Back & Delts/Legs

Here is my workouts from yesterday & today, which was Delts, Back & Calves yesterday & Legs today.

I am currently thinking about moving to a new gym, which is far better equipped, but some distance from where i live. As much as i like the fact my current gym is open 24hrs & is a stones throw from me, it really does not have the equipment that i want & can be very very busy a certain times.

I am also planning on including some occlusion training next week, just to increase the amount of lactic burn felt (sucker for punishment!)

Delts & Back w/calves




Leg Day w/calves

Brand New TBS Forum

It has been a month since the launch of the Total Body Sculpture Forum, and already people are signing up to learn, teach & motivate!
This makes me really happy.
When it comes to fitness information & healthy living, surely it is better for us to all be in it together!!

If you haven't yet joined us, head over to www.totalbodysculpture.maxforum.org where you will find a growing family of like minded people connected by a motivation to grow.

Below are just 2 of the recipes that are now available on the forum, with the Muscle Stew recently updated on the totalbodysculpture website

MUSCLE BUILDER STEW



ERIZ HIGH PROTEIN SPANISH OMELETTE



I have been so busy setting up the forum, updating the website & other things that i have neglected the blog a little. So, as of Monday i'll be back on it, with the help of phone apps, motivation & a great desire to push on.

Today i filled my freezer with 10kg of chicken breasts, 2 kg of lean chicken mince & my cupboard & fridge with tuna, protein powders, eggs & cottage cheese. Check out the image below for what i mean by filled!



I have a few photoshoots booked for later in the year, however my goal is to be ready to step on stage next year, with FAME, WBFF & MuscleMania all competitions I am considering.

I will also definitely be heading to the BodyPower Expo next year, tickets will be bought as soon as they are on sale.

I've also entered to run the BUPA Great Manchester 10k run next year, after running it with my girlfriend this year. She achieved a great time of 1:00:00 exactly, & this was done with no real training for it, & the fact her knee nearly gave after 8k. At no point did she quit or even stop running, i was delighted & pleased of her to say the least.

Until next week, yours in fitness

Chocolate Protein Souffle

Training is only one part of the puzzle when it comes to constructing your ultimate physique. Rest and nutrition are equally, if not more important parts to consider.
What to eat, when to eat etc are all questions i hear regularly & depending on who you listen to & what you read, the answers can be equally confusing.
Even when you think you have all the answers, the questions keep coming.

For those that have already began to fully implement particular nutritional notions, keeping on top of it, & above all making changes that you wish to stick to because you enjoy them, not just because you feel you have to, can be challenging.

For many people, the daily cycle of protein shakes, chicken, tuna, rice cakes etc can very quickly become boring and for some a form of hell, particularly when former favourites are no longer on the menu!


Sometimes we have to think outside of the box & reproduce these favourites, but in a more streamlined version.

Even if its just to take the edge off!

So, instead of simply chucking 2 scoops of Banana Cream protein powder in a shaker with some Udo's, necking it & going to bed, i made the 'dessert' you see here.

(Note that like the original souffle, i can sink, but the taste is the same. Mine unfortunately sank between me placing on the counter, grabbing my camera & taking a picture.)

Now, i'm using the term dessert here loosely, as anyone that has had a real chocolate souffle knows just how good it can be & no end of quality chocolate protein powder is going to replace it. But it is an ideal alternative, when a shake has just become a little mundane & you fancy something a little different!

Here's how i made it!

INGREDIENTS

200g Egg Whites
1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Chocolate Supreme Casein Powder
20g Apple Sauce
1 teaspoon Splenda
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
5g Udo's Ultimate Blend Oil

METHOD

*Firstly whisk up the egg whites till they are frothy, before adding in the splenda.
*Whisk for a further minute or so before adding in the scoop of
protein powder.
*Continue to whisk until the mixture is like a very. very thick chocolate milkshake! (see image right)
*Add in the spices & the apple sauce & stir.
*Place into a microwaveable dish & cook uncovered for 90 seconds.
*Remove & add in the Udo's oil.
*At this point i placed the mixture in to the pot you see in the picture, however this was more for the 'souffle effect'.
*Return to the microwave & cook for a further 1 minute, keeping a close eye as the mixture begins to 'rise'.

NUTRITION

Energy - 268 kcal
Protein - 45 grams
Carbs - 4 grams
Fat - 6.3 grams

Enjoy!!!

Thursday 24th March 2011 - ARMS

AND so on to todays session!
I actually trained earlier than i would normally, being in the gym for 11am.
This was because i had a chiropracter session earlier in the morning & thought it was crazy to take 2 trips into town in the space of a few hours. Plus training earlier gave the chance to get other things done, including my Facebook page, which if you haven't clicked 'LIKE' on already you can do so HERE!! ALSO for those that enjoy 140 characters or less of fitness, join me on twitter HERE!!

