The Arms Race is on!

Just about 1 month into my German Volume Training, and I’m now in the midst of a battle to see who can attain the biggest arms with a few friends. My boss, a fellow employee, a client of mine, and myself will be measuring our guns at the end of April to declare the winner. It all started as my client and I were critiquing his physique. That lead into his arms, and we compared ours. They’re about the same size, but mine are more cut. We already have a challenge between the 2 of us for a 100m sprint sometime around April, so we decided to toss in another fun little challenge. After the session was done, we were shooting the shit with Gavin (the boss) and Andy (the fellow employee) and told them of the challenge. They of course wanted in. We measured everybody’s right arm, while flexed, as a starting point to see how close we all were.

Now, what is a challenge without some kind of punishment for the loser right? Well first off, the winner doesn’t have to do shit. The 2nd and 3rd placers will be paying for the celebratory booze and burgers. And the lucky loser will be required to wear a dress while we are all out, in public, eating and drinking said burgers and booze hahaha. Should be fun.

The boss-man measured in at 15 3/4 inches, as did I. My client had a mean 16 inch arm, and poor lil Andy could only muster 15 1/2. So my chances are looking pretty damn good so far.

Being just about a month into my GVT program, I’m feeling good, my entire body already is looking thicker, and I’ve been lacking severely on the eating part. Money’s been tight the last few weeks and I’ve been getting by on canned fish, eggs, protein powder, homo milk, and a shitload of beans! Money’s jsut starting to pick up, so these fuckers are going down! I’ll keep y’all posted bitches.

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My First Experiment

Recently I’ve been playing around with the idea of treating myself as a guinea pig. No longer just working through different training programs, but instead greatly increasing the professional way in which I conduct these programs. Keeping more detailed training logs, staying on task, sticking to a certain diet, taking before/after pictures, and taking baseline measurements.

I just grabbed myself a copy of 4 Hour Body. Great book, a must read for sure. He’s done the same thing, however on a much higher scale, and for quite some time longer than I. I’m going to try and use him as an example. There are many lifestyle and dietary things that I am going to start implementing from the book, and a bunch of really interesting training programs also. But I’ve been waiting to try out another Poliquin program for a month or so now, so that’s first on my agenda.

Here’s the score. I’m going to be using some supplements, things I’ve learned from the 4 Hour Body book in regards to diet and (I guess) lifestyle, and an advanced program by Charles Poliquin.

First on the list, what supplements will I be using?

  1. Labrada’s Super Charge Xtreme (pre workout)
  2. Nutrabolics’ Anabolic Window (post workout)
  3. Magnesium
  4. Omega 3 Fish Oils
  5. Vitamin C complex

What will I be doing for my diet?

Well I’m looking to gain as much mass as possible, so I’m aiming for high calorie diet, with whatever tricks possible to get it working in my favour…

  1. Breakfasts will rotate between Macaroni and Cheese with either Tuna, Salmon, or Sardines, or Oatmeal with Peanut Butter and a bunch of eggs.
  2. Removing all sources of “white” carbs (breads, pasta, potatoes, etc… however my breakfasts are the exception).
  3. Replacing these “white” carbs with ample amounts of beans/legumes for the added calories.
  4. High amounts of protein every meal.
  5. Meals spaced about 4 hours apart.
  6. Eat my first meal of the day within 30 minutes of waking up.
  7. Down 1 litre of 2% milk every day. If I can, I’ll aim to increase this to the ever manly GOMAD (gallon of milk a day).
  8. Drink a Green Tea every day.

As for the “lifestyle” changes, not sure if it’s really a lifestyle change, but I didn’t know what else to call it.

  1. Ice baths and/or cold showers. Lots of info as to why I’m doing this in the 4 Hour Body. I’m a super bitch though when it comes to cold, so this should certainly be interesting. I’ll probably start with a cold shower once a week, and work my way from there.
  2. Incorporate dynamic flexibility work before every workout.
  3. Do all my prescribed little rehab/prehab exercises, as well as use the good old lacross ball for self ART work every day.

And lastly, what the hell will I be doing when I get into the gym you may ask? More importantly I think is who’s actually even asking that? hahaha. Well in the off chance somebody actually does read this, here’s what I’m doing. It’s an Advanced version of German Volume Training, put together by the great coach Charles Poliquin. German Volume training, as I was first introduced to it, is high ass volume, at a submaximal weight. 10 sets of 10 repitions, each set using the same working weight, all 10 sets being with the same exercise. Now with this program, instead of the 10 x 10, you start with 10 sets of 5, and each time you come around to the same workout, you move to 10 x 4, then 10 x 3, and then once again through everything from the top. Also, it’s not just the same exercise, there are 2 different workouts for each day. Here’s the skinny:

Day 1: Chest and Back

Supersetting Incline barbell Press with a Lean-away Chin-up.

Day 2: Legs

Back squat supersetted with Lying leg curls with the feet pointing away from the body.

