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Dude, I hear you on the renovations taking up your life... I did the same thing.

Its good to see that you came back. The calling of the iron always gets em. lol

IronWorker

hey Hops and IW, great to see you guys still around! yup the iron sometimes waits a while to call but it always does sooner or later!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riddick2112 (Post 68739)

heheh, hey look who's here . . . does anyone even remember me???

damn it's been close to a year since i last posted in this journal and with good reason, my training has been lousy to just plain non-existent fr most of that time!
a quick backstory on my absence:
last winter i was hit with 2 seperate intense bouts of tonsilitis. I couldnt train, I couldnt eat, and I lost a lot of weight in a very short time (damn that fast metabolism!)
then around feb i embarked on a major home renovation project that i worked on almost every single night after work and all through the weekends. this went on for about 3 months. i did attmept to do some training but either i just didnt have the time or i was too bloody tired for it.
after that it was really really hard to get any momentum going. Work, personal shit and a new furniture making hobby all intervened.
i was back into the 150's for b/w and my strength was comparable to that of either one of the Olsen Twins (together they could whip my ass though!)
I was discouraged but also it gave me time to relect on a few things that kept running through my mind all these months and i've come to a few conclusions:

1. i really dont care how heavy i get anymore. i feel much better at a lighter b/w and so if the only way i can gain muscular b/w is to be walking around with 25% or more b/f all year then i dont want it. it isnt healthy and i looked pretty bad too.

2. if i miss a meal or a gym session the world will NOT end! i used to stress out so bad about that shit but i realize there is NO reason for it. i am just making things harder for myself by doing so.

3. when i was at about 170-175lbs not a single solitary person commented on any changes in my physique except saying that i looked fatter. now, i KNOW my gains were not all b/f. my arms had increased quite a bit and so did my thighs and my strength was the best it had ever been. On the other hand almost every single person i've seen in the last 6 months keeps telling me how much better and healthier i look. now this isnt to say i am in the gym solely to get compliments from others or any shit like that, but only to underscore the fact that i myself didnt think i looked or felt that great and apparently it showed!

so the deal for me now is to recapture my previous PR's but at a b/w of about 150lbs and then continue to gain strength while maitaining a healthy level of bodyfat vs definition.
I've been hitting the gym 2-3 times a week for about a month now doing only squats, bench, rows, Chins, OH press, DL and ab work on an A/B type thing just like i did before. I'm still as weak as hell but should be back to my old numbers pretty soon. i guess technically that will make me stronger than i was before right?
i may increase food intake a bit over the winter, but worrying about seeing the scale go up every single week is not going to happen anymore. its just not worth it when in a few weeks of illness i can lose a years worth of hard training and eating.

another thing is i have been seeing a chiropractor for the last 2 months now. not for a specific injury or anything but i had been experiencing some weird and intense stiffness across my middle back and wanted it checked out. long story short, there were no serious structural problems and the weekly adjustments have gone a long way towards making my left and right sides of my body feel equally strong. I always had a weak feeling in my right side, especially when benching but that seems to be rapidly disappearing so i am quite pleased about that! the back stiffness never came back either so it's all good!

that's it for now, i'll let ya'll know when i reach those PR's again!

Hi Riddick

Good to hear from you, I was wondering where you went to, as I havent seen you on here for a while.
Hope you are keeping well :)

Ok all that shit i said in my last update about not caring if put on any muscle, just forget i said that, lol!

call it my version of Weiders muscle confusion principle!

the deal is i caught a really nasty stomach bug just before xmas time and then just as i was recovering from that i caught the flu from my mom and was sick right through new years (actually the entire family caught it from her, lol!). so once i got to feeling better i stepped on the scale and was absolutely appalled at how much weight i had lost in those few weeks!!

sooooooooooooo, i felt a real big surge of enthusiasm for getting back to some serious lifting and serious eating and packing on some muscle again and so i got my pumping iron DVD right next to the TV ready at all times and i started coming back to this forum because it's always so motivating to read the discussions and see the progress people are making!

my biggest problem over the last year or so was finding a balance between my various interests/chores etc etc and so i just have to try harder and stay disciplined and accept that i cant do EVERYTHING at once, but i HAVE to keep consistent with my gym efforts or i'll never get any real payoff for my hard work! bottom line is it's only about 3 hours a week actual training time, that's not a big chunk outta the week if you ask me!!!

so I've spent the last 4 weeks training consistently on mon/wed/fri, doing my modified SS routine w/the main lifts and some accessories and i do ab work every session now. it is sickening how weak those two illnesses have made me (especially considering that just before i got sick i had reached my old squat PR but at about 20lbs lighter b/w!)
i am doing a deload next week and then will push for another 4 weeks of loading and should hit all my old numbers within that time and hopefully pass a few of them as well! i think one of my past mistakes was not deloading often enough and so when i finally did, one week probably wasnt enough even though i was still basically at a beginner stage.

once i get to a respectable level of strength i really wanna try a program geared towards hypertrophy. i've never done anything like that before so i think even at 42 years old i should respond pretty well to it if it's a good setup and i eat enough. i've been reading up on HST on this forum and will probably have 1,000 questions when i finally wanna get going with it but for now i'll shut up, lol!
i also wanna give creatine one more try. I've tried it twice in the past with little to no results and so considered myself a non-responder but that was in my jagoff HIT days and so i dont think it was given a fair trial at all. :jerkit:

more later when i break those PR's :ARChainGun:

Bout time Riddick :)

When ever you feel like quitting give me a shout and I'll kindly remind you of all those naysayers over at you know what forum!!:biglaugh:

I am sure we can all come up with something that will pack some mass on you too.I am not sure about HST, I have heard it fails to look after the strength element too much.But I am only going off what I "think: I read about it LOL.I would recommend Wendlers training 3 days a week ebook (its only like $20).It has some great layouts for powerlifting and bodybuilding.His "boring but big" routine comes to mind too.

Now kick some ass mate.

yo Hops!
i'm definitely going to do a bunch of poking around and get myself well-informed before i decide what course of action to take with a hypertrophy based program because right now i really know jack squat about it.

"Gonna kick some gluteus max, you dig?" - Rush

it has been good to see you back :)

deload week all done, woo hoo!

next week I'll be back up over 200lbs on deads and squats are only 20lbs away from my PR so i am chomping at the bit to get back to real training again!

the bench is still my worst exercise by far but i know it'll get better. my problems with benching are almost all related to the last 4-5 inches of the bottom part of the movement and there is no doubt in my mind the reason for that was i always avoided a full ROM because of shoulder issues on the right side. the funny thing is, since consciously adopting a full ROM on the bench and also working on OH presses my shoulder probs seem to be gone almost completely. but it's slow going for sure :lame:

diet has been ultra-consistent and I've already added back a 1/2" to my arms and about an inch to my thighs. Crikey, dont we all wish the new gains came as fast as the re-gains, lol! since coming back to my training my diet plan is if i eat good all week, no missed meals no "un-friendly" foods, then on sunday i reward myself with a treat of some kind. this sunday it'll be that nice pint of Ben and Jerry's super fudge brownie ice cream that sitting in my freezer right now, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

have a great weekend everyone, well, everyone except Pity of course :biglaugh:

haha...fuggin jerk :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pitysister (Post 76903)

haha...fuggin jerk :)

lol, i knew you'd like that!

but all jesting aside have a great one Pity, you da man!

see, i am pretty cool 87 year-old after all :biglaugh: