Total Physique Online

Partial Deadlifts With Volvo: Traps, Calves, Forearms

• Calf Raise Volvo: 5 x 6-8 (strength gain in terms of reps and sets. Endurance so much better); sweated like crazy in the sun. It was great.
• Partial Deads From Near Lockout: 4 x 3-4 fail (needed chalk as my grip was slipping, but pulled hard as hell)
• Thick Bar Forearms Vulcan: 5c x 13, 9, 7, 6 5secSH (more gain)
• Regular Handle Forearms Vulcan: 5c x 5, 5, 6
• Rear Neck: 25lbs x 25, 22, 12 5secSH

Awesome session. I had a protein drink just before training! I also had good sleep. Imagine me, training in the morning. I have not done that for…well, a long time. This was just incredible. I may consider this part A). I might want to do another session tonight. We will see.

Welcome to Hearts of Space

I realise this post is left field of fitness and strength, but I really enjoy this radio program. If you are into music like I am, and from time to time you enjoy more than just banging your head, you may want to give this a try.

This radio program is thoroughly enjoyable and it is a veritable cornucopia of ambient sounds and spacial sonic-landscapes. The website hosts a huge database of hour-long programs that can be listened to over and over.

The membership rates are very reasonable. Plus, you get to listen to a live broadcast each week on your public access radio (Usually Friday nights. Check your broadcast affiliate times). In addition to being able to stream the current weeks program all day long on Sundays (you need Quicktime or some media player to stream programs from the website).

Lower Body: hams, lowback, glutes

• Thick Bar Stiff Deads Vulcan: 9c x 20, 18, 11 (strength gain from 1 week ago) increase 1cable next session
• Thick Bar Shruggs Vulcan: 9c x 20, 20, 20 (5 up from week ago) increase 1cable next session
• Thick Bar Forearms: 5c x 11, 5, 5, 6 5secSH (5 up from week ago) increase 1cable next session

Ok, not bad. I did not sleep last night. I was too discouraged about coughing. I had a tough night, so for me to come in here and hit a heavy low body like this (I could shruggs as part of that) I am pretty impressed. I am also spent. My lungs, however, felt grand!

Soreness. I love it. There are some who will tell you that being sore means you over trained. The will tell you that getting sore from a workout means you did too much and that your workout was counterproductive. I suppose these same people would try to tell you that if you merely sweat during a workout you are working too much. Hog wash!

I am far from being enough of an expert to argue with these people, but I can tell you that I enjoy being sore. Being sore let’s me know I have been in a fight. In much the same way that sweating lets me know I have been working hard. I like soreness.

I am sore as hell today. I hurt all over. Something about harnessing myself to my Volvo and lifting it got to my hamstrings and they are on fire today. So are my calves. In fact, calves are feeling awesome. And it only took three sets to do them in.

Chest? Screaming. Serratus and ribs? I feel like a quarterback who was just blindsided 20 times by Lawrence Taylor. Back and shoulders? Are you kidding me? Biceps? Yup. Go figure. Take a look at the workout on 11/20. A whopping 4 exercises, done to failure for 2-4 sets (accept for pushups, of course). Who needs weights! Heheh.

Gimme cables, cars and heavy objects to move around. No wonder IronWorkers are so tough! And they rarely touch a barbell.

Upper Body

How do you do donkey calf raises if you do not have a training partner or a donkey calf machine?

Well, if you have a Volvo, you do donkey calf raises with THAT instead. Yup. That’s right. I used my Hip Belt from Ironmind Enterprises, hooked myself to the rear tow hook at the rear of my Volvo, placed the balls of my feet on a 2×4, straightened my legs til nearly 400 or so pounds was suspended by the belt on my hips and I began to do calf raises. Amazing. Who needs a donkey calf machine!

• Donkey Calf Raise: Back of Volvo - 3 x 6-8 (massive, crippling burn)
• Forearms: Thick Bar - 3 x 10, 8, 5 (tears in eyes pain; awesome pump; slow controlled reps - wow)
• Pushups: chest to board - 40, 10, 15, 10, 10, 10 10 (105 total)
• Parallel Chins: weighted 24lbs x 5, 3 5SHsec, 3 5SHsec (wow, can’t tell if I was stonger here or not)

The fact is that in the last 4 weeks I have gotten in maybe 4 solid workouts. In and of itself this would not be such a bad thing if I had had the proper diet. But, reduced calories, protein and fats, coupled with poor sleep, stress and more…well, friend, what you have right there is a recipe for atrophied muscles, loss of strength and endurance, not to mention depression. So, the fact that I trained today is a borderling miracle.

