Iron Radio Live Friday, May 29th at 11am Pacific Time

Click the link to the right——————-> that says “Iron Radio” to listen to and/or participate in this week’s live webcast of Iron Radio with Guest Keith Shimon discussing”Taking Care of Yourself During Hard Training.”

If you miss the live webcast, you can still listen any time to this or any of dozens of recorded shows or other informative, free discussions on health, nutrition, fitness, and training.

You can go to the Iron Radio Site and enter your questions for Mr. Shimon any time before or during the show. This is great if you can’t listen live but still want to ask a questions for the guest or panel to address.

Shoulders- Very Useful When Functional, Very Painful When Not

Shoulder Anatomy- Click The Picture for More Info

The shoulder: to many, this joint is the source of great mystery and, often, pain. The shoulder joint offers us the greatest range of motion of any joint in the body, but that great mobility comes with a price: greater instability.

Officially classified as a “ball and socket” joint, the shoulder enjoys a great range of motion due to the extremely shallow socket portion that retains the ball portion poorly under certain conditions. The results can be disastrous.

While it can be difficult to avoid shoulder injuries during certain emergency situations (bicycle crashes, for example.) There are many preventative actions you can take to keep your everyday activities (including weightlifting and other intense sports) from doing damage to your most mobile of bodily connections.

If you have 10 minutes to spare, this shoulder rehab video is excellent and covers it all- balancing strength and mobility nicely. It’s not just an instructional video, but more of a “workout video” in that you’re supposed to follow along. It contains video instructions for 5 different shoulder rehab circuits to be performed on 5 different days. Each only takes a couple of minutes but can save many hours (or years) of suffering and weakness. To my clients: see how many of the movements you recognize from our sessions.

Perhaps the best changes i’ve found to make to protect the shoulders is not to “open” them when it isn’t necessary. When performing an overhead db press, for example, hold the dumbbells at a “natural” 45 degree angle to the body rather than straight out to the sides. The same goes when performing db chest presses- hold the dumbbells at a 45 degree angle to the spine instead of perpendicular to it. This keeps the shoulder in a more neutral position (nearer to the center of its range of motion.)  If you have shoulder pain when performing these lifts in the traditional way, try this simple change and see if the pain subsides.

Oh, and don’t work a damaged shoulder joint- they don’t heal if you keep re-injuring them. I know that’s hard to hear, but it’s true.

-W-

Iron Radio Live Friday at 11am Pacific Time

Click the link to the right——————-> that says “Iron Radio” to listen to and/or participate in this week’s live webcast of Iron Radio with Guest Dr. L. Jon Porman discussing “Pain and its Impact on Performance.”

If you miss the live webcast, you can still listen any time to this or any of dozens of recorded shows or other informative, free discussions on health, nutrition, fitness, and training.

When you get the chance, go and explore the site; it’s full of great info.

-W-

Article of the week-eat plenty, lose weight.

Get Lean!

I comb the web for tidbits of great info we can use to improve our bodies; sometimes I stumble across a heaping helping!

This week’s article comes from T-nation and is entitled Eat Your Lungs Out While Getting Leaner.

If you have any interest in losing weight and have ever been frustrated in your attempts, you must read this article.

Let me know what you think!

-W-

Precision Nutrition Is HERE!

I have been waiting for my package from Precision Nutrition to arrive. Waiting impatiently. I knew it was going to be good. I have been participating in the online forums, interacting with other members, checking out the e-books and videos, etc, but it wasn’t the same as having my own copy of the binder and cookbook, and I knew it.

Yesterday afternoon the waiting ended. I felt like a kid who had patiently eaten all his cracker jacks to get to the surprise instead of pouring it all out on the table and just grabbing the prize first.

It was totally worth the wait.

Workout for Friday, May 15, 2009

Last 12 rep workout for a while…next week is heavier weight but only 10 reps per set.

Squats: 135X5, 275 X 12

Stiff-Leg Deadlift: 275 X 12, X 12

Incline BB Press: 175 X 12, x 12

Dips: BW X 12

Chinups: BW X 12 wide grip, BW X 12 narrow grip

BB Rows: 175 X 12, X 12

Shrugs: 345 X 12

Seated BB Shoulder Press: 135 X 12

DB side Raises: 20 lb X 12

DB Rear Delt Raises: 20lb X 12

BB Bicep Curls: 105 X 12, X 12

EZ-Bar Tricep Extensions: 95 X 12, X 12

Calf Raises: BW+215 X 12, X 12

Decline Crunches X 12, X 12

I felt stronger than I felt on Wednesday and  was able to finish each set in one attempt- very encouraging.

I am looking forward to the 10-rep sets starting on Monday. The weight will be heavier, though- it really won’t be any easier, I just want to think it will.

-W-

Pure Karbolyn, the wonder Carb!

I mentioned Pure Karbolyn a while back and that I was very much enjoying the effects of this amazing carbohydrate product. I have been using it since then and simply cannot imagine how I did without it before.

Coming back after weight loss…

I lost quite a lot of weight and, sadly, muscle when I got sick. Now that i’m eating well again and working out hard again, it’s coming back.

This morning’s weigh in was the third in a row that showed an improvement. I am now at 201.2 pounds and 14.8% BF (171.4 lean lbs and 29.8 lbs fat.)

At my heaviest, as you know, I was 207 lbs at 16% BF (174 lean lbs and 33(!) lbs of fat. I loved being that big, but not that soft.

