abs

absOk, so I’ve been good lately. Worked out 6 days last week!!! Woohoo! This includes my Park Workout. I’ll post this exact workout later. Really love this workout as a major change to the routine. It’s a fast paced circuit workout and includes push and pull exercises as well a little legs and abs. I always leave the park feeling like my arms are going to burst out of my shirt! : ) YEAH BOY! : )

The one day I didn’t work out didn’t mean I sat on my ass eating chips. I ran, mofos! I ran a total of three times last week. WHY am I running so much when I clearly told you not to run more that once a week? Well, like I said in Workouts p.2, you’ll worry about burning fat after you’ve reached your goal. Which I have. This assumes you’re skinny. If you’re already at around 18% body fat or worse, then you’ll need to run more, fatty.

Last week, I did Legs twice (as prescribed), and all of the rest; Back, Shoulder, Chest once, (as prescribed). Not much abs. That’s cool. That aint my concern for now.

Record for Friday, October 8:
Weight: 176.2 (Yeah! First time in my life. In fact, I’ve never been more than 170 before doing this workout program)
Fat:14% (I know, I’m a fatty. that’s why I’m running more, bitches!)

How do I know these dates and stats? I keep the records in my Google Calendar. This way, I can update or read it from my phone, or work computer, home computer, etc. My paper journal goes inside the gym with me, and keeps the details; the reps, weight, etc. Google Calendar tells me how good or bad I’ve been, and if I did slack and miss a workout, I know which one I should do next.

Remember, you don’t have to keep the calendar schedule and you actually shouldn’t with these workouts. If you missed Chest day and are two days behind, don’t skip it and go with Legs because next time you do Chest, you will have done Chest around two weeks apart and that won’t work. Pick up where you left off (where you messed up) and try not to mess up again.

So, here’s my leg workout for Tuesday. Tell me how you like it, yes?

Squats: Warmup: 25 25, then 45 45 45 55 35 One minute rests at first, then two minutes for the last three sets.

Hell yeahhh! Feeling good.

Then,
[weaver_youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdKn5WqZgzQ percent=80]

[weaver_youtube http://youtu.be/oQBdrCfrr7U start = 76 percent=80]

Extension+Curl Supersets! Sets of 20 x 5 sets for 100 reps total each! I did a set of 20 extensions, then 20 seated curls. Drop sets were used when going heavy and maxing out before I hit 20. I even did multiple drop sets ’til I reached 20 in the later sets. Also a 10 second breather pause. Just make it to 20 hard, max effort, all out reps then, SWITCH!

Calves!

My “10 in 30 Calves Madness” Rests limited to 10 seconds, repeat 10 times for a total of 100 burning reps!

Then, seated 5 sets, then calves on compact sled machine 12×3 like in the video below.

[weaver_youtube http://youtu.be/T5dWsf6GmiQ start=37 ]

 

WORD!
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Push/pull Circuit

I basically did my 100 Deep Pushups, 50 Pullups circuit but this time, I did Deadlifts for de legs. No long jumps this time. Instead, I did a ton of abs. It went like this:

Pullups
Body Rows on Hz bar
Deep Chair Pushups
Bent over Dumbbell Reverse Flies
Deadlifts 6-8 reps
Abs variety (box crunches, vertical crunches, vertical toe touches, Leg Lifts, Windshield Wipers, Bicycles)
Then, repeat the whole thing. I repeated 3X, but continued with the the remaining Pushups and Pullups.

I did the Reverse Flies (or “Rear Delt Flies”) to work on my Rotator Cuffs and Rear Delts since it’s important to strengthen them when working on the pecs, remember? Great workout. Felt amazing afterward. I like seeing immediate results from doing that many Deep Chair Pushups. In this case, I can see that line I mentioned before; the one going from the center-top of the chest to a little lower near the pits. It comes from blasting the upper pecs. I also like how these pushups really give volume to the outer pecs by the pits.

I have messed up my forearms a bit. Grabbing heavy things hurts my forearm tendon near the elbow on both arms! This includes pullups and curls. I use Tiger Balm to relieve the pain but I might have to lay off those exercises ’til they heal. Damn. My grip is suffering a bit too from that. I notice it while doing the pullups and deadlifts.

