HIT Rob

Hey bud, yeah the flat bench has tore more pecs than enough, and if its causing a negative sensation its best to look elsewhere or look to preform it in a different manner. Cable crossovers are great, just dont over stretch and hold the contracted position for a second, then what you could do is go straight into negative only dips, taken several seconds to lower yourself (just a suggestion:)

Yes, strongman ahoy, would love to see "the mountain" win it:)

cheers Rob, loving training at the mo apart from a slight pain in my left pec when benching so i have stopped for now and doing dips instead (machine versions) just for maintenance.

 

I do follow it a bit, more out of habit than anything as i dont really like the physiques anymore, i tend to watch disabled/disadvantaged bodybuilding more i find it really inspiring. He looks unbelievable almost better than he did in the 90s. He has that grainy dense old school look even though he is huge. Would be good to see him in the top 6 as he doesnt have the pregnant gut of some the others, if he comes in anything like he used to then he should definitely place higher than some of the other pregnant monsters.

< watched this the other day, very motivating

 

Hey Chris, you mention a few things i havent thought about there, i think i will get one at some point, i will have to do it outside though i think incase i go through the floor haha....

Hey bud, sorry, I didnt see this post. Probably a good idea with the bench, that exercise has ended more careers than any other...

Its a petty bout Leverone not placing, his wheels just werent their, but fair play to em.

Holy feck, 80 pull ups, I can only dream lol

 

Go anywhere nice on your vacation mate?

 

Heh, yeah my pecs and lats are sore as hell still from Monday. We went to Washington, DC, which is the nation's capital. Lots of history, museums, monuments, etc. Saw some well known politicians, and I interviewed for a job that I really hope I get. Would require a move, but we are both ready to get out of here at any cost, really. HOpe you are well buddy!

No wonder they were sore lol. Sounds nice, love city breaks, I gotta get myself across the pond. Hopefully all goes well with the interview mate, fingers crossed for ya:)

Hey Chris,

Its stiff legged deadlifts mate, cracken hamstring, glute and lower back movement. The piledriver sounds sexy lol, problem is ive developed tendinitis in my right elbow, so hammer grip movements are now officially out, even the supination bicep curl is irritating it. Im working in the 4-6 rep range, for 2-3 working sets, not to failure though. Following the advice of Pauline Nordin (fighter diet founder), heavy basic training is whats recommended.

The diet focuses on lots of veg (1-3lbs per day), EFA's, and lean protein, with starches post workout etc. So, its not a high carb diet, nor a keto diet.

Pauline was vegan herself, but now eats dairy, eggs and fish, But she has a vegan package which is very good. Im no longer strictly vegan anymore am afraid, ive have been eating wild salmon, Skyer yoguart (Icelandic grass fed, hormone free), grass fed hormone free whey and pastured free range eggs.

Have a great weekend mate:)

Rob

Holy feck, 80 pull ups, I can only dream lol

Go anywhere nice on your vacation mate?

Good going Mike, Dam good going:)

By the way, given the disadvantaged leverage associated with lateral raises, thats a bloody good weight!

Just out of curiosity, do you still follow pro bodybuilding? Im intersted to see how a 52 yo Kevin Leverone does at the weekend. What ya think? Top 6?

Jes, didnt think its been a week since I weighed in lol...

Been training at home this last week with Dumbbell & bodyweight only movements....

CHEST - Decline push ups - (feet up on a bench and using push up bars for a slightly better range and for less stress on the wrists, moreover, I turn the bars inward and keep the grip at shoulder width for better pec activation).

SHOULDERS - Standing DB Presses - Prefer these to the barbell version, feel them more in the lateral head, also preform them standing, the seated db press in more of a steep incline press imo.

TRICEPS - No direct work, the first two movements provide plenty of triceps stimulating

BACK - Underhand Chins and Bent Over Two Arm DB Rows, again, I prefer the DB version of the bent over rows, slight better range of motion / better contraction.

BICEPS - No direct work for the most part, but ill salt in the odd one arm preacher curl or hammer curl going forward

QUADS - Goblet Squat, doesn't irritate my back, plus wrecks the quads, followed up with DB Squats

HAMS- DB SLDL, here again, I prefer the DB version, no back irritation and more hamstring activation

CALVES - Standing One Legged Calf Raise, using enough weight to only get 5-6 reps, then im going straight into several negatives

- am taking 2-3 minutes between sets to maximise load

- Fighter diet has been going good, no bloating etc, getting leaner:) I see this as a sustainable diet.

Hey mate, they start at about £100 I think, but a decent one with high handles is about £150-200....worth the money though, its pretty versatile, it can be also used for doing famers walks, rows, stiff legged deadlift etc....

