My Plan for the Summer

Life has not been going so well for me as of late, but I've still been going to the gym. My goal was to be "ho-ready" for a summer in China, in the words of YouTube's Chris Jones of Physiques of Greatness, but it looks like I'm stuck in America for the foreseeable future. This does not stop me from trying to improve my body and increase my strength.

While I am here in my hometown with access to a cheap, but effective gym membership, I plan to lift at least five times a week. So far, I have been accomplishing this goal. I have been doing more dropsets, lifting heavy and constantly trying to increase the amount of weight that I move each week. I am shooting to do three to five reps with heavy weight, then drop down and do six to eight reps right after with the usual weight that I'd move for maintenance. I am seeing great results with muscular growth and definition so far, and psychologically it feels great to know that I am increasing my strength.

Aside from lifting, I have continued with my heavy bag workouts for cardio, and I will be getting back into boxing soon. Also, while I was apprehensive to do so at first due to its feminized nature, I have begun taking Zumba classes once a week. This has been helping me with my flexibility to a degree, provides a great full-body workout, is good cardio, and it gives me something new to learn that I might be able to teach abroad if I master it. If I were into Latinas I'd certainly enjoy the eye candy there too.

If anything exciting comes up, I'll be sure to blog about it here, but for the time being it's business as usual.

Early Morning Non-Stop Workout

I decided to train shoulders and abs with a friend of mine that hits the gym right when it opens at 5:00 AM. I have been trying to reduce my resting periods in my exercise routines. For instance, if I am doing shoulder presses, I'll do my reps, then instead of sitting around for a moment like I used to, I will place a mat on the floor and I might do leg raises for thirty seconds to hit the abs, then get back in the chair and do another set of shoulder presses. This has helped me to condition myself without spending too much time doing cardio (not advocating people to skip cardio at all; I just prefer not to do it at the gym personally), and I am able to use my time at the gym more efficiently given my busy schedule.

Today was a bit different. My friend also likes to train without taking breaks in between sets, but rather than switching the targeted muscle like I do, he likes to train in a circuit, doing exercises that all hit the same muscle group back to back. Today, we did fours circuit of shoulder presses, shrugs, overhead dumbbell raises, lateral dumbbell raises, standing barbell rows, and cable raises. The only rest that we got was the time that it took to move on to the next station. About three-fourths of the way through the first circuit, I felt like I could not go on, but I pushed myself to at least do half of each set with no rest.

To finish things up, we did two circuits for abs. Each circuit consisted of thirty crunches, thirty leg raises, thirty flutter kicks, thirty bridges (also known as butt-raises), and thirty side twists with a ten-pound plate to hit the obliques. in these two circuit, I hit my three hundred reps that I like to do for abs during each workout, but since it was non-stop, it felt much more effective (or at least it made me feel sore much sooner).

I am certainly not at my friend's level yet, but maybe I will be with enough consistency. This type of workout plan seems excellent for building endurance as well as mental toughness, and will be of great value if and when I do get in the ring.

Maxing 225 on Decline Bench!

I know that this is not impressive in terms of weight alone, but being the lightweight that I am, and given that I couldn't even raise the bar a couple of years ago, I'm proud of this accomplishment. I hope that I can hit 225 for at least five clean reps by Summer of next year.

Another year of gainz is upon us!

Summertime Gainz and 6/19/2013 Leg Day

I finally have some time off during the summer, so I am going to try to utilize it to improve myself as a person. A large part of this self-improvement will be physical, as I try to increase the intensity of my workouts. This has already taken a bit of a toll on my body, but it is a fee worth paying as I have gained about two pounds of lean muscle mass in the past month (not a lot, I know, but it is something to write about for a hard-gainer like me).

Today was my fourth day in the gym this week, and it was leg day. I hurt my neck pretty badly yesterday when working my back and shoulders, so I couldn't squat too heavy. In order to make up for this, I hit the incline leg press a lot harder than I typically do. My workout went as follows:

4 sets, 8 - 12 reps back squats - 160 pounds
4 sets, 8 - 12 reps standing calf raises - 160 pounds
4 sets, 15 reps seated calf machine 150 pounds

I then moved on to the incline leg press machine. I started with ten plates (450 pounds) and did 8 reps. I remove two plates, then did ten reps. I repeated this until I was down to two plates on the machine. After a one minute rest, I repeated this process starting with four plates. I repeated this until I reached a two-plate start. This is much more activity for my quads and hams than I am used to, but I am sure that if I keep it up, I'll improve my strength and endurance (I'm also sure that it's going to burn a lot tomorrow).