Anyway, after some brutal massage & clicks/pops in various places i was in the gym ready to do some damage to the 'pipes'!!!
With a quality tracklisting all ready to aid my arm destruction, i hit the Standing EZ Bar Bicep curls, going as heavy as i could manage, whilst maintaining strict form for 10 reps. I performed 4 sets of this, deciding against drop sets as i knew what else i had in store.
I then moved on to a Triceps exercise, again using the EZ bar. Skullcrushers, with the head slightly off the bench to enable me to get really deep with the negative portion of the exercise. Again, i went as heavy as i could manage whilst keeping form, which is important when you have a bar hovering above your forehead!!

From there i moved on to another combination of Biceps & Triceps exercises.
If you've been following the blog this week, you'll notice i like to do exercises in pairs. Well, i particularly enjoy doing that with arms, as all the blood flow is in this area, which gives a great pump.
On this particular occasion i utilised the cable station, with one side set up with a bar for lying cable bicep curls & the other side set up for Rope Pulldowns, 3 sets of each bouncing from one side to the other with the rest being the opposite exercise.
By this point i was definitely feeling the pump!
Next up was crucifix cable curls, again using the cable station. I may have to train at this time more often, as the gym was far less busy than the usual times i'm there!
The next triceps exercise for me was machine pushdowns, where on this occasion i used the drop set method to really accentuate the pump.
The final bicep exercise i performed was machine preacher curls. Unfortunately, my gym doesn't have a preacher bench, so i am unable to do the 'Deadman Bicep Curls' i like to do. However, i try to ensure as little momentum as possible, with no leaning back at all.
My final exerise was for the triceps & was machine pushdowns.
This is an exercise i am able to go really heavy on & i ensured that i pushed myself fully.
By the end, my arms were pumped up to beyond bursting point, with the vascularity on show for all to see!

Again, the Training Log is below, with my supplements no different to the rest of the week.

TRAINING LOG

Wednesday 23rd March 2011 - LEGS!!

Despite the trouble i'm currently having with my lower back, i felt it was about time i hit some squats & deadlifts.
Now not being the kind of person that does things half-arsed, i approached my leg workout with a mixture of trepidation, optimism & realism. Yes, a complete contradictory in itself, but there you go.
I wondered if i would feel any beneficial effect from my chiropracter session earlier in the week (Yes, it may of been only one session, but you have to be positive!). I also wondered if what i had in store to smash my legs up, i was going to be able to minimise any stress on my lower back at all.
Initally, i had the idea of splitting the legs up into a quads day & a hamstrings day, however i decided instead to go witha complete legs day, twice in a week. Workout 1 consisting of strong, compound movements. Workout 2 will be later this week, with more isolation movements involved such as extensions & leg curls etc.

I had my Scheik Weight-Belt with me, for when i added a little more weight, however i did want to be sensible & was not going to try pushing any silly weights.
So after a serious warm up which consisted of the X-Trainer for 10 minutes, i hit a tripple whammy (Told you, nothing half-arsed..) Squat, Front-Squat, Wall-Squat.
This consisted of heavy, deep squats 10 to 12 reps, before reducing the weight & doing 'widowmakers' which is a set of 21 reps, before racking the weight, taking the bar on the front before dropping into a set of 12 front squats, again nice and deep, then again racking the bar & leaning against the wall, thighs parallel to the floor for as long as possible, usually 30-45 secs before the legs give.
I performed this 3 times, before moving onto Romanian Deadlifts which i performed in the usual, straight forward manner.

Obviously, this is the exercise i was most weary of as when form is poor, alot of stress can be placed on the lower back.
However, on this occasion everything was all good, hamstrings were well and truly torched, with no stress placed on my back at all.
I moved on to the Leg Press, where i performed drop-sets. I also performed Leg Presses with toes higher on the pad to focus on the hamstrings over the quads.

The final exercise(s) i performed was on the smith machine.
Using a bench & the ability to cheat gravity, i stood in the standard squat position, with the bench between my legs. I then moved my legs to the front of the bench, leaning into the bar at an angle of approximately 70-75-degrees, toes pointed out slightly & feet shoulder width apart. Lowering the bar down until i was almost seated on the bench, glutes lightly touching the bench before powering back up again.
Obviously this movement is impossible on a standard squat rack. You just can't lean like that without falling over.
This exercise really hits the upper quads too.
I performed this as a super-set, with leg presses performed on the same equipment, bar placed across the toes with the toes pointed out slightly.
It's very difficult to hurt yourself on this exercise, so i took the bar as low as i could before pushing up.

I threw in some calf presses for good measure as i had not performed them earlier that day as i didn't do any morning cardio to save myself for this workout.