Yeah Mike was great, I remember asking him a fairly stupid question, he responded "sometimes I think plant of the apes was a documentary" lol, another time I said I wanted to be a trainer but didnt believe in the current way PTs are being trained, he replied "the Wrights brothers created a flying machine on a second grade education, moreover Arthur Jones created Nautilus and Medx epuipment (which made him one of America's richest men in the 70s) sharply defined HIT and contributed more to exercise science than most will ever know, was an expert of Wild life, flow jumbo jets, and could speak several languages fluently....and he didnt even bother attending high school let alone college". Needless to say I never went to the trainer "sausage factory". Lol

Agree entitely with your last point there, a freind of mine was did a white collar boxing match last weekend, one thing I noticed about the heavily muscled heavyweights was, they were a stiff as a board, lacked power and were out of breath after the first round, while the fatter guys were still going strong 3 rounds in. I guess all that muscle requires more oxygen.

Best

rob

Hey bud, yeah turned a little beetroot, but it was controlled and deep:)

3-9-16

Leverage LP

850lb x 10 reps to failure (2 deep breaths between reps)

Weighted Dips

BW + 25kg x 9 reps to failure

Bilateral Overhand Hammer Row

160kg x 8 reps + 2 half reps to failure

Hammer Curl Machine

70kg x 8 reps to failure

Power Pushdowns

65kgs x 11 reps to failure

6-9-16

Standing Military Press

92.5kg x 4 reps

80kg x 7 reps

Diverging Machine Pulldown

105kg x 9 reps to failure (2 second holdmin the contracted position of each rep)

T-Bar Front Squats

60kgs x 2 sets of 8

Calf Presses

Stack x 5 mini cluster sets of 5 reps - last set to failure (10 seconds between clusters)

Hat tip to John for the T Bar Front Squats, left my legs like jelly, nice wee change:)

T bar front squat, hmm good idea, must give them a try:)

Best

Rob

Tonights leg workout...

Leverage leg press

1000lb x 5 rest pause reps to failure (2 deep breaths between reps / should have stopped on rep no.4)

800lb x 3 cluster sets of 3 (10 second rest pauses between cluster sets)

Calf Presses

Stack x 14 reps to failure / 10 second rest pause / 6 reps to failure

- my heaviest LP ever, am busted lol, ears are still ringing....

Last night...

Standing DB Presses (strict press)

2x34kg x 8

2x36kg x 2 sets of 5, 4

Bent Over Two Arm DB Row

2x38kg x 8

2x40kg x 2 sets of 8

Push Up Bars (feet up on bench)

BW x 4 clusters of 3 (cadance; 2 second positive / 4 second negative)

Negative only chins

BW x 2 sets of 8, 6 superslow negatives

-Forgot how good the good old push up is, especially with bars / less wrist strain and better stretch.

Ah man, you cant crap out on insanity, you'll not get the t-shirt hehe:)

Hey mate, Pauline Nordin knows her stuff, her products are a bit pricey, but still good, I got the vegan fighter diet and the fighter diet concept book, their very good. She believes in basic, heavy intense training with a diet thats rich in lean protein, good fats and a ton of veggies....like 1-3lbs a day.

Hey bud, yeah the first time I heard about them was in Stuart McRoberts books, most have two sets of handles, the higher are good for the taller athlete, youll feel little pressure in the back and more through the entire upper leg. Even with 3 herniated discs, they cause me no issues, that being said, they'd for me still be a second choice to a lever style leg press.

Thats right, Magnus did do that lol, forgot about that, wasnt just anyones arm, it was Nathan "megs arms" Jones (who had 23-24 arms I believe).

Yeah, I talked with Mike Mentzer about poor leg genes years ago, he mentioned how he'd seen the likes of Dave Draper and Freddy Ortiz train their legs, he said they trained their legs with great intensity, but their legs just werent as good as their upper body development, Mike but it down to the fact that they just didnt have enough "total fibers" in their legs. He said "understand and make peace with the fact that the horse and cart you have been dealt wont take you to the moon". LOL, he'd a great way with words...

At the other end, you'd Tom Platz who's legs wouldnt stop growing, and in an attempt to bring his upper body up to power, he injured his biceps tendon and was forced him to stop competitive bodybuilding.