To finish up, I did a few exercises for my abs:

4 sets, 12 - 15 reps decline bench crunches w/ 10 pound medicine ball for the obliques
2 supersets, "Captain's chair" leg raises

My workout wasn't very diverse today, but it was effective, and that is what matters. I hope to up the intensity in the coming weeks, and maybe add a few new exercises to my repertoire. Until next time.

Staying True to My Resolutions (So Far)

I have been keeping up with my resolutions for 2013 so far, although I wish that I hadn't set my goals so high. I have been in the gym five days a week working two muscle groups as I proposed, and I have also been hitting my heavy bag. This is really taking its toll on me, especially my shoulders.

Some people in the fitness community say that there is no such thing as over-training, and that one should always bear through the pain. I am of the belief that one does have to workout through pain to reach their goals, but that over-training can occur. I'm going to keep it up, but I may have to break my promises and take a rest from the heavy bag on some days. I will say this though: hitting the heavy bag has been keeping me sane and keeping me lean!

How are you doing with your New Year's resolutions? I hope that you are fulfilling them and exceeding your expectations!

Sick Day Leg Day

Usually I don't hit the gym on Saturdays with my current split, but I had planned to work legs with my friend. Unfortunately, I woke up dreadfully sick in a puddle of my own drool this morning (I ended up sleeping with my mouth open since my nose was too clogged to breathe).

I was still determined, however, since I didn't want to break my promise and I have a personal goal of hitting the gym at least five times (four times remaining) before the end of the year. After breakfast, I went a couple of rounds on the heavy bag to try to clear my congestion. Although I was unable to give it my all, my plan worked, and I was able to clear myself up somewhat and loosen up my stiff joints. i gave my friend a call, but he was busy. That's understandable, and there is no love loss between him and I.

I came into this world alone, and I go to the gym alone most of the time, so I still worked the legs. My illness took some of my breath away, so I had to take longer rest periods, but I am still satisfied with today's workout. I even threw in a few pullups for good measure. I actually feel much better after my workout, but I know that I'm going to need plenty of bed rest and fluid.

Speaking of fluid, I've decided to start taking whey supplements again. Instead of using them to replace a post-workout meal, however, I'm going to be using them to increase my caloric intake. I'll take them post-workout, then an hour later, I'll have my post-workout meal. Depending on how my body (digestive tract, most importantly) reacts to them, I might stagger my intake of whey protein.

One day down, four to go. Making gainz into 2013 and beyond!

Time For Some Heavy Lifting

I've decided to make another small modification to my plans for the end of the year. For the remainder of this month (and probably a week or so into January), I'm going to be lifting heavy. Instead of doing my usual 8-12 reps and pyramid sets, I'm going to be aiming for 6 - 8 with heavier weights in order to maximize strength gains. My new motto for this period will be "If I can do more than eight, I need more weight".

I also intend to rest less between sets in order to stay active. This would be easier if I worked multiple muscles in one day, as I'd be able to alternate between muscle groups. However, I've seen better results when dedicating days to single muscle groups, so I will stick with that plan for now. Perhaps I will change up and work multiple groups later in 2013.

Tomorrow, I put my new plan to the test with a leg day, which should not be a problem at all. I'll probably have to find a spotter once pectoral day comes along though.

I'll Probably Work Legs Thrice This Week

My plan this week is just as the title of this thread suggest.

My workout week began today with leg day. I did a super pyramid of ten sets of squats and standing calve raises, much like the workout that I did on November 26th (you can read about that in the second paragraph of this post). Instead of starting at twelve reps per set, however, I started at fifteen reps per set and ended at ten. I did not increase the weight, but I increased the volume of each set. I'm going to be going for high volume this week.

I am satisfied with this workout, but I feel that by doing squats alone, I am omitting exercises that would concentrate the workload on individual muscles. To make up for this, I will probably do deadlifts instead of hyperextensions on core day (Wednesday) to hit the lower back as well as the hamstrings. I'll probably do some quadriceps extensions on the machines on my arm day.

I won't be doing high volume for my legs until the next leg day, but I will feel like my leg regimen is more complete by adding these supplemental leg exercises to my regimen this week.

A Change in Plans for the Week of 11/26/2012

I've been off of supplements for about a month and a half now. I'm eating lots more and working out harder, which is working better for me than using whey, at least for now. Most of my gains have been muscular, but eating lots of food will undoubtedly cause me to gain some fat too. This can be expected when going through a bulking phase, but I'd still like to keep some of the fat off. It follows that I will have to add cardio back into my weekly routine, which will cause me to change my weekly schedule for the time being.