Again, my supplement list & workout log are below!
Try the Squat-FrontSquat-WallSquat combo out, but be warned it is not for the faint hearted & you will scream like a little girl when your legs give out!

WORKOUT LOG



SUPPLEMENTS

Pre Workout - 40mins prior to workout; 1 Scoop Cell NOX plus 5g Creatine Monohydrate
During Workout - 4 scoops Sci-Vation Xtend
Post Workout - Optimum Nutrition Platinum HydroWhey S'Berry - 50g, MyProtein Dextrose - 70g, MP Glutamine - 10g, MP Creatine Monohydrate - 5g. All the above was mixed in water immediately postworkout & drank straight away to avoid any degradation of the creatine in liquid, as well as to create the anti-catabolic insulin spike to feed the hungry worked muscles!

Tuesday 22nd March 2011 Chest Day

It's been a hectic few days so i have been unable to update this as much as i should have, but i've kept hold of all my notes, workout sheets & i'm now putting up the past 3 days all in one go, just so you are able to keep up!

On Tuesday was chest day.
Now, when i returned to training last year, i was brought crashing back to Earth with just how much my strength had diminished. I was completely disheartened at the time & it felt a very long journey ahead of me.
Well, when you're in that situation you have 2 options.

1) Quit & take your sorry arse home feeling sorry for yourself or
2) Knuckle down & fight.

I'll be brutally honest, i flirted with the idea of just throwing in the towel & giving up on all the goals i'd set myself, blindly thinking that i'd find it easy to achieve them.
But when the dust settled, i put the work in & it's fair to say i'm glad i did, 'cos i feel great for it.

I'm now at a stage where i've outgrown the dumbbells available to me at the gym. Granted they may only go up to 88 lbs, but when you're doing sets of 15 reps +, you really want to move on to bigger things. This being the case i'm hoping to utilise a second gym a couple of times a week, basically for access to bigger weights.
Instead of the 'fitness orientated' place i currently use, this is a NHB, spit & sawdust gym, with posters of Dorian Yates on the wall & dumbbells the size of medium sized people on the rack!!
Just the fact i'm needing to look elsewhere its such a motivational boost for me, as at times i felt unsure whether i had it in me to really push on.
But i have invested serious sweat equity into myself over the past few weeks & i'm in a position to move on to the next level. By no means am i at my full capacity. I've been bigger, stronger & fitter in the past & right now i'm a little hampered by my current back problem (more on that later..) but it is getting better & the foundation is in place to be where i want to be, in a realistic time scale, maybe even ahead of schedule.

So back to Tuesday & Chest Day!

As i have problems with my right rotator cuff (right to left kink in upper vertabrae) my right side will fail before my left. This is not due to the pectoral failing, but more the shoulder joint as a whole.
However, it does get progressivly stronger too, so i keep at it. This also means i like to throroughly warm up before i start.
So after at least 4 sets of light dumbbell presses, machine presses & a couple of sets of light cable flys i was ready to hit exercise 1, which is always Incline Dumbbell Presses.
I performed 4 sets, with the last set also 'benefitting from a 'pre-exhaust' set of flys. I like to use a higher angle on my incline presses, around 45-50-degrees. However, i also keep my elbows relatively low, with my grip turned in slightly. I suppose you could say that it is the way dumbbell presses were performed by the greats such as Arnie, Yates etc. I just find that i am able to squeeze the chest harder during the movement. I also find it takes more of the front delt out of the movement, making it more an upper chest exercise.
From there i moved on to Dumbbell Flys, moving the bench down a little to a 35-degree angle. Again, i perform this slightly differently to other people, in that i like to twist my wrists on the upper portion, bringing the dumbbells just short of one another with my palms facing me & my thumbs pointing outwards. I find i am able to really squeeze the inner chest doing this, with the outer chest stretched at the bottom of the movement.
Again, 4 sets, with the last set an all pump-a-thon. Not entirely sure how many reps on the last set, maybe around 30, but the pump at the end was nothing short of 'Kelly Brooke esque'.
Anyway, from there i moved to the rear delt/pec fly machine to really follow up on the pump i'd developed. I utilised a drop set method on this exercise moving from as heavy as i could manage for a good 6 reps, then straight on to a further 10 reps, followed by 16, & 25, moving the pin up the stack as i went.
2 sets of this really blasted the pecs, but it felt great.
I was ready to move onto a last exercise of dumbbell pullovers, but instead threw in a 3 set, dropset style multi-angle cable crossover stint, just because i felt great.
The sweat coming off me by the end was like a river though!
With the pulleys set at the highest point, i brought the handles together at the bottom, around waist height, squeezing the pecs as i did. Taking the handles back out, i brought them back together a little further up the body, maybe around belly button height. Each rep i moved further up, with the 4th rep straight out infront, always squeezing the pecs with each rep, before moving back down the body again. This was done on the heaviest weight i could manage, performing 16 reps. Then i moved the pulleys to the bottom, going through the exact same method, again 16 reps, before moving the pulley to the middle to do it all again.
That was set 1, but set 2 kicked off straight after, with the weight dropped slightly & the pulleys back up to the top, then to the bottom, then the middle.
Set 3, again weight dropped, back at the top.
I suppose you could say that it was just 1 huge drop set, with the only rest being from moving the pulleys & stack pin.
But the pump, if anything was bigger, with my skin literally feeling stetched to bursting point.
I finished off with 3 sets of dumbbell pullovers to really stretch out the thoracic, keeping my elbows slightly bent & my hips low to accentuate the stretch*.
Below is a run through of the exercises, weights used & reps, as well as my supplements.

