mecalder's journal

[mecalder]

My uncle and I decided we would start training our arms a little harder, and really try to develope some good power in them. Some exercises we are going to do are:

One Armed Cable Pushdowns
Lockouts, using 150% of our 10 rep bench press weight
Preacher Curls
Concentration Curls
Hammer Curls
Barbell Curl Partials for max lifting
Wrist Curls from all angles

I want to try to get into some arm wrestling tournaments. My uncle said there is one scheduled for November 3rd. We are planning on just watching this one, until we are sure we can go in and whipe away the majority of our competition. Today he got unexpected company and our training was cut off short, so we plan to make up for that workout tomorrow. I'll post more about it after that.

[mecalder]

Well, my ankle withstood the grueling 3 hours of karate tonight. I think I really need to push my abs, pushups, and cardio harder, because I really have a tough time keeping up with the conditioning part of it. My sensei's tell me that I can take it easy if I want, since I haven't been going for very long. But taking it easy around all those people that aren't taking it easy is embarassing, so I think I am really going to start getting at it. Here is a rough idea of what we do that is so difficult:

First 10 minutes: Stretching
Second 10 minutes: Kicks, and Punches
Third 10 minutes: A Variation of jumping on the spot, jumping jacks, and jogging on the spot.
Next Exercise: Around 60-70 pushups, first with hands close together, than hands backwards, then normal.
Next Exercise: Plank for abs. Lasts around 3-4 minutes.
Next Exercise: 150-200 crunches
Next Exercise: Jack Knifes (Leg Raises while in a sit up position) for about 40-50 reps.

Each time I go there they push us harder than the time before. So next time we'll probably be doing 80 pushups. So I really need to make sure I improve to keep up.

My uncle and I are planning on watching the tournament in November. I'm making it my goal to compete in January.

[mecalder]

Today was back to the split workout with my uncle. We added some new exercises, and added some resistances to some exercises. It was fun.

Started out with a giant set that trained Shoulders, Traps, and Abs. I got around the giant set around 5 times in the set 30 minutes. Started out with Overhead Barbell Press, starting with 105 pounds, going up to 125. Then went to close gripped upright rows, starting at 85 pounds, going up to 105. Then to barbell shrugs, starting at 135 pounds, going up one plate at a time to an eventual 315 pounds. Then Jack Knifes.

Even though the shoulder training was fun, part 2 was more enjoyable. Started with 5 minutes practicing some punches on the heavy bag. Knuckles are all tore apart from last time (Trying to toughen them up) so this time I wore gloves. Next exercises was 5-10 minutes of pushing my truck. Heavy truck, there were points where all I could do was push a few inches, then let it roll back to where I started (slightly up hill). But I think if I keep working on it, I should eventually be able to push it pretty easily, which should develop a lot of power. The next exercise was flipping the old 150 pound tire to the end of the driveway and back. It's a hellish exercise, but satisfying in the end. After all this, my uncle came up with the idea from watching UFC training to have one of us lay down, protecting areas we don't want getting hit, while the other person drops a 12 pound medicine ball from around 4 feet up on the person laying downs stomach. I had never done this before. Let me tell you, the first time it hit, I knew it. Didn't it feel weird. So after he dropped it on my stomach twenty times, he laid down, and I returned the favor.

I took melatonin, and am hoping that it takes affect soon so that I can get to bed. When I get up I want to do around 15-20 minutes of stretching, some ab training, pushups, and possibly some plyometrics and jogging. During the workout with my uncle, we do many strength and endurance exercises, so in the morning I thought I would do more for endurance, some for flexibility, and some for power and speed. I read that Tito Ortiz trained 7 hours a day, 6 days a week. I realize he was probably taken some type of supplement, and has enough experience to train that long. But if I can even train 3 hours a day, I don't think it will hurt. Considering lately I have been focusing my workout toward being a better fighter, besides trying to burn fat. So, I'm simply going to do a morning workout once again, and an afternoon workout. Also, for a supplement, I am still drinking the Monavie. I've felt alot better since I began drinking it. After a long night's sleep, when I drink 2 ounces I feel quite rejuvenated.

Tomorrow, or the next day I will probably write more, and hope to also get my pics sent to Almasy, which I embarrassingly messed up on.... Put Nov 20 on for date instead of October, so I'm going to see if there is anything I can do about that on paint before I send them. If not, I guess I'll just have to explain. Took me long enough to get my uncle to take those pics, don't want to pester him about more until February.

[mecalder]

Today's workout had some high spots and low spots. The low spot.. I didn't wake up for my alarm clock this morning, and Mom turned it off without waking me, so I guess I'll have to do that workout tomorrow morning and so on. But, once again the afternoon workout was satisfying.. painful at the time, but satisfying. Trained legs and abs today. Didn't do a lot of exercises, simply superset walking lunges using 95 pounds with abs. My uncle did hanging leg raises for legs, but I find those to be horribly uncomfortable, so I found another exercise that I find works just as well. What I do is lay down flat, and raise my legs high enough that I have a constant strain on my abs, then do crunches until my fists touch my knees. Feels real good. If you want to make it feel a little better, try holding the contracted rep.

