Josh Niemi... "The Journey" SEASON 2

[triplewhammy]

Hows that video on them corner rows looking

Haven't gotten one yet but don't you worry it'll happen. Have I ever let you down?

[triplewhammy]

Well after an intense Back session on Thurs and Cardio session on Friday I was feeling pretty burned out. The right shoulder was still naggin me too. So, I took the weekend off from the gym. Saturday was my son's 4th birthday party so we had a great time celebrating his life. The party theme was Candyland so let's just say I upped my carb intake that day.





Today I stepped back in the gym for Chest/Triceps/Lat Delts. Normally I do calves but tomorrow is Legs and for whatever reason my calves cramp up some times when performing Hamstring exercises so I avoided calves today just so I could stay fresh for tomorrow. The shoulder is feeling better, although not 100%. I decided to stick to lighter weight Flat DB Pressing instead of Heavy Bench Press to keep things on the up and up. Great session and I left without any further damage/pain to my shoulder which is the important thing.

Flat DB Press:
70s x 10
90s x 8
110s x 15
110s x 11
110s x 12
110s x 8

5 sets Lat DB Raises
3 sets Lat Delt Machine
10 sets various Tricep exercises

[triplewhammy]

YEAH BUDDY! Crushed Legs today and hit my goal...I'm finally back up to peak offseason strength! A bit pressed on time but I made it count at least.

Squats:
135 x 8
185 x 8
225 x 8
275 x 8
315 x 15 (boom!)

Squat Press Machine:
380 x 15
470 x 15
560 x 10

4 sets Lying Leg Curls


The journey to the 495 squat begins NOW.

[triplewhammy]

Yesterday was just a ho-hum day for Back/Lats/Biceps. It was really humid with all the rain and it messed with my grip for Corner Rows. Overall decent workout though.

Corner Rows:
2p x 15
3p x 10
4p x 8
5p x 8
6p x 8
7p x 10 (boo)
7p x 12
7p x 10

Thrashed the Bis and Lats afterwards, hittin the Lat Pullover Machine at the end of course, which is one my new favorites.

[triplewhammy]

Had a couple good workouts the past few days. Shoulders/Bis/Tris/Hammies on Friday. Shoulder is about 95% healed up. Did some high-rep work for the front delts and blasted the lateral delts. Had a phenomenal arm workout as well.

Yesterday I hit up a high-volume Leg session....over 350 reps. Just enjoyed these past workouts not going for any PRs, but instead putting in a lot of high-volume work and getting dat dere pump. Ready to hit it hard this week!

[Ccm644]

Had a couple good workouts the past few days. Shoulders/Bis/Tris/Hammies on Friday. Shoulder is about 95% healed up. Did some high-rep work for the front delts and blasted the lateral delts. Had a phenomenal arm workout as well.

Yesterday I hit up a high-volume Leg session....over 350 reps. Just enjoyed these past workouts not going for any PRs, but instead putting in a lot of high-volume work and getting dat dere pump. Ready to hit it hard this week!

Glad your shoulder is nearly 100%

Sounds like some very good high rep workouts!

Have fun this week and no doubt PR's are waiting for you

[swimmer32]

Yesterday I hit up a high-volume Leg session....over 350 reps.

I hope you don't have a lot of stairs in your house.

[triplewhammy]

Glad your shoulder is nearly 100%

Sounds like some very good high rep workouts!

Have fun this week and no doubt PR's are waiting for you

I hope you don't have a lot of stairs in your house.

This week I will start the heavy Leg training so we shall see what happens!

[triplewhammy]

Good workouts the past couple of days. Monday I did some cardio which was 5 min Elliptical, 5 min Bike, 10 min Treadmill, 10 min Stepmill, and 350 hops with the Jump Rope. Cardio is definitely not as easy as it was 35 pounds ago LOL!