Day 3: Off

Day 4: Arms

Incline off-set Dumbbell curls supersetted with a Close-grip Bench Press.

Day 5: Off

Day 6: Chest and Back

Supersetting a Low Incline Barbell Bench Press with a close parallel gri Chin-up.

Day 7: Legs

Front squats supersetted with lying leg curls, this time with feet pointing towards the body).

Day 8: Off

Day 9: Arms

Seated Zottmann curls and a low Decline close grip Bench Press.

Day 10: Off

The Chest, Back, and Leg exercises are all performed on a 40X0 tempo, while the arm work is done for 30X0. All sets have a 100 second rest between exercises and sets. And I’ll also be including 2 accessory exercises for each day. I’ll be doing my best to follow the split properly, taking the appropriate rest days. However there will for sure be a few blips, having to rearrange some workouts for days I may be too busy, and if I meet up with a friend to workout together. With all the rest days included, this is a 60 day program, so I got the next 2 months in the gym planned for me. Here goes nothing!…

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Time Under Tension, my new love…

Wow, getting back into the hang of posting on a regular basis is tricky, haha. I think my main problem is the combination of my extreme laziness for things I deem as unnecessary, and my hatred for technology (yeah kinda weird that I hate technology yet I have a blog. And that’s why I don’t post often :) haha).

Anyways, a little recap… Nearing the end of my first term out West at Camosun College, exams are just around the corner. This term I had Fitness for Life, Kinesiology, and Sport Leadership. Unfortunately, I haven’t learnt a damn thing haha. It’s a combination of my greatness, and the course having to cater to nim-rods. Honestly, for a sport/fitness related college program, I cannot believe the amount of unfit, exercise-retarded people that I am classmates with. Fucken ridiculous. But that’s the Fitness Industry for ya, I just saw that one of those Jersy Shore jerk-offs has his own workout DVD now, another prime example!

Needless to say, I’m not worried about my exams. My “slow-bus” tendencies actually made me show up over an hour late for my Kine mid-term, and pulled out a 78% in 20 minutes. I’d say I’m gonna be just fine haha.

Let’s get back on topic here though. Taking things into my own hands, I’ve started to research the work of world reknowned strength coach, Charles Poliquin. Guy’s a fucken genius. Born in Ottawa, his bilingual background gave him an edge when he started translated european strength documents himself. Having a strength/conditioning background, he was able to do a better job than just your average joe blow translator. His biggest thing is the use of Time Under Tension – which is basically how much time the muscle being used is being used for. For the most part you end up doing slow repetitions, but it goes much further than that. Depending on your rep range, the number of sets, the weight you’re using, rest periods, and of course your goals (muscular endurance, fat loss, max strength gains, hypertrophy, etc), you manipulate the tempo you’re using for each lift.

For the past 9 weeks now I’ve been playing around with some of his stuff. I purchased his book “Poliquin Principals” to get a good start on his concepts. In there he goes over a lot of solid information. Included are a number of routines for different goals. I spent 6 weeks performing an advanced bodybuilding program of his. I did this after my last MMA fight (which incase you missed, I went in with no training in the past 3 months, and whooped ass. Yeah I’m pretty amazing), walking around at 195lbs. After those 6 weeks, and being back on a good diet (as opposed to the horrible task I had of cutting weight, which again incase you missed, I cut 25lbs in about 3 days :) and yes, I know, I’m pretty awesome, thanks for mentioning it), I am now happily back up to a full grown adult male weight of 205lbs.

After going through Poliquin’s 6 week advanced Bodybuilding routine, I played around with it a bit one my own. I just finished a 3 week plan I made myself using his methods, and gained much success. Everythings steadily getting bigger, more cut, and sexified like never before. Last week I started up my second go at another 3 week program I wrote up. With 1 week of that behind me, I’m already getting excited about what I have next on my plate. Being the huge Poliquin nut-hugger that I currently am, I’m going to experiement with 2 more of his famous programs. Up first, is his Advanced German Volume Training program. I’ve done GVT in the past, and love it, sucks hairy nads, but works. 10 sets of 10. Sounds like fun, don’t it? This program goes beyong the original prescription of just 10×10, and starts playing more with varying loads, as well as switching up the exercises in a 10 day rotation.

For this program, you have 2 distinct Leg days, 2 Back/Chest days, and 2 Arm days. You rotate the first set, with some off days thrown in there. On your second run through, you hit the second patch of workouts. Returning back to the first workouts, you’re now using a different weight, and different reps. Basically moving from 10×5, to 10×4, and then 10×3. Then repeating the whole damn thing again, which ends up running you through 55 working days, 60 total days. My favourite part of this routine is that Poliquin states at the end that you can expect to gain 8-10lbs of lean muscle by the end of the program. Not gonna lie, I may have gotten a chub while reading this article. Fuck off, this shit excites me. haha.

I’d like to throw up some before and after shots, but you and I both know I’m one lazy mother fucker, so that may not happen. I’ll do my best though!

Love, Peace and Chicken Grease

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