For the second half, we did 5 minute sets of 5 different exercises: Farmer Walks with the 80 pound dumbbells, tire flips, clean and press using 95 pounds, heavy bag punches, and skip roping. Once again, hopefully tomorrow morning I will be up to do my morning workout, then I'll have a little more to write on here tomorrow night.

[mecalder]

Managed to get up this morning for my morning workout. Here is a list of what I did:

Pushups
Set 1 - 14 reps
Set 2 - 11 reps
Set 3 - 10 reps
Set 4 - 8 reps
Set 5 - 7 reps

Abs
V Ups Set 1 - 10 reps
Set 2 - 15 reps (This exercises strangely feels much better from using a weight bench, than from the floor.)
Crunches - 50 reps

Practiced Karate for around 10 minutes, and stretched my legs, back, shoulders, ankles, and wrists.

For cardio, I decided I would start out with speed walking for week 1. Then try to jog on week 2 and so on. The distance was 1.6 km. And I speed walked it in 24 minutes. There were some points where I slowed down, like when the bottom of my feet hurt (old shoes), or when I was going downhill (so it wouldn't be to bad on the knees.) Overall, I'm satisfied.

[mecalder]

Friend of mine came down so I haven't had alot of time to record anything on here. Training hasn't been horrible, but not excellent. Since he's going home tomorrow I'm really going to get at it again.

[mecalder]

I'm currently doing a style of lifting like Longhaul mentioned. I'm training like I'm bulking, but I'm still watching what I eat, and losing pounds. I was getting bored with my workout, so I started to train hard and heavy again, making my muscles sore after every workout and now I am liking it again. I am training 5 days a week, doing 1 - chest/biceps 2 - back/triceps 3 - shoulders/traps 4 - arms 5 - legs, and I am satisfied for now.

[mecalder]

Since I've been lifting heavier, each time I do a workout, I'll try to make it a little harder than the last week. Today I had an excellent shoulder workout, that I'm hoping will turn sore tomorrow:

Warm up - Superset between Dumbbell Snatches, and front raises with a 35 pound plate for 3 sets.

Overhead Dumbbell Presses 5 sets with 40 pounds for an average of 7 reps. So I think I'll stick with this weight until my average reaches 10, then I'll move up to 50 pounds.

Clean and Press 5 sets. The first couple sets were kind of bad, each set I tried to push myself harder and harder. Used 115 pounds, for an average of 3 reps per set. Sure that's not a muscle building rep range, but each rep was pushed out, my training partner and I could tell we were doing the exercise.

Rear Lateral Raises 4 sets with 20 pound dumbbells for an average of 10 reps a set. I'm still going to stick with this weight until my average rep range is around 13 or 14 then move up, since I felt the movement, and we can only move up in 10 pound increments.

Barbell Shrugs 5 sets with 165 pounds for an average of 15 reps. We shrugged at a decent speed, but still tried to hold it at the top once in a few reps.

Upright Rows 4 sets with 95 pounds for 2 sets. Each of these sets were for 10 reps, and I thought it was too easy and moved up to 115 pounds for the other 2 sets, which I got 7-8 reps with. Upright rows still has to be one of my favorite exercises. I love how it feels.

I read last night that it isn't as necessary in a workout to do front delts, which makes sense, since they are used in bench presses, and are always the larger portion of the shoulder, so this workout I avoided focusing on that part of my shoulders. I thought by doing 2 compound movements, isolating the rears, and by hitting traps after I would make a good workout, and eventually get the results I want in my shoulders. I was correct on the good workout part anyways.

Today was our 5th day lifting in a row. Our plan was to go 5 days on, 2 off. But it got messed up last week, so we are going to do arms tomorrow, take the next day off, legs on the next day, a day off, then get back on track with 5 days in a row starting with chest.

[mecalder]

I forgot to add in my last write up. I also changed my muscle groups slightly. Since we work our arms hard on day 4 (arm day) I removed the separate biceps/triceps workouts from chest and back day. Instead on Chest, Back, and Leg day, I am going to superset each exercise with abs.

[mecalder]

Over the last 2 days I did arms, and legs. Arms was sort of disappointing. I worked them hard, but I think I added in the wrong exercises, and will change that next week. And Legs were enjoyable yesterday.

Arms:

Close Gripped Bench Press for 3 sets with 115 pounds for 10 reps, then 2 more sets with 135 pounds for 7-8 reps.
Superset With
Concentration Curls for 5 sets with 30 pounds for 8-10 reps.

French Press for 4 sets with 75 pounds for 10-12 reps.
Superset With
Static Curls with for 4 sets with 20 pound dumbbells for 10-12 reps. (This was one exercise I won't do next time.)

Pressdowns for 3 sets with 100 pounds for 10-12 reps.
Superset With
EZ Bar drop sets for 3 sets. Starting at 80 pounds and dropping 10 pounds at a time getting down to the bar. Each time we'd drop weight we'd aim for 6-10 reps. (Not doing this next time either)

Legs:

Squats for 2 sets with 135 pounds for 12 reps. 2 sets with 225 pounds for 10 reps. 2 sets with 295 pounds for 7-8 reps.

Stiff Legged Deadlifts for 6 sets with 135 pounds for 10-12 reps. (Next time increasing to 225)

Lunges for 3 sets with 135 pounds for 5-6 reps per leg.