My 2013 Workout Journal: Breaking plateaus, chasing dreams, building a legacy

[Adam1125]

I started this journal a couple weeks back but posted it in the wrong forum by accident. So I will start it over here. Fitting enough since I got knocked on my ass by the flu shortly after starting the last one! Now that I have recovered enough to train at 100% again, I will start a new journal.

My 2013 goals are as follows; win a men's physique competition, compete at a National competition for pro status, build a reputation in the fitness modeling industry, inspire as many people to better themselves as possible along the way.

Currently I am in a mass building phase. I qualified for a National NPC show last year in October by placing 3rd in my class at the New England Championships in the MP division. I know to have a shot at earning professional status I will have to add significant size. I plan to compete at the Jay Cutler Classic in May of this year just for fun and to get some feedback on my new physique. I am also still very new to competing so the more experience I can get, the better. I have workout ADD so expect this to change quite frequently. I enjoy changing my workouts constantly to maintain interest and keep the muscles from reaching homeostasis. My current split is as follows:

Monday - Chest.
I gave chest it's own day, and of course Monday is international chest day. My upper chest is a weak point and I need drastically add more width to my chest, so it get's lots of love.
Incline bench press - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps.
Incline dumbbell flys - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps
Flat bench press - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Dips (weighted if possible) - 4 sets of 15
-superset-
Dumbbell pullovers - 4 sets of 15

Tuesday - Back / Biceps
Wide pull ups - 5 sets to failure
Bent over barbell rows - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
T-bar rows - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Seated incline dumbbell biceps curl - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps each arm
Dumbbell concentration curls - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps each arm

Wednesday - Abs, calves, forearms
Abs - one exercise per ab region. 4 sets of 12-15 reps. I train abs with heavy resistance to build the deep cuts and valleys.
Standing calf raise - 4 sets of 15-20 reps
Reverse curls - 4 sets of 12-15 reps
-superset-
Wrist curls - 4 sets of 20-25 reps

Thursday - Shoulders / Triceps
Barbell military press (behind neck) - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Arnold dumbbell press - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Dumbbell lateral raise - 4 sets, 20 , 15, 12, 10 reps
Skull crushers - 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps with a drop-set at the end for 20 reps
Dumbbell kickbacks - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps each arm

Friday - Legs
Barbell squats - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 reps with a drop-set for 20 reps at the end
Seated leg extensions - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10
Stiff leg dead lift - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10 with a drop-set for 20 reps at the end
Lying leg curls - 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10
Walking barbell lunges - 4 sets of 12 reps each leg

Saturday - Abs / weak-point training
Abs - one exercise per ab region. 4 sets of 12-15 reps. Same format as Weds.
Weak-point training - any body part that needs some extra love. Forearms, calves, traps, etc.

Sunday - rest / active rest
I never really rest. Between my wife and kids, I am always out doing some sort of activity.

As you can see, I like basic free weight exercises. I stick to the overload principle where I am using heavier weight each week (if possible) and hitting my heavy sets with maximum intensity. On my final sets I am really failing around the 4-6 rep range and using rest-pause to get the last couple reps out. I train alone and rely on dropsets and rest-pause to go beyond failure.

[Adam1125]

Have had good workouts the last two days. Despite feeling weak and still recovering from the flu, I managed to best last weeks lifts all across the board. I may need to modify my split since my back workout has run too long to include biceps two weeks in a row. Arms may replace Thursday and Shoulders may replace Wednesday. Abs, forearms, calves will be trained on Saturday.

I have not kept track of the weight I lift each week for almost a year now due to my ego. I found myself cheating form and focusing only on beating the previous weeks reps and poundage. During this cycle I am attempting to track my reps and weight again and so far, have been able to keep my ego in check. I will post these numbers later on.

Progress is solid. I am noticing great changes on a weekly basis. My chest is becoming much wider and my upper chest is really popping. These have been two of my real critical areas and I am pumped to have finally figured out a routine that is really blasting my weak points. My lats are growing wider and I can actually perform a respectable front lat spread without looking like a fool! This is great news for my making my waist look smaller as well since I believe I am pretty thick in the waist naturally. I am very pleased with my leg development thus far. I have been using front squats and it seems to really hit my quads better and I find it more comfortable on my back and knees. Although my legs are certainly taking on a new shape, they do not seem to be growing the mass that I had hoped. I am going to monitor this with bi-weekly measurements.

Arms and shoulders appear to be lacking in progress. This is another reason why I think they could benefit from having their own solo sessions. Although my front delts are growing nicely and I credit that to the added incline work that I do on chest day.

More to come! Next week is my last full week before I leave for Las Vegas. I am going to continue to train while in Vegas, but it will probably be more of a maintenance week.

[Adam1125]

I felt like I was still struggling to kick the flu I had last week, so I took yesterday off completely. The rest day felt great both physically and mentally. I felt myself slipping into a rut and was struggling to find motivation to keep training hard earlier this week so I took a step back yesterday and refocused. When I get stuck I like to read Arnold's Education of a Bodybuilder. It's a great read and is quite inspiring, I definitely suggest picking up a copy.