Today I did Chest/Triceps/Calves and I was very very happy with the results. For Flat DB Press I did the 70s x 8, 90s x 8, 110s x 8, 120s x 12, and 120s x 8. Shoulder is feeling slightly better still, although not 100%. But, this week I was able to do a couple sets of Incline DB Press: 70s x 11, 70s x 8 which is a huge improvement since last week I couldn't do any without feeling excessive pain. This week was more of a dull ache that I could work through. Good stuff!

[coolguydsc21]

What are you weighing in at now?

[triplewhammy]

What are you weighing in at now?

I will do a weigh-in and update tomorrow. Let's just say I'm no longer counting cals hahaha!

[coolguydsc21]

I will do a weigh-in and update tomorrow. Let's just say I'm no longer counting cals hahaha!

HaHaha!
must be nice! I've been on a cut the last three weeks. I miss my chipotle

[triplewhammy]

HaHaha!
must be nice! I've been on a cut the last three weeks. I miss my chipotle

Hehe. Yeah...we are low on groceries (need to make a Walmart run) so I ate Chipotle every day this week... LOL....I have serious issues....

[coolguydsc21]

Rub it in man..rub it in. Lol

[triplewhammy]

rub it in man..rub it in. Lol

haha

[triplewhammy]

Wednesday's Back/Lats/Biceps workout:

Corner Rows:
1p x 10
2p x 10
3p x 8
4p x 8
5p x 8
6p x 8
7p x 15 (last few reps not great form)

Standing DB Curl:
20s x 15
25s x 10
30s x 8
40s x 8
50s x 8
60s x 7

Shrugs:
45s x 10
60s x 10
75s x 10
90s x 10

HS Iso Row:
2pps x 8
3pps x 8
4pps x 8

8 sets Lat Pulldown
3 sets Lat Pullover Machine
5 sets 1-Arm Machine Curl


Took Thursday and Friday off (was planning on getting in a workout but spent some time with family and friends instead)


Today's Leg workout:

Squats:
135 x 8
185 x 8
225 x 8
275 x 8
315 x 8
365 x 8

6 sets Seated Leg Curl
4 sets Seated Leg Extension
4 sets Power Runner Machine


GOOD STUFF.

[The Solution]

Still waiting on that 7 plate video

[triplewhammy]

Still waiting on that 7 plate video

Haha I know bro.

[triplewhammy]

UPDATE 4/28/2013

STATS
Weight: 198.0 lbs

TRAINING
CHEST DAY: Chest/Triceps/Calves (Primary Exercise: Flat DB Press or Flat Bench)
BACK DAY: Back/Lats/Biceps (Primary Exercise: Corner Row)
LEG DAY 1: Heavy-Weight Legs (Primary Exercise: Squats)
SHOULDER DAY: Shoulders/Arms (Primary Exercise: HS Shoulder Press)
CARDIO: Treadmill/Stepmill/Elliptical
LEG DAY 2: High-Volume Legs (Primary Exercise: Leg Press)

Leg days will be as frequently as possible (approx every 3 days). Post-lifting cardio is done as time permits.

DIET
No longer counting calories, just enjoying life and taking it one day at a time! Still loosely tracking protein at ~225g per day

SUPPLEMENTATION
Performance:
Allmax DAA
DS Triazole
SNS Adrena-G
Southland Performance Slintensity
Primaforce BCAA
various preworkouts

Support:
CORE Flex
protein powder
multivitamin
fish oil

THOUGHTS
In a pretty good place right now. Gained just a hair over 4 pounds this month which is right on track. At this point, I have stopped counting overall calories and just shooting for my protein goal. Once I got up past 3000 calories per day there really was no need to continue tracking since that is about what I naturally eat anyway. So, I'm just enjoying life at this point. The reverse diet has worked incredibly well coming out of my competition and my metabolism feels like it is roaring along just fine. I'm happy to get back to a normal life especially when it comes to time with the family. This has freed me up to get back to eating normal dinners as well as celebrating birthdays, etc which are higher priority. Plus, I pretty well outworked any cravings I would have had post-competition so there's no danger of overeating just for the sake of it. Good stuff!

