The Los Mangoles Sessions

[Iron Clad Ben]

Wow been 3 months since I updated this.

Since then:
-Got into chiropractic schools in LA and Dallas. Choosing LA.
-Ran a 3-hour race with Robert a week ago. He won and set the course record, I took 9th with a distance of 17.98 miles.
-Got 26 one-arm pushups the other day. These are easily my favorite exercise right now. I do them every day for fun.

Now, training for a marathon on 2/18/13. This past Sunday I ran 17.60 miles in 3:10:00. Day before that I worked out at Bonebreaker with Mike and Bart. Plan is to bump my long runs up by 10-15 minutes a week. Expecting to do my marathon in about 4:15 or so.

Also working on cleaning up the diet. Been eating too many black beans and corn tortillas lately! They don't sit with me well and bring down my emotional energy. I got a new Omega VRT 350HD juicer for Hanukah so I've been trying to drink a green juice or a citrus juice every day. I'm not going to be militant about trying to eat 100% raw, just going to try to eat a shit-ton of fruit and greens. I'm feeling really, really good today and if that continues it should make keeping the diet on track that much easier.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Workout at Beyond Fit yesterday with Chad and Tricia

Rope jumping jacks
Plank pushups
Rows
Sandbag Burbeeps
Mountain Climbers
Tire push/pulls

Fun times! Giant bowl of zuchinni pasta aftewards. Vacation. Life is good.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Another Beyond Fit workout on 1/1/13:

One-arm mountain climbers
Sandbag squats
Box jumps
Rope Jacks
Pushups
Sandbag Lift and slam
Sandbag partner toss


Food yesterday:
32 oz OJ
8 persimmons
1 kombucha
1 3oz bag raw seed snack chips (raw junk)
7 banana + peach / spinach smoothie
64 oz OJ

Food today:
32 oz grapefruit juice
64 oz OJ
64 oz smoothie banana/peach/spinach
Planned dinner: 64 oz smoothie banana/peach/spinach again, 4-8 persimmons

Exercise today:
3 x 12 one-arm pushups
2 sun salutations
4-mile run
5 pull ups
6 two-arm pushups

[Iron Clad Ben]

Wow, so looks like last year at New Year's I tried reviving this blog once again and it didn't work.

Update:
I moved from Austin to Southern California last year. I'm now a student at Los Angeles College of Chiropractic. My school has a gym that's free for students that I have been lifting at RELIGIOUSLY since September. Suffice to say I've made some serious GAINZ. In the past few weeks I've shattered bench and deadlift records for myself. I feel like at age 32 I'm the strongest, fittest and healthiest I've ever been in my life. I'm cut as fuck and just loving the health and fitness lifestyle.

[Iron Clad Ben]

Most recent workouts this week:

MONDAY 1/6
Deadlifts: 135 x 10, 185 x 10, 225 x 8, 275 x 3, 275 x 2, attempted 315 but couldn't lock out
Lat pull 3x10x110
DB Rows: 3x10x50

TUESDAY 1/7
Bench: 135 x 5, 135 x 5, 135 x 5, 145 x 3, 155 x 3 (needed a spot for this last one)
Dips: 8,8,9,8
Incline Bench: 4x8x95
Incline DB chest press: 3x5x35

After sucking at bench for basically my whole life I finally got some instruction this winter from Big Bald Mike who really helped me up my game. 135 used to be something I wouldn't even attempt without a spot. Now it's child's play, I can warm up with it. He really taught me how to actually engage my pectoralis muscles which has made a HUGE difference. Here's a video of him and I from last week when I deadlifted double my body weight on the trap bar:

[Iron Clad Ben]

WED 1/8/14
Squats: 8x135, 8x145,8x155,8x165
Legpress: 3x10x290+sled
Lunges: 2x30x50 (holding 25lb plates)

MON 1/13/14
DEADLIFT: 5x135, 5x185, 5x225, 2x4x275, 2x1x315
DB ROWS: 4x10x50
LAT PULL: 3x9x110

TUES 1/14/14
BENCH: 4x5x135, 1x4x135, 2x5x135
DIPS: 10,7,10,10
DB FLY/PRESS: 4x8x335

THU 1/16
SQUATS: 8x135, 6x145, 4x165, 3x3x175
LEGPRESS: 5x10x340+sled
Speed lunge pumps at 1/4 ROM: 10, 10

SAT 1/17
One-arm pushups: 51
Pullups: 10x3
"Jumping" Muscle ups: 5x4

Wow, haven't done pullups in a while and I usually try to do sets of 6-7 reps. Going the distance with 10 sets of 3 totally wore out my lats. Haven't been this sore there in a long time. In fact it's Monday afternoon and I'm still sore after doing them 48 hours ago!