Do you recall when Tom Platz competed in a squat contest with Fred Hatfield (for man to squat 1000lbs)? Fred blew Tom out of the water in the "Alpha" strength test, wereas Tom blew Fred out of the watercin the "Beta" contest. Fred's legs were no were as big or muscular as Toms, but id still take the Alpha strength anyday of the week:)

Lol, well, I worked breifly about 8-9 years ago as an engineer on the Belfast wheel / eye, it was located right beside the Belfast city hall, anyway, Glen Ross was hosting the UK's strongest man contest, one Sunday morning all the competitors and hosts got on the wheel, Magness Samuelsson was there, he was an easy 6'6, monster arms and chest, but his legs were mediocre (from memory, he never did well in the squat or deadlift), anyway, I got to talk with him breifly and asked him about his leg training, he said his legs were strong, just not big, front squats and leg presses he said where his bread and butter. He said us tall guys dont need to worry about it, cause when your arms, shoulders, chest etc are huge no one really cares about your legs lol. So true

As it happens, I also breifly met the WWE wrestler Bastisia (WWE is was Belfast at the time) the guy is 6'5, and was wearing really tight jeans with a sleeveless hoddie, again monster arms, but pretty average sized legs. None of my co-workers even noticed his legs, all they could talk about was the size of his arms lol.

Whats funny is, both these guys are / where clearly using drugs, they had genetics on their side and yet their legs were still poor (in comparison to their upper body development), so my advice is this, train them hard and let them rest, use movements better suited to the taller athlete, ie, lever style LP, failing that consider investing in a hip belt and /or trap bar, and of course focus on what does grow....Get benchen and-a curling:))

Sorry long winded answer:)

Us tall guys never get it easy when it comes to legs, example, Arnold is the only over 6ft olympia winner, what was he remembered for? His legs? Hell no, it was his chest and biceps, same can be said for Big Lou who was 6'5.

Could it be your limited by the resistance on the legs machines? Maybe some heavy basic training is needed, in the form of leg presses, preferably lowish rep plate loaded lever style. Also, consider reducing the frequency of your leg training, ive spoken with a good few experienced hitters that made better overall progress on a 3 way split (push, pull and legs), given the legs are hammered only every 3rd workout. Training legs too often can lead to greater systemic stress, especially when your getting stronger every workout.

Just some grub for thought:)

Hi Mike, cheers bud, feeling more human now lol, back to my normal weight...

Got back to training last Thursday...abbreviated training

18-8-16

1. Weighted Dips

supersetted with

2. Incline bench Bilateral DB Rows

3. Alternate DB Curl

20-8-16

1. BB Squat

2. Calf presses

3. G&H Raise

22-8-16

1. Standing DB Presses

supersetted with

2. Parallel Grip Pulldown

3. Rear Delt Cable Flye

Next workout will be Leverage Leg Press, Standing one legged negative only calf raise and DB SLDL.

- Just 2 compound movements and one isolation movement per workout, upper body / lower body split. 2 working sets per movement (after warm ups), not to failure though.

Started my fighter diet last Friday, feeling good, focus is on lots of veggies, lean protein and EFA's with a little oat bran and starches salted in.

On none training days ive been doing a little HIIT, in the form of speed rope or mountian biking around the country lines.

Been sick as for the last week with gastroenteritis, lost 15lb in weight, but hopefully on the mend, been feeling a bit better today. Obviously no training, but plenty of thinking...

I've been experimenting with higher freqency training for several months now, I did experience better hypertrophy, but its come with a price, more sickness due to a weaker immue system and elbow tendinitis development. Going forward I think I'll go back to abbreviated training 2x per week again, with short bouts of high frequency training, followed by a layoff. Best of boths worlds.

Also bought a copy of Pauline Nordins figther diet for vegans, pretty good, the diet emphasises protein, greens and EFA's, with starchs and sugary fruit post and/or pre workout. Big fan of Pauline, advocates basic intense training and has an excellent physique. Anyway, hopefully back to training soon, Ill wait to am feeling bit more human again though lol.

Those bastards and their stack shields! Heres another option, lift with both legs, then lower with one (negatives).

Havent been up Snoden, but I intend to at some point. Ill bet the was nice with sore legs, think I would have just rolled back down again lol. Went swimming today in the deep rock pools on our Mourne Mountains....so relaxing, then had a curried chip, battered onion rings and mushrooms, cant beat it:)

Hey Mate, when your able to hit a ball at 90mph out of a stadium, you dont need much cardio lol.....nor does the catcher:)

It was the same with Linford Christie, he said the worst thing about winning in sprinting was the lap of honour you have to do after lol, he said he'd really poor cardio. All joking aside, Id said the likes of Mark would have just done sprints for getting from base to base.

Yeah gotten hit this 18" gun mark, dont see myself getting there without specialisation, its like the mighty Mike Quinn said in a recently youtube interview, "in my day it was all about the upper body and arms, but we took less drugs, the guys today are big all over only because of the sheer volume of gear their on".

HI All,

Kinda just talking out louad here, hopefully its of some interest...