*I also added in some very low, very light dumbbell flys on a flat bench, literally touching the floor with the weights as a final stretch to make the best use of the pump i had!

WORKOUT SHEET



SUPPLEMENTS

Pre Workout - 40mins prior to workout; 1 Scoop Cell NOX plus 5g Creatine Monohydrate
During Workout - 4 scoops Sci-Vation Xtend
Post Workout - Optimum Nutrition Platinum HydroWhey S'Berry - 50g, MyProtein Dextrose - 70g, MP Glutamine - 10g, MP Creatine Monohydrate - 5g. All the above was mixed in water immediately postworkout & drank straight away to avoid any degradation of the creatine in liquid, as well as to create the anti-catabolic insulin spike to feed the hungry worked muscles!

Monday 21st March 2011 - Back (& Calves)

Well after a long break, stop/starts & personal goal orientating, I'M BACK BABY!!!

After initial plans to compete at this years Fitness Britain & Musclemania etc, i've had to re-focus & sort a couple of small problems out before a bigger kick off.

Late November i unfortunately damaged my lower back, believing that i'd merely pulled a muscle.
However, come February, after taking the whole of December & January off, i was still feeling the full affect.
Now, i don't particularly like going to visit the Dr's. Nothing personal, just they tend to deliver nothing but bad, negative news right?? Being a person that likes to keep optimistic, i put it off, but finally bit the bullet & went through.
Turns out that 'muscle pull' was actually a slipped disc originating between L5 & S1 in the spine.



So today i had my first chiropractor session. Feel a bit better after some clicking, popping etc haha!

Hit the gym straight after (yes, no more excuses!!) & did back, which i'm loving right now!

After a thorough warm up, i hit chin ups, clearing the bar completely with each rep. Using a variety of grips to target various angles & areas of the back. Moved on to pull downs, using a heavy --> light multi-drop set method for 4 sets. Next i hit the middle back, for width using the pull down bar on the cable pulley machine, again for 4 sets. Last set was again, a drop set.
Last exercise was a superset of dumbbell rows, with moderate weight good mornings, to really engorge the back, which it really did.
Polished off a postworkout shake straight out of walking out the gym, which i will give details of, along with the full workout session below.

Tonight i will be able to do a 30 minute workout, which i intend to use to smash my abs & calves, 2 areas that i feel able to train everyday, without any problems.
I shall add details of this tomorrow though.

I'm also using a new training schedule, which i'll post more details of later in the week, along with every workout i perform.
Tomorrow see's a new & improved chest session, which i really, really, REALLY looking forward to, along with some abs & cardio in the morning at 6am & also some more calves.

I'm seriously considering competing at the Mr. Northern Ireland Fitness Model championships, as long as i can find some Irish blood somewhere in my heritage that it.
I will also be attending the British Expo in May, as well as the FAME Championships in June.

Finally, i have now launched an online store on the website, just go to WWW.TOTALBODYSCULPTURE.CO.UK and click on the shop icon. If you're not forwarded automatically to the site, just click the blue store icon & that will take you there. I will be selling my own PT services, as well as supplement products from leading brands such as CNP & Optimum Nutrition, so check it out!!

Until tomorrow!

Yours In Fitness!!!

*NOTES
Pre Workout - 40mins prior to workout; 1 Scoop Cell NOX plus 5g Creatine Monohydrate
During Workout - 4 scoops Sci-Vation Xtend
Post Workout - Optimum Nutrition Platinum HydroWhey S'Berry - 50g, MyProtein Dextrose - 70g, MP Glutamine - 10g, MP Creatine Monohydrate - 5g. All the above was mixed in water immediately postworkout & drank straight away to avoid any degradation of the creatine in liquid, as well as to create the anti-catabolic insulin spike to feed the hungry worked muscles!

Workout Sheet




YOURS IN FITNESS!!!