As far as the lifts go, I slightly tweaked my right shoulder a few weeks ago which threw off my lifts for a bit but it is healing up pretty well. Thankfully, I was able to continue training Chest during this time but I have switched to dumbbells for the time being since the straight bar on Bench seemed to aggravate it unnecessarily. As of today it feels about 96% healthy so things are looking good. Today, I finally trained my front delts directly although I kept it fairly light, doing 5 sets of HS Shoulder Press at 2pps x 15. Other than that, everything is doing fantastic. Hit my 315x15 squat goal which was excellent for me being that I'm 22 pounds lighter than last offseason right now. Corner Rows are bangin along at 7-plate sets quite nicely. Even my Flat DB Pressing is getting back to heavy, sitting at the 120s x 12 during the last session.

Brought back my classic DAA/Triazole stack for the next several weeks to help with recovery. All the heavy training starts to add up and recovery is critical at this point. Also, since I have worked my way up to 200mg caffeine + 25mg DMAA preworkout, the Triazole is helping me get and stay asleep which could otherwise be affected. So as always, I'm looking forward to that boost in performance.

Just in a great groove right now. Getting my bulk on (gettin nice and fat!), hitting the weights heavy, and enjoying training as I work towards the 495 Squat and 405 Bench!


Josh

[drew419]

Great progress Josh! Looking forward to seeing what this offseason brings you. Roughly when are you planning to compete again?

[triplewhammy]

Great progress Josh! Looking forward to seeing what this offseason brings you. Roughly when are you planning to compete again?

Probably gonna be 2014, probably the Midwest States again. These offseason goals are keeping me motivated and they are my high priority right now. Just in a great groove right now, especially not being obsessive about the diet and just enjoying life with the family. Either way, the legs need to be brought up and I really shouldn't step onstage again until they have visibly and significantly improved.

[triplewhammy]

Chest/Calves/Triceps yesterday. Good workout, shoulder still slowly improving. First Flat DB Press set with the 120s was disappointing, but I made up for it with the next two.

2 sets Machine Chest Press (warmup)

Flat DB Press:
70s x 10
90s x 8
110s x 8
120s x 11
120s x 8
120s x 8

Incline DB Press:
75s x 10
75s x 10

10+ sets various Tricep exercises
8+ sets various Calf exercises

[coolguydsc21]

Throwing the 120's up another set I see. Keepin' that train Uhrollin'! I started Pyramiding the weight to where my body feels of jelly.
I'm loving it.

[triplewhammy]

Finally got back in the gym since Wednesday...the wife went to see her friend in Vegas so I was taking care of the kids of course. Picked up a cold a few days ago so I guess in a bizarre way it kind of worked out to let me get a bit of rest that I probably needed but wouldn't have taken otherwise. Came back today in full force.

Squats:
135 x 8
185 x 8
225 x 8
275 x 8
315 x 8
365 x 9 PR

4 sets Seated Leg Extensions
4 sets Seated Leg Curls

[triplewhammy]

Shoulder continues to improve each week. Great Chest/Tricep/Calves day today, very minimal achiness in the shoulder. Praise God!

Here was my Chest work for the day:

Flat DB Press:
70s x 10
90s x 8
110s x 8
120s x 12 (SO close to the 13th rep...)
130s x 7

Incline DB Press:
75s x 15
75s x 13

[triplewhammy]

UPDATE 5/14/2013

STATS
Weight: 197.8 lbs

TRAINING
CHEST DAY: Chest/Triceps/Calves (Primary Exercise: Flat DB Press or Flat Bench)
BACK DAY: Back/Lats/Biceps (Primary Exercise: Corner Row)
LEG DAY 1: Heavy-Weight Legs (Primary Exercise: Squats)
SHOULDER DAY: Shoulders/Arms (Primary Exercise: HS Shoulder Press)
LEG DAY 2: High-Volume Legs (Primary Exercise: Leg Press)

Leg days will be as frequently as possible (approx every 3 days).

