Troy

Hope you are feeling better robert!

Your welcome and thank YOU for your interest... this whole forum has been motivating me since I joined... Your welcome...Try freezing the Kale... Kale gets sweeter when you freeze it! Glad to hear you are adding one of the most nutritious foods to your smoothies! Thanks Robert... I've been seeing alot more go-getters on the forum lately... community is continuing to grow in a positive direction!

From these two pictures alone... I say Wheeler over Wolfe in every department but traps. Although, I think Dennis is a monster and a future force to be reckoned with.

Welcome Andreafrancis... This is a great way to start! It does make sense and helps alleviate injury in the future. Focus on your back (pulling exercises) to help your shoulder problem.

Good (and unbelievably obvious) point. So you think the mineral content of water has no negative side effects on the body as long as the diet fills the (seemingly easy) void? If so, I'm feeling a little sheepish. Although reading back, I don't think its the lack of minerals itself that we receive from the water but rather that the water becomes more acidic thus pulling minerals from our body... but how much considering its so little in the first place? And what about over a long period of time... hmmm this is trickier than I thought... no? Also... why do you prefer a distiller over reverse osmosis... advantages/disadvantages and recommendations please... thanks potter or DV or anyone else who jumps on this

Right on Zack, and I think thats what this Perfect Water company does... purifies the water then remineralizes it. But plastic bottles are sketchy in my opinion. I was at gentleman's club awhile back and the nice young lady that was entertaining me with her conversation told me that she worked for a water bottling company. I asked about the leakage of chemicals and she said "you don't even know the half of it"... she went on to tell me how they have to recall quite a bit of bottle water because sometimes plastic flakes off and is visibly floating in the water. I usually run my tap water though a 3 stage carbon filter (at the faucet), into a another 2 stage carbon filter (pur) dispenser. Then store in glass water bottles or Klean Kanteens. Supposedly the 3 stage filter gets some things out that the 2 stage doesn't and strangely the 2 stage filter gets some other things out that the 3 stage doesn't. Ideally though, I think remineralizing distilled or reverse osmosis water would be the best water to drink, but thats just my opinion. In a world where all water seems to be contaminated I think this is the best route. My vote goes to: Reverse osmosis or distilled water, remineralized, stored in glass containers.

TODAY BABY. TODAY!

Distilling removes minerals doesn't it...? Quote from a website... "such is the case with reverse osmosis and distillation systems. ......as their popularity has declined in recent years, there is an ongoing debate over the healthfulness of de-mineralized water vs. filtered water with trace minerals. While there are studies that argue both sides of this debate, after 15 years of specialized study in water quality and health, we feel that the benefits of drinking naturally balanced water with its natural trace minerals, just makes more sense. From a non-scientific perspective, the fact that nowhere on this planet do we find naturally occurring de-mineralized water should tell us that we were not meant to have it. In nature, all fresh water contains traces of natural minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium, which is what our body is designed to run on. All over the world and throughout time, wherever you find the most contaminant-free, mineral rich water, you find the healthiest, most vibrant civilizations. On a more scientific level, there are several very credible research reports and books that stress the more recent opinion that long term consumption of de-mineralized water can in fact be dangerous. Dr. Zolton Rona, author of "The Joy of Health", states that "the longer one consumes distilled water, the more likely the development of mineral deficiencies and an acid state." Dr. Paavo Airola, cancer expert and author of "How to Get Well" and "Cancer... Causes, Prevention and Healing" also reports that "long term consumption of distilled water eventually results in multiple mineral deficiencies." Two very negative things happen when we consume water that has been stripped of its natural minerals. First, because de-mineralized water contains more hydrogen it is an acid, with a pH below seven. Any time we consume an acid substance, our body will pull minerals from our teeth and bones to produce bicarbonate in order to neutralize the acid. Second, it has been proven that when our body fluids become more acid than alkaline the production of free radicals increases, causing increased cancer risks. Many studies suggest that cancer cells can only grow in an acid environment. This theory seems to be supported by the fact that the areas where people live the longest most disease free lives are the areas that have the most alkaline water, water with the highest mineral content. Reverse Osmosis and Distillation were first developed over 40 years ago for the printing and photo processing industries, which require mineral free water. Because of the popularity and demand for home water treatment products, many companies have marketed these products as "state-of-the-art" drinking water systems, which they simply are not. Often these products are marketed by using a demonstration that measures the TDS (total dissolved solids), and implies that this measurement shows the systems effectiveness at removing contaminants. TDS meters measure the dissolved minerals in water, primarily calcium and magnesium, and have little or nothing to do with contaminant levels or water purity."

Got a link from my Mom about this... Seen some other similar water products out there like this but this one seems pretty good. I don't think this water is actually being sold yet but I could be wrong. http://www.drinkperfectwater.com/

I put down a minimum of a 1 lb total of Kale or a Kale/Spinach combo a day. Eat as much as you can handle. I'd say 1 lb to 2 lbs is a good range. Not pertaining to greens but I've been pretty consistent with berries being a little over a 1 lb of mixture of frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries, frozen cherries, dried goji berries and acai pulp.

