upper boddayyy

So I wasn't really suppose to work out today, but after not lifting friday and taking saturday off as well I couldn't fight off the itch...To hell with it.  So naturally I hit the gym.  Upper body was awesome today.  Did heavy bench sets of 2-3 with 275 (think I could've done more but I didn't have a spotter).  After that I moved quickly through the defranco max effort template.
     Then the fun started.  From there I went to the bench where I could hook up the bands and and did 4x2 with the most resistent bands and 185 on the bar, with doing a T-bar row as a superset type thing with 4 plates on the rack.  That was pretty sweet.  After that I did decline bench 4x3 at 265 then pretty much dicked around and did some rep stuff just for kicks.
     I want to note to you guys that I read a sweet article on T-nation about doing the "perfect rep".  Starting the heavy weights has been an absolutely fantastic feeling for me.  To be honest, EF ever doing any more than 5 reps again.  Can't stand that shit anymore.  Other than just messing around at the end of a workout that is.  Anyway, with lifting heavy weights, they talk about being controlled going down and no matter what try to move the bar as fast as you can when you're going up.  Essentially this creates more power, which is going to ultimately get us more strength.  FTW dueces.

RKtE

leg day

Believe it or not, leg days are becoming quite the spectacle for me.  Didn't really need the NO explode to get hyped up for todays lifts.  Did heavy Deads so it was my weights day with legs (usually go with some jump training/explosiveness work on days I do box squats).  Started with 3x3 of deads @ 300, then moved to front squats 3x3 @ 185 (still going rather light on the front squats as I just started doing them about two weeks ago).  Following the front squats I moved to rack pulls with 4x3 @ 315.  Finished the workout with 3 sets of the leg press jump manual style, and then 2x10 of leg curls and quad extensions.  Pretty sweet workout overall I feel like.  I am home now so i'm probably going to take the weekend off.  One kind of disheartening thing, my weight has stayed the same all week even though i've been doing lean gains fasting as well as a strict slow-carb diet of black beens and vegetables as my only carbs.  Really actually starting to piss me off.  Especially when my cheat day is suppose to be this saturday and I haven't lost any weight.  I'm pretty sure i'm going to feel like shit if I do my cheat day knowing I haven't lost any weight during the week.  I guess i'm just going to have to get that much stricter with my diet.  Lifting wise i'm feeling great, now if only I could actually see some improvement and lose some of that body fat.  I know a hashtag doesn't do anything on a blog but it's kind of how I feel #goshdammit, what does a guy have to do to lose weight.

Leg Day

Leg Day,

Week one of our cycle four week cycle...second leg day of the week coming after close to a three mile run yesterday. Woofta. 6x2 speed squats, 2x2 max. Was tired today so was probably only loading about 80-85% of what I should have on the 2x2 set. Dl'd after that. 3x5. Technique wasn't solid today so scaled that as well. Little disappointed with 225 for three sets. Probably could have done closer to 3 bills but didn't want to sacrifice my back. Next week we're busting out the flip video camera. Pretty much the greatest weight lifting invention of all time for O-Lifts. Instant feed back is actually quite helpful for seeing how you're going to fubar your spine. Friday's national bench and bi day so definitely getting after it tomorrow with day two of upper body for the week.

Day before the exam

Tomorrow morning i got a huge exam so once again i did not make it to the gym to lift or get any cardio in. Yesterday however i failed to mention that i did swim laps for about 45 mins which always seems to be a great workout, yet always makes me super hungry. Diet today has been good woke up had my coffee. I try to drink coffee every morning on an empty stomach (due to its benefits if fat burning). I had Subway for lunch, which i know i shouldn't be doing but i was stuck on the hill during lunch and really had no other option. For dinner i chowed down on some Caesar salad and marinated steak. Then went to my softball game to get a break from my studying, which honestly was not worth it, we got our asses handed to us on a silver platter. Now its back on the study grind.

Tomorrow should be a good day, little brother is coming into town so I am showing him the rec and playing some ball. Can't wait to make it back into the gym and actually get some real work down, i have taken about 5 days off from lifting now and i can really start to feel my muscles wishing they were being worked.

This class i got the exam in is a bitch and a half yet has some very useful information about exercising and how to create workout plans and routines for all types of athletes. So at least I'm getting something out of this.

-Bair

off days suck

Today is another off day.  Honestly I really, really hate off days.  As a person who definitely likes to work hard and get better, off days are just kind of annoying.  Diet was really good today, had eggs with turkey bacon in the morning with a couple fiber one bars, then I had a thing of black beans, and finished the night with green beans, cauliflower/broccoli mix and two pork loins.  Enough about the bullshit though. I found a couple sweet articles about building biceps and triceps.  Hopefully this will get you guys to stop doing that chest/tris and back/bis BS split.  Compound movements have definitely always been my favorite.
        If you know me you know I can't stand working out each part of the body once a week, and although this article only focuses on triceps and biceps, it kind of gives you a hint toward how you should be working out anyway. http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=4453073
        Tomorrow I have legs.  It's always pretty hard to get motivated for it so I usually take NO explode on these days.  Going to hit heavy DL's with front squats and rack pulls, then move toward some calf work to keep at least attempting to rehab my ankle.  I'll let you guys know how that guys.  Side-note, if you really want to learn about weight training, go on t-nation and read anything you can find by Jim Wendler and Dave Tate.

Dueces

Ay O

hate Wednesdays. Despite being the Skinny Basterd I really hate cardio. I'm an avid eater, gamer, golfer, and goalkeeper...most of which don't really require too much cardiovascular capacity. That being said Wednesdays are the tabata cardio days from hell. 30 sec rope sings 30 sec off, 30 sec kettlebell snatches 30 sec off etc etc. That being said I'm going to test out my latest and greatest purchase (Vibram FF) and run to school instead. Should be a nice little 2. something mile run to be followed by having to set up for some random event...I'll let you know how it goes...

-the Skinny Basterd

Here We Go

Alright so here it goes, blog entry number one I guess you could say. We started this blog basically as a way to reach out and post what we, real college students, feel about the health and fitness world. Day to day we plan to be posting about our personal goals, successes, resistance training programs, supplements, and basically anything else you can think of.

I can start it off today as Day 1.

Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the gym today and I honestly will not be able to all week at least till Friday that is. It sucks. I got an incredibly busy schedule so my goal to get down to 210 pounds has been a long battle. I started this goal during Christmas break of 2009. Back then I weighed 270 and honestly had lost control. Since then I have got back on track and am weighing in at 230. To get to this point I went on an extremely strict diet plan consisting of next to nothing.

Since then I have become a little more realistic in what I need to be in taking to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Yes I am closer to my goal than ever right now, but I am at that final push that’s giving me the hardest time. I want to cheat and eat whatever I want but I know I can’t. As one of my friends says “eat a lot of fiber and drink a lot of coffee, everything else you eat will slide right out…shit like a champion.” Unfortunately this isn’t the right option for me. I’m going more on the Slow-Carb diet created by Tim Ferris who wrote the Four Hour Body (which honestly is the first book I have reading about 5 years, so you know it’s got to be good check it out). This diet has been amazing for me, it fits my life style perfectly and I’m excited to keep going on it.

So at this point I have kind of rambled but now you guys know where I’m at and where I want to be. I plan on updating daily so you can see the progress or the revelations I have while working through this. Until the next one…