Robert Cheeke's Journal - 3 contests in 4 weeks!

Nice workouts lately! Very cool. Have fun in California.

Thanks Bro.

I flew to California yesterday. I decided to take a rest day to work and catch up on things in CA. I was short on sleep and loaded up on food and ate like a champ yesterday.

Today I worked at the Harmony Festival for about 9 hours or so and then headed to get some food and then the gym. I left the gym around midnight and it's getting late but doesn't feel like it because I've been so busy all day. Tomorrow will be a 13-hour day at the festival, walking around on my feet. But I should still get a workout in afterwards....because I'm RC and make it happen

Saw a ton of old friends today! It was like a Raw Games reunion. Cake was playing on stage and tons of others are here from authors to musicians to many others and 50,000 attendees.

So I'm seeing lots of familiar faces.

So...back at the hotel now eating and will log my workout.

Arms today.

Triceps

Rope extensions warming in it up

30 x 30

40 x 20

50 x 20

50 x 20

60 x 12

Narrow Grip Bench Press

135 x 10

135 x 10

145 x 10

155 x 8

165 x 4

135 x 10

Overhead dumbbell extensions

70 x 15

75 x 10

80 x 10

85 x 8

70 x 15

3 sets push-ups

20

20

20

Biceps

EZ curl bar curls

65 x 12

65 x 10

65 x 8

70 x 8

70 x 8

75 x 6

Seated alternated biceps curls

35s x 8

30s x 6

30s x 12

30s x 10

30s x 8

Standing alternating hammer curls

35s x 7

35s x 10

40s x 7

45s x 6

30s x 15

I did a few sets of reverse grip bicep curls too, got pretty swol and left the gym a little before midnight.

I'm super pumped that at the last minute I booked a random affordable hotel in Santa Rosa knowing nothing about the city layout. Last time I was here a year ago I stayed with a friend in Sonoma. I get all my expenses reimbursed, but I make the plans, so I booked this random hotel. As it turns out it is only 1.6 miles from 24 Hour Fitness where I train all over the country as a global member, 2 miles from Whole Foods Market, and 2.6 miles from the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds where the Harmony Festival is being held.

It's great! Within 3 miles I have work, food, and gym. The hotel is cute, quaint and affordable.

I don't have a TV at home so in the background is C-SPAN talking about the Chrysler buyout and GM issues and the American Auto industry.

Well, more food and then some sleep...long day tomorrow!

RC

Glad to hear things god well in Cali.

Worked a 12-hour day at an outdoor festival so lots of walking, standing, talking, selling VEGA, etc. Busy day and then I immediately went to a grocery store to get post-workout food and headed to the gym for a 10:15PM-11:25PM workout.

I trained back today, hammered in 55 minutes and then trained abs for 15 minutes.

It went like this:

Lat Pull-downs

80 x 25

100 x 25

120 x 15

130 x 15

150 x 12

150 x 12

T-bar Rows

wide

70 x 12

70 x 10

70 x 10

narrow

75 x 12

75 x 12

75 x 10

Wide grip pull-ups

12

10

10

Narrow grip pull-ups

20

12

20

Machine rows

130 x 15

110 x 12

110 x 12

110 x 12

110 x 12

Rotary Machine for rear delts and upper back

40 x 20

50 x 20

60 x 20

85 x 20

100 x 15

I did a few low back extensions and then did 15 minutes of ab work and had 100 grams of protein post workout late at night.

It's 1AM now and I have another 12-hour day at the Harmony Festival tomorrow so I better get going.

Yeah Buddy! Gotta love 24 Hour Fitness and long days!

Awesome Stuff Dry

Kev said he saw you today.

Yeah, I saw Kev again today at the festival as well as many others I knew.

Worked another 12-hour day at the festival and then headed to the gym.

I got there a little earlier because I already had food and didn't need to go to the store to get it first.

I trained shoulders today for a little over an hour and then trained abs for 15 minutes.

It went like this:

Machine overhead press

60 x 30

60 x 30

75 x 25

90 x 25

105 x 25

135 x 15

150 x 12

165 x 10

180 x 8

105 x 20

Dumbbell Lateral raises

15s x 20

15s x 20

20s x 15

25s x 15

30s x 10

Dumbbell rear delt raises

15s x 15

15s x 15

20s x 15

20s x 15

20s x 15

Dumbbell front raises

15s x 15

15s x 15

20s x 12

20s x 12

20s x 20

Dumbbell Shrugs

75s x 20

85s x 15

95s x 10

100s x 8

90s 15

80s x 20

Machine Shrugs

90 x 20

180 x 15

270 x 8

270 x 12

320 x 8

320 x 8

180 x 15

180 x 15

Upright Rows

75 x 12

95 x 12

95 x 12

95 x 10

95 x 10

A couple of sets of straight bar overhead press as well.

