Tournament

5.5hrs of volleyball
1pt short of winning the whole Tourney

Sunday: Rest

You’d be surprised how much your feet, hands and soleus hurt after 5.5hrs of running around the beach setting volleyballs.

Monday: Legs

My tendonitis was acting up so thought it was going to be a poor session. Dug deep and hammered out a good quad workout. Started with heavy Leg Press, followed by hypertrophy Front Squats and finished with a superset of 5 by 5’s of extensions with High Rep Deep Hack’s.

Tuesday: Chest, Tri’s

Pretty simple chest workout. My right shoulder was bothering me something fierce. Stopped halfway through the chest workout and stretched out the right shoulder and came back strong to finish. BB Bench, Inc. DB and Flat DB Flyes. Tri’s was straight bar press, lying DB Skulls and French Presses.

Weight was 184.5 on Saturday morning but I’ve been eating like Meatloaf at an all you can eat buffet so I expect a higher number at week’s end.

Till tomorrow

9

So I’m the first to admit that I haven’t been updating this log regularly enough. Life has it’s way of keeping me away from the computer sometimes. Maybe it’s a lack of focus on my part, or something else, but I haven’t been posting enough.

That’s about to change.

I just got back from a 5 day weekend spent in St. John’s, NFLD. My girlfriends friend got married out on the Rock and we went out for the occasion.

Firstly, I must say I had an excellent time. The bride and groom were amazing hosts and had events planned for every day we were there, but didn’t overload our schedules so much that we had nothing else to do.

It was a beautiful place to visit!

Thankfully for me the hotel gym was probably the best hotel gym I’ve ever had the pleasure of using.

I trained 3 different days.

My warmup consisted of the following complex.

Mountain Climbers
Push Ups
Crunches
Burpees
Squat Presses
Chin Ups
Jumping Jacks
Forward Rolls

Each exercise performed for 15 reps.

I trained shoulders, back and chest while I was there.

I used a 6/12/24 tri-set for 3-4 sets.

Shoulder training consisted of:
Unwinding Press
Gironda Swings
Lateral Raises

Back consisted of:
Pull Ups
Prone DB Rows
Lat Pulldown

Chest consisted of:
Incline DB Press
Dips
Pek Deck

Threw in some ab work here and there.

My weight when I left was 183.5 and it was 185 when I returned.

Did I mention the groom was a celebrity chef? Damn the food was good!

10

Told you I was going to post more.

Last night I played beach volleyball before heading to the gym to train legs.

This was the first time I’ve trained legs AFTER sports.

  1. I was worried about leg fatigue since I was going to be running and jumping around in a giant sandbox for an hour before.

  2. I was a little concerned about my patellar tendonitis acting up since I was planning on doing heavy squats.

Well, fatigue wasn’t an issue, but my patellar tendonitis definitely acted up in my right knee.

The Workout

[video]897[/video]

A. Squats
7x275
5x295
3x315
5x295
7x275

My right knee bothered me some, but I was able to push through and get what I had planned to accomplish complete.

B. SLDL
7x275
5x295
3x315
5x295
7x275

C. Hack Squats
Started with 135/side and couldn’t do it. The Hack squat machine at our gym is not the best. I find it places more stress on the patella then other hack squat machines I’ve used.

I was able to ‘hack’ out 8 reps @ 90/side and then 6 reps @ 115 but I was feeling a lot of pressure on my right knee cap so I gave this one up.

Finished off rep’ing out leg extensions with low weight and holding at the top.

I’ll throw some calf work in tonight or tomorrow.

11

Your squats are high.

12

Yesterday was a late night training session. My girlfriend wanted to hit the gym as she was feeling sluggish after our party weekend on the Rock. Unfortunately her grandmother suffered a small stroke and she spent most of the evening staying with her grandfather, who was at home recovering from some injuries from a recent car accident.

When we got there I pounded on my shoulders.

A. Push Press
10x115
6x135
6x135
6x135

My lower back was a little tender after yesterday’s Squat and SLDL session. I might use my belt next week if I follow the same schedule.

B1. Standing DB Laterals*
12x25lbs
11x25lbs
10x25lbs
B2. Seated DB Press
12x45lbs
10x55lbs
8x55lbs

*Tried a new techinique of flaring my lats like I was hitting a front lat spread and then lifting the db’s in a lateral movement (tipping the DB’s like I was pouring a pitcher)

C1. Standing Rear Cable Laterals
20x30lbs
12x40lbs
12x40lbs
C2. Seated Rope Pull to Neck
20x60lbs
10x75lbs
12x60lbs

D. 100 Reps on Seated Lateral Machine
Performed as such:
50 reps
10s rest
20reps
5s rest
10 reps
5s rest
10 reps
10s rest
10 reps

Performed some swiss ball crunches holding an 8lb medicine ball behind my head with arms outstretched.

Not a bad workout all in all.

13

[quote]Gael wrote:
Your squats are high.[/quote]

You’re right. I could probably get a little deeper. I think I normally do, but again, it may have been my right knee bothering me that brought me out of the hole when it did.

Thanks for the tips. :slight_smile:

14

186lbs this morning. A vast improvement from the 181.5 I was earlier in the week. Who’d have thought a FFB would have a hard time keeping his weight up??

