LocalBrada

Welcome. Welcome. Welcome!

Wanted to stop by to officially welcome you.

Thank you for the reintro and I know there will be many looking forward to the release of your book. Good work.

Welcome to VBBF! And yes Vega = Love.

Welcome to the community. We absolutely get where you're coming from.

Welcome to the most friendly vegan community, if I may say so myself.

Welcome to our group man. From the sounds of your diet and your gym schedule it looks like you'll slaughter any goals placed in front of you!

Welcome to the forums and you're welcome to pick at our brains.

Welcome Dave. Ugh I was just thinking how rough that plane ride from HI to NJ is gonna be. Anyway glad to have you with us.

You're posting some nice numbers Johnny. Great progress!

In the last three days this place has warmed the F up! It's been over 40F and all the snow is finally off the ground. The sun doesn't set until 10:30p-11:00p, so things should be picking up here as far as the activity level of this town. As for the polar bears, sorry dudes...only room for one top notch predator! Fire!!! FAAAAI URRRR!

http://ns.gov.gu/people.htmlMajority of the info is in a paper that you can download called: Taotao Tagga': Glimpses of his life history, recorded in his skeleton by Gary M. Heathcote (Paper Number 3)

Lots of rest and a good massage and you'll be set.

Well said. I identify with this statement.

I woke up this morning with an inferno blazing inside of me in anticipation to spend the afternoon with my nieces. I started off with music blaring in the house and a cookfest. Of course alot of the usual pre/post- workout meals, but in addition I made sunomono with ingredients that I picked up after closing work last night. You can't really say this counts as cooking as it's really assembling a bunch of stuff. wakame, sesame seeds, grated ginger, rice wine vinegar, etc. sorry no cucumbers or kombu Tossed all that in the fridge and made two big ole thermos of tea for the week, then headed off to the gym. The fire inside continued all throughout bi/tri! I went big and never looked back. I spent alot of time on triceps and ended the routine on a incline chest press plated hammer strength machine. Loaded up two 45s and a 25 on each side and started a supplementary drill. I basically got into position with the closes grip possible (this thing got really close together *heart*) and focused on exploding the weight upwards just to get it off the rack and feel a contraction in the tri. Did 5 set of 8 reps with only 15 sec breaks inbetween. My stopwatch was posed and I wasn't allowed to walk far enough away from the machine before I jumped back in place and hit it HARD AND FAST! YB! Loved the entire workout including the finish. I was sweating, breathing and pumping. So gonna eat here in like 15 mins, shower and head off to see the babies.

Just got back from a touch over an hour at the gym. Worked on traps and delts. Nothing special to report about the workout other than shrugs were total fun. Done a superset of dumb shrugs with bent over shrugs then finished off the routine with seated bar shrugs. I was able to go heavy all throughout. Delts weren't anything special other than my standard routine.

Came across this interesting info. Figured I'd s Gary Heathcote, Univ of Guam, Douglas Hanson, Forsyth Institute for Advance Research, Boston, and Bruce Anderson, Army Central Identification Lab of Hickam AFB Hawaii, reported that 14% to 21% of ancient Chamorros were unique with respect to all human populations, past and present by the presence of cranial outgrowths on the backs of Chamoru skulls where the tendons of the neck and trapezius (superior oblique and sternocleidomastoid) shoulder muscles attach. The bone projections, on skulls during the Latte Period, indicate presence of very powerful muscular individuals as corroborated by legends on Guam. Found only in indigenous Mariana Islanders {and later on Tonga}, these structures were induced by repetitive loading of the shoulders and arms by: 1. Carrying heavy loads at the sides 2. Power Lifting heavy loads with neck forwardly flexed 3. Mining /limestone quarrying 4. Transporting heavy loads by use of a tumpline 5. Long-distance canoeing and navigation and 6. Underwater swimming / spear fishing. The largest skull tubercle development coincide with limestone quarrying and masonry monument building of latte stones. The largest bony superstructures are found in unusually muscular men and women from sites with the largest megaliths. The bone growths become more pronounced the further north one travels in the Marianas. Interestingly, the skull with the most pronounced tubercles belong to a middle-aged woman from Achugao area of western Saipan. Ancient Human Strength There is unconventional discussion attempting to link the Chamoru hyper musculature to their ocean diet. Indigenous to ancient Guam, the fruit bat was sole land mammal with the ocean (pelagic fishes) providing a part of the food source. Intriguingly, an unidentified ocean algae/seaweed consumed directly or inside fish stomachs [for example, Chamorus ingest meat and stomachs of Tatagas or Unicorn fish which grazes on brown seaweed] may be responsible for blocking a protein called myostatin or growth/differentiation factor 8 (GDF-, which controls tissue growth. Interfering or blocking the expression and function of myostatin, it is said that dramatic muscle mass/strength may increase. Although the identity of that algae is as yet unidentified, precedence is set by a well-known algae, cystoseria canariensis grown in the Canary Islands which is harvested solely for the purpose of building muscle mass. Note: On Guam only 2 algae are known to be a direct food resource - 1. caulerpa racemosa (called ado' or green sea grapes) marinated and eaten as a condiment and 2. gracileria Tsudae (chaguan tasi) which is avoided because of the blue green algae growing on the seaweed which renders gracileria Tsudae noxious.