This morning I was fired up and hungry to throw some weight around. I hit shoulders and arms to get me back on schedule. My morning went as follows:

Barbell military press behind the neck: 5 sets, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 with a drop set at the end for 20 reps
Dumbbell lateral raise superset with bent over lateral raise: 4 sets, 15, 12, 10, 10

Skull crushers superset with seated dumbbell curls: 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
Overhead dumbbell extension superset with barbell curls: 4 sets, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps

I must add that during the barbell curls I was getting really pissed because I could not lift the same weight as last week. I was really struggling to get my reps but it wasnt until afterwards that I realized I had miscalculated and was 10lbs heavier than last weeks max. It felt good to realize the power that the mind has over the body. There was NO WAY I was not going to get those reps. Unfortunately, I was gripping the bar so tight it feels like I jacked up my right forearm. Thankfully I have legs tomorrow and then the weekend to recover so it shouldnt effect me too bad.

Another side note, Sunday night I tried a DTP style approach to legs and my hamstrings are still sore! My quads not so much. I wanted to try this because I was still feeling under the weather and didnt think my congested sinuses would allow me to do squats. My workout went like this:

Seated leg extensions: 10 sets, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 reps. The burn was unbelievable but I the DOMS was no where near what I am feeling in my hamstrings
Lying leg curl: 6 sets, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 10 reps
Standing calf raise: 6 sets 10, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 reps

I have been intrigued by Kris Gethin's methods of training and find it nice to throw these workouts in here and there to change things up.

[Adam1125]

Smashed Chest and Tri's this morning. This is the first time I have combined the two muscle groups. My triceps strength was down considerably after doing chest, but the pump was awesome nonetheless. Workout went as follows:

Incline bench: 135 x 12, 155 x 10, 185 x 8, 205 x 6, 115 x 20
Incline dumbbell fly: 30 x 15, 35 x 12, 40 x 10, 45 x 10
Dumbbell pullover: 55 x 15, 4 sets
Dips: Bodyweight x failure, 4 sets
Skullcrushers: 55 x 15, 65 x 12, 75 x 10, 80 x 8 finish with closegrip bench x 20
Dumbbell kickbacks: 20 x 15, 25 x 12, 30 x 10, 30 x 10

On a side note, Saturday I saw real improvements in my physique. Usually I am very critical and always see that skinny, lanky kid looking back at me in the mirror, but this time I saw progress. Seeing these gains was like throwing gas on my internal flame. I keep finding myself searching for new programs and different things to try, but I can see real progress from using these basic moves. I need to keep the faith and trust that the results will continue as long as I continue to progressively overload the muscles like I have been doing.

Saturday I did some ab and forearm work. I tried the Abdominal Power workout from Greg Plitt's MFT28 trainer. It was cool, and was a nice change. I just did 4 sets of reverse curls for forearms since my right arm was still sore from last weeks arm workout. We had another blizzard on Sunday, so I spent much of the evening shoveling snow (again). I've got cabin fever in the worst way. Thank God I am on vacation next week and headed somewhere warm!

[Adam1125]

Back and Biceps this morning. Had some good strength gains this week. Focus was spot on and the workout was excellent. Routine went as follows:

Wide grip pull ups: Failure x 4, 5 extra negatives at the end
Bent over barbell rows: 115 x 12, 135 x 10, 145 x 8, 160 x 6, 70 x 20
T-bar rows: 95 x 15, 120 x 12, 130 x 10, 145 x 6, 70 x 20
Incline seated dumbbell curl: 20 x 15, 25 x 12, 30 x 10, 30 x 8
Dumbbell concentration curl: 20 x 15, 25 x 12, 30 x 10, 30 x 8

Back strength was up from the previous week in all lifts, but biceps were down. This is to be expected, as they got smoked pretty hard during the rows and pull ups. I am a big believer in grouping these muscles together now. It feels like the pump is better and the burn is achieved faster. Tomorrow is a low key day where I will be doing some abs, calves and forearm work.

On a side note, yesterday I used a lower setting on the incline bench press (30 degrees instead of 45) and my pecs are wrecked today. It felt like the 45 degree angle was building my upper chest well, but my shoulders were really getting aggravated as weight was progressively added. 30 degrees seems like the sweet spot. I used this angle for the dumbbell flys as well.

[Adam1125]

Wrapped up the week this morning. I will be in Las Vegas next week so it will be a rest/maintenance period. My body needs it I think. My right forearm is still tender from barbell curls last week and my right knee was not digging squats this morning.

Strength gains are still improving nicely though. I dont have my log in front of me or I would post my last two workouts. I am still sticking relentlessly to strict form and not letting my ego get the best of me. Daily calories are still hovering around the 4K mark with 300g protein, 350-400g carbs and 100-120g of fats. Supplements are whey protein, casein protein, creatine and a PWO. All muscletech brand with the exception of the casein, which is BB.com

I have been training at my home in the morning for the past few weeks, but once I return from vacation I think I will switch that to the evening at the gym after work. I am going to utilize carb-backloading to begin dieting for competition in May. I had great success with backloading last year and I am anxious to see the results this time around.