Just in case anyone still comes here...

[mecalder]

Hey how is everyone?

I am pretty good. I am going to college for Journalism. It is a 2 year course and so far it is pretty fun. I do need to learn to manage my student loan a bit better though

The fitness isn't going too bad. It isn't really my main priority anymore, but I am still giving it considerable effort. Each day now I walk between 4-15 km. The 15 is actually a guess, but I do have days where I just walk for hours. I assume it is somewhere around that number. When I walk to school, I have a laptop bag I need to carry. In the bag I've put weights to give me some extra training. People seem to think I'm crazy carrying around a 35 pound bag everywhere, but once being a bodybuilder, it makes it difficult to not take things as opportunities to train. Also, aside from walking, I've been doing pushups every other day, and getting in some sit ups, and curls. For pushups, I compete with a friend, and we try to set the bar higher every time. We started with only being able to do a few... he could do like 12 when we started, and I could do like 8. Last day we did them, he did 22, and I did 26. This is the results after only like 1 month of pushups. I'm hoping to clear 30 today.

Anyways, just thought I would fill in how things have been with me. I hope to hear from someone.

[mecalder]

Hey Guys

I'm going to start coming here a bit more often. I think it would be cool if we were able to get this place up and going again. It was fun when we all came in here and discussed our training methods, or even conversed.

I am doing a lot better fitness wise than I was during my last message. It seems nearly impossible to lose motivation with going to college. (All the girls ) When I wrote my last message I was still getting used to living in the new area, but now fitness is once again a major priority. I don't have the money for a gym membership right now, so I am going to wait for my next student loan and get one in January. Until then, I am doing short, home workouts, three times a day. For example, this morning I did 50 total pushups with my feet elevated on the couch. I did 45 normal, then 5 more with touching my chest to the floor. Then I also did 150 total crunches, and around 40 total upright rows for each hand, using a 30 pound backpack. In a few minutes I am going to do the next workout, which will be different exercises. I am thinking I will do floor pushups with my hands far apart to get more of a chest pump this time, and probably more crunches, and reverse backpack curls.

My main fitness priority right now is endurance and weight loss. Because of the cold, and all the things I have to carry I'm not walking to school as often.. but I do make sure to go for a good speed walk each day for my cardio. When I moved here, I weighed around 300, now after nearly 3 months, I weigh 270, and I have lost 4 inches off my waist. My next goal is to lose another 30 pounds. I am making my all of my weight loss goals 30 pounds. My long term goal is 180-200 by the end of June. That is when school is out, and my official summer begins. I am competing in this contest to 180 with my cousin, who weighs 140 pounds. That is another good source of motivation.

As for college, It is really fun. We have learned some stuff about recording verbal interviews and editing all the bad stuff out of it. We have learned how to take professional pictures and edit them on photoshop. We have learned how to lay out a newspaper using InDesign. And we are now learning how to shoot video, and how to put together film clips. I especially enjoy the film, because I like putting together scripts, so I get to do that now.

Well, I hope to talk to some people on here. Maybe we can turn the forums into a busy spot again.

[mecalder]

Started up a gym membership today. I'm pretty excited about it. Hoping to talk to you guys.

[BIG TY]

hey matt told ya i would drop in. glad to hear ur still training a bit. im really focused on my training. im at 215 lbs. im taking in alot of protein i stay away from fatty foods. i train twice a day very intense and very heavy still. im tryin to do a contest in june to get a pro card. i just need to master my diet. on another note i would like to see some of the regulars come back to the forums to.

[mecalder]

I've got a pretty back cold right now, so when I go to the gym I don't do a lot of cardio. I find I run out of breath easily right now. So for now, I'm just going to do heavy lifting. When this cold gets over with, I'm thinking I may do trisets including cardio. Like 1 set of chest presses, 1 set of crunches, 5 minutes of HIIT cardio. And do that like 8 times with different exercises.

I've been going to Men's basketball every thursday night. Hoping to get into good enough shape so that I can beat my brothers again

[BIG TY]

just keep at it. u will get into shape. keep motivated. sometimes u have to motivate urself. my strength level has gotten better. i lift a bit heavy now. want to put more size on. i will be on creatine and protein for the next month with some no xplode. i should packs some muscle on then.

[mecalder]

That no xplode works pretty well, I remember using it. Pretty soon I might get some protein powder... when I get my next student loan I've been paying attention to my nutrition a lot now. I can't eat a bodybuilding diet because I am limited to canned foods. But I take in a multi vitamin a day, drink lots of water, and try to get a good protein/carb ratio out of the cupboard. Like I have been eating a lot of tuna, baked beans, and pistachios. Also, I eat a few slices of bread with eat meal for an extra boost of carbs. I still think my calorie intake is pretty low, but as long as I am exercising, I know that my body is accomplishing something, so I'm not too worried about it right now.

I had a pretty good workout today. It was short, because I don't have a lot of time. In 25 minutes I did 4 sets of seated chest presses superset with 4 sets of pulldowns. Then did 3 sets of incline dumbbell presses, superset with 3 sets of bentover dumbbell rows. Each set was heavy, so I could do 6-8 reps, and if it was so heavy that I could only do 3-4 I would turn it into a dropset, and get 10-12 total reps. I might be training with my uncle over Christmas break, and I want to go into training at the same strength as him, so I need to do some serious strength training right now.

Tomorrow I will be doing deadlifts, shoulders and traps. I am pretty excited about it. I'll get online and talk about it after.

[BIG TY]

looks like ur on the right track. ur training sounds good. u should get good results. im trying to get more muscle separation. i can see i need more in the pics i took.

[mecalder]

I read once that you can get more muscle separation from stretching. Do you do much of that? I have been looking through bodybuilding.com a lot since people don't seem to come here anymore, and I entered a fat loss competition. The deadline for pics and for entering is the first of January.

On bb.com now, you can make a site called bodyspace, which I suppose is like facebook or myspace for bodybuilders. I really like it, it is really organized. Here is mine here:

http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/mecalder86/

It would be cool if some of you made on of these so we could communicate through body space.

[mecalder]

Today's Workout:

I didn't have any weights to train with so I did speed training. Each rep is performed as fast as possible, but also with the best form possible. Before doing this I did around 150 jumping jacks. I was timing myself in sets of 30. My best time was 19 seconds. The workout I did, I did twice, since one of my brothers showed up just after I completed it the first time, wanting to workout. So since I did it twice, I am sore from head to toe, and I am very satisfied about that. Here is the workout:

2 Karate Katas for a warmup

30 explosive pushups

75 crunches

30 Knees with each side

30 Side kicks with each leg

30 Straight Punches with each arm

30 Backhand/Cross Combos

30 Punch/Elbow Combos with each side

30 Jab/Cross/Elbow Combos

30 Jab/Cross/Kick Combos

50 Jumping Jacks

2 Minutes of Shadow Boxing

Stretching

Some muscles that I am especially happy that got sore are my upper triceps and all of my forearms. I usually have a difficult time targeting my upper triceps, then to make it sore is even better. And my forearms, although I do train them often, don't get sore often, so maybe by doing this for a while, I will develop some different muscles.

Since I am home right now and it is freezing in my uncle's garage, I am not sure if I will lift weights or not until I go back to the town that I attend college in. Until January 1 or 2 I will probably do this workout above, and some additional pushups and ab exercises for good measure.

After I get back, I will begin training for the 3 month contest on bodybuilding.com. I think I may do a morning/afternoon split. With training abs and cardio in the mornings, and doing my weight lifting routine after classes. That way I can get more time in for each cardio and anaerobics while I am at the gym.