Kick ass that you're at 90s. I'm at up to 115lbs without straps, but I can only get in about 6 before my offhand starts to fail. I could go heavier, but I need to work on grip strength so I'm ditching the straps. Glad to hear that you're just neglecting the blog and not the workout.

@MS yeah I'm digging this place. Just seen my first big boy there. The place is hardcore. @Johnny lol, nah I'm into chicks that are a lot softer than that. Ok here's the deal, yesterday I intentionally took off since I wanted my routine to have a rest day inbetween legs and back. I thought I was gonna bum around the house, but got a call early that work needed someone to head out to the new location and be there to receive the new inventory. I spent all day moving boxes into an empty brand smacking new storefront. Today I did the same thing, but this time I assembled a ton of shelving and displays, setup two registers and stocked the store. All in all a chance for me to get in some practical cardio. I made it a point not to miss meals. I brought my big blue bag stacked to the brim with food including some handmade inari, among other things. After about 9 hours today of shuffling and shelving boxes, I headed to the gym to get back done. My energy levels were low heading there, but as soon as I got inside and seen the big boys and the young thangs on the cardio machines...I was rearing for some back slaughter. Every time I struggled through a rep I just looked out the corner of my eye and spotted some young hotness that reminded me why I do this! YB. The gym wasn't as crowded as I thought it was gonna be and I didn't have to wait for anyone to move out the way so I could do my thing. So I'll have to say I dug my time there, which was something like 6:30p - 7:45p. I don't think I'll make a habit of going that late, but had it in my head that back was gonna get done either at the gym or at the house. Oops almost forgot, my back routine was modified and I'll probably stick with this grouping. I started off with lower back by doing 8 sets of 100, 105, 110 Romanian Deadlifts (dumbs-naked). Then upper back with closed underhand grip cable pulldowns, wide overhand grip and neutral grip. Then rear delts with some machine that really helps with the squeeze at the end of the motion. Attacked lower back for a second round with bent over rows and cable rows. Finally polished the evening off with burn out behind the neck pulldowns on this machine that allows each hand to track separately. I didn't go super heavy and just hit it hard with 4 sets of 25 and taking only 30 sec breaks. That I really liked and will make it a point to finish off back day like that. Tomorrow are delts and shrugs. I'll be doing all delt angles expect rear while starting off with shrugs. I think this grouping is really gonna help out by maximizing my gym time management. And YES you guys LOVE reading long posts!!!

YB!!

Cookfest time. Barely is boiling for the same old same old pre/post workout meal. I'm gonna make some chop suey with that rice noodles, baby bok choy and some mushrooms plus bean sprouts that I've still got to grab from the store. Yes I'm teasing you with a pic of some of the ingredients! I'm such a tease!

Trotted over to the gym and hit legs. I loaded up big daddy weight on that new leg press machine I found last week and I found it difficult to go deep. So I jumped off the thing and thought, "I need water or something." So I take a swig and noticed...the seat isn't adjusted right...duh! After the adjustment I was set and pushed out 3 sets, of course I didn't count the first one. Then moved over to rotary calf and went 310, 350, then the stack. Finally polished it off with something like 100lb burn out, focusing on squeeze and holds. Can you say "da burn"? Later moved over to quad extensions on a plated level machine and went big. Thank you for those 100lb plates or I wouldn't be able to stack them on the rather short knob. Moved over to seated ham curls and was able to go higher than I did last week. I found out how to adjust the padding, since I followed some old school cat who knew how to work the thing. Then was planning on hitting squats, but everything was in use, so I did toe raises at 190 just to keep those calves pumped. I should of probably played around with the glut machines, but I was running low on time and wanted to get some deep squats in. Polished off the morning with single plate ass to the grass squats 4 sets with only 30sec rest. My heart rate was up and I was loving it. Stretched for about 10 mins then headed back to the house. I wore underarmor for my legs and found that I stunk more than usual. I'm not sure I'll do that again. Not that I'm offended by others smells, even though I do notice it. I just don't want to be "that guy". And no, cologne if out of the question...that's how the ladies find you

Thank you alot for taking the time to explain that. I normally stick with free weights, but since this gym has a ton of them and the free weight section was crowded, I figured I'd explore.

Tanks Brada. I'm grateful that you're there to remind me of that which I sometimes lose track of.

Ok I feel like a total noob asking, but I've researched and can't seem to find the answers on the internet. What is the weight increments on a Body Solid machine stack? The ones at the new gym only have the stacks numbered with 1 - 20 or something like that. Is it 15lb increments? Also all of them have a very small plate then the normal size ones so not sure if that makes a difference in figuring out the weight.