I will be cycling my calories now to control fat gain while building muscle as efficiently as possible. Basically, more calories  and carbs on workout days and fewer calories and ultra-clean on non-workout days.  It’s a lot of work, but should keep me growing while stopping my BF% about where it is. Below 14.5% i just don’t seem to put on muscle very quickly, so i have to accept that for now.

Caloric Intake Plan: Average of 3434 Calories per day (17 calories per pound- I think this may be low, but i’d prefer to work up and keep the BF under 15 %) cycled as follows, keeping in mind that workout days are MWF.

Sunday: 2748 Calories

Monday:3778

Tuesday: 2404

Wednesday: 4121

Thursday: 3091

Friday: 4465

Saturday: 3434

I’ll be shooting for 40% Protein, 35-40% Carbs, 20-25% Fat on non-workout days and 30-35% Protein, 45-50% Carbs and 15-25% Fat on workout days. I’m getting pretty good at hitting the numbers i want, but since this changes every day it will be a challenge for a while.

-W-

Workouts For Tuesday and Wednesday May 12 & 13, 2009

After The last 5 weeks of 5X5 workouts, my CNS (central nervous system) was feeling pretty fried; i think this neural exhaustion was a major factor in having gotten sick last week.

I made some considerable strength gains during that run, but i think that a change is in order over the 5-day split i’ve been using.  If i am to achieve my goal, i need to follow the old cliche’- to work smarter, not harder.

I will be using another technique which focuses on muscular hypertrophy (growth) rather than strength. I am modifying it slightly from its original form in one major way which will bring it into line with my aims.

Rather than using an 8-week cycle and modifying the reps and weight every other week, i will be using a 5-week cycle and adjusting the weight and rep scheme each week.  The reps for week 1 start at 12 and drop each week until week 5 when i will be doing only 2 reps per exercise. This leaves me in an excellent place to attempt a 1-rep maximum after a few days of rest.

This technique lowers the strain on the CNS and simply attacks the muscles Since muscle can recover in as little as 36 hours, the entire body can be worked again very soon. The main reason for splitting the body up into 5 different workouts is to give each muscle group a break. What that doesn’t do is allow the CNS any recovery time because it gets attacked day after  day.

Read more about Hypertrophy Specific Training here.

The technique uses a 3 day workout scheme with weekends  off, so workouts are done on M/W/F. All three workouts each week will be identical.

I got a late start this week and didn’t begin until Tuesday, but i wanted to be on track so I worked out yesterday as well. Kind of a bad start, but i’m feeling pretty fresh so it should be fine.

Despite the fact that you never do more than 2 sets of any exercise and often do only 1 set, this workout leaves me nothing when it’s over. I have been so incredibly pumped and exhausted both times; the first time i didn’t even finish!

Here is Tuesday’s workout:

Note:  I did a lighter warmup set of squats at the beginning of the workout to get things moving. This did not count as a work set.

Squats: 135X10, 225 X 12, X 12

Stiff-Legged Deadlift: 275 X 12, X 12

Incline Bench Press: 185 X 12, X 12

Dips: BW X 12, X 12

Chinups: BW X 12 wide grip, X 12 narrow grip

Barbell Rows: 185 X 12, X 12

Seated Shoulder Press: 135 X 12, X 12

Lateral DB Raise: 20lb dbs X 12

Rear Delt DB Raise: 20lb dbs X 12

Did Not Finish…partially because i wasn’t paying attention to how many sets i was supposed to do! Also, i ran out of time. Note the difference in the number of sets between this workout and the next.

Wednesday’s Workout: I adhered to the workout prescription properly this time. I also adjusted the weights after the severe wakeup call from Tuesday’s  workout. Total body destruction!

Squats: 135 X 5, 225 X 12 (one work set)

Stiff Leg Deadlift: 275 X 12, X 12

Incline Barbell Press: 175 X 12, X 12

Dips: BW X 12

Chinups: BW X 12 wide grip, X 12 narrow grip

Barbell Rows: 175 X 12, X 12

Barbell Shrugs: 345 X 12

Seated Shoulder Barbell Press: 135 X 12

Dumbbell Lateral Raises: 20 lb dbs X 12

Dumbbells Rear Delt Raises: 20 lb dbs X  12

Biceps Barbell Curl: 105 X 12, X 12

Decline Triceps Barbell Extension: 95 X 12, X 9 RP 1 (RP means rest pause, i actually set the weight down for a second and got one more rep. Unfortunately, this is not the same as getting 12 reps. I’ll see how it goes on Friday and probably not up the weight on this exercise for next week.)

Calf Raises on Smith Machine: BW + 200 lbs X 12

This workout took me about an hour and everything i had to throw at it. Fantastic.

Precision Nutrition article this week-Start With a Clean Slate

As you may know, I am a fan of John Berardi, PhD and his nutrition work. Each week he sends me an article I can use on my blog, so each wednesday I like to post it.

This week’s arrticle is about learning from your mistakes instead of dwelling on them- it’s much harder to self-sabotage when our mistakes are not viewed as fatal to the program.

Since ordering the Precision Nutrition System (and while I anxiously await its arrival) I have gotten access to the entire website and it’s amazing wealth of information. I have literally spent hours going through the forum posts, articles, e-books, and health and nutrition FAQ’s and have learned so much.

Here’s the link to this weeks’s article: Start with a Clean Slate.