Fantastic workout right from the 10 in 30 workouts! Friday is Shoulder and Arms day and that’s what I did. Here it is with slight changes:

• Standing Military Press
• Upright Rows ^superset

The rest were more of a circuit with hardly any rest in between. Alternating between shoulders and curls, then triceps.

• Seated Arnold Press
• Dumbbell curls
• Hammer DB curls^super
• Heavy Bent-arm Lat Raises
• Dumbbell curls/Pronated DB curls super
• Lateral Raise 666
• Cable Tricep Press
• Rope Tricep Press ^super

Major pump going on when you do both biceps and triceps back to back with no rest. Add shoulders to that and you’ll see major definition in the upper arms by the time you’re done! That’s why I combine shoulders with arms, to really work out and define the upper arm muscles. Biceps look better when the triceps are also pulling, and they both look better when the delts are all puffy and what not, haha.

That was during my lunch hour as usual. Right after, I had a grilled chicken caesar salad from Mc Donalds with a Coke Zero/Cherry Coke Zero mix from their awesome machine. I only drink those and sometimes add some Diet Dr Pepper—no sugar drinks!
Joy Machine. Gain muscle, lose fat fast!

When I got to work, I heated up a Tyson chicken breast to add to my salad since the chicken they provide is not enough.
Tyson Chicken Breastesses.

I finished my lunch with a half cup of unsalted mixed nuts from Target  and some raw goji berries. JOYYY.
NUTS! Gain muscle fast.

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I’m in Vegas, baby! Had a fantastic, super-hard, long, complete workout in the Trump Towers’ gym. Badass gym they have! Have you seen those “Technogym” machines? I read about them a while back and this is the second time I got to use them. They are really cool treadmills, bikes, and eliptical machines that have a computer touch-screen monitor on them. You can watch full tv and control everything from there. They do all kinds of other things like remember your stats, programs, etc. but I just used the eliptical for 10 minutes of HIIT.

Before the the cardio, I did a badass circuit of:

  • Seated bench press
  • Dumbbell curls drop-sets of 3 + hammers and reverse curls (palms down to work the forearms)
  • Low dip pushups with feet up on bosu ball
  • Tricep pushdowns narrow v-bar
  • Tricep overhead extensions singular dumbbell
  • Dumbell raises to arm pits trifecta with arm curls and lighter hammers
  • Tricep straight bar pushdowns with 1 second hold at bottom
  • pushups. flat on floor
  • Seated bent over dumbbell lateral raises (strengthens rear delts to counter the heavy chest workout)
  • Cable rotator cuff  extensions – sides (again, must reinforce the rear delts when working out chest)
  • Cable rotator cuff extensions – top

This was followed by the eliptical workout: 10 minutes on the interval setting

I immediately drank a 25g protein Muscle Milk. Chocolate, thank you very much. Plus a complimentary green apple for the simple carbs and vitamin C hit. Felt like a million bucks by the time I finished my shake and got half way through my apple.

Lunch was freaking great as well. Angus cheeseburger with fries (I’m on vacation!) from the Neiman Marcus cafe in the mall. I walked around a hell of a lot so I’m pretty sure I burned more calories than I consumed here in Vegas. Especially since my only other meal was dinner at 11:30 pm. Yes, I ate terribly as far as multiple meals go. At least, my late night supper consisted of a New York steak and 2 eggs.

IS THAT ENOUGH PROTEIN FOR YOU?!

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She’s raising her feet to make her deep push ups even harder and more effective. Joy.

I’ve been doing a quick, fantastic circuit of different bodypart exercises including the fantastic deep push ups along with some explosive cardio. No rest until you finish #4, then rest for one minute.
Use a countdown timer.