Then 15 minutes of ab work.

I think I'm maturing a bit because the festival was full of my friends, tons of people, thousands dancing, beautiful women, vegan food, cool girl I was hanging out with, etc. and all I wanted to do was get the ^*%^ out of there and get in the gym to take care of business knowing that each time I invest myself in weight training consistently I achieve results that enhance my activism and outreach and my career.

Now taking in 100g of protein post workout, working on getting more SWOL than ever. Eating a lot again and so far, so good.

Flying home tomorrow. Then another busy week and busy weekend out of town. It will be like that for the rest of 2009

But getting out there, making that money that needs to come in to get out of debt and pay people back for loans, and getting out there when I'm at my best ever shape to spread an important message to those who are inspired everywhere I go.

Back to business (eating more food of course is what I'm referring to...then sleep).

How are you getting the 100g of protein post-workout? Just curious if it's a shake, lots of burritos, some combination, or whatever.

Festival sounds like a good time, though that is a very long day

Yeah, it has been non-stop 8AM-1Am each day of busy without breaks......work and then gym, then eating and then in front of computer around midnight for more work.......

I'll let you know what I've been doing...something I really didn't think I'd do again.....I'm "reverting" back to what I did in my early days. I'm eating a dozen tofu hotdogs a day, 4 Builder Bars a day, etc. So I'm back up to 300+g a day or very close to that figure on a daily basis.

So what I've been doing lately is just multiple packages of tofu post workout...just cold....at 51-66g per package depending on brand, flavors, etc. So I'm eating a couple of those and then sometimes "wash down" the tofu with a protein bar that has a sweet flavor and/or other foods.

I still eat my greens, grains, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, but I really wanted to bump protein up significantly so I went back to my Old School ways of eating a lot of tofu....not sure how long it will last, but that is what I'm doing now. I can't take many shakes because of the small size of my bladder.

If I could....I'd just do 8 shakes a day in addition to food...but I can't even handle liquid from one shake a day very well

Just the way my bladder works.

Anyway, that is what I'm doing right now.....off to bed...gotta sleep and drive 2 hours to Oakland in the morning to catch my flight.

Back to CA again next month. L.A. for more long days doing shows. Good times though. Peta 2 will blog about it and Organic Athlete since both came by and talked with me, took photos, etc. Changed some lives this weekend...that was the feedback I got and that keeps me going...that is my purpose and mission...to save lives by changing lives.

Making it happen.

YES

quality training and focus.

"Can he come back as mass-ive as he can?

Yes he can can, keep asking this again ..."

I flew back from California today and after I got home I headed to the gym again

Keeping it real and keeping it consistent. I'm out of town most of the day tomorrow and will take a rest day and then gone this weekend too but I'll keep training while away.

Today I just hit up cardio and gave my body a rest from weights that I've been hitting hard for a while now, maybe 8 of the past 9 days or something along those lines of consistency with intense workouts.

So this evening I spent 85 minutes on the bike and trained abs for 10 minutes before leaving the gym. It's 3 days in a row doing something for abs, which is rare, normally I hit them once a week or twice a week at the very most but I'm just hitting the core a little more frequently for short workouts like 15 min but getting it a little stronger and tighter.

Still taking in more protein than I have in years. I'm up about 100g per day more than what I've been taking this whole time as I've been preparing for contests since January.

My next competition is July 11th, just around the corner.

Then August 8th.

Time for more food now.......

Then rest...it has been another long week. I've had long weeks since 2004 but it's cool, there was a bit of down time in 06 and part of 07 and there may be some downtime at the end of this year but I'm not sure yet...just long days and long weeks and long months but gotta do it because it's worthwhile and has so many far reaching implications that is well worth the investment in all the work that is being done.

Where are your next 2 comps?

July 11th in Portland and August 8th near Seattle.

Representing the West Side

Off to gym shortly

I trained chest today and when I warmed up and looked to see who was hogging the benches, I saw some members from the forum benching. I joined them.