Diet: Packed in about 800 calories by 4 pm. Not much. Will do a protein drink in an hour. About 1/3 of what I need. Main thing is to drink lots of water. Update: Add a protein shake (600 calories) at 430 pm. It is dark outside again, or getting there fast. I just cannot stand this time of year. I am so sleepy. It’s hard to train when I feel this way. Thank God for the coffee bean.

My web sites have kept me up nearly a full week again, but thankfully they are pretty much up and running accept for cfCure, which is on the back burner. Level of focus not bad, but is usually better when my nutritional needs are more than adequately met.

Is there anything more boring than an entry on sleep! Would it help you to know I am typing this in the nude. No? Oh well. You can please some of the folks….yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah…

Well, at least for now diet is good. MONEY IS TIGHT. My caloric intake for today is almost 3500 though. Not bad, but I need more protein. Lot’s more. Also, a lot of my calories are coming from milk, which is not good, but it is cheap. It costs me in congestion though, which for someone with CF is like Kryptonite for Superman.

This week, the past two weeks really, have been bad for sleep. I have been working very hard to transition my three sites over to GoDaddy. So, today I slept. Several naps, in fact. I needed it.

By the way, I am very sore. My traps, glutes and hams are on fire from yesterdays session. I will be back to barbells eventually, but for now these workouts are killer, and I love the change of pace. I look forward to tomorrows session.

Low Back, Glutes, Forearms

• Thick Bar Vulcan Partial Deads 9c x 20, 15, 15, (inhaler) 15, (interesting. Cables tighten throughout the pull. Feels like about 185 lbs-215 lbs at the top. The angle pulls you slightly forward, which increases the intensity at the top.)
• Vulcan Shrugs 9c x 15 (challenging to say the least), 15, 15 (see how traps and back core feel tomorrow)
• Thick Bar Forearms 5c x 10, (wow, brutal, the thick bar approach is so unique), 6, 4 (easily 90 lbs here)

Diet: Packed in about 1500 calories by 4 pm. About half of what I need. But we will do the best we can.

I’m thankful I had that! Will consume some protein in an hour. Update: Add a protein shake (600 calories) and a Sandwich and 2 cups milk to the days diet. It is dark outside and I was sleepy when I began to train (web sites have kept me up nearly a full week). Level of focus not bad, but is usually better during the day. Still, this was not bad for an evening session

A couple of weeks ago I had a spiritual insight into how God communicates with us. This is my first, and maybe only, podcast. I hope you find it interesting. There are few places in the podcast that represent some personal moments of transparency that contain words best suited for adult ears. Mind you, this was my first podcast and I might as well leave it the way it is.

Special thanks go out to Jeff and his wife, who runs http://images.spiderpaws.com/. She is a graphic artist who threw together the wonderful iTunes logo for our podcasts.

 

 Can We Here God? [14:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Full Body (brutal)

• Back Neck 24lbs x 20; cables 5cx10×3-5SHsec
• Standing Reverse Neck - cables 5cx10×3-5SHsec x 10 x 2
• Forearms 24lbs x 20; cables 5cx10×3-5SHsec
• Pushups 50, 15, 10, 10, 10, 10 , 10 (1min rest between)
• Par. Chins - 24lbs x 5, 3-5SHsec, 2-5SHsec
• Vulcan Squats - 13c x 20, 15
• Bench Step-ups - 5c x 5-8
• Stiffs - 5c x 10
• Chest Expand - 3c x 20
• Side Chest Press - 3c x 10-20
• Lateral Raises - 1c x 15
• Upright Rows - 3c x 20
• Archer - 2cd x 20
• Curls - 2c x 20, 20
• Pushdowns - 3c x 10, 10

At the moment, I am totally clean. That is, I am not on any supplements at the moment. I am more or less fasting a little. I want to clean my system before add new stuff to it.