I hit legs on Sunday. Rather than doing a full regimen as I typically do, I did a "super pyramid" of ten sets, with each set consisting of a set of squats followed immediately by a set of standing calf raises. This super pyramid consisted of 3 sets of 15 with 45 pounds on each side, 3 sets of 12 with 50 pounds on each side, 3 sets of 10 with 55 on each side, and one set of 8 with 60 pounds on each side for good measure. This workout was just as effective as my typical leg day routine if not more so (my legs seemed to bulge out more after yesterday's workout than they typically do).

Today (Monday), I hit my pecs. I focused more on doing decline bench presses than I usually do. I did 3 sets of 10 with 35 pounds on each side, then from there, I did a pyramid consisting of one set of 10 with 35 pounds on each side, one set of 8 with 40 on each side, and one set of 6 with 45 on each side. I realized that my left shoulder was still a bit sore from hitting the heavy bag on Saturday, but I pushed myself to do 2 sets of flat bench presses with 45 pounds on each side, 3 sets of incline bench presses with 25 pounds on each side, 4 sets of body weight dips, and 3 sets of 8 on the iso-lateral machine with 60 pounds on each side. I ended my workout by doing a super set of 30 leg raises in the "captain's chair" for my lower abs.

As for the remainder of the week, I intend to hit my lats and do cardio tomorrow (Tuesday), hit my core on Wednesday or Thursday, then hit my shoulders and arms on Friday. I'll end the week by taking a jog and hitting my heavy bag on Saturday for cardio. I will take either Wednesday or Thursday off to rest and run errands; I'm running low on food supplies and I'll need my fuel after all.

Is There an Ideal Time for Working Out?

I was watching the news the other day, and they had a segment talking about the ideal time for exercising. According to their research, the best time to exercise is between 4 P.M. and 6 P.M. since our bodies have maximum lung capacity during these two hours of the day.

I'm no biologist, but personally, I call B.S.. As with most things dealing with fitness, the best time to exercise probably depends on the individual. For me, my energy peaks twice daily; once in the morning at about 10 AM, and once in the afternoon around 1 PM.. I generally hit the gym in the early afternoon to take advantage of my second energy peak and due to the sparse crowds at the gym. The time that works for you will depend on your own body, schedule, and other factors.

If there is any truth at all to what the news report said though, I wonder if this increased lung capacity is hard-wired into our biological clock or if it goes by local time. For example, if I were to move back to Japan, would my peak lung capacity be between the hours of 8 A.M. and 10 A.M.? When we "fall back" an hour for daylight saving's time tomorrow, will our lung capacity fall back an hour with us? Just a curiosity.

Workout Diary: Push and Biceps Day 10/26/2012

I haven't been able to blog lately due to my schedule. Hopefully I'll pick things back up again next week.

Yesterday was my pectoral and triceps day. I only got 15 sets done yesterday due to under-eating. This was totally unacceptable, so I decided to incorporate a few extra  push exercises to work my upper pecs, shoulders, and triceps. I also worked biceps today as planned. Today's workout went as follows:

4 sets, 12 reps wide grip dips - body weight
3 sets, 12 reps barbell curls - 50 pounds
3 sets, 10 reps barbell shoulder presses - 60 pounds
3 sets, 10 reps dumbbell shoulder presses - 35 pounds each in hand
2 sets, 10 reps preacher curl machine - 70 pounds
3 sets, 10 reps incline dumbbell presses - 35 pounds each hand
3 sets, 10 reps dumbbell shrugs - 65 pounds in each hand
4 sets, 10 reps hammer curls - 25 pounds in each hand

That's much better. I want to keep up this level of intensity if possible. this will require me to eat more in order to keep my body energized, and to provide building material for my muscles. Remember that when you lift at the gym, you're actually tearing your muscles. If you do not provide building material (protein and carbohydrates) to repair and build your muscles, you will actually lose muscle and your hard work will be in vain!

Workout Diary: Leg Day ft. Abs 10/22/2012

Typically, I start each week with a pectoral workout, but I decided to work the legs today since I missed working them on Friday. I made it a point to show myself no mercy. If I couldn't make it through this workout, then I was a wussy and a shame to all of my friends and family. This may sound childish, but it got me through the day, because I was still feeling down when I first started my workout. My leg workout went as follows:

3 sets, 12 reps incline leg press - 270 pounds for warmup
1 set, 12 reps incline leg press - 320 pounds
6 sets, 10 reps squats - 50 pounds on each side
5 sets, 20 reps standing calf raises - 50 pounds on each side
4 sets, 15 reps sitting calf raises - 90 pounds

After that leg workout, I still had a lot of energy to expend. My anger, disappointment, and rage gave me power. I felt as if I could beat a character from Dragon Ball Z, well, at least a low-tier one like Yamcha.