Neither post often but both are cool guys, CountAgranoff and xEdx I believe are their names.

Workout went like this:

Cable flys to warm-up

25s x 30

30s x 30

35s x 30

40s x 30

50s x 30

Flat Bench press

135 x 15

135 x 15

185 x 6

205 x 6

225 x 4

225 x 5

Incline Bench Press

135 x 12

155 x 7

145 x 7

140 x 10

135 x 10

Decline Bench press

225 x 7

260 x 2

275 x 1

300 x 4 with spotter

Incline dumbbell flys

40s x 15

30s x 12

45s x 12

50s x 12

Low cable flys

70 x 15

50 x 15

50 x 15

some push-ups and called it good.

Since there were 3 of us in the rotation it took about 2 hours! I ate my usual 100g protein post workout and now headed to bed around 2AM.

Have to get up kinda early too, and then out of town and then driving 6-7 hours the next day, etc.

Busy life.........life's too short to not get SWOL!

Sweet workout bro. Post some pics!

I look roughly the same as I did a couple of months ago...just heavier....185-190 lbs rather than 175-180 lbs

Eating more, training heavier these days....still consistent and that makes all the difference. Coupled with the increase in protein and calories and the heavier training, it's coming along well.

I will however, be taking pre-contest pics in about 2 weeks, which will be about 10 days out

YB.

I look roughly the same as I did a couple of months ago...just heavier....185-190 lbs rather than 175-180 lbs

 

Eating more, training heavier these days....still consistent and that makes all the difference. Coupled with the increase in protein and calories and the heavier training, it's coming along well.

 

I will however, be taking pre-contest pics in about 2 weeks, which will be about 10 days out

 

YB.

Wow, we are in sync yo. My night time weight is 187lbs as of last night and morning weight is about 184-185.

Had a high rep arm workout this morning.

I got up early because I'm off to Ashland shortly, a 6-hour drive. So I wanted to get my workout in early and on with the rest of the day.

It went like this, and I got super SWOL...Jimi Sitko type SWOL today!

Triceps

Cable push-downs

40 x 60

50 x 80

60 x 60

70 x 70

40 x 100

Narrow grip bench press

45 x 60

45 x 80

45 x 90

45 x 100

Overhead dumbbell extensions

30 x 60

25 x 80

20 x 100

20 x 110

Biceps

Strait bar bicep curls

20 x 100

20 x 100

20 x 110

20 x 120

Dumbbell Hammer Curls

7.5s x 100

10s x 110

12.5s x 120

15s x 130

Now that I'm home, I just now realized I forgot a 3rd exercise for biceps...I don't recall doing one! Oops! Oh well, the workout was 90 minutes because some rest periods were longer recovering from 100 reps at a time. Even though the weight wasn't high, the burn was incredible and I got very, very SWOL.

Just mixing it up. I was doing 1-4 reps with 300 pound bench press a couple of days ago and today 100 reps...just mixing things up as I am 3 weeks away from competition!

Yeah Buddy!

Off to drive to Ashland now...it will be a 6-8 hour drive with stops......I may sleep in my car when I arrive...I'm prepared for it with sleeping bag and pillow, clothes, food, etc. It will save money, which I need to save.

On the road again......

Drive carefully man and remember to lock your doors when you sleep or some female might hop on in.

Drive carefully man and remember to lock your doors when you sleep or some female might hop on in.

Yeah cougars everywhere in Ashland If worse case you could always make sure you're really gassy.

Will you be meeting up with Comet while you're there?

Well, Enjoy your road trip Dry

I made the 7-hour drive and it was a lot of fun!

I stopped in Eugene, Roseburg and then here in Ashland...I ended up getting a cheap motel (where I'm at now) because I really wanted to get some computer work done and it was like $50 so not that big of a deal and I did $50 worth of work so it worked out

Off to this event tomorrow:

http://rawunion.wordpress.com/

Hey Tasha....yeah, hope to see Comet.

The Ashland Food Co-op is awesome! I heard it's the largest co-op in the country and I was smiling the entire 30 minutes I was in there just looking around...it's so cool!

Glad to hear your doing well in your comp prep!

I trained over the weekend at the Raw Union, mostly bodyweight stuff and running.....today I hit the gym and will hit it again tomorrow before driving 6 hours back to Portland.

