Ok - it's officially time for an update! Life has been really hectic the last couple of months. It's funny, you can go so long in cruise control, and then all of a sudden it seems like a ton of things are all just thrown at you at once. Things have settled back down now, and for the last couple of weeks I have been trying to get my strength back to where it was before I took a 2-3 week hiatus for my wedding and honeymoon. It was incredible and everything was beyond our expectations. We had a blast at our reception - several people came up and said how it was the most fun they had ever had at a reception before. I think the awesome live band we had there made it that much fun. They are a cover band that can play pretty much everything. The lead singer is a good friend of mine, so as a surprise for Kera, we had practiced a couple of songs together so I could get up in front of everyone and sing to her. My brother is a hell of a dancer, so in memory of the King of Pop, he made a collaboration of 4 Michael Jackson songs (Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Billy Jean, Beat It, & Thriller) and did the dancing moves from the music videos. It was hilarious. He even dressed up like him LOL. Then for the honeymoon we went to Bora Bora, Tahiti for a week. You know how you see postcards or advertisements and you know the water in the pictures are photoshopped to look so blue? Not here...the water was so crystal clear you could see your toes while being neck deep in the ocean. We did all kinds of things while we were down there, and as soon as I get some of the pictures loaded up on the laptop, I will share some.
Beyond that, I've just been spending the last couple of weeks settling back into things and trying to get my strength back up to where it was before we stopped. I've been feeling really good the last couple of days and my strength is almost completely back. It's a good thing muscle has a good memory I've got some good numbers to use for the next progression we will do. Tonight I have a heavy leg day to cap off the power workouts...a few more days of hypertrophy work and I'll start back up a progression.
I'm also officially in "contest prep" mode as I am currently dialing in my nutrition and incorporating a little cardio to start to prepare for the diet. When it's not tax season, I don't have very active days for the most part, so calorie wise I sit pretty low. It's time to get the activity going again and boost the cals up so I have room to play with when I need to drop cals. I'm really focused on bringing an all time best to the stage this year and I'm kind of excited to see the improvements I've been able to make over the last few years. I'm hoping that I can top out the light heavyweight class with striated glutes...which means I will have needed to put on a good 8-10lbs of muscle (very doable over 3 years). So this next year is my year - I've been waiting for it patiently and now it's time to get back on stage and see the fruition of my hard work. One thing is for certain, I'm very focused right now. I know there will be guys with better structure, better muscle density, better symmetry, more vascular, etc. But, if they want to win, they are going to have to bring their "A" game in all areas because I am simply not going to be outworked - you can take that to the bank!
Some notables over the last couple of weeks:
BB Incline Press - 315 for 5 reps (almost back to where I was)
DB Incline Flys - 100s for 10 reps
BB Pendlay Rows - 315 for 8 reps
Rack Chins - +200 for 5 reps
EZ Skull Crushers - 170 for 5 reps
BB Decline Close Grip Bench - 315 for 5 reps
EZ Preacher Curls - 140 for 5 reps
DB Standing Curls - 70s for 9 reps each arm
DB Walking Lunges - 120s in each hand for 10 steps each leg
Hack Squats - 16 Plates for 5 reps
So that's about where I am at now - I have a little bit more time left to get just a little bit stronger before the diet starts, so it's time to get all I can get and then hang onto as much of it as possible before the shredding starts.
So let us begin...
Sporto
Beyond that, I've just been spending the last couple of weeks settling back into things and trying to get my strength back up to where it was before we stopped. I've been feeling really good the last couple of days and my strength is almost completely back. It's a good thing muscle has a good memory I've got some good numbers to use for the next progression we will do. Tonight I have a heavy leg day to cap off the power workouts...a few more days of hypertrophy work and I'll start back up a progression.
I'm also officially in "contest prep" mode as I am currently dialing in my nutrition and incorporating a little cardio to start to prepare for the diet. When it's not tax season, I don't have very active days for the most part, so calorie wise I sit pretty low. It's time to get the activity going again and boost the cals up so I have room to play with when I need to drop cals. I'm really focused on bringing an all time best to the stage this year and I'm kind of excited to see the improvements I've been able to make over the last few years. I'm hoping that I can top out the light heavyweight class with striated glutes...which means I will have needed to put on a good 8-10lbs of muscle (very doable over 3 years). So this next year is my year - I've been waiting for it patiently and now it's time to get back on stage and see the fruition of my hard work. One thing is for certain, I'm very focused right now. I know there will be guys with better structure, better muscle density, better symmetry, more vascular, etc. But, if they want to win, they are going to have to bring their "A" game in all areas because I am simply not going to be outworked - you can take that to the bank!
Some notables over the last couple of weeks:
BB Incline Press - 315 for 5 reps (almost back to where I was)
DB Incline Flys - 100s for 10 reps
BB Pendlay Rows - 315 for 8 reps
Rack Chins - +200 for 5 reps
EZ Skull Crushers - 170 for 5 reps
BB Decline Close Grip Bench - 315 for 5 reps
EZ Preacher Curls - 140 for 5 reps
DB Standing Curls - 70s for 9 reps each arm
DB Walking Lunges - 120s in each hand for 10 steps each leg
Hack Squats - 16 Plates for 5 reps
So that's about where I am at now - I have a little bit more time left to get just a little bit stronger before the diet starts, so it's time to get all I can get and then hang onto as much of it as possible before the shredding starts.
So let us begin...
Sporto