 

 

 

3 sets of:

  1. Barbell Squats – As I’ve preached before, if you don’t have a squat rack use a small enough weight that you can easily press over your head when you’re done with squats.
  2. Deep Chair Push ups – 2 child chairs around 16″ off the ground + a 16″ step for my feets. Let your body go WAY down past your hands. These super deep push ups build your pecs like a MOFO!
  3. Pullups – ’til failure
  4. Long Jumps – Stand with both feet together, squat down slightly, swing the arms forward and jump as long as you can, not necessarily as high as you can. As soon as you land with both feet, squat way down to absorb the impact, then spring up like a crazed monkey swinging your hands, and long-jump again. 12 jumps, baby! 

TIP: as you land, lean forward a lot since your momentum is taking you forward anyway. If you don’t, you might feel like you’re going to fall backward when your feet hit the ground. Leaning forward on the landing will allow you to continue jumping many times in a row. These absolutely killed me.

LONG JUMPS!

Be sure to squat all the way down before you spring back up and swing those arms so you get distance AND height, ok?

DEEP PUSH UPS!

^ These are fantastic! But you don’t have to raise yourself that high though; just as long as your chest goes really deep without making contact with the floor.

They’re also called “Atlas Pushups”, named after Mr. Charles Atlas. I actually learned these from his program too. He taught to do these morning and night. I don’t remember how many sets, but you’ll definitely see major pec improvement with these! They round-out your pecs and especially build up the sides and middle giving your chest that split in the middle. Plus, if you position the chairs so that your hands are farther out in front of you, it’ll give you the angled lines going from your shoulders up toward your center chest. That’s because you’d be doing the incline equivalent which builds up your upper pecs. They also widen up your chest by building up the outer sides of your pecs.

And she’s raising her feet higher than her hands which is GREAT. By raising her feet, she’s ensuring that she’s doing the equivalent of straight bench press instead of keeping her feet and hands at the same height, which would resemble floor pushups. The angle of the arms to the body when doing floor pushups actually give you DECLINE pushups which mostly work out your bottom pecs.

That is why you should raise your feet so that your body is parallel to the floor, and perpindicular to your arms. This way, you’ll mostly work out your MID PECS, which in my opinion, is better than working out your lower pecs. If this is hard to understand or you think I’m full of shit, picture her feet being raised even more and pay attention to the angle of her arms in relation to her body. See how her arms are rotating at the shoulders and the elbows are moving closer to her head.

Now, mentally turn her upside down. See how it resembles an INCLINE press?

Incline Bench Press


INCLINE BENCH PRESS!

Either way, it’s the deepness of the pushup that really makes this a damn good exercise. I’d even go so far as to say…

deep push ups are better than bench press!

Me after many sets of deep push ups!

Oh my goodness. Now I’ve done it! I’ve disrespected the beloved “KING OF CHEST EXERCISES”.

WHY such a crazy idea??

Because with bench press, you’ll avoid maxing out for fear of dropping that shit on your neck! So, you’ll stop early, leaving a few reps in the tank. With deep pushups, or even regular pushups, you’ll go ’til you can’t do any more, ’til failure and then still do a couple more half way pushups just to be sure you maxed out.

Do 3 sets of deep push ups—always ’til failure—and look in the mirror when you’re done, preferably with overhead or side lighting. Pleasantly surprised? Slight chuckle? You’re welcome.

NOW KEEP DOING THEM, BIFF! _____**_____

front abs biceps

front abs bicepsIf you are new to working out regularly, there is something you should be aware of. These workouts are pretty tough. They are long. And with only 6-8 reps, you’re lifting a lot of weight.

Because of the heavy workouts, I don’t want you to burn out in the first week or two. That’s a problem many bodybuilders fall into. They start off very enthusiastically and do way too much exercise. You know the type, they keep mentioning how they’re “so soar” and they can barely lift their arms. This is what happens when you haven’t worked out in a long time, then go really hard. If you’re working out regularly, you won’t be as soar on a regular basis. Of course, the non-soarness can also be a sign that you’re plateauing and it’s time to change things up.

You might want to go a little easier on the first week of 10 in 30. Try 10-12 reps instead of 6-8. Hopefully you know that it should always be ’til failure, so the lower the reps means the higher the weight. Also try only 2 sets instead of 3. On week 2, you can go with 3 sets, but still 10 – 12 reps each. Then on week 3, you can go with the program as is.

