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This site has been so great. I am just a few days out. I fly in tomorrow for the show. I get to meet with some of my best friends, and some new great friends that I have met here. This is sort of a come back show for me. I have not been on stage in several years. I spent the last two and a half years running around Iraq and Afghanistan, but that is another story. I said once I was done I would compete again within six months. So here goes.

 

Today was posing practice. I was surprised at how full my muscles were even in depletion mode. Rob Kreider and I worked posing for about an hour, and that was it. No massive amounts of cardio, not much other than a light pump and getting it done. I will do a pump workout tomorrow and Friday. Mostly stretching, but some pump. I will also do some yoga. Bikram has been a great fat burner for me, and I am convinced the breathing exercises give me a little bit of an edge in posing.

 

I tried to remember to do photos with Rob today, but I forgot. So I am bad boy. But I am attaching a photo from four weeks ago from a seminar I did in NYC.

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My carb deplete was the usual pain the first day, then it went to feeling better. I can't wait to push my water and hit the fats and carbs for the big day.

 

I should be about 8 pounds lighter than my last show. But I am better conditioned and leaner.

 

LNG, looking forward to seeing you in PDX. If you change your mind and come out Saturday I have the house until Monday night. You and a guest yours are welcome. I think Robert is staying over on Saturday too. AND thanks again for veganproteins.com. Great products and great service.

 

Thanks again to all of the kind people on the site who have been so supportive of me and all of the other competitors out there. I appreciate it, and so do they.

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Great to spend a few days with you in Bend this week! Congrats on the top 5 placing and for looking awesome and for being a great host!

 

Hope to see you Wed or sometime before you leave for D.C.

 

Say hi to your family and friends for me. It was great meeting everyone!

 

Be in touch!

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Just got back from the trip. It was great to compete again. I really enjoyed being back. Bend was beautiful, even though the weather was crazy. I have been eating this week since I can until Monday when I start ramping back up for the next contest. Other than some time with my family meeting with friends I have made on the forum was probably my happiest time. I posted a bunch of photos on my myspace and on my Facebook pages. There are even some funny ones of Robert and I goofing on each other next morning after we replaced some carbs. Thanks again to everyone who has been supportive of me.

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I gained five pounds. Yeah!!!! I thought I would have gained twice that. I was back in the gym tonight working back. The week off was good. I feel as strong as ever. I still took it easy. Some warm up pill ups and 12 work sets. Nothing super heavy or really hard. I want to really focus on hard contraction and getting leaner. I was happy with my physique in Bend, but if I am a little leaner and harder I could really make a we package.

 

I was disappointed to hear a friend here i'm DC had a rough show where she was really unhappy with he physique. I saw the photos and it was amazing to me that her body didn't look like herself. This sport never fails to amaze me. She looked amazig two days out and off the day of the show. It really is a learning ad experiment process.

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Thanks, I appreciate it. Nikki has been bitten by the competition bug. Maybe I should get her to blog. LOL. Thanks again for the shirts. Let me know when you make it out my way. You always have a room here.

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Thanks man!

 

Awesome to hear about Nikki getting pumped (no pun intended!)

 

I'll be back to DC for sure! I come to DC 2-3 times a year and looking forward to returning! We have about 10 forum members or more in the area and I always have a great time!

 

See you soon I'm sure.

 

Keep pumped!

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I have been keeping pretty tight with diet. I have another show in New York in a few weeks so my goal is to stay lean until then.

 

Nicole is training hard and learning to pose with our friend Rolfini. So now instead of doing my usual lone wolf training where I come in and hit it with head phones and look at no one; I am more social. The good news is they are both fun and both are good enough in the gym to call me on it when I am slacking. I like that.

 

My workouts have been transitioning out of the Pentagon to a private gym down south of DC. I would make the argument that it is the only real hardcore gym in the area. I know some hardk core trainers out there, but this gym is where you meet the athletes. Yesterday I talked to a guy who is getting ready for nationals, about six foot and 255. I like working there because of the atmosphere. A lot of competitors, very encouraging.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cool man!

 

I know you were asking Lean and Green about female bb competitors who are vegan....not sure I even know any. I'm going to post a thread about it on the forum to find out because I'm sure there are some out there.

 

But even if not.....i started when I didn't know any other vegan bodybuilders, I just veganized my diet program and followed traditionally training programs and all that and it worked out well.

 

Hope all is great!

 

Catch you later.

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Late workout last night. The weekend really threw me off.