DIET
No longer counting calories, just enjoying life and taking it one day at a time! Still loosely tracking protein at ~225g per day

SUPPLEMENTATION
Performance:
USPlabs Versa-1
Allmax DAA
DS Triazole
SNS Adrena-G
Genomyx Slin-SaneV2
Primaforce BCAA
various preworkouts

Support:
CORE Flex
protein powder
multivitamin
fish oil

THOUGHTS
Phew! Been really really busy lately. Last weekend I took off 3 days in a row and this past weekend I had to do it again. Not a big fan of it that's for sure, but I've still been hitting it pretty hard in the gym and still slowly making progress. I was amazed at this past weigh-in since I am no longer counting calories and figured I would be gaining much quicker, only to find out that I lost a bit. Two weekends ago I weighed-in and noticed the same thing so I know it's not just a fluke of the scale. I imagine I will start to see the weight pick up again soon, but in the meantime I'm not going to complain about it. I am very capable of throwing down enough food to force myself to gain, so to be in the position right now where I'm just hitting my protein goal and eating as I want to yet not blowing up in weight is definitely a good thing. If my strength gains start to plateau I will eat more to push through it but for now things are clicking along just fine still. I have also stopped doing all cardio (have been for about 3-4 weeks now), so that is another indication that my metabolism is really revved up.

My Corner Row progression last week was this:
1p x 15
2p x 12
3p x 10
4p x 8
5p x 8
6p x 8
7p x 16 PR

Also last week for HS Shoulder Press I did:
25ps x 15
35ps x 15
1pps x 15
1pps + 25 x 10
2pps x 20
2pps x 20
2pps x 20

The great thing was that I experienced virtually NO Shoulder pain. So I am very close to being back to 100% and hitting it hard. My plan at this point is to still be careful with my Chest and Shoulder workouts, meaning I will slowly build back up to 4pps for HS Shoulder Press and I'm also probably going to have to avoid doing Bench press too often. I will probably stick with the dumbbells for Chest day for 2-3 weeks of every month and then do some Bench work 1 time per month just to see how I'm progressing towards the 405 goal.

On the supplement front, I am getting fantastic recovery with the DAA/Triazole stack and my energy is pretty good preworkout with 200mg caffeine + 25mg DMAA. I also just started up USPlabs Versa-1 to possibly help with the focus aspect. It may also increase my appetite so I will have to keep an eye on that. I figured I'd throw it in just to keep things interesting and perhaps postpone increasing my stim intake for at least another few weeks. The longer I can stick with this sweet spot for stims, the better. I will need to increase it at some point, but past this we will be getting into some sleep-interfering doses which of course would make it counterproductive for muscle growth. So I will probably notch the DMAA up by about 12.5mg when I need to take the next step to boost my workout intensity but hopefully Versa-1 helps me hold off a bit longer.


Josh

[coolguydsc21]

Glad to hear the shoulder is healthy again! That's wild about your weight! No cardio at all!?? Oh and congrats on the new Squat PR man!

[triplewhammy]

Glad to hear the shoulder is healthy again! That's wild about your weight! No cardio at all!?? Oh and congrats on the new Squat PR man!

Yeah things are looking really good for the next couple of months!

[triplewhammy]

Week in review (for primary exercises):

Monday - Legs

Squats:
135 x 8
185 x 8
225 x 8
275 x 8
315 x 8
365 x 9


Tuesday - Chest/Triceps/Calves

Flat DB Press:
70s x 8
90s x 8
110s x 8
120s x 12
130s x 4 (grip slipped)
130s x 5
120s x 8


Thursday - Back/Lats/Biceps

Corner Rows:
1p x 15
2p x 12
3p x 10
4p x 8
5p x 8
6p x 8
7p x 17 PR
4p x 35 PR