I decided to do some ab exercises to end my workout:

4 sets, 8 - 12 reps decline bench situps w/ medicine ball for obliques
2 sets, 10 reps ab machine - 70 pounds

I'm satisfied with this workout. I've made improvements and got a lot of of my mind. Time to get back on track.

Rest and Nutrition are Key

It is said that gains are not made in the gym, but rather at home. This means that you stimulate your muscles at the gym (or wherever you may choose to exercise), but your muscles actually grow when you are resting.

Lifting weights causes microtears in your muscles (part of what makes you sore after a strenuous workout). When your body repairs these tears, your muscles grow back stornger. This requires the right nutrition, plenty of proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats, as well as proper sleep. Failure to eat right or sleep right can actually result in a loss of muscle, despite how much weight you lift. If you want to see more gains, then be sure to get enough calories and rest, that is, unless you just like picking up heavy stuff, putting it down, and repeating without seeing any changes in your physique.

Proper nutrition is also important to provide fuel through your workout. A good breakfast with complex, slow-burning carbs and protein can help you to sustain your energy throughout your regimen. You'll have to keep it up on days that you don't workout too. Soreness that lasts days after your workout can be an indicator that your body is still healing, and thus, still needs proper fuel and rest. Sometimes this soreness can be alleviated by taking in the right kinds and amounts of nutrients.

This piece of advice is primarily for those that are trying to gain muscle. For those of you who are trying to lose fat, nutrition and rest are still important, but you will want to try to have a caloric deficit (in other words, take in less calories than you burn with your basal metabolic rate plus physical activity).

Workout Diary: Leg and Bicep Day 10/4/2012

I originally planned to work abs and biceps today and run/walk to the gym for cardio, but the heat made me change my mind. Since I wasn't hoofing it to the gym, I decided on working the legs today. I still elected to workout my biceps today instead of tomorrow, since I want to hit the heavy bag on Saturday, and I can get more out of my workout if my biceps aren't too sore. This is what I did today:

6 sets, 10 reps squats - 45 pounds on each side
4 sets, 15 - 20 reps standing calf raises - 45 pounds on each side
4 sets, 12 reps sitting calf raises - 90 pounds
3 sets, 8 reps deadlifts - 110 pounds

I found myself barely able to walk after these sets (which is my goal on every leg day), so I went and did some exercises for my biceps. Since the exercises that I did on back day also incorporate the biceps, I decided to keep the volume light:

3 sets preacher curl weight-plate-loaded machine - 65 pounds
3 sets hammer curls - 25 pound dumbbells in each hand

I skipped the leg press machine since a group of people were hogging it to themselves; I made up for it by doubling the sets of squats. In relation to this, I noticed that on the leg press machine, I can lift almost double the amount of weight that I can squat. This may be the machine taking away some of the resistance, but more likely, it is the additional pressure that squatting places on the back and shoulders. Squatting probably isn't something that I want to do too close behind back day or shoulder day (which was yesterday; just didn't write about it). I might have to reschedule my split one week and see if there is any improvement in my squats.

Workout Diary: Back Day 10/2/2012

I made it to the gym a bit earlier today, so I was able to use all of the equipment that I wanted to. I decided against adding shoulders to today's workout; I'll work on them tomorrow. Today's workout was as follows:


4 sets, 8 - 12 reps wide grip pullups - body weight
2 sets, 8 - 12 reps underhand grip pullups - body weight
3 sets, 10 reps hyperextensions - holding 35 pound plate
2 sets, 10 reps hyperextensions - body weight
3 sets, 10 reps barbell rows 80 pounds
3 sets, 10 reps cable row machine - 125 pounds
2 sets, 6 reps cable row machine - 160 pounds
2 sets, 10 reps lat bar pull downs, behind the neck - 85 pounds


Typically, I like to do machine exercises before using free weights on back day (which is the opposite of how I try to work arms), but this routine worked well for me due to the crowd at the gym. I also felt that I was able to get more done with good form. I might continue using this regimen, or a modified version of it in the future.

Give It Just a Litttle Bit More

Unless you have some insane genetics, you probably won't get all of the progress that you want after a single workout session. In fact, it could take years of dedicated exercise to reach your desired goals.

Of course you need to increase the intensity of your workout, but you should do so gradually. Instead of trying to lift the entire gym your second week of working out, add to your regimen gradually. For example, you can try to lift an extra five pounds, increase your workout volume by one additional set, or do an additional rep as part of each set. If you are a runner, try to run an additional thirty seconds, or even a mere hundredth of a mile. it may not seem like much, but every little bit helps and gets you one step closes to your fitness goals.