 

Something interesting is happening. I had planned on keeping my diet pretty much the same as it had been running up to the last show, only keeping it a little less strict. The plan is to hit a show in NYC on the sixth just for fun. I like to compete and a weekend in NYC seems cool.

 

I lost four pounds over the weekend. MMM, I blew off training all weekend. I also went a little wild and pretty much ate whatever I wanted to include some yummy vegan cookies, and a butt ton of soy ice cream. After hitting my workout and obsessing about being too small I decided to hit the posing room and let the mirror be my guide. I usually don't get too obsessed over weight. My two biggest concerns are what the mirror says, and bodyfat percentages. Everything else is interesting, but not as much as the aforementioned dreaded mirror test.

 

Running through the mandatories I was pretty pleased with my muscle size, definition and hardness. It looked really good. So NYC is on. Then a full few months of trying to put some size back on. I think my diet for these two shows has been too extreme. Given that I took a full weekend of screwing off, not training, and eating more, but lost weight (looks like body fat) I think a re-evaluation of my training frequency and or diet is in order. I will start with an increase in calories. I estimated a LBM of 168 at 180 pounds, I would say at 171 last night I was probably closer to 5% body fat or 161.5 LBM. That is a gut check off the mirror, not anything scientific, but it looks about right.

 

My diet has been a consistent 2000 kcal per day with a bump about every four days to 2400. For bulking I am going to begin at 2400 kcal and evaluate weekly with conitnued bodyfat percentage checks. I do not want to go over 10-12% since October/November is the next round of contests for me. I would rather stay lean and not diet so hard. For this season I let myself hit 202 pre-season. That was a thirty pound shift. Too much for my preference. All of my changes will be minor. I have noticed that with a vegan diet I have less protein, but with added reliance on products like Vega, and Sun Warrior from veganproteins.com I have been able to get my protein levels closer to the ultra-high levels I enjoyed previously.

 

Another reason I believe I have managed such a lean physique is a reliance on green leafy vegetables and fruits for my carbs. I eat almost no rice, potatos, yams, etc. The only traditional carbs I am getting is oatmeal every few days, an occassional wrap, and whatever I get from various beans. The key is that almost all of my carbs are really low GI. I remain convinced this is why I have been able to get to very lean levels with no cardio. The only downside has been that I have depleted too much in my diet and have suffered a larger loss of muscle mass due to what I perceive to be a lack of protein.

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MMM, defining could be hard, but I ate an entire container in one day. You know the way you start with a reasonable sensible serving, then a black hole appears, some physics happen, and it like disappears. I have a vague recollection of consuming more of it than I ever thought I would without someone having an intervention. MMMMM, chocolate.

 

Have you looked into bodyopus or any of the Dan Duchaine diet stuff from the 90's? It is pretty high in protein and it is not for the faint of heart. I did it back in my omnivore days, and it was effective, but time consuming, and did not afford cartons of soy ice cream. I am told there is a new varient on his work, UD2 (ultimate diet 2). I have not read the book, but it looks like Dan's stuff, and I am told it is similar. I am thinking of doing it after I start cutting for shows in the fall. There a few lacto-ovo's who have had good luck with it, and I read a blog from a female in Spain who said it worked, but sounds like she had some of the problems I had with it. That being I felt like dying many days. The good news is that I was really tight. The bad news was that I was very grumpy and felt run down at least one day in seven to ten.

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fortunately I've lost my taste for soy icecream. Not sure why but I just don't like the taste much anymore.

 

Haven't read up on that diet but I'll definitely take a look.

I am amazed at how slowly that stubborn lower belly fat wants to disappear

(I'll have to remember just how stubborn when I get junk food cravings!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Work conflict precluded me from doing the show in NYC this weekend. So now it is wait for a while. Nikki's desire to compete has been fun. This morning I saw that in three weeks we have cut an inch and a half off her waist. Total weight loss is one pound.

 

As for me, I am back up to 175, which is a good thing. I want to bring my size back to the level I saw a few years ago when I competed heavier, and get a little leaner to hit the middle weight mark and not get pushed into light heavies. That said, my ideal is always build the best physique you can and see how it all shakes out.

 

My workouts are ultra high reps these days. For example last night's leg presses were in the 25-30 rep range with ten plates (five a side). Today's shoulders were 55 to 65 pounds with rep ranges from 15-25. This is in part because of my arms feeling sore whenever I lift. It feels like the connective tissue to the elbow is just stretched or something. I am compensating with higher reps. Secondly I was going heavy right up to my last show including heavy weighted pullups with two 45s on my waist. Changing it up is probably good at this point. I see a number of old school guys who have done this and recent research seems to suggest changing rep ranges will give you a a boost.