I trained back Friday night and chest Saturday morning and took Sunday off. I ate very well all 3 days and thus have rebounded in terms of weight. Just need to bring my strength back up.

Today is a holiday up in frosty Canada-eh. Like it’s no warmer than 28 degrees… celcius! Surprisingly the gym was full and busy this afternoon. A lot of the hardcore’s there!

Today was the Gun Show. I am not a big fan of training solely bi’s and tri’s but this particular workout is quite good and really gets the blood flowing to the arms. Thanks to Pete K for showing this to me! We have to train together again Pete… and soon!

A. CGBP
4 sets of 5 reps @ 185lbs

My strength here is suffering. I used to be able to hammer out the same amount of sets/reps at 205. Eat, eat, then eat again! That’ll help.

B1. Standing BB Curl
3 sets of 10 @ 80lbs
B2. Lying Skulls
3 sets of 10 @ 90lbs

The pump begins!

C1. Machine Preacher Curls
12x70lbs
12x80lbs
12x70lbs
C2. Decline Offset DB Extensions
12x35lbs
12x35lbs
10x35lbs
C3. Standing DB Hammer Curls
12x25lbs
12x25lbs
12x25lbs

D1. French Presses
15x80lbs
16x70lbs
D2. Rope Hammer Curls
15x80lbs
16x70lbs
D3. Rope Extensions
14x80lbs
16x70lbs
D4. T-Bar Cable Curls
12x80lbs
15x70lbs

Finished up doing some cable crunches.

Pretty good workout and my arms looked pretty jacked when all was said and done.

Looking forward to training legs tomorrow!

15

183.5lbs this morning.

A little disappointed to tell you the truth.

I thought I ate enough yesterday but apparently I didn’t.

Had planned on doing some HIIT this morning before work but got off to a late start helping the girlfriend get ready for a golf tournament this morning.

I will do some cardio tonight after I train legs.

16

What a night.

We had some vicious rains and t-storms all evening. Kinda fit in with how my legs felt after my leg workout tonight.

A. Leg Press
25 x 270lbs + sled
12 x 450lbs + sled
12 x 450lbs + sled
10 x 450lbs + sled
7 x 450lbs + sled

Had some serious pump going on in my quads. My hamstrings are still pretty tight. I will foam roll and stretch them tonight before bed.

B. Hack Squats
15 x 90lbs
10 x 140lbs
10 x 140lbs
**Paused at bottom of every rep.

C. Lying Leg Curls
12 x 80lbs
10 x 80lbs
10 x 80lbs
4 x 80lbs

Performed these using a dorsi flexion on the negative and a plantar flexion on the concentric.

D. Leg Extensions
Performed approximately 45 reps in 2 minutes using a 4-0-1 tempo and resting 10-15s when I fatigued.

E. Seated Calf Press
20 x 80lbs
20 x 80lbs
16 x 80lbs

F. Walked from my gym, down the stairs, and too my car.

Felt pretty wiped when I got home. My PWO Shake consists of 60g of Whey Isolate, 10g of glutamine and 35g of carbs from Waxy Maize. It went down easily.

Wondering what my weight will be like tomorrow as I did not have a whole bunch of carbs today. Probably under 200g.

17

Weighed in at a whopping 181.5lbs this morning. Going to eat more carbs today.

My legs are starting to get nice and sore. Especially my vastus medialis. It’s that throbbing ache in the muscles that we all love sooooo much!

Tonight will be shoulder training.

18

[quote]ddot76 wrote:
Weighed in at a whopping 181.5lbs this morning. Going to eat more carbs today.

My legs are starting to get nice and sore. Especially my vastus medialis. It’s that throbbing ache in the muscles that we all love sooooo much!

Tonight will be shoulder training.[/quote]

Clearly someone should take his own advice and eat properly. I’m doing NEPA chasing boys. What’s your excuse?

19

[quote]Court wrote:
Clearly someone should take his own advice and eat properly. I’m doing NEPA chasing boys. What’s your excuse?[/quote]

I like to keep my NEPA activities private. But they do burn a few calories.

20

Had a pretty decent shoulder session last night.

Weighed in at 184.5 this morning. Pretty happy about that. I’ve eaten super clean all week so it’s good to still be above 180. I think I am going to have a difficult time coming in just under 175lbs for my show. Realistically I am think 167-168 now. But that’s to be seen.

Here’s the Shoulder Session:

A. Seated DB Press
12 x 55bs
10 x 65lbs
8 x 75lbs
8 x 75lbs
8 x 75lbs

B1. Standing DB Laterals
10 x 30lbs
10 x 30lbs
10 x 30lbs
B2. Seated Arnie Presses
10 x 45lb
8 x 45lbs
6 x 45lbs
**My shoulders really burnt out on the Arnie Presses. I am also a huge fan of Gironda swings and think I’ll be using those instead of the typical DB Laterals for medial head growth.

C. Cable 5x5’s
1st set @ 25lbs
2nd set @ 22.5lbs
3rd set @ 20lbs

D. Standing Rear Cable Laterals
20 x 30lbs
15 x 35lbs
15 x 35lbs

Finished up with some Upright Rows, Seated DB Shrugs and Lying Leg raises.