Today it went like this for Shoulders:

Machine overhead press

30 x 50

40 x 30

50 x 30

60 x 25

80 x 20

110 x 15

130 x 12

Dumbbell lateral raises

15s x 20

22.5s x 15

25s x 10

Dumbbell front raises

15s x 15

22.5s x 10

25s x 8

Dumbbell rear delt raises

12.5s x 15

22.5s x 8

22.5s x 12

Superset with neutral grip front raises from incline bench

12.5s x 15

22.5s x 10

22.5s x 10

Dumbbell shrugs

80s x 30

95s x 25

105s x 15

Straight bar overhead press

70 x 15

80 x 11

90 x 6

Machine Shrugs

180 x 15

230 x 8

180 x 15

180 x 15

Standing dumbbell overhead press

30s x 20

40s x 12

45s x 8

Seated dumbbell overhead press

55s x 12

65s x 10

75s x 6

Machine rotator machine overhead press

60 x 20

75 x 15

100 x 12

110 x 8

I tried to train abs and my abs cramped super hard like never before. I actually thought I tore a muscle or something, they became stiff as a board (like a painful calf or hamstring cramp) and I couldn't move for a bit and it hurt...) so I stopped and then did some lower back work and some push-ups and then hit the streamroom, sauna and then got some food, now back at a motel and off to Portland returning home tomorrow.

YB.

RC

Are you training in Ashland Dry ?

Where you run training while you were driving to stay awake ? Don't I know it !

Sorry about your cramps. I hope it wasn't something you ate.

Wash

Ab cramp is fine now..but was really weird!

Anyway, didn't sleep real well even though I had a King Size bed in the hotel, I was like swimming in it. Just don't sleep very well...might need to take something for it....it is on a pretty regular basis that I don't sleep well....anyway....

Trained legs this morning before driving 300 miles home from the California border to the Washington border.

Nice drive, really pretty drive!

Workout went like this, trained at a nice gym in Medford, OR the past two days:

Lunges

5 sets around the gym going in circles and back and forth

Leg Press (exhausted from long lunges (spent 30 minutes just on lunges)

180 x 20

180 x 25

180 x 20

Narrow foot position

180 x 30

270 x 20

270 x 30

Leg extensions

70 x 20

90 x 20

130 x 15

150 x 15

170 x 15

150 x 15

90 x 20 drop set

70 x 20 drop set

30 x 20 drop set

Lying hamstring curls

70 x 25

90 x 20

110 x 12

95 x 15

75 x 15

Standing calf raises

105 x 20

105 x 25

120 x 25

135 x 20

150 x 20

3 more sets of lunges (feel too good, had to keep going).

Then ate, went to Ashland Food Co-op, biggest and awesomest co-op in the country, saw a bunch of people who recognized me, same thing happened the day before too, etc. Then finally go on the road...stopped in Roseburg and saw two forum members who work at a store there (they don't post often) and then Eugene, and then got home to Portland. 6-7 hours total (including stops) and 300 miles later before DOMS set in on my glutes, I made it home....

Bodybuilding.com just ordered nearly $10k of VEGA so I'm pumped about that! It is an account that I landed and will manage, so that commission will help out big time. Also took a $1000 order from the Ashland food co-op today so more $ is coming in via commission as sales continue to pick up.

Gotta keep moving forward....

Had an awesome time at Raw Union!

I have no desire to be raw at all, even a less of a desire after the festival, but there are some wonderful people in the movement....so many friendly people and I've made a lot of friends over the past two years in that movement. I even danced with a cute girl....who happens to live in Portland too! Nice!

I'm glad the cramp is gone

Even when I was living there, you never slept well. I never slept well either.

I bought this stuff bulk at Whole Foods ($6.50)

called Kava, it's suppose to help you sleep. The taste is pretty sick !

But it feels cool because it numbs your whole mouth.

Not so sure if it help me sleep better.

What Kava does.

Kava was used throughout Oceania to calm nerves, cause relaxation and sleep, fight fatigue. It was drank to unclog urinary tracts, to lose weight, relieve asthma and rheumatism. Drinking kava is thought to be good for headaches, cramps, and to cure syphilis and gonorrhea. Many islanders believe kava to restore strength, to soothe stomach pains and to cure such ailments as boils. Creates a general feeling of well-being. Induces a feeling of peace, relaxation and contentment. It enhances mental alertness and concentration.

I just thought I would get that out there for you You know cause you need to give it a Shants.