 

Started creatine today, and found some good vegan BCAA's from Dave Draper's site. I always like to support the old school boglass dybuilders since without them I would be nowhere.

 

I have a new recipe for home made protein bars. Two cups of Sun Warrior from veganproteins.com I love how great their customer service is, and nobody else delivers better. 18 oz jar of peanut butter, a half cup of oatmeal. I use the stuff with hemp in it, I just like the additional omega 3. I crush the oatmeal into a powder. Add the protein until it is mixed, add the peanut butter with a mixer and some water. I use a little stevia to sweeten it. Get it to where it is about cookie dough consistency, then put it into a glass baking pan and freeze it. Cut into squares and you have a high protein low carb quick hit. Some people will say it is too high in fat, but I like to keep my calories about a third from fat, a third protein, and a third from carbs. This has been a real challenge since becoming vegan, so this lets me even the mix over all.

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The gym was crowded last night so I was there longer than I like to be. I am a firm believer in getting in and out in less than an hour. I did 15 sets of back with a few warm ups prior. I have been really hammering my protein. I am back on every two hours. In prep for the High Desert I kept my carbs higher and my protein lower. I felt small doing that. Now I am back to a more one third from carbs, one third from fat, and one third of my calories from protein approach that I have done in the past. Last time I wrote about my protein bar recipe, which I use a lot. I also have been pounding hemp and sun warrior protein with flax seed or Udo's oil.

 

My rep range on workouts is still high. My arms still hurt when I lift heavy. I think it is all of the heavy curling I have been doing, and the heavier rows. So I keep the range around 20. Last night it was:

Warm up with chest to bar chins for a few sets.

Dead lift:

25@190--still didn't feel completely warm so I eased in

20@230

16@250

Rest on these was a little more than my normal rest, but they are deadlifts and we had three people working.

 

Cable pull downs

20@165

17@165

12@165 I noticed here I am starting to get tired. My rest period was just enough to catch my breath. Also I didn't eat close enough to the workout.

 

Dumbbell rows

20@60X3--needed to go heavier

 

Seated cable rows

20@140-160X3

 

High pulls

20-25@90X3 I am trying to take it easy with these because of my elbows giving me pain.

 

I cut bi's and abs, but will make them up today since it is an "off day". I have not been doing weighted pull ups, but am going back since I saw someone last night do them with 135 and perfrect form. I usually hit two plates around my waist, and seeing this dude do 3 really made me feel weak. It was a new PR for him. I was pretty impressed.

 

Diet has been roughly 30g-40g protein every 2-3 hours between 7 and 7. I am trying to keep my fats at about 100g per day, and less than 200g carbs. I did not weigh in last night because I was at a different gym, and I don't know if the scale has bias.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yeah, can you believe it. I have been unable to go to yoga since. It is like I need a therapist to get me back into class. Silly since the other teachers there are really great. Maybe I need to go to couples counseling with the yoga teacher.

 

This week was a good week of training. I have increased my running, with some sciatica pain. I also did some extra martial arts teaching this weekend, which was fun. I think if I could do anything, I would be a ninja bum.

 

The high reps training is still going well. It is nice to do something different. I will probably keep up this training style for a few months, then increase my weight and decrease reps. Then slowly reel my reps back out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My elbows and forearms have been absolutely killing me. I have gone to wearing neoprene sleeves and doing more warm ups, but they just keep hurting like mad. This is really making lifting less fun. In short, I am getting pissed off. They started hurting six months ago, and it has gotten progressively worse. That said my training is still pretty strong. My deads are solid, 275 in the 20 rep range. Pullups are not weighted these days, but I hit sets of 20-25. Everything is high reps to keep the strain down.

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Had a good workout yesterday. I warmed up my elbows with two sets of sixty 25 pound dumbell curls and a couple sets of push ups.

 

I hit incline bells at 70 pounds for four sets in the 16-20 rep range. HItting high reps to keep the strain off my elbows.

Flat flies, 3 sets of 25 at 50.

Iso decline press with 3 plates per side for 3 sets with a drop set at the end.

 

I hit some one handed cable cross overs to finish my chest for 3 more sets.

 

The shoulders were a little harder. I tried clean and press at 135 only to see my elbows burn. I tried the same exercise iwth dumbbells at 55 pounds. It was a good move. I did them with 25 pound rear delts for 3 sets at 20 reps each. I finished shoulders with three sets of 20 rep supersets. side laterals and front delt raises. Weight 35#.

 

Other than the one rep of clean and press with a barbell I was pretty much pain free.

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