Monday ~ 10/27/03

It’s about 6 am right now and I am heading towards the gym. I took a serving of Thermogen II about 30 minutes ago and feel great. That stuff is magic. This morning I am going to lift shoulders, traps, & forearms. I always listen to what my body is telling me, especially on shoulder day. Since my split has shoulders/traps right after chest and back, I have to be really careful not to over-train the front deltoid. I can always tell which exercises I will perform by how it feels, where it is sore (if it all), etc. Also, it depends on how tired my forearms are on whether or not I do any exercises for them at all. One thing that I am glad I did a long time ago was that I stopped using straps period. If I couldn’t hang onto the weight long enough, then it was too heavy. That way, for the last 6 years I have been building my grip and forearm strength along with everything else so they aren’t lopsided. It amazes me how many people have to use straps for even the lightest weights because their grip fails before the other muscles. If they would simply work those muscles too, they wouldn’t have to use straps! For instance, I am now able to shrug 405 lbs. without needing straps ONLY BECAUSE I trained a long time with 225 lbs. without straps. Make sense? I used this same concept with squats and lower back and have not used a belt (even while maxing out) for over 4 years simply because my lower back is strong enough to stabilize the weight. For those of you who are curious, here is my shoulder/trap split for this morning’s workout:

Military Press 3 sets 3-5 reps
Shrugs 3 sets 3-5 reps
Single Arm DB Lateral Raises 3 sets 3-5 reps
Mid-Trap Pulls 3 sets 3-5 reps
Seated Cable Twisting Pulls 3 sets 3-5 reps
Lower-Trap Pulls 3 sets 3-5 reps

Again, after the initial sets, I perform 1 set of about 20 reps using light weight to help deplete the muscles faster and speed up the descent into ketosis. Following the workout, I take in 1 scoop of Isopure + Flaxseed Oil & CLA with a serving of HMB.

I wanted to discuss the trap pulls in my workout for a minute simply because of how many times I either get weird looks (which quite frankly I love), or I see people in the gym trying to hit different areas of the trap and doing it all wrong. I just want to share some insight and anyone who reads this can take it for what it is worth. Think for a moment on how you do the normal trap pull with the barbell. The trap is responsible for shoulder flexion. You use the trap to flex the shoulders up, against gravity by the way, and relax the trap to let them back down. Now, how can rolling the shoulders in any way work the trap? Rotation is controlled by the rotator cuff, hence the name! So first of all, rolling the shoulders in no way has any resistance against gravity, which means no work being done by the muscle. Second, if your rotator cuff tries to handle that kind of weight, it will tear. The rotator can only bear about 5 lbs (give or take a few for some individuals) of weight before the delts will fire to protect it. Please take my word for it, I played professional baseball for 2 years. Trust me, I know this stuff. Now, since we know how to hit the high part of the trap, what about the mid and lower part? Well, all you have to do is change the angle at which your arms are in relation to your body and flex your shoulders! It’s that simple. So, for mid trap pulls, use either a T-bar or some row machine. Then, keep your arms straight while holding the weight and flex your shoulders back. It is a small movement. Be sure not to bend the elbows and take resistance off the trap. And for low traps, hang off of a pull up bar and flex the shoulders down. These exercises will feel awkward at first and take some getting used to, but trust me it is worth it. I have been doing these for a couple of years and I get really nice compliments on the “Christmas tree” trap I now have in my back. It is only because I have hit every area of the trap and not just the higher part.

It’s now 7pm and I am beginning to wind down for the evening. I hit shoulders and traps this morning at 6am as mentioned earlier, followed by about 20 minutes of low intensity cardio at 9am. At about 4pm, I hit legs. For those that are curious, here is my leg workout:

Squats 3 sets 3-5 reps
Stiff-Leg Dead-lift 3 sets 3-5 reps
Hack Squat 3 sets 3-5 reps
Leg Curl 2 sets 6-8 reps
Leg Extension 2 sets 6-8 reps
Standing Calves 2 sets 6-8 reps
Seated Calves 2 sets 6-8 reps

Like before, after the initial sets, I perform 1 set of about 20 reps using light weight to help deplete the muscles faster and speed up the descent into ketosis. Following the workout, I take in 1 scoop of Isopure + Flaxseed Oil & CLA with a serving of HMB.

I must say, these last two workouts were pretty interesting. I didn’t really have a whole lot of energy. I could (and still can) feel my blood glucose levels really starting to get low. The strange thing was that I still went up in all my lifts today. They are all up from the last few weeks. I thought that with all the cardio I did last week, my legs would be toast and I would have struggled with the weight. But sure enough, I was able to pound out 455 lbs. on my parallel squat today. I was really surprised. I have always had a good squat, mostly because I was a catcher for 19 years and I have really good technique, but this leg day really amazed me. What can I say…I love these diets. LOL. I just wanted to mention that have still been supplementing with my glucose disposal agents even though I haven’t brought it up. I take 800mcg of chromium picolinate spread throughout the day in 4 different 200mcg doses. I also take 4 different doses of vanadyl sulfate in 30mg doses to achieve 120mg a day. So far, these are the only two I use and I am having good results achieving ketosis fast. I came in at 207 lbs. today and the skin fold sum is down 1. Things are looking good so far. I just checked for ketones and I have some present. I figured that would happen because of all the cardio I have done all day. I mentioned 20 minutes of low intensity at 9 am, but I do a lot more throughout the day. I have a few gym classes this semester, which include swimming, basketball, and self-defense. So I am pretty active all day long. Which is why I am surprised at the strength gain. Oh well, looks like I won’t have to wait another week to carb spike. I will do it tomorrow morning first thing before the final weight workout. I will discuss more about it tomorrow. See ya then.

Sporto