This Past Week (11/21-11/27)

This past week was a huge week for me in the weight room. If you have been keeping up with this blog ormy Twitter feed you will know that I have begun taking Protandim, and because of that my work capacity in the weight room has skyrocketed. I am able to recover significantly faster from my workouts, so much that I decided to do double strength training sessions last week. Instead of lifting my normal four times, I doubled up and lifted eight times last week, and I felt GREAT!

**For a more detailed version of what happened this past week, check out my Protandim story. To avoid taking up by space repeating myself, I will keep this blog post short.

Sunday I did my squat workout that made me so sore the week before. I also played basketball in the evening. Monday was my first day of double lifts, with chest in the morning and back in the afternoon. Tuesday I did arms in the morning and legs in the afternoon. Wednesday was the same workout as Monday, and with Thursday being Thanksgiving I waited until Friday to do my second arms day.

That's all for this past week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (11/14-11/20)

This past week was the start of my hypertrophy phase, which will last until the end of 2010. I am doing basically all bodybuilding routines and cutting down my cardio in an attempt to put on as much size as possible by the end of the year. Numbers wise, I'm about 229.5 right now and would like to try to get up to 238 by the time I finish this phase. Looks like I have some serious eating to do.

One of the benefits I have heard of from taking Protandim is a significant decrease in muscle soreness in the days following workouts. I decided to put this theory to the test this past week and do workouts that I knew would make me sore. For example, on my leg day I pair eccentric back squats with leg press. Leg day was Monday, and unfortunately for me I had only been taking Protandim for about 5 days at this point, so it hadn't been in my system long enough to reduce my oxidative stress levels to the point of no soreness. Needless to say, I woke up Tuesday and could barely walk.

I soldiered forward, however, and had my chest day on Tuesday. Wednesday morning I woke up to the same story: quads still tight as can be from Monday and my upper chest tender to the touch from Tuesday. Sweet. I did some box jumps and rolled out on Wednesday. I put a lacrosse ball on the ground and positioned it right under my pec minor as I laid on top of it haha. That actually felt pretty good.

Thursday it was time for back day. By this point I had been on Protandim for 9 days. I blasted my back on Thursday with equal intensity to how I hit my chest and legs in the previous days. Friday morning I woke up, got out of bed, and felt like I had taken a day off. No joke. There was absolutely no soreness. I went in to work on Friday morning and hit my arms, shoulders, and upper traps. I could barely lift my arms by the end of the workout I had pushed so hard. Saturday morning I woke up. Same thing. No soreness. It was the most ridiculous recovery time I had ever experienced. I am really excited to see how my body reacts when I do the leg and chest days next week, because those were the two that made me so sore before.

That's all for this past week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (10/31-11/6)

This past week was my testing week after I finished up SMS 12 the week before. I only tested bench and squat this time because I didn't have rubber plates or a platform to test my deadlift on. After playing basketball on Sunday night I decided to take Monday completely off before testing my squat on Tuesday.

I forgot my belt at my apartment on Tuesday, and although I don't normally wear a belt when I train, I do like to wear one when I test. So I hit 425 without a belt and then put 445 on the bar. I missed it and was caught by the crash bars. Embarrassed and pissed off, I found a random belt around the gym and put that on, then put 455 on the bar. I hit 455 and called it a day.

Wednesday was the day I tested my bench. Boy was I a space cadet this day. First off, I decided it would be a good idea to try a bunch of pushup variations the night before. Secondly, I forgot to take caffeine before I went to warm up for the bench. Now, I take caffeine every once in a while before I train if I am feeling sluggish, but I most certainly try to always remember to take it before I test. Obviously this didn't work out. Long story short, my mind and body were very disconnected on this day and, as a result, my performance suffered.

Thursday I took completely off from working out. My nervous system was still trying to recover from what I had put it through the previous two days. Thursday night I became a distributor of Protandim, a supplement that has been proven time and again to reduce oxidative stress by up to 40%. For more information on Protandim, click here. If you are interested in trying Protandim for yourself, click here. If you are interested in becoming a distributor, contact me at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

Friday morning myself and Chris Shalvoy timed how long it would take us to do 100 pullups each. We finished in 19 minutes and 11 seconds. I have the entire thing recorded; I just haven't taken the time to edit it into a reasonable-length video. Look for that soon though!

Saturday my lats and biceps were killing me from the pullups marathon the day before. I didn't work out at all on Saturday, and instead used the day to read, contact people about Protandim, and send out The Source.

That's all for this past week. Now it is time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.