Lookin powerful robert...! Must be the shirt. PS. Are those forearms photoshopped? I'm callin you out photoshop man!

Nice post man... huge difference in those pictures... i kept going up and down rechecking the pics to see if it was really the same person...!

Whoa... I've been away for awhile... March 17th being my last meal post.... I've been really busy with work lately and haven't felt the best... just when I started to get over my head cold, I relapsed with another one... effin A. Getting better now and am heading back to the gym tonight. The last 13 days has been sketchy for food. Averaged about 4.5 meals per day. I don't think I got down 6 full meals over the course of the past 2 weeks. Without training and being sick the appetite has been way down. We'll see if we can change that.

Lack of fat... there are two muscles in the bicep, you just start to see the separation between the two in that one pic. Thanks for the compliment... my body has gone through quite a few changes... hopefully the changes its going through now are for the best

My Anterior Deltoids =

Monday Mar 17 2008 6 meals

Thanks justjoshin2, I don't add any flavors, although I just bought some stevia herb and have putting a 1/4 teaspoon into each smoothie now that I'm consuming the berries separately. Today I forgot to put the stevia in and I don't really mind, I like to get use to how the natural taste is. I don't know much about Pure Advantage's pea protein, other than it is also an isolate... I'm sure the AA profile is relatively similar since both are pea protein isolates.

This is the quote from T-Nation... "This might very well be the most important one of all. I must admit that when I see a lifter benching with his elbows flared and his back flat, it makes me cringe — not only because he's ruining his shoulders, but also because he's really limiting his strength potential."..... "It's well documented that the elbows-flared ("bodybuilder-style") bench markedly increases stress on the glenohumeral joint." I'm gonna email the guy that wrote the article and see if he has any tips for me...

Front delts are super sore today, it feels as if I worked more of my front delts than my chest yesterday... I assume keeping the upper arm at a 45 degree angle to the body works more front delts...?

Notes on the shoulders: I have been having some problems with my left shoulder so I have incorporated some of the techniques that I found in some articles at Testosterone Nation. Link is here: Shoulder Savers: Part I Mainly I incorporated pushups and when doing pressing exercises keeping the upper arms at a 45-degree angle to the torso; tuck the elbows instead of letting them flare out and limiting my ROM. It felt weird on DB bench press and DB overhead press but I'm willing to try anything (other than taking alot of time off ) to keep my shoulder healthy. Hopefully if I incorporate more of these tips it will get back to 100%.

Date: 3 17 2008 Start Time: 7 00 AM End Time: 8 00 AM Monday - Chest/Triceps/Shoulders Warmup 10min Exercise Reps Weight Full Scap Pushups 20 @ - Full Scap Pushups 15 @ - Full Scap Pushups 10 @ - Full Scap Pushups 15 @ - WU Incl Dbl Press +1 10 @ 75 Incl Dbl Press +1 8 @ 85 Incl Dbl Press +1 7 @ 95 Incl Dbl Press +1 3 @ 100 Cable Crossover 10 @ 40 Cable Crossover 10 @ 50 Cable Crossover 10 @ 50 Cable Crossover 10 @ 50 Seated Db Press 10 @ 25 Seated Db Press 7 @ 50 Seated Db Press 8 @ 50 Tricep Dumbbell Press 10 @ 50 Tricep Dumbbell Press 6 @ 60 Tricep Dumbbell Press 6 @ 70 Tricep Dumbbell Press 6 @ 70 Db Ovrhd Extntns 10 @ 25 Db Ovrhd Extntns 10 @ 30 Db Ovrhd Extntns 7 @ 35 Db Ovrhd Extntns 6 @ 40

Date: 3 11 2008 - 3 16 2008 Head cold - No Training Good rest time for the shoulder too...

Date: 3 11 2007 Start Time: 7 20 AM End Time: 8 15 AM Monday - Arms Warmup Elliptical 10min Straight Bar Curls 30 @ 35 Straight Bar Curls 15 @ 70 Straight Bar Curls 10 @ 85 Straight Bar Curls 7 @ 85 Hammer Dumbbell Curl 10 @ 25s Hammer Dumbbell Curl 7 @ 35s Hammer Dumbbell Curl 8 @ 35s Hammer Dumbbell Curl 8 @ 35s Lying Extensions 20 @ 20s Lying Extensions 10 @ 40s Lying Extensions 8 @ 45s Db Ovrhd Extntns 10 @ 100 Rope Pushdowms 12 @ 60

I really like the beach pictures...

Thanks Denise, back at ya! Thanks swanson2000 I appreciate the compliment! I plan on taking pics every 4 months. I feel that this is a substantial period of time to notice any significant gains visually. I don't foresee any major advances in my physique when I take my next pics. I have gained back virtually all of my old muscle and some new, so gains will be alot slower after this.... I think. I have been hampered by a shoulder problem as of late so I've trying to back off a little on training. I'm actually not looking forward to taking pics at the 8 month mark, I don't think much will have changed. However, in May I am switching gyms and starting to squat and I think I will make better gains once I can get at a rack, and the 1 year progression is what I'm looking forward to. No more candy weights.