I try to practice what I preach. I worked my pectorals and tricepss today, following the same workout template that I did last week. In order to up the intensity, I added ten pounds (five on each side) to the iso-lateral weight-plate-loaded machine, and did an additional set of wide-grip dips. I wasn't really able to add to the bench presses just yet, but I hope to do so next week. Ideally, I will be able to perform sets of ten by the end of October.

Fitness Advice: Take Notes

You should take notes to record your fitness progress. These notes can help you to set benchmarks, repeat a successful workout, or fix any mistakes that you may have made. Bring a pen and paper if it helps, or if you are a technophile, you may be able to use one of those fancy smartphones or tablets; I'm sure that they have apps for it.

Aside from which exercises, how many sets and reps you performed, how much weight you lifted, and so on, you may also want to take note of seemingly minor details. For example, you may want to note the height that you set the pulleys at when performing pectoral cable flies, or the incline that you set the bench at when performing dumbbell incline bench presses. This way, you won't have to waste time trying to figure out the perfect settings for the equipment that you use (speaking from experience here).

Just wanted to share that tidbit of advice. Here's hoping that you have a safe, healthy, and enjoyable weekend!

Workout Diary: Back and Shoulders Day 9/26/2012

Hit my back and shoulders today. Things didn't go as planned since it was crowded this evening and I really couldn't use every piece of equipment that I wanted to, but I did make up for it by doing more sets of other exercises.

My workout today was as follows:

4 sets, 8 - 12 reps wide grip pullups - body weight
2 sets, 8 - 12 reps underhand grip pullups - body weight
3 sets, 10 reps hyperextensions - holding 35 pound plate
3 sets, 10 reps cable row machine - 125 pounds
2 sets, 8 reps cable row machine - 140 pounds
3 sets, 10 reps dumbbell shoulder presses 35 pounds each arm
3 sets, 10 reps shoulder shrugs 60 pounds each arm
3 sets, 10 reps upright shoulder rows 40 pounds

I usually like to get some lat bar pull downs in as well as additional hyperextensions using body weight. I overexerted my lower back last week though, so I cut out the body weight sets and upped the weight that I held by ten pounds. I made up for not doing barbell rows by doing additional cable rows, and I made up for not doing any pull downs by doing extra pullups. I am satisfied with today's workout, but I hope to increase the weight next week if I can.

Workout Diary: Pec and Tri Day 9/24/2012

I went to the gym and hit my pectoral muscles and triceps today. Typically, I warm up by doing two sets on the pectoral fly machine, but I omitted this and just did a superset of bench presses, raising the bar only.

My workout today was as follows:

4 sets, 8 reps flat bench press - 45 plates on each side
4 sets, 8 reps decline bench press - 30 pounds on each side
3 sets, 8 - 12 reps iso-lateral weight-plate-loaded machine - 50 pounds on each side
2 sets, 10 reps incline bench press - 25 pounds on each side
4 sets, 12 reps wide-grip dips - body weight
2 sets, 10 reps tricep rope pulldowns 30 pounds

This is a lower number of sets than I have been doing previously, but I try to bring the bar all the way down to my chest when performing bench presses now. In the past, I only brought the bar down  far enough for my arms to be parallel to the bench. The larger range of motion is more effective, but it reduces the number of sets that I can complete. Hopefully, I'll be able to increase my volume and/or weight by this time next month.

Working Out For a Healthy Mind

Exercising can help you to improve your physical health, but did you know that it can also help your mental health? Sticking to a workout regimen can help you to occupy your mind with positivity rather than negativity. Regular exercise can give you something fun to look forward to in order to get a break from your hectic life.

If you are having a bad day, you can let it out at the gym and hit the weights instead of keeping that aggression bottled up inside. Not only will physical activity allow you to let out aggression in a productive manner, but it has been scientifically proven that exercising releases chemicals, such as endorphins, which help to improve one's mood. If your schedule is very busy, then you are in luck since it only takes about thirty minutes of moderate-intensity exercise to ease tension, anger, depression, and other negative feelings on average.

Finally, for those shy people out there, exercising at a gym may help you to overcome any apprehension that you may have to being around others. Personally, I haven't formed close relationships with anyone at my local gym, but talking to the staff and other people that frequent the gym has helped me to improve my social confidence.

Regular exercise has certainly helped to improve my state of mind, and it can do the same for you! Start an exercise regimen of your own, and you will see improvements in your physical and mental health!