I know you might not want to do this, but this is a long term endeavor you’ve got yourself into. You’re not going to work out for only the 30 days, and then stop because you “got too busy”. Bullshit! It only takes one hour max per 24 hour day. You can fit it in. This is important too. In fact, it can be argued that this is more important. Sure, you have a career, kids, household duties and whatnot. But if you really want to change your physique and your health, I’m sure you can fit in one measly hour. There will always be chores. The one hour workout is not going to mess up hours of work, hours of chores, and ruin your life. In fact, it’s going to enhance it and you know that.

You’ll feel like a million bucks after your workout, and the results you see in the mirror will motivate you as a nice reward for your hard work. Not to mention the compliments from the girls you’ll receive. (I’m assuming most readers of this site are men) People will notice. There’s no way they will not. I’m telling you, I’ve gotten so many compliments after I met my goal that a week couldn’t go by without at least one person saying I “look bigger” or “your arms. wow” or like I mentioned earlier, the department boss embarrassing me in one of the meetings, haha. And I haven’t reached my “ultimate goal” yet. I still consider myself a bit skinny and will gain another 10 pounds after my fat-cutting program.

I’ve been consistent since around February with different plans. I had done a few other methods of working out before switching to the 10 in 30 in August. Don’t make it hard for yourself. Make sure it’s easy to go to the gym, or if you’re using your home gym, even better. Make sure there are no distractions and nothing will get in your way. Leave the hard work for the actual lifting, not getting to the gym.

The bottom line: A half-ass workout done 3-4 days a week, consistently for 6 months is WAY better than 4 kick-ass workouts done in a month, and maybe two more next month, none on month 3, etc.

cheers, and drink up!

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I’m in my fat cutting mode now. You youngsters don’t know how good you have it. I’m 39 and although I am pleased with my progress, I still need to get rid of body fat. That’s one area that folks over 30 will have a harder time with. At this point, P-90 X would work well as would any other circuit-training type workout. I’d rather do my own. Today, being the day after a weekend, I had a light workout. Not feeling very energetic today.

Warmed up with 5 minutes of the Stepmill on level 5, Fatburner setting. Love this machine. If you haven’t tried one, or seen it and think it’s only for the women, you’re missing out on the BEST CARDIO, FAT BURNING machine in the gym. What constitutes THE BEST?

This machine is the best because it burns more calories per hour than any other and kicks your ass harder.  This is because not only are you getting a cardio workout, but your leg muscles are getting worked out too. So when you get off of this glorious machine, you’ll most likely be walking rather wobbly. The proof is in the pudding. Sweat pudding. Yum.

Really, everyone that does this is usually pouring in sweat within 5 minutes. But only if you push yourself hard, don’t just drop repeatedly. Concentrate on your calves pushing you up mostly by themselves, then go slow and make sure each leg is lifting you all by itself, and then skip a step to really work the butt and hamstrings. Concentrate on the butt muscles, the quads, and the calf muscles, all working hard to lift you. The presets Fatburner or Fatburner Plus are the best, imo.

Then I did my workout:

Bench Press: 5 sets with Pullups in between, wide and narrow. For the later sets of pullups, I maxed out at around 4, and then supplemented with assisted pullups for another 4-6. Still maxed out twice per set on those.

Then I did 2 sets of Step-Ups on the cable Step-up machine. Not a lot of weight, but I was sweating like mad! So, I did Chest with supers of Back, and then went all the way down south to my legs with the Step-ups. Working different parts of your body, especially upper + lower makes your heart have to work hard to send blood all over your body where it’s being used, and THIS, my sweaty friends is the key to fat burning! (one of the keys)

That’s it for weights, and since I happen to live in the land of the most unbelievably beautiful weather, southern California, I went outside and ran for around 20 minutes. It’s November, and today was 84°. Tomorrow will be 92 and Wednesday will be 94.

Sing it with me: DON‘T CHA WISH YOUR WEATHER WAS WARM LIKE MINE—DON’T CHA!

Sorry. Won’t happen again.

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