Muscle or Fat?

G’day Guys

Well things are pretty normal in the Hales’ household for a change. Little Lydia is sleeping through most nights and waking at 5.00 o’clock in the morning is now acceptable as a good nights sleep. I was back on day shifts until one of my co-workers went on his hols so I’m back on evenings for a week or two, so my training is all over the place. One day it might be back in the mornings and chest the following night, god knows! But a change is as good as a rest so I’ve been told.

One thing that’s been playing on my mind lately is my weight… oh, I hear you shout, a bodybuilder concerned about his weight never! But, yes, my bodyweight has gone up by a couple of kgs and so has my belt notch, damn! I’ve been trying to keep a little leaner so the transition to summer body will be easier than usual (dropping about 5 kgs) but for some unseen reason my bodyweight has gone up with out any changes to my diet or training. Just doesn’t figure.

Maybe my metabolism has changed down another gear with my ever-increasing age; it’s just not fair is it? So maybe its time to decrease my food intake a little although I’m eating clean already so that really miffs me off!!!

Something else I’d like to raise is the Great Bench debate. What you’ve never heard of that before? Ha Ha that’s because I’ve just made it up! The Great Bench debate is this: do all these different angled exercises for chest really make any difference what so ever? In my view the shape of your chest is as pre-determined as any other muscle in the body. For example, you can’t put a peak on your bicep if your biceps aren’t shaped that way!

I know some research has been done with electrodes to record the stimulated areas of the chest-and the results say the upper chest is no more stimulated from Incline Press than it is from Decline Press so why’s everybody wasting there time with all these different angles then?

I see personnel trainers (you know how I feel about most of them) giving poor newbies about 50 different chest exercises and then they wonder why they’re not growing? Mike Mentzer states that if your chest isn’t exhausted from one chest exercise then you haven’t hit it hard enough and you’re simply wasting your time doing anything else. And I’m in pretty much in agreement with him on that although not to be a hypocrite I do Inclines just for variety. And if you listen to Vice Gironda he states that Bench Press is for Triceps and not for chest at all! His chest workouts consisted of Flyes and Dips only. So maybe give it a try let me know what you think.

Today I trained legs and things didn’t go to plan, everybody in the gym wanted the squat rack so I should have taken that as a sign!! So first up were Leg Presses (after my stretches and 2 sets of leg curl).

1st set 80kgs 30 reps
2nd set 240kgs 20 reps
3rd set 240kgs 20 reps

After my 2nd set of leg press I began to think this wasn’t leg day, I had that flu kind of weak feeling when everything is just that little bit harder so I didn’t up the poundage for my 3rd set.

So as soon as an elderly lady had finished doing her Pilate’s/Yoga stretches in the squat rack I moved in.

1st set 100kgs 20 slow strict reps squeezing my quads at the top of the movement.
2nd set 140kgs 12 good slow reps and then disaster struck just as began my 13th rep…yep unlucky for some!!

A sharp pain shot right across my lower back… and took my breath away. So I sucked it in and managed to re-rack the bar. For about 10 seconds I was in complete agony and then the pain slowly began to ease.

So in my usual stubborn way I put 4×20 plates aside on the hammer strength squat and did 2 sets with little to no pain. This was not the right thing to do so please don’t take this as the way to go! I have no doubt that my own stupidness will be my downfall one day! So after that ridiculous stunt I wobbled over to the hamstring curl and did 3 sets then 2 sets of stiff legged dead lift with just the Olympic bar. This arvo my back as been ok with just a small ache and will probably be killing me tomorrow… but my legs looked good, Duh!

Tomorrow morning I have shoulders and triceps to do… I’ll let you know how I go.

Hope you all learn by my mistakes and save your own for someone else… lol

Cheers Ian