Dont think I've mentioned before, but am a bit of a baseball fan, I was hoking through my old BB mags (the Mrs told me tidy up the roof space), anyho, was hoking and came across an old Mark McGwire training article from his record breaking home run 1998 season. The guy years later did admit to using drugs, which were apparently were was to help heal some career threatening injuries, of course as a byproduct, he packed on 30lb of muscle (but no amount of drugs would have given him the hand to eye coordination he had for hitten). He had 19" arms and baseball bat like forearms, he was a solid 225lb @ 6'5, though was riddled with injuries.

His 98 workout was as follows...

W/O A

ARMS

DB Curls

Preacher Curl

Reverse Curl

Wrist Curl

Pushdowns

Overhead DB Extension

W/O B

CHEST / BACK

Hammer Chest Press

Hammer Incline Press

Pulldowns

Rows

W/O C

SHOULDERS / LEGS

1. Lateral Raise

2. Leg Extension

3. Leg Curl

-All exercises are for 2-4 sets 8-15 reps, bar forearms, their just 2 sets of 15-25

-Mark varies sets and reps from workout to workout

-Mark no longer squats or leg presses due to a history of back issues

-Off season, Mark trains 3 days off, one day on

What I like about it, its fairly low volume training, in the article, Mark States " I see all sorts of crazy stuff in the gym these day, people think they need to do 100 reps for biceps and 1000 reps for chest from a million different angles per workout to see any difference, the tendency to overtrain does more harm than good".

Going to be giving modified version of the above routine a go myself, want to get my arms up to the 18" mile stone, this routine is very much an arm specialisation routine, so ill see how it goes. Ill post more on my log.

Anyho, hope this is of interest to some

Best

Rob

-

LMAO, mate, if I ever need a farmhand you'll be the first I call:)

Yeah, have a garage full of equipment....and dont like it lol, been selling it off bit by bit, keeping my free weights, bars, plates etc. Always good to have those for when I cant be bothered with the hustle and bustle of a gym.

Yes, been doing a bit of property developing, ill be working for myself soon enough...and plan to be "retired" not long after. Dont think ill be ever retired, I need to be kept occupied, but ill be doing my own thing and not working for a system I no longer believe in (I work for the national health service). Its funny, we go to school to learn how to think, then your made to get a job in which your told what to do and how to think...by cocksuckers and ass kissers with attitudes. But, new pastures are greener....literally right outside my door lol.

How alls good with your good self mate

Rob

Testosterone level results came back as "satisfactory". Satisfactory for who??

 

Anyway, at least I know it's not unhealthily low, even if I do still think it's low. I guess I need to figure out ways to up it naturally.

Bout 2 years ago when I got mine tested, my score was 6.9 / 15, satisfactory but not optimal, thats why I went on the anabolic diet, I of course didn't include meat, but eggs, full fat cheese, heavy cream, oily fish, unsalted butter etc, basically high proetin saturated fat and cholesterol Monday to Friday, then high carb, low fat, low protein weekends, the diet manipulates the hormones that govern muscle growth and fat loss, I,e., test, hgh, igf-1, insulin...

When I went back a few months later to get retested, I scored 11.6/15, above average. My Doc told me the only people that have higher levels than that was steriod users.

Not suggesting you should do the same, just letting you know what happened with me. I went back to a full plant based diet, however I now and then salt in some saturated fat and cholesterol from animal byproducts.

Best

Rob

Tonights workout...

CHEST

2 warm up sets on an incline press machine with 60 and 80kgs

1. Pec Deck Flye

stack x 11 reps to failure + static hold to failure

SHOULDERS

1. DB Lateral Raise

2x20kg x 11 reps to failure

2. Machine Lateral Raise

stack x 8 reps to failure + static hold to failure

TRICEPS

1. Machine Triceps Extension

75kg x 10 reps to failure + static hold to failure

2. Pushdowns

Stack x 14 reps to failure

Switched thing up to suit myself, more of a focus on isolation movements. Only do the one movement for chedt, my chest grows like weeds in the summer, going to be putting more of a focus on my lateral head of my delts and arms going forward. Love the machine triceps extension, get a fantastic contraction on it. With the DB lateral raise, ive started bringing the DBs in front of me, a slight hitch at the bottom then drive the elbows up and turning the thumbs down. Really feel it in the delts big time. Before I would have had the DBs by my sides then lead with the forearm, no wonder they fatigued first.

Tomorrow ill hit my back, rear delts and biceps, most likely machine pullovers, chedt supported rows, DB read delt raises, preacher curl machine and DB Hammer curls.

Going forward, I dont think ill be including hack squats anymore, after my last leg workout they irritated my knees. Nor seated calf raises, imo their a worthless exercise.

Very nice! Can ya not attach a disc or two till the weight stack? Forced to do it myself on certain equipment, I carry a long thin bar in my gym bag, lets me attach up to two 25kg discs.